diff options
Diffstat (limited to '47746-8.txt')
| -rw-r--r-- | 47746-8.txt | 42299 |
1 files changed, 42299 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/47746-8.txt b/47746-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..4d39340 --- /dev/null +++ b/47746-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,42299 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, Campfire and Battlefield, by Rossiter Johnson + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most +other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions +whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of +the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at +www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have +to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. + + + + +Title: Campfire and Battlefield + An Illustrated History of the Campaigns and Conflicts of the Great Civil War + + +Author: Rossiter Johnson + + + +Release Date: December 22, 2014 [eBook #47746] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD*** + + +E-text prepared by Ron Swanson + + + +Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this + file which includes the numerous original illustrations. + See 47746-h.htm or 47746-h.zip: + (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/47746/47746-h/47746-h.htm) + or + (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/47746/47746-h.zip) + + +Transcriber's note: + + Text enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_). + + Page numbers, enclosed by curly brackets, are included in + the text to facilitate the use of the index (example: {119}). + + + + + +[Frontispiece: ABRAHAM LINCOLN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. (From +a war-time photograph.)] + + +CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD + +An Illustrated History of the Campaigns and Conflicts of the Great +Civil War + +BY + +ROSSITER JOHNSON + +JOHN CLARK RIDPATH, LL.D., GEN. J. T. MORGAN, GEN. O. O. HOWARD + +GEN. SELDEN CONNOR, HENRY W. B. HOWARD, GEN. JOHN B. GORDON + +Art Editors Frank Beard, George Spiel + + + + + + + +[Illustration] + +New York + +Copyright, 1894, by +Bryan, Taylor & Company, +61 East Ninth Street + +[Illustration] + + + + +CONTENTS + + CHAPTER I. + PRELIMINARY EVENTS. + + CHAPTER II. + PREPARATION FOR CONFLICT. + + CHAPTER III. + THE BEGINNING OF BLOODSHED. + + CHAPTER IV. + BORDER STATES AND FOREIGN RELATIONS. + + CHAPTER V. + ARMY ORGANIZATION NORTH AND SOUTH. + + CHAPTER VI. + THE BATTLE OF BULL RUN. + + CHAPTER VII. + EFFECTS OF THE BATTLE OF BULL RUN. + + CHAPTER VIII. + THE FIRST UNION VICTORIES. + + CHAPTER IX. + THE "MONITOR" AND THE "MERRIMAC." + + CHAPTER X. + THE CAPTURE OF NEW ORLEANS. + + CHAPTER XI. + THE CAMPAIGN OF SHILOH. + + CHAPTER XII. + MINOR ENGAGEMENTS OF THE FIRST YEAR. + + CHAPTER XIII. + THE PENINSULA CAMPAIGN. + + CHAPTER XIV. + POPE'S CAMPAIGN. + + CHAPTER XV. + THE ANTIETAM CAMPAIGN. + + CHAPTER XVI. + EMANCIPATION. + + CHAPTER XVII. + BURNSIDE'S CAMPAIGN. + + CHAPTER XVIII. + WAR IN THE WEST. + + CHAPTER XIX. + MINOR EVENTS OF THE SECOND YEAR. + + CHAPTER XX. + EMPLOYMENT OF COLORED SOLDIERS. + + CHAPTER XXI. + CHANCELLORSVILLE. + + CHAPTER XXII. + GETTYSBURG. + + CHAPTER XXIII. + THE VICKSBURG CAMPAIGN. + + CHAPTER XXIV. + THE DRAFT RIOTS. + + CHAPTER XXV. + THE SIEGE OF CHARLESTON. + + CHAPTER XXVI. + THE CHATTANOOGA CAMPAIGN AND BATTLE OF CHICKAMAUGA. + + CHAPTER XXVII. + THE BATTLE OF CHATTANOOGA. + + CHAPTER XXVIII. + THE BLACK CHAPTER. + + CHAPTER XXIX. + THE SANITARY AND CHRISTIAN COMMISSIONS. + + CHAPTER XXX. + MINOR EVENTS OF THE THIRD YEAR. + + CHAPTER XXXI. + THE OVERLAND CAMPAIGN. + + CHAPTER XXXII. + THE CONFEDERATE CRUISERS. + + CHAPTER XXXIII. + PRELIMINARY OPERATIONS IN THE WEST. + + CHAPTER XXXIV. + THE ATLANTA CAMPAIGN. + + CHAPTER XXXV. + THE BATTLE OF MOBILE BAY. + + CHAPTER XXXVI. + THE ADVANCE ON PETERSBURG. + + CHAPTER XXXVII. + WASHINGTON IN DANGER. + + CHAPTER XXXVIII. + SHERIDAN IN THE SHENANDOAH. + + CHAPTER XXXIX. + THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION. + + CHAPTER XL. + THE NATIONAL FINANCES. + + CHAPTER XLI. + THE MARCH TO THE SEA. + + CHAPTER XLII. + MINOR EVENTS OF THE FOURTH YEAR. + + CHAPTER XLIII. + THE FINAL BATTLES. + + CHAPTER XLIV. + PEACE. + + INDEX. + + + + + +{4} [Illustration: FORT SUMTER. BEFORE THE BOMBARDMENT.] + +[Illustration: FORT SUMTER. IN 1865--AFTER ITS REDUCTION BY GENERAL +GILLMORE.] + +{5} [Illustration: DEFENCES OF WASHINGTON--HEAVY ARTILLERY.] + + + + +CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +PRELIMINARY EVENTS. + +CAUSES OF THE WAR--SLAVERY, STATE RIGHTS, SECTIONAL FEELING--JOHN +BROWN--ELECTION OF LINCOLN--SECESSION OF SOUTHERN STATES--"SHOOT HIM +ON THE SPOT"--PENSACOLA--MAJOR ROBERT ANDERSON--SUMTER OCCUPIED--THE +"STAR OF THE WEST"--SUMTER BOMBARDED AND EVACUATED--THE CALL TO ARMS. + + +On the 9th of January, 1861, the _Star of the West_, a vessel which +the United States Government had sent to convey supplies to Fort +Sumter, was fired on by batteries on Morris Island, in Charleston +Harbor, South Carolina, and was compelled to withdraw. + +The bombardment of Fort Sumter began on April 12th, the fort was +surrendered on the 13th and evacuated on the 14th. On April 19th the +Sixth Massachusetts regiment, which had been summoned to the defence +of the national capital, was attacked, _en route_, in the streets of +Baltimore. + +Meanwhile, several Southern States had passed ordinances seceding from +the Union, and had formed a new union called the Confederate States of +America. Many Government forts, arsenals, and navy yards had been +seized by the new Confederacy; and by midsummer a bloody civil war was +in progress, which for four years absorbed the energies of the whole +American people. + +[Illustration: RIVER GUNBOAT (A CONVERTED NEW YORK FERRYBOAT).] + +What were the causes of this civil war? + +The underlying, fundamental cause was African slavery--the +determination of the South to perpetuate and extend it, and the +determination of the people of the North to limit or abolish it. +Originally existing in all the colonies, slavery had been gradually +abolished in the Northern States, and was excluded from the new States +that came into the Union from the Northwestern Territory. The +unprofitableness of slave labor might, in time, have resulted in its +abolition in the South; but the invention, at the close of the last +century, of Eli Whitney's cotton-gin, transformed the raising of +cotton from an almost profitless to the most profitable of the staple +industries, and as a result of it the American plantations produced +seven-eighths of all the cotton of the world. African labor was +necessary to it, and the system of slavery became a fixed and +deep-rooted system in the South. + +{6} [Illustration: PRESIDENT LINCOLN AND HIS CABINET. WILLIAM H. +SEWARD, Secretary of State. SALMON P. CHASE, Secretary of the Treasury. +EDWIN M. STANTON, Secretary of War. GIDEON WELLES, Secretary of the +Navy. MONTGOMERY BLAIR, Postmaster-General. CALEB B. SMITH, Secretary +of the Interior. EDWARD BATES, Attorney-General.] + +The self-interest thus established led the South, in the face of +Northern opposition to slavery which might make an independent +government necessary to them, to insist on the sovereignty of the +individual States, involving the right to secede from the Union. The +Constitution adopted in 1789 did not determine the question as to +whether the sovereignty of the States or that of {7} the central +government was paramount, but left it open, to be interpreted +according to the interests involved, and to be settled in the end by +an appeal to the sword. In the earlier history of the country the +doctrine of State sovereignty was most advocated in New England; but +with the rise of the tariff, which favored the manufacturing East at +the expense of the agricultural South, New England passed to the +advocacy of national sovereignty, while the people of the South took +up the doctrine of State Rights, determined to act on it should a +separation seem to be necessary to their independence of action on the +issue of slavery. + +[Illustration: MAJOR-GENERAL ROBERT ANDERSON.] + +[Illustration: FORT MOULTRIE, CHARLESTON, WITH FORT SUMTER IN THE +DISTANCE.] + +[Illustration: SIEGE GUN BEARING ON SUMTER. (Showing carriage rendered +useless before Confederate Evacuation, 1864.)] + +From this time onward there was constant danger that the slavery +question would so imbitter the politics and legislation of the country +as to bring about disunion. The danger was imminent at the time of the +Missouri agitation of 1820-21, but was temporarily averted by the +Missouri Compromise. The Nullification Acts of South Carolina +indicated the intention of the South to stand on their State +sovereignty when it suited them. The annexation of Texas enlarged the +domain of slavery and made the issue a vital one. The aggressiveness +of the South appeared in the repeal of the Missouri Compromise in +1854; and the Dred Scott Decision in 1857, giving the slaveholder the +right to hold his slaves in a free State, aroused to indignant and +determined opposition the anti-slavery sentiment of the North. The +expression in this decision, that the negro had "no rights which the +white man was bound to respect," brought squarely before the people +the issue of manhood liberty, and afforded a text for preaching +effectively the gospel of universal freedom. + +The absence of intercourse between the North and the South, and their +radically different systems of civilization, made them like two +different peoples, estranged, jealous and suspicious. The publication +of sectional books fostered animosities and perpetuated misjudgments +and misunderstandings; and the interested influence of demagogues, +whose purposes would be furthered by sectional hatred, kept alive and +intensified the sectional differences. + +There was little feeling of fraternity, then, to stand in the way when +the issues involved seemed to require the arbitrament of war, and it +was as enemies rather than as quarrelling brothers, that the men of +the North and the South rallied to their respective standards. + + * * * * * + +{8} [Illustration: INTERIOR OF FORT SUMTER AFTER THE BOMBARDMENT IN +1863--FROM GOVERNMENT PHOTOGRAPH. (Presented to participants in Sumter +Celebration, April 14, 1865.)] + +An episode which occurred about a year before the war, which was +inherently of minor importance, brought to the surface the bitter +feeling which was preparing the way for the fraternal strife. John +Brown, an enthusiastic abolitionist, a man of undoubted courage, but +possessing poor judgment, and who had been very prominent in a +struggle to make Kansas a free State, in 1859 collected a small +company, and, invading the State of Virginia, seized the United States +Arsenal at Harper's Ferry. His expectation was that the blacks would +flock to his standard, and that, arming them from the arsenal, he +could lead a servile insurrection which would result in ending +slavery. His project, which was quixotic in the extreme, lacking all +justification of possible success, failed miserably, and Brown was +hung as a criminal. At the South, his action was taken as an +indication of what the abolitionists would do if they secured control +of the Government, and the secessionist sentiment was greatly +stimulated by his attempt. At the North he became a martyr to the +cause of freedom; and although the leaders would not at first call the +war for the Union an anti-slavery war, the people knew it was an +anti-slavery war, and old {9} John Brown's wraith hung over every +Southern battlefield. The song, + + "John Brown's body lies a-mouldering in the grave, + His soul is marching on." + +became a battle-cry, sung at every public meeting, sending recruits to +the front, and making the echoes ring around the army campfires. + +So long as the Democratic party, which was in political alliance with +the South, retained control of the Federal Government, there was +neither motive nor excuse for secession or rebellion. Had the Free +Soil Party elected Frémont in 1856, war would have come then. When the +election of 1860, through Democratic dissension and adherence to +several candidates, resulted in the election of Abraham Lincoln, the +candidate of the Free Soilers, the die was cast, and the South +prepared for the struggle it was about to precipitate. + + * * * * * + +The day after the election, on November 7th, 1860, the Palmetto flag, +the ensign of the State of South Carolina, was raised at Charleston, +replacing the American flag. High officials in the Government, in +sympathy with the Southern cause, had stripped the Northern arsenals +of arms and ammunition and had sent them to Southern posts. The little +standing army had been so disposed as to leave the city of Washington +defenceless, except for a few hundred marines and half a hundred men +of ordnance. The outgoing Administration was leaving the national +treasury bankrupt, and permitted hostile preparations to go on +unchecked, and hostile demonstrations to be made without interference. +So little did the people of the North realize that war was impending, +that Southern agents found no difficulty in making purchases of +military supplies from Northern manufacturers. Except for the +purchases made by Raphael Semmes in New England, the Confederacy would +have begun the war without percussion caps, which were not +manufactured at the South. With every advantage thrown at the outset +in favor of the South and against the North, the struggle began. + +[Illustration: CHARLESTON HARBOR.] + +[Illustration: THE PALMETTO FLAG.] + +[Illustration: THE CONFEDERATE FLAG.] + +The Southern leaders had been secretly preparing for a long time. +During the summer and fall of 1860, John B. Floyd, the Secretary of +War, had been sending war material South, and he continued his +pernicious activity until, in December, complicity in the theft of +some bonds rendered his resignation necessary. About the same time the +Secretary of the Treasury, Howell Cobb, the Secretary of the Interior, +Jacob Thompson, and the Secretary of State, Lewis Cass, withdrew from +the cabinet. On the election of Lincoln, treasonable preparations +became more open and more general. These were aided by President +Buchanan's message to Congress expressing doubt of the constitutional +power of the Government to take offensive action against a State. On +December 20, an ordinance of secession was passed by the South +Carolina Legislature; and following this example, Mississippi, +Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Texas and Virginia seceded in +the order named. Virginia held on till the last; and while a popular +vote was pending, to accept or reject the action of the Legislature, +the seat of government of the Confederate States, established in +February at Montgomery, Ala., was removed to Richmond, the capital of +Virginia. Governor Letcher turned over to the Confederates the entire +military force and equipment of the State, which passed out of the +Union without waiting for the verdict of the people. This State was +well punished by becoming the centre of the conflict for four years, +and by political dismemberment, loyal West Virginia being separated +from the original commonwealth and admitted to the Union during the +war. + +During the fall and winter of 1860-61, the Southern leaders committed +many acts of treasonable aggression. They seized United States +property, acting under the authority of their States, until the +formation of the Confederacy, when the central government became their +authority. In some of these cases the Federal custodians of the +property yielded it in recognition of the right of the State to take +it. In some cases they abandoned it, hopeless of being able to hold it +against the armed forces that threatened it, and doubtful of support +from the Buchanan Administration at Washington. But there were noble +exceptions, and brave officers held to their trusts, and either +preserved them to the United States Government or released them only +when overpowered. + +In December, 1860, the rebels seized Castle Pinckney and {10} Fort +Moultrie in Charleston Harbor, the arsenal at Charleston, and the +revenue cutter _William Aiken_; in January, the arsenals at Mount +Vernon, Ala., Apalachicola, Fla., Baton Rouge, La., Augusta, Ga., and +many forts, hospitals, etc., in Southern ports. By February they had +gained such assurance of not being molested in their seizures of +Government property, that everything within their reach was taken with +impunity. So many of the officers in active service were in sympathy +with the South, that it frequently required only a demand for the +surrender of a vessel or a fort--sometimes not even that--to secure +it. One of these attempted seizures gave rise to an official utterance +that did much to cheer the Northern heart. John A. Dix, who in +January, 1861, succeeded Cobb as Secretary of the Treasury, sent W. H. +Jones, a Treasury clerk, to New Orleans, to save to the Government +certain revenue cutters in Southern ports. Jones telegraphed the +secretary that the captain of the cutter _McClelland_ refused to give +her up, and Dix thereupon sent the following memorable despatch: + +"Tell Lieutenant Caldwell to arrest Captain Breshwood, assume command +of the cutter, and obey the order I gave through you. If Captain +Breshwood, after arrest, undertakes to interfere with the command of +the cutter, tell Lieutenant Caldwell to consider him as a mutineer and +treat him accordingly. If any one attempts to haul down the American +flag, shoot him on the spot." + +These determined words were among the few that were uttered by +Northern officials that gave the friends of the Union any hope of +leadership against the aggression of the seceding States; and they +passed among the proverbial expressions of the war, to live as long as +American history. + +[Illustration: A SUMTER CASEMATE DURING THE BOMBARDMENT.] + +The firmness of Lieutenant Adam J. Slemmer had prevented the surrender +of Fort Pickens, in Pensacola Harbor, Florida, on the Gulf of Mexico, +when it was demanded with some show of force, in January, 1861. + +Meanwhile, an event was preparing, in which the loyalty, courage, and +promptness of a United States officer was to bring to an issue the +question of "bloodless secession" or war. The seizures of Government +property here and there had excited indignation in the loyal North, +but no general, effective sentiment of opposition. But at the shot +that was fired at Sumter, the North burst into a flame of patriotic, +quenchless fury, which did not subside until it had been atoned for on +many a battlefield, and the Confederate "stars and bars" fell, never +to rise again. + +Lieutenant-Colonel Gardner had been in command at Charleston Harbor, +S. C., and when he saw the secessionists preparing to seize the forts +there, so early as November, 1860, he applied to Washington for +reinforcements. Upon this, at the request of Southern members of +Congress, Secretary of War Floyd removed him, and sent in his place +Major Robert Anderson, evidently supposing that that officer's +Kentucky origin would render him faithful to the Southern cause. But +his fidelity to the old flag resulted in one of the most dramatic +episodes of the war. + +On reaching his headquarters at Fort Moultrie, Major Anderson at once +applied for improvements, which the Secretary of War was now willing +and even eager to make, and he appropriated large sums for the +improvement of both Fort Moultrie and Fort Sumter, but would not +increase the garrison or the ammunition. It soon became apparent that +against a hostile attack Fort {11} Moultrie could not be held, as it +was commanded from the house-tops on Sullivan's Island, near by, and +Major Anderson decided to move his garrison across the harbor to Fort +Sumter, which, unlike Moultrie, was unapproachable by land. The +secessionists in Charleston were active and watched suspiciously every +movement made by the military, and the latter were constantly on guard +to prevent surprise and capture of the fort. The preparations for +removal to Sumter were made with the greatest caution. So well had +Major Anderson kept his purpose secret, that his second in command, +Captain Abner Doubleday, was informed of it only when ordered to have +his company ready to go to Fort Sumter in twenty minutes. The families +of the officers were sent to Fort Johnson, opposite Charleston, whence +they were afterward taken North. + +For the ostensible purpose of removing these non-combatants to a place +of safety--a step to which the now well-organized South Carolina +militia could make no objection--Anderson's quartermaster, Lieutenant +Hall, had chartered three schooners and some barges, which were +ultimately used to transport supplies from Moultrie to Sumter. Laden +with these supplies, the transports started for Fort Johnson, and +there awaited the signal gun which was to direct them to land at +Sumter. The guns of Moultrie were trained to bear on the route across +the harbor, to be used defensively in case the movement was detected +and interfered with. + +The preparations completed, at sunset on December 26, the troops, who +had equipped themselves in the twenty minutes allowed them, were +silently marched out of Fort Moultrie and passed through the little +village of Moultrieville, which lay between the fort and the point of +embarkation. The march was fortunately made without observation, and +the men took their places in rowboats which promptly started on their +momentous voyage. After several narrow escapes from being stopped by +the omnipresent guard boats, which were deceived into supposing the +troop boats to contain only laborers in charge of officers, the party +reached Fort Sumter. Here they found crowds of laborers, who were at +work, at the Government's expense, preparing Sumter to be handed over +to the Southern league. These men, most of them from Baltimore, were +nearly all secessionists, and had already refused to man the fort as +soldiers for its defence. They showed some opposition to the landing +of the troops, but were promptly driven inside the fort at the point +of the bayonet, and were presently shipped on board the supply +schooners and sent ashore, where they communicated to the secession +authorities the news of Major Anderson's clever ruse. The signal gun +was fired from Sumter, the supplies were landed, and Fort Sumter was +in the hands of the loyal men who were to immortalize their names by +their heroic defence of it. + +[Illustration: MAJOR ANDERSON AND OFFICERS DEFENDING FORT SUMTER. +Capt. T. Seymour. 1st Lieut. G. W. Snyder. 1st Lieut. J. C. Davis. 2d +Lieut. R. K. Meade. 1st Lieut. T. Talbot. Capt. A. Doubleday. Major R. +Anderson. Surg. S. W. Crawford. Capt. J. G. Foster.] + +[Illustration: GUSTAVUS V. FOX, Commanding the Relief Expedition to +Fort Sumter; afterward Assistant Secretary of the Navy.] + +Sixty-one artillerymen and thirteen musicians, under command of seven +or eight officers, constituted the slender garrison. Many of these +officers subsequently rose to distinction in the service of their +country, in which some of them died. Major Anderson became a +major-general and served for a while in his native Kentucky, but was +soon compelled by failing health to retire. Captains Abner Doubleday, +John G. Foster and Truman Seymour, Lieut. Jefferson C. Davis and Dr. +S. Wiley Crawford, the surgeon, became major-generals, and were in +service throughout the war; Lieut. Norman J. Hall became colonel of +the Seventh Michigan Volunteers, and was thrice brevetted in the +regular army for gallantry, especially at Gettysburg; Lieuts. George +W. Snyder and Theodore Talbot received promotion, but died early in +the war; and Edward Moale, a civilian clerk who rendered great +assistance, afterward received a commission in the regular army. One +only of the defenders of Sumter afterward joined the Confederacy; this +was Lieut. Richard K. Meade, who yielded to the tremendous social and +family {12} pressure that carried so many reluctant men to the wrong +side when the war began. Commissioned in the rebel army, he died in +1862. + +[Illustration: LIEUTENANT-GENERAL WINFIELD SCOTT, Commanding U. S. +Army, 1861.] + +At noon on December 27, Major Anderson solemnized his occupancy of +Sumter by formally raising the flag of his country, with prayer by the +chaplain, Rev. Matthias Harris, and military ceremonies. + +The sight of the national ensign on Sumter was quickly observed from a +troop ship in the harbor, which hastened to the city with the news, +not only that Anderson had moved from Moultrie to Sumter, but also +that he was heavily reinforced, the sixty soldiers thronging the +parapet making so good a show as to give the impression of a much +larger number. At this news Charleston was thrown into a ferment of +rage and excitement. South Carolina troops were at once sent, on +December 27, to take possession of Castle Pinckney, the seizure of +which was perhaps the first overt act of war on the part of the +secessionists. This was followed by the rebel occupation of Forts +Moultrie and Johnson, which were gotten into readiness for action, and +shore batteries, some of them iron clad, were planted near Moultrie +and on Cummings Point, an extremity of Morris Island near to Sumter; +so that by the time the preparations were completed, Anderson's +gallant little band was effectively covered on four different sides. + +But the rebels were not relying wholly on measures for reducing Sumter +in order to secure it. It was diplomacy rather than war which they +expected would place in their hands all the government property in +Charleston Harbor. On the very day of Anderson's strategic move across +the harbor, three commissioners arrived in Washington for the purpose +of negotiating for the peaceable surrender to South Carolina of all +the forts and establishments. But the telegraphic news, which reached +Washington with the commissioners, that the loyal Anderson was doing +his part, met with such patriotic response in the North as effectively +to interfere with the commissioners' plans. What Buchanan might have +released to them under other circumstances, he could not give them +after Major Anderson had taken steps to protect his trust. + +Once within the fort, the Sumter garrison set vigorously to work to +put it in a defensive condition. The Government work on the fort was +not completed, and had the Southerners attacked it at once, as they +would have done but for the expectation that the President would order +Anderson to return to Moultrie, they could easily have captured it by +assault. But they still hoped for "bloodless secession," and deferred +offensive action. There were no flanking defences for the fort, and no +fire-proof quarters for the officers. There was a great quantity of +combustible material in the wooden quarters, which ultimately +terminated the defence; for the garrison was rather smoked out by +fire, than either starved out or reduced by shot and shell. The +engineer officers were driven to all sorts of expedients to make the +fort tenable, because there was very little material there out of +which to make proper military defences. The workmen had left in the +interior of the unfinished fort a confused mass of building material, +unmounted guns, gun-carriages, derricks, blocks and tackle. Only two +tiers of the fort were in condition for the mounting of heavy +artillery--the upper and lower tiers. Although the garrison was +severely taxed in performing the excessive guard duty required by +their perilous situation, they yet accomplished an enormous amount of +work--mounting guns with improvised tackle; carrying by hand to the +upper tier shot weighing nearly one hundred and thirty pounds each; +protecting the casemates with flag-stones; rigging ten-inch columbiads +as mortars in the parade grounds within the fort, to fire on Morris +Island; and making their quarters as comfortable as the circumstances +admitted. The guns of the fort were carefully aimed at the various +objects to be fired at, and the proper elevation marked on each, to +avoid errors in aiming when the smoke of action should refract the +light. + +To guard against a simultaneous attack from many sides, against which +sixty men could make only a feeble defence, mines were planted under +the wharf where a landing was most feasible, to blow it up at the +proper time. Piles of paving stones with charges of powder under them, +to scatter them as deadly missiles among an attacking party, were +placed on the esplanade. Metal-lined boxes were placed on the parapet +on all sides of the fort, from which musketry-fire and hand-grenades +could be thrown down on the invaders directly beneath. Barrels filled +{13} with broken stone, with charges of powder at the centre, were +prepared to roll down to the water's edge and there burst. A trial of +this device was observed by the rebels, who inferred from it that +Sumter was bristling with "infernal machines" and had better be dealt +with at long range. + +[Illustration: HARPER'S FERRY.] + +The discomforts and sufferings of the garrison were very great. +Quarters were lacking in accommodations; rations were short, and fuel +was scanty in midwinter. The transition from the position of friends +to that of foes was not immediate, but gradual. After the move to +Sumter, the men were still permitted to do their marketing in +Charleston; for all that Anderson had then done was to make a +displeasing change of base in a harbor where he commanded, and could +go where he pleased. Presently market privileges were restricted, and +then prohibited altogether; and even when, under the expectation of +action at Washington satisfactory to the South, the authorities +relaxed their prohibition, the secessionist marketmen would sell +nothing to go to the fort. Constant work on salt pork, with limited +necessaries and an entire absence of luxuries, made the condition of +the garrison very hard, and their conduct worthy of the highest +praise. + +Anderson has been criticised for permitting the secessionists to build +and arm batteries all around him, and coolly take possession of +Government property, without his firing a shot to prevent it, as he +could easily have done, since the guns of Sumter commanded the +waterways all over the harbor. But it is easier now to see what should +have been done than it was then to see what should be done. Anderson +did not even know that he would be supported by his own Government, in +case he took the offensive; and the reluctance to begin hostilities +was something he shared with the leaders on both sides, even +down to the time of Lincoln's inaugural, in which the President +said to the people of the South: "In your hands, my dissatisfied +fellow-countrymen, and not in mine, is the momentous issue of civil +war. The Government will not assail you. You can have no conflict +without being yourselves the aggressors." The fact of Anderson's +Southern birth, while it did not interfere with his loyalty, did make +him reluctant to precipitate a struggle which he prayed and hoped +might be averted. Had the issue of war been declared at the time, +freeing him to do what he could, he could have saved Sumter. As it +was, the preparations for reducing Sumter went on unmolested. + +Instead of yielding to the demand of the South Carolina {14} +commissioners for Anderson's return to Moultrie, President Buchanan +permitted the organization of an expedition for the relief of Sumter. +But instead of sending down a war vessel, a merchant steamer was sent +with recruits from Governor's Island, New York. The _Star of the West_ +arrived off Charleston January 9, and as soon as she attempted to +enter the harbor, she was fired on from batteries on Morris Island. +Approaching nearer, and coming within gun-shot of Moultrie, she was +again fired on. At Sumter, the long roll was beaten and the guns +manned, but Anderson would not permit the rebel fire to be returned. +The _Star of the West_ withdrew and returned to New York. Explanations +were demanded by Anderson, with the result of sending Lieutenant +Talbot to Washington with a full statement of the affair, there to +await instructions. The tacit truce thus established enabled the +preparation of Sumter to be completed, but the rebel batteries also +were advanced. + +Then began a series of demands from Charleston for the surrender of +the fort. The secessionists argued with Anderson as to the +hopelessness of his case, with the Washington Government going to +pieces, and the South determined to have the fort and exterminate the +garrison; and still another commission was sent to Washington, to +secure there a settlement of the question, which was invariably +referred back to Anderson's judgment. + +[Illustration: MAJOR-GENERAL JOHN A. DIX.] + +[Illustration: GENERAL DIX'S FAMOUS DESPATCH.] + +The winter was passed in this sort of diplomacy and in intense +activity, within the fort and around it. The garrison shared the +general encouragement drawn from the accessions to the cabinet of +strong and loyal men, such as John A. Dix and Joseph Holt, to replace +the secessionists who had resigned. The Charleston people continued +their loud demands for an attack on Sumter. The affair of the _Star of +the West_, and the organization of the Confederate Government in +February, had greatly stimulated the war spirit of the North, and it +was felt that the crisis was approaching. Charleston people began to +feel the effects of blockading their own channel with sunken ships, +for their commerce all went to other ports. + +With the inauguration of Lincoln on March 4, the South learned that +they had to deal with an Administration which, however forbearing, was +firm as a rock. Indications of a vigorous policy were slow in reaching +the anxious garrison of Sumter, for the new President was surrounded +with spies, and every order or private despatch was quickly repeated +throughout the South, which made him cautious. But the fact that he +had determined to reinforce Sumter, and to insist on its defence, did +soon become known, both at the fort and in Charleston; and on April 6, +Lieutenant Talbot was sent on from Washington to notify Governor +Pickens to that effect. This information, received at Charleston April +8, was telegraphed to the Confederate Government at Montgomery, and on +the 10th General Beauregard received orders from the rebel Secretary +of War to open fire at once on Sumter. + +Instantly there was renewed activity everywhere. The garrison, +inspired by the prospect of an end to their long and wearisome +waiting, were in high spirits. The Confederates suddenly removed a +house near Moultrie, disclosing behind it a formidable masked battery +which effectually enfiladed the barbette guns at Sumter, which, +although the heaviest there were, had to be abandoned. On the +afternoon of the 11th, officers came from Beauregard to demand the +surrender of the fort, which they learned would have to yield soon for +lack of provisions. At {15} three A.M. of the 12th, General Beauregard +sent word that he would open fire in one hour. + +[Illustration: LIEUTENANT-GENERAL P. G. T. BEAUREGARD, C. S. A.] + +[Illustration: MAJOR-GENERAL GEORGE B. McCLELLAN.] + +He kept his word. At four o'clock the first gun of the war was fired +from the Cummings Point battery on Morris Island, aimed by the +venerable Edmund Ruffin, of Virginia, one of the fathers of secession. +It was a good shot, the shell penetrating the masonry of the fort and +bursting inside. At this signal, instantly the batteries opened on all +sides, and the firing became an almost continuous roar. + +But, as yet, Sumter made no reply. The artillery duel was not to be a +matter of hours, and there was no hurry. Breakfast was served to +officers and men, and was eaten amid a continual peppering of the fort +with balls and shells from columbiads and mortars. After this +refreshment the men were told off into firing parties, and the first +detachment was marched to the casemates, where Capt. Abner Doubleday +aimed the first gun fired on the Union side against the Southern +Confederacy. It was fired appropriately against the Cummings Point +battery which had begun the hostilities; and it struck its mark, but +did no damage. The heaviest guns in Sumter being useless, the fort was +at a disadvantage throughout the fight, from the lightness of its +metal. Notwithstanding Major Anderson's orders that the barbette guns +should be abandoned, Sergeant John Carmody, disappointed at the +effects produced by the fire of the fort, stole out and fired, one +after another, the heavy barbette battery guns. Roughly aimed, they +did little mischief; but they scared the enemy, who brought all their +weight to bear now on this battery. Captains Doubleday and Seymour +directed the firing from Sumter, and were assisted by Lieut. J. C. +Davis and Surgeon Crawford, who, having no sick in hospital, +volunteered his active services, and hammered away on Fort Moultrie. + +By the middle of the morning the vessels of the relieving fleet, sent +in pursuance of Lincoln's promise, were sighted outside the bar. +Salutes were exchanged, but it was impossible for the vessels to enter +the unknown, unmarked channel. This expedition was commanded by Capt. +Gustavus V. Fox, afterward Assistant Secretary of the Navy, who had +fitted it out with the coöperation of patriotic civilians--G. W. +Blunt, William H. Aspinwall, Russell Sturgis, and others. The vessels +arriving on the morning of April 12th were the war ship _Pawnee_, +under Commodore Rowan, and the transports _Baltic_ and _Harriet Lane_. +The _Pocahontas_, Captain Gillis, arrived on the 13th. Knowing in +advance the impossibility of entering the harbor with these vessels, a +number of launches had been brought, with the intention of running in +the reinforcements in these, under cover of night and protected by the +guns of Sumter. Except for the delay of the _Pocahontas_, which +carried the launches, this would have been attempted on the night of +the 12th, when the garrison anxiously expected the new arrivals. +Postponed until the 13th, it was then too late, as by that time Sumter +had been surrendered. + +The expectation of these reinforcements, the fear of a night {16} +assault by the enemy, and the difficulty of deciding whether any boats +that might approach would contain friends to be welcomed or enemies to +be repulsed, made the night of the 12th a most anxious one for the +garrison. But neither friends nor enemies appeared, and after a +breakfast of pork and water, on the morning of the 13th, a momentous +day's fighting began. + +[Illustration: AN ALEXANDRIA ANTE-BELLUM RELIC.] + +By nine o'clock in the morning fire broke out in the officers' +quarters, and it was learned that the hostile batteries were firing +red-hot shot. Discovering the flames, the enemy redoubled their +firing. It was impossible, even were it desirable, to save the wooden +quarters, and, after one or two attempts to quench the flames, they +were allowed to burn. Precautions were taken to secure the powder +magazines from danger by cutting away the woodwork and spreading wet +blankets. Many barrels of powder were rolled out for use. But finally +a shot struck the door of the magazine and locked it fast, cutting off +further supplies of ammunition. Powder that could not be protected was +thrown overboard, but some of it lodging at the base of the fort was +ignited by the enemy's shot, and exploded, blowing a heavy gun at the +nearest embrasure out of battery. A trench was dug in front of the +magazine, and filled with water. + +So many of the men were required to attend to these precautions, that +the firing from Sumter slackened up almost to cessation, leading the +enemy to think they had given up. The fire became intense, driving +some of the men outside the fort for air, until the thick-falling +missiles drove them in again; and, combined with the bursting shells, +all this produced a scene that was terrific. As the fire subsided for +want of fuel to burn, the {17} damage was disclosed. A tower at an +angle of the fort, in which shells had been stored, had been entirely +shattered by the bursting of the shells. The wooden gates at the +entrance to the fort were burned through, leaving the way open for +assault, and other entrances were now opened in the same way. + +Shortly after noon the flag was shot away from its staff. A tremendous +amount of ammunition had been wasted by the rebels in the ambitious +effort to lower the flag, and at last it was successful. But the +exultation of the enemy was cut short by the plucky action of Peter +Hart, a servant, who had been allowed to join Major Anderson at the +fort on condition that he should remain a non-combatant. Making a +temporary flagstaff of a spar, he nailed the flag to it and tied it +firmly to the gun-carriages on the parapet, accomplishing his feat +under the concentrated fire with which the enemy sought to prevent it. + +Supposing the fall of the flag to have been a token of surrender, +ex-Senator Wigfall, of Texas, made his appearance at the fort about +two P.M., announced himself as an aid to General Beauregard, and +requested an interview with Major Anderson. He begged that the +bloodshed might cease, and was told that there had been none at +Sumter. He offered Anderson honorable terms of evacuation, and then +withdrew. + +At Wigfall's request, a white flag had been displayed during his +presence at the fort, and the firing ceased. Observing this, General +Beauregard sent a boat containing Colonels Chestnut, Lee, and Pryor, +and Captain Miles, to inquire whether he surrendered. A long parley +ensued, during which these officers said that Wigfall had not been in +communication with Beauregard; upon which Major Anderson said, "Very +well, gentlemen, you can return to your batteries," and announced that +he would run up his flag and renew his fire. But at their request he +agreed to delay this until they could see General Beauregard, and they +withdrew. + +That evening, another boat-load of officers came, bringing +Beauregard's confirmation of the terms of evacuation that had been +discussed with Wigfall, although permission to salute the United +States flag was granted with much hesitation. It was then arranged +that Anderson should leave Fort Sumter on the following day, taking +all his men and arms and personal baggage, and saluting the flag. + +Early on the morning of Sunday, April 14, all was made ready for the +departure. The firing of the salute was a matter of some danger, as +there was so much fire still about the fort that it was risky to lay +ammunition down, and sparks of fire floated in the air. Fifty guns +were fired before the flag was lowered. In reloading one of them, some +spark that had lodged in the piece prematurely discharged it, +instantly killing the gunner, Daniel Hough. The fire from the muzzle +dropping on the cartridges piled below exploded those also, seriously +injuring five other men. This was the only life lost at Sumter, and +the first life lost in the war; and, with the exception of one man +wounded by a bursting shell, these wounded men received the only +casualties of the brave little garrison that defended Fort Sumter. + +The men were formed in company, banners were flung to the breeze, the +drums beat "Yankee Doodle," and the order was given to march through +the charred gateway to the transport that lay at the dock in readiness +to carry them to the _Baltic_, on which they sailed to New York. + +[Illustration: LIEUTENANT-GENERAL ROBERT E. LEE, C. S. A.] + +When they reached their destination, they were lionized by their +enthusiastic countrymen. Steam whistles and cheers greeted their +passage through the harbor; comforts, long a stranger to them, awaited +them at Fort Hamilton, where they were greeted in the name of a +grateful people by the people's spokesman, Henry Ward Beecher; and the +newspapers sang their praises in one harmonious chorus. + +When Fort Sumter was evacuated, it presented very much the exterior +appearance that it did before the bombardment--a few {18} holes +knocked in the masonry were all that the comparatively light artillery +then brought to bear on it could accomplish. Occupied by the +Confederates after the evacuation, it remained in their hands until +the end of the war. When, in 1863, General Q. A. Gillmore bombarded +Charleston, Fort Sumter was reduced to a pile of bricks and mortar; +but such a quantity of cannonballs and shells were poured into its +débris as to form an almost solid mass of iron, practically +impregnable. Sumter never was reduced by artillery fire, and fell into +Federal hands again only when Charleston fell before Sherman's march +to the sea. + +On the conglomerate pile which constituted the ruins of the fort, a +dramatic scene of poetic justice occurred on April 14, 1865, the +fourth anniversary of the evacuation of Sumter. An expedition was sent +by the Government to Charleston Harbor to celebrate the recapture by +replacing the national flag on Fort Sumter. The ship _Arago_ bore the +officials in charge of the ceremony, and many invited guests, among +whom were William Lloyd Garrison and the English George Thompson, +leading abolitionists. A patriotic oration was pronounced by Henry +Ward Beecher; and by the hand of Anderson, now major-general, the same +flag which he had lowered in 1861 was drawn to the peak of the +flagstaff, while Sumter's guns and those of every battery in the +harbor that had fired on that flag fired a national salute of one +hundred guns. The flag was riddled with holes, but, as the orator of +the day pointed out, as symbolic of the preserved Union, not a single +star had been shot away. Peter Hart, the brave man who had reset the +flag during the bombardment, was present; and the Rev. Mr. Harris, who +read prayers at the first raising, pronounced the benediction on the +resurrection of the ensign of the nation. + +The shot that was fired on Sumter was the signal for a nation to rise +in arms. That Sunday on which Sumter was evacuated was a memorable day +to all who witnessed the intense excitement, the patriotic fury of a +patient people roused to white-hot indignation. As on a gala day, the +American flag suddenly appeared on every public building and from +innumerable private residences. Crowds surged through the streets, +seeking news and conference. The national flag was thrown to the +breeze from nearly every court-house, school-house, college, hotel, +engine-house, railway station and public building, from the spires of +many churches, and from the windows of innumerable private residences. +The fife and drum were heard in the streets, and recruiting offices +were opened in vacant stores or in tents hastily pitched in the public +squares. All sorts and conditions of men left their business and +stepped into the ranks, and in a few days the Government was offered +several times as many troops as had been called for. Boys of fifteen +sat down and wept because they were not permitted to go, but here and +there one dried his tears when he was told that he might be a drummer +or an officer's servant. Attentions between young people were suddenly +ripened into engagements, and engagements of long date were hastily +finished in marriages; for the boys were going, and the girls were +proud to have them go, and wanted to send them off in good spirits. +Everybody seemed anxious to put forth some expression of loyalty to +the national government and the starry flag. In the Ohio senate, on +Friday, the 12th, a senator announced that "the secessionists are +bombarding Fort Sumter." "Glory to God!" exclaimed a woman in the +gallery, breaking the solemn silence which briefly followed the +announcement. This was Abby Kelly Foster, an active abolitionist, who +discerned that at last the final appeal had been taken on the slavery +question--the appeal to the sword--from the triumphant issue of which +would come the freedom for which she and her associates had contended, +and which they believed could come in no other way. + +[Illustration: "WAR GOVERNORS" OF THE NORTHERN STATES.] + +On Monday, April 15, President Lincoln issued a call for seventy-five +thousand militia from the several States "to suppress this combination +against the laws, and to cause the laws to be duly executed." + +The response to this call was immediate, and within the week some of +the troops thus summoned were in Washington. + +While forts and arsenals were being seized by the Confederates all +over the South, while batteries to reduce Fort Sumter were being +constructed and armed, what had been doing at Washington city, the +capital of the nation? + + + + +{19} + +CHAPTER II. + +PREPARATION FOR CONFLICT. + +DEFENCELESS CONDITION OF WASHINGTON--SECESSION SYMPATHIZERS IN +OFFICE--VOLUNTEERS IN THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA--COL. CHARLES P. +STONE--PROTECTION OF PUBLIC OFFICES AND GUARDING OF +COMMUNICATIONS--UPRISING OF THE PEOPLE--RESPONSE OF THE MILITIA--THE +SIXTH MASSACHUSETTS IN BALTIMORE--THE NEW YORK SEVENTH REACHES +WASHINGTON--DEATH OF COLONEL ELLSWORTH--SOUTHERN MILITARY +AGGRESSION--HARPER'S FERRY CAPTURED--GOSPORT NAVY YARD BURNED AND +EVACUATED. + + +During the interval between the election and the inauguration of +President Lincoln, a very alarming condition of affairs existed at the +national capital. The administration was in the hands of men who, even +those who were not actively disloyal, were not Republicans, and did +not desire to assume responsibility for the crisis which the +Republican success at the polls had precipitated. + +[Illustration: ON THE MARCH.] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration: RETURN FROM SKIRMISHING.] + +The Government service was honeycombed with secession sentiment, which +extended from cabinet officers down to department clerks. Always +essentially a city of Southern sympathies, Washington was filled with +the advocates of State Rights. The retiring Democratic President, +James Buchanan, in addition to a perhaps not unnatural timidity in the +face of impending war and a reluctance to embroil his administration +in affairs which it properly belonged to the incoming administration +to settle, was also torn with conflicting opinions as to the +constitutional questions involved, especially as to his power to +coerce a sovereign State. Turning to his cabinet for advice, he was +easily led to do the things that simplified the Southern preparations +to leave the Union. + +{20} It has been told that the regular army troops had been sent away +from Washington, leaving a mere handful of marines on duty there. It +became a problem for loyal men to devise means for the maintenance of +order at the seat of Government. It being the policy of the Government +at that time to do nothing to provoke hostilities, it was deemed +unwise to bring regular troops openly into Washington. There was no +regularly organized militia there; only a few independent companies of +doubtful, or unascertained, loyalty. + +The aged Gen. Winfield Scott was in command of the army in 1860, and +appreciating that trouble would come either from continued +acquiescence in the aggressions of the South or from a show of force, +he advised the President to quietly enroll the loyal people of the +District of Columbia for the guardianship of the capital. For this +duty he called in Charles P. Stone, a graduate of West Point and a +veteran of the Mexican war, who was made Inspector-General of the +District of Columbia, with the rank of colonel. + +Colonel Stone took measures to ascertain the sentiments of the +existing independent military companies. With admirable diplomacy he +disarmed such of them as were found to be disloyal. Some of them he +found to be in excellent condition of drill and equipment, by +connivance of the Secretary of War, John B. Floyd, and they were well +aware that it was their destiny to help defend the South against the +"coercion" of the Yankees. Opposition from the War Department to +Colonel Stone's measures ceased with Floyd's resignation, and under +the new Secretary of War, Joseph Holt (afterward Lincoln's +Attorney-General), he was able to enroll in a few weeks thirty-three +companies of infantry volunteers and two troops of cavalry, under +trustworthy leaders. These were recruited from neighborhoods, from +among artisans, and from fire companies. All this was done with the +discretion required by the strained condition of public feeling, which +was such that, as General Scott said to Colonel Stone, "a dog-fight +might cause the gutters of the capital to run with blood." As the time +for Lincoln's inauguration approached, it became safe to move more +openly; and by the 4th of March a company of sappers and miners and a +battery had been brought down from West Point, while thirty new +companies had been added to the volunteer force of the District. + +[Illustration: WASH-DAY IN CAMP--GUARDING THE SUPPLY TRAIN.] + +{21} [Illustration: LAST MOMENTS OF JOHN BROWN. + + John Brown of Ossawatomie, spake on his dying day: + "I will not have to shrive my soul a priest in slavery's pay, + But let some poor slave-mother, whom I have striven to free, + With her children, from the gallows stair, put up a prayer for me!" + + John Brown of Ossawatomie, they led him out to die: + And lo! a poor slave-mother, with her little child, pressed nigh; + Then the bold blue eye grew tender, and the old harsh face grew + mild, + As he stooped between the crowding ranks, and kissed the negro's + child! + + J. G. Whittier.] + +In the first enthusiasm over the dramatic incidents attending the +beginning of hostilities, the great services rendered by these troops +were overlooked by the public. Abraham Lincoln's journey to Washington +was beset with such danger that the last stage of it was made +secretly, in advance of the published programme, and there was great +rejoicing when it was announced that the President was "safe in +Washington." He could not have been safe there except for the {22} +presence of Colonel Stone's volunteers. Trouble was apprehended at his +inauguration. But the dispositions made by Colonel Stone secured peace +and quiet for that ceremonial in a city teeming with traitors and +would-be assassins. The advance to Washington of the troops called out +by Lincoln's proclamation of April 15 was opposed in Maryland, +regiments were attacked in the streets of Baltimore, and communicating +railroad bridges were burned in order that no more troops for the +subjugation of the South might pass through that border city. The +South was flocking to arms, stimulated by the desire of seizing +Washington. To a delegation that called on the President to protest +against the passage of troops through Baltimore, Mr. Lincoln summed up +the situation by saying: "I _must_ have troops for the defence of the +capital. The Carolinians are marching across Virginia to seize the +capital and hang me. What am I to do? I _must_ have troops, I say; and +as they can neither crawl under Maryland nor fly over it, they must +come across it." + +During all this troubled time the District volunteers were the only +reliance for the security of the public property, for guarding the +approaches to the city, and for keeping open the communications for +the entrance of the coming troops. They were among the first to be +mustered into the United States service, and among the first to +advance into Virginia. + +[Illustration: LONG BRIDGE--OVER THE POTOMAC, AT WASHINGTON. The +planks were laid loose on the beams, and at night they were taken up, +so that the bridge could not be crossed by the Confederate cavalry +that hovered about the capital.] + +To secure the public buildings against a rising among the +secessionists living in Washington, the volunteer companies and the +regular army batteries were conveniently posted, the bridges and +highways leading to the city were guarded, and signals were arranged +for the concentration at any given point of the eight thousand men who +now constituted the garrison of the capital. Provisions were collected +and stored, many of them in the Capitol building, and, to such extent +as the force warranted, Washington was considered secure unless a +Southern army was marched against it. And this impending danger was +daily increasing. On April 17, Jefferson Davis, the President of the +Confederacy, had called for thirty-two thousand troops, and had +offered letters of marque to vessels to attack American commerce. The +arrival of the militia called out by President Lincoln's proclamation +was anxiously awaited. + + * * * * * + +Almost before the boom of the guns that were fired on Sumter had +ceased, military preparations were actively under way in nearly every +city and village in the North. The uniformed {23} militia regiments +were promptly filled up to their full numbers by new enlistments. Home +Guards were organized in country towns, to defend their homes should +the war be waged in the North, and to man afresh, when necessary, the +companies already sent out. To fife and drum, the ununiformed farmers +marched up and down the village green, temporarily armed with +shot-guns and smooth-bore rifles, acquiring proficiency in "Hardee's +Tactics" under the direction of old militia officers who had shone +resplendent on former "training days." Neither custom nor regulations +prescribing any particular uniforms, the greatest variety of fancy was +shown in the equipment of the volunteers. Some adopted the zouave +uniform, which had become popular through the then recent war between +France and Austria and the memories of Magenta and Solferino. +Garibaldi was a popular hero of the day, and the red shirts of his +trusty men were another of the uniforms particularly favored. The war +enthusiasm extended to the women and children, and sewing circles were +organized for the making of many useful, and also many useless, +articles for camp and hospital. The "havelocks"--a cap-cover and cape +combined--however useful in India, were not wanted in America. Later, +when there were sick and wounded to be cared for, these organizations +of women were of inestimable service in preparing lint, bandages, and +delicacies for the hospitals. + +[Illustration: BRIGADIER-GENERAL MONTGOMERY C. MEIGS.] + +[Illustration: MAJ.-GEN. JOHN E. WOOL.] + +[Illustration: OLD CAPITOL PRISON, WASHINGTON, D. C.] + +Prompt to discern the coming appeal to arms, John A. Andrew, the +famous "war governor" of Massachusetts, had begun to recruit, arm, and +equip his State militia as early as February, 1860, and by the time +the call for troops came he had thirteen thousand men ready, not only +to go to the front, but to furnish their own camp equipage and +rations. Of these, nearly four thousand responded to the first call +for three-months' volunteers. The first regiment to start for +Washington was the Sixth Militia, Col. Edward F. Jones, which left +Boston on April 17, only three days after the fall of Sumter. The +passage of the train bearing this regiment was one long ovation from +Boston to Philadelphia. At the latter city, as at New York, the men +were received with enthusiastic hospitality, welcomed, fed, and plied +with good things for their already overstocked haversacks; and it +began to seem as though war were one continuous picnic. At least until +the defence of Washington should begin, they were under no +apprehension of trouble, until, on approaching Baltimore, on April 19, +the anniversary of the Revolutionary battle of Lexington, the officers +were warned that the passage of the regiment through that city would +be forcibly opposed by a mob, which was already collected and marching +about the city, following a secession flag. Colonel Jones ordered +ammunition to be distributed, and, passing through the cars in person, +he warned the men that they were to pay no attention to abuse or even +missiles, and that, if it became necessary for them to fire on the +mob, they would receive orders to that effect from their commandants. + +The passage of trains through Baltimore at that period was by horse +power across the city, from one depot to another. The horses being +quickly attached as soon as the locomotive was taken off, cars +carrying about two-thirds of the regiment were driven rapidly over the +route; but to intercept the remaining four companies the mob +barricaded the tracks, and it became necessary for these to abandon +the cars and cover the remaining distance on foot. At once they became +the target for showers of stones thrown by the mob, and in order to +lessen the need of armed resistance, the officers gave the order to +proceed at the double-quick. It was a mistake, but a common one when +citizen soldiers are dealing with a mob; the most merciful as well as +the wisest course being to scatter the mob promptly by a warning, +followed by the promised volley. The mob thought they had the troops +on the run, and were encouraged to believe that they either dared not +shoot or that they were without ammunition. The missiles were followed +with pistol shots, at which one soldier fell dead. Then the order to +fire was given to the troops, and several of the crowd, rioters and +spectators, fell. The mayor of Baltimore joined the officers at the +head of the column, to give his authority to its progress, and also to +tell the officers to {24} defend themselves. Instead of being faced +about to confront the mob, the troops were marched steadily forward, +turning about as they advanced and delivering a desultory fire, which, +however, did not deter the mob from continuing its attack. At last, +Marshal Kane, of the Baltimore police, interposed with a company of +policemen between the rear of troops and the rioters, formed a line, +and ordered the mob back on penalty of a pistol volley. This was so +effective as to practically end the affair, and without further +serious disturbance the detachment joined their comrades at the Camden +station, and boarded the train that took them to Washington. The +regiment's loss was four killed and thirty-six wounded. The men were +furious over the affair, and it required all the authority of the +colonel to keep them from leaving the cars and taking vengeance on +Baltimore for the death of their comrades. Arrived at Washington, the +first regiment to come in response to the call of the President, they +were quartered in the Senate Chamber. + +[Illustration: EPISCOPAL CHURCH, ALEXANDRIA, VA. General George +Washington and General Robert Lee attended this church.] + +[Illustration: PROVOST-MARSHAL'S OFFICE, ALEXANDRIA, VA.] + +After this incident, the mayor and police of Baltimore, who had done +their duty handsomely, with the approval of the governor destroyed the +tracks and railway bridges leading into the city, that there might be +no repetition of such scenes; and the troops that followed--the +Twenty-seventh Pennsylvania (which, unarmed, had reached Baltimore +with the Sixth Massachusetts, but had to turn back), the Eighth +Massachusetts under Gen. Benjamin F. Butler, and the famous Seventh +New York--had to reach Washington by way of Annapolis. The Seventh, +under Colonel Lefferts, was the first home regiment to leave New York +City, and nothing could exceed the enthusiasm of the demonstrations +that accompanied its march down Broadway. To greet its passage out of +the city to the front, all business was suspended, and the population +turned _en masse_ into the streets. Boxes of cigars and other luxuries +were thrust into the hands of the men as they passed down Broadway in +a triumphal march such as has never been surpassed in the annals of +the city. There was a certain dramatic element, new at the time, and +scarcely repeated during the war, in this departure of a regiment +composed literally of the flower of a great and wealthy city, +representing its best elements, social and commercial. When General +(then Major) McDowell mustered them in at Washington, he said to one +of the captains: "You have a company of officers, not privates;" and +out of the less than one thousand men composing this command, over six +hundred, mostly privates, afterward became officers in the Union army. +Among these were such names as Abram Duryea, who organized "Duryea's +Zouaves;" Egbert L. Viele, Noah L. Farnam, Edward L. Molineux, +Alexander Shaler, Louis Fitzgerald, Philip Schuyler, FitzJames +O'Brien; Robert G. Shaw, who fell at Fort Wagner, leading to the +assault his Massachusetts regiment, which was the first colored +regiment to be organized under State authority; and Theodore Winthrop, +whose death at Big Bethel, as a brave officer and man of letters, was +one of the conspicuous casualties of the early days of the war. + +These troops were taken on transports from Philadelphia to Annapolis, +another town of {25} Southern sympathies, where, except for the +hospitality of the United States Naval Academy, they were most +unwelcome. From that point they made their way, at first by train, and +then, being obstructed by the destruction of railroads and railroad +bridges, by forced marches, until they reached Annapolis Junction, +where they were met by a regiment sent out from Washington to meet +them, and thence proceeded by rail again. The strict discipline of +Colonel Lefferts, to which they owed their successful pioneer work in +opening the way to the capital, took them in review past President +Lincoln at the White House before they breakfasted, and they had no +let-up on the hardship of their service until they were quartered in +the House of Representatives, where they were subsequently sworn into +the service of the Government. + +This episode is worth recounting, since it was the determined advance +of these troops--the Eighth Massachusetts, under Colonel Hinks, +accompanying them--in spite of rumors of a large secessionist force +between them and Washington, that made access to the seat of +government practicable for the regiments that promptly followed them, +including more men from Pennsylvania and Massachusetts, the First +Rhode Island, the Sixth, Eighth, Ninth, and Seventy-first New York, +the latter regiments reaching Annapolis before the Seventh New York +and Eighth Massachusetts left, thus keeping the way open. Had the +rumored fifteen thousand rebels actually lain between Annapolis and +Washington, it would have gone hard with the Government and the +fortunes of the Union. + +Troops continued to pour into Washington, until it really became an +embarrassment to know what to do with them. They "bunked" all over the +city, were quartered so far as practicable in the Government +buildings, and made the national capital festive with the pranks in +which they let off the animal spirits they carried into the grand +picnic they seemed to have started on. Among them, a regiment of +Zouaves, recruited from the New York Fire Department by Col. Elmer E. +Ellsworth, was conspicuous. They were the last of the old-time +"toughs," and they made things lively in the capital. They swarmed +over the Capitol building, scaling its walls and running about its +cornices in true fire-laddie fashion, and once they rendered a +distinct service to the city of Washington by saving a burning +building adjoining Willard's Hotel, displaying a reckless daring that +gave the District firemen some new ideas. + +[Illustration: COLONEL ELMER E. ELLSWORTH.] + +[Illustration: MARSHALL HOUSE, ALEXANDRIA. Where Colonel Ellsworth was +killed.] + +[Illustration: THE DEATH OF ELLSWORTH.] + +{26} [Illustration: JEFFERSON DAVIS AND HIS CABINET. JUDAH P. +BENJAMIN, Attorney-General--War--State. JOHN H. REAGAN, +Postmaster-General. STEPHEN R. MALLORY, Secretary of the Navy. +CHRISTOPHER G. MEMMINGER, Secretary of the Treasury. ROBERT TOOMBS, +Secretary of State. LEROY P. WALKER, Secretary of War.] + +Ellsworth had attracted much attention in 1860 by the admirable work +of a company of Chicago Zouaves, with which he had given exhibition +drills in the East, and he was early commissioned a second lieutenant +in the regular army. But he resigned this position in order to +organize the Fire Zouaves, which he marched down Broadway under escort +of the Fire Department, and entered upon active service only to +sacrifice his life at the very beginning in a needless but tragic +manner. As soon as troops arrived in Washington in sufficient numbers, +the Government determined to make Washington secure by seizing its +outposts. Among these were Arlington Heights, across the Potomac, on +the "sacred soil of Virginia," of which this occupation was termed the +first "invasion." Ellsworth's regiment occupied the city of +Alexandria; and then, discovering a secession flag flying from the +Marshall House, the colonel mounted to the roof in person and tore the +flag down. Descending, he was met at the foot of the stairs by +Jackson, the proprietor of the hotel, who shot him dead with a +shot-gun. Ellsworth's death was promptly avenged by Private Francis E. +Brownell, who had accompanied him, and who put a bullet through +Jackson's head; but, as the first death of an officer, it created +wide-spread excitement {27} throughout the North, not excelled by that +over the Massachusetts men who fell in Baltimore, and royal honors +were shown to his remains. They lay in state in the White House, where +he had been a great favorite with the President, and were conveyed to +their last resting-place with every military distinction. Perhaps this +incident, more than any that had yet occurred, brought home to the +people of the North the reality of the war that was upon them. But it +only stimulated recruiting; the death of Ellsworth weighing far less +with the generous patriotism of the young men who filled up regiment +after regiment, than the glory of Ellsworth, and the honor of Private +Brownell. + + * * * * * + +While the levies were coming into Washington, the Southern leaders had +not been idle. Response to Jefferson Davis's call for troops was +general all over the States, and the week that intervened between +Sumter and the riot in Baltimore was a busy one. In Virginia, the +Governor took into his own hands measures for the defence of his +State. As early as April 15 he caused a number of militia officers to +be summoned to Richmond, and he placed in their hands the execution of +a movement to capture the United States Arsenal at Harper's Ferry, at +the junction of the Potomac and Shenandoah Rivers. Proceeding with a +small command through an unfriendly country, these officers, among +whom was the afterward famous Confederate general, John D. Imboden, +reached their destination in the gray of the early morning of April +18, the day after the Virginia Legislature had passed the ordinance of +secession. Instead of the resistance they had looked forward to on +information that a Massachusetts regiment was guarding Harper's Ferry, +they were welcomed with the sight of buildings in flames, which told +them, only too truly, that the United States garrison had abandoned +the place on their approach, and had set fire to the arsenal and +stores to save them from falling into the hands of the Confederates. + +[Illustration: JEFFERSON DAVIS'S RESIDENCE IN RICHMOND.] + +Early warning of the attempted seizure of Harper's Ferry had been +confided to a messenger who had volunteered to acquaint the Government +with the impending peril, and word was sent that heavy reinforcements +alone would save this property to the United States. But in those +formative days, when many earnest men hesitated between loyalty to the +Union and loyalty to their State, when officers like Lee abandoned the +old service with reluctance under a sense of paramount duty to their +State, a man who was loyal one day would conclude overnight to secede +with his State. And from some such cause as this, or through fear of +the consequences, the messenger never delivered the message to the War +Department, and the reinforcements, though anxiously expected, never +came. The arsenal had been left in charge of Lieut. Roger Jones, who +had been ordered to Harper's Ferry from Carlisle Barracks, Penn., with +a small force of forty-five men. Hearing nothing from Washington in +response to his request for aid, he made up his mind on the evening of +April 17, that the only course open to him was to save his garrison by +retreat, and destroy the property thus abandoned. This determination +was confirmed by the news brought to him, by a former superintendent +of the arsenal, of the coming of the Virginia troops. Although this +same man had loyally reported, so long before as January, that an +attempt might be made, he now told the workmen engaged at the arsenal +that within twenty-four hours the arsenal would be in the hands of the +Virginia forces, and advised them to protect the property, cast their +lot with the secessionists, and insure to themselves a continuance of +work under the new régime. + +Lieutenant Jones immediately made secret preparations. He had trains +of powder laid through the buildings, and when the force of thirteen +hundred Virginians had approached to within a mile of the arsenal, at +nine o'clock on the evening of April 17, the torch was applied, and +the flames ran through the works, which were quickly burning. Some of +the powder trains had been wet by the Southern sympathizers among the +workmen, but the result was a practical destruction of nearly all that +would have been valuable as munitions of war. The powder that was +stored in the buildings exploded from time to time, effectually +preventing serious efforts to put out the fire. The garrison was +withdrawn {28} across the Potomac and marched back to Carlisle. When +the Virginians came up the next morning, they found only the burning +arsenal buildings to greet them. + +Enough property was rescued from the destruction to make the capture a +useful one to the Confederates, however; and the possession of +Harper's Ferry gave them command of an important line of communication +with Washington, by the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. Anticipating the +use of this line for the transportation of Western troops to +Washington, Gen. Kenton Harper, commanding the Virginians, stopped the +first train through; but his only capture was the person of Gen. +William S. Harney, of the regular army, who was on his way to +Washington to resign his commission rather than engage in the civil +war. He was made a prisoner and sent to Richmond, whence he was +allowed to proceed on his errand. General Harney did not resign, but +was presently sent to Missouri to command the Department of the West. +But his conciliating method of dealing with the enemy, together with +his uncertain loyalty, caused him to be relieved very soon. The +strategic value of Harper's Ferry was developed under Col. Thomas J. +Jackson (afterward the celebrated "Stonewall"), who was made colonel +commandant of all the Virginia forces, superseding all the previously +existing militia generals. Robert E. Lee had been given the general +command of the State troops, with Jackson as his executive officer, +and by a legislative ordinance every militia officer above the grade +of captain had been relegated to private life unless reappointed by +the governor under the new dispensation. + +[Illustration: THE CAPITOL AT RICHMOND.] + +The bridge at Point of Rocks, a few miles down the Potomac toward +Washington, was seized and fortified against a possible attack by +General Butler, who was near Baltimore; and by a clever _ruse_ a great +number of trains on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad were "bagged," and +the cars and engines side-tracked into Strasburg, greatly facilitating +the Confederate train service in Virginia. Horses and supplies were +secured from the neighboring country, and when Gen. Joseph E. Johnston +superseded Jackson a month later at Harper's Ferry, the Confederates +were in good shape to confront an advance on their position from +Maryland or Pennsylvania, or to send reinforcements, as they did, when +the first considerable struggle of the war came at Bull Run, fifty +miles south of them. + +[Illustration: ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS, Vice-President C. S. A.] + +Another destruction of Government property by Government officers, +about this time, most unnecessary and unfortunate, deprived the Navy +Department of ships and material that would have been incalculably +precious, and furnished the Confederates with three ships, one of +which, the _Merrimac_, was to be heard from later in a signal manner. + +At the Gosport Navy Yard, opposite Norfolk, Va., there were, besides +many munitions of war, no less than eleven fine war ships, a majority +of which were armed and ready for sea. The Government made prompt +preparations to secure these after the fall of Sumter; and but for the +delay of the commandant, Commodore Charles S. McCauley, in executing +his orders, a number of the vessels, with stores, armament, and crews, +would have been withdrawn into safe waters. But under the influence of +his junior officers, most of whom subsequently joined the Confederacy, +he deferred action until better prepared. This delay was fatal; for on +April 18 he suddenly was confronted by a hostile force, though small +in numbers, under General Taliaferro, which had seized Norfolk and +threatened the navy yard. The {29} action of the latter in waiting one +day for expected reinforcements from Richmond, and Commodore +McCauley's promise not to move a vessel or fire a shot except in +defence, gave the Union commander time to do what he could to destroy +the property in his charge; and on April 20 he scuttled every ship in +the harbor, sinking them just before the arrival of Capt. Hiram +Paulding in the _Pawnee_ with orders to relieve McCauley, and to save +or destroy the property. Seeing that it would be possible for the +enemy to raise the sunken vessels, and that after the ships had been +rendered useless he could not hold the place with his small force, +Paulding decided to complete the work of destruction as far as +possible, and told off his men in detachments for this duty. Ships, +ship-houses, barracks, wharves, were at the signal (a rocket) set +ablaze, and the display was magnificent as pyrotechnics, and +discouraging to the enemy, which had expected to secure a ready-made +navy for the taking of it. When to the roar of the flames was added +the boom of the loaded guns as the fire reached them, the effect was +tremendous. Under cover of all this, the _Pawnee_ drew out of the +harbor, accompanied by the steam-tug _Yankee_ towing the _Cumberland_, +which alone of the fleet had not been scuttled, and bearing the loyal +garrison and crews. In the haste with which the work of destruction +had been undertaken, the result was incomplete. The mine under the +dry-dock did not explode; and that most useful appliance, together +with many shops, cannon, and provisions, was secured by the +Confederates, who also succeeded in raising and using three of the +sunken and partially burned vessels--the _Merrimac_, _Raritan_, and +_Plymouth_, under the guns of the first of which, from behind its +armored sides, the _Cumberland_ afterward came to grief in Hampton +Roads. + +[Illustration: BRIGADIER-GENERAL E. D. TOWNSEND, Assistant +Adjutant-General.] + +[Illustration: BRIGADIER-GENERAL CHARLES P. STONE.] + +[Illustration: BRIGADIER-GENERAL WILLIAM S. HARNEY.] + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +THE BEGINNING OF BLOODSHED. + +LINCOLN'S INAUGURAL ADDRESS--THE STRUGGLE FOR VIRGINIA--OPPOSING VIEWS +EXPRESSED BY ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS--THE SLAVE-TRADE OF +VIRGINIA--VIRGINIA DRAGOONED--THE FIRST CALL FOR TROOPS--LINCOLN'S +FAITH IN THE PEOPLE--ORIGIN OF THE WORD "COPPERHEAD." + + +Abraham Lincoln's inaugural address was one of the ablest state papers +recorded in American history. It argued the question of secession in +all its aspects--the constitutional right, the reality of the +grievance, the sufficiency of the remedy--and so far as law and logic +went, it left the secessionists little or nothing to stand on. But +neither law nor logic could change in a single day the pre-determined +purpose of a powerful combination, or allay the passions that had been +roused by years of resentful debate. Some of its sentences read like +maxims for statesmen: "The central idea of secession is the essence of +anarchy." "Can aliens make treaties easier than friends can make +laws?" "Why should there not be a patient confidence in the ultimate +justice of the people? Is there any better or equal hope in the +world?" With all its conciliatory messages it expressed a firm and +unalterable purpose to maintain the Union at every hazard. "I +consider," he said, "that, in view of the Constitution and the laws, +the Union is unbroken, and to the extent of my ability I shall take +care, as the Constitution itself expressly enjoins upon me, that the +laws of the Union be faithfully executed in all the States. Doing this +I deem to be only a simple duty on my part; and I shall perform it, so +far as practicable, unless my rightful masters, the American people, +shall withhold the requisite means, or in some authoritative manner +direct the contrary." And in closing he said: "In your hands, my +dissatisfied fellow-countrymen, and not in mine, is the momentous +issue of civil war. The Government will not assail you. You can have +no conflict without being yourselves the aggressors. You have no oath +registered in heaven to destroy the Government, while I have the most +solemn one to preserve, protect and defend it.... We are not enemies, +but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, +it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic cords of memory, +stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living +heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the +chorus of the Union when again touched, as surely they will be, by the +better angels of our nature." + +{30} [Illustration: SHERMAN AND HIS GENERALS. Oliver O. Howard. John +A. Logan. William B. Hazen. William T. Sherman. Jeff. C. Davis. Henry +W. Slocum. J. A. Mower.] + +No such address had ever come from the lips of a {31} President +before. Pierce and Buchanan had scolded the abolitionists like +partisans; Lincoln talked to the secessionists like a brother. The +loyal people throughout the country received the address with +satisfaction. The secessionists bitterly denounced it. Overlooking all +its pacific declarations, and keeping out of sight the fact that a +majority of the Congress just chosen was politically opposed to the +President, they appealed to the Southern people to say whether they +would "submit to abolition rule," and whether they were going to look +on and "see gallant little South Carolina crushed under the heel of +despotism." + +[Illustration: GENERAL GRANT'S BODYGUARD.] + +[Illustration: GENERAL ULYSSES S. GRANT, WITH GENERALS RAWLINS AND +BOWERS.] + +In spite of all such appeals, there was still a strong Union sentiment +at the South. This sentiment was admirably expressed by Hon. Alexander +H. Stephens in a speech delivered on November 14, 1860, in the +following words: "This step of secession, once taken, can never be +recalled; and all the baleful and withering consequences that must +follow will rest on the convention for all time.... What reasons can +you give the nations of the earth to justify it? What right has the +North assailed? What interest of the South has been invaded? What +justice has been denied? And what claim founded in justice and right +has been withheld? Can either of you to-day name one governmental act +of wrong, deliberately and purposely done by the Government of +Washington, of which the South has the right to complain? I challenge +the answer.... I declare here, as I have often done before, and which +has been repeated by the greatest and wisest of statesmen and patriots +in this and other lands, that it is the best and freest +Government--the most equal in its rights, the most just in its +decisions, the most lenient in its measures, and the most inspiring in +its principles to elevate the race of men--that the sun of heaven ever +shone upon. Now, for you to attempt to overthrow such a Government as +this, under which we have lived for more than three-quarters of a +century, in which we have gained our wealth, our standing as a {32} +nation, our domestic safety while the elements of peril are around us, +with peace and tranquillity accompanied with unbounded prosperity and +rights unassailed--is the height of madness, folly and wickedness, to +which I can neither lend my sanction nor my vote." In a speech by Mr. +Stephens delivered in Savannah, March 22, 1861, he expressed entirely +different views; in expounding the new constitution, he said: "The +prevailing idea entertained by him [Thomas Jefferson] and most of the +leading statesmen at the time of the formation of the old Constitution +was, that the enslavement of the African was in violation of the laws +of nature; that it was wrong in principle, socially, morally and +politically.... Our new Government is founded upon exactly the +opposite idea. Its foundation was laid, and its corner-stone rests, +upon the great truth that the negro is not equal to the white man, +that slavery, in subordination to the superior race, is his natural +and normal condition." Seven slave States had gone out, but eight +remained, and the anxiety of the secessionists was to secure these at +once, or most of them, before the excitement cooled. The great prize +was Virginia, both because of her own power and resources, and because +her accession to the Confederacy would necessarily bring North +Carolina also. Her governor, John Letcher, professed to be a Unionist; +but his conduct after the ordinance of secession had been passed +appears to prove that this profession was insincere. In electing +delegates to a convention to consider the question of secession, the +Unionists cast a majority of sixty thousand votes; and on the 4th of +April, when President Lincoln had been in office a month, that +convention refused, by a vote of eighty-nine to forty-five, to pass an +ordinance of secession. The leading revolutionists of the cotton +States were becoming uneasy. Said Mr. Gilchrist, of Alabama, to the +Confederate Secretary of War: "You must sprinkle blood in the faces of +the people! If you delay two months, Alabama stays in the Union!" +Hence the attack on Fort Sumter, out of which the garrison were in +peril of being driven by starvation. This certainly had a great +popular effect in the South as well as in the North; but Virginia's +choice appears to have been determined by a measure that was less +spectacular and more coldly significant. The Confederate Constitution +provided that Congress should have the power to "prohibit the +introduction of slaves from any State not a member of, or Territory +not belonging to, this Confederacy," and at the time when Virginia's +fate was in the balance it was reported that such an act had been +passed by the Congress at Montgomery.[1] When Virginia heard this, +like the young man in Scripture, she went away sorrowful; for in that +line of trade she had great possessions. The cultivation of land by +slave labor had long since ceased to be profitable in the border +States--or at least it was far less profitable than raising slaves for +the cotton States--and the acquisition of new territory in Texas had +enormously increased the demand. The {33} greatest part of this +business (sometimes estimated as high as one-half) was Virginia's. It +was called "the vigintal crop," as the blacks were ready for market +and at their highest value about the age of twenty. As it was an +ordinary business of bargain and sale, no statistics were kept; but +the lowest estimate of the annual value of the trade in the Old +Dominion placed it in the tens of millions of dollars. President Dew, +of William and Mary College, in his celebrated pamphlet, wrote: +"Virginia is, in fact, a negro-raising State for other States." The +New York _Journal of Commerce_ of October 12, 1835, contained a letter +from a Virginian (vouched for by the editor) in which it was asserted +that twenty thousand slaves had been driven south from that State that +year. In 1836 the Wheeling (Va.) _Times_ estimated the number of +slaves exported from that State during the preceding year at forty +thousand, valued at twenty-four million dollars. The Baltimore +_Register_ in 1846 said: "Dealing in slaves has become a large +business; establishments are made in several places in Maryland and +Virginia, at which they are sold like cattle." The Richmond +_Examiner_, before the war, said: "Upon an inside estimate, they [the +slaves of Virginia] yield in gross surplus produce, from sales of +negroes to go south, ten million dollars." In the United States +Senate, just before the war, Hon. Alfred Iverson, of Georgia, replying +to Mr. Powell, of Virginia, said Virginia was deeply interested in +secession: for if the cotton States seceded, Virginia would find no +market for her slaves, without which that State would be ruined. + +[Footnote 1: It is now impossible to prove positively that such a law +was actually passed; for the officially printed volume of "Statutes at +Large of the Provisional Government of the Confederate States of +America" (Richmond, 1861) was evidently mutilated before being placed +in the hands of the compositor. The Acts are numbered, but here and +there numbers are missing, and in some of the later Acts there are +allusions to previous Acts that cannot be found in the book. It is +known that on the 6th of March, 1861, the Judiciary Committee was +instructed to inquire into the expediency of such prohibition, and it +seems a fair conjecture that one of the missing numbers was an Act of +this character. In a later edition (1864) the numbering is made +consecutive, but the missing matter is not restored.] + +[Illustration: THE SIXTH MASSACHUSETTS REGIMENT ATTACKED IN THE +STREETS OF BALTIMORE, APRIL 19, 1861.] + +[Illustration: DEPARTURE OF THE SEVENTH REGIMENT FROM NEW YORK CITY, +APRIL 19, 1861.] + +[Illustration: COLONEL MARSHALL LEFFERTS, Commanding Seventh +Regiment.] + +{34} [Illustration: ON PICKET. (Showing photographer's outfit.)] + +After Sumter had been fired on, and the Confederate Congress had +forbidden this traffic to outsiders, the Virginia Convention again +took up the ordinance of secession (April 17) and passed it in secret +session by a vote of eighty-eight to fifty-five. It was not to take +effect till approved by the people; but the day fixed for their voting +upon it was six weeks distant, the last Thursday in May. Long before +that date, Governor Letcher, without waiting for the verdict of the +people, turned over the entire military force and equipment of the +State to the Confederate authorities, and the seat of the Confederate +Government was removed from Montgomery to Richmond. David G. Farragut, +afterwards the famous admiral, who was in Norfolk, Virginia, at the +time, anxiously watching the course of events, {35} declared that the +State "had been dragooned out of the Union," and he refused to be +dragooned with her. But Robert E. Lee and other prominent Virginians +resigned their commissions in the United States service to enter that +of their States or of the Confederacy, and the soil of Virginia was +overrun by soldiers from the cotton States. Any other result than a +vote for secession was therefore impossible. Arkansas followed with a +similar ordinance on the 6th of May, and North Carolina on the 21st, +neither being submitted to a popular vote. Kentucky refused to secede. +For Tennessee and Missouri there was a prolonged struggle. + +[Illustration: GENERAL JOSEPH G. TOTTEN, Chief of Engineers.] + +[Illustration: GENERAL ABRAM DURYEA.] + +[Illustration: GENERAL ALEXANDER SHALER.] + +[Illustration: MAJOR THEODORE WINTHROP. Killed at Big Bethel.] + +When Fort Sumter was surrendered, the Confederates had already +acquired possession of Castle Pinckney and Fort Moultrie in Charleston +Harbor, Fort Pulaski at Savannah, Fort Morgan at the entrance of +Mobile Bay, Forts Jackson and St. Philip below New Orleans, the +navy-yard and Forts McRae and Barrancas at Pensacola, the arsenals at +Mount Vernon, Ala., and Little Rock, Ark., and the New Orleans Mint. +The largest force of United States regulars was that in Texas, under +command of Gen. David E. Twiggs, who surrendered it in February, and +turned over to the insurgents one million two hundred and fifty +thousand dollars' worth of military property. + +On the day when Sumter fell, President Lincoln penned a proclamation, +issued the next day (Monday, April 15), which declared "that the laws +of the United States have been for some time past, and now are, +opposed, and the execution thereof obstructed, in the States of South +Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana, and +Texas, by combinations too powerful to be suppressed by the ordinary +course of judicial proceedings or by the powers vested in the marshals +by law," and called for militia from the several States of the Union +to the number of seventy-five thousand. It also called a special +session of Congress, to convene on July 4. He appealed "to all loyal +citizens to favor, facilitate, and aid this effort to maintain the +honor, the integrity, and existence of our National Union, and the +perpetuity of popular government, and to redress wrongs already long +enough endured." + +With regard to the reception of this celebrated proclamation in the +South, Alexander H. Stephens writes as follows, in his History of the +war: "The effect of this upon the public mind of the Southern States +cannot be described or even estimated. Up to this time, a majority, I +think, of even those who favored the policy of secession had done so +under the belief and conviction that it was the surest way of securing +a redress of grievances, and of bringing the Federal Government back +to Constitutional principles. This proclamation dispelled all such +hopes. It showed that the party in power intended nothing short of +complete centralization. The principles actuating the Washington +authorities were those aiming at consolidated power; while the +principles controlling the action of the Montgomery authorities were +those which enlisted devotion and attachment to the Federative system +as established by the Fathers in 1778 and 1787. In short, the cause of +the Confederates was States Sovereignty, or the sovereign right of +local self-government on the part of the States severally. The cause +of their assailants involved the overthrow of this entire fabric, and +the erection of a centralized empire in its stead." + +The effect of this proclamation in the North has already been referred +to. Mr. Lincoln's faith in the people had always been strong; but the +response to this proclamation was probably a surprise even to him, as +it certainly was to the secessionists, who had assured the Southern +people that the Yankees would not fight. The whole North was thrilled +with military ardor, and moved almost as one man. The papers were +lively with great head-lines and double-leaded editorials; and the +local poet filled the spare space--when there was any--with his +glowing patriotic effusions. The closing passage of Longfellow's +"Building of the Ship," written a dozen years before, beginning: + + "Thou, too, sail on, O Ship of State! + Sail on, O Union, strong and great! + Humanity with all its fears, + With all the hopes of future years, + Is hanging breathless on thy fate!" + +{36} was in constant demand, and was recited effectively by nearly +every orator that addressed a war meeting. + +Eminent men of all parties and all professions spoke out for the +Union. Stephen A. Douglas, who had long been Lincoln's rival, and had +opposed the policy of coercion, went to the White House the day before +Sumter fell, had a long interview with the President, and promised a +hearty support of the Administration, which was immediately +telegraphed over the country, and had a powerful effect. Ex-President +Pierce (who had made the direful prediction of blood in Northern +streets), ex-President Buchanan (who had failed to find any authority +for coercion), Gen. Lewis Cass (a Democratic partisan since the war of +1812), Archbishop Hughes (the highest dignitary of the Roman Catholic +Church in America), and numerous others, all "came out for the Union," +as the phrase went. The greater portion of the Democratic party, which +had opposed Lincoln's election, also, as individuals, sustained the +Administration in its determination not to permit a division of the +country. These were known as "war Democrats," while those that opposed +and reviled the Government were called "Copperheads," in allusion to +the snake of that name. Some of the bolder ones attempted to take the +edge off the sarcasm by cutting the head of Liberty out of a copper +cent and wearing it as a scarf-pin; but all they could say was quickly +drowned in the general clamor. + +Town halls, schoolhouses, academies, and even churches were turned +into temporary barracks. Village greens and city squares were occupied +every day by platoons of men, most of them not yet uniformed, marching +and wheeling and countermarching, and being drilled in the manual of +arms by officers that knew just a little more than they did, by virtue +of having bought a handbook of tactics the day before, and sat up all +night to study it. There was great scarcity of arms. One regiment was +looking dubiously at some ancient muskets that had just been placed in +their hands, when the colonel came up and with grim humor assured them +that he had seen those weapons used in the Mexican War, and more men +were killed in front of them than behind them. The boys had great +respect for the colonel, but they wanted to be excused from believing +his story. + +[Illustration: BURNING OF GOSPORT NAVY YARD, NORFOLK, VA., APRIL 21, +1861.] + +[Illustration: BURNING OF THE UNITED STATES ARSENAL AT HARPER'S FERRY, +VA., APRIL 18, 1861.] + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +BORDER STATES AND FOREIGN RELATIONS. + +GOVERNORS OF CERTAIN STATES REFUSE TROOPS--THE GOVERNOR OF MISSOURI +DISLOYAL--EVENTS IN ST. LOUIS--LOYALTY OF GERMANS--BATTLE AT +CARTHAGE--THE STRUGGLE FOR KENTUCKY, MARYLAND AND TENNESSEE--ACTIONS +IN WEST VIRGINIA--BATTLE OF RICH MOUNTAIN--BATTLE OF BIG +BETHEL--HARPER'S FERRY. + + +The disposition of the border slave States was one of the most +difficult problems with which the Government had to deal. When the +President issued his call for seventy-five thousand men, the Governors +of Missouri, Kentucky and Tennessee, as well as those of North +Carolina and Virginia, returned positive refusals. The Governor of +Missouri answered: "It is illegal, unconstitutional, revolutionary, +inhuman, diabolical, and cannot {37} be complied with." The Governor +of Kentucky said: "Kentucky will furnish no troops for the wicked +purpose of subduing her sister Southern States." The Governor of +Tennessee: "Tennessee will not furnish a single man for coercion, but +fifty thousand, if necessary, for the defence of our rights and those +of our brethren." The Governor of North Carolina: "I can be no party +to this wicked violation of the laws of the country and to this war +upon the liberties of a free people. You can get no troops from North +Carolina." The Governor of Virginia: "The militia of Virginia will not +be furnished to the powers at Washington for any such use or purpose +as they have in view." Every one of these governors was a +secessionist, with a strong and aggressive party at his back; and yet +in each of these States the secessionists were in a minority. It was a +serious matter to increase the hostility that beset the National arms +on what in another war would have been called neutral ground, and it +was also a serious matter to leave the Union element in the +northernmost slave States without a powerful support and protection. +The problem was worked out differently in each of the States. + +[Illustration: A BATTERY ON DRILL.] + +[Illustration: MAP SHOWING LOYAL AND SECEDING STATES.] + +At the winter session of the Missouri Legislature an act had been +passed that placed the city of St. Louis under the control of police +commissioners to be appointed by the Governor, Claiborne F. Jackson. +Four of his appointees were secessionists, and three of these were +leaders of bodies of "minutemen," half-secret armed organizations. The +mayor of the city, who {38} was also one of the commissioners, was +known as a "conditional Union man." Other acts showed plainly the bent +of the Legislature. One made it treason to speak against the authority +of the Governor, and gave him enlarged powers, while another +appropriated three million dollars for military purposes, taking the +entire school fund for the year, and the accumulations that were to +have paid the July interest on the public debt. + +[Illustration: RECRUITS TO THE FRONT.] + +A State convention called to consider the question of secession met in +February, and proved to be overwhelmingly in favor of Missouri's +remaining in the Union, though it also expressed a general sympathy +with slavery, assumed that the South had wrongs, deprecated the +employment of military force on either side, and repeated the +suggestion that had been made many times in other quarters for a +national convention to amend the Constitution so as to satisfy +everybody. The State convention made its report in March, and +adjourned till December. + +This proceeding appeared to be a great disappointment to Governor +Jackson; but he failed to take from it any hint to give up his purpose +of getting the State out of the Union. On the contrary, he proceeded +to try what he could do with the powers at his command. He called an +extra session of the Legislature, to convene May 2d, for the purpose +of "adopting measures to place the State in a proper attitude of +defence," and he called out the militia on the 3d of May, to go into +encampment for six days. There was a large store of arms (more than +twenty thousand stand) in the St. Louis arsenal; but while he was +devising a method and a pretext for seizing them, the greater part of +them were suddenly removed, by order from Washington, to Springfield, +Illinois. The captain that had them in charge took them on a steamer +to Alton, and there called the citizens together by ringing a +fire-alarm, told them what he had, and asked their assistance in +transferring the cargo to a train for Springfield, as he expected +pursuit by a force of secessionists. The many hands that make light +work were not wanting, and the train very soon rolled away with its +precious freight. The Governor applied to the Confederate Government +for assistance, and a quantity of arms and ammunition, including +several field-guns, was sent to him in boxes marked "marble." He also +ordered a general of the State militia to establish a camp of +instruction near the city, and gathered there such volunteer companies +as were organized and armed. + +[Illustration: CAPTAIN NATHANIEL LYON. (Afterwards +Brigadier-General.)] + +[Illustration: A VILLAGE COMPANY ON PARADE.] + +General Scott had anticipated all this by sending reinforcements to +the little company that held the arsenal, and with them Capt. +Nathaniel Lyon, of the regular army, a man that lacked no element of +skill, courage, or patriotism necessary for the crisis. The force was +also increased by several regiments of loyal home guards, organized +mainly by the exertions of Francis P. Blair, Jr., and mustered into +the service of the United States. When the character and purpose of +the force that was being concentrated by Jackson became sufficiently +evident--from the fact that the streets in the camp were named for +prominent Confederate leaders, and other indications--Lyon determined +upon prompt and decisive action. This was the more important since the +United States arsenal at Liberty had been robbed, and secession troops +were being drilled at St. Joseph. With a battalion of regulars and six +regiments of the home guard, he marched out in the afternoon of May +10th, surrounded the camp, and trained six pieces of artillery on it, +and then demanded an immediate surrender, with no terms but a promise +of proper treatment as prisoners of war. The astonished commander, a +recreant West Pointer, surrendered promptly; and he and his brigade +were disarmed {39} and taken into the city. All the "marble" that had +come up from Baton Rouge and been hauled out to the camp only two days +before was captured and removed to the arsenal, becoming once more the +property of the United States. + +The outward march had attracted attention, crowds had gathered along +the route, and when Lyon's command were returning with their prisoners +they had to pass through a throng of people, among whom were not a few +that were striving to create a riot. The outbreak came at length; +stones were thrown at the troops and pistol-shots fired into the +ranks, when one regiment levelled their muskets and poured a volley or +two into the crowd. Three or four soldiers and about twenty citizens +were killed in this beginning of the conflict at the West. William T. +Sherman (the now famous general), walking out with his little son that +afternoon, found himself for the first time under fire, and lay down +in a gully while the bullets cut the twigs of the trees above him. + +[Illustration: THE BATTLE AT PHILIPPI, JUNE 3, 1861.] + +[Illustration: GENERAL B. F. KELLEY.] + +Two days later, Gen. William S. Harney arrived in St. Louis and +assumed command of the United States forces. He was a veteran of long +experience; but ex-Governor Sterling Price, commanding the State +forces, entrapped him into a truce that tied his hands, while it left +Jackson and Price practically at liberty to pursue their plans for +secession. Thereupon the Government removed him, repudiated the truce, +and gave the command to Lyon, now made a brigadier-general. After an +interview with Lyon in St. Louis (June 11), in which they found it +impossible to deceive or swerve him, Price and Jackson went to the +capital, Jefferson City, burning railway bridges behind them, and the +Governor immediately issued a proclamation declaring that the State +had been invaded by United States forces, and calling out fifty +thousand of the militia to repel the invasion. Its closing passage is +a fair specimen of many proclamations and appeals that were issued +that spring and summer: "Your first allegiance is due to your own +State, and you are under no obligation whatever to obey the +unconstitutional edicts of the military despotism which has introduced +itself at Washington, nor submit to the infamous and degrading sway of +its wicked minions in this State. No brave-hearted Missourian will +obey the one or submit to the other. Rise, then, and drive out +ignominiously the invaders who have dared to desecrate the soil which +your labors have made fruitful and which is consecrated by your +homes." + +{40} [Illustration: A BOMB PROOF.] + +The very next day Lyon had an expedition in motion, which reached +Jefferson City on the 15th, took possession of the place, and raised +the National flag over the Capitol. At his approach the Governor fled, +carrying with him the great seal of the State. Learning that he was +with Price, gathering a force at Booneville, fifty miles farther up +Missouri {41} River, Lyon at once reëmbarked the greater part of his +command, arrived at Booneville on the morning of the 17th, fought and +routed the force there, and captured their guns and supplies. The +Governor was now a mere fugitive; and the State convention, assembling +again in July, declared the State offices vacant, nullified the +secession work of the Legislature, and made Hamilton R. Gamble, a +Union man, provisional Governor. Among the citizens whose prompt +personal efforts were conspicuous on the Union side were John M. +Schofield and Francis P. Blair, Jr. (afterward Generals), B. Gratz +Brown (afterward candidate for Vice-President), Rev. Galusha Anderson +(afterward President of Chicago University), William McPherson, and +Clinton B. Fisk (afterward founder of Fisk University at Nashville). + +The puzzling part of the difficulty in Missouri was now over, for the +contest was well defined. Most of the people in the northern part of +the State, and most of the population of St. Louis (especially the +Germans), were loyal to the National Government; but the secessionists +were strong in its southern part, where Price succeeded in organizing +a considerable force, which was joined by men from Arkansas and Texas, +under Gens. Ben. McCulloch and Gideon J. Pillow. Gen. Franz Sigel was +sent against them, and at Carthage (July 5) with twelve hundred men +encountered five thousand and inflicted a heavy loss upon them, though +he was obliged to retreat. His soldierly qualities in this and other +actions gave him one of the sudden reputations that were made in the +first year of the war, but obscured by the greater events that +followed. His hilarious popularity was expressed in the common +greeting: "You fights mit Sigel? Den you trinks mit me!" Lyon, +marching from Springfield, Mo., defeated McCulloch at Dug Spring, and +a week later (August 10) attacked him again at Wilson's Creek, though +McCulloch had been heavily reinforced. The national troops, +outnumbered three to one, were defeated; and Lyon, who had been twice +wounded early in the action, was shot dead while leading a regiment in +a desperate charge. Major S. D. Sturgis conducted the retreat, and +this ended the campaign. It was found that General Lyon, who was a +bachelor, had bequeathed all he possessed (about thirty thousand +dollars) to the United States Government, to be used for war purposes. + +[Illustration: CARING FOR THE DEAD AND WOUNDED.] + +{42} [Illustration: BATTLE OF WILSON'S CREEK, NEAR SPRINGFIELD, MO., +AUGUST 10, 1861.] + +In the days when personal leadership was more than it can ever be +again, while South Carolina was listening to the teachings of John C. +Calhoun, which led her to try the experiment of secession, Kentucky +was following Henry Clay, who, though a slaveholder, was a strong +Unionist. The practical effect was seen when the crisis came, after he +had been in his grave nine years. Governor Beriah Magoffin convened +the Legislature in January, 1861, and asked it to organize the +militia, buy muskets, and put the State in a condition of armed +neutrality; all of which it refused to do. After the fall of Fort +Sumter he called the Legislature together again, evidently hoping that +the popular excitement would bring them over to his scheme. But the +utmost that could be accomplished was the passage of a resolution by +the lower house (May 16) declaring that Kentucky should occupy "a +position of strict neutrality," and approving his refusal to furnish +troops for the national army. Thereupon he issued a proclamation (May +20) in which he "notified and warned all other States, separate or +united, especially the United and Confederate States, that I solemnly +forbid any movement upon Kentucky soil." But two days later the +Legislature repudiated this interpretation of neutrality, and passed a +series of acts intended to prevent any scheme of secession that might +be formed. It appropriated one million dollars for arms and +ammunition, but placed the disbursement of the money and control of +the arms in the hands of commissioners that were all Union men. It +amended the militia law so as to require the State Guards to take an +oath to support the Constitution of the United States, and finally the +Senate passed a resolution declaring that "Kentucky will not sever +connection with the National Government, nor take up arms with either +belligerent party." Lovell H. Rousseau (afterward a gallant general in +the national service), speaking in his place in the Senate, said: "The +politicians are having their day; the people will yet have theirs. I +have an abiding confidence in the right, and I know that this +secession movement is all wrong. There is not a single substantial +reason for it; our Government had never oppressed us with a feather's +weight." The Rev. Robert J. Breckinridge and other prominent citizens +took a similar stand; and a new Legislature, chosen in August, +presented a Union majority of three to one. As a last resort, Governor +Magoffin addressed a letter to President Lincoln, requesting that +Kentucky's neutrality be respected and the national forces removed +from the State. Mr. Lincoln, in refusing his request, courteously +reminded him that the force consisted exclusively of Kentuckians, and +told him that he had not met any Kentuckian, except himself and the +messengers that brought his letter, who wanted it removed. To +strengthen the first argument, Robert Anderson, of Fort Sumter fame, +who was a citizen of Kentucky, was made a general and given the +command in the State in September. Two months later, a secession +convention met at Russellville, in the southern part of the State, +organized a provisional government, and sent a full delegation to the +Confederate Congress at Richmond, who found no difficulty in being +{43} admitted to seats in that body. Being now firmly supported by the +new Legislature, the National Government began to arrest prominent +Kentuckians who still advocated secession, whereupon others, including +ex-Vice-President John C. Breckinridge, fled southward and entered the +service of the Confederacy. Kentucky as a State was saved to the +Union, but the line of separation was drawn between her citizens, and +she contributed to the ranks of both the great contending armies. + +[Illustration: MAJOR-GENERAL BENJAMIN F. BUTLER AND STAFF.] + +Like the governor of Kentucky, Gov. Thomas H. Hicks, of Maryland, had +at first protested against the passage of troops, had dreamed of +making the State neutral, and had even gone so far as to suggest to +the Administration that the British Minister at Washington be asked to +mediate between it and the Confederates. But, unlike Governor +Magoffin, he ultimately came out in favor of the Union. The +Legislature would not adopt an ordinance of secession, nor call a +convention for that purpose; but it passed a bill establishing a board +of public safety, giving it extraordinary authority over the military +powers of the State, and appointed as such board six secessionists and +the governor. A tremendous pressure was brought to bear upon the +State. One of her poets, in a ringing rhyme to a popular air, told her +that the despot's heel was on her shore, and predicted that she would +speedily "spurn the Northern scum," while the Vice-President of the +Confederacy felt so sure of her acquisition that in a speech (April +30) he triumphantly announced that she "had resolved, to a man, to +stand by the South." But Reverdy Johnson and other prominent +Marylanders were quite as bold and active for the national cause. A +popular Union Convention was held in Baltimore; General Butler with +his troops restored the broken communications and held the important +centres; and under a suspension of the writ of _habeas corpus_ some of +the more violent secessionists were imprisoned. The release of the +citizens was demanded by Chief-Justice Taney, of the United States +Supreme Court, who declared that the President had no right to suspend +the writ; but his demand was refused. In May the Governor called for +four regiments of volunteers to fill the requisition of the National +Government, but requested that they might be assigned to duty in the +State. So Maryland remained in the Union, though a considerable number +of her citizens entered the ranks of the Confederate army. + +In the mountainous regions of western North Carolina and eastern +Tennessee, where few slaves were held, there was a strong Union +element. In other portions of those States there were many +enthusiastic secessionists. But in each State there was a majority +against disunion. North Carolina voted on the question of calling a +convention to consider the subject, and by a small majority decided +for "no convention." Tennessee, on a similar vote, showed a majority +of fifty thousand against calling a convention. After the fall of +Sumter Gov. John W. Ellis, of North Carolina, seized the branch mint +at Charlotte and the arsenal at Fayetteville, and called an extra +session of the Legislature. This Legislature authorized him to tender +the military resources of the State to the Confederate Government, and +called a convention to meet May 20th, which passed an ordinance {44} +of secession by a unanimous vote. The conservative or Union party of +Tennessee issued an address on the 18th of April, in which they +declared their approval of the Governor's refusal to furnish troops +for the national defence, and condemned both secession and coercion, +holding that Tennessee should take an independent attitude. This, with +the excitement of the time, was enough for the Legislature. In secret +session it authorized Gov. Isham G. Harris, who was a strong +secessionist, to enter into a military league with the Confederate +Government, which he immediately did. It also passed an ordinance of +secession, to be submitted to a popular vote on the 8th of June. +Before that day came, the State was in the possession of Confederate +soldiers, and a majority of over fifty thousand was obtained for +secession. East Tennessee had voted heavily against the ordinance; and +a convention held at Greenville, June 17, wherein thirty-one of the +eastern counties were represented, declared, for certain plainly +specified reasons, that it "did not regard the result of the election +as expressive of the will of a majority of the freemen of Tennessee." +Later, the people of those counties asked to be separated peaceably +from the rest of the State and allowed to remain in the Union; but the +Confederate authorities did not recognize the principle of secession +from secession, and the people of that region were subjected to a +bloody and relentless persecution, before which many of them fled from +their homes. The most prominent of the Unionists were Andrew Johnson +and the Rev. William G. Brownlow. + +[Illustration: COMMISSARY QUARTERS.] + +[Illustration: CULINARY DEPARTMENT.] + +That portion of the Old Dominion which lay west of the Alleghany +Mountains held in 1860 but one-twelfth as many slaves in proportion to +its white population as the remainder of the State. And when Virginia +passed her ordinance of secession, all but nine of the fifty-five +votes against it were cast by delegates from the mountainous western +counties. The people of these counties, having little interest in +slavery and its products, and great interests in iron, coal and +lumber, the market for which was in the free States, while their +streams flowed into the Ohio, naturally objected to being dragged into +the Confederacy. Like the people of East Tennessee, they wanted to +secede from secession, and one of their delegates actually proposed it +in the convention. In less than a month (May 13) after the passage of +the ordinance, a Union convention was held at Wheeling, in which +twenty-five of the western counties were represented; and ten days +later, when the election was held, these people voted against +seceding. The State authorities sent recruiting officers over the +mountains, but they had little success. Some forces were gathered, +under the direction of Gen. Robert E. Lee and under the immediate +command of Colonel Porterfield, who began burning the bridges {45} on +the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. Meanwhile Capt. George B. McClellan +had been made a general and placed in command of Ohio troops. With +four regiments he crossed the Ohio on the 26th and went in pursuit of +the enemy. His movement at first was retarded by the burned bridges; +but these were repaired, large reinforcements were brought over, and +in small but brilliant engagements--at Philippi and at Rich +Mountain--he completely routed the Confederates. + +At Philippi the Confederates were completely surprised by Colonels +Kelley and Dumont, and beat so hasty a retreat that the affair +received the local name of the "Philippi races." The victory at Rich +Mountain was the first instance of the capture by either side of a +military position regularly approached and defended. A pass over this +mountain was regarded as so important that all the Confederate troops +that could be spared were sent to defend it, under command of Gen. +Robert S. Garnett with Colonel Pegram to assist him. The position was +so strong that a front attack was avoided, and its speedy capture +resulted from a flank attack skilfully planned and successfully +executed by Gen. W. S. Rosecrans. On the retreat up the Cheat River +Valley General Garnett was killed, and Pegram, with a considerable +number of his men, surrendered to McClellan. + +The importance of this affair at Rich Mountain was really slight, +notwithstanding it was successful in securing to the Union army a +footing on this frontier that was not afterward seriously disturbed. +But the significance of the action of July 11, and the campaign which +it terminated, lies in the instant popularity and prominence it gave +to General McClellan. He reported the victory in a Napoleonic +despatch, announcing the annihilation of "two armies, commanded by +educated and experienced soldiers, intrenched in mountain fastnesses +fortified at their leisure;" and concluding, "Our success is complete, +and secession is killed in this country." McClellan's failure to +accomplish more in this campaign has been indicated by military +critics, but at the time nothing obscured the brilliancy of the +victory. The people took his own estimate of it, and "Little Mac," the +young Napoleon, became a popular hero. The Government also took his +view of it; and after the defeat at Bull Run, a few days later, he was +given the command of the Army of the Potomac, and in the autumn +succeeded to the command of the Armies of the United States. + +Delegates from the counties west of the Alleghanies met at Wheeling +(June 11), pronounced the acts of the Richmond convention null and +void, declared all the State offices vacant, and reorganized the +Government, with Francis H. Pierpont as governor. A legislature, +consisting of members that had been chosen on the 23d of May, met at +Wheeling on the 1st of July, and on the 9th it elected two United +States senators. The new State of Kanawha was formally declared +created in August. Its constitution was ratified by the people in May, +1862, and in December of that year it was admitted into the Union. +But, meanwhile, its original and appropriate name had been exchanged +for that of West Virginia. + +The victory at Rich Mountain, announced in McClellan's triumphant and +resounding words, came in good time to arrest the depression caused by +an unfortunate affair of a few weeks before, at Big Bethel, on June +10th; though the popular clamor for aggressive warfare did not cease, +but was even now driving the army into a premature advance on Manassas +and the battle of Bull Run, for which the preparations were +inadequate. + +[Illustration: GENERAL BEN McCULLOCH, C. S. A.] + +[Illustration: GENERAL J. B. MAGRUDER, C. S. A.] + +[Illustration: GENERAL STERLING PRICE, C. S. A.] + +{46} [Illustration: BATTLE OF BIG BETHEL, VIRGINIA, JUNE 10, 1861.] + +Big Bethel has been called the first battle of the war, though it was +subsequent to the affair of the "Philippi races," and at a later day +would not have been called a battle at all. But among its few +casualties there were numbered the deaths of Major Theodore Winthrop +and the youthful Lieut. John T. Greble, and the painful impression +caused by these losses converted the affair into a tragic national +calamity. The movement was a conception of Gen. B. F. Butler's, who +commanded at Fortress Monroe. Annoyed by the aggressions of a body of +Confederates, under General Magruder, encamped at Little Bethel, eight +miles north of Newport News, he sent an expedition to capture them. It +consisted of Col. Abram Duryea's Fifth New York Zouaves, with +Lieut.-Col. (afterward General) Gouverneur K. Warren second in command +(the Confederates greatly feared these "red-legged devils," as they +dubbed them), Col. Frederick Townsend's Third New York, Colonel +Bendix's Seventh New York Volunteers, the First and Second New York, +and detachments from other regiments, with two field-pieces worked by +regulars under Lieutenant Greble; Gen. E. W. Pierce in command. +Duryea's Zouaves were sent forward to attack from the rear; but a +dreadful mistake of identity led Bendix's men to fire into Townsend's +regiment, as these commands approached each other, which brought +Duryea back to participate in the supposed engagement in his rear, and +destroyed the chance of surprising the rebel camp. The {47} +Confederates abandoned Little Bethel, and took a strong position at +Big Bethel, where they easily repulsed the attack that was made, and +pursued the retreating Unionists until checked by the Second New York +Regiment. + +An important preliminary to the battle of Bull Run was the operations +about Harper's Ferry in June and July, resulting, as they did, in the +release from that point of a strong Confederate reinforcement, which +joined Beauregard at Bull Run at a critical time, and turned the +fortunes of the day against the Union army. + +Harper's Ferry, as we have seen, had been occupied by a Confederate +force under Stonewall Jackson, who became subordinate to the superior +rank of Gen. Joseph E. Johnston when that officer arrived on the +scene. On both sides a sentimental importance was given to the +occupation of Harper's Ferry, which was not warranted by its +significance as a military stronghold. It did, indeed, afford a +control of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, so long as the position +could be maintained. But it derived its importance in the public mind +from the fact that it had been chosen by John Brown as the scene of +his projected negro uprising in 1859, and was presumed from that to be +a natural fortress, a sort of Gibraltar, which, once gained, could be +held forever by a small though determined body of men. The Confederate +Government and military staff at Richmond so regarded it, and they +warned General Johnston that he must realize, in defending it, that +its abandonment would be depressing to the cause of the South. General +Patterson, whose army gathered in Pennsylvania was to attack it, +impressed on the War Department the paramount importance of a victory, +and predicted that the first great battle of the war, the results of +which would be decisive in the contest, would be fought at Harper's +Ferry. He begged for the means of success, and offered his life as the +price of a failure on his part. The Washington authorities, though +they did not exact the penalty, took him at his word as to the men and +means required, and furnished him with between eighteen and twenty-two +thousand men (variously estimated), sending him such commanders as +Major-General Sandford, of New York (who generously waived his +superior rank, and accepted a subordinate position), Fitz John Porter, +George Cadwalader, Charles P. Stone, and others. Both sides, then, +prepared for action at Harper's Ferry, as for a mighty struggle over +an important strategic position. + +The Confederates were the first to realize that this was an error. +However desirable it might be to hold Harper's Ferry as the key to the +Baltimore and Ohio, and to Maryland, General Johnston quickly +discovered that, while it was secure enough against an attack in +front, across the Potomac, it was an easy capture for a superior force +that should cross the river above or below it, and attack it from the +Virginia side. For its defence, his force of six thousand five hundred +men would not suffice against Patterson's twenty thousand, and he +requested permission to withdraw to Winchester, twenty miles to the +southwest. This suggestion was most unpalatable to the Confederate +authorities, who understood well that the popular interpretation of +the movement would be detrimental to the cause. But the fear that +McClellan would join Patterson from West Virginia, and that the loss +of an army of six thousand five hundred would be even more depressing +than a retreat, they reluctantly consented to Johnston's plan. He +destroyed everything at Harper's Ferry that could be destroyed, on +June 13th and 14th; and when Patterson, after repeated promptings from +Washington, arrived there on the 15th, he found no determined enemy +and no mighty battle awaiting him, but only the barren victory of an +unopposed occupation of a ruined and deserted camp. + +[Illustration: A RAILROAD BATTERY.] + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +ARMY ORGANIZATION NORTH AND SOUTH. + +CONFEDERATE ADVANTAGES--THE LEADING GENERAL OFFICERS--GRADUATES OF +WEST POINT JOIN THE CONFEDERACY--CAPITAL REMOVED FROM +MONTGOMERY--PRESIDENT LINCOLN'S CALL FOR SOLDIERS AND +SAILORS--SOUTHERN PRIVATEERS--"ON TO RICHMOND!" + + +Although up to this time no important engagements between the troops +had taken place, the war was actually begun. The Sumter affair had +been the signal for both sides to throw away subterfuge and disguise, +and it became thenceforth an open struggle for military advantage. The +South no longer pleaded State rights, but military necessity, for +seizing such Government posts and property as were within reach; the +North no longer acted under the restraint of hesitation to commit an +open breach, for the peace was broken irrevocably, and whatever it was +possible to do, in the way of defence or offence, was now become +politic. + +The two contending powers were entering on the struggle under very +different conditions and with unequal advantages. Before taking up the +military operations which ensued, it will be interesting to look at +these conditions. + +On both sides there were many experienced army and navy officers, who +had seen service, had been educated at the United States Military and +Naval Academies, and had either remained {48} in the service or, +having withdrawn to civil life, were prompt to offer their swords to +the side to which they adhered. Assuming the number and quality of +these officers to have been equally divided, there were several +respects in which the Confederates had the advantage in their +preliminary organization, apart from the studied care with which +disloyal cabinet officers had scattered the Federal regular army and +had stripped Northern posts of supplies and of trustworthy +commandants. President Lincoln came on from his Western home without +knowledge of war, acquaintance with military men, or familiarity with +military matters, and was immediately plunged into emergencies +requiring in the Executive an intimate knowledge of all three. He +became the titular commander-in-chief of an army already officered, +but not only ignorant as to whether he had the right man in the right +place, but powerless to make changes even had he known what changes to +make, by reason of the law and the traditions governing the +_personnel_ of the service, in which promotion and personal relations +were fixed and established. He found a military establishment that had +been running on a peace footing for more than a decade and was not +readily adaptable to war conditions; and officers in high command, +who, as their States seceded, followed them out of the Union, carrying +with them the latest official secrets and leaving behind them +vacancies which red-tape and tradition, and not the free choice of the +commander-in-chief, were to fill. His near advisers, particularly +those in whose hands were the details of military administration, were +scarcely better informed than himself, possessing political shrewdness +and undoubted loyalty, but none of the professional knowledge of which +he stood so sorely in need. + +The President of the Southern Confederacy, on the other hand, was +Jefferson Davis, a man whose personal instrumentality in bringing +about the rebellion gave him both knowledge and authority; an educated +soldier and veteran of the Mexican war, in which he held a high +command; familiar, through long service as Secretary of War and on the +Senate Military Committee, not only with all the details of military +administration, but with the points of strength and weakness in the +military establishment of the enemy he was about to grapple with. +Placed at the head of a new government, with neither army nor navy, +nor law nor tradition for their control, he was free to exercise his +superior knowledge of military matters for the best possible use of +the men at his command in organizing his military establishment. None +of the political conditions surrounding him forced on President Davis +the appointment of political generals--an unavoidable evil which long +postponed the effectiveness of President Lincoln's army +administration. Whatever his judgment, guided by his professional +military experience, approved of, he was free to do. It was President +Lincoln's difficult task to learn something about military matters +himself, and then to untie or cut the Gordian knot of hampering +conditions; and if, in doing this, an occasional injustice was done to +an individual officer, it is a cause for wonder far less significant +than that by the exercise of his extraordinary faculty of common-sense +he progressed as rapidly as he did toward the right way of +accomplishing the ends he had in view. + +[Illustration: FRANCIS H. PIERPONT, Governor of West Virginia.] + +[Illustration: CAMP OF THE FORTY-FOURTH NEW YORK INFANTRY, NEAR +ALEXANDRIA, VA.] + +The beginning of trouble in 1861 found the administration of the War +Department in the hands of Secretary Joseph Holt, who had succeeded +the secessionist Floyd, and was in turn succeeded by Simon Cameron, +the war secretary of Lincoln's first cabinet, who remained there until +the appointment of Edwin M. Stanton, the great "war secretary" of the +remaining years of the struggle. Cameron was a shrewd politician, but +was uninformed on military matters, for advice on which President +Lincoln relied principally on other members of the cabinet and on +General Scott. The cabinet of 1861 contained also John A. Dix, in the +Treasury--whence issued his celebrated "shoot him on the spot" {49} +despatch--who took a general's commission when he retired in favor of +Salmon P. Chase, the Secretary of the Treasury during most of the war. +Gideon Welles was Secretary of the Navy. + +Among the staff officers of the army were Lorenzo Thomas, +Adjutant-General; E. D. Townsend, who as Assistant Adjutant-General +was identified with this important office throughout the war; +Montgomery C. Meigs, Quartermaster-General; and Joseph G. Totten, +Chief of Engineers. + +The general in command of the army was Winfield Scott, whose conduct +of the Mexican war had made him a conspicuous military and political +figure, an able officer and a most loyal Unionist, but already +suffering from the infirmities of age, which soon compelled him to +relinquish to younger hands the command of the army. But until after +the battle of Bull Run, his was the directing mind. His immediate +subordinates were Brig.-Gens. John E. Wool, also a veteran in service; +William S. Harney, whose reluctance to take part in civil war soon +terminated his usefulness; and David E. Twiggs, who surrendered his +command to the Confederates in Texas, and going with the South, was +replaced by Edwin V. Sumner. + +The command of the main Union force, organized from the volunteers who +were pouring into Washington, devolved on Irvin McDowell, a major in +the regular army, now promoted to be brigadier-general, who +established his headquarters at Alexandria, across the Potomac from +Washington, there directing the defence of the capital, and thence +advancing to Bull Run. In this command he succeeded Gen. Joseph K. F. +Mansfield. Under him, during this campaign, were many officers who +rose to eminence during the war. His corps commanders at Bull Run were +Gens. Daniel Tyler, David Hunter, Samuel P. Heintzelman, Theodore +Runyon, and D. S. Miles; and among the brigade commanders were Gens. +Erasmus D. Keyes, Robert C. Schenck, William T. Sherman, Israel B. +Richardson, Andrew Porter, Ambrose E. Burnside, William B. Franklin, +Oliver O. Howard, Louis Blenker, and Thomas A. Davies. Threatening the +approach to Richmond from the lower Chesapeake, was Gen. Benjamin F. +Butler, at Fortress Monroe. + +[Illustration: MAJOR-GENERAL W. B. FRANKLIN.] + +[Illustration: GENERAL DAVID HUNTER.] + +[Illustration: MAJOR-GENERAL JOSEPH K. F. MANSFIELD.] + +[Illustration: GENERAL GEORGE H. THOMAS.] + +[Illustration: GENERAL SAMUEL P. HEINTZELMAN.] + +Among the Confederate generals who prepared to defend Virginia, were +Robert E. Lee, then in command of the Virginia State troops, Samuel +Cooper, Joseph E. Johnston, P. G. T. Beauregard, James Longstreet, +Jubal A. Early, Richard S. Ewell, Thomas J. ("Stonewall") Jackson, +Robert S. Garnett, John C. Pegram, Benjamin Huger, John B. Magruder, +and others. + +The seventy-five thousand troops called for in President Lincoln's +proclamation of April 15th, were three-months men. On the 3d of May, +1861, he issued another proclamation, calling for forty-two thousand +volunteers for three years, and authorizing the raising of ten new +regiments for the regular army. He also called for eighteen thousand +volunteer seamen for the navy. The ports of the Southern coasts had +been already (April 19th) declared in a state of blockade, and it was +not only desirable but absolutely necessary to make the blockade +effectual. The Confederate Government had issued letters of marque for +privateers almost from the first; and its Congress had authorized the +raising of an army of one hundred thousand volunteers for one year. + +When Congress convened on the 4th of July, President Lincoln asked for +four hundred thousand men and four hundred million dollars, to +suppress the insurrection; and in response he was authorized to call +for five hundred thousand men and spend five hundred million dollars. +What he had already done was approved and declared valid; and on the +15th of July the House of Representatives, with but five dissenting +votes, passed a resolution (introduced by John A. McClernand, a +Democrat) pledging any amount of money and any number of men that +might be necessary to restore the authority of the National +Government. + +The seat of the Confederate Government was removed from Montgomery, +Ala., to Richmond, Va., on the 20th of May. + +{50} [Illustration: BATTLE OF BULL RUN, JULY 21, 1861.] + +{51} [Illustration: BRIGADIER-GENERAL McDOWELL AND STAFF.] + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +THE BATTLE OF BULL RUN. + +THE ADVANCE INTO VIRGINIA--FORTIFICATIONS ON THE POTOMAC--POPULAR +DEMAND FOR OFFENSIVE OPERATIONS--CONFEDERATES FORTIFY MANASSAS +JUNCTION--THEIR LINE OF DEFENCE AT BULL RUN--McDOWELL'S DEPARTURE FOR +BULL RUN--A CHANGE OF PLAN--FIGHTING AT BLACKBURN'S FORD--DETOUR FROM +CENTREVILLE AND FLANK ATTACK FROM SUDLEY FORD--UNION SUCCESS IN THE +MORNING--DISASTROUS BATTLE OF THE AFTERNOON--LOSS OF THE BATTERIES--A +REAR ATTACK--DISORDER AND RETREAT--RESULTS OF THE BATTLE. + + +The first serious collision of the opposing armies occurred at Bull +Run, in Virginia, on July 18 and 21, 1861. It was a battle between raw +troops on both sides, and at a later period in the war a few well-led +veterans might have turned it at almost any time into a victory for +the losers and a defeat for those who won it. It developed the +strength and weakness of the men, the commanders, and the organization +of the army. It opened the eyes of the North to what was before them +in this conflict, and it gave {52} pause to military operations for a +better preparation. Up to Bull Run, the war might have been terminated +by a single great battle. After it, the struggle was certain to be a +long one. + +[Illustration: FAIRFAX COURT-HOUSE.] + +Up to May 24th, the Union troops had been kept strictly on the +Washington side of the Potomac. On that date, Gen. Joseph K. F. +Mansfield sent three columns of troops across the river into Virginia, +to drive back the Confederate pickets which were within sight of the +capital. From Washington to Alexandria, a few miles down the river, a +line of fortifications was established, which, with the approaches to +Washington from Maryland in Union control, seemed to assure the safety +of the city. + +Troops from all the loyal States had continued to arrive at +Washington. The ninety thousand men who had responded to the first +call of the President had enlisted for three months. While these +troops predominated in the service it was not the expectation of +General Scott to undertake any serious operations. He proposed to +utilize these for the defence of Washington; the garrisoning of +Fortress Monroe, with possibly the recovery of the Norfolk Navy Yard; +the reinforcement of Patterson at Harper's Ferry and of McClellan in +the Shenandoah; and the control of the border States. When the half +million of three-years men called out in May and July should be +equipped with the half billion of dollars voted by Congress, and +instructed and drilled during a summer encampment, larger military +operations were to ensue; but not before. + +But after the mishap to Butler's men at Big Bethel, and the ambushing +of a troop train at Vienna, near Washington, there was a public demand +for some kind of vigorous action which should retrieve the national +honor, tarnished and unavenged since Sumter, and should justify the +military establishment, which to the non-military mind seemed already +enormous. Brigadiers and gold lace and regiments playing "high jinks" +in their camps convenient to the attractions of Washington became a +by-word, and "On to Richmond!" became the cry of those who wanted to +see some fighting, now there was an army, and wanted to see secession +rebuked and rebellion nipped in the bud. Under the stimulus of this +public demand, which, however erroneous from a military point of view, +could not be ignored, a forward movement was decided on. + +The Confederate forces were established on what was known as the +"Alexandria line," with its base at Manassas Junction, about thirty +miles east of Alexandria. Early in June, General Beauregard, still +wearing the laurels of his Sumter victory, was sent in person to +command, relieving the Confederate General Bonham. Manassas Junction +stood on a high plateau, dropping off toward the east into the valley +of the little stream called Bull Run, running from northwest to +southeast some three miles distant. The Confederates had begun to +intrench and fortify this elevated position; but Beauregard's quick +and educated military judgment at once decided that a better defence +could be made by moving his line forward to Bull Run, where the stream +afforded a natural barrier, except at certain fords, where his men +could be posted more effectively. Here he established himself, the +right of his line being at Union Mills Ford, nearly due east from +Manassas, and his left just above Stone Bridge, by which Bull Run is +crossed on the Warrenton Turnpike leading from {53} Centreville to +Gainesville. His commanders (after Johnston's arrival), from left to +right, were: Ewell, supported by Holmes; Jones and Longstreet, +supported by Early; Bonham, supported by Jackson; Cocke, supported by +Bee, each guarding a ford; and, at Stone Bridge, Evans. The Bull Run +line of defence requiring a larger force, Beauregard was liberally +reinforced from Richmond, so that his army numbered nearly twenty-two +thousand men and twenty-nine guns, before he was joined by Johnston +with about eight thousand men and twenty-eight guns. + +Against this force advanced General McDowell, who had succeeded +Mansfield in command of operations south of the Potomac, with +something less than twenty-nine thousand men and forty-nine guns. With +his army under the commanders already named, he was ready and started +from Washington on July 16th, within a week of the date he had +planned, notwithstanding the slow operations of the Government's +military machinery, rusted by long disuse and not as yet in smooth +working order. The departure of his column was a strange spectacle. +The novelty of warfare and the general impression that the war was to +be ended with one grand, brilliant stroke--an impression largely +derived from the confidence at headquarters that the expedition would +be successful--turned the march into a sort of festive picnic. +Citizens accompanied the column on foot; Congressmen, newspaper +correspondents, sightseers, went along in carriages. There was a +tremendous turnout of non-combatants, eager to see the finishing +stroke to the rebellion. These were destined to share in the general +rout that followed and to come pouring back into the security of +Washington, all mixed in with the disorganized and flying troops. One +member of Congress, John A. Logan, of Illinois, a veteran of the +Mexican War, followed the army from the House of Representatives, +armed with a musket, and began as a civilian a participation in the +four years' fighting that brought him high rank, great honor, and a +distinguished reputation. + +[Illustration: UNITED STATES MILITARY RAILROAD, BULL RUN.] + +[Illustration: GENERAL AMBROSE E. BURNSIDE.] + +[Illustration: GENERAL LOUIS BLENKER.] + +On July 18th the army arrived in front of the enemy at Bull Run. An +army of seasoned campaigners, accustomed to self-denial, would have +done better, for they would not have stopped along the way to pick +blackberries and change stale water for fresh in their canteens at +every wayside well and spring. The plan agreed upon by Generals Scott +and McDowell had been for an attempt to turn the enemy's right from +the south; and to conceal his purpose McDowell ordered an advance, +directly along the Warrenton Turnpike, on Centreville, as though that +were to be his point of attack. But Washington was full of Confederate +spies, and Beauregard was well informed as to what to expect. Tyler, +whose division led the way, found Centreville evacuated and the enemy +strongly posted along Bull Run, as he could see from his elevated +position at Centreville, looking across the Bull Run valley with +Manassas looming up beyond. It was McDowell's intention that Tyler +should limit himself to making the feint on Centreville, without +bringing on any engagement, while diverging to the left behind him the +main army attacked Beauregard's right. But neither Tyler nor his men +were as yet schooled to find an enemy flying before their advance and +not yearn to be after them for a fight. Discovering the position of +the enemy across the stream at Blackburn's and Mitchell's fords, he +brought up some field pieces and sent forward his skirmishers; and as +the enemy continued to retire before his successive increase of both +troops and artillery, he presently found that the reconnoissance he +had been ordered to make had assumed the proportions of a small +engagement with the brigades of Bonham, Longstreet, and Early, which +he drove back in confusion, with a loss of about sixty men on each +side. + +After this engagement, McDowell abandoned his attack from the south in +favor of a flank attack from the north, where the roads were better. +His {54} army was now concentrated at Centreville, whither the +commanders had been attracted by the sound of the engagement at +Blackburn's Ford, and there he divulged to his commanders the new plan +of attack. Richardson's brigade was continued at Blackburn's Ford to +keep up the appearance of an attack in front, and the next two days, +Friday and Saturday, July 19th and 20th, were occupied in looking for +an undefended crossing of Bull Run north of the Confederate line, in +resting the men, and provisioning them from the supply trains, which +were slow in reaching the rendezvous at Centreville. + +[Illustration: ON THE ROAD TO BULL RUN.] + +The engineers reported late on Saturday, the 20th, a practicable +crossing of the stream at Sudley Ford, accessible by a detour of five +or six miles around a bend of Bull Run turning sharply from the west. +McDowell determined to send Hunter's and Heintzelman's divisions to +make this flank movement over a route which took them north, then +west, and brought them upon the enemy's left, as they crossed Bull Run +at Sudley Ford and moved due south by the Sudley Road toward Manassas. +Meanwhile Tyler was ordered to proceed from Centreville to the Stone +Bridge at Bull Run, there to feign attack until he heard Hunter and +Heintzelman engaged, when he would cross and join their attack on the +Confederate left, or push on to Gainesville, west of Bull Run, and +head off Johnston, who McDowell was certain was coming from +Winchester, with or without "Patterson on his heels," as General Scott +had promised. + +But during McDowell's enforced two days of inactivity at Centreville +there had been portentous happenings within the Confederate lines. +Johnston had already left Winchester on the 18th; one detachment of +his army had joined Beauregard on the morning of the 20th; Johnston in +person arrived at noon with a second detachment, and the remainder of +his force arrived on the 21st in time to take part in the battle, the +brunt of which was borne by Johnston's army, which McDowell had hoped +not to meet at all! Johnston, as the ranking officer, assumed command, +and he and Beauregard turned their attention to defending themselves +against the attack now initiated by McDowell. + +Hunter and Heintzelman, whose brigades were {55} commanded by Cols. +Andrew Porter, Ambrose E. Burnside, W. B. Franklin, Orlando B. +Willcox, and Oliver O. Howard, reached Sudley Ford after an +unexpectedly long march, and crossed it unopposed about nine in the +morning. Tyler, who had been expected to hold the Confederate Evans at +Stone Bridge by a sharp attack, betrayed the incidental character of +his demonstration by the feebleness of his operations; and Evans, +suspecting from this an attack from some other direction, was soon +rendered certain of it by the clouds of dust which he saw toward the +north. Immediately, of his own motion and in the absence of orders +from his superiors, he informed his neighboring commander, Cocke, of +his intention, and leaving only a few companies to deceive Tyler at +Stone Bridge, he turned his command to the rear and marched it to a +strong position on Young's Branch, where he faced the enemy +approaching from his left. This action has commended itself to +military critics as the finest tactical movement of the entire battle. +Evans was even momentarily successful in repulsing the troops of +Burnside's brigade, which he pursued for a short distance. At the +outset, General Hunter was severely wounded. Porter came to Burnside's +support, and Bee and Bartow, of Johnston's army, aligned their +brigades with that of Evans. There was sharp fighting for two hours; +but the arrival of fresh supports for Burnside and Porter, including +Sykes' regiment of regulars and the regular batteries of Griffin and +Ricketts, and the extension of the Union line by Heintzelman's +division beyond the Sudley Road, proved too much for the Confederates, +who retreated downhill out of the Young's Branch valley before a Union +charge down the Sudley Road. But they had checked the advance long +enough for Johnston to order a general movement to strengthen the new +line of defence which was then formed on a hill half a mile south of +Young's Branch, under the direction of Jackson, who with his own +brigade of Johnston's army met and rallied the retreating +Confederates. It was right here that Stonewall Jackson acquired his +_sobriquet_. To encourage his own men to stop and rally, Bee called +out to them: "Look at Jackson's brigade! It stands there like a stone +wall." And Jackson never was called by his own name again, but only +"Stonewall." Tyler did send Keyes' and W. T. Sherman's brigades across +Bull Run by the ford above Stone Bridge in time to join in the +pursuit, Sherman pushing toward Hunter and Keyes remaining near Bull +Run; but Schenck's brigade he did not send across at all. + +[Illustration: GENERAL JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON, C. S. A.] + +[Illustration: GENERAL JAMES LONGSTREET, C. S. A.] + +As a result of the morning's fighting the whole Union line was pushed +forward past the Warrenton Turnpike, extending from Keyes' position on +Bull Run to where Porter and Willcox were posted, west of the Sudley +Road. The Union troops felt not only that they had the advantage, but +that they had won the battle; and this confidence, added to the fact +that they were weary with marching and fighting, prepared them ill to +meet the really serious work of the day, which was still before them. + +{56} [Illustration: INTERIOR OF CONFEDERATE FORTIFICATION.] + +{57} [Illustration: MAJOR-GENERAL ROBERT PATTERSON.] + +[Illustration: BREVET MAJOR-GENERAL E. B. TYLER.] + +[Illustration: MAJOR-GENERAL CHARLES GRIFFIN.] + +[Illustration: MAJOR-GENERAL O. O. HOWARD.] + +[Illustration: MAJOR-GENERAL JAMES B. RICKETTS.] + +Johnston and Beauregard came up in person to superintend the +dispositions for defence. The line was formed on the edge of a +semicircular piece of woods, with the concave side toward the Union +advance, on an elevation some distance south of the first position. +The Confederate artillery commanded both the Warrenton Turnpike and +the Sudley Road (the latter passing through the woods), and the +plateau between them was subject to a cross fire. Across this plateau +the Union advance had to be made, and it was made under great +disadvantages. His effective fighting force reduced by casualties, by +the retirement of Burnside's brigade after a hard morning's fighting, +and by the separation from the main army of Keyes' brigade, which made +an ineffectual attempt to cross Young's Branch and get at the enemy's +right, McDowell was no longer superior in numbers, as in the morning. +His weary men had not only to fight, but to advance on an enemy in +position--to advance over open ground on an enemy concealed in the +woods, invisible even while their sharpshooters picked off his gunners +at their batteries. The formation of the ground gave him no +comprehensive view of the whole field, except such as he got by going +to the top of the Henry house, opposite the Confederate centre; nor +could his subordinate commanders see what the others were doing, and +there was a good deal of independence of action among the Union troops +throughout the remainder of the day. + +For his afternoon attack on the new Confederate position McDowell had +under his immediate control the brigades of Andrew Porter, Franklin, +Willcox, and Sherman, with Howard in reserve, back of the Warrenton +Turnpike. These commands were not available up to their full strength, +for they included a good many regiments and companies that had lost +their organization. From their sheltered positions along the sunken +turnpike and the valley of Young's Branch he brought them forward for +an attack on the centre and left of the enemy. With splendid courage +they advanced over the open ground and made a succession of determined +assaults, which carried a portion of the position attacked. About the +middle of the afternoon the regular batteries of Captains Griffin and +Ricketts were brought forward to a position near the Henry house. But +though their effectiveness from this point was greatly increased, so +also was their danger; and after long and courageous fighting by both +infantry and artillery, it was the conflict that surged about these +guns that finally gave the victory to the Confederates. + +{58} [Illustration: STONE HOUSE, WARRENTON TURNPIKE, BULL RUN.] + +[Illustration: THE NEW HENRY HOUSE, BULL RUN. Showing the Union +monument of the first battle.] + +Two regiments had been detailed to support the batteries, but the +inexperience of these regiments was such that they were of little +service. The batteries had scarcely taken up their advanced position +when the gunners began to drop one by one under the fire of +sharpshooters concealed in the woods before them. Sticking pluckily to +their work, the artillerymen did effective firing, but presently the +temptation to secure guns so inefficiently protected by supporting +infantry proved strong enough to bring Confederate regiments out from +the cover of the woods; and keeping out of the {59} line of fire, they +stole nearer and nearer to the batteries. A Confederate cavalry charge +scattered one of the supporting regiments, and a volley from a +Confederate regiment, that had gotten up to within seventy yards, sent +the other off in confused retreat. So close an approach had been +permitted by Captain Griffin under the mistaken impression, +communicated to him by the chief of artillery, that the troops +approaching so steadily were his own supports. He realized his error +too late; and when a volley of musketry had taken off nearly every one +of his gunners, had killed Lieutenant Ramsay, and seriously wounded +Captain Ricketts, the Confederates rushed in and captured the guns. + +[Illustration: STAND OF THE UNION TROOPS AT THE HENRY HOUSE.] + +Then ensued a series of captures and recaptures of these same guns, +first by one side and then by the other. At the same time there was a +general fight all along the line of battle, which did not dislodge the +Confederates while it wore out the Union troops. They lacked both the +experience and the discipline necessary to keep them together after a +repulse. The men lost track of their companies, regiments, brigades, +officers, in the confusion, and little by little the army became +disorganized, and that at a time when there was still remaining among +them both strength and courage enough to have won after all. It has +been said that at one time there were twelve thousand individual +soldiers wandering about the field of battle who did not know "where +they belonged." The strong individuality of the early recruits of the +war was in a measure accountable for this. They had not as yet become +machines, as good soldiers must be. "They were not soldiers," said one +officer, "but citizens--independent sovereigns--in uniform." It was +impossible, of course, to get strong, concerted action out of such a +mass-meeting of individual patriots; and the constant disintegration +of regiments and brigades gradually reduced the effectiveness of +McDowell's army. + +Meanwhile the Confederate reinforcements from the lower fords were +arriving. The remainder of Johnston's army from Winchester had already +arrived; and though the Union army did not know that they had been +fighting the biggest half of Johnston's army all day, they realized +that they were dealing with Johnston now. During the fight of the day +the Union right wing had faced around almost to the east, and the +combined attack of the new Johnston brigades and Early's +reinforcements from the fords was delivered almost squarely on the +rear of its right flank. + +A blow so strong and from such an unexpected quarter had a serious +effect on the troops that received it. But not as yet was the +conviction of defeat general in the Union army. The contest had been +waged with such varying results in different parts of the field, one +side successful here, another there, and again and again the local +advantage turning the other way under some bold movement of an +individual command, that neither army realized the full significance +of what had happened. The Unionists had begun the afternoon's work +{60} under the impression that the victory was already theirs and that +they had only to push on and secure the fruits of it. In some parts of +the field their successes were such that it seemed as though the +Confederate line was breaking. Many of the Confederates had the same +idea of it, and Jefferson Davis, coming up from Manassas on his way +from Richmond, full of anxiety for the result, found the roads almost +impassable by reason of crowds of Confederates escaping to the rear. +His heart sank within him. "Battles are not won," he remarked, "where +two or three unhurt men are seen leading away one that is wounded." +But he continued on, only to find that the field from which his men +were retreating had been already won, and that McDowell's army were in +full retreat. + +[Illustration: LIEUTENANT-GENERAL JUBAL A. EARLY, C. S. A.] + +[Illustration: BRIGADIER-GENERAL BARNARD E. BEE, C. S. A.] + +[Illustration: RUINS OF THE HENRY HOUSE.] + +McDowell himself did not know how the retreat had begun. He had not +ordered it, for he inferred from the lull in the fighting that his +enemy was giving way. But it had dawned on the men, first that their +victory was in doubt, then that the Confederates had a fighting +chance, and finally that the battle was lost; and by a sort of common +consent they began to make their way to the rear in retreat. A curious +thing happened which dashed McDowell's hope of making a stand at Stone +Bridge. Although the Warrenton Turnpike was open, and Stone Bridge had +been freed from the obstructing abattis of trees, offering a straight +road from the battlefield to the rendezvous at Centreville, the troops +all withdrew from the field by the same directions from which they had +approached it in the morning. And so, while the brigades near the +Stone Bridge and the ford above it crossed directly over Bull Run, the +commands which had made the long detour in the morning made the same +detour in retreat, adding many miles to the route they had to travel +to reach Centreville. + +McDowell accepted the situation, and made careful dispositions to +protect the rear of his retreating army. Stuart's pursuing cavalry +found a steady line of defence which they could not break. The +rearmost brigades were in such good order that the Confederate +infantry dared not strike them. The way over the Stone Bridge was well +covered by the reserves east of Bull Run, under Blenker. But now +occurred an incident that greatly retarded the orderly retreat and +broke it into confusion. + +There had been some fighting during the day between the reserves left +east of Bull Run and Confederate troops who sallied out from the lower +fords. As a result of this a Confederate battery had been posted on an +elevation commanding the Warrenton {61} Turnpike where it crossed Cub +Run, a little stream between Bull Run and Centreville, on a suspension +bridge. When the retreating brigades which had made the long detour +from Sudley Ford reached this bridge they were met with a shower of +fire from this battery. Finally, the horses attached to a wagon were +killed, and the wagon was overturned right on the bridge, completely +obstructing it. The remainder of the wagon train was reduced to ruin, +and the thirteen guns which had been brought safely out of the battle +were captured. A panic ensued. Horses were cut from wagons, even from +ambulances bearing wounded men, and ridden off. Even while McDowell +and his officers were deliberating as to the expediency of making a +stand at Centreville, the disorganized men took the decision into +their own hands and made a bee-line for Washington. + +Portions of the army, however, maintained their organization, and +partly successful attempts were made to stop the flight. The +Confederates had but little cavalry, and were in no condition to +pursue. There was a black-horse regiment from Louisiana that undertook +it, but came upon the New York Fire Zouaves, and in a bloody fight +lost heavily. The retreat was well conducted; but this was due largely +to the fact that the Confederates were too exhausted and too fearful +to continue the pursuit. It is not to be denied that on both sides, in +the battle of Bull Run, there was displayed much bravery, and not a +little skill. Never before, perhaps, was such fighting done by +comparatively raw and inexperienced men. + +It was a motley crowd that thronged the highway to the capital. +Intermixed were soldiers and civilians, privates and members of +Congress, worn-out volunteers and panic-stricken non-combatants, +"red-legged-devil" Zouaves, gray-coated Westerners, and regular army +blue-coats. They pressed right on, fearing the pursuit which, +unaccountably, did not follow. Some of the men since morning had +marched twenty-five miles, from Centreville and back, and that night +they marched twenty miles more to Washington. + +All the next day the defeated army straggled into Washington +city--bedraggled, foot-sore, wounded, hungry, wet through with the +drizzling rain, exhausted. The citizens turned out to receive and +succor them, and the city became a vast soup-house and hospital. On +the streets, in the shelter of house-areas, under stoops, men dropped +down and slept. + +[Illustration: FORT LINCOLN, WASHINGTON, D. C.] + + + + +{62} + +CHAPTER VII. + +EFFECTS OF THE BATTLE OF BULL RUN. + +PARALYSIS OF THE UNION CAUSE--FORTIFYING THE APPROACHES TO THE +CAPITAL--WHY THE CONFEDERATES DID NOT ATTEMPT THE CAPTURE OF +WASHINGTON--EFFECT OF UNION DEFEAT IN ENGLAND AND FRANCE--SLIDELL AND +MASON--CAPTURE OF THE "TRENT"--HENRY WARD BEECHER IN ENGLAND--SYMPATHY +OF THE RUSSIAN GOVERNMENT FOR THE NORTH. + + +The battle of Bull Run was undertaken with precipitation, fought with +much valor on both sides, and terminated with present ruin to the +Federal cause. For the moment the Union seemed to stagger under the +blow. On the Confederate side there was corresponding exultation; a +spirit of defiance flamed up throughout the South. + +It is in the nature of things that the initial battle of a war +consolidates and crystallizes the sentiments of both the contestants. +After Bull Run there was no further hope of peaceable adjustment, but +only an increasing and settled purpose to fight out with the sword the +great issue which was dividing the Union. For a brief season after the +battle there was a paralysis of the Union cause. It was as much as the +authorities at Washington could do to make themselves secure against +further disaster. Indeed, the Potomac River now gave positive comfort +to the Government, since it furnished in some measure a natural +barrier to the northward progress of the exultant Confederates. +Immediate steps were taken to fortify the approaches to the capital; +but while this work was in progress the Government seemed to stand, +like an alarmed sentry, on the Long Bridge of the Potomac. + +[Illustration: EXAMINING PASSES AT THE GEORGETOWN FERRY.] + +[Illustration: FORT IN FRONT OF WASHINGTON.] + +In the South as well as in the North there was much surprise that the +Confederates did not pursue the routed Union forces at the battle of +Bull Run and capture Washington. Perhaps Gen. Joseph E. Johnston is +the best witness on this subject on the Southern side. He says: "All +the military conditions, we knew, forbade an attempt on Washington. +The Confederate army was more disorganized by victory than that of the +United States by defeat. The Southern volunteers believed that the +objects of the war had been accomplished by their victory, and that +they had achieved all their country required of them. Many, therefore, +in ignorance of their military obligations, left the army--not to +return.... Exaggerated ideas of the victory, prevailing among our +troops, cost us more than the Federal army lost by defeat." In writing +this passage General Johnston probably took no account of the effect +produced in Europe. The early narratives sent there, in which the +panic of retreat was made the principal figure, gave the impression +that the result arose from constitutional cowardice in Northern men +and invincible courage in Southerners. They also gave the impression +that the Confederates were altogether superior in generalship; and the +effect was deep and long-enduring. The most notable of these was by a +correspondent of the London _Times_, who had apparently been sent +across the Atlantic for the express purpose of writing down the +Republic, writing up the South, and enlisting the sympathies of +Englishmen for the rebellion. In his second letter from Charleston +(April 30, 1861) he had written that men of all classes in South +Carolina declared to him: "If we could only get one of the royal race +of England to rule over us, we should be content." "The New Englander +must have something to persecute; and as he has hunted down all his +Indians, burnt all his witches, persecuted all his opponents to the +death, he invented abolitionism {63} as the sole resource left to him +for the gratification of his favorite passion. Next to this motive +principle is his desire to make money dishonestly, trickily, meanly, +and shabbily. He has acted on it in all his relations with the South, +and has cheated and plundered her in all his dealings, by villanous +tariffs." Many an Englishman, counting his worthless Confederate +bonds, and trying to hope that he will yet receive something for them, +knows he would never have made that investment but for such writing as +this, and the accounts from the same pen of the battle of Bull Run. + +At the North the spectacle of McDowell's army streaming back in +disorder to the national capital produced first a shock of surprise, +then a sense of disgrace, and then a calm determination to begin the +war over again. It was well expressed by a Methodist minister at a +camp-meeting in Illinois, the Rev. Henry Cox. The news of the battle +came while he was preaching, and he closed his sermon with the words: +"Brethren, we'd better adjourn this camp-meeting and go home and +drill." + +The effect of this over-discussed battle upon the more confident and +boastful of the Southerners was perhaps fairly expressed by an +editorial utterance of one of their journals, the Louisville, Ky., +_Courier_: "As our Norman kinsmen in England, always a minority, have +ruled their Saxon countrymen in political vassalage up to the present +day, so have we, the 'slave oligarchs,' governed the Yankees till +within a twelvemonth. We framed the Constitution, for seventy years +moulded the policy of the government, and placed our own men, or +'Northern men with Southern principles,' in power. On the 6th of +November, 1860, the Puritans emancipated themselves, and are now in +violent insurrection against their former owners. This insane holiday +freak will not last long, however; for, dastards in fight and +incapable of self-government, they will inevitably again fall under +the control of a superior race. A few more Bull Run thrashings will +bring them once more under the yoke, as docile as the most loyal of +our Ethiopian chattels." + +[Illustration: THE "SAN JACINTO" STOPPING THE "TRENT."] + +{64} [Illustration: FORTIFICATION IN FRONT OF WASHINGTON.] + +France and England had made all haste to recognize the Confederates as +belligerents, but had not granted them recognition as an established +nation, and never did. There was a constant fear, however, that they +would; and the Confederate Government did its utmost to bring about +such recognition. Messrs. James M. Mason, of Virginia, and John +Slidell, of Louisiana, were sent out by that Government, as duly +accredited ministers to London and Paris, in 1861. They escaped the +blockaders at Charleston, reached Havana, and there embarked on the +British mail steamer _Trent_ for Europe. But Capt. Charles Wilkes (who +had commanded the celebrated exploring expedition in Antarctic waters +twenty years before) was on the watch for them with the United States +steam frigate _San Jacinto_, overhauled the _Trent_ in the Bahama +Channel (November 8), took off the Confederate commissioners, and +allowed the steamer to proceed on her way. He carried his prisoners to +Boston, and they were incarcerated in Fort Warren. This action, for +which Wilkes {65} received the thanks of Congress, was denounced as an +outrage on British neutrality. The entire British public bristled up +as one lion, and their Government demanded an apology and the +liberation of the prisoners. The American public was unable to see any +way out of the dilemma, and was considering whether it would choose +humiliation or a foreign war, when our Secretary of State, William H. +Seward, solved the problem in a masterly manner. In his formal reply +he discussed the whole question with great ability, showing that such +detention of a vessel was justified by the laws of war, and there were +innumerable British precedents for it; that Captain Wilkes conducted +the search in a proper manner; that the commissioners were contraband +of war; and that the commander of the _Trent_ knew they were +contraband of war when he took them as passengers. But as Wilkes had +failed to complete the transaction in a legal manner by bringing the +_Trent_ into port for adjudication in a prize court, it must be +repudiated. In other words, by his consideration for the interests and +convenience of innocent persons, he had lost his prize. In summing up, +Mr. Seward said: "If I declare this case in favor of my own +Government, I must disavow its most cherished principles, and reverse +and forever abandon its most essential policy.... We are asked to do +to the British nation just what we have always insisted all nations +ought to do to us." The commissioners were released, and sailed for +England in January; but the purpose of their mission had been +practically thwarted. This was a remarkable instance of eating one's +cake and keeping it at the same time. + +[Illustration: CHARLES A. DANA, ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF WAR.] + +[Illustration: JAMES MURRAY MASON.] + +[Illustration: CAPTAIN CHARLES WILKES. (Afterward Rear-Admiral.)] + +[Illustration: JOHN SLIDELL.] + +But though danger of intervention was thus for the time averted, and +the relations between the British Government and our own remained +nominally friendly, so far as moral influence and bitterness of +feeling could go the Republic had no more determined enemies in the +cotton States than in the heart of England. The aristocratic classes +rejoiced at anything that threatened to destroy democratic government +or make its stability doubtful. They confidently expected to see our +country fall into a state of anarchy like that experienced so often by +the Spanish-American republics, and were willing to do everything they +safely could do to bring it about. The foremost English journals had +been predicting such a disaster ever since the beginning of the +century, had announced it as in progress when a British force burned +Washington in 1814, and now were surer of it than ever. Almost our +only friends of the London press were the _Daily News_ and _Weekly +Spectator_. The commercial classes, in a country that had fought so +many commercial wars, were of course delighted at the crippling of a +commercial rival whom they had so long hated and feared, no matter +what it might cost in the shedding of blood and the destruction of +social order. Among the working classes, though they suffered heavily +when the supply of cotton was diminished, we had many firm and devoted +friends, who saw and felt, however imperfectly, that the cause of free +labor was their own cause, no matter on which side of the Atlantic the +battlefield might lie. + +To those who had for years endured the taunts of Englishmen who +pointed to American slavery and its tolerance in the American +Constitution, while they boasted that no slave could breathe on +British soil, it was a strange sight, when our country was at war over +the question, to see almost everything that had power {66} and +influence in England arrayed on the side of the slaveholders. A few +famous Englishmen--notably John Bright and Goldwin Smith--were true to +the cause of liberty, and did much to instruct the laboring classes as +to the real nature and significance of the conflict. Henry Ward +Beecher, then at the height of his powers, went to England and +addressed large audiences, enlightening them as to the real nature of +American affairs, concerning which most of them were grossly ignorant, +and produced an effect that was probably never surpassed by any +orator. The Canadians, with the usual narrowness of provincials, blind +to their own ultimate interests, were in the main more bitterly +hostile than the mother country. + +Louis Napoleon, then the despotic ruler of France, was unfriendly to +the United States, and did his utmost to persuade the English +Government to unite with him in a scheme of intervention that would +probably have secured the division of the country. How far his plans +went beyond that result, can only be conjectured; but while the war +was still in progress (1864) he threw a French force into Mexico, and +established there an ephemeral empire with an Austrian archduke at its +head. That the possession of Mexico alone was not his object, is +suggested by the fact that, when the rebellion was subdued and the +secession cause extinct, he withdrew his troops from Mexico and left +the archduke to the fate of other filibusters. + +The Russian Government was friendly to the United States throughout +the struggle. The imperial manifesto for the abolition of serfdom in +Russia was issued on March 3, 1861, the day before President Lincoln +was inaugurated, and this perhaps created a special bond of sympathy. + +[Illustration: FORT MONROE.] + +[Illustration: MAJOR-GENERAL BENJAMIN F. BUTLER.] + +[Illustration: COMMODORE S. H. STRINGHAM. (Afterward Rear-Admiral.)] + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +THE FIRST UNION VICTORIES. + +FEDERAL NAVY--BLOCKADE-RUNNING--BALLS, POWDER, AND EQUIPMENTS BROUGHT +FROM ENGLAND FOR CONFEDERATES--THE FIRST HATTERAS EXPEDITION--CAPTURE +OF FORT HATTERAS AND FORT CLARK--CAPTURE OF HILTON HEAD AND PORT +ROYAL--GENERAL BURNSIDE'S EXPEDITION TO ROANOKE ISLAND--FEDERAL +VICTORY AT MILL SPRINGS, KY.--CAPTURE OF FORT HENRY BY FEDERAL FORCES +UNDER GENERAL GRANT--FALL OF FORT DONELSON--BATTLE OF PEA RIDGE. + + +When the war began, the greater part of the small navy of the United +States was in distant waters--off the coast of Africa, in the +Mediterranean, on the Asiatic station--and for some of the ships to +receive the news and return, many months were required. Twelve vessels +were at home--four in Northern and eight in Southern ports. The navy, +like the army, lost many Southern officers by resignation or +dismissal. About three hundred who had been educated {67} for its +service went over to the Confederacy; but none of them took with them +the vessels they had commanded. The Government bought all sorts of +merchant craft, mounting guns on some and fitting up others as +transports, and had gunboats built on ninety-day contracts. It was a +most miscellaneous fleet, whose principal strength consisted in the +weakness of its adversary. The first purpose was to complete the +blockade of Southern ports. Throughout the war this was never made so +perfect that no vessels could pass through; but it was gradually +rendered more and more effective. The task was simplified as the land +forces, little by little, obtained control of the shore, when a few +vessels could maintain an effective blockade from within. But an +exterior blockade of a port in the hands of the enemy required a large +fleet, operating beyond the range of the enemy's fire from the shore, +in a line so extended as to offer occasional opportunities for the +blockade-runners to slip past. But blockade-running became exceedingly +dangerous. Large numbers of the vessels engaged in it were captured or +driven ashore and wrecked. The profit on a single cargo that passed +either way in safety was very great, and special vessels for +blockade-running were built in England. The Confederate Government +enacted a law providing that a certain portion of every cargo thus +brought into its ports must consist of arms or ammunition, otherwise +vessel and all would be confiscated. This insured a constant supply; +and though the Southern soldier was often barefoot and ragged, and +sometimes hungry, he never lacked for the most improved weapons that +English arsenals could produce, nor was he ever defeated for want of +powder. A very large part of the bullets that destroyed the lives and +limbs of National troops were cast in England and brought over the sea +in blockade-runners. Clothing and equipments, too, for the Confederate +armies came from the same source. Often when a burial party went out, +after a battle, as they turned over one after another of the enemy's +slain and saw the name of a Birmingham manufacturer stamped upon his +buttons, it seemed that they must have been fighting a foreign foe. To +pay for these things, the Confederates sent out cotton, tobacco, rice, +and the naval stores produced by North Carolina forests. It was +obvious from the first that any movement that would shut off a part of +this trade, or render it more hazardous, would strike a blow at the +insurrection. Furthermore, Confederate privateers were already out, +and before the first expedition sailed sixteen captured merchantmen +had been taken into the ports of North Carolina. + +[Illustration: ON BOARD THE FIRST BLOCKADE-RUNNER CAPTURED.] + +Vessels could enter Pamlico or Albemarle Sound by any one of several +inlets, and then make the port of Newbern, Washington, or Plymouth; +and the first of several naval and military expeditions was fitted out +for the purpose of closing the most useful of these openings, Hatteras +Inlet, thirteen miles south of Cape Hatteras. Two forts had been +erected on the point at the northern side of this inlet, and the +project was to capture {68} them; but, so new was everybody to the art +of war, it was not at first intended to garrison and hold them. + +The expedition, which originated with the Navy Department, was fitted +out in Hampton Roads, near Fortress Monroe, and was commanded by +Flag-officer Silas H. Stringham. It numbered ten vessels, all told, +carrying one hundred and fifty-eight guns. Two were transport +steamers, having on board about nine hundred troops commanded by Gen. +Benjamin F. Butler, and two were schooners carrying iron surf-boats. +It sailed on the 26th of August, 1861, with sealed orders, arrived at +its destination before sunset, and anchored off the bar. Early the +next morning an attempt was made to land the troops through the surf, +at a point three miles from the inlet, whence they might attack the +forts in the rear. But it was not very successful. The heavy surf +dashed the clumsy iron boats upon the shore, drenching the men, +wetting the powder, and endangering everything. About one-third of the +troops, however, were landed, with two field-guns, and remained there +under protection of the fire from the ships. The forts were garrisoned +by about six hundred men, and mounted twenty-five guns; but they were +not very strong, and their bomb-proofs were not constructed properly. +Stringham's flag-ship, the frigate _Minnesota_, led off in the attack, +followed by the _Susquehanna_ and _Wabash_, and the guns of the +smaller fort were soon silenced. The frigates were at such a distance +that they could drop shells into it with their pivot-guns, while the +shot from the fort could not reach them. Afterward the larger work, +Fort Hatteras, was bombarded, but with no practical effect, though the +firing was kept up till sunset. But meanwhile the troops that had +landed through the surf had taken possession of the smaller work, Fort +Clark. They also threw up a small earthwork, and with their +field-pieces fired upon some Confederate vessels that were in the +Sound. The next morning (the 28th) the frigates anchored within reach +of Fort Hatteras, and began a deliberate and steady bombardment. As +before, the shot from the fort fell short of the ships, and neither +could that from the smooth-bore broadside guns reach the fort; but the +pivot-guns and the rifled pieces of one vessel wrought great havoc. +One plunging shell went down through a ventilator and narrowly missed +exploding the magazine. At the end of three hours the fort +surrendered. Its defenders, who were commanded by Samuel Barron, +formerly of the United States navy, had suffered a loss of about fifty +in killed and wounded. They had been reinforced in the night, but a +steamer was seen taking away a load of troops just before the +surrender. The seven hundred prisoners were sent on board the +flag-ship and carried to New York. The victors had not lost a man. +There had been some intention of destroying the forts and blocking up +the channels of the inlet; but it was determined instead to leave a +garrison and establish a coaling station for the blockading fleet. Two +of the frigates remained in the Sound, and within a fortnight half a +dozen blockade-runners entered the inlet and were captured. + +[Illustration: LAND FORCES STORMING THE FORTIFICATIONS AT FORT CLARK. +(Two views.)] + +{69} [Illustration: FORTS HATTERAS AND CLARK, N. C., CAPTURED ON THE +29th OF AUGUST, 1861.] + +[Illustration: GUNBOAT "MENDOTA."] + +[Illustration: COMMANDER C. R. P. RODGERS. (Afterward Rear-Admiral.)] + +[Illustration: COMMANDER JOHN RODGERS. (Afterward Rear-Admiral.)] + +A much larger expedition sailed from Hampton Roads on one of the last +days of October. It consisted of more than fifty vessels--frigates, +gunboats, transports, tugs, steam ferry-boats, and schooners--carrying +twenty-two thousand men. The fleet was commanded by Flag-officer +Samuel F. Du Pont, the troops by Gen. Thomas W. Sherman (who must not +be confounded with Gen. William T. Sherman, famous for his march to +the sea). The expedition had been two months in preparation, and +though it sailed with sealed orders, and every effort had been made to +keep its destination secret, the information leaked out as usual, and +while it was on its way the Confederate Secretary of War telegraphed +to the Governor of South Carolina and the commander at Hilton Head +where to expect it. Bull's Bay, St. Helena, Port Royal, and Fernandina +had all been discussed, and the final choice fell upon Port Royal. + +{70} [Illustration: BOMBARDMENT OF FORT WALKER, HILTON HEAD, PORT +ROYAL HARBOR, S. C., BY UNITED STATES FLEET, NOVEMBER 7, 1861.] + +A tremendous gale was encountered on the passage; the fleet was +scattered, one {71} transport was completely wrecked, with a loss of +seven lives, one gunboat was obliged to throw her broadside battery +overboard, a transport threw over her cargo, and one store-ship was +lost. When the storm was over, only a single gunboat was in sight from +the flag-ship. But the fleet slowly came together again, and was +joined by some of the frigates that were blockading Charleston Harbor, +these being relieved by others that had come down for the purpose. +They arrived off the entrance to Port Royal harbor on the 5th and 6th +of November. This entrance was protected by two earthworks--Fort +Walker on Hilton Head (the south side), and Fort Beauregard on St. +Helena Island (the north side). These forts were about two and a half +miles apart, and were garrisoned by South Carolina troops, commanded +by Generals Drayton and Ripley. A brother of General Drayton commanded +a vessel in the attacking fleet. + +On the morning of the 7th the order of battle was formed. The bar was +ten miles out from the entrance, and careful soundings had been made +by two gunboats, under the fire of three Confederate vessels that ran +out from the harbor. The main column consisted of ten vessels, led by +the flag-ship _Wabash_, and was ordered to attack Fort Walker. Another +column of four vessels was ordered to fire upon Fort Beauregard, pass +in, and attack the Confederate craft. All were under way soon after +breakfast, and were favored by a tranquil sea. The main column, a +ship's length apart, steamed in steadily at the rate of six miles an +hour, passing Fort Walker at a distance of eight hundred yards, and +delivering a fire of shells and rifled shot. Every gun in the fort +that could be brought to bear was worked as rapidly as possible, in a +gallant defence. After the line had passed the fort, it turned and +steamed out again, passing this time within six hundred yards, and +delivering fire from the guns on the other side of the vessels. Three +times they thus went around in a long ellipse, each time keeping the +fort under fire for about twenty minutes. Then the _Bienville_, which +had the heaviest guns, and was commanded by Captain Steadman, a South +Carolinian, sailed in closer yet, and delivered a fire that dismounted +several guns and wrought dreadful havoc. Meanwhile two or three +gunboats had taken a position from which they enfiladed the work, and +the flag-ship came to a stand at short range and pounded away +steadily. This was more than anything at that stage of the war could +endure, and from the mast-head the troops were seen streaming out of +the fort and across Hilton Head Island as if in panic. A flag of truce +was sent on shore, but there was no one to receive it, and soon after +two o'clock the National colors were floating over the fort. The +flanking column of vessels had attacked Fort Beauregard; and when the +commander of that work saw that Fort Walker was abandoned by its +defenders, he also retreated with his force. The Confederate vessels +escaped by running up a shallow inlet. The loss in the fleet was eight +men killed and twenty-three wounded; that of the Confederates, as +reported by their commander, was eleven killed and fifty-two wounded +or missing. General Sherman said: "Many bodies were buried in the +fort, and twenty or thirty were found half a mile distant." The road +across Hilton Head Island to a wharf whence the retreating troops were +taken to the mainland was strewn with arms and accoutrements, and two +howitzers were abandoned. The surgeon of the fort had been killed by a +shell and buried by a falling parapet. The troops were debarked and +took possession of both forts, repaired and strengthened the works, +formed an intrenched camp, and thus gave the Government a permanent +foothold on the soil of South Carolina. + +[Illustration: MAP OF HILTON HEAD, SHOWING ITS TOPOGRAPHY.] + +[Illustration: REAR-ADMIRAL S. F. DU PONT.] + +[Illustration: BREVET MAJOR-GENERAL T. W. SHERMAN.] + +Roanoke Island, N. C., lies between Roanoke Sound and Croatan Sound, +through which the channels lead to Albemarle Sound, giving access to +the interior of the State. This island, therefore, was fortified by +the Confederates, in order to command these approaches. The island is +about as large as that which is occupied by New York City--ten miles +long, and somewhat over two miles wide. In January, 1862, an +expedition was fitted out to capture it, and the command was given to +Gen. {72} Ambrose E. Burnside, who had about fifteen thousand men, +with a battery of six guns, carried on forty transports. The naval +part of the expedition, consisting of twenty-eight vessels, none of +them very large, carrying half a hundred guns, was under the immediate +command of Capt. Louis M. Goldsborough. Among his subordinate officers +were Stephen C. Rowan and John L. Worden. Burnside's three brigade +commanders--all of whom rose to eminence before the war was over--were +John G. Foster, Jesse L. Reno, and John G. Parke. + +[Illustration: BRIGADIER-GENERAL T. F. DRAYTON, C. S. A.] + +[Illustration: MAJOR-GENERAL AMBROSE E. BURNSIDE.] + +The expedition sailed from Hampton Roads on January 11, and almost +immediately encountered a terrific storm, by which the fleet was far +scattered, some of the vessels being carried out to sea and others +driven ashore. Five were wrecked, and a considerable number of men +were lost. By the 28th, all that had weathered the gale passed through +Hatteras Inlet into the sounds. The fortifications on the island +mounted forty guns; and in Croatan Sound a Confederate naval force of +eight vessels lay behind a line of obstructions across the channel. + +On February 7th, the National gunboats, advancing in three columns, +shelled Fort Bartow--the principal fortification, on the west side of +the island--and the Confederate gunboats. The latter were soon driven +off, and in four hours the fort was silenced. The transports landed +the troops on the west side of the island, two miles south of the +fort, and in the morning of the 8th they began their march to the +interior, which was made difficult and disagreeable by swamps and a +lack of roads, and by a cold storm. On the 9th, the Confederate +skirmishers were driven in, and the main line was assaulted, first +with artillery, and then by the infantry. The Confederate left wing +was turned; and when the national troops had nearly exhausted their +ammunition they made a brilliant bayonet charge, led by Hawkins's New +York zouave regiment, and stormed the works, which were hastily +abandoned by the Confederates, who attempted to reach the northeast +shore and cross to Nag's Head, but more than two thousand of them were +captured. Fort Bartow still held out, but it was soon taken, its +garrison surrendering. In this action the national loss was two +hundred and thirty-five men killed or wounded in the army, and +twenty-five in the navy. + +On the 10th, a part of the fleet, under Captain Rowan, pursued the +Confederate fleet up Albemarle Sound, and after a short engagement +defeated it. The Confederates set fire to their vessels and deserted +them, destroying all but one, which was captured. Rowan then took +possession of Elizabeth City and Edenton. The flying Confederates had +set fire to the former; but Rowan's men, with the help of the colored +people who remained, put out the fire and saved the city. + +In this naval battle one of the first medals of honor won in the war +was earned by a sailor named John Davis. A shell thrown by the +Confederates entered one of the vessels and set fire to it. This was +near the magazine, and there was an open barrel of powder from which +Davis was serving a gun. He at once sat down on the barrel, and +remained there covering it until the fire was put out. + +General Burnside next planned an expedition in the opposite direction, +to attack Newbern. His forces, numbering about eight thousand men, +sailed from Hatteras Inlet in the morning of March 12th, and that +evening landed within eighteen miles of Newbern. The next day they +marched toward the city, while the gunboats ascended the river and +shelled such fortifications and Confederate troops as could be seen. +The roads were miry, and the progress of the troops was slow. After +removing elaborate obstructions and torpedoes from the channel, the +fleet reached and silenced the forts near the city. The land forces +then came up and attacked the Confederates, who were about five +thousand strong and were commanded by General Branch. After hard +fighting, the works were carried, and the enemy fled. They burned the +railroad bridge over the Trent River, and set fire to the city; but +the sailors succeeded in extinguishing the flames in time to save the +greater part of the town. Burnside's loss in this battle was about +five hundred and fifty killed or wounded; that of the Confederates, +including prisoners, was about the same. Fifty-two guns and two +steamers were captured. + +Ten days later, Beaufort, N. C., and Morehead City were occupied by +the National troops without opposition. Burnside's army was now broken +up into comparatively small bodies, holding the various places that +had been taken, which greatly diminished the facilities for +blockade-running on the North Carolina coast. + +The year 1862 opened with indications of lively and decisive {73} work +west of the mountains, and many movements were made that cannot be +detailed here. One of the most gallant was in the region of the Big +Sandy River in eastern Kentucky, where Humphrey Marshall had gathered +a Confederate force of about two thousand five hundred (mostly +Kentuckians) at Paintville. Col. James A. Garfield (afterward +President), in command of one thousand eight hundred infantry and +three hundred cavalry, drove him out of Paintville, pursued him beyond +Prestonburg, came up with him at noon of January 10th, and fought him +till night, when Marshall retreated under cover of the darkness, +leaving his dead on the field. + +[Illustration: MAJOR-GENERAL JESSE L. RENO.] + +[Illustration: MAJOR-GENERAL JOHN G. PARKE.] + +[Illustration: MAJOR-GENERAL JOHN G. FOSTER.] + +[Illustration: VICE-ADMIRAL S. C. ROWAN.] + +[Illustration: REAR-ADMIRAL LOUIS M. GOLDSBOROUGH.] + +In the autumn of 1861 a Confederate force, under Gen. Felix K. +Zollicoffer, had been pushed forward by way of Knoxville to eastern +Kentucky, but was defeated at Camp Wildcat, October 21st, by seven +thousand men under General Schoepff, and fell back to Mill Springs at +the head of steamboat navigation on the Cumberland. Zollicoffer soon +crossed to the northern bank, and fortified a position at Beech Grove, +in the angle between the river and Fishing Creek. The National forces +in the vicinity were commanded by Gen. George H. Thomas, who watched +Zollicoffer so closely that when the latter was told by his superiors +he should not have crossed the river, he could only answer that it was +now too late to return. As Zollicoffer was only a journalist, with +more zeal than military knowledge, Gen. George B. Crittenden was sent +to supersede him. Thomas was slowly advancing, through rainy weather, +over heavy roads, to drive this force out of the State, and had +reached Logan's Cross-roads, within ten miles of the Confederate camp, +when Crittenden determined to move out and attack him. The battle +began early on the morning of January 19, 1862. Thomas was on the +alert, and when his outposts were driven in he rapidly brought up one +detachment after another and threw them into line. The attack was +directed mainly against the National left, where the fighting was +obstinate and bloody, much of the firing being at very close quarters. +Here Zollicoffer, thinking the Fourth Kentucky was a Confederate +regiment firing upon its friends, rode forward to correct the supposed +mistake, and was shot dead by its colonel, Speed S. Fry. When, at +length, the right of the Confederate line had been pressed back and +broken, a steady fire having been kept up on the centre, the Ninth +Ohio Regiment made a bayonet charge on its left flank, and the whole +line was broken and routed. The Confederates took refuge in their +intrenchments, where Thomas swiftly pursued and closely invested them, +expecting to capture them all the next morning. But in the night they +managed to cross the river, leaving behind their wounded, twelve guns, +all their horses, mules, and wagons, and a large amount of stores. In +the further retreat two of the Confederate regiments disbanded and +scattered to their homes, while a large number from other regiments +deserted individually. The National loss in killed and wounded was two +hundred and forty-six; that of the Confederates, four hundred and +seventy-one. Thomas received the thanks of the President for his +victory. This action is variously called the Battle of Fishing Creek +and the Battle of Mill Springs. + +{74} [Illustration: BURNSIDE'S EXPEDITION OFF FORT MONROE.] + +When Gen. Henry W. Halleck was placed in command of the Department of +Missouri, in November, 1861, he divided it into districts, giving to +Gen. Ulysses S. Grant the District of Cairo, {75} which included +Southern Illinois, the counties of Missouri south of Cape Girardeau, +and all of Kentucky that lies west of Cumberland River. Where the +Tennessee and the Cumberland enter Kentucky from the south they are +about ten miles apart, and here the Confederates had erected two +considerable works to command the rivers--Fort Henry on the east bank +of the Tennessee, and Fort Donelson on the west bank of the +Cumberland. They had also fortified the high bluffs at Columbus, on +the Mississippi, twenty miles below the mouth of the Ohio, and Bowling +Green, on the Big Barren. The general purpose was to establish a +military frontier with a strong line of defence from the Alleghany +Mountains to the Mississippi. + +[Illustration: THE BURNSIDE EXPEDITION CROSSING HATTERAS BAR.] + +[Illustration: ROANOKE ISLAND, N. C., AND CONFEDERATE FORTS.] + +A fleet of iron-clad gunboats had been prepared by the United States +Government for service on the Western rivers, some of them being built +new, while others were altered freight-boats. + +After a reconnoissance in force by Gen. C. F. Smith, General Grant +asked Halleck's permission to capture Fort Henry, and, after +considerable delay, received it on the 30th of January. That work was +garrisoned by three thousand men under Gen. Lloyd Tilghman. Its +position was strong, the ravines through which little tributaries +reached the river being filled with slashed timber and rifle-pits, and +swampy ground rendering approach from {76} the land side difficult. +But the work itself was rather poorly built, bags of sand being +largely used instead of a solid earth embankment. + +On the morning of February 2d the fleet of four iron-clad and two +wooden gunboats, commanded by Flag-officer Andrew H. Foote, left +Cairo, steamed up the Ohio to Paducah, thence up the Tennessee, and by +daylight the next morning were within sight of the fort. Grant's land +force was to coöperate by an attack in the rear, but it did not arrive +in time. The gunboats moved up to within six hundred yards, and opened +a bombardment, to which the guns of the fort immediately responded, +and the firing was kept up for an hour. The _Essex_ received a shot in +her boiler, by which many men were wounded or scalded, including Capt. +William D. Porter, son of Commodore David Porter who had won fame in +another _Essex_ in the war of 1812-15. Otherwise the fleet, though +struck many times, was not seriously injured. On the other hand, the +fire from the gunboats knocked the sand-bags about, dismounted seven +guns, brought down the flagstaff, and, together with the bursting of a +rifled gun in the fort, created a panic. All but about one hundred of +the garrison fled, leaving General Tilghman with the sick and a single +company of artillerists; and, after serving a gun with his own hands +as long as possible, he ran up a white flag and surrendered. The +regret of the victors at the escape of the garrison was more than +counterbalanced by their gratification at the behavior of the gunboats +in their first serious trial. After the surrender, three of the +gunboats proceeded up the Tennessee River to the head of navigation, +destroyed the railroad bridge, and captured a large amount of stores. + +[Illustration: SIEGE TRAIN, HILTON HEAD.] + +[Illustration: SMITH'S PLANTATION, PORT ROYAL.] + +[Illustration: PREPARING COTTON FOR GIN.] + +[Illustration: BURNING OF AMERICAN MERCHANTMAN "HARRY BIRCH" IN +BRITISH CHANNEL, BY CONFEDERATE STEAMER "NASHVILLE."] + +In consequence of the battle of Mill Springs and the fall of Fort +Henry, the Confederate Gen. Simon B. Buckner, who was at Bowling Green +with about ten thousand men, abandoned that place and joined his +forces to those in Fort Donelson. Gen. Ormsby M. Mitchel, by a forced +march, promptly took possession of Bowling Green with National troops; +and General Grant immediately made dispositions for the capture of +Fort Donelson. This work, situated at a bend of the river, was on high +ground, enclosed about a hundred acres, and had also a strong +water-battery on the lower river {77} front. The land side was +protected by slashed timber and rifle-pits, as well as by the +naturally broken ground. The gunboats went down the Tennessee and up +the Cumberland, and with them a portion of Grant's force to be used in +attacking the water front. The fort contained about twenty thousand +men, commanded by Gen. John B. Floyd, who had been President +Buchanan's Secretary of War. Grant's main force left the neighborhood +of Fort Henry on the morning of February 12th, a portion marching +straight on Fort Donelson, while the remainder made a slight detour to +the south, to come up on the right, strike the Confederate left, and +prevent escape in that direction. They chose positions around the fort +unmolested that afternoon, and the next morning the fighting began. +After an artillery duel, an attempt was made to storm the works near +the centre of the line, but it was a failure and entailed severe loss. +The gunboats and the troops with them had not yet come up, and the +attack was suspended for the day. A cold storm set in, with sleet and +snow, and the assailants spent the night without shelter and with +scant rations, while a large part of the defenders, being in the +trenches, were equally exposed. + +[Illustration: A FEDERAL CAVALRY CHARGE.] + +[Illustration: BRIGADIER-GENERAL FELIX K. ZOLLICOFFER, C. S. A.] + +[Illustration: COLONEL SPEED S. FRY. (Afterward Brigadier-General.)] + +Next morning the fleet appeared, landed the troops and supplies three +miles below the fort, and then moved up to attack the batteries. These +were not so easily disposed of as Fort Henry had been. It was a +desperate fight. The plunging shot from the fort struck the gunboats +in their most vulnerable part, and made ugly wounds. But they stood to +the work manfully, and had silenced one battery when the steering +apparatus of two of the gunboats was shot away, while a gun on another +had burst and the flag-officer was wounded. The flag-ship had been +struck fifty-nine times, and the others from twenty to forty, when +they all dropped down the stream and out of the fight. They had lost +fifty-four men killed or wounded. But the naval attack had served to +prevent an immediate sortie, and so perhaps ultimately saved the +victory for Grant. + +That night a council of war was held within the fort, and it was +determined to attack the besiegers in the morning with the entire +force, in hopes either to defeat them completely or at least to turn +back their right wing, and thus open a way for retreat toward the +south. The fighting began early in the morning. Grant's right wing, +all but surprised, was pressed heavily and borne back, the enemy +passing through and plundering McClernand's camps. Buckner sallied out +and attacked on the left with much less vigor and with no success but +as a diversion, and the fighting extended all along the line, while +the Confederate cavalry were endeavoring to gain the National rear. +Grant was imperturbable through it all, and when he saw that the +attack had reached its height, he ordered a counter attack and +recovery of the lost ground on the right, which was executed by the +division of Lew Wallace, while that of C. F. Smith stormed the works +on the left. Smith rode beside the color-bearer, and, in the face of a +murderous fire that struck down four hundred men, his troops rushed +forward over every obstruction, brought up field guns and enfiladed +the works, drove out the defenders, and took possession. + +{78} [Illustration: BATTLE OF MILL SPRINGS, LOGAN CROSS ROADS, +KENTUCKY, JANUARY 19, 1862.] + +Another bitterly cold night followed, but Grant improved the time to +move up reinforcements to the positions he had gained, while the +wounded were looked after as well as circumstances would permit. +Within the fort another council of war was held. Floyd declared it +would not do for him to fall into the {79} hands of the Government, as +he was accused of defrauding it while in office. So he turned over the +command to Gen. Gideon J. Pillow. But that general said he also had +strong reasons for not wanting to be a prisoner, so he turned it over +to Gen. Simon B. Buckner. With as many of their men as could be taken +on two small steamers, Floyd and Pillow embarked in the darkness and +went up the river to Nashville. The cavalry, under Gen. N. B. Forrest, +also escaped, and a considerable number of men from all the commands +managed to steal away unobserved. In the morning Buckner hung out a +white flag, and sent a letter to Grant, proposing that commissioners +be appointed to arrange terms of capitulation. Grant's answer not only +made him famous, but gave an impetus and direction to the whole war: +"No terms other than an unconditional and immediate surrender can be +accepted. I propose to move immediately upon your works." Buckner, in +a petulant and ill-considered note, at once surrendered the fort and +his entire command. This numbered about fourteen thousand men; and +four hundred that were sent to reinforce him were also captured. + +[Illustration: MAJOR-GENERAL HENRY W. HALLECK.] + +[Illustration: COLONEL JAMES A. GARFIELD. (Afterward Major-General.)] + +[Illustration: MAJOR-GENERAL C. F. SMITH.] + +[Illustration: CAPTAIN CUSTER, U. S. A., AND LIEUTENANT WASHINGTON, A +CONFEDERATE PRISONER.] + +General Pillow estimated the Confederate loss in killed and wounded at +two thousand. No undisputed figures are attainable on either side. +Grant began the siege with about fifteen thousand men, which +reinforcements had increased to twenty-seven thousand at the time of +the surrender. His losses were about two thousand, and many of the +wounded had perished of cold. The long, artificial line of defence, +from the mountains to the Mississippi, was now swept away, and the +Confederates abandoned Nashville, to which Grant might have advanced +immediately, had he not been forbidden by Halleck. + +When the news was flashed through the loyal States, and bulletins were +posted up with enumeration of prisoners, guns, and small arms +captured, salutes were fired, joy-bells were rung, flags were +displayed, and people asked one another, "Who is this Grant, and where +did he come from?"--for they saw that a new genius had suddenly risen +upon the earth. + +Both before and after the defeat and death of General Lyon at Wilson's +Creek (August, 1861), there was irregular and predatory warfare in +Missouri. Especially in the western part of the State half-organized +bands of men would come into existence, sometimes make long marches, +and on the approach of a strong enemy disappear, some scattering to +their homes and others making their way to and joining the bodies of +regular troops. In Missouri and northern Arkansas guerilla warfare was +extensively carried on for more than a year. Many terrible stories are +told of the vengeful spirit with which both sides in this warfare were +actuated. It is quite possible these stories were exaggerated, but it +is certain that many cold-blooded murders were committed. Very few of +the guerillas were Unionists. + +Gen. John C. Frémont, who commanded the department, believing that +Price was near Springfield, gave orders for the concentration at that +place of all the National forces in Missouri. But Price was not there, +and in November Frémont was superseded by General Halleck, some of +whose subordinate commanders, especially Gen. John Pope, made rapid +movements and did good service in capturing newly recruited regiments +that were on their way to join Price. + +Late in December Gen. Samuel R. Curtis took command of twelve thousand +National troops at Rolla, and advanced against Price, who retreated +before him to the {80} northwestern corner of Arkansas, where his +force was joined by that of General McCulloch, and together they took +up a position in the Boston Mountains. Curtis crossed the line into +Arkansas, chose a strong place on Pea Ridge, in the Ozark Mountains, +intrenched, and awaited attack. Because of serious disagreements +between Price and McCulloch, Gen. Earl Van Dorn, who ranked them both, +was sent to take command of the Confederate force, arriving late in +January. There is no authentic statement as to the size of his army. +He himself declared that he had but fourteen thousand men, while no +other estimate gave fewer than twice that number. Among them was a +large body of Cherokee Indians, recruited for the Confederate service +by Albert Pike, who thirty years before had won reputation as a poet. +On March 5, 1862, Van Dorn moved to attack Curtis, who knew of his +coming and formed his line on the bluffs along Sugar Creek, facing +southward. His divisions were commanded by Gens. Franz Sigel and +Alexander S. Asboth and Cols. Jefferson C. Davis and Eugene A. Carr, +and he had somewhat more than ten thousand men in line, with +forty-eight guns. The Confederates, finding the position too strong in +front, made a night march to the west, with the intention of striking +the Nationals on the right flank. But Curtis discovered their movement +at dawn, promptly faced his line to the right about, and executed a +grand left wheel. His army was looking westward toward the approaching +foe, Carr's division being on the right, then Davis, then Asboth, and +Sigel on the left. But they were not fairly in position when the blow +fell. Carr was struck most heavily, and, though reinforced from time +to time, was driven back a mile in the course of the day. Davis, +opposed to the corps of McCulloch, was more successful; that general +was killed, and his troops were driven from the field. In the night +Curtis re-formed and strengthened his lines, and in the morning the +battle was renewed. This day Sigel executed some brilliant and +characteristic manoeuvres. To bring his division into its place on the +left wing, he pushed a battery forward, and while it was firing +rapidly its infantry supports were brought up to it by a right wheel; +this movement was repeated with another battery and its supports to +the left of the first, and again, till the whole division had come +into line, pressing back the enemy's right. Sigel was now so far +advanced that Curtis's whole line made a curve, enclosing the enemy, +and by a heavy concentrated artillery fire the Confederates were soon +driven to the shelter of the ravines, and finally put to rout. The +National loss in this action--killed, wounded, and missing--was over +thirteen hundred, Carr and Asboth being among the wounded. The +Confederate loss is unknown. Generals McCulloch and McIntosh were +killed, and Generals Price and Slack wounded. Owing to the nature of +the ground, any effective pursuit of Van Dorn's broken forces was +impracticable. + +[Illustration: BRIGADIER-GENERAL JOHN B. FLOYD, C. S. A.] + +[Illustration: LIEUTENANT-GENERAL SIMON B. BUCKNER, C. S. A.] + +[Illustration: BRIGADIER-GENERAL G. J. PILLOW, C. S. A.] + +[Illustration: MAJOR-GENERAL BUSHROD JOHNSON, C. S. A.] + +The Confederate Government had made a treaty with some of the tribes +in the Indian Territory, and had taken into its service more than four +thousand Indians, whom the stories of Bull Run and Wilson's Creek had +apparently impressed with the belief that they would have little to do +but scalp the wounded and rob the dead. At Pea Ridge these red men +exhibited their old-time terror of artillery, and though they took a +few scalps they were so disgusted at being asked to face half a +hundred well-served cannon that they were almost useless to their +allies, and thenceforth they took no further part in the war. It is a +notable fact that in the wars on this continent the Indians have only +been employed on the losing side. In the French and English struggle +for the country, which ended in 1763, the French had the friendship of +many of the tribes, and employed them against the English settlers and +soldiers, but the French were conquered nevertheless. In the +Revolution and the war of 1812, the British employed them to some +extent against the Americans, but the Americans were victorious. In +the great Rebellion, the Confederate Government {81} attempted to use +them as allies in the West and Southwest, and in that very section the +Confederate cause was first defeated. All of which appears to show +that though savages may add to the horrors of war, they cannot +determine its results for civilized people; nor can irresponsible +guerilla bands, of which there were many at the West, nearly all in +the service of the Confederacy. + +[Illustration: MAJOR-GENERAL SAMUEL R. CURTIS.] + +[Illustration: MAJOR-GENERAL EARL VAN DORN, C. S. A.] + +[Illustration: BREVET MAJOR-GENERAL A. ASBOTH.] + +[Illustration: BATTLE OF PEA RIDGE, MARCH 6, 1862.] + +"At the close of Mr. Buchanan's administration nearly all the United +States Indian agents in the Indian Territory were secessionists, and +the moment the Southern States commenced passing ordinances of +secession, these men exerted their influence to get the five tribes +committed to the Confederate cause. Occupying territory south of the +Arkansas River, and having the secessionists of Arkansas on the east +and those of Texas on the south for neighbors, the Choctaws and +Chickasaws offered no decided opposition to the scheme. With the +Cherokees, the most powerful and most civilized tribes of the Indian +Territory, it was different. Their chief, John Ross, was opposed to +hasty action, and at first favored neutrality, and in the summer of +1861 issued a proclamation enjoining his people to observe a strictly +neutral attitude during the war between the United States and the +Southern States. In June, 1861, Albert Pike, a commissioner of the +Confederate States, and Gen. Ben. McCulloch, commanding the +Confederate forces in Western Arkansas and the Department of Indian +Territory, visited Chief Ross, with the view of having him make a +treaty with the Confederacy. But he declined to make a treaty, and in +the conference expressed himself as wishing to occupy, if possible, a +neutral position during the war. A majority of the Cherokees, nearly +all of whom were full-bloods, were known as Pin Indians, and were +opposed to the South." (_Battles and Leaders_, Vol. I., pp. 335-336.) + +After the battle of Wilson's Creek had been fought, General Lyon +killed, and the Union army defeated, Chief Ross was easily convinced +that the South would succeed, and entered into a treaty with the +Confederate authorities. + +{82} [Illustration: GALLANT CHARGE ON OUTWORKS OF FORT DONELSON, +FEBRUARY 13, 1862.] + + + + +{83} + +CHAPTER IX. + +THE "MONITOR" AND THE "MERRIMAC." + +THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE "MONITOR" AND "MERRIMAC"--EFFECT UPON NAVAL +ARMAMENTS OF THE WORLD--IDEA OF REVOLVING TOWER NOT ORIGINAL WITH +ERICSSON--DESTRUCTION OF THE "CUMBERLAND"--PUBLIC EXCITEMENT AT +PROSPECT OF AN ATTACK ON WASHINGTON--THE "MONITOR" SAILS FROM NEW YORK +HARBOR MARCH 6TH--GREAT NAVAL BATTLE IN HAMPTON ROADS. + + +While the great naval expedition was approaching New Orleans, the +waters of Hampton Roads, from which it had sailed, were the scene of a +battle that revolutionized the naval armaments of the world. When at +the outbreak of the war the navy yard at Norfolk, Va., was abandoned, +with an attempt at its destruction, the steam frigate _Merrimac_ was +set on fire at the wharf. Her upper works were burned, and her hull +sunk. There had been long hesitation about removing any of the +valuable property from this navy yard, because the action of Virginia +was uncertain, and it was hoped that a mark of confidence in her +people would tend to keep her in the Union. The day that Sumter was +fired upon, peremptory orders had been issued for the removal of the +_Merrimac_ to Philadelphia, and steam was raised and every preparation +made for her sailing. But the officer in command, for some unexplained +reason, would not permit her to move, and two days later she was +burned. Within two months the Confederates were at work upon her. They +raised the hull, repaired the machinery, and covered it with a steep +roof of wrought iron five inches thick, with a lining of oak seven +inches thick. The sides were also plated with iron, and the bow was +armed with an iron ram, something like a huge ploughshare. In the +water she had the appearance of a house submerged to the eaves, with +an immense gun looking out at each of ten dormer windows. + +[Illustration: THE FRIGATE "CUMBERLAND" RAMMED BY THE "MERRIMAC."] + +But all this could not be done in a day, especially where skilled +workmen were scarce, and it was March, 1862, before she was ready for +action. The command was given to Franklin Buchanan, who had resigned a +commission in the United States navy. On the 8th of March, accompanied +by two gunboats, she went out to raise the blockade of James and +Elizabeth Rivers by destroying the wooden war vessels in Hampton +Roads. Her first victim was the frigate _Cumberland_, which gave her a +{84} broadside that would have riddled a wooden vessel through and +through. Some of the shot entered her open ports, killed or wounded +nineteen men, and broke two of her guns; but all that struck the armor +bounded off like peas. Rifled shot from the _Merrimac_ raked the +_Cumberland_, and then she ran into her so that her iron prow cut a +great gash in the side. The _Cumberland_ at once began to settle; but +the crew stood by their guns, firing broadside after broadside without +producing any impression on the iron monster, and received in return +shells and solid shot that made sickening havoc. The commander, +Lieutenant Morris, refused to surrender; and at the end of forty-five +minutes, when the water was at the gun-deck, the crew leaped overboard +and with the help of the boats got ashore, while the frigate heeled +over and sank to the bottom. Her topmasts projected above the surface +and her flag was flying. While this was going on, three Confederate +steamers came down and attacked the _Congress_ with such effect that +her commander tried to run her ashore. Having finished the +_Cumberland_, the _Merrimac_ came up and opened a deliberate attack on +the _Congress_, and finally set her on fire, when the crew escaped in +their boats. She burned for several hours, and in the night blew up. +Of the other National vessels in the Roads, one got aground in water +too shallow for the _Merrimac_ to approach her, and the others were +not drawn into the fight. + +The next morning the _Merrimac_ came down again from Norfolk to finish +up the fleet in Hampton Roads, and after that--to do various +unheard-of things. The more sanguine expected her to go at once to +Philadelphia, New York, and other seaboard cities of the North, and +either bombard them or lay them under heavy contribution. The National +Administration entertained a corresponding apprehension, and expected +to see the _Merrimac_ ascend the Potomac and attack Washington first. +A part of these expectations were well founded, and the rest were such +exaggerations as commonly arise from ignorance. The _Merrimac_ could +not have reached New York or Philadelphia, because she was not a +sea-going vessel. With skilful management and good luck, she might +have ascended the Potomac to Washington, but she would have had to run +the gantlet of numerous dangers. There is a place in the Potomac +called "the kettle-bottoms," where a great many conical mounds, +composed of sand and oyster-shells, rise from the channel till their +peaks are within a few feet of the surface; and their positions were +so imperfectly known at this time that the National vessels frequently +ran aground upon them. Several devices were in waiting to make trouble +for the iron-clad champion at this point, perhaps the most dangerous +of which was that prepared by Captain Love, commanding an armed +tugboat. He procured a seine three-quarters of a mile long, took off +its floats, and stretched it across the channel in such a way that the +_Merrimac_ could hardly have passed over it without fouling her +propeller, which would have rendered her helpless. + +[Illustration: JOHN ERICSSON. Inventor of the "Monitor."] + +[Illustration: LIEUTENANT G. U. MORRIS. Commander of the +"Cumberland."] + +[Illustration: REAR-ADMIRAL J. SMITH. Commander at the Washington Navy +Yard.] + +But the dangerous enemy was destined to be disposed of in a more novel +and dramatic way. In August, 1861, the Navy Department had advertised +for plans for steam batteries, to be iron-clad and capable of fighting +the _Merrimac_ and other similar armored vessels that the Confederates +were known to be constructing. The plan adopted was that presented by +Capt. John Ericsson. Its essential features were an iron-clad hull, +with an "overhang" to protect the machinery, all of which was below +the waterline, surmounted by a round revolving tower or turret, in +which were two heavy guns. The idea of a revolving tower was not +Ericsson's; it had been put forth by several inventors, especially by +Abraham Bloodgood in 1807. But this special adaptation of it, with the +application of steam power, was his. The vessel was built in Brooklyn, +and was launched January 30, 1862, one hundred days after the laying +of the keel. She was named _Monitor_, for the obvious significance of +the word. The extreme length of her upper hull was one hundred and +seventy-two feet, with a breadth of forty-one feet, while her lower +hull was one hundred and twenty-two feet long and thirty-four feet +broad. Her depth was eleven feet, and when loaded she drew ten feet of +water, her deck thus rising but a single foot above the surface. The +turret was twenty feet in diameter and nine feet high. The only +conspicuous object on the deck, besides the turret, was a pilot-house +about five feet square and four feet high. This was built of solid +wrought-iron beams, nine by twelve inches, laid {85} one upon another +and bolted together. At a point near the top a slight crack was left +between the beams all round, through which the commander and the pilot +could see what was going on outside and get their bearings. The guns +threw solid shot eleven inches in diameter. The advantage of +presenting so small a surface as a target for the enemy, having all +the machinery beyond reach of any hostile shot, carrying two large +guns, and being able to revolve the turret that contained them, so as +to bring them to bear in any direction and keep the ports turned away +from danger except at the moment of firing, is apparent. + +This novel war-machine sailed from the harbor of New York on March 6, +in command of Lieut. John L. Worden, destined for Hampton Roads. She +was hardly out at sea when orders came changing her destination to +Washington; but fortunately she could not be reached, although a swift +tugboat was sent after her. She had a rough passage of three days, the +perils of which were largely increased by the fact that her crew did +not as yet understand all her peculiarities. They neglected to stop +the hawse-hole where the anchor-chain passed out, and large quantities +of water came in there, besides what poured down the low smoke-stacks +when the waves broke over her. + +Outriding all dangers, she arrived in Hampton Roads on Saturday +evening, March 8, where the mournful condition of things did not +diminish the dispiriting effect of the voyage upon her crew. The +_Cumberland_ was sunk, the _Congress_ was burning, the _Minnesota_ was +aground, and everybody was dismayed. But Worden seems to have had no +lack of confidence in his vessel and his crew. He took on a volunteer +pilot, and promptly in the morning went out to his work. He first +drove away the wooden vessels that were making for the helpless +_Minnesota_, and then steered straight for the _Merrimac_, which was +now coming down the channel. + +The Confederates had known about the building of the _Monitor_ (which +they called the _Ericsson_), just as the authorities at Washington had +known all about the _Merrimac_. When their men first saw her, they +described her as "a cheese-box on a raft," and were surprised at her +apparently diminutive size. Buchanan had been seriously wounded in the +action of the previous day, and the Confederate iron-clad was now +commanded by Lieutenant Jones. + +Worden stationed himself in the pilot-house, with the pilot and a +quartermaster to man the wheel, while his executive officer, Lieut. +Samuel D. Greene, was in the turret, commanding the guns, which were +worked by chief engineer Stimers and sixteen men. The total number of +men in the _Monitor_ was fifty-seven; the _Merrimac_ had about three +hundred. + +[Illustration: BATTLE BETWEEN THE "MONITOR" AND "MERRIMAC," HAMPTON +ROADS, VIRGINIA, MARCH 9, 1862.] + +{86} [Illustration: THE FIGHT OF THE "MONITOR" AND "MERRIMAC," HAMPTON +ROADS. FEDERAL FLEET IN THE FOREGROUND.] + +The _Merrimac_ began firing as soon as the two iron-clads were within +long range of each other, but Worden reserved his fire for short +range. Then the battle was fairly open, the National vessel firing +solid shot, about one in eight minutes, while the Confederates used +shells exclusively and fired much more rapidly. The shells struck the +turret and made numerous scars, but inflicted no serious damage, +except occasionally when a man was leaning against the side at the +moment of impact and was injured by the concussion. Worden had his +eyes at the sight-hole when a shell struck it and exploded, +temporarily blinding him, and injuring him so severely that he turned +over the command to Lieutenant Greene and took no further part in the +action. Each vessel attempted to ram the other, but always without +success. Once when the _Monitor_ made a dash at the {87} _Merrimac's_ +stern, to disable her steering-gear, the two guns were discharged at +once at a distance of only a few yards. The two ponderous shots, +striking close together, crushed in the iron plates several inches, +and produced a concussion that knocked over the entire crews of the +after guns and caused many of them to bleed at the nose and ears. The +officers of the _Monitor_ had received peremptory orders to use but +fifteen pounds of powder at a charge. Experts say that if they had +used the normal charge of thirty pounds their shots would undoubtedly +have penetrated the _Merrimac_ and either sunk her or compelled her +surrender. The _Monitor_ had an advantage in the fact that she drew +but half as much water as the _Merrimac_ and could move with much +greater celerity. The fight continued for about four hours, and the +Confederate iron-clad then returned to Norfolk, and she never came +down to fight again till the 11th of April, when no battle took place +because both vessels had orders to remain on the defensive, each +Government being afraid to risk the loss of its only iron-clad in +those waters. The indentations on the _Monitor_ showed that she had +been struck twenty-two times, but she was not in any way disabled. +Twenty of her shots struck the _Merrimac_, some of which smashed the +outer layers of iron plates. It was claimed that the _Merrimac_ would +have sunk the _Monitor_ by ramming, had she not lost her iron prow +when she rammed the _Cumberland_ the day before; but a description of +the prow, which was only of cast iron and not very large, makes this +at least doubtful. + +Just what damage the _Merrimac_ received in the fight is not known. +But it was observed that she went into it with her bow up and her +stern down, and went out with her bow down and her stern up; that on +withdrawing she was at once surrounded by four tugs, into which her +men immediately jumped; and she went into the dry-dock for repairs. + +[Illustration: CAPTAIN JOHN L. WORDEN. (Afterward Rear-Admiral.) +Commanding the "Monitor."] + +[Illustration: COMMANDER FRANKLIN BUCHANAN, C. S. N. Commanding the +"Merrimac."] + +[Illustration: LIEUTENANT S. DANA GREENE. Executive Officer of the +"Monitor."] + +The significance of the battle was not so much in its immediate result +as in its effect upon all naval armaments, and because of this it +attracted world-wide attention. The London _Times_ declared: "There is +not now a ship in the English navy, apart from these two [the +_Warrior_ and the _Ironside_], that it would not be madness to trust +to an engagement with that little _Monitor_." The United States +Government ordered the building of more monitors, some with two +turrets, and they did excellent service, notably in the battle of +Mobile Bay. + +In May, when Norfolk was captured, an attempt was made to take the +_Merrimac_ up the James River; but she got aground, and was finally +abandoned and blown up. When the Confederates refitted her they +rechristened her _Virginia_, but the original name sticks to her in +history. In December of that year the _Monitor_ attempted to go to +Beaufort, N. C., towed by a steamer; but she foundered in a gale off +Cape Hatteras and went to the bottom, carrying with her a dozen of the +crew. + +[Illustration] + +{88} [Illustration: LOSS OF THE "MONITOR" IN A STORM OFF CAPE +HATTERAS, DECEMBER 30, 1862.--GALLANT EFFORTS TO RESCUE THE CREW.] + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +THE CAPTURE OF NEW ORLEANS. + +NEW ORLEANS THE LARGEST SOUTHERN CITY--FORTS ON THE MISSISSIPPI--CAPT. +DAVID G. FARRAGUT CHOSEN COMMANDER--GEN. BENJAMIN F. BUTLER IN COMMAND +OF LAND FORCES--TERRIFIC BOMBARDMENT OF THE FORTS--CUTTING THE CHAIN +ACROSS THE MISSISSIPPI--THE GREAT NAVAL BATTLE IN THE NIGHT--ALL THE +FORTS AND THE CONFEDERATE FLEET CAPTURED BY FARRAGUT--SURRENDER OF NEW +ORLEANS--GENERAL BUTLER'S CELEBRATED "WOMAN ORDER." + + +The Crescent City was by far the largest and richest in the +Confederacy. In 1860 it had a population of nearly one hundred and +seventy thousand, while Richmond, Mobile, and Charleston together had +fewer than two-thirds as many. In 1860-61 it shipped twenty-five +million dollars' worth of sugar and ninety-two million dollars' worth +of cotton, its export trade in these articles being larger than that +of any other city in the world. Moreover, its strategic value in that +war was greater than that of any other point in the Southern States. +The many mouths of the Mississippi, and the frequency of violent gales +in the Gulf, rendered it difficult to blockade commerce between that +great river and the ocean; but the possession of this lowest +commercial point on the stream would shut it off effectively, and +would go far toward securing possession all the way to Cairo. This +would cut the Confederacy in two, and make it difficult to bring +supplies from Texas and Arkansas to feed the armies in Tennessee and +Virginia. Moreover, a great city is in itself a serious loss to one +belligerent and a capital prize to the other. + +As soon as it became evident that war was being waged against the +United States in dead earnest, and that it was likely to be prolonged, +these considerations presented themselves to the Government, and a +plan was matured for capture of the largest city in the territory of +the insurgents. + +{89} [Illustration: PANORAMIC VIEW OF NEW ORLEANS--FEDERAL FLEET AT +ANCHOR IN THE RIVER.] + +The defences of New Orleans against an enemy approaching from the sea +consisted of two forts, on either side of the stream, {90} thirty +miles above the head of the five great passes through which it flows +to the Gulf. The smaller, Fort St. Philip, on the left bank, was of +earth and brick, with flanking batteries, and all its guns were _en +barbette_--on the top, in plain sight. These numbered about forty. +Fort Jackson, on the right bank, mounted seventy-five guns, fourteen +of which were in bomb-proof casemates. Both of these works had been +built by the United States Government. They were now garrisoned by +about one thousand five hundred Confederate soldiers, commanded by +Gen. Johnson K. Duncan. Above them lay a Confederate fleet of fifteen +vessels, including an iron-clad ram and a large floating battery that +was covered with railroad iron. Just below the forts a heavy chain was +stretched across the river--perhaps suggested by the similar device +employed to keep the British from sailing up the Hudson during the +Revolutionary war. And it had a similar experience; for, at first +supported by a row of enormous logs, it was swept away by the next +freshet. The logs were then replaced by hulks anchored at intervals +across the stream, and the chain ran over their decks, while its ends +were fastened to great trees. One thing more completed the +defence--two hundred sharp-shooters patrolled the banks between the +forts and the head of the passes, to give warning of an approaching +foe and fire at any one that might be seen on the decks. + +[Illustration: FROM PENSACOLA TO THE MOUTH OF THE MISSISSIPPI.] + +The idea at Washington, probably originated by Commander (now Admiral) +David D. Porter, was that the forts could be reduced by raining into +them a sufficient shower of enormous shells, to be thrown high into +the air, come down almost perpendicularly, and explode on striking. +Accordingly, the first care was to make the mortars and shells, and +provide the craft to carry them. Twenty-one mortars were cast, which +were mounted on twenty-one schooners. They threw shells thirteen +inches in diameter, weighing two hundred and eighty-five pounds; and +when one of them was discharged, the concussion of the atmosphere was +so great that no man could stand close by without being literally +deafened. Platforms projecting beyond the decks were therefore +provided, for the gunners to step out upon just before firing. + +[Illustration: COMMANDER DAVID D. PORTER. (Afterward Rear-Admiral.)] + +The remainder of the fleet, as finally made up, consisted of six +sloops-of-war, sixteen gunboats, and five other vessels, besides +transports carrying fifteen thousand troops commanded by Gen. B. F. +Butler. The whole number of guns was over two hundred. The flagship +_Hartford_ was a wooden steam sloop-of-war, one thousand tons' burden, +with a length of two hundred and twenty-five feet, and a breadth of +forty-four feet. She carried twenty-two nine-inch guns, two +twenty-pounder Parrott guns, and a rifled gun on the forecastle, while +her fore and main tops were furnished with howitzers and surrounded +with boiler iron to protect the gunners. The _Brooklyn_, _Richmond_, +_Pensacola_, _Portsmouth_, and _Oneida_ were similar to the +_Hartford_. The _Colorado_ was larger. The _Mississippi_ was a large +side-wheel steamer. + +This was the most powerful expedition that had ever sailed under the +American flag, and the man that was chosen to command it, Capt. David +G. Farragut, was as unknown to the public as Ulysses S. Grant had +been. But he was not unknown to his fellow-officers. Farragut was now +sixty years of age, being one of the oldest men that took part in the +war, and he had been in the navy half a century. He sailed the Pacific +with Commodore Porter years before Grant and Sherman were born, and +participated in the bloody encounter of the _Essex_ and _Phoebe_ in +the harbor of Valparaiso. He was {91} especially familiar with the +Gulf of Mexico, and had pursued pirates through its waters and hunted +and fought them on its islands. There was nothing to be done on +shipboard that he could not do to perfection, and he could have filled +the place of any man in the fleet--except perhaps the surgeon's. He +was born in Tennessee, and married twice in Virginia; and if there had +been a peaceable separation he would probably have made his home in +the South. He was at Norfolk, waiting orders, when Virginia seceded, +but he considered that his first duty was to the National Government, +which had educated him for its service and given him rank and +employment. When he said that "Virginia had been dragooned out of the +Union," and that he thought the President was justified in calling for +troops after the firing on Sumter, he was told by his angry neighbors +that a person holding such sentiments could not live in Norfolk. "Very +well, then," said he, "I can live somewhere else." So he made his way +North with his little family, and informed the Government that he was +ready and anxious for any service that might be assigned to him. + +This was in April, 1861; but it was not till January, 1862, that he +was appointed to command the New Orleans expedition and the Western +gulf blockading squadron. He sailed from Hampton Roads February 2, in +the flag-ship _Hartford_. Some sentences from the sailing-orders +addressed to him by the Secretary of the Navy, Gideon Welles, are +significant and suggestive. "As you have expressed yourself perfectly +satisfied with the force given to you, and as many more powerful +vessels will be added before you can commence operations, the +department and the country require of you success.... There are other +operations of minor importance which will commend themselves to your +judgment and skill, but which must not be allowed to interfere with +the great object in view, the certain capture of the city of New +Orleans.... Destroy the armed barriers which these deluded people have +raised up against the power of the United States Government, and shoot +down those who war against the Union; but cultivate with cordiality +the first returning reason which is sure to follow your success." In a +single respect Farragut was not satisfied with his fleet. He had no +faith in the mortars, and would rather have gone without them; but +they had been ordered before he was consulted, and were under the +command of his personal friend Porter. Perhaps his distrust of them +arose from his knowledge that, in 1815, a British fleet had +unavailingly thrown a thousand shells into a fort at this very turn of +the river where he was now to make the attack. + +The mortar schooners were to rendezvous first at Key West, and sail +then for Ship Island, off Lake Borgne, where the transports were to +take the troops and the war-vessels were to meet as soon as possible. + +A considerable portion of March was gone before enough of the fleet +had reached the rendezvous to begin operations. The first difficulty +was to get into the river. The Eads jetties did not then exist, and +the shifting mud-banks made constant soundings necessary for large +vessels. The mortar schooners went in by Pass ŕ l'Outre without +difficulty; but to get the _Brooklyn_, _Mississippi_, and _Pensacola_ +over the bar at Southwest Pass required immense labor, and occupied +two or three weeks. The _Mississippi_ was dragged over with her keel +ploughing a furrow a foot deep in the river bottom, and the _Colorado_ +could not be taken over at all. + +[Illustration: INGENIOUS METHOD OF DISGUISING COMMANDER PORTER'S +MORTAR FLOTILLA.] + +The masts of the mortar schooners were dressed off with bushes, to +render them indistinguishable from the trees on shore near the forts. +The schooners were then towed up to a point within range, and moored +where the woods hid them, so that they could not be seen from the +forts. Lieut. F. H. Gerdes of the Coast Survey had made a careful map +of that part of the river and its banks, and elaborate calculations by +which the mortars were to be fired with a computed aim, none of the +gunners being able to see what they fired at. They opened fire on +April {92} 18, and kept up the bombardment steadily for six days and +nights. Six thousand enormous shells--eight hundred tons of iron--were +thrown high into the air, and fell in and around the forts. For nearly +a week the garrison saw one of Porter's aërolites dropping upon them +every minute and a half. They demolished buildings, they tore up the +ground, they cut the levee and let in water, and they killed and +mangled men; but they did not render the forts untenable nor silence +their guns. The return fire sank one of the mortar boats and disabled +a steamer. Within the forts about fifty men were killed or +wounded--one for every sixteen tons of iron thrown. + +[Illustration: SHIP ISLAND.] + +While the fleet was awaiting the progress of this bombardment, a new +danger appeared. The Confederates had prepared several flat-boats +loaded with dry wood smeared with tar and turpentine; and they now set +fire to them one after another, and let them float down the stream. +But Farragut sent out boats' crews to meet them, who grappled them +with hooks, and either towed them ashore or conducted them past the +fleet, and let them float down through the passes and out to sea. + +In his General Orders, Farragut gave so many minute directions that it +would seem as if he must have anticipated every possible contingency. +Thus: "Trim your vessel a few inches by the head [that is, place the +contents so that she will sink a little deeper at the bow than at the +stern], so that if she touches the bottom she will not swing head down +the river." "Have light Jacob-ladders made, to throw over the side for +the use of the carpenters in stopping shot-holes, who are to be +supplied with pieces of inch-board, lined with felt, and ordinary +nails." "Have a kedge in the mizzen chains on the quarter, with a +hawser bent and leading through in the stern chock, ready for any +emergency; also grapnels in boats, ready to tow off fire-ships." "Have +many tubs of water about the decks, both for extinguishing fire and +for drinking." "You will have a spare hawser ready, and when ordered +to take in tow your next astern do so, keeping the hawser slack so +long as the ship can maintain her own position, having a care not to +foul the propeller." It was this minute knowledge and forethought, +quite as much as his courage and determination, that insured his +success. In addition to his own suggestions he called upon his men to +exercise their wits for the occasion, and the crews originated many +wise precautions. As the attack was to be in the night, they painted +the decks white to enable them to find things. They got out all the +spare chains, and hung them up and down the sides of the vessels at +the places where they would protect the machinery from the enemy's +shot. Farragut's plan was to run by the forts, damaging them as much +as possible by a rapid fire as he passed, then destroy or capture the +Confederate fleet, and proceed up the river and lay the city under his +guns. + +The time fixed upon for starting was just before moonrise (3:30 +o'clock) in the morning of April 24. On the night of the 20th two +gunboats went up the river, and a boat's crew from one of them, under +Lieut. Charles H. B. Caldwell, boarded one of the hulks and cut the +chain, under a heavy fire, making an opening sufficient for the fleet +to pass through. Near midnight of the 23d the lieutenant went up again +in a gunboat, to make sure that the passage was still open, and this +time the enemy not only fired on him, but sent down blazing rafts and +lighted enormous piles of wood that they had prepared near the ends of +the chain. The question of moonrise was no longer of the slightest +importance, since it was as light as day for miles around. Two red +lanterns displayed at the peak of the flag-ship at two o'clock gave +the signal for action, and at half-past three the whole fleet was in +motion. + +The sloop _Portsmouth_, and Porter's gunboats moved up to a {93} point +where they could engage the water-battery of Fort Jackson while the +fleet was going by. The first division of eight vessels, commanded by +Capt. Theodorus Bailey, who was almost as old and as salt as Farragut, +passed through the opening in deliberate fashion, unmindful of a fire +from Fort Jackson, ran over to the east bank, and poured grape and +canister into Fort St. Philip as they sailed by, and ten minutes +afterward found themselves engaged at close quarters with eleven +Confederate vessels. Bailey's flag-ship, the _Cayuga_, was attacked by +three at once, all trying to board her. He sent an eleven-inch shot +through one of them, and she ran aground and burst into a blaze. With +the swivel gun on his forecastle he drove off the second; and he was +preparing to board the third when the _Oneida_ and _Varuna_ came to +his assistance. The _Oneida_ ran at full speed into one Confederate +vessel, cutting it nearly in two, and in an instant making it a +shapeless wreck. She fired into others, and then went to the +assistance of the _Varuna_, which had been attacked by two, rammed by +both of them, and was now at the shore, where she sank in a few +minutes. But she had done effective work before she perished, +crippling one enemy so that she surrendered to the _Oneida_, driving +another ashore, and exploding a shell in the boiler of a third. The +_Pensacola_ steamed slowly by the forts, doing great execution with +her rifled guns, and in turn sustaining the heaviest loss in the +fleet--thirty-seven men. In an open field men can dodge a cannon-ball; +but when it comes bouncing in at a port-hole unannounced, it sometimes +destroys a whole gun's-crew in the twinkling of an eye. In such an +action men are under the highest possible excitement; every nerve is +awake, and every muscle tense; and when a ball strikes one it +completely shatters him, as if he were made of glass, and the shreds +are scattered over the ship. The _Mississippi_ sailed up in handsome +style, encountered the Confederate ram _Manassas_, and received a blow +that disabled her machinery. But in turn she riddled the ram and set +it on fire, so that it drifted away and blew up. The other vessels of +this division, with various fortune, passed the forts and participated +in the naval battle. + +The second division consisted of three sloops of war, the flag-ship +leading. The _Hartford_ received and returned a heavy fire from the +forts, got aground on a shoal while trying to avoid a fire-raft, and a +few minutes later had another raft pushed against her, which set her +on fire. A portion of the crew was detailed to extinguish the flames, +and all the while her guns were loaded and fired as steadily as if +nothing had happened. Presently she was got afloat again, and +proceeded up the river, when, suddenly, through the smoke, as it was +lighted by the flashes of the guns, she saw a steamer filled with men +bearing down upon her, probably with the intention of carrying her by +boarding. But a ready gun planted a huge shell in the mysterious +stranger, which exploded, and she disappeared--going to the bottom, +for aught that anybody knew. The _Brooklyn_, after getting out of her +course and running upon one of the hulks, finally got through, met a +large Confederate steamer, and gave it a broadside that set it on +fire, and then poured such a rain of shot into St. Philip that the +bastions were cleared in a minute, and in the flashes the gunners +could be seen running to shelter. A Confederate gunboat that attacked +her received eleven shells from her, all of which exploded, and it +then ran ashore in flames. The _Richmond_ sailed through steadily and +worked her guns regularly, meeting with small loss, because she was +more completely provided with splinter-nettings than her consorts, as +well as because she came after them. + +[Illustration: CAPTAIN DAVID G. FARRAGUT. (Afterward Admiral.)] + +[Illustration: COMMANDER C. S. BOGGS. (Afterward Rear-Admiral.)] + +[Illustration: CAPTAIN THEODORUS BAILEY. (Afterward Rear-Admiral.)] + +{94} [Illustration: PASSAGE OF THE SECOND DIVISION OF THE FEDERAL +SQUADRON BY FORTS JACKSON AND ST. PHILIP.] + +{95} The third division consisted of six gunboats. Two of them became +entangled among the hulks, and failed to pass. Another received a shot +in her boiler, which compelled her to drop down stream and out of the +fight. The other three went through in gallant style, both suffering +and inflicting considerable loss from continuous firing, and burned +two steamboats and drove another ashore before they came up with the +advance divisions of the fleet. The entire loss had been thirty-seven +killed and one hundred and forty-seven wounded. + +Captain Bailey, in the _Cayuga_, still keeping the lead, found a +regiment encamped at Quarantine Station, and compelled its surrender. +On the morning of the 25th the Chalmette batteries, three miles below +the city, were silenced by a fire from the sloops, and a little later +the city itself was at the mercy of their guns. At noon Captain +Bailey, accompanied only by Lieut. George H. Perkins, with a flag of +truce, went ashore, passed through an excited crowd that apparently +only needed a word to be turned into a mob, and demanded of the Mayor +that the city be surrendered unconditionally and the Louisiana State +flag at once hauled down from the staff on the City Hall. Bailey +raised the stars and stripes over the Mint; but the Mayor at first +refused to strike his colors, and set out upon an elaborate course of +letter-writing, which was of no consequence except as it furnished +another instance of the fatuity that grasps at a shadow after the +substance is gone. + +[Illustration: CAPTURE OF NEW ORLEANS.] + +A letter written by Lieutenant Perkins at the time gives a vivid +description of this incident, which is interesting in that it exhibits +the effect upon the first people of the South who realized the +possibility of their being conquered. "Among the crowd were many women +and children, and the women were shaking rebel flags and being rude +and noisy. As we advanced, the mob followed us in a very excited +state. They gave three cheers for Jeff Davis and Beauregard, and three +groans for Lincoln. Then they began to throw things at us, and shout, +'Hang them! Hang them!' We reached the City Hall in safety, and there +found the Mayor and Council. They seemed in a very solemn state of +mind; though I must say, from what they said, they did not impress me +as having much mind about anything. The Mayor said he had nothing to +do with the city, as it was under martial law, and we were obliged to +wait till General Lovell could arrive. In about half an hour this +gentleman appeared. He was very pompous in his manner, and silly and +airy in his remarks. He had about fifteen thousand troops under his +command, and said he would 'never surrender,' but would withdraw his +troops from the city as soon as possible, when the city would fall +into the hands of the Mayor, and he could do as he pleased with it. +The mob outside had by this {96} time become perfectly infuriated. +They kicked at the doors, and swore they would have us out and hang +us. Every person about us who had any sense of responsibility was +frightened for our safety. As soon as the mob found out that General +Lovell was not going to surrender, they swore they would have us out +any way; but Pierre Soule and some others went out and made speeches +to them, and kept them on one side of the building, while we went out +at the other end and were driven to the wharf in a close carriage. The +Mayor told the Flag-officer this morning that the city was in the +hands of the mob, and was at our mercy, and that he might blow it up +or do with it as he chose." + +[Illustration: OLD CITY HALL, NEW ORLEANS, WHERE THE SURRENDER OF THE +CITY WAS DEMANDED.] + +[Illustration: MAJOR-GENERAL MANSFIELD LOVELL, C. S. A.] + +[Illustration: THOS. O. MOORE, GOVERNOR OF LOUISIANA.] + +On the night of the 24th, by order of the authorities in the city, the +torch was applied to everything, except buildings, that could be of +use to the victors. Fifteen thousand bales of cotton, heaps of coal +and wood, dry-docks, a dozen steamboats and as many cotton-ships, and +an unfinished ironclad ram were all burned. Barrels were rolled out +and broken open, the levee ran with molasses, and the poor people +carried away the sugar in their baskets and aprons. The Governor +called upon the people of the State to burn their cotton, and two +hundred and fifty thousand bales were destroyed. + +Butler had witnessed the passage of the forts, and he now hurried over +his troops and invested St. Philip on the land side, while Porter sent +some of his mortar-boats to a bay in the rear of Fort Jackson, and in +a few days both works were surrendered. Farragut sent two hundred and +fifty marines into the city to take formal possession and guard the +public buildings. Butler arrived there with his forces on the 1st of +May, and it was then turned over to him, and it remained in Federal +possession throughout the war. His administration of the captured +city, from May to December, was the subject of much angry controversy; +but no one denies that he reduced its turbulence to order, made it +cleaner than it had ever been before, and averted a pestilence. He +also caused provisions to be issued regularly to many of the needy +inhabitants. + +The most famous incident of his administration was what became known +as "the woman order." Many of the women of New Orleans, even while +they were living on food issued to them by the National commissary, +took every possible pains to flaunt their disloyalty and to express +contempt for the wearers of the blue uniform. If an officer entered a +street car, all the women would immediately leave it. If a detachment +of soldiers passed through a residence street, many windows were +thrown open and "Dixie" or the "Bonny Blue Flag" was loudly played on +the piano. If the women met an individual soldier on the sidewalk, +they drew their skirts closely around them and passed at its extreme +edge. And all the while they took every opportunity to display small +rebel flags on their bosoms and to proclaim loudly that their city was +"captured but not conquered." These things were borne with patience; +but when one woman, enraged at the imperturbable calmness of the +city's captors, stepped up to two officers in the street and spat in +their faces, General Butler judged that the time for putting a stop to +such proceedings had come. Accordingly, he issued General Orders No. +28, which read thus: + +"As the officers and soldiers of the United States have been subject +to repeated insults from the women (calling themselves ladies) of New +Orleans, in return for the most scrupulous noninterference and +courtesy on our part, it is ordered that hereafter when any female +shall, by word, gesture, or movement, insult or show contempt for any +officer or soldier of the United States, she shall be regarded and +held liable to be treated as a woman of the town plying her +avocation." + +This immediately produced two effects. It put an end to the +annoyances, and it raised an uproar of denunciation based upon the +assumption that the commanding officer had ordered his soldiers to +insult and assault the ladies of New Orleans. Of course no such thing +was intended, or could be implied from any proper construction of the +words of the order; but in war, as in politics, it is sometimes +considered good strategy to misrepresent an opponent. However honest +any Confederate {97} citizen or editor may have been in his +misconstruction of it, no soldier misunderstood it, and no incivility +was offered to the women who were thus subdued by the wit and moral +courage of perhaps the most successful man that ever undertook the +task of ruling a turbulent city. + +One other incident attested the firmness of General Butler's purpose, +and assured the citizens of the presence of a power that was not to be +trifled with. After Farragut had captured the city and raised the +National colors over the Mint, four men were seen to ascend to the +roof and tear down the flag, and it was only by a lucky accident that +the gunners of the fleet were prevented from instantly discharging a +broadside into the streets. The act was exploited in the New Orleans +papers, which ostentatiously published the names of the four men and +praised their gallantry. General Butler caused the leader of the four, +a gambler, to be arrested and tried by a court-martial. He was +sentenced to death, and in spite of every solicitation the General +refused to pardon him. He was hanged in the presence of an immense +crowd of citizens, the gallows being a beam run out from one of the +windows of the highest story of the Mint building. + +[Illustration: GROUP OF SAILORS ON A GUNBOAT.] + +[Illustration: GENERAL BUTLER'S HEADQUARTERS, NEW ORLEANS.] + +At the first news of this achievement the people of the North hardly +appreciated what had been accomplished; many of their newspapers told +them that the fleet "had only run by the forts." But as they gradually +learned the particulars, and saw that in fighting obstructions, +fire-rafts, forts, rams, and fleet, and conquering them all, Farragut +had done what neither Nelson nor any other great admiral had ever done +before, they felt that the country had produced a worthy companion for +the victor of Donelson, and was equal to all emergencies, afloat or +ashore. + +{98} [Illustration: CAPTURE OF ISLAND No. 10, DURING A VIOLENT +HURRICANE, APRIL 1, 1862.] + + + + +{99} + +CHAPTER XI. + +THE CAMPAIGN OF SHILOH. + +OPERATIONS AT ISLAND NO. 10 AND NEW MADRID--NAVAL BATTLE ON THE +MISSISSIPPI--THE BLOODIEST BATTLE WEST OF THE +ALLEGHANIES--COMMENCEMENT OF BATTLE OF SHILOH, SUNDAY, APRIL 6, +1862--TERRIBLE LOSSES ON BOTH SIDES--TRAGIC DEATH OF GENERAL ALBERT +SIDNEY JOHNSTON--GENERALS WALLACE, HINDMAN, AND GLADDEN +KILLED--GENERAL GRANT LEADING A REGIMENT--PUBLIC MISUNDERSTANDING +REGARDING THIS GREAT BATTLE--INTERESTING INCIDENTS OF THE FIGHT--FATE +OF CONFEDERACY DETERMINED AT SHILOH. + + +When the first line that the Confederates had attempted to establish +from the mountains to the Mississippi was broken by the battle of Mill +Springs and the fall of Forts Henry and Donelson, their forces at +Columbus were withdrawn down the river to the historic latitude of 36° +30'. Here the Mississippi makes a great sigmoid curve. In the first +bend is Island No. 10 (the islands are numbered from the mouth of the +Ohio southward); and at the second bend, on the Missouri side, is New +Madrid. Both of these places were fortified, under the direction of +Gen. Leonidas Polk, who had been Bishop of the Protestant Episcopal +diocese of Louisiana for twenty years before the war, but entered the +military service to give the Confederacy the benefit of his West Point +education. A floating dock was brought up from New Orleans, converted +into a floating battery, and anchored near the island; and there were +also eight gunboats commanded by Commodore George N. Hollins. The +works on the island were supplemented by batteries on the Tennessee +shore, back of which were impassable swamps. Thus the Mississippi was +sealed, and a position established for the left (or western extremity) +of a new line of defence. + +[Illustration: CONSTRUCTING MILITARY ROAD THROUGH SWAMP.] + +Early in March, 1862, a National army commanded by Gen. John Pope +moved down the west bank of the Mississippi against the position at +New Madrid. A reconnoissance in force demonstrated that the place +could be carried by storm, but could not be held, since the +Confederate gunboats were able (the river being then at high water) to +enfilade both the works and the approaches. General Pope went into +camp two miles from the river, and sent to Cairo for siege-guns, +meanwhile sending three regiments and a battery, under Gen. J. B. +Plummer, around to a point below New Madrid, where in the night they +sunk trenches for the field-guns and placed sharp-shooters at the edge +of the bank, and next day opened a troublesome fire on the passing +gunboats and transports. Four guns were forwarded promptly from Cairo, +being taken across the Mississippi and over a long stretch of swampy +ground where a road had been hastily prepared for the purpose, and +arriving at dusk on the 12th. That night Pope's forces crowded back +the Confederate pickets, dug trenches, and placed the guns in +position. The enemy's first intimation of what was going on was +obtained from a bombardment that opened at daylight. The firing was +kept up through the day, and some damage was inflicted on both sides; +but the next night, in the midst of a heavy storm, New Madrid was +evacuated. The National forces took possession, and immediately +changed the positions of the guns so as to command the river. On the +16th five Confederate gunboats attacked these batteries; but after one +boat had been sunk and some of the others damaged, they drew off. On +the 16th and 17th the National fleet of gunboats, under Commodore +Andrew H. Foote, engaged the batteries on Island No. 10, and a hundred +heavy guns were in action at once. The ramparts in some places had +been weakened by the wash of the river, and the great balls went right +through them. But the artillerymen stood to their work manfully, many +of them in water ankle deep; and though enormous shells exploded +within the forts, and one gun burst and another was dismounted, the +works were not reduced. A gun that burst in the fleet killed or +wounded fourteen men. The attack was renewed from day to day, and one +of the batteries was cleared of troops, but with no decisive effect. + +At the suggestion of Gen. Schuyler Hamilton, a canal was cut across +the peninsula formed by the bend of the river above New Madrid. This +task was confided to a regiment of engineers commanded by Col. Josiah +W. Bissell, and was completed in nineteen days. The course was +somewhat tortuous, and the whole length of the canal was twelve miles. +Half of the distance lay through a thick forest standing in deep +water; but by an ingenious contrivance the trunks of the trees were +sawed off four and a half feet below the surface, and a channel fifty +feet wide and four feet deep was secured, through which transports +could be passed. + +On the night of April 4th the gunboat _Carondelet_, Commander Henry +Walke, ran down past the batteries of Island No. 10, escaping serious +damage, and in the night of the 6th the _Pittsburg_ performed the same +feat. With the help of these to silence the batteries on the opposite +shore, Pope crossed in force on the 7th, and moved rapidly down the +little peninsula. The {100} greater part of the Confederate troops +that had been holding the island now attempted to escape southward, +but were caught between Pope's army and an impassable swamp, and +surrendered. General Pope's captures in the entire campaign were three +generals, two hundred and seventy-three officers, and six thousand +seven hundred men, besides one hundred and fifty-eight guns, seven +thousand muskets, one gunboat, a floating battery, six steamers, and a +considerable quantity of stores. + +[Illustration: SURRENDER OF CONFEDERATE FORCES AFTER RETREAT FROM +ISLAND No. 10.] + +[Illustration: REAR-ADMIRAL ANDREW H. FOOTE.] + +[Illustration: LIEUTENANT-GENERAL LEONIDAS POLK, C. S. A.] + +On the very day of this bloodless victory, a little log church in +southwestern Tennessee gave name to the bloodiest battle that has been +fought west of the Alleghanies--Chickamauga being rather _in_ the +mountains. At Corinth, in northern Mississippi, the Memphis and +Charleston Railroad crosses the Mobile and Ohio. This gave that point +great strategic importance, and it was fortified accordingly and held +by a large Confederate force, which was commanded by Gen. Albert +Sidney Johnston (who must not be confounded with the Confederate Gen. +Joseph E. Johnston). His lieutenants were Gens. G. T. Beauregard, +Braxton Bragg, and William J. Hardee. General Grant, who had nearly +forty thousand men under his command, and was about to be joined by +Gen. Don Carlos Buell coming from Nashville with as many more, +proposed to move against Corinth and capture the place. + +On Sunday, April 6th, Grant's main force was at Pittsburg Landing, on +the west bank of the Tennessee, twenty miles north of Corinth. One +division, under Gen. Lew Wallace, was at Crump's Landing, five miles +farther north. The advance division of Buell's army had reached the +river, opposite the landings, and the remainder was a march behind. +For some days Johnston had been moving northward to attack Grant, and +there had been skirmishing between the outposts. Early on the morning +of the 6th he came within striking distance, and made a sudden and +heavy attack. Grant's line was about two miles long, the left resting +on Lick Creek, an impassable stream that flows into the Tennessee +above Pittsburg Landing, and the right on Owl Creek, which flows in +below. Gen. Benjamin M. Prentiss's division was on the left, Gen. John +A. McClernand's in the centre, and Gen. William T. Sherman's on the +right. Gen. Stephen A. Hurlbut's was in reserve on the left, and Gen. +C. F. Smith's (now commanded by W. H. L. Wallace) on the right. There +were no {101} intrenchments. The ground was undulating, with patches +of woods alternating with cleared fields, some of which were under +cultivation and others abandoned and overgrown with bushes. A ridge, +on which stood Shiloh church, formed an important key-point in +Sherman's front. + +General Grant, in his headquarters at Savannah, down the river, heard +the firing while he was at breakfast, and hurried up to Pittsburg +Landing. He had expected to be attacked, if at all, at Crump's +Landing, and he now ordered Lew Wallace, with his five thousand men, +to leave that place and march at once to the right of the line at +Shiloh; but Wallace took the wrong road, and did not arrive till dark. +Neither did Gen. William Nelson's advance division of General Buell's +army cross the river till evening. + +The attack began at daybreak, and was made with tremendous force and +in full confidence of success. The nature of the ground made +regularity of movement impossible, and the battle was rather a series +of assaults by separate columns, now at one part of the line and now +at another, which were kept up all day with wonderful persistence. +Probably no army ever went into action with more perfect confidence in +itself and its leaders than Johnston's. Beauregard had told them they +should sleep that night in the camps of the enemy, and they did. He +also told them that he would water his horse in the Tennessee, but he +did not. The heaviest attacks fell upon Sherman and McClernand, whose +men stood up to the work with unflinching courage and disputed every +inch of ground. But they were driven back by overwhelming numbers, +which the Confederate commanders poured upon them without the +slightest regard to losses. The Sixth Mississippi regiment lost three +hundred men out of its total of four hundred and twenty-five, and the +Eighteenth Louisiana lost two hundred and seven. Sherman's men lost +their camps in the morning, and retired upon one new line of defence +after another, till they had been crowded back more than a mile; but +all the while they clung to the road and bridge by which they were +expecting Lew Wallace to come to their assistance. General Grant says +of an open field on this part of the line, over which repeated charges +were made, that it was "so covered with dead that it would have been +possible to walk across the clearing in any direction, stepping on +dead bodies, without a foot touching the ground. On our side National +and Confederate troops were mingled together in about equal +proportions; but on the remainder of the field nearly all were +Confederates. On one part, which had evidently not been ploughed for +several years, bushes had grown up, some to the height of eight or ten +feet. Not one of these was left standing unpierced by bullets. The +smaller ones were all cut down." + +Many of the troops were under fire for the first time; but Sherman's +wonderful military genius largely made up for this deficiency. One +bullet struck Sherman in the hand, another grazed his shoulder, +another went through his hat, and several of his horses were killed. A +bullet struck and shattered the scabbard of General Grant's sword. +Gen. W. H. L. Wallace was mortally wounded. On the other side, Gens. +Adley H. Gladden and Thomas C. Hindman were killed; at about half-past +two o'clock General Johnston, placing himself at the head of a brigade +that was reluctant to attempt another charge, was struck in the leg by +a minie-ball. The wound need not have been mortal; but he would not +leave the field, and after a time bled to death. The command then +devolved upon General Beauregard. + +In the afternoon a gap occurred between General Prentiss's division +and the rest of the line, and the Confederates were prompt to take +advantage of it. Rushing with a heavy force through this gap, and at +the same time attacking his left, they doubled up both flanks, and +captured that general and two thousand two hundred of his men. On this +part of the field the day was saved by Col. J. D. Webster, of General +Grant's staff, who rapidly got twenty guns into position and checked +the Confederate advance. They then attempted to come in on the extreme +left, along the river, by crossing a ravine. But more guns were +brought up, and placed on a ridge that commanded this ravine, and at +the same time the gunboats _Tyler_ and _Lexington_ moved up to a point +opposite and enfiladed it with their fire. The result to the +Confederates was nothing but a useless display of valor and a heavy +loss. + +[Illustration: A FEDERAL GUNBOAT.] + +[Illustration: BRIGADIER-GENERAL GEORGE W. CULLUM.] + +[Illustration: MAJOR-GENERAL SCHUYLER HAMILTON.] + +{102} [Illustration: FINAL STAND OF THE ARMY OF GENERAL GRANT, APRIL +6, 1862, NEAR PITTSBURG LANDING.] + +The uneven texture of Grant's army had been shown when two green +colonels led their green regiments from the field at the first fire; +and the {103} stragglers and deserters, having no opportunity to +scatter over the country, necessarily huddled themselves together +under the bank of the river at the landing, where they presented a +pitiful appearance. General Grant says there were nearly five thousand +of them. There was about an equal number of deserters and stragglers +from Johnston's army; but the nature of the ground was not such as to +concentrate them where the eye could take them all in at one grand +review. With the exception of the break when Prentiss was captured, +Grant's line of battle was maintained all day, though it was steadily +forced back and thirty guns were lost. + +Beauregard discontinued the attack at nightfall, when his right was +repelled at the ravine, intending to renew it and finish the victory +in the morning. He knew that Buell was expected, but did not know that +he was so near. + +Lew Wallace was now in position on the right, and Nelson on the left, +and all night long the boats were plying back and forth across the +Tennessee, bringing over Buell's army. A fire in the woods, which +sprang up about dusk, threatened to add to the horrors by roasting +many of the wounded alive; but a merciful rain extinguished it, and +the two armies lay out that night in the storm. A portion of the +Confederates were sheltered by the captured tents, but on the other +hand they were annoyed by the shells constantly thrown among them by +the gunboats. + +At daylight Grant assumed the offensive, the fresh troops on his right +and left moving first to the attack. Beauregard now knew that Buell +had arrived, and he must have known also that there could be but one +result; yet he made a stubborn fight, mainly for the purpose of +holding the road that ran by Shiloh church, by which alone he could +conduct an orderly retreat. The complete upsetting of the Confederate +plans, caused by the death of Johnston, the arrival of Buell, and +Grant's promptness in assuming the offensive, is curiously suggested +by a passage in the report of one of the Confederate brigade +commanders: "I was ordered by General Ruggles to form on the extreme +left, and rest my left on Owl Creek. While proceeding to execute this +order, I was ordered to move by the rear of the main line to support +the extreme right of General Hardee's line. Having taken my position +to support General Hardee's right, I was again ordered by General +Beauregard to advance and occupy the crest of a ridge in the edge of +an old field. My line was just formed in this position when General +Polk ordered me forward to support his line. When moving to the +support of General Polk, an order reached me from General Beauregard +to report to him with my command at his headquarters." + +[Illustration: SHILOH LOG CHAPEL, WHERE THE BATTLE OF SHILOH +COMMENCED, APRIL 6, 1862.] + +The fighting was of the same general description as on the previous +day, except that the advantage was now with the National troops. +Sherman was ordered to advance his command and recapture his camps. As +these were about Shiloh church, and that was the point that Beauregard +was most anxious to hold, the struggle there was intense and bloody. +About the same time, early in the afternoon, Grant and Beauregard did +the same thing: each led a charge by two regiments that had lost their +commanders. Beauregard's charge was not successful; Grant's was, and +the two regiments that he launched with a cheer against the +Confederate line broke it, and began the rout. {104} Beauregard posted +a rear guard in a strong position, and withdrew his army, leaving his +dead on the field, while Grant captured about as many guns on the +second day as he had lost on the first. There was no serious attempt +at pursuit, owing mainly to the heavy rain and the condition of the +roads. The losses on both sides had been enormous. On the National +side the official figures are: 1,754 killed, 8,408 wounded, 2,885 +missing; total, 13,047. On the Confederate side they are: 1,728 +killed, 8,012 wounded, 957 missing; total, 10,699. General Grant says: +"This estimate must be incorrect. We buried, by actual count, more of +the enemy's dead in front of the divisions of McClernand and Sherman +alone than are here reported, and four thousand was the estimate of +the burial parties for the whole field." At all events, the loss was +large enough to gratify the ill-wishers of the American people, who +were looking on with grim satisfaction to see them destroy one +another. The losses were the same, in round numbers, as at the +historic battle of Blenheim, though the number of men engaged was +fewer by one-fourth. If we should read in to-morrow's paper that by +some disaster every man, woman, and child in the city of Concord, +N. H., had been either killed or injured, and in the next day's paper +that the same thing had happened in Montgomery, Ala., the loss of life +and limb would only equal what took place on the mournful field of +Shiloh. + +[Illustration: GENERAL ALBERT SIDNEY JOHNSTON, C. S. A.] + +[Illustration: GENERAL BRAXTON BRAGG, C. S. A.] + +[Illustration: MAJOR-GENERAL DON CARLOS BUELL.] + +[Illustration: MAJOR-GENERAL LEW WALLACE.] + +General Grant, in the first article that he ever wrote for +publication, remarks that "the battle of Shiloh, or Pittsburg Landing, +has been perhaps less understood, or, to state the case more +accurately, more persistently misunderstood, than any other engagement +between National and Confederate troops during the entire rebellion. +Correct reports of the battle have been published, but all of these +appeared long subsequent to the close of the rebellion, and after +public opinion had been most erroneously formed." No battle is ever +fought that it is not for somebody's interest to misrepresent. In the +case of Shiloh there were peculiar and complicated reasons both for +intentional misrepresentation and for innocent error. The plans of the +commanders on both sides were to some extent thwarted and changed by +unexpected events. One commander was killed on the first day, and his +admirers naturally speculate upon the different results that might +have been attained if he had lived. The ground was so broken as to +divide the engagement practically into several separate actions, and +what was true of one might not be true of another. The peculiarity of +the position also brought together in one place, under the river-bank, +all who from fright or demoralization fled to the rear of the National +army, which produced upon those who saw them an effect altogether +different from that of the usual retreating and straggling across the +whole breadth of a battle line. Then there was the circumstance of +Buell's army coming up at the end of the first day, and not coming up +before that, which could hardly fail to give rise to somewhat of +jealousy and recrimination. And finally this action encounters to an +unusual extent that criticism which reads by the light of +after-events, but forgets that this was wanting to the actors whom it +criticises. + +The point on which popular opinion was perhaps most widely and +persistently wrong was, that the defeat of the first day arose from +the fact that Grant's army was completely surprised. Public opinion, +throughout the war, was formed in advance of the official reports of +generals in three ways. There were many press correspondents with +every army, and the main purpose of most of them was to construct an +interesting story and get it into print as soon as possible. The +National Government adopted the wise policy of giving the armies in +the field such mail facilities as would keep the soldiers in close +touch with their homes, and they wrote millions of letters every year. +All that a soldier needed was some scrap of paper and some sort of pen +or pencil. If he happened to have no postage stamp, he had only to +mark his missive "Soldier's letter," and it would be carried in the +mails to its destination, and the postage collected on delivery. After +a battle every surviving soldier was especially anxious to let his +family know that he had escaped any casualty, and he naturally filled +up his letter with such particulars as had most impressed him in that +small part of the field that he had seen, and sometimes with such +exaggerated accounts as in the first excitement had reached {105} him +from other parts. Finally, the journalists were not few who assumed to +be accomplished strategists, and talked learnedly in their editorial +columns of the errors of generals and the way that battles should have +been fought. And some of them had political reasons for writing up +certain generals and writing down certain others. + +[Illustration: MAP SHOWING ROADS AND POSITION OF CAMPS BEFORE AND +DURING THE BATTLE OF SHILOH.] + +A good instance of innocent misapprehension is probably furnished in +what Lieutenant-Colonel Graves, of the Twelfth Michigan, wrote: "On +Saturday General Prentiss's division was reviewed. After the review +Major Powell, of the Twenty-fifth Missouri, came to me and said he saw +Butternuts [Confederate soldiers] looking through the underbrush at +the parade--about a dozen. Upon the representation of Major Powell and +myself, General Prentiss ordered out one company of the Twelfth +Michigan as an advance picket. About 8.30 o'clock Captain Johnson +reported from the front that he could see long lines of campfires, +hear bugle sounds and drums, which I reported to General Prentiss, and +he remarked that the company would be taken if left there; that it was +merely a reconnoissance of the enemy in force, and ordered the company +in. About ten o'clock I went with Captain Johnson to the tent of +General Prentiss, and the captain told him what he saw. The general +remarked that we need not be alarmed, that everything was all right. +To me it did not appear all right. Major Powell, myself, and several +other officers went to the headquarters of Colonel Peabody, commanding +our brigade, and related to him what had transpired. He ordered out +two companies from the Twelfth Michigan and two from the Twenty-fifth +Missouri, under command of Major Powell. About three o'clock in the +morning the advance of the enemy came up with this body of men, who +fought them till daylight, gradually falling back till they met their +regiments, which had advanced about fifty rods. There the regiments +met the enemy, and fought till overpowered, when we fell back to our +color line and re-formed. General Prentiss was so loath to believe +that the enemy was in force, that our division was not organized for +defence, but each regiment acted upon its own hook, so far as I was +able to observe. The point I wish to make is this: that, had it not +been for these four companies which were sent out by Colonel Peabody, +our whole division would have been taken in their tents, and the day +would have been lost. I shall always think that Colonel Peabody saved +the battle of Shiloh." + +[Illustration: MAJOR-GENERAL WILLIAM J. HARDEE, C. S. A.] + +[Illustration: MAJOR-GENERAL S. A. HURLBUT.] + +[Illustration: MAJOR-GENERAL B. M. PRENTISS.] + +{106} [Illustration: ADVANCE OF THE FEDERAL TROOPS ON CORINTH--GENERAL +HURLBUT'S DIVISION FORCING THEIR WAY THROUGH THE MUD.] + +{107} [Illustration: GENERAL ULYSSES S. GRANT.] + +Such was the testimony and opinion, undoubtedly honest, of an officer +of a green regiment which there for the first time participated in a +battle. The truth was, the generals of the National forces were not +ignorant of the near approach of the enemy. Reconnoissances, +especially in Sherman's front, had shown that. They were only waiting +for all their forces to come up to make an attack themselves, and when +Buell arrived they did make that attack and were successful. General +Prentiss's division, so far from being unorganized, kept its lines, +received the shock of battle, and stood up manfully to the work before +it until the divisions on both sides of it drew back, leaving its +flanks exposed, when the Confederates poured through the gaps, struck +it on both flanks at once, and captured a large part of it. On the +ground along its line and in its front more men were struck down in an +hour than on any other spot of equal extent, in the same time, in the +whole war. + +The Confederates were successful on the first day, not because of any +surprise, but simply because they had the greater number of men and +persistently hurled them, regardless of cost, against the National +lines. There was also one other reason, which would not have existed +later in the war. After the first year no army would occupy any +position on the field without intrenching. The soldiers on both sides +learned how, in a little while, to throw up a simple breastwork of +earth that would stop a large proportion of the bullets that an enemy +might fire at them. Grant's army at Shiloh had its flanks well +protected by impassable streams, and if it had had a simple breastwork +along its front, such as could have been constructed in an hour, the +first day's disaster might have been averted. As it was, the men +fought in the open field, with no protection but the occasional +shelter of a tree trunk, and at one point a slightly sunken road. The +habit of Grant's mind was such that he always thought of his army as +assuming the offensive and hence having no use for intrenchments, and +his green regiments did not yet appreciate the power of the spade. +Shiloh was a severe lesson to them all. + +[Illustration: A FIELD HOSPITAL.] + +Some of the most interesting incidents of the battle are given by Col. +Douglas Putnam, Jr., of the Ninety-second Ohio Infantry, in a paper +read before the Ohio Commandery of the Loyal Legion: "With the consent +of General Grant, I was permitted to accompany him to the field as a +volunteer aid. As we approached Crump's Landing, where the division of +Gen. Lew Wallace was stationed, the boat was rounded in and the +engines stopped. General Wallace, then standing on the bank, said, 'My +division is in line, waiting for orders.' Grant's reply was, that as +soon as he got to Pittsburg Landing and learned where the attack was, +he would send him orders.... After getting a horse, I started with +Rawlins to find General Grant; and to my inquiry as to where we would +likely find him, Rawlins's reply, characteristic of the man, was, +'We'll find him where the firing is heaviest.' As we proceeded, we met +the increasing signs of battle, while the dropping of the bullets +about us, on the leaves, led me in my inexperience to ask if it were +not raining, to which Rawlins tersely said, 'Those are bullets, +Douglas.' When, on meeting a horse through which a cannon-ball had +gone, walking along with protruding bowels, I asked permission to +shoot him and end his misery, Rawlins said, 'He belongs to the +quartermaster's department; better let them attend to it.' We soon +found General Grant. He was sending his aids in different directions, +as occasion made it necessary, and he himself visited his division +commanders one by one. He wore his full uniform, with the +major-general's buff sash, which made him very conspicuous both to our +own men and to those of the enemy. Lieut.-Col. J. B. McPherson, acting +chief of staff, remonstrated with him, as did also Rawlins, for so +unnecessarily exposing himself, as he went just in the rear of our +line of battle; but he said he wanted to see and know what was going +on. About eleven o'clock he met General Sherman on what was called +Sherman's drill-ground, near the old peach orchard. The meeting was +attended with but few words. Sherman's stock had become pulled around +until the part that should have been in front rested under one of his +ears, while his whole appearance indicated hard and earnest work. The +bullets were plenteous here. Sherman told Grant how many horses he had +had killed {108} under him, showing him also the marks of bullets in +his clothing. When Grant left Sherman, I think I was the only aid with +him. Riding toward the right, the General saw a body of troops coming +up from the direction of Crump's Landing, and exclaimed with great +delight and satisfaction, 'Now we are all right, all right--there's +Wallace.' He was of course mistaken, as the troops he saw were not +those he so earnestly looked for, and of whose assistance he was +beginning to feel the need. About two o'clock, at one point were +gathered General Grant and several of his staff. The group consisted +of Grant, McPherson, Rawlins, Webster, and others. This evidently drew +the attention of the enemy, and they received rather more than a due +share of the fire. Colonel McPherson's horse having been shot under +him, I gave him mine, and under directions went to the river on foot. +The space under the bank was literally packed by thousands, I suppose, +of men who had from inexperience and fright 'lost their grip,' or were +both mentally and physically, as we say, let down--however, only +temporarily. To them it seemed that the day was lost, that the deluge +was upon them. The Tennessee River in front, swamps to the right and +swamps to the left, they could go no farther, and there lay down and +waited. I remember well seeing a mounted officer, carrying a United +States flag, riding back and forth on top of the bank, pleading and +entreating in this wise: 'Men, for God's sake, for your country's +sake, for your own sake, come up here, form a line, and make one more +stand.' The appeal fell on listless ears. No one seemed to respond, +and the only reply I heard was some one saying, 'That man talks well, +don't he?' But eighteen hours afterward these same men had come to +themselves, were refreshed by meeting other troops, and assured that +all was not lost, that there was something still left to fight for, +and helped also by the magic touch of the elbow, they did valiant +service. A group of officers was gathered around General Grant about +dusk, at a smouldering fire of hay just on the top of the grade. The +rain was falling, atmosphere murky, and ground covered with mud and +water. Colonel McPherson rode up, and Grant said, 'Well, Mac, how is +it?' He gave him a report of the condition as it seemed to him, which +was, in short, that at least one-third of his army was _hors de +combat_, and the rest much disheartened. To this the General made no +reply, and McPherson continued, 'Well, General Grant, under this +condition of affairs, what do you propose to do, sir? Shall I make +preparations for retreat?' The reply came quick and short: 'Retreat? +No! I propose to attack at daylight, and whip them.'" + +The same writer tells of a conversation that he held with General +Beauregard some years after the war. "To my query that it had always +been a mystery why he stopped the battle when he did Sunday night, +when the advantage, on the whole, seemed to be with him, and when he +had an hour or more of daylight, General Beauregard replied that there +were two reasons: first, his men were, as he put it, 'out of hand,' +had been fighting since early morn, were worn out, and also +demoralized by the flush of victory in gathering the stores and +sutlers' supplies found in our camps. As one man said, 'You fellows +went to war with cheese, pigs' feet, dates, pickles--things we rebs +had forgotten the sight of.' 'In the second place,' he said, 'I +thought I had General Grant just where I wanted him, and could finish +him up in the morning.'" + +[Illustration: MAJOR-GENERAL JONES M. WITHERS, C. S. A.] + +[Illustration: MAJOR-GENERAL THOMAS L. CRITTENDEN.] + +[Illustration: MAJOR-GENERAL JOHN A. McCLERNAND.] + +[Illustration: MAJOR-GENERAL GEORGE B. CRITTENDEN, C. S. A.] + +After the battle, General Halleck took command in person, and +proceeded to lay siege to Corinth, to capture it by regular +approaches. Both he and Beauregard were reinforced, till each had +about one hundred thousand men. Halleck gradually closed in about the +place, till in the night of May 29th Beauregard evacuated it, and on +the morning of the 30th Sherman's soldiers entered the town. + +Some military critics hold that the fate of the Confederacy was +determined on the field of Shiloh. They point out the fact that after +that battle there was nothing to prevent the National armies at the +West from going all the way to the Gulf, or--as they ultimately +did--to the sea. In homely phrase, the back door of the Confederacy +was broken down, and, however stubbornly the front door in Virginia +might be defended, it was only a question of time when some great +army, coming in by the rear, should cut off the supplies of the troops +that held Richmond, and compel their surrender. Those who are disposed +to give history a romantic turn narrow it down to the death of General +Johnston, declaring that in his fall the possibility of Southern +independence was lost, and if he had lived the result would have been +reversed. General Grant appears to dispose of their theory when he +points out the fact that Johnston was killed while {109} leading a +forlorn hope, and remarks that there is no victory for anybody till +the battle is ended, and the battle of Shiloh was not ended till the +close of the second day. But, indeed, there is no reason why the fatal +moment should not be carried back to the time when the line of defence +from the mountains to the Mississippi was broken through at Mill +Spring and Fort Donelson, or even to the time when the Confederates, +because of Kentucky's refusal to leave the Union, were prevented from +establishing their frontier at the Ohio. The reason why progress in +conquering the Confederacy was more rapid at the West than at the East +is not to be found so much in any difference in men as in topography. +At the West, the armies moving southward followed the courses of the +rivers, and their opponents were obliged to maintain artificial lines +of defence; but the Eastern armies were called upon to cross the +streams and attack natural lines of defence. + +Back of all this, in the logic of the struggle, is the fact that no +defensive attitude can be maintained permanently. The belligerent that +cannot prevent his own territory from becoming the seat of war must +ultimately surrender his cause, no matter how valiant his individual +soldiers may be, or how costly he may make it for the invader; or, to +state it affirmatively, a belligerent that can carry the war into the +enemy's country, and keep it there, will ultimately succeed. In most +wars, the side on whose soil the battles were fought has been the +losing side; and this is an important lesson to bear in mind when it +becomes necessary to determine the great moral question of +responsibility for prolonging a hopeless contest. + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + +MINOR ENGAGEMENTS OF THE FIRST YEAR. + +LARGE NUMBER OF BATTLES FOUGHT DURING THE WAR--DISASTER AT BALL'S +BLUFF ON THE POTOMAC--SMALL ENGAGEMENTS AT EDWARDS FERRY, VA.--BATTLES +AT FALLING WATERS AND BUNKER HILL, VA.--BATTLE AT HARPER'S +FERRY--GALLANT BAYONET CHARGE AT DRANESVILLE, VA.--OPERATIONS IN WEST +VIRGINIA UNDER GENERAL McCLELLAN--BATTLES AT ROMNEY AND +BARBOURSVILLE--EFFORTS TO INDUCE KENTUCKY TO SECEDE--CAMP WILD +CAT--ENGAGEMENTS AT HODGESVILLE AND MUNFORDVILLE AND +SACRAMENTO--REASONS WHY MISSOURI DID NOT SECEDE--ENGAGEMENTS AT +CHARLESTON, LEXINGTON, AND OTHER PLACES IN THAT STATE--A BRILLIANT +CHARGE BY GENERAL FRÉMONT'S BODY GUARD UNDER ZAGONYI--INDIVIDUAL +HEROISM--BATTLE OF BELMONT--VAST EXTENT OF TERRITORY COVERED BY WAR +OPERATIONS. + + +The enormous number of engagements in the civil war, the extent of +country over which they were spread, and the magnitude of many of +them, have sunk into comparative insignificance many that otherwise +would have become historic. The action at Lexington, Mass., in 1775, +was nothing whatever in comparison with any one of the several actions +at Lexington, Mo., in 1861; yet every schoolboy is familiarized with +the one, and many well-read people have scarcely heard of the other. +The casualties in the battle of Harlem Heights, N. Y., numbered almost +exactly the same as those in the battle of Bolivar Heights, Va.; but +no historian of the Revolution would fail to give a full account of +the former, while one might read a very fair history of the civil war +and find no mention whatever of the latter. In the writing of any +history that is not a mere chronicle, it is necessary to observe +proportion and perspective; but we may turn aside a little from the +main course of our narrative, to recall some of the forgotten actions, +in obscure hamlets and at the crossings of sylvan streams, where for a +few men and those who were dear to them the call of duty was as stern +and the realities of war as relentless as for the thousands at +Gettysburg or Chickamauga. + +[Illustration: DELIVERING DAILY PAPERS.] + +In the State of Virginia, the most disastrous of these minor +engagements in 1861 was at Ball's Bluff, on the Potomac, about +thirty-five miles above Washington. It has been known also as the +battle of Edwards Ferry, Harrison's Island, and Leesburg. At this +point there is an island in the river, and opposite, on the Virginia +side, the bank rises in a bold bluff seventy feet high. A division of +National troops, commanded by Gen. Charles P. Stone, was on the +Maryland side, observing the crossings of the river in the vicinity. A +Confederate force of unknown strength was known to be at Leesburg, +about five miles from the river. McCall's division was at Dranesville, +farther toward Washington, reconnoitring and endeavoring to draw out +the enemy. At a suggestion of General McClellan to General Stone, that +some demonstration on his part might assist McCall, General Stone +began a movement that developed into a battle. On the 21st of October +he ordered a portion of his command to cross at the island and at +Conrad's Ferry, just above. They were Massachusetts troops under Col. +Charles Devens, the New York Forty-second (Tammany) regiment, Col. +Edward D. Baker's Seventy-first Pennsylvania (called the California +regiment), and a Rhode Island battery, in all about two thousand men. +The means of crossing--two or three boats--were very inadequate for an +advance, and nothing at all for a retreat. Several hours were spent in +getting one scow from the canal into the river, and the whole movement +was so slow that the Confederates had ample opportunity to learn +exactly what was going on and prepare to meet the movement. The +battery was dragged up the bluff with great labor. At the top the +troops found themselves in an open field of about eight acres, +surrounded by woods. Colonel Baker was made commander of all the +forces that crossed. + +{110} The enemy soon appeared, and before the battery had fired more +than half a dozen rounds the Confederate sharp-shooters, posted on a +hill at the left, within easy range, disabled so many of the gunners +that the pieces became useless. Then there was an attack by a heavy +force of infantry in front, which, firing from the woods, cut down +Baker's men with comparative safety. The National troops stood their +ground for two hours and returned the fire as effectively as they +could; but the enemy seemed to increase in number, and grew constantly +bolder. About six o'clock, wrote Capt. Francis G. Young, "a rebel +officer, riding a white horse, came out of the woods and beckoned to +us to come forward. Colonel Baker thought it was General Johnston, and +that the enemy would meet us in open fight. Part of our column +charged, Baker cheering us on, when a tremendous onset was made by the +rebels. One man rode forward, presented a revolver at Baker, and fired +all its charges at him. Our gallant leader fell, and at the same +moment all our lines were driven back by the overwhelming force +opposed to them. But Captain Beiral, with his company, fought his way +back to Colonel Baker's body, rescued it, brought it along to me, and +then a general retreat commenced. It was _sauve qui peut_. I got the +colonel's body to the island before the worst of the rout, and then, +looking to the Virginia shore, saw such a spectacle as no tongue can +describe. Our entire forces were retreating--tumbling, rolling, +leaping down the steep heights; the enemy following them murdering and +taking prisoners. Colonel Devens left his command and swam the river +on horseback. The one boat in the Virginia channel was speedily filled +and sunk. A thousand men thronged the farther bank. Muskets, coats, +and everything were thrown aside, and all were desperately trying to +escape. Hundreds plunged into the rapid current, and the shrieks of +the drowning added to the horror of sounds and sights. The enemy kept +up their fire from the cliff above. A captain of the Fifteenth +Massachusetts at one moment charged gallantly up the hill, leading two +companies, who still had their arms, against the pursuing foe. A +moment later, and the same officer, perceiving the hopelessness of the +situation, waved a white handkerchief and surrendered the main body of +his command." + +Gen. Edward W. Hinks (at that time colonel of the Nineteenth +Massachusetts Regiment), who arrived and took command just after the +action, wrote in his report: "The means of transportation, for advance +in support or for a retreat, were criminally deficient--especially +when we consider the facility for creating proper means for such +purposes at our disposal. The place for landing on the Virginia shore +was most unfortunately selected, being at a point where the shore rose +with great abruptness and was entirely studded with trees, being +perfectly impassable to artillery or infantry in line. The entire +island was also commanded by the enemy's artillery and rifles. Within +half a mile, upon either side of the points selected, a landing could +have been effected where we could have been placed upon equal terms +with the enemy, if it was necessary to effect a landing from the +island." + +[Illustration: BREVET MAJOR-GENERAL CHARLES DEVENS.] + +[Illustration: COLONEL EDWARD D. BAKER.] + +[Illustration: BATTERY WAITING FOR ORDERS.] + +The losses in this action were about a hundred and fifty killed, about +two hundred and fifty wounded, and about five hundred captured. +Colonel Baker was a lawyer by profession, had been a friend of +Lincoln's in Springfield, Ill., had lived in California, then removed +to Oregon, and was elected United States senator from that State just +before the war began. He was greatly {111} beloved as a man; but +though he was brave and patriotic, and had commanded a brigade in the +Mexican war, it was evident, from his conduct of the Ball's Bluff +affair, that he had little military skill. + +[Illustration: AN INCIDENT OF CAMP LIFE--CARD-PLAYING.] + +Among the other minor engagements was one at Edwards Ferry, Va., June +17th, in which three hundred Pennsylvanians, under Captain Gardner, +were attacked by a Confederate force that tried to take possession of +the ferry. After a fight of three hours the assailants were driven off +with a loss of about thirty men. Captain Gardner lost four. + +On July 2d there was an engagement of six hours' duration at Falling +Waters, Va., between the brigades of Abercrombie, Thomas, and Negley, +and a Confederate force under General Jackson. It was a stubborn +fight. The Confederates, who had four regiments of infantry and one of +cavalry, with four guns, at length retreated slowly, having lost about +ninety men. The National loss was thirteen. + +At Bunker Hill, near Martinsburg, on July 15th, General Patterson's +division, being on the march, was attacked by a body of about six +hundred cavalry, led by Colonel Stuart. When the cavalry charged, the +National infantry opened their lines and disclosed a battery, which +poured rapid discharges of shells and grape shot into the +Confederates, and put them to rout. The Federal cavalry then came up +and pursued the fugitives two miles. + +{112} [Illustration: BATTLE OF MUMFORDSVILLE, KENTUCKY, SEPTEMBER 14, +1862.] + +In October the Thirteenth Massachusetts Regiment crossed the Potomac +at Harper's Ferry, to seize a large quantity of wheat that was stored +there for the Confederate Government. A day or two later they were +reënforced by three companies of the Third Wisconsin Regiment, four of +the Twenty-eighth Pennsylvania, and sections of a New York and a Rhode +Island battery. The guns were placed to command approaches of the +town, pickets were thrown out, and the wheat was removed. On the 16th +the pickets on Bolivar Heights, west of the town, were driven in, and +this was followed by an attack from a Confederate force, consisting of +three regiments of infantry, one of cavalry, and seven pieces of +artillery. Gen. John W. Geary, commanding the National forces, placed +one company for the defence of the fords of the Shenandoah, and with +the remaining troops met the attack. Three successive charges by the +cavalry were repelled; then a rifled gun was brought across the river +and directed its fire upon the Confederate battery; and at the same +time Geary advanced his right flank, turned the enemy's left, and +gained a portion of Bolivar Heights. He then ordered a general forward +movement, gained the entire Heights, and drove the enemy across the +valley toward Halltown. From lack of cavalry he was unable to pursue; +but he planted guns on Bolivar Heights, and soon silenced the +Confederate guns on London Heights. Before recrossing the Potomac the +troops burned the iron foundry at Shenandoah City. In this action the +National loss was four killed, seven wounded, and two captured. The +Confederate loss was not ascertained, but it was supposed to be +somewhat over a hundred men, besides one gun and a large quantity of +ammunition. A member of the Massachusetts regiment, in giving an +account of this action, wrote: "There were many side scenes. Stimpson +had a hand-to-hand fight with one of the cavalry, whom he bayoneted, +illustrating the bayonet drill in which the company had been +exercised. Corporal Marshall was chased by a mounted officer while he +was assisting one of the wounded Wisconsin boys off. He turned and +shot {113} his pursuer through the breast. The officer proved to be +Colonel Ashby, commander of the rebels, which accounted for the lull +in the battle. We have since learned that he was not killed." + +[Illustration: FEDERAL TROOPS FORAGING.] + +On December 20th Gen. E. O. C. Ord, commanding a brigade, moved +westward along the chain-bridge road, toward Dranesville, for the +purpose of making a reconnoissance and gathering forage. Near +Dranesville, when returning, he was attacked by a Confederate force +consisting of five regiments of infantry and one of cavalry, with a +battery. The attack came from the south and struck his right flank. +Changing front so as to face the enemy, he found advantageous ground +for receiving battle, and placed his artillery so as to enfilade the +Centreville road on which the enemy's battery was posted. Leaving his +cavalry in the shelter of a wooded hill, he got his infantry well in +hand and moved steadily forward on the enemy. His guns were handled +with skill, and soon exploded a Confederate caisson and drove off the +battery. Then he made a bayonet charge, before which the Confederate +infantry fled, leaving on the field their dead and wounded, and a +large quantity of equipments. His loss was seven killed and sixty +wounded. The Confederate loss was about a hundred. + +That portion of Virginia west of the Alleghanies (now West Virginia) +never was essentially a slaveholding region. The number of slaves held +there was very small, as it always must be in a mountainous country; +and the interests of the people, with their iron mines, their coal +mines, and their forests of valuable timber, and their streams flowing +into the Ohio, were allied much more closely with those of the free +States than with those of the tide-water portion of their own State. +When, therefore, at the beginning of the war, before the people of +Virginia had voted on the question of adopting or rejecting the +ordinance of secession as passed by their convention, troops from the +cotton States were poured into that State to secure it for the +Confederacy, they found no such welcome west of the mountains as east +of them; and the task of driving them out from the valleys of the +Kanawha and the Monongahela was easy in comparison with the work that +lay before the National armies on the Potomac and the James. +Major-Gen. George B. McClellan, then in his thirty-fifth year, crossed +the Ohio with a small army in May, and won several victories that for +the time cleared West Virginia of Confederate troops, gained him a +vote of thanks in Congress, and made for him a sudden reputation, +which resulted in his being called to the head of the army after the +disaster at Bull Run. Some of the battles in West Virginia, including +Philippi, Cheat River, and Rich Mountain, have already been described. +An account of other minor engagements in that State is given in this +chapter. + +There were several small actions at Romney, in Virginia, the most +considerable of which took place on October 26th. General Kelly, with +twenty-five hundred men, marched on that place from the west, while +Col. Thomas Johns, with seven hundred, approached it from the north. +Five miles from Romney, Kelly drove in the Confederate outposts, and +nearer the town he met the enemy drawn up in a commanding position, +with a rifled twelve-pounder on a hill. They also had intrenchments +commanding the bridge. After some artillery firing, Kelly's cavalry +forded the river, while his infantry charged across the bridge, +whereupon the Confederates retreated precipitately toward Winchester. +Kelly captured four hundred prisoners, two hundred horses, three +wagon-loads of new rifles, and a large lot of camp equipage. The +losses in killed and wounded were small. In this action a Captain +Butterfield, of an Ohio regiment, was mounted on an old team horse, +which became unmanageable and persisted in getting in front of the +field gun that had just been brought up. This embarrassed the gunners, +who were ready and anxious to make a telling shot, and finally the +captain shouted: "Never mind the old horse, boys. Blaze away!" The +shot was then made, which drove off a Confederate battery; and a few +minutes later, when the charge was ordered, the old horse, with his +tail scorched, wheeled into line and participated in it. + +At the same time when General McClellan was operating against the +Confederate forces in the northern part of West Virginia, Gen. Jacob +D. Cox commanded an expedition that marched from Guyandotte into the +valley of the Great Kanawha. His first action was at Barboursville, +which he captured. At Scarytown, on the river, a detachment of his +Ohio troops, commanded by Colonel Lowe, was defeated by a Confederate +force under Captain Patton, and lost nearly sixty men. Cox then +marched on Charleston, which was held by a force under General Wise. +But Wise retreated, crossed Gauley River and burned the bridge, and +continued his flight to Lewisburg. Here he was superseded by General +Floyd, who brought reinforcements. Floyd attacked the Seventh Ohio +Regiment at Cross Lanes, and defeated it, inflicting a loss of about +two hundred men. He then advanced to Carnifex Ferry, endeavoring to +flank Cox's force, when General Rosecrans, with ten thousand men, came +down from the northern part of the State. Floyd had a strong position +on Gauley River, and Rosecrans sent forward a force to reconnoitre. +The commander of this, General Benham, pushed it too boldly, and it +developed into an engagement (September {114} 10th), wherein he lost +about two hundred men, including Colonel Lowe and other valuable +officers. Rosecrans made preparations for giving battle in earnest +next day; but in the night Floyd retreated, leaving a large portion of +his baggage, and took a position thirty miles distant. Soon afterward +General Lee arrived with another force and took command of all the +Confederate troops, numbering now about twenty thousand, and then in +turn Rosecrans retreated. On the way, Lee had made a reconnoissance of +a position held by General Reynolds at Cheat Mountain (September +12th), and in the consequent skirmishing he lost about a hundred men, +including Col. John A. Washington, of his staff, who was killed. +Reynolds's loss was about the same, but Lee found his position too +strong to be taken. Early in November, Lee was called to Eastern +Virginia, and Rosecrans then planned an attack on Floyd; but it +miscarried through failure of the flank movement, which was intrusted +to General Benham. But Benham pursued the enemy for fifty miles, +defeated the rear guard of cavalry, and killed its leader. On December +12th, General Milroy, who had succeeded General Reynolds, advanced +against the Confederates at Buffalo Mountain; but his attack was badly +managed, and failed. He was then attacked, in turn, but the enemy had +no better success. Three or four hundred men were disabled in these +engagements. On the last day of the year Milroy sent eight hundred men +of the Twenty-fifth Ohio Regiment, under Major Webster, against a +Confederate camp at Huntersville. They drove away the Confederates, +burned six buildings filled with provisions, and returned without +loss. + +Through the natural impulses of a large majority of her people, and +their material interests, aided by these military operations, small as +they were in detail, West Virginia was by this time secured to the +Union, and would probably have remained in it even if the war had +terminated otherwise. + +There never was any serious danger that Kentucky would secede, though +her governor refused troops to the National Government and pretended +to assume a position of neutrality. Such a position being essentially +impossible, such of the young men of that State as believed in the +institution of slavery went largely into the Confederate army, while a +greater number entered the National service and were among its best +soldiers. The Confederate Government was very loath to give up +Kentucky, admitted a delegation of Kentucky secessionists to seats in +its Congress, and made several attempts to invade the State and occupy +it by armed force. The more important actions that were fought there +are narrated elsewhere. A few of the minor ones must be mentioned +here. + +To protect the loyal mountaineers in the eastern part of the State, a +fortified camp, called Camp Wild Cat, was established on the road +leading to Cumberland Gap. It was at the top of a high cliff, +overlooking the road, and was commanded by a heavily-wooded hill a few +hundred yards distant. The force there was commanded by Gen. Albin +Schoepff. A force of over seven thousand Confederates, commanded by +General Zollicoffer, marched upon this camp and attacked it on the +same day that the battle of Ball's Bluff was fought, October 21st. The +camp had been held by but one Kentucky regiment; but on the approach +of the enemy it was reinforced by the Fourteenth and Seventeenth Ohio, +the Thirty-third Indiana, and Stannard's battery. After a fight with a +battalion of Kentucky cavalry, the Confederate infantry charged up the +hill and were met by a withering fire, which drove them back. They +advanced again, getting within a few yards of the log breastwork, +placed their caps on their bayonets and shouted that they were Union +men. This gave them a chance to fire a volley at close range; but it +was answered so immediately and so effectively that they broke and +fled down the hill. Then the artillery was brought into play and +hastened their flight, besides thwarting an attack that had been made +by a detachment on the flank. In the afternoon the attempt was +repeated, by two detachments directed simultaneously against the +flanks of the position; but it was defeated in much the same way that +the morning attack had been. Zollicoffer then drew off his forces, and +that night their campfires could be seen far down the valley. The +National loss was about thirty men, that of the Confederates was +estimated at nearly three hundred. + +[Illustration: MAJOR-GENERAL JACOB D. COX.] + +[Illustration: BREVET MAJOR-GENERAL EDWARD W. HINKS.] + +[Illustration: MAJOR-GENERAL WILLIAM S. ROSECRANS.] + +Two days later there were sharp actions at West Liberty and {115} +Hodgesville. A regiment of infantry and a company of cavalry, with one +gun, marched thirty-five miles between half-past two and half-past +nine P.M., in constant rain, making several fords, one of which, +across the Licking, was waist deep. The object was to drive the +Confederates out of West Liberty and take possession of the town. In +this they were successful, with but one man wounded. The Confederates +lost twenty, and half a dozen Union men who had been held as prisoners +were released. The greatest benefit resulting from the action was the +confidence that it gave to the Unionists in that region. One +correspondent wrote: "The people had been taught that the Union +soldiers would be guilty of most awful atrocities. Several women made +their appearance on Thursday, trembling with cold and fear, and said +that they had remained in the woods all night after the fight. The +poor creatures had been told that the Abolition troops rejoiced to +kill Southern babies, and were in the habit of carrying little +children about on their bayonets in the towns which they took; and +this was actually believed." A detachment of the Sixth Indiana +Regiment made a sudden attack on a Confederate camp near Hodgesville, +and after a short, sharp fight drove off the enemy, killing or +wounding eight of them, and captured many horses and wagons and a +large quantity of powder. + +Near Munfordville, on December 17th, a portion of the Thirty-second +Indiana Regiment, under Lieutenant-Colonel Trebra, was attacked by two +regiments of infantry, a regiment of cavalry, and a battery. They +maintained a spirited defence until they were reinforced, and then +continued the fight till it ended in the retreat of the enemy. General +Buell said in his report: "The attack of the enemy was mainly with his +cavalry and artillery. Our troops fought as skirmishers, rallying +rapidly into squares when charged by the cavalry--sometimes even +defending themselves singly and killing their assailants with the +bayonet." The National loss was eight killed and ten wounded; the +Confederate, thirty-three killed (including Colonel Terry, commanding) +and fifty wounded. A Confederate account said: "All in all, this is +one of the most desperate fights of the war. It was hand to hand from +first to last. No men could have fought more desperately than the +enemy. The Rangers were equally reckless. Colonel Terry, always in the +front, discovered a nest of five of the enemy. He leaped in his +saddle, waved his hat, and said, 'Come on, boys! Here's another bird's +nest.' He fired and killed two of them. The other three fired at him +simultaneously. One shot killed his charger; another shot killed him. +He fell headlong from his horse without a moan or a groan. At the same +time, Paulding Anderson and Dr. Cowan rode up and despatched the +remaining three of the enemy. When Colonel Terry's fall was announced +it at once prostrated his men with grief. The fight ended here." This +action is also known by the name of Rowlett's Station and +Woodsonville. + +On December 28th a small detachment of cavalry, led by Major Murray, +left camp near Calhoun, Ky., for a scout across Green River. Near +Sacramento they were surprised and attacked by seven hundred cavalry +under Colonel Forrest. They sustained an almost hand-to-hand fight for +half an hour, and then, as their ammunition was exhausted, retreated. +It is impossible to reconcile the accounts of the losses; but it is +certain that Capt. A. G. Bacon was killed on the National side, and +Lieutenant-Colonel Meriwether of the Confederates. This closed the +first year's fighting in Kentucky. + +[Illustration: REVIEW OF CONFEDERATE TROOPS EN ROUTE TO THE FRONT, +PASSING PULASKI MONUMENT, SAVANNAH, GA.] + +{116} [Illustration: SIEGE OF LEXINGTON, MISSOURI.] + +In Missouri there were special and strong reasons against secession. +Her slave population was comparatively small, and her soil and climate +were suited to crops that do not require negro labor. She was farthest +north of any slave State; and if she had joined the Confederacy, and +it had established itself, she would have been bordered on {117} three +sides by foreign territory, with nothing but a surveyed line for the +boundary on two of those sides. Moreover, there was a large German +element in her population, industrious, opposed to slavery, loving the +Union, and belonging, to a considerable extent, to the Republican +party. In the presidential election of 1860, 26,430 Republican votes +were cast in slave States (all in border States), and of these 17,028 +were cast in Missouri. Delaware gave the next highest number--3,815. +Of 148,490 Democratic votes cast in Missouri, but 31,317 were for +Breckinridge, the extreme proslavery candidate. Nevertheless, the +secessionists made a strong effort to get Missouri out of the Union. +The methods pursued have been described in a previous chapter, +together with the results of the first fighting, and the defeat and +death of General Lyon in the battle of Wilson's Creek. + +[Illustration: COLONEL JAMES A. MULLIGAN.] + +[Illustration: BURYING THE DEAD.] + +A Confederate force--or rather the materials for a force, for the men +were poorly equipped and hardly drilled at all--commanded by Colonel +Hunter, was gathered at Charleston, Mo., in August, encamped about the +court-house; and on the 19th Colonel Dougherty, of the Twenty-second +Illinois Regiment, set out to capture it. He arrived at Camp Lyon in +the evening with three hundred men, learned of the position of the +enemy, and said to Captain Abbott, who had made the reconnoissance: +"We are going to take Charleston to-night. You stay here and engage +the enemy till we come back." Then to his men: "Battalion, right face +forward, march!" As they neared the town, double quick was ordered, +and the two companies in the advance proceeded rapidly, but the +following ones became somehow separated. These two companies drove in +the pickets, followed them sharply, and charged into the town, +scattering the small detachment of raw cavalry. The second in command +then asked of Colonel Dougherty what should be done next. "Take the +court-house, or bust," he answered; and at once that building was +attacked. The Confederates fired from the windows; but the assailants +concentrated a destructive fire upon it, and then rushed in at the +doors. Some escaped through the windows, some were shot down while +attempting to do so, and many were captured. Later in the day a +company of Illinois cavalry pursued the retreating Confederates, and +captured forty more, with many horses. In this engagement +Lieutenant-Colonel Ransom had a personal encounter with a Confederate +officer, who rode up to him and called out: "What do you mean? You are +killing our own men."--"I know what I am doing," answered Ransom. "Who +are you?"--"I am for Jeff Davis," said the stranger. "Then you are the +man I am after," said Ransom, and they drew their pistols. The +Confederate fired first, and wounded Ransom in the arm, who then fired +and killed his antagonist. The National loss {118} was one killed and +four wounded. The Confederate loss was reported at forty killed; +number of wounded, unknown. + +Late in August, when it was learned that a movement against Lexington, +on Missouri River, was about to be made by a strong Confederate force +under General Price, measures were taken to reinforce the small +garrison and prevent the place from falling into the hands of the +enemy. The Twenty-third Illinois Regiment, Col. James A. Mulligan, +which was called "the Irish Brigade," was ordered thither from +Jefferson City, and other reinforcements were promised. Mulligan, with +his command, set out at once, marched nine days, foraging on the +country, and on reaching Lexington found there a regiment of cavalry +and one of home guards. The next day the Thirteenth Missouri Regiment, +retreating from Warrensburg, joined them. This gave Mulligan a total +force of about two thousand eight hundred men, who had forty rounds of +ammunition, and he had seven field-guns and a small quantity of +provisions. He took possession of the hill east of the town, on which +stood the Masonic College, and proceeded to fortify. His lines +enclosed about eighteen acres, and he had put but half a day's work on +them when, in the evening of September 11th, the enemy appeared. In +the morning of the 12th the fighting began, when a part of Mulligan's +men drove back the enemy's advance and burned a bridge, which +compelled them to make a detour and approach the place by another +road. Again Mulligan sent out a detachment to check them while his +remaining force worked on the intrenchments, and there was brisk +fighting in the cemetery at the edge of the town. In the afternoon +there was a lively artillery duel, and the National forces held their +own, dismounting a Confederate gun, exploding a caisson, and causing +the enemy to withdraw at dusk to a camp two miles away. The next day +the garrison fitted up a small foundry, in which they cast shot for +their cannon, obtained powder and made cartridges, and continued the +work on the intrenchments. The great want was provisions and water. In +the next five days the Confederates were heavily reinforced, while the +little garrison looked in vain for the promised help. + +On the 18th a determined attack in force was made. Colonel Mulligan +wrote: "They came as one dark moving mass, their guns beaming in the +sun, their banners waving, and their drums beating. Everywhere, as far +as we could see, were men, men, men, approaching grandly. Our spies +had brought intelligence and had all agreed that it was the intention +of the enemy to make a grand rush, overwhelm us, and bury us in the +trenches of Lexington." Mulligan's men sustained the shock bravely, +and the enemy met such a deadly fire that they could not get to the +works. But meanwhile they had interposed a force between the works and +the river, shutting off the supply of water, and they kept up a heavy +bombardment with sixteen pieces of artillery. They also took +possession of a large house outside the lines which was used as a +hospital, and filled it with sharp-shooters. Mulligan ordered two +companies--one of home guards and one from the Fourteenth Missouri--to +drive them out, but they refused to undertake so hazardous a task. He +then sent a company from his Irish regiment, who rushed gallantly +across the intervening space, burst in the doors, took possession of +the house, and (under an impression that the laws of war had been +violated in thus using a hospital for sharp-shooters) killed every +Confederate soldier caught inside. Two hours later the Confederates in +turn drove them out and again occupied the building. Firing was kept +up through the 19th; and on the 20th the besiegers obtained bales of +hemp, wet them, and rolling them along before them as a movable +breastwork, were enabled to approach the intrenchments. Bullets would +not go through these bales, and red-hot shot would not set them on +fire. Yet the fight still continued for some hours, until the +ammunition of the garrison was all but exhausted. For five days they +had had no water except as they could catch rain when it fell, the +provisions were eaten up, and there was no sign of the promised +reinforcements. There was nothing to do but surrender. Mulligan had +lost one hundred and fifty men killed or wounded; the Confederate +report acknowledged a loss of one hundred, which probably was far +short of the truth. A correspondent who was present wrote: "Hundreds +of the men who fought on the Confederate side were attached to no +command. They came in when they pleased, fought or not as they +pleased, left when ready, and if killed were buried on the spot--were +missed from no muster-roll, and hence would not be reckoned in the +aggregate loss. The Confederates vary in their statements. One said +they lost sixty killed; another said their loss was at least equal to +that of the Federals; while still another admitted to me that the +taking of the works cost them a thousand men. I saw one case that +shows the Confederate style of fighting. An old Texan, dressed in +buckskin and armed with a long rifle, used to go up to the works every +morning about seven o'clock, carrying his dinner in a tin pail. Taking +a good position, he banged away at the Federals till noon, then rested +an hour and ate his dinner, after which he resumed operations till six +P.M., when he returned home to supper and a night's sleep." The +privates of Mulligan's command were paroled, and the officers held as +prisoners. + +In October the National troops stationed at Pilot Knob, Mo., commanded +by Col. J. B. Plummer, were ordered to march on Fredericktown and +attack a Confederate force there, two thousand strong, commanded by +Gen. Jeff. Thompson. They arrived at that place in the evening of the +21st, and found that it had just been evacuated. They consisted of +Indiana, Illinois, and Wisconsin troops, with cavalry and a battery, +and numbered about three thousand five hundred. Three thousand more, +commanded by Col. W. P. Carlin, marched from Cape Girardeau and joined +them at Fredericktown. About half of the entire force was then sent in +pursuit of the enemy, who was found just south of the town. An +engagement was at once begun with artillery, and then the Seventeenth +Illinois Regiment charged upon the Confederate battery and captured +one gun. Then followed a running fight that lasted four hours, the +Confederates stopping frequently to make a temporary stand and fire a +few rounds from their battery. As these positions were successively +charged or flanked, and attacked with artillery and musketry, they +retired from them. At five o'clock in the afternoon the pursuit was +discontinued, and the National forces returned to Fredericktown. They +had lost seven men killed and sixty wounded. They had captured two +field-pieces and taken sixty prisoners, and the next day they buried a +hundred and sixty Confederate dead. Among the enemy's killed was +Colonel Lowe, second in command. + +A few days later there was a brilliant affair at Springfield, not far +from the scene of General Lyon's defeat and death in August. There was +a small, select cavalry organization known as General Frémont's +body-guard, commanded by Major Charles Zagonyi, a Hungarian, who had +seen service in Europe. On the 24th Zagonyi received orders to take a +part of his command, and Major White's battalion of prairie scouts, +and march on Springfield, fifty miles distant, with all possible +haste. It was supposed that the Confederate troops there numbered four +hundred. The {119} order was obeyed with alacrity, and early the next +day he neared the town. Here he captured half a dozen Confederate +soldiers of a foraging party, and from them and certain Unionists +among the inhabitants, he learned that the enemy in the town numbered +two thousand instead of four hundred. Undaunted by this, he resolved +to push forward. Some of the foraging party who escaped carried the +news of his approach, and the Confederates made quick dispositions to +receive him. Finding a regiment drawn up beside the road, he avoided +it by a detour and came in on another road, but here also the enemy +were ready for him. Placing his own command in the advance, with +himself at the head, he prepared to charge straight into the midst of +the enemy. For some unknown reason, White's command, instead of +following directly, counter-marched to the left, and Zagonyi with his +one hundred and sixty men went in alone. They began with a trot, and +soon increased the pace to a gallop, unmindful of the fire of +skirmishers in the woods, which emptied several of their saddles. The +enemy, infantry and cavalry, was drawn up in the form of a hollow +square, in an open field. Zagonyi's band rode down a lane, jumped a +brook, threw down a fence, and then charged right across the field +into the midst of their foes, spreading out fan-like as they neared +them, and using their pistols and sabres vigorously. The Confederate +cavalry gave way and scattered almost at once; the infantry stood a +little longer, and then retreated. Major White with his command came +up just in time to strike them in the flank, completing the rout. An +eye-witness wrote: "Some fled wildly toward the town, pursued by the +insatiate guards, who, overtaking them, either cut them down with +their sabres or levelled them with shots from their pistols. Some were +even chased through the streets of the city and then killed in +hand-to-hand encounters with their pursuers." Zagonyi raised the +National flag on the court-house, detailed a guard to attend to his +wounded, and then retired to Bolivar. His own account of the fight, +given in Mrs. Frémont's "Story of the Guard," is quaint and +interesting. + +[Illustration: FORTIFICATIONS AND INTRENCHMENTS AT PILOT KNOB, MO.] + +{120} [Illustration: CHARGE OF FRÉMONT'S BODY-GUARD UNDER MAJOR +ZAGONYI, NEAR SPRINGFIELD, MO.] + +[Illustration: PURSUIT OF THE ENEMY.] + +[Illustration: MAJOR CHARLES ZAGONYI.] + +"About four o'clock I arrived on the highest point on the Ozark +Mountains. Not seeing any sign of the enemy, I halted my command, made +them known that the enemy instead of four hundred is nineteen hundred. +But I promised them victory if they will be what I thought and +expected them to be. If any of them too much fatigued from the +fifty-six miles, or sick, or unwell, to step forward; but nobody was +worn out. (Instead of worn out, it is true that every eye was a fist +big.) I made them known that this day I want to fight the first and +the last hard battle, so that if they meet us again they shall know +with who they have to do and remember the Body-Guard. And ordered +quick march. Besides, I tell them, whatever we meet, to keep together +and look after me; would I fall, not to give up, but to avenge mine +death. To leave every ceremonious cuts away in the battlefield and use +only right cut and thrust. Being young, I thought they might be +confused in the different cuts, and the Hungarian hussars say, 'Never +defend yourselves--better make {121} your enemy defend himself and you +go in.' I just mention them that you know very well that I promised +you that I will lead you shortly to show that we are not a fancy and +only guard-doing-duty soldiers, but fighting men. My despatch meant +what I will do. In the hour I get the news my mind was settled. I say, +Thank God, if I am to fight, it is not four hundred! but nineteen +hundred! I halt my men again and say, 'Soldiers! When I was to recruit +you, I told you you was not parade soldiers, but for war. The enemy is +more than we. The enemy is two thousand, and we are but one hundred +and fifty. It is possible no man will come back. No man will go that +thinks the enemy too many. He can ride back. (I see by the glimpsing +of their eye they was mad to be chanced a coward.) The Guard that +follow me will take for battle-cry, "Frémont and the Union," +and--CHARGE--!' Running down the lane between the cross-fire, the +First Company followed close, but the rest stopped for a couple +seconds. I had not wondered if none had come--young soldiers and such +a tremendous fire, bullets coming like a rain. + +"As I arrived down on the creek I said aloud, 'If I could send +somebody back I would give my life for it. We are lost here if they +don't follow.' My Adjutant, Majthenyi, hearing, feared that he will be +sent back, jumped down from his horse and busy himself opening the +fence. I expected to find the enemy on the other end of Springfield, +but, unexpectedly coming out of the woods to an open place, I was +fired on in front of mine command. Halted for a minute, seeing that, +or a bold forward march under a cross-fire, or a doubtful retreat with +losing most of my men, I took the first and commanded 'March!' Under a +heavy cross-fire (in trot), down the little hill in the lane--two +hundred yards--to a creek, where I ordered the fence to be +opened--marched in my command--ordered them to form, and with the +war-cry of 'Frémont and the Union,' we made the attack. The First +Company, forty-seven strong, against five or six hundred infantry, and +the rest against the cavalry, was made so successfully, that, in three +minutes, the cavalry run in every direction, and the infantry +retreated in the thick wood, and their cavalry in every direction. The +infantry we were not able to follow in the woods, so that we turned +against the running cavalry. With those we had in different places, +and in differing numbers, attacked and dispersed--not only in one +place, but our men were so much emboldened, that twenty or thirty +attacked twenty, thirty times their numbers, and these single-handed +attacks, fighting here and there on their own hook, did us more harm +than their grand first attack. By them we lost our prisoners. +Single-handed they fought bravely, specially one--a lieutenant--who, +in a narrow lane, wanted to cut himself through about sixty of us, +running in that direction. But he was not able to go very far. Firing +two or three times, he ran against me, and put his revolver on my +side, but, through the movement of the horse, the shot passed behind +me. He was a perfect target--first cut down and after shot. He was a +brave man; for that reason I felt some pity to kill him. We went to +their encampment, but the ground was deserted, and we returned to the +Court-house, raised the company-flag, liberated prisoners, and +collected my forces together--which numbered not more, including +myself, than seventy men on horseback. The rest--without horses, or +wounded, and about thirty who had dispersed in pursuit of the enemy--I +could not gather up; and it was midnight before they reached me--and +some of them next day. I never was sick in my life, Madame, till what +time I find myself leaving Springfield, in the dark, with only +sixty-nine men and officers--I was the seventy. I was perfectly sick +and disheartened, so I could hardly sit in the saddle, to think of so +dear a victory. But it ended so that fifteen is dead--two died +after--ten prisoners, who was released, and of the wounded, not one +will lose a finger. In all seventeen lost. + +"The bugler (Frenchman) I ordered him two three time to put his sword +away and take the bugle in his hand, that I shall be able to use him. +Hardly I took my eyes down, next minute I seen him, sword in the hand, +all bloody; and this he done two or three times. Finally, the mouth of +the bugle being shot away, the bugler had excuse for gratifying +himself in use of the sword. One had a beautiful wound through the +nose. 'My boy,' I told him, 'I would give any thing for that wound.' +After twenty-four hours it was beautiful--just the mark enough to show +a bullet has passed through; but, poor fellow, he cannot even show it. +It healed up so as to leave no mark at all. He {122} had also five on +his leg and shoulder, and the fifth wound he only found after six +days; he could not move easy, for that reason he was late to find +there was two wounds in the legs." + +Early in November, General Grant was ordered to make demonstrations on +both sides of the Mississippi near Columbus, to prevent the +Confederates from sending reinforcements to General Price, in Southern +Missouri, and also to prevent them from interfering with the movements +of certain detachments of National troops. On the 6th he left Cairo +with three thousand men, on five steamers, convoyed by two gunboats, +and passed down the river to the vicinity of Columbus. To attack that +place would have been hopeless, as it was well fortified and strongly +garrisoned. He landed his troops on the Missouri side on the 7th, and +put them in motion toward Belmont, opposite Columbus, deploying +skirmishers and looking for the enemy. They had not gone far before +the enemy was encountered, and then it became a fight through the +woods from tree to tree. After two or three miles of this, they +arrived at a fortified camp surrounded with abatis. Grant's men +charged at once, succeeded in making their way through the +obstructions, and soon captured the camp with the artillery and some +prisoners. But most of the Confederates escaped and crossed the river +in their own boats, or took shelter under the bank. The usual result +of capturing a camp was soon seen. The victors laid down their arms +and devoted themselves to plundering, while some amused themselves +with the captured guns, firing at empty steamers. Meanwhile the +defeated men under the bank regained confidence and rallied, and two +steamers filled with Confederate soldiers were sent over from +Columbus; while the guns there, commanding the western bank, were +trained and fired upon the camp. To stop the plundering and bring his +men to order, Grant had the camp set on fire and then ordered a +retreat. The men formed rapidly, with deployed skirmishers, and +retired slowly to the boats, Grant himself being the last one to go on +board. Some of the wounded were taken on the transports, others were +left on the field. The National loss was 485; the Confederate loss was +642, including 175 carried off as prisoners. The Unionists also spiked +four guns and brought off two. Both sides claimed this action as a +victory--Grant, because he had accomplished the object for which he +set out, preventing reinforcements from being sent to Price; the +Confederates, because they were left in possession of the field. But +it was generally discussed as a disaster to the National arms. There +were many interesting incidents. One man who had both legs shot off +was found in the woods singing "The Star Spangled Banner." Another, +who was mortally wounded, had propped himself up against a tree and +thought to take a smoke. He was found dead with his pipe in one hand, +his knife in the other, and the tobacco on his breast. A Confederate +correspondent told this story: "When the two columns came face to +face, Colonel Walker's regiment was immediately opposed to the Seventh +Iowa, and David Vollmer, drawing the attention of a comrade to the +stars and stripes that floated over the enemy, avowed his intention of +capturing the colors or dying in the attempt. The charge was made, and +as the two columns came within a few yards of each other, Vollmer and +a young man named Lynch both made a rush for the colors; but Vollmer's +bayonet first pierced the breast of the color-bearer, and, grasping +the flag, he waved it over his head in triumph. At this moment he and +Lynch were both shot dead. Captain Armstrong stepped forth to capture +the colors, when he also fell, grasping the flagstaff." Another +correspondent wrote: "The Seventh Iowa suffered more severely than any +other regiment. It fought continually against fearful odds. Ever +pushing onward through the timber, on their hands and knees, they +crawled with their standard waving over them until they reached the +cornfield on the left of the enemy's encampment, where their cannon +was planted, and drove them from their guns, leaving them still +unmanned, knowing that other forces were following them up. Their +course was still onward until they entered on the camp-ground of the +foe and tore down the flag." + +Besides those here described, there were many smaller engagements in +Missouri--at Piketon, Lancaster, Salem, Black Walnut Creek, Milford, +Hudson, and other places. There were also encounters in Florida, in +New Mexico, and in Texas; none of them being important, but all +together showing that the struggle begun this year had spread over a +vast territory and that a long and bloody war was before the people of +our country. + +[Illustration: ABATIS.] + +{123} [Illustration: "THE PICKET'S OFF DUTY FOREVER."] + + + + +WAR SONGS. + + +[Illustration] + +It is probable that war songs are the oldest human compositions. In +every nation they have sprung into existence at the very dawning of +national life. The first Grecian poems of which we have any record are +war songs, chanted to inspire or maintain warlike enthusiasm. Not only +did they sing martial melodies as they attacked their enemies, but +when the conflict was over, and the victory won, they also sang +triumphal odes as they returned to camp. Martial odes that were sung +in Gaul by the conquering legions of Julius Cćsar have been handed +down to the present time. The student of the history and the +literature of Spain finds many traces of the war songs that the +all-conquering Romans sang as they marched over the mountains or +across the valleys of that then dependent nationality. And long before +the time of Cćsar, Servius Tullius ordered that two whole centurić +should consist of trumpeters, horn-blowers, etc., to sound the charge. +In these and subsequent ages, war songs were sung in chorus by a whole +army in advancing to the attack. If further proof of the antiquity of +military music were needed, a conclusive one is to be found in 2 +Chronicles, xx. 21, where it is said that when Jehoshaphat went to +battle against the hosts of Ammon "he placed a choir of singers in +front of his army." + +Wonderful indeed is the war song when studied as to its influence in +early times on history. By the power of arms, by the spirit of +conquest, did nations arise and continue to exist. The warrior made +the nation, and the poet sang and immortalized the warrior's fame; and +thus it came to pass that great honor was bestowed upon the poets. +Among old Arab tribes, fires were lighted and great rejoicings made by +their warriors {124} when a poet had manifested himself among them, +for in his songs they anticipated their own glory. In many ancient +countries, the bards that sang of battles were regarded as really +inspired, and their poetic productions were considered as the language +of the gods. Centuries passed before that admiration bestowed upon the +singer of war songs was impaired. The ancient literature of many +European countries presents numerous indications that the +warrior-poets were treated with great consideration; were forgiven by +their sovereigns for serious offences on condition that they write a +new war song, and were paid what would seem at this day enormous +prices for their compositions. It is related that on one occasion King +Athelstane, of the Anglo-Saxons, paid a poet sixteen ounces of pure +gold for a laudatory song. When the greater value of gold in that +distant age is considered, it is probable that no living poet is +better paid for his productions than was this old singer whose ballads +breathed of bloodshed and slaughter. + +The marvellous influence of war songs over the ancient Norsemen is +difficult to understand. They were aroused to a high degree of +military enthusiasm, almost to madness, by the mere words of certain +songs. That it was this influence which frequently drove them onward +to great deeds, appears in every chapter of their life history. It was +the courage and frenzy aroused by Teutonic war songs that led to the +destruction of Rome, and shattered the civilization of southern +Europe. + +That the influence of the war song over the minds and the hearts of +men did not terminate with the long ago past, is apparent to every +student of modern history. Garibaldi's warlike Hymn of the Italians, +the stirring "Marseillaise" of the light-hearted French, the vigorous +"Britannia" of the sturdy English, have inspired determination and +aroused courage on many a bloody battlefield. How frequently during +our own civil war was retreat checked, and the tide of battle turned, +by the singing of "We'll Rally round the Flag, Boys," started at the +opportune moment by some brave soldier with a vigorous and melodious +voice. It has been said that the Portuguese soldiers in Ceylon, at the +siege of Colombo, when pressed with misery and the pangs of hunger, +during their marches, derived not only consolation but also +encouragement from singing stanzas of their national song. + +It is a singular fact that no great national hymn, and no war song +that arouses and cheers, was ever written by a distinguished poet. It +would seem that a National Hymn is the sort of material that cannot be +made to order. Not one of the best-known songs of our own civil +war--in the North or in the South--was written by an eminent poet. +Five of the greatest American poets were living during the great +conflict, and four of them gave expression to its military ardor, +determinate zeal, or pathos, but none of them so sung as to touch the +popular heart; that is to say, so as to secure the attention of those +who do not read poetry. The same is true of the composers of the +national anthems and great martial ballads of nearly every other +country. The thunder roar of the "Marseillaise," before which all the +other military songs of France are dull and weak, was produced by De +l'Isle, who lives in the memory of his countrymen and of the world for +this alone. The noble measures of "God Save the King" are not the work +of any one of the great British poets, but were probably written by +Henry Carey; but this is in dispute, and innumerable Englishmen sing +the anthem without even attempting to learn the name of the composer. + +The Prussian National Anthem was not written by a Goethe, a Schiller, +or even a Köner. The name of the writer, Schneckenburger, would not be +found in books of reference had he not written "The Watch on the +Rhine." The favorite national song of the Italians, known as the +"Garibaldian Hymn," is the composition of Mercantini, of whom little +is known. + +Our own country is especially fortunate in the quality of its great +national songs. "The Star Spangled Banner" breathes the loftiest and +purest patriotism. The English National Hymn is but a prayer for +blessings on the head of the king--the ruler. The "Marseillaise" is +calculated to arouse only the spirit of slaughter and bloodshed. Truer +than any of these to pure, lofty, and patriotic zeal is our own "Star +Spangled Banner." + +From our Civil War we have received at least two war songs which, +simply as such, are fit to rank with the best of any country--"John +Brown's Body" and "Marching through Georgia." The greatest of the +Southern war lyrics--"My Maryland"--is equal to these as a powerful +lyric. It is said that fully two thousand poems and songs pertaining +to the war, both North and South, were written during the first year +of this conflict. But most of them are now wholly unknown, except to +the special student. Perhaps a score of compositions, the result of +the poetic outburst inspired by the Civil War, possess such merit that +they will survive through centuries as part of the literary heritage +of the nation. Of such we give in this collection about twenty that +seem to us the best and most popular. + +[Illustration] + + +{125} NORTHERN SONGS. + + +TRAMP, TRAMP, TRAMP, THE BOYS ARE MARCHING. + +This is one of the numerous war songs written by Mr. George F. Root. +Among his others are "Just before the Battle, Mother," and the +"Battle-Cry of Freedom." It is difficult to say which of these three +was the most popular. There was a touch of pathos in "Just before the +Battle, Mother," which made the words impressive and thrilling to the +hearts of men away from home and fireside. Many a brave soldier +considered death itself preferable to captivity and incarceration in +prison pens. How sad, then, must have been the lot of the soldiers who +sat in prison cells and heard the "tramp, tramp, tramp," of the +marching boys! Mr. Root was the composer as well as the author of the +three great songs mentioned above. + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + + In the prison cell I sit, + Thinking, mother dear, of you, + And our bright and happy home so far away; + And the tears they fill my eyes, + Spite of all that I can do, + Though I try to cheer my comrades and be gay. + + CHORUS: + + Tramp, tramp, tramp, the boys are marching; + Cheer up, comrades, they will come, + And beneath the starry flag + We shall breathe the air again + Of the free-land in our own beloved home. + + In the battle front we stood + When their fiercest charge they made, + And they swept us off a hundred men or more; + But before we reached their lines + They were beaten back dismayed, + And we heard the cry of vict'ry o'er and o'er. + + So within the prison cell + We are waiting for the day + That shall come to open wide the iron door; + And the hollow eye grows bright, + And the poor heart almost gay, + As we think of seeing home and friends once more. + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +{126} [Illustration] + + +ALL QUIET ALONG THE POTOMAC TO-NIGHT. + +One cool September morning in 1861, a young woman living in Goshen, +Orange County, N. Y., read the familiar announcement from the seat of +war near Washington, "All quiet on the Potomac," to which was added in +smaller type, "A picket shot." These simple words were the inspiration +of a celebrated war song, which is as popular now as when it first +appeared. This song was first published in _Harper's Weekly_ for +November 30, 1861, and it has had many claimants; but after careful +investigation, there appears to be no reason whatever for disputing +the claim of Mrs. Ethel Lynn Beers. She died in Orange, N. J., October +10, 1879. + + "All quiet along the Potomac," they say, + "Except now and then a stray picket + Is shot, as he walks on his beat to and fro, + By a rifleman hid in the thicket. + 'Tis nothing--a private or two now and then + Will not count in the news of the battle; + Not an officer lost--only one of the men, + Moaning out, all alone, the death-rattle." + + All quiet along the Potomac to-night, + Where the soldiers lie peacefully dreaming; + Their tents in the rays of the clear autumn moon, + Or the light of the watch-fire, are gleaming. + A tremulous sigh of the gentle night-wind + Through the forest leaves softly is creeping; + While stars up above, with their glittering eyes, + Keep guard, for the army is sleeping. + + There's only the sound of the lone sentry's tread, + As he tramps from the rock to the fountain, + And thinks of the two in the low trundle-bed + Far away in the cot on the mountain. + His musket falls slack; his face, dark and grim, + Grows gentle with memories tender, + As he mutters a prayer for the children asleep, + For their mother--may Heaven defend her! + + The moon seems to shine just as brightly as then, + That night, when the love yet unspoken + Leaped up to his lips--when low-murmured vows + Were pledged to be ever unbroken. + Then drawing his sleeve roughly over his eyes, + He dashes off tears that are welling, + And gathers his gun closer up to its place, + As if to keep down the heart-swelling. + + He passes the fountain, the blasted pine-tree-- + The footstep is lagging and weary; + Yet onward he goes, through the broad belt of light, + Toward the shade of the forest so dreary. + Hark! was it the night-wind that rustled the leaves? + Was it moonlight so wondrously flashing? + It looked like a rifle ... "Ha! Mary, good-by!" + The red life-blood is ebbing and plashing. + + All quiet along the Potomac to-night; + No sound save the rush of the river; + While soft falls the dew on the face of the dead-- + The picket's off duty forever! + +[Illustration] + + +{127} THE BATTLE HYMN OF THE REPUBLIC. + +Perhaps the "Battle Hymn of the Republic," by Mrs. Julia Ward Howe, +may be considered the most lofty in sentiment and the most elevated in +style of the martial songs of American patriotism. During the close of +the year 1861, Mrs. Howe with a party of friends visited Washington. +While there she attended a review of the Union troops on the Virginia +side of the Potomac and not far from the city. During her stay in camp +she witnessed a sudden and unexpected attack of the enemy. Thus she +had a glimpse of genuine warfare. On the ride back to the city the +party sang a number of war songs, including "John Brown's Body." One +of the party remarked that the tune was a grand one, and altogether +superior to the words of the song. Mrs. Howe responded to the effect +that she would endeavor to write other words that might be sung to +this stirring melody. That night, while she was lying in a dark room, +line after line and verse after verse of the "Battle Hymn of the +Republic" was composed. In this way every verse of the song was +carefully thought out. Then, springing from the bed, she found a pen +and piece of paper and wrote out the words of this rousing patriotic +hymn. It was often sung in the course of the war and under a great +variety of circumstances. + + Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord; + He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are + stored; + He has loosed the fateful lightning of His terrible swift sword; + His truth is marching on. + + I have seen Him in the watch-fires of a hundred circling camps; + They have builded Him an altar in the evening dews and damps; + I have read His righteous sentence in the dim and flaring lamps; + His day is marching on. + + I have read a fiery gospel, writ in burnished rows of steel: + "As ye deal with my contemners, so with you my grace shall deal;" + Let the hero, born of woman, crush the serpent with his heel, + Since God is marching on. + + He has sounded forth the trumpet that shall never call retreat; + He is sifting out the hearts of men before His judgment seat; + Oh, be swift, my soul, to answer Him! be jubilant, my feet! + Our God is marching on. + + In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born across the sea, + With a glory in His bosom that transfigures you and me; + As He died to make men holy, let us die to make men free, + While God is marching on. + + +WHEN THIS CRUEL WAR IS OVER. + +With the English soldiers a popular song in war times is the well +known "Annie Laurie." It is said that during the Crimean War this +sentimental ditty was sung by the English forces more frequently than +any other melody. Several songs of similar sentimentality were famous +on both sides during the civil war. The boys in gray sang "Lorena" at +the very beginning of the war, and never stopped till the last musket +was stacked, and the last campfire cold. The boys in blue sang +"Mother, I've Come Home to Die," "Just before the Battle, Mother," +"When this Cruel War is Over," and other songs of sentiment and +affection. "When this Cruel War is Over" was written by Charles C. +Sawyer, of Brooklyn, N. Y., and was published in the autumn of 1861. +More than one million copies of the song have been sold. Some of the +other compositions by Mr. Sawyer are "Swinging in the Lane" and +"Peeping through the Bars." + + Dearest love, do you remember + When we last did meet, + How you told me that you loved me, + Kneeling at my feet? + Oh, how proud you stood before me, + In your suit of blue, + When you vowed to me and country + Ever to be true! + Weeping, sad and lonely, + Hopes and fears, how vain; + Yet praying + When this cruel war is over, + Praying that we meet again. + + When the summer breeze is sighing + Mournfully along, + Or when autumn leaves are falling, + Sadly breathes the song. + Oft in dreams I see you lying + On the battle-plain, + Lonely, wounded, even dying, + Calling, but in vain. + + If, amid the din of battle, + Nobly you should fall, + Far away from those who love you, + None to hear you call, + Who would whisper words of comfort? + Who would soothe your pain? + Ah, the many cruel fancies + Ever in my brain! + + But our country called you, darling, + Angels cheer your way! + While our nation's sons are fighting, + We can only pray. + Nobly strike for God and liberty, + Let all nations see + How we love the starry banner, + Emblem of the free! + + +{128} WE ARE COMING, FATHER ABRAHAM. + +In the dark days of 1862 President Lincoln issued a proclamation +asking for three hundred thousand volunteers to fill the stricken +ranks of the army, and to make the cry of "On to Richmond" an +accomplished fact. Immediately after this call, Mr. James Sloane +Gibbons, a native of Wilmington, Del., living in New York City, wrote: + + "We are coming, Father Abraham, three hundred thousand more." + +This must have contributed largely to the accomplishment of the +military uprising which it relates. The stanzas were first published +anonymously in the New York _Evening Post_ of July 16, 1862. Owing to +this fact, perhaps, its authorship was at first attributed to William +C. Bryant. Mr. Gibbons joined the abolition movement when only twenty +years of age, and was for a time one of the editors of the +_Anti-Slavery Standard_. When the Emancipation Proclamation was +issued, he illuminated his residence in New York City. A short time +afterward, during the draft riots, he was mobbed, and only by the +assistance of friends was he able to save his life by escaping over +the roofs of adjoining houses to another street, where a friend had a +carriage waiting for him. He died October 17, 1892. + + We are coming, Father Abraham, three hundred thousand more, + From Mississippi's winding stream and from New England's shore; + We leave our ploughs and workshops, our wives and children dear, + With hearts too full for utterance, with but a silent tear; + We dare not look behind us, but steadfastly before: + We are coming, Father Abraham, three hundred thousand more! + + If you look across the hill-tops that meet the northern sky, + Long moving lines of rising dust your vision may descry; + And now the wind, an instant, tears the cloudy veil aside, + And floats aloft our spangled flag in glory and in pride; + And bayonets in the sunlight gleam, and bands brave music pour: + We are coming, Father Abraham, three hundred thousand more! + + If you look all up our valleys where the growing harvests shine, + You may see our sturdy farmer boys fast falling into line; + And children from their mother's knees are pulling at the weeds, + And learning how to reap and sow, against their country's needs; + And a farewell group stands weeping at every cottage door: + We are coming, Father Abraham, three hundred thousand more! + + You have called us, and we're coming, by Richmond's bloody tide, + To lay us down, for Freedom's sake, our brothers' bones beside; + Or from foul treason's savage grasp to wrench the murderous blade, + And in the face of foreign foes its fragments to parade. + Six hundred thousand loyal men and true have gone before: + We are coming, Father Abraham, three hundred thousand more! + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + + +{129} MARCHING THROUGH GEORGIA. + +All the great songs of the civil war, with one exception, were written +during the first year of the conflict. This exception is "Marching +through Georgia." It was written to commemorate one of the most +remarkable campaigns of the war. Now that the war has been over for +nearly thirty years, and the old soldier has no military duty more +serious than fighting his battles o'er again, "Marching through +Georgia" has become the song dearest to his heart. At the annual +encampments of the Grand Army of the Republic, and at numerous +meetings of the members of the Grand Army posts, the writer has heard +this sung more frequently than any other. The words were composed by +Mr. Henry C. Work, author of many well-known songs. Among the other +best known of his patriotic lyrics are "Grafted into the Army" and +"Kingdom Come." Mr. Work was born in Middletown, Conn., October 1, +1832. When he was very young his father removed to Illinois. He was an +inventor as well as a song writer, and among his successful inventions +are a knitting machine, a walking doll, and a rotary engine. He died +in Hartford, June 8, 1884. + + Bring me the good old bugle, boys! we'll sing another song-- + Sing it with that spirit that will start the world along-- + Sing it as we used to sing it, fifty thousand strong, + While we were marching through Georgia. + + CHORUS: + + "Hurrah, hurrah! we bring the Jubilee! + Hurrah, hurrah! the flag that makes you free!" + So we sang the chorus from Atlanta to the sea, + While we were marching through Georgia. + + How the darkies shouted when they heard the joyful sound! + How the turkeys gobbled which our commissary found! + How the sweet potatoes even started from the ground! + While we were marching through Georgia. + + Yes, and there were Union men who wept with joyful tears, + When they saw the honored flag they hadn't seen for years; + Hardly could they be restrained from breaking out in cheers, + While we were marching through Georgia. + + "Sherman's dashing Yankee boys will never reach the coast!" + So the saucy rebels said, and 'twas a handsome boast; + Had they not forgotten, alas! to reckon with the host, + While we were marching through Georgia? + + So we made a thoroughfare for Freedom and her train, + Sixty miles in latitude--three hundred to the main; + Treason fled before us, for resistance was in vain, + While we were marching through Georgia. + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +{130} [Illustration: PRAYER IN "STONEWALL" JACKSON'S CAMP.] + + +{131} SOUTHERN SONGS. + + +DIXIE. + +The tune "Dixie" was composed in 1859, by Mr. Dan D. Emmett, for +Bryant's Minstrels, then performing in New York City. It hit the taste +of the New York play-going public, and was adopted at once by various +bands of wandering minstrels, who sang it in all parts of the Union. +In 1860 it was first sung in New Orleans. In that city the tune was +harmonized, set to new words, and, without the authority of the +composer, was published. As from Boston "John Brown's Body" spread +through the North, so from New Orleans "Dixie" spread through the +South; and as Northern poets strove to find fitting words for the one, +so Southern poets wrote fiery lines to fill the measures of the other. +The only version possessing any literary merit is the one given in +this collection. It was written by Gen. Albert Pike, a native of +Massachusetts. In early life Mr. Pike moved to Little Rock, Ark., +editing a paper and studying law in that city. He served in the +Mexican war with distinction, and on the breaking out of the Rebellion +enlisted on the Confederate side a force of Cherokee Indians, whom he +led at the battle of Pea Ridge. It is said that President Lincoln +requested a band in Washington to play "Dixie" in 1865, a short time +after the surrender of Appomattox, remarking "that, as we had captured +the rebel army, we had captured also the rebel tune." + +[Illustration: BRIGADIER-GENERAL ALBERT PIKE, C. S. A.] + + Southrons, hear your country call you! + Up, lest worse than death befall you! + To arms! To arms! To arms, in Dixie! + Lo! all the beacon-fires are lighted-- + Let hearts be now united. + To arms! To arms! To arms, in Dixie! + Advance the flag of Dixie! + Hurrah! hurrah! + For Dixie's land we take our stand, + And live or die for Dixie! + To arms! To arms! + And conquer peace for Dixie! + To arms! To arms! + And conquer peace for Dixie! + + Hear the Northern thunders mutter! + Northern flags in South winds flutter. + Send them back your fierce defiance; + Stamp upon the accursed alliance. + + Fear no danger! Shun no labor! + Lift up rifle, pike, and sabre. + Shoulder pressing close to shoulder, + Let the odds make each heart bolder. + + How the South's great heart rejoices + At your cannons' ringing voices! + For faith betrayed, and pledges broken, + Wrongs inflicted, insults spoken. + + Strong as lions, swift as eagles, + Back to their kennels hunt these beagles! + Cut the unequal bonds asunder; + Let them hence each other plunder! + + Swear upon your country's altar + Never to submit or falter, + Till the spoilers are defeated, + Till the Lord's work is completed. + + Halt not till our Federation + Secures among earth's powers its station. + Then at peace, and crowned with glory, + Hear your children tell the story. + + If the loved ones weep in sadness, + Victory soon shall bring them gladness, + Exultant pride soon banish sorrow, + Smiles chase tears away to-morrow. + + +MY MARYLAND. + +"My Maryland" is regarded by some as the greatest song inspired by the +civil war, and if we consider these songs as poems it is the best. Its +burning lines, written early in 1861, helped to fire the Southern +heart. Its author, Mr. James Ryder Randall, is a native of Baltimore. +He was professor of English literature in Poydras College in +Louisiana, a short distance from New Orleans, and there in April, +1861, he read the news of the attack on the Massachusetts troops as +they passed through Baltimore. Naturally he was greatly excited on +reading this account, and it inspired the song, which was written +within twenty-four hours of the time he read of the assault. "My +Maryland" is one of a number of songs written by Mr. Randall, but none +of the others attained popularity. His "John Pelham," commonly called +"The Dead Cannonneer," is a much finer poem. After the war he became +editor of the _Constitutionalist_, published in Augusta, Ga., in which +city he still resides. + + The despot's heel is on thy shore, + Maryland! + His torch is at thy temple door, + Maryland! + Avenge the patriotic gore + That flecked the streets of Baltimore, + And be the battle-queen of yore, + Maryland, my Maryland! + + Hark to an exiled son's appeal, + Maryland! + My Mother State, to thee I kneel, + Maryland! + For life and death, for woe and weal, + Thy peerless chivalry reveal, + And gird thy beauteous limbs with steel, + Maryland, my Maryland! + + Thou wilt not cower in the dust, + Maryland! + Thy beaming sword shall never rust, + Maryland! + Remember Carroll's sacred trust, + Remember Howard's warlike thrust, + And all thy slumberers with the just, + Maryland, my Maryland! + + Come! 'tis the red dawn of the day, + Maryland! + Come with thy panoplied array, + Maryland! + With Ringgold's spirit for the fray, + With Watson's blood at Monterey, + With fearless Lowe and dashing May, + Maryland, my Maryland! + + Dear Mother, burst the tyrant's chain, + Maryland! + Virginia should not call in vain, + Maryland! {132} + She meets her sisters on the plain,-- + "_Sic semper!_" 'tis the proud refrain + That baffles minions back amain, + Maryland! + Arise in majesty again, + Maryland, my Maryland! + + Come! for thy shield is bright and strong, + Maryland! + Come! for thy dalliance does thee wrong, + Maryland! + Come to thine own heroic throng + Stalking with Liberty along, + And chant thy dauntless slogan-song, + Maryland, my Maryland! + + I see the blush upon thy cheek, + Maryland! + For thou wast ever bravely meek, + Maryland! + But lo! there surges forth a shriek, + From hill to hill, from creek to creek, + Potomac calls to Chesapeake, + Maryland, my Maryland! + + Thou wilt not yield the vandal toll, + Maryland! + Thou wilt not crook to his control, + Maryland! + Better the fire upon thee roll, + Better the shot, the blade, the bowl, + Than crucifixion of the soul, + Maryland, my Maryland! + + I hear the distant thunder-hum, + Maryland! + The Old Line's bugle, fife, and drum, + Maryland! + She is not dead, nor deaf, nor dumb; + Huzza! she spurns the Northern scum-- + She breathes! She burns! She'll come! She'll come! + Maryland, my Maryland! + + +REBELS. + +First published in the Atlanta _Confederacy_. The author is unknown. + + Rebels! 'tis a holy name! + The name our fathers bore + When battling in the cause of Right, + Against the tyrant in his might, + In the dark days of yore. + + Rebels! 'tis our family name! + Our father, Washington, + Was the arch-rebel in the fight, + And gave the name to us--a right + Of father unto son. + + Rebels! 'tis our given name! + Our mother, Liberty, + Received the title with her fame, + In days of grief, of fear, and shame, + When at her breast were we. + + Rebels! 'tis our sealed name! + A baptism of blood! + The war--ay, and the din of strife-- + The fearful contest, life for life-- + The mingled crimson flood. + + Rebels! 'tis a patriot's name! + In struggles it was given; + We bore it then when tyrants raved, + And through their curses 'twas engraved + On the doomsday-book of heaven. + + Rebels! 'tis our fighting name! + For peace rules o'er the land + Until they speak of craven woe, + Until our rights receive a blow + From foe's or brother's hand. + + Rebels! 'tis our dying name! + For although life is dear, + Yet, freemen born and freemen bred, + We'd rather live as freemen dead, + Than live in slavish fear. + + Then call us rebels, if you will-- + We glory in the name; + For bending under unjust laws, + And swearing faith to an unjust cause, + We count a greater shame. + + +CALL ALL. + +This Southern war song, which was first published in the Rockingham, +Va., _Register_ in 1861, became quite popular with the boys in gray. +It is published here because of its peculiarities rather than on +account of its literary merit. + + Whoop! the Doodles have broken loose, + Roaring round like the very deuce! + Lice of Egypt, a hungry pack-- + After 'em, boys, and drive 'em back. + + Bull-dog, terrier, cur, and fice, + Back to the beggarly land of ice; + Worry 'em, bite 'em, scratch and tear + Everybody and everywhere. + + Old Kentucky is caved from under, + Tennessee is split asunder, + Alabama awaits attack, + And Georgia bristles up her back. + + Old John Brown is dead and gone! + Still his spirit is marching on-- + Lantern-jawed, and legs, my boys, + Long as an ape's from Illinois! + + Want a weapon? Gather a brick, + Club or cudgel, or stone or stick; + Anything with a blade or butt, + Anything that can cleave or cut; + + Anything heavy, or hard, or keen-- + Any sort of slaying machine! + Anything with a willing mind + And the steady arm of a man behind. + + Want a weapon? Why, capture one! + Every Doodle has got a gun, + Belt, and bayonet, bright and new; + Kill a Doodle, and capture two! + + Shoulder to shoulder, son and sire! + All, call all! to the feast of fire! + Mother and maiden, and child and slave, + A common triumph or a single grave. + + +{133} THE BLACK FLAG. + +The raising of the black flag means death without quarter. It means +that prisoners taken should be slaughtered at once. It is contrary to +the spirit of modern warfare. General Sherman, in his celebrated +letter to the Mayor of Atlanta, says, "War is cruelty, and you cannot +refine it." War arouses the fiercest, most tiger-like passions of +mankind. Were it not so, the poet who wrote "The Mountain of the +Lovers" could never have written "The Black Flag." Paul Hamilton Hayne +was born in Charleston, S. C., in 1830. He abandoned the practice of +law for literary pursuits. He contributed to the _Southern Literary +Messenger_, and for a while edited the Charleston _Literary Gazette_. +He entered the Southern army at the outbreak of the civil war, and +served until obliged to resign by failing health. His house and all +his personal property were destroyed at the bombardment of Charleston. +He wrote extensively both in poetry and prose. + + Like the roar of the wintry surges on a wild, tempestuous strand, + The voice of the maddened millions comes up from an outraged land; + For the cup of our woe runs over, and the day of our grace is past, + And Mercy has fled to the angels, and Hatred is king at last! + + CHORUS: + + Then up with the sable banner! + Let it thrill to the War God's breath, + For we march to the watchword--Vengeance! + And we follow the captain--Death! + + In the gloom of the gory breaches, on the ramparts wrapped in flame, + 'Mid the ruined homesteads, blackened by a hundred deeds of shame; + Wheresoever the vandals rally, and the bands of the alien meet, + We will crush the heads of the hydra with the stamp of our armed + feet. + + They have taught us a fearful lesson! 'tis burned on our hearts in + fire, + And the souls of a host of heroes leap with a fierce desire; + And we swear by all that is sacred, and we swear by all that is + pure, + That the crafty and cruel dastards shall ravage our homes no more. + + We will roll the billows or battle back, back on the braggart foe, + Till his leaguered and stricken cities shall quake with a coward's + throe; + They shall compass the awful meaning of the conflict their lust + begun, + When the Northland rings with wailing, and the grand old cause hath + won. + + +LORENA. + +This doleful and pathetic song of affection was very popular among the +Confederate soldiers. It started at the start, and never stopped till +the last musket was stacked and the last camp-fire cold. It was, +without doubt, the song nearest the Confederate soldier's heart. It +was the "Annie Laurie" of the Confederate trenches. + + "Each heart recalled a different name, + But all _sang_ 'Annie Laurie.'" + + * * * * * + + The years creep slowly by, Lorena, + The snow is on the grass again; + The sun's low down the sky, Lorena, + And frost gleams where the flowers have been. + But the _heart_ throbs on as warmly now + As when the summer days were nigh. + Oh! the sun can never dip so low + Adown _affection's_ cloudless sky. + + One hundred months have passed, Lorena, + Since last I held that hand in mine; + I felt that pulse beat fast, Lorena, + But mine beat faster still than thine. + One hundred months! 'Twas flowery May, + When up the mountain slope we climbed, + To watch the dying of the day, + And hear the merry church bells chime. + + We loved each other then, Lorena, + More than we ever dared to tell; + And what we might have been, Lorena, + Had but our loving prospered well-- + But then, 'tis past, the years have flown; + I'll not call up their shadowy forms; + I'll say to them, "Lost years, sleep on-- + Sleep on, nor heed life's pelting storms." + + It matters little now, Lorena, + The past is the eternal past; + Our heads will soon lie low, Lorena, + Life's tide is ebbing out so fast. + But there's a future, oh! thank God-- + Of life this is so small a part, + 'Tis dust to dust beneath the sod; + But _there_, up _there_, 'tis _heart_ to _heart_. + +[Illustration] + + +{134} OLD FOLKS AT HOME. + +Mr. F. G. de Fontaine, a celebrated Southern war correspondent, writes +that the most popular songs with the soldiers of the Confederate +armies were negro melodies, such as "Old Folks at Home" and "My Old +Kentucky Home." This is our reason for publishing the pacific and +kindly words of the most celebrated negro melody, among songs that +breathe threatening and slaughter. It is not difficult to understand +why such songs were popular with men raised in the South. They would +bring forcibly to mind the distant home, and the dear associations of +early life on the old plantations. "Old Folks at Home" was written by +Stephen Collins Foster. He wrote between two and three hundred popular +songs--more than any other American. Among the most familiar of his +compositions are "Old Uncle Ned," "Massa's in the Cold, Cold Ground," +"Old Dog Tray," and "My Old Kentucky Home." Mr. Foster was finely +educated, was proficient in French and German, was an amateur painter +of ability, and a talented musician. It is said that he received +fifteen thousand dollars for "Old Folks at Home." + +[Illustration: STEPHEN COLLINS FOSTER.] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + + Way down upon de Swanee ribber, + Far, far away, + Dere's wha my heart is turning ebber, + Dere's wha de old folks stay. + All up and down de whole creation + Sadly I roam, + Still longing for de old plantation, + And for de old folks at home. + +{135} CHORUS: + + All de world am sad and dreary, + Ebrywhere I roam; + Oh, darkies, how my heart grows weary, + Far from de old folks at home! + + All round de little farm I wandered + When I was young; + Den many happy days I squandered, + Many de songs I sung. + When I was playing wid my brudder, + Happy was I; + Oh, take me to my kind old mudder! + Dere let me live and die. + + One little hut among de bushes, + One dat I love, + Still sadly to my mem'ry rushes, + No matter where I rove. + When will I see de bees a-humming + All round de comb? + When will I hear de banjo tumming, + Down in my good old home? + + CHORUS: + + All de world am sad and dreary, + Ebrywhere I roam; + Oh, darkies, how my heart grows weary, + Far from de old folks at home! + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + + +{136} THE BONNIE BLUE FLAG. + +The most popular war songs of the South were "Dixie" and "The Bonnie +Blue Flag." Like "Dixie," the "Bonnie Blue Flag" began its popular +career in New Orleans. The words were written by an Irish comedian, +Mr. Harry McCarthy, and the song was first sung by his sister, Miss +Marion McCarthy, at the Variety Theatre in New Orleans in 1861. The +tune is an old and popular Irish melody, "The Irish Jaunting Car." It +is said that General Butler, when he was commander of the National +forces in New Orleans in 1862, made it very profitable by fining every +man, woman, or child, who sang, whistled, or played this tune on any +instrument, twenty-five dollars. It has also been said that he +arrested the publisher, destroyed the stock of sheet music, and fined +him five hundred dollars. + + We are a band of brothers, and native to the soil, + Fighting for the property we gained by honest toil; + And when our rights were threatened, the cry rose near and far: + Hurrah for the Bonnie Blue Flag that bears a single star! + Hurrah! hurrah! for the Bonnie Blue Flag + That bears a single star! + + As long as the Union was faithful to her trust, + Like friends and like brothers, kind were we and just; + But now when Northern treachery attempts our rights to mar, + We hoist on high the Bonnie Blue Flag that bears a single star. + + First, gallant South Carolina nobly made the stand; + Then came Alabama, who took her by the hand; + Next, quickly Mississippi, Georgia, and Florida-- + All raised the flag, the Bonnie Blue Flag that bears a single star. + + Ye men of valor, gather round the banner of the right; + Texas and fair Louisiana join us in the fight. + Davis, our loved President, and Stephens, statesmen are; + Now rally round the Bonnie Blue Flag that bears a single star. + + And here's to brave Virginia! The Old Dominion State + With the young Confederacy at length has linked her fate. + Impelled by her example, now other States prepare + To hoist on high the Bonnie Blue Flag that bears a single star. + + Then here's to our Confederacy! Strong we are and brave; + Like patriots of old we'll fight, our heritage to save; + And rather than submit to shame, to die we would prefer, + So cheer for the Bonnie Blue Flag that bears a single star. + + Then cheer, boys, cheer, raise the joyous shout, + For Arkansas and North Carolina now have both gone out; + And let another rousing cheer for Tennessee be given, + The single star of the Bonnie Blue Flag has grown to be eleven. + Hurrah! hurrah! for the Bonnie Blue Flag + That bears a single star! + + +NORTHERN SONGS. + + +JOHN BROWN'S BODY. + +John Brown was hanged in December, 1859, and a little more than a year +after this time the celebrated marching-tune, "John Brown's Body," +came into being. It is a singular fact that the composer of the +stirring and popular air of this song is unknown. Possibly it had no +composer, but, like Topsy, "it was not born, but just growed." This +seems to be the most reasonable theory of its origin. The words of the +song, as given in this collection, with the exception of the first +stanza, were written by Charles S. Hall, of Charlestown, Mass. "John +Brown's Body" was the most popular war song among the Northern +soldiers on the march and around the campfire. In fact, it became the +marching song of the armies of the Nation. It was equally popular in +the cities, villages, and homes of the North. The _Pall Mall Gazette_, +of October 14, 1865, said: "The street boys of London have decided in +favor of 'John Brown's Body' against 'My Maryland' and 'The Bonnie +Blue Flag.' The somewhat lugubrious refrain has excited their +admiration to a wonderful degree." + + John Brown's body lies a-mouldering in the grave; + John Brown's body lies a-mouldering in the grave; + John Brown's body lies a-mouldering in the grave; + His soul is marching on. + + Glory, halle--hallelujah! Glory, halle--hallelujah! + Glory, halle--hallelujah! + His soul is marching on! + + He's gone to be a soldier in the army of the Lord! (_thrice_.) + His soul is marching on! + + John Brown's knapsack is strapped upon his back! (_thrice_.) + His soul is marching on! + + His pet lambs will meet him on the way; (_thrice_.) + As they go marching on! + + They will hang Jeff Davis to a sour apple tree! (_thrice_.) + As they march along! + + Now, three rousing cheers for the Union! (_thrice_.) + As we are marching on! + + Glory; halle--hallelujah! Glory, halle--hallelujah! + Glory, halle--hallelujah! + Hip, hip, hip, hip, hurrah! + + +WHEN JOHNNY COMES MARCHING HOME. + +Another army song that became almost as popular in England as in this +country is "When Johnny Comes Marching Home." It was written and +composed by Mr. Patrick S. Gilmore, leader of the celebrated Gilmore's +Band. The words do not amount to much, but the tune is of that +rollicking order which is very catching. Without doubt the author +built up the words of this song to suit the air, on the same principle +that in Georgia they build a chimney first and erect the house against +it. This rattling war song has kept its hold on the ears of the people +to the present time. Mr. Gilmore afterward composed an ambitious +national hymn which has never attained the popularity of his war song. + + When Johnny comes marching home again, + Hurrah! hurrah! + We'll give him a hearty welcome then, + Hurrah! hurrah! + The men will cheer, the hays will shout, + The ladies they will all turn out, + And we'll all feel gay, + When Johnny comes marching home. + + The men will cheer, the boys will shout, + The ladies they will all turn out, + And we'll all feel gay, + When Johnny comes marching home. + + The old church-bell will peal with joy, + Hurrah! hurrah! + To welcome home our darling boy, + Hurrah! hurrah! {137} + The village lads and lasses say, + With roses they will strew the way; + And we'll all feel gay, + When Johnny comes marching home. + + Get ready for the jubilee, + Hurrah! hurrah! + We'll give the hero three times three, + Hurrah! hurrah! + The laurel wreath is ready now + To place upon his loyal brow; + And we'll all feel gay, + When Johnny comes marching home. + + Let love and friendship on that day, + Hurrah! hurrah! + Their choicest treasures then display, + Hurrah! hurrah! + And let each one perform some part, + To fill with joy the warrior's heart; + And we'll all feel gay, + When Johnny comes marching home. + + The men will cheer, the boys will shout, + The ladies they will all turn out, + And we'll all feel gay, + When Johnny comes marching home. + + +GRAFTED INTO THE ARMY. + +BY HENRY C. WORK. + + Our Jimmy has gone to live in a tent, + They have grafted him into the army; + He finally puckered up courage and went, + When they grafted him into the army. + I told them the child was too young--alas! + At the captain's forequarters they said he would pass-- + They'd train him up well in the infantry class-- + So they grafted him into the army. + + CHORUS: + + O Jimmy, farewell! Your brothers fell + Way down in Alabarmy; + I thought they would spare a lone widder's heir, + But they grafted him into the army. + + Drest up in his unicorn--dear little chap! + They have grafted him into the army; + It seems but a day since he sot on my lap, + But they have grafted him into the army. + And these are the trousies he used to wear-- + Them very same buttons--the patch and the tear-- + But Uncle Sam gave him a bran new pair + When they grafted him into the army. + + Now in my provisions I see him revealed-- + They have grafted him into the army; + A picket beside the contented field, + They have grafted him into the army. + He looks kinder sickish--begins to cry-- + A big volunteer standing right in his eye! + Oh, what if the duckie should up and die, + Now they've grafted him into the army! + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + + +{138} THE BATTLE CRY OF FREEDOM. + +George F. Root was born in Sheffield, Mass., August 30, 1820, and he +was the founder of the music-publishing firm of Root & Cady. His +celebrated "Battle Cry of Freedom" was first sung by the Hutchinson +family at a mass meeting in New York City. It is said that during the +terrible fight in the Wilderness, on May 6, 1864, a brigade of the +Ninth Corps, having broken the enemy's line by an assault, became +exposed to a flank attack and was driven back in disorder with heavy +loss. They retreated but a few hundred yards, however, re-formed, and +again confronted the enemy. Just then some gallant fellows in the +ranks of the Forty-fifth Pennsylvania began to sing: + + "We'll rally round the flag, boys, rally once again, + Shouting the battle cry of Freedom." + +The refrain was caught up instantly by the entire regiment and by the +Thirty-sixth Massachusetts, next in line. There the grim ranks stood +at bay in the deadly conflict. The air was filled with the smoke and +crackle of burning underbrush, the pitiful cries of the wounded, the +rattle of musketry, and shouts of men; but above all, over the +exultant yells of the enemy, rose the inspiring chorus: + + "The Union forever, hurrah! boys, hurrah! + Down with the traitor, up with the star." + +This song was often ordered to be sung as the men marched into action. +More than once its strains arose on the battlefield. With the humor +which never deserts the American, even amid the hardships of camp life +and the dangers of battle, the gentle lines of "Mary Had a Little +Lamb" were fitted to the tune of the "Battle Cry of Freedom," and many +a regiment shortened a weary march, or went gayly into action, +singing: + + "Mary had a little lamb, + Its fleece was white as snow, + Shouting the battle cry of Freedom. + And everywhere that Mary went, + The lamb was sure to go, + Shouting the battle cry of Freedom." + + * * * * * + + Yes, we'll rally round the flag, boys, we'll rally once again, + Shouting the battle cry of Freedom; + We will rally from the hillside, we'll gather from the plain, + Shouting the battle cry of Freedom. + + The Union forever, hurrah! boys, hurrah! + Down with the traitor, up with the star; + While we rally round the flag, boys, rally once again, + Shouting the battle cry of Freedom. + + We are springing to the call of our brothers gone before, + Shouting the battle cry of Freedom; + And we'll fill the vacant ranks with a million freemen more, + Shouting the battle cry of Freedom. + + We will welcome to our numbers the loyal true and brave, + Shouting the battle cry of Freedom; + And although they may be poor, not a man shall be a slave, + Shouting the battle cry of Freedom. + + So we're springing to the call from the East and from the West, + Shouting the battle cry of Freedom; + And we'll hurl the rebel crew from the land we love the best, + Shouting the battle cry of Freedom. + + The Union forever, hurrah! boys, hurrah! + Down with the traitor, up with the star; + While we rally round the flag, boys, rally once again, + Shouting the battle cry of Freedom. + +[Illustration] + + +{139} TENTING ON THE OLD CAMP-GROUND. + +The author of "Tenting on the Old Camp-Ground" is Walter Kittridge, +who was born in the town of Merrimac, N. H., October 8, 1832. He was a +public singer and a composer, as well as a writer of popular songs and +ballads. In the first year of the civil war he published a small +original "Union Song-Book." In 1862 he was drafted, and while +preparing to go to the front he wrote in a few minutes both words and +music of "Tenting on the Old Camp-Ground." Like many other good things +in literature, this song was at first refused publication. But when it +was published, its sale reached hundreds of thousands of copies. + + We're tenting to-night on the old camp-ground, + Give us a song to cheer + Our weary hearts, a song of home + And friends we love so dear. + + CHORUS: + + Many are the hearts that are weary to-night, + Wishing for the war to cease; + Many are the hearts looking for the right, + To see the dawn of peace; + Tenting to-night, tenting to-night, + Tenting on the old camp-ground. + + We've been tenting to-night on the old camp-ground, + Thinking of the days gone by; + Of the loved ones at home, that gave us the hand, + And the tear that said, Good-by! + + We are tired of war on the old camp-ground; + Many are dead and gone + Of the brave and true who've left their homes; + Others have been wounded long. + + We've been fighting to-day on the old camp-ground; + Many are lying near; + Some are dead, and some are dying, + Many are in tears! + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + + + + +{140} + +CHAPTER XIII. + +THE PENINSULA CAMPAIGN. + +COMMAND GIVEN TO McCLELLAN--HIS PLANS--APPOINTMENT OF SECRETARY +STANTON--ON THE PENINSULA--BATTLE OF WILLIAMSBURG--ON THE +CHICKAHOMINY--THE BATTLE OF FAIR OAKS--EFFECT OF THE SWAMPS--LEE IN +COMMAND--STUART'S RAID--NEAREST APPROACH TO RICHMOND--ACTION AT BEAVER +DAM CREEK--BATTLE OF GAINES'S MILLS--BATTLE OF SAVAGE'S +STATION--BATTLE OF CHARLES CITY CROSS-ROADS--BATTLE OF MALVERN +HILL--CRITICISMS OF PENINSULA CAMPAIGN. + + +Within twenty-four hours after the defeat of McDowell's army at Bull +Run (July 21, 1861), the Administration called to Washington the only +man that had thus far accomplished much or made any considerable +reputation in the field. This was Gen. George B. McClellan. He had +been graduated at West Point in 1846, standing second in his class, +and had gone at once into the Mexican war, in which he acquitted +himself with distinction. After that war the young captain was +employed in engineering work till 1855, when the Government sent him +to Europe to study the movements of the Crimean war. He wrote a report +of his observations, which was published under the title of "The +Armies of Europe," and in 1857 resigned his commission and became +chief engineer of the Illinois Central Railroad, and afterward +president of the St. Louis and Cincinnati. He had done good work in +Northwestern Virginia in the early summer, and now, at the age of +thirty-five, was commissioned major-general in the regular army of the +United States, and given command of all the troops about Washington. + +[Illustration: MAJOR-GENERAL GEORGE B. McCLELLAN AND WIFE.] + +For the work immediately in hand, this was probably the best selection +that could have been made. Washington needed to be fortified, and he +was a master of engineering; both the army that had just been +defeated, and the new recruits that were pouring in, needed +organization, and he proved preëminent as an organizer. Three months +after he took command of fifty thousand uniformed men at the capital, +he had an army of more than one hundred thousand, well organized in +regiments, brigades, and divisions, with the proper proportion of +artillery, with quartermaster and commissary departments going like +clockwork, and the whole fairly drilled and disciplined. Everybody +looked on with admiration, and the public impatience that had +precipitated the disastrous "On to Richmond" movement was now replaced +by a marvellous patience. The summer and autumn months went by, and no +movement was made; but McClellan, in taking command, had promised that +the war should be "short, sharp, and decisive," and the people +thought, if they only allowed him time enough to make thorough +preparation, his great army would at length swoop down upon the +Confederate capital and finish everything at one blow. At length, +however, they began to grow weary of the daily telegram, "All quiet +along the Potomac," and the monotonously repeated information that +"General McClellan rode out to Fairfax Court-House and back this +morning." The Confederacy was daily growing stronger; the Potomac was +being closed to navigation by the erection of hostile batteries on its +southern bank; the enemy's flag was flying within sight from the +capital, and the question of foreign interference was becoming +exceedingly grave. On the 1st of November General Scott, then +seventy-five years of age, retired, and McClellan succeeded him as +General-in-Chief of all the armies. + +Soon after this his plans appear, from subsequent revelations, to have +undergone important modification. He had undoubtedly intended to +attack by moving straight out toward Manassas, where the army that had +won the battle of Bull Run was still encamped, and was still commanded +by Gen. Joseph E. Johnston. He now began to think of moving against +Richmond by some more easterly route, discussing among others the +extreme easterly one that he finally took. But, whatever were his +thoughts and purposes, his army appeared to be taking root. The people +began to murmur, Congress began to question, and the President began +to argue and urge. All this did not signify; nothing could move +McClellan. He wanted to wait till he could leave {141} an enormous +garrison in the defences of Washington, place a strong corps of +observation along the Potomac, and then move out with a column of one +hundred and fifty thousand men against an army that he believed to be +as numerous as that, though in truth it was then less than half as +large. It is now known that, from the beginning to the end of his +career in that war, General McClellan constantly overestimated the +force opposed to him. On the 10th of January, 1862, the President held +a long consultation with Generals McDowell and Franklin and some +members of his cabinet. General McClellan was then confined to his bed +by an illness of a month's duration. At this consultation Mr. Lincoln +said, according to General McDowell's memorandum: "If something was +not soon done, the bottom would be out of the whole affair; and if +General McClellan did not want to use the army, he would like to +borrow it, provided he could see how it could be made to do +something." + +[Illustration: MAP SHOWING THE SEAT OF WAR FROM HARPER'S FERRY TO +SUFFOLK, VA.] + +{142} [Illustration: FOREIGN OFFICERS AND STAFF AT GENERAL McCLELLAN'S +HEADQUARTERS. Captain LeClerc. Comte de Paris. Captain Mohain. Duc de +Chartres. Prince de Joinville.] + +Immediately upon McClellan's recovery, the President called him to a +similar council, and asked him to disclose his plan for {143} a +campaign, which he declined to do. Finally the President asked him if +he had fixed upon any particular time for setting out; and when he +said he had, Mr. Lincoln questioned him no further. A few days later, +in a letter to the President, he set forth his plan, which was to move +his army down the Potomac on transports, land it at or near Fort +Monroe, march up the peninsula between York and James rivers, and +attack the defences of Richmond on the north and east sides. The +President at first disapproved of this plan, largely for the reason +that it would require so much time in preparation; but when he found +that the highest officers in the army favored it, and considered the +probability that any general was likely to fail if sent to execute a +plan he did not originate or believe in, he finally gave it his +sanction, and once more set himself to the difficult task of inducing +McClellan to move at all. And yet the President himself still further +retarded the opening of the campaign by delaying the order to collect +the means of transportation. Meanwhile General Johnston quietly +removed his stores, and on the 8th of March evacuated Centreville and +Manassas, and placed his army before Richmond. This reconciled the +President to McClellan's plan of campaign, which he had never liked. + +The order for the transportation of McClellan's army was issued on the +27th of February, and four hundred vessels were required; for there +were actually transported one hundred and twenty-one thousand men, +fourteen thousand animals, forty-four batteries, and all the necessary +ambulances and baggage-wagons, pontoons and telegraph material. Just +before the embarkation, the army was divided into four corps, the +commands of which were given to Generals McDowell, Edwin V. Sumner, +Samuel P. Heintzelman, and Erasmus D. Keyes. High authorities say this +was one of the causes of the failure of the campaign; for the army +should have been divided into corps long before, when McClellan could +have chosen his own lieutenants instead of having them chosen by the +President. General Hooker said it was impossible for him to succeed +with such corps commanders. But his near approach to success rather +discredits this criticism. + +Another element of the highest importance had also entered into the +problem with which the nation was struggling. This was the appointment +(January 21, 1862) of Edwin M. Stanton to succeed Simon Cameron as +Secretary of War. Mr. Stanton, then forty-seven years of age, was a +lawyer by profession, a man of great intellect, unfailing nerve, and +tremendous energy. He had certain traits that often made him +personally disagreeable to his subordinates; but it was impossible to +doubt his thorough loyalty, and his determination to find or make a +way to bring the war to a successful close as speedily as possible, +without the slightest regard to the individual interests of himself or +anybody else. He was probably the ablest war minister that ever +lived--with the possible exception of Carnot, the man to whom Napoleon +said, "I have known you too late." It is indicative of Mr. Lincoln's +sagacity and freedom from prejudice, that his first meeting with Mr. +Stanton was when he went to Cincinnati, some years before the war, to +assist in trying an important case. He found Mr. Stanton in charge of +the case as senior counsel, and Stanton was so unendurably +disagreeable to him that he threw up the engagement and went home to +Springfield. Yet he afterward gave that man the most important place +in his cabinet, and found him its strongest member. + +One division of the army embarked on the 17th of March, and the others +followed in quick succession. General McClellan reached Fort Monroe on +the 2d of April, by which time fifty-eight thousand men and one +hundred guns had arrived, and immediately moved with this force on +Yorktown, the place made famous by the surrender of Cornwallis eighty +years before. The Confederates had fortified this point, and thrown a +line of earthworks across the narrow peninsula to the deep water of +Warwick River. These works were held by General Magruder with thirteen +thousand effective men. General Johnston, who was in command of all +the troops around Richmond, says he had no expectation of doing more +than delaying McClellan at Yorktown till he could strengthen the +defences of the capital and collect more men; and that he thought his +adversary would use his transports to pass his army around that place +by water, after destroying the batteries, and land at some point +above. + +McClellan, supposing that Johnston's entire army was in the defences +of Yorktown, sat down before the place and constructed siege works, +approaching the enemy by regular parallels. As the remaining divisions +of his army arrived at Fort Monroe, they were added to his besieging +force; but McDowell's entire corps and Blenker's division had been +detached at the last moment and retained at Washington, from fears on +the part of the Administration that the capital was not sufficiently +guarded, though McClellan had already left seventy thousand men there +or within call. The fears were increased by the threatening movements +of Stonewall Jackson in the Shenandoah Valley, where, however, he was +defeated by Gen. James Shields near Winchester, March 23. + +General Johnston had to contend with precisely the same difficulty +that McClellan complained of. He wanted to bring together before +Richmond all the troops that were then at Norfolk and in the Carolinas +and Georgia, and with the large army thus formed suddenly attack +McClellan after he should have marched seventy-five miles up the +peninsula from his base at Fort Monroe. But in a council of war +General Lee and the Secretary of War opposed this plan, and Mr. Davis +adopted their views and rejected it. Johnston therefore undertook the +campaign with the army that he had, which he says consisted of fifty +thousand effective men. + +McClellan spent nearly a month before Yorktown, and when he was ready +to open fire with his siege guns and drive out the enemy, May 3d, he +found they had quietly departed, leaving "Quaker guns" (wooden logs on +wheels) in the embrasures. There was no delay in pursuit, and the +National advance came up with the Confederate rear guard near +Williamsburg, about twelve miles from Yorktown. Here, May 4th, brisk +skirmishing began, which gradually became heavier, till reinforcements +were hurried up on the one side, and sent back on the other, and the +skirmish was developed into a battle. The place had been well +fortified months before. The action on the morning of the 5th was +opened by the divisions of Generals Hooker and William F. Smith. They +attacked the strongest of the earthworks, pushed forward the +batteries, and silenced it. Hooker was then heavily attacked by +infantry, with a constant menace on his left wing. He sustained his +position alone nearly all day, though losing one thousand seven +hundred men and five guns, and was at length relieved by the arrival +of Gen. Philip Kearny's division. The delay was due mainly to the deep +mud caused by a heavy rain the night before. Later in the day, +Hancock's brigade made a wide circuit on the right, discovered some +unoccupied redoubts, and took possession of them. When the +Confederates advanced their left to the attack, they ran upon these +redoubts, which their commanding officers knew nothing about, and were +repelled with heavy loss. Hancock's one thousand six hundred men +suddenly burst over the crest of the works, and bore down {144} upon +the enemy with fixed bayonets, routing and scattering them. McClellan +brought up reinforcements, and in the night the Confederates in front +of him moved off to join their main army, leaving in Williamsburg four +hundred of their wounded, because they had no means of carrying them +away, but taking with them about that number of prisoners. The +National loss had been about two thousand two hundred, the Confederate +about one thousand eight hundred. This battle was fought within five +miles of the historic site of Jamestown, where the first permanent +English settlement in the United States had been made in 1607, and the +first cargo of slaves landed in 1619. + +Gen. William B. Franklin's division of McDowell's corps had now been +sent to McClellan, and immediately after the battle of Williamsburg he +moved it on transports to White House, on the Pamunkey, where it +established a base of supplies. As soon as possible, also, the main +body of the army was marched from Williamsburg to White House, +reaching that place on the 16th of May. From this point he moved +westward toward Richmond, expecting to be joined by a column of forty +thousand men under McDowell, which was to move from Fredericksburg. On +reaching the Chickahominy, McClellan threw his left wing across that +stream, and sweeping around with his right fought small battles at +Mechanicsville and Hanover Junction, by which he cleared the way for +McDowell to join him. But at this critical point of time Stonewall +Jackson suddenly made another raid down the Shenandoah Valley, and +McDowell was called back to go in pursuit of him. + +[Illustration: CAMP OF THE ARMY OF THE POTOMAC AT CUMBERLAND LANDING.] + +Johnston resolved to strike the detached left wing of the National +army, which had crossed the Chickahominy, and advanced to a point +within half a dozen miles of Richmond, and his purpose was seconded by +a heavy rain on the night of May 30th, which swelled the stream and +swept away some of the bridges, thus hindering reinforcement from the +other wing. The attack, May 31st, fell first upon Gen. Silas Casey's +division of Keyes's corps, which occupied some half-finished works. It +was bravely made and bravely resisted, and the Confederate suffered +heavy losses before these works, where they had almost surprised the +men with the shovels in their hands. But after a time a Confederate +force made a detour and gained a position in the rear of the redoubts, +when of course they could no longer be held. Reinforcements were very +slow in coming up, and Keyes's men had a long, hard struggle to hold +their line at all. They could not have done so if a part of Johnston's +plan had not miscarried. He intended to bring in a heavy flanking +force between them and the river, but was delayed several hours in +getting it in motion. Meanwhile McClellan ordered Sumner to cross the +river and join in the battle. Sumner had anticipated such an order as +soon as he {145} heard the firing, and when the order came it found +him with his corps in line, drawn out from camp, and ready to cross +instantly. He was the oldest officer there (sixty-six), and the most +energetic. There was but one bridge that could be used, many of the +supports of this were gone, the approaches were under water, and it +was almost a wreck. But he unhesitatingly pushed on his column. The +frail structure was steadied by the weight of the men; and though it +swayed and undulated with their movement and the rush of water, they +all crossed in safety. + +[Illustration: NORTH BATTERY OF CONFEDERATES AT SHIPPING POINT, +POTOMAC RIVER.] + +[Illustration: MAJOR-GENERAL E. W. GANTT, C. S. A.] + +[Illustration: MAJOR-GENERAL R. E. RODES, C. S. A.] + +{146} [Illustration: REVIEW IN WASHINGTON, UNDER McCLELLAN, OF EIGHT +BATTERIES OF ARTILLERY AND THREE REGIMENTS OF CAVALRY, BY LINCOLN AND +HIS CABINET.] + +Sumner was just in time to meet the flank attack, which was commanded +by Johnston in person. The successive charges of the Confederates were +all repelled, and at dusk a counter-charge cleared the ground in front +and drove off the last of them in confusion. In this fight General +Johnston received wounds that compelled him to retire from the field, +and laid him up for a long time. The battle--which is called both Fair +Oaks and Seven Pines--cost the National army over five thousand men, +and the Confederate nearly seven thousand. It was a more destructive +battle than any that, up to that time, the Eastern armies had fought. +A participant thus describes the after appearance of the field: +"Monday, June 2d, we visited the battlefield, and rode from place to +place on the scene of conflict. We have often wished that we could +efface from our memory the observations of that day. Details were +burying the dead in trenches or heaping the ground upon them where +they lay. The ground was saturated with gore; the intrenchments, the +slashing, the rifle-pits, the thicket, many of the tents, were filled +with dead. In the Fair Oaks farmhouse, the dead, the dying, and the +severely wounded lay together. Along the Williamsburg road, on each +side of it, was one long Confederate grave. An old barn, near where +the One Hundred and Fourth Pennsylvania volunteers first formed, was +filled with our dead and wounded; and farther to the right, near the +station, beside an old building, lay thirteen Michigan soldiers with +their blankets over them and their names pinned on their caps. Near +the railroad, by a {147} log house, the dead and wounded were packed +together. Both were motionless; but you could distinguish them by the +livid blackness of the dead. We could trace the path of our regiment, +from the wood-pile around by the intrenchments to its camp, by the +dead still unburied. Those that died immediately could not be touched, +but were covered with ground where they lay; the wounded, who crawled +or were carried to the barns, tents, and houses, and who died +subsequently, were buried in trenches. Our little tent was still +standing, though pierced by several bullets. Beside it lay two dead +men of the Ninety-eighth, whom we could not identify; for the sun, +rain, and wind had changed their countenances. On the bed lay a dead +Confederate. At the left of our camp, in the wood, where the +Eighty-first, Eighty-fifth, and Ninety-second New York volunteers and +Peck's brigade fought with Huger, the dead were promiscuously mixed +together, and lay in sickening and frightful proximity; strong and +weak, old and young, officer and private, horse and man--dead, or +wounded in the agonies of death, lay where they fell, and furnished, +excepting the swaths on the Williamsburg road, the darkest corner on +that day's panorama." + +[Illustration: PRESIDENT LINCOLN VISITING GENERAL McCLELLAN.] + +[Illustration: COMTE DE PARIS. DUC DE CHARTRES.] + +[Illustration: BRIGADIER-GENERAL CHAS. H. VAN WYCK. (On General +McClellan's Staff.)] + +[Illustration: COLONEL B. S. ALEXANDER (ENGINEER CORPS).] + +[Illustration: TABBS HOUSE, YORKTOWN.] + +[Illustration: CONTRABANDS--AT FOLLER'S HOUSE.] + +[Illustration: CONWAY LANDING.] + +{149} [Illustration: BATTERY No. 1 IN FRONT OF YORKTOWN. (Five +Views.)] + +Col. William Kreutzer, of the Ninety-eighth New York Regiment, which +went into that battle with three hundred and eighty-five men, and lost +eighty-five, gives some interesting particulars of the action: "The +whole of Company A went to work on the road near the Grapevine bridge. +Details were made for men to make abatis and work on the breastworks. +Company A left its rifles in {148} camp, and lost them. When it +rejoined the regiment, on the 1st of June, it appeared like a company +of pioneers, or sappers and miners, carrying axes, shovels, and +picks.... Soon after one o'clock our pickets begin to come in sight, +retiring through the woods and slashing before the enemy. The skirmish +line of the enemy pursued them. We could see both parties jumping over +the logs and making their way through the brush and bushes, and hear +at intervals the sharp report of their rifles. A little later a dense +mass of men, about two rods wide, headed by half a dozen horsemen, is +seen marching toward us on the Williamsburg road. They move in quick +time, carry their arms on their shoulders, have flags and banners, and +drummers to beat the step. Our three batteries open simultaneously +with all their power. Our regiment pours its volleys into the slashing +and into the column as fast as it can load and fire. The One Hundred +and Fourth Pennsylvania volunteers aims at the column and at the +skirmishers approaching its right front and flank. Unlike us, that +regiment has no slashing in its front. The cleared field allowed the +enemy to concentrate his fire upon it; too near the approaching column +of attack, it interfered with the range and efficiency of our +batteries behind. Its position was unfortunate. As the light troops +pressed upon it, Colonel Davis ordered it to charge them at the +double-quick. The regiment rushed forward with spirit, jumped over a +rail fence in its front, with a shout and yell; but it was met so +{150} resolutely and with such a galling fire by the foe, that it fell +back in disorder, and did not appear on the field as an organization +again during the day. Colonel Davis was wounded, and his 'Ringgold +Regiment' fought its first battle as we have seen. + +"The One Hundred and Fourth falling back, cleared the field opposite +the advancing column, and gave the Ninety-eighth better opportunity to +fire upon it as it moved deliberately on. The charging mass staggers, +stops, resumes its march again, breaks in two, fills up its gaps; but +sure and steady, with its flags and banners, it moves like the tramp +of fate. Thinned, scattered, broken, it passes our right, and presses +for the batteries. As it advances and passes, we pour our volleys into +it with no uncertain aim, no random fire. The gaps we make, the swaths +we mow, can be seen in the column, for we are only ten or fifteen rods +away. The men behind press on those before. The head finally reaches +the redoubt. One of the mounted leaders ascends the parapet and is +shot with a pistol by an artillery officer. The whole column, from the +fort back, severed, broken, staggers, sinks into the earth. The +rifle-pits, breast-works, and the Ninety-eighth have cleared the road. + +"To this time the Ninety-eighth has not lost a man by the enemy; but +our batteries behind have killed and wounded of it half a score. There +is a lull in the battle; the coast looks clear; the foe may not appear +again. We look at the main road--it is one gray swath of men. Down +along the railroad by Fair Oaks station, we hear but a few reports. +Smith has had farther to march along the Nine-mile road, and has not +struck our right flank yet; on our left, Palmer has not been attacked; +Huger is not on time. Casey's division has driven back those of +Longstreet and Hill.... Our batteries open. High over our heads, +around us, beside us, the lead is whistling, and the iron is whizzing, +hissing, whirling. Every moment has a new terror, every instant a new +horror. Our men are falling fast. We leave the dead and the dying, and +send the wounded to the rear. Palmer's regiments have all fallen back; +the enemy is on our left and rear. Colonel Durkee tries to move the +regiment by the left flank back to the rifle-pits; a part only receive +the order. The enemy is getting so near, our experience in battle is +so limited, our drill is so imperfect, that many of us will not, +cannot, stand upon the order of our going. Durkee passes the +rifle-pits with what follows him, and goes to our old camp. The writer +rallies a part of the regiment around the flag at the half-deserted +intrenchments. There we use, officers and men, the sharp-shooter's +practice against the enemy. We can mark the effect of our fire; no +rifle was discharged in vain. Many of the men could pick a squirrel +from the tallest trees of Wayne and Franklin, and they load and fire +with infinite merriment and good-nature." + +[Illustration: MAJOR-GENERAL W. B. FRANKLIN.] + +[Illustration: BREVET BRIGADIER-GENERAL O. H. HART.] + +[Illustration: MAJOR-GENERAL E. D. KEYES.] + +[Illustration: MAJOR-GENERAL JOSEPH HOOKER.] + +For some time after the battle of Fair Oaks, heavy rains made any +movement almost impossible for either of the armies that confronted +each other near Richmond. Gen. Alexander S. Webb says: "The ground, +which consisted of alternate layers of reddish clay and quicksand, had +turned into a vast swamp, and the guns in battery sank into the earth +by their own weight." McClellan kept his men at work, intrenching and +strengthening his position, while he himself seems to have been +constantly occupied in writing despatches to the President and the +Secretary of War, alternately promising an almost immediate advance on +Richmond, and calling for reinforcements. He wanted McDowell's corps +of forty thousand men, and the authorities wanted to give it to him if +it could be sent by way of Fredericksburg, and united with his right +wing in such a way as not to uncover Washington. But in one despatch +he declared he would rather not have it at all unless it could be +placed absolutely under his command. In several respects his position +was very bad. The Chickahominy was bordered by great swamps, whose +malarial influences robbed him of almost as many men as fell by the +bullets of the enemy. His base was at White House, on the Pamunkey; +and the line thence over which his supplies must come, instead of +being at right angles with the line of his front and covered by it, +was almost a prolongation of it. It was {151} impossible to maintain +permanent bridges over the Chickahominy, and a rain of two or three +days was liable at any time to swell the stream so as to sweep away +every means of crossing. He could threaten Richmond only by placing a +heavy force on the right bank of the river; he could render his own +communications secure only by keeping a large force on the left bank. +When it first occurred to him that his true base was on the James, or +how long he contemplated its removal thither, nobody knows; but he +received a startling lesson on the 12th of June, which seems to have +determined his apparently indeterminate mind. + +When Gen. Joseph E. Johnston was wounded at Fair Oaks, the command +devolved upon Gen. G. W. Smith; but two days later Gen. Robert E. Lee +was given the command of the Confederate forces in Virginia, which he +retained continuously till his surrender brought the war to a close. +The plan that he had opposed, and caused Mr. Davis to reject, when +Johnston was in command--of bringing large bodies of troops from North +Carolina, Georgia, and the Shenandoah Valley, to form a massive army +and fall upon McClellan--he now adopted and proceeded at once to carry +out. Johnston enumerates reinforcements that were given him +aggregating fifty-three thousand men, and says he had then the largest +Confederate army that ever fought. The total number is given +officially at eighty thousand seven hundred and sixty-two. This +probably means the number of men actually carrying muskets, and +excludes all officers, teamsters, musicians, and mechanics; for the +Confederate returns were generally made in that way. McClellan's total +effective force, including every man that drew pay the last week in +June, was ninety-two thousand five hundred. His constant expectation +of reinforcements by way of Fredericksburg was largely, if not wholly, +what kept him in his false position, and it is fair to presume that +but for this he would have swung across the peninsula to the new base +on the James much sooner and under more favorable circumstances. + +[Illustration: BATTERY No. 4 IN FRONT OF YORKTOWN. (Three Views.)] + +Wishing to know the extent of McClellan's earthworks on the right +wing, Lee, on June 12th, sent a body of twelve hundred cavalry, with +two light guns, to reconnoitre. It was commanded by the dashing Gen. +J. E. B. Stuart, commonly called "Jeb Stuart," who used to dress in +gay costume, with yellow sash and black plume, wore gold spurs, and +rode a white horse. He was only ordered to go as far as Hanover Old +Church; but at that point he had a fight with a small body of cavalry, +and as he supposed dispositions would be made to cut him off, instead +of returning he kept on and made the entire circuit of McClellan's +army, rebuilding a bridge to cross the lower Chickahominy, and reached +Richmond in safety. The actual amount of damage that he had done was +small; but the raid alarmed the National commander for the safety of +his communications, and was probably what determined him to change his +base. In this expedition Stuart lost but one man. In the encounter at +Hanover Old Church a charge was led by the Confederate Captain Latane +and received by a detachment commanded by Captain Royall. The two +captains {152} fought hand to hand, and Latane was shot dead, while +Royall received severe sabre wounds. + +[Illustration: QUAKER GUNS.] + +[Illustration: MAJOR-GENERAL E. V. SUMNER.] + +[Illustration: BRIGADIER-GENERAL JAMES SHIELDS.] + +[Illustration: MAJOR-GENERAL SILAS CASEY.] + +Stonewall Jackson, if not Lee's ablest lieutenant, was certainly his +swiftest, and the one that threw the most uncertainty into the game by +his rapid movements and unexpected appearances. At a later stage of +the war his erratic strategy, if persisted in, would probably have +brought his famous corps of "foot cavalry" (as they were called from +their quick marches) to sudden destruction. An opponent like Sheridan, +who knew how to be swift, brilliant, and audacious, without +transgressing the fundamental rules of warfare, would have been likely +to finish him at a blow. But Jackson did not live to meet such an +opponent. At this time the bugbears that haunt imaginations not inured +to war were still in force, and the massive thimble-rigging by which +he was made to appear before Richmond, and presto! sweeping down the +Shenandoah Valley, served to paralyze large forces that might have +been added to McClellan's army. + +The topography of Virginia is favorable to an army menacing +Washington, and unfavorable to one menacing Richmond. The fertile +valley of the Shenandoah was inviting ground for soldiers. A +Confederate force advancing down the valley came at every step nearer +to the National capital, while a National force advancing up the +valley was carried at every step farther away from the Confederate +capital. The Confederates made much of this advantage, and the +authorities at Washington were in constant fear of the capture of that +city. + +{153} [Illustration: BURNING OF STORES AND MUNITIONS OF WAR AT WHITE +HOUSE, VA.--DEPARTURE OF THE FEDERAL FLOTILLA FOR THE JAMES RIVER.] + +Soon after Stuart's raid, Lee began to make his dispositions to attack +McClellan and drive him from the peninsula. He wrote to Jackson: +"Unless McClellan can be driven out of his intrenchments, he will move +by positions, under cover of his {154} heavy guns, within shelling +distance of Richmond." To convey the impression that Jackson was to +move in force down the valley, Lee drew two brigades from his own +army, placed them on the cars in Richmond in plain sight of some +prisoners that were about to be exchanged, and sent them off to +Jackson. Of course the released prisoners carried home the news. But +Jackson returned with these reinforcements and Ewell's division of his +corps, joined Lee, and on the 25th of June concerted a plan for +immediate attack. Secretary Stanton appears to have been the only one +that saw through the game; for he telegraphed to McClellan that while +neither Banks nor McDowell nor Frémont could ascertain anything about +Jackson's movements, his own belief was that he was going to Richmond. +Yet the impression was not strong enough in the mind of the Secretary +of War (or else the Secretary could not have his own way) to induce +the appropriate counter-move of immediately sending McDowell's whole +corps to McClellan. McCall's division of that corps, however, had been +forwarded, and on the 18th took a strong position on McClellan's +extreme right, near Mechanicsville. + +[Illustration: BATTLE OF FAIR OAKS.] + +[Illustration: PROFESSOR T. S. C. LOWE, BALLOONIST.] + +Admiral Phelps, of the navy, then a lieutenant commanding the gunboat +_Corwin_, and serving in the waters about the peninsula, writes: +"About ten o'clock one evening my emissary notified me that a certain +man, who had caused much trouble, would leave Centreville about +midnight, in a buggy, with letters for 'Queen Caroline' and Richmond, +in violation of orders. Soon after daylight the following morning both +man and mail were in my possession. Only one letter in the package was +of any value (the others were sent to their destination), and that +one--written by an adjutant-general in the Confederate army, informing +his father that, 'on a certain night,' mentioning the date, 'one +hundred thousand men from Beauregard's army at Shiloh would be in +Richmond, after detaching thirty thousand to reinforce Stonewall +Jackson, who was doing for the enemy in the mountains'--was placed in +General McClellan's hands about five P.M. the following day by one of +his aids, to whose care I had intrusted it." + +On the 25th McClellan had pushed back the Confederates on his left, +taken a new position there, and advanced his outposts to a point only +four miles from Richmond. But he began his movements too late, for the +Confederates were already in motion. Leaving about thirty thousand men +in the immediate defences of Richmond, Lee crossed the Chickahominy +with about thirty-five thousand under Generals A. P. Hill, D. H. Hill, +and Longstreet, intending to join Jackson's {155} twenty-five +thousand, and with this enormous force make a sudden attack on the +twenty thousand National troops that were on the north side of the +river, commanded by Gen. Fitz-John Porter, destroy them before help +could reach them, and seize McClellan's communications with his base. +Jackson, who was to have appeared on the field at sunrise of the 26th, +was for once behind time. The other Confederate commanders became +nervous and impatient; for if the movement were known to McClellan, he +could, with a little boldness and some fighting, have captured +Richmond that day. Indeed, the inhabitants of the city expected +nothing else, and it is said that the archives of the Confederate +Government were all packed and ready for instant removal. At midday +Gen. A. P. Hill's corps drove the small National force out of +Mechanicsville, and advanced to McCall's strong position on Beaver Dam +Creek. This they dared not attack in front; but they made desperate +attempts on both flanks, and the result was an afternoon of fruitless +fighting, in which they were literally mown down by the well-served +artillery, and lost upward of three thousand men, while McCall +maintained his position at every point and lost fewer than three +hundred. + +[Illustration: ST. PETER'S CHURCH, NEAR WHITE HOUSE. (George +Washington was married in this church.)] + +[Illustration: BRIGADIER-GENERAL J. J. PETTIGREW, C. S. A.] + +[Illustration: MAJOR-GENERAL BENJAMIN HUGER, C. S. A.] + +That night, in pursuance of the plan for a change of base, the heavy +guns that had thwarted Lee in his first attack were carried across the +Chickahominy, together with a large part of the baggage train. On the +morning of the 27th Porter fell back somewhat to a position on a range +of low hills, where he could keep the enemy in check till the stores +were removed to the other side of the river, which was now his only +object. McClellan sent him five thousand more men in the course of the +day, being afraid to send any greater number, because he believed that +the bulk of the Confederate army was in the defences on his left, and +a show of activity there still further deceived them. + +On the morning of the 27th Porter had eighteen thousand infantry, two +thousand five hundred artillerymen, and a small force of cavalry, with +which to meet the attack of at least fifty-five thousand. Longstreet +and the Hills had followed the retreat closely, but, warned by the +experience of the day before, were not willing to attack until Jackson +should join them. The fighting began about two o'clock in the +afternoon, when A. P. Hill assaulted the centre of Porter's position, +and in a two hours' struggle was driven back with heavy loss. Two +attacks on the right met with no better success. The effect on the new +troops that had been hurried up from the coast was complete +demoralization. The Confederate General Whiting says in his report: +"Men were leaving the field in every direction, and in great disorder. +Two regiments, one from South Carolina and one from Louisiana, were +actually marching back from the fire. Men were skulking from the front +in a shameful manner." + +But at length Jackson's men arrived, and a determined effort was made +on all parts of the line at once. Even then it seemed for a time as if +victory might rest with the little army on the hills; and in all +probability it would, if they had had such intrenchments as the men +afterward learned how to construct very quickly; but their breastworks +were only such as could be made from hastily felled trees, a few +rails, and heaps of knap-sacks. The Confederates had the advantage of +thick woods in which to form and advance. As they emerged and came on +in heavy masses, with the Confederate yell, they were answered by the +Union cheer. Volley responded to volley, guns were taken and re-taken, +{156} and cannoneers that remained after the infantry supports retired +were shot down; but it was not till sunset that the National line was +fairly disrupted, at the left centre, when the whole gave way and +slowly retired. Two regiments were captured, and twenty-two guns fell +into the hands of the enemy. In the night Porter crossed the river +with his remaining force, and destroyed the bridges. This was called +by the Confederates the battle of the Chickahominy; but it takes its +better known name from two mills (Gaines's) near the scene of action. +The total National loss was six thousand men. The Confederate loss was +never properly ascertained, which renders it probable that it was much +larger. Some of the wounded lay on the field four days uncared for. +This action is sometimes called the first battle of Cold Harbor. The +armies under Grant and Lee fought on the same ground two years later. + +[Illustration: BATTLE OF MALVERN HILL--LEE'S ATTACK.] + +Lee and Jackson believed that they had been fighting the whole of +McClellan's forces, and another mistake that they made secured the +safety of that army. They took it for granted that the National +commander, driven from his base at White House, would retreat down the +peninsula, taking the same route by which he had come. Consequently +they remained with their large force on the left bank of the +Chickahominy, and even advanced some distance down the stream, which +gave McClellan twenty-four hours of precious time to get through the +swamp roads with his immense trains. He had five thousand loaded +wagons, and two thousand five hundred head of cattle. Gen. Silas +Casey's division, in charge of the stores at White House, loaded all +they could upon transports, and destroyed the remainder. Trains of +cars filled with supplies were put under full speed and run off the +tracks into the river. Hundreds of tons of ammunition, and millions of +rations, were burned or otherwise destroyed. + +{157} [Illustration: BATTLE OF CHARLES CITY CROSS-ROADS, JUNE 30, +1862.] + +Rear Admiral Thomas S. Phelps, United States Navy, gives a vivid +description of the scene when the transports and other vessels fled +down the river in panic: "Harassing the enemy and protecting the +worthy fully occupied my time until the afternoon of June 27, 1862, +when Quartermaster-General Ingalls came down the river on a boat +provided especially for his use, and after directing an assistant to +abandon the Point, immediately continued on his way to Yorktown. Soon +afterward the Pamunkey, as far as the eye could reach, appeared +crowded with a confused mass of side-wheel boats, propellers, brigs, +and schooners, and as they dashed past my vessel there appeared to be +as complete a stampede as it has ever been my misfortune to witness. +In answer to the hail, 'What is the trouble?' I was greeted with, 'The +rebels are coming! The whole country is full of them; go to the +mast-head and you will see thousands of them!' Eliciting nothing +further of a satisfactory nature, and seeing nothing but empty fields, +I directed a count to be made of the fleeing vessels, and by evening's +dusk six hundred {158} and eighty were reported as having passed, not +counting several schooners left behind, which on touching the bottom +had been abandoned, their crews escaping to more fortunate +companions." On the following day the gunboats returned to West Point, +towing the derelict schooners which they had floated, and also the +half of a regiment which in the hurry of the previous day had been +forgotten and left behind. At the last moment Casey embarked his men, +and with what he had been able to save steamed down the Pamunkey and +York Rivers, and up the James to the new base. At the close of a long +despatch to the Secretary of War, on the 28th, General McClellan said: +"If I save this army now, I tell you plainly that I owe no thanks to +you or to any other persons in Washington. You have done your best to +sacrifice this army." + +When Gen. John B. Magruder, who had been left in the defences of +Richmond, found that the National army was retreating to the James, he +moved out to attack it, and struck the rear guard at Allen's farm. His +men made three assaults, and were three times repelled. Magruder +complained that he lost a victory here because Lee had left him but +thirteen thousand men. + +The National troops fell back to Savage's Station, where later in the +day Magruder attacked them again. He had a rifled cannon mounted on a +platform car, with which he expected to do great execution. But there +was an ample force to oppose him, and it stood unmoved by his +successive charges. About sunset he advanced his whole line with a +desperate rush in the face of a continuous fire of cannon and +musketry, but it was of no avail, and half an hour later his own line +was broken by a counter charge that closed the battle. He admitted a +loss of four thousand men. Sumner and Franklin, at a cost of three +thousand, had thus maintained the approach to the single road through +White Oak Swamp, by which they were to follow the body of the army +that had already passed. But it was found necessary to burn another +immense quantity of food and clothing that could not be removed, and +to leave behind two thousand five hundred sick and wounded men. + +[Illustration: LIEUTENANT-GENERAL A. P. HILL, C. S. A.] + +[Illustration: BRIGADIER-GENERAL JAS. E. RAINS, C. S. A.] + +[Illustration: LIEUTENANT-GENERAL D. H. HILL, C. S. A.] + +[Illustration: LIEUTENANT-GENERAL J. E. B. STUART, C. S. A.] + +Jackson, after spending a day in building bridges, crossed the +Chickahominy and attempted to follow McClellan's rear guard through +White Oak Swamp; but when he got to the other side he found a +necessary bridge destroyed and National batteries commanding its site, +so that it was impossible for his forces to emerge from the swamp. But +meanwhile Hill and Longstreet had crossed the river farther up stream, +marched around the swamp, and struck the retreating army near Charles +City Cross-Roads, on the 30th. There was terrific fighting all the +afternoon. There were brave charges and bloody repulses, masses of men +moving up steadily in the face of batteries that tore great gaps +through them at every discharge, crossed bayonets, and clubbed +muskets. Only on that part of the line held by McCall did the +Confederates, with all their daring, succeed in breaking through. +McCall, in his report, describes the successful charge: "A most +determined charge was made on Randol's battery by a full brigade, +advancing in wedge shape, without order, but in perfect recklessness. +Somewhat similar charges had been previously made on Cooper's and +Kern's batteries by single regiments, without success, they having +recoiled before the storm of canister hurled against them. A like +result was anticipated by Randol's battery, and the Fourth Regiment +was requested not to fire until the battery had done with them. Its +gallant commander did not doubt his ability to repel the attack, and +his guns did indeed mow down the advancing host; but still the gaps +were closed, and the enemy came in upon a run to the very muzzles of +his guns. It was a perfect torrent of men, and they were in his +battery before the guns could be removed." General McCall himself, +endeavoring to rally his men at this point, was captured and carried +off to Richmond. In Kearney's front a similar charge was made three +times; but every time a steady musketry fire drove back the enemy that +had closed up its gaps made by the artillery. Darkness put an end to +the fighting, and that night McClellan's army continued its retreat to +Malvern Hill, where {159} his advance guard had taken up the strongest +position he had yet occupied. The battle just described has several +names--Glendale, Frazier's Farm, Charles City Cross-Roads, Newmarket, +Nelson's Farm. McClellan here lost ten guns. The losses in men cannot +be known exactly, as the reports group the losses of several days +together. Longstreet and the two Hills reported a loss of twelve +thousand four hundred and fifty-eight in the fighting from the 27th to +the 30th. + +[Illustration: BREVET MAJOR-GENERAL JOHN G. BARNARD.] + +[Illustration: BREVET BRIGADIER-GENERAL J. J. ABERCROMBIE.] + +[Illustration: BRIGADIER-GENERAL HENRY M. NAGLEE.] + +[Illustration: BRIGADIER-GENERAL L. C. HUNT.] + +[Illustration: BREVET MAJOR-GENERAL INNIS N. PALMER.] + +The last stand made by McClellan for delivering battle was at Malvern +Hill. This is a plateau near Turkey Bend of James River, having an +elevation of sixty feet, and an extent of about a mile and a half in +one direction and a mile in the other. It is so bordered by streams +and swamps as to leave no practicable approach except by the narrow +northwest face. Here McClellan had his entire army in position when +his pursuers came up. It was disposed in the form of a semicircle, +with the right wing "refused" (swung back) and prolonged to Haxall's +Landing, on the James. His position was peculiarly favorable for the +use of artillery, and his whole front bristled with it. There were no +intrenchments to speak of, but the natural inequalities of the ground +afforded considerable shelter for the men and guns. It was as complete +a trap as could be set for an army, and Lee walked straight into it. +Under ordinary circumstances, both commander and men would properly +hesitate to attack an enemy so posted. But to the confidence with +which the Southerners began the war was now added the peculiar elation +produced by a week's pursuit of a retreating army; and apparently it +did not occur to them that they were all mortal. + +In the first contact seven thousand Confederates, with six guns, +struck the left of the position. They boldly advanced their artillery +to within eight hundred yards of the cliff; but before they could get +at work, a fire of twenty or thirty guns was concentrated upon their +battery, which knocked it to pieces in a few minutes; and at the same +time some huge shells from a gunboat fell among a small detachment of +cavalry, threw it into confusion, and turned it back upon the +infantry, breaking up the whole attack. + +Lee was not ready to assault with his whole army till the afternoon of +July 1st. An artillery duel was kept up during the forenoon, but the +Confederate commander did not succeed in destroying the National +batteries, as he hoped to: on the contrary, he saw his own disabled, +one after another. The signal for the infantry attack was to be the +usual yell, raised by Armistead's division on the right and taken up +by the successive divisions along the line. But the Confederate line +was separated by thick woods; there was long waiting for the signal; +some of the generals thought they heard it, and some advanced without +hearing it. The consequence was a series of separate attacks, some of +them repeated three or four times, and every time a concentrated fire +on the attacking column and a bloody repulse. The men themselves began +to see the hopelessness of it, while their officers were still urging +them to renewed efforts. "Come on, come on, my men," said one +Confederate colonel, with the grim humor of a soldier; "do you want to +live forever?" There were some brief counter-charges, in one of which +the colors were taken from a North Carolina regiment; but in general +the National troops only maintained their ground, and though fighting +was kept up till nine o'clock in the evening, the line--as {160} +General Webb, then assistant chief of artillery, tells us--was never +for one instant broken or the guns in danger. This battle cost Lee +five thousand men, and at its close he gave up the pursuit. The +National loss was less than one-third as great. That night McClellan +withdrew his army to Harrison's Landing, on the James, where he had +fixed his base of supplies and where the gunboats could protect his +position. This retreat is known as the Seven Days, and the losses are +figured up at fifteen thousand two hundred and forty-nine on the +National side, and somewhat over nineteen thousand on the Confederate. + +[Illustration: GRAPEVINE BRIDGE.] + +From that time there was an angry controversy as to the military +abilities of General McClellan and the responsibility for the failure +of the campaign, and partisanship was never more violent than over +this question. The General had won the highest personal regard of his +soldiers, and they were mostly unwilling or unable to look at the +matter in the cold light of the criticism that simply asks, What was +required? and What was accomplished? The truth appears to be, that +General McClellan, like most men, possessed some virtues and lacked +others. He organized a great army, and to the end of its days it felt +the benefit of the discipline with which he endowed it. But with that +army in hand he did not secure the purpose of its creation. He was an +accomplished engineer, and a gigantic adjutant, but hardly the general +to be sent against an army that could move and a commander that could +think. There can be no doubt that the Administration was over-anxious +about the movements in the Shenandoah, and should have sent McDowell's +corps to McClellan at once; but neither can there be much doubt that +if Little Mac, the Young Napoleon, as he was fondly called, had been a +general of the highest order, he would have destroyed Lee's army and +captured the Confederate capital with the ample forces that he had. It +was not General McClellan alone that was in a false position when his +army was astride the Chickahominy, but the Administration and the +people of the loyal States as well. Their grand strategy was radically +vicious, for they stood astride of the great central question of the +war itself. + +{161} [Illustration: GENERAL McCLELLAN'S ARMY BETWEEN BIG BETHEL AND +YORKTOWN.] + +To a student of the art of war, this disastrous campaign and the many +criticisms that it evoked are exceedingly interesting. Nearly every +military problem was in some way presented in it. Two or three +quotations from the best sources will indicate its importance and the +complicated questions that it involved. General McClellan himself says +in his report: "It may be asked why, after the concentration of our +forces on the right bank of the Chickahominy, with a large part of the +enemy drawn away from Richmond, upon the opposite side, I did not, +instead of striking for James River fifteen miles below that place, at +once march directly on Richmond. It will be remembered that at this +juncture the enemy was on our rear, and there was every reason {162} +to believe that he would sever our communications with our supply +depot at the White House. We had on hand but a limited amount of +rations, and if we had advanced directly on Richmond it would have +required considerable time to carry the strong works around that +place, during which our men would have been destitute of food; and +even if Richmond had fallen before our arms, the enemy could still +have occupied our supply communications between that place and the +gunboats, and turned their disaster into victory. If, on the other +hand, the enemy had concentrated all his forces at Richmond during the +progress of our attack, and we had been defeated, we must in all +probability have lost our trains before reaching the flotilla. The +battles which continued day after day in the progress of our flank +movement to the James, with the exception of the one at Gaines's Mill, +were successes to our arms, and the closing engagement at Malvern Hill +was the most decisive of all." + +One of General McClellan's severest critics, Gen. John G. Barnard, in +an elaborate review of the campaign, wrote: "It was a blunder +unparalleled to expose Porter's corps to fight a battle by itself on +the 27th against overwhelming forces of the enemy. With perfect ease +that corps might have been brought over on the night of the 26th, and, +if nothing more brilliant could have been thought of, the movement to +the James might have been in full tide of execution on the 27th. A +more propitious moment could not have been chosen, for, besides +Jackson's own forces, A. P. Hill's and Longstreet's corps were on the +left bank of the Chickahominy on the night of the 26th. Such a +movement need not have been discovered to the enemy till far enough +advanced to insure success. At any rate, he could have done no better +in preventing it than he actually did afterward.... He has spent weeks +in building bridges which establish a close connection between the +wings of his army, and then fights a great battle with a smaller +fraction of his army than when he had a single available bridge, and +that remote. He, with great labor, constructs 'defensive works' in +order that he 'may bring the greatest possible numbers into action,' +and again exhibits his ability to utilize his means by keeping +sixty-five thousand men idle behind them, while thirty-five thousand, +unaided by 'defensive works' of any kind, fight the bulk of his +adversary's forces, and are, of course, overwhelmed by 'superior +numbers.' We believe there were few commanding officers of the Army of +the Potomac who did not expect to be led offensively against the enemy +on the 26th or 27th. Had such a movement been made, it is not +improbable that, if energetically led, we should have gone into +Richmond. Jackson and A. P. Hill could not have got back in time to +succor Magruder's command, if measures of most obvious propriety had +been taken to prevent them. We might have beaten or driven Magruder's +twenty-five thousand men and entered Richmond, and then, reinforced by +the great moral acquisition of strength this success would have given, +have fought Lee and reëstablished our communications. At any rate, +something of this kind was worth trying.... Our army is now +concentrated on the James; but we have another day's fighting before +us, and this day we may expect the concentrated attack of Lee's whole +army. We know not at what hour it will come--possibly late, for it +requires time to find out our new position and to bring together the +attacking columns--yet we know not when it will come. Where, this day, +is the commanding general? Off, with Captain Rodgers, to select 'the +final positions of the army and its depots.' He does not tell us that +it was on a gunboat, and that this day not even 'signals' would keep +him in communication with his army, for his journey was ten or fifteen +miles down the river; and he was thus absent till late in the +afternoon. This is the first time we ever had reason to believe that +the highest and first duty of a general, on the day of battle, was +separating himself from his army to reconnoitre a place of retreat!... +If the enemy had two hundred thousand men, it was to be seriously +apprehended that, leaving fifty thousand behind the 'strong works' of +Richmond, he would march at once with one hundred and fifty thousand +men on Washington. Why should he not? General McClellan and his +eulogists have held up as highly meritorious strategy the leaving of +Washington defended by less than fifty thousand men, with the enemy in +its front estimated to be one hundred and twenty thousand to one +hundred and fifty thousand strong, and moving off to take an eccentric +line of operations against Richmond; and now the reverse case is +presented, but with an important difference. The enemy at Manassas, on +learning General McClellan's movement, could either fly to the defence +of Richmond or attack Washington. General McClellan says that this +latter course was not to be feared. McClellan on the James, on +learning that Lee with one hundred and fifty thousand men is marching +on Washington, can only attack Richmond; by no possibility can he fly +to the defence of Washington. Besides, he is inferior in numbers +(according to his own estimate) even to Lee's marching army. Here, in +a nutshell, is the demonstration of the folly of the grand strategic +movement on Richmond, as given by its own projector." + +An English military critic thus analyzes the great campaign: "As +regards the value of the plan, in a merely military point of view, +three faults may be enumerated: It was too rash; it violated the +principles of war; its application was too timid. (1) An army of one +hundred and thirty thousand volunteers should not be moved about as if +it were a single division. (2) The choice of Fort Monroe as a +secondary basis involved the necessity of leaving Washington, or the +fixed basis, to be threatened, morally at least, by the enemy. The +communications also between these two places were open to an attack +from the _Merrimac_, an iron-plated ship, which lay at Norfolk, on the +south side of Hampton Roads. The first movement to Fort Monroe was the +stride of a giant. The second, in the direction of Richmond, was that +of a dwarf. When the army arrived in front of the lines at Yorktown, +it numbered, probably, one hundred thousand men, and here there was no +timid President to interfere with the command; nevertheless, McClellan +suffered himself to be stopped in the middle of an offensive campaign +by Magruder and twelve thousand men.... The hour of his arrival in +front of the lines should have been the hour of his attack upon them. +Two overwhelming masses, to which life and energy had been +communicated, should have been hurled on separate points. Magruder not +only defeated but destroyed! The _morale_ of the Federal army raised! +The result of the campaign, although it might not have been decisive, +would have been more honorable." + +On the Confederate side the criticism was almost as severe, because, +while claiming the result of the six days as a Confederate success, it +was also claimed that the campaign should have resulted in the +complete destruction of McClellan's army. + +The use of balloons for reconnoitring the enemy's position formed a +picturesque feature of this campaign. T. S. C. Lowe, J. H. Stiner, and +other aëronauts were at the National headquarters with their balloons, +and several officers of high rank accompanied them in numerous +ascents. But it seems to have been demonstrated that the balloon was +of little practical value. + + + + +{163} + +CHAPTER XIV. + +POPE'S CAMPAIGN. + +FORMATION OF THE ARMY OF VIRGINIA--HALLECK MADE +GENERAL-IN-CHIEF--McCLELLAN LEAVES THE PENINSULA--BATTLE OF CEDAR +MOUNTAIN--POPE AND LEE MANOEUVRE--BATTLE OF GROVETON--THE SECOND BULL +RUN--BATTLE OF CHANTILLY--THE PORTER DISPUTE--GENERAL GRANT'S +OPINION--COMPLICATED MOVEMENTS OF THE CAMPAIGN--INTERESTING INCIDENTS. + + +While McClellan was before Richmond, it was determined to consolidate +in one command the corps of Banks, Frémont, and McDowell, which were +moving about in an independent and ineffectual way between Washington +and the Shenandoah Valley. Gen. John Pope, who had won considerable +reputation by his capture of Island No. 10, was called from the West +and given command (June 26, 1862) of the new organization, which was +called the Army of Virginia. Frémont declined to serve under a +commander who had once been his subordinate, and consequently his +corps was given to General Sigel. General Pope, on taking command of +this force, which numbered all told about thirty-eight thousand men, +and also of the troops in the fortifications around Washington, had +the bad taste to issue a general order that had three capital defects: +it boasted of his own prowess at the West, it underrated his enemy, +and it contained a bit of sarcasm pointed at General McClellan, the +commander of the army with which his own was to coöperate. Pope says, +in his report, that he wrote a cordial letter to McClellan, asking for +his views as to the best plan of campaign, and offering to render him +any needed assistance; and that he received but a cold and indefinite +reply. It is likely enough that a courteous man and careful soldier +like McClellan would be in no mood to fall in with the suggestions of +a commander that entered upon his work with a gratuitous piece of +bombast, and seemed to have no conception of the serious nature of the +task. When it became evident that these two commanders could not act +sufficiently in harmony, the President called Gen. Henry W. Halleck +from the West to be General-in-Chief, with headquarters at Washington, +and command them both. Halleck had perhaps more military learning than +any other man in the country, and his patriotic intentions were +unquestionably good; but in practical warfare he proved to be little +more than a great obstructor. He had been the bane of the Western +armies, preventing them from following up their victories, and had +almost driven Grant out of the service; and from the day he took +command at Washington (July 12) the troubles in the East became more +complicated than ever. + +McClellan held a strong position at Harrison's Landing, where, if he +accomplished nothing else, he was a standing menace to Richmond, so +that Lee dared not withdraw his army from its defence. He wanted to be +heavily reinforced, cross the James, and strike at Richmond's southern +communications, just as Grant actually did two years later; and he was +promised reinforcements from the troops of Burnside and Hunter, on the +coast of North and South Carolina. Lee's anxiety was to get McClellan +off from the peninsula, so that he could strike out toward Washington. +He first sent a detachment to bombard McClellan's camp from the +opposite side of the James; but McClellan crossed the river with a +sufficient force and easily swept it out of the way. Then Lee sent +Jackson to make a demonstration against Pope, holding the main body of +his army ready to follow as soon as some erratic and energetic +movements of Jackson had caused a sufficient alarm at Washington to +determine the withdrawal of McClellan. The unwitting Halleck was all +too swift to coöperate with his enemy, and had already determined upon +that withdrawal. Burnside's troops, coming up on transports, were not +even landed, but were forwarded up the Potomac and sent to Pope. +McClellan marched his army to Fort Monroe, and there embarked it by +divisions for the same destination. + +[Illustration: MAJOR-GENERAL JOHN POPE.] + +Pope's intention was to push southward, strike Lee's western and +northwestern communications, and cut them off from the Shenandoah +Valley. He first ordered Banks (July 14) to push his whole cavalry +force to Gordonsville, and destroy the railroads and bridges in that +vicinity. But the cavalry commander, General Hatch, took with him +infantry, artillery, and a wagon train, and consequently did not move +at cavalry speed. Before he could get to Gordonsville, Jackson's +advance reached it, and his movement was frustrated. He was relieved +of his command, and it was given to Gen. John Buford, an able cavalry +leader. + +As soon as Jackson came in contact with Pope's advance, he called upon +Lee for reinforcements, and promptly received them. On the 8th of +August he crossed the Rapidan, and moved toward Culpeper. Pope, who +had but recently taken the field in person, having remained in +Washington till July 29th, attempted to concentrate the corps of Banks +and Sigel at Culpeper. Banks arrived there promptly on the 8th; but +Sigel sent a note from Sperryville in the afternoon, asking by what +road he should march. "As there was but one road between those two +points," {164} says Pope, "and that a broad stone turnpike, I was at a +loss to understand how General Sigel could entertain any doubt as to +the road by which he should march." On the morning of the 9th Banks's +corps went out alone to meet the enemy at Cedar Mountain. Banks had +eight thousand men (Pope says he had supposed that corps numbered +fourteen thousand), and attacked an enemy twice as strong. He first +struck Jackson's right wing, and afterward furiously attacked the +left, rolled up the flank, opened a fire in the rear, and threw +Jackson's whole line into confusion. It was as if the two commanders +had changed characters, and Banks had suddenly assumed the part that, +according to the popular idea, Jackson was always supposed to play. If +Sigel had only known what road to take, that might have been the last +of Jackson. But Banks's force had become somewhat broken in its +advance through the woods, and at the same time the Confederates were +reinforced, so that Jackson was able to rally his men and check the +movement. Banks in turn was forced back a short distance, where he +took up a strong position. + +Sigel's corps arrived in the evening, relieved Banks's corps, and made +immediate preparations for a renewal of the fight in the morning. The +dead were buried, the wounded carried forth, and through the night +trains were moving and everything being put in readiness, but at +daylight it was discovered that the enemy had fallen back two miles to +a new position. Partly because of the strong position held by each, +and partly because of the very hot weather, there was little further +disposition to renew the fight, and two days later Jackson fell still +further back to Gordonsville. In this action, which for the numbers +engaged was one of the fiercest and most rapid of the war, the +Confederates lost about thirteen hundred men and the National army +about eighteen hundred. "Besides which," says General Pope, "fully one +thousand men straggled back to Culpeper Court House and beyond, and +never entirely returned to their commands." On the other hand, the +cavalry under Buford and Bayard pursued the enemy and captured many +stragglers. The Confederate Gen. Charles S. Winder was struck by a +shell and killed while leading his division. + +[Illustration: POPE'S BAGGAGE-TRAIN IN THE MUD.] + +[Illustration: VIEW IN CULPEPER.] + +Immediately after this action the cavalry resumed its former position +along the Rapidan from Raccoon Ford to the mountains. On the 14th of +August General Pope was reinforced by eight thousand men under General +Reno, whereupon he pushed his whole force forward toward the Rapidan, +and took up a position with his right on Robertson's River, his centre +on the slopes of Cedar Mountain and his left near Raccoon Ford. From +this point he sent out cavalry expeditions to destroy the enemy's +communications with Richmond, and one of these captured General +Stuart's adjutant, with a letter from Lee to General Stuart, dated +August 15th, which to a large extent revealed Lee's plans. The +incident that resulted in this important capture is thus related by +Stuart's biographer, Major H. B. McClellan: "Stuart reached +Verdiersville on the evening of the 17th, and hearing nothing from +Fitz Lee, sent his adjutant, Major Norman R. Fitz Hugh, to meet him +and ascertain his position. A body of the enemy's cavalry had, +however, started on a reconnoissance on the previous day, and in the +darkness of the night Major Fitz Hugh rode into this party and was +captured. On his person was found an autograph letter from the +commanding general to Stuart which disclosed to General Pope the +design of turning his left flank. The fact that Fitz Hugh did not +return aroused no apprehension, and Stuart and his staff imprudently +passed the night on the porch of an old house on the Plank Road. At +daybreak he was aroused by the noise of approaching horsemen, and +sending Mosby and Gibson, two of his aides, to ascertain who was +coming, he himself walked out to the front gate, bareheaded, to greet +Fitz Lee, as he supposed. The result did not justify his expectations. +In another instant pistol shots were heard, and Mosby and Gibson were +seen running back, pursued by a party of the enemy. Stuart, Von +Borcke, and Dabney had their horses inside of the inclosure of the +yard. Von Borcke gained the gate and the {165} road, and escaped +unhurt after a long and hard run. Stuart and Dabney were compelled to +leap the yard fence and take across the fields to the nearest woods. +They were pursued but a short distance. Returning to a post of +observation, Stuart saw the enemy depart in triumph with his hat and +cloak, which he had been compelled to leave on the porch where he had +slept. He bore this mortification with good nature. In a letter of +about that date he writes: 'I am greeted on all sides with +congratulations and "Where's your hat?" I intend to make the Yankees +pay for that hat.' And Pope did cancel the debt a few nights afterward +at Catlett's Station." + +[Illustration: HENRY AND ROBINSON HOUSES, BULL RUN. (From photograph +taken in 1884.)] + +[Illustration: CONFEDERATE DEAD LAID OUT FOR BURIAL.] + +[Illustration: MAJOR-GENERAL G. W. C. LEE. GENERAL ROBERT E. LEE, +C. S. A. COLONEL WALTER TAYLOR.] + +[Illustration: JOHN LETCHER. Governor of Virginia.] + +The captured despatch revealed to Pope the fact that Lee intended to +fall upon him with his entire army and crush him before he could be +reinforced from the Army of the Potomac. Pope says: "I held on to my +position, thus far to the front, for the purpose of affording all time +possible for the arrival of the Army of the Potomac at Acquia and +Alexandria, and to embarrass and delay the movements of the enemy as +far as practicable. On the 18th of August it became apparent to me +that this advanced position, with the small force under my command, +was no longer tenable in the face of the overwhelming forces of the +enemy. I determined, accordingly, to withdraw behind the Rappahannock +with all speed, and, as I had been instructed, to defend, as far as +practicable, the line of that river. I directed Major-General Reno to +send back his trains, on the morning of the 18th, by the way of +Stevensburg, to Kelly's or Burnett's Ford, and, as soon as the trains +had gotten several hours in advance, to follow them with his whole +corps, and take post behind the Rappahannock, {166} leaving all his +cavalry in the neighborhood of Raccoon Ford to cover this movement. +General Banks's corps, which had been ordered, on the 12th, to take +position at Culpeper Court House, I directed, with its trains +preceding it, to cross the Rappahannock at the point where the Orange +and Alexandria railroad crosses that river. General McDowell's train +was ordered to pursue the same route, while the train of General Sigel +was directed through Jefferson, to cross the Rappahannock at Warrenton +Sulphur Springs. So soon as these trains had been sufficiently +advanced, McDowell's corps was directed to take the route from +Culpeper to Rappahannock Ford, whilst General Sigel, who was on the +right and front, was instructed to follow the movements of his train +to Sulphur Springs. These movements were executed during the day and +night of the 18th, and the day of the 19th, by which time the whole +army, with its trains, had safely recrossed the Rappahannock and was +posted behind that stream, with its left at Kelly's Ford and its right +about three miles above Rappahannock Station." The Confederates +followed rapidly, and on the 20th confronted Pope at Kelly's Ford, but +with the river between. For two days they made strenuous efforts to +cross, but a powerful artillery fire, which was kept up continuously +for seven or eight miles along the river, made any crossing in force +impossible. Lee therefore sent Jackson to make a flank march westward +along that stream, cross it at Sulphur Springs, and come down upon +Pope's right. But when Jackson arrived at the crossing, he found a +heavy force occupying Sulphur Springs and ready to meet him. Meanwhile +Gen. James E. B. Stuart, with fifteen hundred cavalrymen, in the dark +and stormy night of August 22d, had ridden around to the rear of +Pope's position, to cut the railroad. He struck Pope's headquarters at +Catlett's Station, captured three hundred prisoners and all the +personal baggage and papers of the commander, and got back in safety. +These papers informed Lee of Pope's plans and dispositions. + +Jackson, being thwarted at Sulphur Springs, moved still farther up the +south bank of the Rappahannock, crossed the headwaters, and turned +Pope's right. He passed through Thoroughfare Gap in the Bull Run +Mountains on the 26th, destroyed Bristoe Station on the Orange and +Alexandria railroad, and sent out Stuart to Manassas Junction, where +prisoners were taken and a large amount of commissary stores fell into +his hands. + +Pope knew exactly the size of Jackson's force, and the direction it +had taken in its flank march; for Col. J. S. Clark, of Banks's staff, +had spent a day where he had a plain view of the enemy's moving +columns, and carefully counted the regiments and batteries. But from +this point the National commander, who had hitherto done reasonably +well, seemed suddenly to become bewildered. + +He explains in his report that his force was too small to enable him +to extend his right any further without too greatly weakening his +line, and says he telegraphed the facts repeatedly to Washington, +saying that he could not extend further West without losing his +connections with Fredericksburg. He declares he was assured on the +21st, that if he could hold the line of the river two days longer he +should be heavily reinforced, but that this promise was not kept, the +only troops that were added to his army during the next four days +being seven thousand men under Generals Reynolds and Kearny. + +[Illustration: THE SEAT OF MILITARY OPERATIONS IN AUGUST AND +SEPTEMBER, 1862.] + +Lee, whose grand strategy was correct, had here blundered seriously in +his manoeuvres, dividing his army so that the two parts were not +within supporting distance of each other, and the united enemy was +between. An ordinarily good general, standing in Pope's boots, would +naturally have fallen in force upon Jackson, and could have completely +destroyed or captured him. But Pope out-blundered Lee, and gave the +victory to the Confederates. + +He began by sending forty thousand men under McDowell, on the 27th, +toward Thoroughfare Gap, to occupy the road by which Lee with +Longstreet's division was marching to join Jackson; and at the same +time he moved with the remainder of his army to strike Jackson at +Bristoe Station. This was a good beginning, but was immediately ruined +by his own lack of steadiness. The advance guard had an engagement at +that place {167} with Jackson's rear guard, while his main body +retired to Manassas Junction. Pope became elated at the prospect of a +great success, and ordered a retrograde movement by McDowell, telling +him to march eastward on the 28th, adding: "If you will march promptly +and rapidly at the earliest dawn upon Manassas Junction, we shall bag +the whole crowd." McDowell obeyed, the way was thus left open for +Jackson to move out to meet his friends, and Jackson promptly took +advantage of the opportunity and planted himself on the high land +around Groveton, near the battlefield of Bull Run. Here King's +division of McDowell's corps came suddenly in contact with the enemy, +and a sharp fight, with severe loss on either side, ensued. Among the +Confederate wounded was Gen. Richard S. Ewell, one of their best +commanders, who lost a leg. In the night, King's men fell back to +Manassas; and Ricketts's division, which McDowell had left to delay +Longstreet when he should attempt to pass through Thoroughfare Gap, +was also retired. + +All apprehensions on the part of the lucky Jackson were now at an end. +His enemies had removed every obstruction, and he was in possession of +the Warrenton Turnpike, the road by which Longstreet was to join him. +The cut of an abandoned railroad formed a strong, ready-made +intrenchment, and along this he placed his troops, his right flank +being on the turnpike and his left at Sudley Mill. + +[Illustration: DAM ACROSS BULL RUN, NEAR BLACKBURN'S FORD.] + +[Illustration: BRIGADIER-GENERAL HERMANN HAUPT.] + +[Illustration: BREVET MAJOR-GENERAL GEO. H. GORDON.] + +[Illustration: BREVET BRIGADIER-GENERAL GEO. W. GILL.] + +General Pope says of his forces at this time: "From the 18th of August +until the morning of the 27th the troops under my command had been +continuously marching and fighting night and day, and during the whole +of that time there was scarcely an interval of an hour without the +roar of artillery. The men had had little sleep, were greatly worn +down with fatigue, had had little time to get proper food or to eat +it, had been engaged in constant battles and skirmishes, and had +performed services laborious, dangerous, and excessive beyond any +previous experience in this country. As was to be expected under such +circumstances, the numbers of the army under my command have been +greatly reduced by deaths, by wounds, by sickness, and by fatigue, so +that on the morning of the 27th of August I estimated my whole +effective force (and I {168} think the estimate was large) as follows: +Sigel's corps, nine thousand men; Banks's corps, five thousand men; +McDowell's corps, including Reynolds's division, fifteen thousand five +hundred men; Reno's corps, seven thousand men; the corps of +Heintzelman and Porter (the freshest by far in that army), about +eighteen thousand men--making in all fifty-four thousand five hundred +men. Our cavalry numbered on paper about four thousand men; but their +horses were completely broken down, and there were not five hundred +men, all told, capable of doing such service as should be expected +from cavalry. The corps of Heintzelman had reached Warrenton Junction, +but it was without wagons, without artillery, with only forty rounds +of ammunition to the man, and without even horses for the general and +field officers. The corps of Porter had also reached Warrenton +Junction with a very small supply of provisions, and but forty rounds +of ammunition for each man." + +Longstreet reached the field in the forenoon of the 29th, and took +position at Jackson's right, on the other side of the turnpike, +covering also the Manassas Gap railroad. He was confronted by Fitz +John Porter's corps. McDowell says he ordered Porter to move out and +attack Longstreet; Porter says he ordered him simply to hold the +ground where he was. At three o'clock in the afternoon Pope ordered +Hooker to attack Jackson directly in front. Hooker, who was never +loath to fight where there was a prospect of success, remonstrated; +but Pope insisted, and the attack was made. Hooker's men charged with +the bayonet, had a terrific hand-to-hand fight in the cut, and +actually ruptured Jackson's seemingly impregnable line; but +reinforcements were brought up, and the assailants were at length +driven back. Kearny's division was sent to support Hooker, but too +late, and it also was repelled. An hour or two later, Pope, who did +not know that Longstreet had arrived on the field, sent orders to Fitz +John Porter to attack Jackson's right, supposing that was the right of +the whole Confederate line. There is a dispute as to the hour at which +this order reached Porter. But it was impossible for him to obey it, +since he could not move upon Jackson's flank without exposing his own +flank to Longstreet. About six o'clock, when he imagined Porter's +attack must have begun, Pope ordered another attack on the Confederate +left. It was gallantly made, and in the first rush was successful. +Jackson's extreme left was doubled up and broken by Kearny's men, who +seized the cut and held it for a time. At this point a Confederate +regiment that had exhausted its ammunition fought with stones. There +were plenty of fragments of rock at hand, and several men were killed +by them. Again the Confederates, undisturbed on their right, hurried +across reinforcements to their imperilled left; and Kearny's division, +too small to hold what it had gained, was driven back. This day's +action is properly called the battle of Groveton. + +[Illustration: MAJOR-GENERAL FRANZ SIGEL.] + +[Illustration: MAJOR-GENERAL FITZ JOHN PORTER.] + +[Illustration: MAJOR-GENERAL PHILIP KEARNY.] + +Pope's forces had been considerably cut up and scattered, but he got +them together that night, re-formed his lines, and prepared to renew +the attack the next day. Lee at the same time drew back his left +somewhat, advanced and strengthened his right, and prepared to take +the offensive. Each intended to attack the other's left flank. + +When Pope moved out the next day (August 30th) to strike Lee's left, +and found it withdrawn, he imagined that the enemy was in retreat, and +immediately ordered McDowell to follow it up and "press the enemy +vigorously the whole day." Porter's corps--the advance of McDowell's +force--had no sooner begun this movement than it struck the foe in a +strong position, and was subjected to a heavy artillery fire. Then a +cloud of dust was seen to the south, and it was evident that Lee was +pushing a force around on the flank. McDowell sent Reynolds to meet +and check it. Porter then attempted to obey his orders. He advanced +against Jackson's right in charge after charge, but was met by a fire +that repelled him every time with bloody loss. Moreover, Longstreet +found an eminence that commanded a part of his line, promptly took +advantage of it by placing a battery there, and threw in an enfilading +fire. It was impossible for anything to withstand this, and Porter's +corps in a few minutes fell back defeated. The whole Confederate line +was {169} advanced, and an attempt was made, by still further +extending their right, to cut off retreat; but key-points were firmly +held by Warren's brigade and the brigades of Meade and Seymour, and +the army was withdrawn in order from the field whence it had retired +so precipitously a year before. After dark it crossed the stone bridge +over Bull Run, and encamped on the heights around Centreville. + +The corps of Sumner and Franklin here joined Pope, and the whole army +fell back still further, taking a position around Fairfax Court House +and Germantown. Lee meanwhile ordered Jackson to make another of the +flank marches that he was so fond of, with a view of striking Pope's +right and perhaps interrupting his communication with Washington. It +was the evening of September 1st when he fell heavily upon Pope's +flank. He was stoutly resisted, and finally repelled by the commands +of Hooker and Reno, and a part of those of McDowell and Kearny. +General Stevens, of Reno's corps, was killed, and his men, having used +up their ammunition, fell back. General Kearny sent Birney's brigade +into the gap, and brought up a battery. He then rode forward to +reconnoitre, came suddenly upon a squad of Confederates, and in +attempting to ride away was shot dead. Kearny was one of the most +experienced and efficient soldiers in the service. He had lost an arm +in the Mexican war, was with Napoleon III. at Solferino and Magenta, +and had just passed through the peninsula campaign with McClellan. + +[Illustration: MILL AND HOTEL AT SUDLEY SPRINGS.] + +[Illustration: MAP OF SECOND BATTLE OF BULL RUN, SHOWING IMPORTANT +POSITIONS OCCUPIED FROM AUGUST 27th TO SEPTEMBER 1st.] + +Lee made no further attempt upon Pope's army, and on September 2d, by +Halleck's orders, it was withdrawn to the fortifications of +Washington, where it was merged in the Army of the Potomac. In this +campaign, both the numbers engaged on either side and the respective +losses are in dispute, and the exact truth never will be known. Lee +claimed that he had captured nine thousand prisoners and thirty guns, +and it is probable that Pope's total loss numbered at least fifteen +thousand. Pope maintained that he would have won the battle of +Groveton and made a successful campaign if General Porter had obeyed +his orders. Porter, for this supposed disobedience, was +court-martialed in January, 1863, and was condemned and dismissed from +the service, and forever disqualified from holding any office of +trust or profit under the Government of the United States. Thousands +of pages have been written and printed to prove or {170} disprove +his innocence, and the evidence has been reviewed again and again. +It appears to be established at last that he did not disobey +any order that it was possible for him to obey, and that he was +blameless--except, perhaps, in having exhibited a spirit of personal +hostility to General Pope, who was then his superior officer. A bill +to relieve him of the penalty was passed by the Forty-sixth Congress, +but was vetoed by President Arthur. Substantially the same bill was +passed in 1886 and was signed by President Cleveland. It restored him +to his place as colonel in the regular army, and retired him with that +rank, but with no compensation for the intervening years. + +[Illustration: SECOND BATTLE OF BULL RUN. (From a war-time sketch.)] + +General Grant, reviewing the case in 1882, came to the conclusion that +Porter was innocent, and gave his reasons for it in a magazine +article, significantly remarking that "if he was guilty, the +punishment awarded was not commensurate with the offence committed." +But some other military authorities still believe that his sentence +was just. Grant seems to make the question perfectly clear by drawing +two simple diagrams. This, he says, is what Pope supposed to be the +position of the armies when he ordered Porter to attack: + + JACKSON + ================ + ===================== ================ + PORTER POPE + +But this is what the situation really was: + + LONGSTREET JACKSON + ===================== ================ + ===================== ================ + PORTER POPE + +The movements of this campaign were more complicated than those of any +other during the war, and it appears to have been {171} carried on +with less of definite plan and connected purpose on either side. It is +not probable that its merits, if it had any merits, will ever be +satisfactorily agreed upon. On the part of Pope's army, whether by his +fault or not, it was a disastrous failure. On the part of Lee's, while +it resulted in tactical successes, it did not seriously menace the +safety of Washington, and it led him on to his first great failure in +an attempted invasion of the North. It is only fair to give General +Pope's last word on the subject, which we quote from his article in +"Battles and Leaders of the Civil War." "At no time could I have hoped +to fight a successful battle with the superior forces of the enemy +which confronted me, and which were able at any time to out-flank and +bear my small army to the dust. It was only by constant movement, +incessant watchfulness, and hazardous skirmishes and battles, that the +forces under my command were saved from destruction, and that the +enemy was embarrassed and delayed in his advance until the army of +General McClellan was at length assembled for the defence of +Washington. I did hope that in the course of these operations the +enemy might commit some imprudence, or leave some opening of which I +could take such advantage as to gain at least a partial success. This +opportunity was presented by the advance of Jackson on Manassas +Junction; but although the best dispositions possible in my view were +made, the object was frustrated by causes which could not have been +foreseen, and which perhaps are not yet completely known to the +country." + +[Illustration: RUINS OF THE STONE BRIDGE ON THE WARRENTON TURNPIKE. +(From a War Department photograph.)] + +From Capt. Henry N. Blake, of the Eleventh Massachusetts regiment, we +have these interesting incidents of the campaign: + +"Matches were very scarce upon this campaign, and a private who +intended to light one gave public notice to the crowd, who surrounded +him with slips of paper and pipes in their hands. Some soldiers were +in a destitute condition, and suffered from blistered feet, as they +had no shoes, and others required a pair of pants or a blouse; but all +gladly pursued Jackson, and his capture {172} was considered a certain +event. The column cheered General Pope when he rode along, accompanied +by a vast body-guard, and he responded: 'I am glad to see you in such +good spirits to-day.' ... The stream was forded, and the graves and +bones of the dead, the rusty fragments of iron, and the weather-beaten +_débris_ of that contest reminded the men that they were again in the +midst of the familiar scenes of the first battle of Bull Run. The +cannonading was brisk at intervals during the day. Large tracts of the +field were black and smoking from the effect of the burning grass +which the shells ignited, and a small force was occasionally engaged +upon the right, but there was no general conflict. The brigade took +the position assigned to it, upon a slope of a hill, to support a +battery which was attached to Sigel's corps, and no infantry was +visible in any direction, although the land was open and objects +within the distance of half a mile were readily seen. There was no +firing, with the exception of the time when the troops debouched from +the road in the morning, and the soldiers rested until four P.M. At +this moment the enemy opened with solid shot upon the battery, which +did not discharge one piece in response. The drivers mounted their +horses; all rushed pell-mell through the ranks of the fearless and +enraged support, and did not halt within the range of the artillery +from which they had so cowardly fled. A member of the staff, dressed +like an officer of the day, immediately arrived and gave a verbal +order to the brigade commander, after which the regiments were formed +and marched, unmindful of the cannon-balls, toward the right of the +line, and halted in the border of a thick forest in which many +skirmishes had taken place. 'What does the general want me to do now?' +General Grover asked the aide who again rode up to the brigade. 'Go +into the woods and charge,' was the answer. 'Where is my support?' the +commander wisely inquired, for there were no troops near the position. +'It is coming.' After waiting fifteen minutes for this body to appear, +the officer returned and said that 'the general was much displeased' +because the charge had not been made, and the order was at once +issued: 'Fix bayonets.' Each man was inspired by these magical words; +great enthusiasm arose when this command was 'passed' from company to +company, and the soldiers, led by their brave general, advanced upon a +hidden foe through tangled woods which constantly interfered with the +formation of the ranks. 'Colonel, do you know what we are going to +charge on?' a private inquired. 'Yes; a good dinner.' The rebel +skirmishers were driven in upon their reserve behind the bank of an +unfinished railroad, and detachments from {173} five brigades were +massed in three lines, under the command of Ewell, to resist the onset +of the inferior force that menaced them. The awful volleys did not +impede the storming party that pressed on over the bodies of the dead +and dying; while the thousands of bullets which flew through the air +seemed to create a breeze that made the leaves upon the trees rustle, +and a shower of small boughs and twigs fell upon the ground. The balls +penetrated the barrels and shattered the stocks of many muskets; but +the soldiers who carried them picked up those that had been dropped +upon the ground by helpless comrades, and allowed no slight accident +of this character to interrupt them in the noble work. The railroad +bank was gained, and the column with cheers passed over it, and +advanced over the groups of the slain and mangled rebels who had +rolled down the declivity when they lost their strength. The second +line was broken; both were scattered through the woods, and victory +appeared to be certain until the last support, that had rested upon +their breasts on the ground, suddenly rose up and delivered a +destructive volley which forced the brigade, that had already lost +more than one-third of its number in killed and wounded, to retreat. +Ewell, suffering from his shattered knee, was borne to the rear in a +blanket, and his leg was amputated. The horse of General Grover was +shot upon the railroad bank while he was encouraging the men to go +forward, and he had barely time to dismount before the animal, mad +with pain, dashed into the ranks of the enemy. The woods always +concealed the movements of the troops, and at one point a portion of +the foe fell back while the others remained. The forces sometimes met +face to face, and the bayonet and sword--weapons that do not pierce +soldiers in nine-tenths of the battles that are fought--were used with +deadly effect in several instances. A corporal exclaimed in the din of +this combat, 'Dish ish no place for de mens,' and fled to the rear +with the speed of the mythical Flying Dutchman. In one company of the +regiment a son was killed by the side of his father, who continued to +perform his duty with the firmness of a stoic, and remarked to his +amazed comrades, in a tone which showed how a strong patriotic ardor +can triumph over the deepest emotion of affection: 'I had rather see +him shot dead as he was than see him run away.' ... The victors +rallied the fugitives after this repulse, and their superior force +enabled them to assault in front and upon both flanks the line which +had been contracted by the severe losses in the charge, and the +brigade fell back to the first position under a fire of grape and +canister which was added to the musketry. The regimental flag was torn +from the staff by unfriendly limbs in passing through the forest, and +the eagle that surmounted it was cut off in the contest. The commander +of the color-company saved these precious emblems, and earnestly +shouted, when the lines were re-formed: 'Eleventh, rally round the +pole!' which was then, if possible, more honored than when it was +bedecked in folds of bunting. General Grover, who displayed the +gallantry throughout this action that he had exhibited upon the +peninsula, waved his hat upon the point of his sword to animate his +brigade and prepare for a renewal of the fight. Many were scarcely +able to speak on account of hoarseness caused by intense cheering, and +some officers blistered the palms of their hands by waving swords when +they charged with their commands." + +[Illustration: GATHERING UP DÉBRIS OF POPE'S RETREAT AFTER THE SECOND +BATTLE OF BULL RUN. (From a War Department photograph.)] + +[Illustration: GENERAL HANCOCK AND FRIENDS. (From a war-time +photograph.)] + +{174} [Illustration: HARPER'S FERRY IN POSSESSION OF THE CONFEDERATE +FORCES.] + + + + +{175} + +CHAPTER XV. + +THE ANTIETAM CAMPAIGN. + +CONFEDERATE ADVANCE INTO MARYLAND--THE ARMY OF THE POTOMAC SENT +AGAINST THEM--LEE'S PLANS LEARNED FROM A LOST DESPATCH--CAPTURE OF +HARPER'S FERRY--BATTLE OF SOUTH MOUNTAIN--BATTLE OF ANTIETAM--TERRIFIC +FIGHTING AT THE DUNKERS' CHURCH AND THE SUNKEN ROAD--PORTER'S +INACTION--FIGHTING AT THE BRIDGE--GENERAL CONDUCT OF THE BATTLE--THE +RESULTS. + + +After his success in the second battle of Manassas, and the retirement +of Pope's army to the defences of Washington (September 2, 1862), +General Lee pushed northward into Maryland with his whole army. His +advance arrived at Frederick City on the 8th, and from his camp near +that place he issued a proclamation to the people of Maryland, in +which he recited the wrongs they had suffered at the hands of the +National Government, and told them "the people of the South have long +wished to aid you in throwing off this foreign yoke, to enable you +again to enjoy the inalienable rights of freemen and restore the +independence and sovereignty of your State." At the same time he +opened recruiting-offices, and appointed a provost-marshal of +Frederick. The reader of the classics will perhaps be reminded of the +shrewd advice that Demosthenes gave the Athenians, when he counselled +them not to ask the assistance of the Thebans against Philip of +Macedon, but to bring about an alliance by offering to help them +against him. But the Confederate chieftain was sadly disappointed in +the effect of his proclamation and his presence. When his army marched +into the State singing "My Maryland," they were received with closed +doors, drawn blinds, and the silence of a graveyard. In Frederick all +the places of business were shut. The Marylanders did not flock to his +recruiting-offices to the extent of more than two or three hundred, +while on the other hand he lost many times that number from +straggling, as he says in his report. Several reasons have been +assigned for the failure of the people to respond to his appeal, in +each of which there is probably some truth. One was, that it had +always been easy enough for Marylanders to go to the Confederate +armies, and those of them that wished to enlist there had done so +already. Another--and probably the principal one--was, that Maryland +was largely true to the Union, especially in the western counties; and +she furnished many excellent soldiers to its armies--almost fifty +thousand. Another was, that the appearance of the Southern veterans +was not calculated either to entice the men or to arouse the +enthusiasm of the women. The Confederate General Jones says: "Never +had the army been so dirty, ragged, and ill-provided for as on this +march." General Lee complained especially of their want of shoes. It +is difficult to understand why an army that claimed to have captured +such immense supplies late in August should have been so destitute +early in September. + +[Illustration: AWAITING THE CHARGE.] + +On the 2d of September the President went to General McClellan's house +in Washington, asked him to take command again of the Army of the +Potomac, in which Pope's army had now been merged, and verbally +authorized him to do so at once. The first thing that McClellan wanted +was withdrawal of Miles's force, eleven thousand men, from Harper's +Ferry--where, he said, it was useless and helpless--and its addition +to his own force. All authorities agree that in this he was obviously +and unquestionably right, for Harper's Ferry had no strategic value +whatever; but the marplot hand of Halleck intervened, and Miles was +ordered to hold the place. Halleck's principal reason appeared to be a +reluctance to abandon a place where so much expense had been laid out. +Miles, a worthy subordinate for such a chief, interpreted Halleck's +orders with absolute literalness, and remained in the town, instead of +holding it by placing his force on the heights that command it. + +As soon as it was known that Lee was in Maryland, McClellan set his +army in motion northward, to cover Washington and Baltimore and find +an opportunity for a decisive battle. He arrived with his advance in +Frederick on the 12th, and met with a reception in striking contrast +to that accorded the army that had left the town two days before. +Nearly every house displayed the National flag, the streets were +thronged with people, all the business places were open, and everybody +welcomed the Boys in Blue. + +But this flattering reception was not the best fortune that befell the +Union army in Frederick. On his arrival in the town, General McClellan +came into possession of a copy of General Lee's order, dated three +days before, in which the whole campaign was laid out. By this order, +Jackson was directed to march through Sharpsburg, cross the Potomac, +capture the force at Martinsburg, and assist in the capture of that at +Harper's Ferry; Longstreet was directed to halt at Boonsborough with +the trains; McLaws was to march to Harper's Ferry, take possession of +the heights commanding it, and capture the force there as speedily as +possible; Walker was {176} to invest that place from the other side +and assist McLaws; D. H. Hill's division was to form the rear guard. +All the forces were to be united again at Boonsborough or Hagerstown. +General Lee had taken it for granted that Martinsburg and Harper's +Ferry would be evacuated at his approach (as they should have been); +and when he found they were not, he had so far changed or suspended +the plan with which he set out as to send back a large part of his +army to capture those places and not leave a hostile force in his +rear. + +On the approach of Jackson's corps General White evacuated +Martinsburg, and with his garrison of two thousand men joined Miles at +Harper's Ferry. That town, in the fork of the Potomac and Shenandoah +rivers, can be bombarded with the greatest ease from the heights on +the opposite sides of those streams. Miles, instead of taking +possession of the heights with all his men, sent a feeble detachment +to those on the north side of the Potomac, and stupidly remained in +the trap with the rest. McLaws sent a heavy force to climb the +mountain at a point three or four miles north, whence it marched along +the crest through the woods, and attacked three or four regiments that +Miles had posted there. This force was soon driven away, while Jackson +was approaching the town from the other side, and a bombardment the +next day compelled a surrender when Jackson was about to attack. +General Miles was mortally wounded by one of the last shots. About +eleven thousand men were included in the capitulation, with +seventy-three guns and a considerable amount of camp equipage. A body +of two thousand cavalry, commanded by Colonel Davis, had been with +Miles, but had escaped the night before, crossed the Potomac, and by +morning reached Greencastle, Pa. On the way they captured Longstreet's +ammunition train of fifty wagons. Jackson, leaving the arrangements +for the surrender to A. P. Hill, hurried with the greater part of his +force to rejoin Lee, and reached Sharpsburg on the morning of the +16th. + +[Illustration: THE TWENTY-SECOND NEW YORK NEAR HARPER'S FERRY.] + +[Illustration: BREVET BRIGADIER-GENERAL J. C. KELTON. +(Adjutant-General to General Halleck.)] + +The range known as the South Mountain, which is a continuation of the +Blue Ridge north of the Potomac, is about a thousand feet high. The +two principal gaps are Turner's and Crampton's, each about four +hundred feet high, with the hills towering six hundred feet above it. + +When McClellan learned the plans of the Confederate commander, he set +his army in motion to thwart them. He ordered Franklin's corps to pass +through Crampton's Gap and press on to relieve Harper's Ferry; the +corps of Reno and Hooker, under command of Burnside, he moved to +Turner's Gap. The movement was quick for McClellan, but not quite +quick enough for the emergency. He might have passed through the Gaps +on the 13th with little or no opposition, and would then have had his +whole army between Lee's divided forces, and could hardly have failed +to defeat them disastrously and perhaps conclusively. But he did not +arrive at the passes till the morning of the 14th; and by that time +Lee had learned of his movement and recalled Hill and Longstreet, from +Boonsborough and beyond, to defend Turner's Gap, while he ordered +McLaws to look out for Crampton's. + +Turner's Gap was flanked by two old roads that crossed the mountain a +mile north and south of it; and using these, and scrambling up from +rock to rock, the National troops worked their way slowly to the +crests, opposed at every step by the Confederate riflemen behind the +trees and ledges. Reno assaulted the southern crest, and Hooker the +northern, while Gibbon's brigade gradually pushed along up the +turnpike into the Gap itself. Reno was opposed by the Confederate +brigade of Garland, and both these commanders were killed. There was +stubborn and bloody fighting all day, with the Union forces slowly but +constantly gaining ground, and at dark the field was won. The +Confederates withdrew during the night, and in the morning the +victorious columns passed through to the western side of the mountain. +This battle cost McClellan fifteen hundred men, killed or wounded. +Among the wounded was the lieutenant-colonel in command of the +Twenty-third Ohio regiment--Rutherford B. Hayes, afterward +President--who was struck in the arm by a rifle-ball. The Confederate +loss in killed and wounded was about fifteen hundred, and in addition +fifteen hundred were made prisoners. The fight at Crampton's Gap--to +defend which McLaws had sent back a part of his force from Harper's +Ferry--was quite similar to that at Turner's, and had a similar +result. Franklin reached the crests after a fight of three hours, +losing five hundred and thirty-two men, inflicting an equal loss upon +the enemy, and capturing four hundred prisoners, one gun, and three +battle-flags. These two actions (fought September 14, 1862) {177} are +generally designated as the battle of South Mountain, but are +sometimes called the battle of Boonsborough. In that the enemy was +driven away, the ground held, and the passes used, it was a victory, +and a brilliant one, for McClellan. But in that Lee, by delaying the +advance of his enemy a whole day, thereby gained time to bring +together his own scattered forces, it was strategically a victory, +though a costly one, for him. But then again it might be argued that +if Lee could have kept the four thousand good troops that McClellan +deprived him of at South Mountain, it might have fared better with him +in the struggle at Antietam three days later. + +When Lee retired his left wing from Turner's Gap, he withdrew across +the Antietam, and took up a position on high ground between that +stream and the village of Sharpsburg. His right, under McLaws, after +detaining Franklin till Harper's Ferry was surrendered, crossed the +Potomac at that place, recrossed it at Shepherdstown, and came +promptly into position. Lee now had his army together and strongly +posted. But it had been so reduced by losses in battle and straggling, +that it numbered but little over forty thousand combatants. The effect +upon the army itself of invading a rich country with troops so poorly +supplied had probably not been anticipated. Lee complained bitterly +that his army was "ruined by straggling," and General Hill wrote in +his report: "Had all our stragglers been up, McClellan's army would +have been completely crushed or annihilated. Thousands of thievish +poltroons had kept away from sheer cowardice." General Hill, in his +anger, probably overestimates the effect; for McClellan had somewhat +over seventy thousand men, and though he used but little more than +half of them in his attacks, there is no reason to suppose he would +not have used them all in a defence. The men that Lee did have, +however, were those exclusively that had been able to stand the hard +marching and resist the temptation to straggle, and were consequently +the flower of his army; and they now awaited, in a chosen position, a +battle that they knew would be decisive of the campaign, if not of the +war. + +The ground occupied by the Confederate army, with one flank resting on +the Potomac, and the other on the Antietam, which flowed in front, was +advantageous. The creek was crossed by four stone bridges and a ford, +and all except the northernmost bridge were strongly guarded. The land +was occupied by meadows, cornfields, and patches of forest, and was +much broken by outcropping ledges. McClellan only reconnoitred the +position on the 15th. On the 16th he developed his plan of attack, +which was simply to throw his right wing across the Antietam by the +upper and unguarded bridge, assail the Confederate left, and when this +had sufficiently engaged the enemy's attention and drawn his strength +to that flank, to force the bridges and cross with his left and +centre. Indeed, this was obviously almost the only practicable plan. +All day long an artillery duel was kept up, in which, as General Hill +says, the Confederate batteries proved no match for their opponents. +It was late in the afternoon when Hooker's corps crossed by the upper +bridge, advanced through the woods, and struck the left flank, which +was held by two brigades of Hood's men. Scarcely more than a skirmish +ensued, when darkness came on, and the lines rested for the night +where they were. If Lee could have been in any doubt before, he was +now told plainly what was to be the form of the contest, and he had +all night to make his dispositions for it. The only change he thought +it necessary to make was to put Jackson's fresh troops in the position +on his left. Before morning McClellan sent Mansfield's corps across +the Antietam to join Hooker, and had Sumner's in readiness to follow +at an early hour. Meanwhile, all but two thousand of Lee's forces had +come up. So the 17th of September dawned in that peaceful little +corner of the world with everything in readiness for a great struggle +in which there could be no surprises, and which was to be scarcely +anything more than wounds for wounds and death for death. + +[Illustration: MAJOR-GENERAL HOWELL COBB, C. S. A.] + +[Illustration: MAJOR-GENERAL JOHN G. WALKER, C. S. A.] + +[Illustration: MAJOR-GENERAL LAFAYETTE McLAWS, C. S. A.] + +In the vicinity of the little Dunker church, the road running +northward from Sharpsburg to Hagerstown was bordered on both sides by +woods, and in these woods the battle began when Hooker assaulted +Jackson at sunrise. There was hard fighting for an hour, during which +Jackson's lines were not only heavily pressed by Hooker in front, but +at length enfiladed by a fire from the batteries on the eastern side +of the Antietam. This broke them and drove them back; but when Hooker +attempted {178} to advance his lines far enough to hold the road and +seize the woods west of it, he in turn was met by fresh masses of +troops and a heavy artillery fire, and was checked. Mansfield's corps +was moving up to his support when its commander was mortally wounded. +Nevertheless it moved on, got a position in the woods west of the +road, and held it, though at heavy cost. At this moment General Hooker +was seriously wounded and borne from the field, while Sumner crossed +the stream and came up with his corps. His men drove back the defeated +divisions of the enemy without much difficulty, and occupied the +ground around the church. His whole line was advancing to apparent +victory, when two fresh divisions were brought over from the +Confederate right, and were immediately thrust into a wide gap in +Sumner's line. Sedgwick, whose division formed the right of the line, +was thus flanked on his left, and was easily driven back out of the +woods, across the clearing, and into the eastern woods, after which +the Confederates retired to their own position. Fighting of this sort +went on all the forenoon, one of the episodes being a race between the +Fifth New Hampshire Regiment and a Confederate force for a commanding +point of ground, the two marching in parallel lines and firing at each +other as they went along. The New Hampshire men got there first, and, +assisted by the Eighty-first Pennsylvania Regiment, from that eminence +threw a destructive fire into the ranks of the regiment they had +out-run. The fighting around the Dunker church was so fierce, and so +much artillery fire was concentrated upon that spot, that when the +woods were cut down, years afterward, and the logs sent to a saw-mill, +the saws were completely torn to pieces by the metal that had +penetrated the wood and been overgrown. + +A short distance south and east of the Dunker church there was a +slightly sunken road which crossed the Confederate line at one point +and was parallel with it for a certain distance at other points. A +strong Confederate force was posted in this sunken road, and when the +National troops approached it there was destructive work on both +sides; but the heaviest loss here fell upon the Confederates, because +some batteries on the high ground east of the Antietam enfiladed +portions of the road. This sunken road, which was henceforth called +Bloody Lane, has made some confusion in many accounts of the battle, +which is explained by the fact that it is not a straight road, but is +made up of several parts running at different angles. + +While this great struggle was in progress on McClellan's right, his +centre and left, under Porter and Burnside, did not make any movement +to assist. Porter's inaction is explained by the fact that his troops +were kept as the reserves, which McClellan refused to send forward +even when portions of his line were most urgently calling for +assistance. He and Porter agreed in clinging to the idea that the +reserves must under no circumstances be pushed forward to take part in +the actual battle. This conduct was in marked contrast to that of the +Confederate commander, who in this action had no reserves whatever. + +[Illustration: THE CHARGE ACROSS THE BURNSIDE BRIDGE.] + +{179} [Illustration: MAP OF THE BATTLE OF THE ANTIETAM, 16th & 17th +Sept., 1862.] + +At noon Franklin arrived from Crampton's Gap, and was sent over to +help Hooker and Sumner, being just in time to check a new advance by +more troops brought over from the Confederate right. + +At seven o'clock in the morning Burnside was ordered to have his corps +in readiness for carrying the bridge in his front, crossing the +stream, and attacking the Confederate right, which order he promptly +obeyed. An hour later the order for this movement was issued by +McClellan, but it did not reach Burnside till nine o'clock. The task +before him was more difficult than his commander realized or than +would be supposed from most descriptions of the action. The bridge is +of stone, having three arches, with low stone parapets, and not very +wide. On the eastern side of the stream, where Burnside's corps was, +the land is comparatively low. The road that crosses the bridge, when +it reaches the western bank has to turn immediately at a right angle +and run nearly parallel with the stream, because the land there is +high and overhangs it. As a matter of course, the bridge was commanded +by Confederate guns advantageously placed on the heights. The problem +before Burnside was therefore exceedingly difficult, and the +achievement expected of him certain in any case to be costly. The task +of first crossing the bridge fell upon Crook's brigade, which moved +forward, mistook its way, and struck the stream some distance above +the bridge, where it immediately found itself under a heavy fire. Then +the Second Maryland and Sixth New Hampshire regiments were ordered to +charge at the double quick and carry the bridge. But the fire that +swept it was more than they could stand, and they were obliged to +retire unsuccessful. Then another attempt was made by a new storming +party, consisting of the Fifty-first New York and Fifty-first +Pennsylvania regiments, led by Col. Robert B. Potter and Col. John F. +Hartranft. By this time two heavy guns had been got into position +where they could play upon the Confederates who defended the bridge, +and with this protection and assistance the two regiments just named +succeeded in crossing it and driving away the immediate opposing +force, and were immediately followed by Sturgis's division and Crook's +brigade. The fighting at the bridge cost Burnside about five hundred +men. The Fifty-first New York lost eighty-seven, and the Fifty-first +Pennsylvania one hundred and twenty. At the same time other troops +crossed by a ford below the bridge, which had to be searched for, but +was at length found. These operations occupied four hours, being +completed about one o'clock P.M. Could they have been accomplished in +an hour or two, the destruction or capture of Lee's army must have +resulted. But by the time that Burnside had crossed the stream, +captured a battery, and occupied the heights overlooking Sharpsburg, +the fighting on McClellan's right was over. This left Lee at liberty +to strengthen his imperilled right by bringing troops across the short +interior line from his left, which he promptly did. At the same time +the last division of his forces (A. P. Hill's), two thousand strong, +arrived from Harper's Ferry; and these fresh men, together with those +brought over from the left, assumed the offensive, drove Burnside from +the crest, and retook the battery. + + * * * * * + +Here ended the battle; not because the day was closed or any apparent +victory had been achieved, but because both sides had been so severely +punished that neither was inclined to resume the fight. Every man of +Lee's force had been actively engaged, but not more than two-thirds of +McClellan's. The reason why the Confederate army was not annihilated +or captured must be plain to any intelligent reader. It was not +because Lee, with his army divided for three days in presence of his +enemy, had not invited destruction; nor because the seventy thousand, +acting in concert, could not have overwhelmed the forty thousand even +when they were united. It was not for any lack of courage, or men, or +arms, or opportunity, or daylight. It was simply because the attack +was made in driblets, instead of by heavy masses on both wings +simultaneously; so that at any point of actual contact Lee was almost +always able to present as strong a force as that which assailed him. +In a letter written to General Franklin the evening before the battle +of South Mountain, General McClellan, having then received the lost +despatch that revealed Lee's plans and situation, set forth with much +particularity his {180} purposes for the next few days, and summed up +by saying: "My general idea is to cut the enemy in two and beat him in +detail." No plan could have been better or more scientific; but +curiously enough, when it came to actual battle General McClellan's +conduct was the exact opposite of this. By unnecessary and +unaccountable delays he first gave the enemy time to concentrate his +forces, and then made his attacks piecemeal, so that the enemy could +fight _him_ in detail. + +Whatever had been the straggling on the march, none of the commanders +complained of any flinching after the fight began. They saw veterans +taking, relinquishing, and retaking ground that was soaked with blood +and covered with dead; and they saw green regiments "go to their +graves like beds." There had been a call for more troops by the +National Administration after the battles on the peninsula, which was +responded to with the greatest alacrity, men of all classes rushing to +the recruiting-offices to enroll themselves. It was a common thing for +a regiment of a thousand men to be raised, equipped, and sent to the +front in two or three weeks. Some of those new regiments were suddenly +introduced to the realities of war at Antietam, and suffered +frightfully. For example, the Sixteenth Connecticut, which there fired +its muskets for the first time, went in with 940 men, and lost 432. On +the other side, Lawton's Confederate brigade went in with 1,150 men, +and lost 554, including five out of its six regimental commanders, +while Hays's lost 323 out of 550, including every regimental commander +and all the staff officers. An officer of the Fiftieth Georgia +Regiment said in a published letter: "The Fiftieth were posted in a +narrow path, washed out into a regular gully, and were fired into by +the enemy from the front, rear, and left flank. The men stood their +ground nobly, returning their fire until nearly two-thirds of their +number lay dead or wounded in that lane. Out of 210 carried into the +fight, over 125 were killed and wounded in less than twenty minutes. +The slaughter was horrible! When ordered to retreat, I could hardly +extricate myself from the dead and wounded around me. A man could have +walked from the head of our line to the foot on their bodies. The +survivors of the regiment retreated very orderly back to where General +Anderson's brigade rested. The brigade suffered terribly. James's +South Carolina battalion was nearly annihilated. The Fiftieth Georgia +lost nearly all their commissioned officers." The First South Carolina +Regiment, which went into the fight with 106 men, had but fifteen men +and one officer when it was over. A Confederate battery, being largely +disabled by the work of sharp-shooters, was worked for a time, at the +crisis of the fight, by General Longstreet and members of his staff +acting as gunners. Three generals on each side were killed. Those on +the National side were Generals Joseph K. Mansfield, Israel B. +Richardson, and Isaac P. Rodman; those on the Confederate side were +Generals George B. Anderson, L. O'B. Branch, and William E. Starke. +The wounded generals included on the one side Hooker, Sedgwick, Dana, +Crawford, and Meagher; on the other side, R. H. Anderson, Wright, +Lawton, Armistead, Ripley, Ransom, Rhodes, Gregg, and Toombs. + +General McClellan reported his entire loss at 12,469, of whom 2,010 +were killed. General Lee reported his total loss in the Maryland +battles as 1,567 killed and 8,724 wounded, saying nothing of the +missing; but the figures given by his division commanders foot up +1,842 killed, 9,399 wounded, and 2,292 missing--total, 13,533. If +McClellan's report is correct, even this statement falls short of the +truth. He says: "About 2,700 of the enemy's dead were counted and +buried upon the battlefield of Antietam. A portion of their dead had +been previously buried by the enemy." If the wounded were in the usual +proportion, this would indicate Confederate casualties to the extent +of at least 15,000 on that field alone. But whatever the exact number +may have been, the battle was bloody enough to produce mourning and +lamentation from Maine to Louisiana. It was the bloodiest day's work +of the whole war. The battles of Shiloh, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, +Chickamauga, the Wilderness, and Spottsylvania were each more costly, +but none of them was fought in a single day. + +Nothing was done on the 18th, and when McClellan determined to renew +the attack on the 19th he found that his enemy had withdrawn from the +field and crossed to Virginia by the ford at Shepherdstown. The +National commander reported the capture of more than six thousand +prisoners, thirteen guns, and thirty-nine battle-flags, and that he +had not lost a gun or a color. As he was also in possession of the +field, where the enemy left all their dead and two thousand of their +wounded, and had rendered Lee's invasion fruitless of anything but the +prisoners carried off from Harper's Ferry, the victory was his. + +[Illustration: MAJOR-GENERAL JOHN GIBBON.] + +[Illustration: BREVET MAJOR-GENERAL MARSENA R. PATRICK.] + +[Illustration: MAJOR-GENERAL G. W. MORELL.] + +[Illustration] + +{181} [Illustration: THE PRIMARY CAUSES OF THE WAR--THE NEGRO AND +COTTON.] + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + +EMANCIPATION. + +_This Chapter is illustrated with portraits of early abolitionists, +and Virginia officials at the time of the celebrated John Brown Raid._ + +LINCOLN'S ATTITUDE TOWARD SLAVERY--McCLELLAN'S ATTITUDE--THE +DEMOCRATIC PARTY'S ATTITUDE--PREDICTIONS BY THE POETS--SLAVES DECLARED +CONTRABAND--ACTION OF FRÉMONT--HUNTER'S PROCLAMATION--BLACKS FIRST +ENLISTED--DIVISION OF SENTIMENT IN THE ARMY--MARYLAND ABOLISHES +SLAVERY--THE PRESIDENT AND HORACE GREELEY CORRESPOND ON THE +SUBJECT--EMANCIPATION PROCLAIMED--AUTUMN ELECTIONS--ABOLITION OF +SLAVERY IN DELAWARE, KENTUCKY, AND MISSOURI--THE FINAL +PROCLAMATION--THE RIGHT OF THE PRESIDENT TO DECLARE THE SLAVES FREE. + + +The war had now (September, 1862) been in progress almost a year and a +half; and nearly twenty thousand men had been shot dead on the +battlefield, and upward of eighty thousand wounded, while an unknown +number had died of disease contracted {182} in the service, or been +carried away into captivity. The money that had been spent by the +United States Government alone amounted to about one billion dollars. +All this time there was not an intelligent man in the country but knew +the cause of the war, and yet more than a hundred thousand American +citizens were killed or mangled before a single blow was delivered +directly at that cause. General Frémont had aimed at it; General +Hunter had aimed at it; but in each case the arm was struck up by the +Administration. One would naturally suppose, from the thoroughness +with which the slavery question had been discussed for thirty years, +that when the time came for action there would be little doubt or +hesitation on either side. On the Confederate side there was neither +doubt nor hesitation. On the National side there was both doubt and +hesitation, and it took a long time to arrive at a determination to +destroy slavery in order to preserve the Union. The old habit of +compromise and conciliation half paralyzed the arm of war, and +thousands of well-meaning citizens were unable to comprehend the fact +that we were dealing with a question that it was useless to compromise +and a force that it was impossible to conciliate. + +Mr. Lincoln had hated slavery ever since, when a young man, he made a +trip on a flat-boat to New Orleans, and there saw it in some of its +more hideous aspects. That he realized its nature and force as an +organized institution and a power in politics, appears from one of his +celebrated speeches, delivered in 1858, wherein he declared that as a +house divided against itself cannot stand, so our Government could not +endure permanently half slave and half free. "Either the opponents of +slavery will arrest the further spread of it, and place it where the +public mind shall rest in the belief that it is in the course of +ultimate extinction, or its advocates will push it forward till it +shall become alike lawful in all the States, old as well as new, North +as well as South." Why, then, hating slavery personally, and +understanding it politically, and knowing it to be the cause of the +war, did he not sooner declare it abolished? + +On the one hand, he was not, like some of our chief magistrates, under +the impression that he had been placed in office to carry out +irresponsibly a personal policy of his own; and, on the other, he was +shrewd enough to know that it would be as futile for a President to +place himself far in advance of his people on a great question, as for +a general to precede his troops on the battlefield. Hence he turned +over and over, and presented again and again, the idea that the war +might be stopped and the question settled by paying for the slaves and +liberating them. It looked like a very simple calculation to figure +out the cost of purchased emancipation and compare it with the +probable cost of the war. The comparison seemed to present an +unanswerable argument, and in the end the money cost of the war was +more than one thousand dollars for every slave emancipated, while in +the most profitable days of the institution the blacks, young and old +together, had not been worth half that price. The fallacy of the +argument lay in its blindness to the fact that the Confederates were +not fighting to retain possession of their actual slaves, but to +perpetuate the institution itself. The unthrift of slavery as an +economic system had been many times demonstrated, notably in Helper's +"Impending Crisis," but these demonstrations, instead of inducing the +slaveholders to seek to get rid of it on the best attainable terms, +appeared only to excite their anger. And it ought to have been seen +that a proud people with arms in their hands, either flushed with +victory or confident in their own prowess, no matter where their real +interests may lie, can never be reasoned with except through the +syllogisms of lead and steel. Perhaps Mr. Lincoln did know it, but was +waiting for his people to find it out. + +[Illustration: JOHN BROWN.] + +The Louisville (Ky.) _Courier_, in a paragraph quoted on page 63 of +this volume, had told a great deal of bitter and shameful truth; but +when it entered upon the prophecy that the North would soon resume the +yoke of the slaveholders, it was not so happy. And yet it had strong +grounds for its confident prediction. Not only had a great Peace +Convention been held in February, 1861, which strove to prevent +secession by offering new guaranties for the protection of slavery, +but the chief anxiety of a large number of Northern citizens and +officers in the military service appeared to be to manifest their +desire that the institution should not be harmed. + +The most eminent of the Federal generals, McClellan, when he first +took the field in West Virginia, issued a proclamation to the +Unionists, in which he said: "Notwithstanding all that has been said +by the traitors to induce you to believe our advent among you will be +signalized by an interference with your slaves, understand one thing +clearly: not only will we abstain from all such interference, but we +will, on the contrary, with an iron hand crush any attempt at +insurrection on their part." In pursuance of this, he returned to +their owners all slaves that escaped and sought refuge within his +lines. It was an every-day occurrence for slaveholders who were in +active rebellion against the Government that he was serving, to come +into his camps under flag of truce and demand and receive their +runaway slaves. The Hutchinsons, a family of popular singers, by +permission of the Secretary of War, visited his camp in the winter of +1861-62, to sing to the soldiers. But when the general found them +singing some stanzas of Whittier's that spoke of slavery as a curse to +be abolished, he forthwith issued an order that their pass should be +revoked and they should not sing any more to the troops. And even +after his retreat on the peninsula, McClellan wrote a long letter of +advice to the President, in the course of which he said: "Neither +confiscation of {183} property ... nor forcible abolition of slavery +should be contemplated for a moment.... Military power should not be +allowed to interfere with the relations of servitude, either by +supporting or impairing the authority of the master, except for +repressing disorder." + +[Illustration: ANDREW HUNTER. Prosecuting Attorney at the trial of +John Brown.] + +[Illustration: HON. H. A. WISE. Governor of Virginia.] + +[Illustration: COLONEL ROBERT E. LEE. Commanding Virginia troops that +captured John Brown.] + +In all this General McClellan was only clinging blindly and +tenaciously to the idea that had underlain the whole administration of +the government while it was in the hands of his party: that the +perpetuation of slavery, whether against political opposition or +against the growth of civilization and the logic of political economy, +was the first purpose of the Constitution and the most imperative duty +of the Government. Democratic politicians had never formulated this +rule, but Democratic Presidents had always followed it. President Polk +had obeyed it when with one hand he secured the slave State of Texas +at the cost of the Mexican War, and with the other relinquished to +Great Britain the portion of Oregon north of the forty-ninth parallel, +but for which we should now possess every harbor on the Pacific coast. +President Pierce had obeyed it when he sent troops to Kansas to assist +the invaders from Missouri and overawe the free-State settlers. +President Buchanan had obeyed it when he vetoed the Homestead Bill, +which would have accelerated the development of the northern +Territories into States. And innumerable other instances might be +cited. The existence of this party in the North was the most serious +embarrassment with which the Administration had to contend in the +conduct of the war--not even excepting the border States. As +individuals, its members were undoubtedly loyal to the Constitution +and Government as they understood them, though they wofully +misunderstood them. As a party, it was placed in a singular dilemma. +It did not want the Union dissolved; for without the vote of the slave +States it would be in a hopeless minority in Congress and at every +Presidential election; but neither did it wish to see its strongest +cohesive element overthrown, or its natural leaders defeated and +exiled. What it wanted was "the Union as it was," and for this it +continued to clamor long after it had become as plain as daylight that +the Union as it was could never again exist. Whenever the National +armies met with a reverse, if an election was pending, this party was +the gainer thereby; if they won a victory, it became weaker. Whenever +a new measure was proposed, Congress and the President were obliged to +consider not only what would be its legitimate effect, but whether in +any way the Democratic press could use it as a weapon against them. +Hence the idea of emancipation, though not altogether slow in +conception--for many of the ablest minds had leaped at it from the +beginning--was tardy in execution. + +{184} [Illustration: ORIGIN OF THE WORDS, "CONTRABAND OF WAR," APPLIED +TO SLAVES--FIRST USED BY GENERAL BUTLER.] + +As early as 1836 John Quincy Adams, speaking in Congress, had said: +"From the instant that your slaveholding States become the theatre of +war, from that instant the war-powers of the Constitution extend to +interference with the institution of slavery in every way in which it +can be interfered with." And in 1842 he had expressed the idea more +strongly and fully: "Whether the war be civil, servile, or foreign, I +lay this down as the law of nations--I say that the military authority +takes for the time the place of all municipal institutions, slavery +among the rest. Under that state of things, so far from its being true +that the States where slavery exists have the exclusive management of +the subject, not only the President of the United States, but the +commander of the army has power to order the universal emancipation of +the slaves." The poets, wiser than the politicians, had long foretold +the great struggle and its results. James Russell Lowell, before he +was thirty years of age, wrote: + + "Out from the land of bondage 'tis decreed our slaves shall go, + And signs to us are offered, as erst to Pharaoh; + If we are blind, their exodus, like Israel's of yore, + Through a Red Sea is doomed to be, whose surges are of gore." + +Twenty years later he saw his prediction fulfilled. But generally the +anticipation was that the institution would be extinguished through a +general rising of the slaves themselves. Thus Henry W. Longfellow +wrote in 1841: {185} + + "There is a poor, blind Samson in this land, + Shorn of his strength, and bound in bonds of steel, + Who may, in some grim revel, raise his hand, + And shake the pillars of this commonweal, + Till the vast temple of our liberties + A shapeless mass of wreck and rubbish lies." + +It seems a singular fact that throughout the war there was no +insurrection of the slaves. They were all anxious enough for liberty, +and ran away from bondage whenever they could; but, except by regular +enlistment in the National army, there never was any movement among +them to assist in the emancipation of their race. + +The first refusal to return fugitive slaves was made as early as May +26, 1861, by Gen. B. F. Butler, commanding at Fort Monroe. Three +slaves, who had belonged to Colonel Mallory, commanding the +Confederate forces near Hampton, came within Butler's lines that day, +saying they had run away because they were about to be sent South. +Colonel Mallory sent by flag of truce to claim their rendition under +the Fugitive Slave Law, but was informed by General Butler, that, as +slaves could be made very useful to a belligerent in working on +fortifications and other labor, they were contraband of war, like lead +or powder or any other war material, and therefore could not and would +not be delivered up. He offered, however, to return these three if +Colonel Mallory would come to his headquarters and take an oath to +obey the laws of the United States. This declaration--at once a +witticism, a correct legal point, and sound common sense--was the +first practical blow that was struck at the institution; and it gave +us a new word, for from that time fugitive slaves were commonly spoken +of as "contrabands." They came into the National camps by thousands, +and commanding officers and correspondents frequently questioned the +more intelligent of them, in the hope of eliciting valuable +information as to the movements of the enemy; but so many apocryphal +stories were thus originated that at length "intelligent contraband" +became solely a term of derision. + +The next step was the passage of a law by Congress (approved August 6, +1861), wherein it was enacted that property, including slaves, +actually employed in the service of the rebellion with the knowledge +and consent of the owner, should be confiscated, and might be seized +by the National forces wherever found. But it cautiously provided that +slaves thus confiscated were not to be manumitted at once, but to be +held subject to some future decision of the United States courts or +action of Congress. + +Gen. John C. Frémont, the first Republican candidate for the +Presidency (1856), who has had a romantic life, and in whose +administration, instead of Lincoln's, the war would have occurred if +he had been elected, was in Europe in 1861, and did the Government a +timely service in the purchase of arms. Hastening home, he was made a +major-general, and given command in Missouri. On the 30th of August he +issued a proclamation placing the whole State under martial law, +confiscating the property of all citizens who should take up arms +against the United States, or assist its enemies by burning bridges, +cutting wires, etc., and adding, "their slaves, if any they have, are +hereby declared free men." The President called General Frémont's +attention to the fact that the clause relating to slaves was not in +conformity with the act of Congress, and requested him to modify it; +to which Frémont replied by asking for an open order to that +effect--in plain words, that the President should modify it himself, +which Mr. Lincoln did. + +On the 6th of March, 1862, the President, in a special message to +Congress, recommended the adoption of a joint resolution to the effect +that the United States ought to coöperate with, and render pecuniary +aid to, any State that should enter upon a gradual abolition of +slavery; and Congress passed such a resolution by a large majority. + +Gen. David Hunter, who commanded the National forces on the coast of +South Carolina, with headquarters at Hilton Head, issued a general +order on April 12, 1862, that all slaves in Fort Pulaski and on +Cockspur Island should be confiscated and thenceforth free. On the 9th +of May he issued another order, wherein, after mentioning that the +three States in his department--Georgia, Florida, and South +Carolina--had been declared under martial law, he proceeded to say: +"Slavery and martial law, in a free country, are altogether +incompatible. The persons in these three States heretofore held as +slaves are therefore declared forever free." On the 19th of the same +month the President issued a proclamation annulling General Hunter's +order, and adding that the question of emancipation was one that he +reserved to himself and could not feel justified in leaving to the +decision of commanders in the field. General Hunter also organized a +regiment of black troops, designated as the First South Carolina +Volunteers, which was the first body of negro soldiers mustered into +the National service during the war. This proceeding, which now seems +the most natural and sensible thing the general could have done, +created serious alarm in Congress. A representative from Kentucky +introduced a resolution asking for information concerning the +"regiment of fugitive slaves," and the Secretary of War referred the +inquiry to General Hunter, who promptly answered: "No regiment of +fugitive slaves has been or is being organized in this department. +There is, however, a fine regiment of persons whose late masters are +fugitive rebels, men who everywhere fly before the appearance of the +National flag, leaving their servants behind them to shift as best +they can for themselves. In the absence of any fugitive-master law, +the deserted slaves would be wholly without remedy, had not their +crime of treason given the slaves the right to pursue, capture, and +bring back these persons of whose protection they have been so +suddenly bereft." + +Frémont's and Hunter's attempts at emancipation created a great +excitement, the Democratic journals declaring that the struggle was +being "turned into an abolition war," and many Union men in the border +States expressing the gravest apprehensions as to the consequences. +The commanders were by no means of one mind on the subject. Gen. +Thomas Williams, commanding in the Department of the Gulf, ordered +that all fugitive slaves should be expelled from his camps and sent +beyond the lines; and Col. Halbert E. Paine, of the Fourth Wisconsin +Regiment, who refused to obey the order, on the ground that it was a +"violation of law for the purpose of returning fugitives to rebels," +was deprived of his command and placed under arrest. Col. Daniel R. +Anthony, of the Seventh Kansas Regiment, serving in Tennessee, ordered +that men coming in and demanding the privilege of searching for +fugitive slaves should be turned out of the camp, and that no officer +or soldier in his regiment should engage in the arrest and delivery of +fugitives to their masters; and for this Colonel Anthony received from +his superior officer the same treatment that had been accorded to +Colonel Paine. The division of sentiment ran through the entire army. +Soldiers that would rob a granary, or cut down trees, or reduce fences +to firewood, without the slightest compunction, still recognized {186} +the ancient taboo, and expressed the nicest scruples in regard to +property in slaves. + +On the 14th of July the President recommended to Congress the passage +of a bill for the payment, in United States interest-bearing bonds, to +any State that should abolish slavery, of an amount equal to the value +of all slaves within its borders according to the census of 1860; and +at the same time he asked the Congressional representatives of the +border States to use their influence with their constituents to bring +about such action in those States. The answer was not very favorable; +but Maryland did abolish slavery before the close of the war, in +October, 1864. On the very day in which the popular vote of that State +decided to adopt a new constitution without slavery, October 12th, +died Roger B. Taney, a native of Maryland, Chief Justice of the United +States Supreme Court, who had been appointed by the first distinctly +pro-slavery President, and from that bench had handed down the +Dred-Scott decision, which was calculated to render forever impossible +any amelioration of the condition of the negro race. + +On July 22, 1862, all the National commanders were ordered to employ +as many negroes as could be used advantageously for military and naval +purposes, paying them for their labor and keeping a record as to their +ownership, "as a basis on which compensation could be made in proper +cases." + +[Illustration: HORACE GREELEY.] + +[Illustration: REV. HENRY WARD BEECHER.] + +Thus events were creeping along toward a true statement of the great +problem, without which it could never be solved, when Horace Greeley, +through the columns of his _Tribune_, addressed an open letter to the +President (August 19), entitling it "The Prayer of Twenty Millions." +It exhorted Mr. Lincoln, not to general emancipation, but to such an +execution of the existing laws as would free immense numbers of slaves +belonging to men in arms against the Government. It was impassioned +and powerful; a single passage will show its character: "On the face +of this wide earth, Mr. President, there is not one disinterested, +determined, intelligent champion of the Union cause who does not feel +that all attempts to put down the rebellion, and at the same time +uphold its exciting cause, are preposterous and futile; that the +rebellion, if crushed out to-morrow, would be renewed within a year if +slavery were left in full vigor; that army officers who remain to this +day devoted to slavery can at best be but half-way loyal to the Union; +and that every hour of deference to slavery is an hour of added and +deepened peril to the Union." + +Any one less a genius than Mr. Lincoln would have found it difficult +to answer Mr. Greeley at all, and his answer was not one in the sense +of being a refutation, but it exhibited his view of the question, and +is perhaps as fine a piece of literature as was ever penned by any one +in an official capacity: "If there be perceptible in it [Mr. Greeley's +letter] an impatient and dictatorial tone, I waive it in deference to +an old friend whose heart I have always supposed to be right.... As to +the policy I 'seem to be pursuing,' as you say, I have not meant to +leave any one in doubt.... My paramount object is to save the Union, +and not either to save or destroy slavery. If I could save the Union +without freeing any slave, I would do it; if I could save it by +freeing all the slaves, I would do it; and if I could do it by freeing +some and leaving others alone, I would also do that. I have here +stated my purpose according to my views of official duty; and I intend +no modification of my oft-expressed personal wish that all men +everywhere could be free." + +[Illustration: JAMES G. BIRNEY.] + +[Illustration: THE SALE OF A SLAVE.] + +In truth, the President was already contemplating emancipation as a +war measure, and about this time he prepared his preliminary +proclamation; but he did not wish to issue it till it could follow a +triumph of the National arms. Pope's defeat in Virginia in August set +it back; but McClellan's success at Antietam, though not the decisive +victory that was wanted, appeared to be as good an opportunity as was +likely soon to present itself, and five days later (September 22, +1862) the proclamation was issued. It declared that the President +would, {187} at the next session, renew his suggestion to Congress of +pecuniary aid to the States disposed to abolish slavery gradually or +otherwise, and gave notice that on the 1st of January, 1863, he would +declare forever free all persons held as slaves within any State, or +designated part of a State, the people whereof should then be in +rebellion against the United States. On that day he issued the final +and decisive proclamation, as promised, in which he also announced +that black men would be received into the military and naval service +of the United States, as follows: + + * * * * * + +"Whereas, on the twenty-second day of September, in the year of our +Lord 1862, a proclamation was issued by the President of the United +States, containing, among other things, the following, to wit: + +"'That on the first day of January, in the year of our Lord 1863, all +persons held as slaves within any State or designated part of a State, +the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United +States, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free; and the +Executive Government of the United States, including the military and +naval authority thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of +such persons, and will do no act or acts to repress such persons, or +any of them, in any efforts they may make for their actual freedom.' + +"'That the Executive will, on the first day of January aforesaid, by +proclamation, designate the States and parts of States, if any, in +which the people thereof respectively shall then be in rebellion +against the United States; and the fact that any State, or the people +thereof, shall on that day be in good faith represented in the +Congress of the United States, by members chosen thereto at elections +wherein a majority of the qualified voters of such State shall have +participated, shall, in the absence of strong countervailing +testimony, be deemed conclusive evidence that such State, and the +people thereof, are not then in rebellion against the United States.' + +"Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, +by virtue of the power in me vested as commander-in-chief of the army +and navy of the United States in time of actual armed rebellion +against the authority and government of the United States, and as a +fit and necessary war measure for suppressing said rebellion, do, on +this first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight +hundred and sixty-three, and in accordance with my purpose so to do, +publicly proclaimed for the full period of one hundred days from the +day first above mentioned, order and designate as the States and parts +of States wherein the people thereof respectively are this day in +rebellion against the United States, the following, to wit: + +"Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana (except the parishes of St. Bernard, +Plaquemine, Jefferson, St. John, St. Charles, St. James, Ascension, +Assumption, Terre Bonne, Lafourche, St. Mary, St. Martin, and Orleans, +including the city of New Orleans), Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, +Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia (except the +forty-eight counties designated as West Virginia, and also the +counties of Berkeley, Accomac, Northampton, Elizabeth City, York, +Princess Anne, and Norfolk, including the cities of {189} Norfolk and +Portsmouth), and which excepted parts are, for the present, left +precisely as if this proclamation were not issued. + +"And, by virtue of the power and for the purpose aforesaid, I do order +and declare that all persons held as slaves within said designated +States and parts of States are and henceforward shall be free; and +that the Executive Government of the United States, including the +military and naval authorities thereof, will recognize and maintain +the freedom of said persons. + +"And I hereby enjoin upon the people so declared to be free to abstain +from all violence, unless in necessary self-defence; and I recommend +to them that, in all cases when allowed, they labor faithfully for +reasonable wages. + +"And I further declare and make known that such persons, of suitable +condition, will be received into the armed service of the United +States to garrison forts, positions, stations, and other places, and +to man vessels of all sorts in said service. + +"And upon this act, sincerely believed to be an act of justice, +warranted by the Constitution upon military necessity, I invoke the +considerate judgment of mankind, and the gracious favor of Almighty +God. + +"In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my name, and caused the +seal of the United States to be affixed. + +(L.S.) "Done at the city of Washington, this first day of January, in +the year of our Lord 1863, and of the Independence of the United +States the 87th. + +"By the President: ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + +"WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State." + + * * * * * + +{188} [Illustration: THE BROKEN SHACKLES. ALLEGORICAL PICTURE, FROM AN +ORIGINAL DRAWING BY JAMES E. TAYLOR.] + +The immediate effect of this action was what had been expected. The +friends of liberty, and supporters of the Administration generally, +rejoiced at it, believing that the true line of combat had been drawn +at last. Robert Dale Owen probably expressed the opinion of most of +them when he wrote, "The true and fit question is whether, without a +flagrant violation of official duty, the President had the right to +refrain from doing it." The effect in Europe is said to have been +decisive of the question whether the Confederacy should be recognized +as an established nation; but as to this there is some uncertainty. It +is certain, however, that much friendship for the Union was won in +England, where it had been withheld on account of our attitude on the +slavery question. In Manchester, December 31, a mass-meeting of +factory operatives was held, and resolutions of sympathy with the +Union, and an address to President Lincoln, were voted. The full +significance of this can only be understood when it is remembered that +these men were largely out of work for want of the cotton that the +blockade prevented the South from exporting. The Confederate journals +chose to interpret the proclamation as nothing more than an attempt to +excite a servile insurrection. The Democratic editors of the North +assailed Mr. Lincoln with every verbal weapon of which they were +masters, though these had been somewhat blunted by previous use, for +he had already been freely called a usurper, a despot, a destroyer of +the Constitution, and a keeper of Bastiles. They declared with horror +(doubtless in some cases perfectly sincere) that the proclamation had +changed the whole character of the war. And this was true, though not +in the sense in which they meant it. When begun, it was a war for a +temporary peace; the proclamation converted it into a war for a +permanent peace. But the autumn elections showed how near Mr. Lincoln +came to being ahead of his people after all; for they went largely +against the Administration, and even in the States that the Democrats +did not carry there was a falling off in the Republican majorities; +though the result was partly due to the failure of the peninsula +campaign, and the escape of Lee's army after Antietam. Yet this did +not shake the great emancipator's faith in the justice and wisdom of +what he had done. He said on New Year's evening to a knot of callers: +"The signature looks a little tremulous, for my hand was tired, but my +resolution was firm. I told them in September, if they did not return +to their allegiance and cease murdering our soldiers, I would strike +at this pillar of their strength. And now the promise shall be kept, +and not one word of it will I ever recall." + +[Illustration: HARRIET BEECHER STOWE.] + +[Illustration: CHARLES SUMNER.] + +If we wonder at the slowness with which that great struggle arrived at +its true theme and issue, we shall do well to note that it has a close +parallel in our own history. The first battle of the Revolution was +fought in April, 1775, but the Declaration of Independence was not +made till July, 1776--a period of nearly fifteen months. The first +battle in the war of secession took place in April, 1861, and the +Emancipation Proclamation was issued in September, 1862--seventeen +{190} months. In the one case, as in the other, the interval was +filled with doubt, hesitation, and divided counsels; and Lincoln's +reluctance finds its match in Washington's confession that when he +took command of the army (after Lexington, Concord, and Bunker Hill +had been fought) he still abhorred the idea of independence. And +again, as the great Proclamation was preceded by the attempts of +Frémont and Hunter, so the great Declaration had been preceded by +those of Mendon, Mass., Chester, Penn., and Mecklenburg, N. C., which +anticipated its essential propositions by two or three years. A period +of fifteen or seventeen months, however slow for an individual, is +perhaps for an entire people as rapid development of a radical purpose +as we could have any reason to expect. + +In the District of Columbia there were three thousand slaves at the +time the war began. In December, 1861, Henry Wilson, senator from +Massachusetts, afterward Vice-President, introduced in the Senate a +bill for the immediate emancipation of these slaves, with a provision +for paying to such owners as were loyal an average compensation of +three hundred dollars for each slave. The bill was opposed violently +by senators and representatives from Kentucky and Maryland, and by +some others, conspicuous among whom was Mr. Vallandigham. +Nevertheless, it passed both houses, and the President signed it April +16, 1862. + +In Delaware, Kentucky, and Missouri slavery continued until it was +abolished by the Thirteenth Amendment to the National Constitution, +which in December, 1865, was declared ratified by three-fourths of the +States, and consequently a part of the fundamental law of the land. + +[Illustration: WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON AND DAUGHTER.] + +[Illustration: WENDELL PHILLIPS.] + +[Illustration: HENRY W. LONGFELLOW.] + +[Illustration: JOHN G. WHITTIER.] + +The President's right to proclaim the slaves free, as a war measure, +was questioned not only by his violent political opponents, but also +by a considerable number who were friendly to him, or at least to the +cause of the Union, but whose knowledge of international law and war +powers was limited. Among these were Congressman Crittenden and +Wickliffe, of Kentucky, who were stanch supporters of the Union, and +Mr. Wickliffe offered resolutions declaring that the President has no +right whatever to interfere with slavery even during a rebellion. The +whole subject was treated in a masterly way by the Hon. William +Whiting in his book entitled "War Powers under the Constitution of the +United States." He says: "The liberation of slaves is looked upon as a +means of embarrassing or weakening the enemy, or of strengthening the +military power of our army. If slaves be treated as contraband of war, +on the ground that they may be used by their masters to aid in +prosecuting war, as employees upon military works, {191} or as +laborers furnishing by their industry the means of carrying on +hostilities; or if they be treated as, in law, belligerents, following +the legal condition of their owners; or if they be deemed loyal +subjects having a just claim upon the Government to be released from +their obligations to give aid and service to disloyal and belligerent +masters, in order that they may be free to perform their higher duty +of allegiance and loyalty to the United States; or if they be regarded +as subjects of the United States, liable to do military duty; or if +they be made citizens of the United States, and soldiers; or if the +authority of the masters over their slaves is the means of aiding and +comforting the enemy, or of throwing impediments in the way of the +Government, or depriving it of such aid and assistance, in successful +prosecution of the war, as slaves would and could afford if released +from the control of the enemy; or if releasing the slaves would +embarrass the enemy, and make it more difficult for them to collect +and maintain large armies; in either of these cases, the taking away +of these slaves from the 'aid and service' of the enemy, and putting +them to the aid and service of the United States, is justifiable as an +act of war. The ordinary way of depriving the enemy of slaves is by +declaring emancipation." + +He then cites abundant precedents and authorities from British, +French, South American, and other sources, one of the most striking of +which is this quotation from Thomas Jefferson's letter to Dr. Gordon, +complaining of the injury done to his estates by Cornwallis: "He +destroyed all my growing crops and tobacco; he burned all my barns, +containing the same articles of last year. Having first taken what +corn he wanted, he used, as was to be expected, all my stock of +cattle, sheep, and hogs for the sustenance of his army, and carried +off all the horses capable of service. He carried off also about +thirty slaves. Had this been to give them freedom, he would have done +right. From an estimate made at the time on the best information I +could collect, I suppose the State of Virginia lost, under Lord +Cornwallis's hands, that year, about thirty thousand slaves." Whiting +says in conclusion: "It has thus been proved, by the law and usage of +modern civilized nations, confirmed by the judgment of eminent +statesmen, and by the former practice of this Government, that the +President, as commander-in-chief, has the authority, as an act of war, +to liberate the slaves of the enemy; that the United States have in +former times sanctioned the liberation of slaves--even of loyal +citizens--by military commanders, in time of war, without compensation +therefor, and have deemed slaves captured in war from belligerent +subjects as entitled to their freedom." + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. + +BURNSIDE'S CAMPAIGN. + +McCLELLAN'S INACTION--VISIT AND LETTERS OF LINCOLN TO HIM--SUPERSEDED +BY BURNSIDE--THE POSITION AT FREDERICKSBURG--ATTACK UPON THE +HEIGHTS--THE RESULT--GENERAL BURNSIDE'S LACK OF JUDGMENT--PRESIDENT +LINCOLN'S NATURAL APTITUDE FOR STRATEGY--BRAVERY OF THE +SOLDIERS--THRILLING INCIDENTS OF THE BATTLE--GALLANTRY OF THE IRISH +BRIGADE. + + +After the battle of the Antietam, Lee withdrew to the neighborhood of +Winchester, where he was reinforced, till at the end of a month he had +about sixty-eight thousand men. McClellan followed as far as the +Potomac, and there seemed to plant his army, as if he expected it to +sprout and increase itself like a field of corn. Ten days after he +defeated Lee on the Antietam, he wrote to the President that he +intended to stay where he was, and attack the enemy if they attempted +to recross into Maryland! At the same time, he constantly called for +unlimited reinforcements, and declared that, even if the city of +Washington should be captured, it would not be a disaster so serious +as the defeat of his army. Apparently it did not occur to General +McClellan that these two contingencies were logically the same. For if +Lee could have defeated that army, he could then have marched into +Washington; or if he could have captured Washington without fighting +the army whose business it was to defend it, the army would thereby be +substantially defeated. + +[Illustration: MAJOR-GENERAL AMBROSE E. BURNSIDE AND STAFF.] + +On the 1st of October the President visited General McClellan at his +headquarters, and made himself acquainted with the condition of the +army. Five days later he ordered McClellan to {192} "cross the +Potomac, and give battle to the enemy, or drive him south." The +despatch added, "Your army must move now, while the roads are good. If +you cross the river between the enemy and Washington, and cover the +latter by your operation, you can be reinforced with thirty thousand +men." Nevertheless, McClellan did not stir. Instead of obeying the +order, he inquired what sort of troops they were that would be sent to +him, and how many tents he could have, and said his army could not +move without fresh supplies of shoes and clothing. While he was thus +paltering, the Confederate General Stuart, who had ridden around his +army on the peninsula, with a small body of cavalry rode entirely +around it again, eluding all efforts for his capture. On the 13th the +President wrote a long, friendly letter to General McClellan, in which +he gave him much excellent advice that he, as a trained soldier, ought +not to have needed. A sentence or two will suggest the drift of it: +"Are you not over-cautious when you assume that you cannot do what the +enemy is constantly doing? ... In coming to us, he [the enemy] tenders +us an advantage which we should not waive. We should not so operate as +to merely drive him away.... It is all easy if our troops march as +well as the enemy, and it is unmanly to say they cannot do it." The +letter had outlined a plan of campaign, but it closed with the words, +characteristic of Lincoln's modesty in military matters, "This letter +is in no sense an order." Twelve days more of fine weather were +frittered away in renewed complaints, and such inquiries as whether +the President wished him to move at once or wait for fresh horses, for +the general said his horses were fatigued and had sore tongue. Here +the President began to show some impatience, and wrote: "Will you +pardon me for asking what the horses of your army have done since the +battle of Antietam that fatigues anything?" The general replied that +they had been scouting, picketing, and making reconnoissances, and +that the President had done injustice to the cavalry. Whereupon Mr. +Lincoln wrote again: "Most certainly I intend no injustice to any, and +if I have done any I deeply regret it. To be told, after more than +five weeks' total inaction of the army, and during which period we had +sent to that army every fresh horse we possibly could, amounting in +the whole to 7,918, that the cavalry horses were too much fatigued to +move, presented a very cheerless, almost hopeless, prospect for the +future, and it may have forced something of impatience into my +despatches." That day, October 26, McClellan began to cross the +Potomac; but it was ten days (partly owing to heavy rains) before his +army was all on the south side of the river, and meanwhile he had +brought up new questions for discussion and invented new excuses for +delay. He wanted to know to what extent the line of the Potomac was to +be guarded; he wanted to leave strong garrisons at certain points, to +prevent the army he was driving southward before him from rushing +northward into Maryland again; he discussed the position of General +Bragg's (Confederate) army, which was four hundred miles away beyond +the mountains; he said the old regiments of his command must be filled +up with recruits before they could go into action. + +[Illustration: MAJOR-GENERAL JOHN NEWTON.] + +[Illustration: MAJOR-GENERAL E. V. SUMNER.] + +[Illustration: CONFEDERATE SHARP-SHOOTERS ON THE HEIGHTS OF +FREDERICKSBURG.] + +[Illustration: BREVET MAJOR-GENERAL J. J. BARTLETT.] + +McClellan was a sore puzzle to the people of the loyal States. But +large numbers of his men still believed in him, and--as is usual in +such cases--intensified their personal devotion in proportion as the +distrust of the people at large was increased. After crossing the +Potomac, he left a corps at Harper's Ferry, and was moving southward +on the eastern side of the Blue Ridge, while Lee moved in the same +direction on the western {193} side, when, on November 7, the +President solved the riddle that had vexed the country, by relieving +him of the command. + +The successor of General McClellan was Ambrose E. Burnside, then in +his thirty-ninth year, who was graduated at West Point fifteen years +before, had commanded cavalry during the Mexican war, had invented a +breech-loading rifle which was commercially unsuccessful, and at the +breaking out of the rebellion was treasurer of the Illinois Central +Railroad. When the First Rhode Island Regiment went to Washington, +four days after the President's first call for troops, Burnside was +its colonel. He commanded a brigade at the first battle of Bull Run; +led an expedition that captured Roanoke Island, New Berne, and +Beaufort, N. C., in January, 1862; and commanded one wing of +McClellan's army at South Mountain and Antietam. Whether he was +blameworthy for not crossing the Antietam early in the day and +effecting a crushing defeat of Lee's army, is a disputed question. It +might be worth while to discuss it, were it not that he afterward +accepted a heavier responsibility and incurred a more serious +accusation. The command of the Army of the Potomac had been offered to +him twice before, but he had refused it, saying that he "was not +competent to command such a large army." When the order came relieving +McClellan and appointing him, he consulted with that general and with +his staff officers, making the same objection; but they took the +ground that as a soldier he was bound to obey without question, and so +he accepted the place, as he says, "in the midst of a violent +snow-storm, with the army in a position that I knew little of." These +two generals were warm personal friends, and McClellan remained a few +days to put Burnside in possession, as far as possible, of the +essential facts in relation to the position and condition of the +forces. + +[Illustration: ATTACK ON FREDERICKSBURG, DECEMBER, 1862.] + +{194} [Illustration: THE STONE WALL UNDER MARYE'S HEIGHTS. (From a War +Department photograph.)] + +At this time the right wing of Lee's army, under Longstreet, was near +Culpeper, and the left, under Jackson, was in the Shenandoah Valley. +Their separation was such that it would require two days for one to +march to the other. McClellan said he intended to endeavor to get +between them and either beat them in detail or force them to unite as +far south as Gordonsville. Burnside not only did not continue this +plan, but gave up the idea that the Confederate army was his true +objective, assumed the city of Richmond to be such, and set out for +that place by way of the north bank of the Rappahannock and the city +of Fredericksburg, after consuming ten days in reorganizing his army +into three grand divisions, under Sumner, Hooker, and Franklin. On the +15th of November he began the march from Warrenton; the head of his +first column reached Falmouth on the 17th, and by the 20th the whole +army was there. By some blunder (it is uncertain whose) the pontoon +train that was to have met the army at this point, and afforded an +immediate crossing of the river, did not arrive till a week later; and +by this time Lee, who chose to cover his own capital and cross the +path of his enemy, rather than strike at his communications, had +placed his army on the heights south and west of Fredericksburg, and +at once began to fortify them. His line was about five and a half +miles long, and was as strong as a good natural {195} position, +earthworks, and an abundance of artillery could make it. He could not +prevent Burnside from crossing the river; for the heights on the left +bank rose close to the stream, commanding the intermediate plain, and +on these heights Burnside had one hundred and forty-seven guns. What +with waiting for the pontoons and establishing his base of supplies at +Acquia Creek, it was the 10th of December before the National +commander was ready to attempt the passage of the stream. He planned +to lay down five bridges--three opposite the city and the others two +miles below--and depended upon his artillery to protect the engineers. + +Before daybreak on the morning of the 11th, in a thick fog, the work +was begun; but the bridges had not spanned more than half the distance +when the sun had risen and the fog lifted sufficiently to reveal what +was going on. A detachment of Mississippi riflemen had been posted in +cellars, behind stone walls, and at every point where a man could be +sheltered on the south bank; and now the incessant crack of their +weapons was heard, picking off the men that were laying the bridges. +One after another of the blue-coats reeled with a bullet in his brain, +fell into the water, and was carried down by the current, till the +losses were so serious that it was impossible to continue the work. At +the lower bridges the sharp-shooters, who there had no shelter but +rifle-pits in the open field, were dislodged after a time, and by noon +those bridges were completed. But along the front of the town they had +better shelter, the National guns could not be depressed enough to +shell them, and the work on the three upper bridges came to a +standstill. Burnside tried bombarding the town, threw seventy tons of +iron into it, and set it on fire; but still the sharp-shooters clung +to their hiding places, and when the engineers tried to renew their +task on the bridges, under cover of the bombardment, they were +destroyed by the same murderous fire. + +At last General Hunt, chief of artillery, suggested a solution +of the difficulty. Three regiments that volunteered for the +service--the Seventh Michigan, and the Nineteenth and Twentieth +Massachusetts--crossed the river in pontoon boats, under the fire of +the sharp-shooters, landed quickly, and drove them out of their +fastness, capturing a hundred of them, while the remainder escaped to +the hills. The bridges were then completed, and the crossing was +begun; but it was evening of the 12th before the entire army was on +the Fredericksburg side of the river. + +On the morning of the 13th Burnside was ready to attack, and Lee was +more than ready to be attacked. He had concentrated his whole army on +the fortified heights, Longstreet's corps forming his left wing and +Jackson's his right, with every gun in position, and every man ready +and knowing what to expect. The weak point of the line, if it had any, +was on the right, where the ground was not so high, and there was +plenty of room for the deployment of the attacking force. Here +Franklin commanded, with about half of the National army; and here, +according to Burnside's first plan, the principal assault was to be +made. But there appears to have been a sudden and unaccountable change +in the plan; and when the hour for action arrived Franklin was ordered +to send forward a division or two, and hold the remainder of his force +ready for "a rapid movement down the old Richmond road," while Sumner +on the right was ordered to send out two divisions to seize the +heights back of the city. Exactly what Burnside expected to do next, +if these movements had been successful, nobody appears to know. + +The division chosen to lead Franklin's attack was Meade's. This +advanced rapidly, preceded by a heavy skirmish line, while his +batteries firing over the heads of the troops shelled the heights +vigorously. Meade's men crossed the railroad under heavy fire, that +had been withheld till they were within close range, penetrated +between two divisions of the first Confederate line, doubling back the +flanks of both and taking many prisoners and some battle-flags, scaled +the heights, and came upon the second line. By this time the momentum +of the attack was spent, and the fire of the second line, delivered on +the flanks as well as in front, drove them back. The divisions of +Gibbon and Doubleday had followed in support, which relieved the +pressure upon Meade; and when all three were returning unsuccessful +and in considerable confusion, Birney's moved out and stopped the +pursuing enemy. + +[Illustration: LIEUTENANT-GENERAL RICHARD H. ANDERSON, C. S. A.] + +[Illustration: BRIGADIER-GENERAL CADMUS M. WILCOX, C. S. A.] + +[Illustration: MAJOR-GENERAL ROBERT RANSOM, JR., C. S. A.] + +Sumner's attack was made with the divisions of French and Hancock, +which moved through the town and deployed in columns under the fire of +the Confederate batteries. This was very destructive, but was not the +deadliest thing that the men had to meet. Marye's Hill was skirted +near its base by an old sunken road, at the outer edge of which was a +stone wall; and in this road were two brigades of Confederate +infantry. It could hardly be seen, at a little distance, that there +was a road at all. When French's charging columns had rushed across +the open ground under the artillery fire that ploughed through and +through their ranks, they suddenly confronted a sheet of flame and +lead from the rifles in the sunken road. The Confederates here were so +{196} numerous that each one at the wall had two or three behind to +load muskets and hand them to him, while he had only to lay them flat +across the wall and fire them as rapidly as possible, exposing +scarcely more than his head. Nearly half of French's men were shot +down, and the remainder fell back. Hancock's five thousand charged in +the same manner, and some of them approached within twenty yards of +the wall; but within a quarter of an hour they also fell back a part +of the distance, leaving two thousand of their number on the field. +Three other divisions advanced to the attack, but with no better +result; and all of them remained in a position where they were just +out of reach of the rifles in the sunken road, but were still played +upon by the Confederate artillery. + +Burnside now grew frantic, and ordered Hooker to attack. That officer +moved out with three divisions, made a reconnoissance, and went back +to tell Burnside it was useless and persuade him to give up the +attempt. But the commander insisted, and so Hooker's four thousand +rushed forward with fixed bayonets, and presently came back like the +rest, leaving seventeen hundred dead or wounded on the field. + +The entire National loss in this battle was twelve thousand six +hundred and fifty-three in killed, wounded, or missing, though some of +the missing afterward rejoined their commands. Hancock's division lost +one hundred and fifty-six officers, and one of his regiments lost +two-thirds of its men. The Confederate loss was five thousand three +hundred and seventy-seven. Four brigadier-generals were killed in this +battle; on the National side, Generals George D. Bayard and Conrad F. +Jackson; on the Confederate, Generals Thomas R. R. Cobb and Maxcy +Gregg. In the night the Union troops brought in their wounded and +buried some of their dead. Severe as his losses had been, Burnside +planned to make a fresh attempt the next day, with the Ninth Corps +(his old command), which he proposed to lead in person; but General +Sumner dissuaded him, though with difficulty. In the night of the +15th, in the midst of a storm, the army was withdrawn to the north +bank of the Rappahannock, and the sorry campaign was ended. + +If it had been at all necessary to prove the courage and discipline of +the National troops, Fredericksburg proved it abundantly. There were +few among them that December morning who did not look upon it as +hopeless to assault those fortified slopes; yet they obeyed their +orders, and moved out to the work as if they expected victory, +suffering such frightful losses as bodies of troops are seldom called +upon to endure, and retiring with little disorder and no panic. The +English correspondent of the London _Times_, writing from Lee's +headquarters, exultingly predicted the speedy decline and fall of the +American Republic. If he had been shrewd enough to see what was +indicated, rather than what he hoped for, he would have written that +with such courage and discipline as the Army of the Potomac had +displayed, and superior resources, the final victory was certain to be +theirs, however they might first suffer from incompetent commanders; +that the Republic that had set such an army in the field, and had the +material for several more, was likely to contain somewhere a general +worthy to lead it, and was not likely to be overthrown by any +insurrection of a minority of its people. + +[Illustration: BRIGADIER-GENERAL T. F. MEAGHER.] + +[Illustration: COLONEL ROBERT NUGENT. (Afterward Brevet +Brigadier-General.)] + +[Illustration: BREVET BRIGADIER-GENERAL G. A. DE RUSSEY.] + +There never was any question of the gallantry or patriotism of General +Burnside, but his woful lack of judgment in the conduct of the battle +of Fredericksburg (or perhaps it should be said, in fighting a battle +at that point at all) has ever remained inexplicable. His own attempt +to explain it, in his official report, is brief, and is at least manly +in the frankness with which he puts the entire blame upon himself. He +wrote: "During my preparations for crossing at the place I had first +selected, I discovered that the enemy had thrown a large portion of +his force down the river and elsewhere, thus weakening his defences in +front, and also thought I discovered that he did not anticipate the +crossing of our whole force at Fredericksburg; and I hoped by rapidly +throwing the whole command over at that place to {197} separate, by a +vigorous attack, the forces of the enemy on the river below from the +forces behind and on the crest in the rear of the town, in which case +we could fight him with great advantage in our favor. To do this we +had to gain a height on the extreme right of the crest, which height +commanded a new road lately made by the enemy for purposes of more +rapid communication along his lines, which point gained, his positions +along the crest would have been scarcely tenable, and he could have +been driven from them easily by an attack on his front in connection +with a movement in the rear of the crest.... Failing in accomplishing +the main object, we remained in order of battle two days--long enough +to decide that the enemy would not come out of his strongholds to +fight us with infantry--after which we recrossed to this side of the +river unmolested, without the loss of men or property. As the day +broke, our long lines of troops were seen marching to their different +positions as if going on parade--not the least demoralization or +disorganization existed. To the brave officers and soldiers who +accomplished the feat of thus recrossing the river in the face of the +enemy, I owe everything. For the failure in the attack I am +responsible, as the extreme gallantry, courage, and endurance shown by +them was never exceeded, and would have carried the points had it been +possible. The fact that I decided to move from Warrenton on to this +line rather against the opinion of the President, Secretary of War, +and yourself, and that you left the whole movement in my hands, +without giving me orders, makes me the only one responsible." + +When Burnside's plan was submitted to the President and General +Halleck, there was considerable opposition to it, and when finally +Halleck informed Burnside that the President consented to that plan, +he added significantly: "He thinks it will succeed if you move +rapidly; otherwise not." Though Mr. Lincoln was not a soldier, his +natural aptitude for strategy has been much discussed, and it is +therefore interesting to remember this saving clause in his consent to +the experiment of Fredericksburg. How near the National troops, with +all their terrible disadvantages, came to piercing the lines of the +enemy on Marye's Hill, we know from the testimony of General +Longstreet, who says: "General Lee became uneasy when he saw the +attacks so promptly renewed and pushed forward with such persistence, +and feared the Federals might break through our lines. After the third +charge he said to me, 'General, they are massing very heavily, and +will break your line, I am afraid.'" Longstreet represents himself as +having no such fears whatever, but it further appears from his +testimony that when in the night they captured an officer on whom they +found an order for renewal of the battle the next day, General Lee +immediately gave orders for the construction of a new line of +rifle-pits and the placing of more guns in position. + +General Lee, instead of following up his good fortune by counter +attack, went off to Richmond to suggest other operations. No such +fierce criticism for not reaping the fruits of victories has ever been +expended upon him as some of the National commanders have had to +endure for this fault, though many of his and their opportunities were +closely parallel. In Richmond he was told by Mr. Davis that the +Administration considered the war virtually over, but he knew better. + +[Illustration: RELIEF FOR THE WOUNDED.] + +[Illustration: A HASTY MEAL.] + +[Illustration: ZOUAVE COLOR-BEARER AT FREDERICKSBURG.] + +The story of the battle, so far as its strictly military aspect is +concerned, is extremely simple, and makes but a short though dreadful +chapter in the history of the great struggle. But it was full of +incidents, though mostly of the mournful kind, and the reader would +fail to get any adequate conception of what was done and suffered on +that field without some accounts written at the time by participants. +General Meagher, commanding the Irish brigade, made an interesting +report, in which he pictured graphically the manner in which that +organization went into the action and the treatment that it received. +A few extracts will include the most interesting passages. "The +brigade never was in finer spirits and condition. The arms and +accoutrements were in perfect order. The required amount of ammunition +was on hand. Both officers and men were comfortably clad, and it would +be difficult to say whether those who were to lead or those who were +to follow were the better prepared or the more eager to discharge +their duty. A few minutes {198} after four o'clock P.M., word was +conveyed to me that a gallant body of volunteers had crossed the river +in boats and taken possession of the city of Fredericksburg. +Immediately on the receipt of this news, an order reached me from +Brigadier-General Hancock to move forward the brigade and take up a +position closer to the river. In this new position we remained all +night. At seven o'clock the following morning we were under arms, and +in less than two hours the head of the brigade presented itself on the +opposite bank of the river. Passing along the edge of the river to the +lower bridge, the brigade halted, countermarched, stacked arms, and in +this position, ankle-deep in mud, and with little or nothing to +contribute to their comfort, in complete subordination and good heart, +awaited further orders. An order promulgated by Major-General Couch, +commanding the corps, prohibited fires after nightfall. This order was +uncomplainingly and manfully obeyed by the brigade. Officers and men +lay down and slept that night in the mud and frost, and without a +murmur, with heroic hearts, composed themselves as best they could for +the eventualities of the coming day. A little before eight o'clock +A.M., Saturday, the 13th inst., we received orders to fall in and +prepare instantly to take the field. The brigade being in line, I +addressed, separately, to each regiment a few words, reminding it of +its duty, and exhorting it to acquit itself of that duty bravely and +nobly to the last. Immediately after, the column swept up the street +toward the scene of action, headed by Col. Robert Nugent, of the +Sixty-ninth, and his veteran regiment--every officer and man of the +brigade wearing a sprig of evergreen in his hat, in memory of the land +of his birth. The advance was firmly and brilliantly made through this +street under a continuous discharge of shot and shell, several men +falling from the effects of both. Even whilst I was addressing the +Sixty-ninth, which was on the right of the brigade, three men of the +Sixty-third were knocked over, and before I had spoken my last words +of encouragement the mangled remains of the poor fellows--mere masses +of torn flesh and rags--were borne along the line to the hospital of +French's division. Emerging from the street, having nothing whatever +to protect it, the brigade encountered the full force and fury of the +enemy's fire, and, unable to resist or reply to it, had to push on to +the mill-race, which may be described as the first of the hostile +{199} defences. Crossing this mill-race by means of a single bridge, +the brigade, diverging to the right, had to deploy into line of +battle. This movement necessarily took some time to execute. The +Sixty-ninth, under Colonel Nugent, being on the right, had to stand +its ground until the rest of the brigade came up and formed. I myself, +accompanied by Lieutenant Emmet of my staff, crossed the mill-race on +foot from the head of the street through which the column had +debouched. Trudging up the ploughed field as well as my lameness would +permit me, to the muddy crest along which the brigade was to form in +line of battle, I reached the fence on which the right of the +Sixty-ninth rested. I directed Colonel Nugent to throw out two +companies of his regiment as skirmishers on the right flank. This +order was being carried out, when the other regiments of the brigade, +coming up with a brisk step and deploying in line of battle, drew down +upon themselves a terrific fire. Nevertheless the line was beautifully +and rapidly formed, and boldly advanced, Colonel Nugent leading on the +right, Col. Patrick Kelly, commanding the Eighty-eighth, being next in +line, both displaying a courageous soldiership which I have no words, +even with all my partiality for them, adequately to describe. Thus +formed, under the unabating tempest and deluge of shot and shell, the +Irish brigade advanced against the rifle-pits, the breastworks, and +batteries of the enemy.... The next day, a little after sunrise, every +officer and man of the brigade able again to take the field, by order +of Brigadier-General Hancock, recrossed to Fredericksburg and took up +the same position, on the street nearest the river, which we had +occupied previous to the advance, prepared and eager, notwithstanding +their exhausted numbers and condition, to support the Ninth Corps in +the renewal of the assault of the previous day, that renewal having +been determined on by the general-in-chief. Of the one thousand two +hundred I had led into action the day before, two hundred and eighty +only appeared on that ground that morning. This remnant of the Irish +brigade, still full of heart, still wearing the evergreen, inspired by +a glowing sense of duty, sorrowful for their comrades, but emboldened +and elated by the thought that they had fallen with the proud bravery +they did--this noble little remnant awaited the order that was once +more to precipitate them against the batteries of the enemy." + +Gen. Aaron F. Stevens (afterward member of Congress), who at that time +commanded the Thirteenth New Hampshire Regiment, made an interesting +report, in the course of which he said: "Just after dark we moved to +the river, and crossed without opposition the pontoon-bridge near the +lower end of the city. My regiment took up its position for the night +in Caroline Street, one of the principal streets of the city, and +threw out two companies as pickets toward the enemy. At an early hour +on Saturday morning, the eventful and disastrous day of the battle, we +took up our position with the brigade under the hill on the bank of +the river, just below the bridge which we crossed on Thursday night. +Here we remained under arms the entire day, our position being about a +mile distant from the line of the enemy's batteries. Occasionally, +during the day, fragments of shell from his guns reached us or passed +over us, falling in the river and beyond, doing but little damage. One +of our own guns, however, on the opposite bank of the river, which +threw shells over us toward the enemy, was so unfortunately handled as +to kill two men and wound several others in our brigade. As yet all +the accounts which I have seen or read, from Union or rebel sources, +approach not in delineation the truthful and terrible panorama of that +bloody day. Twice during the day I rode up Caroline Street to the +centre of the city toward the point where our brave legions were +struggling against the terrible combination of the enemy's artillery +and infantry, whose unremitting fire shook the earth and filled the +plain in rear of the city with the deadly missiles of war. I saw the +struggling hosts of freedom stretched along the plain, their ranks +ploughed by the merciless fire of the foe. I saw the dead and wounded, +among them some of New Hampshire's gallant sons, borne back on the +shoulders of their comrades in battle, and laid tenderly down in the +hospitals prepared for their reception, in the houses on either side +of the street as far as human habitations extended. I listened to the +roar of battle and the groans of the wounded and dying. I saw in the +crowded hospitals the desolation of war; but I heard from our brave +soldiers no note of triumph, no word of encouragement, no syllable of +hope that for us a field was to be won. In the stubborn, unyielding +resistance of the enemy I could see no point of pressure likely to +yield to the repeated assaults of our brave soldiers, and so I +returned to my command to wait patiently for the hour when we might be +called to share in the duty and danger of our brave brethren engaged +in the contest. By stepping forward to the brow of the hill which +covered us, a distance of ten yards, we were in full view of the rebel +stronghold--the batteries along the crest of the ridge called +Stansbury Hill and skirting Hazel Run. For three-fourths of an hour +before we were ordered into action, I stood in front of my regiment on +the brow of the hill and watched the fire of the rebel batteries as +they poured shot and shell from sixteen different points upon our +devoted men on the plains below. It was a sight magnificently +terrible. Every discharge of enemy's artillery and every explosion of +his shells were visible in the dusky twilight of that smoke-crowned +hill. There his direct and enfilading batteries, with the vividness, +intensity, and almost the rapidity, of lightning, hurled the +messengers of death in the midst of our brave ranks, vainly struggling +through the murderous fire to gain the hills and the guns of the +enemy. Nor was it any straggling or ill-directed fire. The arrangement +of the enemy's guns was such that they could pour their concentrated +and incessant fire upon any point occupied by our assailing troops, +and all of them were plied with the greatest skill and animation. +During all this time the rattle of musketry was incessant. + +"About sunset there was a pause in the cannonading and musketry, and +orders came for our brigade to fall in. Silently but unflinchingly the +men moved out from under their cover, and, when they reached the +ground, quickened their pace to a run. As the head of the column came +in sight of the enemy, at a distance of about three-fourths of a mile +from their batteries, when close to Slaughter's house, it was saluted +with a shower of shell from the enemy's guns on the crest of the hill. +It moved on by the flank down the hill into the plain beyond, crossing +a small stream which passes through the city and empties into Hazel +Run, then over another hill to the line of railroad. We moved at so +rapid a pace that many of the men relieved themselves of their +blankets and haversacks, and in some instances of their great-coats, +which in most cases were lost. By counter-march, we extended our line +along the railroad, the right resting toward the city, and the left +near Hazel Run. The words, 'Forward, charge!' ran along the lines. The +men sprang forward, and moved at a run, crossed the railroad into a +low muddy swamp on the left, which reaches down to Hazel Run, the +right moving over higher and less muddy ground, all the time the +batteries of the enemy concentrating their terrible fire and {200} +pouring it upon the advancing lines. Suddenly the cannonading and +musketry of the enemy ceased. The shouts of our men also were hushed, +and nothing was heard along the line save the command: 'Forward, +men--steady--close up.' In this way we moved forward, until within +about twenty yards of the celebrated stone wall. Before we reached the +point of which I have been speaking, we came to an irregular ravine or +gully, into which, in the darkness of night, the lines plunged, but +immediately gained the opposite side, and were advancing along the +level ground toward the stone wall. Behind that wall, and in +rifle-pits on its flanks, were posted the enemy's infantry--according +to their statements--four ranks deep; and on the hill, a few yards +above, lay in ominous silence their death-dealing artillery. It was +while we were moving steadily forward that, with one startling crash, +with one simultaneous sheet of fire and flame, they hurled on our +advancing lines the whole terrible force of their infantry and +artillery. The powder from their musketry burned in our very faces, +and the breath of their artillery was hot upon our cheeks. The 'leaden +rain and iron hail' in an instant forced back the advancing lines upon +those who were close to them in the rear; and before the men could be +rallied to renew the charge, the lines had been hurled back by the +irresistible fire of the enemy to the cover of the ravine or gully +which they had just passed. The enemy swept the ground with his guns, +killing and wounding many--our men in the meantime keeping up a +spirited fire upon the unseen foe." + +[Illustration: MARCHING THROUGH TENNESSEE.] + +[Illustration: GENERAL GRANT DIRECTING THE DISPOSITION OF TROOPS.] + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + +WAR IN THE WEST. + +CONSCRIPTION ACT PASSED BY CONFEDERATE CONGRESS--GENERAL BRAGGS'S +OPERATIONS IN KENTUCKY AND EAST TENNESSEE--BATTLE OF +PERRYVILLE--GRAPHIC DESCRIPTION OF THE CONFEDERATE CHARGE--BATTLE OF +IUKA--BATTLE OF STONE RIVER, OR MURFREESBORO'--ESTRANGEMENT BETWEEN +GRANT AND ROSECRANS--BATTLE OF CORINTH--CONFEDERATE RETREAT--HEAVY +LOSSES ON BOTH SIDES. + + +The Confederate Congress in 1862 passed a sweeping conscription act, +forcing into the ranks every man of military age. Even boys of sixteen +were taken out of school and sent to camps of instruction. This +largely increased their forces in the field, and at the West +especially they exhibited a corresponding activity. General +Beauregard, whose health had failed, was succeeded by Gen. Braxton +Bragg, a man of more energy than ability, who, with forty thousand +men, marched northward into eastern Kentucky, defeating a National +force near Richmond, and another at Munfordville. He then assumed that +Kentucky was a State of the Confederacy, appointed a provisional +governor, forced {201} Kentuckians into his army, and robbed the +farmers not only of their stock and provisions, but of their wagons +for carrying away the plunder, paying them in worthless Confederate +money. He carried with him twenty thousand muskets, expecting to find +that number of Kentuckians who would enroll themselves in his command; +but he confessed afterward that he did not even secure enough recruits +to take up the arms that fell from the hands of his dead and wounded. +With the supplies collected by his army of "liberators," as he called +them, in a wagon-train said to have been forty miles long, he was +moving slowly back into Tennessee, when General Buell, with about +fifty-eight thousand men (one-third of them new recruits), marched in +pursuit. + +Bragg turned and gave battle at Perryville (October 8), and the fight +lasted nearly all day. At some points it was desperate, with +hand-to-hand fighting, and troops charging upon batteries where the +gunners stood to their pieces and blew them from the very muzzles. The +National left, composed entirely of raw troops, was crushed by a heavy +onset; but the next portion of the line, commanded by Gen. Philip H. +Sheridan, not only held its ground and repelled the assault, but +followed up the retiring enemy with a counter attack. Gooding's +brigade (National) lost five hundred and forty-nine men out of +fourteen hundred and twenty-three, and its commander became a +prisoner. When night fell, the Confederates had been repelled at all +points, and a portion of them had been driven through Perryville, +losing many wagons and prisoners. Buell prepared to attack at +daylight, but found that Bragg had moved off in the night with his +whole army, continuing his retreat to East Tennessee, leaving a +thousand of his wounded on the ground. He also abandoned twelve +hundred of his men in hospital at Harrodsburg, with large quantities +of his plunder, some of which he burned, and made all haste to get +away. Buell reported his loss in the battle as forty-three hundred and +forty-eight, which included Gens. James S. Jackson and William R. +Terrill killed. Bragg's loss was probably larger, though he gave +considerably smaller figures. + +The battle of Perryville is more noteworthy for its fierce fighting +and numerous instances of determined gallantry than for any importance +in its bearing on the campaign. It was especially notable for the work +of the artillery, and the struggles to capture or preserve the various +batteries. One National battery of eight guns was commanded by Capt. +Charles C. Parsons, and the Confederates making a fierce charge upon +it captured seven of the pieces, but not without the most desperate +hand-to-hand fighting, in the course of which Parsons at one time was +lying on his back under the guns and firing his revolver at the +assailants. Sixteen years afterward this man, who in the meantime had +become a clergyman, sacrificed his life in attending to the victims of +yellow fever on the Mississippi. When Sheridan was heavily pressed by +the enemy and his right was in special danger, the brigade of Colonel +Carlin was sent to his relief. Carlin's men, reaching the brow of a +hill, discovered the advancing enemy, and immediately charged at the +double quick with such impetuosity that they not only drove back the +Confederates, but passed entirely through their lines where they were +in momentary danger of being captured _en masse_. But, during the +confusion which they caused, they skilfully fell back, carrying with +them a heavily loaded ammunition train which they had captured with +its guard. Pinney's Fifth Wisconsin battery was worked to its utmost +capacity for three hours without supports, and withstood several +charges, piling its front with the bodies of the slain. In the Third +Ohio Regiment six color sergeants were shot in succession, but the +flag was never allowed to touch the earth. That regiment lost two +hundred out of five hundred men. A correspondent of the _Cincinnati +Gazette_, who was on the field, thus relates one of the many +interesting incidents of the battle: "The Tenth Ohio were lying upon +their faces to the left of the Third, near the summit of the same +hill, and upon the other side of a lane. The retreat of the Third Ohio +and Fifteenth Kentucky had left the right wing of the Tenth uncovered, +and a whole brigade of the enemy, forming in mass, advanced toward +them over the ground of such a nature that if the Tenth did not +receive warning from some source the rebel column would be upon them, +and annihilate them before they could rise from their faces and change +front. Colonel Lytle was expecting the enemy to appear in his front, +over the crest of the hill, and had intended to have the gallant Tenth +charge them with the bayonet. And they still lay upon their faces +while the enemy was advancing upon their flank, stealthily as a cat +steals upon her prey. Nearer and nearer they come. Great heavens! Will +no one tell the Tenth of their fearful peril? Where is the eagle eye +which ought to overlook the field and send swift-footed couriers to +save this illustrious band from destruction? Alas, there is none! The +heroes of Carnifex are doomed. The mass of Confederates, which a +rising ground just to the right of the tent has hitherto concealed +from view, rush upon the hapless regiment, and from the distance of a +hundred yards pour into it an annihilating fire even while the men are +still upon their faces. Overwhelmed and confounded, they leap to their +feet and vainly endeavor to change front to meet the enemy. It is +impossible to do it beneath that withering, murderous fire; and for +the first time in its history the Tenth Regiment turns its back upon +the enemy. They will not run; they only walk away, and they are mowed +down by scores as they go. The noble, gifted, generous Lytle was +pierced with bullets and fell where the storm was fiercest. One of his +sergeants lifted him in his arms, and was endeavoring to carry him +from the field. 'You may do some good yet,' said the hero; 'I can do +no more; let me die here.' He was left there, and fell into the hands +of the enemy." + +{202} [Illustration: BATTLE OF STONE RIVER--THE DECISIVE CHARGE OF THE +FEDERAL TROOPS ACROSS THE RIVER.] + +On hearing of this disaster to the Tenth Ohio Regiment, which formed +the right of Lytle's Seventeenth Brigade, General Rousseau immediately +rode to the scene of it. He says in his report: "Whilst near the +Fifteenth Kentucky, I saw a heavy force of the enemy advancing upon +our right, the same that had turned Lytle's right flank. It was moving +steadily up in full view of where General Gilbert's army corps had +been during the day, the left flank of which was not more than four +hundred yards from it. On approaching, the Fifteenth Kentucky, though +broken and shattered, rose to its feet and cheered, and as one man +moved to the top of the hill where it could see the enemy, and I +ordered it to lie down. I then rode up to Loomis's battery, and +directed him to open upon the enemy. He replied he was ordered by +General McCook to reserve what ammunition he had for close work. +Pointing to the enemy advancing, I said it was close enough, and would +be closer in a moment. He at once opened fire with alacrity, and made +fearful havoc upon the ranks of the enemy. It was admirably done, but +the enemy moved straight ahead. His ranks were raked by the battery, +and terribly thinned by the musketry of the Seventeenth Brigade; but +he scarcely faltered, and finally, hearing that reinforcements were +approaching, the brigade was ordered to retire and give place to them, +which it did in good order. The reinforcements {203} were from +Mitchell's division, as I understood, and were Pea Ridge men. I wish I +knew who commanded the brigade, that I might do him justice; I can +only say that the brigade moved directly into the fight, like true +soldiers, and opened a terrific fire and drove back the enemy. After +repulsing the enemy, they retired a few hundred yards into a piece of +woods to encamp in, and during the night the enemy advanced his +pickets in the woods on our left front and captured a good many of our +men who went there believing we still held the woods." + +[Illustration: MAJOR-GENERAL PHILIP H. SHERIDAN.] + +[Illustration: COLONEL WILLIAM P. CARLIN. (Afterward Brevet +Major-General.)] + +General Halleck, at Washington, now planned for Buell's army a +campaign in East Tennessee; but as that was more than two hundred +miles away, and the communications were not provided for, Buell +declined to execute it. For this reason, and also on the ground that +if he had moved more rapidly and struck more vigorously he might have +destroyed Bragg's army, he was removed from command, and Gen. William +S. Rosecrans succeeded him. + +In September, when Bragg had first moved northward, a Confederate army +of about forty thousand men, under Generals Price and Van Dorn, had +crossed from Arkansas into Mississippi with the purpose of capturing +Grant's position at Corinth, and thus breaking the National line of +defence and coöperating with Bragg. Price seized Iuka, southeast of +Corinth, and Grant sent out against him a force under Rosecrans, +consisting of about nine thousand men, which included the divisions of +Gens. David S. Stanley and Charles S. Hamilton, and the cavalry under +Col. John K. Mizner. It was Grant's intention that while this force +moved toward Iuka from the south, Gen. E. O. C. Ord's command, +consisting of eight thousand men, should move upon it from the west. +There are two roads running south from Iuka, about two miles apart, +and Grant intended that Rosecrans should approach by both of these +roads, so as to cut off the enemy's retreat. But Rosecrans marched +only by the westernmost road, leaving the eastern, known as the Fulton +road, open. Hamilton's division was in advance, and at four o'clock in +the afternoon, at a point two miles from Iuka, the head of his column, +ascending a long hill, found the enemy deployed across the road and in +the woods a few hundred yards beyond its crest. Hamilton had thrown +out a heavy skirmish line, which for four or five miles had kept up a +running fight with sharp-shooters. The enemy, in force, occupied a +strong line along a deep ravine, from which they moved forward to +attack as soon as Hamilton's men appeared on the crest. Hamilton +himself, being close to the skirmish line, saw the situation with its +dangers and its advantages, and made haste to prepare for what was +coming. He deployed his infantry along the crest, got a battery into +position under heavy fire where it could command the road in front, +placed every regiment personally, and gave each regimental commander +orders to hold his ground at all hazards. As the remainder of his +forces came up, he placed them so as to extend his flanks and prevent +them from being turned. But while he was doing this, the enemy was +advancing and the battle was becoming very serious. The enemy came on +in heavy masses against his centre, charging steadily up to his guns, +which fired canister into them at short range, until nearly every man +and horse in the battery was disabled, and it was captured. Brig.-Gen. +Jeremiah C. Sullivan then gathered a portion of the right wing, which +had been thrown into some disorder, and retook the battery, driving +the Confederates back to their line; but rallying in turn they +captured it a second time, and a second time it was recaptured. +General Stanley's division was now brought up to the assistance of +Hamilton's, and the Confederates were driven back once more. They then +made an attempt by {204} marching through a ravine to fall upon the +National left in heavy force; but their movement was discovered, and +the Tenth Iowa Regiment, together with part of a battery, met them +with such a reception that they quickly withdrew. The front on which +the troops could be deployed was not long enough to permit more than +three thousand men of the Nationals to be in action at once; but along +this line the fighting was kept up until dark, when the enemy retired, +and in the morning, when Rosecrans prepared to attack him, it was +found that he was gone. The losses in the National army in this battle +were 141 killed, 613 wounded, and 36 missing. On the Confederate side, +where not many more men could be engaged at once than on the National, +the losses were reported as 85 killed, 410 wounded, and 40 missing, +the killed including Brig.-Gen. Henry Little. But these figures are +probably altogether too small. General Hamilton reported that 263 +Confederates were buried on the field. + +General Rosecrans, in a congratulatory order to his troops a few days +later, said: "You may well be proud of the battle of Iuka. On the 18th +you concentrated at Jacinto; on the 19th you marched twenty miles, +driving in the rebel outposts for the last eight; reached the front of +Price's army, advantageously posted in unknown woods, and opened the +action by four P.M. On a narrow front, intersected by ravines and +covered by dense undergrowths, with a single battery, Hamilton's +division went into action against the combined rebel hosts. On that +unequal ground, which permitted the enemy to outnumber them three to +one, they fought a glorious battle, mowing down the rebel hordes, +until, night closing in, they rested on their arms on the +battleground, from which the enemy retired during the night, leaving +us masters of the field. The general commanding bears cheerful +testimony to the fiery alacrity with which the troops of Stanley's +division moved up, cheering, to support the third division, and took +their places to give them an opportunity to replenish their +ammunition; and to the magnificent fighting of the Eleventh Missouri +under the gallant Mower. To all the regiments who participated in the +fight, he presents congratulations on their bravery and good conduct. +He deems it an especial duty to signalize the Forty-eighth Indiana, +which, posted on the left, held its ground until the brave Eddy fell, +and a whole brigade of Texans came in through a ravine on the little +band, and even then only yielded a hundred yards until relieved. The +Sixteenth Iowa, amid the roar of battle, the rush of wounded artillery +horses, the charge of the rebel brigade, and a storm of grape, +canister, and musketry, stood like a rock, holding the centre; while +the glorious Fifth Iowa, under the brave and distinguished Matthias, +sustained by Boomer with part of his noble little Twenty-sixth +Missouri, bore the thrice defeated charges and cross-fires of the +rebel left and centre with a valor and determination seldom equalled, +never excelled, by the most veteran soldiery.... The unexpected +accident which alone prevented us from cutting off the retreat and +capturing Price and his army only shows how much success depends on +Him in whose hands are the accidents as well as the laws of life." + +[Illustration: MAJOR-GENERAL WILLIAM S. ROSECRANS.] + +[Illustration: MAJOR-GENERAL JOHN PEGRAM, C. S. A.] + +As the conduct of this battle began a series of causes that resulted +in an unfortunate estrangement between Grant and Rosecrans, the +bitterness of which was exhibited by the latter in his place in +Congress even when Grant was in his dying days, it is interesting to +note what Grant says of it. In his official report, written the day +after the battle, he said: "I cannot speak too highly of the energy +and skill displayed by General Rosecrans in the attack, and of the +endurance of the troops under him." In his "Memoirs" he wrote: +"General Rosecrans had previously had his headquarters at Iuka. While +there he had a most excellent map prepared, showing all the roads and +streams in the surrounding country. He was also personally familiar +with the ground, so that I deferred very much to him in my plans for +the approach.... Ord was on the northwest, and even if a rebel +movement had been possible in that direction it could have brought +only temporary relief, for it would have carried Price's army to the +rear of the National forces and isolated it from all support. It +looked to me that, if Price would remain in Iuka until we could get +there, his annihilation was inevitable. On the morning of the 18th of +September General Ord moved by rail to Burnsville, and there left the +cars and moved to perform his part of the programme. He was to get as +near the enemy as possible during the day and intrench himself so as +to hold his position until the next morning. Rosecrans was to be up by +the morning of the 19th on the two roads, and the attack was to be +from all three quarters simultaneously.... I remained at Burnsville +with a detachment of nine hundred men from Ord's command and +communicated with my two wings by courier. Ord met the advance of the +enemy soon after leaving Burnsville. Quite a sharp engagement ensued, +but he drove the rebels back with considerable loss, including one +general officer killed. He maintained his position and was ready to +attack by daylight the next morning. I was very much disappointed at +receiving a despatch from Rosecrans after midnight from Jacinto, +twenty miles from Iuka, saying that some of his command had been +delayed, and that the rear of his column was not yet up as far as +Jacinto. He said, however, that he would still be at Iuka by two +o'clock the next day. I did not believe this possible, because of the +distance and condition of the roads. I immediately sent Ord a copy of +Rosecrans's despatch and ordered him to {205} be in readiness to +attack the moment he heard the sound of guns to the south or +southeast. During the 19th the wind blew in the wrong direction to +transmit sound, either toward the point where Ord was or to Burnsville +where I remained. [This appears to be the 'unexpected accident' to +which General Rosecrans refers in his congratulatory order.] A couple +of hours before dark, on the 19th, Rosecrans arrived with the head of +his column at Barnets. He here turned north without sending any troops +to the Fulton road. While still moving in column up the Jacinto road, +he met a force of the enemy and had his advance badly beaten and +driven back upon the main road. In this short engagement his loss was +considerable for the number engaged, and one battery was taken from +him. The wind was still blowing hard, and in the wrong direction to +transmit sound toward either Ord or me. Neither he nor I nor any one +in either command heard a gun that was fired upon the battlefield. +After the engagement Rosecrans sent me a despatch announcing the +result. The courier bearing the message was compelled to move west +nearly to Jacinto before he found a road leading to Burnsville. This +made it a late hour of the night before I learned of the battle that +had taken place during the afternoon. I at once notified Ord of the +fact and ordered him to attack early in the morning. The next morning +Rosecrans himself renewed the attack and went into Iuka with but +little resistance. Ord also went in according to orders, without +hearing a gun from the south of the town, but supposing the troops +coming from the southwest must be up before that time. Rosecrans, +however, had put no troops upon the Fulton road, and the enemy had +taken advantage of this neglect and retreated by that road during the +night. I rode into town and found that the enemy was not being pursued +even by the cavalry. I ordered pursuit by the whole of Rosecrans's +command, and went on with him a few miles in person. He followed only +a few miles after I left him, and then went into camp, and the pursuit +was continued no further. I was disappointed at the result of the +battle of Iuka, but I had so high an opinion of General Rosecrans that +I found no fault at the time." General Grant says that the plan of the +battle, which included the occupation of the Fulton road, was +suggested by Rosecrans himself. + +[Illustration: BRIGADIER-GENERAL ROBERT B. MITCHELL.] + +[Illustration: MAJOR-GENERAL ALEXANDER McDOWELL McCOOK.] + +[Illustration: MAJOR-GENERAL LOVELL H. ROUSSEAU.] + +[Illustration: LOOMIS'S BATTERY IN ACTION.] + +A Confederate soldier, who participated in the engagement, gave a +graphic account of it in a letter, a few extracts from which are +interesting and suggestive. "I wrote you a short communication from +Iuka, announcing its peaceable capture on the 4th, by the army under +General Price. I believe I was a little congratulatory in my remarks, +and spread out on the rich fruits of the bloodless capture. Indeed, it +was a sight to gladden the heart of a poor soldier whose only diet for +some time had been unsalted beef and white leather hoe-cake--the +stacks of cheese, crackers, preserves, mackerel, coffee, and other +good things that line the shelves of the sutlers' shops, and fill the +commissary stores of the Yankee army. But, alas! The good {206} things +which should have been distributed to the brave men who won them were +held in reserve for what purpose I know not, unless to sweeten the +teeth of those higher in authority (whilst the men were fed on husks), +and I suppose were devoured by the flames on the day of our retreat. +We held peaceable possession of Iuka one day, and on the next day were +alarmed by the booming of cannon, and called out to spend the evening +in battle array in the woods. How on earth, with the woods full of our +cavalry, they could have approached so near our lines, is a mystery! +They had planted a battery sufficiently near to shell General Price's +headquarters, and were cracking away at the Third Brigade in line of +battle under General Herbert when our brigade (the Fourth) came up at +a double quick and formed on their left. And then for two hours and +fifteen minutes was kept up the most terrific fire of musketry that +ever dinned my ears. There was one continuous roar of small arms, +while grape and canister howled in fearful concert above our heads and +through our ranks. General Little, our division commander, whose +bravery and kindness had endeared him to the men under his command, +was shot through the head early in the action, and fell from his horse +dead. He was sitting by General Price and conversing with him at the +time. The Third Brigade was in the hottest of the fire. They charged +and took the battery, which was doing so much damage, after a +desperate struggle, piling the ground with dead. The Third Louisiana +Regiment, of this brigade, entered the fight with two hundred and +thirty-eight men, and lost one hundred and eight in killed and +wounded. The Third Texas fared about as badly. The troops against +which we were contending were Western men, the battery manned by Iowa +troops, who fought bravely and well. I know this, that the events of +that evening have considerably increased my appetite for peace, and if +the Yankees will not shoot at us any more I shall be perfectly +satisfied to let them alone. All night could be heard the groans of +the wounded and dying of both armies, forming a sequel of horror and +agony to the deadly struggle over which night had kindly thrown its +mantle. Saddest of all, our dead were left unburied, and many of the +wounded on the battlefield to be taken in charge by the enemy.... +During the entire retreat we lost but four or five wagons, which broke +down on the road and were left. Acts of vandalism disgraceful to the +army were, however, perpetrated along the road, which made me blush to +own such men as my countrymen. Cornfields were laid waste, +potato-patches robbed, barn-yards and smoke-houses despoiled, hogs +killed, and all kinds of outrages perpetrated in broad daylight and in +full view of officers. I doubted, on the march up and on the retreat, +whether I was in an army of brave men fighting for their country, or +merely following a band of armed marauders who are as terrible to +their friends as foes. The settlements through which we passed were +made to pay heavy tribute to the rapacity of our soldiers. This +plunder, too, was without excuse, for rations were regularly issued +every night." + +Early in October the combined forces of Price and Van Dorn attempted +the capture of Corinth, which had been abandoned by Beauregard in May, +and from that time had been held by Grant's forces. Grant was now in +Jackson, Tenn., where he had been ordered to make his headquarters, +and Rosecrans was in immediate command at Corinth with about twenty +thousand men. The place was especially tempting to the Confederates +because of the enormous amount of supplies in store there, and also +for other reasons, which are well stated in Van Dorn's report made +after the battle: "Surveying the whole field of operations before me, +the conclusion forced itself irresistibly upon my mind, that the +taking of Corinth was a condition precedent to the accomplishment of +anything of importance in West Tennessee. To take Memphis would be to +destroy an immense amount of property without any adequate military +advantage, even admitting that it could be held without heavy guns +against the enemy's gun and mortar boats. The line of fortifications +around Bolivar is intersected by the Hatchie River, rendering it +impossible to take the place by quick assault. It was clear to my mind +that if a successful attack could be made upon Corinth from the west +and northwest, the forces there driven back on the Tennessee and cut +off, Bolivar and Jackson would easily fall, and then, upon the arrival +of the exchanged prisoners of war (about nine thousand), West +Tennessee would soon be in our possession, and communication with +General Bragg effected through middle Tennessee. I determined to +attempt Corinth. I had a reasonable hope of success. Field returns at +Ripley showed my strength to be about twenty-two thousand men. +Rosecrans at Corinth had about fifteen thousand, with about eight +thousand additional men at outposts from twelve to fifteen miles +distant. I might surprise him and carry the place before these troops +could be brought in. It was necessary that this blow should be sudden +and decisive. The troops were in fine spirits, and the whole Army of +West Tennessee seemed eager to emulate the armies of the Potomac and +Kentucky. No army ever marched to battle with prouder steps, more +hopeful countenances, or with more courage, than marched the Army of +West Tennessee out of Ripley on the morning of September 29th, on its +way to Corinth." + +Rosecrans had several days' notice of the attack, and had placed the +main body of the troops in an inner line of intrenchments nearer the +town than the old Confederate fortifications. Skirmishing began on the +3d of October, when the Confederates approached from the north and +west. The skirmishers were soon driven in, and the advance troops, +under McArthur and Oliver, made a more determined resistance than +Rosecrans had intended; his idea in thrusting them forward being that +they should merely develop the enemy's purpose, find out what point he +intended to attack, and then fall back on the main body. In the +afternoon this advanced detachment had been pushed back to the main +line, and there the fighting became very obstinate and bloody. General +Hamilton's division was on the right, Davies's next, Stanley's in +reserve, and McKean on the left. The force of the first heavy blow +fell upon McKean and Davies. As the Confederates overlapped Davies a +little on his right, General Rosecrans ordered Hamilton to move up his +left and connect with Davies, then to swing his right around the +enemy's left and get in his rear. Hamilton asked for more definite +instructions than he had received verbally from the staff officer, and +Rosecrans sent him a written order, which he received at five o'clock. +Hamilton says: "A simple order to attack the enemy in flank could have +reached me by courier from General Rosecrans any time after two P.M. +in fifteen minutes. I construed it [the written order] as an order for +attack, and at once proceeded to carry it out." A somewhat similar +misunderstanding arose between General Hamilton and his brigade +commanders, in consequence of which Buford's brigade went astray and a +precious hour was lost. During that time the battle was apparently +going in favor of the Confederates, although they were purchasing +their advantages at heavy cost. Each commander believed that if he +could have had an hour more of {207} sunlight the victory would have +been his that day. In the evening Rosecrans assembled his division +commanders and made his dispositions for a renewal of the battle on +the morrow. + +At half-past four o'clock in the morning the Confederates opened the +fight with their artillery, to which that of Rosecrans promptly +replied, and extended their infantry lines farther to the north of the +town. Here, on their extreme left, they formed behind a low hill, and +then suddenly advanced in line of battle only three hundred yards +distant from the National intrenchments. They were soon subjected to a +cross-fire from the batteries, their line was broken, and only +fragments of it reached the edge of the town, from which they were +soon driven away by the reserves. Rosecrans then sent forward one of +Hamilton's brigades to attack the broken enemy, which prevented them +from re-forming and drove them into the woods. At the most advanced +point of the National line, which was a small work called Battery +Robinett, the heaviest fighting of the day took place. Here for more +than two hours the roar of artillery and small arms was incessant and +the smoke was in thick clouds. Through this heavy smoke the +Confederates made three determined charges upon Battery Robinett, and +the troops on either side of it, all of which were repelled. The heavy +assaulting columns were raked through and through by the shot, but +they persistently closed up and moved forward until, in one instance, +a colonel carrying the colors actually planted them on the edge of the +ditch, and then was immediately shot. After this the Confederates gave +up the fight and slowly withdrew. At sunset General McPherson arrived +from Jackson with reinforcements for the Nationals, and General +Hurlbut was on the way with more. General Rosecrans says: "Our pursuit +of the enemy was immediate and vigorous, but the darkness of the night +and the roughness of the country, covered with woods and thickets, +made movement impracticable by night, and slow and difficult by day. +General McPherson's brigade of fresh troops with a battery was ordered +to start at daylight and follow the enemy over the Chewalla road, and +Stanley's and Davies's divisions to support him. McArthur, with all of +McKean's division except Crocker's brigade, and with a good battery +and a battalion of cavalry, took the route south of the railroad +toward Pocahontas; McKean followed on this route with the rest of his +division and Ingersoll's cavalry; Hamilton followed McKean with his +entire force." But General Grant says in his "Memoirs": "General +Rosecrans, however, failed to follow up the victory, although I had +given specific orders in advance of the battle for him to pursue the +moment the enemy was repelled. He did not do so, and I repeated the +order after the battle. In the first order he was notified that the +force of four thousand men which was going to his assistance would be +in great peril if the enemy was not pursued. General Ord had joined +Hurlbut on the 4th, and, being senior, took command of his troops. +This force encountered the head of Van Dorn's retreating column just +as it was crossing the Hatchie by a bridge some ten miles out from +Corinth. The bottom land here was swampy and bad for the operations of +troops, making a good place to get an enemy into. Ord attacked the +troops that had crossed the bridge and drove them back in a panic. +Many were killed, and others were drowned by being pushed off the +bridge in their hurried retreat. Ord followed, and met the main force. +He was too weak in numbers to assault, but he held the bridge and +compelled the enemy to resume his retreat by another bridge higher up +the stream. Ord was wounded in this engagement, and the command +devolved on Hurlbut. Rosecrans did not start in pursuit till the +morning of the 5th, and then took the wrong road. Moving in the +enemy's country, he travelled with a wagon train to carry his +provisions and munitions of war. His march was therefore slower than +that of the enemy, who was moving toward his supplies. Two or three +hours' pursuit on the day of battle, without anything except what the +men carried on their persons, would have been worth more than any +pursuit commenced the next day could have possibly been. Even when he +did start, if Rosecrans had followed the route taken by the enemy, he +would have come upon Van Dorn in a swamp, with a stream in front and +Ord holding the only bridge; but he took the road leading north and +toward Chewalla instead of west, and, after having marched as far as +the enemy had moved to {209} get to the Hatchie, he was as far from +battle as when he started. Hurlbut had not the numbers to meet any +such force as Van Dorn's if they had been in any mood for fighting, +and he might have been in great peril. I now regarded the time to +accomplish anything by pursuit as past, and after Rosecrans reached +Jonesboro' I ordered him to return." + +[Illustration: MAJOR-GENERAL EDWARD O. C. ORD AND STAFF.] + +{208} [Illustration: THE PURSUIT. (FROM A PAINTING BY WILLIAM T. +TREGO.)] + +[Illustration: CHARGE OF THE FEDERALS AT CORINTH.] + +General Grant considered that General Rosecrans had made the same +serious mistake twice, at Iuka and at Corinth; and for this reason +Rosecrans was soon relieved from further service in that department. +The Confederate authorities also were dissatisfied with their general, +for they accounted the defeat at Corinth a heavy disaster, and Van +Dorn was soon superseded by Gen. John C. Pemberton. + +Rosecrans superseded Buell October 24th, when his army--thenceforth +called the Army of the Cumberland--was at Bowling Green, slowly +pursuing Bragg. Rosecrans sent a portion of it to the relief of +Nashville, which was besieged by a Confederate force, and employed the +remainder in repairing the railroad from Louisville, over which his +supplies must come. This done, about the end of November he united his +forces at Nashville. At the same time Bragg was ordered to move +forward again, and went as far as Murfreesboro', forty miles from +Nashville, where he fortified a strong position on Stone River, a +shallow stream fordable at nearly all points. There was high festivity +among the secessionists in Murfreesboro' that winter, for Bragg had +brought much plunder from Kentucky. No one dreamed that Rosecrans +would attack the place before spring, and several roving bands of +guerilla cavalry were very active, and performed some exciting if not +important exploits. The leader of one of these, John H. Morgan, was +married in Murfreesboro', the ceremony being performed by Bishop and +Gen. Leonidas Polk, and Jefferson Davis being present. It is said that +the floor was carpeted with a United States flag, on which the company +danced, to signify that they had put its authority under their feet. + +The revelry was rudely interrupted when Rosecrans, leaving Nashville +with forty-three thousand men, in a rain-storm, the day after +Christmas, encamped on the 30th within sight of Bragg's intrenchments. + +A correspondent of the Louisville _Journal_, who went over the ground +at the time and witnessed the battle, gave a careful description of +its peculiarities, which is necessary to a complete understanding of +the action: "As the road from Nashville to Murfreesboro' approaches +the latter place, it suddenly finds itself parallel to Stone River. +The stream flowing east crosses the road a mile this [west] side of +Murfreesboro'. Abruptly changing its course, it flows north along the +road, and not more than four hundred yards distant, for more than two +miles. It is a considerable stream, but fordable in many places at low +water. The narrow tongue of land between the turnpike road and the +river is divided by the Nashville and Chattanooga Railroad, which, +running down the centre of the wedge-like tract, bisects the turnpike +half a mile this side of where the latter crosses the river. {210} +Just in rear of the spot where the third milestone from Murfreesboro' +stands, the turnpike and railroad--at that point about sixty yards +apart--run through a slight cut, and this a few rods farther on is +succeeded by a slight fill. The result is to convert both railroad and +turnpike for a distance of two or three hundred yards into a natural +rifle-pit. On each side of the road at this point there are open +fields. That on the left extends to a curtain of timber which fringes +the river, and also half a mile to the front along the road, where it +gives place to an oak wood of no great density or extent. To the left +and front, however, it opens out into a large open plain, which flanks +the wood just mentioned, and extends up the river in the direction of +Murfreesboro' for a mile. In the field on the left of the railroad +there is a hill of no great height sloping down to the railroad and +commanding all the ground to the front and right. It was here that +Guenther's and Loomis's batteries were posted in the terrible conflict +of Wednesday. The open field on the right of the turnpike road, three +hundred yards wide, is bounded on the west by an almost impenetrable +cedar forest. Just in rear of the forest, and marking its extreme +northern limit, is a long, narrow opening, containing about ten acres. +There is a swell in the field on the right of the road, corresponding +with the one on the left. The crest of this hill is curiously concave. +From its beginning point at the corner of the cedars, the northern end +of the crest curves back upon itself, so that after fortifying the +front of the position it renders the right flank well-nigh +impregnable." + +Rosecrans intended to attack the next day; but Bragg anticipated him, +crossed the river before sunrise, concealed by a thick fog, reached +the woods on the right of the National line, and burst out upon the +bank in overwhelming force. McCook's command, on the extreme right, +was crumbled and thrown back, losing several guns and many prisoners. +Sheridan's command, next in line, made a stubborn fight till its +ammunition was nearly exhausted, and then slowly retired. General +Thomas's command, which formed the centre, now held the enemy back +till Rosecrans established a new line, nearly at right angles to the +first, with artillery advantageously posted, when Thomas fell back to +this and maintained his ground. Through the forenoon the Confederates +had seemed to have everything their own way, and they had inflicted +grievous loss upon Rosecrans, besides sending their restless cavalry +to annoy his army in the rear. But here, as usual, the tide was +turned. The first impetuous rush of the Southern soldier had spent +itself, and the superior staying qualities of his Northern opponent +began to tell. Bragg hurled his men again and again upon the new line; +but as they left the cedar thickets and charged across the open field +they were mercilessly swept down by artillery and musketry fire, and +every effort was fruitless. Even when seven thousand fresh men were +drawn over from Bragg's right and thrown against the National centre, +the result was still the same. The day ended with Rosecrans immovable +in his position; but he had been driven from half of the ground that +he held in the morning, and had lost twenty-eight guns and many men, +while the enemy's cavalry was upon his communications. Finding that he +had ammunition enough for another battle, he determined to remain +where he was and sustain another assault. His men slept on their arms +that night, and the next day there was no evidence of any disposition +on either side to attack. Both sides were correcting their lines, +constructing rifle-pits, caring for their wounded, and preparing for a +renewal of the fight. + +[Illustration: MAJOR-GENERAL JAMES B. McPHERSON.] + +[Illustration: BRIGADIER-GENERAL FRANK C. ARMSTRONG, C. S. A.] + +This came on the second day of the new year, when there was some +desultory fighting, and Rosecrans advanced a division across the +stream to strike at Bragg's communications. Breckenridge's command was +sent to attack this division, and drove it back to the river, when +Breckenridge suddenly found himself subjected to a terrible artillery +fire, and lost two thousand men in twenty minutes. Following this, a +charge by National infantry drove him back with a loss of four guns +and many prisoners, and this ended the great battle of Stone River, or +Murfreesboro'. After the repulse of Breckenridge, Rosecrans advanced +his left again, and that night occupied with some of his batteries +high ground, from which Murfreesboro' could be shelled. The next day +there was a heavy rain-storm, and in the ensuing night the Confederate +army quietly retreated, leaving Murfreesboro' to its fate. Rosecrans +reported his loss in killed and wounded as eight thousand seven +hundred and seventy-eight, {211} and in prisoners as somewhat fewer +than twenty-eight hundred. Bragg acknowledged a loss of over ten +thousand, and claimed that he had taken over six thousand prisoners. + +The number of men engaged on the National side was about forty-three +thousand, and on the Confederate about thirty-eight thousand, +according to the reports, which are not always reliable. + +The losses on the National side included Brig.-Gens. Joshua W. Sill +and Edward N. Kirk among the killed, while on the Confederate side +Brig.-Gens. James E. Rains and Roger W. Hanson were killed. + +[Illustration: BRIGADIER-GENERAL JOHN H. MORGAN, C. S. A., AND WIFE.] + +[Illustration: MAP OF THE BATTLEFIELDS OF STONE RIVER, OR +MURFREESBORO'.] + +The incidents of this great and complicated battle were very numerous, +and have been related at great length by different correspondents and +participants. The cavalry fighting that preceded the infantry +engagement was severe, and in some respects brilliant. This arm of the +service was commanded on the National side by Gen. David S. Stanley, +and on the Confederate by Gen. Joseph Wheeler. Col. R. H. G. Minty, +commanding the First Brigade of the National cavalry, says in his +account of the first day's battle: "Crossing Overall's Creek, I took +up position parallel to and about three-quarters of a mile from the +Murfreesboro' and Nashville pike; the Fourth Michigan forming a line +of dismounted skirmishers close to the edge of the woods. My entire +force at this time numbered nine hundred and fifty men. The enemy +advanced rapidly with twenty-five hundred cavalry, mounted and +dismounted, and three pieces of artillery. They drove back the Fourth +Michigan, and then attacked the Seventh Pennsylvania with great fury, +but met with a determined resistance. I went forward to the line of +dismounted skirmishers, and endeavored to move them to the right to +strengthen the Seventh Pennsylvania; but the moment the right of the +line showed itself from behind the fence where they were posted, the +whole of the enemy's fire was directed on it, turning it completely +round. At this moment the Fifteenth Pennsylvania gave way and +retreated rapidly, leaving the battalion of the Seventh Pennsylvania +no alternative but to retreat. I fell back a couple of fields and +re-formed in the rear of a rising ground. The rebel cavalry followed +us up promptly into the open ground, and now menaced us with three +strong lines. General Stanley ordered a charge, and he himself led two +companies of the Fourth Michigan, with about fifty men of the +Fifteenth Pennsylvania, against the line in front of our left. He +routed the enemy, and captured one stand of colors. At the same time I +charged the first line in our front with the Fourth Michigan and First +Tennessee, and drove them from the field. The second line was formed +on the far side of a lane with a partially destroyed fence on each +side, and still stood their ground. I reformed my men and again +charged. The enemy again broke and were driven from the field in the +wildest confusion." + +A correspondent of the Cincinnati _Commercial_, in an account of the +battle written on the field, says: "Colonel Innes with the Ninth +Michigan engineers, posted at La Vergne to protect the road, had just +been reinforced by several companies of the Tenth Ohio, when Wheeler's +cavalry brigade made a strong dash at that position. Colonel Innes had +protected himself by a stockade of brush, and fought securely. The +enemy charged several times with great fury, but were murderously +repulsed. About fifty rebels were dismounted, and nearly a hundred of +the horses were killed. Wheeler finally withdrew, and sent in a flag +of truce demanding surrender. Colonel Innes replied, 'We don't +surrender much.' Wheeler then asked permission to bury his dead, which +was granted.... General Rosecrans, as usual, was in the midst of the +fray, directing the movement of troops and the range of batteries." + +Some of the things that soldiers have to endure, which are not often +mentioned among the stirring events of the field, are indicated in the +report of Col. Jason Marsh of the Seventy-fourth Illinois Regiment. He +says: "My command was formed in line of battle close behind a narrow +strip of cedar thicket, nearly covering our front, and skirting a +strip of open level ground about twenty rods wide to the cornfield +occupied by the enemy's pickets. Being thus satisfied of the close +proximity of the enemy in strong force, and apprehending an attack at +any moment, I deemed it {212} necessary to use the utmost precaution +against surprise, and, in addition to general instructions to bivouac +without fires, and to maintain a cautious, quiet vigilance, I ordered +my command to stack arms, and each man to rest at the butt of his +musket without using his shelter tent. Although the night was dark, +chilly, and somewhat rainy, and the men cold, wet, weary, and hungry, +I deemed it objectionable to use their shelter tents, not only because +of the hindrance in case of a sudden attack, but even in a dark night +they would be some guide to the enemy to trace our line. At a little +before four o'clock A.M., our men were quietly waked up, formed into +line, and remained standing at their arms until moved by subsequent +orders. As soon as it became sufficiently light to observe objects at +a distance, I could plainly discern the enemy moving in three heavy +columns across my front, one column striking out of the cornfield and +moving defiantly along the edge of the open ground not more than +eighty rods from my line. It was plainly to be seen that the fire of +my skirmishers took effect in their ranks, and in emptying their +saddles; to which, however, the enemy seemed to pay no attention." + +Some of the most stubborn fighting of the day was done by Palmer's +division, and especially by Hazen's brigade of that division, on the +National left, in the angle between the railroad and the turnpike. +When the right of Rosecrans's army had been driven back, heavy columns +of the Confederates were directed against the exposed flank of his +left, which was also subjected to a fierce artillery fire. Palmer's +men formed along the railroad and in the woods to the right of the +pike, with Cruft's brigade nearest to the enemy, and several batteries +were hastily brought up to check the advancing tide. The Confederates +moved steadily onward, apparently sure of a victory, overpowered Cruft +and drove him back, and were still advancing against Hazen, some of +whose regiments had expended their ammunition and were simply waiting +with fixed bayonets, when Grose's brigade came to the relief of Hazen, +and all stood firm and met the enemy with a terrific and unceasing +fire of musketry, to which Parsons's remarkable battery added a rain +of shells and canister. The ranks of the Confederates were thinned so +rapidly that one regiment after another gave up and fell back, until a +single regiment was left advancing and came within three hundred yards +of the National line. At this point, when every one of its officers +and half its men had been struck down, the remainder threw themselves +flat upon the ground, and were unable either to go forward any farther +or to retreat. In the afternoon the Confederates made two more similar +attempts, but were met in the same way and achieved no success. + +[Illustration: BREVET MAJOR-GENERAL D. S. STANLEY.] + +[Illustration: LIEUTENANT-GENERAL JOSEPH WHEELER, C. S. A.] + +Rousseau's division, which had been held in reserve, was brought into +action when the fight became critical, and performed some of the most +gallant work of the day. A participant has given a vivid description +of some of the scenes in Rousseau's front: "The broken and dispirited +battalions of our right wing, retreating by the flank, were pouring +out of the cornfields and through the skirts of the woods, while from +the far end of the field rose the indescribable crackle and slowly +curling smoke of the enemy's fire. The line of fire now grew rapidly +nearer and nearer, seeming to close in slowly, but with fatal +certainty, around our front and flank; and presently the long gray +lines of the enemy, three or four deep, could be seen through the +cornstalks vomiting flame on the retreating host. The right of +Rousseau's division opened its lines and let our brave but unfortunate +columns pass through. The gallant and invincible legion came through +in this way with fearfully decimated ranks, drawing away by hand two +pieces of our artillery. When all the horses belonging to the battery, +and all the other guns, had been disabled, the brave boys refused to +leave these two behind, and drew them two miles through fields and +thickets to a place of safety. It was a most touching sight to see +these brave men, in that perilous hour, flocking around Rousseau like +children, with acclamations of delight, and every token of love, as +soon as they recognized him, embracing his horse, his legs, his +clothes. Flying back to the open ground which was now to be the scene +of so terrific a conflict, Rousseau galloped rapidly across it, and +read with a single eagle glance all of its advantages. Guenther's and +Loomis's batteries were ordered to take position on the hill on the +left of the railroad, and Stokes's Chicago battery, which had got with +our division, was placed there also. History furnishes but few +spectacles to be compared with that which now ensued. The rebels +pressed up to the edge of the cedar forest and swarmed out into the +open field. I saw the first few gray suits that dotted the dark green +line of the cedars with their contrasted color thicken into a line of +battle, and the bright glitter of their steel flashed like an endless +chain of lightning amid the thick and heavy green of the thicket. This +I saw before our fire, opening on them around the whole extent of our +line, engirdled them with a belt of flame and smoke. After that I saw +them no more, nor will any human eye ever see them more. Guenther, +Loomis, and Stokes, with peal after peal, too rapid to be counted, +mowed them down with double-shotted canister; the left of our line of +infantry poured a {213} continuous sheet of flame into their front, +while the right of our line, posted in its remarkable position by the +genius of Rousseau, enveloped their left flank and swept their entire +line with an enfilading fire. Thick smoke settled down upon the scene; +the rim of the hill on which our batteries stood seemed to be +surrounded by a wall of living fire; the turnpike road and the crest +of the hill on the right were wrapped in an unending blaze; flames +seemed to leap out of the earth and dance through the air. No troops +on earth could withstand such a fire as that. One regiment of rebels, +the boldest of their line, advanced to within seventy-five yards of +our line, but there it was blown out of existence. It was utterly +destroyed; and the rest of the rebel line, broken and decimated, fled +like sheep into the depths of the woods. The terrific firing ceased, +the smoke quickly rolled away, and the sun shone out bright and clear +on the scene that was lately so shrouded in smoke and mortal gloom. +How still everything was! Everybody seemed to be holding his breath. +As soon as the firing ceased, General Rousseau and his staff galloped +forward to the ground the rebels had advanced over. Their dead lay +there in frightful heaps, some with the life-blood not yet all flowed +from their mortal wounds, some propped upon their elbows and gasping +their last. The flag of the Arkansas regiment lay there on the ground +beside its dead bearer. Every depression in the field was full of +wounded, who had crawled thither to screen themselves from the fire, +and a large number of prisoners came out of a little copse in the +middle of the field and surrendered themselves to General Rousseau in +person. Among them was one captain. They were all that were left alive +of the bold Arkansas regiment that had undertaken to charge our line." + +[Illustration: BURYING A COMRADE.] + +[Illustration: BRIGADIER-GENERAL ROBERT B. VANCE, C. S. A.] + +[Illustration: MAJOR-GENERAL JOHN C. BRECKINRIDGE, C. S. A.] + +There was great disappointment and dissatisfaction among the +secessionists at the failure of Lee's invasion of Maryland and Bragg's +of Kentucky. Pollard, the Southern historian, wrote, "No subject was +at once more dispiriting and perplexing to the South than the cautious +and unmanly reception given to our armies both in Kentucky and +Maryland." They seemed unable to comprehend how there could be such a +thing as a slave State that did not want to break up the Union. +Pollard, in his account of the response of the people of Maryland to +Lee's proclamation, says, "Instead of the twenty or thirty thousand +recruits which he had believed he would obtain on the soil of +Maryland, he found the people content to gaze with wonder on his +ragged and poorly equipped army, but with little disposition to join +his ranks." + +{214} [Illustration: DELAWARE INDIANS ACTING AS SCOUTS FOR THE FEDERAL +ARMY IN THE WEST.] + +{215} [Illustration: A SUTLER'S CABIN.] + + + + +CHAPTER XIX. + +MINOR EVENTS OF THE SECOND YEAR. + +LARGE ARMIES IN THE FIELD--BOMBARDMENT AND CAPTURE OF FORT +PULASKI--BATTLE OF BLUE'S GAP, VA.--MARCHING OVER THE SNOW--OPERATIONS +IN THE SHENANDOAH VALLEY--BATTLES OF WINCHESTER AND McDOWELL--CAPTURE +OF NORFOLK, VA., BY GEN. JOHN E. WOOL--WEST VIRGINIA CLEAR OF +CONFEDERATES--FIGHTING WITH BUSHWHACKERS--OPERATIONS UNDER GENERAL +BURNSIDE ON THE NORTH CAROLINA COAST--UNSUCCESSFUL ATTEMPT TO CAPTURE +CHARLESTON--ENGAGEMENTS IN EASTERN KENTUCKY--GUERILLA RAID UNDER THE +COMMAND OF GEN. JOHN H. MORGAN--EAST TENNESSEEANS LOYAL TO THE +UNION--OPERATIONS IN EAST TENNESSEE UNDER GENERAL NEGLEY AND COLONEL +BUFORD--RAPID AND DARING RAIDS BY GENERAL FOREST--BATTLES AROUND +NASHVILLE--FIGHTING GUERILLAS IN MISSOURI--FIGHTING IN NEW +MEXICO--INDIAN OPERATIONS IN THE NORTHWEST. + + +In the second year of the war, though the struggle did not then +culminate, some of the largest armies were gathered and some of the +greatest battles fought. At the East, McClellan made his Peninsula +campaign with Williamsburg, Fair Oaks, and the Seven Days, and Pope +his short and unfortunate campaign known as the Second Bull Run, +followed by the moderate victory of Antietam and the horror of +Fredericksburg. At the West, with smaller armies, the results were +more brilliant and satisfactory. Grant had electrified the country +when he captured Fort Donelson and received the first surrender of a +Confederate army; and this was followed in April by the battle of +Shiloh, which was a reverse on the first day and a victory on the +second, and still later by the capture of Corinth. Thomas had gained +his first victory at Mill Springs, and Buell had fought the fierce +battle of Perryville, where the genius of Sheridan first shone forth. +Two great and novel naval engagements had taken place--the fight of +the iron-clads in Hampton Roads, and Farragut's passage of the forts +and capture of New Orleans. Amid all this there were hundreds of minor +engagements, subsidiary expeditions and skirmishes, all costing +something in destruction of life and property. Some of them were +properly a portion of the great campaigns; others were separate +actions, and still others were merely raids of Confederate guerillas, +which had become very numerous, especially at the West. This chapter +will be devoted to brief accounts of the more important and +interesting of these, generally omitting those occurring {216} in the +course and as a part of any great campaign. While they had little to +do with the results of the struggle, some account of them is necessary +to any adequate idea of the condition of the country and the +sufferings of that generation of our people. + +On the 6th of January a force of about 2,500, principally Ohio and +Indiana troops, was sent out by General Kelly, under command of +Colonel Dunning, to attack a Confederate force of about 1,800 men +strongly posted at Blue's Gap, near Romney, Va. They marched over the +snow in a brilliant moonlight night, and as they neared the Gap fired +upon a small detachment that was attempting to destroy the bridge over +the stream that runs through it. The Gap is a natural opening between +high hills with very precipitous sides, and was defended with two +howitzers and rifle-pits. There were also entrenchments on the hills. +The Fourth Ohio Regiment was ordered to carry those on the one hill, +and the Fifth Ohio those on the other, which they did with a rush. The +advance then ran down the hills on the other side and quickly captured +the two pieces of artillery. After this the soldiers burned Blue's +house and mill, and also a few other houses, on the ground that they +had been used to shelter the enemy, who had fired at them from the +windows. In this affair the Confederates lost nearly 40 men killed and +about the same number captured. There was no loss on the other side. +The fertile Shenandoah Valley, between the Blue Ridge and the +Alleghenies, was important to both sides, strategetically, and to the +Confederates especially as a source of supplies. In 1861 Gen. Thomas +J. Jackson (commonly called "Stonewall Jackson") was given command +there with a Confederate force of about 11,000 men. But he did nothing +of consequence during the autumn and winter. The National forces there +were commanded at first by General Frémont, and afterward by General +Banks. The first serious conflict was at Winchester, March 23, 1862. +Winchester was important for military purposes because it was at the +junction of several highroads. Jackson's army during the winter and +spring had been reduced about one-half, but when he learned that the +opposing force was also being reduced by the withdrawal of troops to +aid General McClellan, he resolved to make an attack upon the force of +General Shields at Winchester. His cavalry, under Turner Ashby, a +brilliant leader who fell a few months later, opened the engagement +with an attack on Shields's cavalry aided by other troops, and was +driven back with considerable loss. In this engagement General Shields +was painfully wounded by a fragment of shell. The next day at sunrise +the battle was renewed at Kernstown, a short distance south of +Winchester, and lasted till noon. About 6,000 men were engaged on the +Confederate side, and somewhat more than that on the National. The +Confederates were driven back half a mile by a brilliant charge, and +there took a strong position and posted their artillery +advantageously. Other charges followed, with destructive fighting, +when they retired, slowly at first, and afterward in complete rout, +losing three guns. They were pursued and shelled by a detachment under +Colonel Kimball until they had passed Newtown. The National loss in +this action was nearly 600; the Confederate, a little over 700. + +The next important engagement in this campaign took place, May 8th, +near McDowell. After a slow retreat by the Confederates, which was +followed by the National forces under General Schenck, the former +turned to give battle, and in heavy force, probably about 6,000, +attacked General Milroy's brigade and the Eighty-second Ohio Regiment, +numbering in all about 2,300. Milroy's advance retired slowly, one +battery shelling the advancing enemy upon his main body, and the next +day it was discovered that the Confederates had posted themselves on a +ridge in the Bull Pasture Mountain. Milroy's force went out to attack +him, and when two-thirds of the way up the mountain began the battle. +It was soon found that this was only the advance of the Confederates, +which slowly fell back upon the main body posted in a depression at +the top of the mountain. One regiment after another was pushed +forward, and the fighting was pretty sharp for two or three hours, +when Milroy's men gave up the contest as hopeless and fell back. An +incident of this fight that illustrates the humors of war is told of +Lieut.-Col. Francis W. Thompson of the Third West Virginia Regiment in +Milroy's command. He was writing a message, holding the paper against +the trunk of a tree, when a bullet struck it and fastened it to the +bark. "Thank you," said he; "I am not posting advertisements, and if I +were I would prefer tacks." The National loss in this action was +reported at 256, and the Confederate at 499. General Frémont's army, +moving up the valley, reached Harrisonburg June 6th, and there was a +spirited action between a portion of his cavalry and that of the +Confederates. The fight fell principally upon the First New Jersey +cavalry regiment, which, after apparently driving the enemy a short +distance, fell into an ambuscade, where infantry suddenly appeared on +both sides of the road, protected by the stone walls, and fired into +the regiment, which sustained considerable loss, including the capture +of Colonel Wyndham. Other forces, under Colonel Cluseret and General +Bayard, were then pushed forward, and the enemy, which was the rear +guard of Jackson's army, commanded by Gen. Turner Ashby, was driven +from the field. During this action each side successively suffered +from an enfilading fire, and General Ashby was killed. Three +Confederate color sergeants were shot, and a considerable number of +officers either fell or were captured. Capt. Thomas Haines of the New +Jersey cavalry, who was one of the last to retire from the ambush, was +approached and shot by a Virginia officer in a long gray coat, who sat +upon a handsome horse; and the next moment a comrade of the captain's, +rising in his saddle, turned upon the foe shouting, "Stop," and shot +the Virginian. + +While Frémont's force was thus following up Jackson directly, General +Shields's division was moving southward on the eastern flank of the +Shenandoah, expecting to intercept him. Jackson's purpose was rather +to get away than to fight, for by this time he was very much wanted +before Richmond. Two days after the affair at Harrisonburg, Frémont +overtook, at Cross Keys, Ewell's division, which Jackson had left +there to delay Frémont's advance, while he should prepare to cross the +Shenandoah with his whole force. Frémont attacked promptly and met a +spirited resistance, which he gradually overcame, although at +considerable loss. Stahel's brigade, on his left, was the heaviest +sufferer. At the close of the action Ewell retired, and Frémont's +troops slept on the field. Frémont had lost nearly 700 men. The +Confederate loss is unknown. The next day Shields, coming up east of +the river, encountered Jackson's main force at Port Republic, and was +attacked by it in overwhelming numbers. His men, however, stood their +ground and made a brilliant fight, even capturing one gun and a +considerable number of prisoners, but were finally routed, and lost +several of their own guns. Frémont was prevented from crossing to the +aid of Shields by the fact that Jackson had promptly burned the +bridge. In this engagement Shields lost about 1,000 men, half of whom +were captured. Jackson's loss in the two engagements together was +reported at 1,150, and his loss in the entire {217} campaign at about +1,900. After this battle he hurried away to join Lee before Richmond, +while Frémont and Shields received orders from Washington to give up +the pursuit, and thus ended the campaign in the valley. + +[Illustration: UNITED STATES MILITARY TELEGRAPH.] + +[Illustration: MAJOR-GENERAL ROBERT C. SCHENCK.] + +[Illustration: MAJOR-GENERAL ROBERT H. MILROY.] + +On the 10th of May, Gen. John E. Wool, with 5,000 men, landed at +Willoughby's Point, Va., and marched on Norfolk. As he approached the +city he was met by the mayor and a portion of the Common Council, who +formally surrendered it. On taking possession, he appointed Gen. +Egbert L. Viele military governor, and a little later he occupied +Norfolk and Portsmouth. His capture of Norfolk caused the destruction +of the _Merrimac_, which the Confederates blew up on the 11th. The +navy yard, with its workshops, storehouses, and other buildings, was +in ruins; but General Wool's captures included 200 cannon and a large +amount of shot and shell. The Norfolk _Day Book_, a violent secession +journal, was permitted to continue publication until it assailed Union +citizens who took the oath of allegiance, and then it was suppressed. + + * * * * * + +West Virginia had been pretty effectively cleared of Confederates +during the first year of the war, but a few minor engagements took +place on her soil during the second year. One of the most brilliant of +these was an expedition to Blooming Gap under Gen. Frederick W. +Lander, in February. General Lander crossed the Potomac with 4,000 +men, marched southward, and bridged the Great Cacapon River. This +bridge was one hundred and eighty feet long, and was built in four +hours in the night. It was made by placing twenty wagons in the +stream, using them as piers, and putting planks across them. General +Lander then, with his cavalry, pushed forward seven miles to Blooming +Gap, expecting to cut off the retreat of a strong Confederate force +that was posted there and hold it until his infantry could come up. He +found that they had already taken the alarm and moved out beyond the +Gap, but by swift riding he came up with a portion of them. Bringing +up the Eighth Ohio and Seventh Virginia regiments of infantry for a +support, he ordered a charge, which he lead in person, against a sharp +fire. With a few followers he overtook a group of Confederate +officers, cut off their retreat, and then dismounted, greeted them +with, "Surrender, gentlemen," and held out his hand to receive the +sword of the leader. Five of the officers surrendered to him, and four +to members of his staff. Meanwhile the Confederate infantry had +rallied and made a stand. At this point Lander's cavalry became +demoralized and would not face the fire; but he now advanced his +infantry, which cleared the road, captured many prisoners, and pursued +the flying enemy eight miles. The total Confederate loss was near 100. +The National loss was seven killed and wounded. Among the latter was +Fitz-James O'Brien, the brilliant poet and story writer, who died of +his wound two months later. The Eighth Ohio Regiment was commanded by +Col. Samuel S. Carroll, who received special praise for his gallantry +in this affair, and two years later, at the request of General Grant, +was promoted to a brigadier-generalship for his brilliant services in +{218} the Wilderness. General Lander, who was especially complimented +for this affair in a letter from President Lincoln, died in March from +the effects of a wound received the previous year. He was one of the +most patriotic and earnest men and promising officers in the service, +and, like his staff officer who fell here, was himself somewhat of a +poet. + +There were many little bands of bushwhackers in the mountainous +portions of the territory covered by the seat of war. Commonly they +occupied themselves only in seeking opportunities for murder and +robbery of Union citizens, but occasionally they made a stand and +showed fight when the bluecoats appeared. Early in May one company of +the Twenty-third Ohio infantry had a fight with such a band at Clark's +Hollow, W. Va. Under command of Lieutenant Bottsford they scouted the +hills until they found the camp of the bushwhackers, which had just +been abandoned. Resting for the night at the only house in the hollow, +Bottsford's men were attacked at daybreak by the gang they had been +hunting, who outnumbered them about five to one. They took possession +of the house, made loop-holes in the chinking between the logs, and, +being all sharp-shooters, were able to keep the enemy at bay. The +leader of the bushwhackers called to his men to follow him in a charge +upon the house, assuring them that the Yankees would quickly +surrender; but as he immediately fell, and three of his men, +endeavoring to get to him, had the same fate, the remainder retreated. +Soon afterward the rest of the regiment, commanded by Lieut.-Col. +Rutherford B. Hayes, came up and made pursuit. The flying bushwhackers +set fire to the little village of Princeton and disappeared over the +mountain. In this affair the National loss was one killed and 21 +wounded; of the bushwhackers, 16 were killed and 67 wounded. + +On the 10th of September, at Fayetteville, the Thirty-fourth Ohio +Regiment, under command of Col. John T. Toland, looking for the enemy +near Fayetteville, W. Va., found more of him than they wanted. The +Confederates were in heavy force, commanded by Gen. William W. Loring, +and were posted in the woods on the summit of a steep hill. After +three hours of fighting Toland was unable to gain the woods or to +flank the enemy, and was obliged to retire, while the Confederates +fired upon him from the heights as he passed. He had lost, in killed, +wounded, and missing, 109 men. The loss of the Confederates was not +ascertained, but was probably very slight. + +[Illustration: MAJOR-GENERAL JOHN C. FRÉMONT.] + + * * * * * + +After Burnside had established a basis of operations on the North +Carolina coast there were numerous small expeditions thence to the +interior. These were partly for the purpose of foraging, partly for +observation to detect any movements of large bodies of Confederate +troops, and partly to give protection and encouragement to Union +citizens, of whom were many in that State. On June 5th a +reconnoissance in force was made from Washington, N. C., for the +purpose of testing the report that a considerable force of cavalry and +infantry had been gathered near Pactolus. The expedition was commanded +by Colonel Potter of the First North Carolina (National) volunteers, +and was accompanied by Lieutenant Avery of the Marine artillery with +three boat-howitzers. The day was oppressively hot, and the march +laborious. All along the route slaves came from their work in the +field, leaned upon the fences, and gave the soldiers welcome in their +characteristic way. The enemy were first found at Hodge's Mills, where +they were strongly posted between two swamps with the additional +protection from two mills. They had cut away the flooring of the mill +flumes to prevent the cavalry from reaching them, and on the approach +of the National advance they opened fire. The artillery was at once +ordered forward within half musket range, and opened such a sharp and +accurate fire that in forty-five minutes it completely riddled the +buildings and brought down many Confederate sharp-shooters from the +trees. When the main body of the troops rushed forward to charge the +position, it was found that the Confederates had disappeared. The +National loss was 16 men killed or wounded; the Confederate loss was +unknown, but was supposed to be nearly a hundred, including the +colonel commanding. In their flight they left behind them large +numbers of weapons and accoutrements. This action is known as the +battle of Tranter's Creek. + +[Illustration: COLONEL PERCY WYNDHAM.] + +[Illustration: MAJOR-GENERAL JULIUS H. STAHEL.] + +On the 2d of September it became known to the commander of the Federal +force occupying Plymouth, N. C., that a detachment of about 1,400 +Confederates was marching on that town with the avowed intention of +burning it. Hastily bringing together a company of Hawkins's Zouaves, +a company of loyal North Carolinians, and a few civilians who were +willing to fight in defence of their homes, making in all about 300 +men, the captain in command sent them out under the charge of +Orderly-Sergeant Green. Three miles from the town they met the enemy, +which consisted of infantry and cavalry commanded by Colonel Garrett. +They were bivouacked in the woods, and Green's force, making a sudden +dash, surprised them and fought the whole force for {219} an hour, +when they broke and fled. Colonel Garrett and 40 of his men were +captured, and about 70 were killed or wounded. Green lost three men. +The civilians who had joined the expedition proved to be among the +most efficient of the volunteers. + +Four days later (September 6th) the Confederates attempted a similar +enterprise against Washington, N. C. Early in the morning three +companies of the National cavalry, with three guns, had gone out on +the road toward Plymouth, when the Confederate cavalry dashed in at +the other end of the town, followed by a body of about 400 infantry. +The troops remaining in the town were surprised in their barracks, and +a special effort was made to capture the loyal North Carolinians. But +the men quickly rallied, the Confederate cavalry was driven back, and +a slow street fight ensued. The troops that had gone toward Plymouth +were recalled, and guns were planted where they could sweep the +streets. The National gunboats attempted to aid the land forces, but +were largely deterred by a heavy fog. When, however, they got the +range of the houses behind which the Confederates were sheltered, the +latter quickly retreated, carrying off with them four pieces of +artillery. During the fight the gunboat _Picket_ was destroyed by the +explosion of her magazine. The National loss was about 30, and the +Confederate considerably larger. + + * * * * * + +Throughout the war there was a strong desire to capture or punish the +city of Charleston, which was looked upon as the cradle of secession, +and also to close its harbor to blockade runners. Elaborate and costly +operations on the seaward side were maintained for a long time, but +never with any real success. The lowlands that stretch out ten or +twelve miles south of the harbor are cut by many winding rivers and +inlets, and broken frequently by swamps. At a point a little more than +four miles south of the city was the little village of Secessionville, +which was used as a summer resort by a few planters. It is on +comparatively high ground, and borders on a deep creek on the one side +and a shallow one on the other. Across the neck of land between the +two was an earthwork about two hundred yards long, known as Battery +Lamar. There were similar works at other similar points in the region +between Secessionville and the southern shore of the harbor. The +National forces on these islands in 1862 were commanded by Gen. H. W. +Benham, who in June planned an advance for the purpose of carrying the +works at Secessionville and getting within striking distance of the +city. The division of Gen. Isaac I. Stevens was to form the assaulting +column, and Wright's division and William's brigade to act as its +support. The movement was made on June 16th, at daybreak. The orders +were that the advance should be made in silence, with no firing that +could be avoided. Stevens's men pushed forward, captured the +Confederate picket, and approached the works through an open field. +But the enemy were not surprised, and a heavy fire of musketry and +artillery was opened upon them almost from the first. It was found +that the front presented by the work was too narrow for proper +deployment of much more than a regiment, and the assailants suffered +accordingly. There was also a line of abatis to be broken through, and +a deep ditch; and yet a portion of the assaulting forces actually +reached the parapet, but, of course, found it impossible to carry the +works. The Eighth Michigan, which was in the advance, lost 182 men out +of 534, including 12 of its 22 officers. Col. William M. Fenton, who +commanded this regiment, says: "The order not to fire, but use the +bayonet, was obeyed, and the advance companies reached the parapet of +the works at the angle on our right and front, engaging the enemy at +the point of the bayonet. During our advance the enemy opened upon our +lines an exceedingly destructive fire of grape, canister, and +musketry, and yet the regiment pushed on as veterans, divided only to +the right and left by a sweeping torrent from the enemy's main gun in +front. The enemy's fire proved so galling and destructive that our men +on the parapet were obliged to retire under its cover. The field was +furrowed across with cotton ridges, and many of the men lay there, +loading and firing as deliberately as though on their hunting grounds +at home." Even had they been able to carry the work, they could not +have held it long, for its whole interior was commanded by elaborate +rifle-pits in the rear. Artillery was brought up and well served, but +made no real impression upon the enemy. When it became evident that no +success was possible, General Stevens withdrew his command in a slow +and orderly manner. General Beauregard says: "The point attacked by +Generals Benham and I. I. Stevens was the strongest one of the whole +line, which was then unfinished and was designed to be some five miles +in length. The two Federal commanders might have overcome the +obstacles in their front had they proceeded farther up the Stone. Even +as it was, the fight at Secessionville was lost, in a great measure, +by lack of tenacity on the part of Generals Benham and Stevens. It was +saved by the skin of our teeth." The National loss in this action was +683 men, out of about 3,500 actually engaged. The Confederates, who +were commanded by Gen. N. G. Evans, lost about 200. + +[Illustration: LIEUTENANT-COLONEL RUTHERFORD B. HAYES. (Afterward +Brevet Major-General.)] + +[Illustration: BREVET MAJOR-GENERAL JAMES SHIELDS.] + +In October an expedition was planned to set out from Hilton Head, +S. C., go up Broad River to the Coosahatchie and destroy the railroad +and bridges in that vicinity, in order to sever the communications +between Charleston and Savannah. It was under the command of +Brig.-Gen. J. M. Brannan, and included about 4,500 men. Ascending +Broad River on gunboats {220} and transports, October 22d, they landed +at the junction of the Pocotaligo and Tullafiny, and immediately +pushed inland toward Pocotaligo bridge. They marched about five miles +before they encountered any resistance, but from that point were fired +upon by batteries placed in commanding positions. As one after another +of these was bombarded or flanked, the Confederates retired to the +next, burning the bridges behind them, and in some places the pursuing +forces were obliged to wade through swamps and streams nearly shoulder +deep. At the Pocotaligo there was a heavy Confederate force well +posted behind a swamp, with artillery, commanded by General Walker, +and here Brannan's artillery ammunition gave out. As the day was now +nearly spent, and there seemed no probability of reaching the +railroad, Brannan slowly retired and returned to Hilton Head. A +detachment which he had sent out under Col. William B. Barton, of the +Forty-eighth New York Regiment, had marched directly to the +Coosahatchie and poured a destructive fire into a train that was +filled with Confederate soldiers coming from Savannah to the +assistance of General Walker. He then tore up the railroad for a +considerable distance, and pushed on toward the town, but there found +the enemy in a position too strong to be carried, and, after +exchanging a few rounds, retired to his boats. The National loss in +this expedition was about 300; that of the Confederates was probably +equal. + +[Illustration: NEGRO QUARTERS, HILTON HEAD.] + +[Illustration: A NORTH CAROLINA SWAMP.] + + * * * * * + +The situation of Fort Pulaski relatively to Savannah was quite similar +to that of Fort Sumter relatively to Charleston. It stood on an island +in the mouth of Savannah River and protected the entrance to the +harbor. Just one year after the bombardment and reduction of Sumter by +the Confederate forces, Fort Pulaski was bombarded and reduced by the +National forces. This work was of similar construction with Fort +Sumter, having brick walls seven and a half feet thick and twenty-five +feet high. It was on Cockspur Island, which is a mile long by half +a mile wide, and commanded all the channels leading up to the +harbor. At the opening of the war it was seized by the Confederate +authorities, and it was garrisoned by 385 men, under command of Col. +Charles H. Olmstead. It mounted forty heavy guns, which protected +blockade-runners and kept out National vessels. Soon after the capture +of Port Royal, Gen. Quincy A. Gillmore was ordered to make a +reconnoissance of this work and the ground on Tybee Island southeast +of it, with a view to its reduction. He reported that it was possible +to plant batteries of rifled guns and mortars on Tybee Island, and +also on Jones Island, with which he believed the work could be +reduced. Jones Island is northwest of Cockspur Island. The Forty-sixth +New York Regiment, commanded by Colonel Rosa, was sent to occupy Tybee +Island, and a passage was opened between the islands and the mainland +north of Savannah, so that guns could be brought through and placed on +Jones Island. This was done with tremendous labor, the mortars +weighing more than eight tons each and having to be dragged over deep +mud on plank platforms, most of the work being done at night. The +Seventh Connecticut Regiment was now sent to join the Forty-sixth New +York on Tybee, and the construction of batteries and magazines {221} +on that island was begun. Here, also, the guns had to be carried +across spongy ground, 250 men being required for the slow movement of +each piece, and all the work being done at night and in silence; for +the batteries were to be erected within easy reach of the guns of the +fort. Their construction occupied about two months, and screens of +bushes were contrived to conceal from the Confederates what was going +on. There were eleven batteries ranged along the northern edge of +Tybee Island, mounting twenty heavy guns and sixteen thirteen-inch +mortars. When all was ready, the fort was summoned to surrender by +Gen. David Hunter, who had recently been placed in command of the +department. Colonel Olmstead replied: "I can only say that I am here +to defend the fort, not to surrender it." Thereupon the batteries +opened fire upon the fort, and a bombardment of thirty hours +ensued--April 10 and 11. At the end of that time ten of the fort's +guns were dismounted, and, as the fire of the rifled guns was rapidly +reducing its masonry to ruins, it was evident that it could not hold +out much longer; whereupon Colonel Olmstead surrendered. The only +casualties were one man killed on the National side, and three wounded +in the fort. It was found that the mortars had produced very little +effect, the real work being done by the rifled guns. General Hunter +said in his report: "The result of this bombardment must cause, I am +convinced, a change in the construction of fortifications as radical +as that foreshadowed in naval architecture by the conflict between the +_Monitor_ and the _Merrimac_. No works of stone or brick can resist +the impact of rifled artillery of heavy calibre." And General Gillmore +said: "Mortars are unavailable for the reduction of works of small +area like Fort Pulaski. They cannot be fired with sufficient accuracy +to crush the casement arches." A fortnight later, the attempt to +reduce Forts Jackson and St. Philip led Farragut to the same +conclusion concerning the use of mortars. + +[Illustration: BATTLE OF SECESSIONVILLE, JAMES ISLAND, S. C.] + +[Illustration: BRIGADIER-GENERAL EGBERT L. VIELE.] + +One who participated in the bombardment relates an amusing incident. +The batteries were under the immediate command of Lieut. (afterward +General) Horace Porter, who went around to every gun to ascertain +whether its captain was provided with everything that would be +necessary when the firing should begin. At one mortar battery fuse +plugs were wanting, and the officer was in despair. This battery had +the position nearest to the fort, and its four mortars were useless +without the plugs. Finally he remembered that there was a Yankee +regiment on the island, and remarked, "All Yankees are whittlers. If +this regiment could be turned out to-night, they might whittle enough +fuse plugs before morning to fire a thousand rounds." Thereupon he +rode out in the darkness to the camp of that regiment, which was +immediately ordered out to whittle, and provided all the fuse plugs +that were needed. The first gun was fired by Lieut. P. H. O'Rourke, +who afterward fell at the head of his regiment at Gettysburg. It is +said that the first gun against Sumter had been fired by a classmate +of his. One who was in the fort says: "At the close of the fight all +the parapet guns were dismounted except three. Every casemate gun in +the southeast section of the fort was dismounted, and the casemate +walls breached in almost every instance to the top of the arch. The +moat was so filled with brick and mortar that one could have passed +over dry shod. The parapet walls on the Tybee side were all gone. The +protection to the magazine in the northwest angle of the fort had all +been shot away, the entire corner of the magazine was shot off, and +the powder exposed. Such was the condition of affairs when Colonel +Olmstead called a council of officers in the casemate, and they all +acquiesced in the necessity of a capitulation in order to save the +garrison from destruction by an explosion, which was momentarily +threatened." + + * * * * * + +{222} [Illustration: FORT PULASKI DURING BOMBARDMENT, APRIL 11, 1862.] + +On the 16th of April the Eighth Michigan Regiment, Col. William M. +Fenton, with a detachment of Rhode Island artillery, was {223} sent +from Tybee Island, Ga., to make a reconnoissance of Wilmington Island. +On landing, they marched inland by three different roads, and soon +discovered the enemy in some force. They took up a position for +defence and were attacked by the Thirteenth Georgia Regiment. When +Colonel Fenton ordered the bugler to sound the charge for his main +body, his advance mistook it for retreat, fell back, and threw his +line into confusion. At this moment the enemy advanced and began +firing. Order was soon restored, and through the vigorous efforts of +Lieut. C. H. Wilson one company was carried to the right, through the +woods, and made a flank attack upon the enemy's left. Thereupon the +Confederates slowly retired, leaving their dead and wounded on the +field. The National loss was 45 men; Confederate loss, unknown. + +On the 10th of January an expedition consisting of 5,000 +men--infantry, cavalry, and artillery--set out from Cairo to make an +extended reconnoissance in the neighborhood of Columbus, Ky., and in +the direction of Mayfield. It was led by John A. McClernand, who was +temporarily in command of that district. Nearly every point of any +consequence within fifteen or twenty miles was visited, roads were +discovered that had not been laid down on any map, the position of the +enemy at Columbus was correctly ascertained, and much information was +obtained regarding the disposition of the inhabitants toward the +Government. The march of about one hundred and forty miles was made +over icy and miry roads with considerable difficulty, and proved +useful for future operations, although it was not enlivened by any +conflict. + +On the 15th of February Bowling Green, which had been considered an +important point in the line of defence that was first broken by +General Grant at Fort Henry, was evacuated by the Confederates, who +went to join their comrades at Fort Donelson. The National troops +under General Buell, marching forty miles in twenty-eight hours, took +possession of the place in the afternoon. + +Many of the gaps in the Alleghenies were strategically important +because they were the natural places for the crossing of the road that +connected the States east and west of that range, and there were +frequent expeditions and small actions at these gaps by which one side +or the other sought to clear them of the enemy. One of these took +place in March, 1862, when it was discovered that a somewhat irregular +Confederate force of about 500 men had taken possession of Pound Gap, +Eastern Kentucky, built huts, and gathered supplies for a permanent +occupation. A road to Abingdon, Va., passes through this gap. General +James A. Garfield, whose defeat of Humphrey Marshall on the Big Sandy +has been recorded in an earlier chapter, set out a month later, March +13th, with a force of 900 men to clear the Gap. It was a laborious +march of two days in snow and rain and mud, with roads obstructed by +felled trees, and streams whose bridges had been destroyed. Arriving +at Elkton Creek, two miles below the Gap, Garfield sent out his +cavalry to reconnoitre the position of the enemy, and himself with the +infantry climbed the mountain a mile or two below the Gap, and thence +moved along the summit to attack them in the flank. When this force +arrived at the Gap, the enemy were found deployed on the summit at its +opposite side. Garfield deployed his own force down the eastern slope, +and then ordered them to charge through the ravine and up the hill +held by the enemy, which they promptly did. But before they could +ascend the southern slope the whole Confederate force disappeared. +Nothing was left for the National troops to do but to ransack the +captured camp, pack up what they could of the large quantity of +supplies, burn the remainder, and return whence they came. + +When Kentucky was invaded by the Confederate forces of Bragg, Humphrey +Marshall, and Kirby Smith, the movement was accompanied and assisted +by a raid from a large band of guerillas, or partisan rangers as they +called themselves, led by a bold rider named John H. Morgan. The +principal resistance to Morgan was at Cynthiana, July 17th, about +fifty miles south of Cincinnati. The National troops occupying that +town were commanded by Lieut.-Col. J. J. Landrum, and numbered about +340, a part of them being home guards not very well armed or +disciplined, with one field gun. Morgan's men approached the town +suddenly, drove in the pickets, and began shelling the place without +giving any notice for the women and children to be removed. Landrum +immediately placed his one gun in the public square, where it could be +turned so as to sweep almost any of the roads entering the town, and +posted all of his force except the artillery in the outskirts where he +supposed the enemy were approaching, putting most of them at the +bridge overlooking. But to his surprise Morgan's force was very large +in comparison with his own, and entered the town from a different +direction. In a little while Landrum's men found themselves +practically surrounded, and subjected to a sharp fire both front and +rear, the guerillas having the shelter of the houses. The artillerymen +in the square were subjected to so hot a fire from the riflemen that +they were obliged to abandon their gun. Colonel Landrum writes: "I +rode along the railroad to Rankin's Hotel to ascertain what position +the enemy was taking. Here I met an officer of the rebel band, aid to +Colonel Morgan, who demanded my surrender. I replied, 'I never +surrender,' and instantly discharged three shots at him, two of which +took effect in his breast. He fell from his horse, and I thought him +dead; but he is still living, and will probably recover, +notwithstanding two balls passed through his body." A portion of +Landrum's force, posted north of the town, was overpowered and forced +to surrender. With another portion he attempted to drive the enemy +from the bridge and take their battery, but found them so strong there +as to render this hopeless, while all the time he was subjected to a +fire from the rear. Finally he determined with the remainder of his +men to cut his way through and escape. He emerged from the town in a +southeast direction, met and routed a small detachment of the enemy, +and was pursued by another detachment when he made a stand, posting +his men behind the fences, and for a considerable time held them in +check. When his ammunition was exhausted he gave orders for every man +to save himself as he could, and thus his command was dispersed. In +this affair the National forces lost about 70 men killed or wounded. +The loss of the guerillas is unknown, but they left behind them a +considerable number of wounded, and the capture of the town must have +cost them about 100 men. In this raid Morgan is said to have commanded +from 900 to 1,200 men, to have ridden over 1,000 miles, captured 17 +towns, and paroled nearly 1,200 prisoners. + +The smaller guerilla raids in Kentucky that year were more numerous +than any popular history could find space to record. Some of them, +however, were spiritedly met and severely punished. On the 29th of +July a band of over 200 attacked the village of Mt. Sterling. The +provost-marshal of the place, Capt. J. J. Evans, at once put every +able-bodied man in the village under arms, and posted them on both +sides of the street by which the guerillas were about to enter. He had +hardly done this when in came the enemy, yelling wildly and demanding +{224} their surrender. The answer was a well-aimed volley which +brought down the whole of their front rank, and which was rapidly +followed by other volleys that soon put them to flight. In their +retreat they met a detachment of the Eighteenth Kentucky Regiment, +under Major Bracht, which had been in pursuit of them, and when these +troops charged upon them they scattered in the fields and woods, +leaving horses, rifles, and other material. Their loss was about 100. + +On the 23d of August the Seventh Kentucky cavalry, a new regiment +commanded by Col. Leonidas Metcalfe, had a fight with Confederate +troops at Big Hill, about fifteen miles from Richmond. With 400 of his +men he set out to attack the enemy, and near the top of the hill +dismounted to fight on foot. He says: "We moved forward amid a shower +of bullets and shells, which so terrified my raw, undisciplined +recruits, that I could not bring more than 100 of them in sight of the +enemy. The great majority mounted their horses and fled, without even +getting a look at the foe. It was impossible to rally them, and they +continued their flight some distance north of Richmond." The hundred +men who stood their ground fought the enemy for an hour and a half and +finally compelled them to fall back. Soon afterward a new attack was +made upon Metcalfe's men by about 100 Confederates who dashed down the +road expecting to capture them. But he had placed 200 men of a +Tennessee infantry regiment in the bushes by the roadside, and their +fire brought down many of the enemy and dispersed the remainder. A few +minutes later still another attack was made by another detachment, +and, as before, the Tennesseeans met it with a steady fire and drove +them off. Metcalfe's men then retired to Richmond, whither the +Confederates pursued them and demanded a surrender of the town. +Metcalfe replied that he would not surrender but would fight it out, +and, as he presently received reinforcements, the enemy departed. He +lost in this affair about 50 men. The Confederate loss is unknown. + +[Illustration: A WOUNDED ZOUAVE. (From a War Department photograph.)] + +On the same days when the great battle of Groveton or second Bull Run +was fought in Virginia (August 29th and 30th, 1862), one of the +severest of the engagements consequent upon Kirby Smith's invasion +took place at Richmond, Ky. The National forces numbered about 6,500, +largely new troops, and were commanded by Brig.-Gen. M. D. Manson. +Kirby Smith had a force at least twice as large. Early in the +afternoon of the 29th the Confederates drove in Manson's outpost, and +he, having had early information of their approach, marched out to +meet them. About two miles from the town he took possession of a high +ridge commanding the turnpike, and formed his line of battle with +artillery on the flank. The enemy soon attacked in some force, and +were driven off by the fire from the guns. Manson then advanced +another mile, where he bivouacked, and sent out his cavalry to +reconnoitre. Early in the morning of the 30th the enemy advanced +again, when Manson's men drove them back and formed on a piece of high +wooded ground near Rogersville. Here the enemy attacked him in earnest +and in great force, attempting to turn his left flank, which faced +about and fought stubbornly. More of his forces were now brought to +the front and placed in line, and the battle became quite severe. At +length the enemy, with largely superior numbers, succeeded in breaking +his left wing, which retreated in disorder. "Up to this time," says +General Manson, "I had maintained my first position for three hours +and forty minutes, during all of which time the artillery, under +command of Lieutenant Lamphere, had kept up a constant fire, except +for a very short time when the ammunition had become exhausted. The +Fifty-fifth Indiana, the Sixteenth Indiana, the Sixty-ninth Indiana, +and the Seventy-first Indiana occupied prominent and exposed positions +from the commencement of the engagement, and contended against the +enemy with a {225} determination and bravery worthy of older soldiers. +The three remaining regiments of General Cruft's brigade arrived just +at the time when our troops were in full retreat and the rout had +become general. The Eighteenth Kentucky was immediately deployed into +line, and made a desperate effort to check the advance in the enemy, +and contended with him, single-handed and alone, for twenty minutes, +when after a severe loss they were compelled to give away before +overwhelming numbers." Deploying his cavalry as a rear guard, and +placing one gun to command the road, Manson retreated to his position +of the evening before and again formed line of battle. Here the enemy +soon attacked him again, advancing through the open fields in great +force. At this moment he received an order from his superior, General +Nelson, directing him to retire if the enemy advanced in force; but it +was then too late to obey, for within five minutes the battle was in +progress along the whole line. The right of the Confederates was +crushed by Manson's artillery fire, and the enemy then made a +determined effort to crush Manson's right, which, after being several +times gallantly repelled, they at length succeeded in doing. General +Nelson now appeared upon the field, and by his orders Manson's men +fell back and took up a new position very near the town. Here they +sustained another attack for half an hour, and then were broken and +once more driven back in confusion. Manson succeeded in organizing a +rear guard which assisted the escape of his main force, but was itself +defeated and broken to pieces in a later encounter. Manson, attempting +to escape through the enemy's lines, was fired upon, and his horse was +killed, he being soon afterward taken prisoner. His loss in this +engagement was about 900 killed or wounded, besides many prisoners. +The Confederate loss was reported at about 700. + +On the 9th of October a National force, commanded by Col. E. A. +Parrott, marched out and met the enemy at a place called Dogwalk, near +Lawrenceburg. Parrott placed his men in an advantageous position, with +two pieces of artillery, and soon saw the Confederate skirmishers +advancing toward it. He sent out his own skirmishers to meet them, and +placed his guns to command the road. The artillery was used very +effectively, especially in driving the enemy from a dwelling-house +where they had opened a severe fire on the line of skirmishers, and +after a fight that lasted from eight A.M. till afternoon the +Confederates retired, leaving a portion of their dead and wounded on +the field. Parrott lost fourteen men. + +[Illustration: BRIGADIER-GENERAL HUMPHREY MARSHALL, C. S. A.] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration: GENERAL E. KIRBY SMITH, C. S. A.] + +On the 18th of December a force of Confederate cavalry, under Gen. +N. B. Forrest, captured Lexington, Tenn. The town was defended by the +Eleventh Illinois cavalry, commanded by Col. Robert G. Ingersoll, +which withstood the enemy in a fight of three hours, and was then +compelled to retreat, leaving two guns in the hands of the +Confederates, who had lost about 40 men. + +The State of Tennessee, like some others of the Southern States, had +its mountain region and its lowland; and, as was generally true in +such cases in the Confederacy, the people of the mountain regions were +more inclined to be true to the Union, while those of the lowlands +favored secession. This fact, together with the position it occupied, +made Tennessee a debatable ground almost throughout the war. Besides +the great battles that were fought on her soil--Shiloh, Chickamauga, +Chattanooga, Franklin, and Nashville--there were innumerable minor +engagements of varying severity and importance. + +On the 24th of March, 1862, a regiment of loyal Tennesseeans, +commanded by Col. James Carter, left their camp at Cumberland Ford and +made a march of forty miles through the mountains to Big Creek Gap, +where they fought and defeated a body of Confederate cavalry, and +captured a considerable supply of tents, arms, provisions, wagons, and +horses. + +Union City, Tenn., was a small village at the junction of the {226} +railroads from Columbus and Hickman, and on the 30th of March an +expedition was sent out from Island No. 10, under Col. Abram Buford, +to make a reconnoissance there. Buford had four regiments of infantry, +with two companies of cavalry and a detachment of artillery. They made +a forced march of twenty-four hours, and discovered a body of +Confederate troops drawn in line of battle across the road near the +town. The flanks of the Confederate line were protected by woods, and +Buford sent off his cavalry to make a detour and get in their rear. In +a wheat field at the right of the road he found an eminence suitable +for his artillery, and it went into position at a gallop. Almost in +one moment the Confederates were subjected to a fire from rifle-guns, +saw a line of bayonets coming straight at them in front, and +discovered that hostile horsemen with drawn sabres were in their rear. +Naturally (and perhaps properly) they immediately turned and fled +without firing a gun. They numbered about 1,000 men, infantry and +cavalry. A few prisoners were taken, together with the camp and all +that it contained. The tents and barracks were now burned, and the +National forces marched to Hickman. + +Early in June an expedition commanded by Brig.-Gen. James S. Negley, +setting out from Columbia, marched eastward and southward toward +Chattanooga, for the purpose of reconnoitring and threatening that +place, bringing some relief to the persecuted Unionists of East +Tennessee, and ascertaining the truth of a report that the +Confederates were about to make a strong movement to recapture +Nashville. Their first capture was at Winchester, of a squad of +cavalrymen, including a man who was at once a clergyman, principal of +a female seminary, and captain in the Confederate service. This man +had made himself notorious by capturing and bringing in Union men to +the town, where they were given the alternative of enlisting as +Confederate soldiers or being hanged. Andrew Johnson, military +governor of Tennessee, who had himself suffered much persecution at +the hands of the secessionists, and was very bitter toward them, had +declared that rich rebels should be made to pay for the depredations +of the roving Confederate bands upon Union men. In accordance with +this, General Negley arrested a considerable number of well-known +secessionists in Marion County and assessed them two hundred dollars +apiece, appropriating the money to the relief of Union people in that +part of the State. Crossing the mountains to the Sequatchie Valley, +the expedition first met the enemy at Sweeden's Cove. They were soon +put to flight, however, by Negley's guns, and were then pursued by his +cavalry, who overtook them after a chase of two or three miles, rode +among them, and used their sabres freely until the Confederates were +dispersed. The next day the expedition proceeded toward Chattanooga, +where they found a large Confederate force with intrenchments and +several guns in position. In the afternoon the Confederates opened +fire with rifles and artillery, to which Negley's guns made reply, and +the cannonading was kept up for two hours, during which the National +gunners exhibited the greater skill and finally silenced the enemy's +batteries. These were repaired during the ensuing night, and the next +day were bombarded again, until it was discovered that the town had +been evacuated. It is related that during this fight a man appeared on +the Confederate intrenchments displaying a black flag, and was +instantly shot down. In his report General Negley said: "The Union +people in East Tennessee are wild with joy. They meet us along the +road by hundreds. I shall send you a number of their principal +persecutors from the Sequatchie valley." + +[Illustration: MAJOR-GENERAL JOHN M. PALMER.] + +[Illustration: MAJOR-GENERAL JAMES S. NEGLEY.] + +[Illustration: MAJOR-GENERAL WILLIAM NELSON.] + +About this time the roving Confederate cavalry, commanded by Gen. +N. B. Forrest, who two years later obtained such an unenviable +reputation for his conduct at Fort Pillow, began to attract special +attention by the rapidity and daring of its movements. On the 13th of +July he made an attack on Murfreesboro' at the head of about 3,000 +men. The town was garrisoned by about 800, not very skilfully disposed +or very well disciplined. The attack fell principally on the Ninth +Michigan Regiment, which fought courageously hand to hand for twenty +minutes and put the enemy to flight, losing about 90 men. The attack +was soon renewed by a larger force, and finally resulted in the defeat +of the Michigan men. Meanwhile another portion of Forrest's command +had attacked the court-house, where a portion of the garrison took +shelter and kept up a destructive fire from the windows. Being unable +to drive them out, the {227} Confederates set fire to the building, +when the garrison were, of course, compelled to retire. The +Confederates captured and paroled most of the garrison, packed up and +carried off what they could plunder, and burned a large quantity of +camp equipage and clothing. The garrison was commanded by Brig.-Gen. +Thomas L. Crittenden, who was severely censured for the mismanagement +that made the disaster possible. + +[Illustration: ANDREW JOHNSON. Military Governor of Tennessee, +afterward President.] + +[Illustration: A SONG AROUND THE CAMPFIRE.] + +Early in August Colonel De Courcey went out with his brigade from +Cumberland Gap southward toward Tazewell on a foraging expedition. +Near that town they were attacked by four Confederate regiments under +Colonel Rains, and the advance regiment of De Courcey's force was +immediately deployed across the road with artillery on the flank. The +enemy charged in columns, and was received in silence until he had +approached within two hundred and fifty yards, when a terrible fire +was opened upon him and threw him into disorder. In the meanwhile a +battery of six guns, unobserved by the Confederates, had gained an +eminence in their rear, and when it began firing they at once turned +and fled. The National loss in this short but brilliant action was 68, +50 of whom were prisoners, being two companies who were out on +detached service and were suddenly surrounded. The Confederate loss +was about 200. + +Brig.-Gen. R. W. Johnson, setting out with a force of infantry, +cavalry, and artillery to pursue the raider Morgan and his men, found +them (August 21st) at Galletin, and ordered an attack. All seemed to +be going well for a time, until confusion began to appear in his +command, and soon a panic arose and half of his men ran away. He and +some of his officers tried in vain to rally them, and finally he was +obliged to order a retreat of such of his men as had stood their +ground. He then marched for Cairo on the Cumberland, but, before +reaching that place found the enemy pressing so closely in his rear +that he was obliged to form line of battle to receive them. Again, +when the firing became brisk, most of his men broke and fled, while +with the remainder of his command he held the enemy in check until the +fugitives were enabled to cross the river, when he and his little band +were surrounded and captured. He had lost 30 men killed, and 50 +wounded, and 75 were made prisoners. + +On the 31st of August there was a severe skirmish near Bolivar, +between two regiments of infantry and two detachments of cavalry, and +a large Confederate force, which lasted about seven hours, and was +brought to a close by an artillery fire and a gallant charge from the +National troops. In this charge Lieutenant-Colonel Hogg, of the Second +Illinois cavalry, fell in a hand-to-hand fight with Colonel +McCullough. The next day, two regiments of infantry, with two +companies of cavalry and a battery, commanded by Colonel Dennis, +moving to attack this Confederate force in the rear, encountered them +at Britton's Lane, near Denmark. Dennis, who had about 800 men, +selected a strong position and awaited attack in a large grove +surrounded by cornfields. The Confederates, commanded by +Brigadier-General Armstrong, numbered at least 5,000, and were able +merely to surround the little band. They soon captured the +transportation train and two guns, but before the fight was over +Dennis's men recaptured them. For four hours the Confederates +persisted in making successive charges, all of which were gallantly +repelled, when they retired, leaving Dennis in possession of the +field. Their loss in killed and wounded was about 400. Dennis lost 60 +men. + +{228} [Illustration: GOING TO THE FRONT--REGIMENTS PASSING THE ASTOR +HOUSE, NEW YORK.] + +In October General Negley, commanding at Nashville, learning that a +considerable Confederate force under Generals Anderson, Harris, and +Forrest was being concentrated at La Vergne, fifteen miles eastward, +for the purpose of assaulting the city, sent out a force of about +2,500 men, under command of Gen. John M. Palmer, to attack them. A +portion of this force marched directly by the Murfreesboro' road, +while the remainder made a detour to the south. The Confederate +pickets and videttes were on the alert, and made a skirmish for +several miles, enabling the main body to prepare for the attack. The +battle was opened by fire of the Confederate artillery, but this was +soon silenced when a shell exploded their ammunition chest. Almost at +the same moment the detachment that had made a detour came up and +struck the Confederates on the flank, at the same time deploying +skilfully so as to cut off their retreat. In this difficult situation +the Confederates held their ground and fought for half an hour before +they broke and retreated in confusion. They had lost about 80 men +killed or wounded, and 175 were captured, besides three {229} guns, a +considerable amount of stores, stand of colors, etc. General Palmer +lost 18 men. + +On the 18th of November 200 men of the Eighth Kentucky Regiment, under +Lieutenant-Colonel May, was guarding a supply train bivouacked on an +old camp-meeting ground at Rural Hills, seventeen miles southeast of +Nashville. While they were at breakfast the next morning the crack of +rifles was heard, and in a moment two columns of Confederate cavalry +were seen rushing upon them from their front and their right. The boys +in blue seized their muskets, fell into line, and in a moment met the +enemy with a sharp and continuous fire. Presently a section of +National artillery was brought into action, and not only played upon +the enemy immediately in front, but also upon a larger body that was +discovered somewhat more than a mile away. This was answered by two or +three Confederate guns, and the fight was continued for half an hour, +when the assailants withdrew, leaving a dozen dead men on the field. +Colonel May lost no men. + +A similar affair took place on the 6th of December, at Lebanon, where +the Ninety-third Ohio Regiment, under Col. Charles Anderson, was +guarding a forage train. Seeing an enemy in front, who were evidently +preparing to intercept the train, he marched his regiment in +double-quick time through the fields skirting the road, in order to +get ahead of the train and prevent an attack upon it. By the time he +got there the Confederates were in position to receive him, and a +sharp fight ensued, which ended in the flight of the Confederates. In +these little affairs there was often displayed a dash and courage by +individual soldiers, which in a war of less gigantic dimensions would +have immortalized them. Every historian of the Revolutionary war +thinks it necessary to record anew the fact that when the flagstaff of +Fort Moultrie was shot away Sergeant Jasper leaped down from the +parapet and recovered it under fire. Without disparaging his exploit, +it may be said that it was surpassed in hundreds of instances by men +on both sides in the civil war. In the little action just described, +William C. Stewart, a color-bearer, was under fire for the first time +in his life. Colonel Anderson says he "stood out in front of his +company and of the regiment with his tall person and our glorious flag +elevated to their highest reach; nor could he be persuaded to seek +cover or to lower his colors." + +At Hartsville on the Cumberland, about forty miles from Murfreesboro', +1,900 National troops, under command of Col. Absalom B. Moore, were +encamped in a position which would have been very strong if held by a +larger force, but was dangerous for one so small. Against this place +Morgan the raider, at the head of 4,000 men, marched on the 7th of +December. He crossed the river seven miles from Hartsville, at a point +where nobody supposed it could be crossed by any such force, on +account of the steepness of the banks. With a little digging he made a +slope, down which he slid his horses, and at the water's edge his men +remounted. Coming up unexpectedly by a byroad, they captured all the +National pickets except one, who gave the alarm and ran into the camp. +The Nationals formed quickly in line of battle, but at the first fire +the One Hundred and Eighth Ohio broke, leaving the flank exposed. The +Confederates saw their advantage, seized it, and quickly poured in a +cross-fire, which compelled the remainder of Moore's forces to fall +back, though they did not do it without first making a stubborn fight. +Soon afterward Colonel Moore, considering it sufficiently evident that +further resistance was useless, raised a white flag and surrendered +his entire command. + +A similar surrender took place at Trenton, December 20th, when +Forrest's cavalry attacked that place for the purpose of breaking the +railroad and cutting off General Grant's supplies. Col. Jacob Fry, who +was in command there, had been notified by Grant to look out for +Forrest, as he was moving in that direction. He got together what +force he could, consisting largely of convalescents and fugitives, and +numbering but 250 in all, and prepared to make a defence. He had a few +sharp-shooters, whom he placed on two buildings commanding two of the +principal streets, and when in the afternoon the enemy appeared, +charging in two columns, they were met by so severe a fire from these +men that they quickly moved out of range. Forrest then planted a +battery of six guns where it could command the position held by the +Nationals, and opened fire with shells. Colonel Fry says: "Seeing that +we were completely in their power, and had done all the damage to them +we could, I called a council of officers. They were unanimous for +surrender.... The terms of the surrender were unconditional; but +General Forrest admitted us to our paroles the next morning, sending +the Tennessee troops immediately home, and others to Columbus under a +flag of truce." + +Thus far in his raiding operations General Forrest had had things +mainly his own way, but in the closing engagement he was not so +fortunate. While he was marching toward Lexington a force of 1,500 +men, commanded by Col. C. L. Dunham, was sent out to intercept him, +and came upon a portion of his troops at Parker's Cross Roads, five +miles south of Clarksburg, on the 30th of December. After some +preliminary skirmishes Dunham, seeing that he was soon to be attacked, +placed his men in readiness, and with two pieces of artillery opened +fire. This was replied to by the Confederates with six guns, and +Dunham then retreated some distance to a good position on the crest of +a ridge, placing his wagon train in the rear. The enemy in heavy +column soon emerged from the woods, and made a movement evidently +intended to gain his flank and rear; whereupon he promptly changed his +position to face them, and opened fire. But the Confederate artillery +gained a position where it could enfilade his lines, and at the same +time he was attacked in the rear by a detachment of dismounted +cavalry. Again he promptly changed his position, facing to the rear, +and drove off the enemy with a considerable loss, completing their +rout by a brilliant bayonet charge. A detachment of cavalry also made +two charges upon him from another direction, and both times was +repelled. This was the end of the principal fighting of the day. A few +minutes later Forrest sent in a flag of truce demanding an +unconditional surrender, to which Colonel Dunham replied: "You will +get away with that flag very quickly, and bring me no more such +messages. Give my compliments to the general, and tell him I never +surrender. If he thinks he can take me, come and try." In the course +of the battle Dunham's wagon train was captured, and he now called for +volunteers to retake it. A company of the Thirty-ninth Iowa offered +themselves for this task and quickly accomplished it, not only +recapturing the train but bringing in also several prisoners, +including Forrest's adjutant-general and three other officers. +Reinforcements for Dunham now approached, and the Confederates +departed. The National loss, in killed, wounded, and missing, was 220. +The Confederate loss is unknown. Another instance of peculiar +individual gallantry is here mentioned by the colonel in his report. +"As our line faced about and pressed back in their engagement of the +enemy in our rear, one of the guns of the battery was left behind in +the edge of the woods. All the {230} horses belonging to it had been +killed but two. After everybody had passed and left it, Private E. A. +Topliff, fearing that the enemy might capture it, alone and under a +smart fire disengaged the two horses, hitched them to the piece, and +took it safely out." + + * * * * * + +Although the struggle to determine whether Missouri should remain in +the Union or go out of it had been decided in the first year of the +war, her soil was by no means free from contention and bloodshed in +the second year. The earliest conflict took place in Randolph County, +January 8th, where 1,000 Confederates, under Colonel Poindexter, took +up a strong position at Roan's Tanyard, on Silver Creek, seven miles +south of Huntsville. Here they were attacked by about 500 men under +Majors Torrence and Hubbard, and after half an hour's fighting were +completely routed. Their defeat was owing mainly to the inefficiency +of their commander. The victors burned the camp and a considerable +amount of stores. + +In February Captain Nolen, of the Seventh Illinois cavalry, with 64 +men, while reconnoitring near Charleston, struck a small detachment of +Confederate cavalry under Jeff Thompson. Nolen pursued them for some +distance, and when Thompson made a stand and brought up his battery to +command the road, the Illinois men promptly charged upon it, captured +four guns, and put the Confederates to flight. + +[Illustration: BRIGADIER-GENERAL JUSTUS McKINSTRY.] + +The most infamous of all the guerilla leaders was one Quantrell, who +seemed to take delight in murdering prisoners, whether they were +combatants or non-combatants. His band moved with the usual celerity +of such, and, like the others, was exceedingly difficult to capture, +or even find, when any considerable force set out to attack it. On the +22d of March a detachment of the Sixth Kansas Regiment overtook +Quantrell near Independence, killed seven of his men, and caused the +remainder to retreat precipitately, except eleven of them who were +captured. + +Another encounter with Quantrell's guerilla band was had at +Warrensburg, March 26, where he attacked a detachment of a Missouri +regiment commanded by Major Emery Foster. Although Quantrell had 200 +men, and Foster but 60, the latter, skilfully using a thick plank +fence for protection, succeeded in inflicting so much loss upon the +guerillas that they at length retired. Nine of them were killed and 17 +wounded. The National loss was 13, including Major Foster wounded. The +same night about 500 guerillas attacked four companies of militia at +Humonsville, but were defeated and driven off with a loss of 15 killed +and a large number wounded. + +On the 26th of April the Confederate general John S. Marmaduke +attacked the town of Cape Girardeau, but after a smart action was +driven off, with considerable loss, by the garrison, under Gen. John +McNeil. In the evening of the next day the cavalry force that formed +the advance guard on his retreat was surprised and attacked near +Jackson by the First Iowa cavalry and other troops. Two howitzers, +loaded with musket balls, were fired at them when they were not more +than thirty yards away, and the next instant the Iowa cavalry swooped +down upon them in a spirited charge, from which not one of the +Confederates escaped. All that were not killed were captured, together +with a few guns, horses, etc. + +[Illustration: A MILITARY PONTOON BRIDGE.] + +One of the most desperate fights with guerillas took place near +Memphis, Mo., on the 18th of July. A band of 600 had chosen a strong +position for their camp, partly concealed {231} by heavy brush and +timber, when they were attacked by a force of cavalry and militia, +commanded by Major John Y. Clopper. Clopper first knew their location +when they fired from concealment upon his advance guard, and he +immediately made dispositions for an attack. His men made five +successive charges across open ground, and were five times repelled; +but, nothing disheartened, and having now learned the exact position +of the concealed enemy, they advanced in a sixth charge, and engaged +him hand to hand. The result of the fight was the complete defeat of +the guerillas, who fled, leaving their dead and wounded on the field +and in the woods. Clopper lost 83 men. + +In these affairs the guerillas were by no means always defeated. When +in August a band of 800 had been gathered by one Hughes, it was +determined to make an attack upon the small National garrison at +Independence, principally for the purpose of obtaining additional +arms. The guerillas surprised, captured, and murdered the picket +before they could give an alarm, and then entered the town by two +roads, and attacked the various buildings where detachments of the +garrison were stationed. A gallant resistance was made at every +possible point; but as the guerillas outnumbered the defenders two to +one, and there was no prospect of any relief, Lieut.-Col. J. T. Buell, +commanding the town, finally surrendered. Hughes and many of his men +had been killed. Several of the buildings were riddled with balls, and +26 of the garrison lost their lives. + +Again, at Lone Jack, Mo., five days later (August 16th), the guerillas +were successful in a fight with the State militia. Major Foster at the +head of 600 militiamen was hunting guerillas, when he suddenly found +more than he wanted to see at one time. They were estimated at 4,000, +and on the approach of Foster's little force they turned and attacked +him. Foster's men fought gallantly for four hours, and were not +overpowered until they had lost 160 men, the loss of the guerillas +being about equal. On the approach of National reinforcements the +guerillas retreated. + +A month later, at Shirley's Ford on Spring River, the Third Indiana +Regiment, commanded by Colonel Ritchie, attacked and defeated a force +of 600 guerillas, including about 100 Cherokee Indians, 60 of whom +were killed or wounded before they retreated. + +[Illustration: MAJOR-GENERAL JOHN S. MARMADUKE, C. S. A.] + +[Illustration: BRIGADIER-GENERAL JEFF M. THOMPSON, C. S. A.] + +[Illustration: BRIGADIER-GENERAL H. H. SIBLEY, C. S. A.] + +One more desperate fight with guerillas in that State took place on +the 29th of October, near Butler, in Bates County. A band of them, who +had been committing depredations, and were threatening several towns, +were pursued by 220 men of the First Kansas colored regiment, +commanded by white officers. The guerillas in superior force attacked +them near Osage Island, charging upon them and making every +demonstration of special hatred for the blacks; but the colored men +stood their ground like any other good soldiers, and dealt out severe +punishment to the guerillas. When, finally, the cavalrymen succeeded +in riding in among the colored troops, many desperate hand-to-hand +encounters ensued. Not a colored soldier would surrender; and one of +the leaders of the guerillas, in describing the action, said that "the +black devils fought like tigers." The character of much of the +guerilla fighting may be seen from a few incidents of this battle. +While Lieutenant Gardner was lying wounded and insensible, a guerilla +approached him, cut his revolver from the belt, and fired it at his +head. Fortunately the ball only grazed the skull, and the next instant +a wounded colored soldier near by raised himself sufficiently to level +his musket and shoot the miscreant dead. Captain Crew had been killed, +and a guerilla was rifling his pockets, when another wounded colored +soldier summoned strength enough to get to his feet and despatch the +guerilla with his bayonet. On the approach of reinforcements for the +little band, the guerillas retreated. The National force lost about 20 +men. + + * * * * * + +Northern Arkansas, as well as southern Missouri, was infested by bands +of Confederate guerillas, though it was not so rich a field for their +operations, as the number of Unionists in that State was comparatively +small. + +In February, the First Missouri cavalry, hunting guerillas there, were +fired upon from ambush at Sugar Creek, and 18 men fell. The regiment +immediately formed for action, and artillery was brought up and the +woods were shelled, but with no result except the unseen retreat of +the enemy. + + * * * * * + +At Searcy Landing, on Little Red River, 150 men of the National force +had a fight with about twice their number of Confederates, whom they +routed with a loss of nearly 100 men. + +On the 22d of October, Brig.-Gen. James G. Blunt, commanding a +division of the Army of the Frontier, set out from Pea Ridge with two +brigades. After a toilsome march of thirty {232} miles he came upon a +Confederate force at Old Fort Wayne, near Maysville, which consisted +of two Texas regiments and other troops, numbering about 5,000 in all. +He found them in position to receive battle, but believing that they +intended to retreat he made haste to attack them with his advance +guard and shell them with two howitzers. The enemy promptly answered +the artillery fire and showed no signs of retreating, but on the +contrary attempted to overwhelm the little force. General Blunt +hurried forward the main body of his troops and flanked the enemy upon +both wings, then making a charge upon their centre and capturing their +artillery. This completely broke them up, and they fled in disorder, +being pursued for seven miles. Blunt lost about a dozen men, and found +50 of the enemy's dead on the field. + +[Illustration: PRACTICE BATTERY, NAVAL ACADEMY, ANNAPOLIS, MD.] + +On the 26th of November General Blunt learned that Marmaduke's +Confederate command was at Cane Hill, and immediately set out to +attack it with 5,000 men and 30 guns. After a march of thirty-five +miles he sent spies into the enemy's camp to learn its exact location +and condition, who discovered that on one of the approaches there were +no pickets out. He therefore made his dispositions for an attack on +that side, and was not discovered until he was within half a mile of +their lines, when they opened upon him with artillery. He replied with +one battery, and kept up a brisk fire while he sent back to hurry up +the main body of his troops. Placing guns on an eminence, he shelled +the enemy very effectively, and then formed his command in line for an +advance, expecting a desperate resistance, but found to his surprise +that they had quietly retreated. They made a stand a few miles distant +at the base of the Boston Mountains, and there he attacked them again, +when they retired to a lofty position on the mountain side, with +artillery on the crest. The Second and Eleventh Kansas and Third +Cherokee regiments stormed this position and carried it, when the +enemy fled in disorder and was pursued for three miles through the +woods. Here another stand was made by their rear guard, which was +promptly charged by Blunt's cavalry. But the position defended was in +a defile, and the cavalry suffered severely. Bringing up his guns, +Blunt was about to shell them out, when they sent in a flag of truce +with a request for permission to remove their dead and wounded. +General Blunt granted this, but it proved that the flag of truce {233} +was only a trick of Marmaduke's to obtain time to escape with his +command. Darkness now came on, and the pursuit was abandoned. Blunt +had lost about 40 men, and Marmaduke about 100. + +A much more important action than of those just recorded took place at +Prairie Grove on the 7th of December. Learning that General Hindman's +forces had joined those of General Marmaduke, making an army of about +25,000 men, General Blunt, fearing an attack, ordered the divisions +commanded by Gen. F. J. Herron to join him at once. Herron obeyed the +order promptly; but the Confederates, learning of this movement, made +an advance for the purpose of interposing between Blunt and Herron. +They attacked Herron first, who drove back their advance and then +found them in position on a ridge commanding the ford across Illinois +Creek. Herron sent a detachment of his men to cut a road through the +woods and come in upon their flank, thus drawing their fire in that +direction and enabling his main force to cross the ford. This movement +was successful, and in a short time his command had crossed and +brought its guns to bear upon the enemy's position. He then pushed +forward his infantry in several charges, one of which captured a +battery, but all of which were finally repelled. The Confederates then +made a grand charge in return and came within a hundred yards of +Herron's guns, but the fire of artillery and musketry was too much for +them, and they retired in disorder. Again, in his turn, Herron charged +with two regiments, again captured a battery, and again was forced to +retire. While this action was in progress Blunt was pressing forward +to the relief of Herron with his command, and now came in on the +right, joined in the fight and defeated the enemy, who repeated their +trick with a flag of truce and escaped in the night. In this battle +the total National loss, killed, wounded, and missing, was 1,148. The +Confederate loss is not exactly known, but was much larger, and +included General Stein among the killed. + +[Illustration: CONSTRUCTING WINTER QUARTERS.] + +[Illustration: ALLAN PINKERTON AND SECRET SERVICE OFFICERS.] + +The great war extended not only over the Southern States, but into +some of the Territories. In the summer of 1861 the Confederate +government commanded Gen. H. H. Sibley to organize a brigade in Texas +and march northward into New Mexico for the conquest of that +Territory. He moved up the Rio Grande in January, 1862, and early in +February came within striking distance of Fort Craig, on the western +bank of the river, which was the headquarters of Col. (afterward Gen.) +E. R. S. Canby, who commanded the National forces in New Mexico. Canby +planned to attack him, and began by sending a force of cavalry with +two batteries to cut off the Texans from their supply of water at the +river. In that vicinity, on account of the steep banks, there was only +one point where the stream could be reached. This detachment, however, +was a little too late, as the Confederates had already gained the +water. Colonel Roberts, in command of the detachment, fired upon them +with his batteries, dismounted one of their guns, and drove them off. +Roberts then crossed to the eastern bank, and the fight was renewed +with varying success, until the Confederates charged upon and captured +some of his guns. Colonel Canby then came upon the field with more of +his forces and ordered an advance to attack the enemy where he +appeared to be lurking in the edge of a wood. But the Confederates did +not wait to be attacked. After a sharp musketry fire on the right +flank, they made desperate charges to capture Canby's two batteries. +The one against Hall's battery was made by cavalry, and the horsemen +were struck down so rapidly by the fire of the guns that they could +not reach it. The other was made by infantry, armed principally with +revolvers. The guns, commanded by Captain McRae, were served rapidly +and skilfully, and made awful slaughter of the Texans; but they +continually closed up the gaps in their ranks and steadily pushed +forward until the battery was theirs. The infantry supports, who +should have prevented this capture, miserably failed in their duty and +finally ran away from the field. McRae and his men remained at their +guns till the last minute, and most of them, including Captain McRae, +were killed. With the loss of the battery, hope of victory was gone, +and the National troops retired to the fort. Canby had in this fight +about 1,500 men, and lost about 200. The Confederates numbered about +2,000, and their loss is unknown. + +Another fight in this territory took place at Apache Cańon, twenty +miles from Santa Fé, on the 28th of March, where Major Chivington with +1,300 men and six guns overtook and attacked a force of about 2,000 +Texans. The first shots were fired by a small party of the Texans in +ambush, who were immediately rushed upon and disposed of by the +advance guard of the Nationals. Chivington then pressed forward, +surprised and captured the pickets, and about noon attacked the main +force of the enemy. The battle lasted four hours, and Chivington with +his six guns had a great advantage over the Texans, who had but one. +The result was a complete defeat of the Confederates and capture of +their entire train {234} consisting of sixty-four wagons. The Texans +had made four attempts to capture Chivington's guns, as they had +captured Canby's, but only met with heavy loss. The total Confederate +loss was over 300 killed or wounded, and about 100 taken prisoners. +Chivington's loss was 150. + +[Illustration: HEADQUARTER GUARD, ARMY OF THE POTOMAC.] + +[Illustration: BRINGING IN A PRISONER.] + + * * * * * + +In obedience to an Act of Congress, Lieut.-Com. Thomas S. Phelps, in +command of the steamer _Corwin_, was detached from the North Atlantic +blockading squadron and ordered to make a regular survey of the +Potomac River, to facilitate the operations of the army, no survey of +this river ever having been made. He began the work in July, 1862, and +rapidly pushed it to its completion in March, 1863, most of the time +opposed by the artillery and cavalry of the Confederates. During the +winter months it was frequently necessary to break the ice in order to +prosecute the work. While thus engaged, he assisted materially in the +blockade of the river and in breaking up the haunts of the +contrabandists. The magnitude of the work may be imagined from the +fact that on the Kettle-bottoms alone, a section of the river about +ten miles in length by an average of four miles in width, more than +six hundred miles of soundings were run, necessitated by the immense +number of small shoals on this ground which were dangerous to +navigation. The length of river surveyed was ninety-seven miles. + + * * * * * + +Enraged by real or fancied wrongs in the failure of payment of +annuities, the Sioux Indians took the opportunity when the Government, +as they supposed, had all it could do to grapple with the rebellion, +to indulge in a general uprising in the Northwest. In August they +attacked several frontier towns of Minnesota and committed horrible +atrocities. The village of New Ulm was almost destroyed, and more than +100 of its citizens--men, women, and children--were massacred. They +also destroyed the agencies at Redwood and Yellow Medicine, and +attacked the villages of Hutchinson and Forest City, but from these +latter were driven off. They besieged Fort Ridgley, but did not +succeed in capturing it. Altogether they committed about 1,000 +murders. Col. H. H. Sibley with a strong force was sent against them, +and in September overtook several bodies of the Sioux, all of whom he +defeated. In the principal battle two cannon, of which the Indians +have always been in mortal terror, were used upon them with great +effect. The Indians asked for a truce to rescue their wounded and bury +their dead, but Sibley declined to grant any truce until they should +return the prisoners whom they had carried off. Ultimately about 1,000 +Indians were captured. Many of them were tried and condemned, and 39 +were hanged. + + + + +{235} + +CHAPTER XX. + +EMPLOYMENT OF COLORED SOLDIERS. + +ENLISTMENT OF COLORED SOLDIERS DENOUNCED IN THE SOUTH--NEGRO +ASSISTANTS IN CONFEDERATE ARMIES--CONFEDERATE THREATS AGAINST NEGRO +SOLDIERS AND THOSE WHO LED THEM--DEMOCRATIC JOURNALS IN THE NORTH +DENOUNCE THE ENLISTMENT OF COLORED SOLDIERS--INTENSITY OF FEELING ON +THE SUBJECT OF SLAVERY--INTERESTING CRITICISMS BY COUNT +GUROWSKI--BLACK SOLDIERS IN THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR--BRAVERY OF COLORED +TROOPS--OPINION OF COL. THOMAS W. HIGGINSON--AN INTERESTING +STORY--NEGRO SENTINELS IN CONFEDERATE ARMIES. + + +The year 1863 began with several events of the first importance. On +December 31st and January 2d there was a great battle in the West, +which has just been described. On New Year's Day the final +proclamation of emancipation was issued, and measures were taken for +the immediate enlistment of black troops. On that day, also, in the +State of New York, which furnished one-sixth of all the men called +into the National service, the executive power passed into hands +unfriendly to the Administration. + +The part of President Lincoln's proclamation that created most +excitement at the South was not that which declared the freedom of the +blacks--for the secessionists professed to be amused at this as a +papal bull against a comet--but that which announced that negroes +would thenceforth be received into the military service of the United +States. Whatever might be said of the powerlessness of the Government +to liberate slaves that were within the Confederate lines, it was +plain enough that a determination to enlist colored troops brought in +a large resource hitherto untouched. Military men in Europe, having +only statistical knowledge of our negro population, and not +understanding the peculiar prejudices that hedged it about, had looked +on at first in amazement, and finally in contempt, at its careful +exclusion from military service. The Confederates had no special +scruples about negro assistance on their own side; for they not only +constantly employed immense numbers of blacks in building +fortifications and in camp drudgery, but had even armed and equipped a +few of them for service as soldiers. In a review of Confederate troops +at New Orleans, in the first year of the war, appeared a regiment of +free negroes, and early the next year the legislature of Virginia +provided for the enrolment of the same class. + +[Illustration: THE COOK.] + +[Illustration: EVENING AT A NEGRO CABIN.] + +But the idea that emancipated slaves should be employed to fight +against their late masters and for the enfranchisement of their own +race, appeared to be new, startling, and unwelcome; and the +Confederates, both officially and unofficially, threatened the direst +penalties against all who should lead black soldiers, as well as +against such soldiers themselves. General Beauregard wrote to a friend +in the Congress at Richmond: "Has the bill for the execution of +Abolition prisoners, after January next, been passed? Do it, and +England will be stirred into action. It is high time to proclaim the +black flag after that period. Let the execution be with the garrote." +Mr. Davis, late in December, 1862, issued a proclamation outlawing +General Butler and all commissioned officers in his command, and +directing that whenever captured they should be reserved for +execution, and added, "That all negro slaves captured in arms be at +once delivered over to the executive authorities of the respective +States to which they belong, to be dealt with according to the laws of +said States," and, "That the like orders be executed with respect to +all commissioned officers of the United States, when found serving in +company with said slaves." The Confederate Congress passed a series of +resolutions in which it was provided that on the capture of any white +commissioned officer who had {236} armed, organized, or led negro +troops against the Confederacy, he should be tried by a military court +and put to death or otherwise punished. + +Democratic journalists and Congressmen at the North were hardly less +violent in their opposition to the enlistment of black men. They +denounced the barbarity of the proceeding, declared that white +soldiers would be disgraced if they fought on the same field with +blacks, and anon demonstrated the utter incapacity of negroes for war, +and laughed at the idea that they would ever face an enemy. Most of +the Democratic senators and representatives voted against the +appropriation bills, or supported amendments providing that "no part +of the moneys shall be applied to the raising, arming, equipping, or +paying of negro soldiers," and the more eloquent of them drew pitiful +pictures of the ruin and anarchy that were to ensue. Representative +Samuel S. Cox, then of Ohio, said: "Every man along the border will +tell you that the Union is forever rendered hopeless if you pursue +this policy of taking the slaves from the masters and arming them in +this civil strife." + +It is impossible at this distance of time, and after the question of +slavery in our country has been so thoroughly settled that nobody +disputes the righteousness and wisdom of its abolition, to convey to +younger readers an adequate idea either of the diversity of opinion or +the intensity of feeling on the subject, when it was still under +discussion and was complicated with great military and political +problems. Not only before the Emancipation Proclamation was issued, +but for a considerable time afterward, these opinions were tenaciously +held and these feelings expressed. The so-called conservatives of the +Northern States constantly affirmed that abolitionists of whatever +degree, and active secessionists, were equally wrong and blameworthy; +that the latter had no right to break up the Union for any cause, and +that the former had no right to emancipate the slaves even to save the +Union. They assumed that the Constitution of the United States was +perpetual, perfect, and infallible for all time, and ignored the +natural antagonism between the systems of slave labor and free labor. +In June, 1862, the conservative members of Congress held a meeting, +and adopted a declaration of principles which included the following: +"At the call of the Government a mighty army, the noblest and most +patriotic ever known, sprung at once into the field, and is bleeding +and conquering in defence of its Government. Under these circumstances +it would, in our opinion, be most unjust and ungenerous to give any +new character or direction to the war, for the accomplishment of any +other than the first great purpose, and especially for the +accomplishment of any mere party or sectional scheme. The doctrines of +the secessionists and abolitionists, as the latter are now represented +in Congress, are alike false to the Constitution and irreconcilable to +the peace and unity of the country. The first have already involved us +in a cruel civil war, and the others--the abolitionists--will leave +the country but little hope of the speedy restoration of the Union or +peace, if the schemes of confiscation, emancipation, and other +unconstitutional measures which they have lately carried, and +attempted to carry, through the House of Representatives, shall be +enacted into the form of laws and remain unrebuked by the people. It +is no justification of such acts that the crimes committed in the +prosecution of the rebellion are of unexampled atrocity, nor is there +any such justification as State necessity known to our government or +laws." + +On the other hand, at a great mass meeting held in Union Square, New +York City, July 15, 1862, a series of resolutions was adopted which +included the following: + +"That we are for the union of the States, the integrity of the +country, and the maintenance of this Government without any condition +or qualification whatever, and at every necessary sacrifice of life or +treasure. + +"That we urge upon the Government the exercise of its utmost +skill and vigor in the prosecution of this war, unity of design, +comprehensiveness of plan, a uniform policy, and the stringent use of +all the means within its reach consistent with the usages of civilized +warfare. + +"That we acknowledge but two divisions of the people of the United +States in this crisis--those who are loyal to its Constitution and +every inch of its soil and are ready to make every sacrifice for the +integrity of the Union and the maintenance of civil liberty within it, +and those who openly or covertly endeavor to sever our country or to +yield to the insolent demand of its enemies; that we fraternize with +the former and detest the latter; and that, forgetting all former +party names and distinctions, we call upon all patriotic citizens to +rally for one undivided country, one flag, one destiny." + +The extreme of opinion in favor of immediate and unqualified +emancipation, and of employment of colored troops, with impatience at +all delay in adopting such a policy, was represented picturesquely, if +not altogether justly, by Count Gurowski. Adam Gurowski was a Pole who +had been exiled for participating in revolutionary demonstrations, and +after a varied career had come to the United States, where he engaged +in literary pursuits, and from 1861 to 1863 was employed as a +translator in the state department at Washington. He was now between +fifty and sixty years of age, and was a keen observer and merciless +critic of what was going on around him. He had published several books +in Europe, and his diary kept while he was in the state department has +also been put into print. It is exceedingly outspoken in every +direction; and though it is often unjust, and represents hardly more +than his own exaggerated eccentricity, yet in many respects he struck +at once into the heart of important truths which slower minds +comprehended less readily or less willingly. The following extracts +are suggestive and interesting. Their dates range from April, 1862, to +April, 1863. + +"Mr. Blair [Montgomery Blair, Postmaster-General] worse and worse; is +more hot in support of McClellan, more determined to upset Stanton; +and I heard him demand the return of a poor fugitive slave woman to +some of Blair's Maryland friends. Every day I am confirmed in my creed +that whoever had slavery for mammy is never serious in the effort to +destroy it. Whatever such men as Mr. Lincoln and Mr. Blair will do +against slavery will never be radical by their own choice or +conviction, but will be done reluctantly, and when under the +unavoidable pressure of events.... Mr. Lincoln is forced out again +from one of his pro-slavery intrenchments; he was obliged to yield, +and to sign the hard-fought bill for emancipation in the District of +Columbia. But how reluctantly, with what bad grace he signed it! Good +boy; he wishes not to strike his mammy. And to think that the friends +of humanity in Europe will credit this emancipation not where it is +due, not to the noble pressure exercised by the high-minded Northern +masses! Mr. Lincoln, his friends assert, does not wish to hurt the +feelings of any one with whom he has to deal. Exceedingly amiable +quality in a private individual, but at times turning almost to be a +vice in a man intrusted with the destinies of a nation. So he never +could decide to hurt the feelings of McClellan, and this after all +{237} the numerous proofs of his incapacity. But Mr. Lincoln hurts +thereby, and in the most sensible manner, the interests, nay, the +lives of the twenty millions of people.... The last draft could be +averted from the North if the four millions of loyal Africo-Americans +were called to arms. But Mr. Lincoln, with the Sewards, the Blairs, +and others, will rather see every Northern man shot than to touch the +palladium of the rebels.... Proclamation _conditionally_ abolishing +slavery from 1863. The _conditional_ is the last desperate effort made +by Mr. Lincoln and by Mr. Seward to save slavery. The two statesmen +found out that it was dangerous longer to resist the decided, +authoritative will of the masses. But if the rebellion is crushed +before January 1st, 1863, what then? If the rebels turn loyal before +that term? Then the people of the North will be cheated. The +proclamation is written in the meanest and the most dry routine style; +not a word to evoke a generous thrill, not a word reflecting the warm +and lofty comprehension and feelings of the immense majority of the +people on this question of emancipation. Nothing for humanity, nothing +to humanity. How differently Stanton would have spoken! General +Wadsworth truly says that never a noble subject was more belittled by +the form in which it was uttered.... The proclamation of September 22d +may not produce in Europe the effect and the enthusiasm which it might +have evoked if issued a year ago, as an act of justice and of +self-conscientious force, as an utterance of the lofty, pure, and +ardent aspirations and will of a high-minded people. Europe may see +now in the proclamation an action of despair made in the duress of +events.... Every time an Africo-American regiment is armed or created, +Mr. Lincoln seems as though making an effort, or making a gracious +concession in permitting the increase of our forces. It seems as if +Mr. Lincoln were ready to exhaust all the resources of the country +before he boldly strikes the Africo-American vein." + +One hundred and seventy thousand negroes were enlisted, and many of +them performed notable service, displaying, at Fort Wagner, Olustee, +and elsewhere, quite as much steadiness and courage as any white +troops. If the expressions of doubt as to the military value of the +colored race were sincere, they argued inexcusable ignorance; for +black soldiers had fought in the ranks of our Revolutionary armies, +and Perry's victory on Lake Erie in 1813--which, with the battle of +the Thames, secured us the great Northwest--was largely the work of +colored sailors. + +[Illustration: PLANTER'S RESIDENCE IN LOUISIANA.] + +[Illustration: A "CONTRABAND."] + +[Illustration: NEGRO CABIN ON SOUTHERN PLANTATION.] + +The President recognized the obligation of the Government to protect +all its servants by every means in its power, and issued a +proclamation directing that "for every soldier of the United States +killed in violation of the laws of war, a rebel soldier shall be +executed; and for every one enslaved by the enemy or sold into +slavery, a rebel soldier {238} shall be placed at hard labor on the +public works." But such retaliation was never resorted to. + +[Illustration: COLONEL ROBERT G. SHAW. (Commanding the Fifty-fourth +Massachusetts Colored Regiment.)] + +Before the war it had been a constant complaint of the Southerners, +that the discussion of schemes for the abolition of slavery, and the +scattering of documents that argued the right of every man to liberty, +were likely to excite bloody insurrection among the slaves. And many +students of this piece of history have expressed surprise that when +the war broke out the blacks did not at once become mutinous all over +the South, and make it impossible to put Confederate armies in the +field. But it must be remembered, that although the struggle resulted +in their liberation, yet when it was begun no intention was expressed +on the part of the Government except a determination to save the +Union, and the war had been in progress a year and a half before the +blacks had any reason to suppose it would benefit them whichever way +it might turn. They were often possessed of more shrewdness than they +were credited with. Their sentiments up to the time of the +Emancipation Proclamation were perhaps fairly represented by one who +was an officer's servant in an Illinois regiment, and was at the +battle of Fort Donelson. A gentleman who afterward met him on the deck +of a steamer, and was curious to know what he thought of the struggle +that was going on, questioned him with the following result: + +"Were you in the fight?" + +"Had a little taste of it, sa." + +"Stood your ground, did you?" + +"No, sa; I runs." + +"Run at the first fire, did you?" + +"Yes, sa; and would ha' run soona had I know'd it war comin'." + +"Why, that wasn't very creditable to your courage." + +"Dat isn't in my line, sa; cookin's my perfeshun." + +"Well, but have you no regard for your reputation?" + +"Refutation's nuffin by de side ob life." + +"Do you consider your life worth more than other people's?" + +"It's worth more to me, sa." + +"Then you must value it very highly?" + +"Yes, sa, I does; more dan all dis wuld; more dan a million of +dollars, sa: for what would dat be wuf to a man wid de bref out of +him? Self-perserbashum am de fust law wid me." + +"But why should you act upon a different rule from other men?" + +"Because different men set different values upon dar lives: mine is +not in de market." + +"But if you lost it, you would have the satisfaction of knowing that +you died for your country." + +"What satisfaction would dat be to me when de power ob feelin' was +gone?" + +"Then patriotism and honor are nothing to you?" + +"Nuffin whatever, sa: I regard dem as among de vanities: and den de +Gobernment don't know me; I hab no rights; may be sold like old hoss +any day, and dat's all." + +"If our old soldiers were like you, traitors might have broken up the +Government without resistance." + +"Yes, sa; dar would hab been no help for it. I wouldn't put my life in +de scale 'ginst any gobernment dat ever existed; for no gobernment +could replace de loss to me." + +"Do you think any of your company would have missed you if you had +been killed?" + +"May be not, sa; a dead white man ain't much to dese sogers, let alone +a dead nigga; but I'd a missed myself, and dat was de pint wid me." + +Incidents like this were eagerly reported by journals that chose to +argue that the colored men would not fight in any case, and such +assertions were kept up and repeated by them long after they had +fought most gallantly on several fields. Somebody in describing one of +these battles used the expression, "The colored troops fought nobly," +and this was seized upon and repeated sneeringly in hundreds of +head-lines and editorials, always with an implication that it was +buncombe, until the readers of those journals were made to believe +that such troops did not fight at all. The fact was that their +percentage of losses on the whole number that went into the service +was slightly greater than that of the white troops; and when we +consider that they fought with a prospect of being either murdered or +sold into slavery, if they fell into the hands of the enemy, it must +be acknowledged that they were entitled to a full measure of credit. +Immediately after the proclamation of emancipation was issued, Lorenzo +Thomas, adjutant-general of the army, was sent to Louisiana, where he +explained his mission in a speech to the soldiers, in the course of +which he said: + +"Look along the river, and see the multitude of deserted plantations +upon its banks. These are the places for these freedmen, where they +can be self-sustaining and self-supporting. All of you will some day +be on picket-duty; and I charge you all, if any of this unfortunate +race come within your lines, that you do not turn them away, but +receive them kindly and cordially. They are to be encouraged to come +to us; they are to be received with open arms; they are to be fed and +clothed; they are to be armed. This is the policy that has been fully +determined upon. I am here to say that I am authorized to raise as +many regiments of blacks as I can. I am authorized to give +commissions, from the highest to the lowest; and I desire those +persons who are earnest in this work to take hold of it. I desire only +those whose hearts are in it, and to them alone will I give +commissions. I don't care who they are, or what their present rank may +be. I do not hesitate to say, that all proper persons will receive +commissions. + +"While I am authorized thus in the name of the Secretary of War, I +have the fullest authority to dismiss from the army any man, be his +rank what it may, whom I find maltreating the freedmen. This part of +my duty I will most assuredly perform if any case comes before me. I +would rather do that than give {239} commissions, because such men are +unworthy the name of soldiers. This, fellow soldiers, is the +determined policy of the Administration. You all know, full well, when +the President of the United States, though said to be slow in coming +to a determination, once puts his foot down, it is there; and he is +not going to take it up. He has put his foot down. I am here to assure +you that my official influence shall be given that he shall not raise +it." + +Major-Gen. B. M. Prentiss then made a speech, in which he said, that +"from the time he was a prisoner, and a negro sentinel, with firm +step, beat in front of his cell, and with firmer voice commanded +silence within, he prayed God for the day of revenge; and he now +thanked God that it had come." + +General Prentiss, it will be remembered, had been captured at the +battle of Shiloh, and from this incidental testimony it appears that +he found the Confederates had negroes doing duty as sentinels at +least. + +Col. Thomas W. Higginson, who saw much service in General Saxton's +department on the coast of South Carolina, and who there raised and +commanded a regiment of colored troops, wrote: "It needs but a few +days to show up the absurdity of distrusting the military availability +of these people. They have quite as much average comprehension as +whites of the need of the thing, as much courage I doubt not, as much +previous knowledge of the gun, and, above all, a readiness of ear and +imitation which for purposes of drill counterbalances any defect of +mental training. As to camp life, they have little to sacrifice; they +are better fed, housed, and clothed than ever in their lives before, +and they appear to have fewer inconvenient vices. They are simple, +docile, and affectionate almost to the point of absurdity. The same +men who stood fire in open field with perfect coolness, on the late +expedition, have come to me blubbering in the most irresistibly +ludicrous manner on being transferred from one company in the regiment +to another. This morning I wandered about where different companies +were target shooting, and their glee was contagious. Such exulting +shouts of 'Ki! ole man,' when some steady old turkey-shooter brought +his gun down for an instant's aim and unerringly hit the mark; and +then, when some unwary youth fired his piece into the ground at half +cock, such infinite guffawing and delight, such rolling over and over +on the grass, such dances of ecstasy, as made the Ethiopian minstrelsy +of the stage appear a feeble imitation." + +[Illustration: COLORED INFANTRY AT FORT LINCOLN.] + +The first regiment of colored troops raised at the North was the +Fifty-fourth Massachusetts, commanded by Col. Robert G. Shaw, who fell +at their head in the desperate assault on Fort Wagner. The +whole-heartedness with which, when once permitted to enlist, the +colored soldiers entered into the war, is {240} indicated by the fact +that their enthusiasm added not only to the muskets in the field, but +also to the music and poetry in the air. A private in the regiment +just mentioned produced a song which, whatever its defects as poetry, +can hardly be criticised for its sentiments. + + Frémont told them, when the war it first begun, + How to save the Union, and the way it should be done; + But Kentucky swore so hard, and Old Abe he had his fears, + Till every hope was lost but the colored volunteers. + + CHORUS. + + Oh, give us a flag all free without a slave! + We'll fight to defend it as our fathers did so brave. + The gallant Comp'ny A will make the rebels dance; + And we'll stand by the Union, if we only have a chance. + + McClellan went to Richmond with two hundred thousand brave; + He said, "Keep back the niggers," and the Union he would save. + Little Mac he had his way, still the Union is in tears: + _Now_ they call for the help of the colored volunteers. + _Cho._--Oh, give us a flag, etc. + + Old Jeff says he'll hang us if we dare to meet him armed-- + A very big thing, but we are not at all alarmed; + For he first has got to catch us before the way is clear, + And "that's what's the matter" with the colored volunteer. + _Cho._--Oh, give us a flag, etc. + + So rally, boys, rally! let us never mind the past. + We had a hard road to travel, but our day is coming fast; + For God is for the right, and we have no need to fear; + The Union must be saved by the colored volunteer. + _Cho._--Oh, give us a flag, etc. + +How many of them Jeff Davis did hang, or otherwise murder, will never +be known; but it is certain that many of those captured were disposed +of in some manner not in accordance with the laws of war. At the +surrender of Port Hudson not a single colored man was found alive, +although it was known that thirty-five had been taken prisoners by the +Confederates during the siege. It is no wonder that when they did go +into battle they fought with desperation. The first regular engagement +in which they took part was the battle of Milliken's Bend, La., June +7, 1863; concerning which an eye-witness wrote: + +"A force of about five hundred negroes, and two hundred men of the +Twenty-third Iowa, belonging to the Second Brigade, Carr's division +(the Twenty-third Iowa had been up the river with prisoners, and was +on its way back to this place), was surprised in camp by a rebel force +of about two thousand men. The first intimation that the commanding +officer received was from one of the black men, who went into the +colonel's tent, and said, 'Massa, the secesh are in camp.' The colonel +ordered him to have the men load their guns at once. He instantly +replied: 'We have done did that now, massa.' Before the colonel was +ready, the men were in line, ready for action. As before stated, the +rebels drove our force toward the gunboats, taking colored men +prisoners and murdering them. This so enraged them that they rallied, +and charged the enemy more heroically and desperately than has been +recorded during the war. It was a genuine bayonet charge, a +hand-to-hand fight, that has never occurred to any extent during this +prolonged conflict. Upon both sides men were killed with the butts of +muskets. White and black men were lying side by side, pierced by +bayonets, and in some instances transfixed to the earth. In one +instance, two men--one white and the other black--were found dead, +side by side, each having the other's bayonet through his body. If +facts prove to be what they are now represented, this engagement of +Sunday morning will be recorded as the most desperate of this war. +Broken limbs, broken heads, the mangling of bodies, all prove that it +was a contest between enraged men--on the one side, from hatred to a +race; and on the other, desire for self-preservation, revenge for past +grievances and the inhuman murder of their comrades. One brave man +took his former master prisoner, and brought him into camp with great +gusto. A rebel prisoner made a particular request that his own negroes +should not be placed over him as a guard." + +Capt. M. M. Miller, who commanded a colored company in that action, +said: "I went into the fight with thirty-three men, and had sixteen +killed, eleven badly wounded, and four slightly. The enemy charged us +so close that we fought with our bayonets hand to hand. I have six +broken bayonets to show how bravely my men fought. The enemy cried, +'No quarter!' but some of them were very glad to take it when made +prisoners. Not one of my men offered to leave his place until ordered +to fall back. No negro was ever found alive that was taken a prisoner +by the rebels in this fight." + +[Illustration: THE "INTELLIGENT CONTRABAND."] + +[Illustration] + + + + +{241} + +CHAPTER XXI. + +CHANCELLORSVILLE. + +"FIGHTING JOE HOOKER"--LETTER FROM PRESIDENT LINCOLN--RESTORING THE +DISCIPLINE OF THE ARMY--CAPTURING THE HEIGHTS OF +FREDERICKSBURG--SKILLFUL MOVEMENT BY "STONEWALL" JACKSON--HEROIC +CHARGE OF CAVALRY COMMANDED BY MAJOR PETER KEENAN--ACCIDENTAL SHOOTING +OF GENERAL JACKSON--DEFEAT OF THE NATIONAL FORCES--GENERAL HOOKER'S +EXPANATION OF HIS FAILURE--NUMEROUS INTERESTING INCIDENTS. + + +After Burnside's failure at Fredericksburg, he was superseded, January +25, 1863, by General Joseph Hooker, who had commanded one of his grand +divisions. Hooker, now forty-eight years old, was a graduate of West +Point, had seen service in the Florida and Mexican wars, had been +through the peninsula campaign with McClellan, was one of our best +corps commanders, and was a favorite with the soldiers, who called him +"Fighting Joe Hooker." In giving the command to General Hooker, +President Lincoln accompanied it with a remarkable letter, which not +only exhibits his own peculiar genius, but suggests some of the +complicated difficulties of the military and political situation. He +wrote: "I have placed you at the head of the Army of the Potomac. Of +course I have done this upon what appear to me sufficient reasons, and +yet I think it best for you to know there are some things in regard to +which I am not quite satisfied with you. I believe you to be a brave +and skilful soldier, which of course I like. I also believe you do not +mix politics with your profession, in which you are right. You have +confidence in yourself, which is a valuable if not indispensable +quality. You are ambitious, which, within reasonable bounds, does good +rather than harm; but I think that during General Burnside's command +of the army you have taken counsel of your ambition, and thwarted him +as much as you could, in which you did a great wrong to the country, +and to a most meritorious and honorable brother officer. I have heard, +in such a way as to believe it, of your recently saying, that both the +army and the government needed a dictator. Of course it was not for +this, but in spite of it, that I have given you the command. Only +those generals who gain successes can set up dictators. What I now ask +of you is military success, and I will risk the dictatorship. The +Government will support you to the utmost of its ability, which is +neither more nor less than it has done and will do for all commanders. +I much fear that the spirit which you have aided to infuse into the +army, of criticising their commander, and withholding confidence from +him, will now turn upon you. I shall assist you as far as I can to put +it down. Neither you nor Napoleon, were he alive again, could get any +good out of any army while such a spirit prevails in it. And now, +beware of rashness! Beware of rashness! But with energy and sleepless +vigilance go forward and give us victories." + +[Illustration: MAJOR-GENERAL JOSEPH HOOKER.] + +Hooker restored the discipline of the Army of the Potomac, which had +been greatly relaxed, reorganized it in corps, and opened the spring +campaign with every promise of success. The army was still on the +Rappahannock, opposite Fredericksburg, and he planned to cross over +and strike Lee's left. Making a demonstration with Sedgwick's corps +below the town, he moved a large part of his army up-stream, crossed +quickly, and had forty-six thousand men at Chancellorsville before Lee +guessed what he was about. This "ville" was only a single house, named +from its owner. Eastward, between it and Fredericksburg, there was +open country; west of it was the great thicket known as the +Wilderness, in the depths of which, a year later, a bloody battle was +fought. + +Instead of advancing into the open country at once, and striking the +enemy's flank, Hooker lost a day in inaction, which gave Lee time to +learn what was going on and to make dispositions to meet the +emergency. Leaving a small force to check Sedgwick, who had carried +the heights of Fredericksburg, he moved toward Hooker with nearly all +his army, May 1st, and attacked at various points, endeavoring to +ascertain Hooker's exact position. By nightfall of this same day, +Hooker appears to have lost confidence in the plans with which he set +out, and been deserted by his old-time audacity; for instead of +maintaining a tactical offensive, he drew back from some of his more +advanced positions, formed his army in a semicircle, and awaited +attack. His left and his centre were strongly posted and to some +extent intrenched; but his right, consisting of Howard's corps, was +"in the air," and, moreover, it faced the Wilderness. When this weak +spot was discovered by the enemy, on the morning of the 2d, Lee sent +Jackson with twenty-six thousand men to make a long detour, pass into +the Wilderness, and, emerging suddenly from its eastern edge, take +Howard by surprise. Jackson's men were seen and counted as they passed +over the crest of a hill; they were even attacked by detachments from +Sickles's corps; and Hooker sent orders to Howard to strengthen his +position, advance his pickets, and not allow himself to be surprised. +But Howard appears to have disregarded all precautions, and in the +afternoon the enemy came down upon him, preceded by a rush of +frightened wild animals driven from their cover in the woods by the +advancing battle-line. Howards corps was doubled up, thrown into +confusion, and completely routed. The enemy was {242} coming on +exultingly, when General Sickles sent Gen. Alfred Pleasonton with two +regiments of cavalry and a battery to occupy an advantageous position +at Hazel Grove, which was the key-point of this part of the +battlefield. Pleasonton arrived just in time to see that the +Confederates were making toward the same point and were likely to +secure it. There was but one way to save the army, and Pleasonton +quickly comprehended it. He ordered Major Peter Keenan, with the +Eighth Pennsylvania cavalry regiment, about four hundred strong, to +charge immediately upon the ten thousand Confederate infantry. "It is +the same as saying we must be killed," said Keenan, "but we'll do it." +This charge, in which Keenan and most of his command were slain, +astonished the enemy and stopped their onset, for they believed there +must be some more formidable force behind it.[1] + +[Footnote 1: This is the story of Keenan's charge as told by General +Pleasanton, and generally accepted, which has been made the theme of +much comment and several poems. Nobody questions that the charge was +gallantly made, and resulted in heavy loss to the intrepid riders; but +several participants have recorded their testimony that it did not +take place by order of General Pleasanton or in any such manner as he +relates--in fact, that it was rather an unexpected encounter with the +enemy when the regiment was obeying orders to cross over from a point +near Hazel Grove to the aid of General Howard. Among these is Gen. +Pennock Huey, who was the senior major in command of the regiment, and +was one of the few officers that survived the charge.] + +In the precious minutes thus gained, Pleasonton brought together +twenty-two guns, loaded them with double charges of canister, and had +them depressed enough to make the shot strike the ground half-way +between his own line and the edge of the woods where the enemy must +emerge. When the Confederates resumed their charge, they were struck +by such a storm of iron as nothing human could withstand; other troops +were brought up to the support of the guns, and what little artillery +the Confederates had advanced to the front was knocked to pieces. + +[Illustration: MAJOR-GENERAL JOHN SEDGWICK.] + +[Illustration: BREVET MAJOR-GENERAL D. N. COUCH.] + +Here, about dusk, General Jackson rode to the front to reconnoitre. As +he rode back again with his staff, some of his own men, mistaking the +horsemen for National cavalry, fired a volley at them, by which +several were killed. Another volley inflicted three wounds upon +Jackson; and as his frightened horse dashed into the woods, the +general was thrown violently against the limb of a tree and injured +still more. Afterward, when his men were bearing him off, a National +battery opened fire down the road, one of the men was struck, and the +general fell heavily to the ground. He finally reached the hospital, +and his arm was amputated, but he died at the end of a week. Jackson's +corps renewed its attack, under Gen. A. P. Hill, but without success, +and Hill was wounded and borne from the field. + +The next morning, May 3d, it was renewed again under Stuart, the +cavalry leader, and at the same time Lee attacked in front with his +entire force. The Confederates had sustained a serious disaster the +evening before, in the loss of Lee's ablest lieutenant; but now a more +serious one befell the National army, for General Hooker was rendered +insensible by the shock from a cannon-ball that struck a pillar of the +Chancellor house, against which he was leaning. After this there was +no plan or organization to the battle on the National side--though +each corps commander held his own as well as he could, and the men +fought valiantly--while Lee was at his best. The line was forced back +to some strong intrenchments that had been prepared the night before, +when Lee learned that Sedgwick had defeated the force opposed to him, +captured Fredericksburg heights, and was promptly advancing upon the +Confederate rear. Trusting that the force in his front would not +advance upon him, Lee drew off a large detachment of his army and +turned upon Sedgwick, who after a heavy fight was stopped, and with +some difficulty succeeded in crossing the river after nightfall. Lee +then turned again upon Hooker; but a great storm suspended operations +for twenty-four hours, and the next night the National army all +recrossed the Rappahannock, leaving on the field fourteen guns, +thousands of small arms, all their dead, and many of their wounded. In +this battle or series of battles, the National loss was about +seventeen thousand men, the Confederate about thirteen thousand. +Hooker had commanded about one hundred and thirteen thousand five +hundred, to Lee's sixty-two thousand (disregarding the different +methods of counting in the two armies); but as usual they were not in +action simultaneously; many were hardly in the fight at all, and at +every point of actual contact, with the exception of Sedgwick's first +engagement, the Confederates were superior in numbers. + +Three general officers were killed in this battle. On the National +side, Major-Gens. Hiram G. Berry and Amiel W. Whipple; on the +Confederate side, Brig.-Gen. E. F. Paxton. {243} General Jackson, as +already mentioned, was mortally wounded, and several others were hurt, +some of them severely. + +[Illustration: MAP OF THE BATTLE OF CHANCELLORSVILLE.] + +Sedgwick's part of this engagement is sometimes called the battle of +Salem Heights, and sometimes the second battle of Fredericksburg. + +Two coincidences are noticeable in this action. First, each commander +made a powerful flank movement against his opponent's right, and +neither of these movements was completely successful, although they +were most gallantly and skilfully made. Second, each commander, in his +after explanations accounting for his failure to push the fight any +farther, declared that he could not conscientiously order his men to +assail the strong intrenchments of the enemy. + +{244} [Illustration: BATTLE OF CHANCELLORSVILLE, SUNDAY, MAY 3, +1863--REPELLING ATTACK OF CONFEDERATES.] + +General Hooker's explanation of his failure, so far as it could be +explained, was given in a conversation with Samuel P. Bates, his +literary executor, who visited the ground with him in 1876. Mr. Bates +says: "Upon our arrival at the broad, open, rolling fields opposite +Banks's Ford, three or four miles up the stream, General Hooker +explained, waving his hand significantly: 'Here on this open ground I +intended to fight my battle. But the trouble was to get my army on it, +as the banks of the stream are, as you can see, rugged and +precipitous, and the few fords were strongly fortified and guarded by +the enemy. By making a powerful demonstration in front of and below +the town of Fredericksburg with a part of my army, I was able, +unobserved, to withdraw the remainder, and, marching nearly thirty +miles up the stream, to cross the Rappahannock and the Rapidan +unopposed, and in four days' time to arrive at Chancellorsville, +within five miles of this coveted ground.... But at midnight General +Lee had moved out with his whole army, and by sunrise was in firm +possession of Jackson's Ford, had thrown up this line of breastworks, +which you can still follow with the eyes, and it was bristling with +cannon from one end to the other. Before I had proceeded two miles the +heads of my columns, while still upon the narrow roads in these +interminable forests, where it was impossible to manoeuvre my forces, +were met by Jackson with a full two-thirds of the entire Confederate +army. I had no alternative but to turn back, as I had only a fragment +of my command in hand, and take up the position about Chancellorsville +which I had occupied during the night, as I was being rapidly +outflanked upon my right, the enemy having open ground on which to +operate.... Very early on the first day of the battle I rode along the +whole line and examined every part, suggesting some changes and +counselling extreme vigilance. Upon my return to headquarters I was +informed that a continuous column of the enemy had been marching past +my front since early in the morning. This put an entirely new phase +upon the problem, and filled me with apprehension for the safety of my +right wing, which was posted to meet a front attack from the south, +but was in no condition for a flank attack from the west. I +immediately dictated a despatch to Generals Slocum and Howard, saying +that I had good reason to believe that the enemy was moving to our +right, and that they must be ready to meet an attack from the west.... +The failure of Howard to hold his ground cost us our position, and I +was forced, in the presence of the enemy, to take up a new one.'"[2] + +[Footnote 2: "Battles and Leaders of the Civil War," vol. iii, p. 217, +_et seq._] + +{245} General Howard says he did not receive that despatch, and in his +report he gave the following reasons for the disaster that overtook +his corps: "I. Though constantly threatened and apprised of the moving +of the enemy, yet the woods were so dense that he was able to mass a +large force, whose exact whereabouts neither patrols, reconnoissances, +nor scouts ascertained. He succeeded in forming a column opposite to +and outflanking my right. II. By the panic produced by the enemy's +reverse fire, regiments and artillery were thrown suddenly upon those +in position. III. The absence of General Barlow's brigade, which I had +previously located in reserve and _en echelon_ with Colonel Von +Gilsa's, so as to cover his right flank. This was the only general +reserve I had." + +[Illustration: MAJOR PETER KEENAN.] + +[Illustration: MAJOR-GENERAL HIRAM G. BERRY.] + +[Illustration: LIEUTENANT-GENERAL THOMAS J. ("STONEWALL") JACKSON, +C. S. A.] + +[Illustration: JACKSON'S ATTACK ON RIGHT WING AT CHANCELLORSVILLE.] + +Every such battle has its interesting incidents, generally enough to +fill a volume, and they are seldom repeated. Some of the most +interesting incidents of Chancellorsville are told by Capt. Henry N. +Blake, of the Eleventh Massachusetts Regiment. Here are a few of them: + +"A man who was loading his musket threw away the cartridge, with a +fearful oath about government contractors; and I noticed that the +paper was filled with fine grains of dry earth instead of gunpowder. +In the thickest of the firing an officer seized an excited +soldier--who discharged his piece with trembling hands near the ears, +and endangered the lives, of his comrades--and kicked him into the +centre of the road. Trade prospered throughout the day, and the United +States sharp-shooters were constantly exchanging their dark green caps +for the regulation hats which were worn by the regiment. The captain +of one of the companies of skirmishers was posted near a brook at the +base of a slight ascent upon which the enemy was massed, and there was +a scattering fire of bullets which cautioned all to 'lie down.' While +he was rectifying the alignment he perceived with amazement one of his +men, who sat astride a log and washed his hands and face, and then +cleansed the towel with a piece of soap which he carried. One +sharp-shooter shielded himself behind a blanket; and another concealed +himself behind an empty cracker-box, the sides of which were half an +inch in thickness, exposed his person as little as possible, and felt +as secure as the ostrich with his head buried in the sand. + +"The ominous silence of the sharp-shooters in front was a sure +indication that the main force was approaching; and a rebel officer, +upon the left, brought every man into his place in the ranks by +exclaiming to his command: 'Forward, double-quick, march! Guide left!' +The hideous yells once more disclosed their position in the dark +woods; but the volleys of buck and ball, and the recollection of the +previous repulse, quickly hushed their outcries, and they were again +vanquished. The conflict upon the left still continued, and the +defeated soldiers began to reinforce the troops that were striving by +desperate efforts to pierce the line, until a company swept the road +with its fire and checked the movement, and only one or two rebels at +intervals leaped across the deadly chasm. A demand for ammunition was +now heard--the most fearful cry of distress in a battle--and every man +upon the right contributed a few cartridges, which were carried to the +scene of action in the hats of the donors. The forty rounds which fill +the magazines are sufficient for any combat, unless the troops are +protected by earthworks or a natural barrier; and the extra +cartridges, which must be placed in the pockets and knapsacks, are +seldom used. + +"It was after sunset; but the flashes of the rifles in the darkness +were the targets at which the guns were fired, until the enemy retired +at nine P.M., and the din of musketry was succeeded by the groans of +the wounded. The song of the whippoorwills increased the gloom that +pervaded the forest; and the pickets carefully listened to them, +because the hostile {246} skirmishers might signal to each other by +imitating the mournful notes. The rebels gave a yell as soon as they +were beyond the range of Union bullets, and repeated it in tones which +grew more distinct when they had retreated a great distance and +considered themselves safe. The abatis upon the extreme left was set +on fire in this prolonged struggle; and a gallant sergeant--who fell +at Gettysburg--sprang over the work, and averted the most serious +results by pouring water from the canteens of his comrades until the +flames were extinguished. The skirmishers began to exchange shots at +daybreak upon May 3d, and a bullet penetrated the head of a lieutenant +who was asleep in the adjoining company, and he never moved. There was +a ceaseless roll of musketry; at half-past five A.M. the batteries +emitted destructive charges of canister, and most of the men in the +ranks of the support crouched upon the ground while the balls passed +over them. For two hours the hordes of Jackson, encouraged by their +easy victory upon May 2d, screamed like fiends, assailed the troops +that defended the plank road, and succeeded in turning their left, and +compelling them to retire through the forest, and re-form their +shattered lines. There was no running: the soldiers fell back slowly, +company after company, and wished for some directing mind to select a +new position. Unfortunately the National cause had lost General Berry, +the brave commander of the division; the ranking brigadier, General +Mott, was wounded; another brigadier was an arrant coward; and the +largest part of nine regiments were marched three miles to the rear by +one of the generals without any orders. The regiments of the brigade, +under the supervision of their field and line officers, rallied in the +open field near the Chancellor house, which was the focus upon which +Lee concentrated his batteries, until the shells ignited it; and the +flames consumed some of the wounded who were helpless, and three women +that remained in the cellar for safety barely escaped from the ruins. +The brigade was aligned upon the road to the United States ford at +nine A.M., and the men recovered their knapsacks in the midst of a +heavy cannonading which still continued. No symptoms of fear were +manifested, although the artillery was planted upon the left, in the +rear and the front, from which point most of the shells were hurled; +and the force was threatened with capture. A rebel and a member of the +brigade rested together near an oak, and mutually assisted each other +to fight the fire in the forest, that began raging while the battle +was in progress; and joyfully clasped their scorched and aching hands +in friendship when it was quelled. Colors were captured, and hundreds +of the foe threw down their arms and retreated with the Union forces; +and happy squads without any guard were walking upon the road, and +inquiring the way to the rear. Three batteries lost most of their +horses, and a large proportion of their men, by the concentration of +Lee's artillery, and the bullets of the sharp-shooters, who were +specially instructed to pick off the animals before they shot the +gunners. Several pieces, including one without wheels, which had been +demolished, were drawn from the field by details from the infantry. +Some of those who were slightly injured returned to their commands +after their wounds had been dressed, and fought again. One cannon-ball +killed a cavalryman and his horse; and a shell tore the clothing from +an aid, but inflicted no personal hurt, and he returned, after a brief +absence, to search for his porte-monnaie, which he carried in the +pocket that had been so suddenly wrested from him. + +"The corps color was always waving in the front; and General Sickles, +smoking a cigar, stood a few feet from the regiment, in the road up +which the troops had marched from the Chancellor house; and aids and +orderlies were riding to and fro, one of whom reported that his steed +had been killed. 'Captain, the Government will furnish you with +another horse,' he complacently replied. + +"A rebel officer of high rank, who had been captured, stopped {247} +near the general, and sought to open a conversation, with the +following result: + +"'General, I have met you in New York.' + +"'Move forward that battery.' + +"'General, I have seen you before.' + +"'The brigade must advance to the woods.' + +"'General, don't you remember'-- + +"'Go to the rear, sir; my troops are now in position.' + +[Illustration: BRIGADIER-GENERAL J. H. VAN ALLEN. (Aide-de-Camp to +General Hooker.)] + +"There were few, if any, stretcher bearers at the front, and wounded +men that had lost a leg or an arm dragged themselves to the +field-hospital; and the surgeons of some regiments which had not been +engaged in the battle sat upon a log in idleness, and refused, with a +great display of dignity, to assist the suffering who were brought to +them, because they did not belong to their commands. This shameful +conduct, which I often witnessed, exasperated the officers and +soldiers; and they compelled the surgeons to discharge their duty in a +number of cases by threatening to shoot them. The heat was very +severe; many cannoneers divested themselves of their uniforms while +they were working; and a number of the skirmishers, who were posted in +the open field, and obliged to lie low without any shelter, were +sometimes afflicted by sunstroke. 'I will win a star or a coffin in +this battle,' remarked a colonel as he was riding to the scene of +conflict in which a bullet checked his noble military aspirations. 'To +take a soldier without ambition is to pull off his spurs.' 'I have got +my leave of absence now,' gladly said an officer, whose application +had always been refused at headquarters, when he left the regiment to +go to the hospital. The appearance of a rabbit causes an excitement +and a chase upon all occasions, and one ran in front of the line as +the action commenced; and the birds were flying wildly among the +trees, as if they anticipated a storm; and a soldier shouted, 'Stop +him, stop him! I could make a good meal if I had him.' 'This is +English neutrality,' an intelligent metal moulder remarked, in +examining the fragment of a shell, and explaining the process of its +manufacture to the company; while the rebel batteries every minute +added some specimens to his collection. The officials in Richmond +published at this time an order, directing that the clothing should be +taken from the bodies of their dead and issued to the living. They +always stripped the dead and the dying upon every field; and I noticed +that one man who had been stunned, and afterward effected his escape, +wore merely a shirt and hat when he entered the lines. An officer who +was going the rounds in the night was surprised to find one of his +most faithful men who returned no answer to his inquiries; and +supposing that he had been overcome by fatigue, and fallen asleep, +grasped his hands to awaken him: but they were cold with death. The +soldier, killed upon his post of duty, rested in the extreme front, +with his musket by his side, and face toward the enemies of his +country. General Whipple, the able commander of the third division of +the corps, was mortally wounded by a sharp-shooter who was one-third +of a mile from him; and a priest administered the last rites of the +Roman Catholic Church upon the spot where he fell, in the presence of +his weeping staff and soldiers, by whom he was greatly beloved. A +brigade made a reconnoissance in the forest at one P.M., and captured +forty sharp-shooters who were perched upon the limbs of lofty oaks, +and could not descend and escape before this force advanced. + +"The rebels ascertained the location of the trains upon the north bank +of the Rappahannock, opened a battery upon them, and a squad of three +hundred prisoners uttered a yell of joy when they saw a cannon-ball +enter a large tent which was crowded with the dying and disabled. The +direction of the firing was changed, and caused utter dismay when some +of the number were killed by the missiles that were hurled by their +comrades in the army of Lee." + +[Illustration: OFFICERS SETTING OUT TO MAKE CALLS OF CEREMONY ON THEIR +GENERALS.] + +{248} [Illustration: BATTLE FIELDS OF THE GREAT CIVIL WAR.] + + + + +{249} + +CHAPTER XXII. + +GETTYSBURG. + +INVASION OF THE NORTH DETERMINED ON--CAVALRY SKIRMISH AT FLEETWOOD, +WHICH MARKS A TURNING POINT IN THAT SERVICE--HOOKER'S PLANS--HE ASKS +TO BE RELIEVED--MEADE IN COMMAND--BATTLE OF GETTYSBURG--POSITION OF +CONFEDERATE FORCES--NUMBER OF MEN ENGAGED ON EACH SIDE--SURFACE OF THE +COUNTRY ABOUT GETTYSBURG--BLOODY FIGHTING ON THE RIGHT--GENERAL +HANCOCK SUPERSEDES GENERAL HOWARD--RAPID CONCENTRATION OF THE +ARMIES--TERRIFIC FIGHTING IN THE PEACH ORCHARD--DRAMATIC CHARGE OF THE +LOUISIANA TIGERS--THE CHARGE OF PICKETT'S BRIGADE--ROMANTIC AND +PATHETIC INCIDENTS OF THE BATTLE--RETREAT OF THE CONFEDERATE +ARMIES--VICTORY DUE TO DETERMINATION AND COURAGE OF THE COMMON +SOLDIERS--EFFECT OF THE CONFEDERATE DEFEAT IN EUROPE--GREAT NATIONAL +CEMETARY ON THE BATTLEFIELD--LINCOLN'S GETTYSBURG ADDRESS. + + +After the battle of Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville, public +opinion in the South began to demand that the army under Lee should +invade the North, or at least make a bold movement toward Washington. +Public opinion is not often very discriminating in an exciting crisis; +and on this occasion public opinion failed to discriminate between the +comparative ease with which an army in a strong position may repel a +faultily planned or badly managed attack, and the difficulties that +must beset the same army when it leaves its base, launches forth into +the enemy's country, and is obliged to maintain a constantly +lengthening line of communication. The Southern public could not see +why, since the Army of Northern Virginia had won two victories on the +Rappahannock, it might not march forward at once, lay New York and +Philadelphia under contribution, and dictate peace and Southern +independence in the Capitol at Washington. Whether the Confederate +Government shared this feeling or not, it acted in accordance with it; +and whether Lee approved it or not, he was obliged to obey. Yet, in +the largest consideration of the problem, this demand for an invasion +of the North was correct, though the result proved disastrous. For +experience shows that purely defensive warfare will not accomplish +anything. Lee's army had received a heavy reinforcement by the arrival +of Longstreet's corps, its regiments had been filled up with +conscripts, it had unbounded confidence in itself, and this was the +time, if ever, to put the plan for independence to the crucial test of +offensive warfare. Many subsidiary considerations strengthened the +argument. About thirty thousand of Hooker's men had been enlisted in +the spring of 1861, for two years, and their term was now expiring. +Vicksburg was besieged by Grant, before whom nothing had stood as yet; +and its fall would open the Mississippi and cut the Confederacy in +two, which might seal the fate of the new Government unless the shock +were neutralized by a great victory in the East. Volunteering had +fallen off in the North, conscription was resorted to, the Democratic +party there had become more hostile to the Government and loudly +abusive of President Lincoln and his advisers, and there were signs of +riotous resistance to a draft. Finally, the Confederate agents in +Europe reported that anything like a great Confederate victory would +secure immediate recognition, if not armed intervention, from England +and France. + +[Illustration: CEMETARY GATE.] + +Hooker, who had lost a golden opportunity by his aberration or his +accident at Chancellorsville, had come to his senses again, and was +alert, active, and clear-headed. As early as May 28, 1863, he informed +the President that something was stirring in the camp on the other +side of the river, and that a northward movement might be expected. On +the 3d of June, Lee began his movement, and by the 8th two of his +three corps (those of Ewell and Longstreet) were at Culpeper, while A. +P. Hill's corps still held the lines on the Rappahannock. + +It was known that the entire Confederate cavalry, under Stuart, was at +Culpeper; and Hooker sent all his cavalry, under Pleasonton, with two +brigades of infantry, to attack it there. The assault was to be made +in two converging columns, under Buford and Gregg; but this plan was +disconcerted by the fact that the enemy's cavalry, intent upon masking +the movement of the great body of infantry and protecting its flank, +had advanced to Brandy Station. Here it was struck first by Buford and +afterward by Gregg, and there was bloody fighting, with the advantage +at first in favor of the National troops; but the two columns failed +to unite during the action, and finally withdrew. The loss was over +five hundred men on each side, including among the killed Col. B. F. +Davis, of the Eighth New York cavalry, and Colonel Hampton, commanding +a Confederate brigade. Both sides claimed to have accomplished their +object--Pleasonton to have ascertained the movements of Lee's army, +and Stuart to have driven back his opponent. Some of the heaviest +fighting was for possession of a height known as Fleetwood Hill, and +the Confederates name the action the battle of Fleetwood. It is of +special interest as marking the turning-point in cavalry service +during the war. Up to that time the Confederate cavalry had been +generally superior to the National. This action--a cavalry fight in +the proper sense of the term, between the entire mounted forces of the +two armies--was a drawn battle; and thenceforth the National cavalry +exhibited superiority in an accelerating ratio, till finally nothing +mounted {250} on Southern horses could stand before the magnificent +squadrons led by Sheridan, Custer, Kilpatrick, and Wilson. + +Hooker now knew that the movement he had anticipated was in progress, +and he was very decided in his opinion as to what should be done. By +the 13th of June, Lee had advanced Ewell's corps beyond the Blue +Ridge, and it was marching down the Shenandoah Valley, while Hill's +was still in the intrenchments on the Rapidan, and Longstreet's was +midway between, at Culpeper. Hooker asked to be allowed to interpose +his whole army between these widely separated parts of its antagonist +and defeat them in detail; but with a man like Halleck for military +adviser at Washington, it was useless to propose any bold or brilliant +stroke. Hooker was forbidden to do this, and ordered to keep his army +between the enemy and the capital. He therefore left his position on +the Rappahannock, and moved toward Washington, along the line of the +Orange and Alexandria Railroad. Ewell moved rapidly down the +Shenandoah Valley, and attacked Winchester, which was held by General +Milroy with about ten thousand men. Milroy made a gallant defence; but +after a stubborn fight his force was broken and defeated, and about +four thousand of them became prisoners. The survivors escaped to +Harper's Ferry. + +The corps of Hill and Longstreet now moved, Hill following Ewell into +the Shenandoah Valley, and Longstreet skirting the Blue Ridge along +its eastern base. Pleasonton's cavalry, reconnoitring these movements, +met Stuart's again at Aldie, near a gap in the Bull Run Mountains, and +had a sharp fight; and there were also cavalry actions at Middleburg +and Upperville. Other Confederate cavalry had already crossed the +Potomac, made a raid as far as Chambersburg, and returned with +supplies to Ewell. On the 22d, Ewell's corps crossed at Shepherdstown +and Williamsport, and moved up the Cumberland Valley to Chambersburg. +A panic ensued among the inhabitants of that region, who hastened to +drive off their cattle and horses, to save them from seizure. The +governors of New York and Pennsylvania were called upon for militia, +and forwarded several regiments, to be interposed between the enemy's +advance and Philadelphia and Harrisburg. The other two corps of Lee's +army crossed the Potomac on the 24th and 25th, where Ewell had +crossed; and Hooker, moving on a line nearer Washington, crossed with +his whole army at Edward's Ferry, on the 25th and 26th, marching +thence to Frederick. He now proposed to send Slocum's corps to the +western side of the South Mountain range, have it unite with a force +of eleven thousand men under French, that lay useless at Harper's +Ferry, and throw a powerful column upon Lee's communications, capture +his trains, and attack his army in the rear. But again he came into +collision with the stubborn Halleck, who would not consent to the +abandonment, even temporarily, of Harper's Ferry, though the +experience of the Antietam campaign, when he attempted to hold it in +the same way and lost its whole garrison, should have taught him +better. This new cause of trouble, added to previous disagreements, +was more than Hooker could stand, and on the 27th he asked to be +relieved from command of the army. His request was promptly complied +with, and the next morning the command was given to General Meade, +only five days before a great battle. + +[Illustration: MAJOR-GENERAL JOHN BUFORD.] + +[Illustration: MAJOR-GENERAL ALFRED PLEASONTON.] + +[Illustration: MAJOR-GENERAL J. F. REYNOLDS.] + +George Gordon Meade, then in his forty-ninth year, was a graduate of +West Point, had served through the Mexican war, had done engineer duty +in the survey of the Great Lakes, had been with McClellan on the +peninsula, and had commanded a corps in the Army of the Potomac at +Antietam, at Fredericksburg, and at Chancellorsville. The first thing +he did on assuming command was what Hooker had been forbidden to do: +he ordered the evacuation of Harper's Ferry, and the movement of its +garrison to Frederick as a reserve. + +At this time, June 28th, one portion of Lee's army was at +Chambersburg, or between that place and Gettysburg, another at York +and Carlisle, and a part of his cavalry was within sight of the spires +of Harrisburg. The main body of the cavalry had gone off on a raid, +Stuart having an ambition to ride a third time around the Army of the +Potomac. This absence of his cavalry {251} left Lee in ignorance of +the movements of his adversary, whom he appears to have expected to +remain quietly on the south side of the Potomac. When suddenly he +found his communications in danger, he called back Ewell from York and +Carlisle, and ordered the concentration of all his forces at +Gettysburg. Many converging roads lead into that town, and its +convenience for such concentration was obvious. Meade was also +advancing his army toward Gettysburg, though with a more certain +step--as was necessary, since his object was to find Lee's army and +fight it, wherever it might go. His cavalry, under Pleasonton, was +doing good service; and that general advanced a division under Buford +on the 29th to Gettysburg, with orders to delay the enemy till the +army could come up. Meade had some expectation of bringing on the +great battle at Pipe Creek, southeast of Gettysburg, where he marked +out a good defensive line; but the First Corps, under Gen. John F. +Reynolds, advanced rapidly to Gettysburg, and on the 1st of July +encountered west of the town a portion of the enemy coming in from +Chambersburg. Lee had about seventy-three thousand five hundred men +(infantry and artillery), and Meade about eighty-two thousand, while +the cavalry numbered about eleven thousand on each side, and both +armies had more cannon than they could use.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Various figures and estimates are given as representing +the strength of the two armies, some of which take account of +detachments absent on special duty, and some do not. The figures here +given denote very nearly the forces actually available for the +battle.] + +[Illustration: MAP OF THE BATTLE OF GETTYSBURG. (Reproduced by +permission of Dick & Fitzgerald, N. Y., from "Twelve Decisive Battles +of the War.")] + +When Reynolds advanced his own corps (the First) and determined to +hold Gettysburg, he ordered the Eleventh (Howard's) to come up to its +support. The country about Gettysburg is broken into ridges, mainly +parallel, and running north and south. On the first ridge west of the +village stood a theological seminary, which gave it the name of +Seminary Ridge. Between this and the next is a small stream called +Willoughby Run, and here the first day's battle was fought. Buford +held the ridges till the infantry arrived, climbing in the belfry of +the seminary and looking anxiously for their coming. The Confederates +were advancing by two roads that met in a point at the edge of the +village, and Reynolds disposed his troops, as fast as they arrived, so +as to dispute the passage on both roads. The key-point was a piece of +high ground, partly covered with woods, between the roads, and the +advance of both sides rushed for it. Here General Reynolds, going +forward to survey the ground, was shot by a sharp-shooter and fell +dead. He was one of the ablest corps commanders that the Army of the +Potomac ever had. The command devolved upon Gen. Abner Doubleday, who +was an experienced soldier, having served through the Mexican war, +been second in command under Anderson at Fort Sumter, and seen almost +constant service with the Army of the Potomac. The Confederate force +contending for the woods was Archer's brigade; the National was +Meredith's "Iron Brigade." Archer's men had been told that they would +meet nothing but Pennsylvania militia, which they expected to brush +out of the way with little trouble; but when they saw the Iron +Brigade, some of them were heard saying: "'Taint no militia; there are +the ---- black-hatted fellows again; it's the Army of the Potomac!" +The result here was that Meredith's men not only secured the woods, +but captured General Archer and a large part of his brigade, and then +advanced to the ridge west of the run. + +On the right of the line there had been bloody fighting, with +unsatisfactory results, owing to the careless posting of regiments and +a want of concert in action. Two National regiments were driven from +the field, and a gun was lost; while on the other hand a Confederate +force was driven into a railroad cut for shelter, and then subjected +to an enfilading fire through the cut, so that a large portion were +captured and the remainder dispersed. + +Whether any commander on either side intended to bring on a battle at +this point, is doubtful. But both sides were rapidly and heavily +reinforced, and both fought with determination. The struggle for the +Chambersburg road was obstinate, especially after the Confederates had +planted several guns to sweep it. "We have come to stay," said Roy +Stone's brigade, as they came into line under the fire of these guns +to support a battery of their own; and "the battle afterward became so +severe that {252} the greater portion did stay," says General +Doubleday. A division of Ewell's corps soon arrived from Carlisle, +wheeled into position, and struck the right of the National line. +Robinson's division, resting on Seminary Ridge, was promptly brought +forward to meet this new peril, and was so skilfully handled that it +presently captured three North Carolina regiments. + +Gen. Oliver O. Howard, being the ranking officer, assumed command when +he arrived on this part of the field; and when his own corps (the +Eleventh) came up, about one o'clock, he placed it in position on the +right, prolonging the line of battle far around to the north of the +town. This great extension made it weak at many points; and as fresh +divisions of Confederate troops were constantly arriving, under Lee's +general order to concentrate on the town, they finally became powerful +enough to break through the centre, rolling back the right flank of +the First Corps and the left of the Eleventh, and throwing into +confusion everything except the left of the First Corps, which retired +in good order, protecting artillery and ambulances. Of the fugitives +that swarmed through the town, about five thousand were made +prisoners. But this had been effected only at heavy cost to the +Confederates. At one point Iverson's Georgia brigade had rushed up to +a stone fence behind which Baxter's brigade was sheltered, when +Baxter's men suddenly rose and delivered a volley that struck down +five hundred of Iverson's in an instant, while the remainder, who were +subjected also to a cross-fire, immediately surrendered--all but one +regiment, which escaped by raising a white flag. + +In the midst of the confusion, Gen. Winfield S. Hancock arrived, under +orders from General Meade to supersede Howard in the command of that +wing of the army. He had been instructed also to choose a position for +the army to meet the great shock of battle, if he should find a better +one than the line of Pike Creek. Hancock's first duty was to rally the +fugitives and restore order and confidence. Steinwehr's division was +in reserve on Cemetery Ridge, and Buford's cavalry was on the plain +between the town and the ridge; and with these standing fast he +stopped the retreat and rapidly formed a line along that crest. + +The ridge begins in Round Top, a high, rocky hill; next north of this +is Little Round Top, smaller, but still bold and rugged; and thence it +is continued at a less elevation, with gentler slopes, northward to +within half a mile of the town, where it curves around to the east and +ends at Rock Creek. The whole length is about three miles. Seminary +Ridge is a mile west of this, and nearly parallel with its central +portion. Hancock without hesitation chose this line, placed all the +available troops in position, and then hurried back to headquarters at +Taneytown. Meade at once accepted his plan, and sent forward the +remaining corps. The Third Corps, commanded by General Sickles, being +already on the march, arrived at sunset. The Second (Hancock's) +marched thirteen miles and went into position. The Fifth (Sykes's) was +twenty-three miles away, but marched all night and arrived in the +morning. The Sixth (Sedgwick's) was thirty-six miles away, but was put +in motion at once. At the same time, Lee was urging the various +divisions of his army to make the concentration as rapidly as +possible, not wishing to attack the heights till his forces were all +up. + +[Illustration: MAJOR-GENERAL GEORGE G. MEADE.] + +It is said by General Longstreet that Lee had promised his corps +commanders not to fight a battle during this expedition, unless he +could take a position and stand on the defensive; but the excitement +and confidence of his soldiers, who felt themselves invincible, +compelled him. While he was waiting for his divisions to arrive, +forming his lines, and perfecting a plan of attack, Sedgwick's corps +arrived on the other side, and the National troops were busy +constructing rude breastworks. + +Between the two great ridges there is another ridge, situated somewhat +like the diagonal portion of a capital N. The order of the corps, +beginning at the right, was this: Slocum's, Howard's, Hancock's, +Sickles's, with Sykes's in reserve on the left, and Sedgwick's on the +right. Sickles, thinking to occupy more advantageous ground, instead +of remaining in line, advanced to the diagonal ridge, and on this +hinged the whole battle of the second day. For there was nothing on +which to rest his left flank, and he was obliged to "refuse" it--turn +it sharply back toward Round Top. This presented a salient angle +(always a weak point) to the enemy; and here, when the action opened +at four o'clock in the afternoon, the blow fell. The angle was at a +peach orchard, and the refused line stretched back through a +wheat-field; General Birney's division occupying this ground, while +the right of Sickles's line was held by Humphreys. + +{253} [Illustration: GENERAL HANCOCK AND STAFF NEAR LITTLE ROUND TOP.] + +[Illustration: FIELD HOSPITAL--HEADQUARTERS. (From the Panorama of +Gettysburg, at Chicago.)] + +Longstreet's men attacked the salient vigorously, and his extreme +right, composed of Hood's division, stretched out toward Little Round +Top, where it narrowly missed winning a position that would have +enabled it to enfilade the whole National line. Little Round Top had +been occupied only by signal men, when General Warren saw the danger, +detached Vincent's brigade from {254} a division that was going out to +reinforce Sickles, and ordered it to occupy the hill at once. One +regiment of Weed's brigade (the 140th New York) also went up, dragging +and lifting the guns of Hazlett's battery up the rocky slope; and the +whole brigade soon followed. They were just in time to meet the +advance of Hood's Texans, and engage in one of the bloodiest +hand-to-hand conflicts of the war, and at length the Texans were +hurled back and the position secured. But dead or wounded soldiers, in +blue and in gray, lay everywhere among the rocks. General Weed was +mortally wounded; General Vincent was killed; Col. Patrick H. O'Rorke, +of the 140th, a recent graduate of West Point, of brilliant promise, +was shot dead at the head of his men; and Lieut. Charles E. Hazlett +was killed as he leaned over General Weed to catch his last words. "I +would rather die here," said Weed, "than that the rebels should gain +an inch of this ground!" Hood's men made one more attempt, by creeping +up the ravine between the two Round Tops, but were repelled by a +bayonet charge, executed by Chamberlain's Twentieth Maine Regiment; +and five hundred of them, with seventeen officers, were made +prisoners. The peculiarity of Chamberlain's charge, which was one of +the most brilliant manoeuvres ever executed on a battlefield, +consisted in pushing the regiment forward in such a manner that the +centre moved more rapidly than the flanks, which gradually brought it +into the shape of a wedge that penetrated the Confederate line and cut +off the five hundred men from their comrades. + +Meanwhile terrific fighting was going on at the salient in the peach +orchard. Several batteries were in play on both sides, and made +destructive work; a single shell from one of the National guns killed +or wounded thirty men in a company of thirty-seven. Here General Zook +was killed, Colonel Cross was killed, General Sickles lost a leg, and +the Confederate General Barksdale was mortally wounded and died a +prisoner. There were repeated charges and counter-charges, and +numerous bloody incidents; for Sickles was constantly reinforced, and +Lee, being under the impression that this was the flank of the main +line, kept hammering at it till his men finally possessed the peach +orchard, advanced their lines, assailed the left flank of Humphreys, +and finally drove back the National line, only to find that they had +forced it into its true position, from which they could not dislodge +it by any direct attack, while the guns and troops that now crowned +the two Round Tops showed any flank movement to be impossible. About +sunset Ewell's corps assailed the Union right, and at heavy cost +gained a portion of the works near Rock Creek. + +One of the most dramatic incidents of this day was a charge on +Cemetery Hill by two Confederate brigades led by an organization known +as the Louisiana Tigers. It was made just at dusk, and the charging +column immediately became a target for the batteries of Wiedrick, +Stevens, and Ricketts, which fired grape and canister, each gun making +four discharges a minute. But the Tigers had the reputation of never +having failed in a charge, and in spite of the frightful gaps made by +the artillery and by volleys of musketry, they kept on till they +reached the guns, and made a hand-to-hand fight for them. Friend and +foe were fast becoming mingled, when Carroll's brigade came to the +rescue of the guns, and the remnants of the Confederate column fled +down the hill in the gathering darkness, hastened by a double-shotted +fire from Ricketts's battery. Of the seventeen hundred Tigers, twelve +hundred had been struck down, and that famous organization was never +heard of again. + +[Illustration: MAJOR-GENERAL CARL SCHURZ.] + +[Illustration: MAJOR-GENERAL ABNER DOUBLEDAY.] + +Many exciting incidents of this twilight battle are told. When the +Confederates charged on Wiedrick's battery, there was a difficulty in +depressing the guns sufficiently, or they probably never would have +reached it; and when they did reach it the gunners stood by and fought +them with pistols, handspikes, rammers, {255} and stones; for they had +received orders not to limber up under any circumstances, but to fight +the battery to the last, and they obeyed their orders literally and +nobly. Nearly all of them, however, were beaten down by the +Confederate infantrymen, and the battery was captured entire; but the +victorious assailants were now subjected to a flank fire from +Stevens's battery, which poured in double-shotted canister at +point-blank range, before the arrival of Carroll's brigade completed +their destruction. At Ricketts's battery a Confederate lieutenant +sprang forward and seized the guidon, when its bearer, Private Riggen, +shot him dead with his revolver. The next moment a bullet cut the +staff of the guidon, and another killed Riggen, who fell across the +body of the lieutenant. Another Confederate lieutenant, rushing into +the battery, laid his hand upon a gun and demanded its surrender; his +answer was a blow from a handspike that dashed out his brains. At +another gun a Confederate sergeant, with his rifle in his hand, +confronted Sergeant Stafford with a demand for the surrender of the +piece; whereupon Lieutenant Brockway threw a stone that knocked him +down, and Stafford, catching his rifle, fired it at him and wounded +him seriously. Sergeant Geible, of the One Hundred and Seventh Ohio, +sprang upon the low stone wall when the Confederates were charging, +and defiantly waved the regimental colors, but was immediately shot, +and the flag fell outside. Adjutant Young then jumped over the wall +and rescued it, while at the same time the color-sergeant of the +Eighth Louisiana was rushing up at the head of his regiment and waving +his flag. Young sprang upon him, seized the flag, and shot the +sergeant; but he also received a bullet which passed through his arm +and into his lung, and at the same time a Confederate officer aimed a +heavy blow at his head, which was parried by a comrade. Clinging +tenaciously to the captured flag, Young managed to get back into his +own lines, and sank fainting from loss of blood; but his life was +saved, and he was promoted for his gallantry. + +[Illustration: BREVET MAJOR-GENERAL HENRY BAXTER.] + +[Illustration: BRIGADIER-GENERAL ADOLPH VON STEINWEHR.] + +[Illustration: BRIGADIER-GENERAL FRANCIS C. BARLOW, MAJOR-GENERAL +DAVID B. BIRNEY, BRIGADIER-GENERAL JOHN GIBBON, MAJOR-GENERAL WINFIELD +S. HANCOCK.] + +While the actions of the first two days were complicated, that of the +third was extremely simple. Lee had tried both flanks, and failed. He +now determined to attempt piercing the centre of Meade's line. +Longstreet, wiser than his chief, protested, but in vain. On the other +hand, Meade had held a council of war the night before, and in +accordance with the vote of his corps commanders determined to stay +where he was and fight it out. + +Whether General Meade contemplated a retreat, has been disputed. On +the one hand, he testified before the Committee on the Conduct of the +War that he never thought of such a thing; on the other, General +Doubleday, in his "Chancellorsville and Gettysburg," presents {256} +testimony that seems to leave no reasonable doubt. There is nothing +intrinsically improbable in the story. Meade's service in that war had +all been with the Army of the Potomac, and it was the custom of that +army to retreat after a great battle. The only exception thus far had +been Antietam; and two great battles, with the usual retreat, had been +fought since Antietam. Meade had been in command of the entire army +but a few days, and he cannot be said to have been, in the ordinary +sense of the term, the master-spirit at Gettysburg. It was Reynolds +who went out to meet the enemy, and stayed his advance, on the first +day; it was Hancock who selected the advantageous position for the +second day; it was Warren who secured the neglected key-point. The +fact of calling a council of war at all implies doubt in the mind of +the commander. But, after all, the question is hardly important, so +far at least as it concerns Meade's place in history. He is likely to +be less blamed for contemplating retreat at the end of two days' +fighting when he had the worst of it, than for not contemplating +pursuit at the end of the third day when the enemy was defeated. There +are some considerations, however, which must give Meade's conduct of +this battle a very high place for generalship. He seemed to know how +to trust his subordinates, and to be uninfluenced by that weakness +which attacks so many commanders with a fear lest something shall be +done for which they themselves shall not receive the credit. He +unhesitatingly accepted Hancock's judgment as to the propriety of +receiving battle on Cemetery Hill, and showed every disposition to do +all that would tend to secure the great purpose, without the slightest +reference to its bearing on anybody's reputation. Furthermore, he had, +what brilliant soldiers often lack, a complete comprehension of the +entire situation, as regarded the war, and appreciated the importance +of the action in which he was about to engage. This is proved by the +following circular, which he issued on the 30th of June, one day +before the battle, to his subordinates: + +"The commanding general requests that, previous to the engagement soon +expected with the enemy, corps and all other commanding officers will +address their troops, explaining to them briefly the immense issues +involved in this struggle. The enemy are on our soil. The whole +country now looks anxiously to this army to deliver it from the +presence of the foe. Our failure to do so will leave us no such +welcome as the swelling of millions of hearts with pride and joy at +our success would give to every soldier in the army. Homes, firesides, +and domestic altars are involved. The army has fought well heretofore. +It is believed that it will fight more desperately and bravely than +ever if it is addressed in fitting terms. Corps and other commanders +are authorized to order the instant death of any soldier who fails in +his duty at this hour." + +[Illustration: ARTILLERY COMING INTO ACTION. (From the Panorama of +Gettysburg, at Chicago.)] + +[Illustration: MAJOR-GENERAL GOUVERNEUR K. WARREN.] + +[Illustration: DEVIL'S DEN. Position occupied by Confederate +Sharp-shooters, the point from which they shot at Union Officers on +Little Round Top. From photograph by W. H. Tipton, Gettysburg.] + +[Illustration: BRIGADIER-GENERAL GABRIEL R. PAUL.] + +[Illustration: BRIGADIER-GENERAL ALFRED N. DUFFIÉ.] + +Lee's first intended movement was to push the success gained at the +close of the second day by Ewell on the National right; but Meade +anticipated him, attacking early in the morning and driving Ewell out +of his works. In preparation for a grand charge, Lee placed more than +one hundred guns in position on Seminary Ridge, converging their fire +on the left centre of Meade's line, where he intended to send his +storming column. Eighty guns (all there was room for) were placed in +position on Cemetery Ridge to reply, and at one o'clock the firing +{257} began. This was one of the most terrific artillery duels ever +witnessed. There was a continuous and deafening roar, which was heard +forty miles away. The shot and shells ploughed up the ground, +shattered gravestones in the cemetery, and sent their fragments flying +among the troops, exploded caissons, and dismounted guns. A house used +for Meade's headquarters, in the rear of the line, was completely +riddled. Many artillerists and horses were killed; but the casualties +among the infantry were not numerous, for the men lay flat upon the +ground, taking advantage of every shelter, and waited for the more +serious work that all knew was to follow. At the end of two hours Gen. +Henry J. Hunt, Meade's chief of artillery, ordered the firing to +cease, both to cool the guns and to save the ammunition for use in +repelling the infantry charge. Lee supposed that his object--which was +to demoralize his enemy and cause him to exhaust his artillery--had +been effected. Fourteen thousand of his best troops--including +Pickett's division, which had not arrived in time for the previous +day's fighting--now came out of the woods, formed in heavy columns, +and moved forward steadily to the charge. Instantly the National guns +reopened fire, and the Confederate ranks were ploughed through and +through; but the gaps were closed up, and the columns did not halt. +There was a mile of open ground for them to traverse, and every step +was taken under heavy fire. As they drew nearer, the batteries used +grape and canister, and an infantry force posted in advance of the +main line rose to its feet and fired volleys of musketry into the +right flank. Now the columns began visibly to break up and melt away; +and the left wing of the force changed its direction somewhat, so that +it parted from the right, making an interval and exposing a new flank, +which the National troops promptly took advantage of. But Pickett's +diminishing ranks still pushed on, till they passed over the outer +lines, fought hand to hand at the main line, and even leaped the +breastworks and thought to capture the batteries. The point where they +penetrated was marked by a clump of small trees on the edge of the +hill, at that portion of the line held by the brigade of Gen. +Alexander S. Webb, who was wounded; but his men stood firm against the +shock, and, from the eagerness of all to join in the contest, men +rushed from every side to the point assailed, mixing up all commands, +but making a front that no such remnant as Pickett's could break. Gen. +Lewis A. Armistead, who led the charge and leaped over the wall, was +shot down as he laid his hand on a gun, and his surviving soldiers +surrendered themselves. On the slope of the hill many of the +assailants had thrown themselves upon the ground and held up their +hands for quarter; and an immediate sally from the National lines +brought in a large number of prisoners and battle-flags. Of that +magnificent column which had been launched out so proudly, only a +broken fragment ever returned. Nearly every officer in it, except +Pickett, had been either killed or wounded. Armistead, a prisoner and +dying, said to an officer who was bending over him, "Tell Hancock I +have wronged him and have wronged my country." He had been opposed to +secession, but the pressure of his friends and relatives {259} had at +length forced him into the service. Hancock had been wounded and borne +from the field, and among the other wounded on the National side were +Generals Doubleday, Gibbon, Warren, Butterfield, Stannard, Barnes, and +Brook; General Farnsworth was killed, and Gen. Gabriel R. Paul lost +both eyes. Among the killed on the Confederate side, besides those +already mentioned, were Generals Garnett, Pender, and Semmes; and +among the wounded, Generals Hampton, Jenkins, Kemper, Scales, J. M. +Jones, and G. T. Anderson. + +{258} [Illustration: AN HEROIC INCIDENT--COLOR SERGEANT BENJAMIN +CRIPPEN REFUSES TO SURRENDER THE FLAG.] + +While this movement was in progress, Kilpatrick with his cavalry rode +around the mountain and attempted to pass the Confederate right and +capture the trains, while Stuart with his cavalry made a simultaneous +attempt on the National right. Each had a bloody fight, but neither +was successful. This closed the battle. Hancock urged that a great +return charge should be made immediately with Sedgwick's corps, which +had not participated, and Lee expected such a movement as a matter of +course. But it was not done. + +That night Lee made preparations for retreat, and the next day--which +was the 4th of July--the retreat was begun. General Imboden, who +conducted the trains and the ambulances, describes it as one of the +most pitiful and heart-rending scenes ever witnessed. A heavy storm +had come up, the roads were in bad condition, few of the wounded had +been properly cared for, and as they were jolted along in agony they +were groaning, cursing, babbling of their homes, and calling upon +their friends to kill them and put them out of misery. But there could +be no halt, for the Potomac was rising, and an attack was hourly +expected from the enemy in the rear. + +Meade, however, did not pursue for several days, and then to no +purpose; so that Lee's crippled army escaped into Virginia, but it was +disabled from ever doing anything more than prolonging the contest. +Gettysburg was essentially the Waterloo of the war, and there is a +striking parallel in the losses. The numbers engaged were very nearly +the same in the one battle as in the other. At Waterloo the victors +lost twenty-three thousand one hundred and eighty-five men, and the +vanquished, in round numbers, thirty thousand. At Gettysburg the +National loss was twenty-three thousand one hundred and +ninety--killed, wounded, and missing. The Confederate losses were +never officially reported, but estimates place them at nearly thirty +thousand. Lee left seven thousand of his wounded among the unburied +dead, and twenty-seven thousand muskets were picked up on the field. + +[Illustration: MAJOR-GENERAL DANIEL BUTTERFIELD. (Chief of Staff to +General Meade.)] + +[Illustration: GENERAL MEADE'S HEADQUARTERS.] + +The romantic and pathetic incidents of this great battle are +innumerable. John Burns, a resident of Gettysburg, seventy years old, +had served in the War of 1812, being one of Miller's men at Lundy's +Lane, and in the Mexican war, and had tried to enlist at the breaking +out of the Rebellion, but was rejected as too old. When the armies +approached the town, he joined the Seventh Wisconsin Regiment and +displayed wonderful skill as a sharp-shooter; but he was wounded in +the afternoon, fell into the hands of the Confederates, told some +plausible story to account for his lack of a uniform, and was finally +carried to his own house. Jennie Wade was baking bread for Union +soldiers when the advance of the Confederate line surrounded her house +with enemies; but she kept on at her work in spite of orders to +desist, until a stray bullet struck her dead. An unknown Confederate +officer lay mortally wounded within the Union lines, and one of the +commanders sent to ask his name and rank. "Tell him," said the dying +man, "that I shall soon be where there is no rank;" and he was never +identified. Lieut. Alonzo H. Cushing commanded a battery on General +Webb's line, and in the cannonade preceding the great charge on the +third day all his guns but one were disabled, and he was mortally +wounded. When the charging column approached, he exclaimed, "Webb, I +will give them one more shot!" ran his gun forward to the stone wall, +fired it, said "Good-by!" and fell dead. Barksdale, of Mississippi, +had been an extreme secessionist, and had done much to bring on the +war. At that part of the line where he fell, the Union commander was +Gen. David B. Birney, son of a slaveholder that had emancipated his +slaves, had been mobbed for his abolitionism, and had twice been the +presidential candidate of the Liberty party. A general of the National +army, who was present, remarks that Barksdale died "like a brave man, +with dignity and resignation." On that field perished also the cause +that he represented; and as Americans we may all be proud to say that, +so far as manly courage {260} could go, it died with dignity if not +with resignation. + +Gen. Rufus R. Dawes, who was colonel of the Sixth Wisconsin Regiment, +gives some particulars of the fight at the railroad cut on the first +day: "The only commands I gave, as we advanced, were, 'Align on the +colors! Close up on that color!' The regiment was being broken up so +that this order alone could hold the body together. Meanwhile the +colors were down upon the ground several times, but were raised at +once by the heroes of the color-guard. Not one of the guard escaped, +every man being killed or wounded. Four hundred and twenty men started +as a regiment from the turnpike fence, of whom two hundred and forty +reached the railroad cut. Years afterward I found the distance passed +over to be one hundred and seventy-five paces. Every officer proved +himself brave, true, and heroic in encouraging the men to breast this +deadly storm; but the real impetus was the eager, determined valor of +our men who carried muskets in the ranks. The rebel color could be +seen waving defiantly just above the edge of the railroad cut. A +heroic ambition to capture it took possession of several of our men. +Corporal Eggleston, a mere boy, sprang forward to seize it, and was +shot dead the moment his hand touched the color. Private Anderson, +furious at the killing of his brave young comrade, recked little for +the rebel color; but he swung aloft his musket, and with a terrific +blow split the skull of the rebel who had shot young Eggleston. +Lieutenant Remington was severely wounded in the shoulder while +reaching for the colors. Into this deadly mélęe rushed Corporal +Francis A. Waller, who seized and held the rebel battle-flag. It was +the flag of the Second Mississippi Regiment.... Corporal James Kelly +turned from the ranks and stepped beside me as we both moved hurriedly +forward on the charge. He pulled open his woollen shirt, and a mark +where the deadly minié-ball had entered his breast was visible. He +said: 'Colonel, won't you please write to my folks that I died a +soldier?'" + +[Illustration: PART OF THE BATTLEFIELD OF GETTYSBURG. (From a War +Department photograph.)] + +[Illustration: BRIGADIER-GENERAL FRANCIS T. NICHOLLS, C. S. A.] + +The story of the critical struggle for the possession of Little Round +Top, or at least of an important portion of it, has been graphically +related by Adjutant Porter Farley, of the One Hundred and Fortieth New +York Regiment, which went up at the same time with Hazlett's battery. +Captain Farley writes: + +"Just at that moment our former brigadier, Gen. G. K. Warren, chief +engineer of the army, with an orderly and one or two officers, rode +down toward the head of our regiment. He came from the direction of +the hill-top. His speed and manner {261} indicated unusual excitement. +Before he reached us he called out to O'Rorke to lead his regiment +that way up the hill. O'Rorke answered him that General Weed had gone +ahead and expected this regiment to follow him. 'Never mind that,' +answered Warren, 'I'll take the responsibility.' Warren's words and +manner carried conviction of the importance of the thing he asked. +Accepting his assurance of full justification, O'Rorke turned the head +of the regiment to the left, and, following one of the officers who +had been with Warren, led it diagonally up the eastern slope of Little +Round Top. Warren rode off, evidently bent upon securing other troops. +The staff officer who rode with us, by his impatient gestures, urged +us to our greatest speed. Some of the guns of Hazlett's battery broke +through our files before we reached the hill-top amid the frantic +efforts of the horses, lashed by the drivers, to pull their heavy +pieces up that steep acclivity. A few seconds later the head of our +regiment reached the summit of the ridge, war's wild panorama spread +before us, and we found ourselves upon the verge of battle. It was a +moment which called for leadership. There was no time for tactical +formation. Delay was ruin. Hesitation was destruction. Well was it for +the cause he served that the man who led our regiment that day was one +prompt to decide and brave to execute. The bullets flew in among the +men the moment the leading company mounted the ridge; and as not a +musket was loaded, the natural impulse was to halt and load them. But +O'Rorke permitted no such delay. Springing from his horse, he threw +the reins to the sergeant-major; his sword flashed from its scabbard +into the sunlight, and calling, 'This way, boys,' he led the charge +over the rocks, down the hillside, till he came abreast the men of +Vincent's brigade, who were posted in the ravine to our left. Joining +them, an irregular line was formed, such as the confusion of the rocks +lying thereabout permitted; and this line grew and was extended toward +the right as the successive rearward companies came upon the seen of +action. There, while some were partly sheltered by the rocks and +others stood in the open, a fierce fight went on with an enemy among +the trees and underbrush. Flushed with the excitement of battle, and +bravely led, they pushed up close to our line. The steadfastness and +valor displayed on both sides made the result for some few minutes +doubtful; but a struggle so desperate and bloody could not be a long +one. The enemy fell back; a short lull was succeeded by another +onslaught, which was again repelled. + +"When that struggle was over, the exultation of victory was soon +chilled by the dejection which oppressed us as we counted and realized +the cost of all that had been won. Of our regiment eighty-five +enlisted men and six officers had been wounded. Besides these, +twenty-six of the comrades who had marched with us that afternoon had +fallen dead before the fire of the enemy. Grouped by companies, a row +of inanimate forms lay side by side beneath the trees upon the eastern +slope. No funeral ceremony, and only shallow graves, could be accorded +them. In the darkness of the night, silently and with bitter +dejection, each company buried its dead. O'Rorke was among the dead. +Shot through the neck, he had fallen without a groan, and we may hope +without a pang. The supreme effort of his life was consummated by a +death heroic in its surroundings and undisturbed by pain." + +[Illustration: COLONEL P. H. O'RORKE.] + +[Illustration: BRIGADIER-GENERAL ELON J. FARNSWORTH.] + +[Illustration: BRIGADIER-GENERAL S. K. ZOOK.] + +[Illustration: COLONEL A. VAN HORNE ELLIS.] + +It has been well said that Gettysburg was the common soldier's battle; +that its great results were due, not so much to any generalship either +in strategy or in tactics, as to the intelligent courage and +magnificent staying powers of the Northern soldier. If any one man was +more than another the hero of the fight, it was General Hancock, who +for his services on that field received the thanks of Congress. +Senator Washburn, who saw him the next year at the Wilderness, +remarked: "He was the {262} finest-looking man above ground; he was +the very impersonation of war." Hancock not only chose the ground for +the battle and set things in order for the conflict of the second day, +but seemed to be everywhere present, animating the men with the spirit +of his own valor and enthusiasm. He was especially conspicuous during +the terrific cannonade that preceded the great charge of the third +day, riding slowly up and down the lines. It is said that when he +began this ride he was accompanied by thirty men, and when he finished +it there was but one man with him--the horseman who carried his corps +flag. All the others had either been struck down by the missiles of +the enemy, or been called to imperative duty on different parts of the +line. As he rode slowly along, he stopped frequently to speak to the +men who were lying upon the ground to avoid the shells and balls, and +clutching their rifles ready to spring up and meet the charge which +they knew would follow as soon as the artillery fire ceased. While +this famous charge was in progress, Hancock rode down to speak to +General Stannard, whose Vermonters were to move forward and strike the +charging column in flank, and at this moment he was most grievously +wounded. A rifle ball struck the pommel of his saddle, tearing out and +twisting a nail from it, and both bullet and nail entered his thigh. +Two of General Stannard's aids caught him as he fell from his horse, +and put him into an ambulance. Here he wrote a note to General Meade +urgently advising that, as soon as the Confederate charge was over, a +return charge be made with the comparatively fresh troops of the Sixth +Corps. Some think that if this had been done the Army of Northern +Virginia would have found the end of its career then and there, +instead of at Appomattox a year and a half later. But General +Longstreet says he expected such a charge and was prepared for it, and +that if it had been made Sedgwick's men would have fared as badly as +Pickett's. + +[Illustration: BREVET MAJOR-GENERAL PHILIP R. DE TROBRIAND.] + +[Illustration: BREVET MAJOR-GENERAL HENRY J. HUNT.] + +[Illustration: MAJOR-GENERAL DANIEL SICKLES. MAJOR-GENERAL SAMUEL P. +HEINTZELMAN.] + +It is a little difficult to understand why so much has been made in +literature of this charge of Pickett's, unless, perhaps, it is owing +to the picturesque circumstances. It was at the close of the greatest +battle of the war; it was heralded by the mightiest cannonade of the +war; it was witnessed by two great armies; it was made in the middle +of the afternoon of a summer day, on a gentle slope, with the sun at +the backs of the assailants, the best possible arrangement for a grand +display; it exhibited magnificent courage and confidence on the part +of the soldiers that made it, and quite as great courage and +confidence on the part of those who met and thwarted it. It is, +perhaps, for these reasons that it has been made unduly famous; for, +after all, it was a blunder and a failure. There were other charges +{263} in the war that tested quite as much the devotion and endurance +of soldiers, and they were not all failures. The charge of Hooker's +and Thomas's men up the heights of Lookout Mountain and Mission Ridge +was even more picturesque, and was a grand success. The National +position at Gettysburg is always represented as being along a ridge, +and this, in a general way, is true; but near the centre the ridge is +so low that it almost dies away into the plain, and Pickett's men, +being directed toward this point, had only the very gentlest of slopes +to ascend. Gen. Alexander S. Webb, whose command was at this point, +said in conversation: "We had no intrenchments there, not a sod was +turned." "But why did you not intrench?" "Because we never supposed +that anybody would be fool enough to charge up there." The peril to +the charging column was more from the cross-fire of the batteries on +the higher ground to the right and left, than from the direct fire in +front. + +[Illustration: "I WILL GIVE THEM ONE MORE SHOT!"] + +[Illustration: MAJOR-GENERAL GEORGE E. PICKETT, C. S. A.] + +{264} [Illustration: BATTLE OF GETTYSBURG, THIRD DAY.] + +[Illustration: GROUP OF CONFEDERATE PRISONERS BEING MARCHED TO THE +REAR UNDER GUARD. (From the Panorama of Gettysburg, at Chicago.)] + +General Sickles has been criticised somewhat severely for the +erroneous position taken by his corps on the second day of the battle, +which resulted in the great slaughter at the peach orchard and the +wheat-field. On a subsequent visit to Gettysburg he gave this +explanation of his action: + +"It was quite early when I rode to General Meade's headquarters for +orders. The general told me that he did not think we would be +attacked, as he believed the enemy was in no condition to renew the +fight. I freely expressed to him my belief that the enemy would not +only force a battle at Gettysburg, but would do so soon. From General +Meade's conversation, and from his manner, I concluded he did not +intend to fight the battle at Gettysburg if he could avoid it. General +Butterfield, his chief of staff, told me that orders were being then +prepared for a change of position to Pipe Clay Creek. After waiting +some time for a decision as to what was to be done, I said to General +Meade that I should put my command in position with a view to meet any +emergency along my front, and at the same time asked him to send +General Butterfield with me to look over the field and inspect the +position I had decided to occupy. 'Butterfield is busy,' said he, and +he suggested that I use my own judgment. I again replied that I should +prefer to have some one of his staff officers sent with me, and asked +that General Hunt, chief of the artillery, be sent. General Meade +assented, and Hunt and I rode away. Carefully we surveyed the ground +in my front. I expressed the opinion that the high ground running from +the Emmetsburg road to Round Top was the most advantageous position. +Hunt agreed with me. + +"'Then I understand that I am to take this position, and you, as +General Meade's representative, so order.' 'I do not care,' said he, +'to take the responsibility of ordering you to take that position, but +as soon as I can ride to General Meade's headquarters you will receive +his orders to do so.' + +"He rode away, but before he reached headquarters, or I received +orders, my danger became imminent, and I was forced to go into line of +battle. Just after I had taken position on the high ground selected, +with Humphrey on the right, within and beyond the peach orchard, and +Birney on the left toward Round Top, I received an order from General +Meade to report at his headquarters. There was vigorous skirmishing on +my front, and I returned word to the general that I was about to be +attacked and could not leave the field. It was not long before I +received a peremptory order to report at once to headquarters, as +General Meade was going to hold an important conference of corps +commanders. I sent for Birney, put him in command, and rode rapidly to +Meade's headquarters. As I rode along I could hear the increasing fire +along the line, and felt very solicitous for my command. As I came up +to headquarters at a rapid gait, Meade came out hurriedly and said: +'Don't dismount, don't dismount; I fear your whole line is engaged; +return to your command, and in a few moments I will join you on the +field.' I rode back with all possible speed, reaching my corps before +the enemy had made his first furious assault. General Meade soon +joined me, as he had promised, and together we inspected {265} the +position I had taken. 'Isn't your line too much extended?' said he. +'It is,' I replied; 'but I haven't the Army of the Potomac, and have +a wide space to cover. Reserves should at once be sent up. My +dependence will have to be upon my artillery until support comes, and +I need more guns.' 'Send to Hunt for what you want,' said he, and he +glanced over the slender line of infantry that stretched toward Round +Top. Just before he left I said to him: 'Does my position suit you? If +it does not, I will change it.' 'No, no!' he replied quickly; 'I'll +send up the Fifth Corps, and Hancock will give any other supports you +may require.' + +"He rode away, and soon after the battle began. The terrific struggle +along the whole line, and especially in the peach orchard and the +wheat-field on the right and left of my line, respectively, need not +be gone over. It is a matter of history. I sent to Hunt, when Meade +had gone, for forty pieces of artillery, which, added to the sixty I +had, gave me the guns to keep up the fighting while I waited for +reinforcements. Warren, who was then an engineer officer, was on Round +Top sending urgent appeals to me to send troops to hold that important +position. One brigade sent to me I immediately despatched him. As the +fighting went on and increased in intensity, I looked for the Fifth +Corps again and again, and sent an aid several times to hurry them up. +Sykes was slow, and, finding the needs of the hour growing greater and +greater every moment, I sent to Hancock for help. Hancock was always +prompt and generous, and with eager haste pushed forward his best +troops to the assistance of the struggling Third Corps. But the +moments I waited for reinforcements that day were as long to me as an +eternity, and the brave boys who wore the diamond during all this time +were obliged to stand the shock of as furious an assault as was ever +dealt against troops on any battlefield of modern times. The struggle +in that now peaceful peach-orchard was then fierce as death. The +wheat-field yonder was like the winepress with the dead and dying. Men +fought there, hand to hand, I think, as never they grappled before. +Onward and over against each other they bent again and again. Now the +Confederates would drive madly into the conflict. Now our boys would +push them back again at the point of the bayonet. Graham's and the +Excelsior Brigades, that I organized and commanded during the first of +the war, were in that section of the field, and hundreds of them lay +down to sleep under the shade of the peach trees that hot July day." + +[Illustration: LIEUTENANT-GENERAL JAMES LONGSTREET, C. S. A.] + +[Illustration: MAJOR-GENERAL FITZHUGH LEE, C. S. A.] + +[Illustration: BRIGADIER-GENERAL E. P. ALEXANDER, C. S. A.] + +[Illustration: BRIGADIER-GENERAL RICHARD L. T. BEALL, C. S. A.] + +[Illustration: LIEUTENANT-GENERAL R. S. EWELL, C. S. A.] + +One who participated in the bloody struggle of the wheat-field on the +second day writes: + +"General Birney rode up and ordered a forward movement, and directed +that the largest regiment of the brigade be sent double-quick to +prolong the line on the left, so as to fill in the intervening gap to +the foot of Round Top, for the occupation of which both forces were +now engaged in a deadly struggle. General de Trobriand designated the +Fortieth New York for this duty, and ordered me to conduct it to its +assigned position, and, if necessary, to remain there with it. We +proceeded. The air was filled with smoke and the interchanging fires +of artillery and musketry. The shouts of both armies were almost +deafening, but I succeeded in placing the regiment where it was +ordered, and decided to remain with it. + +"The enemy had us at a disadvantage. They were on higher ground, and +were pouring a terrific fire into our front. I trust in God I may +never again be called to look upon such scenes as I there beheld. Col. +Thomas W. Egan, the commander of the regiment, one of the bravest men +I ever knew, was charging with his command, when a ball from the enemy +pierced the heart of his mare, who sank {266} under him. Major Warner +of the same regiment was borne past me for dead, but was only terribly +wounded. He afterward recovered. His horse came dashing by a few +moments afterward, and my own having been disabled from wounds and +rendered unfit for use, I caught and mounted him. The poor brute that +I was riding had two minie balls buried in him--one in the shoulders, +the other in the hip--and was so frantic with pain that he had +wellnigh broken my neck in his violent fall. My sword was pitched a +dozen yards from me, and was picked up by one of the men and returned +to me that night. + +"Col. A. V. H. Ellis, of the One Hundred and Twenty-fourth New York, +one of the most chivalrous spirits that ever breathed, had received +his mortal wound. He was riding at the head of his regiment, waving +his sword in the air, and shouting to his men--his orange blossoms, as +he called them, the regiment having been raised in Orange County, New +York--when a bullet struck him in the forehead. He was borne to the +rear, his face covered with blood, and the froth spirting from his +mouth. He died in a few moments. Major Cromwell, also of that +regiment, was killed almost at the same instant by a shot in the +breast. He died without a groan or struggle. The adjutant of the +regiment was killed by a shot through the heart as it was moving off +the field. He had fought bravely for hours, and it seemed hard that +one so young and hopeful should be thus stricken down by a chance shot +after having faced the thickest of the fight unharmed. I learned +afterward that the noble young soldier was engaged to be married to a +beautiful young lady in his native State. + +"It happened by the merest accident that I was within a few feet of +General Sickles when he received the wound by which he lost his leg. +When our command fell back after being relieved by General Sykes, I +hastened to find General De Trobriand, and, seeing a knot of officers +near the brick house into which General Sickles was so soon to be +taken, I rode up to see whether he (De Trobriand) was among them. The +knot of officers proved to be General Sickles and his staff. I saluted +him and was just asking for General De Trobriand, when a terrific +explosion seemed to shake the very earth. This was instantly followed +by another equally stunning, and the horses all began to jump. I +instantly noticed that General Sickles's pants and drawers at the knee +were torn clear off to the leg, which was swinging loose. The jumping +of the horse was fortunate for him, as he turned just in time for him +to alight on the upper side of the slope of the hill. As he attempted +to dismount he seemed to lose strength, and half fell to the ground. +He was very pale, and evidently in most fearful pain, as he exclaimed +excitedly, 'Quick, quick! get something and tie it up before I bleed +to death.' These were his exact words, and I shall never forget the +scene as long as I live, for we all loved General Sickles, who +commanded our corps. He was carried from the field to the house I have +mentioned, coolly smoking a cigar, quietly remarking to a Catholic +priest, a chaplain to one of the regiments in his command, 'Man +proposes and God disposes.' His leg was amputated within less than +half an hour after his receiving the wound." + +[Illustration: THE STONE WALL--GENERAL O. O. HOWARD'S POSITION NEAR +CEMETARY HILL. (From the Panorama of Gettysburg, at Chicago.)] + +Major Joseph G. Rosengarten says of General Reynolds: "In all the +intrigues of the army, and the interference of the politicians in its +management, he silently set aside the tempting offers to take part, +and served his successive commanders with {267} unswerving loyalty and +zeal and faith. In the full flush of life and health, vigorously +leading on the troops in hand, and energetically summoning up the rest +of his command, watching and even leading the attack of a +comparatively small body, a glorious picture of the best type of +military leader, superbly mounted, and horse and man sharing in the +excitement of the shock of battle, Reynolds was, of course, a shining +mark to the enemy's sharp-shooters. He had taken his troops into a +heavy growth of timber on the slope of a hill-side, and, under their +regimental and brigade commanders, the men did their work well and +promptly. Returning to rejoin the expected divisions, he was struck by +a minie-ball fired by a sharp-shooter hidden in the branches of a tree +almost overhead, and was killed at once. His horse bore him to the +little clump of trees, where a cairn of stones and a rude mark on the +bark, now almost overgrown, still tell the fatal spot. At the moment +that his body was taken to the rear, for his death was instantaneous, +two of his most gallant staff officers, Captains Riddle and Wadsworth, +in pursuance of his directions, effected a slight movement, which made +prisoners of Archer's brigade, so that the rebel prisoners went to the +rear almost at the same time, and their respectful conduct was in +itself the highest tribute they could pay to him who had thus fallen." + +[Illustration: RESIDENCE OF JOHN BURNS, THE OLD HERO OF GETTYSBURG.] + +[Illustration: MISS JENNIE WADE, THE ONLY WOMAN KILLED AT GETTYSBURG.] + +Gen. D. McM. Gregg, who commanded one of the two cavalry divisions of +the Army of the Potomac, while Gen. John Buford commanded the other, +in a rapid review of the part taken by the cavalry in the campaign, +writes: "The two divisions were put in motion toward the Potomac, but +did not take exactly the same route, and the Army of the Potomac +followed their lead. The advance of Stuart's Confederate cavalry +command had reached Aldie, and here, on June 17th, began a series of +skirmishes or engagements between the two cavalry forces, all of which +were decided successes for us, and terminated in driving Stuart's +cavalry through the gap at Paris. Kilpatrick's brigade, moving in the +advance of the second division, fell upon the enemy at Aldie, and +there ensued an engagement of the most obstinate character, in which +several brilliant mounted charges were made, terminating in the +retreat of the enemy. On June 19th, the division advanced to +Middleburg, where a part of Stuart's force was posted, and was +attacked by Col. Irvin Gregg's brigade. Here, as at Aldie, the fight +was very obstinate. The enemy had carefully selected the most +defensible position, from which he had to be driven step by step, and +this work had to be done by dismounted skirmishers, owing to the +unfavorable character of the country for mounted service. On the 19th, +Gregg's division moved on the turnpike from Middleburg in the +direction of Upperville, and soon encountered the enemy's cavalry in +great force. The attack was promptly made, the enemy offering the most +stubborn resistance. The long lines of stone fences, which are so +common in that region, were so many lines of defence to a force in +retreat; these could be held until our advancing skirmishers were +almost upon them, but then there would be no escape for those behind; +it was either to surrender or attempt escape across the open fields to +fall before the deadly fire of the carbines of the pursuers. Later in +the day General Buford's division came in on the right, and took the +enemy in flank. Then our entire force, under General Pleasonton, +supported by a column of infantry, moved forward and dealt the +finishing blow. Through Upperville the pursuit was continued at a run, +the enemy flying in the greatest {268} confusion; nor were they +permitted to re-form until night put a stop to further pursuit at the +mouth of the gap. Our losses in the fighting of these three days +amounted to five hundred in killed, wounded, and missing; of the +latter there were but few. The enemy's loss was much greater, +particularly in prisoners. Our captures also included light guns, +flags, and small arms. These successful engagements of our cavalry +left our infantry free to march, without the loss of an hour, to the +field of Gettysburg. At Frederick, Md., the addition of the cavalry, +formerly commanded by General Stahl, made it necessary to organize a +third division, the command of which was given to General Kilpatrick. +Buford, with his division in advance of our army, on July 1st, first +encountered the enemy in the vicinity of Gettysburg. How well his +brigades of regulars and volunteers resisted the advance of that +invading host, yielding so slowly as to give ample time for our +infantry to go to his support, is well known. Kilpatrick's division +marched from Frederick well to the right, at Hanover engaged the +enemy's cavalry in a sharp skirmish, and reached Gettysburg on the +1st. On the left of our line, on the 3d, one of his brigades, led by +General Farnsworth, gallantly charged the enemy's infantry and +protected that flank from any attack, with the assistance of General +Merritt's regular brigade. Gregg's division crossed the Potomac at +Edward's Ferry and reached Gettysburg on the morning of the 2d, taking +position on the right of our line. On the 3d, during that terrific +fire of artillery, it was discovered that Stuart's cavalry was moving +to our right, with the evident intention of passing to the rear to +make a simultaneous attack there. When opposite our right, Stuart was +met by General Gregg with two of his brigades and Custer's brigade of +the Third Division, and on a fair field there was another trial +between two cavalry forces, in which most of the fighting was done in +the saddle, and with the trooper's favorite weapon, the sabre. Stuart +advanced not a pace beyond where he was met; but after a severe +struggle, which was only terminated by the darkness of night, he +withdrew, and on the morrow, with the defeated army of Lee, was in +retreat to the Potomac." + +[Illustration: MAJOR-GENERAL GEORGE G. MEADE AND OFFICERS.] + +The obstinate blindness of English partisanship in our great struggle +was curiously illustrated by an incident on the field of Gettysburg. +One Fremantle, a lieutenant-colonel in the British army, had come over +to visit the seat of war, and published his observations upon it in +_Blackwood's Magazine_. He was near General Longstreet when Pickett's +charge was made. Standing there with his back to the sun, and +witnessing the operation on the great slope before him, he, although a +soldier by profession, was so thoroughly possessed with the wish and +the expectation that the Confederate cause might succeed, that he +mistook Pickett's awful defeat for a glorious success, and rushing up +to General Longstreet, congratulated him upon it, and told him how +glad he was to be there and see it. "Are you, indeed?" said +Longstreet, surprised. "I am not." + +About a month after the battle, General Lee wrote a letter to +Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederacy, in which he said: + +"We must expect reverses, even defeats. They are sent to teach us +wisdom and prudence, to call forth greater energies, and to prevent +our falling into greater disasters. Our people have only to be true +and united, to bear manfully the misfortunes incident to war, and all +will come right in the end. I know how prone we are to censure, and +how ready to blame others for the non-fulfilment of our expectations. +This is unbecoming in a generous people, and I grieve to see its +expression. The general remedy for the want of success in a military +commander is his removal. This is natural, and in many instances +proper; for, no matter what may be the ability of the officer, if he +loses the confidence of his troops, disaster must, sooner or later, +ensue. I have been prompted by these reflections more than once since +my return from Pennsylvania to propose to your Excellency the +propriety of selecting another commander for this army. I have seen +and heard of expressions of discontent in the public journals at the +result of the expedition. I do not know how far this feeling extends +in the army. My brother officers have been too kind to report it, and +so far the troops have been too generous to exhibit it. It is fair, +however, to suppose that it does exist, and success is so necessary to +us that nothing should be risked to secure it. I, therefore, in all +sincerity, request your Excellency to take measures to supply my +place." + +Mr. Davis declined to relieve General Lee from his command of the Army +of Northern Virginia, and, consequently, he retained it until he +surrendered himself and that army as prisoners of war in the spring of +1865. + +{269} The effect that the news of Gettysburg produced in Europe is +said to have been the absolute termination of all hope for a +recognition of the Confederacy as an independent power. A writer in +the _London Morning Advertiser_ says: "Mr. Disraeli, although never +committing himself, as Mr. Gladstone and Lord John Russell did, to the +principles for which the Southern Confederacy was fighting, always +regarded recognition as a possible card to play, and was quite +prepared, at the proper moment, to play it. The moment seemed to have +come when General Lee invaded the Federal States. At that time it was +notorious that the bulk of the Tory party and more than half of the +Ministerialists were prepared for such a step. I had frequent +conversations with Mr. Disraeli on the subject, and I perfectly +recollect his saying to me that the time had now come for moving in +the matter. 'But,' he said, 'it is of great importance that, if the +move is to be made, it should not assume a party character, and it is +of equal importance that the initiative should come from our (the +Conservative) side. If the thing is to be done, I must do it myself; +and then, from all I hear and know, the resolution will be carried, +Lord Palmerston being quite disposed to accept the declaration by +Parliament in favor of a policy which he personally approves. But I +cannot speak without more knowledge of the subject than I now possess, +and I should be glad if you could give me a brief, furnishing the +necessary statistics of the population, the institutions, the +commercial and political prospects of the Southern States, in order +that when the moment comes I may be fully armed.' I procured the +necessary information and placed it in his hands. Every day seemed to +bring the moment for its use nearer, and the general feeling in the +House of Commons was perfectly ripe for the motion in favor of +recognition, when the news of the battle of Gettysburg came like a +thunder-clap upon the country. General Meade defeated Lee, and saved +the Union, and from that day not another word was heard in Parliament +about recognition. A few days afterward I saw Mr. Disraeli, and his +exact words were, 'We nearly put our foot in it.'" + +A great national cemetery was laid out on the battlefield, and the +remains of three thousand five hundred and sixty soldiers of the +National army who had fallen in that campaign were placed in it, +arranged in the order of their States. This was dedicated on the 19th +of November in the year of the battle, 1863; and this occasion +furnished a striking instance of the difference between natural genius +and artificial reputation. The orator of the day was Edward Everett, +who, by long cultivation and unlimited advertising, had attained the +nominal place of first orator in the country; but he was by no means +entitled to speak for the men who had there laid down their lives in +the cause of universal liberty; for, through all his political life, +until the breaking out of the war, he had been a strong pro-slavery +man. President Lincoln was invited to be present, as a matter of +course, and was informed that he would be expected to say a little +something. Mr. Everett delivered a long address, prepared in his usual +elaborate and artificial style, which was forgotten by every hearer +within twenty-four hours. Mr. Lincoln, on his way from Washington, +jotted down an idea or two on the back of an old envelope, by way of +memorandum, and when he was called upon, rose and delivered a speech +of fewer than three hundred words, which very soon took its place +among the world's immortal orations. Some time after the delivery of +the address, Mr. Lincoln, at the request of friends, carefully wrote +it and affixed his signature. This copy is here reproduced in such a +way as to give an exact fac-simile of his writing. + +[Illustration: (hand written) + +Address delivered at the dedication of the Cemetery at Gettysburg. + +Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this +continent a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the +proposition that all men are created equal. + +Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, +or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are +met on a great battle field of that war. We have come to dedicate a +portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here +gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting +and proper that we should do this. + +But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate--we can not consecrate--we +can not hallow--this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who +struggled here have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or +detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say +here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the +living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they +who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us +to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us--that from +these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which +they gave the last full measure of devotion--that we here highly +resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain--that this nation, +under God, shall have a new birth of freedom--and that government of +the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the +earth. + +Abraham Lincoln. + +November 19, 1863.] + + + + +{270} + +CHAPTER XXIII. + +THE VICKSBURG CAMPAIGN. + +OPERATIONS ON THE MISSISSIPPI--GRANT PLACED IN COMMAND--PLANS THE +CAMPAIGN--LOSS AT HOLLY SPRINGS--SHERMAN AND PORTER DESCEND THE +RIVER--SHERMAN'S ATTEMPT ON THE YAZOO--AT HAINES'S BLUFF--CAPTURE OF +ARKANSAS POST--CUTTING A CANAL--YAZOO PASS ATTEMPTED--STEELE'S +BAYOU--GRANT CROSSES THE MISSISSIPPI--GRIERSON'S RAID--ACTION AT +RAYMOND--CAPTURE OF JACKSON--BATTLE OF CHAMPION'S HILL--PEMBERTON IN +VICKSBURG--SIEGE OF THE CITY BEGUN--SURRENDER--OPERATIONS OF GUNBOAT +ON THE RIVER--A DUMMY GUNBOAT--INTERESTING INCIDENTS DURING THE SIEGE. + + +In the autumn of 1862, after the battles of Iuka and Corinth, the +National commanders in the West naturally began to think of further +movements southward into the State of Mississippi, and of opening the +great river and securing unobstructed navigation from Cairo to the +Gulf. The project was slow in execution, principally from division of +authority, and doubt as to what general would ultimately have the +command. John A. McClernand, who had been a Democratic member of +Congress from Illinois, and was what was known as a "political +general," spent some time in Washington, urging the plan upon the +President (who was an old acquaintance and personal friend), of course +in the expectation that he would be intrusted with its execution. But +he found little favor with General Halleck. At this time General Grant +hardly knew what were the limits of his command, or whether, indeed, +he really had any command at all. + +[Illustration: COMMUNICATING WITH THE FLOTILLA.] + +[Illustration: FLAG OFFICER CHARLES HENRY DAVIS. (Afterward +Rear-Admiral and Chief of Bureau of Navigation.)] + +[Illustration: COMMODORE W. D. PORTER.] + +Vicksburg is on a high bluff overlooking the Mississippi, where it +makes a sharp bend enclosing a long, narrow peninsula. The railroad +from Shreveport, La., reaches the river at this point, and connects by +ferry with the railroad running east from Vicksburg through Jackson, +the State capital. The distance between the two cities is forty-five +miles. About a hundred miles below Vicksburg is Port Hudson, similarly +situated as to river and railways. Between these two points the great +Red River, coming from the borders of Texas, Arkansas, and Louisiana, +flows into the Mississippi. As the Confederates drew a large part of +their supplies from Texas and the country watered by the Red River, it +was of the first importance to them to retain control of the +Mississippi between Vicksburg and Port Hudson, especially after they +had lost New Orleans, Baton Rouge, and Memphis. + +After taking New Orleans, in April, 1862, Farragut had gone up the +river with some of his ships, in May, and demanded the surrender of +Vicksburg; but, though the place was then but slightly fortified, the +demand was refused, and without a land force he could not take the +city, as it was too high to be damaged by his guns. He ran by the +batteries in June, and communicated with the river fleet of Capt. +Charles H. Davis. But all the while new batteries were being planted +on the bluffs, and after a time it became exceedingly hazardous for +any sort of craft to run the gantlet under their plunging fire. In +August, a Confederate force, under Gen. John C. Breckinridge, +attempted the capture of Baton Rouge, expecting to be assisted in the +assault by an immense iron-clad ram, the _Arkansas_, which was coming +down the river. The city was occupied by a force under Gen. Thomas +Williams, who made a stubborn and bloody fight, driving off the enemy. +General Williams was killed, as were also the Confederate General +Clarke and numerous officers of lower rank on either side, and more +than six hundred men in all were killed or wounded. The ram failed to +take part in the fight, because her machinery broke down. She was +attacked next day by two or three vessels, commanded by Captain (now +Admiral) David D. Porter, and when she had been disabled her crew +abandoned her and set her on fire, and she was blown into a thousand +fragments. After this defeat, General Breckinridge turned his +attention {271} to the fortification of Port Hudson, which was made +almost as strong as Vicksburg. + +On the 12th of November, 1862, General Grant received a despatch from +General Halleck placing him in command of all troops sent to his +department, and telling him to fight the enemy where he pleased. Four +days later Grant and Sherman had a conference at Columbus, and a plan +was arranged and afterward modified, by which Grant (who then had +about thirty thousand men under his personal command) was to move +southward and confront an equal force, commanded by Gen. John C. +Pemberton, on the Tallahatchie; while Sherman, with thirty thousand, +was to move from Memphis down the eastern bank of the Mississippi, +and, assisted by Porter and his gunboats, attempt the capture of +Vicksburg from the rear. If Pemberton moved toward that city, Grant +was to follow and engage him as soon as possible. + +Sherman and Porter, with their usual energy, went to work with all +speed to carry out their part of the programme. Grant moved more +slowly, because he did not wish to force his enemy back upon +Vicksburg, but to hold him as far north as possible. He established +his dépôt of supplies at Holly Springs, and waited for Sherman's +movement. But the whole scheme was ruined by the activity of two +Confederate cavalry detachments under Generals Van Dorn and Forrest. +On the 20th of December Van Dorn made a dash at Holly Springs, which +was held by fifteen hundred men under a Colonel Murphy, and captured +the place and its garrison. Grant had more than two million dollars' +worth of supplies there, and as Van Dorn could not remove them he +burned them all, together with the storehouses and railroad buildings. +Forrest, making a wide detour, tore up a portion of the railroad +between Jackson, Tenn., and Columbus, Ky., so that Grant's army was +cut off from all communication with the North for more than a week. It +had not yet occurred to anybody that a large army could leave its +communications and subsist on supplies gathered in the enemy's +country; so Grant gave up this part of his plan and moved back toward +Memphis. + +But Sherman and Porter, not hearing of the disaster at Holly Springs, +had proceeded with their preparations, embarked the troops, and gone +down the river in a long procession, the gunboats being placed at +intervals in the line of transports. Sherman says: "We manoeuvred by +divisions and brigades when in motion, and it was a magnificent sight. +What few of the inhabitants remained at the plantations on the river +bank were unfriendly, except the slaves. Some few guerilla parties +infested the banks, but did not dare to molest so strong a force as I +then commanded." The guerilla bands alluded to had been a serious +annoyance to the boats patrolling the river. Besides the +sharp-shooters with their rifles, small parties would suddenly appear +at one point or another with a field gun, fire at a passing boat, and +disappear before any force could be landed to pursue them. Farragut +had been obliged to destroy the town of Donaldsonville, in order to +punish and break up this practice on the lower reaches of the river. + +[Illustration: MAP OF THE VICKSBURG CAMPAIGN. By permission of Dick & +Fitzgerald, N. Y., from "Twelve Decisive Battles of the War."] + +The expedition arrived at Milliken's Bend on Christmas, where a +division was left, and whence a brigade was sent to break the railroad +from Shreveport. The next day the boats, with the three remaining +divisions, ascended the Yazoo thirteen miles to a point opposite the +bluffs north of Vicksburg, where the troops were landed. They were +here on the low bottom-land, which was crossed by numerous bayous, +some parts of it heavily wooded, the clearings being abandoned cotton +plantations. The bluffs were crowned with artillery, and along their +base was a deserted bed of the Yazoo. Most of the bridges were +destroyed, and the whole district was subject to inundation. It was +ugly ground for the operations of an army; but Sherman, confident that +Grant was holding Pemberton, felt sure there could not be a heavy +force on the heights, and resolved to capture them without delay. The +27th and 28th were spent in reconnoitring, selecting points for +attack, and placing the troops. On the 29th, while the gunboats made a +diversion at Haines's Bluff, and a part of Steele's division made a +feint on the right, near Vicksburg, the main force crossed the +intervening bayous at two points and attacked the centre of the +position. The battle was begun by a heavy artillery fire, followed by +musketry, and then the rush of the men. They had to face guns, at the +foot of the bluff, {272} that swept the narrow approaches, and at the +same time endure a cross-fire from the heights. Blair's brigade +reached the base of the hills, but was not properly supported by +Morgan's, and had to fall back again, leaving five hundred of its men +behind. The Sixth Missouri Regiment, at another point, had also gone +forward unsupported, reached the bluff, and could not return. The men +quickly scooped niches in the bank with their hands and sheltered +themselves in them, while many of the enemy came to the edge of the +hill, held out their muskets vertically at arm's-length, and fired +down at them. These men were not able to get back to their lines till +nightfall. This assault cost Sherman eighteen hundred and forty-eight +men, and inflicted upon the Confederates a loss of but two hundred. He +made arrangements to send a heavy force on the transports to Haines's +Bluff in the night of December 30, to be debarked at dawn, and storm +the works there, while the rest of the troops were to advance as soon +as the defences had been thus taken in reverse. But a heavy fog +prevented the boats from moving, and the next day a rain set in. +Sherman observed the water-marks on the trees ten feet above his head, +and a great deal more then ten feet above his head in the other +direction he saw whole brigades of reinforcements marching into the +enemy's intrenchments. He knew then that something must have gone +wrong with Grant's co-operating force, and so he wisely re-embarked +his men and munitions, and steamed down to the mouth of the Yazoo. + +[Illustration: GUNBOATS PASSING VICKSBURG IN THE NIGHT.] + +On the 4th of January, 1863, General McClernand assumed command of the +two corps that were commanded by Generals Sherman and George W. +Morgan. A fortnight before, a Confederate boat had come out of +Arkansas River and captured a mail boat, and it was known that there +was a Confederate garrison of five thousand men at Fort Hindman, or +Arkansas Post, on the Arkansas. It occurred to Sherman that there +could be no safety for boats on the Mississippi near the mouth of the +Arkansas till this post was captured or broken up; and accordingly he +asked McClernand to let him attack it with his corps, assisted by some +of the gunboats. McClernand concluded to go himself with the entire +army, and Porter also accompanied in person. They landed on the 10th, +below the fort, and drove in the pickets. That night the Confederates +toiled all night to throw up a line of works reaching from the fort +northward to an impassable swamp. On the 11th the whole National force +moved forward simultaneously to the attack, the gunboats steaming up +close to the fort and sweeping its bastions with their fire, while +Morgan's corps moved against its eastern face, and Sherman's against +the new line of works. The ground to be passed over was level, with +little shelter save a few trees and logs; but the men advanced +steadily, lying down behind every little projection, and so annoying +the artillerymen with their sharp-shooting that the guns could not be +well served. When the gunboats arrived abreast of the fort and +enfiladed it, the gunners ran down into {273} the ditch, a man with a +white flag appeared on the parapet, and presently white flags and rags +were fluttering all along the line. Firing was stopped at once, and +the fort was surrendered by its commander, General Churchill. About +one hundred and fifty of the garrison had been killed, and the +remainder, numbering forty-eight hundred, were made prisoners. The +National loss was about one thousand. The fort was dismantled and +destroyed, and the stores taken on board the fleet. McClernand +conceived a vague project for ascending the river farther, but on +peremptory orders from Grant the expedition returned to the +Mississippi, steaming down the Arkansas in a heavy snow-storm. + +In accordance with instructions from Washington, Grant now took +personal command of the operations on the Mississippi, dividing his +entire force into four corps, to be commanded by Generals McClernand, +Sherman, Stephen A. Hurlbut, and James B. McPherson. Hurlbut's corps +was left to hold the lines east of Memphis, while the other troops, +with reinforcements from the North, were united in the river +expedition. + +McClernand and Sherman went down the peninsula enclosed in the bend of +the river opposite Vicksburg, and with immense labor dug a canal +across it. Much was hoped from this, but it proved a failure, for the +river would not flow through it. Furthermore, there were bluffs +commanding the river below Vicksburg, and the Confederates had already +begun to fortify them; so that if the canal had succeeded, navigation +of the stream would have been as much obstructed as before. Still the +work was continued till the 7th of March, when the river suddenly rose +and overflowed the peninsula, and Sherman's men barely escaped +drowning by regiments. + +Grant was surveying the country in every direction, for some feasible +approach to the flanks of his enemy. One scheme was to move through +Lake Providence and the bayous west of the Mississippi, from a point +far above Vicksburg to one far below. This involved the cutting of +another canal, from the Mississippi to one of the bayous, and +McPherson's corps spent a large part of the month of March in digging +and dredging; but this also was a failure. On the eastern side of the +Mississippi there had once been an opening, known as Yazoo Pass, by +which boats from Memphis made their way into Coldwater River, thence +into the Tallahatchie, and thence into the Yazoo above Yazoo City; but +the pass had been closed by a levee or embankment. Grant blew up the +levee, and tried this approach. But the Confederates had information +of every movement, and took prompt measures to thwart it. The banks of +the streams where his boats had to pass were heavily wooded, and great +trees were felled across the channel. Worse than this, after the boats +had passed in and removed many of the obstructions, it was found that +the enemy were felling trees across the channel behind them, so that +they might not get out again. Earthworks also were thrown up at the +point where the Yallabusha and Tallahatchie unite to form the Yazoo, +and heavily manned. Here the advance division of the expedition had a +slight engagement, with no result. Reinforcements arrived under Gen. +Isaac F. Quinby, who assumed command, and began operations for +crossing the Yallabusha and rendering the Confederate fortification +useless, when he was recalled by Grant, who had found that the +necessary light-draught boats for carrying his whole force through to +that point could not be had. + +One more attempt in this direction was made before the effort to flank +Vicksburg on the north was given up. It was proposed to ascend the +Yazoo a short distance from its mouth, turn into Steele's bayou, +ascend this, and by certain passes that had been discovered get into +Big Sunflower River, and then descend that stream into the Yazoo above +Haines's Bluff. Porter and Sherman took the lead in this expedition, +and encountered all the difficulties of the Yazoo Pass project, +magnified several times--the narrow channels, the felled trees, the +want of solid ground on which troops could be manoeuvred, the horrible +swamps and canebrakes, through some of which they picked their way +with lighted candles, and the annoyance from unseen sharp-shooters +that swarmed through the whole region. Porter at one time was on the +point of abandoning his boats; but finally all were extricated, though +some of them had to back out through the narrow pass for a distance of +thirty miles. + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration: REAR-ADMIRAL HENRY WALKE. (Commander of the "Tyler" and +"Carondelet.")] + +In March, Farragut with his flagship and one gunboat had run by the +batteries at Port Hudson, but the remainder of his fleet had failed to +pass. Several boats had run by the batteries at Vicksburg; and Grant +now turned his attention to a project for moving an army by transports +through bayous west of the Mississippi to a point below the city, +where Porter, after running by the batteries with his iron-clads, was +to meet him and ferry the troops across to the eastern bank. The use +of the bayous was finally given up, and the army marched by the roads. +The fleet ran by the batteries on the night of April 16. As soon as it +was discovered approaching, the Confederates set fire to immense piles +of wood that they had prepared on the bank, the whole scene became as +light as day, and for an hour and a half {274} the fleet was under a +heavy fire, which it returned as it steadily steamed by; but beyond +the destruction of one transport there was no serious loss. + +Bridges had to be built over bayous, and a suitable place discovered +for crossing the Mississippi. New Carthage was tried, but found +impracticable, as it was nearly surrounded by water. Grand Gulf was +strongly fortified, and on the 29th of April seven of Porter's +gunboats attacked it. They fired five hundred shots an hour for five +hours, and damaged the works somewhat, but only killed or wounded +eighteen men, while the fleet lost twenty-six men, and one boat was +seriously disabled. Grant therefore gave up the project of crossing +here, moved his transports down stream under cover of darkness, and at +daylight on the 30th began the crossing at Bruinsburg. McClernand's +corps was in the advance, and marched on Port Gibson that night. At +dawn the enemy was found in a strong position three miles west of that +place. There was sharp fighting all day, the Confederate force +numbering about eight thousand, and contesting every foot of the +ground; but the line was finally disrupted, and at night-fall they +made an orderly retreat, burning bridges behind them. The National +loss had been eight hundred and forty-nine men, killed, wounded, or +missing; the Confederate, about one thousand. Grant's movements at +this time were greatly assisted by one of the most effective cavalry +raids of the war. This was conducted by Col. Benjamin H. Grierson, who +with seventeen hundred men set out from La Grange, Tenn., on the 17th +of April, and rode southward through the whole State of Mississippi, +tearing up railroads, burning bridges, destroying supplies, eluding +every strong force that was sent out to stop him, defeating several +small ones, floundering through swamps, swimming rivers, spreading +consternation by the celerity and uncertainty of his movements, and +finally riding into Baton Rouge at the end of sixteen days with half +his men asleep in their saddles. He had lost but twenty-seven. + +[Illustration: LIEUTENANT E. M. KING.] + +[Illustration: LAKE PROVIDENCE.] + +[Illustration: LIEUTENANT-COLONEL CHARLES RIVERS-ELLET.] + +The fortifications at Grand Gulf were abandoned. Porter took +possession of them, and Grant established his base there. A bridge had +to be rebuilt at Port Gibson, and then Crocker's division pushed on in +pursuit of the retreating Confederates, saved a burning bridge at +Bayou Pierre, came up with them at Willow Springs, and after a slight +engagement drove them across the Big Black at Hankinson's Ferry, and +saved the bridge. There was a slight delay, for Sherman's corps and +the supplies to arrive, and then Grant pressed on resolutely with his +whole army. He had with him about forty-one thousand men, subsequently +increased to forty-five thousand; and Pemberton at this time had about +fifty thousand. + +Grant moved northeasterly, toward Jackson, and on the 12th of May +found a hostile force near Raymond. It numbered but three thousand, +and was soon swept away, though not until it had lost five hundred men +and inflicted a loss of four hundred and thirty-two upon the National +troops. It was the purpose of the Union commander to move swiftly, and +beat the enemy as much as possible in detail before the scattered +forces could concentrate against him. Believing there was a +considerable force at Jackson, which he would not like to leave in his +rear, he {275} marched on that place, and the next conflict occurred +there, May 14th. Gen. Joseph E. Johnston (whom we took leave of when +he was wounded at Seven Pines, nearly a year before) had just been +ordered by the Confederate Government to take command of all the +forces in Mississippi, and arrived at Jackson in the evening of the +13th, finding there about twelve thousand men subject to his orders. +Pemberton was at Edwards Station, thirty miles westward, and Grant was +between them. Johnston telegraphed to Richmond that he was too late, +but took what measures he could for defence. It rained heavily that +night, and the next morning, when the corps of Sherman and McPherson +marched against the city, they travelled roads that were a foot under +water. McPherson came up on the west, and Sherman on the southwest and +south. The enemy was met two miles out, and driven in with heavy +skirmishing. While manoeuvring was going on before the intrenchments, +the Union commanders seeking for a suitable point to assault, it was +discovered that the enemy was evacuating the place, and Grant and his +men went in at once and hoisted the National colors. They had lost two +hundred and ninety men in the skirmishing; the enemy, eight hundred +and forty-five, mostly captured. Seventeen guns were taken, but the +Confederates burned most of their stores. + +Leaving Sherman at Jackson to destroy the railroad, and the factories +that were turning out goods for the Confederacy, which he did very +thoroughly, Grant ordered all his other forces to concentrate +at Bolton, twenty miles west. Marching thence westward, keeping +the corps well together, and ordering Sherman to send forward an +ammunition-train--for he knew that a battle must soon be fought--Grant +found Pemberton with twenty-three thousand men waiting to receive him +at Champion's Hill, on high ground well selected for defence, which +covered the three roads leading westward. The battle, May 15th, lasted +four hours, and was the bloodiest of the campaign. The brunt of it, on +the National side, was borne by the divisions of Hovey, Logan, and +Crocker; and Hovey lost more than one-third of his men. Logan's +division pushed forward on the right, passed Pemberton's left flank, +and held the only road by which the enemy could retreat. But this was +not known to the Union commander at the time, and when Hovey, hard +pressed, called for help, Logan was drawn back to his assistance, and +the road uncovered. A little later Pemberton was in full retreat +toward the crossing of the Big Black River, leaving his dead and +wounded and thirty guns on the field. Grant's loss in the +action--killed, wounded, and missing--was twenty-four hundred and +forty-one. Pemberton's was over three thousand killed and wounded +(including General Tilghman killed), besides nearly as many more +captured in battle or on the retreat. + +The enemy was next found at the Big Black River, where he had placed +his main line on the high land west of the stream, and stationed his +advance (or, properly speaking, his rear guard) along the edge of a +bayou that ran through the low ground on the east. This advanced +position was attacked vigorously on the 17th, and when Lawler's +brigade flanked it on the right, that general leading a charge in his +shirt-sleeves, the whole line gave way, and Pemberton resumed his +retreat, burning the bridge behind him and leaving his men in the +lowland to their fate. Some swam the river, some were drowned, and +seventeen hundred and fifty were made prisoners. Eighteen guns were +captured here. The National loss was two hundred and seventy-nine. + +[Illustration: LIEUTENANT-GENERAL J. C. PEMBERTON, C. S. A.] + +[Illustration: MAJOR-GENERAL CARTER L. STEVENSON, C. S. A.] + +[Illustration: BRIGADIER-GENERAL LLOYD TILGHMAN, C. S. A.] + +Sherman now came up with his corps, and Grant ordered the building of +three bridges. One was a floating or raft bridge. One was made by +felling trees on both sides of the stream and letting them fall so +that their boughs would interlace over the channel, the trunks not +being cut entirely through, and so hanging to the stumps. Planks laid +crosswise on these trees made a good roadway. The third bridge was +made by using cotton bales for pontoons. Sherman's troops made a +fourth bridge farther up the stream; and that night he and Grant sat +on a log and watched the long procession of blue-coated men with +gleaming muskets marching across the swaying structure by the light of +pitch-pine torches. All the bridges were finished by morning, and that +day, the 18th, the entire army was west of the river. + +Pemberton marched straight into Vicksburg, which had a long line of +defences on the land side as well as on the water front, and shut +himself up there. Grant, following closely, invested the place on the +19th. Sherman, holding the right of the line, was at Haines's Bluff, +occupying the very ground beneath which his men had suffered defeat +some months before. Here, on the Yazoo, Grant established a new base +for supplies. McPherson's corps was next to Sherman's on the left, and +McClernand's next, reaching to the river below the city. Sharp +skirmishing went on while the armies were getting into position, and +an assault in the afternoon of the 19th gained the National troops +some advantage in the advancement of the line to better ground. +Grant's army had been living for three weeks on five days' rations, +with what they could pick up in the country they passed through, which +was {276} not a little; and his first care was to construct roads in +the rear of his line, so that supplies could be brought up from the +Yazoo rapidly and regularly. He had now about thirty thousand men, the +line of defences before him was eight miles long, and he expected an +attack from Johnston in the rear. At ten o'clock on the 22d, +therefore, he ordered a grand assault, hoping to carry the works by +storm. But though the men at several points reached the breastworks +and planted their battle-flags on them, it was found impossible to +take them. McClernand falsely reported that he had carried two forts +at his end of the line, and asked for reinforcements, which were sent +to him, and a renewal of the assault was made to help him. This caused +additional loss of life, to no purpose, and shortly afterward that +general was relieved of his command, which was given to Gen. E. O. C. +Ord. + +After this assault, which had cost him nearly twenty-five hundred men, +Grant settled down to a siege of Vicksburg by regular approaches. The +work went on day by day, with the usual incidents of a siege. There +was mining and counter-mining, and two large mines were exploded under +angles of the Confederate works, but without any practical result. The +great guns were booming night and day, throwing thousands of shells +into the city, and more than one citizen picked up and threw into a +heap hundreds of pounds of the iron fragments that fell into his yard. +Caves were dug in the banks where the streets had been cut through the +clayey hills, and in these the people found refuge from the shells. A +newspaper was issued regularly even to the last day of the siege, but +it was printed on the back of wallpaper. Provisions of course became +scarce, and mule-meat was eaten. Somebody printed a humorous bill of +fare, which consisted entirely of mule-meat in the various forms of +soup, roast, stew, etc. All the while the besiegers were digging away, +bringing their trenches closer to the defences, till the soldiers of +the hostile lines bandied jests across the narrow intervening space. +At the end of forty-seven days the works arrived at the point where a +grand assault must be the next thing, and at the same time famine +threatened, and the National holiday was at hand. After some +negotiation General Pemberton unconditionally surrendered the city and +his army of thirty-one thousand six hundred men, on the 4th of July, +1863, one day after Lee's defeat at Gettysburg. + +Port Hudson, which Banks with twelve thousand men and Farragut with +his fleet had besieged for weeks, was surrendered with its garrison of +six thousand men, five days after the fall of Vicksburg. The entire +Confederate loss in Mississippi, from the time Grant entered the State +at Bruinsburg to the surrender, was about fifty thousand; Grant's was +about nine thousand. But the great triumph was in the opening of the +Mississippi River, which cut the Confederacy completely in two. + +[Illustration: MAJOR-GENERAL RICHARD J. OGLESBY.] + +By Grant's orders there was no cheering, no firing of salutes, no +expression of exultation at the surrender; because the triumph was +over our own countrymen, and the object of it all was to establish a +permanent Union. + +In his correspondence with Pemberton, while demanding an unconditional +surrender, Grant had written: "Men who have shown so much endurance +and courage as those now in Vicksburg will always challenge the +respect of an adversary, and I can assure you will be treated with all +the respect due to prisoners of war. I do not favor the proposition of +appointing commissioners to arrange the terms of capitulation, because +I have no terms other than those indicated above." As soon as the +surrender was effected, the famished Confederate army was liberally +supplied with food, Grant's men taking it out of their own haversacks. +All the prisoners at Vicksburg and Port Hudson were immediately +paroled and furnished with transportation and supplies, under the +supposition that they would go to their homes and remain there till +properly exchanged. + +[Illustration: BRIGADIER-GENERAL NEAL DOW.] + +[Illustration: COLONEL CHARLES W. LE GENDRE.] + +The coöperation of Porter's fleet of river gunboats above the city, +and some of Farragut's vessels below it, had been a great assistance +during the siege, in cutting off the city from communication across +the river. General Grant's thoughtfulness and mastery of details in +great military movements are suggested by one of his letters to +Farragut at this time. Knowing that Farragut's ships would need a +constant supply of coal, he sent him a large cargo, and wrote: +"Hearing nothing from Admiral Porter, I have determined to send you a +barge of coal from here. {277} The barge will be cast adrift from the +upper end of the canal at ten o'clock to-night. Troops on the opposite +side of the point will be on the lookout, and, should the barge run +into the eddy, will start it adrift again." + +[Illustration: BREVET BRIGADIER-GENERAL WILLIAM E. STRONG.] + +[Illustration: BRIGADIER-GENERAL ADAM BADEAU.] + +[Illustration: BRIGADIER-GENERAL GABRIEL J. RAINS, C. S. A.] + +One of the most ludicrous incidents of the siege was the career of the +dummy monitor, sometimes called the "Black Terror." The _Indianola_, +of Porter's fleet, had been attacked by the Confederates and captured +in a sinking condition. They were hard at work trying to raise her, +when they saw something coming down the river that struck them with +terror. Admiral Porter had fitted up an old flat-boat so that, at a +little distance, it looked like a monitor. It had mud furnaces and a +smokestack made of pork barrels. Fire was built in the furnaces, and +she was set adrift on the river without a single person on board. The +men at the Vicksburg batteries were startled at the appearance of a +monitor in those waters, and opened a furious cannonade, but did not +succeed in stopping the stranger, which passed on with the current. In +the excitement, orders were given to destroy the _Indianola_, and she +was blown up just before the trick was discovered. + +A few days after the capture of Vicksburg, President Lincoln wrote +this characteristically frank and generous letter to General Grant: + +MY DEAR GENERAL: I do not remember that you and I ever met personally. +I write this now as a grateful acknowledgment for the almost +inestimable service you have done the country. I wish to say further: +when you first reached the vicinity of Vicksburg, I thought you should +do what you finally did--march the troops across the neck, run the +batteries with the transports, and thus go below; and I never had any +faith, except a general hope that you knew better than I, that the +Yazoo Pass expedition and the like could succeed. When you got below +and took Fort Gibson, Grand Gulf and vicinity, I thought you should go +down the river and join General Banks; and when you turned northward, +east of the Big Black, I feared it was a mistake. I now wish to make a +personal acknowledgment that you were right and I was wrong. + + Yours very truly, + A. LINCOLN. + +After the surrender Grant reorganized his army, issued instructions +for the care and government of the blacks who had escaped from slavery +and come within his lines, and gave orders for furloughs to be granted +freely to those of his soldiers who had been conspicuous for their +valor and attention to duty during the campaign. It is said that he +also took particular care that no exorbitant prices should be demanded +of these soldiers on the steamboats by which they ascended the river +in going to their homes. His own modesty and loyalty are exhibited in +a letter that he wrote, a month later, when the loyal citizens of +Memphis proposed to give him a public dinner. He said: "In accepting +this testimonial, which I do at great sacrifice of personal feelings, +I simply desire to pay a tribute to the first public exhibition in +Memphis of loyalty to the Government which I represent in the +Department of the Tennessee. I should dislike to refuse, for +considerations of personal convenience, to acknowledge anywhere or in +any form the existence of sentiments which I have so long and so +ardently desired to see manifested in this department. The stability +of this Government and the unity of this nation depends solely on the +cordial support and the earnest loyalty of the people." + +{278} [Illustration: THE ADVANCE ON VICKSBURG--THE FIFTEENTH CORPS +CROSSING THE BIG BLACK RIVER BY NIGHT, MAY 16, 1863.] + +Of the innumerable incidents of the marches and the siege, in this +campaign, some of the most interesting were told by Gen. Manning F. +Force in a paper read before the Ohio Commandery of the Loyal Legion, +all of them being drawn from his own experience. In that campaign he +was colonel of the Twentieth Ohio infantry. + +"About the 20th of April I was sent, with the Twentieth Ohio and the +Thirtieth Illinois, seven miles out from Milliken's Bend, to build a +road across a swamp. When the sun set, the leaves of the forest seemed +to exude smoke, and the air became a saturated solution of gnats. When +my mess sat down to supper under a tree, the gnats got into our +mouths, noses, eyes, and ears. They swarmed upon our necks, seeming to +encircle them with bands of hot iron. Tortured and blinded, we could +neither eat nor see. We got a quantity of cotton, and made a circle +around the group, and set it on fire. The pungent smoke made water +stream from our eyes, but drove the gnats away. We then supped in +anguish, but in peace. I sent back to camp and got some mosquito +netting from a sutler. Covering my {279} head with many folds, I +slept, waking at intervals to burn a wad of cotton. Many of the men +sat by the fire all night, fighting the gnats, and slept next day. In +the woods we found stray cattle, sheep, and hogs. A large pond was +full of fish. We lived royally. + +"On the 25th of April, Logan's division marched. The Twentieth Ohio +had just drawn new clothing, but had to leave it behind. Stacking +spades and picks in the swamp, they took their place in the column as +it appeared, taking with them only the scanty supplies they had there. +Six days of plodding brought them over nearly seventy miles, to the +shore of the river opposite Bruinsburg. We marched six miles one day, +and those six miles by evening were strewn with wrecks of wagons and +their loads and half-buried guns. At a halt of some hours the men +stood in deep mud, for want of any means of sitting. Yet when we +halted at night, every man answered to his name, and went laughing to +bed on the sloppy ground. + +"On the 12th of May the Seventeenth Corps marched on the road toward +Raymond. The Thirtieth Illinois was deployed with a skirmish line in +front, on the left of the road; the Twentieth Ohio, in like manner on +the right. About noon we halted--the Twentieth Ohio in an open field, +bounded by a fence to the front, beyond which was forest and rising +ground. An unseen battery on some height beyond the timber began +shelling the fields. The Twentieth advanced over the fence into the +woods. The First Brigade came up and formed on our right. All at once +the woods rang with the shrill rebel yell and a deafening din of +musketry. The Twentieth rushed forward to a creek, and used the +farther bank as breastworks. The timber beyond the creek and the fence +was free from undergrowth. The Twentieth Illinois, the regiment next +to the right of the Twentieth Ohio, knelt down in place and returned +the fire. The enemy advanced into the creek in its front. I went to +the lieutenant-colonel, who was kneeling at the left flank, and asked +him why he did not advance into the creek. He said, 'We have no +orders.' In a few minutes the colonel of the regiment was killed. It +was too late to advance, it was murder to remain, and the +lieutenant-colonel withdrew the regiment in order back behind the +fence. I cannot tell how long the battle lasted. I remember noticing +the forest leaves, cut by rifle-balls, falling in thick eddies, still +as snowflakes. At one time the enemy in our front advanced to the +border of the creek, and rifles of opposing lines crossed while +firing. Men who were shot were burned by the powder of the rifles that +sped the balls. + +"In eighteen days Grant marched two hundred miles, won five battles, +four of them in six days, inflicted a loss of five thousand men, +captured eighty-eight pieces of artillery, compelled the abandonment +of all outworks, and cooped Pemberton's army within the lines of +Vicksburg, while he had opened for himself easy and safe communication +with the North. During these eighteen days the men had been without +shelter, and had subsisted on five days' rations and scanty supplies +picked up on the way. The morning we crossed the Big Black I offered +five dollars for a small piece of corn bread, and could not get it. +The soldier said bread was worth more to him than money. + +"The Twentieth was placed in a road-cut, which was enfiladed by one of +the enemy's infantry intrenchments. But when we sat with our backs +pressed against the side of the cut toward Vicksburg, the balls +whistled by just outside of our knees. At sunset the company cooks +were possessed to come to us with hot coffee. They succeeded in +running the gantlet, and the garrison could hear the jingling of tin +cups and shouts of laughter as the cramped men ate their supper. After +dark we were recalled and placed on the slope of a sharp ridge, with +orders to remain in place, ready to move at any moment, and with +strict injunctions not to allow any man's head to appear above the +ridge. There we lay two or three days in line. Coffee was brought to +us by the cooks at meal-time. Not a man those two or three days left +the line without a special order. The first night Lieutenant +Weatherby, commanding the right company reported that the slope was so +steep where he was that the men as soon as they fell asleep began to +roll down hill. I had to give him leave to shift his position. + +"One day when there was a general bombardment I was told a soldier +wished to see me. Under the canopy of exploding shell I found a youth, +a boy, lying on his back on the ground. He was pale and speechless; +there was a crimson hole in his breast. As I knelt by his side he +looked wistfully at me. I said, 'We must all die some time, and the +man is happy who meets death in the discharge of duty. You have done +your whole duty well.' It was all he wanted. His eyes brightened, a +smile flickered on his lips, and I was kneeling beside a corpse. + +"One day when the Twentieth Ohio was in advance, we came, at a turn in +the road, upon two old colored people, man and woman, plump and sleek, +riding mules, and coming toward us. As they caught sight of the long +column of blue-coats, the woman, crossing her hands upon her bosom, +rolled up her eyes and cried in ecstasy 'Bress de Lord! Bress Almighty +God! Our friends is come, our friends is come!' On the return, we +crossed a plantation where the field-hands were ploughing. The +soldiers like mules, and the negroes gladly unharnessed them, and +helped the soldiers to mount. I said to one, 'The soldiers are taking +your mules.' The quick response was, 'An' dey is welcome to 'em, sar; +dey is welcome to 'em.' Men and women looked wistfully at the marching +column, and began to talk about joining us. They seemed to wait the +determination of a gray-headed darky who was considering. Presently +there was a shout, 'Uncle Pete's a-gwine, an' I'm a-gwine, too!' As +they flocked after us, one tall, stern woman strode along, carrying a +wooden tray and a crockery pitcher as all her effects, looking +straight to the front. Some one asked, 'Auntie, where are you going?' +She answered, without looking, 'I don't car' whicher way I go, so as I +git away from dis place.' + +"When the working parties carried the saps to the base of the works, +the besieged used to light the fuses of six-pound shells and toss them +over the parapet. They would roll down among the working parties and +explode, sometimes doing serious damage. A young soldier of the +Twentieth Ohio, named Friend, devised wooden mortars. A very small +charge of powder in one of these would just lift a shell over the +enemy's parapet and drop it within. After the surrender there was much +inquiry from the garrison how they were contrived." + +Concerning this tossing of the shells, one who had been a private in +Grant's army said to the writer: "I was in the trenches one evening +when a shell came over without noise, as if thrown by hand. +Fortunately it did not explode, or it would have injured a good many +of us. This greatly surprised me, and when in a few minutes another +came, I was on the watch and noted the point from which it seemed to +start. By strange luck this also failed to explode. I then laid my +rifle across the breastwork, cocked it, and put my eye to the sight, +with the muzzle facing the point from which the shell had come. +Presently I saw a man {280} rise in the enemy's trench with a third +shell in his hand--but he never threw it." + +[Illustration: SIEGE OF VICKSBURG--SHOWING SOME OF THE FEDERAL +INTRENCHMENTS.] + +[Illustration: MAKING GABIONS.] + +[Illustration: BRIGADIER-GENERAL SETH M. BARTON, C. S. A.] + +[Illustration: BRIGADIER-GENERAL N. G. EVANS, C. S. A.] + +[Illustration: MAJOR-GENERAL WILLIAM PRESTON, C. S. A.] + +When the siege began, General Pemberton issued an order that all +non-combatants leave the city; but many of them refused to go--some +because they had no other home, or means to sustain themselves +elsewhere--and a few women and children were among those who remained. +One lady, wife of an officer in Pemberton's army, published the next +year an account of her life in the city during the siege, which is +especially interesting for its picturesque and suggestive details, +many of which are not to be found elsewhere. A few passages are here +reproduced: + +"The cave [of a friend] was an excavation in the earth the size of a +large room, high enough for the tallest person to stand perfectly +erect, provided with comfortable seats, and altogether quite a large +and habitable abode (compared with some of the caves in the city), +were it not for the dampness and the constant contact with the soft +earthy walls. + +"Two negroes were coming with a small trunk between them, and a +carpet-bag or two, evidently trying to show others of the profession +how careless of danger they were, and how foolish 'niggars' were to +run 'dat sort o' way.' A shell came through the air and fell a few +yards beyond the braves, when, lo! the trunk was sent tumbling, and +landed bottom upward; the carpet-bag followed--one grand somerset; and +amid the cloud of dust that arose, I discovered one porter doubled up +by the side of the trunk, and the other crouching close by a pile of +plank. A shout from the negroes on the cars, and much laughter, +brought them on their feet, brushing their knees and giggling, yet +looking quite foolish, feeling their former prestige gone. The +excitement was intense in the city. Groups of people stood on every +available position where a view could be obtained of the distant +hills, where the jets of white smoke constantly passed out from among +the trees. + +"The caves were plainly becoming a necessity, as some persons had been +killed on the street by fragments of shells. The room that I had so +lately slept in had been struck by a fragment of a shell during the +first night, and a large hole made in the ceiling. Terror-stricken, we +remained crouched in the cave, while shell after shell followed each +other in quick succession. I endeavored by constant prayer to prepare +myself for the sudden death I was almost certain awaited me. My heart +stood still as we would hear the reports from the guns, and the +rushing and fearful sound of the shell as it came toward us. As it +neared, the noise became more deafening; the air was full of the +rushing sound; pains darted through my temples; my ears were full of +the confusing noise; and, as it exploded, the report flashed through +my head like an electric shock, leaving me in a quiet state of terror +the most painful that I can imagine, cowering in a corner, holding my +child to my heart--the only feeling of my life being the choking +throbs of my heart, that rendered me almost breathless. I saw one fall +in the road without the mouth of the cave, like a flame of fire, +making the earth tremble, and, with a low, singing sound, the +fragments sped on in their work of death. + +"So constantly dropped the shells around the city that the inhabitants +all made preparations to live under ground during the siege. +M---- sent over and had a cave made in a hill near by. We seized the +opportunity one evening, when the gunners were probably at their +supper, for we had a few moments of quiet, to go over and take +possession. + +"Some families had light bread made in large quantities, and subsisted +on it with milk (provided their cows were not killed from one milking +time to another), without any more cooking, until called on to +replenish. Though most of us lived on corn bread and bacon, served +three times a day, the only luxury of the meal consisting in its +warmth, I had some flour, and frequently had some hard, tough biscuit +made from it, there being no soda or yeast to be procured. At this +time we could also procure beef. A gentleman friend was kind enough to +offer me his camp-bed; another had his tent-fly stretched over the +mouth of our residence to shield us from the sun. And so I went +regularly to work keeping house under ground. Our new habitation was +an excavation made in the earth, and branching six feet from the +entrance, forming a cave in the shape of a T. In one of the wings my +bed fitted; the other I used as a kind of dressing-room. In this the +earth had been cut down a foot or two below the floor of the main +cave; I could stand erect here; and when tired of sitting in other +portions of my residence I bowed myself into it, and stood impassively +resting at full height--one of the variations in the still +shell-expectant life. + +"We were safe at least from fragments of shell, and they were flying +in all directions. We had our roof arched and braced, the supports of +the bracing taking up much room in our confined quarters. The earth +was about five feet thick above, and seemed hard and compact. + +"'Miss M----,' said one of the more timid servants, 'do they want to +kill us all dead? Will they keep doing this until we all die?' I said +most heartily, 'I hope not.' The servants we had with us seemed to +possess more courage than is usually attributed to negroes. They +seldom hesitated to cross the street for water at any time. The 'boy' +slept at the entrance of the cave, with a pistol I had given him, +telling me I need not be 'afeared--dat any one dat come dar would have +to go over his body first.' He never refused to carry out any little +article to M---- on the battlefield. I laughed heartily at a dilemma +{281} he was placed in one day. The mule that he had mounted to ride +out to the battlefield took him to a dangerous locality, where the +shells were flying thickly, and then, suddenly stopping, through +fright, obstinately refused to stir. It was in vain that George kicked +and beat him--go he would not; so, clinching his hand, he hit him +severely in the head several times, jumped down, ran home, and left +him. The mule stood a few minutes rigidly; then, looking round, and +seeing George at some distance from him, turned and followed quite +demurely. + +"One morning, after breakfast, the shells began falling so thickly +around us, that they seemed aimed at the particular spot on which our +cave was located. Two or three fell immediately in the rear of it, +exploding a few minutes before reaching the ground, and the fragments +went singing over the top of our habitation. I at length became so +much alarmed--as the cave trembled excessively--for our safety, that I +determined, rather than be buried alive, to stand out from under the +earth; so taking my child in my arms, and calling the servants, we ran +to a refuge near the roots of a large fig-tree, that branched out over +the bank, and served as a protection from the fragments of shells. As +we stood trembling there--for the shells were falling all around +us--some of my gentleman friends came up to reassure me, telling me +that the tree would protect us, and that the range would probably be +changed in a short time. While they spoke, a shell, that seemed to be +of enormous size, fell, screaming and hissing, immediately before the +mouth of our cave, sending up a huge column of smoke and earth, and +jarring the ground most sensibly where we stood. What seemed very +strange, the earth closed in around the shell, and left only the newly +upturned soil to show where it had fallen. + +"The cave we inhabited was about five squares from the levee. A great +many had been made in a hill immediately beyond us; and near this hill +we could see most of the shells fall. Caves were the fashion--the +rage--over besieged Vicksburg. Negroes who understood their business +hired themselves out to dig them, at from thirty to fifty dollars, +according to the size. Many persons, considering different localities +unsafe, would sell them to others who had been less fortunate or less +provident; and so great was the demand for cave workmen, that a new +branch of industry sprang up and became popular--particularly as the +personal safety of the workman was secured, and money withal. + +"A large trunk was picked up after the sinking of the _Cincinnati_, +belonging to a surgeon on board. It contained {282} valuable surgical +instruments that could not be procured in the Confederacy. + +"I was sitting near the entrance, about five o'clock, thinking of the +pleasant change--oh, bless me!--that to-morrow would bring, when the +bombardment commenced more furiously than usual, the shells falling +thickly around us, causing vast columns of earth to fly upward, +mingled with smoke. I was startled by the shouts of the servants and a +most fearful jar and rocking of the earth, followed by a deafening +explosion such as I had never heard before. The cave filled instantly +with powder, smoke, and dust. I stood with a tingling, prickling +sensation in my head, hands, and feet, and with a confused brain. Yet +alive!--was the first glad thought that came to me; child, servants, +all here, and saved!--from some great danger, I felt. I stepped out, +to find a group of persons before my cave, looking anxiously for me; +and lying all around, freshly torn, rose-bushes, arbor-vitć trees, +large clods of earth, splinters, pieces of plank, wood, etc. A mortar +shell had struck the corner of the cave, fortunately so near the brow +of the hill that it had gone obliquely into the earth, exploding as it +went, breaking large masses from the side of the hill, tearing away +the fence, the shrubbery and flowers, sweeping all like an avalanche +down near the entrance of my good refuge. + +"A young girl, becoming weary in the confinement of the cave, hastily +ran to the house in the interval that elapsed between the slowly +falling shells. On returning, an explosion sounded near her--one wild +scream, and she ran into her mother's presence, sinking like a wounded +dove, the life-blood flowing over the light summer dress in crimson +ripples from a death-wound in her side, caused by the shell fragment. +A fragment had also struck and broken the arm of a little boy playing +near the mouth of his mother's cave. This was one day's account. + +"I was distressed to hear of a young Federal lieutenant who had been +severely wounded and left on the field by his comrades. He had lived +in this condition from Saturday until Monday, lying in the burning sun +without water or food; and the men on both sides could witness the +agony of the life thus prolonged, without the power to assist him in +any way. I was glad, indeed, when I heard the poor man had expired on +Monday morning. Another soldier left on the field, badly wounded in +the leg, had begged most piteously for water; and lying near the +Confederate intrenchments, his cries were all directed to the +Confederate soldiers. The firing was heaviest where he lay, and it +would have been at the risk of a life to have gone to him; yet a +Confederate soldier asked and obtained leave to carry water to him, +and stood and fanned him in the midst of the firing, while he eagerly +drank from the heroic soldier's canteen. + +"One morning George made an important discovery--a newly made stump of +sassafras, very near the cave, with large roots extending in every +direction, affording us an inexhaustible vein of tea for future use. +We had been drinking water with our meals previous to this disclosure; +coffee and tea had long since been among the things that were, in the +army. We, however, were more fortunate than many of the officers, +having access to an excellent cistern near us; while many of our +friends used muddy water or river water. + +"On another occasion, a gentleman sent me four large slices of ham, +having been fortunate enough to procure a small piece himself. Already +the men in the rifle-pits were on half rations--flour or meal enough +to furnish bread equivalent in quantity to two biscuits in two days. +They amused themselves, while lying in the pits, by cutting out little +trinkets from the wood of the parapet and the minie-balls that fell +around them. Major Fry, from Texas, excelled in skill and ready +invention, I think; he sent me one day an armchair that he had cut +from a minie-ball--the most minute affair of the kind I ever saw, yet +perfectly symmetrical. At another time, he sent me a diminutive plough +made from the parapet wood, with traces of lead, and a lead point made +from a minie-ball. + +"The courier brought many letters to the inhabitants from friends +without. His manner of entering the city was singular. Taking a skiff +in the Yazoo, he proceeded to its confluence with the Mississippi, +where he tied the little boat, entered the woods, and awaited the +night. At dark he took off his clothing, placed his despatches +securely within them, bound the package firmly to a plank, and, going +into the river, he sustained his head above the water by holding to +the plank, and in this manner floated in the darkness through the +fleet, and on two miles down the river to Vicksburg, where his arrival +was hailed as an event of great importance in the still life of the +city. + +"The hill opposite our cave might be called 'death's point,' from the +number of animals that had been killed in eating the grass on the +sides and summit. Horses or mules that are tempted to mount the hill +by the promise of grass that grows profusely there invariably come +limping down wounded, to die at the base, or are brought down dead +from the summit. + +"A certain number of mules are killed each day by the commissaries, +and are issued to the men, all of whom prefer the fresh meat, though +it be of mule, to the bacon and salt rations that they have eaten for +so long a time without change. + +"I was sewing, one day, near one side of the cave, where the bank +slopes and lights up the room like a window. Near this opening I was +sitting, when I suddenly remembered some little article I wished in +another part of the room. Crossing to procure it, I was returning, +when a minie-ball came whizzing through the opening, passed my chair, +and fell beyond it. Had I been still sitting, I should have stopped +it." + +[Illustration] + + + + +{283} + +CHAPTER XXIV. + +THE DRAFT RIOTS. + +ATTITUDE OF THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY--VALLANDIGHAM BANISHED--SPEECH OF +EX-PRESIDENT PIERCE--SPEECH OF HORATIO SEYMOUR--LAW OF SUBSTITUTES +PERSISTENTLY MISINTERPRETED--THE DRAFT IN NEW YORK--THE RIOTS--THE +AUTUMN ELECTIONS. + + +The second attempt at invasion by Lee had ended at Gettysburg even +more disastrously than the first, and he returned to Virginia at the +head of hardly more than one-half of the army with which he had set +out; on the next day Vicksburg fell, the Mississippi was opened, and +Pemberton's entire army stacked their muskets and became prisoners. +Then the war should have ended; for the question on which the appeal +to arms had been made was practically decided. Four great slave +States--Maryland, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Missouri--had never really +joined the Confederacy, though some of them were represented in its +Congress, and the territory that it actually held was steadily +diminishing. The great blockade was daily growing more effective, the +largest city in the South had been held by National troops for fifteen +months, and the Federal authority was maintained somewhere in every +State, with the sole exception of Alabama. The delusion that Southern +soldiers would make a better army, man for man, than Northern, had +long since been dispelled. The nation had suffered from incompetent +commanders; but time and experience had weeded them out, and the +really able ones were now coming to the front. The taboo had been +removed from the black man, and he was rapidly putting on the blue +uniform to fight for the enfranchisement of his race. Lincoln with his +proclamation, and Meade and Grant with their victories, had destroyed +the last chance of foreign intervention. In the military situation +there was nothing to justify any further hope for the Confederacy, or +any more destruction of life in the vain endeavor to disrupt the +Union. If there was any justification for a continuance of the +struggle on the part of the insurgents, it was to be found only in a +single circumstance--the attitude of the Democratic party in the +Northern States; but it must be confessed that this was such as to +give considerable color to their expectation of ultimate success. + +[Illustration] + +The habitual feeling of antagonism to the opposite party, from which +few men in a land of popular politics are ever wholly free, was +reinforced by a sincere belief on the part of many that the +Government, in determining to crush the rebellion, had undertaken a +larger task than it could ever accomplish. This belief was born of an +ignorance that it was impossible to argue with, because it supposed +itself to be enlightened and fortified by great historical facts. Both +conscious and unconscious demagogues picked out little shreds of +history and formulated phrases and catch-words, which village +newspapers and village statesmen confidently repeated as unanswerable +arguments from the experience of nations. Thus Pitt's exclamation +during the war of American independence, "You cannot conquer America!" +was triumphantly quoted thousands of times, as an argument for the +impossibility of conquering the South. Assertions were freely made +that the despotism of the Administration (in trying to save the +National armies from useless slaughter, by arresting spies and +traitors at the North) exceeded anything ever done by Cćsar or the +Russian Czar. The word "Bastile" was given out, without much +explanation, and was echoed all along the line. The war Governors of +the free States, and especially the provisional military Governors in +Tennessee and Louisiana, were called Lincoln's satraps; and "satraps," +with divers pronunciations, became a popular word. The fathers of the +Republic were all mentioned with sorrowful reverence, and it was +declared that the Constitution they had framed was destroyed--not by +the Secessionists, but by Mr. Lincoln and his advisers. Somebody +invented a story that Secretary Seward had said he had only to reach +forth his hand and ring a bell, and any man in the country whom he +might designate would at once be seized and thrown into prison; +whereupon "the tinkle of Seward's little bell" became a frequent +head-line in the Democratic journals. The army before Vicksburg was +pointed at in derision, as besieging a place that could never be +taken. + +It did not occur to any of these orators and journalists to explain +the difference between an ocean three thousand miles wide, and the +Rappahannock River; or the difference between an absolute monarch born +to the purple, and a president elected by a free vote of the people; +or even the difference between a state of peace and a state of war. +None of them told their hearers that, only eight years before, the +city of Sebastopol had withstood the combined armies of England and +France for almost a year, while the city of Vicksburg, when Grant +besieged it, fell on the forty-seventh day. Nor did any of them ever +appear to consider what the probable result would be if the entire +Democratic party in Northern States should give the Administration as +hearty support as it received from its own. + +It is easy to see the fallacy of all those arguments now, and the +unwisdom of the policy from which they sprang; but they were a power +in the land at that time, and wrought unmeasured mischief. The most +conspicuous opponent of the Government in the West was Clement L. +Vallandigham, of Ohio, whose position will be understood most readily +from a few of his public utterances. He wrote, in May, 1861: "The +audacious usurpation of President Lincoln, for which he deserves +impeachment, in daring, against the very letter of the Constitution, +and without the shadow of law, to raise and support armies, and to +provide and maintain a navy, for three years, by mere executive +proclamation, I will not vote to sustain or {284} ratify--never." +Speaking in his place in the House of Representatives in January, +1863, he said: "I have denounced, from the beginning, the usurpations +and infractions, one and all, of law and Constitution, by the +President and those under him; their repeated and persistent arbitrary +arrests, the suspension of _habeas corpus_, the violation of freedom +of the mails, of the private house, of the press and of speech, and +all the other multiplied wrongs and outrages upon public liberty and +private right which have made this country one of the worst despotisms +on the earth for the past twenty months. To the record and to time I +appeal for my justification." In proposing conciliation and compromise +as a substitute for the war, he said, borrowing the language of the +Indiana Democratic platform, "In considering terms of settlement, we +will look only to the welfare, peace, and safety of the white race, +without reference to the effect that settlement may have upon the +condition of the African." For these and similar utterances, +especially in regard to a military order that forbade the carrying of +firearms and other means of disturbing the peace, and for the effect +they were having upon his followers, Mr. Vallandigham was arrested in +May, 1863, by the military authorities in Ohio, tried by +court-martial, and sentenced to imprisonment during the war. The +President commuted the sentence to banishment beyond the lines, and +the prisoner was taken south through Kentucky and Tennessee, and sent +into Confederate territory under a flag of truce. This of course +placed him in the light of a martyr, and a few months later it made +him the Democratic candidate for Governor of Ohio. + +In the East, ex-President Pierce, of New Hampshire, loomed up as a +leader of the opposition. On January 6, 1860, he had written to +Jefferson Davis (who had been Secretary of War in his cabinet) a +letter in which he said: "Without discussing the question of right--of +abstract power to secede--I have never believed that actual disruption +of the Union can occur without blood; and if through the madness of +Northern abolitionists that dire calamity must come, the fighting will +not be along Mason and Dixon's line merely. It will be within our own +borders, and in our own streets, between the two classes of citizens +to whom I have referred. Those who defy law and scout constitutional +obligations will, if we ever reach the arbitrament of arms, find +occupation enough at home." In an elaborate Fourth-of-July oration at +Concord in 1863, he said: "No American citizen was then [before the +war] subject to be driven into exile for opinion's sake, or +arbitrarily arrested and incarcerated in military bastiles--even as he +may now be--not for acts or words of imputed treason, but if he do but +mourn in silent sorrow over the desolation of his country. Do we not +all know that the cause of our calamities is the vicious intermeddling +of too many of the citizens of the Northern States with the +constitutional rights of the Southern States, coöperating with the +discontents of the people of those States? We have seen, in the +experience of the last two years, how futile are all our efforts to +maintain the Union by force of arms; but, even had war been carried on +by us successfully, the ruinous result would exhibit its utter +impracticability for the attainment of the desired end. With or +without arms, with or without leaders, we will at least, in the effort +to defend our rights as a free people, build up a great mausoleum of +hearts, to which men who yearn for liberty will in after years, with +bowed heads and reverently, resort, as Christian pilgrims to the +sacred shrines of the Holy Land." This was long referred to, by those +who heard it, as "the mausoleum-of-hearts speech." + +In the great State of New York the Democratic leader was Horatio +Seymour, who had been elected Governor in the period of depression +that followed the military defeats of 1862. While Pierce was speaking +in Concord, Seymour was delivering in New York a carefully written +address, in which--like Pierce and Vallandigham--he complained, not of +the secessionists for making war at the South, but of the +Administration for curtailing the liberty of the Government's enemies +at the North. He said: "When I accepted the invitation to speak at +this meeting, we were promised the downfall of Vicksburg [the +telegraph brought news of it while he was speaking], the opening of +the Mississippi, the probable capture of the Confederate capital, and +the exhaustion of the rebellion. When the clouds of war overhung our +country, we implored those in authority to compromise that difficulty; +for we had been told by that great orator and statesman, Burke, that +there never yet was a revolution that might not have been prevented by +a compromise opportunely and graciously made. Until we have a united +North, we can have no successful war; until we have a united, +harmonious North, we can have no beneficent peace. Remember this, that +the bloody and treasonable and revolutionary doctrine of public +necessity can be proclaimed by a mob as well as by a government." + +The practical effect of all these protests, in the name of liberty, +against arrests of spies and traitors, and suspension of the _habeas +corpus_, was to assist the slave-holders in their attempt to make +liberty forever impossible for the black race, in pursuance of which +they were willing to destroy the liberties of the white race and +sacrifice hundreds of thousands of lives, most of which were valuable +to their country and to mankind, being lives of men who earned a +living by the sweat of their own faces. All the abridgment of the +liberties of Northern citizens, in time of war, by President Lincoln's +suspension of the writ, and by arbitrary arrests, was not a tithe of +what those same citizens had suffered in time of peace from the +existence of slavery under the Constitution. Yet neither President +Pierce, nor Chief Justice Taney, nor Horatio Seymour, nor Mr. +Vallandigham, had ever uttered one word of protest against the denial +of free speech in criticism of that institution, or against the +systematic rifling of mails at the South, or against the refusal to +permit American citizens to sojourn in the slave States unless they +believed in the divine right of slavery. + +It was no wonder that such utterances as those quoted above, by the +leaders of a party, at such a time, should be translated by its baser +followers into reasons for riot, arson, and butchery. Another exciting +cause was found in the persistent misinterpretation of what was meant +to be a beneficent provision of the conscription law. Drafts had been +ordered in several of the States to fill up quotas that were not +forthcoming under the volunteer system. The law provided that a man +whose name was drawn, if he did not wish to go into the service +himself, might either procure a substitute or pay three hundred +dollars to the Government and be released. In the North, where +there were no slaves to do the necessary work at home, it was +absolutely essential to have some system of substitution; and the +three-hundred-dollar clause was introduced, not because the Government +wanted money more than it wanted men, but to favor the poor by keeping +down the price of substitutes, for it was evident that that price +could never rise above the sum necessary for a release. Yet this +very clause was attacked by the journals that assumed to champion +the cause of the poor, as being a discrimination in favor of the +rich! Mr. Vallandigham {285} said in a speech at Dayton: "The +three-hundred-dollar provision is a most unjust discrimination against +the poor. The Administration says to every man between twenty and +forty-five, 'Three hundred dollars or your life.'" When the clause had +been repealed, in consequence of the ignorant clamor raised by this +persistent misrepresentation, the price of substitutes rapidly went +beyond a thousand dollars. + +A new levy of three hundred thousand men was called for in April, +1863, with the alternative of a draft if the quotas were not filled by +volunteering. The quota of the city of New York was not filled, and a +draft was begun there on Saturday, the 11th of July. There had been +premonitions of trouble when it was attempted to take the names and +addresses of those subject to call, and in the tenement-house +districts some of the marshals had narrowly escaped with their lives. +On the morning when the draft was to begin, several of the most widely +read Democratic journals contained editorials that appeared to be +written for the very purpose of inciting a riot. They asserted that +any draft at all was unconstitutional and despotic, and that in this +case the quota demanded from the city was excessive, and denounced the +war as a "mere abolition crusade." It is doubtful if there was any +well-formed conspiracy, including any large number of persons, to get +up a riot; but the excited state of the public mind, especially among +the laboring population, inflammatory handbills displayed in the +grogshops, the presence of the dangerous classes, whose best +opportunity for plunder was in time of riot, and the absence of the +militia that had been called away to meet the invasion of +Pennsylvania, all favored an outbreak. It was unfortunate that the +draft was begun on Saturday, and the Sunday papers published long +lists of names that were drawn--an instance of the occasional +mischievous results of journalistic enterprise. Those interested had +all Sunday to talk it over in their accustomed meeting-places, and +discuss wild schemes of relief or retaliation; and the insurrection +that followed was more truly a popular uprising than the rebellion +that it assisted and encouraged. + +When the draft was resumed on Monday, the serious work began. One +provost-marshal's office was at the corner of Third Avenue and +Forty-sixth Street. It was guarded by sixty policemen, and the wheel +was set in motion at ten o'clock. The building was surrounded by a +dense, angry crowd, who were freely cursing the draft, the police, the +National Government, and "the nigger." The drawing had been in +progress but a few minutes when there was a shout of "Stop the cars!" +and at once the cars were stopped, the horses released, the conductors +and passengers driven out, and a tumult created. Then a great human +wave was set in motion, which bore down everything before it and +rolled into the marshal's office, driving out at the back windows the +officials and the policemen, whose clubs, though plied rapidly and +knocking down a rioter at every blow, could not dispose of them as +fast as they came on. The mob destroyed everything in the office, and +then set the building on fire. The firemen came promptly, but were not +permitted to throw any water upon the flames. At this moment +Superintendent John A. Kennedy, of the police, approaching +incautiously and unarmed, was recognized and set upon by the crowd, +who gave him half a hundred blows with clubs and stones, and finally +threw him face downward into a mud-puddle, with the intention of +drowning him. When rescued, he was bruised beyond recognition, and was +lifted into a wagon and carried to the police headquarters. The +command of the force now devolved upon Commissioner Thomas C. Acton +and Inspector Daniel Carpenter, whose management during three fearful +days was worthy of the highest praise. + +[Illustration: LIEUTENANT-COLONEL EDWARD JARDINE. Commanding a +detachment of troops for service against the rioters.] + +[Illustration: HORATIO SEYMOUR.] + +[Illustration: CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.] + +Another marshal's office, where the draft was in progress, was at +Broadway and Twenty-ninth Street, and here the mob burned the whole +block of stores on Broadway between Twenty-eighth and Twenty-ninth +Streets. At Third Avenue and Forty-fourth Street there was a battle +between a small force of police and a mob, in which the police were +defeated, many of them being badly wounded by stones and pistol-shots. +Some of them who were knocked down were almost instantly robbed of +their clothing. Officer Bennett fell into the hands of the crowd, and +was beaten so savagely that no appearance of life was left in him, +when he was carried away to the dead-house at St. Luke's Hospital. +Here came his wife, who discovered that his heart was still beating; +means of restoration were used promptly, and after three days of +unconsciousness and a long illness he recovered. {286} Another officer +was stabbed twice by a woman in the crowd; and another, disabled by a +blow from an iron bar, was saved by a German woman, who hid him +between two mattresses when the pursuing mob was searching her house +for him. In the afternoon a small police force held possession of a +gun factory in Second Avenue for four hours, and was then compelled to +retire before the persistent attacks of the rioters, who hurled stones +through the windows and beat in the doors. + +Toward evening a riotous procession passed down Broadway, with drums, +banners, muskets, pistols, pitchforks, clubs, and boards inscribed "No +Draft!" Inspector Carpenter, at the head of two hundred policemen, +marched up to meet it. His orders were, "Take no prisoners, but strike +quick and hard." The mob was met at the corner of Amity (or West +Third) Street. The police charged at once in a compact body, Carpenter +knocking down the foremost rioter with a blow that cracked his skull, +and in a few minutes the mob scattered and fled, leaving Broadway +strewn with their wounded and dying. From this time, the police were +victorious in every encounter. + +During the next two days there was almost constant rioting, mobs +appearing at various points, both up-town and down-town. The rioters +set upon every negro that appeared--whether man, woman, or child--and +succeeded in murdering eleven of them. One they deliberately hanged to +a tree in Thirty-second Street, his only offence being the color of +his skin. At another place, seeing three negroes on a roof, they set +fire to the house. The victims hung at the edge of the roof a long +time, but were obliged to drop before the police could procure +ladders. This phase of the outbreak found its worst expression in the +sacking and burning of the Colored Orphan Asylum, at Fifth Avenue and +Forty-fourth Street. The two hundred helpless children were with great +difficulty taken away by the rear doors while the mob were battering +at the front. The excitement of the rioters was not so great as to +prevent them from coolly robbing the building of everything valuable +that could be removed before they set it on fire. Bed-clothing, +furniture, and other articles were passed out and borne off (in many +cases by the wives and sisters of the rioters) to add to the comfort +of their own homes. Several tenement houses that were occupied by +negroes were attacked by the mob with a determination to destroy, and +were with difficulty protected by the police. + +[Illustration: RECRUITING OFFICE IN NEW YORK CITY HALL PARK. (From an +engraving published in "Frank Leslie's Illustrated Weekly," during the +war.)] + +The office of the _Tribune_ was especially obnoxious to the rioters, +because that paper was foremost in support of the Administration and +the war. Crowds approached it, singing + + "We'll hang old Greeley on a sour-apple-tree," + +and at one time its counting-room was entered by the mob and a fire +was kindled, but the police drove them out and extinguished the +flames. The printers were then supplied with a quantity of muskets and +bomb-shells, and long board troughs {287} were run out at the windows, +so that in case of an attack a shell could be lighted and rolled out, +dropping from the end of the trough into the crowd, where its +explosion would produce incalculable havoc. Happily the ominous +troughs proved a sufficient warning. + +A small military force was brought to the aid of the police, and +whenever an outbreak was reported, a strong body was sent at once to +the spot. The locust clubs, when wielded in earnest, proved a terrible +weapon, descending upon the heads of rioters with blows that generally +cracked the skull. A surgeon who attended twenty-one men reported that +they were all wounded in the head, and all past recovery. One of the +most fearful scenes was in Second Avenue, where the police and the +soldiers were assailed with stones and pistol-shots from the windows +and the roofs. Dividing into squads, they entered the houses, which, +amid the cries and curses of the women, they searched from bottom to +top. They seized their cowering assailants in the halls, in the dark +bedrooms, wherever they were hiding, felled them, bayoneted them, +hurled them over the balusters and through the windows, pursued them +to the roof, shot them as they dodged behind chimneys, refusing all +mercy, and threw the quivering corpses into the street as a warning to +the mob. It was like a realization of the imaginary taking of +Torquilstone. + +One of the saddest incidents of the riot was the murder of Col. Henry +J. O'Brien, of the Eleventh New York Volunteers, whose men had +dispersed one mob with a deadly volley. An hour or two later the +Colonel returned to the spot alone, when he was set upon and beaten +and mangled and tortured horribly for several hours, being at last +killed by some frenzied women. Page after page might be filled with +such incidents. At one time Broadway was strewn with dead men from +Bond Street to Union Square. A very young man, dressed in the +working-clothes of a mechanic, was observed to be active and daring in +leading a crowd of rioters. A blow from a club at length brought him +down, and as he fell he was impaled on the picket of an iron fence, +which caught him under the chin and killed him. On examination, it was +found that under the greasy overalls he wore a costly and fashionable +suit, and there were other indications of wealth and refinement, but +the body was never identified. + +Three days of this vigorous work by the police and the soldiers +brought the disturbance to an end. About fifty policemen had been +injured, three of whom died; and the whole number of lives destroyed +by the rioters was eighteen. The exact number of rioters killed is +unknown, but it was more than twelve hundred. The mobs burned about +fifty buildings, destroying altogether between two million and three +million dollars' worth of property. Governor Seymour incurred odium by +a speech to the rioters, in which he addressed them as his friends, +and promised to have the draft stopped, and by his communications to +the President, in which he complained of the draft, and asked to have +it suspended till the question of its constitutionality could be +tested in the courts. His opponents interpreted this as a subterfuge +to favor the rebellion by preventing the reinforcement of the National +armies. The President answered, in substance, that he had no objection +to a testing of the question, but he would not imperil the country by +suspending operations till a case could be dragged through the courts. + +Fourteen of the Northern States had enacted laws enabling the soldiers +to vote without going home. In some of the States it was provided that +commissioners should go to the camps and take the votes; in others the +soldier was authorized to seal up his ballot and send it home to his +next friend, who was to present it at the polls and make oath that it +was the identical one sent to him. The enactment of such laws had been +strenuously opposed by the Democrats, on several grounds, the most +plausible of which was, that men under military discipline were not +practically free to vote as they pleased. The most curious argument +was to this effect: a soldier that sends home his ballot may be killed +in battle before that ballot reaches its destination and is counted. +Do you want dead men to decide your elections? + +These were the darkest days of the war; but the riots reacted upon the +party that was supposed to favor them, the people gradually learned +the full significance of Gettysburg and Vicksburg, and at the autumn +election the State of New York, which a year before had elected +Governor Seymour, gave a handsome majority in favor of the +Administration. In Ohio, where the Democrats had nominated +Vallandigham for Governor, and made a noisy and apparently vigorous +canvass, the Republicans nominated John Brough. When the votes were +counted, it was found that Mr. Brough had a majority of one hundred +thousand, the largest that had ever been given for any candidate in +any State where there was a contest. Politically speaking, this buried +Mr. Vallandigham out of sight forever, and delivered a heavy blow at +the obstructive policy of his party. + +[Illustration: OFFICERS OF THE FORTY-FOURTH NEW YORK INFANTRY.] + + + + +{288} + +CHAPTER XXV. + +THE SIEGE OF CHARLESTON. + +BLOCKADE OF THE HARBOR--DU PONT'S ATTACK--DEFEAT--CAPTURE OF THE +"ATLANTA"--GILLMORE'S SIEGE--ASSAULT ON FORT WAGNER--ITS CAPTURE--THE +SWAMP ANGEL--BOMBARDMENT OF CHARLESTON--ACCURATE FIRING FROM MORTAR +GUNS--TURNING NIGHT INTO DAY--STEADY CANNONADING FOR FORTY HOURS. + + +As Charleston was the cradle of secession, there was a special desire +on the part of the Northern people that it should undergo the heaviest +penalties of war. They wanted poetic vengeance to fall upon the very +men that had taught disunion, fired upon Sumter, and kindled the +flames of civil strife. And there were not a few at the South who +shared this sentiment, believing that they had been dragged into ruin +by the politicians of South Carolina. Many would have been glad if the +whole State could have been pried off from the rest of the Union and +slidden into the depths of the sea. But there was a better than +sentimental reason for directing vigorous operations against +Charleston. Its port was exceedingly useful to the Confederates for +shipping their cotton to Europe and receiving in return the army +clothing, rifles, and ammunition that were produced for them by +English looms and arsenals. Early in the war the Government attempted +to close this port with obstructions. Several old whale-ships were +loaded with stone, towed into the channel, and sunk, at which there +was a great outcry, and the books were searched to see whether this +barbarous proceeding, as it was called, was permissible under the laws +of war and of nations. In 1854 the harbor of Sebastopol had been +obstructed in the same way; but that was done by the Russians, whose +harbor it was, to prevent the enemy from coming in. The strong +currents at Charleston soon swept away the old hulks or buried them in +the sand, and a dozen war vessels had to be sent there to maintain the +blockade. This was an exceedingly difficult task. The main channel ran +for a long distance near the shore of Morris Island, and was protected +by batteries. The westward-bound blockade runners commonly went first +to the British port of Nassau, in the West Indies, and thence with a +pilot sailed for Charleston. After the main channel had been closed in +consequence of the occupation of Morris Island by National troops, +steamers of very light draft, built in England for this special +service, slipped in by the shallower passes. A great many were +captured, for the blockaders {289} developed remarkable skill in +detecting their movements, but the practice was never wholly broken up +till the city was occupied by the National forces in February, 1865. + +[Illustration: THE ATTACK ON CHARLESTON.] + +In January, 1863, two Confederate iron-clads steamed out of the +harbor, on a hazy morning, and attacked the blockading fleet. Two +vessels, by shots through their steam-drums, were disabled, and struck +their colors; but the remainder of the fleet came to their assistance, +and the iron-clads were driven back into the harbor, leaving their +prizes behind. General Beauregard and Captain Ingraham (commanding the +military and naval forces of the Confederacy at Charleston) formally +proclaimed this affair a victory that had "sunk, dispersed, and driven +off or out of sight the entire blockading fleet," and, consequently, +raised the blockade of the port. These assertions, repeated in foreign +newspapers, threatened for a time to create serious complications with +European powers, by raising the question whether the blockade +(supposed to be thus broken) must not be re-proclaimed, and notice +given to masters of merchant vessels, before it could be +reëstablished. But the falsity of the claim was soon shown, and no +foreign vessels accepted the invitation to demand free passage into +the port of Charleston. + +[Illustration: MAJOR-GENERAL QUINCY A. GILLMORE.] + +This affair increased the desire to capture the port, put an absolute +end to the blockade-running there, and use it as a harbor of refuge +for National vessels. Accordingly, a powerful fleet was fitted out for +the purpose, and placed under the command of Rear-Admiral S. F. Du +Pont, who had reduced the forts of Port Royal in November, 1861. It +consisted of seven monitors, an iron-clad frigate, an iron-clad ram, +and several wooden gunboats. On the 7th of April, 1863, favored by +smooth water, Du Pont steamed in to attack the forts, but most +extraordinary precautions had been taken to defend the city. The +special desire of the Northern people to capture it was offset by an +equally romantic determination on the part of the Secessionists not to +part with the cradle in which their pet theory had been rocked for +thirty years. Besides the batteries that had been erected for the +reduction of Fort Sumter, they had established others, and they +occupied that fort itself. All these works had been strengthened, and +new guns mounted, including some specially powerful ones of English +manufacture. All the channels were obstructed with piles and chains, +with innumerable torpedoes, some of which were to be fired by electric +wires from the forts, while others were arranged to explode whenever a +vessel should run against them. The main channel, between Fort +Moultrie and Fort Sumter, was crossed by a heavy cable supported on +empty barrels, with which was connected a network of smaller chains. +In the south channel there was a tempting opening in the row of piles; +but beneath this were some tons of powder waiting for the electric +spark. + +The monitor _Weehawken_ led the way, pushing a raft before her to +explode the torpedoes. Not a man was to be seen on any of the decks, +and the forts were ominously silent. But when the _Weehawken_ had +reached the network of chains, and had become somewhat entangled +therein with her raft, the batteries opened all around, and she and +the other monitors that came to her assistance were the target for a +terrible concentric fire of bursting shells and solid bolts. The +return fire was directed principally upon Sumter, and was kept up +steadily for half an hour, but seemed to have little effect; and after +trying both the main and the south channel, the fleet retired. The +monitor _Keokuk_, which had made the nearest approach to the enemy, +was struck nearly a hundred times. Shots passed through both of her +turrets, and there were nineteen holes in her hull. That evening she +sank in an inlet. Most of the other vessels were injured, and some of +the monitors were unable to revolve their turrets because of the +bending of the plates. + +[Illustration: REAR-ADMIRAL JOHN A. DAHLGREN AND OFFICERS.] + +Du Pont's defeat was offset two months later, when the Confederate +iron-clad _Atlanta_ started out on her first cruise. She was +originally an English blockade-runner, and as she was unable to get +out of the port of Savannah after the fall of Fort Pulaski, the +Confederates conceived the idea of iron-plating her {290} after the +fashion of the _Merrimac_ and sending her out to sink the monitors and +raise the blockade of Charleston. It was said that the ladies of +Charleston contributed their jewelry to pay the expenses, and after +fourteen months of hard labor she was ready for action. But Du Pont +had heard the story, and sent two monitors to watch her. On the 17th +of June, early in the morning, she dropped down the channel, followed +by two steamers loaded with citizens, including many ladies, who +anticipated a great deal of pleasure in seeing their powerful +iron-clad sink the monitors. These came up to meet her, the +_Weehawken_, Captain Rodgers, taking the lead. Rodgers fired just five +shots from his enormous eleven-inch and fifteen-inch guns. One struck +the shutter of a port-hole and broke it, another knocked off the +_Atlanta's_ pilot-house, another struck the edge of the deck and +opened the seams between the plates, and another penetrated the iron +armor, splintered the heavy wooden backing, and disabled forty men. +Thereupon the _Atlanta_ hung out a white flag and surrendered, while +the pleasure-seekers hastened back to Savannah. It is said that the +vessel might have been handled better if she had not run aground. She +was carrying an immense torpedo at the end of a boom thirty feet long, +which projected from her bow under water. She was found to be +provisioned for a long cruise, and was taken to Philadelphia and +exhibited there as a curiosity. + +[Illustration: REAR-ADMIRAL D. M. FAIRFAX.] + +The city of Charleston, between its two rivers, with its +well-fortified harbor, bordered by miles of swampy land, was +exceedingly difficult for an enemy to reach. General Quincy A. +Gillmore, being sent with a large force to take it, chose the approach +by way of Folly and Morris Islands, where the monitors could assist +him. Hidden by a fringe of trees, he first erected powerful batteries +on Folly Island. On the northernmost point of Morris Island (Cumming's +Point) was the Confederate Battery Gregg, the one that had done most +damage to Sumter at the opening of the war. South of this was Fort +Wagner, and still farther south were other works. + +Fort Wagner was a very strong earthwork, measuring on the inside six +hundred and thirty feet from east to west, and two hundred and +seventy-five feet from north to south. It had a bomb-proof magazine, +and a heavy traverse protecting its guns from any possible attack on +the land side. Behind the sea-face was a well-constructed bomb-proof, +into which no shot ever penetrated. The land-face was constructed with +reëntering angles, so that the approaches could all be swept by cross +fire, and the work was surrounded by a ditch filled with water, in +which was a line of boarding-pikes fastened together with interlaced +wire, and there were also pickets at the front of the fort with +interwoven wire a slight distance above the ground, to impede the +steps of any assaulting force. It was one of the most elaborate works +constructed during the war. Its engineer, Captain Cleves, was killed +by one of the first shells fired at it. + +On the morning of July 10th, Gillmore suddenly cut down the trees in +his front and opened fire upon the most southerly works on Morris +Island, while at the same time the fleet commanded by Admiral +Dahlgren, who had succeeded Du Pont, bombarded Fort Wagner. Under +cover of this fire troops were landed, and the earthworks were quickly +taken. + +The day being terribly hot, the advance on Fort Wagner was postponed +till the next morning, and then it was a failure. A week later a +determined assault was made with a force of six thousand men, the +advance being led by the first regiment of colored troops (the +Fifty-fourth Massachusetts) that had been raised under the +authorization that accompanied the Emancipation Proclamation. A +bombardment of the fort by the land batteries and the fleet was kept +up from noon till dusk, and during its last hour there was a heavy +thunder-storm. As soon as this was over, the assaulting columns were +set in motion. They marched out under a concentrated fire from all the +Confederate batteries, then met sheets of musketry fire that blazed +out from Wagner, then crossed the ditch waist-deep in water, while +hand-grenades were thrown from the parapet to explode among them, and +even climbed up to the rampart. But here the surviving remnant met a +stout resistance and were hurled back. General Strong, Colonel +Chatfield, Colonel Putnam, and Robert G. Shaw, the young commander of +the black regiment, were all killed, and a total loss was sustained of +fifteen hundred men, while the Confederates lost but about one +hundred. + +[Illustration: BREVET BRIGADIER-GENERAL STEWART L. WOODFORD. (Chief of +Staff to General Gillmore.)] + +[Illustration: BREVET BRIGADIER-GENERAL ALFRED H. TERRY. (Afterward +Major-General.)] + +In burying the dead, the Confederates threw the body of Colonel Shaw +into the bottom of a trench, and heaped {291} upon it the bodies of +black soldiers, whose valor, no less than their color, had produced an +uncontrollable frenzy in the Confederate mind. When it was inquired +for, under flag of truce, word was sent back: "We have buried him with +his niggers." Those who thus tried to cast contempt upon the boyish +colonel were apparently not aware that he was braver than any of his +foes. In advancing along that narrow strip of land, every foot of +which was swept by a deadly fire, crossing the ditch and mounting the +parapet, Colonel Shaw exhibited a physical courage that it was +impossible to surpass; while in organizing and leading men of the +despised race that was now struggling toward liberty, he showed a +moral courage such as the rebels neither shared nor comprehended. + +Among those who participated in this sorrowful enterprise was the Rev. +Henry Clay Trumbull, chaplain of the Tenth Connecticut Regiment, who +was so assiduous in his attentions to the wounded, and remained so +long on the field among them, that he was captured by the +Confederates, who held him a prisoner for several months. Among those +in attendance at the hospital at the first parallel was Clara Barton, +who afterward became famous for her humane services. + +[Illustration: BATTERY REYNOLDS--FIVE TEN-INCH MORTARS BEARING ON FORT +WAGNER.] + +[Illustration: HEADQUARTERS OF FIELD OFFICERS ON THE SECOND PARALLEL.] + +Gen. Alvin C. Voris, who was seriously wounded in the assault on Fort +Wagner, has given a vivid description of his experiences there, from +which we quote a few interesting passages: + +"All through the night of July 17th I lay with my men, the +Sixty-seventh Ohio, within half canister range of the fort. It was +very dark, cloudy, and enlivened by an occasional splash of rain and +lightning, by which we could see sentinels on beat on the fort. Just +before break of day we crawled quietly away, and took a good square +breath of relief as we passed behind our first line of intrenchments. +There we undertook to rest under a most scorching sun and on burning +white sand, which reflected back both light and heat rays with +torturing rigor. We were compelled to work night and day, twelve hours +on and twelve off, all the while under shot and exploding shell from +some quarter. When off duty we tried to rest ourselves under the +shelter of the low sand-waves silently thrown up by the wind. Our poor +tired bodies became so exhausted under the great pressure upon us that +we would stretch out on the burning sands, even when under the +greatest danger, and snatch a few hours of fitful, anxious sleep, +frequently to be awakened by the explosion of some great shell. The +land and sea breezes kept the air full of floating sand, which +permeated everything--clothing, {292} eyes, ears, nostrils--and at the +height of the wind would fly with such force as to make the face and +hands sting with pain. + +"Just at dark ten regiments of infantry were formed along the beach, +one and a half miles below the fort, and the charge was at once +undertaken. Quietly the column marched until its head had passed the +line of our field batteries. No sooner had this taken place than one +thousand six hundred men in Wagner and Gregg sprang to arms and opened +on the advancing columns with shot, shell, and musketry, which called +to their immediate assistance the armed energies of Sumter, Moultrie, +and Beauregard, and all the batteries on Sullivan's and James's +Islands. When we got within canister range of the fort there were +added to this awful cataclysm double-shotted charges of canister from +eight heavy guns directly raking our approach, each discharge equal to +a double pailful of cast-iron bullets, three-fourths of an inch in +diameter. Every moment some unfortunate comrade fell, to rise no more, +but we closed up our shattered ranks and pressed on with such +impetuosity that we scaled the walls and planted our banners on the +fort. The Sixty-seventh, with heroic cheers, flung her flag to the +midnight breezes on the rampart of Wagner, but only to bring it away +riddled to tatters. Seven out of eight of the color-guard were shot +down, and Color-Sergeant McDonald, with a broken leg, brought it away. +Lieutenant Cochran went alone to headquarters, two thousand five +hundred yards to the rear, for reinforcements, assuring General +Gillmore that we could hold the fort, and then went back to Wagner and +brought off eighteen out of forty men with whom he started in the +column in that fatal charge. Two other lieutenants, with a dozen men, +held one of the enemy's large guns for nearly two hours, over which +they had hand-to-hand contests with the soldiers in charge of the +piece. + +"I was shot within a hundred and fifty yards of the fort, and so +disabled that I could not go forward.... Two boys of the Sixty-second +Ohio found me and carried me to our first parallel, where had been +arranged an extempore hospital. Here a surgeon sent his savage +finger-nail into my lacerated side and pronounced the bullet beyond +his reach, and said I would not need his further attention. Like a +baby I fainted, and, on reviving, laid my poor aching head on a +sand-bag to recruit a little strength. That blessed chaplain, Henry +Clay Trumbull, found me and poured oil of gladness into my soul and +brandy into my mouth, whereat I praised him as a dear good man and +cursed that monster of a surgeon, which led the chaplain to think the +delirium of death was turning my brain, and he reported me among the +dead of Wagner." + +General Gillmore now resorted to regular approaches for the reduction +of Fort Wagner. The first parallel was soon opened, and siege guns +mounted, and the work was pushed as rapidly as the unfavorable nature +of the ground would admit. By the 23d of July a second parallel was +established, from which fire was opened upon Fort Sumter, two miles +distant, and upon the intervening earthworks. As the task proceeded +the difficulty increased, for the strip of land grew narrower as Fort +Wagner was approached, and the men in the trenches were subjected to +cross-fire from a battery on James's Island, as well as from +sharp-shooters and from the fort itself. A dozen breaching batteries +of enormous rifled guns were established, most of the work being done +at night, and on the 17th of August all of them opened fire. The shot +and shell were directed mainly against Fort Sumter, and in the course +of a week its barbette guns were dismounted, its walls were knocked +into a shapeless mass of ruins, and its value as anything but a rude +shelter for infantry was gone. + +The parallels were still pushed forward toward Wagner, partly through +ground so low that high tides washed over it, and finally where mines +of torpedoes had been planted. When they had arrived so near that it +was impossible for the men to work under ordinary circumstances, the +fort was subjected to a bombardment with shells fired from mortars and +dropping into it almost vertically, while the great rifled guns were +trained upon its bomb-proof at short range, and the iron-clad frigate +_New Ironsides_ came close in shore and added her quota in the shape +of eleven-inch shells fired from eight broadside guns. Powerful +calcium lights had been prepared, so that there was no night there, +and the bombardment went on incessantly. At the end of two days, three +columns of infantry were ready to storm the work, when it was +discovered that the Confederates had suddenly abandoned it. Battery +Gregg, on Cumming's Point, was also evacuated. + +It is easy to tell all this in a few words; but no brief account of +that operation can give the reader any adequate idea of the enormous +labor it involved, the danger, the anxiety, and the dogged +perseverance of the besiegers. It required the efforts of three +hundred men to move a single gun up the beach. General Gillmore was +one of the most accomplished of military engineers, and we present +here a few of the more interesting passages from his admirable +official report: + +At the second parallel the "Surf Battery" had barely escaped entire +destruction, about one-third of it having been carried away by the +sea. Its armament had been temporarily removed to await the issue of +the storm. The progress of the sap was hotly opposed by the enemy, +with the fire of both artillery and sharp-shooters. At one point in +particular, about two hundred yards in front of Wagner, there was a +ridge, affording the enemy good cover, from which we received an +unceasing fire of small-arms, while the guns and sharp-shooters in +Wagner opened vigorously at every lull in the fire directed upon it +from our batteries and gunboats. The firing from the distant James's +Island batteries was steady and accurate. One attempt, on the 21st, to +obtain possession of the ridge with infantry having failed, it was +determined to advance by establishing another parallel. On the night +of August 21st the fourth parallel was opened about one hundred yards +from the ridge, partly with the flying sap and partly with the full +sap. At the place selected for it the island is about one hundred and +sixty yards in width above high water. It was now determined to try +and dislodge the enemy from the ridge with light mortars and navy +howitzers in the fourth parallel, and with other mortars in rear +firing over those in front. The attempt was made on the afternoon of +August 26th, but did not succeed. Our mortar practice was not very +accurate. Brigadier-General Terry was ordered, on the 26th of August, +to carry the ridge at the point of the bayonet, and hold it. This was +accomplished, and the fifth parallel established there on the evening +of the same day, which brought us to within two hundred and forty +yards of Fort Wagner. The intervening space comprised the narrowest +and shallowest part of Morris island. It was simply a flat ridge of +sand, scarcely twenty-five yards in width, and not exceeding two feet +in depth, over which the sea in rough weather swept entirely across to +the marsh on our left. Approaches by the flying sap were at once +commenced on this shallow beach, from the right of the fifth parallel, +and certain means of defence in the parallel itself were ordered. It +was soon ascertained that we had now reached the point where the +really formidable, passive, defensive arrangements of the enemy +commenced. An {293} elaborate and ingenious system of torpedo mines, +to be exploded by the tread of persons walking over them, was +encountered, and we were informed by the prisoners taken on the ridge +that the entire area of firm ground between us and the fort, as well +as the glacis of the latter on its south and east fronts, was thickly +filled with these torpedoes. This knowledge brought us a sense of +security from sorties, for the mines were a defence to us as well as +to the enemy. By daybreak on the 27th of August our sappers had +reached, by a rude and unfinished trench, to within one hundred yards +of Fort Wagner. The dark and gloomy days of the siege were now upon +us. Our daily losses, although not heavy, were on the increase, while +our progress became discouragingly slow, and even fearfully uncertain. +The converging fire from Wagner alone almost enveloped the head of our +sap, delivered, as it was, from a line subtending an angle of nearly +ninety degrees, while the flank fire from the James's Island batteries +increased in power and accuracy every hour. To push forward the sap in +the narrow strip of shallow shifting sand by day was impossible, while +the brightness of the prevailing harvest moon rendered the operation +almost as hazardous by night. Matters, indeed, seemed at a standstill, +and a feeling of despondency began to pervade the rank and file of the +command. There seemed to be no adequate return in accomplished results +for the daily losses which we suffered, and no means of relief, +cheering and encouraging to the soldier, appeared near at hand. In +this emergency, although the final result was demonstrably certain, it +was determined, in order to sustain the flagging spirits of the men, +to commence vigorously and simultaneously two distinct methods of +attack, viz., first, to keep Wagner perfectly silent with an +overpowering curved fire from siege and coehorn mortars, so that our +engineers would have only the more distant batteries of the enemy to +annoy them; and, second, to breach the bomb-proof shelter with rifled +guns, and thus deprive the enemy of their only secure cover in the +work, and, consequently, drive them from it. Accordingly, all the +light mortars were moved to the front and placed in battery; the +capacity of the fifth parallel and the advanced trenches for +sharp-shooters was greatly enlarged and improved; the rifled guns in +the left breaching batteries were trained upon the fort and prepared +for prolonged action; and powerful calcium lights to aid the +night-work of our cannoneers and sharp-shooters, and blind those of +the enemy, were got in readiness. The coöperation of the powerful +battery of the _New Ironsides_, Captain Rowan, during the daytime, was +also secured. + +[Illustration: A BOMB-PROOF.] + +[Illustration: MAJOR-GENERAL WILLIAM B. TALIAFERRO, C. S. A.] + +These final operations against Fort Wagner were actively inaugurated +at break of day on the morning of September 5th. For forty-two +consecutive hours the spectacle presented was of surpassing sublimity +and grandeur. Seventeen siege and coehorn mortars unceasingly dropped +their shells into the work, over the heads of our sappers and the +guards of the advanced trenches; thirteen of our heavy Parrott +rifles--one hundred, two hundred, and three hundred pounders--pounded +away at short though regular intervals, at the southwest corner of the +bomb-proof; while during the daytime the _New Ironsides_, with +remarkable regularity and precision, kept an almost incessant stream +of eleven-inch shells from her eight-gun broadside, ricocheting over +the water against the sloping parapet of Wagner, whence, deflected +upward with a low remaining velocity, they dropped nearly vertically, +exploding within or over the work, and rigorously searching every part +of it except the subterranean shelters. The calcium lights turned +night into day, and while throwing around our own men an impenetrable +obscurity, they brilliantly illuminated every object in front, and +brought the minutest details of the fort into sharp relief. In a few +hours the fort became practically silent. + +The next night, after the capture of Fort Wagner, a few hundred +sailors from the fleet went to Fort Sumter in row-boats and attempted +its capture. But they found it exceedingly difficult to climb up the +ruined wall; most of their boats were knocked to pieces by the +Confederate batteries; they met an unexpected fire of musketry {294} +and hand-grenades, and two hundred of them were disabled or captured. + +While all this work was going on, General Gillmore thought to +establish a battery near enough to Charleston to subject the city +itself to bombardment. A site was chosen on the western side of Morris +Island, and the necessary orders were issued. But the ground was soft +mud, sixteen feet deep, and it seemed an impossible task. The captain, +a West Pointer, to whom it was assigned, was told that he must not +fail, but he might ask for whatever he needed, whereupon he made out a +formal requisition for "a hundred men eighteen feet high," and other +things in proportion. The jest seems to have been appreciated, but the +jester was relieved from the duty, which was then assigned to Col. +Edward W. Serrell, a volunteer engineer, who accomplished the work. +Piles were driven, a platform was laid upon them, and a parapet was +built with bags of sand, fifteen thousand being required. All this had +to be done after dark, and occupied fourteen nights. Then, with great +labor, an eight-inch rifled gun was dragged across the swamp and +mounted on this platform. It was nearly five miles from Charleston, +but by firing with a high elevation was able to reach the lower part +of the city. The soldiers named this gun the "Swamp Angel." Late in +August it was ready for work, and, after giving notice for the removal +of non-combatants, General Gillmore opened fire. A few shells fell in +the streets and produced great consternation, but at the thirty-sixth +discharge the Swamp Angel burst, and it never was replaced. + +Gillmore had supposed that when Sumter was silenced the fleet would +enter the harbor, but Admiral Dahlgren did not think it wise to risk +his vessels among the torpedoes, especially as the batteries of the +inner harbor had been greatly strengthened. As Fort Wagner and Battery +Gregg were nearer the city by a mile than the Swamp Angel, Gillmore +repaired them, turned their guns upon Charleston, and kept up a +destructive bombardment for weeks. + +As a protection to the city, under the plea that its bombardment was a +violation of the rules of war, the Confederate authorities selected +from their prisoners fifty officers and placed them in the district +reached by the shells. Capt. Willard Glazier, who was there, writes: +"When the distant rumbling of the Swamp Angel was heard, and the cry +'Here it comes!' resounded through our prison house, there was a +general stir. Sleepers sprang to their feet, the gloomy forgot their +sorrows, conversation was hushed, and all started to see where the +messenger would fall. At night we traced along the sky a slight stream +of fire, similar to the tail of a comet, and followed its course until +'whiz! whiz!' came the little pieces from our mighty two-hundred +pounder, scattering themselves all around." By placing an equal number +of Confederate officers under fire, the Government compelled the +removal of its own. + +[Illustration: ST. MICHAEL'S CHURCH, CHARLESTON, S. C.] + + + + +{295} + +CHAPTER XXVI. + +THE CHATTANOOGA CAMPAIGN AND BATTLE OF CHICKAMAUGA. + +ROSECRANS AND BRAGG--FIGHT AT DOVER--AT FRANKLIN--AT MILTON--MORGAN'S +RAID IN OHIO--MANOEUVRING FOR CHATTANOOGA--BATTLE AT +CHICKAMAUGA--NUMBER OF MEN ENGAGED ON EACH SIDE--OPERATIONS OF THE +FIRST DAY--RETREAT OF FEDERAL FORCES AT CHATTANOOGA--NUMBER OF +OFFICERS AND MEN KILLED AT CHICKAMAUGA--GENERAL ROSECRANS'S OPINION OF +THE GENERAL CONDUCT OF THE BATTLE--INSTANCES OF PERSONAL COURAGE AND +GALLANTRY--GENERAL BRAGG'S CRITICISMS OF GENERAL POLK. + + +While Grant's army was pounding at the gates of Vicksburg, those of +Rosecrans and Bragg were watching each other at Murfreesboro', both +commanders being unwilling to make any grand movement. General Grant +and the Secretary of War wanted Rosecrans to advance upon Bragg, lest +Bragg should reinforce Johnston, who was a constant menace in the rear +of the army besieging Vicksburg. The only thing Grant feared was, that +he might be attacked heavily by Johnston before he could capture the +place. But Rosecrans refused to move, on the ground that it was +against the principles of military science to fight two decisive +battles at once, and that the surest method of holding back Bragg from +reinforcing Johnston was by constantly standing ready to attack him, +but not attacking. As it happened that Bragg was very much like +Rosecrans, and was afraid to stir lest Rosecrans should go to Grant's +assistance, the policy of quiet watchfulness proved successful--so far +at least as immediate results were concerned. Bragg did not reinforce +Johnston, Johnston did not attack Grant; and besiegers and besieged +were left, like two brawny champions of two great armies, to fight it +out, dig it out, and starve it out, till on the 4th of July the city +fell. Whether it afterward fared as well with Rosecrans as it might if +he had attacked Bragg when Grant and Stanton wanted him to, is another +question. + +But though the greater armies were quiescent, both sent out +detachments to make destructive raids, and that season witnessed some +of the most notable exploits of the guerilla bands that were operating +in the West, all through the war, in aid of the Confederacy. Late in +January, 1863, a Confederate force of cavalry and artillery, about +four thousand men, under Wheeler and Forrest, was sent to capture +Dover, contiguous to the site of Fort Donelson, in order to close the +navigation of Cumberland River, by which Rosecrans received supplies. +The place was held by six hundred men, under command of Col. A. C. +Harding, of the Eighty-third Illinois Regiment, who, with the help of +gunboats, repelled two determined attempts to storm the works +(February 3), and inflicted a loss of seven hundred men, their own +loss being one hundred and twenty-six. + +Early in March, a detachment of about twenty-five hundred National +troops, under Colonels Coburn and Jordan, moving south of Franklin, +Tenn., unexpectedly met a force of about ten thousand Confederates +under Van Dorn, and the stubborn fight that ensued resulted in the +surrounding and capture of Coburn's entire force, after nearly two +hundred had been killed or wounded on each side. A few days later, Van +Dorn was attacked and driven southward by a force under Gen. Gordon +Granger. Still later in the month a detachment of about fourteen +hundred men under Colonel Hall went in pursuit of the guerilla band +commanded by John Morgan, fought it near Milton, and defeated it, +inflicting a loss of nearly four hundred men. Early in April another +detachment of National troops, commanded by Gen. David S. Stanley, +found Morgan's men at Snow Hill, and defeated and routed them so +thoroughly that it was two weeks before the remnants of the band could +be brought together again. + +[Illustration: A PASS IN THE RACCOON RANGE.] + +{296} [Illustration: MISSIONARY RIDGE, FROM ORCHARD KNOB. (From a +Government photograph.)] + +In the same month Col. A. D. Streight, with eighteen hundred men, was +sent to make a raid around Bragg's army, cut his communications, and +destroy supplies. This detachment was pursued by Forrest, who attacked +the rear guard at Day's Gap, but was repelled, and lost ten guns and a +considerable number of men. Streight kept on his way, with continual +skirmishing, destroyed a dépôt of provisions at Gadsden, had another +fight at Blount's Farm, in which he drove off Forrest again, and +burned the Round Mountain Iron Works, which supplied shot and shell to +the Confederates. But on the 3d of May he was confronted by so large a +force that he was compelled to surrender, {297} his men and horses +being too jaded to attempt escape. + +These are but examples of hundreds of engagements that took place +during the war of secession and are scarcely known to the general +reader because their fame is overshadowed by the magnitude of the +great battles. Had they occurred in any of our previous wars, every +schoolboy would know about them. In Washington's celebrated victory at +Trenton, the number of Hessians surrendered was fewer than Streight's +command captured by Forrest; and in the bloodiest battle of the +Mexican war, Buena Vista, the American loss (then considered heavy) +was but little greater than the Confederate loss in the action at +Dover, related above. The armies surrendered by Burgoyne and +Cornwallis, if combined, would constitute a smaller force than the +least of the three that surrendered to Grant. + +One of these affairs in the West, however, was so bold and startling +that it became famous even among the greater and more important +events. This was Morgan's raid across the Ohio. In July he entered +Kentucky from the south, with a force of three thousand cavalrymen, +increased as it went by accessions of Kentucky sympathizers to about +four thousand, with ten guns. He captured and robbed the towns of +Columbia and Lebanon, reached the Ohio, captured two steamers, and +crossed into Indiana. Then marching rapidly toward Cincinnati, he +burned mills and bridges, tore up rails, plundered right and left, and +spread alarm on every side. But the home guards were gathering to meet +him, and the great number of railways in Ohio and Indiana favored +their rapid concentration, while farmers felled trees across the roads +on hearing of his approach. He passed around Cincinnati, and after +much delay reached the Ohio at Buffington's Ford. Here some of his +pursuers overtook him, while gunboats and steamboats filled with armed +men were patrolling the river, on the watch for him. The gunboats +prevented him from using the ford, and he was obliged to turn and give +battle. The fight was severe, and resulted in Morgan's defeat. Nearly +eight hundred of his men surrendered, and he with the remainder +retreated up the river. They next tried to cross at Belleville by +swimming their horses; but the gunboats were at hand again, and made +such havoc among the troopers that only three hundred got across, +while of the others some were shot, some drowned, and the remnant +driven back to the Ohio shore. Morgan with two hundred fled still +farther up the stream, but at last was compelled to surrender at New +Lisbon. He was confined in the Ohio penitentiary, but escaped a few +months later by digging under the walls. A pathetic incident of this +raid was the death of the venerable Daniel McCook, sixty-five years +old. He had given eight sons to the National service, and four of them +had become generals. One of these was deliberately murdered by +guerillas, while he was ill and riding in an ambulance in Tennessee. +The old man, hearing that the murderer was in Morgan's band, took his +rifle and went out to join in the fight at Buffington's Ford, where he +was mortally wounded. + +[Illustration: BRIGADIER-GENERAL J. H. MORGAN, C. S. A.] + +[Illustration: MAJOR-GENERAL GEORGE L. HARTSUFF.] + +[Illustration: SCENE OF OPERATION OF THE ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND IN +TENNESSEE, GEORGIA, AND ALABAMA.] + +When at last Rosecrans did move, by some of the ablest strategy +displayed in the whole war he compelled Bragg to fall back +successively from one position to another, all the way from Tullahoma +to Chattanooga. This was not done without frequent and heavy +skirmishes, however; but the superiority of the National cavalry had +now been developed at the West as well as at the East, and they all +resulted in one way. Colonel (afterward Senator) John F. Miller was +conspicuous in several of these actions, and in that at Liberty Gap +one of his eyes was shot out by a rifle-ball. + +The purpose of Rosecrans was to get possession of Chattanooga; and +when Bragg crossed the Tennessee and occupied that town, he set to +work to manoeuvre him out of it. To effect this, he moved southwest, +as if he were intending to pass around Chattanooga and invade Georgia. +This caused Bragg to fall back to Lafayette, and the National troops +took {298} possession of Chattanooga. But at this time Rosecrans +was for a while in a critical situation, where a more skilful +general than Bragg would probably have destroyed him; for his three +corps--commanded by Thomas, Crittenden, and McCook--were widely +separated. The later movements of this campaign had been rendered +tediously slow by the heavy rains and the almost impassable nature of +the ground; so that although Rosecrans had set out from Murfreesboro' +in June, it was now the middle of September. + +Supposing that Bragg was in full retreat, Rosecrans began to follow +him; but Bragg had received large reinforcements, and turned back from +Lafayette, intent upon attacking Rosecrans. The two armies, feeling +for each other and approaching somewhat cautiously for a week, met at +last, and there was fought, September 19 and 20, 1863, a great battle +on the banks of a creek, whose Indian name of Chickamauga is said to +signify "river of death." + +Rosecrans had about fifty-five thousand men; Bragg, after the arrival +of Longstreet at midnight of the 18th, about seventy thousand. The +general direction of the lines of battle was with the National troops +facing southeast, and the Confederates facing northwest, though these +lines were variously bent, broken, and changed in the course of the +action. Thomas held the left of Rosecrans's line, Crittenden the +centre, and McCook the right. Bragg was the attacking party, and his +plan was, while making a feint on the National right, to fall heavily +upon the left, flank it, crush it, and seize the roads that led to +Chattanooga. If he could do this, it would not only cut off Rosecrans +from his base and insure his decisive defeat, but would give Bragg +possession of Chattanooga, where he could control the river and the +passage through the mountains between the East and the West. The +concentration of the National forces in the valley had been witnessed +by the Confederates from the mountain height southeast of the creek, +who therefore knew what they had to meet and how it was disposed. + +The battle of the 19th began at ten o'clock in the forenoon, and +lasted all day. The Confederate army crossed the creek without +opposition, and moved forward confidently to the attack. But the left +of the position--the key-point--was held by the command of Gen. George +H. Thomas, who for a slow and stubborn fight was perhaps the best +corps commander produced by either side in the whole war. Opposed to +him, on the Confederate right, was Gen. (also Bishop) Leonidas Polk. +There was less of concerted action in the attack than Bragg had +planned for, partly because Thomas unexpectedly struck out with a +counter-movement when an opportunity offered; but there was no lack of +bloody and persistent fighting. Brigades and divisions moved forward +to the charge, were driven back, and charged again. Batteries were +taken and re-taken, the horses were killed, and the captains and +gunners in some instances, refusing to leave them, were shot down at +the wheels. Brigades and regiments were shattered, and on both sides +many prisoners were taken. Thomas's line was forced back, but before +night he regained his first position, and the day closed with the +situation practically unchanged. + +[Illustration: MAJOR-GENERAL GEORGE H. THOMAS.] + +During the night both sides corrected their lines and made what +preparation they could for a renewal of the struggle. Bragg intended +to attack again at daybreak, his plan (now perfectly evident to his +opponent) being substantially the same as on the day before. He wanted +to crush the National left, force back the centre, and make a grand +left wheel with his entire army, placing his right firmly across the +path to Chattanooga. But the morning was foggy, Polk was slow, and the +fighting did not begin till the middle of the forenoon. Between Polk +and Thomas the edge of battle swayed back and forth, and the +Confederates could make no permanent impression. Thomas was obliged to +call repeatedly for reinforcements, which sometimes reached him and +sometimes failed to; but whether they came or not, he held manfully to +all the essential portions of his ground. + +Rosecrans was constantly uneasy about his right centre, where he knew +the line to be weak; and at this point the great disaster of the day +began, though in an unexpected manner. It arose from an order that was +both miswritten and misinterpreted. This order, addressed to Gen. +Thomas J. Wood, who commanded a division, was written by a member of +Rosecrans's staff who had not had a military education, and was not +sufficiently impressed with the exact meaning of the technical terms. +It read: "The general commanding directs that you close up on Reynolds +as fast as possible, and support him." It was impossible to obey both +clauses of this order; since to "close up" means to bring the ends of +the lines together so that there shall be no gap and they shall form +one continuous line, while to "support," in the technical military +sense, means to take a position in the rear, ready to advance when +ordered. The aid that wrote the order evidently used the word +"support" only in the general sense of assist, strengthen, protect, +encourage, and did not dream of its conflicting with the command to +"close up." General Wood, a West Point graduate, instead of sending or +going to Rosecrans for better orders, obeyed literally the second +clause, and {299} withdrew his command from the line to form it in the +rear of Reynolds. Opposite to the wide and fatal opening thus left was +Longstreet, the ablest corps commander in the Confederate service, who +instantly saw his advantage and promptly poured his men, six divisions +of them, through the gap. This cut off McCook's corps from the rest of +the army, and it was speedily defeated and routed in confusion. The +centre was crumbled, and it looked as if the whole army must be +destroyed. Rosecrans, who had been with the defeated right wing, +appeared to lose his head completely, and rode back in all haste to +Chattanooga to make arrangements for gathering there the fragments of +his forces. At nightfall he sent his chief of staff, Gen. James A. +Garfield (afterward President), to find what had become of Thomas, and +Garfield found Thomas where not even the destruction of three-fifths +of the army had moved or daunted him. + +When Thomas's right flank was exposed to assault by the disruption of +the centre, he swung it back to a position known as Horseshoe Ridge, +still covering the road. Longstreet was pressing forward to pass the +right of this position, when he was stopped by Gordon Granger, who had +been with a reserve at Rossville Gap, but was wiser and bolder than +his orders, and, instead of remaining there, moved forward to the +support of Thomas. The Confederate commander, when complete victory +was apparently so near, seemed reckless of the lives of his men, +thrusting them forward again and again in futile charges, where +Thomas's batteries literally mowed them down with grape and canister, +and a steady fire of musketry increased the bloody harvest. About dusk +the ammunition was exhausted, and the last charges of the Confederates +were repelled with the bayonet. Thomas had fairly won the title of +"the rock of Chickamauga." In the night he fell back in good order to +Rossville, leaving the enemy in possession of the field, with all the +dead and wounded. Sheridan, who had been on the right of the line and +was separated by its disruption, kept his command together, marched +around the mountain, and before morning joined Thomas at Rossville, +whence they fell back the next day to Chattanooga, where order was +quickly restored and the defences strengthened. + +The National loss in the two-days' battle of Chickamauga--killed, +wounded, and missing--was sixteen thousand three hundred and +thirty-six. The Confederate reports are incomplete and unsatisfactory; +but estimates of Bragg's loss make it at least eighteen thousand, and +some carry it up nearly to twenty-one thousand. With the exception of +Gettysburg, this was thus far the most destructive action of the war. +Tactically it was a victory for Bragg, who was left in possession of +the field; but that which he was fighting for, Chattanooga, he did not +get. + +[Illustration: LEE AND GORDON'S MILLS ON THE CHICKAMAUGA.] + +{300} [Illustration: BATTLE OF CHICKAMAUGA, GA., SEPTEMBER 19th AND +20th, 1863.] + +Among the killed in this battle were Brig.-Gen. William H. Lytle on +the National side, and on the Confederate side Brig.-Gens. Preston +Smith, Benjamin H. Helm, and James Deshler; also on the National side, +three colonels who were in command of brigades--Cols. Edward A. King +of the Sixty-eighth Indiana Regiment, Philemon P. Baldwin of the Sixth +Indiana, and Hans C. Heg of the Fifteenth Wisconsin. The number of +officers of lower rank who fell, generally when exhibiting notable +courage in the performance of their dangerous duties, was very great. +Of General Whittaker's staff, numbering seven, three were killed and +three wounded. His brigade lost nearly a thousand men, and Colonel +Mitchell's brigade of four regiments lost nearly four hundred. The +Ninety-sixth Illinois Regiment went into the battle with four {301} +hundred and fifteen men, and lost one hundred and sixty-three killed +or wounded. Of its twenty-three officers, eleven were either killed or +wounded. In the fall of General Lytle we lost another man of great +literary promise, though his published writings were not extensive, +whose name must be placed on the roll with those of Winthrop, Lander, +and O'Brien. He was the author of the popular poem that begins with +the line-- + + "I am dying, Egypt, dying." + +Another poet who distinguished himself on this field was Lieut. +Richard Realf, of the Eighty-eighth Illinois Regiment, who was +honorably mentioned, especially for his services in going back through +a heavy fire and bringing up a fresh supply of ammunition when it was +sorely needed. Realf was a personal friend of Lytle's, and the bullet +that killed Lytle passed through a sheet of paper in his pocket, +containing a little poem that Realf had addressed to him a short time +before. Some of Realf's war lyrics are among the finest that we have. +Here are two stanzas from one: + + "I think the soul of Cromwell kissed + The soul of Baker when, + With red sword in his bloody fist, + He died among his men. + I think, too, that when Winthrop fell, + His face toward the foe, + John Hampden shouted, 'All is well!' + Above that overthrow. + + "And Lyon, making green and fair + The places where he trod; + And Ellsworth, sinking on the stair + Whereby he passed to God; + And those whose names are only writ + In hearts, instead of scrolls, + Still show the dark of earth uplit + With shining human souls." + +And here is a sonnet suggested by the loss of many of his comrades on +the battlefield: + + "Thank God for Liberty's dear slain; they give + Perpetual consecration unto it; + Quickening the clay of our insensitive + Dull natures with the awe of infinite + Sun-crowned transfigurations, such as sit + On the solemn-brooding mountains. Oh, the dead! + How they do shame the living; how they warn + Our little lives that huckster for the bread + Of peace, and tremble at the world's poor scorn, + And pick their steps among the flowers, and tread + Daintily soft where the raised idols are; + Prone with gross dalliance where the feasts are spread, + When most they should stride forth, and flash afar + Light like the streaming of heroic war!" + +General Garfield was distinguished in this action for his judgment and +incessant activity. As chief of staff he wrote every order issued by +General Rosecrans during the action, except the blundering order that +caused the disaster by the withdrawal of Wood's division from the +line. He was advanced to the rank of major-general "for gallant and +meritorious services at the battle of Chickamauga." + +[Illustration: MAJOR-GENERAL JAMES B. STEEDMAN.] + +General Rosecrans, in his official report, says of his own personal +movements on the field: + +"At the moment of the repulse of Davis's division [when the +Confederates poured through the gap left by Wood] I was standing in +rear of his right, waiting the completion of the closing of McCook's +corps to the left. Seeing confusion among Van Cleve's troops, and the +distance Davis's men were falling back, and the tide of battle surging +toward us, the urgency for Sheridan's troops to intervene became +imminent, and I hastened in person to the extreme right, to direct +Sheridan's movement on the flank of the advancing rebels. It was too +late. The crowd of returning troops rolled back, and the enemy +advanced. Giving the troops directions to rally behind the ridges west +of the Dry Valley road, I passed down it, accompanied by General +Garfield, Major McMichael, and Major Bond, of my staff, and a few of +the escort, under the shower of grape, canister, and musketry, for two +or three hundred yards, and attempted to rejoin General Thomas and the +troops sent to his support, by passing to the rear of the broken +portion of our line, but found the routed troops far toward the left; +and hearing the enemy's advancing musketry and cheers, I became +doubtful whether the left had held its ground, and started for +Rossville. On consultation and further reflection, however, I +determined to send General Garfield there, while I went to Chattanooga +to give orders for the security of the pontoon bridges at Battle Creek +and Bridgeport, and to make preliminary disposition, either to forward +ammunition and supplies should we hold our ground, or to withdraw the +troops into good position. + +"General Garfield despatched me from Rossville that the left and +centre still held its ground. General Granger had gone to its support. +General Sheridan had rallied his division, and was advancing toward +the same point, and General Davis was going up the Dry Valley road, to +our right. General Garfield proceeded to the front, remained there +until the close of the fight, and despatched me the triumphant defence +our troops there made against the assaults of the enemy." + +[Illustration: MAJOR-GENERAL GORDON GRANGER.] + +{302} General Rosecrans says concerning the general conduct of the +battle: + +"The fight on the left, after two P.M., was that of the army. Never, +in the history of this war at least, have troops fought with greater +energy or determination. Bayonet charges, often heard of but seldom +seen, were repeatedly made by brigades and regiments in several of our +divisions. After the yielding and severance of the division of the +right, the enemy bent all efforts to break the solid portion of our +line. Under the pressure of the rebel onset, the flanks of the line +were gradually retired until they occupied strong, advantageous +ground, giving to the whole a flattened, crescent shape. From one to +half-past three o'clock the unequal contest was sustained throughout +our line. Then the enemy, in overpowering numbers, flowed around our +right, held by General Brannan, and occupied a low gap in the ridge of +our defensive position, which commanded our rear. The moment was +critical. Twenty minutes more, and our right would have been turned, +our position taken in reverse, and probably the army routed. +Fortunately Major-General Granger, whose troops had been posted to +cover our left and rear, with the instinct of a true soldier and a +general, hearing the roar of the battle, and being beyond the reach of +orders from the general commanding, moved to its assistance. He soon +encountered the enemy's skirmishers, whom he disregarded, well knowing +that at that stage of the conflict the battle was not there. Posting +Col. Daniel McCook's brigade to take care of anything in that vicinity +and beyond our line, he moved the remainder to the scene of action, +reporting to General Thomas, who directed him to our suffering right. +He discovered at once the peril and the point of danger--the gap--and +quick as thought directed his advance brigade upon the enemy. General +Steedman, taking a regimental color, led the column. Swift was the +charge and terrible the conflict, but the enemy was broken. A thousand +of our brave men, killed and wounded, paid for its possession, but we +held the gap. Two divisions of Longstreet's corps confronted the +position. Determined to take it, they successively came to the +assault. A battery of six guns, placed in the gorge, poured death and +slaughter into them. They charged to within a few yards of the pieces; +but our grape and canister and the leaden hail of our musketry, +delivered in sparing but terrible volleys, from cartridges taken, in +many instances, from the boxes of their fallen companions, was too +much even for Longstreet's men. About sunset they made their last +charge, when our men, being out of ammunition, rushed on them with the +bayonet, and gave way to return no more." + +General Rosecrans adds that: "The battle of Chickamauga was absolutely +necessary to secure our concentration and cover Chattanooga. It was +fought in a country covered with woods and undergrowth, and wholly +unknown to us. Every division came into action opportunely, and fought +squarely on the 19th. We were largely outnumbered, yet we foiled the +enemy's flank movement on our left, and secured our own position on +the road to Chattanooga." + +In this battle the National army expended two million six hundred and +fifty thousand rounds of musket cartridges and seven thousand three +hundred and twenty-five rounds of artillery ammunition. With figures +like these the reader may realize how nearly true is the saying that +it requires a man's own weight of metal to kill him in battle. +Rosecrans lost thirty-six pieces of artillery and eight thousand four +hundred and fifty stand of small arms. He took two thousand prisoners. +He says in his report: "A very great meed of praise is due to Capt. +Horace Porter, of the Ordnance, for the wise system of arming each +regiment with arms of the same calibre, and having the ammunition +wagons properly marked, by which most of the difficulties of supplying +ammunition where troops had exhausted it in battle were obviated." + +[Illustration: BREVET BRIGADIER-GENERAL H. V. N. BOYNTON.] + +[Illustration: COLONEL B. F. SCRIBNER. (Afterward Brevet +Brigadier-General.)] + +[Illustration: BREVET MAJOR-GENERAL EMERSON OPDYKE.] + +Gen. T. J. Wood says in his report, concerning the fight on his part +of the line: "A part of the contest was witnessed by that able and +distinguished commander Major-General Thomas. I think it must have +been two o'clock P.M. when he came to where my command was so hotly +engaged. His presence was most welcome. The men saw him, felt they +were battling under the eye of a great chieftain, and their {303} +courage and resolution received fresh inspiration from this +consciousness." + +In this terrible two days' struggle there were innumerable instances +of the display of special personal courage and timely gallantry. When +the One Hundred and Fifteenth Illinois Regiment was struggling to +rally after being somewhat broken, General Steedman took the flag from +the color-bearer and advanced toward the enemy, saying to the +regiment: "Boys, I'll carry your flag if you'll defend it." Whereupon +they rallied around him and went into the fight once more. + +William S. Bean, a quartermaster's sergeant, whose place was at the +rear, and who might properly have remained there, went forward to the +battle line, and is said to have done almost the work of a general in +encouraging the bold and animating the timid. Lieut. C. W. Earle, a +mere boy, was left in command of the color company of the Ninety-sixth +Ohio Regiment, and stood by his colors unfalteringly throughout the +fight, though all but two of the color-guard were struck down and the +flag was cut to pieces by the bullets of the enemy. The Twenty-second +Michigan Regiment did not participate in the first day's battle, but +went in on the second day with five hundred and eighty-four officers +and men, and lost three hundred and seventy-two. Its colonel, Heber +LeFavour, received high praise for the manner in which he led his +regiment in a bayonet charge after their ammunition was exhausted. He +was taken prisoner late in the action. + +General Bragg, in his report of the battle, complains bitterly of +General Polk's dilatoriness in obeying orders to attack, and says: +"Exhausted by two days' battle, with very limited supply of +provisions, and almost destitute of water, some time in daylight was +absolutely essential for our troops to supply these necessaries and +replenish their ammunition before renewing the contest. Availing +myself of this necessary delay to inspect and readjust my lines, I +moved, as soon as daylight served, on the 21st.... Our cavalry soon +came upon the enemy's rear guard where the main road passes through +Missionary Ridge. He had availed himself of the night to withdraw from +our front, and his main body was already in position within his lines +at Chattanooga. Any immediate pursuit by our infantry and artillery +would have been fruitless, as it was not deemed practicable, with our +weak and exhausted forces, to assail the enemy, now more than double +our numbers, behind his intrenchments. Though we had defeated him and +driven him from the field with heavy loss in arms, men, and artillery, +it had only been done by heavy sacrifices, in repeated, persistent, +and most gallant assaults upon superior numbers strongly posted and +protected. Our loss was in proportion to the prolonged and obstinate +struggle. Two-fifths of our gallant troops had fallen, and the number +of general and staff officers stricken down will best show how these +troops were led. Major-General Hood, the model soldier and inspiring +leader, fell after contributing largely to our success, and has +suffered the irreparable loss of a leg." + +General Bragg believed that although he did not gain possession of +Chattanooga by the battle of Chickamauga, he had only to make one more +move to secure the prize. And perhaps he would have been correct in +this calculation if the commander opposed to him had not been +succeeded about a month later by General Grant. Bragg advanced his +army to positions on Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge, and put +the town of Chattanooga into a state of siege, managing to stop the +navigation of the river below and cut off all Rosecrans's routes of +supply except one long and difficult wagon road. This campaign +virtually closed the military career of General Rosecrans. He had +shown many fine qualities as a soldier, and had performed some +brilliant feats of strategy; but, as with some other commanders, his +abilities appeared to stop suddenly short at a point where great +successes were within easy reach. It was not more science that was +wanted, but more energy. When Grant appeared on the scene, with no +more knowledge of the military art than Rosecrans, but with boundless +and tireless energy, the conditions quickly changed. + +[Illustration: "DO NOT SKULK HERE--"] + +[Illustration: BRIGADIER-GENERAL MARCELLUS A. STOVALL, C. S. A.] + +[Illustration: MAJOR-GENERAL PATRICK R. CLEBURNE, C. S. A.] + +{304} [Illustration: BRIDGE ACROSS TENNESSEE RIVER--CHATTANOOGA AND +LOOKOUT MOUNTAIN IN THE DISTANCE. (From a war-time photograph.)] + + + + +{305} + +CHAPTER XXVII. + +THE BATTLE OF CHATTANOOGA. + +GRANT'S ARRIVAL AT CHATTANOOGA--GENERAL ROSECRANS'S INACTION--OPENING +A NEW LINE OF SUPPLY--DESPERATE FIGHTING UNDER GENERAL +SHERMAN--PAROLED PRISONERS FORCED INTO THE CONFEDERATE ARMY--FIGHTING +AROUND KNOXVILLE--THE BATTLE ABOVE THE CLOUDS--CAPTURE OF MISSIONARY +RIDGE--BRAGG'S ARMY COMPLETELY DEFEATED--PICTURESQUE AND ROMANTIC +INCIDENTS. + + +A month after the battle of Chickamauga the National forces in the +West were to some extent reorganized. The departments of the Ohio, the +Cumberland, and the Tennessee were united under the title of Military +Division of the Mississippi, of which General Grant was made +commander, and Thomas superseded Rosecrans in command of the Army of +the Cumberland. General Hooker, with two corps, was sent to Tennessee. +Grant arrived at Chattanooga on the 23d of October, and found affairs +in a deplorable condition. It was impossible to supply the troops +properly by the one wagon road, and they had been on short rations for +some time, while large numbers of the mules and horses were dead. + +From the National lines the tents and batteries of the Confederates on +Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge were in plain sight; their +sentinels walked the rounds in a continuous line not a thousand yards +away; and from these heights their guns occasionally sent a shot +within the lines. When General Sherman, on his arrival, walked out and +surveyed the situation, he turned to Grant and exclaimed in surprise, +"Why, General, you are besieged." "Yes," said Grant, "it is too true," +and pointed out to him a house on Missionary Ridge which was known to +be Bragg's headquarters. General Rosecrans, like a similar commander +at the East, was able to give most excellent reasons for his prolonged +inaction. And so able a soldier as Gen. David S. Stanley, in an +article read by him before the Ohio Commandery of the Loyal Legion, +seems to justify Rosecrans. The unpleasant and unsatisfactory +correspondence of this period, between Rosecrans and the War +Department, culminated when the former, having reported the success of +an expedition against McMinnville, received a despatch from General +Halleck, which said: "The Secretary of War says you always report your +successes, but never report your reverses." And Rosecrans replied: "If +the Secretary of War says I report my successes, but do not report my +reverses, the Secretary of War lies." + +It may be that the poor condition of the cavalry, and other +discouraging circumstances, were really a proper cause for non-action +to a general who was more inclined to study the safety of his own army +than the destruction of the enemy; but somehow or other, wherever +General Grant appeared, reasons for inactivity seemed to melt away, +and the spirit of determined aggression to take their place. + +[Illustration: GENERAL SHERMAN'S HEADQUARTERS AT CHATTANOOGA.] + +Grant's first care was to open a new and better line of supply. +Steamers could come up the river as far as Bridgeport, and he ordered +the immediate construction of a road and bridge to reach that point by +way of Brown's Ferry, which was done. Within five days the "cracker +line," as the soldiers called it, was opened, and thenceforth they had +full rations and abundance of everything. The enemy attempted to +interrupt the work on the road; but Hooker met them at Wauhatchie, +west of Lookout Mountain, and after a three hours' action drove them +off. + +Chattanooga was now no longer in a state of siege; but it was still +seriously menaced by Bragg's army, which held a most {306} singular +position. Its flanks were on the northern ends of Lookout Mountain and +Missionary Ridge, the crests of which were occupied for some distance, +and its centre stretched across Chattanooga Valley. This line was +twelve miles long, and most of it was well intrenched. + +Grant ordered Sherman to join him with one corps, and Sherman promptly +obeyed; but, as he did considerable railroad repairing on the way, he +did not reach Chattanooga till the 15th of November. Moreover, he had +to fight occasionally, and be ready to fight all the time. At +Colliersville he was aroused from a nap in the car by a great noise +about the train, and was informed that the pickets had been driven in, +and there was every reason to suppose that a large cavalry force would +soon make an attack. Sherman immediately got his men out of the train +and formed them in a line on a knoll near a railroad cut. Presently a +Confederate officer appeared with a flag of truce, and Sherman sent +out two officers to meet him, secretly instructing them to keep him in +conversation as long as possible. When they returned, it was with the +message that General Chalmers demanded the surrender of the place. +Sherman ordered his officers to return again to the line and talk as +long as possible with the Confederate officer, but finally give him a +negative answer. In the little time thus gained he got a telegraph +message sent to Memphis and Germantown, ordering Corse's division to +hurry forward, and at the same time backed the train into the depot, +which was a loopholed brick building, and drew his men into some +smaller works that surrounded it. In a few minutes the enemy swooped +down, cutting the wires and tearing up the rails on both sides, and +then attacked Sherman's little band in their intrenchments. Sherman +ordered all the houses that were near enough to shelter the enemy's +sharp-shooters to be set on fire, and, finding some muskets in the +depot, put them into the hands of the clerks and orderlies, making +every man available for an active defence. The Confederates had some +artillery, with which they knocked his locomotive to pieces, and set +fire to the train; but many of Sherman's men were excellent marksmen +and trained soldiers, and they not only kept the enemy at bay but +managed to put out the fire. This state of things lasted about three +hours, when the approach of Corse's division caused the enemy to +withdraw. Corse's men had come twenty-six miles on the double quick. + +[Illustration: BREVET MAJOR-GENERAL JOHN W. GEARY.] + +[Illustration: DESPATCHES FOR HEADQUARTERS.] + +General Sherman, in his graphic "Memoirs," gives many incidents of +this march, some of which were not only interesting but significant. +Just before he set out, a flag of truce came in one day, borne by a +Confederate officer with whom he was acquainted, and escorted by +twenty-five men. Sherman invited the officer to take supper with him, +and gave orders to his own escort to furnish the Confederate escort +with forage and whatever else they wanted during their stay. After +supper the conversation turned upon the war, and the Confederate +officer said: "What is the use of your persevering? It is simply +impossible to subdue eight millions of people. The feeling in the +South has become so embittered that a reconciliation is impossible." +Sherman answered: "Sitting as we are here, we appear to be very +comfortable, and surely there is no trouble in our becoming friends." +"Yes," said the Confederate officer, "that is very true of us; but we +are gentlemen of education, and can easily adapt ourselves to any +condition of things; but this would not apply equally well to the +common people or the common soldiers." Thereupon, General Sherman took +him out to the campfires behind the tent and showed him the men of the +two escorts mingled together, drinking coffee, and apparently having a +happy time. "What do you think of that?" said he. And the Confederate +officer admitted that Sherman had the best of the argument. +Nevertheless, in spite of the fact that the war had now continued more +than two years, that the territory held by the Confederates had +steadily diminished, that they had passed the climax of their military +resources while those of the North were still abundant, that +Gettysburg and Vicksburg had rendered their terrible verdicts, and +that all hope of foreign assistance or even recognition was at an +end--the opinions {307} expressed by the officer just quoted were very +generally held at the South. It is perhaps not wonderful that the +ordinary people and the soldiers in the ranks, few of whom understood +the philosophy of war in its larger aspects, and to all of whom their +generals and their Government continually misrepresented the state of +affairs, should have believed that they were invincible. But their +educated generals and statesmen ought to have known better; yet either +they did not know better, or they concealed their real opinions. +Alexander H. Stephens, by many considered the ablest statesman in the +Confederacy, late in July of this year (1863), made a speech at +Charlotte, N. C., in which he assured his hearers that there was no +reason for anything but the most confident hope. He said that the loss +of Vicksburg was not as severe a blow as the loss of Fort Pillow, +Island No. 10, or New Orleans, and, as the Confederacy had survived +those losses, it would also survive this one. He declared that if they +were to lose Mobile, Charleston, and Richmond, it would not affect the +heart of the Confederacy, which would survive all such losses and +finally secure its independence. The enemy, he said, had made two +years of unsuccessful war, and thus far had not broken the shell of +the Confederacy. He alluded to the fact that during the Revolutionary +war the British at one time had possession of North Carolina, South +Carolina, New York, and Philadelphia, and yet did not conquer our +forefathers; and he added: "In the war of 1812 the British captured +the capital of the nation, Washington city, and burned it, yet they +did not conquer us; and if we are true to ourselves now, true to our +birthright, the Yankee nation will utterly fail to subjugate us. +Subjugation would be utter ruin and eternal death to Southern people +and all that they hold most dear. Reconstruction would not end the +war, but would produce a more horrible war than that in which we are +now engaged. The only terms on which we can obtain permanent peace is +final and complete separation from the North." With such argument and +appeal as this, from statesmen, demagogues, generals, ministers of the +gospel, journalists, and other citizens of lesser note, the Southern +people were induced to continue the terrible struggle, until, when the +final surrender came, they had hardly anything left to surrender +except the ground on which they stood. + +Another incident of the march was one that gave the Fifteenth Corps +its badge. An Irish soldier of that corps one day straggled out and +joined a party of the Twelfth Corps at their campfire. Seeing a star +marked on every tent, wagon, hat, etc., he asked if they were all +brigadier-generals in that corps; and they explained that the star was +their corps badge, and then in turn asked him what was the badge of +his (the Fifteenth) corps. Now, this corps as yet had not adopted any +badge, and the Irishman had never before even heard of a corps badge; +but he promptly answered, "Forty rounds in the cartridge box and +twenty in the pocket." When General Logan heard this story, he adopted +the cartridge box and forty rounds as the badge of his corps. + +[Illustration: MAJOR-GENERAL HUGH EWING.] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration: BREVET MAJOR-GENERAL ABSALOM BAIRD.] + +The condition of affairs at this time in that department, and the +reasons for it, are set forth with admirable clearness in a letter +addressed by General Halleck to General Grant, under date of October +20, 1863: + +"It has been the constant desire of the Government, from the beginning +of the war, to rescue the loyal inhabitants of East Tennessee from the +hands of the rebels, who fully appreciated the importance of +continuing their hold upon that country. In addition to the large +amount of agricultural products drawn from the upper valley of the +Tennessee, they also obtained iron and other materials from the +vicinity of Chattanooga. The possession of East Tennessee would cut +off one of their most important railroad communications, and threaten +their manufactories at Rome, Atlanta, etc. + +"When General Buell was ordered into East Tennessee in the summer of +1862, Chattanooga was comparatively unprotected; but Bragg reached +there before Buell, and, by threatening his communications, forced him +to retreat on Nashville and Louisville. Again, after the battle of +Perryville, General Buell {308} was urged to pursue Bragg's defeated +army and drive it from East Tennessee. The same was urged upon his +successor; but the lateness of the season, or other causes, prevented +further operations after the battle of Stone River. + +"Last spring, when your movements on the Mississippi River had drawn +out of Tennessee a large force of the enemy, I again urged General +Rosecrans to take advantage of that opportunity to carry out his +projected plan of campaign, General Burnside being ready to coöperate +with a diminished but still efficient force. But he could not be +persuaded to act in time, preferring to lie still till your campaign +should be terminated. + +"When General Rosecrans finally determined to advance, he was allowed +to select his own lines and plans for carrying out the objects of the +expedition. He was directed, however, to report his movements daily, +till he crossed the Tennessee, and to connect his left, so far as +possible, with General Burnside's right. General Burnside was directed +to move simultaneously, connecting his right, as far as possible, with +General Rosecrans's left, so that, if the enemy concentrated upon +either army, the other could move to its assistance. When General +Burnside reached Kingston and Knoxville, and found no considerable +number of the enemy in East Tennessee, he was instructed to move down +the river and coöperate with General Rosecrans. These instructions +were repeated some fifteen times, but were not carried out, General +Burnside alleging as an excuse that he believed that Bragg was in +retreat, and that General Rosecrans needed no reinforcements. When the +latter had gained possession of Chattanooga he was directed not to +move on Rome as he proposed, but simply to hold the mountain-passes, +so as to prevent the ingress of the rebels into East Tennessee. That +object accomplished, I considered the campaign as ended, at least for +the present. + +"The moment I received reliable information of the departure of +Longstreet's corps from the Army of the Potomac, I ordered forward to +General Rosecrans every available man in the Department of the Ohio, +and again urged General Burnside to move to his assistance. I also +telegraphed to Generals Hurlbut, Sherman, and yourself, to forward all +available troops in your department. If these forces had been sent to +General Rosecrans by Nashville, they could not have been supplied; I +therefore directed them to move by Corinth and the Tennessee River. +The necessity of this has been proved by the fact that the +reinforcements sent to him from the Army of the Potomac have not been +able, for the want of railroad transportation, to reach General +Rosecrans's army in the field. + +"It is now ascertained that the greater part of the prisoners paroled +by you at Vicksburg, and General Banks at Port Hudson, were illegally +and improperly declared exchanged, and forced into the ranks to swell +the rebel numbers at Chickamauga. This outrageous act, in violation of +the laws of war, of the cartel entered into by the rebel authorities, +and of all sense of honor, gives us a useful lesson in regard to the +character of the enemy with whom we are contending. He neither regards +the rules of civilized warfare, nor even his most solemn engagements. +You may, therefore, expect to meet in arms thousands of unexchanged +prisoners released by you and others on parole not to serve again till +duly exchanged. Although the enemy, by this disgraceful means, has +been able to concentrate in Georgia and Alabama a much larger force +than we anticipated, your armies will be abundantly able to defeat +him. Your difficulty will not be in the want of men, but in the means +of supplying them at this season of the year. A single-track railroad +can supply an army of sixty or seventy thousand men, with the usual +number of cavalry and artillery; but beyond that number, or with a +large mounted force, the difficulty of supply is very great." + +Meanwhile, General Longstreet, with about twenty thousand men, was +detached from Bragg's army and sent against Burnside at Knoxville, +which is about one hundred and thirty miles northeast of Chattanooga. +After Sherman's arrival, Grant had about eighty thousand men. He +placed Sherman on his left, on the north side of the Tennessee, +opposite the head of Missionary Ridge; Thomas in the centre, across +Chattanooga valley; and Hooker on his right, around the base of +Lookout Mountain. He purposed to have Sherman advance against Bragg's +right and capture the heights of Missionary Ridge, while Thomas and +Hooker should press the centre and left just enough to prevent any +reinforcements from being sent against Sherman. If this were +successful Bragg's key-point being taken, his whole army would be +obliged to retreat. Sherman laid two bridges in the night of November +23d, and next day crossed the river and advanced upon the enemy's +works; but he met with unexpected difficulties in the nature of the +ground, and was only partially successful. Hooker, who had more genius +for fighting than for strictly obeying orders, moved around the base +of Lookout Mountain, and attacked the seemingly impregnable heights. + +General Geary's command led the way, encountering intrenchments and +obstructions of all sorts, both in the valley and on the slope of the +mountain. Having crossed the Tennessee River below, it moved eastward +across Lookout Creek, and thence marched directly up the mountain till +its right rested on the palisaded heights. At the same time Grose's +brigade advanced farther up stream, drove the Confederates from a +bridge, put it into repair, and then moved on. At this moment the +Confederates were seen leaving their camps on the mountain and coming +down to the rifle-pits and breastworks at its foot to dispute the +progress of their enemy. Then another brigade was sent still farther +up the stream to make a crossing, and a section of artillery was +placed where it could enfilade the position just taken by the +Confederates, while another section was established to enfilade the +route they had taken in coming down the mountain. All the batteries +within range began to play upon the Confederates, and it was made so +hot for them that they were glad to abandon their intrenchments in the +valley. Then the remainder of Hooker's men were pushed across the +stream, and the ascent of the mountain began in earnest. They climbed +up over ledges and bowlders directly under the muzzles of the guns on +the summit, driving their enemy from one position after another, and +following him as closely as possible, in order to make him a shield +from the fire of the batteries. The advance had begun at eight o'clock +in the morning, and by noon Geary's men had reached the summit of the +mountain. Other brigades came up in rapid succession at various +points, and on the summit the Confederates found themselves surrounded +and subjected to a rapid fire from every direction save one, in which +direction (southward along the ridge) all of them who could get away +retreated, but many were taken prisoners. At this point the movement +of Hooker's men was arrested by darkness. Clouds had been hanging over +the summit of the mountain during the morning, and had gradually +settled down toward the valley, so that the last of the battle was +fought above them, spectators from below seeing the troops go up into +those clouds and disappear. Hooker's line was then established on the +east side of the mountain, with the left near the mouth of Chattanooga +Creek, {309} and the right on the palisades. To prevent the bringing +forward of artillery, the Confederates had undermined the road and +covered it with felled timber. During the night Hooker's men removed +the timber and placed the road in a serviceable condition, while all +the time an irregular fire was kept up along the line, and once a +serious attack was threatened by the Confederates. But before morning +they abandoned the mountain entirely, leaving behind the camp equipage +of three brigades. This action is famous as Hooker's "battle above the +clouds," and that evening, when the moon rose over the crest of the +mountain, a strange spectacle was seen of troops apparently marching +across its yellow disk. + +[Illustration: BATTLE OF LOOKOUT MOUNTAIN.] + +The next day, the 25th, Hooker was to pass down the eastern slope of +Lookout Mountain, cross Chattanooga valley, and strike the left of +Bragg's position, as now held on the crest and western slope of +Missionary Ridge. But the destruction of a bridge by the retreating +enemy delayed him four hours, and Grant saw that Bragg was weakening +his centre to mass troops against Sherman. So, without waiting longer +for Hooker, he ordered an advance of the centre held by Thomas. Under +the immediate leadership of Generals Sheridan and Wood, Thomas's men +crossed the valley, walked right into the line of Confederate works at +the base of Missionary Ridge, followed the retreating enemy to a +second line halfway up the slope, took this, and still keeping at the +very heels of the Confederates, who thus shielded them from the +batteries at the top, reached the summit and swept everything before +them. + +{310} [Illustration: LOOKOUT MOUNTAIN AND TENNESSEE RIVER. (From a +photograph owned by the United States Government.)] + +General Sherman advanced, according to orders, against Missionary +Ridge, but met with a more determined resistance, and had a much +slower fight on the 25th. The enemy massed heavily in his front, and +Thomas sent a division to his assistance, when the whole line was +pushed forward; and at length the enemy retired hastily, abandoning +the works at the foot of the hill, and were closely followed up the +slope to the crest, which was soon captured, with many prisoners and +all the guns. Gen. Thomas J. Wood says in his report: + +"Troops in line and column checkered the broad plain of Chattanooga. +In front, plainly to be seen, was the enemy, so soon to be encountered +in deadly conflict. My division seemed to drink in the inspiration of +the scene, and, when the advance was sounded, moved forward in the +perfect order of a holiday parade. + +"It has been my good fortune to witness, on the Champs-de-Mars and on +Long Champ reviews of all arms of the French service, under the eye of +the most remarkable man of the present generation. I once saw a +review, followed by a mock battle, of the finest troops of El Re +Galantuomo. The pageant was held on the plains near Milan, the queen +city of Lombardy, and the troops in the sham conflict were commanded +by two of the most distinguished officers of the Piedmontese +service--Cialdini, and another whose name I cannot now recall. In none +of these {311} displays did I ever see anything to exceed the +soldierly bearing and the steadiness of my division, exhibited in the +advance on Monday afternoon. There was certainly one striking +difference in the circumstances of these grand displays. The French +and Italian parades were peaceful pageants; ours involved the +exigencies of stern war--certainly an immense difference. I should do +injustice to the brave men who thus moved forward to the conflict in +such perfect order, were I to omit to record that not one straggler +lagged behind to sully the magnificence and perfectness of the grand +battle array.... As soon as our troops began to move forward, the +enemy opened a terrific fire from his batteries on the crest of the +ridge. It would not, perhaps, be an exaggeration to say that the enemy +had fifty pieces of artillery disposed on the crest of Missionary +Ridge. But the rapid firing of all this mass of artillery could not +stay the onward movement of our troops. When the first line of +intrenchments was carried, the goal for which we had started was won. +Our orders carried us no further. We had been instructed to carry the +line of intrenchments at the base of the ridge, and then halt. But the +enthusiasm and impetuosity of the troops were such that those who +first reached the intrenchments at the base of the ridge bounded over +them and pressed on up the ascent after the flying enemy. Moreover, +the intrenchments were no protection against the enemy's artillery on +the ridge. To remain would be destruction; to retire would be both +expensive in life and disgraceful. Officers and men all seemed +impressed with this truth. In addition, the example of those who +commenced to ascend the ridge so soon as the intrenchments were +carried was contagious. Without waiting for an order, the vast mass +pressed forward in the race of glory, each man eager to be the first +on the summit. The enemy's artillery and musketry could not check the +impetuous assault. The troops did not halt to fire; to have done so +would have been ruinous. Little was left to the immediate commanders +of the troops but to cheer on the foremost, to encourage the weaker of +limb, and to sustain the very few who seemed to be faint-hearted." + +[Illustration: COLONEL GREEN B. RAUM.] + +[Illustration: BREVET BRIGADIER-GENERAL JOHN B. TURCHIN.] + +[Illustration: BRIGADIER-GENERAL CHARLES R. WOODS.] + +By this brilliant battle, which occupied portions of three days, +Bragg's army was completely defeated, and its captured guns were +turned upon it as it fled. His men seemed to have lost all respect for +him, for when he rode among the fugitives and vainly tried to rally +them by shouting, "Here's your commander," he was derisively answered, +"Here's your mule," and was obliged to join in the flight. This +practically closed his military career. He had been a special favorite +of Mr. Davis, who is accused by some Confederate writers of +obstinately placing him where it was obvious he should have placed an +abler man. He was relieved soon after this battle from command, and +called to Richmond as the military adviser of Mr. Davis. + +In these battles the National loss was nearly six thousand men. The +Confederate loss was about ten thousand (of whom six thousand were +prisoners) and forty-two guns. Bragg established the remainder of his +army in a fortified camp at Dalton, Ga., and was soon superseded by +Gen. Joseph E. Johnston. Granger and Sherman were sent to the relief +of Burnside at Knoxville, and Longstreet withdrew to Virginia. + +The Chattanooga campaign was perhaps the most picturesque of any in +the war, and was full of romantic incidents. + +[Illustration: A DEAD CONFEDERATE IN THE TRENCHES.] + +[Illustration: WAITING FOR ORDERS.] + +All the armies were followed by correspondents of the great +newspapers, some of whom were men of high literary ability and were +alive to the inspiration of the great drama they witnessed. Americans +may be pardoned for some considerable degree of pride when they +consider that in the emergency of that great war they not only had men +of sufficient skill and valor for every possible and some seemingly +impossible tasks, but also had the resources and the art to +manufacture nearly all the arms and material that were called for, and +writers capable of putting into dignified and often brilliant +literature the rapidly moving story of those terrible days. Among +these correspondents was Benjamin F. Taylor, the journalist and poet, +who followed the Army of the Cumberland as the representative of the +_Chicago Journal_. He witnessed the battles before Chattanooga, and +had a son among the blue-coated boys that scaled the mountain. From +his description, written very soon after the events, we take the +following passages: + +"Let me show you a landscape that shall not fade out from 'the lidless +eye of time' long after we are all dead. A half mile {312} from the +eastern border of Chattanooga is a long swell of land, sparsely +sprinkled with houses, flecked thickly with tents, and checkered with +two or three graveyards. On its summit stand the red earthworks of +Fort Wood, with its great guns frowning from the angles. Mounting the +parapet and facing eastward you have a singular panorama. Away to your +left is a shining elbow of the Tennessee, a lowland of woods, a +long-drawn valley, glimpses of houses. At your right you have wooded +undulations with clear intervals extending down and around to the +valley at the eastern base of Lookout. From the fort the smooth ground +descends rapidly to a little plain, a sort of trough in the sea, then +a fringe of oak woods, then an acclivity, sinking down to a second +fringe of woods, until full in front of you, and three-fourths of a +mile distant, rises Orchard Knob, a conical mound, perhaps a hundred +feet high, once wooded, but now bald. Then ledges of rocks, and narrow +breadths of timber, and rolling sweeps of open ground for two miles +more, until the whole rough and stormy landscape seems to dash against +Missionary Ridge, three miles distant, that lifts like a sea-wall +eight hundred feet high, wooded, rocky, precipitous, wrinkled with +ravines. This is, in truth, the grand feature of the scene, for it +extends north as far as you can see, with fields here and there cut +down through the woods to the ground, and lying on the hillsides like +brown linen to bleach; and you feel, as you look at them, as if they +are in danger of slipping down the Ridge into the road at its base. +And then it curves to the southwest, just leaving you a way out +between it and Lookout Mountain. Altogether the rough, furrowed +landscape looks as if the Titans had ploughed and forgotten to harrow +it. The thinly fringed summit of the Ridge varies in width from twenty +to fifty feet, and houses looking like cigar-boxes are dotted along +it. On the top of that wall are rebels and batteries; below the first +pitch, three hundred feet down, are more rebels and batteries; and +still below are their camps and rifle-pits, sweeping five miles. At +your right, and in the rear, is Fort Negley, the old 'Star' fort of +Confederate _régime_; its next neighbor is Fort King, under the frown +of Lookout; yet to the right is the battery of Moccasin Point. Finish +out the picture on either hand with Federal earthworks and saucy +angles, fancy the embankment of the Charleston and Memphis Railroad +drawn diagonally, like an awkward score, across the plain far at your +feet, and I think you have the tremendous theatre.... At half-past +twelve the order came; at one, two divisions of the Fourth Corps made +ready to move; at ten minutes before two, twenty-five thousand Federal +troops were in line of battle. The line of skirmishers moved lightly +out, and swept true as a sword-blade into the edge of the field. You +should have seen that splendid line, two miles long, as straight and +unwavering as a ray of light. On they went, driving in the pickets +before them. Shots of musketry, like the first great drops of summer +rain upon a roof, pattered along the line. One fell here, another +there, but still, like joyous heralds before a royal progress, the +skirmishers passed on. From wood and rifle-pit, from rocky ledge and +mountain-top, sixty-five thousand rebels watched these couriers +bearing the gift of battle in their hands. The bugle sounded from Fort +Wood, and the divisions of Wood and Sheridan began to move; the +latter, out from the right, threatened a heavy attack; the former, +forth from the left, dashed on into the rough road of the battle. +Black rifle-pits were tipped with fire; sheets of flame flashed out of +the woods; the spatter of musketry deepened into volleys and rolled +like muffled drums; hostile batteries opened from the ledges; the +'Rodmans' joined {313} in from Fort Wood; bursting shell and gusts of +shrapnel filled the air; the echoes roused up and growled back from +the mountains; the rattle was a roar--and yet those gallant fellows +moved steadily on. Down the slope, through the wood, up the hills, +straight for Orchard Knob as the crow flies, moved that glorious wall +of blue. The air grew dense and blue, the gray clouds of smoke surged +up the sides of the valley. It was a terrible journey they were +making, these men of ours; and three-fourths of a mile in sixty +minutes was splendid progress. They neared the Knob; the enemy's fire +converged; the arc of batteries poured in upon them lines of fire, +like the rays they call a 'glory' about the head of the Madonna and +Child;--but they went up the rugged altar of Orchard Knob at the +double-quick with a cheer; they wrapped like a cloak round an Alabama +regiment that defended it, and swept them down on our side of the +mound. Prisoners had begun to come in before; they streamed across the +field like files of geese. Then on for a second altar, Brush Knob, +nearly a half-mile to the northeast, and bristling with a battery; it +was swept of foes and garnished with Federal blue in thirty minutes. +Perhaps it was eleven o'clock on Tuesday morning when the rumble of +artillery came in gusts from the valley to the west of Lookout. +Climbing Signal Hill, I could see volumes of smoke rolling to and fro, +like clouds from a boiling caldron. The mad surges of tumult lashed +the hills till they cried aloud, and roared through the gorges till +you might have fancied all the thunders of a long summer tumbled into +that valley together. And yet the battle was unseen. It was like +hearing voices from the under-world. Meanwhile it began to rain; +skirts of mist trailed over the woods and swept down the ravines. But +our men trusted in Providence, kept their powder dry, and played on. +It was the second day of the drama; it was the second act I was +hearing; it was the touch on the enemy's left. The assault upon +Lookout had begun! Glancing at the mighty crest crowned with a +precipice, and now hung round about, three hundred feet down, with a +curtain of clouds, my heart misgave me. It could never be taken. +Hooker thundered, and the enemy came down like the Assyrian; while +Whittaker on the right, and Colonel Ireland of Geary's command on the +left, having moved out from Wauhatchie, some five miles from the +mountain, at five in the morning, pushed up to Chattanooga Creek, +threw over it a bridge, made for Lookout Point, and there formed the +right under the shelf of the mountain, the left resting on the creek. +And then the play began; the enemy's camps were seized, his pickets +surprised and captured, the strong works on the Point taken, and the +Federal front moved on. Charging upon him, they leaped over his works +as the wicked twin Roman leaped over his brother's mud wall, the +Fortieth Ohio capturing his artillery and taking a Mississippi +regiment, and gained the white house. And there they stood, 'twixt +heaven and--Chattanooga. But above them, grand and sullen, lifted the +precipice; and they were men, and not eagles. The way was strewn with +natural fortifications, and from behind rocks and trees they delivered +their fire, contesting inch by inch the upward way. The sound of the +battle rose and fell; now fiercely renewed, and now dying away. And +Hooker thundered on in the valley, and the echoes of his howitzers +bounded about the mountains like volleys of musketry. That curtain of +cloud was hung around the mountain by the God of battles--even our +God. It was the veil of the temple that could not be rent. A captured +colonel declared that, had the day been clear, their sharp-shooters +would have riddled our advance like pigeons, and left the command +without a leader; but friend and foe were wrapped in a seamless +mantle, and two hundred will cover the entire Federal loss, while our +brave mountaineers strewed Lookout with four hundred dead, and +captured a thousand prisoners. Our entire forces bore themselves +bravely; not a straggler in the command, they all came splendidly up +to the work, and the whole affair was graced with signal instances of +personal valor. Lieutenant Smith, of the Fortieth Ohio, leaped over +the works, discharged his revolver six times like the ticking of a +clock, seized a sturdy foe by the hair, and gave him the heel of the +'Colt' over the head. Colonel Ireland was slightly wounded, and Major +Acton, of the Fortieth Ohio, was shot through the heart while leading +a bayonet charge. And now, returning to my point of observation, I was +waiting in painful suspense to see what should come out of the roaring +caldron in the valley, now and then, I confess, casting an eye up to +the big gun of Lookout, lest it might toss something my way, over its +left shoulder--I, a non-combatant, and bearing no arms but a Faber's +pencil 'Number 2'--when something was born out of the mist (I cannot +better convey the idea) and appeared on the shorn side of the +mountain, below and to the west of the white house. It was the head of +the Federal column! And there it held, as if it were riveted to the +rock, and the line of blue, a half mile long, swung slowly around from +the left, like the index of a mighty dial, and swept up the brown face +of the mountain. The bugles of this city of camps were sounding high +noon, when in two parallel columns the troops moved up the mountain, +in the rear of the enemy's rifle-pits, which they swept at every fire. +Ah, I wish you had been here! It needed no glass to see it; it was +only just beyond your hand. And there, in the centre of the columns, +fluttered the blessed flag. 'My God! what flag is that?' men cried. +And up steadily it moved. I could think of nothing but a gallant +ship-of-the-line grandly lifting upon the great billows and riding out +the storm. It was a scene never to fade out. Pride and pain struggled +in my heart for the mastery, but faith carried the day; I believed in +the flag, and took courage. Volleys of musketry and crashes of cannon, +and then those lulls in a battle even more terrible than the tempest. +At four o'clock an aid {314} came straight down the mountain into the +city--the first Federal by that route in many a day. Their ammunition +ran low--they wanted powder up on the mountain. He had been two hours +descending, and how much longer the return! + +"Night was closing rapidly in, and the scene was growing sublime. The +battery at Moccasin Point was sweeping the road to the mountain. The +brave little fort at its left was playing like a heart in a fever. The +cannon upon the top of Lookout were pounding away at their lowest +depression. The flash of the guns fairly burned through the clouds; +there was an instant of silence, here, there, yonder, and the tardy +thunder leaped out after the swift light. For the first time, perhaps, +since that mountain began to burn beneath the gold and crimson sandals +of the sun, it was in eclipse. The cloud of the summit and the smoke +of the battle had met halfway and mingled. Here was Chattanooga, but +Lookout had vanished! It was Sinai over again, with its thunderings +and lightnings and thick darkness, and the Lord was on our side. Then +the storm ceased, and occasional dropping shots told off the evening +till half-past nine, and then a crashing volley, and a rebel yell, and +a desperate charge. It was their good-night to our boys; good-night to +the mountain. They had been met on their own vantage-ground; they had +been driven one and a half miles. The Federal foot touched the hill, +indeed, but above still towered the precipice. + +"At ten o'clock a growing line of lights glittered obliquely across +the breast of Lookout. It made our eyes dim to see it. It was the +Federal autograph scored along the mountain. They were our campfires. +Our wounded lay there all the dreary night of rain, unrepining and +content. Our unharmed heroes lay there upon their arms. Our dead lay +there, 'and surely they slept well.' At dawn Captain Wilson and +fifteen men of the Eighth Kentucky crept up among the rocky clefts, +handing their guns one to another--'like them that gather +samphire--dreadful trade!'--and stood at length upon the summit. The +entire regiment pushed up after them, formed in line, threw out +skirmishers, and advanced five miles to Summerton. Artillery and +infantry had all fled in the night, nor left a wreck behind. + +"If Sherman did not roll the enemy along the Ridge like a carpet, at +least he rendered splendid service, for he held a huge ganglion of the +foe as firmly on their right as if he had them in the vice of the +'lame Lemnian' who forged the thunderbolts. General Corse's, General +Jones's, and Colonel Loomis's brigades led the way, and were drenched +with blood. Here Colonel O'Meara, of the Ninetieth Illinois, fell. +Here its lieutenant-colonel, Stuart, received a fearful wound. Here +its brave young captains knelt at the crimson shrine, and never rose +from worshipping. Here one hundred and sixty of its three hundred and +seventy heroes were beaten with the bloody rain. The brigades of +Generals Mathias and Smith came gallantly up to the work. Fairly blown +out of the enemy's guns, and scorched with flame, they were swept down +the hill only to stand fast for a new assault. Let no man dare to say +they did not acquit themselves well and nobly. To living and dead in +the commands of Sherman and Howard who struck a blow that day--out of +my heart I utter it--hail and farewell! And as I think it all over, +glancing again along that grand, heroic line of the Federal epic--I +commit the story with a childlike faith to history, sure that when she +gives her clear, calm record of that day's famous work, standing like +Ruth among the reapers in the fields that feed the world, she will +declare the grandest staple of the Northwest is Man." + +[Illustration: MAJOR-GENERAL A. P. STEWART, C. S. A.] + +[Illustration: MAJOR-GENERAL WILLIAM B. BATE, C. S. A.] + +[Illustration: MAJOR-GENERAL JEREMY F. GILMER, C. S. A. Chief Engineer +Army of the Tennessee.] + +[Illustration: A TYPICAL SOUTHERN MANSION. (From a war-time +photograph.)] + + + + +{315} + +CHAPTER XXVIII. + +THE BLACK CHAPTER. + +PERSECUTIONS OF UNION MEN--THE BLACK FLAG--THE GUERILLAS--SECESSION +FROM SECESSION--RIOT IN CONCORD, N. H.--MASSACRE AT FORT PILLOW--CARE +OF PRISONERS--ANDERSONVILLE--OTHER PRISONS--SUSPENSION OF +EXCHANGES--VIOLATION OF PAROLES--PRINCIPLES RELATING TO +CAPTURES--CRUELTIES COMMITTED BY UNION SOLDIERS IN VIRGINIA--GENERAL +IMBODEN'S STATEMENTS REGARDING FEDERAL ATROCITIES--GENERAL EARLY'S +ACCOUNT OF THE BURNING OF CHAMBERSBURG. + + +So far as the military situation was concerned, the victories at +Gettysburg and Vicksburg wrote the doom of the Confederacy, and there +the struggle should have ended. That it did not end there, was due +partly to a hope that the Democratic party at the North might carry +the next presidential election, as well as to the temper of the +Southern people, which had been concentrated into an intense +personalized hatred. This began before the war, was one of the chief +circumstances that made it possible to carry the conspiracy into +execution, and seemed to be carefully nursed by Mr. Davis and his +ministers. + +[Illustration: PRISONERS IN ANDERSONVILLE STOCKADE.] + +Gen. Andrew J. Hamilton, who had been attorney-general of Texas, in a +speech delivered in New York in 1863, declared that two hundred men +were hanged in Texas during the presidential canvass of 1860, because +they were suspected of being more loyal to the Union than to slavery. +Judge Baldwin, of Texas, speaking in Washington in October, 1864, +said: "The wrongs inflicted on the Union men of Texas surpass in +cruelty the horrors of the Inquisition. From two to three thousand men +have been hanged, in many cases without even the form of a trial, +simply and solely because they were Union men and would not give their +support to secession. Indeed, it has been, and is, the express +determination of the secessionists to take the life of every Union +man. Nor are they always particular to ascertain what a man's real +sentiments are. It is sufficient for them that a man is a d----d +Yankee. One day a secessionist said to the governor of Texas, 'There +is Andrew Jackson Hamilton--suppose I kill the d----d Unionist.' Said +the governor, 'Kill him or any other Unionist, and you need fear +nothing while I am governor.' As I was passing through one place in +Texas, I saw three men who had been hanged in the course of the night. +When I inquired the cause, I was told in the coolest manner that it +was to be presumed they were Union men. In Grayson County, a man named +Hillier, who had come from the North, was forced into the Confederate +army. Soon afterward his wife was heard to remark that she wished the +Union army would advance and take possession of Texas, that her +husband might return and provide for his family. This being reported +to the provost marshal, he sent six men dressed in women's clothes, +who dragged her to the nearest tree and hanged her in the sight of her +little children." + +[Illustration: BRIGADIER-GENERAL A. J. HAMILTON. (Military Governor of +Texas.)] + +In the mountainous portions of Virginia, Tennessee, and North +Carolina, where comparatively few slaves were kept, large numbers of +the people were opposed to secession, and for their devotion to the +Union they suffered such persecution as had never been witnessed in +this part of the world. It was perhaps most violent in East Tennessee. +Among the numerous deliberate and brutal murders, committed by men in +Confederate uniform, were those of the Rev. L. Carter and his son in +Bradley County, the Rev. M. Cavander in Van Buren County, the Rev. Mr. +Blair of Hamilton County, and the Rev. Mr. Douglas--all for the simple +reason that they were Unionists. Many of the outrages upon the wives +and children of Union men were such as any writer would shrink from +recording. Those who could get away fled northward, often after their +homes had been burned and their movable property carried off, and +became subjects of charity in the free States. + +Many secessionists, residing in States that did not secede, had gone +unhindered to the Confederate armies, and when such were captured by +the National armies they received no different treatment from other +prisoners of war. But the Confederate Government professed to look +upon all Unionists in the seceded States (and even in some of the +States whose secession was at least a doubtful question) as traitors, +and numerous {316} orders declaring them such and prescribing their +punishment were issued. In one of these, dated November 25, 1861, +Judah P. Benjamin, the Confederate Secretary of War, said to a +Confederate colonel at Knoxville: "I now proceed to give you the +desired instruction in relation to the prisoners of war taken by you +among the traitors of East Tennessee. First, all such as can be +identified in having been engaged in bridge burning are to be tried +summarily by drum-head court-martial, and, if found guilty, executed +on the spot by hanging. It would be well to leave the bodies hanging +in the vicinity of the burned bridges. Second, all such as have not +been so engaged are to be treated as prisoners of war, and sent with +an armed guard to Tuscaloosa.... In no case is one of the men known to +have been up in arms against the Government to be released on any +pledge or oath of allegiance. They are all to be held as prisoners of +war, and held in jail till the end of the war." The Rev. Thomas W. +Humes, in his "Loyal Mountaineers," says that, in consequence of this +order, "Two men, Hensie and Fry, were hung at Greenville by Colonel +Ledbetter's immediate authority, and without delay. Had not the +execution been so hasty, it might have been discovered, in time to +save Fry's life, that not he but another person of the same surname +was the real offender in the case." Many residents of Knoxville and +its vicinity were imprisoned under this order; and the Rev. William G. +Brownlow, who was one of them, says that on the lower floor of the +jail, where he was kept, the prisoners were so numerous that there was +not room for them all to lie down at one time, and that the only +article of furniture in the building was a dirty wooden bucket from +which the prisoners drank water with a tin cup. The following entries, +taken from his diary while he was thus imprisoned, are fair samples of +many: "December 17: Brought in a Union man from Campbell County +to-day, leaving behind six small children, and their mother dead. This +man's offence is holding out for the Union. To-night two brothers +named Walker came in from Hawkins County, charged with having 'talked +Union talk.'" "December 18: Discharged sixty prisoners to-day, who had +been in prison from three to five weeks--taken through mistake, as was +said, there being nothing against them." "December 22: Brought in old +man Wampler, a Dutchman, seventy years of age, from Green County, +charged with being an 'Andrew Johnson man and talking Union talk.'" + +In Virginia, Governor Letcher wrote to a man named Fitzgerald, who had +been arrested on suspicion of Unionism and asked to be released: "In +1856 you voted for the abolitionist Frémont for President. Ever since +the war, you have maintained a sullen silence in regard to its merits. +Your son, who, in common with other young men, was called to the +defence of his country, has escaped to the enemy, probably by your +advice. This is evidence enough to satisfy me that you are a traitor +to your country, and I regret that it is not sufficient to justify me +in demanding you from the military authorities, to be tried and +executed for treason." The Lynchburg _Republican_ said, "Our people +were greatly surprised, on Saturday morning, to see the black flag +waving over the depot of the Virginia and Tennessee Railroad Company. +We are for displaying that flag throughout the whole South. We should +ask no quarter at the hands of the vandal Yankee invaders, and our +motto should be, an entire extermination of every one who has set foot +upon our sacred soil." And the Jackson _Mississippian_ said, in the +summer of 1862, "In addition to pitched battles upon the open field, +let us try partisan ranging, bushwhacking, and henceforward, until the +close of this war, let our sign be the black flag and no quarter." +According to Governor Letcher, as quoted in Pollard's "Secret History +of the Confederacy," Stonewall Jackson was, from the beginning of the +war, in favor of raising the black flag, and thought that no prisoners +should be taken. The same historian is authority for the story that +once, when an inferior officer was regretting that some National +soldiers had been killed in a display of extraordinary courage, when +they might as readily have been captured, Jackson replied curtly, +"Shoot them all; I don't want them to be brave." + +The rules of civilized warfare forbid the use of explosive bullets, on +the ground that when a bullet strikes a soldier it is likely to +disable him sufficiently to put him out of the combat; and, therefore, +to construct it so that it will explode and kill him after it has +entered the flesh, is essentially murder. It has been asserted that in +some instances explosive bullets were fired by the Confederates; and +it has also been strenuously denied. Gen. Manning F. Force, in his +"Personal Recollections of the Vicksburg Campaign," read before the +Ohio Commandery of the Loyal Legion, says: "There was much speculation +and discussion about certain small explosive sounds that were heard. +General Ransom and others maintained they were caused by explosive +bullets. General Logan and others scouted the idea. One day one struck +the ground and exploded at Ransom's feet. Picking up the exploded +shell of a rifle-ball, he settled the question. After the siege, many +such explosive rifle-balls, which had not been used, were picked up on +the former camp-grounds of the enemy." + +The Confederate Congress passed an act, approved April 21, 1862, +authorizing the organization of bands of partisan rangers, to be +entitled to the same pay, rations, and quarters as other soldiers, and +to have the same protection in case of capture. These partisan rangers +were popularly known as guerillas, and most of them were irresponsible +marauding bands, acting the part of thieves and murderers until +captured, and then claiming treatment as prisoners of war, on the +ground that they were regularly commissioned and enlisted soldiers of +the Confederacy. + +Some of the devices that were resorted to for the purpose of +intensifying the hatred of Northern people and Unionists now appear +ludicrous. Thousands of people in the South were made to believe that +Hannibal Hamlin, elected Vice-President on the ticket with Mr. +Lincoln, was a mulatto; that Mr. Lincoln himself was a monster of +cruelty; and that the National army was made up largely of Irish and +German mercenaries. + +As Mr. Lincoln predicted, and as every reflecting citizen must have +known, those who attempted to carry out the doctrine of secession from +the United States were obliged to confront its corollary in a proposal +to secede from secession. In North Carolina a convention was held to +nominate State officers, with the avowed purpose of asserting North +Carolina's sovereignty by withdrawing from the Confederacy--on the +ground that it had failed in its duties as agent for the sovereign +States composing it--and making peace with the United States. The +convention was largely attended, and included many of the most +intelligent and wealthy men in the State; but the Confederate +Government sent an armed force to break up the meeting and imprison +the leaders. In the Confederate Congress there were forty members who +always voted in a body, in secret session, as Mr. Davis wanted them +to. They were commonly known as "the forty thieves." When the war +began to look hopeless, a popular movement in favor of peace resulted +in the choice of other men to fill their places. But, before their +terms expired, a law was passed which made it treason to use language +that could be {317} construed as a declaration that any State had a +right to secede from the Confederacy. The people of southwestern North +Carolina, like those of eastern Tennessee, were mostly small, +industrious farmers, without slaves, living in a secluded valley. They +knew almost nothing of the political turmoil that distracted the +country, and did not wish to take any part in the war. They had voted +against disunion, and asked to be exempted from the Confederate +conscription law. When this was denied, they petitioned to be +expatriated; and when this also was refused, they resorted to such +measures as they could to avoid conscription. Thereupon, the +Confederate Government sent North Carolina troops to subdue them; and +when these were found to fraternize with the people, troops from other +States were sent; and when they also failed to do the required work, a +brigade of Cherokee Indians was turned into the valley, who committed +such atrocities as might have been expected.[1] + +[Footnote 1: See report of a speech by the Hon. C. J. Barlow, of +Georgia, delivered in Cooper Institute, New York, October 15, 1864.] + +There were Unionists also in other parts of North Carolina, and +against them the Confederate Government appeared to have a special +grudge. Some of them entered the National service by regular +enlistment, and when the Confederate force, under General Hoke, +captured Plymouth, in April, 1864, some of these loyal North +Carolinians were among the garrison. Knowing what would be their fate +if captured, they had provided themselves with morphine, and when the +Confederate sergeants went through the ranks and picked them out, they +secretly swallowed the drug. As soon as it was discovered what they +had done, each was placed between two Confederate soldiers, who kept +him walking and awake until its effects had passed away, in order that +the "traitors," as they were called, might die by hanging, and soon +afterward they were hanged. + +[Illustration: EXECUTION OF A PRIVATE SOLDIER FOR DESERTION AND +ATTEMPTED COMMUNICATION WITH THE ENEMY.] + +There were instances of intolerance and outrage at the North, but they +were comparatively few. One of the most notable occurred in Concord, +N. H., in August, 1863, where a newspaper that had been loud in its +disloyalty was punished by a mob, mainly of newly recruited soldiers, +who gutted the office and threw the type into the street. The +sheriff's reading of the Riot Act consisted in climbing a lamp-post, +extending his right arm, and saying persuasively to the rioters, "Now, +boys, I guess you'd better go home." + +[Illustration: BRIGADIER-GENERAL JOHN S. PRESTON, C. S. A. (In charge +of the Bureau of Conscription.)] + +[Illustration: BRIGADIER-GENERAL JOHN H. WINDER, C. S. A. +(Superintendent of Prisons.)] + +[Illustration: SAMUEL COOPER, C. S. A. (Adjutant and +Inspector-General.)] + +[Illustration: MAJOR-GENERAL S. B. MAXEY, C. S. A. (Superintendent of +Indian Affairs.)] + +The most serious charge made by Confederate writers, with sufficient +proof, of violation of the laws of war on the part of National troops +or commanders, is that which they bring against Gen. David Hunter for +his acts in the Shenandoah Valley, when he commanded there in the +summer of 1864. Gen. John D. Imboden has made the most dispassionate +and apparently honest statement of these that has been published. He +says: + +"What I write is history--every fact detailed is true, indisputably +true, and sustained by evidence, both Confederate and Federal, that no +living man can gainsay, and a denial is boldly challenged, with the +assurance that I hold the proofs ready for production whenever, +wherever, and however required. Perhaps no one now living was in a +better position to know, at the time of their occurrence, all the +details of these transactions than myself. + +"Up to his occupation of Staunton, where his army was so much +strengthened by Crook and Averill as to relieve his mind of all +apprehension of disaster, his conduct had been soldierly, striking his +blows only at armed men. But at Staunton he commenced burning private +property, and the passion for house-burning grew upon him, and a new +system of warfare was inaugurated that a few weeks afterward +culminated in the retaliatory burning of Chambersburg. At Staunton, +his incendiary appetite was appeased by the burning of a large woollen +mill that gave employment to many poor women and children, and a large +steam flouring mill and the railway buildings. + +"At the breaking out of the war David S. Creigh, an old man of the +highest social position, the father of eleven sons and daughters, +beloved by all who knew them for their virtues, and intelligence, +resided on his estate, near Lewisburg, in Greenbrier County. His +reputation was of the highest order. No man in the large county of +Greenbrier was better known or more esteemed; few, if any, had more +influence. Besides offices of high public trust in civil life, he was +an elder in the Presbyterian church of Lewisburg, one of the largest +and most respectable in {318} the synod of Virginia. In the early part +of November, 1863, there being a Federal force near Lewisburg, Mr. +Creigh, on entering his house one day, found a drunken and dissolute +soldier there using the most insulting language to his wife and +daughters, and at the same time breaking open trunks and drawers, and +helping himself to their contents. At the moment Mr. Creigh entered, +the ruffian was attempting to force the trunk of a young lady teacher +in the family. Mr. Creigh asked him to desist, stating that it was the +property of a lady under his protection. The villain, rising from the +trunk, immediately drew a pistol, cocked it, pointed it at Mr. Creigh, +and exclaimed: 'Go out of this room. What are you doing here? Bring me +the keys.' Mr. Creigh attempted to defend himself and family, but a +pistol he tried to use for the purpose snapped at the instant the +robber fired at him, the ball grazing his face and burying itself in +the wall. They then grappled, struggled into the passage, and tumbled +downstairs, the robber on top. They rose, and Mr. Creigh attempted to +wrest the pistol from the hands of his adversary, when it was +accidentally discharged, and the latter wounded. They struggled into +the portico, where the ruffian again shot at Mr. Creigh, when a negro +woman who saw it all ran up with an axe in her hand, and begged her +master to use it. He took it from her and despatched the robber. After +consultation and advice with friends, it was decided to bury the body +and say nothing about it. + +"The troops left the neighborhood, and did not return till June, 1864, +when they were going through to join Hunter. A negro belonging to a +neighbor, having heard of the matter, went to their camp and told it. +Search was made, the remains found, and Mr. Creigh was arrested. He +made a candid statement of the whole matter, and begged to be +permitted to introduce witnesses to prove the facts, which was +refused, and he was marched off with the army, to be turned over to +General Hunter, at Staunton.... Mr. Creigh had no trial, no witnesses, +no counsel nor friends present, but was ordered to be hanged like a +dog for an act of duty to his helpless wife and daughters. + +"At Lexington he enlarged upon the burning operations begun at +Staunton. On his way, and in the surrounding country, he burnt mills, +furnaces, storehouses, granaries, and all farming utensils he could +find, besides a great amount of fencing and a large quantity of grain. +In the town he burnt the Virginia Military Institute, and all the +professors' houses except the superintendent's (General Smith's), +where he had his headquarters, and found a portion of the family too +sick to be removed. He had the combustibles collected to burn +Washington College, the recipient of the benefactions of the Father of +his Country by his will; but, yielding to the appeals of the trustees +and citizens, spared the building, but destroyed the philosophical and +chemical apparatus, libraries, and furniture. He burned the mills and +some private stores in the lower part of the town. Captain Towns, an +officer in General Hunter's army, took supper with the family of Gov. +John Letcher. Mrs. Letcher, having heard threats that her house would +be burned, spoke of it to Captain Towns, who said it could not be +possible, and remarked that he would go at once to headquarters and +let her know. He went, returned in a half hour, and told her that he +was directed by General Hunter to assure her that the house would not +be destroyed, and she might, therefore, rest easy. After this, she +dismissed her fears, not believing it possible that a man occupying +Hunter's position would be guilty of wilful and deliberate falsehood +to a lady. It, however, turned out otherwise, for the next morning, at +half-past eight o'clock, his assistant provost-marshal, accompanied by +a portion of his guard, rode up to the door, and Captain Berry +dismounted, rang the door-bell, called for Mrs. Letcher, and informed +her that General Hunter had ordered him to burn the house. She +replied, 'There must be some mistake,' and requested to see the order. +He said it was verbal. She asked if its execution could not be delayed +till she could see Hunter. He replied: 'The order is peremptory, and +you have five minutes to leave the house.' Mrs. {319} Letcher then +asked if she could be allowed to remove her mother's, her sister's, +her own and her children's clothing. This request being refused, she +left the house. In a very short time they poured camphene on the +parlor floor and ignited it with a match. In the meantime Miss Lizzie +Letcher was trying to remove some articles of clothing from the other +end of the house, and Berry, finding these in her arms, set fire to +them. The wardrobe and bureaus were then fired, and soon the house was +enveloped in flames. While Hunter was in Lexington, Capt. Mathew X. +White, residing near the town, was arrested, taken about two miles, +and, without trial, was shot, on the allegation that he was a +bushwhacker. During the first year of the war he commanded the +Rockbridge cavalry, and was a young gentleman of generous impulses and +good character. The total destruction of private property in +Rockbridge County, by Hunter, was estimated and published in the local +papers at the time as over two million dollars. + +"From Lexington he proceeded to Buchanan, in Botetourt County, and +camped on the magnificent estate of Col. John T. Anderson, an elder +brother of Gen. Joseph R. Anderson, of the Tredegar Works at Richmond. +Colonel Anderson's estate, on the banks of the Upper James, and his +mansion, were baronial in character. The house crowned a high, wooded +hill, was very large, and furnished in a style to dispense that lavish +hospitality which was the pride of so many of the old-time Virginians. +It was the seat of luxury and refinement, and in all respects a place +to make the owner contented with his lot in this world. Colonel +Anderson was old--his head as white as snow--and his wife but a few +years his junior. He was in no office, and too old to fight, hence was +living on his fine estate strictly the life of a private gentleman. +There was no military or public object on God's earth to be gained by +ruining such a man. Yet Hunter, after destroying all that could be +destroyed on the plantation when he left it, ordered the grand old +mansion with all its contents to be laid in ashes. + +"It seems that, smarting under the miserable failure of his grand raid +on Lynchburg, he came back to the Potomac more implacable than when he +left it a month before. His first victim was the Hon. Andrew Hunter, +of Charlestown, Jefferson County, his own first cousin, and named +after the general's father. Mr. Hunter is a lawyer of great eminence, +and a man of deservedly large influence in his county and the State. +His home, eight miles from Harper's Ferry, in the suburbs of +Charlestown, was the most costly and elegant in the place, and his +family as refined and cultivated as any in the State. His offence, in +General Hunter's eyes, was that he had gone politically with his +State, and was in full sympathy with the Confederate cause. The +general sent a squadron of cavalry out from Harper's Ferry, took Mr. +Hunter prisoner, and held him a month in the common guard-house of his +soldiers, without alleging any offence against him not common to +nearly all the people of Virginia, and finally discharged him without +trial or explanation, after heaping these indignities on him. Mr. +Hunter was an old man, and suffered severely from confinement and +exposure. While he was thus a prisoner General Hunter ordered his +elegant mansion to be burned to the ground with all its contents, not +even permitting Mrs. Hunter and her daughter to save their clothes and +family pictures from the flames. His next similar exploit was at +Shepherdstown, in the same county, where, on the 19th of July, 1864, +he caused to be burned the residence of the Hon. A. R. Boteler. Mrs. +Boteler was also a cousin of General Hunter. This homestead was an old +colonial house, endeared to the family by a thousand tender memories, +and contained a splendid library, many pictures, and an invaluable +collection of rare and precious manuscripts, illustrating the early +history of that part of Virginia, that Colonel Boteler had collected +by years of toil. The only members of the family who were there at the +time were Colonel Boteler's eldest and widowed daughter, Mrs. +Shepherd, who was an invalid, her three children, the eldest five +years old and the youngest eighteen months, and Miss Helen Boteler. +Colonel Boteler and his son were in the army, and Mrs. Boteler in +Baltimore. The ladies and children were at dinner when informed by the +servants that a body of cavalry had turned in at the gate, from the +turnpike, and were coming up to the house. It proved to be a small +detachment of the First New York cavalry, commanded by a Capt. William +F. Martindale, who, on being met at the door by Mrs. Shepherd, coolly +told her that he had come to burn the house. She asked him by what +authority. He told her by that of General Hunter, and showed her his +written order. On reading it, she said: 'The order, I see, sir, is for +you to burn the houses of Col. Alexander R. Boteler and Mr. Edmund I. +Lee. Now, this is not Colonel Boteler's house, but is the property of +my mother, Mrs. Boteler, and therefore must not be destroyed, as you +have no authority to burn her house.' 'It's Colonel Boteler's _home_, +and that's enough for me,' was Martindale's reply. She then said: 'I +have been obliged to remove all my personal effects here, and have +several thousand dollars' worth of property stored in the house and +outbuildings, which belongs to me and my children. Can I not be +permitted to save it?' But Martindale curtly told her that he intended +to 'burn everything under roof upon the place.' Meanwhile some of the +soldiers were plundering the house of silver spoons, forks, cups, and +whatever they fancied, while others piled the parlor furniture on the +floors, and others poured kerosene on the piles and floors, which they +then set on fire. They had brought the kerosene with them, in canteens +strapped to their saddles. Miss Boteler, being devoted to music, +pleaded hard for her piano, as it belonged to her, having been a gift +from her grandmother, but she was brutally forbidden to save it; +whereupon, although the flames were roaring in the adjoining rooms, +and the roof all on fire, she quietly went into the house, and seating +herself for the last time before the instrument, sang her favorite +hymn, 'Thy will be done.' Then shutting down the lid and locking it, +she calmly went out upon the lawn, where her sick sister and the +frightened little children were sitting under the trees, the only +shelter then left for them." + +Gen. Jubal A. Early, in his "Memoir of the Last Year of the War," +makes briefly the same accusations against General Hunter that have +just been quoted from General Imboden's paper, and adds: + +"A number of towns in the South, as well as private country houses, +had been burned by the Federal troops, and the accounts had been +heralded forth in some of the Northern papers in terms of exultation, +and gloated over by their readers, while they were received with +apathy by others. I now came to the conclusion that we had stood this +mode of warfare long enough, and that it was time to open the eyes of +the people of the North to its enormity, by an example in the way of +retaliation. The town of Chambersburg in Pennsylvania was selected as +the one on which retaliation should be made, and McCausland was +ordered to proceed with his brigade and that of Johnson and a battery +of artillery to that place, and demand of the municipal authorities +the sum of one hundred thousand dollars in gold, or five hundred +thousand dollars in United States currency, as a compensation for the +{320} destruction of the houses named and their contents; and, in +default of payment, to lay the town in ashes. A written demand to that +effect was sent to the municipal authorities, and they were informed +what would be the result of a failure or refusal to comply with it. I +desired to give the people of Chambersburg an opportunity of saving +their town by making compensation for part of the injury done, and +hoped that the payment of such a sum would have the desired effect and +open the eyes of people of other towns at the North to the necessity +of urging upon their Government the adoption of a different policy. +McCausland was also directed to proceed from Chambersburg toward +Cumberland in Maryland, and levy contributions in money upon that and +other towns able to bear them, and, if possible, destroy the machinery +at the coal-pits near Cumberland, and the machine shops, depots, and +bridges on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, as far as practicable. On +the 30th of July McCausland reached Chambersburg and made the demand +as directed, reading to such of the authorities as presented +themselves the paper sent by me. The demand was not complied with, the +people stating that they were not afraid of having their town burned, +and that a Federal force was approaching. McCausland proceeded to +carry out his orders, and the greater part of the town was laid in +ashes. For this act I alone am responsible, as the officers engaged in +it were executing my orders and had no discretion left them." + +The resentment excited by the enlistment of black troops, and the +determination not to treat them in accordance with the rules of +civilized warfare, were most notably exemplified at the capture of +Fort Pillow, April 12, 1864. This work was on the bank of the +Mississippi, about forty miles above Memphis, on a high bluff, with a +ravine on either side. In the lower ravine were some Government +buildings and a little village. The fort, under command of Major L. F. +Booth, had a garrison of about five hundred and fifty men, nearly half +of whom were colored. The Confederate General Forrest, with about five +thousand men, attacked the place at sunrise. The garrison made a +gallant defence, aided by the gunboat _New Era_, which enfiladed the +ravines, and after half a day's fighting, though the commander of the +fort was killed, the besiegers had made no progress. They then +resorted to the device of sending in flags of truce, demanding a +surrender, and took advantage of the truce to move up into positions +near the fort, which they had vainly tried to reach under fire. As +soon as the second flag of truce was withdrawn, they made a rush upon +the fort, passed over the works, and with a cry of "No quarter!" began +an indiscriminate slaughter, though the garrison threw down their +arms, and either surrendered or ran down the river-bank. Women and +children, as well as men, were deliberately murdered, and the savagery +continued for hours after the surrender. The sick and the wounded were +butchered in their tents, and in some cases tents and buildings were +set on fire after the occupants had been fastened so that they could +not escape. In one instance a Confederate officer had taken up a negro +child behind him on his horse. When General Chalmers observed this, he +ordered the officer to put the child down and shoot him, and the order +was obeyed. Major W. F. Bradford, on whom the command of the fort had +devolved, was murdered the next day, when he was being marched away as +a prisoner. Fewer than a hundred of the garrison were killed in the +battle, and about three hundred were butchered after the surrender. +Forrest's loss is unknown. His early reports of the affair were +exultant. In one he wrote: "We busted the fort at ninerclock and +scatered the niggers. The men is still a killanem in the woods.... +Them as was cotch with spoons and brestpins and sich was killed and +the rest of the lot was payrold and told to git." Again he or his +adjutant wrote: "The river was dyed with the blood of the slaughtered +for two hundred yards.... It is hoped that these facts will +demonstrate to the Northern people that negro soldiers cannot cope +with Southerners." Forrest had been a slave-trader before the war, and +did not know that there could be any such thing as cruelty or +treachery in dealing with black men. When he found that the civilized +world was horrified at what he had done, he attempted to palliate it +by saying that the flag at the fort had not been hauled down in token +of surrender when his men burst over the works, and that some of the +garrison retreating down the river-bank fired at their pursuers. But +his argument is vitiated by the fact that, three weeks before, in +demanding the surrender of a force at Paducah he notified the +commander that if he had to carry the place by storm no quarter need +be expected. + +[Illustration: LIBBY PRISON--INTERIOR AND EXTERIOR.] + +There had been from the beginning a difficulty about the care of +prisoners in the hands of the Confederates, which arose chiefly from +the incompetence and brutality of Commissary-General Northrop. Once +when Captain Warner, who had charge of the prisoners in Richmond, was +directed to make a requisition on Northrop for subsistence, he was +answered, "I know nothing of Yankee prisoners--throw them all into the +James River!" "But," said the captain, "at least tell me how I am to +keep my {321} accounts for the prisoners' subsistence." "Sir," said +Northrop, "I have not the will or the time to speak with you. Chuck +the scoundrels into the river!" This man was maintained in the post of +commissary-general throughout the war--though his maladministration of +the office many times produced a scarcity of food in the Confederate +camps--and in the last year the subsistence of prisoners was also +intrusted to him. + +Of the prisoners captured by the Confederate armies, most of the +commissioned officers were confined in the Libby warehouse +(thenceforward known as Libby Prison) in Richmond, and at Columbia, +S. C. The non-commissioned officers and privates were kept in +camps--on Belle Isle, in the James River, at Richmond; at Salisbury, +N. C.; at Florence, S. C.; at Tyler, Tex.; and at Andersonville and +Millen, Ga. Most of these were simply open stockades, with little or +no shelter. That at Andersonville enclosed about twenty acres, +afterward enlarged to thirty. The palisade was of pine logs, fifteen +feet high, set close together. Outside of this, at a distance of a +hundred and twenty feet, was another palisade, and between the two +were the guards. Inside of the inner stockade, and about twenty feet +from it, was a slight railing known as the "dead line," since any +prisoner that passed it, or even approached it too closely, was +immediately shot. A small stream flowed sluggishly through the +enclosure, and furnished the prisoners their only supply of water for +washing, drinking, or cooking. The cook-houses and camp of the guards +were placed on this stream, above the stockade. There was plenty of +timber in sight from the prison, yet no shelter was furnished inside +of the stockade, except such as the prisoners could make with the few +blankets they possessed. Their rations were often issued to them +uncooked, and they burrowed in the ground for roots with which to make +a little fire. The stream was soon polluted, and its banks became a +mass of mire and filth. A common exclamation of newly arrived +prisoners, as they entered the appalling place, was, "Is this hell?" + +[Illustration: MAJOR R. R. TURNER, C. S. A. (Keeper of Libby Prison.)] + +It is said that the Confederate general, John H. Winder, under whose +direction the stockade was built, was asked to leave a few trees +inside of it, and erect some sheds for the shelter of the prisoners, +but he answered, "No! I am going to build the pen so as to destroy +more Yankees than can be destroyed at the front." Winder's well-known +character, the place chosen for the stockade, all its arrangements, +and the manner in which it was kept, leave no reasonable doubt that +such was the purpose. When Mr. Davis and his cabinet were appealed to +by the Confederate inspector of prisons, and others, to replace +General Winder by a more humane officer, they answered by promoting +Winder to the place of commissary-general of all the prisoners. + +One of the prisoners, Robert H. Kellogg, sergeant-major of the +Sixteenth Connecticut Regiment, who was taken to Andersonville when it +had been in use about two months, says in his diary: "As we entered +the place, a spectacle met our eyes that almost froze our blood with +horror, and made our hearts within fail us. Before us were forms that +had once been active and erect, stalwart men, now nothing but mere +walking skeletons, covered with filth and vermin. In the centre was a +swamp occupying three or four acres of the narrowed limits, and a part +of this marshy place had been used by the prisoners as a sink, and +excrement covered the ground, the scent arising from which was +suffocating. The ground allotted to our ninety was near the edge of +this plague spot, and how we were to live through the warm summer +weather in the midst of such fearful surroundings was more than we +cared to think of just then. No shelter was provided for us by the +rebel authorities, and we therefore went to work to provide for +ourselves. Eleven of us combined to form a family. For the small sum +of two dollars in greenbacks we purchased eight small saplings, eight +or nine feet long. These we bent and made fast in the ground, and, +covering them with our blankets, made a tent with an oval roof, about +thirteen feet long. We needed the blankets for our protection from the +cold at night, but concluded it to be quite as essential to our +comfort to shut out the rain. There were ten deaths on our side of the +camp that night. The old prisoners called it 'being exchanged,' and +truly it was a blessed transformation." + +[Illustration: "CASTLE THUNDER," RICHMOND, VA. (In this building Union +prisoners were confined.)] + +At one time there were thirty-three thousand prisoners in the +stockade, which gave a space about four feet square to each man. The +whole number sent there was about forty-nine thousand five hundred, of +whom nearly thirteen thousand died. At Salisbury prison the deaths +were thirteen per cent. a month, and at Florence twelve per cent. Most +of the deaths were from disease and starvation, but there were +numerous murders. It was said that every sentry, on shooting a +prisoner for violation of rules, received a month's furlough; and this +was corroborated by the alacrity with which they seized any pretext +for firing. In Libby, men were often shot for approaching near enough +to a window for the sentry to see their heads. In Andersonville one +was shot for crawling out to secure a small piece of wood that lay +near the dead-line; and there were many incidents of that kind. Some +of the men became deranged or desperate, and {322} deliberately walked +up to the dead-line for the purpose of being put out of their misery. +There were many escapes from these prisons; but the fugitives were +generally soon missed, and were followed by fleet horsemen and often +tracked by bloodhounds, and though they were always befriended by the +negroes, who fed them, concealed them by day, and guided them at +night, but few ultimately reached the National lines. + +A captain in the Eighty-fifth Pennsylvania Regiment, who was a +prisoner in the hands of the Confederates, gives this leaf from his +experience: "During the night of July 27, 1864, while several hundred +of my brother officers were being transported from Macon to Charleston +by rail, Captain Kellogg, of Wisconsin, Ensign Stoner, of New York, +Ensign Smith, now of Washington, Lieut. E. P. Brooks, of Washington, +Paymaster Billings, of the United States Navy, and myself, jumped from +a car and escaped to the swamp, through which we hardly thought an +alligator could have followed us. Late in the afternoon of the second +day, however, we heard the deep baying of the dogs, and soon we were +surrounded with dogs, which we held at bay with stout clubs until the +two fiendish hunters had called them off. Before starting on our weary +march back to that dread imprisonment, one of our captors took +occasion to say: 'It's a good thing for you-uns that our catch-dogs +gave out half a mile back, for I reckon they'd a tored you-uns up +'fore we-uns got thare.' He said the dogs that recaptured us were a +mixture between the fox-hound and the beagle-dog, but that the large, +brutish catch-dogs were a cross between the full South American +bloodhound and the bull-dog. He said he kept two large packs of these +dogs, with quite a number of catch-dogs, or bloodhounds, at Hamburg, +which he hired out for the purpose of hunting escaped Yankee prisoners +and runaway niggers. I saw Captain Holmes, of St. Louis, Mo., a +prisoner of war at Macon, Ga., in July, 1864, who had been fearfully +mangled and torn by a catch-dog in Alabama while he was trying to +escape. I frequently saw two large South American bloodhounds outside +of the stockade at Macon. At Andersonville they had a large pack of +bloodhounds." + +[Illustration: CAMP DOUGLAS, AT CHICAGO. (Confederate prisoners were +confined here.)] + +The crowded condition of the prisons in 1864 was owing to the fact +that exchanges had been discontinued. A cartel for the exchange of +prisoners had been in operation for some time; but when it was found +that the Confederate authorities had determined not to exchange any +black soldiers, or their white officers, captured in battle, the +United States Government refused to exchange at all, being bound to +protect equally all who had entered its service. Paroling prisoners on +the field was also discontinued, because the Confederates could not be +trusted to observe their parole. There had been much complaint that +Confederate officers and soldiers violated their word in this respect, +either because in their intense hatred of the North they could not +realize that they were bound by any promise given to it, or because +their own Government forced them back into its service. Many of them +were captured with arms in their hands, while they were still under +parole from a previous capture. All such, by the laws of war, might +have been summarily executed, but none of them were. The thirty +thousand taken by Grant at Vicksburg, and the six thousand taken by +Banks at Port Hudson, in July, 1863, were released on parole, because +the cartel designated two points for delivery of prisoners--Vicksburg +in the West, and Aiken's Landing, Va., in the East--and Vicksburg, +having been captured, was no longer available for this purpose, and +Aiken's Landing was too far away. Three months later, the Confederate +armies being in want of reinforcements, Colonel Ould, Confederate +commissioner of exchange, raised the technical point that the +prisoners captured by Grant and Banks had not been delivered at a +place mentioned in the cartel, and therefore he declared them all +released from their parole, and they were restored to the ranks. At +Chattanooga, in November, Grant's army captured large numbers from +Bragg's army whom they had captured in July with Pemberton and had +released on {323} a solemn promise that they would not take up arms +again until properly exchanged. + +Other difficulties arose to complicate still further the question of +exchanges. At one time the Confederate authorities refused to make any +but a general exchange--all held by either side to be liberated--which +the National Government declined, since it held an excess of about +forty thousand. It was observed, also, when partial exchanges were +effected, that the men returning from Southern prisons were nearly all +wasted to skeletons and unfit for further service, while the +Confederates returning from Northern prisons were well clothed, well +fed, and generally in good health. Photographs of the emaciated men +from Andersonville and Belle Isle were exhibited throughout the North, +and caused more of horror than the report from any battlefield. +Engravings from them were published, in the summer of 1864, by +newspapers of both parties, for opposite purposes--the Republican, to +prove the barbarity of the Confederate authorities and the atrocious +spirit of the rebellion; the Democratic, to prove that President +Lincoln was a monster of cruelty in that he did not waive all +questions at issue and consent to a general exchange. At a later +period, the Confederate authorities, being badly in need of men to +fill up their depleted armies, offered to give up their point about +black soldiers, and exchange man for man--or rather skeleton for +man--without regard to color. But as the war was nearing its close, +and to do this would have reinforced the Southern armies with some +thousands of strong and well-fed troops, and prolonged the struggle, +the National Government refused. Efforts were made, both by the +Government and by the Sanitary Commission, to send food, clothing, and +medical supplies to those confined in the Confederate prisons; but +only a small portion of these things ever reached the men for whom +they were intended. At Libby Prison, at one time, boxes for the +prisoners arrived at the rate of three hundred a week; but instead of +being distributed they were piled up in warehouses in sight of the +hungry and shivering captives, where they were plundered by the guards +and by the poorer inhabitants of the city. In one case, a lieutenant +among the prisoners saw his own home-made suit of clothes on a prison +official, and pointed out his name embroidered on the watch-pocket.[2] + +[Footnote 2: See "Narrative of Privations and Sufferings of United +States Officers and Soldiers while Prisoners of War in the Hands of +the Rebel Authorities. Being the Report of a Commission of Inquiry +Appointed by the United States Sanitary Commission. With an Appendix +containing the Testimony." (1864.) Valentine Mott, M.D., was chairman +of the commission.] + +The total number of soldiers and citizens captured by the Confederate +armies during the war was 188,145, and it is estimated that about half +of them were actually confined in prisons. The number of deaths in +those prisons was 36,401. The number of Confederates captured by the +National forces was 476,169, of whom 227,570 were actually confined. +The percentage of mortality in the Confederate prisons was over 38; in +the National prisons it was 13.3. + +There has been much acrimonious controversy over this question of the +prisoners, and attempts have been made, by juggling with the figures, +to prove that they were as badly treated in Northern as in Southern +prisons. The most plausible excuse for the starving of captives at the +South is in the assertion that the Confederate army was on short +allowance at the same time. It is a sorrowful subject in any aspect, +and presents complicated questions; but if it is to be discussed at +all, several principles should be kept in view, some of which appear +to have been lost sight of. No belligerent is under any obligation to +enter into a cartel for the exchange of prisoners. In the war of +1812-15, between the United States and Great Britain, there were no +exchanges till the close of the contest. Every belligerent that takes +prisoners is bound by the laws of war to treat them well, since they +are no longer combatants. A belligerent that has not the means of +caring properly for prisoners is in so far without the means of +carrying on civilized warfare, and therefore comes so far short of +possessing the right to make war at all. Every time a soldier is put +out of the combat by being made a prisoner instead of being shot, so +much is gained for the cause of humanity; and if all prisoners could +be cared for properly, the most humane way of conducting a war would +be to make no exchanges, since these reinforce both sides, prolong the +contest, and increase the mortality in the field. + +Whatever may be said of individual experiences in the prisons, North +or South, and whatever may have been the brutality, or the humanity, +of this or that keeper, one great fact overtops everything and settles +the main question of the treatment of prisoners beyond dispute. The +prisons at the South were open stockades, with no building of any kind +inside, no tree, no tent, no shelter furnished for the prisoners from +sun or rain, not even the simplest sanitary arrangements, and an +enormous number of prisoners were crowded into them. At Belle Isle the +prisoners were packed so close that when they lay sleeping no one +could turn over until the whole line agreed to turn simultaneously. On +the other hand, the Northern prisons contained buildings for the +shelter of the prisoners, with bunks as comfortable as in any +barracks, and stoves to heat them in cold weather, while the sanitary +arrangements were carefully looked after, and good rations issued +regularly. It is impossible to look upon these contrasted pictures and +not say that it was the intention of the one Government that its +prisoners should suffer as much as possible, and the intention of the +other Government that its prisoners should be made as comfortable as +prisoners in large numbers ever can be. + +[Illustration] + + + + +{324} + +CHAPTER XXIX. + +THE SANITARY AND CHRISTIAN COMMISSIONS. + +WOMEN IN THE WAR--SANITARY COMMISSION FORMED--THE PUBLIC IDEA ABOUT +IT--WORK OF THE COMMISSION--SANITARY FAIRS--THE CHRISTIAN +COMMISSION--VOLUNTARY NURSES--THE VAST AMOUNT OF WORK DONE BY WOMEN IN +HOSPITALS--MISS DOROTHEA L. DIX, MISS ALCOTT, AND MANY OTHERS. + + +The ancient sarcasm, that women have caused many of the bloodiest of +wars, was largely disarmed by the part they played in the war of +secession. Their contribution to the comfort and efficiency of the +armies in the field, and to the care of the sick and wounded soldiers, +was on the same vast scale as the war itself. Their attempts to assist +the cause began with the first call for volunteers, and were as +awkward and unskilled as the green regiments that they equipped and +encouraged. But as their brothers learned the art of war, they kept +even pace in learning the arts that alleviate its sufferings. When the +President issued the first call for troops, in April, 1861, the women +in many places held meetings to confer as to the best methods by which +they could assist, and to organize their efforts and resources. The +statement of the objects of one of these organizations suggests some +conception of the contingencies of war in a country that for nearly +half a century had known almost unbroken peace: "To supply nurses for +the sick; to bring them home when practicable; to purchase clothing, +provisions, and matters of comfort not supplied by Government +regulations; to send books and newspapers to the camps; and to hold +constant communication with the officers of the regiments, in order +that the people may be kept informed of the condition of their +friends." + +[Illustration: SISTER OF MERCY.] + +[Illustration: MISS LOUISA M. ALCOTT.] + +On one of the last days in April, the Rev. Dr. Henry W. Bellows and +Dr. Elisha Harris met casually in the street in New York, and fell +into conversation concerning the evident need of sanitary measures for +the armies that were then mustering. They agreed to attend a meeting +of women that had been called to discuss that subject, and from that +meeting a call was issued to all the existing organizations of women +for a general meeting to be held in Cooper Union. This invitation, +which furnished the basis on which the Sanitary Commission was +afterward formed, was signed by ninety-two women. The hall was +crowded, and the Women's Central Association of Relief was organized, +under a constitution written by Dr. Bellows, who was chosen its +president. A committee was sent to Washington to offer the services of +the organization to the Government, and learn in what way they could +be most effective. This committee, consisting of Dr. Bellows and three +eminent physicians--Drs. Van Buren, Harsen, and Harris--presented to +the War Department an address whose suggestions were based largely +upon the experience of the British forces in the Crimean war of +1854-55. Being sent by women who were overflowing with patriotic +enthusiasm, to officials who were jealous and distrustful of +everything outside of the regulations, they had a difficult and +delicate task. The Government was already embarrassed somewhat in the +adjustment of authority between regular and volunteer officers, and +dreaded a further complication if a third element of civilian +authority should be introduced. Even Mr. Lincoln is said to have +spoken slightingly of their proposition as a fifth wheel to a coach. +General Scott received the committee kindly, but was not willing to +give the proposed commission any authority. He would, however, consent +to their acting in an advisory capacity, provided the head of the +medical bureau agreed. After an interview with Acting Surgeon-General +Wood, they obtained his consent to the formation of a "commission of +inquiry and advice in respect to the sanitary interests of the United +States forces," and he also wrote a letter commending the project to +the other officers whose consent was necessary. Most of these officers +looked upon the project with distrust and suspicion, and at length the +committee were asked to "tell outright what they really did want, +under this benevolent disguise." After fighting their way through +these obstacles, the committee met with a misfortune in the death of +Surgeon-General Lawson. His successor, Dr. Clement A. Finley, frowned +upon the whole matter, but after a long struggle was induced to +tolerate a commission that should not be clothed with any authority, +and should act only in connection with officers of the volunteer army. + +Finally, on June 13, 1861, the committee received from President +Lincoln and Secretary of War Simon Cameron an order authorizing them +to form an association for "inquiry and advice in respect to the +sanitary interests of the United States." Their first work was to +bring about a re-inspection of the volunteer forces, which resulted in +the discharge of many boys and physically unsound men who had been +accepted and mustered in through carelessness. When the committee +returned to New York, the fact that there was a wide popular demand +for the establishment of such an organization as they had proposed was +made evident through articles in the newspapers, {325} opinions of +physicians, and a multitude of letters from all parts of the country. +Dr. Bellows was made president of the Commission, Frederick Law +Olmsted secretary, and George T. Strong treasurer, and with them were +associated a score of well-known men, including several eminent +physicians. In the organization, the first division of the duties of +the Commission was into two departments--those of Inquiry and Advice. +The Department of Inquiry was subdivided into three--the first, to +have charge of such immediate aid and obvious recommendations as an +ordinary knowledge of the principles of sanitary science would enable +the board to urge upon the authorities; the second, to have charge of +the inspection of recruiting stations, transports, camps, and +hospitals, and to consult with military officers as to the condition +and wants of their men; the third, to investigate questions of +cleanliness, cooking, clothing, surgical dressings, malaria, climate, +etc. The Department of Advice was also subdivided. The general object +was "to get the opinions and conclusions of the Commission approved by +the Medical Bureau, ordered by the War Department, and acted upon by +officers and men." One sub-committee was in direct communication with +the War Department, another with army officers, and a third with the +State governments and the local associations. + +The popular idea of the Sanitary Commission seemed to be that its +chief purpose was to form dépôts for receiving supplies of clothing, +medicines, and delicacies for the camps and hospitals, and forwarding +them safely and speedily. And this part of the work soon grew to +proportions that had never been contemplated. The Commission issued an +address "to the loyal women of America," urging the formation of local +societies for providing these articles, and in response more than +seven thousand such societies were organized. They were managed +entirely by women, and were all tributary to the Sanitary Commission. +Of the fifteen million dollars' worth of articles received and +distributed, more than four-fifths came from these local societies. +The Commission was managed as nearly as possible in accordance with +military ideas of discipline and precision. Every request that the +stores furnished by a State or city might be conveyed to its own +regiments was met with the answer that all was for the nation and must +be turned in to the general store. The Commission rapidly disarmed +prejudice, and won the admiration of everybody in the military +service. It employed skilled men to coöperate with the regimental +surgeons in choosing sites for camps, regulating the drainage, and +inspecting the cooking. It constructed model pavilion hospitals, to +prevent the spread of contagion. It established a system of soldiers' +homes, where the sick and the convalescent could be provided for on +their way back and forth between their homes and the front, and where +whole regiments were sometimes fed when their own commissariat failed +them. It fitted up hospital steamers on the Mississippi and its +tributaries, with surgeons and nurses on board, to ply between the +seat of war and the points from which Northern hospitals could be +reached. Dr. Elisha Harris, of the Commission, invented a hospital +car, in which the stretcher on which a wounded man was brought from +the field could be suspended and thus become a sort of hammock. The +cars were built with extra springs, to diminish the jolting as much as +possible, and trains of them were run regularly, with physicians and +stores on board, until the plan was adopted by the Government Medical +Bureau. Supplies were constantly furnished in abundance, and the +Commission established dépôts at convenient points, where the articles +were assorted and labelled, and the army officials were kept +constantly informed that such and such things, in such and such +quantities, were subject to their requisition. When it was found +difficult to transport fresh vegetables from distant points, the +Commission laid out gardens of its own, where vegetables were raised +for the use of the soldiers in the field. The Commission also had its +own horses and wagons, which followed the armies to the battlefield, +carrying supplies that were often welcome when those of the medical +department were exhausted or had gone astray. After the battle of the +Antietam, when ten thousand wounded lay on the field, the train +containing the medical stores was blocked near Baltimore; but the +wagon-train of the Sanitary Commission had been following the army, +and for four days the only supplies were those that it furnished. On +this occasion it issued over twenty-eight thousand shirts, towels, +pillows, etc., thirty barrels of lint and bandages, over three +thousand pounds of farina, over two thousand pounds of condensed milk, +five thousand pounds of beef stock and canned meats, three thousand +bottles of wine and cordial, several tons of lemons, and crackers, +tea, sugar, rubber cloth, tin cups, and other conveniences. In the +course of the war, the Commission furnished four million five hundred +thousand meals to sick and hungry soldiers. In many instances, notably +at the second battle of Bull Run and at the assault on Fort Wagner, +the agents of the Commission were on the actual battlefield with their +supplies, and were close at the front rescuing the wounded. At Fort +Wagner they followed up the storming party to the moat. + +A large part of the money and supplies was raised by means of fairs +held in nearly every city, and the generosity exhibited in a thousand +different ways was something for the nation to be forever proud of. +Those who could not give cash gave all sorts of things--horses, cows, +carriages, watches, diamonds, books, pictures, curiosities, and every +conceivable article. The managers would be informed that a farmer was +at the door with a cow, which he wished to give, and some person would +be deputed to take the cow and find a stable for her until she could +be sold. Another would appear with a portion of his crops. Men and +women of note were asked to furnish their autographs for sale, and +papers were printed, made up of original contributions by well-known +authors. The sales were largely by auction, and rich men would bid off +articles at high prices, and then give them back to be sold over +again. The amount of cash received by the Commission was over four +million nine hundred thousand dollars. The State of California, which +was farthest from the seat of war, and contributed but few men to the +armies, sent more than one million three hundred thousand dollars. The +value of articles received by the Commission was estimated at fifteen +million dollars. It established convalescent camps, which were +afterward taken by the Government, and a system of hospital +directories, and a pension bureau and claim agency, by which soldiers' +claims were prosecuted free of charge. From beginning to end there was +never a deficit or irregularity of any kind in its finances. + +At the beginning of the war, many of the volunteers were members of +the Young Men's Christian Association, and through these an especial +solicitude was felt in that organization for the spiritual needs of +the soldiers. Almost as soon as the first call for troops was made, +measures were taken to supply every regiment with religious +reading-matter, prayer-meetings were held at the recruiting stations, +and a soldiers' hymn-book was compiled and printed by thousands. When +the army began to move, men volunteered to go with it, at their own +expense, and {326} continue this work. One of these was Vincent +Colyer, the artist, who, after spending ten weeks in the field, wrote +to the chairman of the national committee of the Association, urging +the formation of a Christian Commission to carry on the work +systematically. As a result, such a commission was organized on +November 14, 1861. The approval of the President and the War +Department was obtained more readily than in the case of the Sanitary +Commission, but the appeal to the people did not elicit any immediate +enthusiasm. Even the religious press was in some instances distrustful +and discouraging. For nearly a year the means of the Commission were +limited, and its work was feeble. In May, 1862, after an earnest +address to the public, it was enabled to equip and send out fourteen +delegates, as they were called, ten of whom were clergymen. By the end +of that year, they had sent four hundred to the army, and had more +than a thousand engaged in the home work. They had distributed in the +armies more than a hundred thousand Bibles, as many hymn-books, tens +of thousands of other books, ten million leaflets, and hundreds of +thousands of papers and magazines; they had formed twenty-three +libraries, expended over a hundred and forty thousand dollars in +money, and distributed an equal value in stores. + +[Illustration: OFFICERS OF THE SANITARY COMMISSION. (From a war-time +photograph.)] + +[Illustration: REV. DR. HENRY W. BELLOWS. (President of the Sanitary +Commission.)] + +At the close of the second year the Commission had one hundred and +eleven auxiliary associations, and the work in the field was more +perfectly organized. General Grant, then in command in the West, +issued a special order giving the Commission every opportunity for the +prosecution of its work, and tried, but in vain, to obtain permission +for its delegates to visit the National soldiers in Confederate +prisons. George H. Stuart, of Philadelphia, was chairman of the +executive committee, Joseph Patterson treasurer, and Lemuel Moss +secretary. The work increased rapidly. Chapel tents and chapel roofs +were furnished to the armies, diet kitchens were established in the +hospitals, the service called "individual relief" was extended, and +schools were opened for children of colored soldiers. Thousands of +letters were written for disabled men in the hospitals, and thousands +of packages forwarded to the camps. Jacob Dunton, of Philadelphia, +invented a "coffee wagon" and presented it to the Commission. Coffee +could be made in it in large quantities, as it was driven along. Like +the Sanitary Commission, the Christian Commission had its own teams, +and followed the armies with medical supplies. In the course of its +existence, it sent out in all six thousand delegates, none of whom +received any pay. One hundred and twenty of these were women employed +mainly in the diet kitchens. + +There were also many women in the service of the Government as +volunteer nurses. The first of these was Miss Dorothea L. Dix, who +offered her services eight days after the call for troops in April, +1861, and was accepted by the Surgeon-General, who requested that all +women wishing to act as nurses report to her. Miss Dix served through +the war. Miss Amy Bradley, besides having charge of a large camp for +convalescents near Alexandria, Va., assisted twenty-two hundred men in +collecting arrears of pay due them, amounting to over two hundred +thousand dollars. Arabella Griffith Barlow, wife of the gallant +General Francis C. Barlow, spent three years in hospitals at the +front, and died in the service. Miss Clara Barton entered upon +hospital work at the beginning of the war, had charge of the hospitals +of the Army of the James during its last year, and after the war +undertook the search for the missing men of the National armies. Miss +Louisa M. Alcott, author of "Little Women," served as a nurse, and +published her experiences in a volume entitled "Hospital Sketches." +Many other women, less noted, performed long and arduous service, +which in some cases cost them their lives, for {327} which they live +in the grateful remembrance of those who came under their care. + +Among these was Miss Helen L. Gilson, a teacher in Boston, who gave +this answer to an inquiry as to how she succeeded in getting into the +work: "When I reached White House Landing I saw the transport _Wilson +Small_ in the offing, and knew that it was full of wounded men; so, +calling a boatman, and directing him to row me to the vessel, I went +on board. A poor fellow was undergoing an amputation, and, seeing that +the surgeon wanted help, I took hold of the limb and held it for him. +The surgeon looked up, at first surprised, then said, 'Thank you,' and +I stayed and helped him. Then I went on with him to the next case; he +made no objection, and from that time I never had any difficulty +there." + +[Illustration: HEADQUARTERS OF THE SANITARY COMMISSION, ARMY OF THE +POTOMAC. (From a war-time photograph.)] + +Dr. Bellows, president of the Sanitary Commission, writing of his +experiences on the field of Gettysburg, said: "I went out to the field +hospital of the Third Corps, where two thousand four hundred men lay +in their tents, a vast camp of mutilated humanity. One woman [Miss +Gilson], young and fair, but grave and earnest, clothed in purity and +mercy--the only woman on that whole vast camp--moved in and out of the +hospital tent, speaking some tender word, giving some restoring +cordial, holding the hand of a dying boy, or receiving the last words +of a husband for his widowed wife. I can never forget how, amid scenes +which under ordinary circumstances no woman could have appeared in +without gross indecorum, the holy pity and purity of this angel of +mercy made her presence seem as fit as though she had indeed dropped +out of heaven. The men themselves, sick or well, all seemed awed and +purified by such a resident among them." Miss Gilson continued her +labors unremittingly through the war, and died about two years after +its close, probably from the effects of her arduous work, at the age +of thirty-two. + +[Illustration: MARGARET AUGUSTA PETERSON.] + +Besides the labors of such women in the field hospitals, a vast amount +of similar and quite as useful work was done by a great number of +women in the hospitals at various points in the Northern States, +whither the wounded were sent as soon as they could be removed. A +peculiarly sad and romantic case was that of Margaret Augusta +Peterson, a young lady of brilliant promise, who entered upon service +in a large hospital at Rochester, N. Y., refused to leave it when +there was an outbreak of small-pox, saying she was then needed more +than ever, and lost her life, at the age of twenty-three, from some +dreadful mistake in the vaccination. Her story, which had other +romantic elements, is told literally in this poem: + + Through the sombre arch of that gateway tower + Where my humblest townsman rides at last, + You may spy the bells of a nodding flower, + On a double mound that is thickly grassed. + + And between the spring and the summer time, + Or ever the lilac's bloom is shed, + When they come with banners and wreaths and rhyme, + To deck the tombs of the nation's dead, + + They find there a little flag in the grass, + And fling a handful of roses down, + And pause a moment before they pass + To the captain's grave with the gilded crown. + + But if perchance they seek to recall + What name, what deeds, these honors declare, + They cannot tell, they are silent all + As the noiseless harebell nodding there. {328} + + She was tall, with an almost manly grace; + And young, with strange wisdom for one so young; + And fair, with more than a woman's face; + With dark, deep eyes, and a mirthful tongue. + + The poor and the fatherless knew her smile; + The friend in sorrow had seen her tears; + She had studied the ways of the rough world's guile, + And read the romance of historic years. + + What she might have been in these times of ours, + At once it is easy and hard to guess; + For always a riddle are half-used powers, + And always a power is lovingness. + + But her fortunes fell upon evil days-- + If days are evil when evil dies-- + And she was not one who could stand at gaze + Where the hopes of humanity fall and rise. + + Nor could she dance to the viol's tune, + When the drum was throbbing throughout the land, + Or dream in the light of the summer moon, + When Treason was clinching his mailčd hand. + + Through the long, gray hospital's corridor + She journeyed many a mournful league, + And her light foot fell on the oaken floor + As if it never could know fatigue. + + She stood by the good old surgeon's side, + And the sufferers smiled as they saw her stand; + She wrote, and the mothers marvelled and cried + At their darling soldiers' feminine hand. + + She was last in the ward when the lights burned low, + And Sleep called a truce to his foeman Pain; + At the midnight cry she was first to go, + To bind up the bleeding wound again. + + For sometimes the wreck of a man would rise, + Weird and gaunt in the watch-lamp's gleam, + And tear away bandage and splints and ties, + Fighting the battle all o'er in his dream. + + No wonder the youngest surgeon felt + A charm in the presence of that brave soul, + Through weary weeks, as she nightly knelt + With the letter from home or the doctor's dole. + + He heard her called, and he heard her blessed, + With many a patriot's parting breath; + And ere his soul to itself confessed, + Love leaped to life in those vigils of death. + + "Oh, fly to your home!" came a whisper dread, + "For now the pestilence walks by night." + "The greater the need of me here," she said, + And bared her arm for the lancet's bite. + + Was there death, green death, in the atmosphere? + Was the bright steel poisoned? Who call tell? + Her weeping friends gathered beside her bier, + And the clergyman told them all was well. + + Well--alas that it should be so! + When a nation's debt reaches reckoning-day-- + Well for it to be able, but woe + To the generation that's called to pay! + + Down from the long, gray hospital came + Every boy in blue who could walk the floor; + The sick and the wounded, the blind and lame, + Formed two long files from her father's door. + + There was grief in many a manly breast, + While men's tears fell as the coffin passed; + And thus she went to the world of rest, + Martial and maidenly up to the last. + + And that youngest surgeon, was he to blame?-- + He held the lancet--Heaven only knows. + No matter; his heart broke all the same, + And he laid him down, and never arose. + + So Death received, in his greedy hand, + Two precious coins of the awful price + That purchased freedom for this dear land-- + For master and bondman--yea, bought it twice. + + Such fates too often such women are for! + God grant the Republic a large increase, + To match the heroes in time of war, + And mother the children in time of peace. + +[Illustration] + + + + +{329} + +CHAPTER XXX. + +MINOR EVENTS OF THE THIRD YEAR. + +BANDS OF GUERILLAS IN VIRGINIA AND THE EAST--UNSUCCESSFUL ATTEMPTS TO +CAPTURE MOSBY--IMPORTANT ACTION AT WAPPING HEIGHTS--NUMEROUS +ENGAGEMENTS IN THE SHENANDOAH VALLEY AND ON THE SLOPES OF THE BLUE +RIDGE--MINOR ENGAGEMENTS IN CONNECTION WITH THE PURSUIT OF LEE'S ARMY +AFTER GETTYSBURG--MINOR ENGAGEMENTS IN WEST VIRGINIA--INVASION OF +KENTUCKY BY CONFEDERATES UNDER GENERAL PEGRAM--THE CONFEDERATES' +ATTEMPT TO RECAPTURE FORT DONELSON--NUMEROUS SMALL BATTLES IN +TENNESSEE--LOYALTY OF THE PEOPLE OF EASTERN TENNESSEE AND WESTERN +NORTH CAROLINA--BATTLES AT FAYETTEVILLE, BATESVILLE, AND HELENA, +ARK.--OPERATIONS UNDER THE CONFEDERATE GENERAL MARMADUKE IN +MISSOURI--SACKING AND BURNING OF LAWRENCE, KAN.--CRUELTIES PRACTISED +BY CONFEDERATE GUERILLAS UNDER QUANTRELL AND OTHERS--CAPTURE OF +GALVESTON, TEXAS, BY THE CONFEDERATES--MILITARY OPERATIONS AGAINST THE +INDIANS. + + +Some of the smaller engagements of the year 1863 were so closely +connected with the great movements that they have been described in +the chapters devoted to those campaigns. Others were isolated from any +such connection, and the more notable of them are here grouped in a +chapter by themselves. + +[Illustration: UNION SCOUTS.] + +[Illustration: A GROCERY STORE IN SOUTHERN VIRGINIA.] + +{330} [Illustration: BATTLE OF VERMILION BAYOU, LA.] + +Suffolk, Va., on Nansemont River, southwest of Portsmouth, was held by +a National force that included the Eighty-ninth and One Hundred and +Twelfth New York Regiments, and the Eighth and Sixteenth Connecticut. +An amusing story is told in the "History of the Sixteenth +Connecticut," of its adventures when it first reached Suffolk. It +arrived in a dark night, the men not knowing which way to go, or what +they would find when they stepped out of the train, and most of their +officers having been left behind by accident. Setting out through the +darkness, they first tumbled down a steep embankment, then into a deep +brook, and finally brought up against a rail fence. Tearing this down, +they found themselves in a field, and set about hunting fuel for a +fire. Some of them, groping in the darkness, came upon a house which +they supposed to be uninhabited, and, beginning at the bottom, pulled +off all the clapboards as high as they could reach. When daylight came +they discovered that it was a handsome white house inhabited by the +owner and his family, who presently appeared on the scene and produced +a tableau. In the darkness one of the men had bored a hole into a +barrel of coffee, which he supposed was whiskey, and was found shaking +it violently and wondering why it did not run. Sunlight showed them +that they were on the outskirts of the town, and immediately the One +Hundred and Twelfth New York came to their relief with hot coffee, +etc. Suffolk really had very little military importance, and yet it +was the subject of considerable fighting. Gen. John J. Peck commanded +the National forces, and was subjected to much elaborate ridicule for +the extent to which he fortified the place. In January the +Confederates made an attack, and after some fighting were driven off, +and, with the assistance of the gunboats, six guns and two hundred of +their men were captured. In April a siege was begun by General +Longstreet, who failed in an attempt to carry the place by surprise, +and then constructed earthworks, intending to bombard it; but, as soon +as he opened fire from them, his guns were silenced by the gunboats on +the river and the heavy artillery in the National works. Early in May +he was needed to assist General Lee in the impending conflict of +Chancellorsville, and slowly drew off his men from Suffolk, {331} when +Generals Getty and Harland sallied out from that place with a column +of seven thousand men and attacked his powerful rear guard. A sharp +action ensued, which resulted in no immediate advantage to either +side, but in the night the Confederates left the field. Some +stragglers were captured, but otherwise there was no definite result +except that the siege was raised. + +Guerilla bands, so numerous at the West, were few at the East, the +most noted being one led by John S. Mosby. In March he made a daring +midnight raid with a few of his men on Fairfax Court House, Va., and +captured and carried off Brigadier-General Stoughton, two captains, +and thirty men, with about sixty horses. In May he approached +Warrenton Junction with about three hundred men and attacked a small +cavalry force there. The National soldiers were feeding their horses +and did not have time to mount, but made a gallant resistance on foot, +until they were overcome by numbers. The Fifth New York cavalry then +came up, and, sabre in hand, charging upon the guerillas, killed and +scattered many, and wounded the rest, except a few whom they captured. +Among the killed was a Confederate spy who had just come from +Washington and had in his possession many important documents. Again, +at Kettle Run, Mosby attacked a railway train that was loaded with +forage. When the firing was heard, the Fifth and First Vermont cavalry +set out from Fairfax Court House and soon came up with the enemy. His +one howitzer was captured in a gallant charge, and a considerable +number of his men were killed. It was said that as fast as the band +was depleted by the casualties of battle it was filled up with picked +men sent from the Confederate army. + +Several attempts were made to capture Mosby, but although there was an +occasional fight with his band, and a considerable number of his +followers fell, he himself eluded captivity till the end of the war, +when he issued an order announcing to his men that he was no longer +their commander, and they dispersed. The difficulty of capturing a +small mounted force, which is irresponsible and has no mission but to +roam in a lawless way over a country like that of Virginia, must be +always exceedingly great; but there was one opportunity to capture +Mosby and his band which would have been successful had the affair not +been disgracefully mismanaged. In April, 1863, one hundred and fifty +men of the First Vermont cavalry, under Captain Flint, set out to +capture them, and found them at a farm-house unprepared to fight. +Flint took his men through the gate, fired a volley at Mosby's men, +and then charged with the sabre, which would have been correct enough +if Flint had kept his command together; but he made the mistake of +dividing it and sending a portion around to the rear, in fear that the +guerillas would escape. Mosby quickly took advantage of this, ordered +a charge upon the detachment headed by Captain Flint, and succeeded in +cutting his way through, Flint and some of his men being killed. Of +the affair near Warrenton, in May, Mosby, in his somewhat boastful +"Reminiscences," gives this highly colored account: + +"On May 2, seventy or eighty men assembled at my call. I had +information that Stoneman's cavalry had left Warrenton and gone south, +which indicated that the campaign had opened. My plan now was to +strike Hooker. + +"Before we had gone very far, an infantry soldier was caught, who +informed me that I was marching right into the camp of an infantry +brigade. I found out that there was some cavalry on the railroad at +another point, and so I made for that. These troops had just been sent +up to replace Stoneman's. I committed a great error in allowing myself +to be diverted by their presence from the purpose of my expedition. +They were perfectly harmless where they were, and could not help +Hooker in the great battle then raging. I should at least have +endeavored to avoid a fight by marching around them. + +"Just as we debouched from the woods in sight of Warrenton Junction, I +saw, about three hundred yards in front of us, a body of cavalry in +the open field. It was a bright, warm morning; and the men were +lounging on the grass, while their horses, with nothing but their +halters on, had been turned loose to graze on the young clover. They +were enjoying the music of the great battle, and had no dream that +danger was near. Not a single patrol or picket had been put out. At +first they mistook us for their own men, and had no suspicion as to +who we were until I ordered a charge and the men raised a yell. The +shouting and firing stampeded the horses, and they scattered over a +field of several hundred acres, while their riders took shelter in +some houses near by. We very soon got all out of two houses; but the +main body took refuge in a large frame building just by the railroad. +I did not take time to dismount my men, but ordered a charge on the +house; I did not want to give them time to recover from their panic. I +came up just in front of two windows by the chimney, from which a hot +fire was poured that brought down several men by my side. But I paid +them back with interest when I got to the window, into which I emptied +two Colt's revolvers. The house was as densely packed as a sardine +box, and it was almost impossible to fire into it without hitting +somebody. The doors had been shut from the inside; but the Rev. Sam +Chapman dismounted, and burst through, followed by John Debutts, +Mountjoy, and Harry Sweeting. The soldiers in the lower rooms +immediately surrendered; but those above held out. There was a +haystack near by; and I ordered some of the hay to be brought into the +house, and fire to be set to it. Not being willing to be burned alive +as martyrs to the Union, the men above now held out a white flag from +the window. The house was densely filled with smoke, and the floor +covered with the blood of the wounded. The commanding officer, Major +Steel, had received a mortal wound; and there were many others in the +same condition. All who were able now came out of the house. + +"After a severe fight I had taken three times my own number prisoners, +together with all their horses, arms, and equipments. Most of my men +then dispersed over the field in pursuit of the frightened horses +which had run away. I was sitting on my horse near the house, giving +directions for getting ready to leave with the prisoners and spoil, +when one of my men, named Wild, who had chased a horse some distance +down the railroad, came at full speed, and reported a heavy column of +cavalry coming up. I turned to one of my men and said to him, '_Now we +will whip them._' I had hardly spoken the words when I saw a large +body of Union cavalry, not over two hundred or three hundred yards +off, rapidly advancing. Most of my command had scattered over the +field, and the enemy was so close there was no time to rally and +re-form before they got upon us. In attempting to do so, I remained on +the ground until they were within fifty yards of me, and was nearly +captured. So there was nothing to do but for every man to take care of +himself. The command I had at this time was a mere aggregation of men +casually gathered, belonging to many different regiments, who happened +to be in the country. Of course, such a body has none of the cohesion +and discipline that springs from organization, no matter how brave the +men may be individually. Men never fought better than they did at the +house, while the defenders were inspired to greater resistance, +knowing that relief was near. We had defeated and captured three times +our own {332} number, and now had to give up the fruits of victory, +and in turn to fly to prevent capture. My men fled in every direction, +taking off about fifty horses and a number of prisoners. Only one of +my men, Templeman, was killed, but I lost about twenty captured, +nearly all of whom were wounded." + +[Illustration: COLONEL JOHN S. MOSBY, C. S. A.--A GROUP OF MOSBY'S +RAIDERS.] + +In March General Hooker, learning that a Confederate force, under +Stuart, had set out for Fauquier and the adjoining counties to enforce +the draft, determined to send out a large cavalry force to intercept +them, and at the same time to make a reconnoissance on the south side +of the Rappahannock. The troops chosen for this work were the First +and Fifth regulars, the Thirty-fourth and Sixteenth Pennsylvania, the +First Rhode Island, the Fourth New York, and the Sixth Ohio, with a +battery of six guns, all under the command of Gen. William W. Averill. +At the close of the first day's march the expedition encamped near +Kelly's Ford on the Rapidan, and the next morning, the 17th, on riding +down to the ford, found the passage disputed. The Confederates had +constructed abatis along the southern bank and were in strong force. +Several attempts to cross the stream by separate regiments were +ineffectual, until a squadron of the First Rhode Island, led by +Lieutenant Brown, plunged boldly through the stream, cut their way +through the abatis, charged up the bank, and routed the enemy in their +immediate front. The whole force then crossed and formed in line of +battle. As they moved on, the Confederates charged upon them, but were +met in a counter charge and broken. Rallying, they attempted it again, +and again were broken and put to flight. Meanwhile the Pennsylvania +regiment struck them on the flank, and the artillery opened upon them. +When a point about a mile and a half from the river had been reached, +General Averill re-formed his line, which then moved through the woods +and fired as it went. The Confederates now, for the first time, +brought their artillery into play, of which they had twelve pieces, +and the shot fell fast among Averill's men. Following this, the +Confederates made another charge, but were broken by the Third +Pennsylvania. A participant says: "From the time of crossing the river +until now there had been many personal encounters, single horsemen +dashing at each other with full speed, and cutting and slashing with +their sabres until one or the other was disabled. The wounds received +by both friend and foe in these single combats were frightful, such as +I trust never to see again." A running fight was now kept up, the +Confederates retreating slowly, and occasionally halting to use their +artillery, until a point six miles from the river was reached, when +General Averill, finding that his artillery ammunition was nearly +exhausted, and that there were strong intrenchments not far ahead, +ordered a return. The Confederates, who had been retreating, now +advanced in their turn, and annoyed the retiring column somewhat with +their artillery. General Averill lost nine men killed, thirty-five +wounded, and forty captured. The Confederate loss is not exactly +known, but Averill's men brought away sixty prisoners, including Major +Breckenridge, of the First Virginia cavalry. In {333} this action was +killed John Pelham, commander of Stuart's horse artillery, who was +called the "Boy Major" and had won high reputation as an artillerist. +His fall is the subject of the finest poem produced at the South +during the war, written by James R. Randall. + + "Just as the spring came laughing through the strife + With all its gorgeous cheer, + In the bright April of historic life, + Fell the great cannoneer. + + The wondrous lulling of a hero's breath + His bleeding country weeps; + Hushed in the alabaster arms of Death + Our young Marcellus sleeps. + + Nobler and grander than the child of Rome, + Curbing his chariot steeds, + The knightly scion of a Southern home + Dazzled the land with deeds. + + Gentlest and bravest in the battle-brunt, + The champion of the truth, + He bore his banner to the very front + Of our immortal youth. + + A clang of sabres 'mid Virginian snow, + The fiery pang of shells-- + And there's a wail of immemorial woe + In Alabama dells. + + The pennon drops that led the sacred band + Along the crimson field; + The meteor blade sinks from the nerveless hand + Over the spotless shield. + + We gazed and gazed upon that beauteous face; + While round the lips and eyes, + Couched in their marble slumber, flashed the grace + Of a divine surprise. + + O mother of a blessed soul on high, + Thy tears may soon be shed! + Think of thy boy with princes of the sky, + Among the Southern dead! + + How must he smile on this dull world beneath, + Fevered with swift renown-- + He, with the martyr's amaranthine wreath + Twining the victor's crown!" + +When Lee, after Gettysburg, retreated southward up the Shenandoah +Valley, Meade pursued on the eastern side of the Blue Ridge in a +parallel line, taking possession of the passes as far southward as +Manassas Gap. On the 22d of April, he learned that a Confederate corps +was near the western end of that gap, which was held by Buford's +division of cavalry alone. The Third Corps, then guarding Ashby's Gap, +was thereupon ordered down to Manassas Gap, and made a prompt and +swift march, reaching Buford at midnight. The next day, from a lofty +point on the mountains, the movements of a large part of the +Confederate army could be seen. One immense column was in plain sight, +consisting, first, of several thousand infantry, followed by disabled +soldiers mounted on horses that had been taken in Pennsylvania, the +rear being brought up by a large body of cavalry, while the wagon +trains were moving on a parallel road further west, and all were +pushing southward as rapidly as possible. It was thought that a +movement through the gap might cut the Confederate column in two, and +this was accordingly ordered. Berdan's sharp-shooters, the Twentieth +Indiana, the Sixty-third Pennsylvania, and the Third and Fourth Maine +Regiments, of high reputation as skirmishers, were pushed forward, and +soon brushed away the small Confederate force that occupied its +western end. This fell back upon a supporting force posted on a lofty +hill. Here the sharp-shooters kept the attention of the Confederates +while the Maine regiments silently crept up the face of the hill, +unobserved from its summit, delivered a volley, and then made a rapid +charge which cleared the hill of all Confederates except those that +were disabled or made prisoners. It was then discovered that the main +body of the Confederate force that was intended to dispute the passage +of the gap was on another line of hill, still farther to the west, and +strongly fortified. The Excelsior brigade, commanded by General +Spinola, was now brought forward to dislodge the enemy. Passing +through the line of skirmishers, the men of this brigade soon reached +the slope of the hill, which was ragged and precipitous and swept by a +fire from the crest. Without a minute's hesitation they scrambled up +the ascent, which was more than three hundred feet high, grasping at +the bushes and points of rock until they reached the summit, when they +fired a volley, fixed their bayonets, gave a shout, and rushed upon +the enemy, who immediately fled in confusion. General Spinola was +twice wounded in this assault, and the command devolved upon Colonel +Farnum, who immediately re-formed the line and set out to carry in a +similar manner another crest, which he succeeded in doing, and took a +considerable number of prisoners. At this point of time, General +Meade, having learned that a Confederate corps was moving down the +valley to take part in this action, ordered the troops to discontinue +their advance and hold the points already gained. At the same time he +brought up the bulk of his army in anticipation of the battle the next +day. But when the sun next arose the Confederates had all disappeared. +By this movement General Meade lost two days in the race of the armies +southward, which enabled the Confederates to get back to their old +ground, south of the Rappahannock, before he could reach it. This +action is known as the battle of Wapping Heights. The National loss +was one hundred and ten men, killed or wounded; the Confederate loss +is unknown. + +In August, General Averell's cavalry command made an expedition +through the counties of Hardy, Pendleton, Highland, Bath, Green Briar, +and Pocahontas. They destroyed saltpetre works and burned a camp with +a large amount of equipments and stores. They had numerous skirmishes +with a Confederate cavalry force, commanded by Gen. Samuel Jones, and +at Rocky Gap, near Sulphur Springs, a serious engagement. This battle +lasted two days. On the first day the Confederates opened the fire +with artillery, which was answered by Averell's guns, and a somewhat +destructive duel ensued. The Confederates attempted to capture +Averell's battery by charging across an open field, but were repelled +by its steady fire. On the other hand, similar charges were made seven +times in succession by a portion of Averell's men, and not one of them +was successful. When, finally, Averell's ammunition was nearly +exhausted, and he learned that the enemy was about to be reinforced, +he withdrew from the field in good order. The loss in this engagement +was about two hundred on each side. + +In an irregular and unsatisfactory campaign of manoeuvres between +Meade and Lee, along the slopes of the Blue Ridge, after the battle of +Gettysburg, but before the retirement to winter quarters, there were +some engagements which would have been notable had not the whole +campaign resulted in nothing. One of these was at Bristoe Station, +three miles west {334} of Manassas Junction, October 14th, when Meade +was making retrograde movements, and Lee attacked his rear guard with +A. P. Hill's corps. The Second Corps formed the rear of Meade's line, +and marched to Bristoe on the south side of the track of the Orange +and Alexandria Railroad, with flankers well out on both sides, and +skirmishers deployed. About noon, the advance of this corps, which was +Gen. Alexander S. Webb's division, reached the eastern edge of woods +that look out toward Broad Run. The rear of the Fifth Corps, which +preceded the Second on the march, had just crossed the Run. Suddenly +they were fired upon by artillery which emerged from the woods by an +obscure road, and then a line of Confederate skirmishers appeared on +the hill north of the railroad. Immediately General Webb's division +was thrown forward in a line south of the railroad, with its right +resting on Broad Run, and General Hays's division took position at +Webb's left, while Caldwell's faced the railroad, and a section of +Brown's Rhode Island battery was put in position on the other side of +Broad Run where it could enfilade the enemy's skirmishing line, and +the remainder was placed on a hill west of the Run. Arnold's famous +battery was also put in a commanding position. Very soon Confederates +opened a furious fire of artillery and musketry from the edge of the +wood; but when the National battery began its work their batteries +were very soon silenced, and their skirmishing line melted away. +General Warren ordered a detail of ten men from each regiment in that +part of the Fifth Corps which had participated in the fight, to rush +forward and bring off the Confederate guns, which, for the minute, +seemed to have been deserted. With a cheer the men crossed the +railroad track, climbed the hill, wheeled pieces into position, and +fired them at the retreating Confederates, and then dragged them away. +But they had not gone far when the enemy came out of the wood again +and charged upon them. Whereupon they dropped the battery, resumed +their small arms, drove back the charge, and then brought off the +guns. A participant says, "I have heard some cheering on election +nights, but I never heard such a yell of exultation as rent the air +when the rebel guns, caissons, and equipments were brought across the +railroad track to the line of our infantry." The Confederates now +tried the experiment of attacking the Second Corps, and two regiments +of North Carolina troops charged upon its right over the railroad. +When they reached the track, they were met by two or three deadly +volleys, which sent them rapidly back again. They became broken, and +hid themselves behind rocks and logs, or came in as prisoners, when +the National line was advanced. Still their main body kept up the +fight until dark, when they finally retired into the woods, after +losing six guns, two battle flags, seven hundred and fifty prisoners, +and an unknown number in killed or wounded. Among the Confederate +losses in this section was Brig.-Gen. Carnot Posey, mortally wounded. + +There was considerable desultory fighting around Charlestown Va. On +the 15th of July a National cavalry force overtook and attacked a +Confederate force near that place, and captured about one hundred +prisoners, afterward holding the town. On the 18th of October a +Confederate cavalry force, under Gen. John J. Imboden, attacked the +garrison, finding them in the court-house and other buildings, and +demanded the surrender; to which the commander, Colonel Simpson, +answered, "Take me if you can." Imboden then opened fire on the +court-house with artillery at a distance of less than two hundred +yards, and of course soon drove out the occupants. After exchanging a +volley or two, most of the National troops surrendered, while some had +escaped toward Harper's Ferry. Two hours later a force came up from +that place and drove out Imboden's men, who retired slowly toward +Berryville, fighting all the way. + +[Illustration: BREVET MAJOR-GENERAL R. S. FOSTER, AND STAFF.] + +In its slow pursuit of the Army of Northern Virginia, the Army of the +Potomac, early in November, came up with that army at Rappahannock +Station, where the Orange and Alexandria Railroad crosses the Rapidan +River. General Lee showed an intention to get into winter quarters +here, for the ground was elaborately fortified on both sides of the +river, and his men were known to be building huts. General Meade made +his dispositions for a serious attack at this point. Lee had a strong +force intrenched with artillery on the north side of the river to +prevent any crossing, and works extended thence for a considerable +distance in each direction, while the main body of his army was on the +south side of the river and also intrenched. General Meade placed the +Fifth and Sixth Corps under the command of General Sedgwick, fronting +Rappahannock Station. General French was placed in command of the +First, Second, and Third Corps, and ordered to move to Kelly's Ford, +four miles below Rappahannock Station, cross the river, carry the +heights on the south side, and then move toward the enemy's rear at +Rappahannock to {335} assist General Sedgwick's column in its front +attack. General Buford's cavalry was to cross the Rappahannock above +these positions, and General Kilpatrick's below. Sedgwick's column +arrived within a mile and a half of the river at noon, on the 7th of +November, and threw out skirmishers to examine the enemy's works. At +the same hour, French's column arrived at Kelly's Ford. General French +promptly opened the battle with his artillery, sent a brigade across +the river which captured many prisoners in the rifle trenches, and an +hour later crossed the division and began the laying of pontoon +bridges, so that his entire command crossed before night. General Lee, +believing that the demonstration at Rappahannock Station was a feint +and that at Kelly's Ford the real movement, heavily reinforced his +troops at the Ford. Those on the north side of the river at +Rappahannock Station were also reinforced. Sedgwick's plan of attack +was to have the Fifth Corps get possession of the river bank on the +left, and the Sixth Corps on the right, and plant his batteries on +high ground, from which he could compel evacuation of the works. This +movement was made, and the batteries opened their fire, but the +Confederates did not leave the works. In the edge of evening it was +determined to make an assault in heavy force. The artillery kept up a +rapid fire, until the assaulting column, led by Gen. David A. Russell, +had moved forward and approached near to the works. This movement +appears to have been a surprise to the Confederates, and it was +carried out so systematically and rapidly that the storming party, led +by the Fifth Wisconsin and the Sixth Maine Regiments, carried the +works in a few minutes. The Forty-ninth and One Hundred and Nineteenth +Pennsylvania were close after them, and the Fifth Maine and One +Hundred and Twenty-first New York at the same time carried the +rifle-pits on the right, while the One Hundred and Twenty-fifth New +York and the Twentieth Maine, which had been on picket duty, promptly +joined in the assault. This gallant affair was a complete success, and +General Wright remarked at the time that it was the first instance +during the war in which an important intrenched position had been +carried at the first assault. The National loss in killed and wounded +was three hundred and seventy-one men. The Confederate loss, killed, +wounded, and missing, was nearly seventeen hundred, including thirteen +hundred captured. The captures also included seven battle-flags, +twelve hundred stands of small arms, and four guns. When the +Confederate commander learned of the disaster, he burned his pontoon +bridge, and in the night fled back to Mount Roan, from which position +the next day he withdrew to his old camps south of the Rapidan. A +heavy fog on the 8th prevented the National commander from pursuing in +time to effect anything. + +[Illustration: MAJOR-GENERAL SAMUEL JONES, C. S. A.] + +[Illustration: BREVET MAJOR-GENERAL WILLIAM W. AVERELL.] + +[Illustration: BRIGADIER-GENERAL HENRY PRINCE.] + +When the Army of Northern Virginia retired from the action at +Rappahannock Station to the south side of the Rapidan, it took up an +intrenched position stretching nearly twenty miles along the river, +from Barnett's Ford above the railroad crossing to Morton's Ford +below. The cavalry were thrown out to watch the fords above and below +this position. Lee then constructed a new intrenched line, nearly at +right angles with the main line, to protect his right flank. As soon +as the railroad was repaired, General Meade began another advance, and +after considering Lee's new position, determined to attack him by +crossing at the lower fords and moving against his right flank. He +planned to move three columns simultaneously, concentrating two of +them at Robertson's tavern, and then advance rapidly westward by the +turnpike and the plank road to strike Lee's right and overcome it +before it could be reinforced from the more distant wing. The orders +were issued for the movement to begin on the 24th of November, but a +heavy rainstorm delayed it two days. Everything was carefully +explained to the corps commanders, and all possible pains were taken +to make the different parts of the great machine move harmoniously. +The Third and Sixth Corps were to cross at Jacob's Ford and move to +Robertson's Tavern, through wood roads which were not known except +through inquiry. The ground to be moved over was a part of the +so-called Wilderness, which was made famous when Grant began his +overland campaign the next spring. The Second Corps, crossing at +Germanna Ford, was also to move to Robertson's Tavern. The First and +Fifth Corps were to cross at Culpeper Mine Ford, and move to the plank +road at Parker's Store, advancing thence to New Hope Church, where a +road comes in from Robertson's Tavern. Gregg's cavalry division was to +cross at Ely's Ford, covering the left flank, while the other +division, under Custer, was to guard the fords above, facing the main +line of the enemy. Merritt's cavalry was to protect the trains. Every +experienced soldier knows how difficult it is to bring about +simultaneous and concentric movements of large bodies of troops +separated by any considerable distance, and moving by different +routes. Any one of many contingencies may stop the progress of any +column or send it astray, and very few such plans have ever succeeded. +This one of General Meade's was devised with the utmost care, and +every possible provision against miscarriage seemed to have {336} been +made. Yet at the very outset, on the morning of the 26th, there was a +delay of two hours in crossing the river, because the Third Corps was +not up in time, and then there was a further serious loss of time +because the bridges for Jacob's Ford and Germanna Ford were found to +be a little too short, lacking only one pontoon each. The river banks +here on the south side are more than one hundred feet high, and very +steep, so that it was only with great labor that the wagons and the +guns could be taken up. The artillery of two corps had to be taken to +another ford than that by which the infantry of this corps crossed. It +happened, therefore, that when the day was spent the heads of the +column, instead of being at Robertson's Tavern, were only about three +miles from the river, while the tavern is six or seven miles from the +river by the road. These fords had all been watched by Confederate +cavalry, and the movements of the Army of the Potomac were by this +time well known at the Confederate headquarters. They had been +inferred still earlier when the Confederate signal men saw the troops +and trains moving in the morning. One thing, however, General Lee did +not know--whether it was Meade's intention to attack his army where it +was, or to move eastward toward Richmond and draw it out of its +intrenchments. In the night of the 26th Lee drew his army out of its +lines and put it in motion ready to act in accordance with either of +these movements of Meade, as the event might determine. + +[Illustration: BRIGADIER-GENERAL MICHAEL CORCORAN.] + +[Illustration: COLONEL HIRAM BERDAN.] + +[Illustration: BRIGADIER-GENERAL JOHN S. WILLIAMS, C. S. A.] + +Thus affairs were in a state likely to produce exactly such a conflict +in the Wilderness as actually was produced when Grant crossed the +Rapidan in the spring of 1864, but there was this difference, that it +was Meade's intention to turn westward and attack Lee where he was, +while it was Grant's intention to move eastward, get out of the +Wilderness if possible, plant himself across Lee's communications, and +compel him to leave his intrenchments. In the afternoon of the 27th, +the leading division of the Fifth Corps, commanded by Gen. Alexander +Hays, came into collision with the leading division of Early's +Confederate corps, and drove back his skirmishers on the turnpike, +while Webb's division to the right, with Rodes's Confederate division +in its front, promptly deployed, and drove back his skirmishers toward +Raccoon Ford. The National troops in deploying possessed themselves of +a strong position, and the Confederate commanders were not willing to +attack until reinforced, but their reinforcements were delayed near +Bartlett's Mills by being fired upon by the Third Corps pickets, and +the expectation of an attack at that point. General French, commanding +the Third Corps, appears to have blundered as to the road he was to +take, and at the forks took the right hand instead of the left, which +not only threw his corps nearer the enemy, but prevented him from +appearing where he was expected at Robertson's Tavern at the same hour +when the Second Corps arrived there. He then blundered still further +by halting and sending word that he was waiting for the Fifth Corps, +when in fact the Fifth was waiting for him. By the time that orders +had passed back and forth explaining his error, the enemy had begun to +throw out a large infantry force upon his right flank. The plan of +action was then necessarily so far changed, as that General French was +ordered to attack the enemy in his front at once, which he did, the +divisions engaged being those of Carr, Prince, and Birney. The +heaviest fighting fell upon Carr's division, and there were charges +and countercharges, the lines swaying back and forth several times. +General Meade, unwilling to bring on a general engagement until he +could get his army together, had been holding the First and Fifth +Corps in their positions waiting for French's corps to join them, and +there was a little fighting in front of the Fifth when the enemy came +close to its lines. General Lee was quite as reluctant to attack in +force as was General Meade, and that night he drew back his army +within its intrenchments. A hard storm the next day delayed all +movements, and when, toward evening, Meade advanced to the eastern +bank of Mine Run, he found that the Confederate intrenchments on the +western bank were altogether too strong to justify an assault. Sending +the Fifth Corps, in the night of the 28th, to threaten the Confederate +right flank in the {337} morning, and turn it if possible, Meade +directed his other corps commanders to search for possible weak points +in the enemy's lines. One was found on the extreme Confederate left +and another near the centre, while the First and Fifth Corps +commanders reported that there was no weak spot whatever in their +front. A simultaneous assault on these points was arranged for the +morning of the 30th, to be covered, as usual, by a heavy artillery +fire. The guns opened promptly at the designated hour, and were as +promptly replied to by the Confederate artillery; but before the +assault began, General Warren sent word to General Meade that he found +the enemy had so strengthened the works on their right, as to make an +assault there hopeless. General Meade, therefore, gave orders to +suspend the attacks that were already begun at the other points, and +here the campaign virtually ended. There was no other possible +movement, except to march around the right of the Confederate +position, and for this it would have been necessary first to bring +over the trains which had been left on the north side of the river. +Further, the weather was very severe; some of the pickets had been +frozen to death, and the roads were rapidly becoming impassable. +General Meade, therefore, withdrew his army to the north side of the +Rapidan in the night of December 1st. In this unfortunate and +altogether unsatisfactory affair, Meade lost about a thousand men, +most of them in the Third Corps; the Confederate losses were reported +at about six hundred. + +Early in the morning of January 3d, a strong Confederate cavalry force +made a dash upon Moorefield, W. Va., and after a contest of several +hours with the garrison, was driven off. The Confederates, however, +carried away sixty-five prisoners and some arms and horses. + +In April a Confederate force of five hundred men descended the Kanawha +on flat-boats and attacked Point Pleasant, which was garrisoned by +fifty men under Captain Carter of the Thirteenth Virginia (National) +Regiment. A fight of four hours ensued, the garrison successfully +defending themselves in the court-house, and refusing to surrender +even when the Confederates threatened to burn the town. After the +assailants had lost about seventy men, and inflicted a loss on the +garrison of nearly a dozen, they withdrew, and their retreat was +hastened by some well-directed shots from a Government transport in +the river. + +[Illustration: A FORAGING PARTY.] + +[Illustration: BREVET MAJOR-GENERAL EDWARD HATCH.] + +{338} [Illustration: BRIDGE BUILT BY UNITED STATES TROOPS, WHITESIDE, +TENN. (From a Government photograph taken during the war.)] + +The most considerable engagement that resulted from an expedition +under General Jones was near Fairmount, where the Baltimore and Ohio +Railroad crosses the Monongahela River. The defensive forces here +consisted of only three hundred men, while the Confederates numbered +several thousands. At their approach, a company of militia and armed +citizens went out on the hills to meet them, and made such good +preparations for disputing their passage by the turnpike, that a force +was sent around the slopes to drive them off, which was accomplished +after some fighting. As the Confederates approached the suspension +bridge, a part of the defensive force made a gallant stand, taking +shelter in a foundry and firing with great effect upon the Confederate +skirmishers and sharp-shooters. After a time, this little force fell +back, and the Confederates crossed by the suspension bridge and +advanced toward the railroad bridge. At the latter there was a similar +attack and defence, until the detachments that had crossed at the +suspension bridge came up in the rear of those who defended the +railroad bridge, and the little band was summoned to surrender. This, +however, they did not do until they were completely surrounded and +could fight no longer, when they raised a white flag and the firing +ceased. Hardly had this taken place, when a detachment of National +troops came up the railroad with two guns, and shelled the +Confederates on the west side of the river. The Confederates then set +about destroying the railroad bridge, which at that time was the +finest in the United States. It was of iron, supported on tubular +columns of cast iron, which rested on massive {339} stone piers, and +had cost about half a million dollars. They poured powder by the +kegful into the hollow iron column and exploded it, blowing the whole +structure into the river. They had lost in the fight nearly a hundred +men, while the National loss was but half a dozen. After robbing every +store in the town, and destroying much private property, including the +law and private libraries of Governor Pierpont, which they carried +into the street and burned, the Confederates departed. + +On the 13th of July a cavalry expedition of two regiments, commanded +by Col. John Toland, set out to cut the railroad at Wytheville, Va. +They crossed Lens Mountain, reached Coal River, and moved along that +stream toward Raleigh Court House, where they began to meet with +resistance. They then ascended the Guyan Mountain, and descended on +the other side into an almost unknown valley, where, writes one of the +officers, "The few inhabitants obtained a livelihood largely by +digging ginseng and other roots. They live in huts that the Esquimaux +would scorn to be invited into. Long, dirty, tobacco-dried, +sallow-complexioned women stare at you as you pass. Ask them a +question, they answer you, giving what information they possess, but +it is so little as to render you no assistance. Here stands a small, +dirty tavern, with two or three half-starved old men gazing upon the +Yankees as they march by." The expedition crossed the Tug Mountains, +and descended to Abb's Valley. Here they captured a small Confederate +camp with thirty-six men. The writer just quoted says of Abb's Valley: +"The scenery beggars description for beauty. As far as the eye can +reach, stretch hills and vales in every direction. The country is +rich, owned principally by wealthy citizens who were very influential +in bringing about the rebellion, living in luxury and ease. They +little dreamed that they, living in so remote a place, should be made +to feel the weight of the hand of war." The expedition then marched to +Clinch River, and crossed Rich Mountain. "The people had heard much +and seen little of Yankee soldiers, and the white population looked +upon us with fear, ready to give all when attacked. On the other hand, +the negroes assembled in groups, threw themselves in every conceivable +form, jumping, singing, dancing, yelling, and giving signs that the +year of jubilee had come. The white men fled as we approached, leaving +their homes at our mercy, which were not molested, except those that +had been used in some way to benefit the rebel army; in such cases, +they were always destroyed." The next march was across Garden +Mountain, Rich Valley, and Walker's Mountain, to the vicinity of +Wytheville. Here the Confederate pickets were encountered, and +skirmishing began. When the whole body of the expedition charged upon +the town, they found the Confederates not in line of battle, but in +buildings commanding the principal streets, from which they opened +fire upon the advancing column. This firing from the houses was +participated in by citizens, and also to some extent by women, and was +very effective. The three companies that first rode into the town +discovered two pieces of artillery in position, and made a dash and +captured them. Colonel Toland hurried up with the remainder of his +force, and, finding that the enemy could not otherwise be dislodged +from the buildings, gave orders to burn the town. The officers were +the special mark of the sharp-shooters, and in ten minutes the colonel +fell dead, when the command devolved upon Colonel Powell, who also was +struck and had to be carried off, seriously wounded. Reinforcements +were sent to the Confederates from various points, but before they +arrived the town was laid in ashes, and the expedition fell back, +burning a bridge behind them. They then slowly retraced their line of +march, with occasional skirmishes on the way, but finding their chief +hardships in the lack of food and the exhaustion of the horses. "We +ascended Blue Stone Mountain by file. The road was very steep, and ere +we reached the top twenty-three horses lay stretched across the road, +having fallen from exhaustion. The descent was terrible, cliffs ten to +thirty-one feet, down which the smooth-footed horse would slip with +scarce life enough to arrest his progress, except it be stopped by +contact with a tree or some other obstacle." They at length reached +Raleigh, N. C., where provisions were forwarded to them from +Fayetteville. They had been absent eleven days, and had ridden about +five hundred miles. Their loss was eighty-five men and three hundred +horses. + +[Illustration: MAJOR-GENERAL W. H. FRENCH.] + +[Illustration: BREVET MAJOR-GENERAL EDWARD FERRERO.] + +An invasion of Kentucky by the Confederate General Pegram, with about +two thousand six hundred men, in March, came to a sudden end at +Somerset, in the central part of the State. General Gillmore, with +twelve hundred mounted men, set out from that town to attack him, and +found him in a strong position at Dutton's Hill, twelve miles from +Somerset. Gillmore drew up in line of battle, placed his guns in the +centre, and, in an artillery fight of an hour and a half, dismounted +three of the enemy's pieces. He then ordered his wings to advance, +which they did in the face of a brisk fire. But, disregarding this, +they pressed on up the hill rapidly until the enemy broke and fled. A +body of Confederate cavalry, led by Scott and Ashby, were then +detected in a flank movement. This was promptly met, and, after a +short conflict, sixty of them were made prisoners and the remainder +were put to flight. Three miles from Somerset the Confederates made a +stand, but here again they were routed, and {340} in the night they +crossed the river, where it was said many of them were drowned. The +Confederate loss was nearly a hundred killed or wounded, besides many +prisoners. Gillmore's loss was about forty. They placed a battery on +the river bank in the morning, but Gillmore's artillery soon knocked +it to pieces, and in another dash four hundred cattle that they had +taken were recaptured. His men captured the flags of a Louisiana and a +Tennessee cavalry regiment. A participant wrote: "Wolford himself +pursued the rebel leader, Colonel Scott, so closely that when within +thirty paces of him, with levelled pistol he called upon him to die or +surrender. At the moment, Wolford's horse was shot, and Scott escaped. +When McIntire arrived, cheering his men forward on foot, the rebels +broke in confusion and fled. Wolford halted for ammunition, but +McIntire, with seventy-two men yelling like a thousand, followed +across an open field and into the woods, and here began the most +extraordinary flight and pursuit, I venture to assert, that has been +recorded during the war. The rebel panic increased with every rod +passed over in their terrific flight over hill and valley, brook and +rock, tangled brush and fallen timber. Any one to review the field +to-day would pronounce such a race over such ground impossible. At the +base of a precipitous hill, and embarrassed by the contracting valley, +high fences, and a complication of lanes, the rebels were evidently +about to turn at bay in very desperation, when additional +reinforcements, under Colonel Sanders, appeared dashing along at their +left. This completed their consternation, and they again broke, every +man for himself." + +Early in January Gen. Stephen A. Hurlbut, commanding the district of +Tennessee, issued a proclamation at Memphis, in which he warned the +resident sympathizers with the Confederate cause that they must expect +to suffer if the guerilla operations, which had become very frequent +and annoying in that State, were continued. He alluded especially to +the threat to tear up the railroads, and declared that for every such +raid he would select ten families from the wealthiest and most noted +secessionists in Memphis and send them South. + +A detachment of Confederates, commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel Dawson, +made a raid into Tennessee in January, and busied themselves +especially in burning all the cotton they could find. But on the 8th a +detachment of the Twentieth Illinois cavalry, under Captain Moore, +surprised Dawson's camp, near Ripley, at sunrise, and, without losing +a man, killed eight of the Confederates, wounded twenty, and captured +forty-six, while the remainder escaped. + +On the last day of January a scouting party of National cavalry, +setting out from Nashville, came unexpectedly upon a portion of +Wheeler's cavalry at the little village of Rover, and immediately +attacked them. A hand-to-hand sabre fight ensued, which resulted in +the complete defeat of the Confederates, who had thus been taken +unawares. About twenty-five of them were disabled, and three hundred +made prisoners. + +Fort Donelson, which Grant's army had captured in February, 1862, was +now held by six hundred men under Col. A. C. Harding, and on February +3, 1863, was attacked by a force of five thousand under Generals +Wheeler and Forrest. At the approach of the enemy Harding sent out his +cavalry to reconnoitre, but they were all captured. At the same time +his telegraph lines were cut, and he sent out mounted messengers to +bring up a gunboat that was down the river. He had hardly placed his +little command in position for defence, when the Confederates sent in +a flag of truce and demanded a surrender, which he declined. The enemy +then opened upon him with eight guns, and he replied steadily with +five, called in his skirmishers, and strengthened his line as much as +possible. The fight continued from noon till evening, when surrender +was again demanded and again refused. The Confederates now made +arrangements for an assault, and Harding placed his men in the +rifle-pits with fixed bayonets to await the onset. A distant gun told +him that help was coming, and very soon the black hull of the +_Lexington_ was seen moving up the river. The garrison began to cheer, +and when her shells were sent over their heads and fell among the +enemy, the siege was raised at once and the Confederates quickly fled +away. In a charge made at the moment when they broke, Harding took +some prisoners. He had lost about seventy-five men, killed or wounded, +and the Confederates over four hundred. + +Learning that a Confederate cavalry force was foraging, plundering, +and conscripting, near Bradyville, twelve miles from Murfreesboro', +General Stanley set out (March 1st) with sixteen hundred men in search +of it. He found it strongly posted near the village, and at once +attacked and drove it through the town. The Confederates took up a new +position half a mile distant, where a ledge of rocks gave them good +shelter. Stanley then sent a squadron around their left flank, and +another to their right, while he made a show of attacking in front. +The Confederates stood their ground until they found themselves +subjected to two enfilading fires, when they at once gave way, and +Stanley's men rode in among them and used their sabres and pistols. +They were pursued three miles and completely disorganized. About +thirty of them were disabled, and a hundred taken prisoners. + +Three days later a similar expedition, under Col. John Coburn, set out +from Franklin in search of a similar party of Confederates. They found +them near Thompson's Station, and were attacked by riflemen hidden +behind a stone wall near the depot. A few minutes later two batteries +opened upon them, and the enemy advanced in line of battle. Coburn's +infantry stood their ground bravely, but his artillery was badly +managed, and his cavalry retired instead of advancing. When his +ammunition failed, at the end of three hours, Coburn was obliged to +surrender with such of his forces as had not escaped. He lost four +hundred men, killed or wounded, and about twelve hundred captured. +About six hundred of the Confederates were disabled. + +Still another of these expeditions left Murfreesboro', March 18, in +search of marauding bands of Confederates. It was commanded by Col. +A. S. Hall. At Statesville he encountered and quickly defeated a small +body of Confederate cavalry. At Auburn he discovered that a +Confederate force, superior to his own, was moving up to attack him, +whereupon he drew back to Vaught's Hill, near Milton, and formed his +line. One of his two guns began the fight by throwing shells over the +little village and into the advance guard of the enemy. The +Confederates, consisting of eleven regiments, commanded by Generals +Wheeler and Morgan, promptly attacked along the whole line. Hall's +guns were advantageously placed, and raked the lines of the enemy as +they advanced, while his infantry were very skilfully managed, and +held their ground against determined attacks on both flanks. A +detachment of cavalry which had passed around the right flank, and was +attempting to get into the rear, was met by such a deadly fire that it +immediately withdrew in confusion. The Confederates, enraged at the +execution of one of Hall's guns, concentrated a large force and made a +desperate rush for its capture. Hall's men allowed them to come within +forty yards, and then opened upon them with a fire of musketry so +destructive that they soon {341} broke and fled in confusion. The +assailants now drew off and contented themselves with cannonading at a +distance, which was kept up until one of Hall's skilfully managed guns +sent a shot which dismounted one of theirs, and then they withdrew +altogether. The Confederate loss in this action was about four +hundred, killed or wounded; the National loss was about forty. + +Again, in April, General Stanley set out with a brigade of infantry +and two thousand cavalry to attack Morgan's and Wharton's Confederate +force at Snow Hill. After some preliminary skirmishes and desultory +fighting two regiments of Stanley's cavalry succeeded in getting into +the rear of the enemy, when they broke and fled, losing more than a +hundred men disabled or captured. + +The Confederate General Van Dorn, who had been for some time +threatening to attack the garrison of Franklin, commanded by Gen. +Gordon Granger, appeared before the town on the 10th of April, with a +heavy force, and drove in the outposts. He then formed a strong +skirmish line, and behind this a line of battle ready for an immediate +charge. Granger's advance troops, consisting of the Fortieth Ohio +Regiment, commanded by Capt. Charles G. Matchett, were quickly placed +in a critical position, having both flanks menaced at the same time +that the enemy was advancing in front. Captain Matchett gave the order +to fall back at a double quick, and was, as he expected to be, +followed closely by the enemy's mounted skirmishers. Suddenly he +halted his regiment, faced them about, and gave the pursuers a volley +that drove them back from their main line, when he continued his +retreat. This manoeuvre was repeated several times in admirable style, +the front company each time retiring on the double quick to the rear +of the other companies, when they faced about and delivered their +fire. In this manner they reached the town, took advantage of the +houses and other defences, and checked any further pursuit. The +Confederates now opened fire with their batteries, which was replied +to by the siege guns in the fortifications, and by field batteries, +which drove them off. Meanwhile, a force under General Stanley had +moved out and struck the flank of the Confederates, capturing six guns +and two hundred prisoners. The National loss was about one hundred +men; the Confederate loss is unknown. + +On the 7th of September a Confederate force of four regiments, which +had fortified Cumberland Gap and occupied it nearly a year, +surrendered to a National force under General Shackleford without +firing a gun. + +General Shackleford, undertaking to drive the various bands of +Confederates out of East Tennessee, in September, found one near +Bristol, fought it, pursued it, and fought it again, until it made a +decided stand at Blountville, September 22. Here he opened fire upon +them, and the fight lasted from one o'clock till dusk, when the +Confederates were defeated, and fled, closely pursued by Colonel +Carter's command. They were ultimately dispersed, some of them taking +to the mountains, and the others returning to their homes. + +[Illustration: BRIGADIER-GENERAL POWELL CLAYTON.] + +[Illustration: BRIGADIER-GENERAL THOMAS M. SCOTT, C. S. A.] + +[Illustration: MAJOR-GENERAL JAMES P. FAGAN, C. S. A.] + +The position of General Burnside was peculiar, and probably was more +influenced by a feeling of personal regard than that of any other +commander on the National side. His enthusiastic loyalty, his bravery, +his hearty and manly conduct among his fellow patriots, and his +personal modesty were all perfectly evident. His capacity for a large +independent command was at least doubtful. Early in the war he had led +a successful expedition through many dangers of wind and wave on the +coast of North Carolina. Later he had made two notable failures--as a +corps commander at Antietam, and as commander of the army at +Fredericksburg. But he had never aspired to the chief command, which +really was thrust upon him, and he so frankly assumed the +responsibility and blame for his errors, that the feeling toward him +was much the same as that in the South toward Lee after his disastrous +failure at Gettysburg. Although he was not retained in command of the +Army of the Potomac, he was, in March, 1863, given command of the +Department of the Ohio, and his old corps, the Ninth, was sent to him +with the intention of having him go through eastern Kentucky and +Tennessee, and relieve the Union people there from the {342} +Confederate oppression and outrages that they were suffering. This +plan was delayed by the necessity of sending his corps to reinforce +Grant at Vicksburg, and Burnside was practically idle through the +summer. But late in August, with twenty thousand men, he set out from +Richmond, Ky., and moved southward into East Tennessee, where he met +with a most enthusiastic reception from the inhabitants. The stars and +stripes, which had been hidden away during the presence of Confederate +forces, were now waving from nearly every house, and supplies of all +kinds were freely brought to his forces. His coming, however, was not +the only reason for the withdrawal of the various Confederate bands +that had infested that region; these were being united to Bragg's army +to strengthen it for his contemplated movement on Chattanooga. +Meanwhile, Longstreet, with his corps, had been detached from Lee's +army and sent to Bragg's, and had played an important part, as we have +seen, in the battle of Chickamauga. Various detachments of Burnside's +forces had encountered the enemy, and some of these actions have +already been described in this chapter. + +The next important movement made by the Confederates was designed to +destroy Burnside's force, or drive it out of East Tennessee. That +mountainous region, with its sturdily loyal people, lying between the +disloyal portions of Virginia and North Carolina on the one hand, and +those of Tennessee on the other, was a constant source of discomfort +to the Confederate Government, and would evidently be a standing +menace to the Confederacy should its independence ever be established. +Hence their anxiety to clear it of Union sentiment, by whatever means. +About twenty thousand men, under the command of General Longstreet, +were detached from Bragg's army and sent out upon this errand. +Burnside had scattered his own forces pretty widely, and some of his +detachments were obliged to fight the enemy at various points before +they were all concentrated again. One of these actions was at the +village of Philadelphia, where two thousand men, under Col. F. T. +Wolford, were attacked by three times their number of Confederates, +and, after a gallant resistance, escaped with the loss of their +artillery and wagons, and managed to carry away half a hundred +prisoners. Reinforcements coming up, the train was recaptured and the +enemy driven in turn. About a hundred men were killed or wounded on +each side. Longstreet's general plan and purpose being now evident, +Burnside began the concentration of his forces, and, being joined by +his Ninth Corps again, had about the same number of men as Longstreet. +He chose an advantageous position at Campbell's Station, a dozen miles +southwest of Knoxville, and gave battle. He had no difficulty in +holding his own against the enemy, although their line was more +extended than his, for his artillery was in place while theirs had not +yet come up. But when, late in the day, they brought their guns to the +front, he was obliged to fall back to another strong position, which +he held until his trains were safely under way, and in the night fell +back still farther to the defences of Knoxville. In the action at +Campbell's Station he had lost about three hundred men; the +Confederate loss is unknown. Longstreet followed him slowly, and on +the 17th of November sat down before the city. The place was strongly +fortified, and although the Confederates by a quick assault carried a +position on the right of Burnside's line, they did not materially +impair his defences. In this affair Burnside lost about a hundred men, +including Brig.-Gen. William P. Sanders killed. Longstreet's men +skirmished and bombarded for ten days, at the end of which time, +having been reinforced, he determined upon the experiment of a heavy +assault. On the 28th of November he hurled three of his best brigades +against an unfinished portion of the works on Burnside's left, where +Gen. Edward Ferrero was in command. The assault was gallantly +delivered, but was quite as gallantly met, and proved a failure, +Longstreet losing about eight hundred men, including two colonels +killed, while the defenders of the works lost but one hundred. A few +days later Grant, having thoroughly defeated Bragg at Chattanooga, +sent a force under Sherman to the relief of Knoxville, and Longstreet +was obliged to abandon the siege, and returned to Virginia. + +[Illustration: BREVET BRIGADIER-GENERAL CHRISTOPHER CARSON. (Kit +Carson.)] + +When, in June, it was learned that a Confederate force was about to +make a raid upon the railroad in Northern Mississippi and destroy the +bridges, Lieutenant-Colonel Phillips, of the Ninth Illinois Cavalry, +was sent out to meet them with his own regiment and parts of the Fifth +Ohio and Eighteenth Missouri. At Rocky Crossing, on the Tallahatchie, +he encountered a Confederate force of two thousand men, infantry, +cavalry, and artillery, under General Ruggles, and, although he had +but six hundred men and no guns, he at once gave battle, and his men +fought so spiritedly and skilfully that they drove off the enemy, +inflicting a loss of one hundred and thirty-five in killed and +wounded, and captured thirty prisoners, themselves losing about +thirty-five men. + +On the 16th of July, Jackson, capital of Mississippi, which had been +besieged by Sherman's forces since the fall of Vicksburg, was +evacuated by Johnston, who quietly moved away to the eastward, and the +National troops took possession of the town. During the investment +there had been no serious fighting, except on the 12th, when General +Lauman's division, on Sherman's extreme right, attempted to make an +advance and was repelled with heavy loss. + +On the same day when Jackson was evacuated, Col. Cyrus Bussey, +Sherman's chief of cavalry, was sent out with a thousand horsemen and +a brigade of infantry to attack Jackson's cavalry, which was known to +be near Canton. The enemy was discovered within two miles of that +place, on the west side of Bear Creek, in a position to receive +battle. Colonel Bussey immediately deployed his forces and attacked. +The Confederates made several attempts to get by his flank and capture +his train, {343} but all were thwarted, and, after a somewhat stubborn +fight, the whole body of Confederates was driven back through the +woods and crossed the creek, destroying the bridge behind them. The +next day Bussey moved into the town, and destroyed the forges and +machinery that had long been employed in furnishing the Confederates +with war materials. He also burned the railroad buildings, with all +their contents, thirteen large machine shops, fifty cars, and other +property. The retiring force of Confederates had already burned the +depot and six hundred bales of cotton. Before the expedition returned +it destroyed about forty miles of the railroad that was used by the +Confederates for bringing supplies from the west. + +On the 13th of October a National cavalry force, commanded by Colonel +Hatch, consisting of twenty-five hundred men with eight guns, appeared +before the town of Wyatt's, on the Tallahatchie, which was fortified +and held by a strong Confederate force. The Confederates began in the +afternoon with an attack on the National left, which was not +successful. They then massed their forces and made a desperate attempt +to break the centre, but were again foiled. Colonel Hatch slowly +advanced his line, keeping up a wary fight until evening, when the +Confederates retired under cover of darkness and crossed the river. +Colonel Hatch lost about forty men and captured seventy-five +prisoners, the Confederate loss in killed and wounded being unknown. + + * * * * * + +Arkansas was still the scene of occasional fighting, though always on +a small scale. It furnished supplies to the Confederacy, and was in +some respects a tempting field for foraging. Early in February a +detachment of cavalry, commanded by Col. George E. Waring, Jr., made a +raid in Arkansas and rode suddenly into the town of Batesville, +attacked the Confederate force there, defeated it, and drove it out of +the town. The Confederates fled in such haste that those who could not +crowd into the boats swam the river. Colonel Waring then remounted his +men with horses from the surrounding country. + +On the 15th of the same month there was a fight at Arkadelphia between +a small party of National troops and one of Confederates, in which +about twenty men were disabled on each side. + +[Illustration: BRIGADIER-GENERAL WILLIAM DWIGHT COMMANDING AT THE +BATTLE OF VERMILION BAYOU, LA. (From an original drawing by James E. +Taylor.)] + +On the 18th of April a Confederate force of cavalry, with a section of +artillery and a considerable number of guerillas, made a night march +from the Boston Mountains and attacked the {344} National force at +Fayetteville, Ark., commanded by Col. M. L. Harrison of the First +Arkansas cavalry. They charged up a deep ravine and made a desperate +attempt to capture Colonel Harrison's headquarters; but he had had +some intimation of their coming, and had promptly thrown his men into +line for defence, so that every charge was gallantly repelled. The +Confederates then tried an artillery fire without doing much damage, +and finally a desperate cavalry charge upon Harrison's right wing, +which was met by a most destructive fire that caused them to recoil +and then to retreat in disorder to the woods. Harrison then sent out +two companies, which went within rifle-range of the enemy's artillery +and compelled them to withdraw their battery. Their wings were soon +broken, but their centre still made a stubborn fight, until about noon +that too gave way, and the whole force retreated. Harrison's loss was +thirty-five men. That of the enemy was unknown, except that about +sixty were captured and a considerable number were left dead or +wounded on the field. + +Helena, Ark., on the Mississippi, one hundred and fifty miles above +Vicksburg, was held by a National force, under Gen. B. M. Prentiss, +when on the 4th of July it was attacked by about nine thousand +Confederates, under command of Generals Price and Holmes. Learning of +their coming, General Prentiss drew his entire force within the +fortifications. By a sudden rush, a detachment of the Confederates +captured a battery, drove some of the infantry out of the rifle-pits, +and were advancing into the town. But a portion of Prentiss's force +was boldly pushed forward to check them, and those in possession of +the battery were soon subjected to so severe a fire that they were +glad to surrender. The Confederates had now planted guns upon +commanding positions, with which they opened fire upon the works, but +at the same time the gunboat _Tyler_ had moved up to the scene and +soon began sending its broadsides along the slopes and through the +ravines that they occupied. Their batteries were ultimately silenced +by this fire, and their infantry lost heavily. A heavy fog settling +down caused a cessation of the engagement for some time, and when it +lifted the fighting was resumed, the Confederates making desperate +assaults upon the works and subjecting themselves to the terrible fire +of the heavy guns. After several hours of this reckless work, they +were drawn off, leaving their dead and wounded on the field and many +prisoners. Prentiss's loss was two hundred and thirty; that of the +Confederates, nearly two thousand, including the numerous prisoners. +An incident is told that illustrates the character of the fighting. +One assaulting column was led by a lieutenant-colonel who preceded his +men, and was standing on a log waving his sword and yelling wildly, +when the captain of the battery called out to him, "What do you keep +swinging that sword for? why don't you surrender?" "By what authority +do you demand my surrender?" said the Confederate officer. "By +authority of my twelve-pound howitzer," replied the captain. The +Confederate looked about him, saw that his command had melted away, +and then held out his sword saying, "Very well, sir, I surrender." + +On the 1st day of September there was a fight at a place called +Devil's Backbone, sixteen miles from Fort Smith, between a portion of +General Blunt's forces, under Colonel Cloud, and a Confederate force +under Colonel Cabell, in which the latter was defeated and routed with +a loss of about sixty men, the National loss being fourteen. This was +an incident of the advance of General Blunt to Fort Smith, which place +he occupied on the 10th. It had been in the possession of the +Confederates since the beginning of the war. + +The garrison at Pine Bluff, Ark., commanded by Col. Powell Clayton, +was attacked on the 25th of October by a Confederate force under +General Marmaduke. The Confederate skirmishers came forward with a +flag of truce, met Lieutenant Clark of the Fifth Kansas cavalry +outside of the town, and demanded a surrender. Clark replied, "Colonel +Clayton never surrenders, but is always anxious for you to come and +take him; and you must get to your command immediately, or I will +order my men to fire on you." Clayton sent out skirmishers to delay +the advance of the enemy, and then set three hundred negroes at work +rolling out cotton bales and barricading the streets, while he placed +nine guns in position to command every approach to the square. His +sharp-shooters were posted in the houses, and he then set the negroes +at work bringing water from the river and filling all the barrels they +could find, so that, if necessary, he might sustain a siege. The enemy +opened upon him with twelve guns, and in the course of two hours +succeeded in setting fire to several buildings, some of which were +destroyed before the flames were extinguished by the work of the +negroes. Meanwhile, Clayton's sharp-shooters had fired at every +Confederate that came within range, and succeeded in killing or +wounding about one hundred and thirty of them. Finding that he could +not set fire to the town, and could not assault the barricades without +heavy loss, Marmaduke retired from the field. Whereupon Clayton sent +out a pursuing force and captured some prisoners. Thirty-nine of +Clayton's men and seventeen of the negroes were killed or wounded. + +Missouri, a slave State almost surrounded by free territory, was still +a ground of contention for small armed bands, although it had long +since become evident that it could not be taken out of the Union. + +The garrison at Springfield, commanded by Gen. E. B. Brown, was +attacked by about five thousand men, under Marmaduke on the 8th of +January. Outposts at Lawrence Mills and Ozark were driven in by the +advancing enemy, while General Brown called in small reinforcements +from various stations and made hasty preparation to defend the place. +The convalescents in the hospitals were brought out and armed, and +three guns were made ready in the night. The Confederates advanced +slowly across the prairie, coming up in line of battle with three +pieces of artillery and cavalry on the wings. General Brown ordered +the burning of several houses south of the fort, to prevent their use +by the enemy, and opened with his guns as soon as the Confederates +came within range. Within an hour there was brisk fighting all along +the line, with several charges and counter-charges, in one of which +the Confederates captured a gun after a desperate fight. At the same +time a detachment of them took possession of an unfinished stockade. +The Confederates massed against the centre and the right wing +successively, and gained possession of several houses, from one of +which a sharp-shooter shot General Brown, wounding him so that he was +carried from the field, when the command devolved upon Colonel Crabb. +The fighting was kept up steadily with varying fortune, but with no +decisive result, till dark, when the Confederates withdrew. The +National loss in this action was one hundred and sixty-two men; the +Confederate loss is unknown. + +Three days later Marmaduke came into collision at Hartsville with a +force of eight hundred men, commanded by Colonel Merrill, which was on +the march for Springfield. Early in the morning Merrill learned of the +approach of the Confederates, and threw his little command into line +of battle. The Confederates came up and fought them for an hour, and +then unaccountably {345} fell back. Finding that they were moving on +Hartsville by another road, Merrill moved to intercept them, and took +another position close to the town. Here he was attacked about noon, +first with artillery, and then in a cavalry charge. His infantry lay +flat upon the ground until the Confederate horsemen were within easy +range, when they rose and fired with such accuracy as to throw them +all into confusion. For three hours the Confederates continued to +attack in small bodies at a time, every one of which was repelled. In +the afternoon, they slowly gave up the attempt and fell back, and at +night they disappeared. Merrill lost about seventy-five men; the +Confederates nearly three hundred. The credit of the victory was given +largely to the artillery, which was served with great skill. + +One of the most horrible occurrences of the war was the sacking and +burning of Lawrence, Kan., on the 21st of August, by the notorious +band of Confederate guerillas led by Quantrell. They rode suddenly +into the town, shooting right and left, indiscriminately, at whatever +citizens they happened to meet, and then, spreading through the place, +began systematic plunder. Where they could not get the keys of safes, +they blew them open with powder. They took possession of the hotels +and robbed the guests of everything valuable, even their finger-rings. +Unarmed people, who gave up their money and surrendered, were in +numerous instances wantonly shot. The guerillas appeared to have a +special animosity against Germans and negroes, and murdered all of +these that they could find. The only soldiers there were twenty-two +men at a recruiting station, and eighteen of these were shot. After +thoroughly sacking the town, the guerillas set many buildings on fire, +and a large portion of it was destroyed. It was estimated that their +plunder included about three hundred thousand dollars in cash. + +The first action of the year in Louisiana was by a combined naval and +land force, under Gen. Godfrey Weitzel and Commander McKean Buchanan, +against the obstructions in Bayou Teche. It was found that the +Confederates had a steam vessel of war, called the _J. A. Cotton_, +there, that they had erected many batteries, and that they were now +collecting forces above Donaldsonville. General Weitzel set out, with +five regiments and three batteries, on the 11th of January, with the +gunboats _Calhoun_, _Diana_, _Kinsman_, and _Estrella_, the cavalry +and artillery going by land. They proceeded up the Atchafalaya, and on +the 14th found the enemy. The gunboats steamed up to a point near the +batteries and opened fire upon them, and received a fire in return, +but without any special effect. Here a torpedo exploded under the +_Kinsman_ and lifted her violently out of water, yet without doing +serious damage. Commander Buchanan then steamed ahead in his flagship, +the _Diana_, when he was subjected to a fire from rifle-pits, and he +was the first to fall, shot through the head. At this point the bayou +was very narrow, so that the longest of the gunboats could hardly turn +around in the channel. Meanwhile, the land forces had been put ashore +on the side of the river where the batteries were located, and while +one regiment gained the rear of the rifle-pits and drove out the +Confederates, taking about forty prisoners, the three batteries passed +around a piece of forest and took an advantageous position, from which +they opened fire upon the steamer _Cotton_. This craft made a vain +effort to fight these batteries, and was raked from stem to stern. She +finally retired up the bayou and gave it up, and the next morning she +floated down stream in flames. The expedition before returning +captured a large number of cattle, but the obstructions to navigation +of the bayou were not removed. + +[Illustration: LIEUTENANT W. T. CLARK. (Afterward Brigadier-General.)] + +[Illustration: BRIGADIER-GENERAL JAMES CRAIG.] + +{346} [Illustration: THE BATTLE OF INDIAN BEND, LA.] + +When Banks marched out to invest Port Hudson, a portion of his forces, +under Gen. Godfrey Weitzel, made a long detour to the west from New +Orleans and thence northward. At Franklin, on the Atchafalaya, a +strong force of the enemy was found, and Weitzel at once attacked it, +April 12th. There was spirited fighting with both infantry and +artillery through the day, but with no decisive result, and at night +the Confederates retreated toward Irish Bend. Here they met Grover's +division, which had been sent there to cut off their retreat, and on +the 14th there was another battle. The Twenty-fifth Connecticut +Regiment, thrown out as a skirmish line, advanced to the edge of the +woods, when they were met with a sharp musketry fire, and also came +within range of the Confederate battery and the Confederate gunboat +_Diana_. It was the first time that this regiment had been under fire, +but the men stood to the work like veterans, and very soon a brigade, +under Gen. Henry W. Birge, came to their support. Two guns were +brought up, which answered the artillery fire of the enemy; but still +the advance troops were suffering from a cross-fire, which was +increased by the appearance of two Confederate {347} regiments on the +right flank. One regiment was moved to the left, and advanced rapidly +upon the battery, firing as it went, when the guns were soon whirled +away to save them from capture. This regiment did capture the +battery's flag, and was just resting in supposed victory, when another +Confederate force came upon its flank, and it was hastily withdrawn. A +second brigade was now sent to the assistance of the first, and the +whole made a grand charge, before which the Confederates fled in +disorder; and when a third brigade came up and threatened the capture +of the gunboat _Diana_, her crew abandoned her and blew her up. Sixty +prisoners were taken, and some artillery horses and many small arms. +Out of three hundred and fifty men of the Twenty-fifth Connecticut +Regiment, which took the leading part in this action, eighty-six were +killed or wounded, and ten were missing. The Thirteenth Connecticut +lost seven killed and forty-six wounded. Many instances of peculiar +valor in this small but destructive battle are recorded. Of Lieut. +Daniel P. Dewey, who was killed at the point where the hostile lines +came nearest together, the adjutant wrote: "I saw him then, and the +sight I shall never forget--waving his sword above his head, calling +to his men, 'Remember you are Company A,' his whole bearing so brave +and heroic that it seemed almost impossible for any enemy to avoid +marking him. Standing unmoved in a rain of bullets, he had a word of +encouragement for every man near him, kindly greeting for a friend, +and even a merry quotation from a favorite song to fling after a shell +that went shrieking by. So I last saw him, so I shall always remember +him." Lieutenant Dewey had left his studies in Trinity College, +Hartford, to enlist. + +At Vermilion Bayou there were several slight actions, the most +considerable of which took place October 10th. The Confederates being +discovered here to the number of six or seven thousand, together with +two batteries and a cavalry force, the Nineteenth Corps advanced to +take them. After cavalry skirmishing a line of battle was formed, and +the Confederates were driven across the bayou. Three batteries of +rifled guns were then brought up, and they were diligently shelled +wherever there was any appearance of them on the shore or in the +woods. The cavalry found a ford, and the infantry improvised a pontoon +bridge, which was partly supported by the burned portions of the +bridge that the enemy had used. The whole force then crossed the +bayou, but was not able to overtake the flying Confederates. A report +says: "The conduct of all concerned in this affair was excellent, and +the most conspicuous of all was the gallant General Weitzel on his +war-horse, riding boldly to the front, whither he had forbidden any +other going on horseback. His appearance inspired the troops with the +wildest enthusiasm, and the firing, which was warm and rapid before, +seemed to redouble as he rode along the line." + +[Illustration: COLONEL H. G. GIBSON.] + +[Illustration: BREVET BRIGADIER-GENERAL S. J. CRAWFORD.] + +[Illustration: AN ENCOUNTER BETWEEN A UNION AND A CONFEDERATE +SOLDIER.] + +In April, another expedition, commanded by Col. O. P. Gooding, +consisting of one brigade, marched against the Confederate works on +the Bayou Teche. As soon as they arrived in sight of {348} the +batteries, on the 13th, they were met by an artillery fire, which they +returned at the same time that a large part of the infantry crossed +the bayou and gained a position partly in the rear. Here they were met +by a heavy skirmish line, which they gradually drove back into the +works. A portion of the intrenchments were then carried by assault, +when darkness put an end to the fight. In the morning it was found +that the enemy had fled. One hundred and thirty of them had been made +prisoners. Colonel Gooding's loss was seventy-two men, killed or +wounded. One of the many instances of personal daring and skill that +occurred in this great war is specially mentioned in the colonel's +report. In the course of the fight Private Patrick Smith, of the +Thirty-eighth Massachusetts Regiment, came suddenly upon three +Confederate soldiers in the woods. He shot one, and compelled the +other two to surrender, and brought them in as prisoners. + +Galveston, Tex., had been occupied by National forces, and its harbor +closed to blockade-running, in October, 1862. On the first day of +January, 1863, a strong Confederate force, under Gen. John B. +Magruder, attacked the fleet and the garrison, and succeeded in +retaking the town and raising the blockade. The naval force there +consisted of six gunboats, under Commander W. B. Renshaw. Three +Confederate steamers were discovered in the bay by the bright +moonlight of the preceding night, and very early in the morning they +came down to attack the gunboats, while at the same time the land +force attacked the garrison. The gunboat _Harriet Lane_ was set upon +by two Confederate steamers, which were barricaded with cotton bales, +and carried rifled guns, besides a large number of sharp-shooters on +the decks. The _Harriet Lane_ made a gallant fight, and was rammed by +one of the steamers, which so injured itself in the collision that it +ran for the shore and sank. The other steamer then ran into the +_Harriet Lane_, made fast to her, sent volleys of musketry across her +deck, and boarded her. She was quickly captured; but her commander, +J. M. Wainwright, refused to surrender, and defended himself with his +revolver until he was killed. The first lieutenant and five of the +crew also fell. The _Owasco_, going to the assistance of the _Harriet +Lane_, got aground several times, and finally, seeing that the guns of +the _Harriet Lane_ were turned upon her, drew off, but continued the +engagement with the enemy on shore. The other gunboats had a similar +ill-fortune, and when some of them finally arrived within range of the +_Harriet Lane_ they were prevented from firing upon her by the fact +that the Confederates exposed her captured crew on deck. Flags of +truce, demanding surrender, were now sent in by the Confederates, who +used the opportunity while operations were thus suspended to capture +the garrison on shore, and get artillery into position to fire upon +the gunboats. Commander Renshaw declined to surrender, and ordered his +executive officer to blow up the _Westfield_, in case she could not be +got afloat. Arrangements for this were made, and the explosion took +place prematurely, killing Commander Renshaw, two other officers, and +a dozen of the crew. The remaining gunboats escaped and abandoned the +blockade. General Magruder then issued a proclamation declaring the +port opened to commerce. + +The minor events of the third year included a few naval affairs of +some importance in their way. On the 14th of January guerillas +captured the steamer _Forest Queen_ at Commerce, Miss., and destroyed +her. The privateer _Nashville_ had been for some time blockaded by Du +Pont's vessels, where she lay under the guns of Fort McAllister, Ga. +She made several unsuccessful attempts to get to sea, and finally, on +the 27th of February, Commander John L. Worden, perceiving that she +had grounded, moved up rapidly with the iron-clad _Montauk_, and at +twelve hundred yards fired into her with eleven-inch and fifteen-inch +shells. Several of these exploded inside of the _Nashville_ and set +her on fire. She burned until the flames reached her magazine, when +she was blown into fragments. Worden had been assisted by three wooden +vessels of the blockading fleet, which kept down the fire of the +battery. On the Nansemond River, Va., in April, one of the National +gunboats, the _Mount Washington_, being disabled, the Confederate +gunboats came down to attack her, using both artillery and +sharp-shooters. Lieut. William B. Cushing, commanding the _Barney_, +went to her assistance, and after a sharp fight drove off the +Confederate boats and brought away the _Mount Washington_ in tow. +Three of his men were killed and seven wounded. He says in his report: +"It is only requisite to look at the _Mount Washington_ to see with +what desperate gallantry Lieutenant Lampson fought his vessel." + +The troubles with Indians, which reached their height in the Minnesota +massacres of 1862, continued to some extent through 1863. In July a +body of troops, commanded by Lieut.-Col. William R. Marshall, had a +severe fight with them at a place called Big Mound, in Dakota. The +Indians were posted among the rocky ridges and ravines of the summit +range, and Marshall was obliged to make several detours to flank them +as he drove them successively from one ridge to another. At the same +time a detachment under Major Bradley had fought them on another +ridge, and finally, in a desultory fight that lasted from four o'clock +in the morning till nine o'clock at night, the Indians were completely +routed and scattered. Colonel Marshall lost eight men, including a +surgeon who was murdered before the fight, and killed or wounded about +one hundred of the Indians. In September there were several other +engagements of the usual character with the Indians, in Dakota, the +most considerable of them taking place at Whitestone Hill. Here Gen. +Alfred Sully's command attacked a party of Indians who had been +murdering and plundering, and not only defeated them and put them to +flight, but captured much of the property of the Indians, including +dogs, tents, and a large quantity of dried buffalo meat, all of which +he burned. He took more than one hundred Indians prisoners. On the 8th +of July there was a fight near Fort Halleck, Idaho, between the +garrison of the fort and a party of Ute Indians. The engagement had +lasted two hours, when the soldiers, led by Lieutenant Williams, made +a charge that finished the battle, and the Indians fled to the +mountains. Sixty of the Indians had been killed or wounded, and half a +dozen of the soldiers. + +One of the incidents of this year well illustrates the true method of +dealing with a contingency that arises in nearly every war. General +Burnside had ordered the execution of two Confederate officers who +were detected in recruiting for their army within his lines--in other +words, inducing his men to desert. In this action he followed strictly +the laws of war. When it became known to the Confederate authorities, +they ordered that two captains should be selected by lot from among +the prisoners held in Libby, for execution in retaliation. The order +was transmitted to the keepers of the prison, who proceeded to carry +it out, and three chaplains among the prisoners were appointed to +conduct the drawing. The lot fell upon Capt. Henry W. Sawyer, of the +Second New Jersey cavalry, and Captain Flynn, of the Fifty-first +Indiana Regiment. The Richmond _Despatch_ said in its report: "Sawyer +heard the decision with no apparent emotion, remarking that some one +had to be {349} drawn, and he could stand it as well as any one else. +Flynn was very white and much depressed." The two condemned men were +conveyed to the headquarters of General Winder, who warned them not to +be deluded by any hope of escape, as the retaliatory punishment would +certainly be inflicted eight days from that time. Captain Sawyer +obtained permission to write to his wife, on condition, of course, +that the letter should be read by the prison authorities. In this +letter, after telling what had been done, he wrote: "The +Provost-General, J. H. Winder, assures me that the Secretary of War of +the Southern Confederacy will permit yourself and my dear children to +visit me before I am executed. You will be permitted to bring an +attendant. Captain Whilldin, or uncle W. W. Ware, or Dan, had better +come with you. My situation is hard to be borne, and I cannot think of +dying without seeing you and the children. I am resigned to whatever +is in store for me, with the consolation that I die without having +committed any crime. I have no trial, no jury, nor am I charged with +any crime, but it fell to my lot. You will proceed to Washington. My +Government will give you transportation to Fortress Monroe, and you +will get here by a flag of truce, and return the same way." Sawyer and +Flynn were then placed in close confinement in a dungeon under ground, +where they were fed on corn-bread and water, the dungeon being so damp +that their clothing mildewed. Captain Sawyer's letter had precisely +the effect that he intended--his wife immediately went to Washington +with it, and laid it before the President and the Secretary of War. It +happened at this time, that among the Confederate officers who were +held as prisoners by the National authorities were a son of General +Lee and a son of General Winder, and Secretary Stanton immediately +ordered that these officers be placed in close confinement, as +hostages for the safety of Sawyer and Flynn, while notification was +sent by flag of truce to the Confederate Government, that, immediately +upon receiving information of the execution of Sawyer and Flynn, Lee +and Winder would be likewise executed. The result was what it always +is when prompt and sufficient retaliation is prepared for in such +cases--none of the men were executed, and within three weeks Captains +Flynn and Sawyer were placed again on the same footing as other +prisoners in Libby. During the war, whenever there was a proposal of +retaliation for an outrage, there was always an outcry against it, on +the ground that it would only result in double murders. Those who made +such outcries could not have read history very attentively, or they +would have known that the result has always been exactly the opposite +of that. + +[Illustration: CHAIN BRIDGE OVER THE POTOMAC RIVER, NEAR WASHINGTON. +(From a war-time photograph.)] + +{350} [Illustration: CONSTRUCTING WINTER QUARTERS, ARMY OF THE +POTOMAC.] + +[Illustration: POPLAR GROVE CHURCH. (Built by the United States +Military Engineer Corps.)] + + + + +CHAPTER XXXI. + +THE OVERLAND CAMPAIGN. + +GRANT MADE LIEUTENANT-GENERAL WITH COMMAND OF ALL THE +ARMIES--HEADQUARTERS WITH THE ARMY OF THE POTOMAC--PLAN OF THE +CAMPAIGN--POSITION OF THE ARMIES--RELATIVE NUMBERS--A GREAT ARMY IN +WINTER QUARTERS--PICTURESQUE AND INTERESTING DETAILS OF CAMP +LIFE--GRANT CROSSES THE RAPIDAN--BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS--BATTLE OF +SPOTTSYLVANIA--BATTLE OF COLD HARBOR--THE LOSSES OF BOTH SIDES--GRANT +CROSSES THE JAMES--CAVALRY OPERATIONS--CRITICISMS OF GENERAL +GRANT--GENERAL LONGSTREET WOUNDED--EWELL SEES THE END. + + +At the close of the third year of the war--the winter of 1863-4--it +was evident to all thoughtful citizens that something was lacking in +its conduct. To those who understood military operations on a large +scale this had been apparent long before. It was true that there had +been great successes as well as great failures. Both of Lee's attempts +at invasion of the North had resulted disastrously to him--the one at +the Antietam, the other at Gettysburg; and when he recrossed the +Potomac the second time, with half of his army disabled, it was +morally certain that he would invade no more. Grant, first coming into +notice as the captor of an army in February, 1862, had captured +another, more than twice as large, in the summer of 1863, thus +securing the stronghold of Vicksburg, and enabling the Mississippi, as +Lincoln expressed it, to flow unvexed to the sea. Later in the same +year he had won a brilliant victory over Bragg at Chattanooga, +securing that important point and relieving East Tennessee. New +Orleans, by far the largest city in the South, had been firmly held by +the National forces ever since Farragut captured it, in April, 1862. +There were also numerous points on the coast of the Carolinas, +Georgia, and Florida where the Stars and Stripes floated every day in +assertion of the nation's claim to supreme authority. Missouri, +Kentucky, Maryland, West Virginia, and Tennessee--all confidently +counted upon by the Confederates at the outset--were now hopelessly +lost to them. Though it had seemed, from the reports of the great +battles, and the manner in which they were discussed, that the +Confederates must be making headway, yet a glance at the map showed +that the territory covered by Confederate authority had been steadily +diminishing. Only one recapture of any consequence had taken place, +and that was in Texas. Faulty though it was, if the military process +thus far pursued by the Administration had been kept up, it must +ultimately have destroyed the Confederacy. And there was no military +reason (using the word in its narrow sense) why it could not be kept +up; for the resources of the North, in men and material, were not +seriously impaired. All the farms were tilled, all the workshops were +busy, the colleges had almost their usual number of students; and +there were not nearly so many young women keeping books or standing +behind counters as now. Moreover, the ports of the North were all +open, and the markets of the world accessible. It is true that the +currency and the national securities were at a discount, and it was +certain that their value would be diminished still further by the +prolongation of the war; but this was not fatal so long as our own +country produced everything essential, and it was equally certain that +with a restored Union the national credit would be so high that we +could take {351} our own time about paying the debt, distributing the +burden over as many generations as we chose. + +[Illustration: IN WINTER QUARTERS.] + +[Illustration: PICKETS EXAMINING PASSES.] + +The necessity for a swifter process was more political than military. +There was a half-informed populace to be satisfied, and a half-loyal +party to be silenced. The subtlest foe was in our own household; and +the approach of the Presidential and Congressional elections, unless +great National victories should intervene, might bring its opportunity +and seal the fate of the Republic. + +The one thing required was a single supreme military head for all the +armies in the field. The faulty disposition by which, in many of the +great battles, the several parts of an army had struck the enemy +successively instead of all at once, existed also on the grander +scale. There was no concert of action between the armies of the East, +the West, and the Southwest; so that large detachments of the +Confederate forces were sent back and forth on their shorter interior +lines, to fight wherever they were most needed. Thus Longstreet's +powerful corps was at one time engaged in Pennsylvania, a little later +besieging Burnside in Tennessee, and again with Lee in Virginia. Not +only was the need for a supreme commander apparent, but it was now no +longer possible to doubt who was the man. We had one general that from +the first had gone directly for the most important objects in his +department, and thus far had secured everything he went for. +Accordingly Congress passed a bill reviving the grade of +lieutenant-general in February, 1864, and President Lincoln promptly +conferred that rank upon General Ulysses S. Grant. Only Washington and +Scott had previously borne this commission in the United States +service, and through three years of the war we had nothing higher than +a major-general in the field. Rank was cheaper in the Confederacy, +where there were not only lieutenant-generals, but several full +generals. The corps commanders in Lee's army, at the head of ten +thousand or fifteen thousand men, had nominally the same rank +(lieutenant-general) as Grant when he assumed command of all the +National forces in the field. When Lincoln handed Grant his +commission, they met for the first time. A year and a month later the +war was ended, Grant was the foremost soldier in the world, and +Lincoln was in his grave. When the question of headquarters arose, +General Sherman, who was one of the warmest of Grant's personal +friends as well as his ablest lieutenant, besought him to remain in +the West, for he feared the Washington influences that had always been +most heavily felt in the army covering the capital. General Sherman, +never afraid of anything else, was always in mortal terror of +politicians. Grant appears not to have feared even the politicians; +for he promptly fixed his headquarters with the Army of the Potomac, +thus placing himself where, on the one hand, he could withstand +interference that might thwart the operations of a subordinate, and +where, on the other, he would personally conduct the campaign against +the strongest army of the Confederacy and its most trusted leader. + +{352} [Illustration: WHARF AT BELLE PLAIN, VA.] + +He planned a campaign in which he considered the Army of the Potomac +his centre; the Army of the James, under General Butler, his left +wing; the Western armies, now commanded by Sherman, his right wing; +and the army under Banks in Louisiana, a force operating in the rear +of the enemy. In its great {353} features, the plan was this: that all +should move simultaneously--Butler against Petersburg, to seize the +southern communications of the Confederate capital; Sherman against +Johnston's army (then at Dalton, Ga.), to defeat and destroy it if +possible, or at least to force it back and capture Atlanta with its +workshops and important communications; Banks to set out on an +expedition toward Mobile, to capture that city and close its harbor to +blockade-runners; Sigel to drive back the Confederate force in the +Shenandoah valley, and prevent that fertile region from being used any +longer as a Confederate granary; while the Army of the Potomac, taking +Lee's army for its objective, should follow it wherever it went, +fighting and flanking it until it should be captured or dispersed. + +South of the Rapidan is a peculiar region twelve or fifteen miles +square, known as the Wilderness. Some of the earliest iron-works in +the country were here, and much of the ground was dug over for the +ore, while the woods were cut off to supply fuel for the furnaces. A +thick second growth sprang up, with tangled underbrush; the mines were +deserted, the furnaces went to decay, and the whole region was +desolate, save a roadside tavern or two, and here and there a little +clearing. Chancellorsville, where a great battle was fought in May, +1863, was upon the eastern edge of this Wilderness. The bulk of Lee's +army was now (May, 1864) upon its western edge, with a line of +observation along the Rapidan, and headquarters at Orange Court-House. +The Army of the Potomac was north of the Rapidan, opposite the +Wilderness, where it had lain since November, when it had crossed to +the south side with the purpose of attacking the Army of Northern +Virginia (as narrated in a previous chapter), but found it too +strongly intrenched along Mile Run, and so recrossed and went into +winter quarters. + +The conduct of affairs where a great army lies in winter quarters, +making a peculiar sort of community by itself, has its picturesque and +interesting details and incidents, as well as its general dulness. The +reader may get a suggestive glimpse of the camp on the north side of +the Rapidan that winter, if he will look at it through the eyes of +Captain Blake: + +"The army steadily advanced in successive years from river to river, +and erected its winter quarters upon the banks of the Potomac, the +Rappahannock, and the Rapidan. The headquarters were established at +the same point that had been occupied by Lee, and the staff which he +left in his hasty flight was unadorned; while the American flag daily +ascended and descended the high pole when the call 'to the color' was +sounded at sunrise and sunset. The telegraph office in the town was +occupied by the same operator for the fifth time in the various +changes that had taken place in the position of the army--the rebels +always possessed it for a similar purpose as soon as it was abandoned; +and both parties used the same table, and several miles of the same +wire. Operations against the enemy, and drills, were suspended during +the inclement season; and details to guard the trains, the camps, and +the picket-lines, and labor upon the roads, comprised the routine of +duty. Courts-martial assembled frequently to determine the nature and +punishment of military crimes; and one tribunal, of which the author +was judge-advocate, tried about forty men for misconduct in skulking +from Mine Run; and a chaplain was found guilty of stealing a horse, +and dismissed from the service by order of the President. + +"The face of the country soon assumed the barren aspect of Falmouth; +and the pickets of the brigade, for a month, made their fires of the +woodwork of corn-shelling, threshing, and the numerous other machines +with which a large farm was supplied; and iron rods, bolts, +ploughshares, cranks, and cogwheels were sprinkled upon the ground in +the vicinity of the posts. The fifteen hundred inhabitants that lived +in Culpeper before the Rebellion had been reduced to only eighty +persons, who were chiefly dependent upon the Government for the means +of sustenance. The court-house and slave-pen had been gutted, and were +used as places of confinement for rebel prisoners. The fences that +enclosed the cemeteries which were attached to the churches had been +torn down and burned; and sinks, booths, stables for horses, and the +fires of the cooks were scattered in the midst of the gravestones and +tombs. The state of destitution that prevailed may be illustrated more +clearly by quoting the remark of a young woman who resided in the +place: 'My father was worth three hundred thousand dollars; but all +his people, except a small boy, ran away with your folks; his large +house was burned by your cavalry; we eat your pork and bread; and, +just think of it, I haven't had a new dress or bonnet since the war +began!' The refugees and their families constantly entered the lines; +and one of them said that he was assisted by a friend, who gave him +his horse, and manifested much indignation and declared that the +animal had been stolen, to mislead the neighbors, when he received the +news of his successful escape. Deserters exhausted their ingenuity in +finding ways to reach the cavalry videttes; and some gladly swam +across the Rappahannock in the coldest nights of the year. + +"The old residents asserted that the ground upon which the division +had encamped was always submerged in winter, and it would be +impossible for the men to remain there until spring: but the barracks +were never swept away by any inundation; and they explained the matter +by saying that it was the dryest season that had existed for thirty +years. The results of one severe rain, that deluged the plain, showed +that, if they were often repeated, all persons would perceive the +wisdom of the warning. The river rose and overflowed the swamp so +suddenly that the members of seven posts which were located near it +were obliged to climb trees to avoid the unlooked-for danger of +drowning; and the brief tour of picket duty was extended many hours. +Squads that were not stationed in the forest found themselves upon an +island, and waded through the deep water a long distance; and some +were compelled to swim to reach the reserve upon what was the +mainland. A small stream was enlarged to the dimensions of a lake +one-fourth of a mile in width; and a part of the cavalry provost-camp +was submerged, and an officer discovered that the rushing water was +two feet deep in his tent when he awoke. The weather-wisers always +glanced at the mountains; and the voices of experience uttered the +following precept--that there would be rain once in every two days as +long as the snow crowned the crests of the Blue Ridge. + +"During this period the enemy did not attempt to make any movement, +although a long line of railroad conveyed supplies from Alexandria; +and the troops of Lee labored unceasingly, and constructed miles of +earthworks upon the bluffs that had been fortified by nature; while +the Union forces rested in their camps, and relied for defence upon +the strong arm and loyal heart. A number of false alarms occurred, and +the soldiers were sometimes ordered to be in readiness to march at a +second's notice to resist an advance. + +"The number of officers' wives and other ladies that were present in +the camps was much larger than at any previous period; and balls and +similar festivities relieved the monotony of many winter quarters. +Large details, that sometimes comprised a thousand men, were ordered +to report at certain {354} headquarters for the purpose of +constructing suitable halls of logs on the 'sacred soil' of Virginia. +A chapel was built within the limits of the brigade by the soldiers, +who daily labored upon it for three weeks; and many of the officers +contributed money to purchase whatever appeared to be required for it. +An agent of the Christian Commission furnished a capacious tent, which +formed the roof; and religious, temperance, and Masonic meetings were +frequently held, until this apostle, who employed most of his time in +writing long letters for the press, that portrayed in vivid colors the +'good work' which he was accomplishing, removed the canvas because an +innocent social assembly occupied it during one evening. The enlisted +men, who rarely enjoyed the benefit of these structures which they +erected, originated dances of a singular character. By searching the +cabins and houses of the natives, and borrowing apparel, and a liberal +use of pieces of shelter tents and the hoops of barrels, one-half of +the soldiers were arrayed as women, and filled the places of the +seemingly indispensable partners of the gentler sex. The resemblance +in the features of some of these persons were so perfect that a +stranger would be unable to distinguish between the assumed and the +genuine characters. + +"Thousands of crows rendered good service by devouring the entrails of +animals which had been slaughtered by the butchers, and the carcasses +of dead horses and mules. They were never shot, because the citizens +had no guns, and the soldiers would be punished if they wasted +ammunition; and they grew tame and fat in opposition to the well-known +saying, and propagated so rapidly that their immense numbers blackened +acres of ground in the vicinity of the camps. One noticeable event was +a fire which swept over the field of Cedar Mountain, and caused the +explosion of shells that had remained there nearly two years after the +battle. + +"The ordinary preparations for active operations were made as soon as +the roads became dry and hard: the ladies were notified to leave the +camps previous to a specified date; surplus baggage resumed its annual +visit to the storehouses in the rear; and reviews, inspections, and +target-practice daily took place." + +[Illustration: IN THE WILDERNESS.] + +The Army of the Potomac was now organized in three infantry corps, the +Second, Fifth, and Sixth--commanded respectively by Gens. Winfield S. +Hancock, Gouverneur K. Warren, and John Sedgwick--and a cavalry corps +commanded by Gen. Philip H. Sheridan; Gen. George G. Meade being still +in command of the whole. Burnside's corps, the Ninth, nearly twenty +thousand strong, was at Annapolis, and nobody but General Grant knew +its destination. President Lincoln and his Cabinet thought it was to +be sent on some duty down the coast; and so perhaps did the enemy. +Grant knew too well that there was a leak somewhere in Washington, +through which every Government secret escaped to the Confederates; and +he therefore delayed till the last moment the movement of Burnside's +corps to a point from which it could follow the Army of the Potomac +across the Rapidan within twenty-four hours. + +The Army of Northern Virginia consisted of two infantry corps, +commanded by Gens. Richard S. Ewell and Ambrose P. Hill, with a +cavalry corps commanded by Gen. James E. B. Stuart; the whole +commanded by Gen. Robert E. Lee; while, as an offset to Burnside's +corps, Gen. James Longstreet's was within call. The exact number of +men in either army cannot be told, as reports and authorities differ; +nor can the approximate numbers be mentioned fairly, unless with an +explanation. The method of counting for the official reports was +different in the two armies. In the National army, a report that a +certain number of men were present for duty included every man that +was borne on the pay-rolls, whether officer, soldier, musician, +teamster, cook, or mechanic, and also all that had been sent away on +special duty, guarding trains and the like. This was necessary, +because they were all paid regularly, and the money had to be +accounted for. In the Confederate army there was no pay worth speaking +of, and the principal object of a morning report was to show the exact +effective force available that day; accordingly, the Confederate +reports included only the men actually bearing muskets or sabres, or +handling the artillery. Counted in this way, Lee had sixty thousand, +or perhaps sixty-five thousand, men--for exact reports are wanting, +even on that basis. If counted after the fashion in the National army, +his men numbered about eighty thousand. Grant puts his own numbers, +everything included, at one hundred and sixteen thousand, and thinks +the preponderance was fully offset by the fact that the enemy was on +the defensive, seldom leaving his intrenchments, in a country +admirably suited for defence, and with the population friendly to him. +As each side received reinforcements from time to time about equal to +its losses, the two armies may be considered as having, throughout the +campaign from the Rapidan to the James, the strength just stated. + +It was clearly set forth by General Grant at the outset that the true +objective was the Army of Northern Virginia. In that lay the chief +strength of the Confederacy; while that stood, the Confederacy would +stand, whether in Richmond or out of it; when that fell, the +Confederacy would fall. To follow that {355} army wherever it went, +fight it, and destroy it, was the task that lay before the Army of the +Potomac; and every man in the army, as well as most men in the +country, knew it was a task that could be accomplished only through +immense labor and loss of life, hard marching, heavy fighting, and all +manner of suffering. + +The intention was to have the simultaneous movement of all the armies +begin as near the 1st of May as possible. It actually began at +midnight of the 3d, when the Army of the Potomac was set in motion and +crossed the Rapidan, which is there about two hundred feet wide, on +five pontoon bridges near Germania, Culpeper Mine, and Ely's fords. On +crossing, it plunged at once into the Wilderness, which is here +traversed from north to south by two roads, a mile or two apart. And +these roads are crossed by two--the Orange turnpike and Orange plank +road--running nearly east and west. Besides these, there are numerous +cross-roads and wood-paths. It would have been easy for the army to +pass through this wooded tract in a very few hours, and deploy in the +open country; but the supply and ammunition train consisted of four +thousand wagons, and the reserve artillery of more than one hundred +guns--all of which must be protected by keeping the army between them +and the enemy. Consequently the troops remained in the Wilderness +during the whole of the 4th, while the long procession was filing +across the bridges and stretching away on the easternmost roads. And +after this the bridges themselves were taken up. Grant's headquarters +that night were at the old Wilderness Tavern, on the Orange turnpike, +near the intersection of the road from Germania Ford. It had been +supposed that Lee would either dispute the passage of the river, or +(as he had done on previous occasions) await attack on some chosen +ground that was suitable for fighting. As he had not disputed the +passage, the army now expected to march out of the Wilderness the next +day, thus turning the enemy's right flank, and placing itself between +him and his capital. + +But Grant kept pickets out on all the roads to the west; and it cannot +be said that he was surprised, though he was probably disappointed, +when he found his lines attacked on the morning of the 5th. The +movement was believed at first to be only a feint, intended to keep +the Army of the Potomac in the Wilderness, while the bulk of the enemy +should slip by to the south and take up a position covering the +approach to Richmond. But it was developed rapidly, and it soon became +evident that the Confederate commander had resorted to the bold device +of launching his whole army down the two parallel roads, with the +purpose of striking the Army of the Potomac when it was ill-prepared +to receive battle. Under some circumstances he would thus have gained +a great advantage; as it was, the army was clear of the river, with +all its trains safe in the rear, was reasonably well together, had had +a night's rest, and was not in any proper sense surprised. Hancock's +corps, which had the lead and was marching out of the Wilderness, was +quickly recalled, Burnside's was hurried up from the rear, and a line +of battle was formed--so far as there could be any line of battle in a +jungle. Neither artillery nor cavalry could be used to any extent by +either side, and the contest was little more than a murdering-match +between two bodies of men, each individual having a musket in his +hand, and being unable to see more than a few of his nearest +neighbors. This went on all day, increasing hourly as more of the +troops came into position, with no real advantage to either side when +night fell upon the gloomy forest, already darkened by smoke that +there was no breeze to waft away. Lee's attack had been vigorous on +his left, but imperfect on his right, where Longstreet's corps did not +get up in time to participate in the fighting that day. No sooner had +the battle ended than both sides began to intrench for the struggle of +the morrow, and they would hear the sound of each other's axes, only a +few rods distant, as they worked through the night, cutting down +trees, piling up logs for breastworks, and digging the customary +trench. + +[Illustration: PLAN OF THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS. Reproduced by +permission of Dick & Fitzgerald, N. Y., from "Twelve Decisive Battles +of the War."] + +Grant intended to take the initiative on the morning of the 6th, and +gave orders for an attack at five o'clock. But Lee, who did not want +the real battle of the day to begin till Longstreet's corps should be +in place on his right, attacked {356} with his left at a still earlier +hour. Grant recognized this as a feint, and went on with his purpose +of attacking the enemy's right before Longstreet should come up. This +work devolved upon Hancock's corps, which, as usual, was ready to +advance at the hour named; but just then came rumors of a flank +movement by Longstreet, and Hancock, detaching troops to meet it, +greatly weakened the blow he was ordered to deliver. This was all a +mistake, as there was no enemy in that direction, save Rosser's +Confederate cavalry, which Sheridan's defeated that day in three +encounters. But Hancock's advance was powerful enough to drive the +enemy before him for more than a mile. At that juncture Longstreet +came up, the broken Confederate line rallied on his corps, and Hancock +was driven back in turn. Here the fighting was stubborn, and the +losses heavy. Gen. James S. Wadsworth, one of the most patriotic men +in the service, was mortally wounded, and died within the Confederate +lines. The Confederate General Jenkins was killed, and Longstreet was +seriously wounded in almost exactly the same way that Stonewall +Jackson had been, a year and three days before, on nearly the same +ground. As he was returning from the front with his staff, some of his +own men mistook them for National cavalry and fired upon them. +Longstreet was shot through the neck and shoulder, and had to be +carried from the field. His men had been thrown into great confusion, +and General Lee, who now took command of them in person, found it +impossible to rally them for an attack on Hancock's intrenchments, or +at least deferred the attack that had been planned. But late in the +afternoon such an assault was made, and met with a little temporary +success. The Confederates burst through the line at one point, but +were soon driven back again with heavy loss. At this time a fire broke +out in Hancock's front, and soon his log breastworks were burning. His +men were forced back by the heat, but continued firing at their enemy +through the flame. Large numbers of the dead and wounded were still +lying where they fell, scattered over the belt of ground, nearly a +mile wide, where the tide of battle had swayed back and forth, and an +unknown number of the wounded perished by the fire and smoke. Burnside +had come into line during the day, and fighting had been kept up along +the entire front, but it was nowhere so fierce as on the left or +southern end of the line, where each commander was trying to double up +the other's flank. At night the Confederates withdrew to their +intrenchments, and from that time till the end of the campaign they +seldom showed a disposition to leave them. + +[Illustration: LIEUTENANT-GENERAL ULYSSES S. GRANT.] + +[Illustration: MAJOR-GENERAL PHILIP H. SHERIDAN. BRIGADIER-GENERAL J. +I. GREGG. MAJOR-GENERAL WESLEY MERRITT. BRIGADIER-GENERAL THOMAS C. +DEVIN. BREVET MAJOR-GENERAL GEORGE A. CUSTER.] + +The terrible tangle of the Wilderness in which this great battle was +fought is indicated by the fact that in several instances squads from +either army, who were guarding prisoners and intending to take them to +the rear, lost their way and carried them into their opponents' lines, +where the guards in turn became prisoners. A participant says of the +fighting on the National right, where the Confederates gained some +ground the first day: "The extreme heat of the day increased the +fatigue, and tears were shed by some who overrated the results of the +disaster. The slaughter in many regiments had been large, and at one +point the bodies of the killed defined with terrible exactness the +position held by the Union troops, and a long line of rebel corpses +was extended in front of it. One of the flag-staffs of the {357} +regiment was severed by a bullet, and each hand of the bearer grasped +a piece of it." The same participant says of the fighting on his part +of the line during the second day: + +"The division was posted once more behind the slight breastwork which +had been erected upon the Germania-Ford road; the skirmishers were +deployed in its front at four P.M., and the author commanded the +detachment from the regiment. The groups were properly aligned within +the next ten minutes, when the tramp of a heavy force resounded +through the woods. Orders were excitedly repeated--'Forward!' 'Guide +right!' 'Close up those intervals!'--and finally a voice shouted: +'Now, men, for the love of God and your country, forward!' The legions +of Longstreet advanced without skirmishers; the muskets of the feeble +line were discharged to alarm the reserve; the men upon the outposts +rushed to the main body; and thousands of glistening gun-barrels which +were resting upon the works opened, and the fusillade began. The +soldiers crouched upon the ground, loaded their pieces with the utmost +celerity, rose, fired, and then reloaded behind the shelter; so that +the loss was very slight; while the enemy suffered severely, as the +trees were small, and there was no protection. The only artillery that +was used in the afternoon was planted upon the left of the brigade, +and consisted of four cannons, which hurled canister, shell, and solid +shot until their ammunition was exhausted. Unfortunately, the dry logs +of which the breastwork was formed were only partially covered with +earth; and the flames, ignited by the burning wadding during the +conflict (an enemy that could not be resisted as easily as the +myrmidons of Longstreet), destroyed them, and every second of time +widened the breaches. The undaunted men crowded together until they +formed fourteen or sixteen ranks; and those who were in the front +discharged the guns which were constantly passed to them by their +comrades that were in the rear and could not aim with accuracy or +safety. The fingers of many men were blistered by the muskets, which +became hot from the rapid firing. The fire triumphed when it flashed +along the entire barrier of wood, reduced it to ashes, and forced the +defenders, who had withstood to the last its intolerable heat, to +retire to the rifle-pits a short distance in the rear. The shattered +rebel columns cautiously approached the road; but the impartial flames +which had caused the discomfiture of the division became an obstacle +that they could not surmount. The same misfortune followed the Union +forces, and no exertions could check the consuming element; and the +second line was burned like the first. The conflagration in the road +had nearly ceased at this time; the enemy yelled with exultation; the +odious colors were distinctly seen when the smoke slowly disappeared; +a general charge was made, which resulted in the capture of the +original position; and the pickets were stationed half of a mile in +the advance at sunset without opposition. Many were eating their +dinners when the assault commenced; and an officer hurriedly rushed to +the works with a spoon in one hand and a fork in the other." + +[Illustration: BRIGADIER-GENERAL JOSHUA J. OWENS.] + +The losses in this great two-days' battle cannot be stated accurately. +The best authorities vary as to the National loss, from fewer than +fourteen thousand--killed, wounded, and missing--to about fifteen +thousand four hundred. As to the Confederate loss, the figures can +only be made up from partial reports, estimates, and inferences. +According to these, it did not differ materially from the National +loss, and in the circumstances of the battle there was no reason for +thinking it would. Among the officers lost, besides those already +mentioned, were, on the National side, Gen. Alexander Hays killed; +Generals Getty, Baxter, and McAllister, and Colonels Carroll and +Keifer wounded; and Generals Seymour and Shaler captured; on the +Confederate side, Generals Pegram and Benning wounded. + +[Illustration: BREVET BRIGADIER-GENERAL THOMAS A. SMYTH.] + +[Illustration: COLONEL WILLIAM H. MORRIS.] + +If General Lee supposed that the Army of the Potomac, after a sudden +blow and a bloody battle, would turn about and go home to repair +damages--as it had been in the habit of doing--he omitted from his +calculation the fact that it was now led by a soldier who never did +anything of the sort. Indeed, he is reported to have said to his +lieutenants, after this costly experiment: "Gentlemen, at last the +Army of the Potomac has a head." Tactically, it had been a drawn +battle. Grant accounts it a victory, which he says "consisted in +having successfully crossed a formidable stream, almost in the face of +an enemy, and in getting the army together as a unit." It was also a +National victory in a certain dismal sense, from the fact that--in +changing off man for man to the extent of twelve or fifteen +thousand--that had been done which the enemy could least afford. + +{358} There was no fighting on the 7th except a cavalry engagement at +Todd's Tavern, by which Sheridan cleared the road for the southward +movement of the army; and in the afternoon Grant gave the order to +move by the left flank toward Spottsylvania. Gen. William T. Sherman +says in a private letter: "It was then probably that General Grant +best displayed his greatness. Forward by the left flank!--that settled +that campaign." That the same opinion was held by a large part of the +army itself at the time, is shown by the testimony of various men who +were there. Frank Wilkeson writes: "Grant's military standing with the +enlisted men this day hung on the direction we turned at the +Chancellorsville House. If to the left, he was to be rated with Meade +and Hooker and Burnside and Pope--the generals who preceded him. At +the Chancellorsville House we turned to the right. Instantly all of us +heard a sigh of relief. Our spirits rose. We marched free. The men +began to sing. The enlisted men understood the flanking movement. That +night we were happy." + +[Illustration: WOUNDING OF GENERAL LONGSTREET BY HIS OWN MEN.] + +Grant's general purpose was to place his army between the enemy and +Richmond, interfering with the communications and compelling Lee to +fight at disadvantage. The immediate purpose was a rapid march to +Spottsylvania Court-House, fifteen miles southeast of the Wilderness +battle-field, and a dozen miles southwest of Fredericksburg, to take a +strong position covering the roads that radiate from that point. +Warren's corps was to take the advance, marching by the Brock road, to +be followed by Hancock's on the same road. Sedgwick's and Burnside's +were to take a route farther north, through Chancellorsville. The +trains were put in motion on Saturday, May 7th, and Warren began his +march at nine o'clock that evening. To withdraw an army in this +manner, in the presence of a powerful enemy, and send it forward to a +new position, is a difficult and delicate task, as it may be attacked +after it has left the old position and before it has gained the new. +The method adopted by General Grant was repeated in each of his +flanking movements between the Wilderness and the James. It consisted +in withdrawing the corps that held his right flank, and passing it +behind the others while they maintained their position. Four small +rivers rise in this region--the Mat, the Ta, the Po, and the Ny--which +unite to form the Mattapony. Spottsylvania Court-House is on the ridge +between the Po and the Ny. The country around it is heavily wooded, +and somewhat broken by ravines. + +The distances that the two armies had to march to reach Spottsylvania +Court-House were very nearly the same; if there was any difference, it +favored the National; but two unforeseen circumstances determined the +race and the form of the ensuing battle. The Brock road was occupied +by a detachment of Confederate cavalry, and Warren's corps stood still +while the National cavalry undertook to clear the way. This was not +done easily, and the road was further obstructed where the +Confederates had felled trees across it. After precious time had been +lost Warren's corps went forward and cleared the way for itself. The +other circumstance was more purely fortuitous. Anderson's division of +Longstreet's corps led the Confederate advance, and Anderson had his +orders to begin the march early on Sunday morning, the 8th. But from +the burning of the woods he found no suitable ground for bivouac, and +consequently marched all night. The National cavalry were in +Spottsylvania Court-House Sunday morning, and found there but a slight +force of cavalry, easily brushed away; but they had to retire before +the Confederate infantry when Anderson came down the road. +Consequently, when Warren came within sight of the Court-House, he +found the same old foe intrenched in his front. Still, if Hancock had +come up promptly, the works might have been carried by a rapid +movement, and held till the army should be where Grant wanted it, in +position between the enemy and their capital. But Hancock had been +held back, because of apprehensions that the Confederates would make a +heavy attack upon the rear of the moving columns. So the remainder of +Longstreet's corps, and finally all of Lee's troops, poured into the +rude sylvan fortress, and once more the Army of Northern Virginia +stood at bay. + +At this point of time, May 8th, Grant sent Sheridan with his {359} +cavalry to do to the Confederate army what in previous campaigns its +cavalry had twice done to the Army of the Potomac--to ride entirely +around it, tearing up railroads, destroying bridges and depots, and +capturing trains. Sheridan set out to execute his orders with the +energy and skill for which he was becoming famous. He destroyed ten +miles of railroad and several trains of cars, cut all the telegraph +wires, and recaptured four hundred prisoners who had been taken in the +battle of the Wilderness and were on their way to Richmond. As soon as +it was known which way he had gone, the Confederate cavalry set out to +intercept him, and by hard riding got between him and Richmond. +Sheridan's troops met them at Yellow Tavern, seven miles north of the +city, and after a hard fight defeated and dispersed them, Gen. J. E. +B. Stuart, the ablest cavalry leader in the Confederacy, being +mortally wounded. Sheridan dashed through the outer defences of +Richmond and took some prisoners, but found the inner ones too strong +for him. He then crossed the Chickahominy, and rejoined the army on +the 25th. + +As the National army came into position before the intrenchments of +Spottsylvania, Hancock's corps had the extreme right or western end of +the line; then came Warren's, then Sedgwick's, and on the extreme left +Burnside's. While Sedgwick's men were placing their batteries, they +were annoyed by sharp-shooters, one of whom, apparently posted in a +tree, seemed to be an unerring marksman. He is said to have destroyed +twenty lives that day. The men naturally shrank back from their work, +when General Sedgwick, coming up, expostulated with them, remarking +that "they couldn't hit an elephant at this distance." As he stepped +forward to the works, a bullet struck him in the face, and he fell +dead. In his fall the army lost one of its best soldiers, and the +country one of its purest patriots. Sedgwick had been offered higher +command than he held, but had firmly declined it, from a modest +estimate of his own powers. Gen. Horatio G. Wright succeeded him in +the command of the Sixth Corps. + +On the evening of the 9th Hancock's corps moved to the right, with a +view to flanking and attacking the Confederate left, and made a +reconnoissance at the point where the road from Shady Grove church +crosses the Po on a wooden bridge. A brigade of Barlow's division laid +down bridges and crossed the stream, but was confronted by +intrenchments manned by a portion of Early's corps. It was now seen +that the Confederate left rested on the stream at a point above, so +that Hancock by crossing would only have isolated himself from the +rest of the army and invited destruction. But before he could withdraw +Barlow, the enemy sallied out from their intrenchments and attacked +that brigade in heavy force. The assault was met with steady courage +and repelled, with considerable loss to Barlow, but with much greater +loss to the assailants. After a short interval the experiment was +renewed, with precisely the same result; and Barlow then recrossed, +under cover of a supporting column, and took up his bridges. + +The weak point in the Confederate line was the salient at the northern +point of their intrenchment. A salient is weak because almost any fire +directed against it becomes an enfilading fire for one or another part +of it. But the National army were not up in balloons, looking down +upon the earth as a map; and they could only learn the shape of the +Confederate intrenchments after traversing thick woods, following out +by-paths and scrambling through dark ravines. As soon as the salient +was discovered, preparations were made for assaulting it. The storming +party consisted of twelve regiments of Wright's corps, commanded by +Col. Emory Upton, and was to be supported by Mott's division of +Hancock's, while at the same time the remainder of Wright's and all of +Warren's corps were to advance and take advantage of any opportunity +that should be made for them. While a heavy battery was firing rapidly +at the salient and enfilading one of its sides, Upton's men formed +under cover of the woods, near the enemy's line, and the instant the +battery ceased firing, about six o'clock in the evening, burst out +with a cheer, swept over the works after a short hand-to-hand fight, +and captured more than a thousand prisoners, and a few guns. Mott, +forming in open ground, did not move so promptly, suffered more from +the fire of the enemy, and effected nothing. Warren's corps moved +forward, but was driven back with heavy loss. In a second assault, +they reached the breastworks and captured them after fierce fighting, +but were not able to hold them when strong Confederate reinforcements +came up, and retired again. Upton, who had broken through a second +line of intrenchments, seemed to have opened a way for the destruction +of the Confederate army; but the difficulties of the ground and the +lateness of the hour made it impracticable to follow up the advantage +by pouring a whole corps through the gap and taking everything in +reverse. After dark, Upton's men withdrew, bringing the prisoners and +the captured battle-flags, but leaving the guns behind. For this +exploit, in which he was severely wounded, Colonel Upton was made a +brigadier-general on the field. While this was going on, Burnside, at +the extreme left of the line, had obtained a good position, from which +he could have assaulted advantageously the Confederate right, which he +overlapped. But this was not perceived, and as there was a dangerous +gap between his corps and Wright's, he was drawn back in the night, +and the advantage was lost. + +{360} [Illustration: FALL OF GENERAL JOHN SEDGWICK, AT SPOTTSYLVANIA.] + +On the 11th it rained heavily, and there was no fighting; but there +were reconnoissances and preparations for a renewal of the battle on +the next day. Grant determined to make a heavier and more persistent +assault upon the tempting salient, and moved Hancock's corps by a +wood-road, after dark, to a point opposite the apex. The morning of +the 12th was foggy, but by half-past four o'clock it was light enough, +and Hancock's men advanced, some of them passing through thickets of +dead pines. When they were half-way across the open ground in front of +the salient, they burst into a wild cheer and rushed for the works. +Here they were met by a brave and determined resistance on the part of +the half-surprised Confederates, who fought irregularly with clubbed +muskets. But nothing could resist the impetus of Hancock's corps, +which was over the breastworks in a few seconds. Large numbers of +Confederates were killed, mostly with the bayonet. So sudden was +Hancock's irruption into the enemy's works, that he captured Gen. +Edward Johnson's entire division of nearly four thousand men, with its +commander and also Brigadier-General Steuart. "How are you, Steuart?" +said Hancock, recognizing in his prisoner an old army friend, and +extending his hand. "I am General Steuart, of the Confederate army," +was the reply, "and under the circumstances I decline to take your +hand." "Under any other circumstances," said Hancock quietly, "I +should not have offered it." Hancock's men had also captured twenty +guns, with their horses and caissons, thousands of small arms, and +thirty battle-flags. The guns were immediately turned upon the enemy, +who was followed through the woods toward Spottsylvania Court-House +till the pursuers ran up against another line of intrenchments, which +had been constructed in the night across the base of the salient. At +the same time that Hancock assaulted at the apex, {361} Warren and +Burnside had assaulted at the sides, but with less success, though +their men reached the breastworks. + +Lee understood too well the danger of having his line thus ruptured at +the centre, and poured his men into the salient with a determination +to retake it, for which some of his critics have censured him. +Hancock's men, when the pressure became too great for them, fell back +slowly to the outer intrenchments, and turning, used them as their +own. Five times the Confederates attacked these in heavy masses, and +five times they were repelled with bloody loss. Before, they had been +at disadvantage from defending a salient, and now they were at equal +disadvantage in assailing a reëntrant angle. To add to the slaughter, +Hancock had established several batteries on high ground, where they +could fire over the heads of his own men and strike the enemy beyond. +Here and along the west face of the angle the fighting was kept up all +day, and was most desperate and destructive. Field guns were run up +close to the works and fired into the masses of Confederate troops +within the salient, creating terrible havoc; but in turn the horses +and gunners were certain to be shot down. There was hand-to-hand +fighting over the breastworks, and finally the men of the two armies +were crouching on either side of them, shooting and stabbing through +the crevices between the logs. Sometimes one would mount upon the +works and have loaded muskets passed up to him rapidly, which he would +fire in quick succession till the certain bullet came that was to end +his career, and he tumbled into the ditch. In several instances men +were pulled over the breastworks and made prisoners. One doughty but +diminutive Georgian officer nearly died of mortification when a huge +Wisconsin colonel reached over, seized him by the collar, and in a +twinkling jerked him out of the jurisdiction of the Confederacy and +into that of the United States. The fighting around the "death-angle," +as the soldiers called it, was kept up till past midnight, when the +Confederates finally withdrew to their interior line. The dead were +not only literally piled in heaps, but their bodies were terribly torn +and mangled by the shot. Every tree and bush was cut down or killed by +the balls, and in one instance the body of an oak tree nearly two feet +in diameter was completely cut through by bullets, and in falling +injured several men of a South Carolina regiment. Not even Sickles' +salient at Gettysburg had been so fatal as this. If courage were all +that a nation required, there was courage enough at Spottsylvania, on +either side of the intrenchments, to have made a nation out of every +State in the Union. + +It was extremely difficult for either side to rescue or care for any +of the wounded. A note from Col. Leander W. Cogswell, of the Ninth New +Hampshire Regiment, gives a suggestive incident: "During the night of +the 13th, as officer of the day, I was ordered to take a detail of men +from our brigade, and, if possible, find the dead bodies of members of +the Ninth Regiment. We went over the intrenchments and into that +terrible darkness, under orders 'to strike not a match, nor speak +above a whisper.' When near the spot where they fell, we crawled upon +our hands and knees, and felt for the dead ones, and in this manner +succeeded in finding upwards of twenty, and conveyed them within our +lines, where, with a few others, they were buried the next morning in +one trench." + +[Illustration: BRIGADIER-GENERAL JOHN M. JONES, C. S. A. Killed at the +Wilderness.] + +[Illustration: BRIGADIER-GENERAL ALEXANDER HAYS. Killed at the +Wilderness.] + +Thus far we have looked only at what was going on in front. A few +sentences from the diary of Chaplain Alanson A. Haines, of the +Fifteenth New Jersey Regiment, will give the reader an idea of the +rear at Spottsylvania: "With Dr. Hall, our good and brave surgeon, I +found a place in the rear, a little hollow with grass and a spring of +water, where we made hasty preparations to receive the coming wounded. +Those that could walk soon began to find their way in of themselves, +and some few were helped in by their comrades as soon as the charge +was over and a portion withdrawn. It was a terrible thing to lay some +of our best and truest men in a long row on the blankets, waiting +their turn for the surgeon's care. Some came with body wounds, and +arms shattered, and hands dangling. At ten o'clock, with the drum +corps, I sought the regiment to take off any of our wounded we could +find. On my way, met some men carrying Orderly-Sergeant Van Gilder, +mortally wounded, in a blanket. With his hand all blood, he seized +mine, saying, 'Chaplain, I am going. Tell my wife I am happy.' At two +o'clock A.M. I lay down amid a great throng of poor, bleeding +sufferers, whose moans and cries for water kept me awake. At four +o'clock got up and had coffee made, and, going around among the +wounded, found a Pennsylvanian who had lain at my feet, dead. At noon +the regiment moved off to the right. I retained five drummers to bury +Sergeants Schenck and Rubadeau. A number of men from several regiments +were filling their canteens at the spring. I asked them if they could +come for a few moments around a soldier's grave. Most of them came, +and uncovered their heads. I repeated some passages of Scripture, and +offered a short prayer. Drum-Sergeant Kline filled up the grave, +nailing to two posts which he planted a piece of cracker-box, on which +I cut the names of the dead. While he was doing this, with my other +men I gathered the muskets and {362} accoutrements left by the +wounded. Laying the muskets with the muzzle on a stump, one heavy +stamp of the foot bent the barrel, broke the stock, and made the piece +useless. The accoutrements we heaped together and threw on the fire, +and with hasty steps sought the regiment." + +The National losses in the fighting around Spottsylvania, from the 8th +to the 21st of May, were thirteen thousand six hundred--killed, +wounded, and missing. Somewhat over half of this loss occurred on the +12th. There are no exact statistics of the Confederate loss; but it +appears to have been ten thousand on the 12th, and was probably about +equal in the aggregate to the National loss. The losses were heavy in +general officers. In the National army, besides Sedgwick, Gens. T. G. +Stevenson and J. C. Rice were killed, and Gens. H. G. Wright and +Alexander S. Webb and Col. Samuel S. Carroll were wounded; the last +named being promoted to brigadier-general on the field. Of the +Confederates, Generals Daniel and Perrin were killed; Gens. R. D. +Johnston, McGowan, Ramseur, and Walker wounded, and Gens. Edward +Johnston and Steuart captured. + +[Illustration: BREVET MAJOR-GENERAL R. O. TYLER.] + +[Illustration: BREVET BRIGADIER-GENERAL GRIFFIN A. STEDMAN, JR.] + +[Illustration: BRIGADIER-GENERAL WILLIAM H. SEWARD.] + +[Illustration: BREVET BRIGADIER-GENERAL WILLIAM DE LACEY.] + +General Grant had written to Halleck on the 11th: "We have now ended +the sixth day of very hard fighting. The result up to this time is +much in our favor. But our losses have been heavy, as well as those of +the enemy.... I am now sending back to Belle Plain all my wagons for a +fresh supply of provisions and ammunition, and purpose to fight it out +on this line if it takes all summer." A week was spent in manoeuvring +to find a new point of attack that promised success, but without +avail, and at the end of that time it was determined to move again by +the left flank. The movement was to the North Anna River; again it was +a race, and this time the Confederates had the shorter line. + +The distance from Spottsylvania Court House to Richmond is a little +more than fifty miles. About midway between them is Hanover Junction, +where the railroad from Richmond to Fredericksburg is crossed by the +Virginia Central road. Grant did not wish to conceal his movement +altogether. He was anxious to induce the enemy to fight without the +enormous advantage of intrenchments. So he planned to send one corps +toward Richmond, hoping that Lee would be tempted to attack it with +all his army, whereupon the other corps might follow up sharply and +attack the Confederates before they had time to intrench. When the +movement was begun, Lee, instead of moving at once in the same +direction, sent Ewell's corps to attack the National right. It +happened that six thousand raw recruits, under Gen. R. O. Tyler, were +on their way to reinforce the Army of the Potomac, and had not quite +reached their place in line when they were struck by Ewell's flank +movement. Grant says they maintained their position in a manner worthy +of veterans, till they were reinforced by the divisions of Birney and +Crawford, which promptly moved up to the right and left, and Ewell was +then quickly driven back with heavy loss. This was on the 19th of May. + +The corps thrown forward as a bait was Hancock's, and it marched on +the night of the 20th, going easterly to Guinea Station, and then +southerly to Milford. Warren's corps followed twelve hours later, and +twelve hours later still the corps of Burnside and Wright. Some +trifling resistance was met by the advance; but the Confederates had +no notion of taking any risk. They made a reconnoissance to their +left, to be sure that Grant had not kept a corps at Spottsylvania to +fall upon their rear, and then set out by a shorter line than his to +interpose themselves once more between him and their capital. + +The new position that was taken up after some tentative movements was +one of the strongest that could have been devised. The Confederate +left stretched in a straight line, a mile and a half long, from Little +River to the North Anna at Oxford. Here, bending at a right angle, the +line followed the North Anna down stream for three quarters of a mile, +thence {363} continuing in a straight line southeastward, to and +around Hanover Junction. The North Anna here makes a bend to the +south, and on the most southerly point of the bend the Confederate +line touched and held it. If we imagine a ring cut in halves, and the +halves placed back to back, in contact, and call one the line of +Confederate intrenchments and the other the river, we shall have a +fair representation of the essential features of the situation. It is +evident that any enemy approaching from the north, and attempting to +envelop this position, would have his own line twice divided by the +river, so that his army would be in three parts. Any reinforcements +passing from one wing to the other would have to cross the stream +twice, and, long before they could reach their destination, the army +holding the intrenchments could strengthen its threatened wing. The +obvious point to assail in such a position would be the apex of the +salient line where it touched the river; and Burnside was ordered to +force a passage at that point. But the banks were high and steep, and +the passage was covered by artillery. Moreover, an enfilading fire +from the north bank was thwarted by traverses--intrenchments at right +angles to the main line. Wright's corps crossed the river above the +Confederate position, and destroyed some miles of the Virginia Central +Railroad; while Hancock's crossed below, and destroyed a large section +of the road to Fredericksburg. By this time they had learned the +effective method of not only tearing up the track, but piling up the +ties and setting them on fire, heating the rails, and bending and +twisting them so that they could not be used again. These operations +were not carried on without frequent sharp fighting, which cost each +side about two thousand men; but there was no general battle on the +North Anna. + +[Illustration: BREVET MAJOR-GENERAL JOHN C. ROBINSON.] + +[Illustration: BRIGADIER-GENERAL HARRY T. HAYS, C. S. A.] + +Before the next flank movement was made by the Army of the Potomac, +Gen. James H. Wilson's cavalry division was sent to make a +demonstration on the right, to give the enemy the impression that this +time the turning movement would be in that direction. In the night of +May 26, which was very dark, the army withdrew to the north bank of +the North Anna, took up its pontoon bridges, destroyed all the others, +and was put in motion again by the left flank. Sheridan's cavalry led +the way and guarded the crossings of the Pamunkey, which is formed by +the junction of the North and South Anna Rivers. The Sixth Corps was +the advance of the infantry, followed by the Second, while the Fifth +and Ninth moved by roads farther north. The direction was southeast, +and the distance about thirty miles to a point at which the army would +cross the Pamunkey and move southwest toward Richmond, the crossing +being about twenty miles from that city. But between lie the swamps of +the Chickahominy. In the morning of the 28th the cavalry moved out on +the most direct road to Richmond, and at a cross-roads known as +Hawes's Shop encountered a strong force of Confederate cavalry, which +was dismounted and intrenched. After a bloody fight of some hours' +duration, the divisions commanded by Gens. David M. Gregg and George +A. Custer broke over the intrenchments and forced back the enemy; the +other divisions came up promptly, and the position was held. + +A member of the First New Jersey cavalry, which participated in this +action, writes: "One company being sent on each flank, mounted, +Captain Robbins with four companies, dismounted, moved forward and +occupied a position on the right of the road, opening a rapid fire +from their carbines on the line of the enemy, which was forming for +attack. The remainder of the regiment was moved to the left of the +road, and having been dismounted, was ordered to the support of the +First Pennsylvania, which was hotly engaged. Robbins, as usual, moved +with a rush to the assault, and soon cleared his immediate front of +the rebels, chasing them across the open ground beyond the wood in +which they had taken cover. In this field there was a double ditch, +lined by fencing, with another of the same character facing it, only +forty or fifty paces distant. As Captain Beekman, heading his men, +sprang across the first fence at charging speed, they were met by a +desperate volley from the second line of the rebels lying in the other +cover. Instinctively, as they saw the flash, the men threw themselves +upon the ground, and now Beekman, rolling into the ditch, called his +troops there beside him. From the two covers there was kept up a +tremendous fire--our men sometimes charging toward the hostile ditch, +but in each case falling back, and the fight going on, both parties +holding their own, but neither gaining ground upon the other. +Meanwhile Captain Robbins, on the right of the {364} road, was being +sorely pressed. Major Janeway was sent with two squadrons to his +relief, and the fight redoubled in intensity. The ammunition of the +men giving out, a supply was brought from the rear and distributed +along the line itself by the officers, several of whom fell while +engaged in the service. Captain Beekman was shot through both hands as +he stretched them forth full of ammunition. Lieutenant Bellis was +almost at the same moment mortally wounded, as was also Lieutenant +Stewart. Captain Robbins was wounded severely in the shoulder, +Lieutenant Shaw severely in the head, Lieutenant Wynkoop fearfully in +the foot. Lieutenant Bowne was the only officer of the first battalion +on the field who was untouched, and he had several narrow escapes. +Major Janeway also had a narrow escape, a ball passing so close to his +forehead as to redden the skin. As Lieutenant Brooks was manoeuvring +the fifth squadron under fire, a ball fired close at hand struck him +near his belt-clasp, slightly penetrating the skin in two places, and, +doubling him up, sent him rolling headlong for thirty feet across the +road. As he recovered steadiness, he saw his whole squadron hurrying +to pick him up, and, in the excitement, losing all sensation of pain, +he ordered them again forward, and walked after them half-way to the +front. There he was obliged to drop upon the ground, and was carried +from the field. Lieutenant Craig also, of the same squadron, was badly +bruised by some missile that struck him in the breast, but, though +suffering severely from the blow, he did not leave the field. Still +the men bravely held their own. And now Custer, coming up with his +Michigan brigade, charged down the road, the whole body of the First +Jersey skirmishers simultaneously springing from their cover and +dashing upon the enemy, sweeping him from the field, and pursuing him +until the whole mass had melted into disordered rout. Meanwhile the +fighting on the left of the road had been of the severest character. +Malsbury received a mortal wound; Dye was killed instantly; Cox was +hit in the back, but remained the only officer with the squadron till, +toward the close of the action, he received a wound which disabled +him. The total loss of the nine companies of the First New Jersey +engaged, in killed and wounded, was sixty-four, eleven being +officers." + +[Illustration: PONTOON BRIDGE AT DEEP BOTTOM ON THE JAMES RIVER.] + +Soon after noon of that day three-fourths of the army had crossed the +Pamunkey, and the remaining corps crossed that night. Here were +several roads leading to the Confederate capital; but the Confederate +army, as soon as it found the enemy gone from its front, had moved in +the same direction, by a somewhat shorter route, and had quickly taken +up a strong position across all these roads, with flanks on Beaver Dam +and Totopotomoy creeks. Moreover, at this time it was heavily {365} +reinforced by troops that were drawn from the defences east of +Richmond. + +The next day the opposing forces were in close proximity, each trying +to find out what the other was about, and all day the crack of the +skirmisher's rifle was heard. Near Bethesda church there was a small +but bloody engagement, where a portion of Early's corps made an attack +on the National left and gained a brief advantage, but was soon driven +back, with a brigade commander and two regimental commanders among its +killed. At dusk, one brigade of Barlow's division made a sudden rush +and carried a line of Confederate rifle-pits. But it was ascertained +that the position offered no chance of success in a serious assault. +Furthermore, Grant was expecting reinforcements from Butler's Army of +the James, to come by way of White House, at the head of navigation on +York River, and he feared that Lee would move out with a large part of +his army to interpose between him and his reinforcements and overwhelm +them. So he extended his left toward Cold Harbor, sending Sheridan +with cavalry and artillery to secure that place. Sheridan was heavily +attacked there on the morning of June 1st, but held his ground, and +twice drove back the assailants. In the course of the day he was +relieved by the Sixth corps, to which the ten thousand reinforcements +under Gen. William F. Smith were added. At the same time the +Confederate line had been extended in the same direction, so as still +to cover all roads leading to Richmond. The Army of the Potomac, in +its movement down the streams, was now at the highest point that it +had reached in its movement up the peninsula, when led by McClellan +two years before. + +At six o'clock in the evening, Smith's and Wright's corps attacked the +Confederate intrenchments. Along most of the front they were obliged +to cross open ground that was swept by artillery and musketry; but +they moved forward steadily, in spite of their rapid losses, and +everywhere carried the first line of works, taking some hundreds of +prisoners, but were stopped by the second. They intrenched and held +their advanced position; but it had been dearly bought, since more +than two thousand of their men were killed or wounded, including many +officers. + +When the other corps had followed the Sixth, and the entire army was +in its new position at Cold Harbor, eight or ten miles from Richmond, +with its enemy but a little distance in front of it, an attack was +planned for the morning of the 3d. The Confederate position was very +strong. The line was from three to six miles from the outer defences +of Richmond, the right resting on the Chickahominy, and the left +protected by the woods and swamps about the head-waters of several +small streams. The Chickahominy was between it and Richmond, but the +water was low and everywhere fordable. The only chance for attack was +in front, and it remained to be demonstrated by experiment whether +anything could be done there. If Lee's line could be disrupted at the +centre, and a strong force thrust through, it would for the time being +disorganize his army, though a large part of it would undoubtedly +escape across the river and rally in the intrenchments nearer the +city. + +At half-past four o'clock on the morning of the 3d, the Second, Sixth, +and Eighteenth (Smith's) corps began the attack as planned. They moved +forward as rapidly and regularly as the nature of the ground would +admit, under a destructive fire of artillery and musketry, till they +carried the first line of intrenchments. Barlow's division of +Hancock's corps struck a salient, and, after a desperate hand-to-hand +contest, captured it, taking nearly three hundred prisoners and three +guns, which were at once turned upon the enemy. But every assaulting +column, on reaching the enemy's first line, found itself subjected to +cross-fires from the enemy's skilfully placed artillery, and not one +of them could go any farther. Most of them fell back speedily, leaving +large numbers prisoners or bleeding on the ground, and took up +positions midway between the lines, where they rapidly dug trenches +and protected themselves. General Grant had given orders to General +Meade to suspend the attack the moment it should appear hopeless, and +the heavy fighting did not last more than an hour, though firing was +kept up all day. A counter-attack by Early's corps was as unsuccessful +as those of the National troops had been; and one or two lighter +attacks by the Confederates, later in the day, were also repelled. + +{366} [Illustration: INTRENCHMENTS AT KENESAW MOUNTAIN, GA.] + +The Ninety-eighth New York regiment was among the troops that were +brought up from the Army of the James and joined the Army of the +Potomac two or three days before the battle of Cold Harbor. Its +colonel, William Kreutzer, writes a graphic account of the regiment's +experience during those first three days of June: + +"After ten o'clock, Devens, putting the Ninety-eighth in charge of one +of his staff, sent it, marching by the right flank, through the wood +to support one of his regiments. Soon the rattling of the men among +the brush and trees attracted some one's attention in front, and he +poured a volley down along our line lengthwise. We stop; the ground +rises before us, and the aim of the firing is too high. Staff-officer +says: 'These are our men, there is some mistake; wait awhile, and the +firing will stop.' Firing does not stop, and the aim is better. +Staff-officer goes to report, hastens for orders and instructions, and +never comes back. Our position is terribly embarrassing, frightfully +uncomfortable. Our ignorance of the place, the darkness, the wood, the +uncertainty whether the firing is from friend or foe, increase the +horrors of that night's battle. The writer walked from the centre to +the head of the regiment and asked Colonel Wead what the firing meant. +Wead replied: 'We are the victims of some one's blunder.' We +suggested: 'Let us withdraw the regiment, or fire at the enemy in +front. We can't stay here and make no reply. Our men are being killed +or wounded fast.' Wead remarked: 'I have no orders to do either; they +may be our men in front. I am here by direction of General Devens, and +one of his staff has gone to report the facts to him. He will return +in a short time. If we are all killed, I don't see that I can prevent +it, or am to blame for it.' + +"We asked Colonel Wead to have the men lie down. The order, 'Lie +down,' was passed along the line, and we returned to our position by +the colors. Subsequently, Colonel Wead joined us there. The firing +continued; the range became lower; the men lying down were wounded +fast. We all lay down. Colonel Wead was struck a glancing blow on the +shoulder-strap by a rifle-ball, and, after lying senseless for a +moment, said to the writer, 'I am wounded; take the command.' We arose +immediately, walked along the line, and quietly withdrew the men to +the lower edge of the wood where we had entered. In that night's +blunder the regiment lost forty-two men, killed and wounded. During +the night and early morning, Colonel Wead and the wounded crawled back +to the regiment. The more severely wounded were carried back half a +mile farther to an old barn, where their wounds were dressed and +whence they were taken in ambulances to White House. Nothing could +equal the horrors of that night's battle; the blundering march into +the enemy's intrenchments, his merciless fire, the cries of our {367} +wounded and dying, the irresolute stupidity and want of sagacity of +the conducting officer, deepen the plot and color the picture. + +"At 4 A.M. of the 3d, the Eighteenth Corps was formed for the charge +in three lines; first, a heavy skirmish line; second, a line +consisting of regiments deployed; third, a line formed of regiments in +solid column doubled on the centre. The Ninety-eighth was in the third +line. The whole army advanced together at sunrise. Within twenty +minutes after the order to advance had been given, one of the most +sanguinary battles of the war, quick, sharp, and decisive, had taken +place. By this battle the Army of the Potomac gained nothing, but the +Eighteenth Corps captured and held a projecting portion of the enemy's +breastwork in front. The Ninety-eighth knew well the ground that it +helped to capture, for there lay its dead left on the night of the +1st. + +"The men at once began the construction of a breastwork, using their +hands, tin cups, and bayonets. Later they procured picks and shovels. +They laid the dead in line and covered them over, and to build the +breastwork used rails, logs, limbs, leaves, and dirt. The enemy's +shells, solid shot and rifle-balls all the while showered upon them, +and hit every limb and twig about or above them. Nothing saved us but +a slight elevation of the ground in front. A limb cut by a solid shot +felled General Marston to the ground. Three boyish soldiers, thinking +to do the State service, picked him up, and were hurrying him to the +rear, when he recovered his consciousness and compelled them to drop +himself. In a short time he walked slowly back to the front. In this +advance and during the day our regimental flag received fifty-two +bullet-holes, and the regiment lost, killed and wounded, sixty-one. +Colonel Wead rose to his feet an instant on the captured line, when a +rifle-ball pierced his neck and cut the subclavian vein. He was +carried back to the barn beside the road, where he died the same +day.... + +"On the night of the 4th the Ninety-eighth moved from the second line +through the approach to the front line, and relieved the One Hundred +and Eighteenth New York and the Tenth New Hampshire. It had barely +time to take its position when the Confederates made a night attack +along our whole front. For twenty minutes before, the rain of shells +and balls was terrific; the missiles tore and screamed and sang and +howled along the air. Every branch and leaf was struck; every inch of +the trees and breastworks was pierced. Then the firing ceased along +his line for a few minutes, while the enemy crossed his breastworks +and formed for the charge, when, + + 'At once there rose so wild a yell, + As all the fiends from heaven that fell + Had pealed the banner cry of hell.' + +But no living thing could face that 'rattling shower' of ball and +shell which poured from our lines upon them. They fell to the ground, +they crept away, they hushed the yell of battle. The horrors of that +night assault baffle description." + +[Illustration: BREVET MAJOR-GENERAL EMORY UPTON.] + +[Illustration: MAJOR MARTIN T. McMAHON. (Afterward Brevet +Major-General.)] + +[Illustration: COLONEL SAMUEL S. CARROLL. (Afterward Brevet +Major-General.)] + +The entire loss of the National Army at Cold Harbor in the first +twelve days of June--including the battles just described and the +almost constant skirmishing and minor engagements--was ten thousand +and eighty-eight; and among the dead and wounded were many valuable +officers. General Tyler and Colonel Brooke were wounded, and Colonels +Porter, Morris, Meade, and Byrnes were killed.[1] + +[Footnote 1: The lines of the two armies were so close to each other +that it was impossible to care for the wounded that lay between them, +except by a cessation of hostilities. As the National forces had been +the assailants, most of the wounded were theirs. General Grant made an +immediate effort to obtain a cessation for this humane purpose, but +General Lee delayed it with various trivial excuses for forty-eight +hours, and at the end of that time all but two of the wounded were +dead. See a part of the correspondence in Grant's "Memoirs," Vol. II., +pp. 273 _et seq._ As to the losses here and at Spottsylvania, +authorities differ. The figures given above are from a statement +compiled in the Adjutant-General's office.] + +{368} The Confederate loss--which included Brigadier-General Doles +among the killed, and Brigadier-Generals Kirkland, Lane, Law, and +Finnegan among the wounded--is unknown; but it was much smaller than +the National. The attack of June 3d is recognized as the most serious +error in Grant's military career. He himself says, in his "Memoirs," +that he always regretted it was ever made. It was as useless, and +almost as costly, as Lee's assault upon Meade's centre at Gettysburg. +But we do not read that any of Grant's lieutenants protested against +it, as Longstreet protested against the attack on Cemetery Ridge. + +For some days Grant held his army as close to the enemy as possible, +to prevent the Confederates from detaching a force to operate against +Hunter in the Shenandoah Valley. + +General Halleck now proposed that the Army of the Potomac should +invest Richmond on the north. This might have prevented any +possibility of Lee's launching out toward Washington, but it could +hardly have effected anything else. The Confederate lines of supply +would have been left untouched, while the National troops would have +perished between impregnable intrenchments on the one side and +malarious swamps on the other. Grant determined to move once more by +the left flank, swing his army across the James, and invest the city +from the south. A direct investment of the Confederate capital on that +side was out of the question, because the south bank of the James is +lower than the city; and the movement would, therefore, resolve itself +into a struggle for Petersburg, thirty miles south of Richmond, which +was its railroad centre. + +To withdraw an army from so close contact with the enemy, march it +fifty miles, cross two rivers, and bring it into a new position, was a +very delicate and hazardous task, and Grant performed it with +consummate skill. He sent a part of his cavalry to make a +demonstration on the James above Richmond and destroy portions of +Lee's line of supplies from the Shenandoah; he had a line of +intrenchments constructed along the north bank of the Chickahominy, +from his position at Cold Harbor down to the point where he expected +to cross; and directed General Butler to send two vessels loaded with +stone to be sunk in the channel of the James as far up-stream as +possible, so that the Confederate gunboats could not come down and +attack the army while it was crossing. A large number of vessels had +been collected at Fort Monroe, to be used as ferry-boats when the army +should reach the James. The so-called "bridges" on the Chickahominy +were now only names of geographical points, for all the bridges had +been destroyed; but each column was to carry its pontoon train. + +[Illustration: BREVET MAJOR-GENERAL P. ST. GEORGE COOKE.] + +[Illustration: BREVET BRIGADIER-GENERAL JAMES A. BEAVER.] + +[Illustration: BREVET MAJOR-GENERAL ISAAC S. CATLIN.] + +The march began in the evening of June 12th, and at midday of the 13th +a pontoon was thrown across at Long Bridge, fifteen miles below the +Cold Harbor position, and Wilson's cavalry crossed and immediately +moved out a short distance on the roads toward Richmond, to watch the +movements of the enemy and prevent a surprise. The Fifth corps +followed quickly, and took a position covering these roads till the +remainder of the army could cross. The Second, Sixth, and Ninth corps +crossed the Chickahominy a few miles farther down; while the +Eighteenth had embarked at White House, to be sent around by water. In +the evening of the 13th, the Fifth reached Wilcox's Landing on the +James, ten miles below Haxall's, where McClellan had reached the river +at the close of his peninsula campaign. The other corps reached the +landing on the 14th. The river there is more than two thousand feet +wide; but between four o'clock, P.M., and midnight a pontoon was laid, +and the crossing began. The artillery and trains were sent over first, +and the infantry followed in a long procession that occupied +forty-eight hours, the rear guard of the Sixth corps passing over at +midnight of the 16th. Thus an army of more than one hundred thousand +men was taken from a line of trenches within a few yards of the enemy, +marched fifty miles, and, with all its paraphernalia, carried across +two rivers and placed in a position threatening that enemy's capital, +without a serious collision or disaster. General Ewell said that when +the National army got across the James River he knew that the +Confederate cause was lost, and it was the duty of their authorities +to make {369} the best terms they could while they still had a right +to claim concessions. + +Most critics of this campaign have persistently proceeded on the +assumption that Grant's objective was the city of Richmond, and have +accordingly condemned his plan of marching overland, and with apparent +conclusiveness have pointed to his heavy losses and to the fact that +Richmond was still uncaptured, and then asked the question, which has +been wearisomely repeated, why he might not as well have carried his +army by water in the first place to a position before Richmond, +without loss, as McClellan had done two years before, instead of +getting there along a bloody overland trail at such heavy cost. These +critics should know, even if Grant himself had not distinctly declared +it at the outset, that his objective was not the city of Richmond; +that it was Lee's army, which it was his business to follow and fight +until he destroyed it. The same critics appear to think also that he +ought to have found a way to accomplish his purpose without bloodshed, +and that because he did not he was no general, but a mere "butcher," +as some of them boldly call him. If they were asked to name a general +who had won great victories without himself losing men by the +thousand, they would find it difficult to do so, for no such general +figures in the pages of history. If there ever was a chance to defeat +the Army of Northern Virginia and destroy the Confederacy by anything +but hard fighting, it was when McClellan planted his army on the +peninsula; but McClellan's timidity was not the quality necessary for +a bold and brilliant stroke. Nearly the whole State of Virginia is +admirably adapted for defence against an invading army; and by the +time that Grant set out on his overland campaign every position where +Lee's army could make a stand was thoroughly known, and most of them +were fortified; furthermore, the men of his army were now veterans and +understood how to use every one of their advantages, while Lee as a +general had only to move his army over ground that it had already +traversed several times, and manoeuvre for a constant defence. Under +these circumstances, nothing but hard and continuous fighting could +have conquered such an army. The same criticism that finds fault with +General Grant for not transporting his army by water to the front of +Richmond instead of fighting his way thither overland, must also +condemn General Lee for not surrendering in the Wilderness instead of +fighting all the way to Appomattox and then surrendering at last. + +[Illustration: NEWSPAPER HEADQUARTERS AT THE FRONT. (From a war-time +photograph.)] + +{370} [Illustration: A GROUP OF NAVAL OFFICERS, U. S. N. COMMANDER +ROBERT W. SHUFELDT. REAR-ADMIRAL HIRAM PAULDING. COMMANDER S. L. +BREESE. LIEUTENANT-COMMANDER HENRY ERBEN. COMMANDER E. T. NICHOLS. +COMMANDER NAPOLEON COLLINS. COMMODORE GEORGE HENRY PREBLE. CAPTAIN +JOHN FAUNCE. REAR-ADMIRAL H. K. HOFF.] + + + + +{371} + +CHAPTER XXXII. + +THE CONFEDERATE CRUISERS. + +THE "ALABAMA" SUNK BY THE "KEARSARGE"--THE "SUMTER" AND OTHER +CRUISERS--PROTEST OF OUR GOVERNMENT TO THE BRITISH +GOVERNMENT--SECRETARY SEWARD'S DESPATCHES--PRIVATEERING--WHY ENGLAND +DID NOT INTERFERE--ARBITRATION AND AMOUNT OF DAMAGE OBTAINED FROM THE +BRITISH GOVERNMENT. + + +While the Army of the Potomac was putting itself in fighting trim +after its change of base, a decisive battle of the war took place +three thousand miles away. A vessel known in the builders' yard as the +"290," and afterward famous as the _Alabama_, had been built for the +Confederate Government in 1862, at Birkenhead, opposite Liverpool. She +was of wood, a fast sailer, having both steam and canvas, was two +hundred and twenty feet long, and rated at one thousand and forty +tons. She was thoroughly fitted in every respect, and cost nearly a +quarter of a million dollars. The American minister at London notified +the British Government that such a ship was being built in an English +yard, in violation of the neutrality laws, and demanded that she be +prevented from leaving the Mersey. But, either through design or +stupidity, the Government moved too slowly, and the cruiser escaped to +sea. She went to Fayal, in the Azores, and there took on board her +guns and coal, sent out to her in a merchant ship from London. Her +commander was Raphael Semmes, who had served in the United States +navy. Her crew were mainly Englishmen. For nearly two years she roamed +the seas, traversing the Atlantic and Indian Oceans and the Gulf of +Mexico, and captured sixty-nine American merchantmen, most of which +were burned at sea. Their crews were sent away on passing vessels, or +put ashore at some convenient port. Several war-vessels were sent out +in search of the _Alabama_, but they were at constant disadvantage +from the rule that when two hostile vessels are in a neutral port, the +first that leaves must have been gone twenty-four hours before the +other is permitted to follow. In French, and especially in British +ports, the _Alabama_ was always welcome, and enjoyed every possible +facility, because she was destroying American commerce. + +[Illustration: CAPTAIN JOHN A. WINSLOW AND OFFICERS ON THE DECK OF THE +"KEARSARGE." (From a Government photograph.)] + +In June, 1864, she was in the harbor of Cherbourg, France. The United +States man-of-war _Kearsarge_, commanded by John {372} A. Winslow, +found her there, and lay off the port, watching her. By not going into +the harbor, Winslow escaped the twenty-four-hour rule. Semmes sent a +note to Winslow, asking him not to go away, as he was coming out to +fight; but no such challenge was called for, as the _Kearsarge_ had +come for that purpose, and was patiently waiting for her prey. She was +almost exactly the size of the _Alabama_, and the armaments were so +nearly alike as to make a very fair match. But her crew were +altogether superior in gun-practice, and she had protected her boilers +by chains, "stoppered" up and down the side amidships, as had been +done in the fights at New Orleans and elsewhere. On Sunday morning, +June 19th, the _Alabama_ steamed out of the harbor amid the plaudits +of thousands of Englishmen and Frenchmen, who had not a doubt that she +was going to certain victory. The _Kearsarge_ steamed away as she +approached, and drew her off to a distance of seven or eight miles +from the coast. Winslow then turned and closed with his enemy. The two +vessels steamed around on opposite sides of a circle half a mile in +diameter, firing their starboard guns. The practice on the _Alabama_ +was very bad; she began firing first, discharged her guns rapidly, and +produced little or no effect, though a dozen of her shots struck her +antagonist. But when the _Kearsarge_ began firing there was war in +earnest. Her guns were handled with great skill, and every shot told. +One of them cut the mizzenmast so that it fell. Another exploded a +shell among the crew of the _Alabama's_ pivot gun, killing half of +them and dismounting the piece. Balls rolled in at the port-holes and +swept away the gunners; and several pierced the hull below the water +line, making the ship tremble from stem to stern, and letting in +floods of water. The vessels had described seven circles, and the +_Alabama's_ deck was strewn with the dead, when at the end of an hour +she was found to be sinking, her colors were struck, and her officers, +with a keen sense of chivalry, threw into the sea the swords that were +no longer their own. The _Kearsarge_ lowered boats to take off the +crew; but suddenly the stern settled, the bow was thrown up into the +air, and down went the _Alabama_ to the bottom of the British Channel, +carrying an unknown number of her men. An English yacht picked up +Semmes and about forty sailors, and steamed away to Southampton with +them; others were rescued by the boats of the _Kearsarge_, and still +others were drowned. + +In January, 1863, the _Alabama_ had fought the side-wheel steamer +_Hatteras_, of the United States Navy, off Galveston, Tex., and +injured her so that she sank soon after surrendering. The remainder of +the _Alabama's_ career, till she met the _Kearsarge_, had been spent +in capturing merchant vessels and either burning them or releasing +them under bonds. Before Captain Semmes received command of the +_Alabama_, he had cruised in the _Sumter_ on a similar mission, +capturing eighteen vessels, when her course was ended in the harbor of +Gibraltar, in February, 1862, where she was blockaded by the United +States steamers _Kearsarge_ and _Tuscarora_, and, as there was no +probability that she could escape to sea, her captain and crew +abandoned her. + +[Illustration: CAPTAIN RAPHAEL SEMMES.] + +[Illustration: CAPTAIN JOHN A. WINSLOW. (Afterward Rear-Admiral.)] + +A score of other Confederate cruisers roamed the seas, to prey upon +United States commerce, but none of them became quite so famous as the +_Sumter_ and the _Alabama_. They included the _Shenandoah_, which made +thirty-eight captures; the _Florida_, which made thirty-six; the +_Tallahassee_, which made twenty-seven; the _Tacony_, which made +fifteen; and the _Georgia_, which made ten. The _Florida_ was captured +in the harbor of Bahia, Brazil, in October, 1864, by a United States +man-of-war, in violation of the neutrality of the port. For this the +United States Government apologized to Brazil, and ordered the +restoration of the _Florida_ to the harbor where she was captured. But +in Hampton Roads she met with an accident and sank. It was generally +believed that the apparent accident was contrived with the connivance, +if not by direct order, of the Government. + +Most of these cruisers were built in British shipyards; and whenever +they touched at British ports, to obtain supplies and land prisoners, +their commanders were ostentatiously welcomed and lionized by the +British merchants and officials. + +[Illustration: OPENING OF THE FIGHT BETWEEN THE "KEARSARGE" AND THE +"ALABAMA."] + +The English builders were proceeding to construct several swift +iron-clad cruisers for the Confederate Government, when the United +States Government protested so vigorously that the British Government +prevented them from leaving port. One or two passages from Secretary +Seward's despatches to Charles Francis Adams, the American minister at +London, contain the whole argument that was afterward elaborated +before a high court of arbitration, and secured a verdict against +England. More than this, these passages contain what probably was the +controlling reason that determined England not to try the experiment +of intervention. Secretary Seward wrote, under date of October 5-6, +1863: + +"I have had the honor to receive and submit to the President your +despatch of the 17th of September, which relates to the iron-clad +vessels built at Laird's shipyards for war against the United States, +which is accompanied by a very interesting correspondence between +yourself and Earl Russell. The positions you have taken in this +correspondence are approved. It is indeed a cause of profound concern, +that, notwithstanding an engagement which the President has accepted +as final, there still remains a doubt whether those vessels will be +prevented from coming out, according to the original hostile purposes +of the enemies of the United States residing in Great Britain. + +"Earl Russell remarks that her Majesty's Government, having {373} +proclaimed neutrality, have in good faith exerted themselves to +maintain it. I have not to say now for the first time, that, however +satisfactory that position may be to the British nation, it does not +at all relieve the gravity of the question in the United States. The +proclamation of neutrality was a concession of belligerent rights to +the insurgents, and was deemed by this Government as unnecessary, and +in effect as unfriendly, as it has since proved injurious, to this +country. The successive preparations of hostile naval expeditions in +Great Britain are regarded here as fruits of that injurious +proclamation.... It is hardly necessary to say that the United States +stand upon what they think impregnable ground, when they refuse to be +derogated, by any act of British Government, from their position as a +sovereign nation in amity with Great Britain, and placed upon a +footing of equality with domestic insurgents who have risen up in +resistance against their authority. + +"It does not remain for us even to indicate to Great Britain the +serious consequences which must ensue if the iron-clads shall come +forth upon their work of destruction. They have been fully revealed to +yourself, and you have made them known to Earl Russell, within the +restraints which an honest and habitual respect for the Government and +the people of Great Britain imposes. It seems to me that her Majesty's +Government might be expected to perceive and appreciate them, even if +we were henceforth silent upon the subject. When our unhappy civil war +broke out, we distinctly confessed that we knew what great temptations +it offered to foreign intervention and aggression, and that in no +event could such intervention or aggression be endured. It was +apparent that such aggression, if it should come, must travel over the +seas, and therefore must be met and encountered, if at all, by +maritime resistance. We addressed ourselves to prepare the means of +such resistance. We have now a navy, not, indeed, as ample as we +proposed, but yet one which we feel assured is not altogether +inadequate to the purposes of self-defence, and it is yet rapidly +increasing in men, material, and engines of war. Besides this regular +naval force, the President has asked, and Congress has given him, +authority to convert the mercantile marine into armed squadrons, by +the issue of letters of marque and reprisal. All the world might see, +if it would, that the great arm of naval defence has not been thus +invigorated for the mere purpose of maintaining a blockade, or +enforcing our authority against the insurgents; for practically they +have never had an open port, or built and armed, nor could they from +their own resources build and arm, a single ship-of-war. + +"Thus the world is left free to understand that our measures of +maritime war are intended to resist maritime aggression, which is +constantly threatened from abroad and even more constantly apprehended +at home. That it would be employed for that purpose, if such +aggression should be attempted, would {374} seem certain, unless, +indeed, there should be reason to suppose that the people do not in +this respect approve of the policy and sympathize with the sentiments +of the executive Government. But the resistance of foreign aggression +by all the means in our power, and at the hazard, if need be, of the +National life itself, is the one point of policy on which the American +people seem to be unanimous and in complete harmony with the +President. + +"The United States understand that the _Alabama_ is a pirate +ship-of-war, roving over the seas, capturing, burning, sinking, and +destroying American vessels, without any lawful authority from the +British Government or from any other sovereign power, in violation of +the law of nations, and contemptuously defying all judicial tribunals +equally of Great Britain and all other states. The United States +understand that she was purposely built for war against the United +States, by British subjects, in a British port, and prepared there to +be armed and equipped with a specified armament adapted to her +construction for the very piratical career which she is now pursuing; +that her armament and equipment, duly adapted to this ship-of-war and +no other, were simultaneously prepared by the same British subjects, +in a British port, to be placed on board to complete her preparation +for that career; that when she was ready, and her armament and +equipment were equally ready, she was clandestinely and by connivance +sent by her British holders, and the armament and equipment were at +the same time clandestinely sent through the same connivance by the +British subjects who had prepared them, to a common port outside of +British waters, and there the armament and equipment of the _Alabama_ +as a ship-of-war were completed, and she was sent forth on her work of +destruction with a crew chiefly of British subjects, enlisted in and +proceeding from a British port, in fraud of the laws of Great Britain +and in violation of the peace and sovereignty of the United States. + +"The United States understand that the purpose of the building, +armament and equipment, and expedition of the vessel was one single +criminal intent, running equally through the building and the +equipment and the expedition, and fully completed and executed when +the _Alabama_ was finally despatched; and that this intent brought the +whole transaction of building, armament, and equipment within the +lawful jurisdiction of Great Britain, where the main features of the +crime were executed. The United States understand that they gave +sufficient and adequate notice to the British Government that this +wrongful enterprise was begun and was being carried out to its +completion; and that upon receiving this notice her Majesty's +Government were bound by treaty obligations and by the law of nations +to prevent its execution, and that if the diligence which was due had +been exercised by the British Government the expedition of the +_Alabama_ would have been prevented, and the wrongful enterprise of +British subjects would have been defeated. The United States confess +that some effort was made by her Majesty's Government, but it was put +forth too late and was too soon abandoned. Upon these principles of +law and these assumptions of fact, the United States do insist, and +must continue to insist, that the British Government is justly +responsible for the damages which the peaceful, law-abiding citizens +of the United States sustain by the depredations of the _Alabama_. + +"Though indulging a confident belief in the correctness of our +positions in regard to the claims in question, and others, we shall be +willing at all times hereafter, as well as now, to consider the +evidence and the arguments which her Majesty's Government may offer, +to show that they are invalid; and if we shall not be convinced, there +is no fair and just form of conventional arbitrament or reference to +which we shall not be willing to submit them." + +In 1856 the great powers of Europe signed at Paris a treaty by which +they relinquished the right of privateering, and some of the lesser +powers afterward accepted a general invitation to join in it. The +United States offered to sign it, on condition that a clause be +inserted declaring that private property on the high seas, if not +contraband of war, should be exempt from seizure by the public armed +vessels of an enemy, as well as by private ones. The powers that had +negotiated the treaty declined to make this amendment, and therefore +the United States did not become a party to it. When the war of +secession began, and the Confederate authorities proclaimed their +readiness to issue letters of marque for private vessels to prey upon +American commerce, the United States Government offered to accept the +treaty without amendment; but England and France declined to permit +our Government to join in the treaty then, if its provisions against +privateering were to be understood as applying to vessels sent out +under Confederate authority. There the subject was dropped, and while +the insurgents were thus left at liberty to do whatever damage they +could upon the high seas, the United States Government was also left +free to send not only its own cruisers but an unlimited number of +privateers against the commerce of any nation with which it might +become involved in war. When at the beginning of President Lincoln's +administration Mr. Adams was sent out as minister at London, he +carried instructions that included this passage: "If, as the President +does not at all apprehend, you shall unhappily find her Majesty's +Government tolerating the application of the so-called seceding +States, or wavering about it, you will not leave them to suppose for a +moment that they can grant that application and remain the friends of +the United States. You may even assure them promptly, in that case, +that if they determine to recognize, they may at the same time prepare +to enter into alliance with the enemies of this Republic." + +England had had a costly experience of American privateering under +sail in the war of 1812-15, and she now saw what privateering could +become under steam power. While she was rejoicing at the destruction +of American merchantmen, she knew what might happen to her own. Let +her become involved in war with the United States, and not only a +hundred war-ships but a vast fleet of privateers would at once set +sail from American ports, and in a few months her commerce would be +swept from every sea. The fisherman on the coast of Maine would carpet +his hut with Persian rugs, and the ship-carpenter's children would +play with baubles intended to decorate the Court of St. James.[1] The +navies of England and France combined could not blockade the harbors +of New England; and from those harbors, where every material is at +hand, might have sailed a fleet whose operations would not only have +impoverished the merchants of London, but called out the wail of +famine from her populace. Other considerations were discussed; but it +was doubtless this contingency that furnished the controlling reason +why the British Government resisted the tempting offers of cotton and +free trade, {375} resisted the importunities of Louis Napoleon, +resisted the clamor of its more reckless subjects, resisted its own +prejudice against republican institutions, and refused to recognize +the Southern Confederacy as an independent nation. It may have been +this consideration also that induced it, after the war was over, to +agree to exactly that settlement by arbitration which was suggested by +Secretary Seward in the despatch quoted above. In 1872 the +international court of arbitration, sitting in Geneva, Switzerland, +decided that the position taken by the United States Government in +regard to responsibility for the Confederate cruisers was right; and +that the British Government, for failing to prevent their escape from +its ports, must pay the United States fifteen and a half million +dollars. So far as settlement of the principle was concerned, the +award gave Americans all the satisfaction they could desire; but the +sum named fell far short of the damage that had been wrought. Charles +Sumner, speaking in his place in the Senate, had contended with great +force for the exaction of what were called "consequential damages," +which would have swelled the amount to hundreds of millions; but in +this he was overruled. + +[Footnote 1: See lists of goods captured by American privateers in the +war of 1812: "Eighteen bales of Turkish carpets, 43 bales of raw silk, +20 boxes of gums, 160 dozen swan-skins, 6 tons of ivory, $40,000 in +gold dust, $80,000 in specie, $20,000 worth of indigo, $60,000 in +bullion, $500,000 worth of dry goods, 700 tons of mahogany," etc. In +Coggeshall's "History of American Privateers."] + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIII. + +PRELIMINARY OPERATIONS IN THE WEST. + +GENERAL SHERMAN CAPTURES MERIDIAN, MISS.--DESTRUCTION OF RAILROADS AND +SUPPLIES--GENERAL BANKS ATTEMPTS TO CAPTURE SHREVEPORT, LA.--BATTLE OF +SABINE CROSS-ROADS--TEMPORARY ROUT AND DEFEAT OF THE UNION +FORCES--DEFEAT OF THE CONFEDERATES AT PLEASANT HILL--INCIDENTS OF +HEROISM ON BOTH SIDES--BUILDING OF DAMS IN THE RED RIVER--SUCCESSFUL +PASSAGE OF THE RAPIDS BY GUNBOATS--LOSSES AND INCIDENTS OF THE +EXPEDITION. + + +The first important movements at the West in 1864 were for the purpose +of securing the Mississippi River, possession of which had been won by +the victories of Farragut at New Orleans and Grant at Vicksburg, and +setting free the large garrisons that were required to hold the +important places on its banks. On the 3d of February Gen. William T. +Sherman set out from Vicksburg with a force of somewhat more than +twenty thousand men, in two columns, commanded respectively by +Generals McPherson and Hurlbut. Their destination was Meridian, over +one hundred miles east of Vicksburg, where the Mobile and Ohio +Railroad is crossed by that from Jackson to Selma. The march was made +in eleven days, without notable incident, except that General Sherman +narrowly escaped capture at Decatur. He had stopped for the night at a +log house, Hurlbut's column had passed on to encamp four miles beyond +the town, and McPherson's had not yet come up. A few straggling wagons +of Hurlbut's train were attacked at the cross-roads by a detachment of +Confederate cavalry, and Sherman ran out of the house to see wagons +and horsemen mingled in a cloud of dust, with pistol bullets flying in +every direction. With the few orderlies and clerks that belonged to +headquarters, he was preparing to barricade a corn-crib where they +could defend themselves, when an infantry regiment was brought back +from Hurlbut's corps and quickly cleared the ground. General Grant had +an equally narrow escape from capture just before he set out on his +Virginia campaign. A special train that was taking him to the front +reached Warrenton Junction just after a detachment of Confederate +cavalry, still in sight, had crossed the track at that point. + +[Illustration] + +General Leonidas Polk, who was in command at Meridian, marched out at +the approach of Sherman's columns, and retreated into Alabama--perhaps +deceived by the report Sherman had caused to be spread that the +destination of the expedition was Mobile. The National troops entered +the town on the 14th, and at once began a thorough destruction of the +arsenal and storehouses, the machine-shops, the station, and +especially the railroads. Miles of the track were torn up, the ties +burned, and the rails heated and then bent and twisted, or wound +around trees. These were popularly called "Jeff Davis's neckties" and +"Sherman's hairpins." Wherever the columns passed they destroyed the +mills and factories and stations, leaving untouched only the +dwelling-houses. Sherman was determined to disable those railroads so +completely that the Confederates could not use them again, and in this +he succeeded, as he did in everything he undertook personally. But +another enterprise, intended to be carried out at the same time, was +not so fortunate. He sent Gen. W. Sooy Smith with a cavalry force to +destroy Forrest's Confederate cavalry, which was very audacious in its +frequent raids, and liable at any time to dash upon the National +railroad communication in middle Tennessee. Smith had about seven +thousand men, and was to leave Memphis on the 1st of February and go +straight to Meridian, Sherman telling him he would be sure to +encounter Forrest on the way, and how he must manage the fight. But +Smith did not leave Memphis till the 11th, and, instead of defeating +Forrest, allowed Forrest to defeat him and drive him back to Memphis; +so that Sherman waited at Meridian till the 20th, and then returned +with his expedition to Vicksburg, followed by thousands of negroes of +all ages, who could not and would not be turned back, but pressed +close upon the army, in their firm belief that its mission was their +deliverance. + +{376} [Illustration: LANDING OF FEDERAL FORCES AT INDIAN BEND, LA., +APRIL, 1863.] + +While the gap that had been made in the Confederacy by the seizure of +the Mississippi was thus widened by destruction of railroads east of +that river, General Banks, in command at New Orleans, attempted to +perform a somewhat similar service west of it. With about fifteen +thousand men he set out in March for Shreveport, at the head of steam +navigation on Red River, to be joined at Alexandria by ten thousand +men under Gen. A. J. Smith (loaned for the occasion by Sherman from +the force at Vicksburg) and by Commodore David D. Porter with a fleet +of gunboats and transports. Smith and Porter arrived promptly at the +rendezvous, captured Fort de Russey below Alexandria, and waited for +Banks. After his arrival, the army moved by roads parallel with the +river, and the gunboats kept even pace with them, though with great +difficulty because of low water. Small bodies of Confederate troops +appeared frequently, but were easily brushed aside by the army, while +the fire from the gunboats destroyed a great many who were foolhardy +enough {377} to attack them with musketry and field guns. So used had +the troops become to this proceeding, that common precautions were +relaxed, and the army jogged along strung out for twenty miles on a +single road, with a small cavalry force in the advance, then the +wagon-trains, and then the infantry. + +As they approached Sabine Cross Roads, April 8, they were confronted +by a strong Confederate force commanded by Gen. Richard Taylor, and +suddenly there was a battle, though neither commander intended it. +Taylor, before camping for the night, had sent out troops merely to +drive back the advance guard of the expedition. But the men on both +sides became excited, and the Nationals fought persistently to save +their trains, while Banks tried to bring forward his infantry, but in +vain, because his wagons blocked the road. + +When the skirmish line was driven back on the main body, the +Confederates advanced in heavy force, and for a time there was very +fierce fighting. Several of the National batteries were pushed +forward, and fought most gallantly. On the left was Nim's battery, +which was doing terrible execution, when the enemy prepared to make a +charge upon it in great force. General Stone, observing this, ordered +that the battery be withdrawn to save it from capture; but it was +found that this was impossible, because nearly all the horses had been +killed. The gunners continued to fire double charges of grape and +canister into the advancing enemy, and struck down a great many of +them, including Gen. Alfred Mouton, who was leading the charge. But +this did not stop the assailants, who rapidly closed up their ranks +and pushed on, capturing four of the guns, while the other two were +hauled off by hand. Many of the horses of the wagon trains became +frightened, broke loose, and dashed wildly through the lines of the +infantry; and, amid the increasing confusion, the Confederates pressed +closer to follow up their advantage. General Banks, General Franklin, +and others of the commanders, were in the thick of the fray +endeavoring to rally the men and hold them up to the fight. Two horses +were killed under General Franklin, and one member of his staff lost +both feet by a cannon shot. When the battle had been in progress an +hour and a half the line suddenly gave way, and the cavalry and +teamsters rushed back in a disorderly mass, followed closely by the +victorious enemy. Banks's personal efforts to rally them were useless, +and he was borne away by the tide. Three miles in the rear the +Nineteenth Corps was drawn up in line, and here the rout was stayed. +The Confederates attacked this line, but could not break it, and at +nightfall retired. Banks had lost over three thousand men, nineteen +guns, and a large amount of stores. + +[Illustration: GENERAL BANKS'S ARMY IN THE ADVANCE ON SHREVEPORT, LA., +CROSSING CANE RIVER, MARCH 31, 1864.] + +A participant in this battle, writing an account of it at the time, +said: "General Banks personally directed the fight. Everything that +man could do he did. Occupying a position so exposed that nearly every +horse ridden by his staff was wounded, and many killed, he constantly +disregarded the entreaties of those around, who begged that he would +retire to some less exposed position. General Stone, his chief of +staff, with his sad, earnest face, that seemed to wear an unusual +expression, was constantly at the front, and by his reckless bravery +did much to encourage the men. And so the fight raged. The enemy were +pushing a temporary advantage. Our army was merely forming into +position to make a sure battle. Then came one of those unaccountable +events that no genius or courage can control. The battle {378} was +progressing vigorously. The musketry firing was loud and continuous, +and having recovered from the danger experienced by Ransom's division, +we felt secure of the position. I was slowly riding along the edge of +a wood, conversing with a friend who had just ridden up about the +events and prospects of the day. We had drawn into the side of the +wood to allow an ammunition-wagon to pass, and although many were +observed going to the rear, some on foot and some on horseback, we +regarded it as an occurrence familiar to every battle, and it +occasioned nothing but a passing remark. Suddenly there was a rush, a +shout, the crashing of trees, the breaking down of rails, the rush and +scamper of men. It was as sudden as though a thunder-bolt had fallen +among us and set the pines on fire. What caused it, or when it +commenced, no one knew. I turned to my companion to inquire the reason +of this extraordinary proceeding, but before he had the chance to +reply, we found ourselves swallowed up, as it were, in a hissing, +seething, bubbling whirlpool of agitated men. We could not avoid the +current; we could not stem it; and if we hoped to live in that mad +company, we must ride with the rest of them. Our line of battle had +given way. General Banks took off his hat and implored his men to +remain; his staff-officers did the same, but it was of no avail. Then +the general drew his sabre and endeavored to rally his men, but they +would not listen. Behind him the rebels were shouting and advancing. +Their musket-balls filled the air with that strange file-rasping sound +that war has made familiar to our fighting men. The teams were +abandoned by the drivers, the traces cut, and the animals ridden off +by the frightened men. Bareheaded riders rode with agony in their +faces, and for at least ten minutes it seemed as if we were going to +destruction together. It was my fortune to see the first battle of +Bull Run, and to be among those who made that celebrated midnight +retreat toward Washington. The retreat of the fourth division was as +much a rout as that of the first Federal army, with the exception that +fewer men were engaged, and our men fought here with a valor that was +not shown on that serious, sad, mock-heroic day in July. We rode +nearly two miles in this madcap way, until, on the edge of a ravine, +which might formerly have been a bayou, we found Emory's division +drawn up in line. Our retreating men fell beyond this line, and Emory +prepared to meet the rebels. They came with a rush, and, as the shades +of night crept over the tree-tops, they encountered our men. Emory +fired three rounds, and the rebels retreated. This ended the fight, +leaving the Federals masters. Night, and the paralyzing effect of the +stampede upon our army, made pursuit impossible. The enemy fell back, +taking with them some of the wagons that were left, and a number of +the guns that were abandoned." + +[Illustration: BREVET MAJOR-GENERAL CUVIER GROVER.] + +[Illustration: MAJOR-GENERAL NATHANIEL P. BANKS.] + +[Illustration: BREVET MAJOR-GENERAL THOMAS KILBY SMITH.] + +That night Banks fell back fifteen miles to Pleasant Hill, General +Emory's command burying the dead and caring for the wounded before +following as the rear-guard. Here General Smith's command joined him, +making his full force about fifteen thousand men, and he formed a +strong line of battle and waited to be attacked again. The line was +stretched across the main road, with its left resting on the slight +eminence known as Pleasant Hill. The Confederates spent a large part +of the day in gathering up plunder and slowly advancing with +skirmishing until about four o'clock in the afternoon. At that hour +they advanced their lines in heavy charging columns against the +centre, which fought stubbornly for a while and then fell back slowly +upon the reserves. The Confederates then pressed upon the right wing, +when the reserves were pushed forward and charged them vigorously in +turn, while the centre was rallied and re-formed and advanced so as to +strike them in the flank. What took place at this time is well +described by an eye-witness: "This fighting was terrific--old soldiers +say it never was surpassed for desperation. Notwithstanding the +terrible havoc in their ranks, the enemy pressed fiercely on, slowly +pushing the men of the Nineteenth Corps back, up the hill, but not +breaking their line of battle. A sudden and bold dash of the rebels on +the right gave them possession of Taylor's battery, and forced our +line still further back. Now came the grand _coup de main_. The +Nineteenth, on arriving at the top of the hill, suddenly filed off +over the hill and passed through the lines of General Smith. The +rebels were now in but two lines of battle, the first having been +almost annihilated by General Emory, what remained being forced back +into the second line. But these two lines came on exultant and sure of +victory. The first passed over the knoll, and, all heedless of the +long line of cannons and crouching forms of as brave men as ever trod +Mother Earth, pressed on. The second line appeared on the crest, and +the death-signal was sounded. Words cannot describe the awful effect +of this discharge. Seven thousand rifles, and several batteries of +artillery, each gun loaded to the muzzle with grape and canister, were +fired simultaneously, and the whole centre of the rebel line was +crushed down as a field of ripe wheat through which a tornado had +passed. It is estimated that one thousand men were hurried into +eternity or frightfully mangled by this one discharge. No time was +given them to recover their good order, but General Smith ordered a +charge, and his men dashed rapidly forward, the boys of the Nineteenth +joining in. {379} The rebels fought boldly and desperately back to the +timber, on reaching which, a large portion broke and fled, fully two +thousand throwing aside their arms." + +After being thus routed, the Confederates were pursued nearly three +miles. Their losses this day included Gen. Thomas Green, killed. The +Confederate general, E. Kirby Smith, who commanded that department, +says: "Our repulse at Pleasant Hill was so complete, and our command +was so disorganized, that, had Banks followed up his success +vigorously, he would have met but feeble opposition to his advance on +Shreveport.... Assuming command, I was consulting with General Taylor +when some stragglers from the battlefield, where our wounded were +still lying, brought the intelligence that Banks had precipitously +retreated after the battle, converting a victory which he might have +claimed into a defeat." + +General Banks, in his official report, gives the reasons why he +retreated to Grand Ecore immediately after his brilliant victory at +Pleasant Hill: "At the close of the engagement the victorious party +found itself without rations and water. To clear the field for the +fight, the train had been sent to the rear upon the single line of +communication through the woods, and could not be brought to the front +during the night. There was water neither for man nor beast, except +such as the now exhausted wells had afforded during the day, for miles +around. Previous to the movement of the army from Natchitoches, orders +had been given to the transport fleet, with a portion of the Sixteenth +Corps, under the command of Gen. Kilby Smith, to move up the river, if +it was found practicable, to some point near Springfield Landing, with +a view of effecting a junction with the army at that point on the +river. The surplus ammunition and supplies were on board these +transports. It was impossible to ascertain whether the fleet had been +able to reach the point designated. The rapidly falling river and the +increased difficulties of navigation made it appear almost certain +that it would not be able to attain the point proposed. A squadron of +cavalry sent down to the river, accompanied by Mr. Young, of the +Engineer Corps, who was thoroughly acquainted with the country, +reported, on the day of the battle, that no tidings of the fleet could +be obtained on the river. These considerations, the absolute +deprivation of water for man or beast, the exhaustion of rations, and +the failure to effect a connection with the fleet on the river, made +it necessary for the army, although victorious in the terrible +struggle through which it had just passed, to retreat to a point where +it would be certain of communicating with the fleet, and where it +would have an opportunity of reorganization." + +Another reason for Banks's retreat was that he had been ordered to +return Smith's borrowed troops immediately. + +The principal hero of this battle was Gen. Andrew Jackson Smith, whose +prompt arrival with his command Friday night, together with his energy +and good generalship in the battle of the ensuing day, probably saved +Banks's army from a second defeat. With him was the gallant Gen. +Joseph A. Mower, hardly less conspicuous in the fighting. So far as +energy and valor were concerned, however, every officer there rose to +his full duty. General Banks was under fire much of the time, and a +bullet passed through his coat. General Franklin exhibited great skill +in manoeuvring his troops. A staff officer was riding down the line +with an order, when a cannon shot took off his horse's head. Col W. F. +Lynch, at the head of a small detachment pursuing the enemy, captured +three caissons filled with ammunition. As he was attempting to jump +his horse over a ditch, a bullet whistled past his ear, and turning, +he saw that it had been fired by a wounded Confederate soldier in the +ditch, who was just preparing to take a second and more careful shot +at him. The colonel drew his revolver and prevented any further +mischief from that quarter. Col. Lewis Benedict was wounded early in +the fight, but refused to leave the field, and remained with his +brigade until he fell at its head, of a mortal wound. Col. W. T. Shaw, +commanding a brigade, observed preparations for a cavalry charge +intended to break his line, and ordered his men to reserve their fire +until the enemy should be within thirty yards. This order was obeyed, +and as the Confederate horsemen rode up at a gallop, each infantryman +selected his mark, and when the volley was fired, nearly every one of +the four hundred saddles was instantly emptied. It was said that not +more than ten of the cavalrymen escaped. A participant says: "In the +very thickest of the fight, on our left and centre, rode the +patriarchal-looking warrior, Gen. Andrew Jackson Smith, whose troops +received an increased inspiration of heroism from his presence. +Wherever he rode, cheer after cheer greeted him." The same writer +says: "There was something more than solemn grandeur in the scene at +Pleasant Hill, at sunset, on Saturday, April 9th. Standing on a slight +eminence which overlooked the left and centre of our line, I could see +the terrible struggle between our well-disciplined troops and the +enemy. The sun shone directly in the faces of our men, while the wind +blew back the smoke of both the enemy's fire and that of our own +gallant men into our ranks, rendering it almost impossible at times to +distinguish the enemy in the dense clouds of smoke. All of a sudden, +our whole front seemed to gather renewed strength, and they swept the +rebels before them like chaff." + +The Forty-ninth Illinois Regiment, led by Major Morgan, charged a +Confederate battery and captured two guns and a hundred prisoners. A +brigade, consisting of the Fifty-eighth and One Hundred and Nineteenth +Illinois, and the Eighty-ninth Indiana, being a part of the force that +struck the Confederates in the flank, retook one of the batteries that +had been lost the day before, and with it four hundred prisoners. + +{380} [Illustration: BAILEY'S DAM, RED RIVER.] + +It was said that one reason for the recklessness with which the +Confederates threw away their lives in hopeless charges was that they +had found a large quantity of whiskey among the captures of the +previous day. The writer last quoted gives a vivid description of the +appearance of the field after the battle. He says: "On Sunday morning, +at daybreak, I took occasion to visit the scenes of Saturday's bloody +conflict, and a more ghastly spectacle I have not witnessed. Over the +field and upon the Shreveport road were scattered dead horses, broken +muskets, and cartridge-boxes stained with blood, while all around, as +far as the eye could reach, were mingled the inanimate forms of +patriot and traitor, side by side. Here were a great many rebels badly +wounded, unable to move, dying for want of water, and not a drop +within two miles, and no one to get it for them. Their groans and +piteous appeals for 'Water! water! water! were heart-rending, and sent +a shudder to the most stony heart. I saw one sweet face, that of a +young patriot, and upon his icy features there lingered a heavenly +smile, speaking of calmness and resignation. The youth was probably +not more than nineteen, with a full blue eye beaming, even in death, +with meekness. The morning wind lifted his auburn locks from off his +marble face, exposing to view a noble forehead, which was bathed with +the heavy dew of Saturday night. I dismounted for a moment, hoping to +be able to find some trace of the hero's name, but the chivalry had +stripped his body of every article of value. The fatal ball had +pierced his heart. Not twenty feet from this {381} dreary picture lay +prostrate the mutilated body of an old man. His cap lay by the side of +his head, in a pool of blood, while his long flowing gray beard was +dyed with his blood. A shell had fearfully lacerated his right leg, +while his belt was pierced in two places. In front of the long belt of +woods which skirted the open field, and from which the rebels emerged +so boldly, was a deep ditch, and at this point the slaughter among the +rebels was terrific. In many places the enemy's dead were piled up in +groups, intermixed with our dead." + +[Illustration: A LOUISIANA SUGAR PLANTATION.] + +Banks's loss in the three days, April 7-9, was three thousand nine +hundred and sixty-nine men, of whom about two thousand were prisoners. +The Confederate loss never was reported; but there is reason to +believe that it was even larger than Banks's. + +[Illustration: LIEUTENANT-GENERAL RICHARD TAYLOR, C. S. A.] + +When the army and the fleet were once more together at Grand Ecore, a +new difficulty arose. There was a rapid in the river about a mile +long, and the fleet in ascending had been taken over it with great +difficulty. The water had now fallen, bringing to view many ragged +rocks, and leaving it impossible to find any channel of sufficient +depth for the boats to descend. They were in imminent danger of being +captured, and it was seriously proposed to abandon or destroy them. +Admiral Porter says: "I saw nothing before me but the destruction of +the best part of the Mississippi squadron." But he adds: "There seemed +to have been an especial Providence looking out for us, in providing a +man equal to the emergency." This man was Lieut.-Col. Joseph Bailey, +engineer of the Nineteenth Corps, who had foreseen the difficulty and +proposed its remedy just before the battle of Pleasant Hill. His +proposition, which was to build a dam or dams and raise the water +sufficiently to float the boats down over the rapid, was ridiculed by +the regular engineers. But it had the sanction of General Banks; and +with three thousand men he set to work. Two regiments of Maine +lumbermen began the felling of trees, while three hundred teams were +set in motion bringing in stone and logs, and quarries were opened, +and flat-boats were hastily constructed to bring material down the +stream. Admiral Porter says: "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 undertaking." Bailey first constructed +a dam three hundred feet long, reaching from the left bank of the +river straight out into the stream. It was made of the heaviest +timbers he could get, cross-tied, and filled with stone. Four barges +were floated down to the end of it, and then filled with brick and +stone until they sank. From the right bank a similar dam was run out +until it nearly met the barges. At the end of eight days the water had +risen sufficiently to allow the smaller gunboats to go down, and it +was expected that in another day it would be deep enough for all; but +the pressure was too much, and two of the barges were swept away. This +accident threatened to diminish the accumulated water so rapidly that +none of the boats could be saved, when Admiral Porter ordered that one +of the larger vessels, the _Lexington_, be brought down to attempt the +passage. This was done; and he says: "She 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 thousand +voices rose in one deafening cheer, and universal joy seemed to +pervade 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 _Lexington_, 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, however, swept +along over the rocks with the current, and fortunately escaped with +only one hole in her bottom, which was stopped in the course of an +hour." Two more of the boats then passed through safely. + +This partial success filled everybody with enthusiasm, and the +soldiers, who had been working like beavers for eight days, some of +them up to their necks in water, set to work with a will to repair the +dams, and in three days had done this, and also constructed a series +of wing dams on {382} the upper falls. The six large vessels then +passed down safely without any serious accident, and a few hours later +the whole fleet was ready to go down the river with the transports +under convoy. Admiral Porter says, in his report: "The highest honors +that the Government can bestow on Colonel Bailey can never repay him +for the service he has rendered the country. He has saved to the Union +a valuable fleet, worth nearly two million dollars, and he has +deprived the enemy of a triumph which would have emboldened them to +carry on this war a year or two longer; for the intended departure of +the army was a fixed fact, and there was nothing left for me to do, in +case that occurred, but to destroy every part of the vessels, so that +the rebels could make nothing of them." + +In this expedition the fleet lost two small gunboats and a +quartermaster's boat, which they were convoying with four hundred +troops on board. At Dunn's Bayou, three hundred miles below +Alexandria, a powerful land force, with a series of batteries, +attacked these boats, pierced their boilers with shot, and killed or +wounded many of the soldiers with rifle-balls. The crews fought their +vessels as long as possible, but at length were obliged to give up the +contest, and one of the gunboats was abandoned and burned, while the +other was surrendered because her commander would not set fire to her +when she had so many wounded men on her decks. + +E. C. Williams, who was an ensign in the fleet on this expedition, +says, in the course of his "Recollections," read before the Ohio +Commandery of the Loyal Legion: + +"Our station for coaling was at Fort Butler, a small earthwork at the +mouth of Bayou Lafourche, occupied by a small garrison from Banks's +army. The garrison had erected a very tall flag-staff, reaching far +above the fog-bank that in that latitude usually shut out all view of +the land in the early fall and spring mornings. From our boat it was a +sight of rare beauty to watch the flag as it was each morning unfurled +over the little fort. Shut out from all view of the surrounding +country by the impenetrable fog as completely as though we had been in +mid-ocean, our attention would be first attracted to the fort by the +shrill notes of the fife and the rattle of the drum as they sounded +the color salute, when, watching the top of the staff, which was +usually visible above the bank of fog that covered the lowlands from +our view, we would see the flag rise to the peak; and as the last +shrill note of the fife was sounded, accompanied by the roll of the +drum, the halyards were cleared, and the flag, full and free, floated +out in the heavens over us, far above the clouds, and the mists, and +the gloom with which we were surrounded. Officers, at their own +request, were repeatedly called from their sleep to see the sight +which I have so faintly portrayed. + +"It was part of our duty--at least we made it so--to take on board all +escaped slaves that sought our protection, and turn them over to the +nearest army garrison. Many affecting incidents occurred in connection +with these poor people seeking the freedom vouchsafed them by Uncle +Sam under Lincoln's proclamation. I remember one day when we were in a +part of the river peculiarly infested with marauding bands of the +rebel forces, a hail from shore was reported. Under cover of our guns, +a boat was sent off to see what was wanted, and, returning, reported +that a large number of slaves were near at hand, concealed in the +dense cotton-wood brush. They had been hiding in the woods for several +days, fearing re-capture by some of the roving bands of the enemy, and +a scouting party was even then hard upon them, from which they could +not hope to escape unless we gave them protection by taking them on +board. We at once made for the designated spot, not far distant, and, +running inshore, taking all precaution against a surprise, threw open +a gangway, and, as the slaves showed themselves, ran out a long plank, +and called to them to hurry on board. On they came--a great motley +crowd of them, of both sexes and all ages, from babies in arms to +gray-headed old patriarchs. One of the latter--and who was evidently +the leader of the party--stood at the foot of the plank encouraging +the timid and assisting the weak as they hurried on board, and, when +he had seen all the others safely on, stepped on the plank himself; +and as he reached the guard before coming on board, little heeding our +orders to hurry, he dropped on his knees, and, reverently uncovering +his head, pressed his lips fervently to the cold iron casemates, and +with uplifted eyes, and hands raised to heaven, broke out with, 'Bress +God and Massa Lincum's gunboats! We's free! We's free!'" + +There was much speculation as to the real or ulterior object of this +Red River expedition. Some writers spoke of it flippantly as a mere +cotton-stealing enterprise, while others imagined they discovered a +deep design to push our arms as far as possible toward the borders of +Mexico, because a small French army had recently been thrown into that +country, and was supposed to be a menace to our Republic. + +[Illustration: MAJOR-GENERAL WILLIAM H. EMORY.] + +[Illustration: COLONEL ALBERT L. LEE. (Afterward Brigadier-General.)] + + + + +{383} + +CHAPTER XXXIV. + +THE ATLANTA CAMPAIGN. + +SHERMAN AND JOHNSTON--SHERMAN BEGINS THE CAMPAIGN--JOHNSTON ABANDONS +RESACA--FIGHTING AT NEW HOPE CHURCH--THE POSITION AT PINE +MOUNTAIN--JOHNSTON AT KENESAW--FALL OF GENERAL POLK--SHERMAN EMPLOYS +NEGROES--BATTLE OF KENESAW--CROSSING THE CHATTAHOOCHEE--HOOD +SUPERSEDES JOHNSTON--ACTION AT PEACH TREE CREEK--BATTLE OF +ATLANTA--DEATH OF GENERAL McPHERSON--THE LOSSES--CAVALRY +EXPEDITIONS--STONEMAN'S RAID--FALL Of ATLANTA. + + +The expeditions described in the foregoing chapter were preliminary to +the great campaign that General Grant had designed for an army under +Sherman, simultaneous with that conducted by himself in Virginia, and +almost equal to it in difficulty and importance. The object was to +move southward from Chattanooga, cutting into the heart of the +Confederacy where as yet it had been untouched, and reach and capture +Atlanta, which was important as a railroad centre and for its +manufactures of military supplies. This involved conflict with the +army under Gen. Joseph E. Johnston, by some esteemed the ablest +general in the Confederate service. If he was not the ablest in all +respects, he was certainly equal to the conducting of a defensive +campaign with great skill. There could be no running over an army +commanded by him; it must be approached cautiously and fought +valiantly. The distance from Chattanooga to Atlanta, in a straight +line, is a hundred miles, through a country of hills and streams, with +a great many naturally strong defensive positions. Johnston was at +Dalton, with an army which he sums up at about forty-three thousand, +infantry, cavalry, and artillery. But this (according to the +Confederate method of counting) means only the men actually carrying +muskets or sabres or handling the guns, excluding all officers, +musicians, teamsters, etc. If counted after the ordinary method, his +army probably numbered not fewer than fifty-five thousand. + +[Illustration: GENERAL JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON, C. S. A.] + +[Illustration: GENERAL JOHN B. HOOD, C. S. A.] + +To contend with this force, Sherman had about a hundred thousand men, +consisting of the Army of the Cumberland commanded by Gen. George H. +Thomas, the Army of the Tennessee commanded by Gen. James B. +McPherson, and the Army of the Ohio commanded by Gen. John M. +Schofield. The discrepancy in numbers seems very great, until we +consider that Sherman was not only to take the offensive, but must +constantly leave detachments to guard his communications; for he drew +all his supplies from Nashville, over one single-track railroad, and +it was liable to be broken at any time by guerilla raids. As he +advanced into the enemy's country, this line would become longer, and +the danger of its being broken still greater. Johnston, on the +contrary, had nothing to fear in the rear, for he was fighting on his +own ground, and could bring his entire force to the front at every +emergency. All things considered, it was pretty nearly an even match. +In one respect, however, Sherman had a decided advantage; he possessed +the confidence of the Government that he served, while Johnston did +not. At least, Johnston complains that Mr. Davis did not trust him as +he should, and thwarted him in many ways; and in this the general +appears to be corroborated by the circumstances of the campaign. + +When Sherman concentrated his forces at Chattanooga, and considered +the means of supply, he found that about one hundred and thirty cars +loaded with provisions must arrive at that point every day. But that +railroad had not cars and locomotives enough for such a task, and so +he sent orders to Louisville for the seizure of trains arriving there +from the North, and soon had rolling-stock in great abundance and +variety. While he thus provided liberally for necessary supplies, he +excluded all luxuries. Tents were taken only for the sick and wounded. +The sole exception to this was made in favor of General Thomas, who +needed a tent and a small wagon-train, which the soldiers immediately +christened "Thomas's Circus." Sherman had no tent or train. Every man, +whether officer or private, carried provisions for five days. + +{384} [Illustration: THE BATTLE OF ATLANTA, GA., JULY 22, 1864.] + +Thus equipped and disciplined, the army set out from Chattanooga on +the 5th of May (the day on which Grant entered the Wilderness), +following the line of the railroad south toward Atlanta. A direct +approach to Dalton was impossible, because of Johnston's +fortifications at Tunnel Hill. So Sherman made a feint of attacking +there, and sent McPherson southward to march through the gap in the +mountains, strike Resaca, and cut the railroad over which Johnston +drew all his supplies. Here at the very outset was the brilliant +opportunity of the campaign, not to occur again. McPherson reached +Resaca, but found fortifications and an opposing force there, and just +lacked the necessary boldness to attack promptly and vigorously, +thrusting his army into a position where it would have made the +destruction of Johnston's almost certain. Instead of this, he fell +back to the gap, and waited for the remainder of the army to join him +there. But this enabled Johnston to learn what was going on, and when +Sherman had passed down to the gap with his entire {385} army, he +found, of course, that his antagonist had fallen back to Resaca and +concentrated his forces there in a strong position. + +General Sherman says of this error of McPherson's: "McPherson had +startled Johnston in his fancied security, but had not done the full +measure of his work. He had in hand twenty-three thousand of the best +men of the army, and could have walked into Resaca (then held only by +a small brigade), or he could have placed his whole force astride the +railroad above Resaca, and there have easily withstood the attack of +all of Johnston's army, with the knowledge that Thomas and Schofield +were on his heels. Had he done so, I am certain that Johnston would +not have ventured to attack him in position, but would have retreated +eastward by Spring Place, and we should have captured half his army +and all his artillery and wagons at the very beginning of the +campaign. But at the critical moment McPherson seems to have been a +little cautious. Still he was perfectly justified by his orders, and +fell back and assumed an unassailable defensive position in Sugar +Valley, on the Resaca side of Snake Creek Gap. As soon as informed of +this, I determined to pass the whole army through Snake Creek Gap, and +to move on Resaca with the main army." + +[Illustration: MAJOR-GENERAL JOHN M. SCHOFIELD.] + +On the 14th of May, Sherman's army was in position around Resaca on +the north and west, and on that and the next day there was continual +skirmishing and artillery firing, though nothing like a great battle. +Neither general was willing to fight at disadvantage; Sherman would +not attack the intrenchments, and Johnston would not come out of them. +McPherson, on the right, advanced his line of battle till he gained an +elevated position from which his guns could destroy the railroad +bridge over the Oostenaula in the Confederate rear, and all attempts +to drive him out of this position ended only in bloody repulse. On the +left of the line, Hooker exhibited something of his usual dash by +capturing a small portion of the enemy's intrenchments, with four guns +and some prisoners. Meanwhile, Sherman had thrown two pontoon bridges +across the river three miles below the town, so that he could send +over a detachment to break the railroad, and had also sent a division +of cavalry down the river, to cross at some lower point for the same +purpose. Johnston, therefore, seeing his communications threatened so +seriously, and having no good roads by which he could retreat +eastward, did not wait to be cooped up in Resaca, but in the night of +the 15th retired southward across the river, following the railroad, +and burned the bridges behind him. Sherman thus came into possession +of Resaca; but Resaca was not what he wanted, and without the +slightest delay he started his entire army in pursuit of the enemy. +Hooker crossed the river by fords and ferries above the town; Thomas +and Schofield repaired the half-burned bridges and used them; +McPherson crossed by the pontoons. + +The enemy was found, on the 19th, in position at Cassville, just east +of Kingston, and apparently ready to fight; but when Sherman's columns +converged on the place the Confederates, after some sharp skirmishing, +retreated again in the night of the 20th, and crossed Etowah River. +Johnston had really intended to fight here, and he explains his +refusal to do so by saying that Hood and Polk told him their corps +could not hold their positions, as a portion of each was enfiladed by +the National artillery. Hood's version of the mysterious retreat is to +the effect that he wanted to assume the offensive, marching out with +his own corps and a part of Polk's to overwhelm Schofield, who was +separated from the remainder of the National army. + +Here Sherman halted for a few days, to get his army well together, +re-provision it, and repair the railroad in his rear. Twenty years +before, when he was a young lieutenant, he had ridden through the +country from Charleston, S. C., to northwestern Georgia, and he still +retained a good recollection of the topography. Knowing that Allatoona +Pass, through which runs the railroad south of Kingston, was very +strong and would probably be held by Johnston, he diverged from the +railroad at Kingston, passing considerably west of it, and directed +his columns toward Dallas; his purpose being to threaten Marietta and +Atlanta so as to cause Johnston to withdraw from Allatoona and release +his hold on the railroad, which became more and more necessary to the +invading army as it advanced into the country. Johnston understood +this manoeuvre, and moved westward to meet it. The armies, in an +irregular way--for each was somewhat scattered and uncertain of the +other's exact position--came into collision at the cross-roads by New +Hope Church. Around this place for six days there was continuous +fighting, sometimes mere skirmishing, and sometimes an attack by a +heavy detachment of one party or the other; but all such attacks, on +either side, were costly and fruitless. The general advantage, +however, was with Sherman; for as he gradually got his lines into +proper order, he strengthened his right, and then reached out with his +left toward the railroad, secured all the wagon-roads from Allatoona, +and sent out a strong force of cavalry to occupy that pass and repair +the railroad. Johnston then left his position at New Hope Church, and +took up a new one. + +Thus ended the month of May in this campaign, where each commander +exercised the utmost skill, neither was guilty of anything rash, and +the results were such as would naturally follow from the military +conditions with which it began. The losses on each side, thus far, +were fewer than ten thousand men--killed, wounded, and missing; but +strong positions had been successively taken up, turned, abandoned; +and Sherman was steadily drawing nearer to his goal. + +Johnston's new position was on the slopes of Kenesaw, Pine, and Lost +Mountains, thus crossing the railroad above Marietta. It had the +advantage of a height from which everything done by Sherman's +approaching army could be seen; but it had the {386} disadvantage of a +line ten miles long, and so disposed that one part could not readily +reinforce another. Though heavy rains were falling, the National army +kept close to its antagonist, and intrenched at every advance. The +railroad was repaired behind it, and the trains that brought its +supplies ran up almost to its front. In one instance, an engineer +detached his locomotive and ran forward to a tank, where he quietly +took in the necessary supply of water, while a Confederate battery on +the mountain fired several shots, but none of them quite hit the +locomotive, which woke the echoes with its shrill whistling as it ran +back out of range. + +[Illustration: BRIGADIER-GENERAL J. S. ROBINSON.] + +[Illustration: BREVET MAJOR-GENERAL T. H. RUGER.] + +[Illustration: BRIGADIER-GENERAL W. F. BARTLETT.] + +[Illustration: BREVET MAJOR-GENERAL W. Q. GRESHAM.] + +When the rain was over, Sherman occupied a strongly intrenched line +that followed the contour of Johnston's, and was at nearly all points +close to it. Both sides maintained skirmish lines that were almost as +strong as lines of battle, and occupied rifle-pits. From these the +roar of musketry was almost unceasing, and there was a steady loss of +men. On June 14, while General Sherman was reconnoitring the enemy's +position, he observed a battery on the crest of Pine Mountain, and +near it a group of officers with field-glasses. Ordering a battery to +fire two or three volleys at them, he rode on. A few hours later, his +signal officer told him that the Confederates had signalled from Pine +Mountain to Marietta, "Send an ambulance for General Polk's body." The +group on the mountain had consisted of Generals Johnston, Hardee, and +Polk, and a few soldiers that had gathered around them. One of the +cannon-balls had struck General Polk in the chest and cut him in two. +He was fifty-eight years old at the time of his death, had been +educated at West Point, but afterward studied theology, and at the +outbreak of the war had been for twenty years the Protestant Episcopal +Bishop of Louisiana. + +The next day Sherman advanced his lines, intending to attack between +Kenesaw and Pine Mountain, but found that Johnston had withdrawn from +Pine Mountain, taking up a shorter line, from Kenesaw to Lost +Mountain. Sherman promptly occupied the ground, and gathered in a +large number of prisoners, including the Fourteenth Alabama Regiment +entire. The next day he pressed forward again, only to find that the +enemy had still further contracted his lines, abandoning Lost +Mountain, but still occupying Kenesaw, and covering Marietta and the +roads to Atlanta with the extension of his left wing. The successive +positions to which Johnston's army had fallen back were prepared +beforehand by gangs of slaves impressed for the purpose, so that his +soldiers had little digging to do, and could save their strength for +fighting. After a time Sherman adopted a similar policy, by setting at +work the crowds of negroes that flocked to his camp, feeding them from +the army supplies, and promising them ten dollars a month, as he was +authorized to do by an act of Congress. The fortifications consisted +of a sort of framework of rails and logs, covered with earth thrown up +from a ditch on each side. When there was opportunity, they were +finished with a heavy head-log laid along the top, which rested in +notches cut in other logs that extended back at right angles and +formed an inclined plane down which the head-log could roll harmlessly +if knocked out of place by a cannon-shot. Miles of such works were +often constructed in a single night; and they were absolutely +necessary, when veteran armies were facing each other with weapons of +precision in their hands. + +Sherman was now facing a little south of east, and kept pressing his +lines closer up to Johnston's, with rifle and artillery firing going +on all the time. On the 21st the divisions of Generals Wood and +Stanley gained new positions, on the southern flank of Kenesaw, where +several determined assaults failed to dislodge them; and the next day +the troops of Hooker and Schofield {387} pressed forward to within +three miles of Marietta, and withstood an attack by Hood's corps, +inflicting upon him a loss of a thousand men. As the National line was +now lengthened quite as far as seemed prudent, and still the +Confederate communications were not severed, Sherman determined upon +the hazardous experiment of attacking the enemy in his intrenchments. +He chose two points for assault, about a mile apart, and on the +morning of the 27th launched heavy columns against them, while firing +was at the same time kept up all along the line. He expected to break +the centre, and with half of his army take half of Johnston's in +reverse, while with the remainder of his troops he held the other half +so close that it could not go to the rescue. But his columns wasted +away before the fire from the intrenchments, and as in Pickett's +charge at Gettysburg, and Grant's assault at Cold Harbor, only a +remnant reached the enemy's works, there to be killed or captured. +Among those sacrificed were Brig.-Gens. Daniel McCook and Charles G. +Harker, both of whom died of their wounds. This experiment cost +Sherman over two thousand five hundred men, while Johnston's loss was +but little over eight hundred. + +It was evident that any repetition would be useless, and the approved +principles of warfare seemed to supply no alternative. What General +Sherman therefore did was to disregard the maxim that an army must +always hold fast to its communications; and by doing the same thing on +a grander scale six months later he won his largest fame. He +determined to let go of the railroad north of Kenesaw, take ten days' +provisions in wagons, and move his whole army southward to seize the +road below Marietta. This would compel Johnston either to fall back +farther toward Atlanta, or come out and fight him in his +intrenchments--which, as both commanders well knew, was almost certain +destruction to the assaulting party. In the night of July 2, +McPherson's troops, who had the left or north of the line, drew out of +their works and marched southward, passing behind the lines held by +Thomas and Schofield. This was the same manoeuvre as that by which +Grant had carried his army to its successive positions between the +Wilderness and the James River, except that he moved by the left flank +and Sherman by the right, and Grant never had to let go of his +communications, being supplied by lines of wagons from various points +on the Potomac. + +When Johnston saw what Sherman was doing he promptly abandoned his +strong position at Kenesaw, and fell back to the Chattahoochee; but he +did not, as Sherman hoped, attempt to cross the stream at once. +Intrenchments had been prepared for him on the north bank, and here he +stopped. Sherman, expecting to catch his enemy in the confusion of +crossing a stream, pressed on rapidly with his whole army, and ran up +against what he says was one of the strongest pieces of field +fortification he had ever seen. A thousand slaves had been at work on +it for a month. And yet, like many other things in the costly business +of war, it was an enormous outlay to serve a very brief purpose. For +Sherman not only occupied ground that overlooked it, but held the +river for miles above and below, and was thus able to cross over and +turn the position. Johnston must have known this when the +fortifications were in process of construction, and their only use was +to protect his army from assault while it was crossing the river. On +the 9th of July, Schofield's army crossed above the Confederate +position, laying two pontoon bridges, and intrenched itself in a +strong position on the left bank. Johnston, thus compelled to +surrender the stream, crossed that night with his entire army, and +burned the railroad and other bridges behind him. Sherman was almost +as cautious in the pursuit, wherever there was any serious danger, as +Johnston was in the retreat; and he not only chose an upper crossing, +farther from Atlanta, but spent a week in preparations to prevent +disaster, before he threw over his entire army. This he did on the +17th, and the next day moved it by a grand right wheel toward the city +of Atlanta. + +The Chattahoochee was the last great obstruction before the +fortifications of the Gate City were reached, and on the day that +Sherman crossed it something else took place, which, in the opinion of +many military critics, was even more disastrous to the fortunes of the +Confederacy. This was the supersession of the careful and skilful +Johnston by Gen. John B. Hood, an impetuous and sometimes reckless +fighter, but no strategist. The controversy over the wisdom of this +action on the part of the Confederate Government will probably never +be satisfactorily closed. The merits of it can be sufficiently +indicated by two brief extracts. The telegram conveying the orders of +the War Department said: "As you have failed to arrest the advance of +the enemy to the vicinity of Atlanta, far in the interior of Georgia, +and express no confidence that you can defeat or repel him, you are +hereby relieved from the command of the Army and Department of +Tennessee, which you will immediately turn over to General Hood." +General Johnston said in his reply: "As to the alleged cause of my +removal, I assert that Sherman's army is much stronger compared with +that of Tennessee than Grant's compared with that of Northern +Virginia. Yet the enemy has been compelled to advance much more slowly +to the vicinity of Atlanta than to that of Richmond and Petersburg, +and penetrated much deeper into Virginia than into Georgia. Confident +language by a military commander is not usually regarded as evidence +of competence." + +Within twenty-four hours the National army learned that its antagonist +had a new commander, and there was eager inquiry as to Hood's +character as a soldier. Schofield and McPherson had been his +classmates at West Point, and from their testimony and the career of +Hood as a corps commander it was easily inferred that a new policy +might be looked for, very different from Johnston's. Sherman warned +his army to be constantly prepared for sallies of the enemy, and his +prediction did not wait long for fulfilment. On the 20th, at noonday, +as his army was slowly closing in upon the city, the Confederates left +the intrenchments that Johnston had prepared for them along the line +of Peach Tree Creek, where he would have awaited attack, and made a +heavy assault upon Thomas, who held the right of the National line. +The weight of the blow fell mainly upon Hooker's corps, and the attack +was so furious and reckless that in many places friend and foe were +intermingled, fighting hand to hand. A heavy column of Confederates +attempted to fall upon an exposed flank of the Fourth Corps; but +Thomas promptly brought several batteries to play upon it, and at the +end of two hours the enemy was driven back to his intrenchments, +leaving hundreds of dead on the field. Hooker also lost heavily, +because his men fought without intrenchments or cover of any kind. + +{388} [Illustration: FALL OF GENERAL JAMES B. McPHERSON, NEAR +ATLANTA.] + +The Confederates now abandoned the line of works along Peach Tree +Creek, and fell back to the immediate defences of the city. It was +seen that one point in their line was an eminence--then called Bald +Hill, but since known as Leggett's Hill--from which, if it could be +occupied, the city could be shelled. After a consultation between +Generals Blair and McPherson on the afternoon of the 20th, it was +agreed that this hill ought to be captured, and the task was assigned +to Gen. Mortimer D. Leggett's {389} division. Leggett accordingly said +to Gen. M. F. Force, who commanded his first brigade: "I want you to +carry that hill. Move as soon as it is light enough to move. I will +support your left and rear with the rest of the division, and the +fourth division will make a demonstration as you go up to distract the +attention of the enemy in their front." Accordingly, at daylight, +Leggett's skirmish line cautiously went forward, and got as near as +possible to the Confederate works without alarming the enemy. After +some little delay, caused by waiting for the fourth division, General +Force gave the order for the assault. What then followed is told by +Col. Gilbert D. Munson, of the Seventy-eighth Ohio Regiment: "The +skirmish line sprang forward; the brigade debouched from its +concealment in the wood. In the front line on came the Twelfth and +Sixteenth Wisconsin, close supported by the Twentieth, Thirtieth, and +Thirty-first Illinois--the second line of battle; flags flying, +bayonets fixed; arms right shoulder shift and unloaded; Force and his +aid, Adams, just in rear of the Wisconsin regiments, and his +adjutant-general, Capt. J. Bryant Walker, and another aid, Evans, with +the Illinois boys--mounted; all regimental officers on foot. The +skirmishers, for a moment, distracted the enemy by their rapid advance +and firing; then the brigade received and enveloped them as it reached +the crest of the hill, and exposed its full front to the steady fire +of Cleburne's rifles. Our men fell in bunches; still came the charging +column on; faster and faster it pressed forward. 'Close up! close up!' +the command, and each regiment closed on its colors, and over the +barricades went the first line, handsomely, eagerly, and well aligned. +Then began our firing and our fun. Into the gray-coats the Sixteenth +Wisconsin poured a rattling fire, as they scattered and ran along the +level ground, down the slope of the hill, and on toward Atlanta. I +joined General Force after the skirmish line was merged in his line of +battle, and was with him when it came to and went over the barricades. +'Our orders are to carry this hill, General; the Sixteenth are away +beyond, where, I understand, we are to go.' Force said something about +being able to take the next hill, too, but immediately sent Captain +Walker after Colonel Fairchild, and his 'Right about, march,' brought +the regiment back. Captain Walker then reported the capture of the +hill to General Leggett, who was with the rest of the division. Walker +said to me, on his return, that, having a message for Gen. Giles A. +Smith, commanding the fourth division, he told him the hill was won +and held by Force, but Smith would hardly believe him: he thought he +was joking. It seemed doubtful to him that such an important point had +been won so quickly." + +[Illustration: COLONEL CHARLES CANDY. (Afterward Brigadier-General.)] + +[Illustration: BRIGADIER-GENERAL GEORGE H. GORDON.] + +[Illustration: BREVET MAJOR-GENERAL EDWARD M. McCOOK.] + +The fourth division, on the right of Force's brigade, met with a +stubborn resistance, but finally overcame it, and other troops were +brought up, and after a little the place was firmly held. This hill +was the key-point of the line, and its capture was what caused Hood to +come out and give battle the next day. He found that Sherman's left +flank, which crossed the line of railroad to Augusta, was without +proper protection, and consequently he moved to the attack at that +point. He marched by a road parallel with the railroad, and the +contour of the ground and the forests hid him until his men burst in +upon the rear of Sherman's extreme left, seized a battery that was +moving through the woods, and took possession of some of the camps. +But McPherson's veterans were probably in expectation of such a +movement, and under the direction of Generals Logan, Charles R. Wood, +and Morgan L. Smith, quickly formed to meet it. That flank of the army +was "refused"--turned back at a right angle with the main line--and +met the onsets of the Confederates with steady courage from noon till +night. Seven heavy assaults were made, resulting in seven bloody +repulses, guns were taken and retaken, and finally a counter attack +was made on the Confederate flank by Wood's division, assisted by +twenty guns that fired over the heads of Wood's men as they advanced, +which drove back the enemy, who retired slowly to their defences, +carrying with them some of the captured guns. It had been intended +that Wheeler's Confederate cavalry should capture McPherson's +supply-trains, which were at Decatur; but the troopers were fought off +till the trains could be drawn back to a place of safety, and Wheeler +only secured a very few wagons. The National loss in this battle was +thirty-five hundred and twenty-one men killed, {390} wounded, and +missing, and ten guns. The total Confederate loss is unknown, but it +was very heavy; General Logan reported thirty-two hundred and twenty +dead in front of his lines, and two thousand prisoners, half of whom +were wounded. The most grievous loss to Sherman was General McPherson, +who rode off into the woods at the first sounds of battle, almost +alone. His horse soon came back, bleeding and riderless, and an hour +later the general's dead body was brought to headquarters. McPherson +was a favorite in the army. He was but thirty-four years old, and with +the exception of his error at the outset of the campaign, by which +Johnston was allowed to escape from Dalton, he had a brilliant +military record. Gen. Oliver O. Howard, who had lost an arm at Fair +Oaks and was now in command of the Fourth Corps, was promoted to +McPherson's place in command of the Army of the Tennessee; whereupon +General Hooker, commanding the Twentieth Corps, who believed that the +promotion properly belonged to him, asked to be relieved, and left the +army. His corps was given to Gen. Henry W. Slocum. + +Sherman now repeated his former manoeuvre, of moving by the right +flank to strike the enemy's communications and compel him either to +retreat again or fight at a disadvantage. The Army of the Tennessee +was withdrawn from the left on the 27th, and marched behind the Army +of the Cumberland to the extreme right, with the intention of +extending the flank far enough to cross the railroad south of Atlanta. +The movement was but partially performed when Hood made a heavy attack +on that flank, and for four or five hours on the 28th there was bloody +fighting. Logan's men hastily threw up a slight breastwork, from which +they repelled six charges in quick succession, and later in the day +several other charges by the Confederates broke against the immovable +lines of the Fifteenth Corps. Meanwhile Sherman sent Gen. Jefferson C. +Davis's division to make a detour, and come up into position where it +could strike the Confederate flank in turn; but Davis lost his way and +failed to appear in time. In this battle Logan's corps lost five +hundred and seventy-two men; while they captured five battle-flags and +buried about six hundred of the enemy's dead. The total Confederate +losses during July, in killed and wounded, were reported by the +surgeon-general at eighty-eight hundred and forty-one, to which +Sherman adds two thousand prisoners. Sherman reports his own losses +during that month--killed, wounded, and missing--at ninety-seven +hundred and nineteen; but this does not include the cavalry. +Johnston's estimate of Sherman's losses is so enormous that if it had +been correct his government would have been clearly justified when it +censured him for not driving the National army out of the State. + +Sherman had sent out several cavalry expeditions to break the +railroads south of Atlanta, but with no satisfactory results. They +tore up a few miles of track each time, but the damage was quickly +repaired. The marvellous facility with which both sides mended broken +railroads and replaced burned bridges is illustrated by many +anecdotes. Sherman had duplicates of the important bridges on the road +that brought his supplies, and whenever the guerillas destroyed one, +he had only to order the duplicate to be set up. On the 26th Gen. +George Stoneman had set out with a cavalry force to break up the +railroad at Jonesboro', with the intention of pushing on rapidly to +Macon and Andersonville, and releasing a large number of prisoners +that were confined there in stockades; while at the same time another +cavalry force, under McCook, was sent around by the right to join +Stoneman at Jonesboro'. They destroyed two miles of track, burned two +trains of cars and five hundred wagons, killed eight hundred mules, +and took three or four hundred prisoners. But McCook was surrounded by +the enemy at Newnan, and only escaped with a loss of six hundred men; +while Stoneman destroyed seventeen locomotives and a hundred cars, and +threw a few shells into Macon, but was surrounded at Clifton, where he +allowed himself and seven hundred of his men to be captured in order +to facilitate the escape of the remainder of his command. + +[Illustration: BREVET MAJOR-GENERAL MANNING F. FORCE.] + +Perhaps it was quite as well that he did not reach Andersonville, for +General Winder, in command there, had issued this order on July 27th: +"The officers on duty and in charge of battery of Florida artillery +will, on receiving notice that the enemy has approached within seven +miles of this post, open fire on the stockade with grape-shot, without +reference to the situation beyond this line of defence." The conduct +of those on guard duty at the prison leaves little doubt that this +order would have been obeyed with alacrity. + +Two or three weeks later, Wheeler's Confederate cavalry passed to the +rear of Sherman's army, captured a large drove of cattle, and broke up +two miles of railroad; and about the same time Kilpatrick's cavalry +rode entirely round Atlanta, fought and defeated a combined cavalry +and infantry force, and inflicted upon the railroad such damage as he +thought it would take ten days to repair; but within twenty-four hours +trains were again running into the city. + +Finding that cavalry raids could effect nothing, Sherman posted +Slocum's corps at the railroad bridge over the Chattahoochee, and, +moving again by the right, rapidly but cautiously, concealing the +movement as far as possible, he swung all the remainder of his army +into position south of Atlanta, where they tore up the railroads, +burning the ties and twisting the rails, and then advanced toward the +city. There was some fighting, and Govan's Confederate brigade was +captured entire, with ten guns; but the greater part of Hood's forces +escaped eastward in the night of September 1st. They destroyed a large +part of the Government property that night, and the sound of the +explosions caused Slocum to move down from the bridge, when he soon +found that he had nothing to do but walk into Atlanta. A few days +later Sherman made his headquarters there, disposed his army in and +around the city, and prepared for permanent possession. + + + + +{391} + +CHAPTER XXXV. + +THE BATTLE OF MOBILE BAY. + +DEFENCES--ADMIRAL FARRAGUT'S PREPARATIONS--PASSING THE FORTS--LOSS OF +THE "TECUMSEH"--FIGHT WITH THE RAM "TENNESSEE"--COST OF THE +VICTORY--CRAVEN'S CHIVALRY--OFFICIAL REPORT OF ADMIRAL +FARRAGUT--POETIC DESCRIPTION OF THE BATTLE BY A POET WHO PARTICIPATED +IN THE CONFLICT. + + +The capture of Mobile had long been desired, both because of its +importance as a base of operations, whence expeditions could move +inland, and communication be maintained with the fleet, and because +blockade-running at that port could not be entirely prevented by the +vessels outside. Grant and Sherman had planned to have the city taken +by forces moving east from New Orleans and Port Hudson; but everything +had gone wrong in that quarter. + +[Illustration: REAR-ADMIRAL DAVID G. FARRAGUT.] + +The principal defences of Mobile Bay were Fort Morgan on Mobile Point, +and Fort Gaines, three miles northwest of it, on the extremity of +Dauphin Island. The passage between these two works was obstructed by +innumerable piles for two miles out from Fort Gaines, and from that +point nearly to Fort Morgan by a line of torpedoes. The eastern end of +this line was marked by a red buoy, and from that point to Fort Morgan +the channel was open, to admit blockade-runners. + +Farragut's fleet had been for a long time preparing to pass these +forts, fight the Confederate fleet inside (which included a powerful +iron-clad ram), and take possession of the bay. But he wanted the +coöperation of a military force to capture the forts. This was at last +furnished, under Gen. Gordon Granger, and landed on Dauphin Island, +August 4th. Farragut had made careful preparations, and, as at New +Orleans, had given minute instructions to his captains. The attacking +column consisted of four iron-clad monitors and seven wooden +sloops-of-war. To each sloop was lashed a gunboat on the port (or +left) side, to help her out in case she were disabled. The heaviest +fire was expected from Fort Morgan, on the right, or starboard, side. +Before six o'clock in the morning of the 5th all were under way, the +monitors forming a line abreast of the wooden ships and to the right +of them. The _Brooklyn_ headed the line of the wooden vessels, because +she had an apparatus for picking up torpedoes. They steamed along in +beautiful style, coming up into close order as they neared the fort, +so that there were spaces of but a few yards from the stern of one +vessel to the bow of the next. The forts and the Confederate fleet, +which lay just inside of the line of torpedoes, opened fire upon them +half an hour before they could bring their guns to answer. They made +the _Hartford_, Farragut's flagship, their especial target, lodged a +hundred-and-twenty-pound ball in her mainmast, sent great splinters +flying across her deck, more dangerous than shot, and killed or +wounded many of her crew. One ball from a Confederate gunboat killed +ten men and wounded five. The other wooden vessels suffered in like +manner as they approached; but when they came abreast of the fort they +poured in rapid broadsides of grape-shot, shrapnel, and shells, which +quickly cleared the bastions and silenced the batteries. + +The captains had been warned to pass to the east of the red buoy; but +Captain T. A. M. Craven, of the monitor _Tecumseh_, eager to engage +the Confederate ram _Tennessee_, which was behind the line of +torpedoes, made straight for her. The consequence was that his vessel +struck a torpedo, which exploded, and she went down in a few seconds, +carrying with her the captain and most of the crew. The _Brooklyn_ +stopped when she found torpedoes, and began to back. This threatened +to throw the whole line into confusion while under fire, and defeat +the project; but Farragut instantly ordered more steam on his own +vessel and her consort, drew ahead of the _Brooklyn_, and led the line +to victory. All this time he was in the rigging of the _Hartford_, and +a quartermaster had gone up and tied him to one of the shrouds, so +that if wounded he should not fall to the deck. As the fleet passed +into the bay, several of the larger vessels were attacked by the ram +_Tennessee_ and considerably damaged, while their shot seemed to have +little effect on her heavy iron mail. At length she withdrew to her +anchorage, and the order was given from the flagship, "Gunboats chase +enemy's gunboats," whereupon the lashings were cut and the National +gunboats were off in a flash. In a little while they had destroyed or +captured all the Confederate vessels save one, which escaped up the +bay, where the water was too shallow for them to follow her. + +But as the fleet was coming to anchor, in the belief that the fight +was over, the _Tennessee_ left her anchorage and steamed boldly into +the midst of her enemies, firing in every direction and attempting to +ram them. The wooden vessels stood to the fight in the most gallant +manner, throwing useless broadsides against the monster, avoiding her +blows by skilful manoeuvring, and trying to run her down till some of +them hammered their bows to splinters. The three monitors pounded at +her to more purpose. They fired one fifteen-inch solid shot that +penetrated her armor; they jammed some of her shutters so that the +port-holes could not be opened; they shot away her steering-gear, and +knocked off her smoke-stack, so that life on board of her became +intolerable, and she surrendered. Her commander, Franklin Buchanan, +formerly of the United States navy, had been seriously wounded. + +This victory cost Farragut's fleet fifty-two men killed and one +hundred and seventy wounded, besides one hundred and thirteen that +went down in the _Tecumseh_. Knowles, the same old quartermaster that +had tied Farragut in the rigging, says he saw the admiral coming on +deck as the twenty-five dead sailors of the _Hartford_ were being laid +out, "and it was the only time I ever saw the old gentleman cry, but +the tears came into his eyes like a little child." The Confederate +fleet lost ten men killed, sixteen wounded, and two hundred and eighty +prisoners. The loss in the forts is unknown. They were surrendered +soon afterward to the land forces, with a thousand men. + +Of the four iron-clads that went into this fight, two--the _Tecumseh_ +and the _Manhattan_--had come from the Atlantic coast, while the +_Chickasaw_ and the _Winnebago_, which had been {392} built at St. +Louis by James B. Eads, came down the Mississippi. Much doubt had been +expressed as to the ability of these two river-built monitors to stand +the rough weather of the Gulf, and Captain Eads had visited the Navy +Department, and offered to bear all the expenses in case they failed. +It is agreed by all authorities, that in the fight with the ram +_Tennessee_, which was a much more serious affair than passing the +forts, the best work was done by the monitor _Chickasaw_. The +commander of this vessel, George H. Perkins, and his lieutenant, +William Hamilton, had received leave of absence and were about to go +North, when they learned that the battle was soon to take place, and +volunteered to remain and take part in it. They were then at New +Orleans and were assigned to the _Chickasaw_. As this vessel passed +thence down the Mississippi on her way to Mobile, she took a pilot for +the navigation of the river. It often happened that the National +vessels were obliged to take Southern men as pilots in the Southern +waters, and they were not always to be trusted. In this instance, +Captain Perkins, being called away from the pilot-house for a few +minutes, observed that his vessel's course was at once changed and she +was heading for a wreck. Rushing back to the pilot-house, he seized +the wheel and gave her the proper direction, after which he drew his +pistol and told the pilot that if the ship touched ground or ran into +anything, he would instantly blow out his brains. The pilot muttered +something about the bottom of the river being lumpy, and the best +pilots not always being able to avoid the lumps. But Captain Perkins +told him he could not consider any such excuse, and if he touched a +single lump he would instantly lose his life. There was no more +trouble about the piloting. + +[Illustration: BREVET MAJOR-GENERAL W. P. BENTON.] + +[Illustration: BRIGADIER-GENERAL F. M. COCKRELL, C. S. A.] + +The _Chickasaw_ was a double-turreted monitor, carrying two +eleven-inch guns in each turret, and she was the only iron-clad that +remained in perfect condition throughout the fight. This, perhaps, was +owing to the fact that Captain Perkins, who was young, enthusiastic, +and ambitious, personally inspected everything on the ship while she +was in preparation and before she went into action. The place of the +ships in line was determined by the rank of their commanders, and the +_Chickasaw_ came last of the monitors. In the fight with the +_Tennessee_, she fired solid shot, most of them striking her about the +stern. The pilot of the _Tennessee_ said after the battle: "The +_Chickasaw_ hung close under our stern; move where we would, she was +always there, firing the two eleven-inch guns in her forward turret +like pocket pistols, so that she soon had the plates flying in the +air." Captain Perkins himself says: "When the _Tennessee_ passed my +ship first, it was on my port side. After that she steered toward Fort +Morgan. Some of our vessels anchored, others kept under way, and when +the _Tennessee_ approached the fleet again, she was at once attacked +by the wooden vessels, but they made no impression upon her. An order +was now brought from Admiral Farragut to the iron-clads, by Dr. +Palmer, directing them to attack the _Tennessee_; but when they +approached her, she moved off toward the fort again. I followed +straight after her with the _Chickasaw_, and, overtaking her, I poured +solid shot into her as fast as I could, and after a short engagement +forced her to surrender, having shot away her smoke-stack, destroyed +her steering-gear, and jammed her after-ports, rendering her guns +useless, while one of my shots wounded Admiral Buchanan. I followed +her close, my guns and turrets continuing in perfect order in spite of +the strain upon them. When Johnston came on the roof of the +_Tennessee_, and showed the white flag as signal of surrender, no +vessel of our fleet, except the _Chickasaw_, was within a quarter of a +mile. But the _Ossipee_ was approaching, and her captain was much +older than myself. I was wet with perspiration, begrimed with powder, +and exhausted with constant and violent exertion; so I drew back and +allowed Captain LeRoy to receive the surrender, though my first +lieutenant, Mr. Hamilton, said at the time, 'Captain Perkins, you are +making a mistake.'" + +Admiral Farragut says in his official report: "As I had an elevated +position in the main rigging near the top, I was able to overlook not +only the deck of the _Hartford_, but the other vessels of the fleet. I +witnessed the terrible effects of the enemy's shot, and the good +conduct of the men at their guns; and although no doubt their hearts +sickened, as mine did, when their shipmates were struck down beside +them, yet there was not a moment's hesitation to lay their comrades +aside, and spring again to their deadly work.... I must not omit to +call the attention of the department to the conduct of Acting Ensign +Henry C. Nields, of the _Metacomet_, who had charge of the boat sent +from that vessel, when the _Tecumseh_ sunk. He took her under one of +the most galling fires I ever saw, and succeeded in rescuing from +death ten of her crew within six hundred yards of the fort." Commodore +Foxhall A. Parker, in his very accurate account of this battle, +describes more particularly the exploit of Ensign Nields: "Starting +from the port quarter of the _Metacomet_, and steering the boat +himself, this mere boy pulled directly under the battery of the +_Hartford_, and around the _Brooklyn_, to within a few hundred yards +of the fort, exposed to the fire of both friends and foes. After he +had gone a little distance from his vessel, he seemed suddenly to +reflect that he had no flag flying, when he dropped the yoke-ropes, +picked up a small ensign from the bottom of the boat, and unfurling it +from its staff, which he shipped in a socket made for it in the +stern-sheets, he threw it full to the breeze, amid the loud cheers of +his men. 'I can hardly describe,' says an officer of the _Tennessee_, +'how I felt at witnessing this most gallant act. The muzzle of our gun +was slowly raised, and the bolt intended for {393} the _Tecumseh_ flew +harmlessly over the heads of that glorious boat's crew, far down in +the line of our foes.' After saving Ensign Zelitch, eight men, and the +pilot, Nields turned, and, pulling for the fleet, succeeded in +reaching the _Oneida_, where he remained until the close of the +action." + +In a memorandum discovered among Admiral Farragut's papers he said: +"General orders required the vessels to pass inside the buoys next to +Fort Morgan. When the _Tecumseh_ reached that point, it looked so +close that poor Craven said to the pilot, 'The admiral ordered me to +go inside that buoy, but it must be a mistake.' He ran just his +breadth of beam too far westward, struck a torpedo, and went down in +two minutes. Alden saw the buoys ahead, and stopped his ship. This +liked to have proved fatal to all of us. I saw the difficulty, and +ordered the _Hartford_ ahead, and the fleet to follow. Allowing the +_Brooklyn_ to go ahead was a great error. It lost not only the +_Tecumseh_, but many valuable lives, by keeping us under the fire of +the forts for thirty minutes; whereas, had I led, as I intended to do, +I would have gone inside the buoys, and all would have followed me. +The officers and crews of all the ships did their duty like men. There +was but one man who showed fear, and he was allowed to resign. This +was the most desperate battle I ever fought since the days of the old +_Essex_." + +[Illustration: CAPTAIN TUNIS A. M. CRAVEN.] + +[Illustration: REAR-ADMIRAL THORNTON A. JENKINS.] + +[Illustration: CAPTAIN PERCIVAL DRAYTON.] + +The thorough discipline and devotion of the crews is illustrated by an +incident on the _Oneida_. A shot penetrated her starboard boiler, and +the escaping steam scalded thirteen men. At this one gun's-crew shrank +back for a moment, but when Captain Mullany shouted, "Back to your +quarters, men!" they instantly returned to their guns. Soon afterward, +Captain Mullany lost an arm and received six other wounds. Craven's +chief engineer in the _Tecumseh_, C. Farron, was an invalid in the +hospital at Pensacola when the orders were given to sail for Mobile, +but he insisted on leaving his bed and going with his ship, with which +he was lost. + +A Confederate officer who was in the water battery at Fort Morgan +expressed unbounded admiration at the manoeuvring of the vessels when +the _Brooklyn_ stopped and the _Hartford_ drew ahead and took the +lead. "At first," he says, "they appeared to be in inextricable +confusion, and at the mercy of our guns; but when the _Hartford_ +dashed forward, we realized that the grand tactical movement had been +accomplished." + +An officer of the _Hartford_ wrote in his private journal: "The order +was, to go 'slowly, slowly,' and receive the fire of Fort Morgan. At +six minutes past seven the fort opened, having allowed us to get into +such short range that we apprehended some snare; in fact, I heard the +order passed for our guns to be elevated for fourteen hundred yards +some time before one was fired. The calmness of the scene was sublime. +No impatience, no irritation, no anxiety, except for the fort to open; +and, after it did open, full five minutes elapsed before we answered. +In the mean time the guns were trained as if at a target, and all the +sounds I could hear were, 'Steady, boys, steady! Left tackle a +little--so! so!' Then the roar of a broadside, and an eager cheer as +the enemy were driven from their water battery. Don't imagine they +were frightened; no man could stand under that iron shower; and the +brave fellows returned to their guns as soon as it lulled, only to be +driven away again." + +Farragut, who was a man of deep religious convictions, fully realized +the perils of the enterprise upon which he was entering, and did not +half expect to survive it. In a letter to his wife, written the +evening before the battle, he said: "I am going into Mobile Bay in the +morning, if God is my leader, as I hope he is, and in him I place my +trust. If he think it is the proper place for me to die, I am ready to +submit to his will in that as in all other things." In spite of the +universal sailor superstition, he fought this battle on Friday. + +One incident of this battle suggests the thought that many of the +famous deeds of Old-World chivalry have been paralleled in American +history. When the _Tecumseh_ was going down, Captain Craven and his +pilot met at the foot of the ladder that afforded the only escape, and +the pilot stepped aside. "After you, pilot," said Craven, drawing +back, for he knew it was by his own fault, not the pilot's, that the +vessel was struck. "There was nothing after me," said the pilot, in +telling the story; "for the moment I reached the deck the vessel +seemed to drop from under me, and went to the bottom." + +{394} [Illustration: ON BOARD THE "HARTFORD," BATTLE OF MOBILE BAY. +(From a painting by W. H. Overend.)] + +{395} [Illustration: GUN PRACTICE ON A NATIONAL WAR-SHIP. (From a +war-time photograph.)] + +In all the literature of our language there is but one instance of the +poetical description of a battle by a genuine poet who was a +participator in the conflict. This instance is Brownell's "Bay Fight." +Drayton's fine "Ballad of Agincourt" has long been famous, but that +battle was fought a century and a half before Drayton was born. +Campbell witnessed the battle of Hohenlinden, famous through his +familiar poem, but only from the distant tower of a convent. Byron's +description of the battle of Waterloo is justly admired, but Byron was +not at Waterloo. Tennyson's "Charge of the Light Brigade at +Balaklava," which every schoolboy knows, is another hearsay poem, for +Tennyson was never within a thousand miles of Balaklava. Henry Howard +Brownell, a native of Providence, R. I., when a young man taught a +school in Mobile, Ala. Afterward he practised law in Hartford, Conn., +but left it for literature, and at the age of twenty-seven published a +volume of poems that attracted no attention. During the war he made +numerous poetical contributions to periodicals, some of which were +widely copied. One of these, a poetical version of Farragut's General +Orders at New Orleans, attracted the admiral's attention and led to a +correspondence. Brownell wrote that he had always wanted to witness a +sea-fight, and Farragut, answering that he would give him an +opportunity, procured his appointment as acting ensign on board the +_Hartford_. During the battle of Mobile, Brownell was on deck +attending to his duties, for which he was honorably mentioned in the +admiral's report, and at the same time taking notes of the picturesque +incidents. The outcome was his unique and powerful poem entitled "The +Bay Fight." Oliver Wendell Holmes, in an article in the _Atlantic +Monthly_, said: "New modes of warfare thundered their demand for a new +poet to describe them; and Nature has answered in the voice of our +battle laureate, Henry Howard Brownell." From Mr. Brownell's poem we +take the following stanzas: + + Three days through sapphire seas we sailed; + The steady trade blew strong and free, + The northern light his banners paled, + The ocean stream our channels wet. + We rounded low Canaveral's lee, + And passed the isles of emerald set + In blue Bahama's turquoise sea. + + By reef and shoal obscurely mapped, + And hauntings of the gray sea-wolf, + The palmy Western Key lay lapped + In the warm washing of the gulf. + {396} + But weary to the hearts of all + The burning glare, the barren reach + Of Santa Rosa's withered beach, + And Pensacola's ruined wall. + + And weary was the long patrol, + The thousand miles of shapeless strand, + From Brazos to San Blas, that roll + Their drifting dunes of desert sand. + + Yet, coast-wise as we cruised or lay, + The land-breeze still at nightfall bore, + By beach and fortress-guarded bay, + Sweet odors from the enemy's shore, + + Fresh from the forest solitudes, + Unchallenged of his sentry lines-- + The bursting of his cypress buds, + And the warm fragrance of his pines. + + Our lofty spars were down, + To bide the battle's frown, + (Wont of old renown)-- + But every ship was drest + In her bravest and her best, + As if for a July day. + Sixty flags and three, + As we floated up the bay; + Every peak and mast-head flew + The brave red, white, and blue-- + We were eighteen ships that day. + + On, in the whirling shade + Of the cannon's sulphury breath, + We drew to the line of death + That our devilish foe had laid-- + Meshed in a horrible net, + And baited villanous well, + Right in our path were set + Three hundred traps of hell! + + And there, O sight forlorn! + There, while the cannon + Hurtled and thundered-- + (Ah! what ill raven + Flapped o'er the ship that morn!)-- + Caught by the under-death, + In the drawing of a breath, + Down went dauntless Craven, + He and his hundred! + + A moment we saw her turret, + A little heel she gave, + And a thin white spray went o'er it, + Like the crest of a breaking wave. + In that great iron coffin, + The channel for their grave, + The fort their monument, + (Seen afar in the offing), + Ten fathom deep lie Craven, + And the bravest of our brave. + + Trust me, our berth was hot; + Ah, wickedly well they shot! + How their death-bolts howled and stung! + And their water batteries played + With their deadly cannonade + Till the air around us rung. + So the battle raged and roared-- + Ah! had you been aboard + To have seen the fight we made! + + Never a nerve that failed, + Never a cheek that paled, + Not a tinge of gloom or pallor. + There was bold Kentucky's grit, + And the old Virginian valor, + And the daring Yankee wit. + + There were blue eyes from turfy Shannon, + There were black orbs from palmy Niger; + But there, alongside the cannon, + Each man fought like a tiger. + + And now, as we looked ahead, + All for'ard, the long white deck + Was growing a strange dull red; + But soon, as once and again + Fore and aft we sped + (The firing to guide or check), + You could hardly choose but tread + On the ghastly human wreck, + (Dreadful gobbet and shred + That a minute ago were men)! + + Red, from main-mast to bitts! + Red, on bulwark and wale-- + Red, by combing and hatch-- + Red, o'er netting and rail! + + And ever, with steady con, + The ship forged slowly by; + And ever the crew fought on, + And their cheers rang loud and high. + + Fear? A forgotten form! + Death? A dream of the eyes! + We were atoms in God's great storm + That roared through the angry skies. + + A league from the fort we lay, + And deemed that the end must lag; + When lo! looking down the bay, + There flaunted the rebel rag-- + The ram is again under way + And heading dead for the flag! + + Steering up with the stream, + Boldly his course he lay, + Though the fleet all answered his fire, + And, as he still drew nigher, + Ever on bow and beam + Our monitors pounded away-- + How the _Chickasaw_ hammered away! + + Quickly breasting the wave, + Eager the prize to win, + First of us all the brave + _Monongahela_ went in, + Under full head of steam-- + Twice she struck him abeam, + Till her stem was a sorry work. + (She might have run on a crag!) + The _Lackawanna_ hit fair-- + He flung her aside like cork, + And still he held for the flag. + + Heading square at the hulk, + Full on his beam we bore; + But the spine of the huge sea-hog + Lay on the tide like a log-- + He vomited flame no more. + + By this he had found it hot. + Half the fleet, in an angry ring, + Closed round the hideous thing, + Hammering with solid shot, + And bearing down, bow on bow-- + He has but a minute to choose; + Life or renown?--which now + Will the rebel admiral lose? + + Cruel, haughty, and cold, + He ever was strong and bold-- + Shall he shrink from a wooden stem? + He will think of that brave band + He sank in the _Cumberland_-- + Ay, he will sink like them! + + Nothing left but to fight + Boldly his last sea-fight! + Can he strike? By Heaven, 'tis true! + Down comes the traitor blue, + And up goes the captive white! + + Ended the mighty noise, + Thunder of forts and ships, + Down we went to the hold-- + Oh, our dear dying boys! + How we pressed their poor brave lips + (Ah, so pallid and cold!) + And held their hands to the last + (Those that had hands to hold)! + + O motherland, this weary life + We led, we lead, is 'long of thee! + Thine the strong agony of strife, + And thine the lonely sea. + + Thine the long decks all slaughter-sprent, + The weary rows of cots that lie + With wrecks of strong men, marred and rent, + 'Neath Pensacola's sky. + + And thine the iron caves and dens + Wherein the flame our war-fleet drives-- + The fiery vaults, whose breath is men's + Most dear and precious lives. + + Ah, ever when with storm sublime + Dread Nature clears our murky air, + Thus in the crash of falling crime + Some lesser guilt must share! + + To-day the Dahlgren and the drum + Are dread apostles of His name; + His kingdom here can only come + By chrism of blood and flame. + + Be strong! already slants the gold + Athwart these wild and stormy skies; + From out this blackened waste behold + What happy homes shall rise! + + And never fear a victor foe-- + Thy children's hearts are strong and high; + Nor mourn too fondly--well they know + On deck or field to die. + + Nor shalt thou want one willing breath, + Though, ever smiling round the brave, + The blue sea bear us on to death, + The green were one wide grave. + + + + +{397} + +CHAPTER XXXVI. + +THE ADVANCE ON PETERSBURG. + +ADVANCE ON PETERSBURG--GENERAL BUTLER'S MOVEMENT--BEAUREGARD'S +COUNTER-MOVEMENT--ADVANCE FORCES UNDER GENERAL SMITH--HANCOCK'S +ATTACK--CUTTING OFF THE RAILROADS--THE FIGHT AT WELDON +ROAD--BURNSIDE'S MINE--EXPLOSION AND THE SLAUGHTER AT THE +CRATER--FIGHTING AT DEEP BOTTOM--THE CONSTRUCTION OF AN ARMY +RAILROAD--SIEGE OF PETERSBURG BEGUN. + + +It had been a part of Grant's plan, in opening the campaign of 1864, +that Gen. B. F. Butler, with a force that was called the Army of the +James, should march against Richmond and Petersburg. He moved +promptly, at the same time with the armies led by Grant and Sherman, +embarking his forces on transports at Fort Monroe, and first making a +feint of steaming up York River. In the night the vessel turned back +and steamed up the James. Early the next day, May 6th, the troops were +landed at City Point, at the junction of the James and the Appomattox, +and intrenchments were thrown up. Detachments were sent out to cut the +railroads south of Petersburg, and between that city and Richmond; but +no effective work was done. General Butler was ordered to secure a +position as far up the James as possible, and advanced to Drury's +Bluff, where he was attacked by a force under General Beauregard and +driven back to Bermuda Hundred. At the point where the curves of the +James and the Appomattox bring those two streams within less than +three miles of each other, Butler threw up a line of intrenchments, +with his right resting on the James at Dutch Gap, and his left on the +Appomattox at Point of Rocks. The position was very strong, and it +would be hopeless for the Confederates to assault it. The disadvantage +was, that Beauregard had only to throw up a parallel line of +intrenchments across the same neck of land, and Butler could not +advance a step. What he had secured, however, was afterward valuable +as a protection for City Point, when Grant swung the Army of the +Potomac across the James, which became thenceforth the landing-place +for supplies. + +Grant had reinforced Butler with troops under Gen. William F. Smith, +and planned to have an immediate advance on Petersburg while the Army +of the Potomac was crossing the James (June 14, 1864). The work was +intrusted to Smith, who was to get close to the Confederate +intrenchments in the night, and carry them at daybreak. He +unexpectedly came upon the enemy fortified between City Point and +Petersburg, and had a fight in which he was successful, but it caused +a loss of precious time. Grant hurried Hancock's troops over the +river, to follow Smith. But this corps was delayed several hours +waiting for rations, and finally went on without them. It appears that +Hancock's instructions were defective, and he did not know that he was +expected to take Petersburg till he received a note from Smith urging +him to hurry forward. Smith spent nearly the whole of the 15th in +reconnoitring the defences of Petersburg, which were but lightly +manned, and in the evening carried a portion of them by assault, the +work being done by colored troops under Gen. Edward W. Hincks. In the +morning of the 16th Hancock's men captured a small additional portion +of the works; but here that general had to be relieved for ten days, +because of the breaking out of the grievous wound that he had received +at Gettysburg. Gen. David B. Birney succeeded him in the command of +the corps. General Meade came upon the ground, ordered another +assault, and carried another portion. But by this time Beauregard had +thrown more men into the fortifications, and the fighting was stubborn +and bloody. It was continued through the 17th, with no apparent +result, except that at night the Confederates fell back to an inner +line, and in the morning the National line was correspondingly +advanced. In these preliminary operations against Petersburg, the +National loss was nearly ten thousand men. There is no official +statement of the Confederate loss, but the indications were that it +was about the same. + +[Illustration: CITY POINT--A FEDERAL SUPPLY STATION.] + +When Lee found where Grant was going, he moved east and south of +Richmond, crossing the James at Drury's Bluff, and presently +confronting his enemy in the trenches east and {398} south of +Petersburg. The country is well adapted for defence, and the works +were extensive and very strong. Seeing that the city itself could not +be immediately captured, Grant endeavored to sever its important +communications. The Norfolk Railroad was easily cut off; and the Army +of the Potomac, which for some time had hardly known any difference +between day and night, was allowed a few days of rest and comparative +quiet. But the most important line was the Weldon Railroad, which +brought up Confederate supplies from the South, and Grant and Meade +made an early attempt to seize it. On the 21st and 22d Birney's corps +was pushed to the left, extending south of the city, while Wright's +was sent by a route further south to strike directly at the railroad. +Wright came into a position nearly at right angles with Birney, facing +west toward the railroad, while Birney faced north toward the city. +They were not in connection, however, and did not sufficiently guard +their flanks. A heavy Confederate force under Gen. A. P. Hill, coming +out to meet the movement, drove straight into the gap, turned the left +flank of the Second Corps, threw it into confusion, and captured +seventeen hundred men and four guns. The fighting was not severe; but +the movement against the railroad was arrested. Hill withdrew to his +intrenchments in the evening, the Second Corps reëstablished its line, +and the Sixth intrenched itself in a position facing the railroad and +about a mile and a half from it. On this flank, affairs remained +substantially in this condition till the middle of August. + +[Illustration: BRIGADIER-GENERAL LYSANDER CUTLER.] + +[Illustration: BREVET MAJOR-GENERAL J. J. BARTLETT.] + +[Illustration: BREVET MAJOR-GENERAL RUFUS INGALLS.] + +But meanwhile something that promised great results was going on near +the centre of the line, in front of Burnside's corps. A regiment +composed largely of Pennsylvania miners dug a tunnel under the nearest +point of the Confederate works. These works consisted of forts or +redans at intervals, with connecting lines of rifle-pits, and the +tunnel was directed under one of the forts. The digging was begun in a +ravine, to be out of sight of the enemy, and the earth was carried out +in barrows made of cracker-boxes, and hidden under brushwood. The +Confederates learned what was being done, and the location of the +tunnel, but did not succeed in striking it by countermining. They came +to have vague and exaggerated fears of it, and many people in +Petersburg believed that the whole city was undermined. The work +occupied nearly a month, and when finished it consisted of a straight +tunnel five hundred feet long, ending in a cross-gallery seventy feet +long. In this gallery was placed eight thousand pounds of powder, with +slow-matches. The day fixed for the explosion was the 30th of July. To +distract attention from it, and diminish if possible the force that +held the lines immediately around Petersburg, Hancock was sent across +the James at Deep Bottom, where an intrenched camp was held by a force +under Gen. John G. Foster, to make a feint against the works north of +the river. This had the desired effect, as Lee, anxious for the safety +of Richmond, hurried a large part of his army across at Drury's Bluff +to confront Hancock. With this exception, the arrangements for the +enterprise were all bad. The explosion of the mine alone would do +little or no good; but it was expected to make such a breach in the +enemy's line that a strong column could be thrust through and take the +works in reverse. For such a task the best of troops are required; but +Burnside's corps was by no means the best in the army, and the choice +of a {399} division to lead, being determined by lot, fell upon Gen. +James H. Ledlie's, which was probably the worst, and certainly the +worst commanded. Furthermore, the obstructions were not properly +cleared away to permit the rapid deployment of a large force between +the lines. + +[Illustration: MAJOR-GENERAL W. H. F. LEE, C. S. A.] + +[Illustration: MAJOR-GENERAL HENRY HETH, C. S. A.] + +[Illustration: BRIGADIER-GENERAL R. E. COLSTON, C. S. A.] + +[Illustration: PETERSBURG, RICHMOND, AND VICINITY.] + +A few minutes before five o'clock in the morning, the mine was +exploded. A vast mass of earth, surrounded by smoke, with the flames +of burning powder playing through it, rose two hundred feet into the +air, seemed to poise there for a moment, and then fell. The fort with +its guns and garrison--about three hundred men of a South Carolina +regiment--was completely destroyed, and in place of it was a crater +about thirty feet deep and nearly two hundred feet long. At the same +moment the heavy batteries in the National line opened upon the enemy, +to protect the assaulting column from artillery fire. Ledlie's +division pushed forward into the crater, and there stopped. General +Ledlie himself did not accompany the men, and there seemed to be no +one to direct them. Thirty golden minutes passed, during which the +Confederates, who had run away in terror from the neighboring +intrenchments, made no effort to drive out the assailants. At the end +of that they began to rally to their guns, and presently directed a +heavy fire upon the men in the crater. Burnside tried to remedy the +difficulty by pushing out more troops, and at length sent his black +division, which charged through the crater and up the slope beyond, +but was there met by a fire before which it recoiled; for the +Confederates had constructed an inner line of breastworks commanding +the front along which the explosion had been expected. Finally, both +musketry and artillery were concentrated upon the disorganized mass of +troops huddled in the crater, while shells were lighted and rolled +down its sloping sides, till those who were left alive scrambled out +and got away as best they could. This affair cost the National army +about four thousand men--many of them prisoners--while the Confederate +loss was hardly a thousand. Soon after this General Burnside was +relieved, at his own request, and the command of his corps was given +to Gen. John G. Parke. General Grant had never had much faith in the +success of the mine, and had given only a reluctant consent to the +experiment. Perhaps this was because he had witnessed two similar ones +at Vicksburg, both of which were failures. He could hardly escape the +criticism, however, that it was his duty either to forbid it +altogether or to give it every element of success, including +especially a competent leader for the assault. + +On the 13th of August, Hancock made another and more serious +demonstration from Deep Bottom toward Richmond. {400} He assaulted the +defences of the city, and fighting was kept up for several days. He +gained nothing, for Lee threw a strong force into the intrenchments +and repelled his attacks. But there was great gain at the other end of +the line; for Grant took advantage of the weakening of Lee's right to +seize the Weldon Railroad. Warren's corps was moved out to the road on +the 18th, took a position across it at a point about four miles from +Petersburg, and intrenched. On the 19th, and again on the 21st, Lee +made determined attacks on this position, but was repelled with heavy +loss. Warren clung to his line, and made such dispositions as at +length enabled him to meet any assault with but little loss to +himself. A day or two later, Hancock returned from the north side of +the James, and was rapidly marched to the extreme left, to pass beyond +Warren and destroy some miles of the Weldon Railroad. He tore up the +track and completely disabled it to a point three miles south of Reams +Station, and on the 25th sent out Gibbon's division to the work some +miles farther. But the approach of a heavy Confederate force under +Gen. A. P. Hill caused it to fall back to Reams Station, where with +Miles's division (six thousand men in all) and two thousand cavalry it +held a line of intrenchments. Three assaults upon this line were +repelled, with bloody loss to the Confederates. General Hill then +ordered Heth's division to make another assault and carry the works at +all hazards. Heth found a place from which a part of the National line +could be enfiladed by artillery, and after a brisk bombardment +assaulted, carried the works, and captured three batteries. Miles's +men were rallied, retook a part of the line and one of the batteries, +and formed a new line, which they held, assisted by the dismounted +cavalry, who poured an effective fire into the flank of the advancing +Confederates. At night both sides withdrew from the field. Hancock had +lost twenty-four hundred men, seventeen hundred of whom were +prisoners. The Confederate loss is unknown, but it was severe. + +[Illustration: EXPLOSION OF THE MINE BEFORE PETERSBURG.] + +[Illustration: GLOBE TAVERN, GENERAL WARREN'S HEADQUARTERS AT +PETERSBURG.] + +From that time Grant held possession of the Weldon Railroad, and +whatever supplies came to the Confederate army by that route had to be +hauled thirty miles in wagons. The National army constructed for its +own use a railroad in the rear of and parallel with its long line of +intrenchments, running from City Point to the extreme left flank. This +road was not particular about grades and curves, but simply followed +the natural contour of the ground. Then began what is called the siege +of Petersburg, which was not a siege in the proper sense of the word, +because the Confederate communications were open; but the military +preparations and processes were identical with those known as siege +operations, and every possible appliance, mechanical or military, that +could assist in the work was brought here. + +{401} [Illustration: MAJOR-GENERAL JOHN G. FOSTER.] + +[Illustration: BRIGADIER-GENERAL H. H. HEATH.] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration: MAJOR-GENERAL ROBERT B. POTTER AND STAFF.] + +[Illustration: GENERAL DAVID B. BIRNEY.] + +[Illustration: BRIGADIER-GENERAL WILLIAM HAYS.] + +[Illustration: BRIGADIER-GENERAL ORLANDO B. WILCOX. (Afterward +Major-General.)] + +[Illustration: BRIGADIER-GENERAL SIMON G. GRIFFIN.] + + + + +{402} + +CHAPTER XXXVII. + +WASHINGTON IN DANGER. + +CONFEDERATE FORCES THREATEN THE NATIONAL CAPITAL--GENERAL GRANT SENDS +TROOPS TO ITS DEFENCE--BATTERIES AND INTRENCHMENTS AROUND +WASHINGTON--CONFEDERATE FORCES IN SIGHT OF THE DOME OF THE +CAPITOL--PRESIDENT LINCOLN EXPOSED TO THE FIRE OF CONFEDERATE +SHARP-SHOOTERS--GENERAL EARLY'S RETREAT UP THE SHENANDOAH VALLEY. + + +Partly to check the movements of General Hunter in the Shenandoah +Valley, and partly with the hope that an attack on Washington would +cause Grant to withdraw from before Richmond and Petersburg, Lee sent +Early's corps into the valley. Hunter, being out of ammunition, was +obliged to retire before the Confederates, and Early marched down the +Potomac unopposed, and threatened the National capital. Serious fears +were entertained that he would actually enter the city, and all sorts +of hurried preparations were made to prevent him, department clerks +being under arms, and every available man pressed into the service. + +The defences of Washington, which had been in course of construction +ever since the war began, consisted of sixty-eight enclosed forts or +batteries, connected by lines of intrenchments, forming a circle about +that city and Alexandria, and being on an average four miles from the +centre of the city. These mounted about eight hundred guns and one +hundred mortars, and, with their connecting works, were calculated to +give fighting room for thirty-five thousand men. But at this time they +were manned by not more than thirteen thousand. Some of these were +members of the invalid corps, which was formed of soldiers who had +been wounded so as to be unfit for the hard duty at the front; others +were hundred-day men. There was great excitement in Washington, and +serious fears that the Confederates might succeed in marching into the +capital. + +[Illustration: INTERIOR OF A FORT--PART OF THE DEFENCES OF WASHINGTON. +(From a Government photograph.)] + +[Illustration: ABRAHAM LINCOLN.] + +Gen. Lew Wallace, in command at Baltimore, gathered a body of recruits +and went out to meet Early, not with the hope of defeating him, but +only of delaying him till a sufficient force could be sent from the +Army of the Potomac. Ricketts's division of the Sixth Corps had +already set out for Baltimore, and on arriving there immediately +followed Wallace. They met the enemy at the Monocacy, thirty-five +miles from Washington, July 9, and took up a position on the left bank +of the stream, covering the roads to the capital. Wallace had six +field guns and a small force of cavalry, and disposed his line so as +to hold the bridges and fords as long as possible. The Confederates +attacked at first in front, with a strong skirmish line and sixteen +guns, and there was bloody fighting at one of the bridges. Then they +changed their tactics, marched a heavy force down stream, crossed at a +ford out of range of the National artillery, and then marched up +stream again to strike Wallace's left flank. That part of the line was +held by Ricketts, who changed front to meet the attack, and was +promptly reinforced from Wallace's scanty resources. Two assaults in +line of battle were repelled, after some destructive fighting, and +Wallace determined still to hold his ground, as he was hourly +expecting three additional regiments. But the afternoon wore away +without any appearance of assistance, and when he saw preparations for +another and heavier assault he determined to retreat. While the left +was being withdrawn, the right, under General Tyler, was ordered to +prevent the remaining Confederate force from crossing at the bridges. +The wooden bridge was burned, and the stone bridge was held to the +last possible moment, when Tyler also retreated. The missing regiments +were met on the road, and there was no pursuit. This {403} action was +not important from its magnitude; but in that it probably saved the +city of Washington from pillage and destruction, it was of the first +importance. Wallace has received high praise for his promptness and +energy in fighting a battle of great strategic value when he knew that +the immediate result must be the defeat of his own force. He lost +about fourteen hundred men, half of whom were prisoners. The +Confederates admitted a loss of six hundred. + +Early now marched on Washington, and on the 12th was within a few +miles of it, where some heavy skirmishing took place with a force sent +out by Gen. Christopher C. Augur. His nearest approach was at Fort +Stevens, directly north of the city. General Early says in his memoir: +"I rode ahead of the infantry and arrived in sight of Fort Stevens a +short time after noon, when I discovered that the works were but +feebly manned. Rodes, whose division was in front, was immediately +ordered to bring it into line as rapidly as possible, and move into +the works if he could." This is supposed to have been Early's golden +opportunity, which he somehow missed, for the capture of Washington. +His own explanation is this: "My whole column was then moving by +flank, which was the only practicable mode of marching on the road we +were on; and before Rodes's division could be brought up we saw a +cloud of dust in the rear of the works toward Washington, and soon a +column of the enemy filed into them on the right and left, and +skirmishers were thrown out in front, while an artillery fire was +opened on us from a number of batteries. This defeated our hopes of +getting possession of the works by surprise, and it became necessary +to reconnoitre. Rodes's skirmishers were thrown to the front, driving +those of the enemy to the cover of the works, and we proceeded to +examine the fortifications in order to ascertain if it was practicable +to carry them by assault. They were found to be exceedingly strong. +The timber had been felled within cannon range all round, and left on +the ground, making a formidable obstacle, and every possible approach +was raked by artillery. On the right was Rock Creek, running through a +deep ravine, which had been rendered impassable by the felling of the +timber on each side, and beyond were the works on the Georgetown pike, +which had been reported to be the strongest of all. On the left, as +far as the eye could reach, the works appeared to be of the same +impregnable character. This reconnoissance consumed the balance of the +day. The rapid marching, which had broken a number of the men who were +weakened by previous exposure, and had been left in the valley and +directed to be collected at Winchester, and the losses in killed and +wounded at Harper's Ferry, Maryland Heights, and Monocacy, had reduced +my infantry to about eight thousand muskets. Of those remaining, a +very large number were greatly exhausted by the last two days' +marching, some having fallen by sunstroke; and I was satisfied, when +we arrived in front of the fortifications, that not more than +one-third of my force could have been carried into action. After dark +on the 11th, I held a consultation with Major-Generals Breckenridge, +Rodes, Gordon, and Ramseur, in which I stated to them the danger of +remaining where we were, and the necessity of doing something +immediately, as the probability was that the passes of the South +Mountain and the fords of the upper Potomac would soon be closed +against us. After interchanging views with them, being very reluctant +to abandon the project of capturing Washington, I determined to make +an assault at daylight next morning. During the night a despatch was +received from Gen. Bradley Johnson, from near Baltimore, informing me +that two corps had arrived from General Grant's army, and that his +whole army was probably in motion. As soon as it was light enough to +see, I rode to the front and found the parapets lined with troops. I +had, therefore, reluctantly to give up all hopes of capturing +Washington, after I had arrived in sight of the dome of the Capitol." + +Early's information was correct, as Grant had sent to Washington the +remainder of the Sixth Corps, and also the Nineteenth Corps, which had +just arrived from Louisiana. + +[Illustration: BREVET BRIGADIER-GENERAL C. G. SAWTELLE.] + +[Illustration: BRIGADIER-GENERAL ANDREW PORTER.] + +[Illustration: BRIGADIER-GENERAL J. A. HASKIN.] + +[Illustration: BREVET BRIGADIER-GENERAL THEO. RUNYON.] + +{404} [Illustration: JOHN CABIN BRIDGE NEAR WASHINGTON.] + +[Illustration: AN EARNEST REQUEST FOR A FURLOUGH.] + +During the fighting at Fort Stevens, President Lincoln was in the +fort, and was exposed to the fire of the Confederate sharp-shooters. +General Wright had the greatest difficulty in persuading him to leave +his dangerous position, and could not do so until an officer standing +near the President had been struck down by a shot from the enemy. Even +then, Mr. Lincoln persisted in looking over the parapet to see what +was going on, and when finally the Sixth Corps men drove back the +enemy he was as excited and jubilant in the cheering as any of those +around him. + +Early retreated up the valley, carrying with him considerable plunder, +and was followed some distance until the pursuing force was withdrawn. +The Sixth and Nineteenth Corps were ordered to rejoin Grant's army, +and were on their way to it when it was learned that Early was again +advancing. Grant now determined to finish him and clear the valley, +and accordingly sent General Sheridan to command in that quarter, in +August. Meanwhile, a part of Early's force had been struck at +Winchester by a force under General Averell, who defeated it and +captured four guns and about four hundred men. Three days later, Early +defeated a force under Gen. George Crook, and drove it across the +Potomac, after which he sent his cavalry, under Generals McCausland +and Bradley T. Johnson, to make a raid into Pennsylvania. McCausland, +in the course of his raid, burned Chambersburg, the particulars of +which have been given in another chapter. + +This raid created a panic among the inhabitants of western Maryland +and southern Pennsylvania, many of whom fled from their homes, driving +off their cattle and carrying whatever they could. + + + + +{405} + +CHAPTER XXXVIII. + +SHERIDAN IN THE SHENANDOAH. + +IMPORTANCE OF THE VALLEY--HUNTER ASKS TO BE RELIEVED--SHERIDAN'S +CAREER--GRANT'S INSTRUCTIONS--INTERFERENCE AT WASHINGTON--LINCOLN +GIVES GRANT A HINT--SHERIDAN MARCHES ON WINCHESTER--MINOR +ENGAGEMENTS--SHERIDAN'S OPPORTUNITY--BATTLE OF THE OPEQUAN--EARLY GOES +WHIRLING THROUGH WINCHESTER--BATTLE OF FISHER'S HILL--DESTRUCTION IN +THE VALLEY--ACTION AT TOM'S BROOK--BATTLE OF CEDAR CREEK. + + +It had become plainly evident that something must be done to cancel +the whole Shenandoah Valley from the map of the theatre of war. The +mountains that flanked it made it a secure lane down which a +Confederate force could be sent at almost any time to the very door of +Washington; while the crops that were harvested in its fertile fields +were a constant temptation to those who had to provide for the +necessities of an army. General Grant took the matter in hand in +earnest after Early's raid and the burning of Chambersburg. His first +care was to have the separate military departments in that section +consolidated, his next to find a suitable commander, and finally to +send an adequate force. He would have been satisfied with General +Hunter, who was already the ranking officer there; but Hunter had been +badly hampered in his movements by constant interference from +Washington, and knowing that he had not the confidence of General +Halleck, he asked to be relieved, since he did not wish to embarrass +the cause. In this, Grant says, Hunter "showed a patriotism that was +none too common in the army. There were not many major-generals who +would voluntarily have asked to have the command of a department taken +from them on the supposition that for some particular reason, or for +any reason, the service would be better performed." Grant accepted his +offer, and telegraphed for General Sheridan to come and take command +of the new department. Sheridan was on hand promptly, and was placed +at the head of about thirty thousand troops, including eight thousand +cavalry, who were named the Army of the Shenandoah. + +Sheridan was now in his thirty-fourth year; and Secretary Stanton, +with a wise caution, made some objection, on the ground that he was +very young for a command so important. He had not stood remarkably +high at West Point, being ranked thirty-fourth in his class when the +whole number was fifty-two; but he had already made a brilliant record +in the war, winning his brigadier-generalship by a victory at +Booneville, Mo., and conspicuous for his gallantry and skill at +Perryville, Murfreesboro', Chickamauga, and Missionary Ridge, and for +his bold riding around Lee's army in the spring campaign of 1864. +Under him and Custer, Crook, Merritt, and Kilpatrick, the cavalry arm +of the National service, weak and inefficient at the opening of the +war, had become a swift and sure weapon against the now declining but +still defiant Confederacy. It had been noted by everybody that Grant +exhibited an almost unerring judgment in the choice of his +lieutenants. + +[Illustration: MAJOR-GENERAL H. G. WRIGHT.] + +[Illustration: BREVET MAJOR-GENERAL A. T. A. TORBERT.] + +In his instructions, which were at first written out for Hunter and +afterward transferred to Sheridan, Grant said: "In pushing up the +Shenandoah Valley, where it is expected you will have to go first or +last, it is desirable that nothing should be left to invite the enemy +to return. Take all provisions, forage, and stock wanted for the use +of your command. Such as cannot be consumed, destroy. It is not +desirable that the buildings should be destroyed--they should rather +be protected; but the people should be informed that so long as an +army can subsist among them recurrences of these raids must be +expected; and we are determined to stop them at all hazards." + +The condition of things at Washington--where Halleck always, and +Stanton sometimes, interfered with orders passing that way--is vividly +suggested by a despatch sent in cipher to Grant at this time, August +3. Mr. Lincoln wrote: "I have seen your despatch, in which you say, 'I +want Sheridan put in command of all the troops in the field, with +instructions to put himself south of the enemy and follow him to the +death. Wherever the enemy goes, let our troops go also.' This I think +is exactly right, as to how our forces should move. But please look +over the despatches you may have received from here, even since you +made that order, and discover, if you can, that there is any idea in +the head of any one here of 'putting our army south of the enemy,' or +of 'following him to the death' in any direction. I repeat to you, it +will neither be done nor attempted unless you watch it every day and +hour, and force it." This caused Grant to go at once to Maryland and +put things in train for the vigorous campaign that he had planned in +the valley of the Shenandoah. Perhaps Mr. Lincoln had found a way to +give Halleck also an impressive hint; for the very next day that +general telegraphed to Grant: "I await your orders, and shall strictly +carry them out, whatever they may be." + +{406} Grant, who had all confidence in Sheridan, wrote to him: "Do not +hesitate to give command to officers in whom you repose confidence, +without regard to claims of others on account of rank. If you deem +Torbert the best man to command the cavalry, place him in command, and +give Averell some other command, or relieve him from the expedition +and order him to report to General Hunter. What we want is prompt and +active movements after the enemy, in accordance with the instructions +you have already had. I feel every confidence that you will do the +very best, and will leave you, as far as possible, to act on your +judgment, and not embarrass you with orders and instructions." In +accordance with this, Torbert was made Sheridan's chief of cavalry, +and Merritt was given command of Torbert's division. When Grant +visited Sheridan, before the battle of the Opequan, he carried a plan +of battle in his pocket; but he says he found Sheridan so thoroughly +ready to move, with so perfect a plan, and so confident of success, +that he did not even show him his plan or give him any orders, except +authority to move. + +Early, whose main force was on the south bank of the Potomac, above +Harper's Ferry, still had a large part of his cavalry in Maryland, +where they were loading their wagons with wheat on the battlefield of +Antietam, and seizing all the cattle that the farmers had not driven +off beyond their reach. But these were now recalled. As soon as +Sheridan could get his force well in hand, he moved it skilfully +southward toward Winchester, in order to threaten Early's +communications and draw him into a battle. Early at once moved his +army into a position to cover Winchester, but was unwilling to fight +without the reinforcements that were on the way to him from Lee's +army; so he retreated as far as Fisher's Hill to meet them, and was +followed by Sheridan, who was about to attack there when warned by +Grant to be cautious, as the enemy was too strong for him. He +therefore withdrew to his former position on Opequan Creek, facing +west toward Winchester and covering Snicker's Gap, through which +reinforcements were to come to him. Here he was attacked, August 21, +and after a fight in which two hundred and sixty men on the National +side were killed or wounded, he drew back to a stronger position at +Halltown. He had complained, in a letter to Grant, that there was not +a good military position in the whole valley south of the Potomac. In +his retrograde movement, as he reported, he "destroyed everything +eatable south of Winchester." + +Early reconnoitred the position at Halltown and found it too strong to +be attacked, but for three or four weeks remained with his whole force +at the lower end of the valley, threatening raids into Maryland, +Pennsylvania, and West Virginia, breaking the Baltimore and Ohio +Railroad and the Chesapeake Canal, keeping the authorities at +Washington in a constant state of anxiety, and all the time inviting +attack from Sheridan. There were frequent minor engagements, mainly by +cavalry, with varying results. In one, Custer's division only escaped +capture by crossing the Potomac in great haste. In another, a force +under Gen. John B. McIntosh captured the Eighth South Carolina +infantry entire--though that regiment now consisted of but one hundred +and six men. It had probably consisted of a thousand men at the +outset, and the wear and tear of three years of constant warfare had +reduced it, like many others on either side, to these meagre +proportions. + +[Illustration: BREVET MAJOR-GENERAL ALFRED GIBBS.] + +[Illustration: BREVET BRIGADIER-GENERAL LOUIS H. PELOUZE.] + +[Illustration: BREVET BRIGADIER-GENERAL W. H. PENROSE.] + +Grant and Sheridan were in perfect accord as to the best policy, and +they pursued it steadily, in spite of the uneasiness at Washington, +the complaints of the Maryland farmers, and the criticisms of the +newspapers. They knew that with the Army of the Potomac constantly +busy in his front, feeling out for new positions beyond Petersburg, or +massing north of the James in close proximity to Richmond, or +threatening to break through his centre, the time must come when Lee +would recall a part of the forces that he had sent to the valley, and +that would be the moment for Sheridan to spring upon Early. The +opportunity arrived on the 19th of September, when Lee had recalled +the command of R. H. Anderson, with which he had reinforced Early in +August, and Early, as if to double his danger, had sent a large part +of his remaining troops to Martinsburg, twenty miles away. Grant's +order to Sheridan at this juncture was "Go in," and Sheridan promptly +went in. + +The various movements of the two armies had brought them around to +substantially the same positions that they held in the engagement of +August 21--Early east of and covering Winchester, Sheridan along the +line of Opequan Creek, which is about five miles east of the city. +Sheridan's plan was to march straight on Winchester with his whole +force, and crush Early's right before the left could be withdrawn from +Martinsburg to assist it. He set his troops in motion at three o'clock +in the morning, to converge toward the Berryville pike, a macadamized +{407} road crossing the Opequan, passing through a ravine, and leading +into Winchester. Wilson's cavalry secured the crossing of the stream, +and cleared the way through the ravine for the infantry; but there +was, as usual, some difficulty in moving so many troops by a single +road, and it was midday before the battle began. This delay gave Early +an opportunity to bring back his troops from Martinsburg and unite his +whole force in front of Winchester. Sheridan's infantry deployed under +a heavy artillery fire from Early's right wing, and advanced to the +attack, when the battle began almost simultaneously along the whole +line, and was kept up till dark. There were no field-works, the only +shelter being such as was afforded by patches of woodland and rolling +ground, and the fighting was obstinate and bloody. The usual +difficulty of preserving the line intact while advancing over broken +ground was met, and wherever a gap appeared it was promptly taken +advantage of. In one instance, a Confederate force led by Gen. Robert +E. Rodes drove in between the Sixth and Nineteenth Corps, crumbled +their flanks, and turned to take the Nineteenth in reverse; but at +this juncture a division of the Sixth Corps under Gen. David A. +Russell, coming forward to fill the gap, struck the flank of the +intruding Confederate force in turn, enfiladed it with a rapid fire of +canister from the Fifth Maine battery, and sent it back in confusion, +capturing a large number of prisoners. In this movement Generals Rodes +and Russell were both killed. On the National right the fighting was +at first in favor of the Confederates, and that wing was temporarily +borne back some distance. + +[Illustration: THE SHENANDOAH VALLEY.] + +Sheridan now brought up his reserves, which he had intended to move +south of Winchester to cut off retreat, and sent them into the fight +on his right flank, while the cavalry divisions of Merritt and +Averell, under Torbert, came in by a detour and struck Early's left, +pushing back his cavalry and getting into the rear of a portion of his +infantry. From this time Sheridan drove everything before him. The +Confederates found some shelter in a line of field-works near the +town, but were soon driven out, and fled through the streets in +complete rout and confusion. But darkness favored them, and most of +them escaped up the valley. Their severely wounded were left in +Winchester. The National loss was nearly five thousand men. The +Confederates lost about four thousand--including two generals, Rodes +and Godwin--with five guns and nine battle-flags. Early established a +strong rear guard, and managed to save his trains. + +This battle, which in proportion to the numbers engaged was one of the +most destructive of the war, had its many curious and valorous +incidents. Near its close General Russell received a bullet in his +breast, but did not mention it even to his staff officer, and +continued urging forward and encouraging the troops. A little later, +in the very moment of victory, a fragment of shell tore through his +heart. Lieut. Morton L. Hawkins, of the Thirty-fourth Ohio Regiment, +writes: "Here fell badly wounded our gallant division commander, Gen. +I. H. Duval; and while crossing a cornfield, and just before reaching +the edge of the sanguinary Red Bud, the chivalrous and manly Carter, +at the head of Company D, my old regiment, fell dead at my feet, +struck in the forehead with a musket ball; but never faltering, with +our eyes fixed on the enemy, who at that time were advancing to the +opposite side of the Red Bud, we pushed on, amid a shower of musketry +that was simply murderous. Emerging on the opposite bank, we ascended +the elevation and met them face to face. Then ensued a hand-to-hand +contest. The ranks of Union and Confederate regiments mingled +indiscriminately, the colors of both floating in the breeze together, +the blue and the gray, man to man. Duval had been carried to the rear +with a musket ball in his thigh, but Col. R. B. Hayes, since President +of the United States, assumed the command of the division, and by his +presence in the battle wreck encouraged his men to deeds of daring. +Cool and vigilant, he sat upon his horse amid that leaden rain, while +scores of veterans on either side went down around him. Finally the +tide turned in our favor. Down the hill, hotly pressed by the Union +men, went that valiant band of rebels. The day was won. The flag of +the old Thirty-fourth never looked so beautiful, nor was borne so +proudly, as on that glorious day, when in the thickest of the fight +its shadow fell on its brave defenders." + +{408} [Illustration: MAJOR-GENERAL PHILIP H. SHERIDAN AND STAFF.] + +In contrast with this is the entry in the journal of a Confederate +officer who was wounded and captured: "I never saw our {409} troops in +such confusion before. Night found Sheridan's hosts in full and +exultant possession of much-abused, beloved Winchester. The hotel +hospital was full of desperately wounded and dying Confederates. The +entire building was shrouded in darkness during the dreadful night, +and sleep was impossible, as the groans, sighs, shrieks, prayers, and +oaths of the wretched sufferers, combined with my own severe pain, +banished all thought of rest. Our scattered troops, closely followed +by the large army of pursuers, retreated rapidly and in disorder +through the city. It was a sad, humiliating sight." + +General Early attributes his defeat largely to the fact that his +cavalry was inferior in both numbers and equipments to the National +cavalry that opposed it. + +The news of this battle was received with unmeasured enthusiasm in the +Army of the Potomac, in Washington, and at the North, where every +newspaper repeated in its bold head-lines Sheridan's expression that +he had "sent Early whirling through Winchester." + +President Lincoln telegraphed to General Sheridan: "Have just heard of +your great victory. God bless you all, officers and men. Strongly +inclined to come up and see you." General Grant telegraphed: "I +congratulate you and the army serving under you for the great victory +just achieved. It has been most opportune in point of time and effect. +It will open again to the Government and to the public the very +important line from Baltimore to the Ohio, and also the Chesapeake +Canal. Better still, it wipes out much of the stain upon our arms by +previous disasters in that locality. May your good work continue, is +now the prayer of all loyal men." + +For this brilliant success, Sheridan was advanced to the grade of +brigadier-general in the regular army. + +When Early retreated southward after this battle of the Opequan (or +battle of Winchester as the Confederates called it), he took up a +position at Fisher's Hill, where the valley is but four miles wide. As +Sheridan had said, there was no really good military position in the +valley, unless for a much larger army than either he or Early +commanded. At Fisher's Hill, the Confederate right rested on the North +Fork of the Shenandoah, and was sufficiently protected by it; but for +the left there was no natural protection. Early's men set to work +vigorously constructing intrenchments and preparing abatis. Sheridan +followed promptly, his advance guard skirmishing with the Confederate +pickets and driving them through Strasburg. There was an eminence +overlooking the Confederate intrenchments, and after a sharp fight +this was gained by the National troops, who at once began to cut down +the trees and plant batteries. When Sheridan had thoroughly +reconnoitred the position, he planned to send the greater part of his +cavalry through the Luray Valley to get into the rear of the +Confederates and cut off retreat; then to attack in front with the +Sixth and Nineteenth Corps, while Crook, with the Eighth Corps, should +make a detour and come in on the enemy's left flank. The ground was so +broken that the manoeuvres were necessarily slow, and it was almost +sunset when Crook reached Early's flank. But the little daylight that +remained was used to the utmost advantage. Crook came out of the woods +so suddenly and silently that the Confederates at that end of the line +were simply astounded. Their works were taken in reverse, and their +dismounted cavalry was literally overrun. The forward movement of the +troops in front was prompt, the right of the Sixth Corps joining +properly with the left of Crook's, and everywhere Sheridan and his +lieutenants were with the men, repeating the command to push forward +constantly, without stopping for anything. The result was a complete +rout of the Confederates, who fled in confusion once more up the +valley, leaving sixteen of their guns behind. But Sheridan's plan for +their capture was foiled because his cavalry, meeting a stout +resistance from Early's cavalry, failed to get through to their rear. +Pursuit was made in the night, but to no purpose. In this battle, +which was fought on the 22d of September, the National loss was about +four hundred; the Confederate, about fourteen hundred. + +[Illustration: BREVET BRIGADIER-GENERAL GEORGE A. FORSYTH.] + +[Illustration: BRIGADIER-GENERAL N. P. CHIPMAN.] + +[Illustration: BREVET BRIGADIER-GENERAL NICHOLAS DAY.] + +For the next three days the retreat was continued, Sheridan's whole +force following rapidly, and often being near enough to engage the +skirmishers or exchange shots with the artillery. Early went to Port +Republic to meet reinforcements that were on the way to him from Lee's +army, and there stopped. Sheridan halted his infantry at Harrisonburg, +but sent his cavalry still farther up the valley. The column under +Torbert reached Staunton, where it destroyed a large quantity of arms, +ammunition, and provisions, and then tore up the track of the Virginia +Central Railroad eastward to Waynesboro', and pulled down the iron +bridge over the stream at that point. Here it was attacked in force, +and retired. Grant wanted the movement continued to Charlottesville; +but Sheridan found serious difficulties in his {410} lack of supplies +and transportation so far from his base. He adopted the alternative of +rendering the valley untenable for any army that could not bring its +provisions with it, and Grant had repeated his early instructions, +saying, "Leave nothing for the subsistence of an army on any ground +you abandon to the enemy." On the 5th of October the march down the +valley was begun. The infantry went first, and the cavalry followed, +being stretched entirely across the valley, burning and destroying, as +it went, everything except the dwellings. Sheridan said in his report: +"I have destroyed over two thousand barns filled with wheat, hay, and +farming implements; over seventy mills filled with flour and wheat; +have driven in front of the army over four thousand head of stock, and +have killed and issued to the troops not less than three thousand +sheep." + +Early, being reinforced, now turned and pursued Sheridan. At Tom's +Brook, on the 7th, the National cavalry under Torbert, Merritt, and +Custer engaged the Confederate cavalry under Rosser and Lamont. After +a spirited engagement Rosser was driven back twenty-five miles, and +Torbert captured over three hundred prisoners, eleven guns, and a +large number of wagons--or, as was said in the report, "everything +they had on wheels." + +Sheridan halted at Cedar Creek, north of Strasburg, and put his army +into camp there, while he was summoned to Washington for conference as +to the continuation of the campaign, leaving General Wright in +command. Early, finding nothing in the valley for his men and horses +to eat, was obliged to do one thing or another without delay--advance +and capture provisions from the stores of his enemy, or retreat and +give up the ground. He chose to assume the offensive, and in the night +of the 18th moved silently around the left of the National line, +taking the precaution to leave behind even the soldiers' canteens, +which might have made a clatter. In the misty dawn of the 19th the +Confederates burst upon the flank held by Crook's corps, with such +suddenness and vehemence that it was at once thrown into confusion and +routed. They were among the tents before anybody knew they were +coming, and many of Crook's men were shot or stabbed before they could +fairly awake from their sleep. The Nineteenth Corps was also routed, +but the Sixth stood firm, and the Confederates themselves became +somewhat broken and demoralized by the eagerness of the men to plunder +the camps. Wright's Sixth Corps covered the retreat; and when +Sheridan, hearing of the battle and riding with all speed from +Winchester, met the stream of fugitives, he deployed some cavalry to +stop them, and inspired his men with a short and oft-repeated oration, +which is reported as, "Face the other way, boys! We are going back to +our camps! We are going to lick them out of their boots!" This +actually turned the tide; a new line was quickly formed and +intrenched, and when Early attacked it he met with a costly repulse. +In the afternoon Sheridan advanced to attack in turn, sending his +irresistible cavalry around both flanks, and after some fighting the +whole Confederate line was broken up and driven in confusion, with the +cavalry close upon its heels. All the guns lost in the morning were +retaken, and twenty-four besides. In this double battle the +Confederate loss was about thirty-one hundred; the National, +fifty-seven hundred and sixty-four, of whom seventeen hundred were +prisoners taken in the morning and hurried away toward Richmond. Among +the losses in this battle on the National side were Brig.-Gens. Daniel +D. Bidwell, Charles R. Lowell, J. H. Hitching, and George D. Welles, +and Col. Joseph Thoburn, all killed; on the Confederate side, +Major-Gen. Stephen D. Ramseur, killed. + +[Illustration: A VIEW ON GOOSE CREEK, VIRGINIA. (From a war-time +photograph.)] + +{411} The explanation of Early's well-planned attack upon the camp is +found in the fact that the Confederates had a signal station on +Massanutten Mountain from which everything in Sheridan's army could be +seen. On the day before the battle Gen. John B. Gordon climbed to that +signal station, where with his field-glass he says, "I could +distinctly see the red cuffs of the artillerymen. In front of the +Belle Grove mansion I could see members of Sheridan's staff coming and +going. I could not imagine a better opportunity for making out an +enemy's position and strength. I could even count the men who were +there. I marked the position of the guns, and the pickets walking to +and fro, and observed where the cavalry was placed." The explanation +of the surprise is, that the Confederates by careful approach captured +a picket and obtained the countersign. They then proceeded to capture +more of the pickets, exchanged clothes with them and put their own men +on guard. This, of course, enabled them to open the door of the camp, +so to speak, in perfect silence for their approaching army. + +The story of Sheridan's return, and how he changed the defeat into a +victory, as here told, is that which is generally received. But some +of his soldiers say it is more dramatic than strictly truthful. They +say that when he arrived General Wright already had restored order, +and had the Sixth Corps in perfect condition for an advance movement. +Still there is no doubt that the presence of Sheridan brought with it +an inspiration, and gave vigor to the movement when it was made. Col. +Moses M. Granger, of the One Hundred and Twenty-second Ohio Regiment, +which was in the Sixth Corps, says: "When Sheridan arrived, the line +in position consisted of the cavalry, with its right on the pike; the +second division, Sixth Corps, with its left on the pike; then Hayes, +with part of the Army of West Virginia; and next to him our Second +Brigade, third division, Sixth Corps. I had no watch with me, but at +the time, I supposed that we connected with Getty not far from ten +o'clock in the forenoon. As our breakfast had been very early and +hasty, we now advanced the dinner hour, made coffee, and soon felt +refreshed--ready for anything. While we were in this state of good +feeling, General Sheridan, attended by Major A. J. Smith, came riding +along the line. Just in my rear, as I was sitting on a stump, he drew +rein, returned our salute, gave a quick look at the men, and said: +'You look all right, boys! We'll whip 'em like ---- before night!' At +this, hearty cheers broke out, and he rode on, passing from the rear +to the front of our line, through the right wing of my regiment, and +thence westward, followed ever by cheers. Instantly all thought of +merely defeating an attack upon us ended. In its stead was a +conviction that we were to attack and defeat them that very +afternoon.... Thus before Sheridan arrived Wright had given orders for +the establishment of a strong and well-manned line, and made it +certain that the rebel advance must there stop. What Wright might or +would have done if Sheridan had remained at Winchester, I cannot tell. +Called from his bed to fight an enemy already on his flank and rear +and partly within his lines, his promptness and decision enabled him +to withdraw from Early's grasp almost all that was not in his hands +before Wright's eager haste brought him from bed to battle. When his +black horse brought Sheridan to our lines on that October forenoon, +Wright turned over to him an army ready, eager, and competent to win +success that afternoon." + +Sheridan's campaign in the Valley of the Shenandoah was now +practically ended, and the people of the loyal North were no longer +obliged to call it the Valley of Humiliation. + +An incident of this campaign inspired one of the most vigorous and +popular of the war poems, entitled "Sheridan's Ride." We quote two +stanzas: + + "But there is a road from Winchester town, + A good broad highway leading down; + And there, through the flash of the morning light, + A steed as black as the steeds of night + Was seen to pass, as with eagle flight, + As if he knew the terrible need; + He stretched away with the utmost speed; + Hills rose and fell--but his heart was gay, + With Sheridan fifteen miles away. + + * * * * * + + "Hurrah! hurrah for Sheridan! + Hurrah! hurrah for horse and man! + And when their statues are placed on high, + Under the dome of the Union sky, + The American soldier's Temple of Fame, + There, with the glorious general's name, + Be it said, in letters both bold and bright: + 'Here is the steed that saved the day + By carrying Sheridan into the fight + From Winchester--twenty miles away!'" + +[Illustration: BRIGADIER-GENERAL BRADLEY T. JOHNSON, C. S. A.] + +[Illustration: MAJOR-GENERAL R. E. RODES, C. S. A. Killed at +Winchester, Va.] + +[Illustration: BREVET MAJOR-GENERAL DAVID A. RUSSELL. Killed at +Winchester, Va.] + + + + +{412} + +CHAPTER XXXIX. + +THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION. + +EFFORTS TOWARD PEACE--THE FRÉMONT CONVENTION--THE REPUBLICAN +CONVENTION--NOMINATION OF LINCOLN AND JOHNSON--THE DEMOCRATIC +CONVENTION--ITS DENUNCIATION OF THE WAR--NOMINATION OF McCLELLAN AND +PENDLETON--FRÉMONT WITHDRAWS--CHARACTER OF THE CANVASS--THE HOPE OF +THE CONFEDERATES--THE ISSUE AS POPULARLY UNDERSTOOD--ELECTION OF +LINCOLN--MARYLAND ABOLISHES SLAVERY--THE HIGHEST ACHIEVEMENT OF THE +AMERICAN PEOPLE. + + +The length of time that the war had continued, the drain upon the +resources of both belligerents, and especially the rapidity and +destructiveness of the battles in the summer of 1864, had naturally +suggested the question whether there were not some possibility of a +satisfactory peace without further fighting. In each section there was +a party, or at least there were people, who believed that such a peace +was possible; and the loud expression of this opinion led to several +efforts at negotiation, as it also shaped the policy of a great +political party. In July Col. James F. Jacques, of the Seventy-third +Illinois Regiment, accompanied by James R. Gillmore (known in +literature by his delineations of Southern life just before the war, +under the pen-name of "Edmund Kirke"), went to Richmond under flag of +truce, where they were admitted to a long interview with the chief +officers of the Confederate Government. They had gone with Mr. +Lincoln's informal sanction, but had no definite terms to offer; and +if they had, Mr. Davis's remarks show that it would have been in vain. +At the close he said: "Say to Mr. Lincoln, from me, that I shall at +any time be pleased to receive proposals for peace on the basis of our +independence. It will be useless to approach me with any other." In +that same month of July, three Southerners of some note created a +great sensation by a conference at Niagara Falls, with Horace Greeley, +on the subject of peace; but the affair came to nothing. + +The first Presidential convention of the year met at Cleveland, O., on +the last day of May, in response to a call addressed "to the radical +men of the nation." The platform declared, among other things, "that +the rebellion must be suppressed by force of arms, and without +compromise; that the rebellion has destroyed slavery, and the Federal +Constitution should be amended to prohibit its reëstablishment; that +the question of the reconstruction of the rebellious States belongs to +the people, through their representatives in Congress, and not to the +Executive; and that confiscation of the lands of the rebels, and their +distribution among the soldiers and actual settlers, is a measure of +justice." Gen. John C. Frémont was nominated for the Presidency, and +Gen. John Cochrane for the Vice-Presidency. Though this was the least +of the conventions, yet in all the points here quoted from its +platform, with the exception of the last, it indicated the policy that +was ultimately pursued by the nation; and it is a singular fact that +the exceptional plank (confiscation) was objected to by both +candidates in their letters of acceptance. + +The Republican National Convention met in Baltimore on the 7th of +June. It dropped the word "Republican" for the time being, and simply +called itself a Union Convention, to accommodate the war Democrats, +who were now acting with the Republican party. Not only the free +States were represented, but some that had been claimed by the +Confederacy and had been partially or wholly recovered from it, +including Tennessee, Louisiana, and Arkansas. The platform, reported +by Henry J. Raymond, one of the ablest of American journalists, was +probably written largely, if not entirely, by him. Its most +significant passages were these: + +"That we approve the determination of the Government of the United +States not to compromise with the rebels, nor to offer them any terms +of peace except such as may be based upon an unconditional surrender +of their hostility and a return to their full allegiance to the +Constitution and the laws of the United States. + +"That as slavery was the cause and now constitutes the strength of +this rebellion, and as it must be always and everywhere hostile to the +principles of republican government, justice and the national safety +demand its utter and complete extirpation from the soil of the +Republic.... We are in favor, furthermore, of such an amendment to the +Constitution, to be made by the people in conformity with its +provisions, as shall terminate and forever prohibit the existence of +slavery within the limits of the jurisdiction of the United States. + +"That we approve and applaud the practical wisdom, the unselfish +patriotism, and unswerving fidelity to the Constitution and the +principles of American liberty, with which Abraham Lincoln has +discharged, under circumstances of unparalleled difficulty, the great +duties and responsibilities of the presidential office; that we +approve and indorse, as demanded by the emergency and essential to the +preservation of the nation, and as within the Constitution, the +measures and acts which he has adopted to defend the nation against +its open and secret foes; that we approve especially the Proclamation +of Emancipation, and the employment as Union soldiers of men +heretofore held in slavery. + +"That the National faith, pledged for the redemption of the public +debt, must be kept inviolate; that it is the duty of every loyal State +to sustain the credit and promote the use of the National currency." + +On the first ballot, all the delegations voted for Mr. Lincoln, except +that from Missouri, whose vote was given to General Grant. According +to the official report of the proceedings, the first ballot for a +candidate for Vice-President resulted in two hundred votes for Andrew +Johnson, one hundred and eight for Daniel S. Dickinson (a war +Democrat), one hundred and fifty for Hannibal Hamlin (who then held +the office), and fifty-nine scattering; several delegations changed +their votes to Johnson, and he was almost unanimously nominated. But +according to the testimony of one who was on the floor as a delegate, +the nomination of Mr. Lincoln was immediately followed by an outburst +of cheering, yelling, and the wildest excitement, and in the confusion +and uproar it was declared that Mr. Johnson had somehow been +nominated. He had been a poor white in the South, and a life-long +Democrat, but had done some brave things in withstanding secession, +and some bitter things in thwarting the slave-holders. Mr. Lincoln had +appointed him military governor of Tennessee in March, 1862, and he +was still acting in that capacity. Whatever may have been the wisdom +of nominating a war Democrat when the war was so near its close, the +Republican party found reason in the next four years to repent its +choice of Andrew Johnson as bitterly as its predecessor, the Whig +party, had repented the choice of John Tyler, a life-long Democrat, in +1840. But the nominating conventions that have {413} sufficiently +considered the contingent importance of the Vice-Presidency have been +exceedingly few. + +The Democratic National Convention, called to meet in Chicago, did not +convene till nearly three months after the Republican, August 29. In +the meantime, the hard fighting around Richmond, and on Sherman's road +to Atlanta, the fruits of which were not yet evident, the appearance +of Confederate forces at the gates of Washington, and the delay of +Sheridan's movements in the Shenandoah Valley, had produced a more +gloomy feeling than had been experienced before since the war began; +and this feeling, as was to be expected, operated in favor of whatever +opposed the National administration. The suffering and the +discontented are always prone to cry out for a change, without +defining what sort of change they want, or considering what any change +is likely to bring. Seizing upon this advantage, the Democratic +convention made a very clear and bold issue with the Republican. It +was presided over by Horatio Seymour, then governor of New York, while +Clement L. Vallandigham was a member of the committee on resolutions, +and is supposed to have written the most significant of them. The +platform presented these propositions: + +"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 +military necessity of a 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 all 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. + +"That the aim and object of the Democratic party is to preserve the +Federal Union and the rights of the States unimpaired." + +On the first ballot, Gen. George B. McClellan was nominated for +President, receiving two hundred and two and a half votes, against +twenty-three and a half for Thomas H. Seymour, of Connecticut. George +H. Pendleton, of Ohio, an ultra-peace man, was nominated for +Vice-President. General McClellan, in his letter of acceptance, +virtually set aside a portion of the platform, and said: "The +reëstablishment of the Union, in all its integrity, is and must +continue to be the indispensable condition in any settlement.... No +peace can be permanent without Union." + +The declaration that the war had been a failure received a crushing +comment the day after the convention adjourned; for on that day +Sherman's army marched into Atlanta. And this success was followed by +others--notably Sheridan's brilliant movements in the valley--all of +which, when heralded in the Republican journals, were accompanied by +the quotation from the Democratic platform declaring the war a +failure. General Frémont withdrew from the contest in September, +saying in his published letter: + +"The policy of the Democratic party signifies either separation or +reëstablishment with slavery. The Chicago platform is simply +separation; General McClellan's letter of acceptance is +reëstablishment with slavery. The Republican candidate is, on the +contrary, pledged to the reëstablishment of the Union without slavery; +and, however hesitating his policy may be, the pressure of his party +will, we may hope, force him to it. Between these issues, I think no +man of the Liberal party can remain in doubt; and I believe I am +consistent with my antecedents and my principles in withdrawing--not +to aid in the triumph of Mr. Lincoln, but to do my part toward +preventing the election of the Democratic candidate." + +The canvass was exceedingly bitter, especially in the abuse heaped +upon Mr. Lincoln. The undignified and disgraceful epithets that were +applied to him by journals of high standing were not such as would +make any American proud of his country. This course had its +culmination in the publication of certain ghastly pictures of returned +prisoners, to show what Lincoln--the usurper, despot, and tyrant, as +they freely called him--was doing by not disregarding "nigger +soldiers" and continuing the exchange of whites. They constantly +repeated the assertion with which they had greeted the Emancipation +Proclamation, that the war had been wickedly changed from one for the +preservation of the Union into one for the abolition of slavery. On +the other hand, the Republican press freely accused the Democratic +party of desiring the success of secession--which was not true. Aside +from all patriotic considerations, that party had the strongest +reasons for wishing to perpetuate the Union, because without the +Southern vote it was in a minority. There were many members of that +party, however, who, while they by no means desired the destruction of +the Union, believed it was inevitable, and thought the sooner the +necessity was acknowledged the better. + +One of the most effective arguments of the canvass was furnished in a +condensed form by one of Mr. Lincoln's famous little stories, and in +that form was repeated thousands of times. Answering the address of a +delegation of the Union League, a day or two after his nomination, he +said: "I have not permitted myself to conclude that I am the best man +in the country; but I am reminded in this connection of the story of +an old Dutch farmer, who once remarked to a companion that 'it was not +best to swap horses when crossing streams.'" There was singing in the +canvass, too, and some of the songs rendered by glee-clubs every +evening before large political meetings were very effective. One of +the most notable had been written in response to the President's call +for three hundred thousand volunteers, and bore the refrain, + + "We are coming, Father Abraham, three hundred thousand more!" + +Much of the popular parlor music of the time consisted of songs +relating to the great struggle, prominent among which were "Tenting on +the Old Camp-Ground" and "When this Cruel War is over." At the South, +as at the North, there had been an outburst of lyric enthusiasm at the +beginning of the war, which found expression in "My Maryland," the +"Bonnie Blue Flag," and "Dixie;" but the spirit that inspires such +poems seems to have died out there after the war had been in progress +two or three years, when its terrible privations were increasing every +day. + +{414} [Illustration: BRIGADIER-GENERAL GEORGE D. RAMSAY.] + +[Illustration: BREVET MAJOR-GENERAL RUFUS SAXTON.] + +[Illustration: BRIGADIER-GENERAL F. T. DENT.] + +[Illustration: BRIGADIER-GENERAL C. P. BUCKINGHAM.] + +[Illustration: BREVET BRIGADIER-GENERAL WILLIAM P. RICHARDSON.] + +[Illustration: BREVET MAJOR-GENERAL J. K. BARNES.] + +[Illustration: BRIGADIER-GENERAL WILLIAM A. HAMMOND.] + +[Illustration: BRIGADIER-GENERAL HENRY A. BARNUM.] + +[Illustration: BREVET MAJOR-GENERAL AMOS B. EATON.] + +[Illustration: MAJOR-GENERAL MORTIMER LEGGETT AND STAFF.] + +The Confederates were now looking eagerly for the result of the +Presidential election as a possible solution of the great question in +their favor. John B. Jones, who was a clerk in the Confederate War +Department, recorded in his published diary that Mr. Vallandigham, +when banished to the South, had assured the officers of the Government +at Richmond that "if we [the Confederates] can only hold out this +year, the peace party of the North would sweep the Lincoln dynasty out +of political existence." This was now their strongest hope; and it was +common talk {415} across the lines, between the pickets, that in the +event of McClellan's election the Confederates expected a speedy +cessation of hostilities and ultimately their independence. And such +is the unaccountable elasticity of the human mind, in dealing with +facts and principles, that a large number of the bravest and most +devoted soldiers in the National service, knowing this, were preparing +to cast their ballots in a way to give the utmost assistance and +encouragement to the very enemy into the muzzles of whose guns they +were looking. + +Whether General Frémont's arraignment of the Administration as +"politically, militarily, and financially a failure" was just or +unjust, whether it was true or not that the triumph of General +McClellan and his party would result in a final disruption of the +country, before the canvass was over the land had settled down to the +belief that the only way to secure the continuance of the war to a +successful termination was to reëlect Mr. Lincoln, while a vote for +General McClellan meant something else--nobody knew exactly what. The +solemnity of the occasion appeared to be universally appreciated, and +though a heavy vote was polled the election was the quietest that had +ever been held. The citizens were dealing with a question that, in +most of its aspects at least, they by this time thoroughly understood. +When they sprang to arms in 1861, they did not know what war was; but +now they had had three years of constant schooling to its burdens and +its horrors. They had seen regiment after regiment march away to the +music of drum and fife, with a thousand men in the ranks, and come +back at the end of two years' service with perhaps two hundred bronzed +veterans to be mustered out. They had read in their newspapers, after +every great battle, the long lists of killed and wounded, which the +telegraph was quick to report. Every city had its fair for the relief +of the widows and orphans, every hamlet its two or three crippled +soldiers hobbling about in their faded blue overcoats, almost every +house its incurable sorrow. They had seen the wheel turning in the +provost-marshal's office, in places where volunteering was not +sufficiently rapid, and knew that their own names might be the next to +be drawn for service at the front. They knew how many graves there +were at Gettysburg, how many at Shiloh, how many at Stone River; they +knew what was to be seen in the hospitals of every Northern city, and +something of the unspeakable horrors of captivity. They saw the price +of gold go beyond two hundred, while the Government was spending +between two and three millions of dollars a day, piling up a national +debt in undreamed-of proportions, for which they were already heavily +taxed, and which must some day be paid in solid coin. + +Seeing and understanding all this, and having the privilege of a +secret and unquestioned ballot, they quietly walked up to the polls +and voted for a vigorous prosecution of the war, reëlecting Mr. +Lincoln by a popular majority of more than four hundred thousand, and +giving him the votes of all the States excepting Delaware, New Jersey, +and Kentucky--two hundred and twelve against twenty-one. The vote of +the soldiers in the field, so far as it could be counted separately +(for in some States it was sent home sealed, and mingled with the +other ballots in the boxes), showed about one hundred and nineteen +thousand for Lincoln, and about thirty-four thousand for McClellan. +The soldiers confined in some of the Confederate prisons held an +election at the suggestion of their keepers, who were exceedingly +curious to see how the prisoners would vote. Sergeant Robert H. +Kellogg tells us that in the stockade at Florence, S. C., where he was +confined, two empty bags were hung up, and the prisoners were +furnished with black and white beans and marched past in single file, +each depositing a black bean for Lincoln, or a white one for +McClellan. The result was in the proportion of two and a half for +Lincoln to one for McClellan. In the prison at Millen, Ga., Sergeant +W. Goodyear tells us, the vote was three thousand and fourteen for +Lincoln, and one thousand and fifty for McClellan. In Congress, the +number of Republican members was increased from one hundred and six to +one hundred and forty-three, and the number of Democratic members +reduced from seventy-seven to forty-one. + +Meanwhile, in October, Maryland had adopted a new constitution, in +which slavery was prohibited. In answer to serenades after the +election, Mr. Lincoln made some of his best impromptu speeches, saying +in one: "While I am duly sensible to the high compliment of a +reëlection, and duly grateful, as I trust, to Almighty God for having +directed my countrymen to a right conclusion, as I think, for their +good, it adds nothing to my satisfaction that any other man may be +disappointed by the result. May I ask those who have not differed with +me to join with me in this same spirit toward those who have?" + +If there is any one act of the American people that above all others, +in the sober pages of history, reflects credit upon them for correct +judgment, determined purpose, courage in present difficulties, and +care for future interests, that act, it seems to me, was the +reëlection of President Lincoln. + + + + +CHAPTER XL. + +THE NATIONAL FINANCES. + +AN EMPTY TREASURY--BORROWING MONEY AT TWELVE PER CENT.--SALMON P. +CHASE MADE SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY--THE DIRECT-TAX BILL--ISSUE OF +DEMAND NOTES--CHASE'S COURAGE--THE BANKS FORM SYNDICATE--ISSUE OF +BONDS--AMOUNT OF COIN IN CIRCULATION--SUSPENSION OF SPECIE +PAYMENTS--PAY OF SOLDIERS--GREENBACKS--CHASE'S PLAN FOR A NATIONAL +BANKING SYSTEM--THE FRACTIONAL CURRENCY--FLUCTUATIONS OF GOLD--THE +COST OF THE WAR. + + +When President Lincoln came into office he found the treasury empty, +and the public debt somewhat over seventy-six million dollars. In the +last days of President Buchanan's administration the Government had +been borrowing money at twelve per cent. per annum. In December, 1860, +Congress passed a bill for the issue of ten million dollars in +one-year treasury notes. Half of this amount was advertised, and +offers were received for a small portion, at rates of discount varying +from twelve to thirty-six per cent. The twelve per cent. offers were +accepted, and subsequently a syndicate of bankers took the remainder +of the five millions at that figure. The other five millions were +taken a month later at eleven per cent. discount. In February, 1861, +Congress authorized a loan of twenty-five millions, to bear interest +at six per cent., and to be paid in not less than ten nor more than +twenty years. The Secretary succeeded in negotiating one-third of the +amount at rates from ninety to ninety-six. + +In Mr. Lincoln's cabinet, Salmon P. Chase (formerly governor of Ohio, +and then United States senator) was made Secretary of the Treasury. +Under the existing acts he borrowed eight millions in March at +ninety-four and upward--rejecting all offers under ninety-four--and +early in April issued at par nearly five millions in two-year treasury +notes, receivable for public dues and also convertible into +six-per-cent. stocks. On the 12th of {416} that month the war was +begun by the firing on Fort Sumter. In May seven millions more of the +six-per-cent. loan were issued at rates from eighty-five to +ninety-three, and two and a half millions in treasury notes at par. +These transactions were looked upon as remarkably successful, for many +considered it questionable whether the Government would survive the +blow that was aimed at its life, and be able to redeem any of its +securities. The existing tariff, which was low, produced an annual +income of not more than thirty millions. + +Congress met, at the call of the President, on the 4th of July, 1861, +and on the 17th passed a bill (with but five dissenting votes in the +House of Representatives) for the issue of bonds and treasury notes to +the amount of two hundred and fifty millions. It also increased the +duties on many articles, passed an act for the confiscation of the +property of rebels, and levied a direct tax of twenty millions, +apportioned among the States and Territories. The States that were in +rebellion of course did not pay. All the others paid except Delaware, +Colorado, Utah, Oregon, and the District of Columbia. The law provided +for collection by United States officers in such States as should not +formally assume and pay the tax themselves. In some of the seceding +States, lands worth about seven hundred thousand dollars were seized +and sold for non-payment. + +In August the first demand notes were issued as currency, being paid +to clerks in the departments for their salaries. Though these were +convertible into gold, there was at first great reluctance to receive +them, but after a little time they became popular, and in five months +about thirty-three millions were issued. + +In August also Mr. Chase held a conference with the principal bankers +of New York, Boston, and Philadelphia, to negotiate a national loan on +the basis of the recent acts of Congress. Most of them expressed their +desire to sustain the Government, but they made some objections to the +terms and rates of interest. When it looked as if the negotiation +might fail, the Secretary assured the bankers that if they were not +able to take the loan on his terms, he would return to Washington and +issue notes for circulation, "for it is certain that the war must go +on until the rebellion is put down, if we have to put out paper until +it takes a thousand dollars to buy a breakfast." The banks agreed to +form a syndicate to lend the Government fifty million dollars in coin, +to pay which the Secretary was to issue three-year notes bearing seven +and three-tenths per cent. interest, convertible into six-per-cent. +twenty-year bonds. These were popularly known as "seven-thirties." The +peculiar rate of interest was made both as a special inducement and +for ease of calculation, the interest being two cents a day on each +hundred dollars. They were issued in denominations as low as fifty +dollars, so that people of limited means could take them, and were +very popular. The coupon and registered bonds that were to run not +less than five years nor more than twenty were popularly known as +"five-twenties." Subscription-books were opened in every city, and the +people responded so promptly that the Government was soon enabled to +repay the banks and make another loan on similar terms. But a third +loan was refused, and Secretary Chase then issued fifty millions in +"five-twenties," bearing interest at six per cent., but sold at such a +discount as to make a seven-per-cent. investment. Of all the agents +employed to dispose of these bonds, Jay Cooke, of Philadelphia, was +the most successful. They were paid one-fifth of one per cent. for the +first hundred thousand dollars, and one-eighth of one per cent. for +all in excess of that sum. + +The amount of coin in circulation in the United States at this time +was estimated at about two hundred and ten million dollars. Before the +war had been in progress one year, the operations of the Government +had become so vast that this did not furnish a sufficient volume of +currency for the transactions. On December 30, 1861, the banks +suspended specie payments, and the Government was then obliged to do +likewise. There were now over half a million men in the field, and the +navy had been increased from forty-two vessels to two hundred and +sixty-four. The pay of a private soldier was thirteen dollars a month, +with food and clothing. The total cost to the Government for each +soldier maintained in the field was about a thousand dollars a +year--two and a half times the cost of a British soldier, and twelve +times the cost of a French soldier. + +Early in 1862 even the smallest coins disappeared from circulation, +and some kinds of business were almost paralyzed for want of change. +Tokens and fractional notes were issued by private firms, and various +expedients were resorted to, a favorite one being the enclosure of +specified amounts of postage-stamps in small envelopes properly +labelled. Thaddeus Stevens, member of Congress from Pennsylvania, +proposed that the Government should issue notes for circulation, to +any amount that might be required, and make them legal tender for all +debts, public and private. Secretary Chase opposed this, and proposed +instead a national banking system, which should embrace an issue of +notes bearing a common impression and a common authority, the +redemption of these notes by the institutions to which the Government +should deliver them for issue, and a pledge of United States stocks as +security for such redemption. This scheme was opposed by the State +banks, and Mr. Chase gave a reluctant consent to the legal-tender +measure, which was then carried through Congress, and the "greenbacks" +became payable for everything except duties on imports. Subsequently +Mr. Chase's plan for a national banking system was also adopted, +substantially as we have it now. In the loyal States the greenbacks +were popular from the first, and the large amount in circulation led +to general extravagance in expenditures. In the insurrectionary States +they were at first refused with scorn. But when the secessionists +found that these notes had a purchasing power vastly superior to those +of their own Government, they soon became reconciled to them. When +soldiers of the National army were made prisoners of war, they were +almost immediately requested by their captors to exchange any +greenbacks they might have for Confederate money, and some show of +fairness was made by the allowance of a heavy discount, seldom less +than seven for one. The Confederate currency was redeemable "six +months after the ratification of a treaty of peace with the United +States." The Government supplemented the greenbacks with fractional +paper currency in denominations of fifty, twenty-five, ten, and five +cents; and in this money the war bills were paid and all business +transacted, except at the custom-houses. + +The daily quotations of gold were looked to as an indication of the +prospects of the war. Gold itself did not materially change in value, +but the premium on it represented the depreciation of the greenbacks +with which it was purchased. At the beginning of 1862 there was a +premium of about two per cent. on gold. This fluctuated from day to +day, but the general tendency was upward, till at the end of that year +the premium was thirty-three. By the end of 1863 gold had risen to one +hundred and fifty-one; and on June 21, 1864, just after the Army of +the Potomac crossed the James, it touched two hundred. In other {417} +words, the United States paper dollar was then worth half a dollar. On +the 11th of July, 1864, gold reached its highest point, two hundred +and eighty-five. Confederate paper money had been at par until +November, 1861; but from that time its value diminished steadily and +rapidly, until, at the close of 1864, five hundred paper dollars were +worth but one dollar in gold, and three months later six hundred. + +Most of the funded debt of the United States was represented by +five-twenty bonds. An act was passed authorizing the issue of +ten-forties, but they were not popular, and comparatively few were +taken. The total assessed value of all the property in the United +States, real and personal, by the census of 1860, was somewhat over +sixteen thousand million dollars. The cost of the war to the +Government has been nearly, if not quite, half that amount--or about +equal to the value in 1860 of all the real estate in the loyal States. +The amount of the Confederate debt is unknown. If that and the +incidental losses could be ascertained, the cost of the war would +probably make a grand total almost equivalent to a wiping out of all +values in the country as they were estimated in the year of its +beginning. The fourteenth amendment to the Constitution--proposed in +1866, and declared in force in 1868--provides, on the one hand, that +the validity of the public debt shall not be questioned, and, on the +other, that neither the United States nor any State shall ever pay any +debt or obligation that has been incurred in aid of insurrection +against the United States. + +[Illustration: FAC-SIMILE OF A CONFEDERATE BOND.] + +{418} [Illustration: BRIGADIER-GENERAL W. E. STRONG, GENERAL +McPHERSON'S INSPECTOR-GENERAL, ORDERING A COLONEL TO PLACE HIS COMMAND +IN ACTION.] + + + + +{419} + +CHAPTER XLI. + +THE MARCH TO THE SEA. + +SHERMAN MAKES ATLANTA A MILITARY DEPOT--HIS PECULIAR +POSITION--DISAFFECTION IN THE CONFEDERACY--HOOD ATTACKS THE +COMMUNICATIONS--DEFENCE OF ALLATOONA--THOMAS ORGANIZES AN +ARMY--SHERMAN DETERMINES TO GO DOWN TO THE SEA--DESTRUCTION IN +ATLANTA--THE ORDER OF MARCH--SHERMAN'S INSTRUCTIONS--THE +ROUTE--INCIDENTS--DESTRUCTION OF THE RAILROAD--KILLING THE +BLOODHOUNDS--THE BUMMERS--CAPTURE OF FORT McALLISTER--HARDEE EVACUATES +SAVANNAH, AND SHERMAN OFFERS IT AS A CHRISTMAS PRESENT TO THE +PRESIDENT--BATTLE OF FRANKLIN--BATTLE OF NASHVILLE--HOOD'S ARMY +DESTROYED. + + +Before Sherman's army had been a week in Atlanta he determined to send +away all the inhabitants of the city, giving each the choice whether +to go South or North, and furnishing transportation for a certain +distance. His reason for this measure is given briefly in his own +words: "I was resolved to make Atlanta a pure military garrison or +dépôt, with no civil population to influence military measures. I had +seen Memphis, Vicksburg, Natchez, and New Orleans, all captured from +the enemy, and each at once was garrisoned by a full division of +troops, if not more, so that success was actually crippling our armies +in the field by detachments to guard and protect the interests of a +hostile population." Of course this action met with a vigorous protest +from the people themselves, from the city authorities, and from +General Hood, between whom and General Sherman there was a sharp +correspondence discussing the humanity of the measure and to some +extent the issues of the war. + +General Sherman also received a letter signed by the mayor and two of +the councilmen, in which they set forth the difficulties and +sufferings that the people would encounter, and asked him to +reconsider his order for their removal. This he answered at length, +presenting a broad view, not of Atlanta only, but of the entire +country, and the state of the war, and the effect that this would have +upon it. There were few generals on either side who understood the +entire aspect, military, political, moral, and economical, as +thoroughly, or describe it as clearly, as Sherman. He said: + +"I give full credit to your statements of the distress that will be +occasioned, and yet shall not revoke my orders, because they were not +designed to meet the humanities of the case, but to prepare for the +future struggles in which millions of good people outside of Atlanta +have a deep interest. We must have peace, not only at Atlanta, but in +all America. To secure this, we must stop the war that now desolates +our once happy and favored country. To stop war, we must defeat the +rebel armies which are arrayed against the laws and Constitution that +all must respect and obey. To defeat those armies, we must prepare the +way to reach them in their recesses, provided with the arms and +instruments which enable us to accomplish our purpose. Now, I know the +vindictive nature of our enemy, that we may have many years of +military operations from this quarter, and therefore deem it wise and +prudent to prepare in time. The use of Atlanta for warlike purposes is +inconsistent with its character as a home for families. There will be +no manufactures, commerce, or agriculture here, for the maintenance of +families, and sooner or later want will compel the inhabitants to go. +Why not go now, when all the arrangements are completed for the +transfer, instead of waiting till the plunging shot of contending +armies will renew the scenes of the past month? Of course I do not +apprehend any such thing at this moment, but you do not suppose this +army will be here until the war is over. I cannot discuss this subject +with you fairly, because I cannot impart to you what we propose to do; +but I assert that our military plans make it necessary for the +inhabitants to go away, and I can only renew my offer of services to +make their exodus in any direction as easy and comfortable as +possible. + +"You cannot qualify war in harsher terms than I will. War is cruelty, +and you cannot refine it; and those who brought war into our country +deserve all the curses and maledictions a people can pour out. I know +I had no hand in making this war, and I know I will make more +sacrifices to-day than any of you to secure peace. But you cannot have +peace and a division of our country. If the United States submits to a +division now, it will not stop, but will go on until we reap the fate +of Mexico, which is eternal war. The United States does and must +assert its authority wherever it once had power; for, if it relaxes +one bit to pressure, it is gone, and I believe that such is the +national feeling. This feeling assumes various shapes, but always +comes back to that of Union. Once admit the Union, once more +acknowledge the authority of the National Government, and, instead of +devoting your houses and streets and roads to the dread uses of war, I +and this army become at once your protectors and supporters, shielding +you from danger, let it come from what quarter it may. I know that a +few individuals cannot resist a torrent of error and passion, such as +swept the South into rebellion; but you can point out, so that we may +know those who desire a government, and those who insist on war and +its desolation. + +"You might as well appeal against the thunder-storm as against these +terrible hardships of war. They are inevitable; and the only way the +people of Atlanta can hope once more to live in peace and quiet at +home, is to stop the war, which can only be done admitting that it +began in error and is perpetuated in pride. We don't want your +negroes, or your horses, or your houses, or your lands, or anything +that you have, but we do want and will have a just obedience to the +laws of the United States. That we will have, and, if it involves the +destruction of your improvements, we cannot help it. You have +heretofore read public sentiment in your newspapers, that live by +falsehood and excitement; and the quicker you seek for truth in other +quarters, the better. I repeat, then, that, by the original compact of +government, the United States had certain rights in Georgia, which +have never been relinquished and never will be; that the South began +war by seizing forts, arsenals, mints, custom-houses, etc., long +before Mr. Lincoln was installed, and before the South had one jot or +tittle of provocation. I myself have seen in Missouri, Kentucky, +Tennessee, and Mississippi, hundreds and thousands of women and +children fleeing from your armies and desperadoes, hungry and with +bleeding feet. In Memphis, Vicksburg, and Mississippi, we fed +thousands upon thousands of the families of rebel soldiers left on our +hands, and whom we could not see starve. Now that war comes home to +you, you feel very different. You deprecate its horrors, but did not +feel them when you sent carloads of soldiers and ammunition, and +moulded shells and shot, to carry war into Kentucky and Tennessee, to +desolate the homes of hundreds and thousands of good people who only +asked to live in peace at their old homes and under the government of +their inheritance. But, my dear sirs, when peace does come, {420} you +may call on me for anything. Then I will share with you the last +cracker, and watch with you to shield your homes and families against +danger from every quarter." + +Among the considerations that influenced General Sherman's action at +that time, two appear to have been paramount--one a hope, the other a +fear. The fear was, that some portion of Hood's army would make a +serious break in his communications by destroying portions of the +long, single-track railroad over which he drew all his supplies from +Chattanooga. The hope was, that Georgia, seeing any further +prosecution of the war to be useless, would withdraw her troops from +the Confederate armies and practically secede from the Confederacy. +Some color was given to this from the fact that Gov. Joseph E. Brown +had recalled the Georgia militia from Hood's army, while Mr. Davis, on +a flying visit to that army, had made a speech in which he threw the +blame for the recent disasters upon General Johnston and Governor +Brown, and told the soldiers they were about to set out on a campaign +that would carry them to Tennessee and Kentucky. Sherman sent word to +Governor Brown that if Georgia's troops were withdrawn from the +Confederate service, he would pass across the State as harmlessly as +possible, and pay for all the corn and fodder that he took; but if +not, he would devastate the State through its whole length and +breadth. + +[Illustration: HON. JOSEPH E. BROWN, Governor of Georgia.] + +[Illustration: ALL THE LIVE STOCK LEFT ON McGILL'S FARM.] + +In North Carolina there had been a strong movement for peace this +year, the only difference of opinion being as to the method in which +peace should be sought. The governor, Zebulon B. Vance, as a candidate +for reëlection, represented those who held that the State should only +act in coöperation with the other States that were engaged with her in +the war. The other party, whose candidate was William W. Holden, held +that North Carolina should assert her sovereignty and negotiate peace +directly and alone with the United States. Governor Vance probably +presented the decisive argument when he said: "Secession from the +Confederacy will involve us in a new war, a bloodier conflict than +that which we now deplore. So soon as you announce to the world that +you are a sovereign and independent nation, as a matter of course the +Confederate Government has a right to declare war against you, and +President Davis will make the whole State a field of battle and blood. +Old Abe would send his troops here also, because we would no longer be +neutral; and so, if you will pardon the expression, we would catch the +devil on all sides." At the election in August, Governor Vance +received fifty-four thousand votes, against twenty thousand for Mr. +Holden. + +Georgia did not secede from the Confederacy, but Hood did attack the +communications. At every important point on the railroad there was a +strong guard, and at the bridges there were block-houses with small +but well-appointed garrisons. About the 1st of October Hood crossed +the Chattahoochee, going northward to strike the railroad. Sherman +hurried after him, and on the 5th looked down from Kenesaw Mountain +upon the fires that were burning the ties and heating the rails of a +dozen miles of his road. Anticipating an attack on Allatoona, which +was held by a small brigade under command of Lieut.-Col. John E. +Tourtellotte, he signalled over the heads of the enemy a message to +Allatoona conveying an order for Gen. John M. Corse, then at Rome, to +go to the relief of Tourtellotte with a strong force. Corse obeyed +promptly, going down with all the men he could obtain transportation +for, and arriving at midnight. In the morning the garrison, now nearly +two thousand strong, were summoned to surrender immediately, to avoid +a needless effusion of blood. General Corse answered, "We are prepared +for the needless effusion of blood whenever it is agreeable to you," +and at once his men were attacked from all sides. They were driven +into their redoubts, and there made so determined a resistance that +after five hours of desperate fighting the Confederates withdrew, +leaving their dead and wounded on the field. Corse had lost seven +hundred and seven men out of his nineteen hundred and forty-four, +including Colonel Redfield, of the Thirty-ninth Iowa, killed, and had +himself suffered the loss of an ear and a cheek-bone. The total +Confederate loss is unknown; but Corse reported burying two hundred +and thirty-one of their dead, and taking four hundred and eleven +prisoners, which would indicate a total loss of sixteen hundred. This +successful defence of Allatoona was one of the most gallant affairs of +the kind in history. + +General Thomas had previously been sent to Nashville with two +divisions, General Slocum was left in Atlanta with the Twentieth +Corps, and with the remainder of his forces Sherman pursued Hood +through the country between Rome and Chattanooga and westward of that +region. But he could not bring the Confederates to battle, and had +little expectation of overtaking them. He thinks he conceived of the +march to the sea some time in September; the first definite proposal +of it was in a telegram to General Thomas, on the 9th of October, in +which he said: "I want to destroy all the road below Chattanooga, +including Atlanta, and to make for the sea-coast. We cannot defend +this long line of road." In various despatches between that date and +the 2d of November, Sherman proposed the great march to Grant and to +the President. {421} Grant thought Hood's army should be destroyed +first, but finally said: "I do not see that you can withdraw from +where you are, to follow Hood, without giving up all we have gained in +territory. I say, then, go on as you propose." This was on the +understanding, suggested by Sherman, that Thomas would be left with +force enough to take care of Hood. Sherman sent him the Fourth and +Twenty-third Corps, commanded by Generals Stanley and Schofield, and +further reinforced him with troops that had been garrisoning various +places on the railroad, while he also received two divisions from +Missouri and some recruits from the North. These, when properly +organized, made up a very strong force; and, with Thomas at its head, +neither Sherman nor Grant felt any hesitation about leaving it to take +care of Tennessee. + +[Illustration: ALLATOONA PASS, LOOKING NORTH. (From a war-time +photograph.)] + +Sherman rapidly sent North all his sick and disabled men, and all +baggage that could be spared. Commissioners came and took the votes of +the soldiers for the Presidential election, and departed. Paymasters +came and paid off the troops, and went back again. Wagon trains were +put in trim and loaded for a march. Every detachment of the army had +its exact orders what to do; and as the last trains whirled over the +road to Chattanooga, the track was taken up and destroyed, the bridges +burned, the wires torn down, and all the troops that had not been +ordered to join Thomas concentrated in Atlanta. From the 12th of +November nothing more was heard from Sherman till Christmas. + +The depot, machine-shops, and locomotive-house in Atlanta were all +torn down, and fire was set to the ruins. The shops had been used for +the manufacture of Confederate ammunition, {422} and all night the +shells were exploding in the midst of the ruin, while the fire spread +to a block of stores, and finally burned out the heart of the city. +With every unsound man and every useless article sent to the rear, +General Sherman now had fifty-five thousand three hundred and +twenty-nine infantrymen, five thousand and sixty-three cavalrymen, and +eighteen hundred and twelve artillerymen, with sixty-five guns. There +were four teams of horses to each gun, with its caisson and forge; six +hundred ambulances, each drawn by two horses; and twenty-five hundred +wagons, with six mules to each. Every soldier carried forty rounds of +ammunition, while the wagons contained an abundant additional supply +and twelve hundred thousand rations, with oats and corn enough to last +five days. Probably a more thoroughly appointed army was never seen, +and it is difficult to imagine one of equal numbers more effective. +Every man in it was a veteran, was proud to be there, and felt the +most perfect confidence that under the leadership of "Uncle Billy" it +would be impossible to go wrong. + +[Illustration: MAJOR-GENERAL JOHN M. CORSE.] + +On the 15th of November they set out on the march to the sea, nearly +three hundred miles distant. The infantry consisted of four corps. The +Fifteenth and Seventeenth formed the right wing, commanded by Gen. +Oliver O. Howard; the Fourteenth and Twentieth the left, commanded by +Gen. Henry W. Slocum. The cavalry was under the command of Gen. Judson +Kilpatrick. The two wings marched by parallel routes, generally a few +miles apart, each corps having its own proportion of the artillery and +trains. General Sherman issued minute orders as to the conduct of the +march, which were systematically carried out. Some of the instructions +were these: + +"The habitual order of march will be, wherever practicable, by four +roads, as nearly parallel as possible. The separate columns will start +habitually at seven A.M., and make about fifteen miles a day. Behind +each regiment should follow one wagon and one ambulance. Army +commanders should practise the habit of giving the artillery and +wagons the road, marching the troops on one side. The army will forage +liberally on the country during the march. To this end, each brigade +commander will organize a good and sufficient foraging party, who will +gather corn or forage of any kind, meat of any kind, vegetables, corn +meal, or whatever is needed by the command, aiming at all times to +keep in the wagons at least ten days' provisions. Soldiers must not +enter dwellings or commit any trespass; but, during a halt or camp, +they may be permitted to gather turnips, potatoes, and other +vegetables, and to drive in stock in sight of their camp. To corps +commanders alone is intrusted the power to destroy mills, houses, +cotton-gins, etc. Where the army is unmolested, no destruction of such +property should be permitted; but should guerillas or bushwhackers +molest our march, or should the inhabitants burn bridges, obstruct +roads, or otherwise manifest local hostility, then army commanders +should order and enforce a devastation more or less relentless, +according to the measure of such hostility. As for horses, mules, +wagons, etc., belonging to the inhabitants, the cavalry and artillery +may appropriate freely and without limit; discriminating, however, +between the rich, who are usually hostile, and the poor and +industrious, usually neutral or friendly. In all foraging, the parties +engaged will endeavor to leave with each family a reasonable portion +for their maintenance." + +Thus equipped and thus instructed, the great army moved steadily, day +after day, cutting a mighty swath, from forty to sixty miles wide, +through the very heart of the Confederacy. The columns passed through +Rough and Ready, Jonesboro', Covington, McDonough, Macon, +Milledgeville, Gibson, Louisville, Millen, Springfield, and many +smaller places. The wealthier inhabitants fled at the approach of the +troops. The negroes in great numbers swarmed after the army, believing +the long-promised day of jubilee had come. Some of them seemed to have +an intelligent idea that the success of the National forces meant +destruction of slavery, while most of them had but the vaguest notions +as to the whole movement. One woman, with a child in her arms, walking +along among the cattle and horses, was accosted by an officer, who +asked her, "Where are you going, aunty?" "I'se gwine whar you's gwine, +massa." One party of black men, who had fallen into line, called out +to another who seemed to be asking too many questions, "Stick in dar! +It's all right. We'se gwine along; we'se free." Major George Ward +Nichols describes an aged couple whom he saw in a hut near +Milledgeville. The old negress, pointing her long finger at the old +man, who was in the corner of the fireplace, hissed out, "What fer you +sit dar? You s'pose I wait sixty years for nutten? Don't yer see de +door open? I'se follow my child; I not stay; I walks till I drop in my +tracks." + +[Illustration: BRIGADIER-GENERAL NATHAN KIMBALL.] + +[Illustration: BRIGADIER-GENERAL N. C. McLEAN.] + +The army destroyed nearly the whole of the Georgia Central Railroad, +burning the ties, and heating and twisting the rails. As they had +learned that a rail merely bent could be straightened and used again, +a special tool was invented with which a {423} red-hot rail could be +quickly twisted like an auger, and rendered forever useless. They also +had special appliances for tearing up the track methodically and +rapidly. All the depot buildings were in flames as soon as the column +reached them. As the bloodhounds had been used to track escaped +prisoners, the men killed all that they could find. + +The foraging parties--or "bummers," as they were popularly +called--went out for miles on each side, starting in advance of the +organizations to which they belonged, gathered immense quantities of +provisions, and brought them to the line of march, where each stood +guard over his pile till his own brigade came along. The progress of +the column was not allowed to be interrupted for the reception of the +forage, everything being loaded upon the wagons as they moved. The +"flankers" were thrown out on either side, passing in thin lines +through the woods to prevent any surprise by the enemy, while the +mounted officers went through the fields to give the road to the +troops and trains. + +The only serious opposition came from Wheeler's Confederate cavalry, +which hung on the flanks of the army and burned some bridges, but was +well taken care of by Kilpatrick's, who generally defeated it when +brought to an encounter. There was great hope that Kilpatrick would be +able to release the prisoners of war confined in Millen, but when he +arrived there he found that they had been removed to some other part +of the Confederacy. When the advance guard was within a few miles of +Savannah there was some fighting with infantry, and a pause before the +defences of the city. + +Fort McAllister, which stood in the way of communication with the +blockading fleet, was elaborately protected with ditches, palisades, +and _chevaux-de-frise_; but Gen. William B. Hazen's division made +short work with it, going straight over everything and capturing the +fort on the 13th of December, losing ninety-two men in the assault, +and killing or wounding about fifty of the garrison. That night +General Sherman, with a few officers, pulled down the river in a yawl +and visited a gunboat of the fleet in Ossabaw Sound. Four days later, +having established full communication, Sherman demanded the surrender +of the city of Savannah, which Gen. William J. Hardee, who was in +command there with a considerable force, refused. Sherman then took +measures to make its investment complete; but on the morning of the +21st it was found to be evacuated by Hardee's forces, and Gen. John W. +Geary's division of the Twentieth Corps marched in. The next day +Sherman wrote to the President: "I beg to present you as a Christmas +gift the city of Savannah, with one hundred and fifty heavy guns and +plenty of ammunition, also about twenty-five thousand bales of +cotton." Sherman's entire loss in the march had been seven hundred and +sixty-four men. + +[Illustration: MAJOR-GENERAL PETER J. OSTERHAUS.] + +[Illustration: BRIGADIER-GENERAL BENJAMIN HARRISON. COLONEL DANIEL +DUSTIN. BREVET MAJOR-GENERAL WILLIAM T. WARD. BREVET BRIGADIER-GENERAL +WILLIAM COGGSWELL.] + +That phase of war which reaches behind the armies in the field and +strikes directly at the sources of supply, bringing home its burdens +and its hardships to men who are urging on the conflict without +participating in it, was never exhibited on a grander scale or +conducted with more complete success. This, in fact, is the most +humane kind of war, since it accomplishes the purpose with the least +destruction of life and limb. Sherman's movement across Georgia +naturally brings to mind another famous march to the sea; but that was +a retreat of ten thousand, while this was a victorious advance of +sixty thousand; and it was only in their shout of welcome, _Thalatta! +thalatta!_ ("The sea! the sea!") that the weary and disheartened +Greeks resembled Sherman's triumphant legions. + +{424} [Illustration: CONFEDERATE WORKS BEFORE ATLANTA. (From a +Government photograph.)] + +The condition of affairs in Georgia, as seen by the residents, just +before and at the time of Sherman's great march, has been vividly +described by the Rev. J. Ryland Kendrick, who was pastor of a church +in Charleston when the war broke out, and two years later removed to +Madison, Ga. He says: + +"In passing from South Carolina to Georgia one could hardly fail to be +immediately conscious of breathing a somewhat larger and freer +atmosphere. The great mass of the people in the latter State were +perhaps no less ardent in their zeal for the {425} Confederate cause +than those of the former, but still there was among them more latitude +of opinion, and criticisms on the political and military status were +not so rigorously repressed. Owing to her greater extent of territory, +her less aristocratic civil institutions, and her more composite +population, Georgia had long been characterized by a broader spirit of +tolerance than South Carolina, and she manifested that spirit during +the war. Not a few might be found in almost any community who had no +heart in the pending conflict, and little faith in its successful +issue. Besides, her governor, Joseph E. Brown, early showed a +disposition to do his own thinking, and to take ground which was not +always pleasing to the autocratic will of Jefferson Davis. This +naturally encouraged freedom of thought and utterance among the people +at large. + +"At the beginning of 1863 I received a call to the pastorate of the +Baptist church in Madison, a village on the Georgia railroad, and made +my home there for the remainder of the war. It was an ideal refuge +amidst the storm and stress of the time, especially for a man with my +peculiar convictions. The village was one of the pleasantest and most +attractive in the State, comprising in its population a considerable +number of wealthy, educated, and refined families, a large share of +which belonged to my church. In the ante-bellum days it had been +distinguished as an educational centre for girls, with two flourishing +seminaries--one Baptist, the other Methodist. When I went there the +war had closed both of them. Just on the line which divides the upper +from the lower country, Madison was as remote from the alarms of war +as any place in the war-girdled South could well be, and fairly +promised to be about the last spot which the invaders would strike. To +its various attractions Madison added, for me, one other, which at the +time was not generally esteemed an attraction at all, but rather a +serious reproach. I refer to its reputation for somewhat lax loyalty +to the Confederacy. It was known throughout the State as a town much +given to croaking and criticism, with a suspicion of decided +disaffection on the part of some of its leading citizens. Foremost +among these sullen and recalcitrant Madisonians was Col. Joshua Hill, +familiarly known as 'Josh Hill,' confessedly the most prominent man in +the community, and about as much at odds with the Confederate +Government as one could well be without provoking the stroke of its +iron hand. He had been a member of the United States Congress when the +secession fury began, and having stuck to his post as long as possible +finally retired from it in a regular and honorable way. + +"Preaching as I did only on Sunday mornings, I often availed myself of +the opportunity to attend, in the after-part of that day, the +religious services of the colored people; sometimes preaching to them +myself, but more commonly listening to the preachers of their own +race. While, as might be expected, there was a sad lack of any real +instruction in their pulpit performances, there was superabundance of +fervor and not a little of genuine oratorical effectiveness. + +"It interested me especially, in these meetings of the colored people, +to watch their attitude toward the pending war, in whose issues they +had so great a stake, and by which they were placed in an extremely +delicate relation to their masters. Their shrewdness was simply +amazing. Their policy was one of reserve and silence. They rarely +referred to the war in their sermons or prayers, and when they did +mention it they used broad terms which meant little and compromised +nobody. Of course they could not betray sympathy for the invaders, but +they certainly exhibited none for the other side. To any keen observer +their silence was significant enough, but nobody cared to evoke their +real sentiments. The subtlest sagacity could not have dictated a more +prudent line of conduct than that which their instincts chose. Indeed, +the conduct of the colored people through the whole war, whose import +they vaguely but truly divined, was admirable, and such as to merit +the eternal gratitude of the Southern whites. Under the most tempting +opportunities, outrages upon women and children were never fewer, +petty crimes were not increased, and of insurrectionary movements, so +far as I knew, there were absolutely none, while the soil was never +tilled with more patient and faithful industry. No doubt their conduct +was largely determined by a shrewd comprehension of the situation, as +well as by their essential kindliness of nature. They understood that +bodies of soldiery were never far away, and that any uprising would be +speedily and remorselessly crushed. They knew, too, that it was wiser +to wait for the coming of 'Massa Linkum's' legions, whose slow +approach could not be concealed from them. + +"If the colored people dimly saw that their deliverance was +approaching with the advance of the Federal armies, the faith of the +whites in the perpetuity of the divine institution lingered long and +died hard. It seemed to them impossible that this institution should +come to an end. Indeed, there was manifested on the part of some very +good and devout people a disposition to hazard their faith in the +veracity of God and the Bible on the success of the Southern arms. The +Bible, they argued, distinctly sanctioned slavery, and if slavery +should be overthrown by the failure of the South the Bible would be +fatally discredited. + +"In those trying days some few compensations came to us for the +deprivations inflicted by the blockade. For one thing, the tyranny of +fashion was greatly abated. Style was little thought of, and fine +ladies were made happy by the possession of an English or French +calico gown. For another thing, cut off from magazines, reviews, and +cheap yellow-covered literature, and with newspapers so curtailed of +their ordinary proportions that they were taken in at a _coup d'oeil_, +we were driven back upon old standard books. I suspect that among the +stay-at-homes a larger amount of really good, solid reading was done +during the war than in the previous decade. Now and then a contraband +volume slipped through the blockade, and was eagerly sought after. +Somehow, a copy of Buckle's 'History of Civilization' got into my +neighborhood, and had a wide circulation. Victor Hugo's 'Les +Misérables' appeared among us in a shocking edition, printed, I think, +in New Orleans. + +"The ever-beginning, never-ending topic of conversation was the war, +with its incidents and prospects. We breakfasted, dined, and supped on +startling reports of victories or defeats, and vague hints of +prodigious things shortly to occur. It is noteworthy that our reports +were almost uniformly of victories, frequently qualified by the slow +and reluctant admission that, having won a brilliant success, the +Confederate forces at last fell back. This trick of disguising defeat +came, after a while, to be so well understood, that 'to conquer and +fall back' was tossed about as a grim jest. + +"As the tide of war surged southward, and at last reached Chattanooga, +our village, like nearly all others on railway lines, became a +hospital station, and the large academy was appropriated to the sick +and wounded. + +"After the battle of Chickamauga great trains of cars came lumbering +through our town, crowded with Union captives. They were a sad sight +to look upon. Standing one day by the {426} track as such a train was +slowly passing, the irrepressible prisoners shouted to me, 'Old Rosey +will be along here soon!' 'Old Rosey' never came, but 'Uncle Billy' in +due time put in an unmistakable appearance, which more than fulfilled +what at the moment seemed the prediction of mere reckless bravado. + +"During the summer of 1864 our secluded little village was rudely +shaken by its first experience in the way of invasion. After steadily +pushing back the Confederate columns, Sherman had at last reached +Atlanta, and his hosts were in fact only about seventy miles away from +us. In certain conditions of the atmosphere we could hear the dull, +heavy thunder of his guns. Yet, strangely enough, this proximity of +war in its sternest form created no panic among us. In fact, a kind of +paralysis now benumbed the sensibilities of the people. The back of +the Confederacy had been definitely broken in the preceding summer by +the battle of Gettysburg. Nearly all discerning persons were conscious +of this, and but for the foreordained and blind obstinacy of Jefferson +Davis and his satellites efforts would have been made to save the +South from utter wreck. Alexander H. Stephens was understood to +entertain very definite ideas as to the hopeless and disastrous course +of events under Davis's policy. + +"On a hot July morning I was sitting, Southern fashion, with a number +of gentlemen before a store just outside of the public square. We were +canvassing a strange rumor which had just reached us, to the effect +that Yankee soldiers had been seen not far from the town. At that +moment a man from the country rode up to our group, and, hearing the +topic of conversation, generously offered to 'eat all the Union +soldiers within ten miles of Madison.' Scarcely had he uttered these +reassuring words when a man in uniform galloped into the square. Now, +we said, we shall get trustworthy information, thinking that this was +a Confederate scout. In a moment, however, another cavalryman dashed +around the corner, and fired a pistol at a fugitive clad in +Confederate gray. The truth instantly flashed upon us, and with a cry +of '_Yankees!_' we all sprang to our feet. Not much alarmed myself, I +called to my friends, 'Don't run!' but the most of them, disregarding +my advice, took themselves off in remarkably quick time. The strange +intruders, coming upon us as suddenly as if they had dropped out of +the summer sky, now poured into the square and overflowed all the +streets. Boldly standing my ground, I approached the first officer I +could make out, and requested permission to go at once to my home on +the outskirts of the village. He informed me that I must wait until +the arrival of the colonel in command. So it was that for a space of +five or ten minutes I may be said to have been a prisoner under the +flag of my country. The colonel soon rode up, a stalwart, +square-built, kindly-faced Kentuckian--Colonel Adams, as I afterward +learned--who promptly granted my request, and directed an officer to +see me safe through the crowd of soldiers. At my gate I found two or +three soldiers, quietly behaved, and simply asking for food. +Gratefully receiving such as we could give them, they departed, +leaving us quite unharmed. + +"In November an important ministerial service called me to +southwestern Georgia, and, as all seemed quiet about Atlanta, I +hesitatingly ventured, accompanied by my wife, upon the journey. +Starting homeward after a few days, we reached Forsyth, and paused +there on the edge of the desert. For a desert it was that stretched +for some sixty miles between us and Madison, a _terra incognita_, over +which no adventurous explorer had passed since Sherman's legions had +blotted out all knowledge of it. Only wild rumors filled the air. At +last a friend took the serious risk of letting us have his carriage, +with a pair of mules and a negro driver, for the perilous journey. +Having crossed the Ocmulgee, we at once struck the track of Sherman's +army, his right, under Howard, having kept near the river. In that +day's ride we met on the road but one human being--a negro on +horseback. A white woman rushed frantically from her little cabin to +inquire if any more Yankees were coming, a question which I ventured +to answer with a very confident negative. Rather late in the +afternoon, as we were passing a pleasant farm-house, a gentleman came +out to our carriage and with a very solemn voice and manner warned us +against going any further. He had just been informed that ten thousand +Yankee soldiers were at somebody's mills, not far away, and he +declared that we were driving straight into their ranks. This +staggered me for a moment. But a little reflection convinced me of the +violent improbability of the rumor, and a little further reflection +determined me to go on. From that moment to the evening hour when we +drew up before a planter's house to spend the night, we saw not a +human being, scarcely a living thing. Indeed, the wide, dead silence +was the most marked sign that we {427} were in the path over which a +few days before a great army had passed. The road here and there was +considerably cut up, showing that heavy wagons had recently gone over +it. Fences were frequently down or missing, and two or three heaps of +blackened ruins, surmounted by solitary chimneys, denoted that the +torch had done some destructive work. The next day, in passing through +Monticello, I saw the charred remains of the county jail, but the +signs of conflagration were surprisingly few. + +"The family with whom we spent the night had had the strange +experience of being for a while in the midst of an encamped army. The +soldiers, they informed us, had swarmed about them like bees, but had +behaved as well as soldiers commonly do. The planter's horses and +cattle had been freely appropriated, and as much of his corn and +vegetables as were needed; but there was no complaint of violence or +rudeness, and an ample supply of the necessaries of life was left for +his household. Indeed, from my observations in this trip across the +line of Sherman's march, that march, so far from having been +signalized by wanton destruction, was decidedly merciful. No doubt +bummers and camp followers committed many atrocities, but the progress +of the army proper was attended by no unusual incidents of severity. +The year had been one of exceptional bounty, and there was no want in +Sherman's rear. Such was the plenty that I believe he might have +retraced his steps and subsisted his army on the country. + +"On reaching Madison we found the place substantially intact. Not a +house had been destroyed, not a citizen harmed or insulted. The +greatest sufferers from the invasion were the turkeys and chickens. +The country was thickly strewn with the feathers of these slaughtered +innocents. When I expressed to a friend some doubt as to Sherman's +ability to reach the sea, he replied, 'If you had been here and seen +the sort of men composing his cohorts, you would not question that +they could go wherever they had a mind to.' + +"Our life between the time of Sherman's march and Lee's surrender, +with the scenes and incidents that attended and followed that +surrender, was as strange and abnormal as a bad dream. We had, indeed, +an abundance of the necessary articles of food and clothing. I have +hardly ever lived in more physical comfort than during the last year +of the war. The few fowls that had escaped the voracious appetites of +the invaders soon provided a fresh supply of chickens and eggs. Coffee +at twenty-five dollars a pound (Confederate money), and sugar at not +much less cost, were attainable, and I managed to keep a fair supply +of them for my little family. But though our physical conditions were +tolerable, life was subject to a painful strain of uncertainty and +anxiety, relieved only by the conviction that the war, of which all +were weary and sick unto death, was nearly over. When the end came, +confusion was confounded in a jumble so bewildering as scarcely to be +credited with reality. The town streets and country roads were full of +negroes, wandering about idle and aimless, going they knew not +whither--a pitiful spectacle of enfranchised slaves dazed by their +recent boon of liberty. Presently Union soldiers were everywhere. A +German colonel, lately a New York broker, moved among us in the +spick-and-span bravery of his uniform, the sovereign arbiter of our +destinies. The world had rarely presented such a topsy-turvy condition +of things, half tragical, half comical. + +"As soon as matters had sufficiently quieted down to warrant it, I +resolved on a visit to my Northern friends, toward whom my heart +yearned. My point of departure was Atlanta, still a desolation of +falling walls, blackened chimneys, and almost undistinguishable +streets. How queer it was to be again in the great world! How splendid +Nashville, Louisville, and Cincinnati appeared, with their brilliant +gaslights, crowded thoroughfares, showy shop windows, and fashionably +dressed people! Evidently war here, whatever it had meant of sorrow +and deprivation, had not been war as we had known it in the +beleaguered, invaded, blockaded South. This prosperity was all but +incredible when contrasted with Southern poverty, distress, and +desolation."[1] + +[Footnote 1: _Atlantic Monthly_ for October, 1889.] + +[Illustration: MAP OF THE THEATRE OF OPERATIONS COVERED BY THE BATTLES +OF FRANKLIN AND NASHVILLE. By permission of Dick & Fitzgerald, New +York. From "Twelve Decisive Battles of the War."] + +[Illustration: MAJOR-GENERAL GUSTAVUS W. SMITH, C. S. A.] + +[Illustration: BRIGADIER-GENERAL JOHN T. MORGAN, C. S. A.] + +[Illustration: MAJOR-GENERAL BENJAMIN F. CHEATHAM, C. S. A.] + +{428} [Illustration: POTTER HOUSE, ATLANTA--SHOWING EFFECT OF +ARTILLERY FIRE. (From a Government photograph.)] + +When Hood found that he could not lure Sherman away from Atlanta, or +make him loose his hold upon that prize of his long campaign, he +turned toward Nashville, under orders from Richmond, hoping to destroy +the army that Thomas was organizing. He was hindered by heavy rains, +and it was late in November when he arrived at Duck River, about forty +miles south of the city. Here he found a force, under Gen. John M. +Schofield, which was easily flanked by crossing the river, whereupon +Schofield fell back to Franklin, on Harpeth River, eighteen miles from +Nashville, intrenched a line south and west of the town, with both +flanks resting on bends of the river, and got his artillery and trains +across the stream, placing the guns where they could play upon any +attacking force. Schofield had about twenty-five thousand men, and +Hood over forty thousand. In the afternoon of November 30 the attack +was made. Schofield's rear guard, consisting of Wagner's brigade, +instead of falling back to the main body, as ordered, so as to permit +the fire of the whole line to be poured into the advancing enemy, +attempted to withstand the Confederate onset. Of course it was quickly +swept back, {429} and as the men rushed in confusion into the lines +they were closely followed by the enemy, who captured a portion of the +intrenchments. From a part of the line thus seized they were driven in +turn, but they clung tenaciously to the remainder, and Schofield +established a new line a few rods in the rear. + +[Illustration: BREVET BRIGADIER-GENERAL JOSEPH W. FISHER.] + +[Illustration: CAPTAIN JOSEPH B. FORAKER. (Afterward Governor of +Ohio.)] + +Hood's orders to his corps and division commanders were that they were +to drive the National army into Harpeth River, while Forrest's cavalry +was to cross the river above, sweep down upon the trains, and destroy +or capture whatever remnant should have succeeded in crossing the +stream. General Schofield did not believe that the attack upon so +strong a position would be made in front; he looked for a flank +movement, and accordingly, when the battle took place, he was on the +north side of the river making arrangements for an adequate means of +crossing in case of such movement. But he gave Hood credit for more +generalship than he ever possessed. Hood never seemed to have a +conception of any method of conducting a battle except by driving his +men straight up against the guns and intrenchments of the enemy. In +this instance, although he possessed an abundance of artillery, only +two batteries were with him. Schofield's line was about a mile and a +half long, running through the suburbs of the little town which lay in +the bend of the river. The town was approached by three roads, from +the southeast, south, and southwest, and along these converging roads +Hood pushed the twenty-two thousand men that he brought into the +fight. The immediate commander on the field of the National forces was +Gen. Jacob D. Cox, who showed himself a masterly tactician and +inspiring leader. The works were well planned and very strong, and as +the reckless Hood pushed his doomed men up against them they were +swept down by front-fire and cross-fire, musketry and artillery, in +ghastly heaps along the whole line. When the advanced line was driven +back and the centre temporarily broken, the exultant Confederates +imagined they were to have everything their own way; and as their +divisions came in on converging lines they were crowded together in +great masses, through which the fire of the artillery from right and +left, as well as the musketry, played with terrible effect. Two +companies of one Kentucky regiment were armed with repeating rifles, +and their fire alone was equal to that of five hundred ordinary +infantrymen. A participant describing the scene at this time says: +"From Stiles's and Casement's brigades a blaze of fire leaped from the +breastworks and played so incessantly that it appeared to those who +saw it as if it had formed a solid plane upon which a man might walk;" +and a Confederate staff officer describes it as "a continuous living +fringe of flame." Lieutenant Speed, of the Twelfth Kentucky Regiment, +says: "The artillery in the line played incessantly, hurling double +charges of grape over the field. From Casement and Stiles to the left +there was an unabated roar of musketry, which now was continued with +intensified fury along Reilly's line up to the pike, and swelled with +terrific grandeur along the front all the way to Carter's Creek pike. +Along Reilly's line it was a desperate hand-to-hand conflict. +Sometimes it seemed that the masses of the assailants would overwhelm +all opposition. The struggle was across and over the breastworks. The +standards of both armies were upon them at the same time. Muskets +flashed in men's faces. Officers fought with the men, musket in hand. +The Confederates were at a disadvantage on account of the ditch +outside the works, which they could not cross under the blinding storm +of lead. Bewildered and confused, they, who had a moment before +shouted the cry of victory, could now only receive death and +destruction in the most appalling form. In this immediate front the +Confederate loss was heavier than at any other point. Here Cleburne +fell, almost up to the works; also Granberry and Quarles. The ditch +outside the works was filled with killed and wounded men. Confederate +officers who witnessed their removal next morning have stated that in +places they were piled five deep." The Confederates made in rapid +succession so many charges against the new line of works where they +had broken the first line, that witnesses differed as to their number. +Some counted fourteen, and none counted fewer than ten. But all were +in vain. In this action the National troops expended a hundred wagon +loads of ammunition, and as the smoke did not rise readily it seemed +as if the darkness {430} of night were coming on prematurely. No doubt +this circumstance contributed largely to the terrible losses of the +Confederates. Forrest's cavalry, which was expected to cross the river +and capture Schofield's trains, did not accomplish anything. The +reason given for its inaction was lack of ammunition. In this brief +and bloody encounter Hood lost more than one-third of his men engaged. +His killed numbered one thousand seven hundred and fifty. The number +of his wounded can only be computed, but it is not probable that they +were fewer than seven thousand. Major Sanders, of the Confederate +army, estimates the loss in two of the brigades at sixty-five per +cent. These losses included Major-Gen. Patrick R. Cleburne and +Brig.-Gens. John Adams, Oscar F. Strahl, S. R. Gist, and H. B. +Granberry, all killed; also six general officers wounded and one +captured; and more than thirty colonels and lieutenant-colonels were +killed or wounded. Schofield lost two thousand five hundred men, and +his army took seven hundred prisoners and thirty-three stands of +colors. At midnight Schofield crossed the river and retreated to +Nashville. Hood followed him, and there confronted the whole of +Thomas's army. Schofield has been criticised for thus retreating after +his victory; but if he had remained at Franklin the conditions for a +battle the next day would have been materially changed. Hood brought +up all his artillery in the night, intending to open upon the works in +the morning, and it is not probable that Forrest's vigorous cavalry +would have remained inactive another day. + +[Illustration: SHERMAN'S FORAGERS ON A GEORGIA PLANTATION.] + +Everybody complained of Thomas's slowness, and he was in imminent +danger of being superseded; but he would not assume the offensive till +he felt that his army was prepared to make sure work. When all was +ready, he still had to delay because of bad weather; but on the 15th +of December (one day after Sherman reached the sea) the long-meditated +blow was given. Thomas's army advanced against Hood's, striking it +simultaneously in front and on the left flank. The weight of the +attack fell upon the flank, which was completely crushed, and a part +of the intrenchments with their guns fell into the hands of the +National forces. In the night Hood retreated a mile or two, to another +line on the hills, made some new dispositions, and awaited attack. He +was seriously embarrassed by the absence of a large part of Forrest's +cavalry, which should have been protecting his flanks. In the +afternoon of the 16th, Thomas, having sent Wilson's cavalry around the +enemy's left flank, attacked with his whole force. He made no headway +against Hood's right, but again he crushed the left flank, and +followed up the advantage so promptly and vigorously that all +organization in the Confederate army was lost, and what was left of it +fled in wild confusion toward Franklin, pursued by Wilson's cavalry. +Thomas captured all their artillery and took forty-five hundred +prisoners. The number of their killed and wounded was never reported. +His own loss was about three thousand. Brig.-Gen. Sylvester G. Hill +was among the killed. + + + + +{431} + +CHAPTER XLII. + +MINOR EVENTS OF THE FOURTH YEAR. + +DESPERATE CONDITION OF THE CONFEDERACY--THE EXPORTATION OF COTTON, +TOBACCO, AND SUGAR PROHIBITED--THE THREATENED SECESSION OF NORTH +CAROLINA FROM THE CONFEDERACY--SWEEPING CONSCRIPTION ACTS--FORCES +UNDER GENERAL BUTLER ATTEMPT TO CAPTURE RICHMOND--NUMEROUS MINOR +ENGAGEMENTS IN THE SHENANDOAH VALLEY--BATTLE BETWEEN CAVALRY FORCES AT +TREVILIAN STATION--PLYMOUTH, N. C., CAPTURED BY THE +CONFEDERATES--BLACK FLAG RAISED AND NEGRO PRISONERS SHOT--THE +DESTRUCTION OF THE RAM "ALBEMARLE" BY A FORCE UNDER LIEUTENANT +CUSHING--DEFEAT OF FEDERAL FORCE AT OLUSTEE--ENGAGEMENTS AT DANDRIDGE +AND FAIR GARDENS, TENN.--OPERATIONS IN LOUISIANA AND MISSISSIPPI. + + +With the dawn of the fourth year of the war the statesmen and +journalists of the Confederacy showed by their utterances that they +knew how desperate were its straits, and how much its prospects had +waned since the victories of the first and second years. The _Richmond +Whig_ said: "The utmost nerve, the firmest front, the most undaunted +courage, will be required during the coming twelve months from all who +are charged with the management of affairs in our country, or whose +position gives them any influence in forming or guiding public +sentiment." The _Wilmington_ (N. C.) _Journal_ said: "Moral courage, +the power to resist the approaches of despondency, and the faculty of +communicating this power to others, will need greatly to be called +into exercise; for we have reached that point in our revolution--which +is inevitably reached in all revolutions--when gloom and depression +take the place of hope and enthusiasm, when despair is fatal, and +despondency is even more to be dreaded than defeat. Whether a crisis +be upon us or not, there can be in the mind of no one, who looks at +the map of Georgia and considers her geographical relations to the +rest of the Confederacy, a single doubt that much of our future is +involved in the result of the next spring campaign in upper Georgia." +The Confederate Congress passed, in secret session, a bill to prohibit +exportation of cotton, tobacco, naval stores, molasses, sugar, or +rice, and one to prohibit importation of luxuries into the +Confederacy, both of which bills were promptly signed by Mr. Davis. At +Huntsville, Ala., a meeting of citizens was held, at which resolutions +were passed deprecating the action of the South, and calling upon the +Government to convene the legislature, that it might call a convention +to provide some mode for the restoration of peace and the rights and +liberties of the people. The legislature of Georgia, in March, adopted +resolutions, declaring that the Confederate Government ought, after +every success of the Confederate arms, to make to the United States +Government an official offer to treat for peace. The _Richmond +Examiner_ said: "People and army, one soul and one body, feel alike, +in their inmost hearts, that when the clash comes it will be a +struggle for life or death. So far we feel sure of the issue. All else +is mystery and uncertainty. Where the first blow will fall, when the +two armies of Northern Virginia meet each other face to face, how +Grant will try to hold his own against the master-spirit of Lee, we +cannot yet surmise; but it is clear to the experienced eye that the +approaching campaign will bring into action two new elements not known +heretofore in military history, which may not unlikely decide the fate +of the gigantic crusade. The enemy will array against us his new +iron-clads by sea and his colored troops by land." In the western +districts of North Carolina the execution of the Confederate +conscription law created great excitement, and several public meetings +were held to consider the action of separating from the Confederacy +and returning to the Union. The _Raleigh Standard_ declared boldly, +that, if the measures proposed by the Confederate Government were +carried out, the people of North Carolina would take their affairs +into their own hands and proceed, in convention assembled, to +vindicate their liberties and privileges. + +[Illustration: A FEDERAL SIGNAL STATION NEAR WASHINGTON.] + +{432} [Illustration: CHARGE OF CONFEDERATE CAVALRY AT TREVILIAN +STATION, VIRGINIA.] + +As the war {433} progressed, and the Confederate armies were depleted +by the casualties of battle and the illness attendant upon the +hardships of the camp, the conscription became more sweeping, and at +last it was made to embrace every man in the Confederacy between +eighteen and forty-five years of age. This almost emptied the +colleges, until some of them reduced the age of admission to sixteen +years, when they were rapidly filled up again. But even these boys +were held subject to military call in case of necessity, and in some +of the battles of the last year cadets of the Virginia Military +Institute took part, and many of them were killed. Another noticeable +effect was the diminution in the number of small and detached military +operations, because the waning resources of the Confederacy were +concentrated more and more in its principal armies. + +On the first day of the year a detachment of seventy-five men, +commanded by Major Henry A. Cole, being on the scout near Harper's +Ferry, suddenly encountered, near Rectortown, a portion of General +Rosser's Confederate command, and a stubborn fight ensued. The result +was that fifty-seven of Cole's men were either killed or captured, and +the remainder made their escape. Two days later a Confederate force, +under Gen. Sam Jones, suddenly attacked an Illinois regiment, +commanded by Major Beers, near Jonesville, and after a desperate fight +compelled them to surrender. + +On the 6th of February, an expedition, organized by General Butler for +the purpose of dashing into Richmond and releasing the prisoners +there, marched from Yorktown by way of New-Kent Court House. They +failed in their purpose to surprise the enemy at Bottom's Bridge, +where they were to cross the Chickahominy, because, as a Richmond +newspaper said, "a Yankee deserter gave information in Richmond of the +intended movement." The Confederates had felled a great number of +trees across the roads and made it impossible for the cavalry to pass. +There was great consternation in Richmond, however, and in the evening +of the 7th the bells were rung, and men rushed through the streets +crying, "To arms, to arms! the Yankees are coming." The home guard was +called out, and the women and children ran about seeking places of +safety. + +Early in May, General Crook, with about seven thousand men, moving +from the mouth of New River through Raleigh Court House and Princeton +toward Newbern, met a Confederate force, under Albert G. Jenkins, on +Cloyd's Mountain, on the 9th. In the engagement that ensued, the +Confederates were defeated and General Jenkins was killed. The next +day a cavalry force under General Averell was met at Crockett's Cove +by one under General Morgan, and was defeated. General Crook, after +the battle of Cloyd's Mountain, destroyed the bridge over New River +and a considerable section of the Virginia and Tennessee railroad. + +On the 15th of May, General Sigel's force in the Shenandoah Valley +being in the northern outskirts of the town of Newmarket, General +Breckenridge moved up from the south to attack him. The town is +divided by a ravine running at right angles to the Shenandoah, and in +the beginning the contest was mainly an artillery battle, both sides +firing over the town. Then General Breckenridge's cavalry, with one or +two batteries, made a detour to the right, and obtained a position on +a hill where they could enfilade the left of Sigel's line, and drove +back his cavalry on that wing. At the same time Breckenridge advanced +his infantry and pushed back Sigel's whole line about half a mile. +Later in the day, repeating the same tactics, he pushed Sigel back a +mile farther, but did not accomplish this without severe fighting. One +notable incident was the capture of an unsupported battery on the +right of Sigel's line, which had been playing with terrible effect +upon Breckenridge's left. One regiment of veterans and the cadets of +the Military Institute were sent to capture it, which they did at +terrible cost. Of the five hundred and fifty men in the regiment, two +hundred and forty-one were either killed or wounded, nearly all of +them falling in the last three hundred yards before they reached the +battery. Of the two hundred and twenty-five boys from the Institute, +fifty-four were killed or wounded. When night fell, Sigel crossed the +river and burned the bridge behind him. General Imboden, who commanded +Breckenridge's cavalry in this action, says: "If Sigel had beaten +Breckenridge, General Lee could not have spared the men to check his +progress (as he did that of Hunter, a month later) without exposing +Richmond to immediate and almost inevitable capture. The necessities +of General Lee were such that on the day after the battle he ordered +Breckenridge to join him near Richmond with the brigades of Echols and +Wharton." + +Early in June General Sheridan was sent out with the cavalry of the +Army of the Potomac, about eight thousand strong, to strike the +Virginia Central Railroad near Charlotteville, where it was expected +he would meet the force under General Hunter moving through the +Shenandoah Valley. He intended to break the main line at Trevilian +Station, and the Lynchburg branch at Charlotteville. He encountered +the enemy's cavalry near Trevilian Station on the morning of the 11th. +Sending Custer's brigade to the left, and Torbert with the remainder +of his division to the right, Sheridan moved directly forward with his +main body. The enemy was found dismounted in the edge of the forest, +his line stretching across the road. Sheridan's men also dismounted, +and promptly attacked. Sharp fighting ensued, in the course of which +the enemy was driven back two miles with a heavy loss. Williston's +battery was then brought up, and with great skill sent its shells into +the mass of fleeing Confederates, whose retreat was turned into a wild +rout. A portion of the defeated force, retreating toward Louisa Court +House, was struck by Custer's brigade, which defeated them, and +captured about three hundred and fifty men. But a little later Fitz +Lee's Confederate cavalry came up in the rear of Custer, and captured +his wagon-train and headquarters baggage. One of his guns also was +captured, but was recaptured in a charge that he led in person. Custer +and his whole command came so near being captured when the enemy +closed around them, that, when his color-bearer was killed, he tore +the flag from the staff and hid it in his bosom. That night the +remainder of the enemy retired toward Gordonsville. The next day +Sheridan's men destroyed about five miles of the railroad. In the +afternoon Torbert advanced toward Gordonsville, and found the +Confederates in position across the railroad, facing east. Here they +attacked them again, chiefly on their left wing, and again bringing +forward Williston's battery, punished them severely, but not so as to +drive them from their position before dark. In these actions Sheridan +lost about six hundred men. The Confederate loss is not fully known, +but it was probably larger. Sheridan now learned that Hunter would not +conclude to meet him, and that he was likely instead to encounter +Ewell's corps. He therefore turned back, and recrossed the North Anna. + +Plymouth, N. C., had been held for some months by a garrison of +sixteen hundred men, under General Wessells, when it was attacked on +April 17, 1864, by the Confederate General Hoke, with about five +thousand men. Skirmishing and artillery firing began early in the +morning, and very soon the National camps {434} were riddled by shot +from the guns. The skirmishers retired within their works, and the +Confederates pressed up to these in heavy masses, and were shot down +in great numbers. One of the forts, which stood some distance in front +of the general line of fortifications, was supplied with hand +grenades, and these were used with great effect. But at last this work +was captured. The next day the attack was renewed, and a most gallant +defence was made. General Hoke, who had been promised a promotion in +case of his capturing the place, was determined to do it at whatever +cost. Three times he demanded its surrender, and three times he was +refused, when he said: "I will fill your citadel full of iron; I will +compel your surrender if I have to fight to the last man." It is +doubtful, however, if he would have succeeded but for the assistance +of the ram _Albemarle_, which came down the river and got into the +rear of the National position. Lieutenant Blakeslee, of the Sixteenth +Connecticut Regiment, says: "There was a force of five or six thousand +in line about six hundred yards in front of our works. At this hour a +rocket was sent up as the signal for the attack, and a more furious +charge we never witnessed. Instantly over our heads came a peal of +thunder from the ram. Up rose a curling wreath of smoke--the batteries +had opened, and quickly flashed fierce forks of flame--loud and +earth-shaking roars in quick succession. Lines of men came forth from +the woods--the battle had begun. We on the skirmish line fell back and +entered Coneby redoubt, properly barred the gates and manned the +works. The enemy, with yells, charged on the works in heavy column, +jumped into the ditch, climbed the parapet, and for fifteen murderous +minutes were shot down like mown grass. The conflict was bloody, +short, and decisive. The enemy were in such numbers that we had to +yield. The gate had been crushed down by a rebel shot, and the enemy +poured in, to the number of five or six hundred, with thousands on the +outside. Great confusion then ensued; guns were spiked, musket barrels +bent, and all sorts of mischief practised by the Union soldiers, while +the enemy were swearing at a terrible rate because we would not take +off equipments and inform them if the guns could be turned on the +town, and in trying to reorganize their troops, who were badly mixed, +to take the next work. We were prisoners, and as we marched out of the +fort, we could see at what a fearful cost it was to them. Of the +eighty-two men in this fort, but one was wounded." The Confederates +then worked their way from one redoubt to another, each of which was +obstinately defended, but finally captured, until all were taken, and +Plymouth was theirs. Lieutenant Blakeslee says: "The rebels raised the +black flag against the negroes found in uniform, and mercilessly shot +them down. The shooting in cold blood of three or four hundred negroes +and two companies of North Carolina troops, who had joined our army, +and even murdering peaceable citizens, were scenes of which the +Confederates make no mention, except the hanging of one person, but of +which many of us were eye-witnesses." The loss of the garrison in the +fighting was fifteen killed and about one hundred wounded. The +Confederate loss is not exactly known, but it appears to have been +well nigh two thousand. + +[Illustration: BRIGADIER-GENERAL WILLIAMS C. WICKHAM, C. S. A.] + +[Illustration: BRIGADIER-GENERAL H. B. LYON, C. S. A.] + +[Illustration: BRIGADIER-GENERAL JOHN D. IMBODEN, C. S. A.] + +When the iron-clad ram _Albemarle_ came down the Roanoke to assist +General Hoke in the capture of Plymouth, she not only bombarded the +garrison, but attacked the National flotilla there and destroyed or +scattered it. She wrecked the _Southfield_ by ramming, and when the +wooden gunboat _Miami_ gallantly stood up to the work and fired {435} +its broadsides against her iron walls, the shot simply rebounded or +rolled off, and one of these returning shots struck and killed Lieut. +C. W. Flusser who was in command of the _Miami_. + +In the autumn, Lieut. William B. Cushing, of the United States navy, +who had performed many gallant exploits, and whose brother was killed +beside his gun at Gettysburg, formed a plan for the destruction of the +_Albemarle_. He obtained the sanction of his superior officer for the +experiment, which Cushing himself considered so hazardous that he +asked leave to make a visit to his home before carrying it out. On his +return he fitted up an open launch about thirty feet long with a small +engine, a twelve-pound howitzer in the bow, and a boom fourteen feet +long swinging at the bow by a hinge. This boom carried a torpedo at +the end, so arranged that it could be lowered into the water, pushed +under a vessel, and then detached from the boom before being exploded. +With fifteen picked men in this little craft, in the night of October +27th, Cushing steamed off in the darkness and found the ram at her +mooring at Plymouth. When he drew near he was discovered and sharply +challenged, whereupon he ordered on all steam and steered straight for +the ram. He was fired upon, but in the darkness the shot failed of its +mark. Then a large fire was lighted on the bank, and this revealed to +him the fact that the _Albemarle_ was protected by a circle or boom of +logs. Without hesitation, he drew back about a hundred yards, and then +under full headway drove straight at them, trusting to make his launch +slip over them into the enclosed space where the ram lay. In this he +was successful. By this time the crew of the ram were thoroughly +alarmed, and as Cushing stood on the bow with the exploding line in +his hand he could hear every word of command on the ram, and his +clothing was perforated with bullets. He now ordered the boom to be +lowered until the motion of the launch pushed the torpedo under the +ram's overhang. Then he pulled the detaching line, and, after waiting +a little for the torpedo to rise in the water and rest under the hull, +he pulled the exploding line. The result to the ram was that a hole +was torn in her hull which caused her to keel over and sink. At the +same instant a discharge of grape shot from one of her guns tore the +launch to pieces, and a large part of the mass of water that was +lifted by the torpedo came down upon her little crew. Cushing +commanded his men to save themselves, and throwing off his sword, +revolver, shoes, and coat, jumped into the water and swam for the +opposite shore. Making his way through swamps, and finding a skiff, +Lieutenant Cushing at last, almost exhausted, reached the National +fleet. One of his crew also escaped, two were drowned, and the +remainder were captured. The _Albemarle_ was of no further use. + +[Illustration: BREVET MAJOR-GENERAL DAVID McM. GREGG AND STAFF.] + +[Illustration: MAJOR-GENERAL GEORGE CROOK.] + +[Illustration: BRIGADIER-GENERAL CHARLES T. EWING.] + +During the early days of the year a constant fire was kept up upon +Charleston, and sometimes as many as twenty shells, loaded with Greek +fire, were thrown into the city in a day. The Charleston _Courier_ +said: "The damage being done is extraordinarily {436} small in +comparison with the number of shot and weight of metal fired. The +whizzing of shells overhead has become a matter of so little interest +as to excite scarcely any attention from passers-by." + +In Savannah, April 17th, there was a riot of women who marched through +the streets in procession, demanding bread or blood, many of them +carrying arms. They seized food wherever they could find it. After a +time soldiers were called out, and the leaders of the riot were +arrested and put into jail. + +Early in February, Gen. Truman Seymour, by order of General Gillmore, +left Hilton Head with five thousand five hundred men for Jacksonville, +Fla., accompanied by five gunboats under Admiral Dahlgren. The object +of the expedition was to penetrate the country west of Jacksonville +for the purpose of making an outlet for cotton and lumber, cutting off +one source of the enemy's supplies, obtaining recruits for black +regiments, and taking measures to protect any citizens who might be +disposed to bring the State back into the Union. It was unfortunate +that the immediate commander of the expedition, General Seymour, did +not altogether believe in its objects. Marching inland, he dispersed +some small detachments of Confederate soldiers and captured some guns. +He then pushed forward for Suwanee River to destroy the bridges and +the railroad, and prevent communication between East and West Florida. +Meanwhile the Confederate general, Joseph Finegan, had been collecting +troops to oppose the expedition, concentrating them at Lake City, and +got together a force about equal to Seymour's. On the 20th of February +Seymour moved out from his camp on St. Mary's River to engage the +enemy, who threw forward some troops to meet him. They met near +Olustee, and a battle ensued, which was fought on level ground largely +covered with open pine forests. Seymour massed his artillery in the +centre, and opened from it a fierce fire which was very effective. He +then endeavored to push forth his infantry on both flanks, and at the +same time the whole Confederate line was advanced. The Seventh New +Hampshire and Eighth United States colored regiment, being subjected +to a very severe fire, gave way. The fire of the Confederates was then +concentrated largely on the artillery, and so many men and horses fell +in the short time that five of the guns had to be abandoned. The +Confederate reserves were then brought up to a point where they could +put in a cross-fire on the National right, and at the same time the +whole Confederate line was advanced again. The National line now +slowly gave way, and at length was in full retreat; but there was no +pursuit. The Confederate loss was nine hundred and forty men; the +National loss was one thousand eight hundred and sixty-one. + +[Illustration: A UNION TRANSPORT ON THE SUWANEE RIVER.] + +[Illustration: BREVET BRIGADIER-GENERAL GUY V. HENRY.] + +[Illustration: REAR-ADMIRAL JOHN A. DAHLGREN.] + +An escort of eight hundred men, who had charge of the wagon train with +commissary stores for the garrison at Petersburg, was suddenly +attacked, January 29th, near Williamsport, by several detachments of +Confederates who rushed in from different directions. There was a +stubborn fight, which lasted from three o'clock in the afternoon until +dark. When at last the Confederates, after several repulses, +succeeded, they had lost about one hundred men killed and wounded, and +the Nationals had lost eighty. + +On the 17th of January, a Confederate force made a sudden and +determined assault upon the National lines near Dandridge, Tenn. But +the Nationals, though surprised, stubbornly stood their ground, and a +division of cavalry under Col. D. N. McCook charged the enemy and +decided the fate of the conquest. The National loss in this affair was +about one hundred and fifty men, nearly half of which fell upon the +First Wisconsin Regiment. + +A body of National cavalry, commanded by General Sturgis, attacked the +Confederate force on January 27th, near Fair Gardens, ten miles east +of Sevierville. The fight lasted from daylight until four o'clock in +the afternoon, the Confederates being slowly pushed back, when finally +the National cavalry drew their sabres and charged with a yell, +completely routing {437} the enemy, and capturing two guns and more +than one hundred prisoners. + +Early in February, a detachment of the Seventh Indiana Regiment +entered Bolivar under the supposition that it was still occupied by +National troops, and were surprised to find there a large detachment +of Confederates. When they learned that these were Mississippi troops, +the Indianians, shouting, "Remember Jeff Davis," made a furious attack +and drove out the Confederates in confusion, killing, wounded, or +capturing a large number of them. + +At Powell's River bridge, February 22d, there was an engagement +between five hundred Confederates and two companies of the +Thirty-fourth Kentucky infantry. The Confederates made four successful +charges upon the bridge, and were repelled every time. Finally they +were driven off, leaving many horses, arms, saddles, etc., on the +field. A participant says: "The attack was made by the infantry, while +the cavalry prepared for a charge. The cavalry was soon in line moving +on the bridge. On they came in a steady solid column, covered by the +fire of their infantry. In a moment the Nationals saw their perilous +position, and Lieutenant Slater called for a volunteer to tear up the +boards and prevent their crossing. There was some hesitation, and in a +moment all would have been lost had not William Goss leaped from the +intrenchments, and running to the bridge, under the fire of about four +hundred guns, thrown ten boards off into the river, and returned +unhurt. This prevented the capture of the whole force." + +Shelby's Confederate force was attacked on January 19th at a point on +the Monticello Railroad, twenty miles from Pine Bluff, by a National +force under Colonel Clayton, which in course of two hours drove the +Confederates seven miles and completely routed them. Clayton's men had +marched sixty miles in twenty-four hours. + +An expedition commanded by Col. C. C. Andrews of the Third Minnesota +infantry ascended White River and marched thirty miles to Augusta, +from which place he set out April 1st in search of a Confederate force +under Colonel McCrae. It proved that McCrae's forces were divided into +scattered detachments, which were successively overtaken and defeated +by Colonel Andrews. At Fitzhugh's Woods, however, a large force of the +enemy was concentrated, and attacked Colonel Andrews's men in a sharp +fight that lasted more than two hours. Andrews took a good position, +and thwarted every effort of the enemy to carry it or flank it, when +at last they gave up and retired. He lost about thirty men, and +estimated the enemy's loss at a hundred. + +In the middle of February, the Confederates made a determined attempt +to capture the fort at Waterproof, La. First, about eight hundred +cavalry drove in the pickets and assaulted the garrison, who might +have been overcome but for the assistance of the gunboat _Forest +Rose_, Captain Johnson, which with its rapid fire sent many shells +into the ranks of the Confederates, and after a time drove them away. +This proceeding was repeated later in the day with the same result. +Next day the Confederates, largely reinforced, tried it again. Before +the fight was over the ram _Switzerland_ arrived and took part in it, +and the result was the same as on the previous day. + +[Illustration: BRIGADIER-GENERAL W. L. McMILLEN.] + +[Illustration: BRIGADIER-GENERAL S. D. STURGIS.] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration: SLAVES GOING TO JOIN THE FEDERAL ARMY.] + +{438} [Illustration: "THE COUNTERSIGN." + + "'Halt! Who goes there?' My challenge cry, + It rings along the watchful line; + 'Relief!' I hear a voice reply; + 'Advance and give the Countersign!'"] + + + + +{439} + +CHAPTER XLIII. + +THE FINAL BATTLES. + +SHERMAN MARCHES THROUGH THE CAROLINAS--JOHNSTON RESTORED TO +COMMAND--COLUMBIA BURNED--CHARLESTON EVACUATED--CAPTURE OF FORT +FISHER--BATTLE OF AVERYSBORO--BATTLE OF BENTONVILLE--SCHOFIELD JOINS +SHERMAN--A PEACE CONFERENCE--BATTLE OF WAYNESBORO'--SHERIDAN'S RAID ON +THE UPPER JAMES--LEE PLANS TO ESCAPE--FIGHTING BEFORE +PETERSBURG--BATTLE OF FIVE FORKS--LEE'S LINES BROKEN--RICHMOND +EVACUATED--LEE'S RETREAT--HIS SURRENDER--GRANT'S GENEROUS +TERMS--SURRENDER OF THE OTHER CONFEDERATE ARMIES. + + +After Sherman's army had marched through Georgia and captured +Savannah, he and General Grant at first contemplated removing it by +water to the James, and placing it where it could act in immediate +connection with the Army of the Potomac against Petersburg and +Richmond. But several considerations soon led to a different plan. One +was, the difficulty of getting together enough transports to carry +sixty-five thousand men and all their equipage without too much delay. +A still stronger one was the fact that in a march through the +Carolinas General Sherman's army could probably do more to help +Grant's and bring the war to a speedy close than if it were suddenly +set down beside it in Virginia. The question of supplies, always a +vital one for an army, had become very serious in the military affairs +of the Confederacy. The trans-Mississippi region had been cut off long +ago, the blockade of the seaports had been growing more stringent, +Sheridan had desolated the Shenandoah Valley, Sherman had eaten out +the heart of Georgia. And now if that same army, with its increased +experience and confidence, should go through South and North Carolina, +living on the country, Lee's position in the defences of Richmond +would soon become untenable for mere lack of something for his army to +eat. Sherman's military instinct never failed him; and, after tarrying +at Savannah three weeks, he gathered up his forces for another stride +toward the final victory. Turning over the city on January 18, 1865, +to Gen. John G. Foster, who was in command on the coast, he issued +orders on the 19th for the movement of his whole army. + +[Illustration: MAJOR-GENERAL ALFRED H. TERRY.] + +[Illustration: A BOMB PROOF, FORT FISHER.] + +[Illustration: BREVET MAJOR-GENERAL N. M. CURTIS.] + +The right wing was concentrated at Pocotaligo, about forty miles north +of Savannah, and the left at Robertsville, twenty miles west of +Pocotaligo. After some delay caused by the weather and the necessity +for final preparations, the northward march was begun on the 1st of +February. Sherman had sent out rumors that represented both Charleston +and Augusta as his immediate goal; but instead of turning aside for +either of those cities, he pushed straight northward, on a route +midway between them, toward Columbia. + +This march, though not so romantic as that through Georgia, where a +great army was for several weeks hidden from all its friends, was +really much more difficult and dangerous, and required greater skill. +In the march from Atlanta to the sea, the army moved parallel with the +courses of the rivers, and found highways between them that it was not +easy for any but a large force to obstruct or destroy. But in the +march through the Carolinas, all the streams, and some of them were +rivers, had to be crossed. A single man could burn a bridge and stop +an army for several hours. Moreover, after the disasters that befell +General Hood at Franklin and Nashville, public sentiment in the +Confederacy had demanded the reinstatement of Gen. Joseph E. Johnston, +and that able soldier had been placed in command of whatever remained +of Hood's army, to which were added all the scattered detachments and +garrisons that were available, and with this force he took the field +against his old antagonist. Of course he was not able now to meet +Sherman in anything like a pitched battle; but there was no telling +how a sudden blow {440} might fall upon an army on the march. Another +danger, which was seriously contemplated by Sherman, was that Lee, +instead of remaining in his intrenchments while his source of supply +was being cut off, might with his whole army slip away from Grant and +come down to strike Sherman somewhere between Columbia and Raleigh. +With a caution that admirably balanced his boldness, Sherman arranged +to have the fleet coöperate with him along the coast, watching his +progress and establishing points where supplies could be reached and +refuge taken if necessary. He even sent engineers to repair the +railroads that, starting from the ports of Wilmington and Newbern, +unite at Goldsboro', and to collect rolling-stock there. He intended, +when once under way, to push through to Goldsboro', four hundred and +twenty-five miles, as rapidly as possible. + +Wheeler's cavalry had been considerably reduced by its constant +efforts to delay the march through Georgia, and Wade Hampton's, +heretofore with the Army of Northern Virginia, was now sent down to +its assistance. They felled trees in the roads, and attempted to make +a stand at Salkehatchie River; but Sherman's men made nothing of +picking up the trees and casting them one side, while the force at the +river was quickly brushed away. The South Carolina Railroad was soon +reached, and the track was destroyed for miles. Then all the columns +pushed on for Columbia. Sherman expected to meet serious opposition +there, for it was the capital of the State; but the Confederate +leaders were holding their forces at Charleston and Augusta, +confidently expecting those cities to be attacked, and nothing but +Hampton's cavalry was left to take care of Columbia. The main +difficulty was at the rivers, where the Confederates had burned the +bridges, which Sherman's men rapidly rebuilt, and on the 17th the +National troops entered the city as Hampton's cavalry left it. Bales +of cotton piled up in the streets were on fire, there was a high wind, +and the flakes of cotton were flying through the air like a +snow-storm. In spite of all efforts of the soldiers, the fire +persistently spread at night, several buildings burst into a blaze, +and before morning the heart of the city was a heap of ruins. There +has been an acrimonious dispute as to the responsibility for this +fire. It seems probable that Hampton's soldiers set fire to the +cotton, perhaps without orders, and it seems improbable that any one +would purposely set fire to the city. At all events, Sherman's men did +their utmost to extinguish the flames, and that general gave the +citizens five hundred head of cattle, and did what he could to shelter +them. He did destroy the arsenal purposely, and tons of powder, shot, +and shell were taken out of it, hauled to the river, and sunk in deep +water. He also destroyed the foundries and the establishment in which +the Confederacy's paper money was printed, large quantities of which +were found and carried away by the soldiers. + +That same day, the 18th, Charleston was evacuated by the Confederate +forces under General Hardee, and a brigade of National troops +commanded by General Schimmelpfennig promptly took possession of it. + +[Illustration: BREVET MAJOR-GENERAL ADELBERT AMES AND STAFF.] + +[Illustration: BREVET BRIGADIER-GENERAL NATHAN GOFF, JR.] + +[Illustration: BREVET BRIGADIER-GENERAL ALBERT M. BLACKMAN.] + +[Illustration: BREVET BRIGADIER-GENERAL JOSEPH C. ABBOTT.] + +On the 20th, leaving Columbia, Sherman's army bore away for +Fayetteville, the right wing going through Cheraw, and the left +through Lancaster and Sneedsboro', and threatening {441} Charlotte and +Salisbury. The most serious difficulty was met at Catawba River, where +the bridges were destroyed, the floods interfered with the building of +new ones, and there was a delay of nearly a week. In Cheraw was stored +a large amount of valuable personal property, including fine furniture +and costly wines, which had been sent from Charleston for +safe-keeping. Most of this fell into the hands of the invading army. +Here also were found a large number of arms and thirty-six hundred +barrels of powder; and here, as at Columbia, lives were lost by the +carelessness of a soldier in exploding the powder. + +Fayetteville was reached on the 11th of March, and here communication +was opened with Gen. Alfred H. Terry, whose men had captured Fort +Fisher, below Wilmington, after a gallant fight, in January, and later +the city itself, thus closing that harbor to blockade-runners. In +taking the fort, Terry's men had fought their way from traverse to +traverse, and the stubborn garrison had only yielded when they +literally reached the last ditch. All this time the Confederate +forces, somewhat scattered, had hung on the flanks of Sherman's column +or disposed themselves to protect the points that were threatened. But +now they knew he was going to Goldsboro', and accordingly they +concentrated in his front, between Fayetteville and that place. + +At Averysboro', thirty-five miles south of Raleigh, on the 16th of +March, the left wing suddenly came upon Hardee's forces intrenched +across its path. The left flank of the Confederates was soon turned, +and they fell back to a stronger position. Here a direct attack was +made, but without success, and Kilpatrick's cavalry was roughly +handled by a division of Confederate infantry. General Slocum then +began a movement to turn the flank again, and in the night Hardee +retreated. Each side had lost five hundred men. + +Averysboro' is about forty miles west of Goldsboro'. Midway between is +Bentonville, where on the 19th the left wing again found the enemy +intrenched across the way, this time in greater force, and commanded +by General Johnston. Thickets of blackjack protected the flanks, and +it was ugly ground for fighting over. Slocum's men attacked the +position in force as soon as they came upon it. They quickly broke the +Confederate right flank, drove it back, and planted batteries to +command that part of the field. On the other flank the thickets +interfered more with the organization of both sides, the National +troops threw up intrenchments, both combatants attacked alternately, +and the fighting was very bloody. After nightfall the Confederates +withdrew toward Raleigh, and the road was then open for Sherman to +march into Goldsboro'. At Bentonville, the last battle fought by this +army, the National loss was sixteen hundred and four men, the +Confederate twenty-three hundred and forty-two. At Goldsboro' Sherman +was joined by Schofield's corps, which had been transferred thither +from Thomas's army. + +[Illustration: MAJOR-GENERAL EDWARD O. C. ORD.] + +[Illustration: BREVET MAJOR-GENERAL GEORGE A. CUSTER.] + +Several attempts to negotiate a peace were made during the winter of +1864-65, the most notable of which took place early in February, when +Alexander H. Stephens, Vice-President of the Confederacy, accompanied +by John A. Campbell and Robert M. T. Hunter, applied for permission to +pass through Grant's lines for the purpose. They were conducted to +Fort Monroe, met President Lincoln and Secretary Seward on a steamer +in Hampton Roads, and had a long and free discussion. The Confederate +commissioners proposed an armistice, with the hope that after a time, +if trade and friendly relations were resumed, some sort of settlement +or compromise could be reached without more fighting. But Mr. Lincoln +would consent to no peace or armistice of any kind, except on +condition of the immediate {442} disbandment of the Confederate armies +and government, the restoration of the Union, and the abolition of +slavery. With these points secured, he was willing to concede +everything else. Mr. Stephens, trying to convince Mr. Lincoln that he +might properly recognize the Confederacy, cited the example of Charles +I. of England negotiating with his rebellious subjects. "I am not +strong on history," said Lincoln; "I depend mainly on Secretary Seward +for that. All I remember about Charles is, that he lost his head." The +Confederate commissioners were not authorized to concede the +restoration of the Union, and thus the conference ended with no +practical result. + +Late in February General Sheridan, at the head of ten thousand +cavalry, moved far up the Shenandoah Valley, and at Waynesboro' his +third division, commanded by General Custer, met Early's force on the +2d of March. In the engagements that ensued, Early was completely +defeated, and about fifteen hundred of his men were captured, together +with every gun he had, and all his trains. Sheridan then ruined the +locks in the James River Canal, destroyed portions of the railroads +toward Lynchburg and Gordonsville, and rode down the peninsula to +White House, crossed over to the James and joined Grant, taking post +on the left of the army, and occupying Dinwiddie Court House on the +29th. + +[Illustration: GENERAL WILLIAM T. SHERMAN.] + +Grant and Lee had both been waiting impatiently for the roads to dry, +so that wagons and guns could be moved--Lee, because he saw that +Richmond could not be held any longer, and was anxious to get away; +Grant, because he was anxious to begin the final campaign and prevent +Lee from getting away. The only chance for Lee to escape was by +slipping past Grant's left, and either joining Johnston in North +Carolina or taking a position in the mountainous country to the west. +But Grant's left extended too far westward to permit of this without +great hazard. To compel him to contract his lines, drawing in his +left, Lee planned a bold attack on his right, which was executed in +the night of the 24th. Large numbers of deserters had recently left +the {443} Confederate army and walked across to Grant's lines, +bringing their arms with them, and this circumstance was now used for +a ruse. At a point where the hostile lines were not more than a +hundred yards apart, some of General Gordon's men walked out to the +National picket-line as if they were deserters, seized the pickets, +and sent them back as prisoners. Then a column charged through the +gap, surprised the men in the main line, and captured a section of the +works. But General Parke, commanding the Ninth Corps, where the +assault was delivered, promptly made dispositions to check it. The +Confederates were headed off in both directions, and a large number of +guns were soon planted where they could sweep the ground that had been +captured. A line of intrenchments was thrown up in the rear, and the +survivors of the charging column found themselves where they could +neither go forward, nor retreat, nor be reinforced. Consequently they +were all made prisoners. This affair cost the Confederates about four +thousand men, and inflicted a loss of two thousand upon the National +army. + +[Illustration: BREVET MAJOR-GENERAL ROMEYN B. AYRES.] + +[Illustration: BREVET MAJOR-GENERAL HENRY E. DAVIES, JR.] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration: BRIGADIER-GENERAL AUGUST V. KAUTZ. MAJOR-GENERAL +GODFREY WEITZEL.] + +Grant, instead of contracting his lines, was making dispositions to +extend them. Three divisions under Gen. E. O. C. Ord were brought from +his right, before Richmond, in the night of the 27th, and placed on +his extreme left, while a movement was planned for the 29th by which +that wing was to be pushed out to the Southside Railroad. When the day +appointed for the movement arrived, heavy rains had made the ground so +soft that the roads had to be corduroyed before the artillery could be +dragged over them. But the army was used to this sort of work, and +performed it with marvellous quickness. Small trees were cut down, and +rail fences disappeared in a twinkling, while the rude flooring thus +constructed stretched out over the sodden road and kept the wheels of +the guns from sinking hopelessly in the mire and quicksands. + +{444} [Illustration: SHERIDAN AND HIS GENERALS RECONNOITRING AT FIVE +FORKS (DINWIDDIE COURT-HOUSE).] + +Grant's extreme left, where the critical movement was to be made, was +now held by his most energetic lieutenant, General Sheridan, with his +magnificent cavalry. By Grant's orders, Sheridan made a march through +Dinwiddie Court House, to come in upon the extreme Confederate right +at Five Forks, which he struck on the 31st. He had no difficulty in +driving away the Confederate cavalry; but when a strong infantry force +was encountered he was himself driven back, and called upon Grant for +help. Grant sent the Fifth Corps to his assistance; but it was +unusually slow in moving, and was stopped by the loss of a bridge at +Gravelly Run, so that it was midday of April 1st before Sheridan began +to get it in hand. Lee had strengthened the force holding Five Forks; +but Sheridan was determined to capture the place, and when his troops +were all up, late in the afternoon, he opened the battle on a +well-conceived plan. {445} Engaging the enemy with his cavalry in +front, he used the Fifth Corps as if it were his immense right arm, +swinging it around so as to embrace and crush the Confederate force. +With bloody but brief fighting the manoeuvre was successful; Five +Forks was secured, and more than five thousand prisoners were taken. +Sheridan's loss was about one thousand. In the hour of victory came +orders from Sheridan relieving Warren of his command, because of that +officer's slowness in bringing his corps to the attack. Whether this +harsh action was justified or not, it threw a blight upon the career +of one of the best corps commanders that the Army of the Potomac ever +had, and excited the regret, if not the indignation, of every man that +had served under him. + +Judging that Lee must have drawn forces from other parts of his line +to strengthen his right, Grant followed up the advantage by attacking +Lee's centre at daybreak the next morning, Sunday, April 2d, with the +corps of Wright and Parke, the Sixth and Ninth. Both of these broke +through the Confederate lines in the face of a musketry fire, took +large portions of them in reverse, and captured three or four thousand +prisoners and several guns. The Second Corps, under Gen. Andrew A. +Humphreys, and three divisions under General Ord, made a similar +movement, with similar success; Sheridan moved up on the left, and the +outer defences of Petersburg were now in the possession of the +National forces, who encircled the city with a continuous line from a +point on the Appomattox River above to one below. Two strong +earthworks, Forts Gregg and Whitworth, salient to the inner +Confederate line, still held out. But Foster's division of the +Twenty-fourth Corps carried Fort Gregg after a costly assault, and +Fort Whitworth then surrendered. In the fighting of this day the +Confederate general A. P. Hill was killed. + +General Lee now sent a telegram to Richmond, saying that both cities +must be evacuated. It was received in church by Mr. Davis, who quietly +withdrew without waiting for the service to be finished. As the signs +of evacuation became evident to the people, there was a general rush +for means of conveyance, and property of all sorts was brought into +the streets in confused masses. Committees appointed by the city +council attempted to destroy all the liquor, and hundreds of +barrelfuls were poured into the gutters. The great tobacco warehouses +were set on fire, under military orders, and the iron-clad rams in the +river blown up; while a party of drunken soldiers began a course of +pillaging, which became contagious and threw everything into the +wildest confusion. The next morning a detachment of black troops from +Gen. Godfrey Weitzel's command marched into the city, and the flag of +the Twelfth Maine Regiment was hoisted over the Capitol. + +[Illustration: BRIGADIER-GENERAL A. H. COLQUITT, C. S. A.] + +[Illustration: LIEUTENANT-GENERAL JOHN B. GORDON.] + +[Illustration: LIEUTENANT-GENERAL WADE HAMPTON, C. S. A.] + +[Illustration: MAJOR-GENERAL G. W. C. LEE, C. S. A.] + +[Illustration: BRIGADIER-GENERAL STEPHEN ELLIOTT, JR., C. S. A.] + +[Illustration: MAJOR-GENERAL WILLIAM MAHONE, C. S. A.] + +When Lee, with the remnant of his army, withdrew from Richmond and +Petersburg, he fled westward, still keeping up the organization, +though his numbers were constantly {446} diminishing by desertion, +straggling, and capture. Grant was in close pursuit, striving to head +him off, and determined not to let him escape. He moved mainly on a +parallel route south of Lee's, attacking vigorously whenever any +portion of the hostile forces approached near enough. Some of these +engagements were very sharply contested; and as the men on both sides +had attained the highest perfection of destructive skill, and were not +sheltered by intrenchments, the losses were severe, and the seventy +miles of the race was a long track of blood. There were collisions at +Jetersville, Detonville, Deep Creek, Sailor's Creek, Paine's Cross +Roads, and Farmville; the most important being that at Sailor's Creek, +where Custer broke the Confederate line, capturing four hundred +wagons, sixteen guns, and many prisoners, and then the Sixth Corps +came up and captured the whole of Ewell's corps, including Ewell +himself and four other generals. Lee was stopped by the loss of a +provision train, and spent a day in trying to collect from the +surrounding country something for his famished soldiers to eat. + +[Illustration: DEFENCE OF FORT GREGG, PETERSBURG.] + +When he arrived at Appomattox Court House, April 9th, a week from the +day he set out, he found Sheridan's dismounted cavalry in line across +his path, and his infantry advanced confidently to brush them away. +But the cavalrymen drew off to the right, and disclosed a heavy line +of blue-coated infantry and gleaming steel. Before this the weary +Confederates recoiled, and just as Sheridan was preparing to charge +upon their flank with his cavalry a white flag was sent out and +hostilities were suspended on information that negotiations for a +surrender were in progress. Grant had first demanded Lee's surrender +in a note written on the afternoon of the 7th. Three or four other +notes had passed between them, and on the 9th the two commanders met +at a house in the village, where they wrote and exchanged two brief +letters by which the surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia was +effected; the terms being simply that the men were to lay down their +arms and return to their homes, not to be molested so long as they did +not again take up arms against the United States. The exceeding +generosity of these terms, to an army that had exacted almost the last +life it had power to destroy, was a surprise to many who remembered +the unconditional surrender that General Grant had demanded at +Vicksburg and Fort Donelson. But he considered that the war was over, +and thought the defeated insurgents would at once return to their +homes and become good citizens of the United States. In pursuance of +this idea, he ordered that they be permitted to take their horses with +them, as they "would need them for the ploughing." The starving +Confederates were immediately fed by their captors; and, by General +Grant's orders, cheering, firing of salutes, and other demonstrations +of exultation over the great and decisive victory were immediately +stopped. The number of officers and men paroled, according to the +terms of the surrender, was twenty-eight thousand three hundred and +sixty-five. + +The next day General Lee issued, in the form of a general order, a +farewell address to his army in which he lauded them in unmeasured +terms, to the implied disparagement of their conquerors, and assured +them of his "unceasing admiration of their constancy and devotion to +their country." It seems not to have occurred to the general that he +had no army, for it had been taken away from him, and no right to +issue a military document of any kind, for he was a prisoner of war; +and he certainly must have forgotten that the costly court of last +resort, to which he and they had appealed, had just decided that their +country as he defined it had no existence. + +General Johnston, who was confronting Sherman in North Carolina, +surrendered his army to that commander at Durham Station, near +Raleigh, on the 26th of April, receiving the same terms that had been +granted to Lee; and the surrender of all the other Confederate armies +soon followed, the last being the command of Gen. E. Kirby Smith, at +Shreveport, La., on the 26th of May. The number of Johnston's +immediate command surrendered and paroled was thirty-six thousand +eight hundred and seventeen, to whom were added fifty-two thousand +four hundred and fifty-three in Georgia and Florida. + +{447} [Illustration: THE McLEAN HOUSE WHERE GENERAL LEE SURRENDERED TO +GENERAL GRANT.] + +[Illustration: THE SURRENDER OF GENERAL LEE.] + + + + +{448} + +CHAPTER XLIV. + +PEACE. + +THE WAR GOVERNORS--CIVILIAN PATRIOTS--THE SUDDEN FALL OF THE +CONFEDERACY--CAPTURE OF MR. DAVIS--CHARACTER OF THE +INSURRECTION--MAGNANIMITY OF THE VICTORS--THE ASSASSINATION +CONSPIRACY--LINCOLN'S SECOND INAUGURAL ADDRESS--LINCOLN IN +RICHMOND--THE GRAND REVIEW--THE HOME-COMING--LESSONS OF THE WAR. + + +No account of the war, however brief, can properly be closed without +some mention of the forces other than military that contributed to its +success. The assistance and influence of the "war governors," as they +were called--including John A. Andrew of Massachusetts, William A. +Buckingham of Connecticut, Edwin D. Morgan of New York, William +Dennison of Ohio, and Oliver P. Morton of Indiana--was vital to the +cause, and was acknowledged as generously as it was given. There was +also a class of citizens who, by reason of age or other disability, +did not go to the front, and would not have been permitted to, but +found a way to assist the Government perhaps even more efficiently. +They were thoughtful and scholarly men, who brought out and placed at +the service of their country every lesson that could be drawn from +history; practical and experienced men, whose hard sense and knowledge +of affairs made them natural leaders in the councils of the people; +men of fervid eloquence, whose arguments and appeals aroused all there +was of latent patriotism in their younger and hardier countrymen, and +contributed wonderfully to the rapidity with which quotas were filled +and regiments forwarded to the seat of war. There were great numbers +of devoted women, who performed uncomplainingly the hardest hospital +service, and managed great fairs and relief societies with an +enthusiasm that never wearied. And there were the Sanitary and +Christian Commissions, whose agents went everywhere between the dépôt +in the rear and the skirmish-line in front, carrying not only whatever +was needed to alleviate the sufferings of the sick and wounded, but +also many things to beguile the tedious hours in camp and diminish the +serious evil of homesickness. + +It was a common remark, at the time, that the Confederacy crumbled +more suddenly in 1865 than it had risen in 1861. It seemed like an +empty shell, which, when fairly broken through, had no more stability, +and instantly fell to ruins. It was fortunate that when the end came +Lee's army was the first to surrender, since all the other commanders +felt justified in following his example. To some on the Confederate +side, especially in Virginia, the surrender was a surprise, and came +like a personal and irreparable grief. But people in other parts of +the South, especially those who had seen Sherman's legions marching by +their doors, knew that the end was coming. Longstreet had pronounced +the cause lost by Lee's want of generalship at Gettysburg; Ewell had +said there was no use in fighting longer when Grant had swung his army +across the James; Johnston and his lieutenants declared it wrong to +keep up the hopeless struggle after the capital had been abandoned and +the Army of Northern Virginia had laid down its weapons, and so +expressed themselves to Mr. Davis when he stopped to confer with them, +in North Carolina, on his flight southward. He said their fortunes +might still be retrieved, and independence established, if those who +were absent from the armies without leave would but return to their +places. He probably understood the situation as well as General +Johnston did, and may have spoken not so much from judgment as from a +consciousness of greater responsibility, a feeling that as he was the +first citizen of the Confederacy he was the last that had any right to +despair of it. + +Nevertheless, he continued his flight through the Carolinas into +Georgia; his cabinet officers, most of whom had set out with him from +Richmond, leaving him one after another. When he had arrived at +Irwinsville, Ga., accompanied by his family and Postmaster-General +Reagan, their little encampment in the woods was surprised, on the +morning of May 11th, by two detachments of Wilson's cavalry, and they +were all taken prisoners. In the gray of the morning the two +detachments, approaching from different sides, fired into each other +before they discovered that they were friends, and two soldiers were +killed and several wounded. Mr. Davis was taken to Savannah, and +thence to Fort Monroe, where he was a prisoner for two years, after +which he was released on bail--his bondsmen being Cornelius +Vanderbilt, Horace Greeley, and Gerrit Smith, a life-long +abolitionist. He was never tried. + +The secession movement had been proved to be a rebellion and nothing +else--although the mightiest of all rebellions. It never rose to the +character of a revolution; for it never had possession of the capital +or the public archives, never stopped the wheels of the Government for +a single day, was suppressed in the end, and attained none of its +objects. But although it was clearly a rebellion, and although its +armed struggle had been maintained after all prospect of success had +disappeared, such was the magnanimity of the National Government and +the Northern people that its leaders escaped the usual fate of rebels. +Except by temporary political disabilities, not one of them was +punished--neither Mr. Davis nor Mr. Stephens, nor any member of the +Confederate cabinet or congress; neither Lee nor Johnston, nor any of +their lieutenants, not even Beauregard who advocated the black flag, +nor Forrest who massacred his prisoners at Fort Pillow. Most of the +officers of high rank in the Confederate army were graduates of the +Military Academy at West Point, and had used their military education +in an attempt to destroy the very government that gave it to them, and +to which they had solemnly sworn allegiance. Some of them, notably +General Lee, had rushed into the rebel service without waiting for the +United States War Department to accept their resignations. But all +such ugly facts were suppressed or forgotten, in the extreme anxiety +of the victors lest they should not be sufficiently magnanimous toward +the vanquished. There was but a single act of capital punishment. The +keeper of the Andersonville stockade was tried, convicted, and +executed for cruelty to prisoners. His more guilty superior, General +Winder, died two months before the surrender. Two months after that +event, the secessionist that had sought the privilege of firing the +first gun at the flag of his country, committed suicide rather than +live under its protection. The popular cry that soon arose was, +"Universal amnesty and universal suffrage!" + +No such exhibition of mercy has been seen before or since. Four years +previous to this war, there was a rebellion against the authority of +the British Government; six years after it, there was one against the +French Government; and in both instances the conquered insurgents were +punished with the utmost severity. In our own country there had been +several minor insurrections preceding the great one. In such of these +as were aimed against the institution of slavery--Vesey's, Turner's, +and {449} Brown's--the offenders suffered the extreme penalty of the +law; in the others--Fries's, Shays's, Dorr's, and the whiskey +war--they were punished very lightly or not at all. + +[Illustration: THE LAST MEETING OF THE CONFEDERATE CABINET.] + +[Illustration: JEFFERSON DAVIS. (From a photograph taken in 1881.)] + +The general feeling in the country was of relief that the war was +ended--hardly less at the South than at the North. After the surrender +of the various armies, the soldiers so recently in arms against each +other behaved more like brothers than like enemies. The Confederates +were fed liberally from the abundant supplies of the National +commissariat, and many of them were furnished with transportation to +their homes in distant States. Some of them had been absent from their +families during the whole war. + +If the people of the North had any disposition to be boisterous over +the final victory, it was completely quelled by the shadow of a great +sorrow that suddenly fell upon them. A conspiracy had been in progress +for a long time among a few half-crazy secessionists in and about the +capital. It culminated on the night of Good Friday, April 14, 1865. +One of the conspirators forced his way into Secretary Seward's house +and attacked the Secretary with a knife, but did not succeed in +killing him. Mr. Seward had been thrown from a carriage a few days +before, and was lying in bed with his jaws encased in a metallic +frame-work, which probably saved his life. The chief conspirator, an +obscure actor, made his way into the box at Ford's Theatre where the +President and his wife were sitting, witnessing the comedy of "Our +American Cousin," shot Mr. Lincoln in the back of the head, jumped +from the box to the stage with a flourish of bravado shouting "_Sic +semper tyrannis!_" and escaped behind the scenes and out at the stage +door. The dying President was carried to a house across the street, +where he expired the next morning. As the principal Confederate army +had already surrendered, it was impossible for any one to suppose that +the killing of the President could affect the result of the war. +Furthermore, Mr. Lincoln had long been in the habit of going to the +War Department in the evening, and returning to the White House, +unattended, late at night; so that an assassin who merely wished to +put him out of the way had abundant opportunities for doing so, with +good chances of escaping and concealing his own identity. It was +therefore perfectly obvious that the murderer's principal motive was +the same as that of the youth who set fire to the temple of Diana at +Ephesus. And the newspapers did their utmost to give him the notoriety +that he craved, displaying his name in large type at the head of their +columns, and repeating about him every anecdote that could be recalled +or manufactured. The consequence was that sixteen years later the +country was disgraced by another Presidential assassination, mainly +from the same motive; and, as the journalists repeated their folly on +that occasion, we {450} shall perhaps have still another by and by. + +Mr. Lincoln had grown steadily in the affections and admiration of the +people. His state papers were the most remarkable in American annals; +his firmness where firmness was required, and kindheartedness where +kindness was practicable, were almost unfailing; and as the successive +events of the war called forth his powers, it was seen that he had +unlimited shrewdness and tact, statesmanship of the broadest kind, and +that honesty of purpose which is the highest wisdom. Moreover, his +lack of all vindictive feeling toward the insurgents, and his steady +endeavor to make the restored Union a genuine republic of equal +rights, gave tone to the feelings of the whole nation, and at the last +won many admirers among his foes in arms. In his second inaugural +address, a month before his death, he seemed to speak with that +insight and calm judgment which we only look for in the studious +historian in aftertimes. "Neither party expected for the war the +magnitude or the duration which it has already attained. Neither +anticipated that the cause of the conflict might cease with, or even +before, the conflict itself should cease. Each looked for an easier +triumph and a result less fundamental and astounding. Both read the +same Bible, and pray to the same God, and each invokes his aid against +the other. It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just +God's assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men's +faces. But let us judge not, that we be not judged. The prayer of both +could not be answered; that of neither has been answered fully. If we +shall suppose that American slavery is one of those offences which, in +the providence of God, must needs come, but which, having continued +through his appointed time, he now wills to remove, and that he gives +to both North and South this terrible war as the woe due to those by +whom the offence came, shall we discern therein any departure from +those divine attributes which the believers in a loving God always +ascribe to him? Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this +mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet if God wills that it +continue until all the wealth piled by the bondman's two hundred and +fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of +blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the +sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said, +'The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.' With +malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right +as God gives us to see the right, let us strive to finish the work we +are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have +borne the battle, and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which +may achieve and cherish a just and a lasting peace among ourselves and +with all nations." + +[Illustration: JEFFERSON DAVIS'S BODYGUARD.] + +A day or two after the evacuation of Richmond, Mr. Lincoln walked +through its smoking and disordered streets, where the negroes crowded +about him and called down all sorts of uncouth but sincere blessings +on his head. He had lived to enter the enemy's capital, lived to see +the authority of the United States restored over the whole country, +and then was snatched away, when the people were as much as ever in +need of his genius for the solution of new problems that suddenly +confronted them. + +The funeral train retraced the same route over which Mr. Lincoln had +gone to Washington from his home in Springfield, Ill., four years +before; and to the sorrowful crowds that were gathered at every +station, and even along the track in the country, it seemed as if the +light of the nation had gone out forever. + +The armies returning from the field were brought to Washington for a +grand review before being mustered out of service. The city was +decorated with flags, mottoes, and floral designs, and the streets +were thronged with people, many of whom carried wreaths and bouquets. +The Army of the Potomac was reviewed on May 23d, and Sherman's army on +the 24th, the troops marching in close column around the Capitol and +down Pennsylvania Avenue to the music of their bands. As they passed +the grand stand at the White House, where President Johnson and his +{451} cabinet reviewed them, the officers saluted with their swords, +and commanders of divisions dismounted and went upon the stand. + +The armies were quickly disbanded, and each regiment, on its arrival +home, was given a public reception and a fitting welcome. The men were +well dressed and well fed, but their bronzed faces and their tattered +and smoky battle-flags told where they had been. It was computed that +the loss of life in the Confederate service was about equal to that in +the National. Their losses in battle, as they were generally on the +defensive, were smaller, but their means of caring for the wounded +were inferior. Thus it cost us nearly six hundred thousand lives and +more than six thousand million dollars to destroy the doctrine of +State sovereignty, abolish the system of slavery, and begin the career +of the United States as a nation. + +The home-coming at the North was almost as sorrowful as at the South, +because of those that came not. In all the festivities and rejoicings +there was hardly a participator whose joy was not saddened by missing +some well-known face and form now numbered with the silent three +hundred thousand. Grant was there, the commander that had never taken +a step backward; and Farragut was there, the sailor without an equal; +and the unfailing Sherman, and the patient Thomas, and the intrepid +Hancock, and the fiery Sheridan, and the brilliant Custer, and many of +lesser rank, who in a smaller theatre of conflict would have won a +larger fame. But where was young Ellsworth?--shot dead as soon as he +crossed the Potomac. And Winthrop--killed in the first battle, with +his best books unwritten. And Lyon--fallen at the head of his little +army in Missouri, the first summer of the war. And Baker--sacrificed +at Ball's Bluff. And Kearny at Chantilly, and Reno at South Mountain, +and Mansfield at Antietam, and Reynolds at Gettysburg, and Wadsworth +in the Wilderness, and Sedgwick at Spottsylvania, and McPherson before +Atlanta, and Craven in his monitor at the bottom of the sea, and +thousands of others, the best and bravest--all gone--all, like Latour, +the immortal captain, dead on the field of honor, but none the less +dead and a loss to their mourning country. The hackneyed allegory of +Curtius had been given a startling illustration and a new +significance. The South, too, had lost heavily of her foremost +citizens in the great struggle--Bee and Bartow, at Bull Run; Albert +Sidney Johnston, leading a desperate charge at Shiloh; Zollicoffer, +soldier and journalist, at Mill Spring; Stonewall Jackson, Lee's right +arm, at Chancellorsville; Polk, priest and warrior, at Lost Mountain; +Armistead, wavering between two allegiances and fighting alternately +for each, and Barksdale and Garnett--all at Gettysburg; Hill, at +Petersburg; and the dashing Stuart, and Daniel, and Perrin, and +Dearing, and Doles, and numberless others. The sudden hush and sense +of awe that impresses a child when he steps upon a single grave, may +well overcome the strongest man when he looks upon the face of his +country scarred with battlefields like these, and considers what blood +of manhood was rudely wasted there. And the slain were mostly young, +unmarried men, whose native virtues fill no living veins, and will not +shine again on any field. + +[Illustration: RICHMOND AFTER THE EVACUATION--SHOWING THE EFFECT OF +THE FIRE. (From a War Department photograph.)] + +{452} [Illustration: GRAND REVIEW OF THE ARMY, WASHINGTON, MAY 23-24, +1865.] + +It is poor business measuring the mouldered ramparts and counting the +silent guns, marking the deserted battlefields and decorating the +grassy graves, unless we can learn from it all some nobler lesson than +to destroy. Men write of this, as of other wars, as if the only thing +necessary to be impressed upon the rising generation were the virtue +of physical courage and contempt of death. It seems to me that is the +last thing that we need to teach; for since the days of John Smith in +Virginia and the men of the _Mayflower_ in Massachusetts, no +generation of Americans has shown any lack of it. From Louisburg to +{453} Petersburg--a hundred and twenty years, the full span of four +generations--they have stood to their guns and been shot down in +greater comparative numbers than any other race on earth. In the war +of secession there was not a State, not a county, probably not a town, +between the great lakes and the gulf, that was not represented on +fields where all that men could do with powder and steel was done, and +valor was exhibited at its highest pitch. It was a common saying in +the Army of the Potomac that courage was the cheapest thing there; and +it might have been said of all the other armies as well. There is not +the slightest necessity for lauding American bravery or impressing it +upon American youth. But there is the gravest necessity for teaching +them respect for law, and reverence for human life, and regard for the +rights of their fellow-men, and all that is significant in the history +of our country--lest their feet run to evil and they make haste to +shed innocent blood. I would be glad to convince my compatriots that +it is not enough to think they are right, but they are bound to know +they are right, before they rush into any experiments that are to cost +the lives of men and the tears of orphans, in their own land or in any +other. I would warn them to beware of provincial conceit. I would have +them comprehend that one may fight bravely, and still be a perjured +felon; that one may die humbly, and still be a patriot whom his +country cannot afford to lose; that as might does not make right, so +neither do rags and bare feet necessarily argue a noble cause. I would +teach them that it is criminal either to hide the truth or to refuse +assent to that which they see must follow logically from ascertained +truth. I would show them that a political lie is as despicable as a +personal lie, whether uttered in an editorial, or a platform, or a +President's message, or a colored cartoon, or a disingenuous ballot; +and that political chicanery, when long persisted in, is liable to +settle its shameful account in a stoppage of civilization and a +spilling of life. These are simple lessons, yet they are not taught in +a day, and some whom we call educated go through life without +mastering them at all. + +It may be useful to learn from one war how to conduct another; but it +is infinitely better to learn how to avert another. I am doubly +anxious to impress this consideration upon my readers, because history +seems to show us that armed conflicts have a tendency to come in +pairs, with an interval of a few years, and because I think I see, in +certain circumstances now existing within our beloved Republic, the +elements of a second civil war. No American citizen should lightly +repeat that the result is worth all it cost, unless he has considered +how heavy was the cost, and is doing his utmost to perpetuate the +result. To strive to forget the great war, for the sake of sentimental +politics, is to cast away our dearest experience and invite, in some +troubled future, the destruction we so hardly escaped in the past. +There can be remembrance without animosity, but there cannot be +oblivion without peril. + +[Illustration: AN EXPLODED GUN IN THE DEFENCE OF RICHMOND.] + + + + +THE FIRST UNITED STATES FLAG RAISED IN RICHMOND AFTER THE WAR. + +BY MRS. LASALLE CORBELL PICKETT, Wife of Major-General George E. +Pickett, C. S. A. + + +The first knell of the evacuation of Richmond sounded on Sunday +morning while we were on our knees in St. Paul's Church, invoking +God's protecting care for our absent loved ones, and blessings on our +cause. + +The intense excitement, the tolling of the bells, the hasty parting, +the knowledge that all communication would be cut off between us and +our loved ones, and the dread, undefined fear in our helplessness and +desertion, make a nightmare memory. + +General Ewell had orders for the destruction of the public buildings, +which orders our Secretary of War, Gen. J. C. Breckenridge, strove +earnestly but without avail to have countermanded. The order, alas! +was obeyed beyond "the letter of the law." + +The terrible conflagration was kindled by the Confederate authorities, +who applied the torch to the Shockoe warehouse, it, too, being classed +among the public buildings because of the {454} tobacco belonging to +France and England stored in it. A fresh breeze was blowing from the +south; the fire swept on in its haste and fury over a great area in an +almost incredibly short time, and by noon the flames had transformed +into a desert waste all the city bounded by Seventh and Fifteenth +Streets, and Main Street and the river. One thousand houses were +destroyed. The streets were filled with furniture and every +description of wares, dashed down to be trampled in the mud or buried +where they lay. + +At night a saturnalia began. About dark, the Government commissary +began the destruction of its stores. Soldiers and citizens gathered in +front, catching the liquor in basins and pitchers; some with their +hats and some with their boots. It took but a short time for this to +make a manifestation as dread as the flames. The crowd became a +howling mob, so frenzied that the officers of the law had to flee for +their lives, reviving memories of 1781, when the British under Arnold +rode down Richmond Hill, and, invading the city, broke open the stores +and emptied the provisions and liquors into the gutters, making even +the uninitiated cows and hogs drunk for days. + +All through the night, crowds of men, women, and children traversed +the streets, loading themselves with supplies and plunder. At +midnight, soldiers drunk with vile liquor, followed by a reckless +crowd as drunk as themselves, dashed in the plate-glass windows of the +stores, and made a wreck of everything. + +About nine o'clock on Monday morning, terrific shell explosions, rapid +and continuous, added to the terror of the scene, and gave the +impression that the city was being shelled by the retreating +Confederate army from the south side. But the explosions were soon +found to proceed from the Government arsenal and laboratory, then in +flames. Later in the morning, a merciful Providence caused a lull in +the breeze. The terrific explosion of the laboratory and of the +arsenal caused every window in our home to break. The old plate-glass +mirrors, built in the walls, were cracked and shattered. + +Fort Darling was blown up, and later on the rams. It was eight o'clock +when the Federal troops entered the city. It required the greatest +effort to tame down the riotous, crazed mob, and induce them to take +part in the struggle to save their own. The firemen, afraid of the +soldiers who had obeyed the orders to light the torch, would not +listen to any appeals or entreaties, and so the flames were under full +headway, fanned by a southern breeze, when the Union soldiers came to +the rescue. + +The flouring mills caught fire from the tobacco houses, communicating +it to Cary and Main Streets. Every bank was destroyed. The War +Department was a mass of ruins; the _Enquirer_ and _Dispatch_ offices +were in ashes; and the county court-house, the American Hotel, and +most of the finest stores of the city were ruined. + +Libby Prison and the Presbyterian church escaped. Such a reign of +terror and pillage, fire and flame, fear and despair! The yelling and +howling and swearing and weeping and wailing beggar description. +Families houseless and homeless under the open sky! + +I shall never forget General Weitzel's command, composed exclusively +of colored troops, as I saw them through the dense black columns of +smoke. General Weitzel had for some time been stationed on the north +side of the James River, but a few miles from Richmond, and he had +only to march in and take possession. He despatched Major A. H. +Stevens of the Fourth Massachusetts cavalry, and Major E. E. Graves of +his staff, with about a hundred mounted men, to reconnoitre the roads +and works leading to Richmond. They had gone but a little distance +into the Confederate lines, when they saw a shabby, old-fashioned +carriage, drawn by a pair of lean, lank horses, the occupants waving a +white flag. They met this flag-of-truce party at the line of +fortifications, just beyond the junction of the Osborne turnpike and +New Market road. The carriage contained the mayor of Richmond--Colonel +Mayo--Judge Meredith of the Supreme Court, and Judge Lyons. The fourth +worthy I cannot recall. Judge Lyons, our former minister to England, +and one of the representative men of Virginia, made the introductions +in his own characteristic way, and then Colonel Mayo, who was in +command of the flag-of-truce party, handed to Major Stevens a small +slip of wall paper, on which was written the following: "It is proper +to formally surrender to the Federal authorities the city of Richmond, +hitherto capital of the Confederate States of America, and the +defences protecting it up to this time." That was all. The document +was approved of, and Major Stevens most courteously accepted the terms +for his commanding general, to whom it was at once transmitted, and +moved his column upon the evacuated city, taking possession and saving +it from ashes. + +His first order was to sound the alarm bells and to take command at +once of the fire department, which consisted of fourteen substitute +men, those who were exempt from service because of disease, two steam +fire engines, four worthless hand engines, and a large amount of hose, +destroyed by the retreating half-crazed Confederates. His next order +was to raise the stars and stripes over the Capitol. Quick as thought, +two soldiers, one from Company E and one from Company H of the Fourth +Massachusetts cavalry, crept to the summit and planted the flag of the +nation. Two bright, tasteful guidons were hoisted by the halyards in +place of the red cross. The living colors of the Union were greeted, +while our "Warriors' banner took its flight to meet the warrior's +soul." + +That flag, whose design has been accredited alike to both George +Washington and John Adams, was raised over Virginia by Massachusetts, +in place of the one whose kinship and likeness had not, even after +renewed effort, been entirely destroyed. For by the adoption of the +stars and bars (three horizontal bars of equal width--the middle one +white, the others red--with a blue union of nine stars in a circle) by +the Confederate Congress in March, 1861, the Confederate flag was made +so akin and so similar to that of the nation, as to cause confusion; +so in 1863 the stars and bars was supplanted by a flag with a white +field, having the battle flag (a red field charged with a blue +saltier, on which were thirteen stars) for a union. This, having been +mistaken for a flag of truce, was altered by covering the outer half +of the field beyond the union with a vertical red bar. This was the +last flag of the Confederacy. + +Richmond will testify that the soldiers of Massachusetts were worthy +of the honor of raising the first United States flag over her +Capitol--the Capitol of the Confederacy--and also to the unvarying +courtesy of Major Stevens, and the fidelity with which he kept his +trust. + + + + +{455} + +HUMOROUS INCIDENTS OF THE WAR. + +_The illustrations of this chapter are exact reproductions of cartoons +published during the war in various newspapers and periodicals._ + +FUN FROM ENLISTMENT TO HONORABLE DISCHARGE--RECRUITS' EXCUSES--BULL +RUN PLEASANTRIES--GREENHORNS IN CAMP--FUN WITH THE AWKWARD +SQUAD--OFFICERS LEARNING THEIR BUSINESS--SENTRIES AND SHOULDER +STRAPS--STORIES OF GRANT, LINCOLN, BUTLER, SHERMAN, ETC.--DUTCH, +IRISH, AND DARKY COMEDY--EXPEDIENTS OF THE HOMESICK--ARMY +CHAPLAINS--HOSPITAL HUMOR--GRANT'S "PIE ORDER"--"THROUGH +VIRGINIA"--YANKEE GOOD NATURE AND PLUCK A BETTER STIMULANT THAN +WHISKEY. + + +[Illustration] + +The hardships of campaigning, the sufferings of the hospital, the +horrors of actual combat--none of these sufficed to keep down the +irrepressible spirit of fun in the American soldier. From the day of +his enlistment to the day of his discharge he did not cease to look +upon the funny side of every situation, and the veterans of to-day +talk more about the humor of the war than of privations and pitched +battles. Wits in and out of the army said and did clever things, some +of which have passed into the proverbs and idioms of the American +people; and more than one distinguished "American humorist" laid the +foundation of his reputation in connection with the war. + +Humorous situations began at the very recruiting office, or the +citizens' meeting which stimulated recruiting, and continued to the +end of the service. It was at one of the meetings held in a New +England village that the wife of a spirited citizen, whose patriotism +consisted in brave words, said to him: "I thought you said you were +going to enlist to-night." Well, he had thought better of it. "Take +off those breeches, then, and give them to me, and I will go myself." +There was not much prospect of "peace" for him in a life at home after +that; so he went to the front. Countless excuses were offered by +candidates for the draft in the hope of proving themselves physically +disqualified for service. The man who had one leg too short was let +off; but the man behind him, who pleaded that he had "both legs too +short," failed to prove a double incapacity, and he wore the blue, and +that creditably. + +[Illustration: MANAGER LINCOLN. "Ladies and Gentlemen, I regret to say +that the Tragedy, entitled _The Army of the Potomac_, has been +withdrawn on account of Quarrels among the leading Performers, and I +have substituted three new and striking Farces or Burlesques, one, +entitled _The Repulse at Vicksburg_, by the well-known, popular +favorite, E. M. STANTON, Esq., and the others, _The Loss of the +Harriet Lane_ and _The Exploits of the Alabama_--a very sweet thing in +Farces, I assure you--by the Veteran Composer, GIDEON WELLES." + +(_Unbounded Applause by the_ COPPERHEADS.)] + +Officers who tarried too long in Washington on their way to the front +were not seldom rendered uncomfortable by the remarks made to them or +in their hearing. One who was eager for news from the first battle of +Bull Run bought an "extra" of a newsboy who was calling, "All about +the battle!" Glancing over it, he shouted after the boy: "Here! I +don't see any battle in this paper." "Don't you?" said the boy. "Well, +you won't see any battle if you loaf around this hotel _all_ the +time." It was of the battle of Bull Run that a wit said, it was so +popular it had to be repeated the very next year, to satisfy the +public demand for it. And one of the participants in this first +experience of the new army said: "At Bull Run we were told that the +eyes of Washington were upon us; when we knew very well that what we +were most anxious about was to get our eyes on Washington." It was +said of the soldiers on both sides in that battle, that their guns +trembled in their hands, so that if the enemy was dodging he was +almost certain to be hit, and that the conclusion arrived at by the +rearward experiments of both armies was that a soldier may retreat +successfully from almost any position if only he starts in time. Thus +the pleasantry of the day turned to account the "baptism of fire" of +some of the bravest troops that ever wore blue or gray. + +Once in camp, the school-boy spirit revelled in larks of every +description. A few weeks of experience developed military manners and +prepared the recruit to enjoy the greenness of the newer comers. On +drill, a new recruit was sure to get his toes exactly where a "vet" +wanted to drop the butt of his musket as he ordered arms, and if there +was a mud-puddle within a yard of him he was sure to "dress" into it. +The new men were sent to the officers' quarters on the most absurd +errands, usually in quest of some luxury which, fresh from the +comforts of home, they still regarded as a necessity. The drilling of +the awkward squad was a never-ending source of amusement; for some men +are constitutionally incapable of moving in a machine-like harmony +with others, and these were continually out of {456} place. One of +them was a loose-jointed fellow from, say, Nantucket, who was so +thorough a patriot that he was always longing for home, and he met +every hardship and discouragement with a sigh and the wish that he was +back in Nantucket. He was exceedingly awkward at drill. He seemed to +make every movement on the "bias." One day, in responding to a +command, he figured it out so badly as to find himself all alone, +several yards away from the rest of the squad. All at sea, he said: +"Captain, where ought I to be now?" The captain, thoroughly out of +patience, shouted back: "Why, _back in Nantucket_, gol darn you!" +There was the Irishman who said he had spent two years in the cavalry +learning to turn his toes _in_, and two years in the infantry learning +to turn his toes _out_. "Divil take such a sarvice," said he; "there's +no plazing the blackguards, anyhow." + +The drill jokes were not all on the men. The officers, who at the +beginning were nonmilitary citizens like their soldiers, had their +business to learn. Indeed, it was not an easy matter at first to +preserve thorough discipline, because of the frequent equality, in +military knowledge, between the officers and the men. It was said that +the American soldier was perfectly willing to endure hardships, to +fight, and if necessary to die, for his country; but the hardest thing +for him to submit to was to be bossed around by his superior officer, +who might, like enough, be his next-door neighbor at home. One +captain, who had abandoned railroading for the war, in his excitement +over the necessity of halting his men suddenly, true to his former +calling, shouted out, "Down brakes!" And another, who had forgotten +the command for breaking ranks, dismissed his company with the order, +"Adjourn for rations!" It was a Georgian commandant of a Home Guard +who, while showing his men off before a visiting officer, invented his +own tactics on the basis of "common sense." His first order after +falling in was, "In two ranks, git!" It was not long before he had his +men pretty well mixed up; but, equal to the occasion, he shouted, +"Disentangle to the front, march!" which was as effective as anything +in "Hardee's Tactics." Drill sergeants were often peremptory fellows, +and they sometimes called on their men to perform difficult feats. One +under-sized sergeant had much trouble with an Irish recruit, whose +enormous height had given him the habit of looking _down_, and he +could not keep his chin up to the military angle. Finally the sergeant +reached up to the Irishman's chin (for which he had to stand on +tip-toe) and poked it up, saying, "That's the place for it; now don't +let us see your head down again."--"Am I always to be like this, +sergeant?" asked the recruit. "Yes, sir."--"Then I'll say good by to +yez, sergeant, for I'll niver see yez again." It was a very fresh +recruit who was found on his sentry post sitting down and cleaning his +gun, which he had taken entirely to pieces. The officer who discovered +him rebuked him sternly and asked, "Are you the sentinel +here?"--"Well, I'm a sort of a sentinel."--"Well, I'm a sort of +officer of the day."--"All right," said the undismayed recruit, "just +hold on till I get my gun together, and I'll give you a sort of a +salute." + +[Illustration: Four cartoons.] + +The military rule that a sentry must challenge everybody, and not pass +unchallenged even those whom he knew to be all right, was often as +slow in taking possession of the officers' minds as those of the least +experienced of the men. A full-uniformed lieutenant, much disgusted at +the "Who goes there?" of one of his own company on guard, expressed +his sentiments by indignantly exclaiming, "Ass!" To which the sentry +promptly responded, "Advance, Ass, and give the countersign!" Not +infrequently general officers and high dignitaries had experiences +with the guards of their own camps. It is said that every great +general in history has been halted by a guard, the approach of a +well-known superior officer giving the sentry an opportunity of +showing off his discipline. General McClellan was not only halted on a +certain occasion, but forced to dismount and call up the officer of +the guard before a sentry would let him pass. General Sherman, who +used to see for himself what was going on among his men, under the +incognito afforded by a rather unmilitary dress, once interfered with +a teamster who was pounding a mule, and told him who he was. "Oh, +that's played out!" said the mule driver; "every man that comes along +here {457} with an old brown coat and a stove-pipe hat claims to be +General Sherman." This suggests the story of a mule driver in the army +who was swearing at and kicking a span of balky mules, when the +general, who was annoyed at his profanity, ordered him to stop. "Who +are you?" said the mule driver. "I'm the commander of the brigade," +said the general. "I'm the commander of these mules, and I'll do as I +please, or resign, and you can take my place!" The general passed on. +Even the President of the United States had his encounter with a +guard, and was for a short time kept waiting outside General Grant's +tent under the order, suggested by his somewhat clerical appearance, +"No sanitary folks allowed inside!" + +Lincoln always made friends among the soldiers. On one occasion he +came on some men hewing logs for a hospital, and remarking, with a +reminiscence of his rail-splitting days, that he "used to be pretty +good on the chop," made the chips fly for a while like a veteran +lumberman. The President's half-pathetic saying, that he had "no +influence with this administration," has passed into history; but less +familiar is his remark, when some one applied to him for a pass to go +into Richmond, and he said, "I don't know about that; I have given +passes to about two hundred and fifty thousand men to go there during +the last two years, and not one of them has got there yet." + +[Illustration: GENERAL POPE.] + +Ben Butler was credited with a lawyer-like disinclination to be +cross-questioned when he gave orders. Word was brought to him that his +favorite horse, "Almond-eye," had fallen into a ravine and been +killed, and he called an orderly and told him to go to the ravine and +skin the horse. "What, is Almond-eye dead?" asked the man. "Never you +mind whether he is or not," said the general, "you obey orders." The +man came back in about two hours and reported that he had finished. +"Has it taken you all this time to skin a horse?" asked Butler. "Oh, +no; it took me half an hour to catch him," was the reply. "You don't +mean to say you killed him?" shouted the irate general. "My orders +were to skin him," said the soldier, "and I obeyed them without asking +any questions." + +Officers and men alike showed much wit in their way of dealing with +impossible or unwelcome orders. A lieutenant protested against an +order to take a squad of men across a swamp where he knew the depth +was enough to drown every man of them. He was sternly rebuked by his +superior, who ordered him peremptorily to make the crossing, telling +him that his requisition would be honored for whatever he might +require for the purpose. So he made a requisition for "twenty men +eighteen feet long to cross a swamp fifteen feet deep." + +We will give another of the many similar stories. After a long march a +captain ordered, as a sanitary precaution, that the men should change +their under-shirts. The orderly sergeant suggested that half of the +men had only one shirt each. The captain hesitated a moment and then +said: "Military orders must be obeyed. Let the men, then, change with +each other." + +Orders against unauthorized foraging were very strict. A youthful +soldier was stopped on his way into camp with a fine goose slung over +his shoulder, and he was required to account for it. "Well," said he, +"I was coming through the village whistling 'Yankee Doodle,' and this +confounded rebel of a goose came out and hissed me; so I shot it." + +"Where did you get that turkey?" said the colonel of the ---- Texas +regiment to one of his amiable recruits that came into camp with a +fine bird. + +"Stole it," was the laconic reply. + +"Ah!" said the colonel, triumphantly, to a bystander, "you see my boys +may steal, but they won't lie." + +During a battle the interest in the work was so intense as to leave +small room for fear, either of the enemy or of superior officers. An +Irish private was ordered to take up the colors when the color-bearer +was shot down. "By the holy St. Patrick, colonel," said he, "there's +so much good shooting here, I haven't a minute's time to waste fooling +with that thing." + +The desire to get home for a few days developed much ingenuity among +the enlisted men. "What do you want, Pat?" asked General Rosecrans, as +he rode along the line, inquiring into the wants of his men. "A +furlough!" said Pat. "How long has your sister been dead?" asked a +sympathetic comrade of a soldier who had obtained a leave on account +of the family trouble. "About ten years," was the cool reply. General +Thomas asked a man who applied for leave to go and see his wife how +long it was since he had seen her. "Over three {458} months," was the +answer. "Three months!" exclaimed the general; "why, I haven't seen my +wife for three _years!_" "That may be," said the soldier, "but you +see, general, me and my wife ain't o' that sort." + +The "intelligent contraband," the irrepressible darky, is one of the +few types of mankind that furnish as much fun in real life as on the +stage. He was a source of constant amusement in the army. A colored +refugee from the Confederate lines brought word, as the only news +worth mentioning (referring to himself), that "a man in Culpeper lost +a mighty valuable nigger this mornin'." The driver of a commissary +wagon exemplified the general non-combativeness of his race, when, in +describing his emotions during an attack on the train, he said he felt +"like every hair of his head was a bugle, an' dey was all a-playin' +'Home, Sweet Home.'" An officer tried to induce his servant, who was a +refugee, to enlist, saying he must trust the Lord to keep him safe. +"Well," he said, "I _did_ trust de Lord when I was tryin' to get into +de Union lines, but I dun dare resk Him again!" + +The army chaplain now and then ran against the rough soldier wit. One +of them, who took a practical view of his responsibility for the souls +of his regiment, welcomed some recruits with the suggestion that, +having joined the army of their country, they should now also join the +army of the Lord. "What bounty does He give?" was the irreverent +rejoinder. Even in hospital the disposition to look on the humorous +side of life--or of death--never forsook men. One who had lost three +fingers held up the maimed member and sorrowfully regretted that he +"never could hold a full hand again." A pale-faced sufferer in a +hospital near a large city was asked by a visiting lady if she could +not do something for him. No. Could she not bathe his head? "You may +if you want to very much," he replied; "but if you do, you will be the +fourteenth lady that has bathed my head this morning." It was an Irish +surgeon who remarked that "the man who has lost his finger makes more +noise about it than the man who has lost his head." A nurse was +shocked one morning to find two attendants noisily hammering and +sawing at one end of a ward where a very sick man was lying. In reply +to her questions, they said they were making a coffin. "Who for?" +"Him"--pointing to the sick man. "Is he going to die?" she asked, much +distressed. "The doctor says he is, an' _I guess he knows what he give +him!_" It was a Confederate guerilla who comforted himself, while +lying on his hospital cot, with the reflection, "I reckon I killed as +many of them as they did of me." + +A soldier was wounded by a shell at Fort Wagner. He was going to the +rear. "Wounded by a shell?" some one asked. "Yes," he coolly answered. +"I was right under the durned thing when the bottom dropped out." + +The occurrences in the enemy's country, and stories that originated +there, furnished no small portion of the humor that was current during +the war. "Where does this road lead to?" asked the lieutenant in +command of a reconnoitering party. "It leads to h----!" was the surly +reply of the unregenerate rebel thus interrogated. "Well, by the +appearance of the inhabitants of this country, I should judge that I'm +most there," was the retort. An old man in Georgia was called upon to +declare which side he took, and, uncertain as to the identity of his +captors, he said: "I ain't took no side; but both sides hev took me!" +It must have been his wife who said: "I ain't neither Secesh nor +Union--jest Baptist." + +The devotion of Southern women to the Confederacy has often been +remarked. One of the minor officers of the army, who marched with +Sherman to the sea, and who states that he tramped, all told, at least +two thousand miles during the war through the South, says that he saw +many Southern men who were loyal to the Union, and who regretted the +secession of their respective States, but he saw only one Southern +woman whom he even suspected to be Union in sentiment. He saw this +woman during a foraging expedition in connection with the march to the +sea. He had charge of a squad of thirteen men who had marched through +the woods some distance away from the army. As they rounded a sharp +curve in the road, they suddenly came upon a house almost covered with +foliage. In front of the house, and only a few yards from the men, was +a woman picking up chips. Her back was toward the soldiers, and she +had not noticed their approach. The commanding officer motioned to his +men to stop, and, tip-toeing up to the side of the woman, he put his +arm around her waist and kissed her. Stepping back a pace or two, he +waited for the bitter denunciation and abuse that he was sure would +come. The woman, however, straightened herself up, looked at the +officer for a moment, and then said slowly: "You'll find me right here +every morning a-picking up chips." The officer said he strongly +suspected that she was disloyal to the South. + +[Illustration: FUN IN CAMP.] + +A military peculiarity of General Bragg's was touched on in the remark +that, when he died and approached the gate of heaven and was invited +in, the first thing he'd do would be to "fall back." Gen. W. T. +Sherman never seemed to suit the Confederates, no matter what he did. +One of the {459} prisoners who fell into the hands of his army gave +the following graphic expression of the Southern idea of the general: +"Sherman gits on a hill, flops his wings and crows; then he yells out: +'Attention, creation! by kingdoms, right wheel, _march!_' And then we +git!" It was a solitary relic left behind after one of Sherman's +advances, that, communing with himself, said: "Well, I'm badly whipped +and somewhat demoralized, but no man can say I am scattered." + +Among the humorous miscellanies of the war, General Grant's "pie +order" must have an immortal place. It was during Grant's early +campaign in Eastern Missouri that a lieutenant in command of the +advance guard inspired the mistress of a wayside house with +exceptional alacrity in supplying the wants of himself and men by +announcing himself to be Brigadier-General Grant. Later in the day the +general himself came to the same house and was turned away with the +information that General Grant and staff had been there that morning +and eaten everything in the house but one pumpkin pie. Giving her half +a dollar, he told her to keep that pie till he sent for it. That +evening the army went into camp some miles beyond this place, and at +the dress parade that was ordered, the following special order was +published: + +"HEADQUARTERS, ARMY IN THE FIELD. + +"SPECIAL ORDERS, NO. --. + +"Lieutenant Wickfield, of the --th Indiana Cavalry, having on this day +eaten everything in Mrs. Selvidge's house, at the crossing of the +Ironton and Pocahontas and Black River and Cape Girardeau roads, +except one pumpkin pie, Lieutenant Wickfield is hereby ordered to +return with an escort of one hundred cavalry and eat that pie also. + +"U. S. GRANT, + +"_Brigadier-General Commanding_." + +Virginia mud and Virginia swamps were celebrated by the invention of +the response to the question, "Did you go through Virginia?" "Yes--in +a number of places;" and the exclamation of the trooper who was +fording a stream flanked by miles of swamp on either side: "Blowed if +I don't think we have struck this stream lengthwise." + +It is impossible here to attempt more than a suggestion of the +combination of good nature and pluck that, all through the dreadful +days of the war, rendered hardships endurable, lent courage to the +faint-hearted, and cheered the low-spirited. "The humor of the war" +was no mere ebullition of school-boy fun; it was as potent a factor in +accomplishing the results of the war as powder and shot--a stimulant +that carried men over hard places better than whiskey. + + + + +WAR HUMOR IN THE SOUTH. + +THE BADINAGE OF THE ARMY--NO RESPECTER OF PERSONS--"PICKIN' A CHUNE" +FROM A BASS DRUM--SWEARING THAT WAS "PLUM NIGH LIKE PREACHIN'"--WHAT +IS A "BEE-LINE"?--FUN AMONG THE NEGROES--STONEWALL JACKSON'S +BODY-SERVANT--WOMEN IN SEWING SOCIETIES AND AT THE BEDSIDES OF THE +WOUNDED. + + +[Illustration] + +Southern soldiers, like their Northern opponents, soon found that +humor was a safety valve--a diversion from the graver thoughts that, +in their lonely hours, lingered around the wife, mother, and children +in the distant home. Withal, it was a spontaneous good humor, such as +Washington Irving calls the "oil and wine of a merry meeting," where +the companionship was contagious and the jokes small, but the jollity +was abundant. It might not have been as polished as that of Uncle Toby +or Corporal Trim, nor as philosophical as Dickens makes the +observations of the elder Mr. Weller and his son "Sam," but it +exemplified human nature in the rough, and overflowed harmlessly. + +[Illustration: GENERAL HOOKER.] + +Those who have had occasion to make the comparison have, without +doubt, observed salient points of difference between the styles of +badinage prevalent in the Northern and Southern armies. Your +Southerner was no respecter of persons. He seized on any feature of an +individuality that presented a ludicrous side. If a stranger was +unusually long or short, or lean or fat, he was sure to be a target +for ridicule. + +Passing through Frederick in the first Maryland campaign (1862), a +good-natured-looking citizen, who evidently had not been able to tie +his shoestrings for a number of years, stood on his doorstep watching +us as we passed. "Hi, there! Hog-killing time, boys," suddenly +astonished his ears, and was the signal for an instant fire of playful +chaff. "Aint he swelled powerful?" "Must have swallowed a bass drum." +"I say, stranger, buttermilk or corn-fed?" "Does it hurt much?" "What +hurt?" ventured the fat man, quizzically. "Why, totin' them rations +around with yer all day." In a minute or two the old gentleman, very +red in the face, carried his abdominal rotundity into the house, but +quickly reappeared with a demijohn in each hand. "Here, boys!" he +exclaimed, "wash your mouths out with some of this applejack, and have +a bit of mercy on a fat man." It is needless to say that the boys +promptly cheered their vote of thanks. + +{460} [Illustration: THE OLD JOHN ROSS HOUSE, NEAR RINGGOLD, +GA.--MISSIONARY RIDGE ON THE RIGHT. (From a Government photograph.)] + +The colonel of a South Carolina regiment, having returned from his +furlough with a pair of high top boots--boots were then worth seven or +eight hundred {461} dollars--had the temerity to run the gauntlet of a +neighboring brigade, and heard comments like these: "I say, mister, +better git out'r them smokestacks; know you're in thar 'cause we kin +see yer head stickin' out." "Boys, the kern'l 's gone into winter +quarters." "What mout be the price o' them nail kags?" etc. An officer +wearing noticeably bushy whiskers was unfeelingly invited to "come out +from behind that bunch of har! 'Taint no use t' say yer aint in thar, +'cause yer ears is workin' monstrous powerful." It was rarely safe, +under these circumstances, to answer with either wit or abuse. + +Our soldiers had little respect for what were known as +"bombproofs"--the fellows who had easy positions in the rear. On one +occasion a smartly dressed young officer belonging to this kindred +cantered up to a depot where a regiment of men were awaiting transfer. +As soon as they saw him they began whooping: "Oh, my! aint he pooty!" +"Say, mister, whar'd ye git that biled shut?" "Does yer grease that +har with ham fat, or how?" And so they plied the poor fellow with all +manner of questions concerning his age, occupation, religious and +political convictions, that were calculated to make a man feel +uncomfortable. One feather, however, broke the camel's back. A long, +cadaverous specimen of humanity, who had evidently been making a +comical survey of the victim--his handsome uniform, and well-polished +boots--taking a step or two forward as if to show his intense +interest, solemnly drawled out: "Was yer ra-a-ly born so, or did they +put yer together by corntract? Strikes me yer must have got yere in a +drove or ben picked afore you was ripe." Then somebody suggested that +"sich a nice-lookin' rooster ought to git down and scratch for a +wurrum"; and amid the laughter that followed, he was glad to put spurs +to his horse and gallop out of hearing. + +[Illustration: GENERAL BEAUREGARD.] + +[Illustration: THIS LITTLE JOKER FOR PRESIDENT.] + +[Illustration: GENERAL McDOWELL.] + +[Illustration: A BITTER "DRAUGHT."] + +Cavalrymen were called by the infantry "buttermilk rangers," and the +musicians came in for more than their share of good-natured chaff. +Rather than be tormented, the latter would sometimes leave the line of +march and go through the fields, thus avoiding the frequent invitation +to "give us a toot on yer old funnel," or "brace up with yer +blow-pipe." One day a bass drummer, plodding along, was attracted by a +pitiful voice coming from a group of men resting by the roadside: +"Mister, oh, mister, please come yere?" Turning in the direction, he +found it proceeded from a woe-begone-looking Mississippian, whose +sickly appearance was well calculated to arouse the sympathy of a +tender-hearted musician. "Well, what can I do for you?" said the man +with the drum. "Oh, a heap, a heap. I've got a powerful misery, and I +thought as how you mout set down yere and pick a chune for a sick man +on that ar thing you tote around on your stomach." Shouts of laughter +told him that he was "sold," and he never heard the last of the +applications for the soothing tones of "that ar thing." + +This drollery of expression cropped out even amid the turmoil and +excitement of the battlefield. The story is told of a young fellow who +was under fire at Manassas for the first time, one of those hundreds +of thousands on both sides behind whose inexperience was too much +pride of character to permit them to show the white feather, and whose +fear of the contempt of their comrades, as well as of the disgrace at +home, made them good fighters. He had become pretty well warmed up and +was doing excellent service when suddenly he caught sight of a rabbit +loping across the field between the lines. Dropping his gun, as he was +about to shoot, he looked dolefully at the little animal for an +instant and then yelled with honest pathos: "Go it, cotton tail, go +it. I'm ez skeered ez you be, an' ef I hadn't a reputation to lose I'd +run too." + +At the battle of Kinston, N. C., Gen. N. E. Evans, of South Carolina, +familiarly known in the old army as "Shanks," posted a body of raw +militia at the crossing of a creek, but they were met by a severe fire +and forced to give way. In the disorder that followed, the general +caught one of the fugitives and with a number of emphatic adjectives +demanded: "What are you running away for, you blank, blank coward? You +ought to be ashamed of yourself." "I ain't runnin' away, gineral, I'm +jes' skeered. Why, them fellers over thar are shootin' bullets at us +big {462} as watermillions, boo-hoo-hoo! One on 'em went right peerst +my head--right peerst--an' I want ter go home." + +"Well, why didn't you shoot back, sir? You are crying like a baby." + +"I know it, gineral, I know it, boo-hoo! and I wish I was a baby, and +a gal baby too, and then I wouldn't have ben cornscripted." + +[Illustration: TRIBUNE--HERALD--TIMES.] + +This reminds us of another North Carolina story. During the Rebellion +the staff of General Wise was riding through a rather forlorn part of +that State, and a young Virginian of the staff concluded to have a +little fun at the expense of a long-legged specimen of the genus +_homo_ who wore a very shabby gray uniform and bestrode a worm fence +at the roadside. Reining in his horse, he accosted him with "How are +you, North Carolina?" + +"How are you, Virginia?" was the ready response. + +The staff officer continued: "The blockade on turpentine makes you +rather hard up, don't it? No sale for tar now?" + +"Well--yes--" was the slow response. "We sell all our tar to Jeff +Davis now." + +"The thunder you do! What on earth does the President want of your +tar?" + +North Carolina answered, "He puts it on the heels of Virginians to +make them stick on the battlefield." + +The staff rode on. + +Speaking of General Evans, an incident is recalled concerning his +brother-in-law, Gen. Mart Gary, who succeeded Wade Hampton in the +command of the Hampton Legion. Gary employed many phrases, especially +in battle, that are not often heard in polite society. His old +body-servant, commenting on this habit, gave the following description +of the manner in which his master stormed and swore at some +disobedience of orders during one of the fights. + +"I golly, massa, but de way de ole man moub about dat day was +'scrutiatin'. He went dis away an' he went dat away wabin his sword +like a scythe blade. He went yere and he went dar; but to hear de ole +man open battery on de hard wuds in de langidge and jes' frow um +aroun'--frow um aroun' loose--I declar, boss, it were plum nigh like +preachin'." + +[Illustration: LINCOLN SIGNING THE EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION. (From a +Southern war etching.)] + +At first, the necessity for discipline was not recognized by the raw +Southern volunteers, and instances of the verdancy which prevailed +were common. When a picket guard at Harper's Ferry, where our first +troops assembled, was being detailed for duty, one of the men stoutly +protested against any such arrangement, because, as he remarked, +"What's the use of gwine out thar t' keep ev'rybody off? We've all kim +here t' hev a fight with the Yankees, and ef yer keep fellers out thar +t' skeer 'em off, how in thunder are we gwine to hev a scrimmage?" + +An officer, while inspecting the sentinel lines one day, asked a +picket what he would do if he saw a body of men coming. "Halt 'em, and +demand the countersign, sir!" "But suppose they wouldn't halt?" "Then +I'd shoot." "Suppose they didn't stop then, what would you do?" "I +reckon I'd form a line, sir." "A line? What kind of a line?" "A +bee-line straight for camp, and run like thunder!" + +{463} A young lieutenant, fresh from a country drill ground and sadly +ignorant of the tactics of Hardee or Scott, didn't know exactly what +to do when the commanding officer ordered him one morning to "mount +guard." He marched off with his squad of men, however, and about an +hour afterwards was found sitting under a tree and talking to some one +in the branches. "Well, lieutenant, have you mounted guard?" "Oh, yes, +sir," was the cool reply; "got 'lev'n up this tree and t'others 'r' +over yander roost'n' in another." + +[Illustration: UNIVERSAL ADVICE TO ABRAHAM: "DROP 'EM!"] + +The Southern negroes also furnished abundant humor of their peculiar +kind. During the occupation of Yorktown, Va., a shell entering camp +made a muddle of a lot of pots and kettles. Mingo, the cook, at once +started off for a safe place in the rear. On the way he was met by one +of his brother servants, who inquired: "Wot's de matter, Mingo? Whar's +yo' gwine wid such a hurrification?" + +"'Ain't gwine nowhar p't'c'lar; jis' gittin' outen de way dem waggin +hubs dey's t'rowin' at us." + +"Eh, eh, Mingo, I 'spects dat's a sign you's a wicked nigger, for ef +yo' was a good Chrishun yo' nebber be skeer by dem shell. Ef yo' +listen to de Good Book, yo' find dat Massa up yander am pintin' eb'ry +one ob em, an' know 'zactly whar to drap um!" + +"Da' mebbe so, mebbe so; but yo' can't fool dis chile. Hear me, +Jupiter. Dar's too much powder in dem t'ings for the good Lor' to +meddle wid 'em, and dis chile ain't gwine ter bu'n hisself, needer. +And dar's dem Minnie bullets, too. When dey come flyin' troo de air +singin' de chune, whar is yer, whar is yer? I ain't gwine for to stop +and say whar I is fur de bessest cotton patch in the lan'. I'se a +twenty-two-hundred-dollar nigger, Jupiter, an' I'se gwine t' tek keer +ob what b'long t' massa." + +It is said that the body-servant of Stonewall Jackson always knew when +he was about to engage in a battle. Some one asked him how he came to +be so much in the confidence of his master. "Lor', sir," was the +reply, "de gin'rul nebber tell me nuffin'. De way I know is dis: massa +say he prayer twice a day--mornin' an' night; but w'en he git up two +or t'ree time in de night to pray, den I begin to pack de haversack de +fus' t'ing, ca'se I know dere'll be de ole boy to pay right away." + +In the early part of the war there was much equality between the +officers and privates. Many of the latter were socially and +intellectually superior to the former. In the course of an altercation +one day, a subordinate made an irritating remark, when his captain +exclaimed: "If you repeat that, I'll lay down my rank and fight you." +"Lay down your rank!" was the indignant response. "That won't make you +a gentleman. A coward ought to fight with straps on his shoulders, but +it takes a gentleman to fight for eleven dollars a month!" + +[Illustration: GENERAL JOHNSTON.] + +The women of the South furnished what may be called the nerve-force of +the war. From the very beginning they made it disgraceful for any man +of fighting age to stay at home without sufficient cause. Their +earliest associations were soldiers' sewing societies. Yet not all of +the ladies were at first adepts in fashioning men's attire, and +sometimes comical results followed. Stockings failed to match, and +buttons would be sewed on the wrong side of a man's shirt or breeches. +In one instance a friend of the writer turned over to the matron +president of her society in Charleston a pair of trousers with one +leg. "Why, what in the world did you make that thing for?" was asked +by the old lady. "Oh--er--er, why, that's for a one-legged soldier, of +course," gasped the young patriot in her confusion. "That's all right, +Miss Georgia; very thoughtful, very thoughtful. But," looking at them +quizzically through her spectacles, "Miss Georgia, you've got 'em +buttoned up behind." + +After the battle of Leesburg, Va., a group of ladies visited the +wounded, and seeing one of the latter prone upon his stomach, the +sympathetic question was asked, as would be quite natural: "Where are +you hurt?" The man, an Irishman, pretended not to hear, and replied: +"Purthy well, I thank ye, mum." "But where were you wounded?" again +fired away one of the ladies. "Faith, it's nothing at all, at all, +that I want, leddies. I think I'll be on me way to Richmond in about +tin days," again answered Pat, with a peculiarly distressed look, as +if he wished to avoid further conversation on a delicate subject. + +Thinking that he was deaf, an old lady, who had remained in the +background, now put her mouth down to his ear and shouted: +"We--want--to--know--where--you--are--hurt--where--you--are--wounded-- +so--we--can--do--something--for--you!" + +Pat, evidently finding that if the bombardment continued much longer +he would have to strike his flag, concluded to do so at once, and with +a face as rosy as a boiled lobster and a humorous twinkle in his eye +replied: "Sure, leddies, it's not deaf that I am; but since ye're +determined to know where I've been hurted, it's--it's where I can't +sit down to take my males. The rascally bullet entered the behind o' +me coat!" + +Sudden locomotion followed, and the story circulated among the fair +sex like quicksilver on a plate of glass; but while Paddy had plenty +of sympathy, the pestered him with no more questions of "Where are you +hurt?" + +HENRY W. B. HOWARD. + + + + +{464} + +INDIVIDUAL HEROISM AND THRILLING INCIDENTS. + +KINDNESS TO FEDERAL PRISONERS BY MEMBERS OF THE FIFTY-FOURTH VIRGINIA +REGIMENT--AN ORATION ON PATRIOTISM--THE LAST WORDS OF AN HEROIC +SOLDIER--HE DIES FOR US--MATCHING GALLANT AND CHIVALROUS DEEDS OF +PREVIOUS WARS--AN INCIDENT OF GETTYSBURG--HOW GENERAL JOHN B. GORDON +GAVE AID AND COMFORT TO HIS ENEMY, GENERAL BARLOW--WOMEN WHO DARED AND +SUFFERED FOR THE FLAG--MRS. BROMWELL, A BRAVE COLOR-BEARER IN TIME OF +DANGER--A MODERN ANDRÉ--THE SULTANA DISASTER--THE HERO OF BURNSIDE'S +MINE. + + +AN ORATION ON PATRIOTISM. + +I have listened to the best speakers our country has possessed in the +thirty years which have elapsed since the war, but not one of them has +made the impression on my mind which a few words, falling from the +lips of a private soldier, did away back in 1862. + +It was the night of the 30th of August, 1862, and I, with others, was +lying in the Van Pelt farmhouse, on the field of the Second Bull Run. +The time of night I do not know. I had been semi-unconscious from the +joint effect of chloroform and amputations. The room in the old +farmhouse in which I lay was crowded with desperately wounded men, or +boys, for some of us were not nineteen years of age--one hundred and +seventy odd men in and around the house. With returned consciousness, +sometime in the night, I became aware of voices near me. + +I turned my head as I lay on the floor, and next beyond me I saw the +dim light of a kerosene lamp on the floor. I soon made out that some +one was kneeling by a wounded man and examining his wounds. I heard +the injunction given, "Tell me honestly, doctor, what my chance is." +He had been shot in the abdomen, and all too soon came the verdict, +"My poor fellow you will not see another sunrise." I heard his teeth +grate as he struggled to control himself, and then he spoke: "Doctor, +will you do me a favor?"--"Certainly," was the response; "what is +it?"--"Make a memorandum of my wife's address and write her a line +telling her how and when and where I die." Out came the surgeon's +pencil and memorandum book, and made note of the name and address. I +did not remember them the next day, or since. I only recall it was +some town in Michigan. + +[Illustration: WE DRANK FROM THE SAME CANTEEN.] + +It appeared that the dying soldier was a man of some property, and in +the clearest manner he stated his advice to his wife as to the best +way to handle it. All this was noted down, and then he paused; and the +surgeon, anxious, it is to be presumed, to get along to others who so +sorely needed his aid, said, "Is that all, my friend?"--"No," he +replied falteringly; "that is not all. I have two little boys. Oh, my +God!" Just this one outburst from an agonized heart, and then, +mastering his emotion, he drew himself hastily up, resting on his +elbows, and said: "Tell my wife, doctor, that with my dying breath I +charge her to so rear our boys that if, when they shall have come to +years of manhood, their country shall need their services, even unto +death, they will give them as fully as, I trust under God, their +father gives his life this night." That was all. He sank back, +exhausted, and the surgeon passed along. In the gray of the morning, +when I roused enough to be aware of what was transpiring around me, I +glanced toward him. A cloth was over his face, and soon his silent +form was carried out. I repeat, I have heard the best speakers of my +time, but after all these years I still {465} pronounce the dying +utterances of that unknown soldier as the grandest oration on +patriotism I have ever listened to. + + +HE DIED FOR US. + +As I stir the memories of those days, there comes to mind one +experience which, even after the lapse of all these years, stirs me +deeply. For over three hundred years English history has been enriched +by the recital of the chivalrous act of Sir Philip Sidney, who, +stricken with a mortal wound at Zutphen, and being offered a drink of +water, took the cup, but, when about to raise it to his lips, saw the +eyes of a wounded private soldier fixed longingly thereon. With all +the grace and courtliness which had at any time characterized him when +treading the salon of Queen Elizabeth, the gallant knight handed him +the refreshing draught, saying, "Friend, thy necessities are greater +than mine, drink." The private drank, and the knight died. + +I have a pride in the belief that in our four years of bloody strife +we matched the most gallant, chivalrous deeds that previous history +has recorded. It was my good fortune to meet and participate in the +beneficence of a lineal descendant, in spirit, if not in blood, of Sir +Philip Sidney, albeit he was garbed in the uniform of a private +soldier of the Union army. Some of us who were lying there in the Van +Pelt farmhouse, after the battle of the Second Bull Run, and who had +suffered amputations, were carried out of the house and placed in a +little tent in the yard. There were six of us in the tent, and we six +had had seven legs amputated. Our condition was horrible in the +extreme. Several of us were as innocent of clothing as the hour we +were born. Between our mangled bodies and the rough surface of the +board floor there was a thin rubber blanket. To cover our nakedness, +another blanket. I was favored above the others in that I had a short +piece of board set up slanting for a pillow. Between us and the fierce +heat of that Virginia sun there was but the poor protection of the +thin tent-cloth. There were plenty of flies to pester us and irritate +our wounds. Our bodies became afflicted with loathsome sores, and, +horror indescribable! maggots found lodging in wounds and sores, and +we were helpless. Cremation made converts in those hours. + +A very few attendants had been detailed to stay behind with us when it +was apparent we must fall into the enemy's hands, but they were +entirely inadequate in point of numbers to minister to our wants. Heat +and fever superinduced an awful thirst, and our moans were for water, +water, and very often there was none to give us water. + +We lay there one day when there was none to answer our cry; but +outside of our tent the ground was strewn with wounded men, one among +whom was Christ-like in his humanitarianism. Sorely wounded in his +left side, torn by a piece of a shell, he could not rise and go and +get us drink, but it always seemed to us that, like his prototype of +more than three centuries ago, he said in the depths of his great +heart, "Their necessities are greater than mine," for he could crawl +and we could not. Some little distance across the grass he saw where +some apples had fallen down from the branches overhead. Every motion +must have been agony to him, yet he deliberately clutched at the +grass, dragged himself along until he was in reach of the apples, some +of which he put in the pockets of his army blouse, and then turning, +and keeping his bleeding side uppermost, he dragged himself back to +our tent and handed out the apples. + +As I lay nearest, I took them from him one by one and passed them +along till we each had one, and I had just set my teeth in the last +one he handed in, and it tasted as delicious as nectar, when, hearing +an agonizing moan at my right, I turned my head on my board pillow, +and saw our unknown benefactor, his hands clutched, his eyes fixed in +the glare of death; a tremor shook his figure, and the eternal peace +of death was his. + +This was all we ever knew of him. His name and condition in life were +a sealed book to us. I saw that he was unkempt of hair, unshaven of +beard; his clothes were soiled with dirt and stained with blood--not +at all such a figure as you would welcome in your parlor or at your +dinner table; but this I thought as I gazed at the humble tenement of +clay from which the great soul had fled, that in that last act of his +he had exhibited so much of the purely Christ-like attribute in the +effort to reach out and help poor suffering humanity, that in the last +day when we shall be judged for what we have been and not for what we +may have pretended to have been, I had rather take that man's chance +at the judgment bar of God than that of many a gentleman in my circle +of acquaintance of much greater pretensions. + + +AN INCIDENT OF GETTYSBURG.[1] + +[Footnote 1: The account here given of this interesting incident is +taken from an article by Capt. T. J. Mackey, of the Confederate army, +recently published in _McClure's Magazine_.] + +Though never a war was fought with more earnestness than our own late +war between the North and the South, never a war was marked by more +deeds of noble kindness between the men, officers and privates, of the +contending sides. Serving at the front during the entire war as a +captain of engineers of the Confederate army, many such deeds came +under my own personal attention, and many have been related to me by +eye-witnesses. Here is one especially worthy of record: + +The advance of the Confederate line of battle commenced early on the +morning of July 1, 1863, at Gettysburg. The infantry division +commanded by Major-Gen. John B. Gordon, of Georgia, was among the +first to attack. Its objective point was the left of the Second Corps +of the Union army. The daring commander of that corps occupied a +position so far advanced beyond the main line of the Federal army, +that, while it invited attack, it placed him beyond the reach of ready +support when the crisis of battle came to him in the rush of charging +lines more extended than his own. The Confederate advance was steady, +and it was bravely met by the Union troops, who for the first time +found themselves engaged in battle on the soil of the North, which +until then had been virgin to the war. It was "a far cry" from +Richmond to Gettysburg, yet Lee was in their front, and they seemed +resolved to welcome their Southern visitors "with bloody hands to +hospitable graves." But the Federal flanks rested in air, and, being +turned, the line was badly broken, and, despite a bravely resolute +defence against the well-ordered attack of the Confederate veterans, +was forced to fall back. + +{466} [Illustration: CONFEDERATE INTRENCHMENTS ON THE BATTLEFIELD OF +NEW HOPE CHURCH, GA. (From a War Department photograph.)] + +Gordon's division was in motion at a double quick, to seize and hold +the vantage ground in his front from which the opposing line had +retreated, when he saw directly in his path the apparently dead body +of a Union officer. He checked his horse, and then observed, from the +motion of the eyes and lips, that the officer was still living. He at +once dismounted, and, seeing that the head of his wounded foeman was +lying in a depression {467} in the ground, placed under it a near-by +knapsack. While raising him at the shoulders for that purpose, he saw +that the blood was trickling from a bullet-hole in the back, and then +knew that the officer had been shot through the breast. He then gave +him a drink from a flask of brandy and water, and, as the man revived, +said, while bending over him, "I am very sorry to see you in this +condition. I am General Gordon. Please tell me who you are. I wish to +aid you all I can." + +The answer came in feeble tones: "Thank you, general. I am +Brigadier-General Barlow, of New York. You can do nothing for me; I am +dying." Then, after a pause, he said, "Yes, you can. My wife is at the +headquarters of General Meade. If you survive the battle, please let +her know that I died doing my duty." + +General Gordon replied: "Your message, if I live, shall surely be +given to your wife. Can I do nothing more for you?" + +After a brief pause, General Barlow responded: "May God bless you! +Only one thing more. Feel in the breast pocket of my coat--the left +breast--and take out a packet of letters." + +As General Gordon unbuttoned the blood-soaked coat, and took out the +packet, the seemingly dying soldier said: "Now please take out one, +and read it to me. They are from my wife. I wish that her words shall +be the last I hear in this world." + +Resting on one knee at his side, General Gordon, in clear tones, but +with tearful eyes, read the letter. It was the missive of a noble +woman to her worthy husband, whom she knew to be in daily peril of his +life, and with pious fervor breathed a prayer for his safety, and +commended him to the care of the God of battles. As the reading of the +letter ended, General Barlow said: "Thank you. Now please tear them +all up. I would not have them read by others." + +General Gordon tore them into fragments and scattered them on the +field "shot-sown and bladed thick with steel." Then, pressing General +Barlow's hand, General Gordon bade him good-by, and, mounting his +horse, quickly joined his command. + +He hastily penned a note on the pommel of his saddle, giving General +Barlow's message to his wife, but stated that he was still living, +though seriously wounded, and informing her where he lay. Addressing +the note to "Mrs. General Barlow, at General Meade's headquarters," he +handed it to one of his staff, and told him to place a white +handkerchief upon his sword, and ride in a gallop toward the enemy's +line, and deliver the note to Mrs. Barlow. The officer promptly obeyed +the order. He was not fired upon, and, on being met by a Union officer +who advanced to learn his business, he presented the note, which was +received and read, with the assurance that it should be delivered +instantly. + +Let us turn from Gettysburg to the capital, Washington, where, eleven +years later, General Gordon held with honor, as now, a seat as senator +of the United States, and was present at a dinner party given by +Orlando B. Potter, a representative in Congress from the State of New +York. + +Upon Mr. Potter's introducing to him a gentleman with the title of +General Barlow, General Gordon remarked: "Are you a relative of the +General Barlow, a gallant soldier, who was killed at Gettysburg?" + +The answer was: "I am the General Barlow who was killed at Gettysburg, +and you are the General Gordon who succored me!" The meeting was +worthy of two such brave men--every inch American soldiers. + +I should add, that, on receiving her husband's note, which had been +speedily delivered, Mrs. Barlow hastened to the field, though not +without danger to her person, for the battle was still in progress. +She soon found her husband, and had him borne to where he could +receive surgical attendance. + +Through her devoted ministrations he was enabled to resume his command +of the "Excelsior Brigade," and add to the splendid reputation which +it had achieved under General Sickles, its first commander. + +[Illustration: RETREAT OF LEE'S ARMY AFTER GETTYSBURG.] + + +AN INTERESTING INCIDENT. + +It was a curious fact during the war, that, however savage and hostile +the armies and the troops might be in action, there was a certain +friendly relation subsisting between individuals on the {468} opposing +sides, and even between special commands. The semi-intercourse between +the picket lines is a familiar story; it was based principally on an +agreement that the popping over of an occasional poor devil who +happened to be exposed was not compensated for by any material +military gain, so the pickets were generally suffered to perform their +lonesome vigil without being shot like squirrels. But there was also a +touch of the common humanity in this intercourse, which went beyond +mere military conventions. A pleasant episode of warfare in Tennessee +marked the kindly relation that sometimes was established between +regiments. The Third Ohio Regiment were among the prisoners after a +certain engagement, and when they entered a Tennessee town, on their +way to the prisons in Richmond, they were visited, through curiosity, +by a number of the Fifty-fourth Virginia, who wanted to see how the +Yankees liked it to be hungry and tired and hopeless. The melancholy +picture that met their gaze was enough to touch their hearts, and it +did so. They ran back to their camp, and soon returned reinforced by +others of their regiment, all bringing coffee (and kettles to boil it +in), corn-bread, and bacon; and with these refreshments, which were +all they had themselves, they regaled the hungry prisoners, mingling +with them and doing all they could to relieve their distress, and the +next morning the prisoners departed on their weary way, deeply +grateful for the kindness of their enemies, and vowing never to forget +it. It was not long before the opportunity came to them to show that +they remembered it. In due time they were exchanged, and, returning to +service, they found themselves encamped near Kelly's Ferry, on the +Tennessee River. When Missionary Ridge was stormed, a lot of prisoners +were taken from the Confederates, and among the number was the +Fifty-fourth Virginia, and they were marched nine miles to Kelly's +Ferry. It happened that at the landing there were some of the Third +Ohio, and they asked what regiment this was. The answer, "The +Fifty-fourth Virginia," had a most surprising effect on them. They +left the spot on the run, and rushing up to their camp they shouted +out to the boys, "The Fifty-fourth Virginia is at the ferry!" If they +had announced the appearance of a hostile army in force, they could +not have started up a greater or a quicker activity in the camp. The +men ran about like mad, loaded themselves up with every eatable thing +they could lay their hands on--coffee, bacon, sugar, beef, preserved +fruits, everything--and started with a yell for the ferry, where they +surrounded and hugged the Virginians like so many reunited +college-mates, and spread before them the biggest feast they had seen +since the Old Dominion seceded from the Union. + +[Illustration: JAMES RIVER, BELOW DUTCH GAP.] + + +THE "SULTANA" DISASTER. + +The Mississippi steamer _Sultana_ called at Vicksburg, April 25, 1865, +on her journey from New Orleans to St. Louis, receiving on board +nineteen hundred and sixty-four Union prisoners from Columbia, +Salisbury, Andersonville, and elsewhere, who had been exchanged in +regular manner, or set free through the surrender or flight of their +jailers. + +[Illustration: COURT HOUSE, PETERSBURG, VA.] + +Being anxious to proceed North, the poor fellows gave little heed to +the fact that the _Sultana_ was already carrying a heavy load of +passengers and freight, and that workmen were busy repairing her +boilers as she lay at the wharf. So great was the swarm that when they +came to lie down for sleep every foot of available space on all the +decks, and even the tops of the cabins and the wheel-house, was +occupied by a soldier wrapped in his blanket, and making light of his +uncomfortable berth in anticipation of a speedy arrival home. + +From Vicksburg the _Sultana_ steamed to Memphis, and there took on +coal, leaving the wharf at one A.M. on the 27th. The next news of her +received at that port came from the lips of survivors snatched from +the rushing current of the river. When about eight miles above +Memphis, one of her boilers had blown up, with frightful effect. To +add to the horror, the woodwork around the engines had been set on +fire by the accident, and the steamer burned to the water's edge, +compelling all who had been spared by the explosion to leap overboard +for safety. + +The force of the explosion hurled hundreds of the sleeping soldiers +into the air, killing many, mangling others; while others again, +terribly scalded, fell into the water and were swallowed up by the +resistless tide, never again to rise. The few survivors {469} who had +escaped all these perils finally reached the Arkansas shore, which, +owing to the unusual high waters, was a long distance from the +channel. + +Among the soldiers on board were thirty commissioned officers, of whom +only three were rescued. The dead at the scene of the accident +numbered fifteen hundred, nearly all of them soldiers belonging to +Western States. The heaviest loss in any one regiment fell to the One +Hundred and Fifteenth Ohio, which numbered eighty-three victims on the +list. The One Hundred and Second Ohio counted seventy, and the Ninth +Indiana cavalry was represented by seventy-eight. + +A catastrophe of similar character, not quite so appalling in results, +had occurred on the Atlantic coast only three weeks previous. The +steamer _General Lyon_, from Wilmington, bound for Fortress Monroe, +burned to the water's edge off Cape Hatteras, on the night of March +31st. Out of five hundred on board, over four hundred of them +soldiers, only twenty escaped. Among the lost were eleven officers and +one hundred and ninety-five men belonging to the Fifty-sixth Illinois, +with nearly two hundred released Union prisoners. + +[Illustration: "CROW'S NEST," AN ARMY OBSERVATORY, NEAR PETERSBURG. +(From a War Department photograph.)] + + +THE HERO OF BURNSIDE'S MINE. + +In the ranks of the Forty-eighth Pennsylvania, the regiment which +placed the powder magazine of Burnside's mine, at Petersburg, +underneath the doomed Confederate fort, was a sergeant known as Harry +Reese. + +He had been the first to propose the mine seriously. Permission to +construct it having been granted at headquarters, he, with a score of +his fellows, all experienced coal miners, set to work with their +ordinary camp tools, and, under cover of night, in one month +excavated, concealed from the enemy's eyes, eighteen thousand cubic +feet of earth, creating a tunnel nearly six hundred feet long. On two +occasions Reese, by personal effort, saved the enterprise from +failure; once when the shaft opened into a bed of quicksand, and again +when the army engineers through faulty measurements located the +powder-chamber outside the limits of the fort to be destroyed, instead +of directly under it. + +Finally came the hour for the explosion. The troops stood ready to +charge into the breach, and the long fuse was ignited by Reese, who, +with a group of his mining companions, stayed at the mouth of the +shaft, awaiting the result. Generals and aids anxiously studied their +watch-dials, that would show the flight of moments beyond the +appointed time. Grant telegraphed from army headquarters over his +special field-wire: "Is there any difficulty in exploding the mine?" +and again: "The commanding general directs, if your mine has failed, +that your troops assault at once." + +The mine had failed. Daylight was spreading over the trenches, and the +enemy were alert even to the point of expecting an assault. + +Reese drew his soldier's clasp dirk, and, turning to a comrade, said: +"I am going into the mine. If it don't blow up, give me time to reach +the splice in the fuse, and then come to me with fresh fuse and +twine." He creeps into the shaft with resolute caution, following up +the tell-tale streak of black ashes, which shows that the fuse has +surely burned its way toward the powder-cells in the chamber beyond. +It may reach there any second, {470} and then! At last, just ahead of +him, the brave miner sees a stretch of fuse outwardly uncharred. A +fine thread of flame may be eating through its core, nevertheless, one +spark of which is enough to set the terrible train ablaze. Reese knows +this, for a man accustomed to handling powder cannot for an instant +lose consciousness of its quick and awful violence when the connecting +flash is struck. He knows his peril, yet presses on, and with his +blade severs the fuse beyond the charred streak. Danger for that +moment is over. + +The delay had been caused by a splice wound so tightly that the fire +could not eat through freely. He made a new short fuse, relit the +flashing string, and escaped to the mouth of the tunnel, just as the +magazine chambers exploded, spreading a mass of ruins where the +armament of Lee had stood grim and threatening in the morning light +but a moment before. + +The fort thus destroyed was occupied by Capt. R. G. Pegram's Virginia +battery, and the trenches--which means the system of walled ditches, +bomb proofs, and other shelter for troops on both sides of the +battery--by the Eighteenth and Seventy-second South Carolina infantry. +These men, numbering several hundred, lay sound asleep, all except the +sentinels. The battery and the sections of work adjoining were hoisted +into the air, and two hundred and eighty-eight officers and soldiers +were buried in the débris, while their comrades who escaped injury +fled in confusion, leaving a defenceless gap in the line twenty or +thirty rods wide, into which Burnside's corps charged without a +moment's hesitation. + +The Union advance was promptly met by a sharp fire from the +Confederate reserves, and the fight which ensued in the breach is +known as the battle of the Crater. + + +THE ARKANSAS BOY SPY. + +When the Confederate army abandoned Little Rock in 1863, one of its +military operators, David O. Dodd, stayed back and lived some time in +the Union lines. He was a lad of seventeen. Shortly after the town was +Unionized he left there, ostensibly to go to Mississippi, but returned +in a few days and lingered about in his old haunts. A second time he +passed out of the picket lines, unrestrained until he reached the +outposts, where the guards, searching him, discovered some curious +pencil marks in a memorandum book carried openly in his pocket. + +He was arrested, and at headquarters the marks were shown to be +telegraphic dots and dashes that gave a full description of the Union +fortifications and the distribution of forces about the city. His act +was that of a spy, and his life was the forfeit. Having admitted that +he had accomplices, he was offered pardon if he would betray them. A +last appeal was made at the scaffold by his friends and relatives, but +he firmly put the temptation aside and signalled the executioner to do +his duty. Then the drop fell, carrying him and his secret to another +world. My informant, who witnessed the hanging, declared that the lad +met his doom with the coolness of a stoic, while the spectators, +chiefly soldiers, wept like children. + + +WOMEN WHO DARED AND SUFFERED FOR THE FLAG. + +War calls women to weep, not to take up the sword in battle, yet to +such lengths does their devotion run that the place of danger finds +them on hand unasked. On the Union side in the civil war military +heroines came from every class and from every stage of civilization. +Of those who put on uniforms the record is hard to trace, but their +dead and mangled forms on countless battlefields proved that the +American amazon was no myth. Not to speak of these, there were women +who openly faced all the terrors and hardships of war. Michigan seems +to have eclipsed the record in this class of heroines. + +When the Second Michigan volunteers started for the seat of war in +1861, Annie Etheridge, a young woman just out of her teens, +volunteered as daughter of the regiment. Her dress was a riding habit, +and she wore a military cap as a badge of her calling. A pair of +pistols rested in her holsters for use in emergencies. Annie served +four years, part of the time with the Fifth Michigan, and always in +the Army of the Potomac. Her service was the relief of wounded on the +field, which means under fire. General Kearny presented her with the +"Kearny badge" for her devotion to his wounded at Fair Oaks. Once +while bandaging a wound for a New York boy a Confederate shell killed +him under her hands. + +Though not called on to fight, Annie had spirit enough to make a +battle hero. At Chancellorsville she went to the outposts with the +skirmishers, and was ordered back to the lines. The enemy was already +shooting at the pickets. On the way back she passed a line of low +trenches where the Union soldiers lay concealed, and spurning the +thought that the affair must end in a retreat, she turned her face to +the front and called out to the men, "Boys, do your duty and whip +those fellows!" A hearty cheer was the response, and "those fellows" +poured a volley into the hidden trenches. Annie was hit in the hand, +her skirt was riddled, and her horse wounded. At Spottsylvania she +turned a party of retreating soldiers back to their place in the ranks +by offering to lead them into battle. No one but a miscreant could +spurn that call. + +The other Michigan heroines were Bridget Divers, of the First cavalry, +an unknown in the Eighth and in the Twenty-fifth regiments who passed +as Frank Martin, and Miss Seelye who served in the Second as Frank +Thompson. "Thompson" and "Martin" wore men's disguise. Bridget Divers +was the wife of a soldier, and performed deeds of daring in bringing +wounded from the field, under fire. + +Two Pennsylvania regiments carried women into battle in men's +disguise--Charles D. Fuller, of the Forty-sixth, and Sergt. Frank +Mayne, of the One Hundred and Twenty-sixth. "Mayne" was killed. The +Fifth Rhode Island Regiment produced a heroine in Mrs. Kady Brownell, +wife of a sergeant. She is credited with having been a skilful shooter +with a rifle and also a brave color-bearer in time of danger. The +wives of officers were accorded great freedom of action at the front, +and many a gallant and noble deed was called forth by devotion to +husband first and incidentally to the cause. Madame Turchin, wife of +the Illinois general, went into battle and rescued wounded men, +besides cheering and inspiring the soldiers of the general's command. +Gen. Francis C. Barlow, of New York, was accompanied by his wife, who +attended the wounded on the field. This devoted woman served at the +front until 1864, and died of fever contracted in the hospitals at +Petersburg. + + +A MODERN ANDRÉ. + +Lieut. S. B. Davis, of the Confederate service, probably came the +nearest of any officer on either side to playing the rôle of the André +of the Rebellion. He did not, it is true, lose his life in an attempt +to negotiate for the surrender of an enemy's fortress, as did the +noted British spy; but he was sentenced to be {471} hanged for +complicity, under disguise, in negotiations between citizens of the +United States and Confederate officials in Richmond and in Canada for +the delivery of the States of Ohio, Illinois, and Indiana, and certain +military positions on the lakes, into the power of organized and armed +emissaries of the South, led by Confederate officers. + +[Illustration: A COMPANY OF SHERMAN'S VETERANS.] + +Lieutenant Davis was but twenty-four, a native of Delaware, a State +that did not secede, and entered into the part he played on his own +motion; that is, he volunteered to act as a messenger between Richmond +and Canada. He was provided with a British passport under an assumed +name, had his hair dyed, and put on citizen's dress. The regular route +of communication between Richmond and Canada was by steamer, viâ +Bermuda; but for some reason never yet explained Davis went from +Richmond to Baltimore, and from there to Columbus, O., where he +certainly communicated with people of suspicious character at the +time. + +From Columbus he went to Detroit, and from there to Windsor, Canada, +where he met the notorious Jacob Thompson and other Confederate +emissaries. + +There were many points about the young man to give him peculiar +fitness for his work; there was also a fatally weak spot in his +harness. He was well bred and of prepossessing appearance. A native of +Delaware, he could mingle with Northern people without arousing +suspicion. He was a distant relative of Jefferson Davis, and had the +respect and confidence of the Confederate chieftains. Too young to +have attained prominence before the war, and never having served in +the regular army, his personality was not likely to be known on the +Union side of the lines. But he had served a long time on the staff of +General Winder, commander at Andersonville prison, where many Union +soldiers had seen him often. + +Fortune favored him in his daring enterprise until his arrival, on +what proved to be his final trip southward from Canada, at Newark, O. +He was travelling in the passenger cars of the Baltimore and Ohio +railroad; had passed safely through Columbus and other public centres +most dangerous to him. + +At Newark two Union soldiers entered the car where the disguised +Confederate sat. They had been in Andersonville prison, and after +eying their fellow passenger for a time one ex-prisoner whispered in +his comrade's ear, "There is Lieutenant Davis, of Andersonville!" + +Both arose, and, approaching Davis, one called out bluntly to the +stranger, "Aren't you Lieutenant Davis?" + +"No, sir; my name is Stewart," was the prompt reply. + +"Yes, you are Lieutenant Davis, and you had charge of the prison when +I was in Andersonville," persisted the soldier. A crowd of passengers +quickly surrounded the parties, and seeing that his stubborn +cross-questioners would not be convinced, the Confederate yielded, and +said: + +"Well, boys, you've got me. I am Lieutenant Davis." + +The provost marshal of Newark was summoned, and the prisoner was +speedily hurried to the common jail. A search of his person failed to +disclose any secret papers, and he was left in the main room with a +number of ordinary county criminals. Soon after the military had left +the place the stranger was seen to remove from inside his coat-lining +a number of despatches and drawings upon white silk, and to burn them +in the fire which was blazing in an open stove. The link that would +have removed all doubt as to his purposes and condemned him to the +gallows was thus hopelessly destroyed; but a court martial held that +his presence in the Union lines in disguise constituted the offence +for which the penalty is death. When the evidence was all in and the +case clear against him, the prisoner rose, facing the officers and +witnesses, every one wearing the colors of his mortal enemies, and +some of them scarred with the conflicts in which he and his own had +been pitted against them. There was no reason to expect mercy, and he +did not ask it. + +After stating his case briefly, he looked over his accusers and +judges, and said: "I do not fear to die. I am young and would like to +live, but I deem him unworthy who should ask pity of his foemen. Some +of you have wounds and scars; I can show them, too. You are serving +your country as best you may; I have done the same. I can look to God +with a clear conscience; {472} and whenever the chief magistrate of +this nation shall say, 'Go,' whether upon the scaffold or by the +bullets of your soldiery, I will show you how to die." + +The sentence was that he be confined in the military prison at Johnson +Island, in Lake Erie, until the 17th of February, 1865, then "to be +hung by the neck until he is dead." + +During the night of the 16th of February, when all preparations had +been made, and Davis had, as he believed, beheld the last sunset on +earth, a reprieve came from President Lincoln. He was placed in a +dungeon at Fort Warren, Boston Harbor, and before the reprieve ended +the war closed. Then the authorities permitted him to go free. To the +end he kept the secret of his mission to Ohio. + +[Illustration: THE BATTLE FLAGS AND MARKERS OF THE FOURTEENTH REGIMENT +NEW YORK ARTILLERY. + +ENGAGEMENTS IN WHICH THE REGIMENT, WITH THESE FLAGS, TOOK PART. + + WILDERNESS, VA., May 5-7, 1864. + SPOTTSYLVANIA C. H., May 10-19, 1864. + NORTH ANNA RIVER, VA., May 23-26, 1864. + TOCOPOTOMY CREEK, VA., May 30, 1864. + BETHESDA CHURCH, VA., May 31, 1864. + SHADY GROVE ROAD, VA., June 2, 1864. + COLD HARBOR, VA., June 3-12, 1864. + PETERSBURG FRONT, VA., June 16-18, 1864. + SIEGE OF PETERSBURG, FIRST, June 19 to August 19, 1864. + CRATER, VA., July 30, 1864. + BLIELL'S STATION, VA., August 19, 1864. + WELDON RAILROAD, VA., August 21, 1864. + PEEBLES FARM, VA., September 29, 1864. + POPLAR SPRINGS CHURCH, VA., September 30, 1864. + SIEGE OF PETERSBURG, SECOND, November 29, 1864 to April 3, 1865. + FORT HASKELL, VA., March 25, 1865. + FORT STEADMAN, VA., March 25, 1865. + CAPTURE OF PETERSBURG, VA., April 3, 1865. + APPOMATTOX, VA., April 9, 1865, Surrender of Lee and + his Army of Northern Virginia.] + + + + +REMINISCENCES OF THE BATTLE OF BULL RUN. + +BY GENERAL JOHN T. MORGAN, C. S. A. + + +The battle of Bull Run--the first battle of Manassas--was a great and +decided victory for the Confederate army, and aroused the pride and +enthusiasm of the Southern people as no other event ever did. Yet +there is a painful recollection in every mind that it was the first +act in an awful drama, the first great field upon which the hosts of +the North and the South measured arms and opened the series of great +tragedies of the civil war, in which millions of men perished. + +If that had been the last battle of the war instead of the first, and +if it had been accepted as the final arbitrament of the questions that +could not have been settled otherwise, I would still recall its +incidents with pride, but also with sadness. But the glory of it would +have scarcely compensated for its sacrifices. + +I doubt if any humane person can recall without pain even the most +gratifying victories of a great war in which he was a participant. The +excessive toil and anxiety are only made tolerable, and the suffering +and waste of human life can only be endured, for the sake of our +interest in the cause that demands such victims for the altar of +sacrifice. + +Yet war, like other intense passions, often becomes a consuming +desire, as the hope of victory verges upon the recklessness of +despair. My earlier impressions of civil war may be illustrated by a +few personal incidents connected with the first battle of Manassas. + +With the exception of a few "regulars" in either army, every +experience of actual warfare was then entirely new to the soldiery, +and not a man in any position failed to seriously question his heart +as to its fortitude in the approaching crisis of battle. None, +perhaps, were about to march upon that great and open field who did +not overdraw the pictures of danger and distress that he would be +called to meet. It was a relief from this excessive tension that +enabled men of highly nervous condition to quiet their emotions and to +engage in battle like trained veterans, when its realities were found +to be less harrowing than they expected. + +It is probable that no two armies of trained soldiers ever confronted +each other with a less daunted spirit than the hundred thousand proud +men who, in almost full view of the extended lines of each army, +marched steadily into action across the open fields about Manassas. +For many miles the view was uninterrupted. + +The approaches of the martial hosts, in line after line of supporting +columns, under the fire of artillery that covered the field with the +bluish haze of battle, were marked with an air of firm defiance, which +spoke of the cause at stake, and of a contest for principles which, as +they were felt to be involved, commanded the devotion of each army. It +was not a flag or a government for which either army was fighting, but +a dispute about rights under the Constitution of a common country. War +under such circumstances is always desperate, and too often becomes +ferocious. When men make war as political or religious partisans, they +often forget the honorable zeal of the true soldier and lend +themselves as the instruments of vengeance. We had not then reached +that stage of hostility. On this field there met in battle many +thousands of the best and most {473} enlightened men of a great +nation, all Americans, and all inspired with the love of a common +country, and many in the opposing ranks were of the same families. +They were gallant and chivalric men, and their fierce onsets left the +field thickly strewn with dead and wounded. Almost every man who fell +had some personal history in which whole communities felt a proud and +grateful interest. The survivors in such armies could not be cruel. + +As the incidents of the battle were narrated in the camps of the +victors, and by parties returning from the pursuit of McDowell's +shattered forces, it was clearly manifested that it was political +antagonism and not sectional animosity that had brought on the war. + +When the death or capture of some leading Federal officer was +announced, respectful silence was observed and personal sympathy was +manifested with sincerity; but, when the capture of a leading +politician or of a member of Congress was announced, the wildest +rejoicing was heard in the crowds of delighted listeners. + +That was a grand field of battle, and it was occupied by armies that +were all the more eager for war because they did not then realize its +terrible significance. + +Few strategic surprises were possible on such a field, and none were +attempted. An approaching column could be seen, as it was headed +toward a point of attack, when it was miles away; and the clouds of +dust, rolling up in vast volume, indicated its strength. Then, +suddenly, arose the opposing cloud, and presently both were illumined +with flashes of artillery, and roared with the spiteful din of +musketry, in their quickened dash, and were clamorous with hoarse +cheers from thousands of sturdy men. A few crashing volleys; the +swaying back and forth of the lines, as repeated charges were met and +repulsed--and the field was won and lost by some impulse, in which all +seemed to share at the same moment, that was as much a mystery to the +victors as it was to the vanquished. It was what is called "a square +stand-up fight" in an open field, without military defences; and the +result was a notable victory of the soldiers engaged, not a victory +won by superior strategy or gallant leadership. The battle ended late +in the afternoon, and by nightfall, the successful army was in +bivouac, while the beaten army was in flight for Washington, +unpursued. The rain began to fall in floods as the night came on, +adding to the misery of the wounded of both armies, who were treated +with every possible kindness. To a novice in warfare, the battlefield +was a fearful scene, as the bright morning of the next day dawned upon +it, with the dead scattered over it, lying beside dead horses, broken +artillery, muskets, wagons, and shattered trees. It was the silent +reproach of havoc and death upon the fierce injustice of a resort to +war as the arbiter of differences of opinion as to civil government, +which had been exaggerated to such awful conclusions, and could not, +after all, be in any wise settled by such means. Peace and wiser +judgment finally came out of the thousand succeeding conflicts, but +were not created by them. They were only made possible by the failure +of war to convince anybody of errors. + +[Illustration: AQUEDUCT BRIDGE, POTOMAC RIVER.] + +Taking a half-dozen cavalry and a brother officer along, we moved, at +daylight, under orders given to me to follow and reconnoitre the army +that had moved off in column at the close of the battle, but was +supposed to have camped not far away. We soon found that nothing +remained of that army but the evidences of panic which had overtaken +almost every command. The wounded had, in some cases, been left to +their own resources, and, at bridges that were broken, there were +piled in wild confusion, dead men and horses, guns and caissons, +wagons and sutlers' goods, tents, muskets, drums, ambulances, spring +wagons, and the lighter vehicles that had brought the picnic parties +from Congress to witness the consummation of their "policy." It was to +them a sudden and frightful adjournment, _sine die_. + +As we rode over the field, gray-haired fathers and mothers from the +nearer homes in Virginia were already there looking for their dead or +wounded sons. All was silent save the moanings of the sufferers, and +the subdued chirrup of little wrens as they sought for their mates. +The birds seemed as sad as the venerable seekers for their loved ones. +The dead seemed to preserve their personal characteristics, and the +tense strain of the conflict was settled upon their features. In most +cases, death on the battlefield is instantaneous and painless, and the +latest thoughts seem to linger on the faces of the dead. + +As we rode along the farm lanes where the rail fences had {474} been +torn away as they were crossed and recrossed by charging columns, we +found, not widely separated, the victims of the bayonet. Several had +fallen in this close combat. + +One of them was a very handsome man, clean-shaven, and dressed in a +neat uniform as a private in the Federal army. He was about thirty +years old. On his shirt bosom there was a single spot of blood. He sat +almost erect, his back propped in a corner of the fence, with his blue +eyes wide open, and his mouth was firmly closed, and his gun and hat +near by him. His form and face were majestic, and his pallid brow, +with the hair gracefully swept back, was a splendid picture of the +serenity of death, almost as expressive as life, and the most earnest +plea for peace that I had ever contemplated. + +[Illustration: BRIGADIER-GENERAL JOHN T. MORGAN, C. S. A.] + +On the opposite side of the lane was a Confederate soldier--an +Irishman--whom a ball had killed. Evidently he had received a mortal +wound, and had sat down to die in an angle of the fence, and rested on +a small log he found there. He was also leaning against the fence, +which held him up in a position that seemed very life-like. His hat +was on his head and sheltered his face which was slightly bowed to the +front. In his mouth he held his pipe, with a very short stem, in a way +that was quite natural and suggestive of his race. His wound was in +the thigh, and while he was bleeding to death, he had doubtless sought +comfort in his pipe. + +A beautiful photograph was in the side pocket of the Federal soldier, +near the fatal blood-spot on his shirt bosom. We thought we could +readily trace his dying thoughts to that dear friend. We left him with +his friend's picture where we found it, to find, in another spot, a +mile distant, a living proof that it is love and not hatred that +survives death, and commands the heart's last tribute of devotion. + +The body of an oak tree that was heavily clad in foliage had been cut +through with cannon shot until the top had fallen over and formed a +thick mass of branches and leaves on the ground. There was a copse of +undergrowth near by, into which we saw a man dart like an arrow as we +rode up. From the tree-top came low moanings, as from one who feared +discovery, and yet could not stifle his voice when spasms of pain +returned upon him. It proved to be a field officer of a New Jersey or +Delaware regiment, whose thigh had been crushed by a cannon shot in +the battle. + +His servant had laid him in the tree-top, with leaves and a horse +blanket for a bed, and was guarding him. When the servant saw us halt, +he came out timorously from his hiding, and was weeping and pleading +for the life of his master. I said to him, "What do you take us +for?"--"But be you not rebels?" he said. I answered, "We are called +rebels, and yet your kindred."--"Be you Christian men?" I said that +was our faith. "And you will be merciful to the major?" I replied, "I +am a major, and have no ill-will toward majors, even if they are +enemies." The major, hearing our conversation, invited us to dismount +and come to him. We went to his hiding-place, and found him pale with +loss of blood, and in great anguish. + +Seeing that we were Confederate officers, he said, "I wish to give you +my parole."--"We need none from you," I replied; "our friendship has +been broken, and renewed very suddenly by your wounds, it seems, and +you are our guest."--"Are you Virginians?"--"No, we are Alabamians, +and this is our home, as it is yours, for we are all Americans."--"A +home I have invaded," he said, "and I don't know why. I wish this war +had never occurred; but I longed for it, in my thoughtless anger, and +here I must meet death." + +He said, "I am a lawyer."--"So are we," I replied. "I am a +Mason."--"So are we," I replied. "Thank God," he exclaimed, "I may yet +see my wife before I die. She came to Washington with me, and I parted +with her at Longbridge, three days ago, as we crossed the Potomac." + +I assured him that I would inform his wife of his condition, through +the first flag of truce that went over the lines, and that she should +have safe-conduct to join him. Taking our hands, he prayed God to +bless us; and turning to his servant, whose astonishment was now +greater than his fear, he said, "Sam, get me the bread and the +canteen, and give me some whiskey. Maybe if I eat and take a +stimulant, I may live to see her." It was a hard, rough crust of +corn-bread, which he munched with energy, and the canteen contained a +few spoonfuls of common whiskey, a part of which he drank. I said, +"This business is urgent, and we will gallop to your lines with your +message."--"Yes," he said, "a race for a life, that has but one hope, +that I may see her--my wife--before I die." We soon met a surgeon at a +field hospital--a few blankets on which wounded soldiers were +stretched--and he went at once to the sufferer in the tree-top. The +message was despatched, and the loving wife came to find that, after +one last kiss from his conscious lips, she was a widow indeed. + +The glory of our victory was saddened to my heart by the reflection +that the blood that enriched the fields was American, and was poured +out from hearts that were alike and equally patriotic. Yet the +sacrifice was voluntary, and may have been needed to demonstrate again +the devotion of the American people to what they believe to be their +duty in the defence of their liberties as they understand them, and in +the enforcement of our laws as they are written. + +This grand result, which seems to be perfectly assured, and this +demonstration of American manhood is worth all that it has cost. + +The battle of Bull Run was the last political battle of the civil war. +It set Congress to passing vain resolutions to stop the war, and to +reconcile the people and the States. After that awful event, war for +the sake of war, and not for peace or justice, swept over the land and +raged with unheard-of fury, until the sheer power of numbers +prevailed, and peace came from exhaustion, but not from a broken +spirit. + +{475} [Illustration: PICKING UP THE WOUNDED, FIFTY-SEVENTH NEW YORK +AMBULANCE CORPS.] + +[Illustration: BOMBARDMENT OF THE CONFEDERATE LINES BY FORT PICKENS, +SANTA ROSA ISLAND, PENSACOLA BAY.] + + + + +{476} + +THE MEASURE OF VALOR. + + +So far as valor is to be measured by dangers voluntarily encountered +and losses sustained, the American citizen may justly compare with +pride the incidents and statistics of the great civil war with those +of any modern conflict in Europe. In our chapter on Gettysburg the +close resemblance between that battle and Waterloo--in the numbers +engaged on each side and the losses--has been pointed out. When +comparison is made of the losses of regiments and other organizations, +in particular engagements, the larger figures are with the Americans. +The charge of the British Light Brigade, at Balaklava, in 1854, has +been celebrated in verse by Tennyson and other poets, and is alluded +to over and over again as if it were the most gallant achievement in +modern warfare. Every time that some old soldier chooses to say he is +one of the survivors of that charge, the newspapers talk about him as +a wonder, report his words and publish his portrait. Yet that exploit +sinks into insignificance when compared with the charge of the First +Minnesota Regiment at Gettysburg. The order for the charge at +Balaklava was a blunder, blunderingly obeyed; it accomplished nothing, +and the total loss to the Light Brigade was thirty-seven per cent. At +Gettysburg, on the second day, General Hancock observed a gap in the +National line, and saw that Wilcox's Confederate Brigade was pushing +forward with the evident intention of passing through it. He looked +about for troops to close the gap, and saw nothing within immediate +reach but the First Minnesota, though others could be brought up if a +little time could be gained. Riding up to Colonel Colville, he said: +"Do you see those colors?" pointing at the Confederate flag. "Take +them!" Instantly the regiment dashed forward and charged the brigade; +there was a short, fierce fight, and the regiment lost eighty-two per +cent. of its numbers in killed and wounded, but the onset of the enemy +was stayed, the desired time was gained, and even the colors were +captured and brought off. In the Franco-German war of 1870 the +heaviest loss sustained by any German regiment in a single battle was +a fraction more than forty-nine per cent. In the National service +during the civil war there were sixty-four regiments that sustained a +loss of over fifty per cent. in some single action, and in the +Confederate service there were fifty-three, making a hundred and +seventeen American regiments that, in this respect, surpassed the +German regiment of highest record. + +[Illustration: PICKETT'S CHARGE AT GETTYSBURG.] + +{477} [Illustration: COLONEL G. T. ROBERTS. Killed at Baton Rouge, +La.] + +[Illustration: COLONEL JAMES H. PERRY. Died from wounds received at +Fort Pulaski.] + +[Illustration: COLONEL ULRIC DAHLGREN. Killed at Walkerton, +Va.--Kilpatrick's Raid on Richmond.] + +[Illustration: LIEUTENANT JOHN T. GREBLE. Killed at Big Bethel.] + +There were thirteen battles in which one side or the other (in most +instances each) lost more than 10,000 men, taking no account of the +great capitulations like Fort Donelson and Vicksburg. And in the least +of these nearly 1,900 men were shot dead on the field. The greatest +losses on both sides were sustained at Gettysburg. Next in order +(aggregating the losses on both sides[1]) come Spottsylvania, 36,800; +the Wilderness, 35,300; Chickamauga, 34,600; and Chancellorsville, +30,000. But each of these battles occupied more than one day. The +bloodiest single day was September 17, 1862, at the Antietam, where +the National army lost 2,108 men killed and 9,549 wounded, with about +800 missing. The Confederate loss cannot be stated with exactness. +General Lee's report gives only consolidated figures for the whole +campaign, including Harper's Ferry and South Mountain, as well as the +main battle; and these figures fall short by a thousand (for killed +and wounded alone) of those given by his division commanders, who also +report more than 2,000 missing. On the other hand, McClellan says that +"about 2,700 of the enemy's dead were counted and buried upon the +battlefield of Antietam," while "a portion of their dead had been +previously buried by the enemy." Averaging these discrepant figures, +and bearing in mind that there were no intrenchments at the Antietam, +we may fairly put down the losses as equal on the two sides, which +would give a total, on that field in one day, of 4,200 killed and +19,000 wounded. The number of prisoners was not large. + +[Footnote 1: As there are discrepancies in all the counts, only the +round numbers are given here.] + +The heaviest actual loss that fell upon any one regiment in the +National service in a single engagement was that sustained by the +First Maine heavy artillery (acting as infantry) in the assault on the +defences of Petersburg, June 18, 1864, when 210 of its men were killed +or mortally wounded, the whole number of casualties being 632 out of +about 900 men. This regiment was also the one that suffered most in +aggregate losses in battle during the war, its killed and wounded +amounting to 1,283. Over nineteen per cent. were killed. Another +famous fighting regiment was the Fifth New Hampshire infantry, which +had 295 men killed or mortally wounded in battle, the greatest loss, +69, occurring at Cold Harbor, June 1, 1864. Its first colonel, Edward +E. Cross, was killed while leading it in the thickest of the second +day's fight at Gettysburg. Another was the One Hundred and Forty-first +Pennsylvania, which lost three-quarters of its men at Gettysburg, and +at Chancellorsville lost 235 out of 419. At the second Bull Run +(called also Manassas), the One Hundred and First New York lost 124 +out of 168; the Nineteenth Indiana lost 259 out of 423; the Fifth New +York lost 297 out of 490; the Second Wisconsin lost 298 out of 511; +and the First Michigan lost 178 out of 320. At Antietam the Twelfth +Massachusetts lost 224 out of 334. It had lost heavily also at +Manassas, where Col. Fletcher Webster (only son of Daniel Webster) was +killed at its head. It lost, altogether, 18 officers in action. +Another famous Massachusetts regiment was the Fifteenth, which at +Gettysburg lost 148 men out of 239, and at the Antietam, 318 out of +606, and, out of a total enrolment of 1,701, lost during the war in +killed and wounded 879. Another Massachusetts regiment distinguished +by hard fighting was the Twentieth, which General Humphreys +compliments as "one of the very best in the service." Its greatest +loss, in killed (48), was at Fredericksburg, where it was in the +brigade that crossed the river in boats, to clear the rifle-pits of +the sharp-shooters that {478} were making it impossible to lay the +pontoon bridges. This regiment had the task of clearing the streets of +the town, and as it swept through them it was fired upon from windows +and house-tops. The other regiments that participated in this exploit +were the Seventh Michigan, the Nineteenth Massachusetts, and the +Eighty-ninth New York. Some nameless poet has made it the subject of +one of the most striking bits of verse produced during the war: + + They leaped in the rocking shallops, + Ten offered, where one could go, + And the breeze was alive with laughter, + Till the boatmen began to row. + In silence how dread and solemn! + With courage how grand and true! + Steadily, steadily onward + The line of the shallops drew. + 'Twixt death in the air above them, + And death in the waves below, + Through ball and grape and shrapnel + They moved, my God, how slow! + And many a brave, stout fellow, + Who sprang in the boats with mirth, + Ere they made that fatal crossing + Was a load of lifeless earth. + And many a brave, stout fellow, + Whose limbs with strength were rife, + Was torn and crushed and shattered-- + A helpless wreck for life. + +The Twentieth lost 44 men killed at Gettysburg, 38 at Ball's Bluff, 36 +in the Wilderness, 20 at Spottsylvania, and 20 at the Antietam. During +its whole service it had 17 officers killed, including a colonel, a +lieutenant-colonel, two majors, an adjutant, and a surgeon. The story +that Dr. Holmes tells in "My Hunt after the Captain" relates his +adventures in the track of this regiment just after the battle of the +Antietam. + +[Illustration: AFTER THE FIRST DAY'S BATTLE AT GETTYSBURG.] + +[Illustration: BRIGADIER-GENERAL R. S. GARNETT, C. S. A. Killed near +Carrick's Ford, Va.] + +[Illustration: BRIGADIER-GENERAL ROBERT HATTON, C. S. A. Killed at +Stone River.] + +Among the Vermont regiments, the one that suffered most in a single +action was the Eighth, which at Cedar Creek lost sixty-eight per cent. +of its numbers engaged. The First Heavy Artillery from that State, +acting most of the time as infantry, with a total enrolment of 2,280, +lost in killed and wounded 583. The Second Infantry, with a total +enrolment of 1,811, lost 887. Its heaviest loss was at the Wilderness, +where, out of 700 engaged, 348 (about half) were disabled, including +the colonel and lieutenant-colonel killed. And a week later, at +Spottsylvania, nearly half of the remainder (123) were killed or +wounded. The Fourth Infantry, at the Wilderness, went into the fight +with fewer than 600 men, and lost 268, including seven officers killed +and ten wounded. In the fight at Savage Station, the Fifth Vermont +walked over a regiment that had thrown itself on the ground and +refused to advance any farther, pressed close to the enemy, and was +taken by a flank fire of artillery that struck down 44 out of the 59 +men in one company. Yet the regiment held its ground, faced about, and +silenced the battery. It lost 188 men out of 428. + +In the second and third years of the war, several regiments of heavy +artillery were raised. It was said that they were intended only to +garrison the forts, and there was a popular belief that their purpose +was to get into the service a large number of men who were not quite +willing to subject themselves to the greater risks incurred by +infantry of the line. But after a short period of service as heavy +artillery, most of them were armed with rifles and sent to the front +as infantry, and many of them ranked among the best fighting +regiments, and sustained notable losses. The First Maine and First +Vermont have been mentioned already. The Second Connecticut heavy +artillery, the first time it went into action, stormed the +intrenchments at Cold Harbor with the bayonet, and lost 325 men out of +1,400, including the colonel. At the Opequan it lost 138, including +the major and five line officers; and at Cedar Creek, 190. The +Seventh, Eighth, Ninth, and Fourteenth New York heavy artillery +regiments all distinguished themselves similarly. The Seventh, during +one hundred days' service in the field as infantry (Grant's overland +campaign), lost 1,254 men, only a few of whom were captured. The +Eighth lost 207 killed or mortally wounded, at Cold Harbor alone, with +more than 200 others wounded. Among the killed were eight officers, +including Col. Peter A. Porter (grandson of Col. Peter B. Porter, of +the war of 1812), who fell in advance of his men. Its total loss in +the war was 1,010 out of an enrolment of 2,575. The Ninth had 64 men +killed at Cedar Creek, 51 at the Monocacy, 43 at Cold Harbor, and 22 +at the Opequan. Its total loss in killed and wounded was 824 in an +enrolment of 3,227. This regiment was commanded, a part of the time, +by Col. William H. Seward, Jr. The Fourteenth had 57 men killed in the +assault on Petersburg, 43 at Cold Harbor, 30 in the trenches {479} +before Petersburg, 26 at Fort Stedman, 22 at the mine explosion, and +16 at Spottsylvania. It led the assault after the mine explosion, and +planted its colors on the captured works. Its total loss in killed and +wounded was 861, in an enrolment of 2,506. In comparing these with +other regiments, it must be remembered that their terms of service +were generally shorter, because they were enlisted late in the war. +The Fourteenth, for instance, was organized in January, 1864, which +gave it but fifteen months of service, and it spent its first three +months in the forts of New York harbor; so that its actual experience +in the field covered somewhat less than a year. In that time one-third +of all the men enrolled in it were disabled; and if it had served +through the war at this rate, nothing would have been left of it. This +explanation applies equally to several other regiments. + +[Illustration: BRIGADIER-GENERAL PRESTON SMITH, C. S. A. Killed at +Chickamauga.] + +[Illustration: MAJOR-GENERAL JAMES B. GORDON, C. S. A. Killed at +Yellow Tavern, Va.] + +The State of New York furnished one-sixth of all the men called for by +the National Government. Of Fox's "Three Hundred Fighting Regiments" +(those that had more than 130 men killed during the war), New York has +59--nine more than its proportion. The Fifth Infantry, known as +Duryea's Zouaves, met with its heaviest loss, 297 out of 490, at +Manassas, and lost 162 at Gaines's Mill. This regiment was commanded +at one time by Gouverneur K. Warren, afterward famous as a corps +commander, and General Sykes pronounced it the best volunteer +regiment that he had ever seen. The Fortieth had 238 men killed in +battle, and lost in all 1,217. Its heaviest losses were in the +Seven Days' battles, 100; Fredericksburg, 123; Gettysburg, 150; +and the Wilderness, 213. The Forty-second lost 718 out of 1,210 +enrolled, its heaviest loss, 181, being at the Antietam. The +Forty-third lost 138 at Salem Church, and 198 in the Wilderness, its +colonel, lieutenant-colonel, and major all being killed there. The +Forty-fourth, originally called "Ellsworth Avengers," was composed of +picked men from every county in the State. It lost over 700 out of +1,585 enrolled. At Manassas, out of 148 men in action, it lost 71. It +was a part of the force that seized Little Round Top at Gettysburg. +The Forty-eighth was raised and commanded by a Methodist minister, +James H. Perry, D.D., who had been educated at West Point. He died in +the service in 1862. The regiment participated in the assault on Fort +Wagner, and lost there 242 men. At Olustee it lost 244. Its total loss +was 859 out of an enrolment of 2,173. The Forty-ninth had two colonels +a lieutenant-colonel, and a major killed in action. The Fifty-first +New York and Fifty-first Pennsylvania carried the stone bridge at the +Antietam, the New York regiment losing 87 men, and the Pennsylvanians +120. The Fifty-second New York lost 122 men at Fair Oaks, 121 in the +siege of Petersburg, and 86 at Spottsylvania. It was a German +regiment, and two Prussian officers on leave of absence fought with it +as line officers at Spottsylvania and were killed in the terrible +struggle at the bloody angle. The Fifty-ninth went into the battle of +the Antietam with 321 men, fought around the Dunker Church, and lost +224, killed or wounded, including nine officers killed. The +Sixty-first lost 110 killed or wounded at Fair Oaks, out of 432; 106 +in the siege of Petersburg, and 79 at Glendale. Francis C. Barlow and +Nelson A. Miles were two of its four successive colonels. One company +was composed entirely of students from Madison University. The +Sixty-third, an Irish regiment, lost 173 men at Fair Oaks, 98 at +Gettysburg, and 59 at Spottsylvania. The Sixty-ninth, another Irish +regiment, lost more men killed and wounded than any other from New +York. At the Antietam, where it contended at Bloody Lane, eight +color-bearers were shot. The Seventieth lost 666 men in a total +enrolment of 1,462. Its heaviest loss, 330, was at Williamsburg. +Daniel E. Sickles was its first colonel. The Seventy-sixth lost 234 +men out of 375 in thirty minutes at Gettysburg. In the Wilderness it +lost 282. The Seventy-ninth was largely composed of Scotchmen. It lost +198 men at Bull Run, where Colonel Cameron (brother of the Secretary +of War) fell at its head. At Chantilly six color-bearers were shot +down, when General Stevens (who had been formerly its colonel) seized +the flag and led the regiment to victory, but was shot dead. The +Eighty-first lost 215 men at Cold Harbor, about half the number +engaged. The Eighty-second, at the Antietam, lost 128 men out of 339, +and at Gettysburg 192 out of 305, including its colonel. The +Eighty-third lost 114 men at the Antietam, 125 at Fredericksburg, 115 +in the Wilderness, and 128 at Spottsylvania. The Eighty-fourth, a +Brooklyn zouave regiment, lost 142 men at Bull Run, 120 at Manassas, +and 217 at Gettysburg, where, with the Ninety-fifth, it captured a +Mississippi brigade. The Eighty-sixth lost 96 men at Po River, and +over 200 in the Wilderness campaign. The Eighty-eighth, an Irish +regiment, lost 102 men at the Antietam, and 127 at Fredericksburg. The +Ninety-third lost 260 men in the Wilderness, out of 433. The +Ninety-seventh at Gettysburg lost 99 men, and captured the colors and +382 men of a North Carolina regiment. The One Hundredth lost 176 men +at Fair Oaks, 175 at Fort Wagner, and 259 at Drewry's Bluff. The One +Hundred {480} and Ninth lost 140 men at Spottsylvania, and 127 in the +assault on Petersburg. Benjamin F. Tracy, Secretary of the Navy in +President Harrison's cabinet, was its first colonel. The One Hundred +and Eleventh lost 249 men at Gettysburg, out of 390, and again at the +Wilderness it lost more than half of the number engaged. The One +Hundred and Twelfth lost 180 men at Cold Harbor, including its colonel +killed, and it lost another colonel in the assault on Fort Fisher. The +One Hundred and Twentieth, at Gettysburg, lost 203 men, including +seventeen officers killed or wounded. The One Hundred and +Twenty-first, at Salem Church, lost 276 out of 453, and at +Spottsylvania it lost 155. On both occasions it was led by Emory +Upton, afterward general. Its total of killed and wounded in the war +was 839, out of an enrolment of 1,426. The One Hundred and +Twenty-fourth lost at Chancellorsville 204 out of 550, and at +Gettysburg 90 out of 290. The One Hundred and Twenty-sixth lost at +Gettysburg 231 men, including the colonel, who was killed, and another +colonel was killed before Petersburg. The One Hundred and +Thirty-seventh lost 137 at Gettysburg, where it formed a part of the +brigade that held Culp's Hill. At Wauhatchie it lost 90, and in the +Battle above the Clouds 38 more. The One Hundred and Fortieth lost 133 +men at Gettysburg, where it formed part of the force that occupied +Little Round Top at the critical moment, and helped to drag up +Hazlett's battery. Its colonel was killed in this struggle. In the +Wilderness it lost 255, and at Spottsylvania another colonel and the +major were killed. The One Hundred and Forty-seventh was in the +brigade that opened the battle of Gettysburg, and there lost 301 out +of 380 men. The One Hundred and Forty-ninth was one of the regiments +that saw service both at the East and the West. It lost 186 men at +Chancellorsville, and at Lookout Mountain lost 74 and captured five +flags. In the Atlanta campaign it lost 136 out of 380 men. The One +Hundred and Sixty-fourth, an Irish regiment, participated in the +assault at Cold Harbor and carried the works in its front, but at the +cost of 157 men, including the colonel and six other officers killed. +The One Hundred and Seventieth, another Irish regiment, lost 99 men at +the North Anna and 136 in the early assaults on Petersburg. Its total +of killed and wounded during the war was 481 out of 1,002 enrolled. + +[Illustration: COLONEL FLETCHER WEBSTER. Only son of Daniel +Webster--Killed at Second Bull Run.] + +[Illustration: BRIGADIER-GENERAL WILLIAM P. SANDERS. Killed at +Knoxville, Tenn.] + +[Illustration: BRIGADIER-GENERAL HENRY BOHLEN. Killed at Freeman's +Ford.] + +Thus runs the record to the end. These regiments are not exceptional +so far as the State or the section is concerned. Quite as vivid a +picture of the perils and the heroism of that great struggle could +have been presented with statistics concerning the troops of any other +States. Looking over all the records, one discovers no difference in +the endurance or fighting qualities of the men from different States. +For instance, the Eighth New Jersey lost, at Chancellorsville, 125 men +out of 268; and in the same battle the Twelfth New Jersey lost 178; +while at Gettysburg less than half of the regiment made a charge on a +barn filled with sharp-shooters, and captured 99 men. The Fifteenth +New Jersey had 116 men killed, out of 444, at Spottsylvania. The +Eleventh Pennsylvania, at Fredericksburg, lost 211 killed or wounded +out of 394, and in its whole term of service it had 681 men disabled +in an enrolment of 1,179; and the Twenty-eighth lost 266 men at the +Antietam. The Forty-ninth Pennsylvania had 736 men disabled, in an +enrolment of 1,313, its heaviest loss being at Spottsylvania, where it +participated in the charge at the bloody angle and lost 260 men, +including its colonel and lieutenant-colonel killed. The +Seventy-second lost 237 at the Antietam, and 191 at Gettysburg, where +it was in that part of the line aimed at by Pickett's charge. The +Eighty-third Pennsylvania suffered heavier losses in action than any +other regiment, save one, in the National service. At Gaines's Mill it +lost 196, at Malvern Hill 166, at Manassas 97, and at Spottsylvania +164. At Gettysburg it formed part of the force that seized Little +Round Top. Its total losses were 971 in an enrolment of 1,808. The +Ninety-third, like a regiment previously mentioned, was raised and +commanded by a Methodist minister. It rendered specially gallant +service at Fair Oaks, the Wilderness, and Spottsylvania. The One +Hundred and Nineteenth made a gallant charge at Rappahannock Station, +capturing guns, flags, and many prisoners, and losing 43 men. It +fought at the bloody angle of Spottsylvania, and there and in the +Wilderness lost 231 out of 400, including two {481} regimental +commanders killed. The One Hundred and Fortieth was in the wheat-field +at Gettysburg, and there lost 241 men out of 589. Its total killed and +wounded numbered 732 in an enrolment of 1,132. + +[Illustration: CAPTAIN W. N. GREENE, OF THE ONE HUNDRED AND SECOND NEW +YORK REGIMENT, Capturing the Battle Flag of the Twelfth Georgia +Regiment at Chancellorsville.] + +Delaware, a slave State, contributed its quota to the armies that +fought for the Union. At the Antietam its First Regiment lost 230 men +out of 650. At Gettysburg it was among the troops that met Pickett's +charge. + +Maryland, another slave State, contributed many good troops to the +Union cause. Its Sixth Regiment lost 174 men at Winchester, and 170 in +the Wilderness. + +The Seventh West Virginia lost 522 men killed or wounded, in an +enrolment of 1,008. + +The Seventh Ohio lost, at Cedar Mountain, 182 out of 307 men. At +Ringgold all its officers except one were either killed or wounded. At +Chickamauga the Fourteenth lost 245 men out of 449. At Jonesboro it +carried the works in front of it by a brilliant charge, but at heavy +loss. The Twenty-third, at South Mountain and Antietam, lost 199 men. +Two of its four successive colonels were William S. Rosecrans and +Rutherford B. Hayes. + +It was not in the famous battles alone that heavy regimental losses +were sustained. At Honey Hill, an action seldom mentioned, the +Twenty-fifth Ohio had 35 men killed, with the usual proportion of +wounded; and at Pickett's Mills, hardly recorded in any history, the +Eighty-ninth Illinois lost 154. + +The Fifth Kentucky, at Stone River, lost 125 out of 320 men, and at +Chickamauga 125. It was commanded by Lovell H. Rousseau, an eminent +soldier. Its total loss was 581, in an enrolment of 1,020. The +Fifteenth, at Perryville, lost 196 men, including all its field +officers killed. Its "boy colonel," James B. Forman, was killed at +Stone River. Its total killed and wounded numbered 516, in an +enrolment of 952. + +The Fourteenth Indiana lost 181 men at the Antietam, out of 320. At +Gettysburg it formed part of the brigade that annihilated the +Louisiana Tigers. The Nineteenth suffered, during its whole term of +service, a loss of 712 killed and wounded, in an enrolment of 1,246. +The Twenty-seventh lost 616 from an enrolment of 1,101. + +{482} [Illustration: SCENE OF MAJOR-GENERAL JAMES B. McPHERSON'S +DEATH, ATLANTA, GA., JULY 22, 1864. (From a War Department +photograph.)] + +The Eleventh Illinois lost, at Fort Donelson, 339 men out of 500. It +was commanded by W. H. L. Wallace, who was {483} afterward a +brigadier-general and fell at Shiloh. The Twenty-first lost 303 men at +Stone River, and 238 at Chickamauga. Its first colonel was Ulysses S. +Grant. The Thirty-first lost 176 at Fort Donelson. Its first colonel +was John A. Logan. The Thirty-sixth lost 212 at Stone River. The +Fortieth lost 216 at Shiloh, and gained special credit for keeping its +place in the line after its ammunition was exhausted. The Fifty-fifth +lost 275 at Shiloh out of 512. The Ninety-third lost 162 at Champion +Hill, and 89, including its colonel, at Mission Ridge. + +The First Michigan lost, at Manassas, 178 out of 240 men, including +the colonel and fifteen other officers. The Fourth lost 164 at Malvern +Hill, including its colonel. At Gettysburg it was in the wheat-field, +and lost 165 men. Here a Confederate officer seized the regimental +colors and was shot by the colonel, who the next moment was bayoneted +by a Confederate soldier, who in his turn was instantly killed by the +major. This regiment had three colonels killed in action. The +Twenty-fourth, at Gettysburg, lost 363 men, including the colonel and +twenty-one other officers, out of 496. + +The Second Wisconsin lost 112 men at the first Bull Run and 298 at the +second, including its colonel killed; and the Seventh had a total loss +in killed and wounded of 1,016 from an enrolment of 1,630; and the +Twenty-sixth lost 503 from an enrolment of 1,089. + +The Fifth Iowa lost 217 men at Iuka, and the Seventh, at Belmont, lost +227 out of 410. At Pea Ridge the Ninth lost 218 out of 560. In the +assault on Vicksburg the Twenty-second lost 164, and was the only +regiment that gained and held any portion of the works. Of a squad of +twenty-one men that leaped inside and waged a hand-to-hand fight, +nineteen were killed. + +[Illustration: BRIGADIER-GENERAL J. W. SILL. Killed at Stone River.] + +[Illustration: COLONEL JOHN W. LOWE. Killed at Carnifex Ferry.] + +The Eleventh Missouri had a total loss of 495 from an enrolment of +945. Its heaviest loss was in the assault on Vicksburg, 92. Joseph A. +Mower, afterward eminent as a general, was at one time its colonel. +The Twelfth Missouri lost 108 in the assault on Vicksburg, and the +Fifteenth lost 100 at Chickamauga. General Osterhaus was the first +colonel of the Twelfth. + +The First Kansas lost 106 men killed and wounded at Wilson's Creek. + +The losses in the cavalry were not so striking as those of the +infantry, because they were seldom so heavy in any one engagement. But +the cavalry were engaged oftener, sometimes in a constant running +fight, and the average aggregate of casualties was about the same as +in other arms of the service. + +In the artillery there were occasionally heavy losses when the enemy +charged upon a battery and the gunners stood by their pieces. At Iuka, +Sands's Ohio battery had 105 men, including drivers. It was doing very +effective service when two Texas regiments charged it, and 51 of its +men were killed or wounded. It was captured and recaptured. Seeley's +battery at Chancellorsville lost 45 men, and at Gettysburg 25. +Campbell's lost 40 at the Antietam, and Cushing's 38 at Gettysburg. +The Fifth Maine battery lost 28 at Chancellorsville, 28 at Cedar +Creek, and 23 at Gettysburg. + +The colored regiments, which were not taken into the service till the +third year of the war, suffered quite as heavily as the white ones. +They lost over 2,700 men killed in battle (not including the mortality +among their white officers), and, with the usual proportion of +wounded, this would make their total of casualties at least 12,000. + +The regimental losses in the Confederate army were at least equal to +those in the National, and were probably greater, for the reason that +for them "there was no discharge in that war." Every organization in +the National service was enlisted on a distinct contract to serve for +a definite term--three months, nine months, two years, or three +years--and when the term expired, the men were sent home and mustered +out. But when a man was once mustered into the Confederate army, he +was there till the end of the war, unless he deserted or was disabled. +But no records are available from which complete statistics can be +compiled. And in May, 1863, General Lee issued an order forbidding +commanders to include in their reports of casualties in battle any +wounds except such as disabled the men for further service, and also +forbidding them to mention the number of men engaged in an action. +This makes any mathematical comparison with the casualties in the +National armies impossible; and without information as to the number +engaged, the percentage of loss, which is the true test, cannot be +computed. Still, there were a considerable number of regiments the +statistics of which were recorded and have been preserved. The +heaviest loss known in any Confederate regiment was that of the +Twenty-sixth North Carolina, at Gettysburg. It went into the fight +with somewhat more than 800 men, and lost 588 killed or wounded, +besides 120 missing. One company went into the first day's battle with +three officers and 84 men, and all but one man were either killed or +wounded. Another North Carolina regiment, the Eleventh, went in on the +first day with three officers and 38 men, and two of the officers and +34 men were killed or wounded. At Fair Oaks, the Sixth Alabama lost +373 out of 632, and the Fourth North Carolina, 369 out of 687. At +Gaines's Mill the First South Carolina lost 319 out of 537; and at +Stone River the Eighth Tennessee lost 306 out of 444. {484} The +heaviest percentage of loss, so far as known, was that of the First +Texas, at the Antietam, 82 per cent. In that same battle the Sixteenth +Mississippi lost 63 per cent.; the Twenty-seventh North Carolina, 61 +per cent.; the Eighteenth and Tenth Georgia, each 57 per cent.; the +Seventeenth Virginia, 56 per cent.; the Fourth Texas, 53 per cent.; +the Seventh South Carolina, 52 per cent.; the Thirty-second Virginia, +45 per cent.; and the Eighteenth Mississippi, 45 per cent. Some of the +losses at Chickamauga were equally appalling. The Tenth Tennessee lost +68 per cent.; the Fifth Georgia, 61 per cent.; the Second and +Fifteenth Tennessee, 60 per cent.; the Sixteenth Alabama and the Sixth +and Ninth Tennessee, each 58 per cent.; the Eighteenth Alabama, 56 per +cent.; the Twenty-second Alabama, 55 per cent.; the Twenty-third +Tennessee, 54 per cent.; the Twenty-ninth Mississippi and the +Fifty-eighth Alabama, each 52 per cent.; the Thirty-seventh Georgia +and the Sixty-third Tennessee, each 50 per cent.; the Forty-first +Alabama, 49 per cent.; the Twentieth and Thirty-second Tennessee, each +48 per cent.; and the First Arkansas, 45 per cent. And these losses +include very few prisoners. At Gettysburg, besides the regiments +already mentioned, the heaviest losers among the Confederates were: +the Second North Carolina, 64 per cent.; the Ninth Georgia, 55 per +cent.; the Fifteenth Georgia, 51 per cent.; and the First Maryland, 48 +per cent. At Shiloh the Sixth Mississippi lost 70 per cent. At +Manassas the Twenty-first Georgia lost 76 per cent.; the Seventeenth +South Carolina, 67 per cent.; the Twenty-third South Carolina, 66 per +cent.; the Twelfth South Carolina and the Fourth Virginia, each 54 per +cent.; and the Seventeenth Georgia, 50 per cent. At Stone River the +Eighth Tennessee lost 68 per cent.; the Twelfth Tennessee, 56 per +cent., and the Eighth Mississippi, 47 per cent. At Mechanicsville the +Forty-fourth Georgia lost 65 per cent. At Malvern Hill the Third +Alabama lost 56 per cent.; the Forty-fourth Georgia, 46 per cent.; and +the Twenty-sixth Alabama, 40 per cent. + +[Illustration: BRIGADIER-GENERAL GEORGE D. BAYARD. Killed at +Fredericksburg.] + +[Illustration: COLONEL EDWARD E. CROSS. Killed at Gettysburg.] + +[Illustration: LIEUTENANT-COLONEL JOHN H. WHITE. Killed at Fort +Donelson.] + +[Illustration: COLONEL C. FRED. TAYLOR. Killed at Gettysburg.] + +[Illustration: LIEUTENANT-COLONEL EDWARD CARROL. Killed at the Battle +of the Wilderness.] + +[Illustration: COLONEL E. E. ELLSWORTH. Killed at Alexandria, Va.] + +Some writers have asserted that the Confederate troops were better led +than the National, and that this is proved by the greater loss of +commanding officers. But the statistics do not bear out any such +assertion. On each side one army commander was killed--Gen. J. B. +McPherson and Gen. Albert Sidney Johnston. On each side three corps +commanders were killed--National, Generals Mansfield, Reynolds, and +Sedgwick; Confederate, Jackson, Polk, and A. P. Hill. On the National +side fourteen division commanders were killed, and on the Confederate, +seven. In comparing losses of brigade commanders, it should be +explained, that in the Confederate service, as soon as a man was put +in command of a brigade he was made a brigadier-general, but the +National government was more chary of rank, and often left a colonel +for a long time at the head of a brigade. Counting such colonels who +{485} actually fell at the head of their brigades as brigadiers, we +find that eighty-five brigade-commanders were killed on the National +side, and seventy-three on the Confederate. + +[Illustration: LIEUTENANT-COLONEL THOS. S. MARTIN. Killed at the +Second Battle of Bull Run.] + +[Illustration: MAJOR-GENERAL ISRAEL B. RICHARDSON. Killed at +Antietam.] + +On any other subject, the figures that crowd this chapter would be +"dry statistics," but when we remember that every unit here presented +represents a man killed or seriously injured, a citizen lost to the +Republic--and not only that, but its loss of the sons that should have +been born to these slaughtered men--every paragraph acquires a deep, +though mournful interest. We may well be proud of American valor, but +we should also feel humiliated by the supreme folly of civil war. + + * * * * * + +NOTE.--For the statistics of this chapter, we are largely indebted to +Col. William F. Fox's admirable compilation of "Regimental Losses in +the American Civil War" (Albany, 1893). + + + + +LAST DAYS OF THE CONFEDERACY.[1] + +BY GEN. JOHN B. GORDON. C. S. A. + +[Footnote 1: This article was dictated by Gen. John B. Gordon to the +late Henry W. Grady, and prepared by him for publication. It appeared +originally in the Philadelphia _Times_. It is reprinted here by +permission, after revision and correction by General Gordon.] + + +I will give you from my personal knowledge the history of the +struggles that preceded the surrender of General Lee's army, the +causes that induced that surrender--as I had them from General +Lee--the detailed account of the last assault ever made upon the +Federal lines in pursuance of an offensive purpose, and a description +of the last scenes of the bloody and terrible civil war. This history +has never been published before. No official reports, I believe, were +ever made upon the Confederate side; for after the battle of Hare's +Hill, as the attack upon Fort Steadman was called, there was not an +hour's rest until the surrender. From the 25th of March, 1865, until +the 9th day of April, my men did not take their boots off, the roar of +cannon and the rattle of musketry was scarcely stilled an instant, and +the fighting and marching was continuous. Hence no report of these +operations was ever made. + +You will remember the situation of affairs in Virginia about the first +of March, 1865. The Valley campaign of the previous summer, which was +inaugurated for the purpose of effecting a diversion and breaking the +tightening lines about Richmond and Petersburg, and from which so much +had been expected, had ended in disaster. Grant had massed an enormous +army in front of Petersburg and Richmond, and fresh troops were +hurrying to his aid. Our army covered a line of over twenty miles, and +was in great distress. The men were literally starving. We were not +able to issue even half rations. One-sixth of a pound of beef a day, I +remember, was at one time the ration of a portion of the army, and the +men could not always get even that. I saw men often on their hands and +knees, with little sticks, digging the grains of corn from out of the +tracks of horses, and washing it and cooking it. The brave fellows +were so depleted by the time Grant broke our lines, that the slightest +wound often killed them. A scratch on the hand would result in +gangrene and prove fatal. The doctors took me to the hospitals and +showed me men with a joint on their fingers shot off, and their arms +gangrened up to the elbows. "The men are starved," they said, "and we +can do little for them." + + +A TERRIBLE SITUATION. + +The sights that I saw as I walked among these poor, emaciated, hungry +men, dying of starved and poisoned systems, were simply horrible. Our +horses were in no better condition; many of them were hardly able to +do service at all. General Lee had gone in person into Petersburg and +Richmond, and begged the citizens to divide what little they had with +his wretched men. The heroic people did all that they could. Our sole +line of supplies was the railroad running into North Carolina and +penetrating into "Egypt," as we called Southwest Georgia, which was +then the provision ground for our armies. Such was the situation. My +corps (Stonewall Jackson's old corps), after severe and heroic work in +the Valley campaign, had been ordered back to Petersburg and placed +upon the right wing of the army. I had general instructions to protect +the flank of the army, prevent General Grant from turning it, and, +above all, to protect the slender line of road from which solely we +received our scanty supplies. We were almost continually engaged in +fighting, making feints, and protecting our skirmish lines, which the +enemy were feeling and pressing continually. Before daylight on the +morning of the 2d of March, 1865, General Lee sent for me. I mounted +my horse at once and rode to the general's headquarters. I reached the +house in which he was staying at about four o'clock in the morning. As +I entered the room to which I had been directed, I found General Lee +alone. I shall never forget the scene. The general was standing at the +fireplace, his head on his arm, leaning on the mantelpiece--the first +time I ever saw him looking so thoroughly dejected. A dim lamp was +burning on a small centre-table. On the table was a mass of official +reports. General Lee remained motionless for a moment after I opened +the door. He then looked up, greeted me with his usual courtesy, +motioned me to the little table, and, drawing up a chair, sat down. I +sat opposite him. "I have sent for you, General Gordon," he said, "to +make known to you the condition of our affairs and to confer with you +as to what we had best do." The night was fearfully cold. The fire and +lamp both burned low {486} as General Lee went on to give me the +details of the situation. "I have here," he said, "reports sent in +from my officers to-night. I find, upon careful examination, that I +have under my command, of all arms, hardly forty-five thousand men. +These men are starving. They are already so weakened as to be hardly +efficient. Many of them have become desperate, reckless, and +disorderly as they have never been before. It is difficult to control +men who are suffering for food. They are breaking open mills, barns, +and stores in search of food. Almost crazed from hunger, they are +deserting from some commands in large numbers and going home. My +horses are in equally bad condition. The supply of horses in the +country is exhausted. It has come to be where it is just as bad for me +to have a horse killed as a man. I cannot remount a cavalryman whose +horse dies. General Grant can mount ten thousand men in ten days, and +move around your flank. If he were to send me word to-morrow that I +might move out unmolested, I have not enough horses to move my +artillery. He is not likely to send this message, however; and yet," +smiling, "he sent me word yesterday that he knew what I had for +breakfast every morning. I sent him word that I did not think this +could be so, for if he did know he would surely send me something +better. But, now, let us look at the figures. I have, as I have shown +you, not quite 45,000 men. My men are starved, exhausted, sick. His +are in the best condition possible. But beyond this there is Hancock, +at Winchester, with a force of probably not less than 18,000 men. To +oppose this force I have not a solitary vidette. Sheridan, with his +terrible cavalry, has marched almost unmolested and unopposed along +the James, cutting the railroads and canal. Thomas is approaching from +Knoxville with a force I estimate at 30,000, and to oppose him I have +a few brigades of badly disciplined cavalry, amounting to probably +3,000 in all. General Sherman is in North Carolina, and, with +Schofield's forces, will have 65,000 men. As to what I have to oppose +this force, I submit the following telegram from General Johnston. The +telegram reads: 'General Beauregard telegraphed you a few days ago +that, with Governor Vance's Home Guards, we could carry 20,000 men +into battle. I find, upon close inspection, that we cannot muster over +13,000 men.'" (This, General Gordon said, was, as nearly as he could +recollect, General Johnston's telegram.) "So there is the situation. I +have here, say, 40,000 men able for duty, though none of my poor +fellows are in good condition. They are opposed directly by an army of +160,000 strong and confident men, and converging on my little force +four separate armies, numbering, in the aggregate, 130,000 more men. +This force, added to General Grant's, makes over a quarter million. To +prevent these from uniting for my destruction there are hardly 60,000 +men available. My men are growing weaker day by day. Their sufferings +are terrible and exhausting. My horses are broken down and impotent. I +am apprehensive that General Grant may press around my flank and cut +our sole remaining line of supplies. Now, general," he said, looking +me straight in the face, "what is to be done?" With this he laid his +paper down and leaned back in his chair. + +[Illustration: A MORTAR MOUNTED ON A FLAT CAR, UNITED STATES MILITARY +RAILROAD.] + + +WHAT IS TO BE DONE? + +I replied: "Since you have done me the honor to ask my opinion, I will +give it. The situation as you portray it is infinitely worse than I +had dreamed it was. I cannot doubt that your information is correct. I +am confident of the opinion, therefore, that one of two things should +be done, and at once. We must either treat with the United States +Government for the best terms possible, or we should concentrate all +our strength at one point of Grant's line--selecting some point on the +right bank of the Appomattox--assault him, break through his lines, +destroy his pontoons, and then turn full upon the flank of his left +wing, sweep down it and destroy it if possible, and then join General +Johnston in North Carolina by forced marches, and, combining our army +with his, fall upon Sherman." + +"And what then?" + +"If we beat him or succeed in making a considerable battle, then treat +at once for terms. I am forced to the conclusion, from what you say, +sir, that we have no time for delay." + +"So that is your opinion, is it?" he asked, in a tone that sent the +blood to my face. I ought to have remembered that it was a way that +General Lee had of testing the sincerity of a man's opinion by +appearing to discredit it. + +"It is, sir," I replied; "but I should not have ventured it, had it +not been asked; and since you seem to differ from the opinion I hold, +may I ask you what your opinion is?" + +At once his manner changed, and, leaning forward, he said, blandly: "I +entirely agree with you, general." + +"Does President Davis and the Congress know these facts? Have you +expressed an opinion as to the propriety of making terms, to President +Davis or the Congress?" + +General Lee replied to this question: "General Gordon, I am a soldier. +It is my duty to obey orders." + +"Yes," I replied; "but if you read the papers, General Lee, you can't +shut your eyes to the fact that the hopes of the Southern people are +centred in and on your army, and if we wait until we are beaten and +scattered {487} into the mountains before we make an effort at terms, +the people will not be satisfied. Besides, we will simply invite the +enemy to hunt us down all over the country, devastating it wherever +they go." + +[Illustration: LIEUTENANT-GENERAL JOHN B. GORDON, C. S. A.] + +[Illustration: GENERAL ROBERT E. LEE, C. S. A.] + +General Lee said nothing to this for some time, but paced the floor in +silence, while I sat gloomily enough, as you may know, at the fearful +prospect. He had, doubtless, thought of all I said long before he sent +for me. I don't wish you to understand that I am vain enough to +believe for a moment that anything I said induced him to go to +Richmond the next day. As I said before, he had probably decided on +his course before he sent for me, and only feigned a difference of +opinion or hesitation in order to see with what pertinacity I held my +own. He did go to Richmond, and on his return sent for me again, and +in reply to my question as to what had occurred, he said: + +"Sir, it is enough to turn a man's hair gray to spend one day in that +Congress. The members are patriotic and earnest, but they will neither +take the responsibility of acting nor will they clothe me with +authority to act. As for Mr. Davis, he is unwilling to do anything +short of independence, and feels that it is useless to try to treat on +that basis. Indeed, he says that, having failed in one overture of +peace at Hampton Roads, he is not disposed to try another." + +"Then," said I, "there is nothing left for us but to fight, and the +sooner we fight the better, for every day weakens us and strengthens +our opponents." + +It was these two conferences that led to the desperate and almost +hopeless attack I made upon the 25th of March on Grant's lines at Fort +Steadman and Hare's Hill, in front of Petersburg. My corps was, as I +tell you, at that time on the extreme right of General Lee's army, +stretching from Hatcher's Run, southward along the Boydton plank road. +He proposed to transfer my corps to lines in and around Petersburg, +and have me familiarize myself with the strong and weak points, if +there were any _weak_ ones, on Grant's line near the bank of the +Appomattox River. He ordered my command into Petersburg to replace the +troops which were there. I spent a week examining Grant's lines, +learning from deserters and men captured the names of the Federal +officers and their commands in the front. At last I selected a point +which I was sure I could carry by a night assault. I so reported to +General Lee. It was in the last degree a desperate undertaking, +as you will presently see; but it was the best that could be +suggested--better than to stand still. Almost hopeless as it was, it +was less so than the certain and rapid disintegration, through +starvation and disease and desertion, of the last army we could ever +organize. The point on my line from which I decided to make the +assault was Colquitt's salient, which had been built by Governor +Colquitt and his men and held by them, when, to protect themselves, +they had to move under covered ways and sleep burrowed in the ground +like Georgia gophers. I selected this point because the main lines +here were closest together, being not more than two hundred yards +apart, I should say, while the picket lines were so close that the +Confederate, and the Federals could easily converse. By a sort of +general consent the firing between the pickets nearly ceased during +the day, so that I could stand upon my breastworks and examine General +Grant's. It is necessary that you should know precisely the situation +of the lines and forts, as I can illustrate by a rough diagram: + +[Illustration: _A_, Colquitt's salient. _B_, the main line of Federal +intrenchment, with Fort Steadman in the centre and two other forts +flanking it. _C_, line of Federal reserves to support Fort Steadman +and the troops in the main trenches. _D_, second line of Federal +forts, so arranged as to command Fort Steadman and the main line of +intrenchments, should these be broken.] + + +{488} A STRONG POSITION. + +You can see at a glance how desperately strong was even this, the +weakest point on Grant's line. It was close to Colquitt's salient +where the fearful mine was sprung called the Crater. The whole +intervening ground between Fort Steadman and Colquitt's salient, over +which I had to make the assault, was raked not only by a front fire, +but by flank fires from both directions from the forts and trenches of +the main line, _B_. An attack, therefore, by daylight would have been +simply to have the men butchered, without any possibility of success, +so that nothing but a night attack was to be thought of. Between the +main line of trenches and forts and the rear line of forts, _D_, was a +heavy line of Federal reserves, _C_, and the rear forts were placed +with such consummate engineering skill as to command any point on that +portion of Grant's line which might be captured. It was, therefore, +necessary to capture or break through the reserves and take the rear +line of forts as well as the front. This rear line of forts was so +protected by abatis in front that the whole of General Lee's army +could not have stormed them by a front attack, and the only +possibility of securing them was to capture them from the rear, where +there was an opening. This could only be done by stratagem, if it +could be done at all. + +I finally submitted a plan of battle to General Lee, which he approved +and ordered executed. It was briefly this: To take Fort Steadman by +direct assault at night, then send a separate body of men to each of +the rear forts, who, claiming to be Federals, might pass through the +Federal reserves and take possession of the rear line of forts as if +ordered to do so by the Federal commander; next, then to press with my +whole force to the rear of Grant's main line and force him out of the +trenches, destroy his pontoons, cut his telegraph wires, and press +down his flank. Of course, it was a most desperate and almost hopeless +undertaking, and could be justified only by our desperate and hopeless +condition if we remained idle. We both recognized it as the forlornest +of forlorn hopes. Let me particularize a little more. The obstructions +in front of my own lines had to be removed, and removed silently, so +as not to attract the attention of the Federal pickets. Grant's +obstructions had to be removed from the front of Fort Steadman. These +obstructions were of sharpened rails, elevated to about breast high, +the other end buried deeply in the ground, the rails resting on a +horizontal pole and wrapped with telegraph wire. They could not be +mounted or pushed aside, but had to be cut away with axes. This had to +be done immediately in front of the guns of Fort Steadman. These guns +were at night doubly charged with canister, as I learned from Federal +prisoners. The rush across the intervening space between the lines had +to be made so silently and swiftly as to take the fort before the +gunners could fire. The reserves had to be beaten or passed and the +rear line of forts taken before daylight. All this had to be +accomplished before my main forces could be moved across and placed in +position to move on Grant's flank, or rather left wing. + + +THE PLAN OF ATTACK. + +My preparations were these: I called on my division commanders for a +detail of the bravest men in their commands. To rush over the Federal +pickets and into the fort and seize the Federal guns, I selected a +body of only one hundred men, with empty rifles and fixed bayonets. To +precede these, to clear an opening to the fort, I selected fifty of +the most stalwart and brave men I could find, and armed them with axes +to cut clown the obstructions in front of the fort. They were ordered +to remove my own abatis, rush upon the Federal obstructions, and cut +away a brigade front. The one hundred with empty rifles and fixed +bayonets were to follow immediately, and this one hundred and fifty +men were not to falter or fire, but to go into Fort Steadman, if they +had to do it in the face of the fire from all the forts. Immediately +after these axemen and the one hundred had cleared the way and gained +the fort, three other squads of one hundred each were to rush across, +pass through Fort Steadman, and go pell-mell to the rear, and right +through the Federal reserves, crying as they went: "The rebels have +carried our lines in front, captured Fort Steadman, and we are ordered +by General McLaughlin, Federal commander of Fort Steadman, to go back +to the rear forts and hold them against the rebels." I instructed each +commander of these last squads as to what particular fort he was to +enter; and a guide, who had been raised on the ground, was placed with +each of these three squads, or companies, who was to conduct them +through the reserves and to the rear of the forts. If they were halted +by the Federal reserves, each commander was instructed to pass himself +off as one of the Federal officers whose names I had learned. I +remember that I named one commander of one of the companies +Lieutenant-Colonel Pendergrast, of a Pennsylvania regiment--I think +that was the name and regiment of one of the Federal officers in my +front. As soon as Fort Steadman should be taken, and these three +bodies of one hundred men each had succeeded in entering the rear +forts, the main force of infantry and cavalry were to cross over. The +cavalry was to gallop to the rear, capture the fugitives, destroy the +pontoons, cut down the telegraph wires, and give me constant +information, while the infantry was to move rapidly down Grant's +lines, attacking and breaking his division in detail, as they moved +out of his trenches. Such, I say, was the plan of this most desperate +and last aggressive assault ever made by the Confederate army. + +General Lee had sent me, in addition to my own corps, a portion of +Longstreet's corps (Pickett's division) and a portion of A. P. Hill's +and a body of cavalry. During the whole night of the 24th of March I +was on horseback, making preparations and disposing of troops. About +four o'clock in the morning I called close around me the fifty axemen +and four companies, one hundred each, of the brave men who were +selected to do this hazardous work. I spoke to them of the character +of the undertaking, and of the last hope of the cause, which was about +to be confided to them. Around the shoulders of each man was bound a +white strip of muslin, which Mrs. Gordon, who sat in a room not far +distant listening for the signal gun, had prepared, as a means of +recognition of each other. The hour had come, and when everything was +ready I stood on the breastworks of Colquitt's salient and ordered two +men to my side, with rifles, who were to fire the signal for attack. +The noise of moving our own obstructions was going on and attracted +the notice of a Federal picket. In the black darkness his voice rang +out: + +"Hullo there, Johnny Reb! what are you making all that fuss about over +there?" + +The men were just leaning forward for the start. This sudden call +disconcerted me somewhat; but the rifleman on my right came to my +assistance by calling out in a cheerful voice: + +"Oh! never mind us, Yank; lie down and go to sleep. We are just +gathering a little corn; you know rations are mighty short over here." + +There was a patch of corn between our lines, some of it still {489} +hanging on the stalks. After a few moments there came back the kindly +reply of the Yankee picket, which quite reassured me. He said: + +"All right, Johnny; go ahead and get your corn. I won't shoot at you." + +As I gave the command to forward, the man on my right seemed to have +some compunctions of conscience for having stilled the suspicions of +the Yankee picket who had answered him so kindly, and who the next +moment might be surprised and killed. So he called out to him: + +"Look out for yourself now, Yank; we're going to shell the woods." + +This exhibition of chivalry and of kindly feelings on both sides, and +at such a moment, touched me almost as deeply as any minor incident of +the war. I quickly ordered the two men to "Fire." + +Bang! Bang! The two shots broke the stillness, and "Forward!" I +commanded. The chosen hundred sprang forward, eagerly following the +axemen, and for the last time the stars and bars were carried to +aggressive assault. + + +FORT STEADMAN TAKEN. + +In a moment the axemen were upon the abatis of the enemy and hewing it +down. I shall never know how they whisked this line of wire-fastened +obstructions out of the way. The one hundred overpowered the pickets, +sent them to the rear, rushed through the gap made by the axemen up +the slope of Fort Steadman, and it was ours without the firing of a +single gun, and with the loss of but one man. He was killed with a +bayonet. The three companies who were to attempt to pass the reserves +and go into the rear forts followed and passed on through Fort +Steadman. Then came the other troops pouring into the fort. We +captured, I think, nine pieces of artillery, eleven mortars, and about +six hundred or seven hundred prisoners, among whom was General +McLaughlin, who was commanding on that portion of the Federal line. +Many were taken in their beds. The prisoners were all sent across to +our lines, and other troops of my command were brought to the fort. I +now anxiously awaited to learn the fate of the three hundred who had +been sent in companies of one hundred each to attempt the capture of +the three rear forts. Soon a messenger reached me from two officers +commanding two of these chosen bodies, who informed me that they had +succeeded in passing right through the line of Federal reserves by +representing themselves as Federals, and had certainly gone far enough +to the rear for the forts, but that their guides had abandoned them or +been lost, and that they did not know in what direction to move. It +was afterward discovered, when daylight came, that these men had gone +further out than the forts, and could have easily entered and captured +them if the guides had not been lost, or had done their duty. Of +course, after dawn they were nearly all captured, being entirely +behind the Federal reserves. + +[Illustration: CITY POINT, VIRGINIA. (From a war-time photograph.)] + +{490} [Illustration: GENERAL ULYSSES S. GRANT.] + +{491} [Illustration: MAJOR-GENERAL MATTHEW W. RANSOM, C. S. A.] + +[Illustration: MAJOR-GENERAL THOS. L. ROSSER, C. S. A.] + + +FAILURE OF THE ATTACK. + +In the mean time, the few Federal soldiers who had escaped from the +fort and intrenchments we had captured had spread the alarm and +aroused the Federal army. The hills in the rear of Grant's lines were +soon black with troops. By the time it was fairly daybreak the two +forts on the main line flanking Fort Steadman, the three forts in the +rear, and the reserves, all opened fire upon my forces. We held Fort +Steadman, and the Federal intrenchments to the river, or nearly so. +But the guides had been lost, and as a consequence the rear forts had +not been captured. Failing to secure these forts, the cavalry could +not pass, the pontoons could not be destroyed, and the telegraph wires +were not cut. In addition to these mishaps, the trains had been +delayed, and Pickett's division and other troops sent me by General +Lee had not arrived. The success had been brilliant so far as it had +gone, and had been achieved without loss of any consequence to our +army; but it had failed in the essentials to a complete success or to +a great victory. Every hour was bringing heavy reinforcements to the +Federals and rendering my position less and less tenable. After a +brief correspondence with General Lee, it was decided to withdraw. My +loss, whatever it was, occurred in withdrawing under concentrated fire +from forts and infantry. The fighting over the picket lines and main +lines from this time to the surrender was too incessant to give me an +opportunity to ascertain my loss. It was considerable; and although I +had inflicted a heavy loss upon the enemy, I felt, as my troops +reëntered Colquitt's salient, that the last hazard had been thrown, +and that we had lost. + +I will give you here the last note I ever received from General Lee, +and one of the last he ever wrote in his official capacity. It is as +follows: + +4.30 P.M., HEADQUARTERS, _March_ 24, 1865. + +GENERAL: I have received yours of 2.30 P.M., and telegraphed for +Pickett's division, but I do not think it will reach here in time; +still we will try. If you need more troops, one or both of Heth's +brigades can be called to Colquitt's salient, and Wilcox's to the +Baxter road. Dispose of the troops as needed. I pray that a merciful +God may grant us success, and deliver us from our enemies. + +Very truly, + R. E. LEE, _General_. + +GEN. J. B. GORDON. + +P. S.--The cavalry is ordered to report to you at Halifax Road and +Norfolk Railroad (iron bridge) at three A.M. to-morrow. W. F. Lee to +be in vicinity of Monk's Corner at six A.M. + +R. E. L. + + +THE DEATH STRUGGLE. + +I had very little talk with General Lee after our withdrawal. I +recognized that the end was approaching, and of course he did. It will +be seen from his semi-official note, quoted above, that he became very +much interested in the success of our movement. While he had known as +well as I that it was a desperate and forlorn hope, still we had hoped +that we might cut through and make a glorious dash down the right and +seek Johnston in North Carolina. The result of the audacious attempt +that had been made upon his line, and its complete success up to the +time that it was ruined by a mischance, was to awaken General Grant's +forces into more aggressive measures. A sort of respite was had, for a +day, after the night attack on Fort Steadman, and then the +death-struggle began. Grant hurried his masses upon our starved and +broken-down veterans. His main attack was made upon our left, A. P. +Hill's corps. Grant's object was to turn our flanks, and get between +us and North Carolina. The fighting was fearful and continuous. It was +a miracle that we held our lines for a single day. With barely six +thousand men I was holding six miles of line. I had just one thousand +men to the mile, or about one to every two yards. Hill and Longstreet +were in not much better trim, and some part of this thin line was +being forced continually. The main fight was on my line and Hill's, as +General Longstreet was nearer Richmond. Heavy masses of troops were +hurled upon our line, and we would have to rally our forces at a +certain point to meet the attack. By the time we would repel it, we +would find another point attacked, and would hurry to defend that. Of +course, withdrawing men from one part of the line would leave it +exposed, and the enemy would rush in. Then we would have to drive them +out and reëstablish our line. Thus the battle raged day after day. Our +line would bend and twist, and swell and break, and close again, only +to be battered against once more. Our people performed prodigies of +valor. How they endured through those terrible, hopeless, bloody days, +I do not know. They fought desperately and heroically, although they +were so weakened through hunger and work that they could scarcely +stand upon their feet and totter from one point of assault to another. +But they never complained. They fought sternly, grimly, as men who had +made up their minds to die. And we held our lines. Somehow or +other--God only knows how--we managed day by day to wrest from the +Federals the most of our lines. Then the men, dropping in the +trenches, would eat their scanty rations, try to forget their hunger, +and snatch an hour or two of sleep. + + +THE EVACUATION OF PETERSBURG. + +Our picket lines were attacked somewhere every night. This thing went +on till the morning of the 2d of April. Early that day it became +evident that the supreme moment had come. The enemy attacked in +unusually heavy force, and along the line of mine and Hill's corps. It +became absolutely necessary to {492} concentrate a few men at points +along my line, in order to make a determined resistance. This left +great gaps in my line of breastworks, unprotected by anything save a +vidette or two. Of course, the Federals broke through these undefended +passes, and established themselves in my breastworks. At length, +having repulsed the forces attacking the points I defended, I began +reëstablishing my line. My men fought with a valor and a desperate +courage that has been rarely equalled, in my opinion, in military +annals. We recaptured position after position, and by four o'clock in +the afternoon I had reëstablished my whole line except at one point. +This was very strongly defended, but I prepared to assault it. I +notified General Lee of my purpose and of the situation, when he sent +me a message, telling me that Hill's lines had been broken, and that +General Hill himself had been killed. He ordered, therefore, that I +should make no further fight, but prepare for the evacuation which he +had determined to make that night. That night we left Petersburg. +Hill's corps, terribly shattered and without its commander, crossed +the river first, and I followed, having orders from General Lee to +cover the retreat. We spent the night in marching, and early the next +morning the enemy rushed upon us. We had to turn and beat them back. +Then began the most heroic and desperate struggle ever sustained by +troops--a worn and exhausted force of hardly four thousand men, with a +vast and victorious army, fresh and strong, pressing upon our heels! +We turned upon every hilltop to meet them, and give our wagon-trains +and artillery time to get ahead. Instantly they would strike us, we +invariably repulsed them. They never broke through my dauntless +heroes; but after we had fought for an hour or two, we would find huge +masses of men pressing down our flanks, and to keep from being +surrounded I would have to withdraw my men. We always retreated in +good order, though always under fire. As we retreated we would wheel +and fire, or repel a rush, and then stagger on to the next hill-top, +or vantage ground, where a new fight would be made. And so on through +the entire day. At night my men had no rest. We marched through the +night in order to get a little respite from fighting. All night long I +would see my poor fellows hobbling along, prying wagons or artillery +out of the mud, and supplementing the work of our broken-down horses. +At dawn, though, they would be in line ready for battle, and they +would fight with the steadiness and valor of the Old Guard. + +[Illustration: APPOMATTOX COURT-HOUSE. (From a War Department +photograph.)] + + +THE LAST COUNCIL OF WAR. + +This lasted until the night of the 7th of April. The retreat of Lee's +army was lit up with the fire and flash of battle, in which my brave +men moved about like demigods for five days {493} and nights. Then we +were sent to the front for a rest, and Longstreet was ordered to cover +the retreating army. On the evening of the 8th, when I had reached the +front, my scout George brought me two men in Confederate uniform, who, +he said, he believed to be the enemy, as he had seen them counting our +men as they filed past. I had the men brought to my campfire, and +examined them. They made a most plausible defence, but George was +positive they were spies, and I ordered them searched. He failed to +find anything, when I ordered him to examine their boots. In the +bottom of one of the boots I found an order from General Grant to +General Ord, telling him to move by forced marches toward Lynchburg +and cut off General Lee's retreat. The men then confessed that they +were spies, and belonged to General Sheridan. They stated that they +knew that the penalty of their course was death, but asked that I +should not kill them, as the war could only last a few days longer, +anyhow. I kept them prisoners, and turned them over to General +Sheridan after the surrender. I at once sent the information to +General Lee, and a short time afterward received orders to go to his +headquarters. That night was held Lee's last council of war. There +were present General Lee, General Fitzhugh Lee, as head of the +cavalry, and Pendleton, as chief of artillery, and myself. General +Longstreet was, I think, too busily engaged to attend. General Lee +then exhibited to us the correspondence he had had with General Grant +that day, and asked our opinion of the situation. It seemed that +surrender was inevitable. The only chance of escape was that I could +cut a way for the army through the lines in front of me. General Lee +asked me if I could do this. I replied that I did not know what forces +were in front of me; that if General Ord had not arrived--as we +thought then he had not--with his heavy masses of infantry, I could +cut through. I guaranteed that my men would cut a way through all the +cavalry that could be massed in front of them. The council finally +dissolved with the understanding that the army should be surrendered +if I discovered the next morning, after feeling the enemy's line, that +the infantry had arrived in such force that I could not cut my way +through. + + +NEARING THE END. + +My men were drawn up in the little town of Appomattox that night. I +still had about four thousand men under me, as the army had been +divided into two commands and given to General Longstreet and myself. +Early on the morning of the 9th I prepared for the assault upon the +enemy's line, and began the last fighting done in Virginia. My men +rushed forward gamely and broke the line of the enemy and captured two +pieces of artillery. I was still unable to tell what I was fighting; I +did not know whether I was striking infantry or dismounted cavalry. I +only knew that my men were driving them back, and were getting further +and further through. Just then I had a message from General Lee, +telling me a flag of truce was in existence, leaving it to my +discretion as to what course to pursue. My men were still pushing +their way on. I sent at once to hear from General Longstreet, feeling +that, if he was marching toward me, we might still cut through and +carry the army forward. I learned that he was about two miles off, +with his face just opposite from mine, fighting for his life. I thus +saw that the case was hopeless. The further each of us drove the enemy +the further we drifted apart, and the more exposed we left our wagon +trains and artillery, which were parked between us. Every line either +of us broke only opened the gap the wider. I saw plainly that the +Federals would soon rush in between us, and then there would have been +no army. I, therefore, determined to send a flag of truce. I called +Colonel Peyton of my staff to me, and told him that I wanted him to +carry a flag of truce forward. He replied: + +"General, I have no flag of truce." + +I told him to get one. He replied: + +"General, we have no flag of truce in our command." + +Then said I, "Get your handkerchief, put it on a stick, and go +forward." + +"I have no handkerchief, General." + +"Then borrow one and go forward with it." + +He tried, and reported to me that there was no handkerchief in my +staff. + +"Then, Colonel, use your shirt!" + +"You see, General, that we all have on flannel shirts." + +At last, I believe, we found a man who had a white shirt. He gave it +to us, and I tore off the back and tail, and, tying this to a stick, +Colonel Peyton went out toward the enemy's lines. I instructed him to +simply say to General Sheridan that General Lee had written me that a +flag of truce had been sent from his and Grant's headquarters, and +that he could act as he thought best on this information. In a few +moments he came back with some one representing General Sheridan. This +officer said: + +"General Sheridan requested me to present his compliments to you, and +to demand the unconditional surrender of your army." + +"Major, you will please return my compliments to General Sheridan, and +say that I will not surrender." + +"But, General, he will annihilate you." + +"I am perfectly well aware of my situation. I simply gave General +Sheridan some information on which he may or may not desire to act." + + +THE FLAG OF TRUCE. + +He went back to his lines, and in a short time General Sheridan came +forward on an immense horse, and attended by a very large staff. Just +here an incident occurred that came near having a serious ending. As +General Sheridan was approaching I noticed one of my sharp-shooters +drawing his rifle down upon him. I at once called to him: "Put down +your gun, sir; this is a flag of truce." But he simply settled it to +his shoulder and was drawing a bead on Sheridan, when I leaned forward +and jerked his gun. He struggled with me, but I finally raised it. I +then loosed it, and he started to aim again. I caught it again, when +he turned his stern white face, all broken with grief and streaming +with tears, up to me, and said: "Well, General, then let him keep on +his own side." The fighting had continued up to this point. Indeed, +after the flag of truce, a regiment of my men, who had been fighting +their way through toward where we were, and who did not know of a flag +of truce, fired into some of Sheridan's cavalry. This was speedily +stopped, however. I showed General Sheridan General Lee's note, and he +determined to await events. He dismounted, and I did the same. Then, +for the first time, the men seemed to understand what it all meant, +and then the poor fellows broke down. The men cried like children. +Worn, starved, and bleeding as they were, they had rather have died +than have surrendered. At one word from me they would have hurled +themselves on the enemy, and have {494} cut their way through or have +fallen to a man with their guns in their hands. But I could not permit +it. The great drama had been played to its end. But men are seldom +permitted to look upon such a scene as the one presented here. That +these men should have wept at surrendering so unequal a fight, at +being taken out of this constant carnage and storm, at being sent back +to their families; that they should have wept at having their starved +and wasted forms lifted out of the jaws of death and placed once more +before their hearthstones, was an exhibition of fortitude and +patriotism that might set an example for all time. + + +THE END. + +Ah, sir, every ragged soldier that surrendered that day, from the +highest to the lowest, from the old veteran to the beardless boy, +every one of them, sir, carried a heart of gold in his breast! It made +my heart bleed for them, and sent the tears streaming down my face, as +I saw them surrender the poor, riddled, battle-stained flags that they +had followed so often, and that had been made sacred with the blood of +their comrades. The poor fellows would step forward, give up the +scanty rag that they had held so precious through so many long and +weary years, and then turn and wring their empty hands together and +bend their heads in an agony of grief. Their sobs and the sobs of +their comrades could be heard for yards around. Others would tear the +flags from the staff and hide the precious rag in their bosoms and +hold it there. As General Lee rode down the lines with me, and saw the +men crying, and heard them cheering "Uncle Robert" with their simple +but pathetic remarks, he turned to me and said, in a broken voice: +"Oh, General, if it had only been my lot to have fallen in one of our +battles, to have given my life to this cause that we could not save!" +I told him that he should not feel that way, that he had done all that +mortal man could do, and that every man and woman in the South would +feel this and would make him feel it. "No, no!" he said, "there will +be many who will blame me. But, General, I have the consolation of +knowing that my conscience approves what I have done, and that the +army sustains me." + +In a few hours the army was scattered, and the men went back to their +ruined and dismantled homes, many of them walking all the way to +Georgia and Alabama, all of them penniless, worn out, and well-nigh +heartbroken. Thus passed away Lee's army; thus were its last battles +fought, thus was it surrendered, and thus was the great American +tragedy closed, let us all hope, forever. + +[Illustration: GENERAL LEE LEAVING THE McLEAN HOUSE AFTER THE +SURRENDER.] + +[Illustration: A SOUTHERN PLANTER'S RESIDENCE IN RUINS.] + + + + +{495} + +CAMP LIFE. + +BY GENERAL SELDEN CONNOR. + +A MAJORITY OF SOLDIERS IN THE UNION ARMY WERE YOUNG MEN--THE WAR A +COLOSSAL PICNIC--THE ATTRACTIONS OF CAMP LIFE FOR YOUNG MEN--DRILLING +AND GUARD DUTY--STYLES OF TENTS USED IN THE ARMY--LOG HUTS FOR WINTER +QUARTERS--A NEW USE FOR WELL-SEASONED FENCE RAILS--RISE AND FALL OF A +LIGHT "TOWN OF CANVAS"--GENUINE LOVE FOR HARD-TACK--THE TRIALS AND +DANGERS OF AN ARMY SUTLER--DRAMATIC AND MINSTREL ENTERTAINMENTS IN +CAMP--HORSE-RACING AND THE "DERBY" OF THE ARMY OF THE +POTOMAC--CARD-PLAYING AND OTHER GAMES--CAMPS OF NORTHERN SOLDIERS KEPT +IN BETTER CONDITION THAN THOSE OF SOUTHERN SOLDIERS--FENCING, BOXING, +AND DRILLING--STUDYING GEOLOGY. + + +From one point of view the war for the Union was a colossal picnic. +Not that it was in the spirit of a summer holiday, with pure gayety of +heart, that a million of the bravest and best of the country took to +the tented field to interpose their lives between their country and +all that would do her harm. No soldiers were ever more impressed with +the serious nature of the contest for which they had enlisted than +were those of '61. But the "men" who composed the Union armies were by +far and away a majority very young men; they were then really "the +boys" in the sight of all the world, as they are now to each other +when veteran comrades meet and "Bill" greets "Joe," and the wrongs of +time are forgotten in the vividness of their memories of the time when +they wore the blue livery and ate the very hard bread of Uncle Sam. +They were real human boys, like those of to-day, and as the boys of +'76 very likely were; and so, mingled with the glow of patriotic ardor +in their breasts, and the determination to do their duty whatever +might betide, there was a keen sense of the novelty of the soldier's +life. They had read of wars and soldiers from Cćsar to Zack Taylor, +and were filled with the traditional pride of American citizens in the +heroism and exploits of the men who achieved independence. The greater +number of them had recollections, more or less clear, of cheering for +Buena Vista and Resaca de la Palma. But wars were "old, unhappy, +far-off things," entirely out of date, inconsistent alike with "the +spirit of the times" and "the principles of free popular government." +"The American boys of this peaceful age would never be called +upon"-- But, hark! the drum! Partings were sad, with home, kindred, +friends. The old life-plans with all their courses, ambitions, hopes, +and dreams, were temporarily turned to the wall. There was no room for +regrets or forebodings. Duty called, and their country's flag waved +its summons to them. War's dangers were before them; but there were in +prospect also the experience of a soldier's life, the zest of the +sharp change from the dull monotony of peaceful pursuits to the stir +and novelty of the camp. They took up the new life with a kind of +"fearful joy." It had its drawbacks, but on the whole it had many and +strong attractions to lusty and imaginative youth. "It amuses me," +said a veteran of the Mexican war to a company just enlisted in a +three-months regiment under the President's first call for troops, "to +hear you boys talk about coming home when your term of service is out. +When you once follow the drum you are bound to keep on just as long as +the music lasts." The boys found that the veteran was right. At the +conclusion of their three months' service they reënlisted almost, if +not quite, to a man, and most of them became officers. + +[Illustration: PUNISHMENT INFLICTED FOR MINOR OFFENCES.] + +It did not quite suit the dignity of the young soldiers, as free and +independent American citizens, to yield implicit obedience to any man, +and especially to be "bossed" by officers who, as their neighbors, had +no claim to superiority, and to have all their incomings and outgoings +regulated by the tap of the drum. When they realized, as they were not +long in doing, that officers as well as men had to obey at their +peril, and that good discipline was essential to their well-being and +efficiency as soldiers, they accepted the situation, and rendered a +ready and dutiful obedience. + +The secret of the charm of the soldier's life is not far to seek. The +soldier is care-free, absolved from that "pernicious liberty of +choice" which makes ordinary life weary and anxious, and his +responsibility is limited to his well-defined line of duty. Above all, +the bond of sympathy is closer than in any other form of association. +To pursue the same routine, to go to bed and rise up at a common call, +to be served with the same food, drink, and clothes by a common +master, to share the same hardships and perils, to own one leadership, +and to be engaged in a common purpose with hundreds of thousands of +others, constitutes in the {496} highest degree that unity which +Cicero found to be the essence of friendship, the bond of nearness and +dearness known to the soldier as "comradeship." Allied to this +feeling, and aiding to exalt the soldier's profession, is that "esprit +de corps" which fills his heart with pride in his company, his +regiment, corps, and army. As a rider feels that he shares the sinewy +strength of the steed under him, so the soldier, though a unit among +thousands, exults in the dread power and beauty of the bounding column +or long line of which he forms a part; in the order and precision +which transform a multitude of individuals into one terrible engine. +The Roman citizen was not more proud of his country than the Union +soldier was of his army. A soldier of the Army of the Potomac writes +in a home letter dated April, 1863: "I have just taken a ride of about +fifteen miles through the army. It is really a sight worth while to go +through this vast army and see how admirably everything is conducted. +The discipline is fine, the men look healthy and are in the best +possible spirits, and the cleanliness of the camps and grounds is a +model for housewives." The delights of the gypsy-like way of living of +the soldier had a large part in forming the bright side of the new +vocation. It seemed good to turn from the comforts and luxuries of +easeful homes, and go back to the simple and nomadic habits of the +hardy primitive man; to live more closely with Nature, and be subject +to her varying moods; to have the sod for a couch, and the winds for a +lullaby, and to be constantly familiar with the changing skies from +early morning through the day and the watches of the night. The pork +and beef boiled in the kettles hung over the campfire, the beans +cooked in Dutch ovens buried in the embers, owed their sweet savor to +the picturesque manner of the cooking as well as to uncritical +appetites sharpened by living in the open air, and by plenty of +exercise, drilling, guard duty, and "fatigue." And what feast could +compare with the unpurchased chicken broiled on the coals, sweet +potatoes roasted in the ashes--trophies of his "bow and spear" in +foraging--and his tin cup of ration coffee; the product of the +marauder's own culinary skill, over his private fire, served "ŕ la +fourchette" and smoking hot; with perhaps the luxury of a soft +hoe-cake, acquired by barter of some "auntie," in lieu of the daily +hard bread! + +Not least among the fascinations of the soldier's life is the +uncertain tenure he has of his camp. He has no local habitation. He +may flatter himself that the army is going to remain long enough to +make it worth his while to provide the comforts and conveniences +within the compass of his resources and ingenuity, and when he has +fairly established himself and contemplates his work with complacency, +the ruthless order comes to "break camp," and down goes his beautiful +home as if it were but a child's house of blocks. He grumbles a little +at the sacrifice, but the prospect of fresh scenes and adventures is +sufficient solace of his disappointment, and he cheerfully makes +himself at home again at the next halt of his regiment. + +In the matter of habitation the soldier did not pursue the order of +the pioneer who begins with a brush lean-to, then builds a log house, +and continues building nobler mansions as his labors prosper and +fortune smiles, until, maybe, a brownstone front shelters him. The +home of the soldier of the War for the Union was, like the bumble-bee, +"the biggest when it was born." In 1861 the volunteer regiments were +generally fitted out, before leaving their respective States, with +tents, wagons, mess furniture, and all other "impedimenta," according +to the requirements of army regulations. The tents commonly furnished +for the use of the rank and file were the "A" and the "Sibley" +patterns. The "A" was wedge-shaped, as its name indicates, and was +supposed to quarter five or six men. The "Sibley" was a simple cone, +suggested by the Indian "tepee," with an opening at the apex for +ventilation and the exit of the smoke of the fire, for which provision +was made in the centre of the tent by the use of a tall iron tripod as +a foundation for the pole. It comfortably accommodated fifteen or +sixteen men, lying feet to the pole, and radiating thence like the +spokes of a wheel. This tent, improved by the addition of a curtain, +or wall, is now in use by the regular army, and it is known as the +"conical wall tent." Officers were provided with wall tents, canvas +houses, two to each field or staff officer above the rank of captain, +one to each captain, and one to every two subaltern officers. Each +company had a "cook tent," and the cooking was done over a fire in the +open. The fires of the cooks of companies from the northern lumbering +regions could always be distinguished by the "bean holes," in which +the covered iron pot containing the frequent "pork and beans," the +favorite and distinctive article of Yankee diet, was buried in hot +embers and, barring removal by unauthorized hands, allowed to remain +all night. The lumberman and the soldier declare that he who has not +eaten them cooked in this manner does not really "know beans." The +regimental camp of infantry was arranged according to regulations, +with such modifications as the nature of the ground might make +desirable. The company "streets" were at right angles with the "color +line" or "front" on which the regiment was formed, and began ten paces +in rear of it. The tents of the "rank and file" of each company were +pitched on both sides of its street. In rear of them, with an interval +of twenty paces between the lines, and in successive order, was the +line of "kitchens," the line of non-commissioned staff, sutler and +police guard, the line of company officers, and the line of field and +staff officers. In the rear of the camp were the baggage train and +officers' horses. + +The first winter of the Army of the Potomac was to a large part of the +army one of much suffering from cold. The hills of Virginia, along the +Potomac, are anything but tropical in the winter. The frequent light +snows and rains, followed by thawy, sunny days, produced a moisture in +the air which, combined with winds from the mountains, struck a chill +to the very marrow of the bones of even the men from the far North +accustomed to a much lower temperature but in a dry atmosphere. The +commander of the army gave no encouragement to the building of winter +quarters, and the prevailing impression was that the army must remain +on the _qui vive_, ready to move on slight notice whenever the +commander (or the enemy) might give the word. There was plenty of fine +timber in the section of country occupied by the army, and it would +have been an easy matter to the skilled axemen and mechanics in which +most regiments abounded, and entailing comparatively slight expense, +to build log huts that would have housed them in comfort and saved +many a stout soldier for the impending days of battle. Some commands, +either by special permission or taking the responsibility upon +themselves, did build huts, and were snugly and warmly housed for +months, while their less fortunate or unenterprising neighbors were +shivering under their canvas. The rude fireplaces made of stones, with +the tenacious Virginia mud for mortar, having chimneys of sticks and +clay, or barrels, served fairly well to heat a well-chinked hut; but +their small, sputtering fires could make but little impression on the +temperature of a space which had only a thin cotton barrier as a +defence against the keen wintry blasts. The unnecessary hardships of +such exposure inflicted {497} severe loss on the army, especially in +those regiments which had been visited in the autumn by that scourge +common to new levies, the measles. That disease, though not dangerous +in itself, leaves its subjects in an enfeebled condition for a long +time after apparent recovery, and incapable of withstanding exposures +and ailments ordinarily regarded as slight. In the camps of regiments +which had been afflicted with it, the burial party marching with slow +and solemn step to the wail of the dirge was an all too frequent +ceremony through the long winter, and far from inspiriting to young +soldiers, while the number of the dead was as great as that of the +slain in a hard-fought battle. Perhaps the relentless necessities +attending the hasty gathering and organization of a great army made it +difficult or impossible to bestow upon convalescents the care +necessary to preserve their lives; but, leaving aside the question of +humanity, an intelligent self-interest should have induced the +responsible head of the army to make every effort to guard against +such deplorable impairment of the strength of his command as arose +from causes which seem to have been preventable. If the men who +perished miserably on the bleak hillsides of Virginia, and who never +had a chance to strike a blow for the cause that was so dear to them, +had been sent where they could have received proper care and +treatment, the number of these restored to health and strength would +have constituted a powerful reinforcement in the following campaign +where the cry for help was raised so lustily. + +[Illustration: HOSPITAL CORPS--AMBULANCE DRILL.] + +The mistake of the first winter was not repeated. The fact was +recognized that the army must go into winter quarters, and timely and +adequate preparations to encounter the rigors of the season were made +by the whole army. An officer writing from "Camp near White Oak +Church, Virginia," in the winter of 1862-63, says: "We have fixed up +our camp so that it is quite comfortable. Each squad of four men has +its hut, made by digging into the ground a foot or two and then +placing on the ground at the sides several logs, and roofing with +their shelter tents. At the side they dig a fireplace, and build a +chimney outside with sticks and mud. It is Paddy-like, but much more +comfortable than no house at all. My 'house' is very nice; it is built +up with split hardwood logs about four feet above the ground, and on +this foundation my wall tent is pitched, making {498} a room nine by +nine, with walls six feet high. At one end there is a fine fireplace, +which does not smoke at all. I told Captain C., who was just in, that +if I had a cat on the hearth it would be quite domestic." The general +style of architecture throughout the army was the same; but there were +wide differences in the manner of construction and the details of the +work. The huts of some commands were rudely built and without +uniformity, giving to the camp a mean and squalid appearance, while +other camps were very attractive with their rows of solid and +trim-looking structures, as like each other as the houses of a builder +in a city addition. + +The real soldiering and camping began when, after a period of +stripping for the campaign by sending the sick to hospitals and all +unnecessary baggage to the rear for storage, of outfitting with all +the required clothing, arms, equipments, and ammunition, and of +repeated inspections and reviews to make sure that everybody and +everything was in readiness, the troops were drawn out of winter +quarters and put on the march toward the enemy. Every man had to be +his own pack animal and carry upon his shoulders and hips his +food--rations for one day or a week, according to the nature of the +enterprise in hand and the prospect of making a connection with the +wagon trains; drink in his canteen; cartridges--a cartridge box full +and oftentimes as many more as could be crowded into knapsacks and +pockets; and, lastly, his lodging, a woollen blanket and one of +rubber, and the oblong piece of cotton cloth which was his part of the +"shelter tent." This tent was invented by the French and had long been +in use by them. It is one of the most useful articles of the soldier's +equipment. It is but a slight addition to his burden, and a very great +one to his comfort. Two or more comrades, by buttoning their several +sections together, and the use of a few slight sticks, or sticks and +cord, can speedily prepare a very effective protection against the +dew, the wind, and "the heaviest of the rain." Generally three +comrades joined their sections to form a tent; two sections made the +sides and one an end, the other end either remaining open to admit the +heat of a fire or being closed by a rubber blanket. When four men +tented together, which they could do by "packing close," the extra +section was used instead of the rubber blanket, and then the squad was +very thoroughly housed. + +Schiller's word-picture of a military camp vividly recalls to the +soldier one of the most characteristic and impressive pictures of his +army life: + + "Lo there! the soldier, rapid architect! + Builds his light town of canvas, and at once + The whole scene moves and bustles momently. + With arms and neighing steeds, and mirth and quarrel, + The motley market fills: the roads, the streams, + Are crowded with new freights; trade stirs and hurries. + But on some morrow morn, all suddenly, + The tents drop down, the horde renews its march. + Dreary and solitary as a churchyard + The meadows and down-trodden seed-plot lie, + And the year's harvest is gone utterly." + +[Illustration: A NEW RECRUIT BEING INITIATED.] + +The rise and fall of "the light towns of canvas," movable cities that +attended the progress of the army, seemed wonderful and magical. +Imagine a broad plantation stretching its sunny acres from river to +forest, a vast and lonely area with no signs of human occupancy +anywhere, except, perhaps, the toil-bent figures of a few bondservants +of the soil at their tasks in the fields, under the eye of the +overseer, lending by the unjoyous monotony of their labor an air of +gloom and melancholy to the oppressive loneliness of the scene. +Suddenly and quietly from the road at the edge of the forest a few +horsemen ride into the open, a banneret bearing some cabalistic device +fluttering over them, closely followed by a rapidly moving column of +men whose gleaming muskets indicate afar off their trade; and +presently, when the centre of the regiment breaks into view and Old +Glory appears in all its beauty against the background of dark forest, +it announces to all who may behold that one of the grand armies of the +Republic is on the march. As the regiment emerges in the easy marching +disorder of "route step" and "arms at will," it seems to be a confused +tide of men flowing steadily along and filling the whole roadway. A +few sharp orders ring out, and the throng is transformed almost +instantly to a solid military machine; officers take their posts, +"files cover," arms are carried uniformly, the cadence step is +taken--"short on the right" that the men may "close up" to the proper +distance--and, under the guidance of a staff officer, the regiment +marches to its assigned camping-ground, where it is brought to a +front, arms are stacked, and ranks broken. With whoops and cries +expressing their gratification that the day's march is over and a rest +is in prospect, the released soldiers scatter, unstrapping their +irksome knapsacks and throwing them off with sighs of relief, and +betake themselves to the preparation of their temporary home. If there +be any prize which these old campaigners have discovered as with wise +prevision and hawk-like ken they surveyed their environment in +marching to the camping-ground--a comely fence of well-seasoned rails, +for instance--they "make a break" for it on the instant of their +deliverance from the restraint of discipline, and with a unanimity and +alacrity that give little hope of a share to the slow-footed, and fill +the hearts of the incoming regiment, not yet released, with envy and +unavailing longing. When the scramble is over, and the foragers have +swarmed in like ants, laden with their plunder, each squad with +practised skill proceeds to its domestic duties. One man pitches the +"dog tent," and utilizes any {499} material that may be at hand for +making the couch dry and soft. Another, laden with the canteens, +explores the hollows and copses for the cool spring of which he has +had tantalizing visions on the dusty march. The rest build the fire, +if one is needed for warmth, or for cooking in case the wagons +containing the company mess kettles and rations are not with the +command or have not come up, and therefore every man is left to boil +his coffee and fry his pork to his own taste, and lend a hand whenever +needed. Every man is expected to contribute of the best that the +country affords, and not to be nice as to the method of acquisition, +to eke out the plain fare of the marching ration. Foraging in +Virginia, except to the cavalry, was not a very prosperous pursuit +after the country had been occupied a few months by the army. There +was, however, game almost anywhere for those emancipated from vulgar +prejudices in the matter of diet, as De Trobriand's Zouaves appear to +have been, for he says of them that they "discovered the nutritive +qualities of the black snake." The _menu_ including a black snake hash +suggests a wide range of possibilities. By the time the first arrivals +have leisure to look about them, the plain far and near is covered +with tents: the "rapid architect" has done his work, and the "light +town" is established. + +Perhaps before the next morning's sun was high in the heavens the town +had disappeared like a scene conjured up by a magician, leaving the +plain to resume its wonted loneliness so strangely interrupted. + +The routine of camp-life so absorbed the time of the soldier that +there was little left to hang heavy on his hands. The odd minutes +between drills, roll-calls, police and fatigue duty, could be well +utilized in cleaning his musket and equipments, washing and mending +his clothes, darning his stockings, procuring fuel, improving his +quarters, writing home, and re-reading old letters. After a hard +night's duty on camp guard or picket, with sleep on the instalment +plan, it was luxury to lie warm and make up the arrears undisturbed by +fear of the dread summons, "Fall in, second relief." Very restful it +was, too, to stretch out at full length on the spring bunk, made of +barrel staves across poles, with a knapsack for a pillow, and indulge +in the fragrant briarwood, conversing with comrades of home and +friends, or discussing the gossip of the camp. In spring and summer +camps each tent commonly had an arbor of foliage for a porch, and when +there swung in its shelter a shapely hammock ingeniously woven of +withes and grapevines, attached to spring poles driven into the earth, +and filled with the balmy tips of cedar boughs, the extreme of +sybaritish appointments was attained. It was always in order to hunt +for "something to eat," not perhaps so much to appease absolute hunger +as to vary the tiresome monotony of the regulation diet. Desirable +articles of food were acquired in all ways recognized by civilized +peoples as legitimate: by purchase, by barter, and by--right of +discovery. In camp and all accessible places on the march the sutler +tempted appetites weary of hard-tack and pork, with dry ginger cakes, +cheese, dried fruits, and apples in their season. Sardines, condensed +milk, and other tinned food preparations were so expensive that they +could not be indulged in to a great extent. The canning industry was +then in its infancy. If it had then attained its present development, +and all kinds of fruits, vegetables, and meats had been accessible to +the soldier, he would have been in full sympathy with the Arizona +miner who said to his "pard," as they were consuming the customary +flapjacks and bacon, "Tom, I hope I shall strike it rich; I should +just like to strike it rich."--"Well, Bill, s'pose you should strike +it rich, what then?"--"If I should strike it rich, Tom, I'd live on +canned goods _one_ six months." + +[Illustration: THE ARMY OF THE POTOMAC--FIRST YEAR IN WINTER QUARTERS. +(From a War Department photograph.)] + +Although the old soldier would growl about his hard-tack and feign to +have slight regard for it, the sincerity of his attachment was +attested by an incident occurring in a command which halted for a few +days, after the battle of Gettysburg, at a rural town in Pennsylvania. +It was far from the base of supplies, and the commissary's supplies +had become exhausted, and he was obliged to purchase flour and issue +it to the companies. Having no facilities for baking, they had their +flour made into bread at the farmhouses in their vicinity. The bread +was fairly good and there was plenty of it; nevertheless, when the +wagons appeared laden with the familiar boxes of veteran "squares," +cheers went up all along the line as if for a victory or the return of +missing comrades. + +{500} [Illustration: LANDING REINFORCEMENTS FOR FORT PICKENS, FLORIDA, +JUNE, 1861.] + +{501} The sutler was an institution of the camp not to be overlooked. +When transportation was safe and not expensive, he kept a general +store of everything that officers and men required or could be tempted +to buy, save such articles as were prohibited by the Council of +Administration which had the general oversight of his business. Where +carriage was difficult and dangerous, a choice of articles had to be +made in order to supply those most needed. Tobacco and matches were +easily first in order of selection. Soldiers of the Army of the +Potomac will remember the blue-ended matches that left such a track +behind when struck; they touched nothing they did not adorn. + +The sutlers of German-American regiments were expected to accomplish +the impossible in order to supply lager, Rhine wine, and bolognas. +Whenever a fresh stock of such goods had been received, the crowd +around the sutler's tent mustered in far greater numbers than appeared +at the parade of the regiment. It was popularly considered very +desirable to have a German regiment in a brigade. In one respect the +sutler's business was a safe one: he could collect at the paymaster's +table the sums due him, if he took care not to give men credit in +excess of the proportion of their pay permitted by regulations. On the +other hand, his profits were in danger of diminution from many +quarters. In camp the sutler and his clerks could not always +distinguish, among a crowd of customers coming and going, who paid and +who did not; storehouses were slight and penetrable, and marauders +were watchful and cunning. Those commands were very exceptional that +were in Falstaff's condition, "heinously unprovided with a thief." On +the march, dangers to the sutler's stock multiplied. To say nothing of +ordinary risks attending carriage over bad roads, and of the watchful +guerilla, there was always an uneasy feeling in the breast of the +purveyor when most surrounded by men in friendly uniform, that there +might be "unguarded moments" when the cry, "Rally on the sutler," +would be followed by a speedy division of his goods, leaving him +lamenting. Personally the sutler was generally a prudent and tactful +man, and gained the goodwill of his customers by an obliging +disposition and a readiness to take a joke even if it was a little +rough and at his expense. When the command was in the field he made +himself especially serviceable as a medium of communication with the +"base," and many and various were the commissions he was called upon +to execute. + +[Illustration: SOLDIERS' WINTER HUTS--TWO VIEWS.] + +Camp life had its diversions in addition to the many interesting and +enjoyable features of the daily round of duties. Military life in +itself is necessarily spectacular, abounding in scenes of animation +and display. He must be of an unsusceptible nature and void of +enthusiasm who is indifferent to the splendid pageantry which attends +the business of war; whose senses are not pleased and imagination +excited by charging squadrons, batteries dashing across the field with +a rumble and clang suggestive of the thunderbolts they bear, and by +"heavy and solemn" battalions moving with perfect order and precision +to the stormy music of martial airs, with banners flying, rows of +bright arms reflecting the rays of the sun in streams of silver light, +and horses proudly caracoling in excited enjoyment of the music, the +glitter, and the movement. + +Such spectacles thrill the breast of the soldier with pride in his +profession, and cause him to feel that + + "All else to noble hearts is dross, + All else on earth is mean." + +The daily ceremonies of "guard mounting" and "dress parade," and the +frequent reviews and brigade and division drills, afforded splendid +entertainments, entirely gratuitous except the contribution of +personal services. Candor compels the admission that the soldier +sometimes considered the show dear at the price. When weather and +ground were favorable, the men played the game that then passed for +"ball"--not so {502} warlike an affair as the present contest by that +name--and pitched quoits, using horse-shoes, when attainable, for that +purpose. The Virginia winter often afforded material for snowballing, +and there were occasions when whole regiments in order of battle were +pitted against each other in mimic warfare, filling the air with snowy +pellets, and Homeric deeds were done. Theatrical and minstrel +entertainments were given by "native talent," and were liberally +patronized. The first warm days of spring opened the season of +horse-racing. The "Derby" of the Army of the Potomac was St. Patrick's +Day. Running and hurdle races were held on a grand scale. The fine +horses and their dashing riders, the grand stand filled with generals +and staff officers, visiting dignitaries and ladies, the band composed +of many regimental bands consolidated for the occasion and pouring +forth a perfect Niagara of sound, mounted officers and soldiers in +thousands occupying the central space of the track, and General +Meagher, in the costume of "a fine old Irish gentleman," presiding as +grand patron of the races--all combined, with the military accessories +of glittering uniforms and comparisons, to make a scene of unusual +animation and brilliancy. For "fireside games" the various inventions +played with the well-thumbed pack of cards were greatly in favor. +Sometimes it was a simple, innocent game "just to pass away the time." +At other times it was a serious contest resulting to the unfortunate +in "passing away" all that was left him of his last pay and perhaps an +interest in his next stipend. The colored retainers and camp followers +were generally votaries of the goddess of chance and were skilled in +getting on her blind side. One day Major Blank, a gallant officer of +the staff, was showing a friend some tricks with cards. Bob, his +colored boy, was apparently very busy brushing up the quarters and +setting things to rights, paying no attention to the exhibition. The +next day the major saw his retainer counting over a whole fistful of +greenbacks. "Why, Bob," said he, "where did you get all that money?" +Bob, looking up with a grin and a chuckle: "I'se down ter de cavalry +last night, major, and dem fellers down dar didn't know nuffin 'bout +dat little trick wid de jacks what you's showin' to de cunnel." Bob +had tasted the sweets of philosophy, and proved that "knowledge is +power." The colored "boys" who came into camp when the army was in the +enemy's country, for the purpose of gazing at the "Linkum" soldiers, +or marching along with them in any capacity that would give them +rations, gave much entertainment to their hosts by their simplicity, +their stolidness, or their accomplishments as whistling, singing, or +dancing darkies. The morning after "Williamsburg," half a dozen boys +from some plantation in the vicinity came near several officers +grouped about a fire. "Good morning, boys," said Captain C., "where +did you all come from?"--"We come from Marsa Jones's place, right over +yer," said the spokesman. "We h'ar de fightin' goin' on yes'erday, an' +we jes come over dis mornin' to see about it and see you all."--"Do +you think, boys," resumed the captain, "that it is quite the polite +thing to wear such clothes as you have on when you come to visit +gentlemen of President Lincoln's army?"--"Dese yer's de bes' close we +got," was the earnestly uttered reply. "You must certainly have better +hats than those?"--"No! no! no!" came in chorus, "we has only one hat +to w'ar."--"It is a shame," said the captain, drawing a memorandum +book from his pocket with a business-like air and poising his pencil, +"that such good-looking boys as you are should only have one hat, and +such bad ones at that; I must send back to Fortress Monroe and have +some hats sent up for you. What kind of a hat do you want?" addressing +himself to the spokesman. "I wants a low-crowned hat, massa," was the +quick and earnest response; and then each boy in turn eagerly +expressed his personal preference, "I wants a wide-rimmed hat," "I +wants a hat ter fit me," etc., until the order was completed and +apparently taken down by the guileful scribe. Their confidence made +the deceit so easy as to greatly dull the point of the practical joke. +Maybe they never questioned the good faith of their generous friend, +and ascribed the non-delivery of the hats to other causes than his +neglect. + +It was not often that a camp had such a sensational and pleasurable +incident as that which occurred to the First Vermont volunteer +infantry, a three months' regiment, at Newport News, in the summer of +1861. The Woodstock company formed a part of the detachment of that +regiment, which participated in the unfortunate expedition to Big +Bethel; and on the return of the company, private Reuben Parker was +missing. The company had been somewhat broken up in making an attack +in the woods. Several men remembered seeing Parker, who was a brave +fellow and a skilled rifleman, somewhat in advance of the rest of the +company, busily loading and firing. Some were even quite sure they had +seen him fall. Days and weeks having passed without his appearance or +any further news of him, there seemed no doubt about his fate, and he +was reported "killed in action." Funeral services were held at his +home in Vermont, and his wife and children put on mourning for the +lost husband and father. One day the surprising and joyful report +spread swiftly through the camp, that Parker was alive and had +returned. He came from Richmond under the escort of two Louisiana +"tigers," sent in for exchange. He had been taken prisoner uninjured +and carried to Richmond, where he enjoyed the distinction of being the +first Yankee captive exhibited in that city, and the first occupant of +"the Libby." Parker was the lion of the day for many days after his +return to the company, and his accounts of the colloquies he held with +curious rebels, and of the insults and revilings he was subjected to +in prison, made him in great request among his comrades. His case was +the first of the instances occurring in the war when Southern prisons +"yawned" and yielded "their dead unto life again." + +Mr. H. V. Redfield, whose home in Lower East Tennessee was visited +several times by both the Union and the Confederate armies, observed +and noted some of the differing characteristics of the two sides. It +was the opinion of his neighbors that they would see none of the +soldiers throughout the war, because they "could not get their cannon +over the mountains." But it was not long before they learned to their +cost that mountains offered no insurmountable obstacles to modern +armies, or to their artillery either. + +The first time that it dawned upon the inhabitants of this section +that there was a possible fighting chance for the North, and that one +Southern soldier was not necessarily equal to five from the North, was +after the Confederate defeat at Mill Spring, Ky., where Zollicoffer +was killed. The Confederate panic was so complete and so lasting, that +some of the refugees ran fully one hundred and fifty miles from the +scene of battle before they dared stop to take their breath and rest. +They arrived wild-eyed and in confusion, and not only to the men +themselves, but to all the neighborhood, it was an "eye-opener" as to +the fact that there was a war on hand that was likely to last until +there had been some hard fighting on both sides. + +It was not long after this that General Floyd, the disloyal Secretary +of War, who had done so much before his resignation {503} to prepare +the South for the conflict, came to Lower Tennessee in his flight from +Fort Donelson. He sent for the Northern men in the town, and told +them, in explanation of his flight from Donelson, that he would "never +be captured in this war. I have a long account to settle with the +Yankees, and they can settle it in hell!" + +The Southern soldiers were always prone to talk back at their +officers, lacking the discipline which was quickly established in the +Union army; and when they suffered defeat they took it as a personal +disappointment, for which they meant to get even with the Yanks after +the war; and they also had a bad habit of laying the responsibility +for every reverse on the shoulders of their superiors. When General +Bragg retreated through Tennessee, his men were greatly cast down, +though they insisted that their retreat did not mean that they were +whipped, which they insisted they were not. "It is bad enough," said +one of the soldiers, "to run when we are whipped; but d--n this way of +beating the Yankees and then running away from them!" One of them was +asked where they were retreating to. "To Cuba," he said angrily, "if +old Bragg can get a bridge built across from Florida." A horse trade +was proposed on this retreat, between two soldiers whose horses were +pretty well spent, and a farmer who was willing to exchange fresher +ones for these and a bonus. One of the soldiers objected to the horse +that was offered to him, because it had a white face that the enemy +could see for a mile. "Oh, that's no objection," said his companion; +"it's the other end of Bragg's cavalry that is always toward the +Yankees." + +At the beginning of the war the Confederate cavalry was rather the +better mounted, because so many of the men owned their own horses; but +as the original supply gave out, and the renewing of the mounts became +a question of the respective ability of the governments to furnish the +best animals, this difference changed in favor of the Northern +cavalry. Also, at the beginning the Confederates were by far the best +riders, as might be expected of a race of men who spent much time in +the saddle before the war. But it was not long before the Union +cavalryman learned to ride, too, and then, with better horses, better +equipments, and better fodder, the efficiency of the cavalry of the +North was superior. + +Before the war had gotten very far along, the greater facility of the +Union Government for equipping, subsisting, and generally preparing +its army, brought about a contrast between the two hostile armies +distinctly favorable to that of the North. The Union men were better +fed. To be sure, the Confederates had plenty of tobacco, while often +the Union troops were rather short of that luxury, and were ready to +make trades with the pickets of the enemy in order to secure it. But +the Unionists had plenty of coffee, and that good, while coffee was an +item that quickly disappeared from the Southern bill of fare. Meat and +flour also became scarce, and through a good many campaigns corn-meal +was the staple of the Confederate diet. The advantage of having coffee +appeared in some cases to be a distinct military advantage. The story +is told of a man who had volunteered in the Confederate army, and had +been captured, paroled, and sent home. The Union army presently +encamped near his home, and his two boys went down to camp to take a +look around; and when some friends whom they met there regaled them +with all the crackers and coffee they wanted, they made up their minds +to enlist under Uncle Sam just to get an amount and quality of "grub" +to which they had long been strangers. The old man was much disturbed, +and went down to see what he could do to get the boys out of the +scrape. But he found that he himself was like the man who said he +could "resist anything except temptation," for his first taste of the +Yankee coffee seduced him from his allegiance to the Stars and Bars, +and he, too, enlisted for the war. This story is vouched for as a +fact, illustrating the seductive power of a good commissariat for the +enticement of recruits. + +[Illustration: PRESIDENT LINCOLN VISITING CAMP.] + +The Northern soldier was the best clothed, and the clothing was +uniform, which could not be said of that of the Southern soldier, who, +although he was supposed to be dressed in gray or butternut, was +really dressed in whatever he could pick up, which often did not +include overcoats or oil-blankets. Supplied with good materials, and +plenty of them, the Northern soldier was expected to take care of +them, and he did so. But the Confederate soldier seldom took care to +keep his weapons bright and free from dirt and rust. The Confederate +lacked thoroughness in his camp housekeeping; he almost never fixed up +the little comfortable arrangements that characterized a Union camp, +if occupied for any length of time, nor did he "police" his camp +carefully, to keep it neat or even clean, the lack of ordinary +cleanliness being so marked as really to contribute materially to +losses through {504} disease. The way in which the Union soldier made +even a temporary camp homelike was well described by an army +correspondent, Benjamin F. Taylor: + +"No matter where or when you halt them, they are at once at home. They +know precisely what to do first, and they do it. I have seen them +march into a strange region at dark, and almost as soon as the fires +would show well they were twinkling all over the field, the Sibley +cones rising like the work of enchantment everywhere, and the little +dog-tents lying snug to the ground, as if, like the mushrooms, they +had grown there, and the aroma of coffee and tortured bacon suggesting +creature comforts, and the whole economy of life in canvas cities +moving as steadily on as if it had never been intermitted. The +movements of regiments are as blind as fate. Nobody can tell to-night +where he will be to-morrow, and yet with the first glimmer of morning +the camp is astir, and the preparations begin for staying there +forever. An axe, a knife, and a will are tools enough for a soldier +house-builder. He will make the mansion and all its belongings of red +cedar, from the ridge-pole to the forestick, though a couple of +dog-tents stretched from wall to wall will make a roof worth thanking +the Lord for. Having been mason and joiner, he turns cabinetmaker; +there are his table, his chairs, his sideboard; he glides into +upholstery, and there is his bed of bamboo, as full of springs and +comfort as a patent mattress. He whips out a needle and turns tailor; +he is not above the mysteries of the saucepan and camp-kettle; he can +cook, if not quite like a Soyer, yet exactly like a soldier, and you +may believe that he can eat you hungry when he is in trim for it. +Cosey little cabins, neatly fitted, are going up; here is a boy making +a fireplace, and quite artistically plastering it with the inevitable +red earth; he has found a crane somewhere, and swung up thereon a +two-legged dinner-pot; there a fellow is finishing out a chimney with +brick from an old kiln of secession proclivities; yonder a +bower-house, closely interwoven with evergreen, is almost ready for +the occupants; the avenues between the lines of tents are cleared and +smoothed--'policed,' in camp phrase; little seats with cedar awnings +in front of the tents give a cottage-look, while the interior, in a +rude way, has a genuine homelike air. The bit of looking-glass hangs +against the cotton wall; a handkerchief of a carpet just before the +bunk marks the stepping-off place to the land of dreams; a violin case +is strung to a convenient hook, flanked by a gorgeous picture of some +hero of somewhere, mounted upon a horse rampant and saltant, 'and what +a length of tail behind!' + +"The business of living has fairly begun again. There is hardly an +idle moment; and save here and there a man brushing up his musket, +getting that 'damned spot' off his bayonet, burnishing his revolver, +you would not suspect that these men had but one terrible errand. They +are tailors, they are tinkers, they are writers; fencing, boxing, +cooking, eating, drilling--those who say that camp life is a lazy life +know little about it. And then the reconnoissances 'on private +account;' every wood, ravine, hill, field, is explored; the +productions, animal and vegetable, are inventoried, and one day +renders them as thoroughly conversant with the region round about as +if they had been dwelling there a lifetime. Soldiers have +interrogation points in both eyes. They have tasted water from every +spring and well, estimated the corn to the acre, tried the +watermelons, bagged the peaches, knocked down the persimmons, milked +the cows, roasted the pigs, picked the chickens; they know who lives +here and there and yonder, the whereabouts of the native boys, the +names of the native girls. If there is a curious cave, a queer tree, a +strange rock anywhere about, they know it. You can see them with +chisel, hammer, and haversack, tugging up the mountain, or scrambling +down the ravine, in a geological passion that would have won the right +hand of fellowship from Hugh Miller, and home they come with specimens +that would enrich a cabinet. The most exquisite fossil buds just ready +to open, beautiful shells, rare minerals, are collected by these rough +and dashing naturalists." + +[Illustration: AN OLD-FASHIONED TRAINING DAY.] + +In the larger equipments of the army there was again a superiority in +those of the North. Their wagon trains were better, the wagons of a +uniform style, and they were marked with the name of regiment and +brigade, so that there never was any doubt as to where a stray wagon +belonged. The Confederate wagons were of all sorts and shapes and +sizes, a job lot, ill-matched, ill-kept, and ill-arranged, and the +harnesses were patchwork of inferior strength. + +Residents of the South observed with pain one distinction between the +armies, which reminds one of Henry W. Grady's remark about General +Sherman, that he was a smart man, "but mighty careless about fire." +Encamped in a Southern community, a Southern army was careful not to +forage promiscuously, or appropriate to its own uses the various +provisions and live-stock of the non-combatant people who lived near. +But the Northern troops had a feeling that they were in the enemy's +{505} country and that they were entitled to live on it. There were +orders against unauthorized foraging; but the temptation to bring into +camp an occasional chicken, sundry pigs, cows, vegetables, and in some +cases even money and jewelry, is said by Southern residents to have +sometimes overcome a soldier here and there; so that the visit of a +Northern army was the signal for the good people of the neighborhood +to get as much of their belongings out of sight as possible. What was +taken in this way was taken without the formality of a request, of +payment, or of a receipt given, except when the victim claimed to be a +loyal Unionist. The Southern soldiers usually paid for what they took, +even if it was in Confederate script; but the Northern pillagers did +not do even that. Those who recall and chronicle this habit, admit +that it was due in great measure to the foreign element in the +Northern army, and to the recruits from the large cities, elements +which in the Confederate army were comparatively scarce. + +The practical jokes that were played on some of the Southern farmers +illustrate the tendency on the part of the Northern soldier to "do" a +rebel. One farmer drove into a Union camp with a forty-gallon barrel +of cider, which he sold by the quart to the men, over the side of his +wagon. He was astonished to find that his barrel was empty after he +had sold only about twenty quarts, and on investigating the cause, he +discovered that while he was engaged in peddling the cider over the +side board, some soldiers had put an auger through the bottom of his +wagon and into the barrel, and had drawn the rest off into their +canteens. Another trader lost the contents of a barrel of brandy which +he had stored in a shanty overnight, in a similar manner; while +several farmers concluded that it was in vain to go to the Yankee camp +with wagon loads of apples or other fruit, unless they had a +detachment to guard every side of the wagon, for while they dealt fair +over one side, their stock would disappear over the other. One who had +suffered in this way came to the conclusion that "the Yankees could +take the shortening out of a gingercake without breaking the crust." + + + + +SOUTHERN SPIES AND SCOUTS IN THE WAR. + +BY F. G. DE FONTAINE. + +THE INGENIOUS DEVICE OF A WOMAN--DESPATCHES CONCEALED UNDER THE HIDE +OF A DOG--"DEAF BURKE," THE MAN OF MANY DISGUISES--FREQUENT +COMMUNICATIONS BETWEEN THE LINES--BISCUIT A MEDIUM OF +CORRESPONDENCE--DEATH OF COON HARRIS AT SHILOH--A BOLD UNION SPY--AN +EXECUTION AT FRANKLIN, TENN. + + +The secret service or "spy" system of the South did not differ greatly +from that of the North. There may have been in that section a lack of +available gold with which to pay expenses when desirable information +was required, but there was certainly no absence of courage or +patriotism on the part of those who were willing to risk their lives +or imprisonment in the event of capture. This was especially true of +Southern women; and those who are familiar with their achievements in +this field of war will bear witness to the shrewdness, persistence, +and fidelity with which they often pursued their dangerous +investigations. + +One or two incidents will illustrate. It was of the utmost importance +to General Beauregard, in 1862, to learn the strength of McClellan's +army and whatever facts might relate to his suspected designs on +Centreville, Va. For this mission a woman was chosen. She was a young +widow whose husband had been killed at the second battle of Manassas; +a Virginian of gentle birth; prior to the war a resident of +Washington, and a frequent visitor in the society circles of +Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New York. Making her way across the +lines, she promptly entered upon her task, and through trusty agents +was soon enabled to obtain a complete roster of the Federal army, +together with much valuable information concerning its probable +movements. She was absent two months. + +Returning at the end of this time, she crossed the Potomac opposite +Dumfries, Va., an outpost then under the command of Col. (afterward +Gen.) Wade Hampton, and the fair spy was promptly forwarded to the +Confederate headquarters at Centreville. Her baggage consisted of a +small grip-sack and a tiny Scotch terrier. Warmly welcomed by +Beauregard, she proceeded with true womanly volubility to entertain +him with a description of her adventures and their result. The general +patiently permitted the lingual freshet to flow on without +interruption, supposing that when she got tired she would produce the +expected despatches from other secret agents in the North. But the +little woman's tongue seemed to be hung in the middle and to wag at +both ends; moreover, she was too pretty to be abruptly silenced by the +polite creole commander. + +Finally, unable to restrain his anxiety any longer, he said, "Well, +Mrs. M., I shall be glad to see your papers."--"I didn't dare to bring +them on my person," was the reply; "it was unsafe. In fact, I have +been suspected and searched already, and so I familiarized myself with +their contents. You see it is fortunate that I have a good memory." At +this remark, Beauregard showed his chagrin, and frankly told the lady +he could place but little reliance on her memory of so many figures +and details, and therefore that her mission had proved of little use. + +Listening to his scolding with a demure air, and looking at him with a +mischievous twinkle in her eye, she called her dog: "Here, Floy!" The +Skye terrier jumped in her lap. "General, have you a knife about you?" +The knife was produced. Then she turned the animal over on its back, +and, to the amazement of Beauregard, deliberately proceeded to rip him +open. In less time than it takes to tell the story, she held in one +hand the precious papers and in the other the skin of the Skye +terrier, while prancing about the floor was a diminutive black-and-tan +pup overjoyed at his relief from an extra cuticle. + +The shrewd woman had sewed the despatches between the two skins in a +manner that defied detection, and under the very noses of the Federal +outposts had brought through the lines some of the most important +information transmitted during the war. It is needless to say that +Beauregard was delighted, and it was but a little while after this +incident that McClellan advanced on Centreville only to find deserted +camps, batteries of "Quaker guns," and the Confederate army falling +back toward Richmond and Yorktown. + + * * * * * + +Combining in his person the qualities of scout, sharp-shooter, +dare-devil, and spy, a Texan known as "Deaf Burke" made himself famous +among the higher officers of Longstreet's corps during the early part +of the war. Like Terry of Texas, afterward notorious in California, +Adams of Mississippi, Mason of Virginia (brother of the United States +senator who with Slidell of {506} Louisiana, became the subject of +international complications with England), and many other daring +spirits, he was at first merely a volunteer or independent fighter +subject to no orders; but his temerity in passing the lines, mingling +in disguise with Union officers and soldiers, and his adroitness in +securing valuable information quickly brought him to the notice of Lee +and Longstreet. He was about forty-five years of age, a natural mimic +and dialectician--could talk to you like a simpleton from the +backwoods, or a thoroughbred gentleman--and he never lost his nerve. +Not far from the Potomac, the writer met him in the garb of a Quaker, +but only recognized him at night when incidentally he became a tent +mate. Then it was learned that he had just returned from Washington, +where during the preceding three weeks he had mingled among Southern +sympathizers and secured the information for which he had been sent. +Prior to this, disguised as an old farmer living in Fairfax County, +Va., he had driven a load of wood across the Federal lines. In one of +the logs were concealed the despatches intended for headquarters. +Later in the war, when transferred to the West, he distinguished +himself as one of twelve sharp-shooters chosen to handle as many +Whitworth rifles that had been imported; and still later was killed in +battle among the Texans, of whom it was his pride to be considered +one. + +The comparative ease with which communications were established +between the lines is further illustrated by an incident. General +Rosecrans and a portion of his staff, when in Tennessee, occupied a +mansion not far from the outposts of the two armies. The hostess, Mrs. +Thomas, was the wife of a Confederate colonel whose regiment was but a +few miles distant. Her negro cook made excellent biscuit, which had +become the subject of frequent comment at the table, the general being +especially pleased. Mrs. Thomas taking advantage of this circumstance, +and her acquaintance with him, suggested the propriety of sending some +of the warm breakfast to their mutual friend--her husband. Rosecrans +readily agreed, and under his own flag of truce, and through one of +his own orderlies, a package of biscuit was duly forwarded to Colonel +Thomas with an open letter from his wife. Two hours later, the +Confederate officer was in possession of all the available secrets at +Federal headquarters, and for weeks afterward the bake oven was the +mute agent of communications, some of which proved important to the +Southern commanders. The housewife had enclosed her tissue-written +missives in the pastry, and the ruse was not discovered until after +the war, when the story was told to mutual friends. + +In the category of Southern women who in one way or another made their +way through the lines, might be included many who carried to the +Confederacy supplies of quinine and other articles that could be +easily concealed on the person. It is safe to say that hundreds passed +backward and forward across the borders of Virginia and Maryland, and +with but rare exception their native shrewdness enabled them to escape +the vigilance of the pickets on guard. + +The bravery of Northern spies in the South is a theme not to be +forgotten in this connection. Before General Sherman in his "March to +the Sea" reached the several cities through which he was to pass, one +or more of his secret agents was sure to be found mingling sociably +among the residents. In Savannah, a gentleman appeared as a purchaser +of the old wines for which that city was once famous, and remained +undiscovered until the end came. In Charleston, news was communicated +to the Union officers through the medium of two or three whites and of +negroes who made their way to the islands on the coast, and there met +and delivered to waiting boats' crews the papers consigned to their +care. In Columbia, S. C., an officer wearing the uniform of the +Confederate navy visited the best families for more than a month; +escorted young ladies to fairs held for the benefit of army hospitals +and other entertainments, and made himself generally popular. One of +these newly made acquaintances was the daughter of the mayor. After +Sherman entered, and the conflagration that destroyed the city was in +progress, he repaired to her house and tendered his services. Then for +the first time she learned the truth of the saying that she had +"entertained an angel unawares." He aided materially in saving the +property of the family and affording desired protection. + +[Illustration: PAULINE CUSHMAN. (A Federal Spy.)] + +[Illustration: BELL BOYD. (A Confederate Spy.)] + +The task of a spy in the army was not so easy. It was full of personal +danger. Success meant the praise of his superiors and possible +promotion. Failure might mean an ignominious death. After the battle +of Shiloh, or Pittsburg Landing as it is sometimes known, one Coon +Harris, a Tennesseean, went through the Confederate army without +detection, but in a skirmish a few days afterward he was captured +while acting as guide to a column moving to attack a weak point in the +Confederate lines. Bragg was in command, and the poor fellow had but a +short shrift. Tried by a drum-head court martial, he was sentenced to +be shot at daylight. + +In his calm demeanor he illustrated how a brave man animated by a high +principle can die. There was no pageantry, no clergyman with his last +rites, no nothing, save a handful of curious spectators following a +rude army wagon wherein, on a rough box called by courtesy a coffin, +sat unbound a middle-aged farmer in his butternut suit, riding to his +death. Not the closest observer could have discovered any difference +in coolness between him and a bystander. Arriving at the place of +execution he jumped lightly from the wagon, lingered a moment to see +his coffin removed, and then sauntered carelessly down the little +valley to the tree beneath which he was to meet his fate. + +{507} The ceremony was brief. The officer in charge of the shooting +squad asked him if he had any final message to leave. "Yes," was the +reply; "tell my family that my last thoughts were of them, and that I +died doing my duty to my State and country!" Then his arms were +pinioned, the faded brown coat was buttoned across his breast, and he +sat down upon his coffin. A handkerchief was tied over his eyes, and +voluntarily he laid his head back against the tree. Even now, +preserving his remarkable self-possession, he called for a piece of +tobacco, and, chewing upon it vigorously, occupied several seconds in +adjusting his head to the bark of the tree, as one would fit himself +to a pillow before going to sleep. Then he quietly said, "Boys, +ready!" + +A file of eight men stepped forward until within ten paces of the +doomed man; the order was given to "Fire!" and with a splash of +brains, and a trickling rivulet of blood down his hairy breast, the +soul of the brave man passed into the keeping of the Creator. + +During the first march of the Confederate army into Maryland, a +handsome young fellow, one Charles Mason, who gave his home as +Perrysville, Penn., boldly intercepted a courier who was carrying an +order. "What division do you belong to?" he inquired. "Longstreet's," +was the reply; "what's yours?" asked the courier. "Jackson's." The +presence of a gray uniform favored this statement, and the two rode +together. The courier, however, observed a disposition on the part of +his companion to drop behind, and suddenly was confronted by a pistol +and a demand for the delivery of his despatches. Not being promptly +forthcoming, the spy fired, secured the papers, and galloped away. The +Confederate lived long enough to describe his assailant and make his +identification certain. + +A few hours afterward the man became a victim to his own daring. +Riding up to the head of a column, he said to the general in command: +"I am from General Jackson; he desires me to request you to halt and +await further orders."--"I am not in the habit of receiving my orders +from General Jackson," answered the officer; "what command do you +belong to?" Hesitating an instant, the spy said: "To the Hampton +Legion." "In whose brigade and division is that?" continued the +general. The pretended courier confessed that he had forgotten. Taken +into custody, a search revealed his true character. On his person were +found shorthand and other notes, a pair of lieutenant's shoulder +straps, and other evidences of his calling. A drum-head court martial +was promptly convened, and he was sentenced to be hanged then and +there. He met his fate stoically, and without other expressed regret +save that, since his mission had been a failure, he could not die the +death of a soldier. + +"On June 9, 1863," wrote a correspondent of the Nashville _Press_, +"two strangers rode into the Union camp, at Franklin, Tenn., and +boldly presented themselves at Colonel Baird's headquarters. They wore +Federal regulation trousers and caps, the latter covered with white +flannel havelocks, and carried side arms. Both showed high +intelligence. One claimed to be a colonel in the United States army, +the other a major, and they represented that they were inspecting the +outposts and defences. Official papers purporting to be signed by +General Rosecrans, and also from the War Department at Washington, +seemed to confirm this statement. So impressive was their manner, in +fact, that Colonel Baird, at the request of the elder officer, loaned +him fifty dollars, the plea being that they had been overhauled by the +enemy and had lost their wardrobe and purses. + +"Just before dark they left camp, saying they were going to Nashville, +and started in that direction. Suddenly, said Colonel Baird, in +describing the occurrence, the thought flashed upon him that they +might be spies; and turning to Colonel Watkins, of the Sixth Kentucky +cavalry, who was standing near by, he ordered him to go in pursuit. +Being overtaken, they were placed under arrest, and General Rosecrans +was informed by telegraph. He quickly answered that he knew nothing of +the men, and had given no passes of the kind described. + +"With this evidence in hand their persons were searched, and various +papers still further showing their guilt were found. On the major's +sword was found etched the name, 'Lieutenant W. G. Peter, Lieutenant +Confederate Army.' They then confessed. + +"Colonel Baird at once telegraphed the facts to General Rosecrans, and +asked what should be done. The reply was: 'Try them by a drum-head +court martial, and if found guilty, hang them immediately.' The court +was convened, and before daylight the prisoners knew they must die. A +little after nine o'clock that morning the whole garrison was +marshalled around the place of execution, the guards, in tribute to +their gallantry, being ordered to march with arms reversed. The +unfortunate men made no complaint of the severity of their punishment, +but regretted, as brave men might do, the ignominy of being hung, and +a few hours afterward both were buried in the same grave." + +The history of the war on both sides is full of similar instances of +daring, and since the curtain has fallen upon the bloody drama, and +the voices of passion are hushed amid the anthems of peace, it is no +longer in the hearts of true Americans to withhold the honor that +belongs to all our heroes, whether they wore the blue or the gray. + +{508} [Illustration: A GROUP OF CONFEDERATE OFFICERS. +BRIGADIER-GENERAL RANDALL LEE GIBSON. MAJOR-GENERAL ARNOLD ELZEY. +BRIGADIER-GENERAL ROGER A. PRYOR. BRIGADIER-GENERAL THOMAS L. +CLINGMAN. BRIGADIER-GENERAL EPPA HUNTON. BRIGADIER-GENERAL A. R. +LAWTON. BRIGADIER-GENERAL M. W. GARY. LIEUTENANT-GENERAL SIMON B. +BUCKNER. MAJOR-GENERAL M. B. YOUNG. MAJOR-GENERAL HENRY W. ALLEN. +MAJOR-GENERAL WILLIAM SMITH.] + + + + +NORTHERN SPIES AND SCOUTS IN THE WAR. + +BY HENRY W. B. HOWARD. + +IS THE RÔLE OF A SPY DISHONORABLE?--THE SPY A NECESSARY ELEMENT IN A +CAMPAIGN--REMARKABLE HEROISM--ONE OF GENERAL GRANT'S SPIES--HOW HE +ESCAPED BEING BURIED ALIVE--THE FIGHT OF A SPY WITH A BLOODHOUND--THE +PERILOUS ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN LEIGHTON, OF MICHIGAN--THE VARIED AND +THRILLING ADVENTURES OF COL. L. C. BAKER--HIS EXPERIENCES AS A YANKEE +SPY IN RICHMOND--MISS EMMA EDMONDS, A NOTED NORTHERN SPY--PASSING +THROUGH THE CONFEDERATE LINES DISGUISED AS A NEGRO BOY--A FEMALE UNION +SPY IN THE CONFEDERATE CAVALRY. + + +Military writers have not been entirely agreed as to whether the rôle +of spy is an honorable part to play in warfare. Much stress has been +laid on the necessarily disgraceful nature of a calling that can +justly subject one to the hangman. The ignominy of this punishment is +held to relieve all soldiers from the _duty_ of service as spies, even +under orders, and in consequence all spies are necessarily volunteers. +But it is agreed, on the other hand, that the death penalty which is +inevitable for the detected spy is intended, not as a punishment for +the individual, but as a measure of preventing the spy from carrying +on his work, so full of danger to his enemy. This lack of personal +responsibility is so well understood, that a spy successful in his +expedition is not liable to death after its completion, and {509} if +subsequently captured in battle may not be executed for having +previously been a spy. + +But however at variance they may be as to the nature of his calling, +all critics are of one mind in regarding the work of the spy an +absolutely necessary element in the conduct of a campaign by the +commander. Without it, he would be at a loss as to the most essential +facts that must govern his movements. The strength of the enemy, the +nature and advantages of his position, the best approaches to it, the +ground commanded by his batteries, as well as his intentions--all +these and many other details must be in some degree known to a +commander who would direct his troops with safety or success. Some of +this information he can pick up from resident non-combatants; some he +can wrest from his unwilling prisoners; some he can purchase from +treacherous members of the force opposing him. But for most of it he +is absolutely dependent on the brave men in his own command who are +willing, for the sake of their cause, to risk the death that awaits +the spy caught in the enemy's country. + +These men certainly cannot be regarded with the contempt which a +commander feels for the mere tools of whose treachery, cupidity, or +indifference he avails himself while scorning the instrument. And, if +not that, then they must be regarded as heroic even beyond those of +their fellows who are as brave as lions on the field of battle. For +their mission is a solitary one, and they have none of the cheering +companionship and stimulating emulation that bring courage for the +charge. Instead of being under fire for a few brief moments or hours, +their nerves are on the rack for days and weeks. With no commanding +officer to obey as he orders them here or there, they are thrown on +their own resources in the most perilous and trying situations. They +must avoid dangerous meetings, disarm suspicions, turn aside +questions, invent lies by the hundred without having one contradict +another. A constant play of quick wits, steady nerves, and, at the +right moment, prompt and courageous physical force, elevates the work +of a spy to a fine art, in comparison with which the mere enthusiastic +bravery of the battlefield is child's play. Darkly threatening +throughout all this perilous work is the imminent and ever-present +risk of detection, with its certainty of a death, not glorious like +that of those who fall in the hand-to-hand conflict, not the ordinary +fortune of war like that of the sharp-shooter's victim brought down at +long range, not even invested with the pathos of a death, however +sudden, among sympathizing comrades--but the death of a dog, promptly +dealt out, without a friendly face among the spectators. + +A good illustration of the consummate skill, coolness of head, and +strength of will and nerve required in this duty was given by a scout +named Hancock, attached to General Grant's army in Virginia. He had +failed to escape detection, and was sent under guard to Castle +Thunder, in Richmond. His situation was most perilous; but this did +not prevent his utilizing his innate joviality to lighten the life of +his fellow-prisoners, and bringing his wonderful power of facial +expression to bear on the great object of his own escape. In the midst +of one of his songs in the prison he suddenly threw up his hands with +a cry, fell to the ground in a heap, and lay there so obviously dead +that the post surgeon--not over-solicitous to keep a Yankee above +ground--pronounced him a case for the grave-digger, and he was bundled +into a pine coffin and started on his last journey. But when the +driver reached the burying-place, the coffin was empty. Hancock had +dexterously slid from the wagon, and, it being night, had joined the +followers on foot without detection. When the driver reported back to +the prison, the trick was suspected, and a sharp lookout was ordered, +which he evaded in the most unexpected way. He went direct to the best +hotel in Richmond and registered from Georgia, had a good night's +rest, and spent the following day, in the character of a government +contractor, in learning what he wanted to know about the city. He was +twice arrested by the guards, and escaped the first time through the +intervention and identification of the hotel clerk. The second time he +was returned to the prison, where for seven days he concealed his +identity by assuming a squint and a distortion of feature, which he +abandoned when he learned that imprisonment was all he had to fear, as +by that time the war was virtually over. Ten days later he was set at +liberty with his fellow-prisoners. + +The peril of a spy's career is not intermittent, like that of active +fighting; it is continuous. A moment may give him his liberty or may +bring him face to face with death. An unnamed scout of the Army of the +Potomac--so many of these heroic men are even to this day unnamed--had +collected his intelligence in the enemy's country, and had arrived +close to the stream beyond which were the Union lines. In the darkness +of the night, with the sense of danger keen within him, he groped his +way along the shore, seeking the skiff he had concealed there for his +return. To his horror it dawned on him that he had missed his landmark +and could not find the boat. There he stood, the evidences of his +calling unmistakably on him, knowing that he had been suspected and +followed, and realizing that only a few minutes were his in which to +complete his escape. Nothing could exceed the mental agony of the next +quarter hour. Under stress of danger he had just let himself into the +water, determined to attempt to swim the wide stream as a forlorn +hope, when suddenly the baying of a bloodhound dashed even this faint +hope from him, and presently the crackling of twigs announced the near +approach of the savage pursuer. But there were evidences that for the +moment the dog was at fault, and in mere desperation the hunted man +waded beneath the overhanging banks where he might sell his life as +dearly as possible. Something struck against his breast. He could not +restrain a cry as he seized what proved to be his missing boat. In an +instant he had clambered in and cast off the line, when a sudden gleam +of moonlight breaking through the clouds revealed at the other end of +the log to which the boat had been moored the crouching figure of the +bloodhound, poising for a spring. Simultaneously with the leap of the +dog, the skiff darted out into the stream. A blow with the oar aimed +at the head of the animal nearly upset the fragile craft and was +easily eluded by the dog, which, swimming forward, laid its forepaws +on the gunwale and attempted to seize the edge of the boat with his +teeth. The situation was desperate. Laying aside his revolver, a shot +from which would have drawn a volley from the shore, the brave scout +seized his bowie-knife, and with one frenzied stroke cut the throat of +the bloodhound, severing its neck clean to the back. The dog sank from +sight, and the man was free! A few minutes' quiet pulling landed him +on the further shore, whence a brief walk brought him to camp, to tell +his adventures and turn in his stock of information. + +Perhaps as thrilling an experience as ever was reported was that which +fell to the lot of Captain Leighton, formerly of a Michigan battery, +but led by the fascination of adventure into scout and spy duty. It +was brief, but so charged with peril and nerve-tension that in a few +short hours he seemed to have lived days, and needed a long sleep +after it, as though he had been awake for a week. In a single +afternoon he left his own camp and rode into the enemy's country, +passing two pickets, killed a {510} guard, listened to the council of +war in the tent of the rebel general, fought his way back through the +pickets, who now knew his mission, set off the signal agreed on, and +rode to safety on his unusually fleet horse. The first picket he met +on his way out was misled by supposing him to be a spy of their own +returning with information, and from them he got what sounded like the +countersign, but was not, as he discovered when, riding on, he +attempted with it to pass the sentry near the rebel general's tent. +The sentry pulled trigger on him, but the cap snapped on the musket, +there was a hand-to-hand scuffle not a hundred yards from the camp, +and the sentry was stabbed to the heart. Clad in the sentry's uniform, +under cover of the night, he heard from the very lips of the general +and his council the secret he was in search of--that the enemy would +mass on the left wing to meet the attack of the morrow--sauntered +carelessly about as the council dispersed, and then mounted his superb +gray and was off. It was a perilous ride, for every picket he had +passed in the afternoon fired on him as he rode through, and it was +indeed a charmed life that escaped their bullets. The last picket he +had to pass--the same that had mistaken him for a rebel scout--was +numerous, and met him with a volley, followed up by a sharp attack +with sabres and revolvers. Shooting, stabbing, slashing, and swearing +like a fiend, wounded and wounding, he fought his way through them, +and then fled onward, reeling in his saddle with excitement and loss +of blood, until, arrived at the hollow stump where his rockets were +concealed, he set them both off (thus giving the desired information +to his own commander). Then, emptying his revolver at his nearest +pursuer, he again rode away, unharmed further by the shots that +followed him like hail. What added to the bravery of this deed was the +fact that he knowingly went out to replace a scout who had been killed +the night before on the very same mission. + +[Illustration: JOHN WILKES BOOTH.] + +[Illustration: REDUCED FACSIMILE OF POSTER ISSUED BY THE WAR +DEPARTMENT.] + +All spies were not so fortunate as to complete their expeditions in +one day. Sometimes, although in comparative safety, they were unable +to get out of the enemy's territory for many days. An Illinois +private, named Newcomer, who had just missed some important battles, +was accustomed to vary the monotony of his camp life in Alabama by +making secret trips after information overnight. This work suited him +so well that he determined on a more extensive expedition among the +guerilla cavalry that he learned from a negro lay some miles below the +Union camp. His first bold act was to crawl into a corn-crib where a +number of these men lay sleeping, their horses picketed outside, and, +feeling around, he calmly drew a good revolver from the belt of one of +the unconscious sleepers, having the good luck to wake none of them +up. He had provided himself with a forged certificate of discharge +from the rebel army, by means of which he was by some unsuspecting +Southern sympathizers put in communication with a Southern agent for +the purchase of stores, named Radcliffe, who was known to everybody in +and about Franklin, Tenn., and who vouched for him throughout his stay +among the Confederates. He took on the character of one seeking office +in the rebel army, and as a seller of contraband articles obtained +from the North. In this guise, turning up at Radcliffe's house as +occasion required, he explored the situation and reported back to his +superiors at Nashville. Before he got back he had serious trouble in +getting away from Shelbyville, for lack of a pass. A good-natured +crowd, to whom he had dispensed the contents of his whiskey flask, +were willing to help him away, but stuck at telling the provost +marshal that they knew him; but it was finally managed by writing his +name on the collective pass on which they travelled. Lagging behind +them on the road, he turned off in the direction he wanted to go, only +to fall into the hands of one of Morgan's bands of scouts, who swore +he was a Yankee, and actually had the halter around his neck to hang +him on the spot, when he succeeded in persuading them to take him back +to Radcliffe for identification, where he was released, and {511} then +was furnished by Radcliffe with a written voucher on which he +succeeded in making his way, after many exciting and perilous +adventures, to his commander. He brought him the important news, +confided to him by a rebel who took him for a fellow spy, of a +projected attack on the Union fleet on the river, and steps were taken +that saved the ships. + +Perhaps the most varied experience was that of Col. L. C. Baker, who +organized the secret service, and performed himself every duty, from +that of actual spy to that of chief of the national police, beginning +with a personal expedition to Richmond and ending with the capture of +Wilkes Booth, the assassin of President Lincoln. His first Richmond +trip was made in July, 1861, under cover of a general movement of +Southern sympathizers away from the North. General Scott himself sent +him to obtain information concerning the strength and disposition of +troops in the Confederate capital. His greatest difficulty at the +outset was to get through the Northern lines without betraying his +errand, and three times he was sent back to General Scott as a +Southern spy. Finally he got through, and, armed with letters to +prominent residents of Richmond, he was promptly forwarded on his way, +but was carefully turned over to Jefferson Davis himself, who kept him +under guard while he made up his mind whether the stranger was a spy +or the "Mr. Munson" he pretended to be with business in Richmond. +Succeeding in getting satisfactorily identified through a sort of +"bunco" self-introduction to a man from Knoxville, where he claimed to +have lived, he was paroled and turned loose in Richmond. When he had +picked up the information he desired, he began his efforts to get back +to Washington with his precious news. A pass to visit Fredericksburg +enabled him to leave Richmond, but an attempt to go further on the +same pass only got him into the hands of a patrol. But he soon not +only eluded his sleepy guard, but rode off on the sentry's horse as +well. Followed and surrounded in a negro cabin where he had stopped to +rest, he managed to hide under a haystack, where he narrowly escaped +the searching sabre-thrust of his pursuers, and then made again for +the Potomac. Hunger induced him to risk introducing himself to two +German pickets guarding the bank on the Confederate side of that +river, and they hospitably kept him in their tent overnight, though +they watched him closely and made him a semi-prisoner. The watches of +the night he consumed in vain endeavors to crawl out of the tent while +his captors slept; but they slept "with one eye open," as it were, and +it was not until dawn that he managed unobserved to get down to the +river-bank, secure the pickets' boat with its single broken oar, and +push for liberty out into the stream. The men were quickly after him, +however, and he had to shoot one of them to save himself, while the +other ran for assistance. The detachment that quickly reached the +shore made the water about his craft uncomfortably lively with their +bullets; but he fortunately managed to paddle out of range without +being hit, and after a row of four miles, which was the width of the +river at that point, he reached the Maryland shore and made his way to +Washington. + +The papers with which Baker had been intrusted at Richmond gave him +much information involving Northern traitors who were aiding the +Southern cause, and for some time he was engaged in the work of +bringing them to justice. But he occasionally returned to special +duty, as he did in the autumn of 1863, when, after Pope's defeat by +Lee, great solicitude was felt for the safety of Banks's army, the +whereabouts of which even was unknown, and in ignorance of Lee's +success Banks was supposed to be seeking a junction with Pope. Baker +undertook to carry informing despatches to Banks, and to bring that +officer's report back to Washington. Mounted on the famous race-horse +"Patchen," he succeeded in reaching Banks near Manassas without +adventure, but his return trip was full of peril. Conscious of the +great importance of haste, he started straight for the rebel lines +between himself and Washington, and after riding two miles to the +eastward he caught sight of the hostile army near the old Bull Run +battlefield. To save time, instead of making a detour to avoid them, +he halted and awaited an opportunity of slipping through, availing +himself of the detached order of march in which the enemy was +proceeding. A break in the column soon gave him this chance, and +although he knew that he would become a target for every marksman that +saw him, the intrepid Baker nerved himself for a quick and desperate +dash and gave spurs to his splendid steed. Lying close to Patchen's +neck, he flew like an arrow within thirty feet of a squad of infantry, +but had the good luck to bring both himself and his horse through +without harm from the bullets that whistled thick about them. A squad +of cavalry quickly took up the pursuit; but, tired as he was, Patchen +soon distanced all but a few who were particularly well mounted. For +nine miles the chase continued, the pursuers dropping off until only +three remained, when fatigue began to tell on both horse and rider. +Then, turning a low hill, Baker wheeled sharply about and concealed +himself in a clump of pines, while his pursuers rode past unconscious +of his presence. But they soon discovered that there was no longer any +one in front of them. Returning, one of them was apprised of Baker's +whereabouts by a slight movement of the latter's horse, and the crisis +of the adventure was at hand. Baker shot down one Confederate +cavalryman, and then turned sharply off the path to avoid the other +two, who were now on their way back. But, although he passed them, it +was not without their seeing him, and, firing their carbines, they +renewed the pursuit. Spurring Patchen to a final burst of speed, Baker +plunged into the swollen waters of Bull Run, hoping to get across +before his pursuers could reach the bank and fire at him in +mid-stream. This he accomplished, and had even clambered up the almost +perpendicular bank beyond by the time the rebels had plunged in to +follow him over. Before Baker could fire on them the Union pickets, +attracted by the shots, came running to the edge of the bluff. Baker +shouted out his errand, and the pickets with a volley emptied one of +the Confederate saddles, while the remaining pursuer escaped to tell +the tale. This was a pretty close call for Baker, but it was typical +of the scout's experience, and illustrated well the many serious +chances taken by every successful seeker after information in the +enemy's territory. + +The spies of the war were not all men. Many women on both sides did +effective secret work for the cause they espoused. Perhaps this agency +was more common among the Southern than the Northern sympathizers. +Residence in the North was free from the necessity of accounting for +one's presence and business as rigidly as in the South; and not only +in Washington and the border towns, but in all the cities of the +North, the rebels had fair emissaries who kept them pretty well +informed of passing events. Among the Northern women who did good +service during the war, both as spy and nurse, was Miss Emma Edmonds. +After spending several months in the hospitals of the Army of the +Potomac, she volunteered to take the place of a spy who had been +executed at Richmond. Disguised as a colored boy, she soon found +herself within the rebel lines, where she joined a gang of negroes who +were carrying provisions to {512} the pickets, and afterward working +on the fortifications at Yorktown. After doing a man's day's work, she +used her evening liberty in making a careful inspection of the +defences, counting the guns, etc., and picked up much other +information through the free discussion of what was going on, common +in the rebel army among both officers and men. Her opportunity to get +back to the Union lines came when, on visiting the pickets with their +evening meal, she was for a time stationed on the post of a picket who +had just been shot; for while the adjacent pickets had their backs +turned, she slipped away into the darkness, carrying her valuable +information with her. Later on she made another secret expedition, +this time in the guise of an Irish female peddler. Her first +experience on this trip was the discovery of a wounded and dying +Confederate officer in a deserted house, and the mementos and messages +for home which he confided to her proved to be her passport to the +rebel headquarters. She had already gained from the pickets and the +men about the camp the information she was seeking, and was quite +ready to return, when she was sent, mounted, to guide a detachment to +bring back the dead officer's body from the house near her own lines, +and thus was fairly started on her way. The expedition of the +detachment was a somewhat perilous one for them, and they sent her +farther down the road to watch for Yankees and give them timely +warning of the approach of any from the Union side. Not seeing any +Yankees in that vicinity, she kept on until she did--and then she was +safe back in her own quarters, and the Union troops were soon able to +cross the Chickahominy with a pretty fair knowledge of the enemy's +dispositions and purposes. + +Miss Edmonds had a strange career for a woman. She kept with the Union +advance, varying her womanly ministrations in camp and field hospital +with occasional duty as an orderly and on secret service. She entered +the Confederate lines, now as a contraband, now as a rebel soldier. In +the latter character she was impressed into the Confederate cavalry +and went into action, where she managed to change sides during the +fight and to wound the rebel officer who had conscripted her. After +this adventure her secret service had perforce to be confined to the +Union lines, for she had become pretty well known in all the disguises +she could assume. + +The experiences of all scouts and spies can be well understood from +the instances that have now been given. Their work was most important, +and their days were filled with thrilling adventure, most fascinating +to adventurous spirits. Many of them never lived to tell their story, +but received the prompt justice of a drum-head court martial and a +short shrift. Their performances rose often to the height of heroism, +and their prowess, when they found themselves in close quarters, +equalled anything ever done on the battlefield. + +[Illustration: CONFEDERATE MONUMENT AND CEMETARY, RICHMOND, VA.] + + + + +{513} + +IMPORTANT HISTORY SUGGESTED BY A PICTURE GROUP OF SHERMAN AND HIS +GENERALS. (See page 30.) + + +This picture was to consist of General Sherman, his two +army-commanders, and the four corps-commanders in charge at the close +of the war. + +[Illustration: MAJOR-GENERAL OLIVER O. HOWARD.] + +It does not, however, contain the portrait of General Blair, who was +absent on a short leave. At the time the photograph was taken, I +[General Howard] was no longer connected with General Sherman's army. +My picture was included for the following reason: + +After the army's arrival near Washington, I was assigned to other +duty, and General Logan took my place in command of the Army of the +Tennessee. When the group was made up, as I had been so long +identified with that army, General Sherman desired me to be included. +General Logan was seated for the picture where I would have sat, had +there been no late change of commanders. In all the field operations +from Atlanta to the sea, and from Savannah through the Carolinas to +Raleigh, and on to Washington, I was denominated "the right wing +commander," and General Slocum "the left wing commander." The division +of cavalry under Kilpatrick was sometimes independent of either wing, +but usually reported for orders to one wing or the other, as Sherman +directed. + +The right wing was the "Army of the Tennessee;" the left wing, the +"Army of Georgia." In the field service, from Atlanta on, each wing +had two army corps, as follows: the right wing, the Fifteenth and +Seventeenth; the left wing, the Fourteenth and Twentieth Corps. When +General Logan passed to the charge of the Army of the Tennessee, +General Hazen was assigned to command the Fifteenth Corps. Though +absent, General Blair retained the Seventeenth Corps. After our march, +for some reason--I think for Mower's promotion--Gen. A. S. Williams +had been relieved from the Twentieth Corps, and General Mower assigned +to his place. The Fourteenth Corps, which Gen. George H. Thomas had so +long and so ably commanded, was during all that march under the +direction of Gen. Jefferson C. Davis. + + * * * * * + +It may be of interest, while inspecting this noted picture, to recall +something characteristic of the men who compose it. Let us begin with +the junior officer of the group. + + +MAJOR-GENERAL JEFFERSON C. DAVIS. + +General Davis, promoted to a volunteer appointment from the regular +army, became early conspicuous as a successful commander in Missouri +and other Western fields. For example, he captured one thousand +prisoners at Milford, repelled Confederate attack upon Sigel's centre +at Pea Ridge, commanded a division at Stone River, and took as +prisoners one hundred and fourteen of Wheeler's raiders. + +[Illustration: MAJOR-GENERAL JEFFERSON C. DAVIS.] + +In August, 1862, ill-health constrained him to leave the front for a +short time, when he visited his home in Clarke County, Ind. The +northward movement of the Confederates against Louisville subsequently +caused him to hasten to that city and volunteer his services to +General Nelson. + +This general, William Nelson, a native of Kentucky, was a middle-aged +naval officer at the breaking out of the war. His experience in +Mexico, his strong character as a loyal Kentuckian, had caused his +transfer to the army. Among undisciplined masses of volunteers he had +already done wonders. He attained special distinction as a division +commander under Buell at the fiercely contested battle of Shiloh; but +with all his patriotism, energy, and capability, he was a martinet in +discipline, very often giving great offence by his rough language and +impatient ways. + +Gen. Jefferson C. Davis had hardly come in contact with Nelson when he +was subjected to treatment that offended him greatly. + +Davis was of slender build, while Nelson was a large and powerful man. +Davis endeavored, without success, to get an apology from Nelson for +hard words and mistreatment. Abbott, in his History of the Civil War, +shows how he was met: + +"Here he (Davis) was outrageously insulted by General Nelson, and +after demanding an apology and receiving only reiterated abuse, he +(Davis) shot him on the stairs of the Galt House. General Nelson died +in a few hours. General Davis was arrested, but was soon released, +sustained by the almost universal sympathy of the public and of the +army." + +In subsequent years it was my lot to be on duty with General Davis. He +reported to me and was under my command while pursuing the +Confederates under Bragg, just after the battle of Missionary Ridge, +November 25, 1863. His method of covering his front and flanks with +skirmishers, and holding his troops well in hand for the prompt +deployment, greatly pleased me. He was one of those officers +constantly on the _qui vive_, impossible {514} to surprise, difficult +to defeat, and ever ready, at command, effectively to take the +offensive. He succeeded to the Fourteenth Corps because Gen. John M. +Palmer, offended at a decision of General Sherman, resigned the +position. While Davis was a just man, he was strongly prejudiced +against negroes, often, in his conversations, declaiming against them. +But subsequent to the war, when commanding the State of Kentucky, +acting as Assistant Commissioner for Freedmen, he took strong grounds +against all lawless white men who sought to do them injury. In 1874, +when a confusion of counsels had caused endless complications during +the Modoc War in Southern Oregon, General Davis was, as a final +resort, selected and despatched to the scene of operations. His +unfailing courage and steady action soon ended the war. The Modocs +were conquered, taken prisoners, and their savage and treacherous +leaders punished. + +I had many a conversation with General Davis. He would lead me when we +were alone, in a few minutes, according to the bias of his heart, to +the subject of his difficulty with Nelson. Though others exculpated +him, his own heart never seemed to be at rest. It was more to himself +than to others the one cloud in his otherwise unblemished, patriotic +career. + + +MAJOR-GENERAL WILLIAM B. HAZEN + +entered the military academy one year after me (1851), so that I was +associated with him there for three years. As a young man, he was very +thin of flesh, so much so as to cause remark. The first time I saw him +after graduation, he was on a visit to West Point, in 1860. He had +been in many Indian engagements in Texas and New Mexico, and had been +brevetted for gallant conduct in battle; his arm at that time was in a +sling, he having been wounded with an arrow. + +[Illustration: MAJOR-GENERAL WILLIAM B. HAZEN.] + +A most wonderful change had taken place in his personal appearance. +Instead of a young man of cadaverous build, he was large, fleshy, +handsome. As a cadet he had been very retiring; now quite the +opposite--in fact, he soon became remarkable among us for his bold +frontier stories and an increased self-esteem. + +Such was Hazen at the breaking out of the war. He went to the front in +Kentucky, commanding the Forty-first Ohio Volunteers. During the +series of operations and battles in which he was engaged, he +maintained in his commands unusual neatness of attire and excellent +discipline, and received for himself four brevets for gallant and +meritorious service; the last being that of major-general in the +regular army. Probably his most distinguished effort, one which called +the especial attention of General Sherman to his merit, was the +taking, under my orders, of Fort McAllister, December 13, 1864. He at +that time had charge of a division, assisted in building a long bridge +over the Ogeechee, crossed with his men, and, pushing on rapidly +southward, completely environed Fort McAllister from sea-shore to +sea-shore. General Sherman, with myself, more inland, were watching +his operations in plain view from a rice-mill on the other side of the +Ogeechee. The sudden and persistent attack, the exploding of numerous +torpedoes, the tremendous vigor of the defence, afforded us an +exciting scene, which ended in a much-needed victory; for this fort at +the mouth of the river was the last obstruction between our army and +the supplies which were coming from the sea. This success of Hazen +caused me to recommend him for further promotion to the command of the +Fifteenth Army Corps; and this was his crowning honor in the great +war. + + +MAJOR-GENERAL JOSEPH A. MOWER. + +I found General Mower in command of the First Division Sixteenth Army +Corps (a little later, of a division in the Seventeenth Army Corps, +under General Blair); that was when I came to the Army of the +Tennessee at Atlanta. He was already well known in that army. In +conversation around campfires staff-officers spoke of him in this way: +"Mower is a rough diamond;" "He is rather a hard case in peace;" "He +cannot be beaten on the march;" "You ought to see him in battle." + +[Illustration: MAJOR-GENERAL J. A. MOWER.] + +These expressions indicate somewhat the character of the man. About +six feet in height, well proportioned and of great muscular strength, +probably there was no officer in our picture group who was better +fitted in every way for hard campaigning. On one occasion during the +march through the Carolinas, as we approached the westernmost branch +of the Edisto, all the country had apparently been swept by the +inhabitants clean of supplies. The cattle and horses had been driven +eastward beyond the river, and all food carried off or hidden. As I +approached a house near the river crossing, I saw General Mower and +his staff apparently in conversation with the owner, who had, for some +purpose, remained behind his fleeing people in his almost empty +tenement. Mower was asking him questions: these the man at first +evaded, or answered derisively. Then, becoming angry at Mower's +persistence, he refused to tell anything. The general, just as I was +passing through the gate, said to an orderly, in his deep, strong, +decisive voice: "Orderly, fetch a rope!" He did not intimate what he +proposed to do with the rope, but one {515} glance at Mower's face was +sufficient for the stranger. He immediately became courteous, and gave +Mower all the information he desired as to the roads, bridges, and +neighboring country. A few days later I was with Mower's division when +he fought his way across the main stream near Orangeburgh. His energy +in leading his men through swamps, directing them while they were +cutting the cypresses, making temporary bridges, wading streams, +constructing and carrying the canvas boats, ferrying the river, and +appearing with marvellous rapidity upon the enemy's right or left +flank on the open fortified bluff of the eastern shore, drew my +attention more than ever to Mower's capabilities. I remember when we +stood together inside the first captured work, while our men were +rushing for the railroad above and below the city, Mower dismounted, +and looking at me with his face full of glad triumph, said: "_Fait +accompli!_ General, _fait accompli!_" + +At Bentonville, the 20th and 21st of March, 1865, I saw Mower ride +into battle. As he approached the firing, the very sound of it gave +him a new inspiration; his muscular limbs gripped his horse, and he +leaned forward apparently carrying the animal with him into the +conflict. He was the only officer I ever saw who manifested such +intense joy for battle. At last, having brought his division through +the woods and a little beyond the left flank of the Confederate +commander (General Johnston), Mower and one or two of his staff +dismounted, so as to work himself with his men through a dense thicket +where he could not ride. The point sought in Johnston's left rear was +just gained by the indomitable Mower, when General Sherman called us +off, saying "that there had been fighting enough." Concerning this +event, General Sherman, in his "Memoirs," makes a significant remark: + +"The next day (21st) it began to rain again, and we remained quiet +till about noon, when General Mower, ever rash, broke through the +rebel line, on his extreme left flank, and was pushing straight for +Bentonville and the bridge across Mill Creek. I ordered him back, to +connect with his own corps; and lest the enemy should concentrate on +him, ordered the whole rebel line to be engaged with a strong skirmish +fire." + + +MAJOR-GENERAL FRANCIS PRESTON BLAIR, JR., + +whose biography is in every public library, is too well known to +require a detail of introduction. + +[Illustration: MAJOR-GENERAL FRANCIS P. BLAIR, JR.] + +As early as 1843 he formed a law partnership with his brother +Montgomery, in the city of St. Louis, Mo.; here he worked till his +health gave way. Requiring a change of climate, he went to New Mexico. +While he was there General Kearney, as soon as the Mexican war came +on, began operations which ended in his grand march to the Pacific +coast. Young Blair was a volunteer aid, and by his intelligence and +energy gave that general the effective help which he needed. This +short service in the Mexican war was enough to beget in Blair a taste +for military reading and study; so that, being in St. Louis at the +fever period of the outbreak of the great rebellion in 1861, he was +not unprepared for the double part he was soon called upon to play. + +Having been elected and sent to Congress in 1858, previously having +had a term in the Missouri Legislature, in both as a "Freesoiler," he +threw all his political ability and knowledge upon the side of the +Union. As a military man, he promptly acted and greatly helped in +organizing and raising troops. Probably it is due to his energy more +than to anything else that St. Louis and Missouri were kept to the +Union. Mr. Lincoln, who had the greatest confidence in Blair, +commissioned him a brigadier-general in August, 1862. He performed +thereafter no obscure part in all those battles along the Mississippi, +which ended in the capture of Vicksburg. He was rapidly advanced from +command of a brigade to that of a division and corps in Grant's Army +of the Tennessee. His name and able work are identified with both the +Fifteenth and Seventeenth Corps. + +The first time I saw General Blair was on November 25, 1863; it was in +the evening after Sherman's first hot charge up the rough steeps on +the north end of Missionary Ridge. Part of my command had participated +in the bloody work of the day, and General Grant had detached the +remainder of my corps from General Thomas on the straight front, and +sent us around to strengthen Sherman. It was an informal council of +war in the woods, by a small campfire, where I met for the first time +Generals Tom Ewing, Jefferson C. Davis, and Blair. The latter, who was +obliged at times to go to civil duties in Congress, had then, as I was +told, just returned from Washington. He brought to us the latest +messages from Mr. Lincoln. He had on a light blue soldier's overcoat; +it was distinguished by a broad, elegant fur collar. In repose and in +photograph, Blair's countenance might pass one as ordinary; but as +soon as he spoke it was suffused with light and animation. He was five +feet ten, and not fleshy. He walked about the fire, and with his ready +talk, never too serious, kept Sherman and all the party, for such a +sad night, in fair humor; for our best men had been stopped short of +the coveted tunnel, and many of them were driven with heavy losses +down the rugged slopes. The whole man so impressed me that night, that +I never forgot him. During the march to the sea, in skirmish, +campaign, and battle, Blair was often with me; many a day's journey we +rode side by side. + +{516} [Illustration: THE BATTLE OF ATLANTA, JULY 22, 1864--FULLER'S +DIVISION RALLYING AFTER BEING FORCED BACK BY THE CONFEDERATES.] + +His mind was replete with knowledge. As we, talking together, recalled +the battles of the Revolution in the Carolinas, and often differed in +discussing them, Blair would say: "Well, general, let us go to +Sherman; he never forgets anything!" I may add that the reference was +always the settlement of the question, for Sherman's historic +knowledge was unfailing. Blair's forte was the law. I knew fairly well +the army regulations; but Blair always went back of the regulations to +the statute law and {517} the Constitution. His mind was a +compendium--one always at hand for me; and it was pleasant to consult +him, for he never took advantage in an ungenerous manner of the +superiority of his knowledge, but ever, without abating his most loyal +service, gave me the information I desired. + +During the great march through Georgia and the Carolinas the necessity +of "foraging liberally on the country," of destroying property, as +cotton in bales, factories of all kinds, store-houses, and other +buildings of a public and private nature, troubled General Blair very +much. The conduct of bummers, camp-followers, and of many robbers, who +preceded or followed in the wake of the armies in their destruction +and depredation of private dwellings, vexed him still more. One day in +May, 1865, as we were nearing North Carolina, Blair was riding with me +for the day. After a period of silence, he said: "General, I am +getting weary of all this business. Can't we do something to bring it +to a close? All this terrible waste and destruction and bloodshed +appear to me now to be useless." I do not remember my reply, but I do +recall a visit I made to General Sherman about that time, when I urged +him not to destroy the works at Fayetteville Arsenal, N. C. I said: +"General, the war will soon be over; this property is ours [that is, +the Government's]. Why should we destroy our own property?" The +general replied with some little asperity to the effect: "They +[meaning the Confederates] haven't given up yet. They shall not have +an arsenal here!" In this matter General Blair's sentiment and mine +had agreed. + +At another time, noticing that Wheeler's (or Hampton's) cavalry were +burning the cotton to prevent its falling into our hands, and that we +were burning cotton to cripple the Confederate revenue, General Blair +remarked: "Both sides are burning cotton; somebody must be making a +mistake!" + +These growing sentiments in genuine sympathy with the suffering people +of the Carolinas, were Blair's thus early, and account, in a measure, +for his subsequent political course; for, as Hammersley says: + +"Brave and gallant soldier as he was, and uncompromisingly hostile as +he was to the enemies of his country, when the war was over, and the +Southern army had laid down their arms, he at once arrayed himself +against those who were in favor of continuing to treat Southern people +as enemies, and with voice and pen constantly urged the adoption of a +liberal and humane policy. From this time he united with the +Democratic party." + +Blair died in July, 1875. He was of a jovial turn and convivial, but I +think he enjoyed the relief of fun and frolic more than the pleasures +which attend high living. Like his father and his brother, he was a +man of marked ability; he had great acquirements; he was a determined +enemy, but an unswerving and generous friend. In political life his +course seemed to lack consistency; but when judged from an unpartisan +bias, his was, we may be sure, the outward manifestation of a +persistent, patriotic spirit. + + +MAJOR-GENERAL JOHN A. LOGAN. + +A young man received a musket-shot wound through both thighs; he +repaired to the doctor to have his wound dressed, and asked if he +could have it dressed at once, so that he might return to the fight. +The surgeon told him he was in no condition to admit of his return, +but should go to the hospital. The youth remarked that he had fired +twenty-two rounds after he was wounded, and thought he could fire as +many more if his wound were dressed. Finding it impossible to detain +him, the doctor dressed the wound, and the young man returned to his +comrades in the struggle, dealing out his ammunition to good account +until the day was over, as if nothing had happened to him. + +[Illustration: MAJOR-GENERAL JOHN A. LOGAN.] + +This brave young man afterwards became Gen. John A. Logan. He had such +a striking face that, once seen, it was never forgotten. There was the +straight and raven hair, that, thrown back from his forehead, was long +enough to cover his ears, and make vertical lines just behind his +eyes. There were the broad brow, the firm round chin, and strong neck. +There was the broad, well-cut mouth, always crowned by a dark, heavy +mustache. But the features first seen, and never forgotten, were those +black eyes with brows and lashes to match. At times those eyes were +gentle, pleasant, winning; at times they were cold and indifferent; +but at the least excitement they would quicken, and under provocation +flash fire. Logan's whole figure, not above five feet nine, was +closely knit. His true portrait is everywhere caught by the +photographer, the caricaturist, the painter; but we seldom meet with a +portraiture of the man that animated that splendid tenement. Abbott +compares him with McPherson and contrasts him with Hood. He says: +"When Logan was McPherson's successor on the field of Atlanta, +rivalling his predecessor in bravery, patriotism, and military +ability." ... When speaking of him and Hood, he says: "General Logan +was by no means his inferior in impetuous daring, and far his superior +in all those intellectual qualities of circumspection, coolness, and +judgment requisite to constitute a general." + +I hardly think that one who knew both would speak just that way of +Hood and Logan. The fact is, the two men were very much alike. Both +were impetuous, both brave, and both able generals. Hood was put into +the place of General Johnston by Davis with orders to fight +desperately; had Logan been sent to Nashville to relieve General +Thomas when it was contemplated, he would have done precisely as did +Hood--he would have fought, and at once. He might have been +defeated--as Thomas was not. Before Sherman threw his forces upon +Hood's communications, Logan was greatly depressed concerning the +proposed plan. "How can it succeed?" he asked. But when the first +battle came on, all his pluck, forethought, energy, Samson-like, came +to him. Permit me to repeat my words at the time concerning him, just +after that action: + +"I wish to express my high gratification with the conduct of the +troops engaged. I never saw better conduct in battle. {518} General +Logan, though ill and much worn out, was indefatigable, and the +success of the day is as much attributable to him as to any one +man...." + +As I now estimate General Logan, I think him like Napoleon's Marshal +Murat. He was made for battle; the fiercer, the better it seemed to +suit his temper; but the study of campaigns and military strategy was +not his forte. His personal presence was not only striking, but almost +resistless. The power of love and hate belonged to his nature. If a +friend, like Andrew Jackson, he was a friend indeed; but if an enemy, +it was not comfortable to withstand him. Logan had a good loyal heart; +he sincerely loved his country and her institutions. He is justly +enrolled as a hero and patriot. + + +MAJOR-GENERAL HENRY WARNER SLOCUM. + +In the very beginning of Slocum's career, one characteristic becomes +noticeable from his earliest childhood--he always had a wholesome +object in view; so that, when he attained one elevation, he fixed his +eye steadily upon another still higher, and bent his energies to +attain it. + +[Illustration: MAJOR-GENERAL HENRY WARNER SLOCUM.] + +Early in life he cherished a desire for a cadetship at West Point; +this desire was gratified in 1848. Sheridan speaks in his "Memoirs" of +his (Slocum's) studious habits and willingness to aid others. I was +myself at the academy and remember his strong character when the +pro-slavery sentiment at West Point was so great as to lessen the +popularity of any one even suspected of entertaining abolition views. +He fearlessly and openly expressed himself as an opponent to human +slavery. + +General Slocum graduated high in his class; saw service in the +Seminole wars in Florida, and remained stationed in the South until +1857, when, having studied law, he resigned to practise his profession +in Syracuse, N. Y., being a representative at Albany in 1859, and +instructor of militia from 1859 to 1861. When Fort Sumter fell he +tendered his services, and was given the command of the Twenty-seventh +New York Volunteers, which he led in a charge at Bull Run, where he +was severely wounded. In August, 1861, he was made brigadier-general +of volunteers, and took a brigade in General Franklin's division. When +Franklin passed to the command of a corps, Slocum took the division. +His work was noticeable on the Peninsula, at Yorktown, West Point, +Gaines's Mill, Glendale, and Malvern Hill, and on each occasion he +received the praise of his commanders. At South Mountain his division +drove the enemy from its position with such a rush as to prevent any +chance of rallying, which act brought him still more commendation. It +was Slocum who led the advance of Franklin's corps to the field of +Antietam, and enabled us to recover and hold much ground that had been +taken from us in the first struggle. + +By October of 1862 Slocum's manifest ability had given him the Twelfth +Corps, with which his name is so closely identified. In the +Chancellorsville campaign it was Slocum who made the march around +Lee's left, and showed himself the "cool, self-poised, and prompt +commander that he had always been, and which made him distinguished +even in the brilliant group of generals of which he was a member." It +would require the whole history of Gettysburg to fairly portray +Slocum's part there. The most impressive incident of that battle to me +was Slocum's own battle on the 3d day of July, 1863. For five anxious +hours Slocum commanded the field to our right; that dreadful struggle +went on until Ewell with Early's and Edward Johnson's large divisions +was forced to give up and abandon his prize of the night before. +Slocum's resolute insistence, on the 2d, upon leaving Greene and his +brigade as a precaution when General Meade ordered the Twelfth Corps +to be sent to his (Meade's) left, with Greene's marvellous night +battle, and more still, Slocum's organized work and engagement of the +following morning, in my judgment prevented Meade losing the battle of +Gettysburg. + +The disaster at Chickamauga took Slocum's corps from the Rappahannock +to Tennessee. Soon after his arrival he was sent to command the +district of Vicksburg, where his work consisted of expeditions to +break up bridges and railroads and to repel rebel raids. When the +death of General McPherson, Slocum's department commander, at Atlanta, +caused so many changes, Slocum was brought to that city to command the +Twelfth Corps. When, a little later, we swung off on Hood's +communications, Slocum being located south of the Atlanta crossing of +the Chattahoochee River, it was his quick perception that recognized +the significance of the final explosions, and it was he who pushed +forward over the intervening six miles and took possession of that +citadel of Georgia; and it was his despatch to his watchful commander, +thirty miles away, that inspired that brief proclamation, "Atlanta is +ours, and fairly won!" + +In the march to the sea and through the Carolinas, General Sherman had +given to Slocum the left wing, the Army of Georgia. He crossed the +Savannah River when the high waters made it most difficult, pushing +and fighting through the swamps of the Carolinas. He fought the battle +of Averysboro, and later took a leading part at Bentonville, where +Johnston, the toughest Confederate of them all, surrendered, and we +turned our faces homeward. + +At the close of the war General Slocum resigned from the army and +engaged in civil pursuits, adding to his magnificent military +reputation a civil repute for ability, honesty, and probity in +business as well as in political affairs. + + +GENERAL WILLIAM TECUMSEH SHERMAN. + +With regard to the central figure of this group, General Sherman +himself, libraries are so full of his characteristic work and worth +that I will simply add to the above sketches a few items. Those have +been chosen which are the more personal. It is said that when his +father gave him the name of the great Indian chief, Tecumseh, he +remarked: "Who knows but this child may be a fighter?" It is indeed +remarkable how often {519} names are prophetic. A fighter he was, but +one thoroughly equipped with that most valuable weapon to a general, +namely, such knowledge of history as to make him an authority to all +of us. Any disputed point we carried to him; we relied upon his being +able to set us right. Indeed, one of his most marked characteristics +was his quick perception and exceedingly retentive memory. This he +evidenced in many ways; years after he ascended the Indian River in +Florida he remembered with minute distinctness what he saw, from the +shape of the inlet to the roosting pelicans along the mangrove +islands. Talking with him before the battle of Kenesaw Mountain, I +found him so conversant with the Chattahoochee Valley and the roads to +and from Marietta, and all the features of that region, that I was +astonished, and asked him where he had gotten such valuable +information. He said he had gained it twenty years before, when +travelling through the country as a member of a board of officers +detailed to appraise horses lost in the Florida war. During his +service in the South before the war he travelled much, and appears to +have remembered ever after, with wonderful distinctness, the features +of the country. + +[Illustration: (hand written) W. T. Sherman.] + +Sherman was, above all, pure in his patriotism and free from thought +of self. When, from his position at the Military Seminary in +Louisiana, he saw the conflict coming, he wrote: "I accepted this +position when the motto of the seminary, inserted in marble over the +main door, was, 'By the liberality of the General Government of the +United States.'--'The Union'--'Este perpetua.' ... If Louisiana +withdraws from the Federal Union, I prefer to maintain my allegiance +to the old Constitution as long as a fragment of it survives;" adding, +"for on no account will I do any act or think any thought hostile to +or in defiance of the old government of the United States." When his +clear perception of the magnitude of the struggle before us made him +declare to Secretary Cameron that it "was nonsense to carry on a +picayune war; that sixty thousand men were needed for immediate work +to clear Kentucky and Tennessee; and two hundred thousand men to +finish the war in that quarter;" and when the supposed extravagance of +his demands led to the suspicion that his mind was unbalanced, thus +placing him under a cloud, no selfish thought seems to have occurred +to him. Instead of dwelling upon the injustice done him, he devoted +all his knowledge, his wonderful energy and skill, to aiding General +Grant; and, further, while under this cloud he gathered and sent +forward to Grant much-needed supplies and men. He put order among +quartermasters and commissaries anew, equipped new commands, and +pushed them, never thinking of himself, to the front. This energy and +generosity General Grant promptly acknowledged; and it was here, after +the battle of Fort Donelson, that the celebrated Army of the Tennessee +was born. + +General Sherman's organizing powers have been tested by results. +Doubtless his brilliant genius gave more or less inspiration to his +subordinates, and his magnetic influence lifted up to prominence some +very common men; yet, no proof-sustaining bridge can be condemned! He +generously gave both confidence and scope to his officers, just as +Grant had given confidence and scope to him; and such sunshine +develops men and makes them strong. His memory was phenomenal; he had +acquired knowledge with intense rapidity, from observation and from +books, from childhood to age; and by a thousand tests he showed that +he had forgotten nothing that he had once learned. Who could estimate +the number of officers and men he knew at the close of the war? And at +the time of his death thousands claimed his personal recognition. + +He led his quartermasters in their plans and estimates for his army; +he was quicker than his chief commissary in figuring the rations for a +month's supply; he was equal to the great engineering general in +everything that pertains to the construction of railroads and the +running of trains; he was more than a match for his Confederate +adversaries in field correspondence with them at Atlanta--a +correspondence rapid and pungent, which involved laws of war and of +nations. + +When the Hon. Thomas Ewing, in kindness to General Sherman's family, +offered to adopt a child, his choice fell upon Tecumseh. Mr. Ewing's +testimony, after a little experience with him as a member of his +family, is, "That he was a lad remarkable for accuracy of memory and +straightforwardness." + +When truthfulness is the corner-stone of a character--all things being +equal--we have reason to anticipate a strong superstructure. How this +was realized in Sherman, the world knows. + +Loyalty to family, loyalty to friends, loyalty to society about him, +loyalty to duty and country, he quickly observed in another. And this +loyalty was a marked characteristic of his own great soul. + +OLIVER OTIS HOWARD, + _Major-General U. S. Army_. + +GOVERNOR'S ISLAND, N. Y., _July_ 6, 1894. + + + + +{520} + +PRISONS AND ESCAPES. + +BY GEORGE L. KILMER. + +ESCAPE OF THREE WAR CORRESPONDENTS FROM SALISBURY PRISON--SEVENTY +PRISONERS ESCAPED, BUT ONLY FIVE REACHED THE NORTH--LONG AND PERILOUS +JOURNEY THROUGH THE ENEMY'S COUNTRY--"OUT OF THE JAWS OF DEATH, OUT OF +THE MOUTH OF HELL"--A LEAP FOR LIBERTY--FOUR UNION PRISONERS ESCAPED +NEAR CHARLESTON, S. C.--JOURNEY THROUGH SWAMPS AND OVER MOUNTAINS TO +TENNESSEE--ESCAPES FROM ANDERSONVILLE--TUNNELLING UNDER THE +STOCKADE--REMARKABLE ESCAPE OF THE CONFEDERATE GENERAL MORGAN--COLONEL +ROSE'S TUNNEL AT LIBBY PRISON. + + +Albert D. Richardson and Junius Henri Browne, war correspondents of +the _New York Tribune_, were taken prisoners from a Union vessel that +attempted to pass the Confederate batteries at Grand Gulf, Miss. After +passing some time in Castle Thunder and Libby Prison, Richmond, they +were sent to Salisbury, N. C., as a punishment for endeavoring to +escape, and while there, W. T. Davies of the _Cincinnati Gazette_ +united his fortunes with the _Tribune_ men. + +[Illustration: LIBBY PRISON, RICHMOND, VA. (From a war-time +photograph.)] + +Again and again plans to obtain their freedom were frustrated by some +trifle, until desperation spurred them to the most daring attempts, +but these also ended in failure. One day a body of prisoners, led by +Robert E. Boulger of the Twenty-fourth Michigan, rushed upon a guard +relief, seized their muskets, and attacked the sentinels on their +posts. In their haste, all rushed to one point and attempted to pass +the fence; but a couple of field-pieces and the muskets of the reserve +guard turned upon that one point, quelled the insurrection in three +minutes, killing and wounding one hundred men. A scheme of tunnelling +was then proposed and pushed far toward success, but the prison +commandant took alarm and posted a second line of guards, one hundred +feet outside the stockade, and that rendered egress by tunnels out of +the question. After spending ten months in the Salisbury prison, +Richardson and his two companions determined to take heavy risks in +order to get out and make their way to the mountains of East +Tennessee. The outlook, according to the statistics of escapes during +their experiences in that prison, was not at all promising, for out of +seventy prisoners that had passed the guard, but five had reached the +North. The others had been retaken or had been shot in the mountains. +By extraordinary good luck the trio passed the guards on the night of +December 17, 1864. All three were on duty at the time in the hospital, +and Davies and Browne held passes permitting them to go outside the +first line of sentinels to a Confederate dispensary for supplies. This +privilege had been enjoyed so long that they were allowed to go on +sight. The night of the escape, Browne loaned his pass to Richardson, +and with Davies walked coolly out to the dispensary. Richardson +describes his exit as follows: + +"A few minutes later, taking a box filled with the bottles in which +the medicines were usually brought, and giving it to a {521} lad who +assisted me in my hospital duties, I started to follow them. As if in +great haste, we walked rapidly toward the fence. When we reached the +gate, I took the box from the boy and said to him, for the benefit of +the sentinel, of course: 'I am going outside to get these bottles +filled. I shall be back in fifteen minutes, and want you to remain +right here to take and distribute them among the hospitals. Do not go +away.' The lad, understanding me perfectly, replied, 'Yes, sir,' and I +attempted to pass the sentinel by mere assurance. He stopped me with +his musket, demanding: + +"'Have you a pass, sir?' + +"'Certainly I have a pass,' I replied with all the indignation I could +assume. 'Have you not seen it often enough to know it by this time?' + +"Apparently a little dumbfounded, he modestly replied: 'Perhaps I +have; but they are strict with us, and I am not quite sure.'" + +The sentinel examined the document which was all right in Browne's +hands, but all wrong in Richardson's. But he did not know the +difference, and told Richardson to pass on. Once outside he met +several Confederate officials who knew him, and knew too that he was +out of his place, but the "peculiarly honest and business-like look of +that medicine box" threw them off their guard. Instead of entering the +dispensary, Richardson hid his box and slipped under a convenient +shelter. At dark his friends joined him, and the three passed the +outer guard without difficulty. For the _Tribune_ men this was the end +of twenty months of captivity. The first night and day were passed in +the barn of a friendly citizen within one mile of the prison. The +second night, a Confederate lieutenant belonging to the Sons of +America, an order of Southerners who secretly aided the Union, met +them and gave them full directions how and where to reach friends on +their journey. Then they set out on their long winter tramp, poorly +clad, and weak from long confinement. + +The main guide of the refugees was a railroad running west, but they +were often obliged to leave the line to avoid crowded settlements, and +were frequently lost in making those detours. In such emergencies they +relied upon chance friends among the slaves to direct them aright. + +On the morning of the seventh day of their escape, they found that +they had made fifty miles of their direct journey. December 30th they +crossed the Yadkin River, now getting into a region where Union homes +were plenty. Communications had to be opened with women, as the men +were "lying out" in order to avoid impressment by the hated +Confederacy; and, after allaying all suspicion, our refugees found +these people of great service. + +"The men of the community were walking arsenals. Each had a trusty +rifle, one or two navy revolvers, a great bowie-knife, a haversack, +and a canteen." + +Guided and fed by the friends they found here, the three reached +Tennessee early in January; but their perils were not yet over, for +the mountains were constantly patrolled by Confederate guerillas. Once +they had to pass within a quarter of a mile of a notorious rendezvous, +called Little Richmond. An invalid arose from his bed and guided them +past the danger at the risk of his life. On another occasion their +guide, the celebrated Dan Ellis, aroused the party from sleep with the +startling announcement: "We have walked right into a nest of rebels. +Several hundred are within a few miles, and eighty in this immediate +vicinity!" + +They scattered in various directions, Richardson and his party--for +others had joined them--being led by a young woman who often performed +this service, though her name, Melvina Stephens, was never revealed +until the war had closed. + +On the 14th of January, 1865, the _Tribune_ printed this despatch from +its long-lost correspondent: + +"KNOXVILLE, TENN., _January_ 13, 1865. + +"Out of the jaws of death; out of the mouth of hell. + +"ALBERT D. RICHARDSON." + +He had travelled three hundred and forty miles since leaving the +prison, twenty-seven days before. + +{522} [Illustration: GUARDING CONFEDERATE PRISONERS. (From a War +Department photograph.)] + +Of the thousands of prisoners held by either side during the four +years of the war, those who escaped and succeeded in reaching their +own lines were exceedingly few, although the attempts at escape were +numerous, and a good many got away from the prisons only to be brought +back captives again in a few days. The most notable adventure of this +kind was an escape from Libby Prison by a hundred and eight officers +in February, 1864. In that crowded prison, which was an old tobacco +warehouse, the prisoners had little to do but play checkers on squares +of the floor marked out with their pocket knives, play cards, tell +stories, and devise plans for escape. One of them discovered a way of +getting into the basement, and, by removing stones, making a hole +through the eastern foundation wall. With a few assistants he then +proceeded to dig a tunnel across the breadth of the yard. The earth +that was taken out was dumped in a dark corner of the cellar where it +never attracted attention. The work had to be carried on very +secretly, not only to escape the notice of the guards, but even to +prevent the knowledge of it from reaching any prisoner who might not +be trustworthy. When the tunnel was about ten yards long a slight +opening was made to the surface of the ground for light and +ventilation; and an old shoe thrown out at this opening in the night, +and resting near it upon the surface, enabled the tunnellers, looking +from the windows of the prison in the daytime, to get their bearings +and determine how much farther they must dig in order to pass under +the fence. When all was done the night of February 9th was fixed for +the escape. One of the officers who passed through the tunnel says of +himself and two companions: "Each man had an entire suit of clothes, a +double suit of underclothes, the pair of boots in which he stood on +entering the prison, an overcoat, and a cap. In common we possessed a +coil of rope, a diminutive hatchet, one pint of brandy, a half pint of +extract of Jamaica ginger, two days' scant rations of dried meat and +hard bread, one pipe, and a bit of tobacco. The tunnel was about +fifty-three feet long, and so small in diameter that in order to pass +through it was necessary to lie flat on one's face, propelling with +one hand and the feet, the other hand being thrown over the back to +diminish the breadth of the shoulders and carry overcoat, rations, +etc. Early in the evening, as I was seated at the card table, Randolph +tapped me on the shoulder. 'The work is finished,' he said. 'The first +party went through soon after dark; there is no time to lose.' Every +one knew it then. We possessed only the advantage of being perfectly +cool and having a plan agreed upon. The excitement in the prison was +of the wildest kind. Parties were formed, plans arranged, farewells +exchanged, all in less time than one can describe. We dropped one by +one into the cellar. I remember well the instructions: 'Feet first; +back to the wall; get down on your knees; make a half face to the +right, and grasp the spike in the wall below with your right hand; +lower yourself down; feel for the knotted rope below with your legs.' +Then one had but to {523} drop in the loose straw shaken from hospital +beds to be in the cellar. To walk across that foul pit in the dark was +no easy matter; but it was soon accomplished, and together we crouched +at the entrance of the tunnel. Only one at a time; and as about three +minutes were consumed in effecting the passage, progress was quite +slow. Of our party Randolph was the first to enter. 'I'm going. Wait +till I get through before you start.' It seemed that his long legs +would never disappear; but a parting kick in the face, as he wriggled +desperately in, quite reassured me. When a cool blast of air drawing +through the tunnel gave the welcome assurance that the passage was +clear, in I went. So well did the garment of earth fit, that at +moments my movements corresponded somewhat to those of a bolt forcing +its way through a rifled gun. Breath failed when I was about +two-thirds through, but a score or more of vigorous kicks brought me +to the earth's surface where Randolph awaited my coming. With sundry +whispered instructions about getting out without making undue noise +and without breaking my skull against the bottom of a board fence, he +then crept away toward the street, keeping in the shadow of a high +brick wall, leaving me to assist in turn and instruct the colonel, who +could now be heard thundering through the tunnel. Dirty but jubilant, +we were soon standing in the shadow of a low brick arch, outside of +which a sentinel paced backward and forward, coming sometimes within +two yards of our position. One after another stole out of the archway, +and we met, as agreed, at the corner of the second street below. Arm +in arm, whistling and singing, we turned and struck out, strong and +hopeful, for home and liberty." The one hundred and eight men who +escaped through this tunnel followed different plans and routes for +getting within the National lines, but the greater part of them were +recaptured. The party of which the officer just quoted was one, after +twelve days of journeying through swamps and by-ways, fed and guided +by the friendly negroes, at length reached the National lines on the +Pamunkey. + +[Illustration: RUINS OF CHARLESTON, S. C.] + + +A LEAP FOR LIBERTY[1] + +[Footnote 1: Rewritten (by permission) from Captain Drake's narrative +as printed in the private history of the Ninth New Jersey Volunteers.] + +On the morning of October 6, 1864, a party of six hundred captive +Union officers were put on board of a train of box-cars to be +transported from the jail yard at Charleston to prison quarters at +Columbia. Among the number was Capt. J. Madison Drake, of the Ninth +New Jersey volunteers, who had been a prisoner of war five months and +an inmate during that time of three different prisons--Libby, Macon, +Ga., and Charleston. Although he had been foiled in many attempts to +escape, he resolved on one more effort, and, having received warning +of the trip to Columbia, induced three fellow-prisoners to join him: +Capt. H. H. Todd, Eighth New Jersey; Capt. J. E. Lewis, Eleventh +Connecticut; and Capt. Alfred Grant, Nineteenth Wisconsin. While the +train was crawling slowly on toward Columbia, the bold projector of +the scheme managed to remove the gun-caps from the nipples of the +muskets of several guards {524} on the car where the four friends +were; and as soon as dusk came on, the party at a signal took their +daring leap. They landed in a cypress swamp on Congaree River, and +found themselves waist deep in water and mud. A volley of shots from +all the guards followed the fugitives, but no one was hurt, as the +train was running under good headway. A night and a day were passed in +the swamp, and although the barking of dogs and shouting of men +indicated that pursuers had been sent out, the runaways were not +disturbed. The second night a bright new moon arose, and they started +on a systematic journey toward the Union lines in Tennessee. + +Before leaving Charleston, one of the party had found a school map of +South Carolina, and with this guide a course had been studied out. +They decided to hug the swamps and woods by day, and at night use the +fields and roads, and spend as little time as possible in sleep until +the mountains of North Carolina were reached. Their chief guide-mark +in South Carolina was the Wateree River. + +At the end of a week their rations had all been consumed, and in +desperation the wanderers began to think of food to the exclusion of +all else. Captain Drake says that in these times they heartily yearned +for the government "hard tack" and the contractor's beef they had so +often anathematized on the march and in camp. + +But fortune will favor the bold, and one night, as they halted on a +roadside to debate whether it should be a quest for bread or for a +road to liberty, a dark form came shambling along the road, and in the +moonlight they saw at a distance that it was an old negro with a +basket on his arm. Without ceremony the famished men crowded around +the old man, and finding that he had in his basket a "pone" of +corn-bread, they seized it and began to devour it ravenously. After a +time the situation was explained, and when the negro learned who the +highwaymen were, he supplied a quantity of meal and salt, and sent +them on their way mentally resolved to cultivate acquaintance with +colored folks as often as possible. + +Not until several hundred miles had been placed between their fainting +feet and Charleston did the hapless fugitives feel a sense of freedom. +Often their fears and alarms were causeless, but they suffered loss of +vitality all the same. Sometimes seeming misfortunes proved to be +blessings. One night a pack of dogs chased them into a crowded +village, and they took refuge in a graveyard vault. There Captain +Drake found a copy of a local newspaper, warning the people to be on +guard for escaped Union prisoners. The escaped prisoners themselves +got the benefit of the hint. At another time some Confederate +cavalrymen chased them on the high-road, and they escaped by getting +into a dense wood, where the horses couldn't follow. While wandering +about, they fell in with a loyal mountaineer, who took them to his +home, fed them, and directed them to other Unionists. + +Many of the men met with in the mountains were of the class known as +"lyers out," deserters from the Confederate army, and fugitive +conscripts. A hundred or more of these men were persuaded to join +Drake's party on their tramp toward the Union lines. Thus reinforced +with guides and armed companions, the prospects of the runaway +prisoners began to brighten. But they were not out of the woods by a +long way, as the sequel proved. + +When the fugitives drew near the Union lines the danger of capture +increased, for a cordon of mountain rangers patrolled the region to +head off any fortunate ones who got thus far on the journey homeward. +The mountains were simply barren wastes, the few cabins had to be +shunned, and the only food to be obtained was wild game which the +rifles of the "lyers out" brought down. In the uplands the poor +fellows were hounded by "rangers," and in the valleys mounted +Confederates dashed about on all sides. + +At length the party reached the vicinity of Bull's Gap, a railway pass +through the mountains, and guarded by Union troops as an outpost of +Knoxville. The chief scout announced that the gap was fifteen miles +from the foot of the hill whence it was first sighted, and that, once +reached, the refugees would be safe. The news stimulated the men anew, +and they started down the mountain with their eyes riveted on the gap, +for fear, as Drake says, it would take wings and flee. Alas! alas! The +unexpected happens in war if nowhere else. + +The gap didn't exactly take wings and flee, but the ubiquitous General +Breckenridge, with an army at his back, fell like a thunderbolt upon +the Union garrison at the pass, defeated and routed the entire force +and hurled them backward at mounted double-quick pace toward +Knoxville; and, presto! the gap was closed in the very faces of the +yearning-eyed, broken-bodied pilgrims. Think of it--at the end of +those terrible weeks of endurance and suffering, to find a hostile +army springing across the path at a bound, and its scouts and patrols +beating every byway and bush in the region for the luckless strays of +the fleeing enemy! + +A young woman of the mountains volunteered to scout toward the gap and +bring news to the refugee camp. She simply learned that Breckenridge +was sweeping the country of Union troops and marching upon Knoxville. + +At the same time it was discovered that a band of Confederate +partisans were on the trail of the fugitives, and to escape this new +danger they found comparative shelter in a ravine. Two of the men who +had leaped from the car with Drake, Captains Todd and Grant, ventured +out to obtain rations, which were sadly needed, as they were all +living on dry corn. During the night mounted men attacked the bivouac, +and the refugees scattered, every man for himself. At the end of a +week they fell in with a cavalry patrol, and were once more, after +forty-nine days' wandering, under the protection of the Stars and +Stripes. + + +ATTEMPTS AT ESCAPE FROM ANDERSONVILLE. + +Escapes from Andersonville, except through the portals of death--that +is, complete escape to the Union lines--were exceedingly rare. +Hundreds, through one device or another, succeeded in getting outside +of the stockade, but the prison was so strongly surrounded with guards +and forts and quarters occupied with zealous attendants, that it was +difficult for a prisoner to elude the detective on the outside even +when he had succeeded in passing the main barrier. Adding to this the +existence of the deep swamps and vast forests just beyond the camp +precincts, in which a stranger to the locality would be only too sure +to lose his way, it will be seen that to enter Andersonville was +indeed to leave "all hope behind." The favorite method of attempting +escape was by tunnelling, for the great extent of the camp area, some +twenty-five acres, and its crowded condition, made the work of +excavation, without danger of discovery by the guards and keepers, +comparatively easy. Another favorable circumstance was the fact that +prisoners were allowed to dig wells to supply drinking water, and the +grounds were everywhere dotted with piles of fresh earth that had been +thrown up in consequence. + +{525} In order to excavate a tunnel, the prisoners contemplating +escape would commence a lateral shaft a few feet below the mouth of +one of these wells, located near the stockade; and as the work was +done at night, the earth thus removed was carried in small quantities +and deposited on the piles of fresh earth thrown out from the newly +sunken wells. The tools used were of the rudest kind--tin plates, +cups, and knives with which to loosen the earth, and bare hands to +scoop it into the haversacks, or bags improvised from clothes and +pieces of blanket; and in this manner these tunnels were frequently +extended, not only beyond the stockade, but even beyond the outer line +of prison guards. Yet, although hundreds passed out--as many as one +hundred escaped through one tunnel in a single night, late in +1864--they were invariably brought back; sometimes through the +treachery of spies, who mingled with the prisoners, and at other times +by hunters with their dogs, who were constantly patrolling the +vicinity of the camp, and, in fact, the entire region, in search of +deserters from the Confederate army and runaway slaves, as well as +fugitive prisoners. Not one well-authenticated case of a prisoner +getting out through a tunnel, and making his way North, is to be found +on record. + +[Illustration: NATIONAL CEMETARY, RICHMOND, VA.] + +Another method of escape from the enclosure was by strolling beyond +the sight of the guards when allowed to go out to the forests for +wood; some, again, tried hiding in the huge boxes used for bringing +prisoners into the camp, and many were missed from their quarters who +had succeeded for the time being in misleading their guards, but +eventually the fugitives turned up elsewhere; while such as enlisted +in the Confederate army, this being their last hope of escape, soon +reappeared, either as willing prisoners or deserters. + +One tunnel, which had been carried under and beyond the stockade, was +broken into by a severe flood, and the stockade undermined, which +opened the celebrated "providential spring." + +In August, 1864, when prisoners were dying from the use of unwholesome +drinking water, a heavy thunder storm flooded the little brook that, +running through the enclosure, passed in and out under the stockade. +The rushing element not only broke in the roof of the tunnel, but +loosened a quantity of earth which, since the construction of the +stockade, had dammed up a copious stream of clear, fresh water, its +original course passing right through the prison quarters. Some +attributed the reopening to the action of lightning, while others +looked upon it as a direct interposition of Heaven for their relief. +But, whatever the cause, it supplied the prisoners with an abundance +of good water through the remainder of their stay, and is still in +existence. + + +{526} MORGAN'S ESCAPE. + +The account of the capture and escape of General Morgan as here given +is condensed from an article by Samuel B. Taylor, originally published +in the Cincinnati _Tribune_. + +In the summer of 1863, General Morgan's command made, through Southern +Ohio, one of those raids which were the most daring and successful in +the history of modern and ancient warfare. In that instance he did not +meet with his usual great success, for his raid terminated, in July of +that year, with the capture of himself and sixty-eight of his officers +and men. By order of General Burnside, he and a number of his officers +were confined in the Ohio Penitentiary, at Columbus. + +"We were each placed in a separate cell, in the first and second range +or tier of cells on the south side of the east wing of the prison. +These cells were let into a solid block of masonry, one hundred and +sixty feet long and twenty-five feet thick. They opened into a hall +twelve feet wide and one hundred and sixty feet in length. Then, as +now, the prison buildings and their yard were enclosed by a solid +stone wall thirty feet high and four feet in thickness, and level on +top. + +"We at length became so desperate from confinement that we determined +to escape, no matter at what hazard. But how was escape to be +effected? + +"From five o'clock P.M. till seven A.M. we were locked in our cells, +with no means of communication. Through the day we were allowed to +roam about the large hall on to which our cells opened and to converse +freely with each other, though there was an armed sentry at either end +of this hall, through which the regular keepers of the prison passed +at frequent and regular intervals. We discussed every possible and +impossible plan of escape, as we thought, but could hit upon none that +seemed feasible. + +"We had been some three months in durance vile, when, in consequence +of an insult that was offered to one of our number, Capt. Thomas A. +Hines, by the deputy warden, a plan was evolved by which we did +finally succeed in making our escape. Captain Hines retired to his +cell about eight o'clock A.M., vowing that food should not pass his +lips and that sleep should not rest upon his eyelids until he had +thought out some plan of escape that should be practicable. + +"About a quarter to twelve o'clock he came to me and said that he had +hit upon a plan which he thought would do. At all events he was +determined to try it. He then informed me that he had noticed that the +walls of his cell, instead of being damp, as they naturally would have +been from the fact that they were built upon a level with the ground +outside, were perfectly dry. From this he concluded that there must be +an air chamber beneath. Now, if such should be the case, Captain +Hines's plan was to run a tunnel from it through the foundation into +the yard, and then to escape over the prison wall. + +"The cells were built in five tiers. Some of our party occupied the +lowest or ground tier, while others, including General Morgan himself, +occupied the second tier. Of course only those in the ground tier +could escape by means of Captain Hines's plan, and in order for +General Morgan to do so it would be necessary to have him exchange +cells with some one in the tier below. The plan of Captain Hines was +communicated to General Morgan and the other officers that afternoon, +and after being fully discussed, it was decided that not more than +seven of those on the lower tier could escape, because the greater the +number the greater would be the danger of discovery. We arranged to +have the work begin in the cell of Captain Hines, and in order to +prevent the usual daily inspection being made of it, he asked +permission to thereafter sweep it himself. The permission was granted, +and he kept it so scrupulously clean that after a few mornings no +inspection was made of it. Work was therefore begun in his cell on the +morning of November 4th. With two small table-knives, obtained from +sick comrades in the hospital, Captain Hines cut through six inches of +cement, removed six layers of brick, concealing them in his bed tick, +and came to an air chamber six feet in height. The work was carried on +under his cot. + +"Having progressed thus far, Captain Hines now mounted guard at the +door of his cell, while the work was carried on by the rest of us. He +pretended to be deeply engrossed in study, but in reality he was +watching every movement of the guards and keepers. If one approached, +he gave us warning by a system of taps on the floor. One tap meant to +stop work, two to proceed, and three to come out. + +"We cut a tunnel at right angles from the air chamber through the +foundation wall of the cell block five feet, through twelve feet of +grouting to the outer wall of the east wing of the prison, then +through this wall six feet in thickness, and then four feet up near +the surface of the yard in an unfrequented place. Our tunnel +completed, it only remained to make an entrance from the cell of each +man who was to escape into the air chamber. This could only be done by +working from the air chamber upward. + +"To do this we must have something to measure with in order to locate +the spots at which to make these holes. We secured a measuring line by +involving the warden in a dispute about the length of the hall, +Captain Hines abstracting it long enough, after the hall had been +measured, to answer our purpose. The chamber being very dark, we +obtained matches and candles from our sick comrades in the hospital. + +"It was very essential to our purpose that we should have an accurate +knowledge of the prison yard and the wall inclosing it, but the +windows of the hall were too high to afford us a view. Fortunately the +warden ordered the walls and ceiling of the hall to be swept, and a +long ladder being brought for that purpose, I offered the warden a +wager that I could go hand over hand to its top, rest for a moment, +and then descend in the same way. He took me up, and having been +famous all my life for feats of strength and agility, I readily won +the bet. While resting at the top of the ladder I made a thorough +survey of the yard. There was a double gate to the outer wall south of +the wing in which we then were and almost at right angles from its +eastern end. Of this double gate, the outer portal was solid as the +wall itself, while the inner was of wooden uprights four inches apart. +By means of this latter gate we might ascend to the top of the prison +wall. For that purpose we made a rope of our bed ticking, and fastened +it to a grappling iron made out of the poker of the hall stove. + +"All our money had been taken by our captors, but we obtained a fresh +supply from friends in the South, secreted in the cover of an old book +sent through the mail. An old convict, who was often sent into the +city on errands by the warden, procured us a newspaper, from which we +learned that a train left for Cincinnati--whither we were bound--at +1.15 o'clock A.M. At midnight the guards made a round of the cells, +and we determined to start at that hour. I was to descend into the air +chamber and notify the others by a tap under the floor of each cell. + +"The evening of November 27th being dark and cloudy, we determined to +try our luck that night. When we were locked up for the night, General +Morgan contrived to change places with his brother, who occupied one +of the lower cells, and who greatly resembled him in face and form. +Every man arranged the stool, {527} with which each cell was supplied, +in his bed to look like a sleeping man when the guard should thrust +his lantern through the cell door a few minutes later. + +"I had General Morgan's gold watch, and punctually at midnight I broke +with my boot-heel the thin layer of cement which separated my cell +from the air chamber, and passing along the latter gave a tap under +the floor of each of the others, who soon joined me. We crawled +through our tunnel, and, breaking the thin layer of earth which +separated its end from the surface, we were soon in the prison yard. +Over the wooden gate, which I had seen from the ladder, we threw our +grappling iron, and by its bed-ticking rope drew ourselves up till we +stood on the wing wall, whence we readily passed to the outside wall +in full view of freedom. + +"The top of the latter wall was so broad as to form a walkway for the +guards, who were stationed there during the day, but who at night were +placed inside the walls. This walkway was supplied with sentry boxes, +and in one of these we divested ourselves of the garments we had +soiled in passing through the tunnel, each man having provided for +this by wearing two suits. With one of the knives used in tunnelling, +General Morgan then cut the rope running along the wall to the +warden's office bell. Fastening our grappling iron to the railing +running along the edge of the wall, we descended to the ground +outside, and were free once more, though at that very moment the +prison guards were sitting around a fire not sixty yards away. + +"We now separated, and in parties of two and three made our way to the +railroad station, and took the train for Cincinnati. During the +journey General Morgan sat beside a Federal major in full uniform, and +was soon on the best of terms with him. Our route lay directly past +the prison whence we had just come, and, as we whizzed by it, the +Federal officer said to our leader: + +"'That is where the rebel General Morgan is now imprisoned.' + +"'Indeed,' said General Morgan; 'I hope they will always keep him as +safely as they have him now.' + +"At Dayton our train was delayed for over an hour, and this made it +unsafe for us to go on to Cincinnati, as we had intended, because we +should now be unable to reach the city until long after seven o'clock +in the morning, and by that time our escape was certain to be +discovered and telegraphed all over the country, and we should be +watched for in every large city in which there was any possibility of +our going. We therefore alighted from the train as it was passing +through Ludlow Ferry, a suburb of the city, and we quickly ferried +across the Ohio River into Kentucky. There we found many kind friends, +who aided us with hospitality, money, concealment when necessary, +horses, and arms. The adventures, the dangers, hardships, hairbreadth +escapes from capture, and serious and laughable incidents through +which each one of us passed in making our way back into the +Confederate lines, would fill an immense volume. For the purposes of +this article, it must suffice to say that ultimately we all succeeded +in rejoining our comrades at the front, though one or two of our +number were recaptured before they could do so, but they again +succeeded in escaping. + +"What transpired in Columbus after the discovery of our escape we did +not learn until long afterward. Then we found that we had created one +of the greatest--if not the very greatest--sensations of the war. Our +escape had been effected in such a seemingly impossible manner, and +was so absolutely without parallel in the history of prison escapes, +that the people of the North refused to believe that it had been +accomplished without collusion on the part of some of our keepers. It +is no wonder that they thought so, for everything in connection with +the affair happened so fortunately for us that it really seemed as if +we must have had some assistance from some one within the prison. The +way in which we obtained the line with which to measure for the holes +in the cell floors, the way I obtained a view of the prison yard, the +way in which General Morgan and his brother changed cells on the night +of our escape, all of which I have detailed before, would certainly +seem impossibilities without connivance. Then, when it is considered +that the digging of the tunnel consumed over three weeks, and that the +keepers were almost constantly passing over where it was going on, it +seems incredible that they never became aware of it. + +"Nevertheless, there was never any bribery even attempted. It seemed +as though fate or Providence or some controlling power had decreed +that we were to escape, and directed everything to that end. The only +bribery was that practised upon the old convict I have mentioned, to +induce him to bring us a newspaper, contrary to the warden's rules, +that we might find out about the trains for Cincinnati, and the +convict in question had not the slightest idea what we wanted it for. +I believe Warden N. L. Merion was perfectly loyal to the Union." + +[Illustration: BREVET BRIGADIER-GENERAL O. E. BABCOCK.] + +[Illustration: MAJOR-GENERAL EDW. R. S. CANBY.] + +[Illustration: MAJOR-GENERAL C. M. CLAY.] + +[Illustration: BREVET BRIGADIER-GENERAL ANSON G. McCOOK.] + + + + +{528} + +UNION AND CONFEDERATE RAIDS AND RAIDERS. + +BY GEORGE L. KILMER. + +BEALL, THE LAKE RAIDER--ANDREWS AND HIS DISGUISED RAIDERS--LIEUTENANT +CUSHING'S BOAT RAIDS--KILPATRICK'S RAID BY RICHMOND--MORGAN'S KENTUCKY +RAID--RAIDING A CITY. + + +The secret enterprise which placed Lieutenant Davis in a dungeon cell +and nearly cost him his life had a deeply tragic ending for John Y. +Beall, the young Virginian, executed at Fort Columbus, New York +Harbor, the 24th of February, 1865. Beall was the chief promoter and +the leader of the Lake Erie raid in the fall of 1864, but technically +the offence for which he suffered was that of a spy. The judge +advocate of the court which condemned him spoke of the prisoner as one +"whom violent passions had shorn of his nature's elements of +manliness, and led him to commit deeds which to have even suspected +him of at an earlier stage in his career would have been a calumny and +a crime." + +Beall had been wounded in the Confederate service early in the +conflict. As master in the navy, he had led for a time the daring, +reckless life of a "swamp angel" in the lower Potomac, destroying the +Union commerce in Chesapeake Bay and its adjacent waters. + +While thus engaged, he planned a lake raid, but failed to get his +government to sanction the project until 1864, when the Northwestern +Confederacy movement made it necessary for Jacob Thompson and his +co-conspirators in Canada to have a foothold upon Union soil along the +border. + +One of Thompson's cherished plans was an uprising of the notorious +Sons of Liberty at Chicago, during the Democratic national convention +in August, 1864. About this time Beall arrived at Sandusky, O., with +authority to proceed on his raiding enterprise. Thompson had prepared +the way for him by a careful investigation of the lake defences, +through an emissary located at Sandusky--Capt. Charles H. Cole, +formerly of Morgan's raiders. Cole was supplied with means to +entertain and bribe such Union officials as might be of service to the +Confederacy; and he finally concluded that the control of the lakes +could be secured by the capture of the gunboat _Michigan_, the sole +defender of the waters, and the liberation of the Confederate +prisoners at Camp Douglas, Chicago, and at Johnson's Island in +Sandusky Bay. + +Thompson gave Cole authority to capture the _Michigan_, and appointed +Beall to aid him. It was arranged between Cole and Beall that the +former would remain in Sandusky and coöperate by bribing some of the +men on the _Michigan_, and by preparing the prisoners on Johnson's +Island for an outbreak. The _Michigan_ lay off the island. The date +was fixed for the night of September 19th, and Beall went to Canada to +organize a force, hazarding everything, as will be seen, on the +success of his confederate, who, at the decisive moment, when Beall's +attacking party should arrive off Sandusky, was to make rocket signals +from Johnson's Island that the expected aid was a certainty. + +Beall secured the services of nineteen Confederate refugees, chiefly +escaped prisoners of war harbored in Canada, and the party disguised +in civilian dress took passage on a steamer plying between Sandusky +and Detroit, carrying in their baggage a supply of revolvers and +hatchets. At the proper time, the captain in his office, and the mate +at the wheel, were told to vacate their stations, revolvers were +suddenly brandished right and left to intimidate the officers and men, +and Beall as spokesman declared, "I take possession of this boat in +the name of the Confederate States." + +Under his direction the vessel was put about and headed for Middle +Boss Island, in Ohio waters, where the passengers and regular crew +were set ashore. + +From the island Beall bore his vessel directly for the gunboat +_Michigan_, steamed up within cannon range, and awaited a rocket +signal. When the hour passed and no signal came, he decided to risk +everything, board the gunboat at all hazards, and strike for Johnson's +Island. In his crisis an unlooked-for event dashed his high resolves +suddenly to the ground. The crew of the _Philo Parsons_ mutinied. The +absence of the shore signals was interpreted by them as a warning that +the plot had been discovered; and, although Beall argued and pleaded, +the men insisted that the death penalty awaited them if captured, and +they felt certain that such would be the end of it all. Their boat was +then run to the Canada shore, abandoned, and destroyed. + +[Illustration: BRIGADIER-GENERAL JUDSON KILPATRICK. (Afterward +Major-General.)] + +[Illustration: LIEUTENANT-GENERAL NATHAN B. FORREST, C. S. A.] + +The scene now changes to Union soil. On the night of the 15th of +December, 1864, the engineer on an eastern-bound express train on the +Erie railroad, between Buffalo and Dunkirk, saw a railroad rail across +the track, in front of his engine, just in time to reverse and strike +the obstruction at reduced speed without severe damage. The next night +two policemen at the New York Central depot, Niagara City, arrested +two suspicious men who were about to take the cars for Canada. Beall +was one of them, and, though he made some attempt to deny his +identity, he was sent to New York City and accused of the lake raid +and of the attempt at train wrecking. The clerk of the _Philo +Parsons_, and {529} one of the passengers, and also a confederate in +the attempt on the train, identified him, and furnished ample evidence +for a case. + +The train-wrecking enterprise was doubtless a last resort by Beall to +secure funds for the prosecution of his plans on the lake. Five men +were engaged in it. The party lay hidden near the track when the train +struck, and seeing that the damage was only trifling they hastened to +Buffalo and secreted themselves. Subsequently the arrest of Beall took +place, purely on suspicion. + +He was arraigned on two charges--violation of the laws of war and +acting as a spy. His defence was that his acts had been justifiable +acts of war; and, if confined to his attempt on the gunboat _Michigan_ +and the Johnson's Island prison, the plea might have had weight. But +every circumstance likely to weigh in his favor, his education, his +noble bearing, his manly conduct toward the captives on the _Philo +Parsons_, was lost sight of in the appalling railroad horror that had +been planned with such cool deliberation, and with no purpose evident +other than robbery--robbery at the sacrifice of innocent lives. + +A most deplorable tragedy brought about by the spy system, or what was +analogous to that, and involving the execution of six Ohio +soldiers,[1] also the imprisonment of sixteen others, who barely +escaped the gallows, is the story of the Andrews railroad raid, or +bridge-burning expedition, in Georgia, in the spring of 1862. + +[Footnote 1: George D. Wilson, Marion A. Ross, and Perry G. Shadrack, +Second Ohio; Samuel Slavens and Samuel Robinson, Thirty-third Ohio; +and John Scott, Twenty-first Ohio.] + +During General Buell's occupancy of Central Tennessee, before the +armies marched to Shiloh, he had occasionally employed the services of +a spy, named James J. Andrews, who carried on a contraband trade in +quinine, and in the course of his travels across the border often +managed to pick up information valuable to the Union generals. At his +solicitation, Buell permitted a detail from three regiments belonging +to General Sill's brigade, the Thirty-third, Twenty-first, and Second +Ohio, to set out with him, disguised in civilian's dress. They were to +burn the railway bridges east and west of Chattanooga, and thus +isolate that important town, possibly insuring its speedy capture. The +soldiers were given to understand that they took their lives in their +hands, but none declined the dangerous honor. Guided by Andrews, they +started from Shelbyville, April 7th, and in five days made their way +to Marietta, Ga., losing but two of their number on the road. At +Marietta two more disappeared, leaving Andrews with eighteen soldiers +and a civilian volunteer to undertake the hazardous work mapped out by +the leader, which was to capture an engine with a few cars attached, +board them, and speed westward, firing the bridges as they passed. +Securing tickets at Marietta, they entered a westbound train as +ordinary passengers. At Big Sandy station, where the trainmen took +breakfast, these _pseudo_ passengers left their seats, and two of +them, William Knight and Wilson Brown, professional engineers, leaped +into the cab. The coupling bolt of the third car from the tender was +pulled, and the remainder of the party scrambled on board as best they +could. Off sped the stolen train in full view of scores of astonished +bystanders and railroad men. What made the deed doubly risky was the +fact that a camp of Confederate soldiers had been established at Big +Sandy since Andrews's last visit there, and the station was surrounded +by armed men. In fact, a sentinel, musket in hand, stood within a few +yards of the engine, watching the whole proceeding, but too dazed to +act or sound the alarm. But this amazement was short-lived. The +railroad men were prompt to give chase, first with a hand-car, +afterward with a chance engine picked up on the road. The raiders were +delayed by eastward trains, it being a single-track line; but with +singular good fortune ran over half the distance to Chattanooga, +having stopped to cut telegraph wires and remove rails, in order to +baffle their pursuers. The attempt to fire bridges failed. It was +raining, and the would-be incendiaries had provided no combustibles +beyond what the train supplied. In the meanwhile their pursuers picked +up a car-load of armed men, and came up with the runaway train west of +Dalton, where the fuel of the stolen engine gave out, bringing the +raiders to a dead stop. Andrews gave the word, "Save who can," and all +sprang for the woods, but were captured within a few days. Taken +within the enemy's lines in citizen's dress, a court-martial +pronounced them spies worthy of death. Andrews, with six of the +soldiers, also the citizen volunteer, were executed at Atlanta. The +others, including the two Marietta delinquents who had been arrested +and identified, were thrown into dungeons; but preferring death in any +form to the fate which seemed to await them, they succeeded one day in +overpowering their guards, and so escaping to the woods. Eight of the +party made their way North, while the other six were recaptured and +held until the spring of 1863, when they were exchanged for a like +number of Confederate soldiers held by the Union authorities, to +answer for a similar offence. + +[Illustration: JAMES J. ANDREWS.] + +Cushing was not picturesque in figure, though marked by strong +individual peculiarities. His height was five feet ten inches, his +form slender, his face grave and thoughtful. With steps springy and +quick, prominent cheek bones, a piercing eye and restless habit, he +seemed to his associates like some spirited Indian in the garb of a +paleface. + +{530} [Illustration: BREVET BRIGADIER-GENERAL ELY S. PARKER.] + +[Illustration: BREVET BRIGADIER-GENERAL HORACE CAPRON.] + +[Illustration: BRIGADIER-GENERAL W. A. GORMAN.] + +[Illustration: MAJOR-GENERAL CHRISTOPHER C. AUGUR.] + +[Illustration: BRIGADIER-GENERAL JAMES B. FRY.] + +[Illustration: BRIGADIER-GENERAL CHARLES K. GRAHAM.] + +[Illustration: BRIGADIER-GENERAL THOMAS C. DEVIN.] + +[Illustration: MAJOR-GENERAL NELSON A. MILES.] + +[Illustration: COLONEL HORACE PORTER.] + +[Illustration: BRIGADIER-GENERAL GERSHOM MOTT.] + +In July, 1862, a lieutenant's straps were given him for acts of +bravery performed in his routine duties with the blockading squadron +off North Carolina. Four months later, at the age of twenty, he +commanded his first expedition, a gunboat raid into New River Inlet, +waters wholly in the possession of active enemies. His vessel, the +_Ellis_, stranded within range of the Confederate batteries, but he +brought his crew and equipments off in schooners captured before the +disaster. A few weeks later he entered Little River at night with +twenty-five men, in {531} a cutter, dispersed the gunners of a shore +battery by land assault, and got out with the loss of one man. Cushing +sometimes volunteered, and at others was chosen, for these fugitive +exploits. + +[Illustration: LIEUTENANT WILLIAM B. CUSHING.] + +In the summer of 1863 it was known on the blockading fleet that the +Confederates possessed a couple of rams and some torpedo boats in Cape +Fear River around Wilmington; and on the night of June 25 Cushing set +out from his ship _Monticello_ in a cutter, with two officers and +fifteen men, and crossed the bar, passing some forts and the town of +Smithville without discovery. On the way his boat nearly collided with +a blockade runner putting to sea, and also with a Confederate +guard-boat. The night was dark until the cutter was abreast of a +fortified bluff known as the Brunswick batteries, when the moon +suddenly emerged from a cloud and disclosed the strange craft to the +enemy's sentinels on shore. Shots were fired at the cutter, and the +garrison was alarmed. Cushing directed his men to pull to the opposite +shore and proceed up the river. When within seven miles of Wilmington +the boat was hidden in a marsh, and the party lay all next day within +sight of passing blockade runners. + +After dark the cutter took to the wave and captured two rowboats +filled with men, who proved to be fishermen from Wilmington. Cushing +impressed them for guides and reconnoitred all the batteries and forts +on the river. He discovered that the ram _Raleigh_ was a hopeless +wreck, the ram _North Carolina_ useless because her draught didn't +admit of passing the bar to attack the Union blockading fleet, and +that the Confederate torpedo boats had been destroyed during a scare. +On the way to sea the cutter was headed off by a gunboat and several +small boats filled with men. It was night and the moon shone, and +Cushing managed to turn and double on his pursuers until he got a +start on them, and by vigorous rowing dashed into the breakers at the +Carolina shoal, where the enemy dare not follow. The cutter was so +heavy that she outrode the breakers and escaped to the fleet. On this +raid two days and three nights were spent in the enemy's territory. + +In the month of February, 1864, the Administration at Washington +proposed a cavalry raid to Richmond. One object was to circulate, +within the Confederate lines, the President's amnesty proclamation, +offering full pardon and a restoration of rights to any individuals, +or to States, that might wish to return to their allegiance. Another +was the release of the Union prisoners in Belle Isle and Libby +prisons. The expedition was intrusted to Kilpatrick, who was to have a +picked force of four thousand cavalrymen and a horse battery. + +It was believed in the Union camps that a surprise could be effected, +and with this end in view, Kilpatrick set out one Sunday night, the +28th of February, for the lower fords of the Rapidan. Reaching +Spottsylvania unmolested, he sent out from here a detachment of five +hundred men, under Col. Ulric Dahlgren, toward the Virginia Central +Railroad, instructing him to enter Richmond from the south, while he +himself should attack from the north. Through the treachery or +ignorance of a negro guide engaged by Dahlgren, his column failed to +find a ford in the James River, which was a serious drawback, because +he had intended to enter Richmond from the rear, the weakest point. On +March 1st, Dahlgren was eight miles west of Richmond on the James, and +Kilpatrick at Atlee's station, eight miles north, the distance between +them being only about twelve miles. Kilpatrick, however, was returning +from his raid, and the two forces were destined to remain apart and +receive severe handling from enemies now swarming about them. + +Kilpatrick had passed the outer defences of Richmond by one o'clock of +the 1st, but on approaching the inner line he was met by infantry and +artillery. Skirmishing continued for several hours, the object of the +Union leader being to prolong the situation until he should hear +Dahlgren on the opposite side of the city. Finally, as he saw +Confederate troops moving in large bodies, he withdrew to Atlee's to +pass the night. + +The Confederate cavalry command of Gen. Wade Hampton was strung along +the railroad between Lee's army and Richmond, and Gen. Bradley T. +Johnson, leading a brigade under him, had learned of Kilpatrick's +march and telegraphed to Richmond on the 29th that a raid was abroad. +He also had notified the troops all along the line, and both himself +and Hampton followed in Kilpatrick's path, about a day behind him. On +the night of the 1st Hampton attacked Kilpatrick's camp at Atlee's and +drove him out. The following morning Kilpatrick started down the +Peninsula toward White House, on the Pamunkey. + +On the day of Kilpatrick's farthest advance Dahlgren had drawn to +within five miles of the city and then retired. After dark of that day +he, too, started to move down the peninsula along the Pamunkey. +Placing the main body in reserve, Dahlgren rode on ahead with the +advance guard, and on the next night fell into ambush prepared by a +number of cavalry officers who were at their homes in the vicinity on +recruiting service or leave of absence. + +A challenge to halt Dahlgren answered by a threat, and the commander +of the Confederate outpost gave the order instantly to fire. At the +first volley Dahlgren fell dead. His men were surrounded and held +until daylight, when the whole party of survivors surrendered. + +The chief victim of this raid, Colonel Dahlgren, was the son of +Admiral John A. Dahlgren, and at his death was twenty-two years old. +Early in the war he had served as an artillerist with Generals Sigel, +Frémont, and Pope in northern Virginia. On the retreat of Lee from +Gettysburg toward the Potomac, Dahlgren was at the front under +Kilpatrick, leading about one hundred men, and in the encounter with +Stuart at Hagarstown, July 6th, he received a wound in the foot that +cost him his leg. Having been commissioned colonel in the cavalry +service, he returned to the front wearing a cork leg, but was obliged +to depend on crutches. He volunteered for the expedition in which he +lost his life. + +Morgan the raider had given the North an exhibition of his boldness +before he entered upon that celebrated ride across Ohio in 1863. On +the 13th of July, 1862, President Lincoln telegraphed from Washington +to the Union commander in the far West, "They are having a stampede in +Kentucky. Please look to it." + +The whole trouble was caused by Colonel Morgan, with a couple of +cavalry regiments, and a clever telegraph operator {532} named +Ellsworth. Ellsworth tapped the wires between Nashville and +Louisville, and sent a bogus despatch to the Union authorities in the +latter city, stating that Morgan was operating around the former, +when, in reality, he was riding northward toward the heart of +Kentucky. Moving along the railroad lines, Union operators were +everywhere surprised at their keys and compelled to serve the raider's +commands, while Ellsworth manipulated the wires. In this way the Union +forces ahead on the line of march were ordered out of the road, or +drawn off by false alarms, and Morgan was able to get exact knowledge +as to the location and numbers of the Union garrisons. At Georgetown, +only sixty miles from Cincinnati, he halted for two days, producing, +by means of the wires, a terrible scare in Lexington, and drawing all +the Union forces to that region. He himself then moved southward to +cross into Tennessee, Ellsworth managing to counteract the Union +orders for pursuit during the retreat by his bogus telegrams. So the +raiders finished their long ride without once encountering an armed +foe. + +[Illustration: MAJOR-GENERAL WINFIELD S. HANCOCK.] + +Forrest marched to Memphis on his memorable raid in August, 1864, with +a detachment of his choicest cavalry, numbering fifteen hundred men. +The leader of the advanced guard was his brother, Captain W. H. +Forrest, and into his hands the general gave the difficult task of +opening the main road to the town. Captain Forrest approached the +outer pickets about daylight on Sunday morning, knocked the +challenging vidette senseless with the handle of his sabre, and with +ten athletic followers disarmed the reserves on the nearest post. A +musket accidentally discharged during the _męlée_ aroused others near +by, and the entire main camp of ten thousand soldiers stretching +around the city soon caught the alarm. + +Nothing daunted, Forrest galloped his men into the heart of the +stronghold, bent upon creating a panic for ulterior purposes of his +own, and he succeeded. Captain Forrest's band, followed by another +detachment, dashed down the main street to the Gayo House, riding over +an artillery camp on the way, and leaped their horses up the steps +into the office and dining-hall. Still another body, led by Colonel +Jesse Forrest, rode to the headquarters of the Union commandant, +General Hurlbut, who escaped capture by the merest accident. In a few +moments all Memphis was in an uproar; and the raiders, moving in five +isolated bodies, were overpowered in detail and compelled to unite +before they could cut their way out. But Forrest had effected his +purpose, and the glory of the exploit compensated him for the haste +with which he was obliged to abandon the hazardous game. + +[Illustration: CONFEDERATE ARTILLERY CAPTURED AT ATLANTA.] + + + + +{533} + +WOMAN'S CONTRIBUTION TO THE CAUSE. + + +At the close of the chapter on the Sanitary and Christian Commissions +we have given some account of the work of a few of the women whose +service was connected with or similar to that of those organizations. +It would require many pages to tell the entire story of the +contribution of the loyal women to the cause of the Union--a most +noble story, however monotonous and repetitious. It is impossible to +publish the records of all who served thus, any more than to treat of +every citizen who stepped into the ranks and, as a simple private, +gave his life for his country. But a specific account of what was done +by some of them will give the reader a more vivid idea of the great +price that was paid for the unity of our country and the perpetuation +of our government than can be conveyed by any general statement. It is +the story of women who did not urge their brothers and lovers to go to +the field without themselves following as far and as closely as the +law would let them, and sharing in the toils, the privations, and +sometimes even the peculiar perils, of war. Many of them lost their +lives, directly or indirectly, in consequence of their labors. + + "On fields where Strife held riot, + And Slaughter fed his hounds, + Where came no sense of quiet, + Nor any gentle sounds, + They made their rounds. + + "They wrought without repining, + And, weary watches o'er, + They passed the bounds confining + Our green, familiar shore + Forevermore." + +It is claimed for Mrs. Almira Fales, of Washington, that she was the +first woman in the United States to perform any work for the comfort +of the soldiers during the Rebellion. In December, 1860, when South +Carolina had seceded and she saw that war was very probable, if not +certain, she began the preparation of lint and hospital stores, in +anticipation of the hostilities that did not break out until the next +April. Her husband was employed by the Government, and her sons +entered the army. During the war she emptied seven thousand boxes of +hospital stores, and distributed to the sick and wounded soldiers +comforts and delicacies to the value of one hundred and fifty thousand +dollars. She spent several months at sea attending to the wounded on +hospital ships, and during the seven days' battles she was under fire +on the Peninsula. One of her sons was killed in the battle of +Chancellorsville. It was said that she was full of a quaint humor, and +her visits to the hospitals never failed to awaken smiles and bring +about a general air of cheerfulness. + +[Illustration: Mrs. Nellie M. Taylor. Miss Clara H. Barton. Miss +Hattie A. Dada. Mrs. Mary B. Wade.] + +Mrs. Harris, wife of John Harris, M.D., of Philadelphia, was one of +the earliest volunteers in the work, and one who had, perhaps, the +widest experience in its various branches. She is described as a pale +and delicate woman, and yet she endured very hard service in the cause +of her country. At the beginning of the war she became corresponding +secretary of the Ladies' Aid Society of Philadelphia, but very soon +she went to the field as its correspondent and one of its active +workers. In the spring of 1862 she accompanied the Army of the Potomac +to the Peninsula, and spent several weeks in the hospitals at Fort +Monroe. After the battle of Fair Oaks she went on board a transport +that was given to the wounded, and she thus describes what she saw +there: "There were eight hundred on board. Passage-ways, state-rooms, +floors from the dark and foetid hold to the hurricane deck, were all +more than filled; some on mattresses, some on blankets, others on +straw; some in the death-struggle, others nearing it, some already +beyond human sympathy and help; {534} some in their blood as they had +been brought from the battlefield of the Sabbath previous, and all +hungry and thirsty, not having had anything to eat or drink, except +hard crackers, for twenty-four hours. When we carried in bread, hands +from every quarter were outstretched, and the cry, 'Give me a piece, +oh, please! I have had nothing since Monday.' Another, 'Nothing but +hard crackers since the fight,' etc. When we had dealt out nearly all +the bread, a surgeon came in and cried, 'Do please keep some for the +poor fellows in the hold, they are so badly off for everything.' So +with the remnant we threaded our way through the suffering crowd, amid +such exclamations as, 'Oh! please don't touch my foot!' or, 'For +mercy's sake, don't touch my arm!' another, 'Please don't move the +blanket, I am so terribly cut up,' down to the hold, in which were not +less than one hundred and fifty, nearly all sick, some very sick. It +was like plunging into a vapor bath, so hot, close, and full of +moisture, and then in this dismal place we distributed our bread, +oranges, and pickles, which were seized upon with avidity. And here +let me say, at least twenty of them told us next day that the pickles +had done them more good than all the medicine they had taken." In the +autumn of 1863, just after the battle of Chickamauga, she went to the +West and began work at Nashville among the refugees. Afterward, at +Chattanooga, she labored in the hospitals until her strength was +overtaxed, and for several weeks her life was despaired of. Coming +again to the East, in the spring of 1864, she was with the Army of the +Potomac in its bloody campaign through the Wilderness, and afterward +with the Army of the Shenandoah. In the spring of 1865 she visited +North Carolina to care for the released prisoners of Andersonville and +Salisbury. + +Mrs. Eliza C. Porter, of Chicago, after her eldest son had enlisted, +devoted herself to the work, first taking charge of the Sanitary +Commission rooms in that city, and in the spring of 1862 going to the +army hospitals. At Cairo, she and other women were accustomed to work +from four o'clock in the morning until ten at night. They went to the +front at Pittsburgh Landing, and not only labored in the hospitals, +but did much for refugees and escaped slaves, and established schools +for the blacks. In a letter written from a field hospital near +Chattanooga, in January, 1864, she says: "The field hospital was in a +forest, about five miles from Chattanooga; wood was abundant, and the +camp was warmed by immense burning 'log heaps,' which were the only +fire-places or cooking-stoves of the camp or hospitals. Men were +detailed to fell the trees and pile the logs to heat the air, which +was very wintry. And beside them Mrs. Bickerdyke made soup and toast, +tea and coffee, and broiled mutton without a gridiron, often +blistering her fingers in the process. A house in due time was +demolished to make bunks for the worst cases, and the brick from the +chimney was converted into an oven, when Mrs. Bickerdyke made bread, +yeast having been found in the Chicago boxes, and flour at a +neighboring mill, which had furnished flour to secessionists through +the war until now. Great multitudes were fed from these rude kitchens. +Companies of hungry soldiers were refreshed before those open +fire-places and from those ovens. On one occasion a citizen came and +told the men to follow him; he would show them a reserve of beef and +sheep which had been provided for General Bragg's army, and about +thirty head of cattle and twenty sheep was the prize. Large potash +kettles were found, which were used over the huge log fires, and +various kitchen utensils for cooking were brought into camp from time +to time, almost every day adding to our conveniences. The most +harrowing scenes are daily witnessed here. A wife came on yesterday +only to learn that her dear husband had died the morning previous. Her +lamentations were heart-breaking. 'Why could he not have lived until I +came? Why?' In the evening came a sister, whose aged parents had sent +her to search for their only son. She also came too late. The brother +had gone to the soldier's grave two days previous. One continued wail +of sorrow goes up from all parts of this stricken land." + +[Illustration: MRS. MARY A. BICKERDYKE.] + +[Illustration: MISS MARGARET E. BRECKENRIDGE.] + +[Illustration: MRS. CORDELIA A. P. HARVEY.] + +Mrs. Mary Bickerdyke, mentioned in Mrs. Porter's letter, was a widow +in Cleveland, Ohio, at the opening of the war, and immediately gave +herself to the work. Leaving her two little boys at home, she went to +the front and made herself useful in the hospitals at Savannah, +Chattanooga, and other points. She was a woman of great energy and +courage, and it is said that, in carrying on her work for the sick and +wounded soldiers, she used {535} to violate military rules without the +least hesitation, in order to obtain what she wanted. On one occasion, +when she found that an assistant surgeon had been off on a drunken +spree and had not made out the special diet list for his ward, leaving +the men without any breakfast, she not only denounced him to his face +but caused him to be discharged from the service. Going to General +Sherman to obtain reinstatement, the surgeon was asked: "Who caused +your discharge?" "Why," said he, "I suppose it was Mrs. Bickerdyke." +"If that is the case," said General Sherman, "I can do nothing for +you. She ranks me." Finding great difficulty in obtaining milk, +butter, and eggs for her hospital in Memphis, she resolved to +establish a dairy of her own. She therefore went to Illinois, and in +one of its farming regions obtained stock, by begging, until she had +two hundred cows and one thousand hens, which she took to Memphis, +where the commanding general gave her an island in the Mississippi, on +which she established her dairy. Her clothing was riddled with holes +from sparks at the open fires where she cooked for the field +hospitals, and some ladies in Chicago sent her a box of clothing for +herself, which included two elegant nightdresses trimmed with ruffles +and lace. Using only some of the plainest garments, she traded others +with secessionist women of the vicinity for delicacies for the +hospital. The two nightdresses she reserved to sell in some place +where she thought they would bring a higher price; but on the way to +Kentucky she found two wounded soldiers in a miserable shanty for whom +nothing had been done, and, after attending to their wounds and +finding that they had no shirts, she gave them the nightdresses, +ruffles, lace, and all. + +Miss Margaret Elizabeth Breckenridge was a native of Philadelphia, but +was closely related to the well-known Breckenridge family of Kentucky. +She entered upon hospital service at the West in the spring of 1862, +and served constantly as long as her health and strength permitted. In +June, 1864, while she was prostrated by illness, the news came that +her brother-in-law, Col. Peter A. Porter, had been killed in the +battle of Cold Harbor, and this proved a greater shock than she could +bear. She had been especially helpful in cheering up the soldiers in +the hospitals and writing letters for them. One very young soldier who +lay wounded said to her: "Where do you come from? How could such a +lady as you are come down here to take care of us poor, sick, dirty +boys?" "I consider it an honor to wait on you," she said, "and wash +off the mud you waded through for me." Another man said: "Please write +down your name and let me look at it, and take it home, to show my +wife who wrote my letters and combed my hair and fed me. I don't +believe you're like other people." + +Mrs. Stephen Barker, who was a sister of the attorney-general of +Massachusetts, and whose husband was chaplain of a regiment from that +State, gave nearly the whole four years of the war to hospital duty, +mostly in and around Washington, where at one time she had charge of +ten hospitals, which she carefully inspected herself with perfect +regularity. In her report she says: "I remember no scenes in camp more +picturesque than some of our visits have presented. The great open +army wagon stands under some shade-tree, with the officer who has +volunteered to help, or the regular field agent, standing in the midst +of boxes, bales, and bundles. Wheels, sides, and every projecting +point are crowded with eager soldiers, to see what the 'Sanitary' has +brought for them. By the side of the great wagon stands the light +wagon of the lady, with its curtains all rolled up, while she arranges +before and around her the supplies she is to distribute. Another eager +crowd surrounds her, patient, kind, and respectful as the first, +except that a shade more of softness in their look and tone attest the +ever-living power of woman over the rough elements of manhood. In +these hours of personal communication with the soldier she finds the +true meaning of her work. This is her golden opportunity, when by look +and tone and movement she may call up, as if by magic, the pure +influences of home, which may have been long banished by the hard +necessities of war. Quietly and rapidly the supplies are handed out +for companies A, B, C, etc., first from one wagon, then the other, and +as soon as a regiment is completed the men hurry back to their tents +to receive their share, and write letters on the newly received paper, +or apply the long-needed comb or mend the gaping seams in their now +'historic garments.' When at last the supplies are exhausted, and +sunset reminds us that we are yet many miles from home, we gather up +the remnants, bid good-by to the friendly faces, which already seem +like old acquaintances, promising to come again to visit new regiments +to-morrow, and hurry home to prepare for the next day's work. Every +day, from the first to the twentieth day of June, our little band of +missionaries has repeated a day's work such as I have now described." + +Miss Amy M. Bradley, a native and resident of Maine, who had been for +some years a teacher, volunteered as a nurse at the very beginning of +the war and went out with the Fifth Maine regiment, many of the +soldiers in which had been her pupils. She became noted for the +efficiency and good condition of the hospitals over which she +presided, and in December, 1862, was sent to what the soldiers called +Camp Misery, on the opposite side of the Potomac from Washington, as a +special relief agent of the Sanitary Commission. This camp, as its +name indicated, was in a deplorable condition; but she immediately +instituted reforms which rapidly improved it. She not only obtained +supplies for the invalids and others who were there, but brought about +a system of transfer by which more than two thousand of them were sent +where they could be taken care of more comfortably, and she was +especially efficient in setting right the accounts of men who were +suffering from informality in their papers. In eight months she +procured the reinstatement of one hundred and fifty soldiers who had +been unjustly dropped from the rolls as deserters, and secured their +arrears of pay for them. + +Miss Arabella Griffith was a native of New Jersey, and at the +beginning of the war was engaged to Francis C. Barlow, a promising +young lawyer. On April 19, 1861, Mr. Barlow enlisted as a private; on +the 20th they were married, and on the 21st he went with his regiment +to Washington. A week later Mrs. Barlow followed him, and still later +she joined in the hospital work of the Sanitary Commission. The day +after the battle of Antietam she found her husband badly wounded, and +when, in the spring, he went to the field again, she accompanied him. +At Gettysburg he was again wounded and was left within the enemy's +lines, but she by great effort managed to get him within the Union +lines, where she took care not only of him, but many others of the +wounded men in that great battle. In the spring of 1864 she was again +in the field, hard at work in the hospitals that were nearest the +front. A friend who knew her at this time writes: "We call her 'The +Raider.' At Fredericksburg she had in some way gained possession of a +wretched-looking pony and a small cart, with which she was continually +on the move, driving about town or country in search of such +provisions or other articles as were needed for the sick and wounded. +The surgeon in charge had on one occasion assigned to us the task of +preparing a building, which had been taken for {536} a hospital, for a +large number of wounded who were expected immediately. It was empty, +containing not the slightest furniture, save a large number of +bed-sacks, without material to fill them. On requisition a quantity of +straw was obtained, but not nearly enough, and we were standing in a +mute despair when Mrs. Barlow came in. 'I'll find some more straw,' +was her cheerful reply, and in another moment she was urging her tired +beast toward another part of the town where she remembered having seen +a bale of straw earlier in the day. Half an hour afterward it had been +confiscated, loaded upon the little wagon, and brought to the +hospital." Her health became so impaired in the field that, in July, +1864, she died. Her husband, meanwhile, had risen to the rank of +brigadier-general, and was known as one of the most gallant men in the +army. Surgeon W. H. Reed, writing of her, said: "In the open field she +toiled with Mr. Marshall and Miss Gilson, under the scorching sun, +with no shelter from the pouring rains, with no thought but for those +who were suffering and dying all around her. On the battlefield of +Petersburg, hardly out of range of the enemy and at night witnessing +the blazing lines of fire from right to left, among the wounded, with +her sympathies and powers both of mind and body strained to the last +degree, neither conscious that she was working beyond her strength nor +realizing the extreme exhaustion of her system, she fainted at her +work, and found, only when it was too late, that the raging fever was +wasting her life away. Yet to the last her sparkling wit, her +brilliant intellect, her unfailing good humor, lighted up our moments +of rest and recreation." + +Mrs. Nellie M. Taylor (May Dewey) was a native of Watertown, New York, +but settled with her husband in New Orleans. There, on the breaking +out of the war, she was subjected to all kinds of persecution because +she was a Unionist. On one occasion a mob assembled around her house, +where she was watching at the bedside of her dying husband, and the +leader said: "Madam, we give you five minutes to decide whether you +are for the South or for the North. If at the end of that time you +declare yourself for the South, your house shall remain; if for the +North, it must come down." "Sir," she answered, "I will say to you and +your crowd that I am, always have been, and ever shall be, for the +Union. Tear my house down if you choose!" The mob seemed to be a +little ashamed of themselves at this answer, and finally dispersed +without destroying the house. Seven times before the capture of the +city by the National forces her home was searched by self-constituted +committees of citizens, who every time found the National flag +displayed at the head of her bed; and on one occasion she was actually +fired at from a window. Mrs. Taylor gave a large part of her time +during the war to hard work in the hospitals, and in addition she +spent many of her earnings for the benefit of the sick and wounded +soldiers. + +In the spring of 1862, Governor Harvey, of Wisconsin, visited General +Grant's army with medicines and other supplies for the wounded from +his State, and just after the battle of Shiloh he was accidentally +drowned there. His widow, Cordelia P. Harvey, devoted herself to the +work in which he had lost his life, and served faithfully in the +hospitals of that department. One of her most valuable achievements +consisted in persuading the government to establish general hospitals +in the Northern States, where suffering soldiers might be sent and +have a better chance of recovery than if kept in the hospitals further +south. + +Mrs. Sarah R. Johnston was a native of North Carolina, and at the +beginning of the war was teaching at Salisbury, in that State. When +the first prisoners were brought to the town for confinement in the +stockade there, the secessionist women turned out in carriages to +escort them through the town, and greeted them with contemptuous +epithets as they filed past. The sight of this determined Mrs. +Johnston to devote herself to the work of ameliorating their +condition. This subjected her to all sorts of insults from her +townspeople and broke up her school; but she persevered, nevertheless, +and earned the gratitude of many of the unfortunate men who there +suffered from the studied cruelty of the Confederate government. She +made up her carpets and spare blankets into moccasins, which she gave +to the prisoners as they arrived; and when they stood in front of her +house waiting their turn to be mustered into the prison, she supplied +them, as far as she could, with bread and water, for in many instances +they had been on the railroad forty-eight hours with nothing to eat or +drink. The prisoners were not permitted to leave their ranks to assist +her in obtaining the water, all of which had to be drawn from a well +with an old-fashioned windlass. On one occasion a Confederate sergeant +in charge told her that if she attempted to do anything for the +Yankees or come outside her gate, he would pin her to the earth with +his bayonet. Paying no attention to this, she took a basket of bread +in one hand and a bucket of water in the other, and walked past him on +her usual errand. The sergeant followed her and touched her upon the +shoulder with the point of his bayonet, whereupon she turned and asked +him why he did not pin her to the earth, as he had promised to. Some +of the Confederate soldiers called out: "Sergeant, you can't make +anything out of that woman; you had better leave her alone." And then +he desisted. + +[Illustration: MRS. MARY A. LIVERMORE.] + +[Illustration: MRS. MARY MORRIS HUSBAND.] + +Mrs. Mary Morris Husband, of Philadelphia, was a {537} granddaughter +of Robert Morris of Revolutionary fame. When her son, who had enlisted +in the Army of the Potomac, was seriously ill on the Peninsula, she +went there to take care of him, and what she saw determined her to +give her services to the country as a nurse. She was on one of the +hospital transports at Harrison's Landing when the Confederates +bombarded it, but kept right on with her work as if she were not under +fire. She was at Antietam immediately after the battle, and remained +there two months in charge of the wounded, sleeping in a tent in all +kinds of weather and attending the hospital with perfect regularity. +She contrived an ensign for her tent by cutting out the figure of a +bottle in red flannel and sewing it upon a piece of calico, this +bottle flag indicating the place where medicines were to be obtained. + +In the severe winter of 1862-63 she often left her tent several times +in the night and visited the cots of those who were apparently near +death, to make sure that the nurses did not neglect them; and when +diphtheria appeared in the hospital and many of the nurses left from +fear of it, she remained at her post just as if there were no such +thing as a contagious disease. It is said that in several instances +where she believed a soldier had been unjustly condemned by +court-martial, she obtained a pardon or commutation of his sentence by +laying the case directly before President Lincoln. + +[Illustration: MRS. HENRIETTA L. COLT.] + +[Illustration: MISS EMILY E. PARSONS.] + +[Illustration: MRS. R. H. SPENCER.] + +Miss Katherine P. Wormeley, known of late as a translator of Balzac's +works, is a native of England. Her father, born in Virginia, was an +officer in the British Navy. Her mother was a native of Boston. At the +beginning of the war Miss Wormeley was living at Newport, R. I., and +almost at once she enlisted in the work of aid for the soldiers. When +the hospital transport service was organized, in the summer of 1862, +she was one of the first volunteers for that branch of the service. +Later she had charge of a large hospital in Rhode Island, which held +two thousand five hundred patients. + +Among others who volunteered for the hospital transport service were +Mrs. Joseph Howland, whose husband was colonel of the Sixteenth New +York regiment, and her sister, Mrs. Robert S. Howland, whose husband +was a clergyman working in the hospitals. The latter Mrs. Howland, who +died in 1864, was the author of a short poem, entitled "In the +Hospital," which has become famous. + + "I lay me down to sleep, with little thought or care + Whether my waking find me here--or there! + + A bowing, burdened head, that only asks to rest, + Unquestioning, upon a loving breast. + + My good right hand forgets its cunning now; + To march the weary march I know not how. + + I am not eager, bold, nor strong--all that is past; + I am ready not to do at last, at last. + + My half-day's work is done, and this is all my part-- + I give a patient God my patient heart; + + And grasp His banner still, though all the blue be dim: + These stripes, as well as stars, lead after Him." + +These two ladies had two unmarried sisters, Jane C. and Georgiana M. +Woolsey, who also were in the service. Miss Georgiana Woolsey wrote +some entertaining letters from the seat of war, in one of which she +tells of some women in Gettysburg who, like Jennie Wade, kept at their +work of making bread for the soldiers while the battle was going on. +One of them had refused to leave the house or go into the cellar until +a third shell passed through the room, when, having got the last loaf +into the oven, she ran down the stairs. "Why did you not go before?" +she was asked. "Oh, you see," she answered, "if I had, the rebels +would 'a' come in and daubed the dough all over the place." These +ladies were cousins of Miss Sarah C. Woolsey, who is now, under her +pen-name of Susan Coolidge, well known as a writer for the young. She +also served for some time in the hospitals. + +Anna Maria Ross, of Philadelphia, was known as a most energetic worker +in the hospitals, chiefly in what was called the Cooper Shop Hospital +of Philadelphia, of which she was principal until, from overwork and +anxiety, she died in December, 1863. + +Miss Mary J. Safford, a native of Vermont, was living in Cairo, Ill., +when the war began, and at once enlisted in the work of aid for the +soldiers. Immediately after the battle of Shiloh {538} she went to the +front with a large supply of hospital stores, and labored there day +and night for three weeks, when she came North with a transport loaded +with wounded men. She is said to have been the first woman in the West +to engage in this work. The hardships that she endured caused a +disease of the spine, and at the end of a year and a half she broke +down, and had to be sent to Europe for treatment. + +Mrs. Annie Wittenmeyer, of Iowa, was appointed sanitary agent for that +State, and is said to have been the originator of the diet kitchens +attached to the hospitals. The object of these was to have the food +for the wounded and sick prepared in a skilful manner and administered +according to surgeons' orders, and they were a very efficient branch +of the hospital service. + +Another Iowa woman who devoted herself to the service was Miss +Melcenia Elliott. She served in the hospitals in Tennessee, and +afterward in St. Louis had charge of the Home for Refugees. Here she +established a school, and instituted many reforms in the direction of +cleanliness and industry. It is related that in Memphis, when she was +refused admission to one of the hospitals where a neighbor's son was +ill, she every night scaled a high fence in the rear of the building +and managed to get into the ward where she could attend to the poor +boy until he died. + +Miss Clara Davis, of Massachusetts, was one of the earliest +volunteers, and she was so assiduous in her labors and so cheerful in +her manners in the hospital that the soldiers came to look upon her +with most profound admiration and affection. One of them was heard to +say, "There must be wings hidden beneath her cloak." Her labors were +mainly with the Army of the Potomac, and she continued them until an +attack of typhoid fever made further work of the kind impossible. + +Mrs. R. H. Spencer, of Oswego, N. Y., whose husband enlisted in the +One Hundred and Forty-seventh New York regiment, followed that +organization to the front, and made herself useful as a nurse and +hospital attendant. On the march toward Gettysburg she rode a horse +which carried, besides herself, bedding, cooking utensils, clothing, +and more than three hundred pounds of supplies for the sick and +wounded. While that great battle was in progress, Mrs. Spencer, a part +of the time actually under fire, established a field hospital in which +sixty wounded men were treated. One day she discovered a townsman of +her own who had been shot through the throat, and whose case was +pronounced hopeless by the surgeon, as he could swallow nothing. Mrs. +Spencer took him in hand, and asked him if he could do without food +for a week. The man, who was young and strong, gave signs that he +could. "Then," said she, "do as I tell you, and you shall not die." +She procured a basin of pure cold water, and directed him to keep the +wound continually wet, which he did, until in a few days the +inflammation subsided and the edges of the wound could be closed up. +After which she began to feed him carefully with broth, and every day +brought further improvement until he entirely recovered. When the +ammunition barge exploded at City Point a piece of shell struck her in +the side, but inflicted only a heavy bruise. + +Mrs. Harriet Foote Hawley, wife of Gen. Joseph R. Hawley, of +Connecticut, did much work in the hospitals on the Carolina coast, +whither she had gone in the first instance to engage in teaching the +freedmen. At Wilmington, where typhoid fever broke out, she remained +at her post when many others were frightened away. In the last month +of the war she was injured on the head by the overturning of an +ambulance, and this rendered her an invalid for a long time. + +Miss Jessie Home, a native of Scotland, entered the service as a +hospital nurse at Washington and continued there for two years, making +many friends and doing a vast amount of good, until, from overwork, +she was struck down by disease. + +Mrs. Sarah P. Edson entered the service during the first year of the +war, and was assigned to the general hospital at Winchester, Va. In +the spring of 1862 she was with McClellan's army on the Peninsula, and +after the battle of Williamsburg, learning that her son was among the +wounded, she walked twelve miles to find him, apparently dying, where, +with other wounded men, he was greatly in need of care. She worked +night and day to alleviate their sufferings, and brought something +like cleanliness and order out of the dreadful condition in which she +found them. In the ensuing summer she passed through a long and severe +illness in consequence of her labors. On her recovery she formed a +plan for the training of nurses, and, after her experiment had been +tried, an official of the medical department declared "that it was +more than a success, it was a triumph." + +Miss Maria M. C. Hall, of Washington, was associated with Mrs. Fales +in hospital work, and went through the four years of it with unfailing +energy and enthusiasm. She finally became general superintendent of +the Naval Academy Hospital at Annapolis. After the war she wrote: "I +mark my hospital days as my best ones, and thank God for the way in +which He led me into the good work, and for the strength which kept me +through it all." + +Mrs. A. H. Gibbons was a daughter of Isaac T. Hopper, the famous +Quaker philanthropist, and wife of James Sloane Gibbons, who wrote the +famous song, "We are coming, Father Abraham, three hundred thousand +more." With her eldest daughter (afterward Mrs. Emerson) she went to +Washington in the autumn of 1861, and entered upon hospital service. +One day they discovered a small hospital near Falls Church, where +about forty men were ill of typhoid fever, and one young soldier, who +seemed to be at the point of death, appealed to them, saying: "Come +and take care of me, and I shall get well; if you do not come, I shall +die." Finding that the hospital was in a wretched condition, they got +leave to take it in charge, and presently had it in excellent order, +with a large number of the patients recovering. These ladies were on +duty at Point Lookout for over a year, and there they were obliged to +oppose and evade the officers in various ways, in order to assist the +escaped slaves, whom these officers were only too ready and anxious to +return to slavery. While they were engaged in this work, their home in +New York was sacked by the mob in the draft riots. + +Mrs. Jerusha R. Small, of Cascade, Iowa, followed her husband, who +enlisted at the beginning of the war, and became a nurse in the +regimental hospitals. At the battle of Shiloh, the tent in which she +was caring for a number of wounded men, among whom was her husband, +was struck by shells from the enemy's guns, and she was obliged to get +her patients away as fast as she could to an extemporized hospital +beyond the range of fire. After the most arduous service, extending +over several weeks with no intermission, she was struck down by +disease and died. To one who said to her in her last hours, "You did +wrong to expose yourself so," she answered, "No, I feel that I have +done right. I think I have been the means of saving some lives, and +that of my dear husband among the rest; and these I consider of far +more value than mine, for now they can go and help our country in its +hour of need." She was buried with military honors. + +Another lady who accompanied her husband to the field was {539} the +wife of Hermann Canfield, colonel of the Seventy-first Ohio regiment, +who was killed in the battle of Shiloh. After taking his body to their +home, she returned to the army and continued her hospital service +until the close of the war. + +When the Rev. Shepard Wells and his wife were driven from East +Tennessee because of their loyalty to the government, they went to St. +Louis, where he engaged in the work of the Christian Commission, and +she entered the hospital and became superintendent of a special diet +kitchen, which did an immense amount of work for the cause. + +[Illustration: MISS MARY J. SAFFORD.] + +Mrs. E. C. Witherell, of Louisville, Ky., was another of those who +devoted themselves to the merciful and patriotic work in the hospitals +at the expense of their lives. She was head nurse on a hospital +steamer in the Mississippi until she was stricken down with fever and +died in July, 1862. Still another of those was Miss Phebe Allen, a +daughter of Iowa, who served in a hospital at St. Louis until she died +in the summer of 1864. Mrs. Edwin Greble, mother of Lieut. John T. +Greble, who was killed in the battle of Big Bethel, and of another son +who died in the army, of fever, devoted herself to hospital service +and to preparing garments and blankets for the soldiers. + +Mrs. Isabella Fogg, of Maine, was another of those who pushed their +way into the service before it was organized, and found some +difficulty in so doing. But she got there at last, and took part in +the hospital transport service in the waters of Chesapeake Bay. After +the battle of Chancellorsville, she was serving in a temporary +hospital at United States Ford when it was shelled by the +Confederates. Her son was in the Army of the Shenandoah, and was badly +wounded in the battle of Cedar Creek. While performing her duties on a +Western hospital boat, in charge of the diet kitchen, she fell through +a hatchway and received injuries that disabled her for life. + +Mrs. E. E. George, of Indiana, when she applied for a place in the +service, was refused on the ground that she was too old. But in spite +of her advanced years she insisted upon enlisting in the good cause, +and in Sherman's campaign of 1864 she had charge of the Fifteenth Army +Corps hospital, and in the battles before Atlanta she was several +times under fire. The next spring she was on duty at Wilmington, +N. C., when eleven thousand prisoners released from Salisbury were +brought there in the deplorable condition that was common to those who +had been in Carolina in Confederate stockades. Her incessant labors in +behalf of those unfortunate men prostrated her, and she died. + +Large numbers of the troops raised in the Eastern and Middle States +passed through Philadelphia on their way to the seat of war, and some +philanthropic ladies of that city established a refreshment saloon +where meals were furnished free to soldiers who were either going to +the front or going home on furlough or because disabled. Among the +most assiduous workers here was Mary B. Wade, widow of a sea captain, +who, despite her seventy years, was almost never absent, night or day, +through the whole four years. + +Another widow who gave herself to the cause was Henrietta L. Colt +(_née_ Peckham), a native of Albany County, N. Y., whose husband was a +well-known lawyer. She labored in the Western hospitals and on the +river hospital steamers, looking especially after the Wisconsin men, +as she was for some time a resident of Milwaukee. She wrote in one of +her letters: "I have visited seventy-two hospitals, and would find it +difficult to choose the most remarkable among the many heroisms I +every day witnessed. I was more impressed by the gentleness and +refinement that seemed to grow up in the men when suffering from +horrible wounds than from anything else. It seemed to me that the +sacredness of the cause for which they offered up their lives gave +them a heroism almost superhuman." + +[Illustration: MRS. MARIANNE F. STRANAHAN.] + +Among the great fairs that were held for the benefit of the Sanitary +Commission, that in Brooklyn, N. Y., was one of the most successful. +It paid into the treasury of the Commission three hundred thousand +dollars and furnished supplies valued at two hundred thousand more. +This was the work of the Brooklyn Women's Relief Association, of which +Mrs. James S. T. Stranahan was president. Her efforts in this work +broke down her health, and she died in the first year after the war. + +Miss Hattie A. Dada, of New York, was one of the women who volunteered +as nurses immediately after the first battle of Bull Run. From that +date she was continually in service till the war closed--her time +being about equally divided between the Eastern and Western armies. +After General Banks's retreat in the Shenandoah Valley, she and Miss +Susan E. Hall, remaining with the wounded, became prisoners to the +Confederates and were held about three months. From that time these +two ladies were inseparable, their last two years of service being in +the scantily furnished hospitals at Murfreesboro, Tenn., one of the +most difficult fields for such work. + +At the beginning of the war, Miss Emily E. Parsons, daughter of Prof. +Theophilus Parsons, of Cambridge, Mass., entered a hospital in Boston +as pupil and assistant to educate herself for work among the soldiers. +A year and a half later she volunteered and was sent to Fort Schuyler, +near New York. Early in 1863 she went to St. Louis, where she served +in the hospitals {540} and on the hospital steamers. The Benton +Hospital, under her superintendence, became famous for its efficiency +and its large percentage of recoveries. + +Next after the men who commanded armies, the name of Gen. James B. +Ricketts is one of the most familiar in the history of the war. When +he was gravely wounded at Bull Run and taken prisoner, his wife +managed to make her way to him, sharing his captivity, and by careful +nursing saved his life. He was exchanged in December, 1861, and his +wife afterward devoted herself to the care of the wounded in the Army +of the Potomac. + +Mrs. Jane R. Munsell, of Maryland, entered upon the service when she +saw the wounded of the battle of Antietam, and devoted both her life +and her property to it until she died of the incessant labor. + +Besides these women who served in the hospitals, there were others who +performed quite as important work in organizing the means of +supply--in holding fairs, in obtaining materials and workers and +superintending the manufacture of garments and other necessary +articles, and forwarding them to the right places at the right time. +One of the foremost of these was Mrs. Mary A. Livermore, a native of +Boston, who afterward became eminent as a pulpit orator. She organized +numerous aid societies in the Northwestern States, made tours of the +hospitals in the Mississippi valley, to find out what was needed and +how the supplies were being disposed of, and was most active in +getting up and carrying through to success the great Northwestern +Sanitary Fair in Chicago. There was hardly a city in the North in +which one or more similar women did not rise to the occasion and do +similar work, though on a smaller scale. + +NOTE.--For many of the facts related in this chapter we are indebted +to Dr. L. P. Brackett's excellent volume on "Woman's Work in the Civil +War." + +[Illustration: INTERIOR OF HOSPITAL CONSTRUCTED BY THE SANITARY +COMMISSION.] + + + + +{541} + +INDEX. + +Besides the usual abbreviations for titles and given names of persons, +and for names of States, N stands for National or Federal, C for +Confederate, port. for portrait, inf. for infantry, cav. for cavalry, +art'y for artillery. + + +"A" tents, 496. + +Abbott, John S. C., quoted, 513, 517. + +----, Joseph C., N b'v't brig.-gen., port., 440. + +----, ----, N capt., 22d Ill., 117. + +Abb's Valley, W. Va., captured, 339. + +Abercrombie, John J., N brig.-gen., Falling Waters, 111; + port., 159. + +Abingdon, Va., 223. + +Acquia, Va., 165. + +Acton, Thomas C., New York draft riots, 285. + +----, ----, N maj., killed, Lookout Mountain, 313. + +Adams, Charles Francis, U. S. minister to England, letter from Sec'y + Sumner, 372-314; + instructed by Lincoln, 374. + +----, John, C brig.-gen., killed, 430. + +----, John Quincy, President of the U. S., quoted on slavery, 183. + +----, of Mississippi, C spy, 505. + +----, ----, N aid to Force, Atlanta, 389. + +Advance on Petersburg, The, 397-400. + +Aiken's Landing, Va., 322. + +Alabama secedes, 9; + 14th inf. captured by Sherman, 386. + +---- regimental losses, 6th, 16th, 22d, 58th, 41st, 3d, 26th inf., + 483, 484. + +----, C cruiser, 371; + destroyed by "Kearsarge," 372; + ill., 373; + Sumner's letter, 374. + +Albemarle, C ram, Plymouth, N. C., 434; + destroyed by Cushing, 435. + +Albemarle Sound, N. C., 67, 71, 72. + +Alcott, Louisa M., port., 324; + hospital services, 326. + +Alden, James, N rear-adm., Mobile Bay, 393. + +Aldie, Va., skirmishes, 250, 267. + +Alexander, Barton S., N b'v't brig.-gen., port., 147. + +----, E. Porter, C brig.-gen., port., 265. + +Alexandria, La., 375. + +----, Va., 25, 49, 52, 165, 353, 402. + +Allatoona Pass, Ga., 385; + ill., 421. + +Alleghany Mountains, 75, 100. + +Allen, Henry W., C maj.-gen., port., 508. + +----, Phebe, Miss, 539. + +Allen's Farm, Va., action, 158. + +"All quiet along the Potomac to-night," Mrs. Ethel Lynn Beers, 126. + +American Hotel, Richmond, Va., 454. + +Ames, Adelbert, N b'v't maj.-gen., port., 440. + +Anderson, Charles, N col., Lebanon, Tenn., 229. + +----, Rev. Galusha, 41. + +----, George B., C brig.-gen., killed, Antietam, 180. + +----, George T., C brig.-gen., Gettysburg, 259; + Spottsylvania, 358. + +----, John T., C col., residence destroyed by Hunter, 319. + +----, Joseph R., C brig.-gen., 319. + +----, J. Patton, C maj.-gen., La Vergne, Tenn., 227. + +----, Paulding, C, Munfordville, 115. + +----, Richard H., C lieut.-gen., Antietam, 180; + port., 195; + Shenandoah, 406. + +----, Robert, N b'v't maj.-gen., ports., 7, 11; + sent to command Charleston Harbor, 10; + moves from Moultrie to Sumter, 12; + defends, 15; + surrenders and evacuates Sumter, 17, 18; + takes command in Kentucky, 41. + +----, ----, N pvt., Gettysburg, 260. + +Andersonville, Ga., prison camps, 321, 323, 390, 524, 525; + ill., 315. + +André, a modern (S. B. Davis, C lieut.), 470-472. + +Andrew, John A., gov. of Mass., port., 18; + early equips State militia, 23; + influence, 448. + +Andrews, Christopher C., N b'v't maj.-gen., Fitzhugh's Woods, Ark., + 437. + +----, James J., N spy, port., 529; + execution, 529. + +Annapolis, Md., 24. + +Anthony, Daniel R., N col., attitude toward slavery, 185. + +Antietam, Md., battle, 177-179, 350; + map of battle, 179; + Sanitary Commission, 325, 406; + losses at battle, 477. + +Antietam campaign, The, 175-180. + +Anti-slavery standard, 128. + +Apache Cańon, N. M., battle, 233, 234. + +Appalachicola, Fla., 10. + +Appomattox C. H., Va., ill., 492; + Sheridan stops Lee's retreat at, 446; + Lee surrenders at, 446; + McLean house, where Lee surrendered, ills., 447, 494. + +Aqueduct Bridge, Potomac River, ill., 473. + +Arago, N ship, 18. + +Archer, James J., C brig.-gen., Gettysburg, 251, 267. + +Arkadelphia, Ark., engagement, 343. + +Arkansas secedes, 35; + guerilla warfare, 79; + 1st cav., Fayetteville, 344; + 1st (C) inf. losses, 484. + +----, C gunboat, destroyed, 270. + +Arkansas Post, Ark., captured by McClernand, 272, 273. + +Arlington Heights, Va., 25. + +Armistead, Lewis A., C brig.-gen., Malvern Hill, 159; + Antietam, 180; + killed, Gettysburg, 257, 451. + +Armstrong, ----, C capt., killed, Belmont, 122. + +----, Frank C., C brig.-gen., port., 210; + Britton's Lane, Tenn., 227. + +Army organization, North and South, 47-49. + +Arnold, W. A., N capt., Bristoe Sta., Va., 334. + +Arthur, Chester A., President of the U. S., Porter relief bill vetoed, + 170. + +Asboth, Alexander, N b'v't maj.-gen., Pea Ridge, 80; + port., 81. + +Ashby, Henry, C col., Somerset, Ky., 339. + +----, Turner, C brig.-gen., Bolivar Heights, 113; + Winchester, 216; + killed, Harrisonburg, 216. + +Ashby's Gap, Va., 333. + +Aspinwall, William H., 15. + +Astor House, New York, ill., 228. + +Atlanta, Ga., 307, 353; + Sherman's campaign, 383-390; + "Gate City," 387; + occupied by Sherman, 390; + ills. of battle, 384, 516; + military depot, 419; + shops and depot destroyed, 421; + ill. of works, 424, 426; + ill., 428. + +----, C ironclad, surrendered to Du Pont, 289, 290. + +Atlanta campaign, The, 383-390. + +Atlantic Monthly, quoted, 395, 425-427. + +Atlee's Station, Va., Kilpatrick's raid, 531. + +Augur, Christopher C., N maj.-gen., defence of Washington, 403; + port., 530. + +Augusta, Ga., 10, 389. + +Averell, William W., N b'v't maj.-gen., 317; + Kelly's Ford, 332; + cavalry raid, Va. and W. Va., 333; + port., 335; + Winchester, Va., 404; + Shenandoah, 406, 407; + Crockett's Cove, W. Va., 433. + +Avery, ----, N lieut., Tranter's Creek, N. C., 218. + +Averysboro', N. C., battle, 441. + +Ayres, Romeyn B., N b'v't maj.-gen., port., 443. + + +Babcock, Orville E., N b'v't brig.-gen., port., 527. + +Bacon, A. G., N capt., killed, Sacramento, 115. + +Badeau, Adam, N brig.-gen., port., 277. + +Bahama Channel, 63. + +Bahia, Brazil, "Florida" captured, 372. + +Bailey, Joseph, N b'v't maj.-gen., Grand Ecore, La., 381, 382. + +----, Theodorus, N commodore, at N. O., port., 93, 95. + +Bailey's dam, Red River, ill., 380, 381, 382. + +Baird, Absalom, N b'v't maj.-gen., port., 307. + +Baker, Edward D., N col., killed, Ball's Bluff, 109; + port., 110, 451. + +Baker, L. C., N col., captures Booth, 511; + adventures, 511. + +Balaklava, charge, compared with Gettysburg, 476. + +Bald Hill (Atlanta), battle, 387, 388. + +Baldwin, Philemon P., N col., killed, Chickamauga, 299. + +----, Judge, quoted, 315. + +Balloons, 162. + +Ball's Bluff, Va., battle, 109, 110. + +Baltic, N transport, 15, 17. + +Baltimore, Md., 6th Mass. regiment attacked in, 5, 23; + Republican convention, 412. + +Baltimore and Ohio R. R., 28, 45, 47, 320, 337, 406. + +Banks, Nathaniel P., N maj.-gen., Peninsular campaign, 154; + Pope's campaign, 163-168; + Cedar Mountain, 164; + Shenandoah Valley, 216; + Port Hudson, 276, 308, 345; + under Grant, 351, 353; + Shreveport, 375; + ill., 377; + Sabine Cross Roads, 377; + port., 378; + Pleasant Hill, 378-381. + +Banks's Ford, Chancellorsville, 243. + +Barboursville, W. Va., 113. + +Barker, Mrs. Stephen, 535. + +Barksdale, William, C brig.-gen., killed, Gettysburg, 254, 259, 451. + +Barlow, Arabella G. (Mrs. Francis C.), hospital services and death, + 326, 467, 470, 535. + +----, C. J., quoted, 317. + +----, Francis C., N maj.-gen., Chancellorsville, 245; + port., 255; + Spottsylvania, 359; + Bethesda Church, 365; + Cold Harbor, 365; + Gettysburg anecdote, 465-467, 479. + +Barnard, John G., N b'v't maj.-gen., port., 159; + quoted, 162. + +Barnes, James, N b'v't maj.-gen., Gettysburg, 259. + +----, Joseph K., N b'v't maj.-gen., port., 414. + +Barnett's Ford, Va., 335. + +Barney, N gunboat, 348. + +Barnum, Henry A., N b'v't maj.-gen., port., 414. + +Barron, Samuel, C flag officer, 68. + +Bartlett, Joseph J., N b'v't maj.-gen., port., 192, 398. + +----, William C., N b'v't brig.-gen., port., 386. + +Bartlett's Mills, Va., 336. + +Barton, Clara, Fort Wagner, 291; + hospital services, 326; + port., 533. + +----, Seth M., C brig.-gen., port., 281. + +----, William B., N col., 220. + +Bartow, F. S., C col., at Bull Run, 55, 451. + +Bate, William B., C maj.-gen., port., 314. + +Bates, Edward, N attorney-gen., port., 6. + +----, Samuel P., Hooker's comments on Chancellorsville, 243. + +Batesville, Ark., action, 343. + +Baton Rouge, La., 10, 270, 274. + +Battery Gregg, Morris Island, 290, 294. + +---- Lamar, 219. + +---- Reynolds, Fort Wagner, ill., 291. + +---- Robinette, Corinth, 207. + +Battle Creek, Ala., 301. + +"Battle Cry of Freedom, The," George F. Root, 138. + +"Battle Hymn of the Republic, The," Mrs. Julia Ward Howe, 127. + +Battle of Chattanooga, The, 305-314. + +---- of Mobile Bay, The, 391-396. + +Baxter, Henry, N b'v't maj.-gen., Gettysburg, 252; + port., 255; + Wilderness, 357. + +Bayard, George D., N brig-.-gen., Cedar Mountain, 164; + Harrisonburg, 216; + killed, Fredericksburg, 196; + port., 484. + +Bayou Lafourche, La., 382. + +---- Teche, La., operations, 345, 347. + +Beall, John Y., C, Lake Erie raid, 528. + +----, Richard L. T., C brig.-gen., port., 265. + +Bean, William S., N quar.-mas.-sergt., Chickamauga, 303. + +Beaufort, N. C., 72, 87, 193. + +Beauregard, P. G. T., C lieut.-gen., port., 15; + attacks and captures Sumter, 15-17, 49; + in command C troops, 52; + at Bull Run, 53, 54, 57; + Corinth, 100; + Shiloh, 101-108; + succeeded by Bragg, 200, 206; + comment on Secessionville, 219; + comment on the "Black Flag," 235; + siege of Charleston, 289; + cartoon, 461. + +Beaver, James A., N b'v't brig.-gen., port., 368. + +Beaver Dam Creek, Va., battle, 155. + +Bee, Barnard E., C brig.-gen., port., 60; + at Bull Run, 53, 55, 451. + +Beech Grove, Ky., 73. + +Beecher, Henry Ward, Rev., at Sumter, 17, 18; + in England, 66; + port., 186. + +Beekman, ----, N capt., Hawes's Shop, Va., 363, 364. + +Beers, Mrs. Ethel Lynn, "All quiet along the Potomac to-night," 126. + +----, ----, N maj., Jonesville, Va., 433. + +Beginning of bloodshed, The, 29-36. + +Beiral, ----, N capt., Ball's Bluff, 110. + +Belle Isle, Va., prison camps, 321, 323, 531. + +Belle Plain, Va., ill., 352, 362. + +Belleville, O., action, 297. + +Bellis, ----, N lieut., Hawes's Shop, Va., 364. + +Bellows, Henry W., Rev., Sanitary Commission, 324-327; + port., 326. + +Belmont, Mo., engagement, 122. + +Bendix, John E., N b'v't brig.-gen., at Big Bethel, 45. + +Benedict, Lewis, N col., killed, Pleasant Hill, 379. + +Benham, Henry W., N b'v't maj.-gen., W. Va., 113, 114; + Charleston Harbor, 219. + +Benjamin, Judah P., C atty.-gen., sec'y of war, sec'y of state, port., + 26; + order concerning prisoners, 316. + +Bennett, James Gordon, cartoon, 462. + +----, ----, police officer, New York draft riots, 285. + +Benning, Henry L., C brig.-gen., Wilderness, 357. + +Benton, William P., N b'v't maj.-gen., port., 392. + +Bentonville, N. C., battle, 441. + +Berdan, Hiram, N b'v't maj.-gen., Manassas Gap, Va., 333; + port., 336. + +Bermuda Hundred, Va., occupied by Butler, 397. + +Berry, Hiram G., N maj.-gen., killed, Chancellorsville, 242, 246; + port., 245. + +----, ----, N capt., 318. + +Berryville, Va., 334, 406. + +Bethesda Church, Va., action, 365. + +Bickerdyke, Mary A., Mrs., 534; + port., 534. + +Bidwell, Daniel D., N brig.-gen., killed, Cedar Creek, Va., 410. + +Bienville, N gunboat, 71. + +Big Bethel, Va., 24; + battle of, 45; + ill., 46. + +Big Black River, Miss., engagement, 275; + ill., 278. + +Big Creek Gap, Tenn., action, 225. + +Big Hill, Ky., battle, 224. + +Big Mound, Dak., engagement, 348. + +Big Sandy, Ga., Andrews's raid, 529. + +Big Sandy River, Ky., 73. + +Billings, ----, N paymaster, recaptured, 322. + +Birge, Henry W., N b'v't maj.-gen., Irish Bend, La., 345. + +Birkenhead, Eng., "Alabama" built, 371. + +Birney, David B., N maj.-gen., Chantilly, 169; + Fredericksburg, 195; + Gettysburg, 252-265; + port., 255; + Robertson's Tavern, Va., 336; + Spottsylvania, 362; + advance on Petersburg, 397; + port., 401. + +----, James G., port., 187. + +Bissell, Josiah W., N col., Island No. 10, 99. + +Black Chapter, The, 315-323. + +"Black Flag, The," Paul Hamilton Hayne, 133. + +Black flag displayed, 316. + +Black Walnut Creek, Mo., 122. + +Blackburn's Ford (Bull Run), 53, 54; + ill., 167. + +Blackman, Albert M., N b'v't brig.-gen., port., 440. + +Blackwood's Magazine, England, 268. + +Blair, Austin, gov. of Mich., port., 18. + +----, Francis P., Jr., N maj.-gen., 38, 41; + Vicksburg campaign, 272; + Atlanta campaign, 387, 513; + (sketch), 515; + port., 515. + +----, Montgomery, N Postmaster-gen., port., 6; + criticised by Gurowski, 236, 237. + +----, ----, Rev., murdered, 315. + +Blake, Henry N., N capt., 171; + Chancellorsville, 245; + quoted, 353. + +Blakeslee, ----, N lieut., quoted, 434. + +Blenheim, battle of, 104. + +Blenker, Louis, N brig.-gen., 49; + port., 53; + at Bull Run, 60, 143. + +Blockade of Southern ports, 67. + +Bloodgood, Abraham, 84. + +Bloody Lane, Antietam, 178. + +Blooming Gap, W. Va., battle, 217. + +Blount's Farm, Ala., engagement, 295. + +Blountsville, Tenn., action, 341. + +Blue's Gap, W. Va., action, 216. + +Blunt, G. W., 15. + +----, James G., N maj.-gen., Old Fort Wayne, Ark., 231, 232; + Cane Hill, Ark., 232, 233; + Prairie Grove, Ark., 233; + Fort Smith, Ark., 344. + +Boggs, Charles S., N rear-adm., at N. O., port., 93. + +Bohlen, Henry, N brig.-gen., port., 480. + +Bolivar, Mo., 119. + +----, Tenn., 206; + skirmish, 227, 437. + +---- Heights, Va., 109; + engagement, 111. + +Bolton, Miss., 275. + +Bond, F. S., N maj., Chickamauga, 301. + +Bonham, Milledge L., C brig.-gen., 52; + at Bull Run, 53. + +"Bonnie Blue Flag, The," Harry McCarthy, 136, 413. + +Boomer, George B., N col., Iuka, 204. + +Booneville, Mo., action, 41, 405. + +Boonsborough, Md., 175; + battle, 176. + +Booth, John Wilkes, port., 510; + reward offered for arrest, 510; + captured, 511. + +----, Lionel F., N maj., killed, Fort Pillow, 320. + +Border States, 36-47. + +Boston Mountains, Ark., 80; + engagement, 232. + +Boteler, A. R., residence burned, 319. + +Bottom's Bridge, Va., 433. + +Bottsford, ----, N lieut., Clark's Hollow, W. Va., 218. + +Boulger, Robert E., N pvt. 23d Mich. inf., 520. + +Bowers, Theodore S., N col., port., 31. + +Bowling Green. Ky., 75, 76, 209; + evacuated, 223. + +Bowne, ----, N lieut., Hawes's Shop, Va., 364. + +Boyd, Belle, C spy, port., 506. + +Boynton, H. V. N., N b'v't brig.-gen., port., 302. + +Bracht, ----, N maj., 18th Ky., Mt. Sterling, 224. + +Bradford, W. F., N maj., killed, Fort Pillow, 320. + +Bradley, Amy, hospital services, 326, 535. + +Bradley, ----, N maj., Big Mound, Dak., 348. + +Bradyville, Tenn., action, 340. + +Bragg, Braxton, C gen., Corinth, 100; + port., 104, 192; + succeeds Beauregard, 200; + Perryville, 201, 203, 206; + Murfreesboro', 209-213, 223, 295; + Chickamauga, 297-303; + Chattanooga, 305-311; + superseded by Johnston, 311, 342, 350; + anecdote, 458; + retreat through Tenn., anecdote, 503. + +Branch, L. O'Brien, C brig.-gen., at Newbern, 72; + killed, Antietam, 180. + +Brandy Station, Va., battle, 249. + +Brannan, John M., N b'v't maj.-gen., 219, 220; + Chickamauga, 302. + +Breckenridge, ----, C maj., Kelly's Ford, Va., 332. + +----, Margaret E., Mrs., port., 534, 535. + +Breckinridge, John C., C maj.-gen., 43; + Presidential candidate, 117; + Murfreesboro', 210; + port., 213; + Baton Rouge, 270, 403; + Newmarket, Va., 433; + sec'y of war, 453; + Bull's Gap, Tenn., 524. + +----, Rev. Robert J., 41. + +Breese, S. L., N naval comr., port., 370. + +Breshwood, ----, N capt., 10. + +Bridgeport, Ala., 301, 305. + +Bright, John, 66. + +Bristoe Station, Va., destroyed by Jackson, 166; + engagement, 333, 334. + +Bristol, Tenn., action, 341. + +Britton's Lane, Tenn., action, 227. + +Brockway, ----, N lieut., Gettysburg, 255. + +Brooke, John R., N b'v't brig.-gen., Gettysburg, 259; + Cold Harbor, 367. + +Brooklyn, N cruiser, New Orleans, 90-93; + Mobile Bay, 391-393. + +Brooks, E. P., N lieut., recaptured, 322. + +----, ----, N lieut., Hawes's Shop, Va., 364. + +Brough, John, gov. of Ohio, port., 18, 287. + +Brown, B. Gratz, 41. + +----, Egbert B., N brig.-gen., Springfield, Mo., 344. + +----, John, invasion of Va., 7, 448; + ill., "Last moments," 21; + port., 182. + +----, Joseph E., gov. of Ga., port., 420; + at odds with Davis, 420, 425. + +----, Theodore F., N b'v't maj., Bristoe Sta., Va., 334. + +----, ----, N lieut., Kelly's Ford, Va., 332. + +----, Wilson, Andrews's raid, 529. + +Browne, Junius Henri, N correspondent, adventures, 520-523. + +----, William M., C col., port., 450. + +Brownell, Francis E., N, 25. + +----, Henry Howard, "Bay Fight," 395, 396. + +----, Mrs. Kady, N pvt., 5th R. I. inf., 470. + +Brownlow, Rev. William G., 44; + imprisoned, 316. + +Brown's Ferry (Chattanooga), 305. + +Bruinsburg, Miss., 274, 276, 279. + +Brunswick Batteries, 531. + +Brush Knob, Tenn., 313. + +Buchanan, Franklin, C adm. in command of "Merrimac," 83, 85; + port., 87; + Mobile Bay, 391, 392. + +----, James, President of the U. S., 9, 14, 19, 36; + attitude toward slavery, 183. + +----, T. McKean, N comr., killed, Bayou Teche, 345. + +Buchanan, Va., devastated by Hunter, 319. + +Buckingham, C. P., N brig.-gen., port., 414. + +----, William A., gov. of Conn., port., 18; + influence, 448. + +Buckner, Simon B., C lieut.-gen., Fort Donelson, 76, 79; + port., 80, 508. + +Buell, Don Carlos, N maj.-gen., 100; + Shiloh, 101-104; + port., 104; + Munfordville, 115; + Perryville, 201; + superseded by Rosecrans, 203, 209; + Bowling Green, 223, 307. + +----, J. T., N col., Independence, Mo., 231. + +Buffalo Mountain, W. Va., engagement, 114. + +Buffington's Ford, O., battle, 297. + +Buford, John, N maj.-gen., Pope's campaign, 163, 164; + Cedar Mountain, 164; + Brandy Sta., Va., 249; + port., 250; + Gettysburg, 251-268; + Manassas Gap, Va., 333; + Rappahannock Sta., 335. + +----, Napoleon B., N maj.-gen., Corinth, 206; + Union City, Tenn., 226. + +Bull Pasture Mountain, battle, 216. + +Bull Run, Va., 1st battle, ill., 50, 51-61; + effects of battle, 62; + 2d battle, 168-171; + ills., 170, 171; + Sanitary Commission, 325; + reminiscences of battle, 472-474; + anecdotes, 464-465. + +---- (stream), 52, 53, 54, 55, 60, 61; + ill., 167. + +Bull's Bay, S. C., 69. + +Bull's Gap, Tenn., 524. + +Bummers, Sherman's, 423; + ill., 430. + +Bunker Hill, Mass., 190. + +----, W. Va., engagement, 111. + +Burials, military, 497. + +"Burke, Deaf," C spy, anecdote, 505. + +Burnett's Ford, Va., 165. + +Burns, John, Gettysburg, 259; + ill. of residence, 267. + +Burnside, Ambrose E., N maj.-gen., 49; + ports., 53, 72; + at Bull Run, 55, 57; + N. C. expedition, 72; + ills., 74, 75, 163; + Antietam campaign, 176-179; + port. with staff, 191; + succeeds McClellan, 193; + Fredericksburg campaign, 193-197; + on the N. C. coast, 218; + superseded by Hooker, 241, 308; + Knoxville, 311, 342; + in command Dept. of the Ohio, 341; + East Tenn., 342, 348, 351; + Annapolis, 354; + Wilderness, 355, 356; + Spottsylvania, 358-361; + North Anna, 362, 363; + advance on Petersburg, 398, 399. + +Burnside's campaign, 191-200. + +---- mine, Petersburg, 469. + +Burnsville, Miss., 204, 205. + +Bussey, Cyrus, N b'v't maj.-gen., Canton, Miss., 342, 343. + +Butler, Benjamin F., N maj.-gen., in command 8th Mass. regiment, 24, + 28; + ports., 43, 66; + service in Md., 43; + at Big Bethel, 45; + in command Fortress Monroe, 45, 49; + expedition to Hatteras, 68; + at N. O., 90, 95; + "woman order," 96, 97; + refusal to return slaves, 185; + outlawed by Pres. Davis, 235; + commands Army of the James, 351, 365; + under Grant, 353, 368; + advance on Petersburg, 397; + Bottom's Bridge, Va., 433; + cartoon, 456; + anecdote, 457. + +Butler, Mo., battle, 231. + +Butterfield, Daniel, N maj.-gen., port., 259; + Gettysburg, 259, 263. + +----, ----, N capt., Romney, 113. + +"Butternuts" (Confederate soldiers), 105. + +Byrnes, ----, N col., killed, Cold Harbor, 367. + + +Cabell, William L., C brig.-gen., Devil's Backbone, Ark., 344. + +Cadwalader, George, N maj.-gen., at Harper's Ferry, 47. + +Cairo, Ill., 73, 76, 99, 122, 223. + +----, Tenn., 227. + +Caldwell, Charles H. B., N lieut., 10; + at N. O., 92. + +----, John C., N b'v't maj.-gen., Bristoe Station, 334. + +Calhoun, John C., 41. + +Calhoun, Ky., 115. + +----, N gunboat, Bayou Teche, La., 345. + +California, Sanitary Commission, 325. + +---- regiment, 71st Pa. inf., 109. + +"Call All" (author unknown), 132. + +Cameron, Simon, N sec'y of war, 48, 143; + authorizes Sanitary Commission, 324. + +----, ----, N col., killed, 479. + +Camp Douglas, Chicago, Ill., prison camp, ill., 322, 528. + +---- Lyon, Mo., 117. + +---- Wildcat, Ky., engagement, 73, 114. + +Camp life, 495-505; + pitching and striking, 498; + sports in, 501-502; + sutlers, 501; + winter in, 496-498; + ills., 501. + +Campaign of Shiloh, 99-109. + +Campbell, John A., C peace com'r, 441. + +Campbell's Battery, losses, 483. + +Campbell's Station, Tenn., battle, 342. + +Camps, arrangement of, 496. + +Canada, hostile to the United States, 66. + +Canby, Edward R. S., N maj.-gen., Ft. Craig, N. M., 233; + port., 527. + +Candy, Charles, N b'v't brig.-gen., port., 389. + +Cane Hill, Ark., battle, 232. + +Canfield, Mrs. Hermann, 539. + +Canton, Miss., engagement, 342, 343. + +Cape Girardeau, Mo., 73, 118; + action, 230. + +---- Hatteras, N. C., 67, 87, 469. + +Capron, Horace, N b'v't brig.-gen., port., 530. + +Capture of New Orleans, 88-98; + ill., 95. + +Carlin, William P., N b'v't maj.-gen., Fredericktown, Mo., 118; + Perryville, 201. + +Carlisle, Pa., occupied by Lee, 250, 251, 252. + +---- Barracks, Pa., 27, 28. + +Carmody, John, N sergt., 15. + +Carnifex Ferry, W. Va., engagement, 113. + +Carondelet, N gunboat, Island No. 10, 99. + +Carpenter, Daniel, New York draft riots, 285, 286. + +Carr, Eugene A., N b'v't maj.-gen., Pea Ridge, 80; + Milliken's Bend, La., 240. + +----, Joseph B., N b'v't maj.-gen., Robertson's Tavern, Va., 336. + +Carroll, Edward, N lt.-col., port., 484. + +----, Samuel S., N b'v't maj.-gen., Blooming Gap, 217; + Gettysburg, 254, 255; + Wilderness, 357; + Spottsylvania, 362; + port., 367. + +Carson, Christopher, N b'v't brig.-gen., port., 342. + +Carter, James E., N col., Big Creek Gap, Tenn., 225; + Blountsville, Tenn., 341. + +----, L., Rev., murdered, 315. + +----, ----, N capt., Point Pleasant, W. Va., 337. + +----, ----, N capt., killed, Winchester, 407. + +Carthage, Mo., action at, 41. + +Casement, John S., N col., 429. + +Casey, Silas, N maj.-gen., port., 152; + Peninsular campaign, 144-156. + +Cass, Lewis, U. S. sec'y of state, 9, 36. + +Cassville, Ga., occupied by Johnston, 385. + +Castle Pinckney, S. C., 9, 12, 35. + +Catlett's Station, Va., 165, 166. + +Catlin, Isaac S., N b'v't maj.-gen., port., 368. + +Causes of the war, 5, 7; + ill., 181. + +Cavander, Rev. M., murdered, 315. + +Caves as dwellings, Vicksburg, 280-282. + +Cayuga, N gunboat, at N. O., 93, 95. + +Cedar Creek, Va., battle, 410, 411. + +Cedar Mountain, Va., battle, 164, 354. + +Cemetery Ridge, Gettysburg, 252, 256; + ill., 266, 368. + +Centreville, Va., 53, 54, 60, 61; + evacuated, 143, 154, 169. + +Chain Bridge, D. C., ill., 349. + +Chalmers, James R., C brig.-gen., Colliersville, Tenn., 306; + Fort Pillow, 320. + +Chalmette batteries, N. O., 95. + +Chamberlain, Joshua L., N b'v't maj.-gen., Gettysburg, 254. + +Chambersburg, Pa., occupied by Lee, 250, 251; + burned by Early, 317, 319, 320, 404, 405. + +Champion's Hill, Miss., battle, 275. + +Chancellorsville, 241-247. + +----, Va., occupied by Hooker, 241; + battle, 241-247, 353; + _Map_, 243; + ills., 244, 246, 358, 470; + losses, 477; + capture of flag at, ill., 481. + +Chapman, Sam., Rev., C cav., Warrenton Junction, 331. + +Characteristics, comparative, Northern and Southern soldiers, 502-505. + +Charles City Cross Roads, Va., battle (ill., 157), 158. + +Charleston, Mo., engagement, 117; + engagement, 230. + +----, S. C., State flag raised, 9; + arsenal seized by rebels, 10; + bombarded by Gillmore, N, 18; + N operations against, 219; + siege, 288-294; + ill., 288, 307, 385; + bombarded, 435; + evacuated, 440; + in ruins, ill., 523. + +---- Harbor, 5, 10, 12, 18, 35, 71. + +----, W. Va., 113. + +Charleston and Memphis R. R., 312. + +Charlestown, Va., actions, 334. + +----, W. Va., 319. + +Charlotte, N. C., 43, 307, 441. + +Charlottesville, Va., 409. + +Chartres, Duc de, ports., 142, 147. + +Chase, Salmon P., N sec'y of the treasury, port., 6, 49; + management of finances, 415-417; + cartoon, 463. + +Chatfield, John L., N col., killed, Fort Wagner, 290. + +Chattanooga, Tenn., engagement, 226; + campaign, 295-304; + ill., 304; + battle, 305-314, 350, 383, 420, 425. + +Chattanooga campaign, The, and battle of Chickamauga, 295-304. + +Cheat Mountain, W. Va., skirmish, 114. + +Cheat River Valley, W. Va., 45. + +Cheatham, Benjamin F., C maj.-gen., port., 427. + +Cheraw, S. C., 440. + +Cherbourg, France, 371; + battle between "Kearsarge" and "Alabama," 372. + +Cherokee Indians, 80, 81; + Shirley's Ford, Mo., 231; + Cane Hill, 232; + Tennessee, 317. + +Chesapeake Canal, 406, 409. + +Chester, Pa., 190. + +Chestnut, James, Jr., C brig.-gen., 17; + port., 450. + +Chewalla, Tenn., 207. + +Chicago, Ill., Camp Douglas, ill., 322; + Democratic convention, 413, 528. + +Chickahominy, Va., battle, 155, 156. + +Chickamauga, Ga., 100; + battle, 298-303; + ills., 300, 308, 405; + losses, 477. + +Chickasaw, N monitor, Mobile Bay, 391, 392. + +---- Indians, 81. + +Chipman, Norton P., N b'v't brig.-gen., port., 409. + +Chivington, John M., N maj., Apache Cańon, 233, 234. + +Choctaw Indians, 81. + +Christian Commission, 326, 354, 448. + +Churchill, T. J., C maj.-gen., surrendered to McClernand, Arkansas + Post, 273. + +Cincinnati, O., approached by Morgan, 297. + +----, N gunboat, sunk, Vicksburg, 281. + +"Circus," "Thomas's," 383. + +City Hall, New Orleans, La., ill., 96. + +City Point, Va., fortified by Butler, 397; + ills., 397, 400, 489. + +Clark, Charles, C brig.-gen., killed, Baton Rouge, 270. + +----, John S., N b'v't brig.-gen. on Banks's staff, 166. + +----, William T., N brig.-gen., port., 345. + +----, ----, N lieut., 5th Kan. cav., Pine Bluff, Ark., 344. + +Clarksburg, Tenn., 229. + +Clark's Hollow, W. Va., engagement, 218. + +Clay, Cassius M., N maj.-gen., port., 527. + +----, Henry, 41. + +Clayton, Powell, N brig.-gen., port., 341; + Pine Bluff, Ark., 344. + +----, ----, N col., Pine Bluff, Tenn., 437. + +Cleburne, Patrick R., C maj.-gen., port., 303; + Atlanta, 389; + killed, 429. + +Cleveland, Grover, President of the U. S., Porter relief bill signed, + 170. + +Cleveland, O., Frémont convention, 412. + +Cleves, ----, N capt., killed, Fort Wagner, 290. + +Clifton, Ga., 390. + +Clingman, Thomas L., C brig.-gen., port., 508. + +Clopper, John Y., N maj., Memphis, Mo., 231. + +Cloud, ----, N col., Devil's Backbone, Ark., 344. + +Cloyd's Mountain, Va., battle, 433. + +Cluseret, Gustave P., N col., Harrisonburg, 216. + +Cobb, Howell, U. S. sec'y of the treasury, 9; + C maj.-gen., port., 177. + +----, Thomas R. R., C brig.-gen., killed, Fredericksburg, 196. + +Coburn, John, N b'v't brig.-gen., 295; + Thompson's Sta., Tenn., 340. + +Cochran, ----, N lieut., Fort Wagner, 292. + +Cochrane, John, N brig.-gen., nominated for vice-president, 412. + +Cocke, Philip St. G., C brig.-gen., at Bull Run, 53, 55. + +Cockrell, Francis M., C brig.-gen., port., 392. + +Cockspur Island, 185, 220. + +Coggswell, Leander W., N col., Spottsylvania, 361. + +----, William, N b'v't brig.-gen., port., 423. + +Cold Harbor, Va., battle, 155, 156; + battle, 365-368, 387. + +Cole, Charles H., C capt., Lake Erie raid, 528. + +----, Henry A., N maj., 433. + +Colliersville, Tenn., action, 301. + +Collins, Napoleon, N naval comr., port., 370. + +Colorado, N frigate, at N. O., 90, 91. + +Colored Orphan Asylum, New York, draft riot, 286. + +Colored soldiers, employment of, 235-240. + +---- troops, Butler, Me., 231; + in Confederate service, 235; + in National service, 237; + in Revolutionary War, 237-240; + losses among, 483. + +Colquitt, Alfred H., C brig.-gen., port., 445. + +Colquitt's salient, Ft. Steadman, 487. + +Colston, R. E., C brig.-gen., port., 399. + +Colt, Henrietta L., Mrs., port., 537, 540. + +Columbia, Ky., captured by Morgan, 297. + +----, S. C., prisons, 321; + Sherman occupies, 440; + burned, 440. + +----, Tenn., 226. + +Columbus, Ky., 75, 99, 122, 223, 271. + +Colville, William, Jr., N col. 1st Minn. inf., charge at Gettysburg, + 476. + +Colyer, Vincent, Christian Commission, 326. + +Commerce, Miss., 348. + +Commercial, Cincinnati, O., 211. + +Concord, N. H., riot, 317. + +Confederate Cruisers, The, 371-375. + +---- prisoners, guarding, ill., 522. + +---- States of America, founded, 5; + seat of government established at Montgomery, Ala., removed to + Richmond, Va., 9, 49; + ill. of flag, 9; + recognized as belligerents by France and England, 63; + conscription act, 200. + +Congress, members of, captured at Bull Run, 473. + +----, N cruiser, destroyed by "Merrimac," 84. + +Connecticut _Infantry_, 7th, Tybee Island, 220; + 8th, Suffolk, 329; + 10th, Fort Wagner, 291; + 13th, Irish Bend, 345; + 16th, Antietam, 180, Suffolk, 329; + 25th, Irish Bend, 347; + 2d heavy art'y losses, 478. + +Connor, Selden, N brig.-gen., _Article_, 495-505. + +Conrad's Ferry, Potomac River, 109. + +Contraband of war, ill., 184, 185. + +Cooking in camp, 496. + +Cotton, C war steamer, Bayou Teche, La., 345. + +Cony, Samuel, gov. of Me., port., 18. + +Cooke, Jay, financial agent, 416. + +----, Philip St. George, N b'v't maj.-gen., port., 368. + +Cooper, James H., N capt., 158. + +----, Samuel, C adj.-gen., 49; + port., 318. + +Copperheads, 36. + +Corcoran, Michael, N brig.-gen., port., 336. + +Corinth, Miss., 100; + evacuation, 108; + battle, 206-209; + ill., 209, 308. + +Corse, John M., N b'v't maj.-gen., Colliersville, Tenn., 306; + Chattanooga, 314; + defends Allatoona, 420; + port., 422. + +Corwin, N gunboat, 154, 234. + +Cotton-gin, Eli Whitney's, 5. + +Couch, Darius N., N maj.-gen., Fredericksburg, 198; port., 242. + +Courier, Charleston, quoted, 435. + +----, Louisville, Ky., 63, 182. + +Cowan, Dr., C, Munfordville, 115. + +Cox, Henry, Rev., 63. + +----, Jacob D., N maj.-gen., Great Kanawha, 113; + port., 114; + Franklin, Tenn., 429. + +----, Samuel S., M. C., opposed to negro soldiers, 236. + +----, ----, N, Hawes's Shop, Va., 364. + +Crabb, ----, N col., Springfield, Mo., 344. + +Craig, James, N brig.-gen., port., 345. + +----, ----, N lieut., Hawes's Shop, Va., 364. + +Crampton's Gap, Md., 176, 179. + +Craven, Tunis A. M., N naval capt., killed, Mobile Bay, 391, 393; + port., 393, 451. + +Crawford, Dr. S. Wiley, N b'v't maj.-gen., port., 11; + at Sumter, 11, 15; + Antietam, 180. + +----, Samuel J., N b'v't brig.-gen., port., 347; + Spottsylvania, 362. + +Creigh, David S., 317, 318. + +"Crescent City" (New Orleans), 88. + +Crew, ----, N capt., killed at Butler, Mo., 231. + +Crippen, Benjamin, N sergt., Gettysburg, ill., 258. + +Crittenden, George B., C maj.-gen., at Mill Springs, Ky., 73; + port., 108. + +----, Thomas L., N maj.-gen., port., 108; + Murfreesboro', 227; + Chickamauga, 298. + +----, ----, M. C., 190. + +Croatan Sound, N. C., 71, 72. + +Crocker, Marcellus M., N brig.-gen., Corinth, 207; + Vicksburg campaign, 274, 275. + +Crockett's Cove, W. Va., fight, 433. + +Cromwell, ----, N maj., killed, Gettysburg, 266. + +Crook, George, N maj.-gen., Antietam, 179, 317; + defeated by Early, 404, 405; + Shenandoah, 409, 410; + Cloyd's Mountain, 433; + port., 435. + +Cross, Edward E., N col., killed, Gettysburg, 254, 477; + port., 484. + +Cross Keys, Va., action, 216. + +---- Lanes, engagement, 113. + +Crow's Nest observatory, Petersburg, ill., 469. + +Cruft, Charles, N b'v't maj.-gen., Murfreesboro', 212; + Richmond, Ky., 225. + +Crump's Landing, 100, 101, 107, 108. + +Cub Run, Va., 61. + +Cullum, George W., N brig.-gen., port., 101. + +Culpeper, Va., 163; + ill., 164, 193, 249, 250, 353. + +---- C. H., Va., 164, 166. + +---- Mine Ford, Va., 335, 355. + +Cumberland, Md., 320. + +----, Army of the, commanded by Rosecrans, 209; + _Map_ of operations, 297; + commanded by Thomas, 305, 383, 390. + +----, N sloop, 29, 83; + destroyed by "Merrimac," 84. + +---- Ford, Tenn., 225. + +---- Gap, Tenn., 114, 227; + surrendered, 341. + +Cummings Point, Morris Island, 12, 15, 290, 292. + +Curtin, Andrew G., gov. of Pa., port., 18. + +Curtis, N. Martin, N b'v't maj.-gen., port., 439. + +----, Samuel R., N maj.-gen., in Mo., 79; + Pea Ridge, 80; + port., 81. + +Cushing, Alonzo H., N lieut., killed, Gettysburg, 259; + ill., 263. + +----, William B., N comr. "Barney," 348; + destroys ram "Albemarle," 435; + adventures, 529, 531; + port., 531. + +Cushing's Battery, losses, 483. + +Cushman, Pauline, N spy, port., 506. + +Custer, George A., N b'v't maj.-gen., port., 79; + cavalry superiority, 250; + Gettysburg, 268; + Robertson's Tavern, 335; + port., 356; + Hawes's Shop, 363, 364, 405; + Shenandoah Valley, 406, 410; + Trevilian Station and Louisa C. H., Va., 433; + Waynesboro', 442; + Sailor's Creek, 446, 451. + +Cutler, Lysander, N b'v't maj.-gen., port., 398. + +Cynthiana, Ky., action, 223. + + +Dabney, ----, C, 164, 165. + +Dada, Hattie A., Miss, port., 533, 540. + +Dahlgren, John A., N rear-adm., port., 289, 436; + siege of Charleston, 290, 294; + Florida, 436, 531. + +----, Ulric, N col., killed, Richmond raid, 531. + +Daily News, London, Eng., 65. + +Dallas, Ga., 385. + +Dalton, Ga., 311; + occupied by Johnston, 353, 383, 390, 529. + +Dana, Charles A., N asst. sec'y of war, port., 65. + +----, Napoleon J. T., N maj.-gen., Antietam, 180. + +Dandridge, Tenn., fight, 436. + +Daniel, Junius, C brig.-gen., killed, Spottsylvania, 362, 451. + +Dauphin Island (Mobile Bay), 391. + +Davies, Henry E., Jr., N b'v't maj.-gen., port., 443. + +----, Thomas A., N b'v't maj.-gen., 49; + Corinth, 206, 207. + +----, W. T., N correspondent, adventures, 520-523. + +Davis, Benjamin F., N col., killed, Brandy Sta., Va., 249. + +----, Charles Henry, N rear-adm., port., 270; + Vicksburg, 270. + +----, Clara, Miss, 538. + +----, Jefferson, calls for troops, 22; + port., 26; + early military advantages, 48; + at Bull Run, 60, 209; + outlaws Butler and proclaims against negro soldiers, 235; + letter from Lee after Gettysburg, 268; + "Neckties," 375; + distrust of Johnston, 383; + message to Lincoln, 412; + at odds with Gov. Brown, 420, 425; + evacuates Richmond, 445; + flight and capture, 448; + port., 449; + refuses to treat for peace, 487. + +----, Jefferson C., N b'v't maj.-gen., port., 11; + at Sumter, 11, 15; + ports., 30, 513; + Pea Ridge, 80; + Chickamauga, 301; + Atlanta, 390; + (sketch), 513; + shoots Gen. William Nelson, 513; + ass't com'r for freedmen, 514; + in Modoc War, 514, 515. + +----, John, N sailor, 72. + +----, Joseph R., C brig.-gen., port., 450. + +----, S. B., C lieut. and spy, 470-472. + +----, ----, N col., Fair Oaks, 148, 150, 176. + +Dawes, Rufus R., N b'v't brig.-gen., Gettysburg, 260. + +Dawson, ----, C lieut.-col., Ripley, Tenn., 340. + +Day, Nicholas W., N b'v't brig.-gen., port., 409. + +Day-Book, Norfolk, Va., 217. + +Day's Gap, Ala., action, 295. + +Dearing, James, C brig.-gen., mentioned, 451. + +Debutts, ----, C cav., Warrenton Junction, 331. + +Decatur, Ala., Sherman escapes capture, 375. + +----, Ga., 389. + +De Courcey, John F., N col., Tazewell, Tenn., 227. + +Deep Bottom, Va., 398, 399. + +Deep Creek, Va., fight, 446. + +De Fontaine, F. G., C correspondent, 134; + _Article_, 505-508. + +De Lacey, William, N b'v't brig.-gen., port., 362. + +Delaware, 1st (N) inf. losses, 481. + +---- Indians, ill., 214. + +Dent, Frederick T., N b'v't brig.-gen., port., 414. + +Democratic members of Congress, opposed to negro soldiers, 236. + +---- party, in political alliance with the South, 9; + sustains the Union, 36; + favors slavery, 183; + antagonizes Lincoln, 249; + opposed to the war, 283, 284, 315; + convention, 413. + +---- press, denounces emancipation, 185, 189; + opposes negro soldiers, 236; + opposed to the war, 283, 284; + denounces draft in New York, 285. + +Denmark, Tenn., 227. + +Dennis, Elias S., N b'v't maj.-gen., Britton's Lane, Tenn., 227. + +Dennison, William, gov. of Ohio, influence, 448. + +De Russy, Gustavus A., N b'v't brig.-gen., port., 196. + +Deshler, James, C brig.-gen., killed, Chickamauga, 299. + +Dispatch, Richmond, Va., 348. + +Detonville, Va., fight, 446. + +Devens, Charles, N b'v't maj.-gen., Ball's Bluff, 109; + port., 110; + Cold Harbor, Va., 365. + +Devil's Backbone, Ark., action, 344. + +---- Den, Gettysburg, ill., 257. + +Devin, Thomas C., N b'v't maj.-gen., port., 356; + port., 530. + +Dew, Thomas R., 33. + +Dewey, Daniel P., N lieut., killed, Irish Bend, 347. + +Diana, C gunboat, Irish Bend, La., 345, 347. + +----, N gunboat, Bayou Teche, La., 345. + +Dickinson, Daniel S., proposed for vice-president, 412. + +Dinwiddie C. H., 441, 443; + Sheridan reconnoitering at, ill., 444. + +Dispatch, Richmond, Va., 454. + +Disraeli, Benjamin, quoted, 269. + +District of Columbia, enrollment for defence of Washington, 20. + +Divers, Bridget, N pvt. 1st Mich. cav., 470. + +Dix, Dorothea L., hospital services, 326. + +----, John A., N maj.-gen., U. S. Sec'y of the Treasury, his "shoot + him on the spot" order, 10; + port., 14; + fac-simile of order, 14, 48. + +Dixie, Albert Pike, 131; + port., 131, 413. + +Dodd, David O., C boy spy, 470. + +Dog Walk, Ky., action, 225. + +Doles, George, C brig.-gen., killed, Cold Harbor, 368, 451. + +Donaldsonville, La., destroyed by Farragut, 271, 345. + +Doubleday, Abner, N maj.-gen., port., 11; + at Sumter, 11, 15; + Fredericksburg, 195; + Gettysburg, 251-259; + port., 254. + +Dougherty, ----, N col., 22d Ill., 117. + +Douglas, Stephen A., 36. + +----, ----, Rev., murdered, 315. + +Dover, Tenn., action, 295. + +Dow, Neal, N brig.-gen., port., 276. + +Draft Riots, The, 283-287. + +Drake, J. Madison, N capt., 523; + _Article_, 523. + +Dranesville, Va., 109; + engagement, 113. + +Drayton, Percival, N capt., port., 393. + +Drayton, Thomas F., C brig.-gen., at Port Royal, 71; + port., 72. + +Dred Scott decision, 7, 186. + +Drury's Bluff, Va., action, 397, 398. + +Dry Valley road, Chickamauga, 301. + +Duffié, Alfred N., N brig.-gen., port., 257. + +Dug Spring, Mo., action at, 41. + +Dumont, Ebenezer, N brig.-gen., at Philippi, 45. + +Duncan, Johnson K., C brig.-gen., at N. O., 90. + +Dunham, C. L., N col., Parker's Cross Roads, Tenn., 229. + +Dunker Church, Antietam, 177, 178. + +Dunning, ----, N col., Blue's Gap, 216. + +Dunn's Bayou, La., action, 382. + +Dunton, Jacob, Christian Commission, 326. + +DuPont, Samuel F., N rear-adm., 69; + port., 71; + siege of Charleston, 289, 290, 348. + +Durkee, ----, N col., Fair Oaks, 150. + +Duryea, Abram, N b'v't maj.-gen., 24; + port., 35; + at Big Bethel, 45. + +Duryea's Zouaves, 5th N. Y., 24; + at Big Bethel, 45; + losses, 479. + +Dustin, Daniel, N b'v't brig.-gen., port., 423. + +Dutch Gap, Va., 397. + +Dutton's Hill, Ky., action, 339. + +Duval, Isaac H., N b'v't maj.-gen., Winchester, Va., 407. + +Dwight, William, N brig.-gen., ill., 343. + +Dye, ----, N, killed, Hawes's Shop, Va., 365. + + +Eads, James B., 392. + +Earle, C. W., N lieut., Chickamauga, 303. + +Early, Jubal A., C lieut.-gen., 49, port., 60; + Bull Run, 53, 59; + burning of Chambersburg, 319, 320; + Robertson's Tavern, Va., 336; + Spottsylvania, 359; + Bethesda Church, 365; + Cold Harbor, 365; + threatens Washington, 402-404; + Shenandoah Valley, 402, 405-411; + Waynesboro', 442. + +Eaton, Amos B., N b'v't maj.-gen., port., 414. + +Edenton, N. C., 72. + +Edmonds, Emma, Miss, N spy and nurse, adventures, 511, 512. + +Edson, Sarah P., Miss, 538. + +Edward's Ferry, Va., 109; + engagement, 111, 250, 268. + +Edwards Station, Miss., 275. + +Effects of battle of Bull Run, 62-66. + +Egan, Thomas W., N b'v't brig.-gen., Gettysburg, 265. + +Eggleston, ----, N corp., Gettysburg, 260. + +"Egypt" (Southwest Georgia), 485. + +Elizabeth City, N. C., 72. + +Ellet, Charles Rivers, N col., port., 274. + +Elliott, Melcenia, Miss, 538. + +----, Stephen, Jr., C brig.-gen., port., 445. + +Ellis, A. Van Horn, N b'v't brig.-gen., port., 261; + killed, Gettysburg, 266. + +----, Daniel, N guide, 521. + +----, John W., gov. N. C., 43. + +Ellis, N tugboat, stranded, 529. + +Ellsworth Avengers, 44th N. Y. inf., losses, 479. + +Ellsworth, Elmer E., N col., port., 25, 484; + killed, 25, 451. + +----, ----, Morgan's raid, 532. + +Ely's Ford, Va., 335, 355. + +Elzey Arnold, C maj.-gen., port., 508. + +Emancipation, 181-191. + +---- Proclamation, 187, 189, 412, 413. + +Emmet, ----, N lieut., Meagher's staff, Fredericksburg, 199. + +Emmitsburg Road, Gettysburg, 263. + +Emory, William H., N maj.-gen., Sabine Cross Roads, 378; + Pleasant Hill, 378; + port., 382. + +Employment of colored soldiers, 235-240. + +England recognizes Confederates as belligerents, 63; + sympathy with the South, 65, 269; + sympathy with the Union, 189; + violation of neutrality laws, 372-375. + +Enquirer, Richmond, Va., 454. + +Erben, Henry, N lieut.-comr., port., 370. + +Ericsson, John, N capt., port., 84. + +Ericsson, N ironclad ("Monitor"), 85. + +Essex, U. S. vessel, 76, 90. + +----, N gunboat, Ft. Henry, 76, 393. + +Estrella, N gunboat, Bayou Teche, La., 345. + +Etheridge, Annie, N dau. of regt., 470. + +Evans, J. J., N capt., Mt. Sterling, 223. + +----, Nathan G., C brig.-gen., at Bull Run, 53, 55; + Secessionville, 219; + port., 281, 461. + +----, ----, N aid to Force, Atlanta, 389. + +Evening Post, New York, 128. + +Everett, Edward, speech at Gettysburg, 269. + +Ewell, Richard S., C lieut.-gen., 49; + at Bull Run, 53; + Peninsular campaign, 154; + Groveton, 167; + 2d Bull Run, 173; + Cross Keys, 216; + Culpeper, 249; + Shenandoah Valley, 250; + Gettysburg, 251-256; + port., 265; + Wilderness, 354; + Spottsylvania, 362, 368; + captured, Sailor's Creek, Va., 446; + foresees the end, 448, 453. + +Ewing, Charles T., N brig.-gen., port., 435. + +----, Hugh, N b'v't maj.-gen., port., 307. + +----, Thomas, 519. + +----, Thomas, Jr., N b'v't maj.-gen., 515. + +Examiner, Richmond, Va., 33; + quoted, 431. + +Excelsior Brigade, Gettysburg, 265; + Manassas Gap, Va., 333. + + +Fagan, James F., C maj.-gen., port., 341. + +Fair Gardens, Tenn., fight, 436. + +Fair Oaks, Va., battle, 146; + ill., 154, 390, 470. + +Fairchild, ----, N col., Atlanta, 389. + +Fairfax, Donald M., N rear-adm., port., 290. + +Fairfax C. H., Va., 169; + raided by Mosby, 331. + +Fairmont, W. Va., engagement, 337. + +Fales, Almira, Mrs., 533, 538. + +Falling Waters, Va., engagement, 111. + +Falmouth, Va., 193. + +Farley, Porter, N adjt., Gettysburg, 260. + +Farmville, Va., fight, 446. + +Farnam, Noah L., N col., 24. + +Farnsworth, Elon J., N brig.-gen., killed, Gettysburg, 259; + port., 261, 268. + +Farnum, ----, N col., Manassas Gap, 333. + +Farragut, David G., rear-adm., 33; + at N. O., 90-97; + port., 93, 221; + Vicksburg, 270-273; + Port Hudson, 276, 350, 375; + port., 391; + Mobile Bay, 391-395, 451. + +Farron, C., N naval eng., Mobile Bay, 393. + +Faunce, John, N naval capt., port., 370. + +Fayal, Azores, "Alabama," 371. + +Fayetteville, Ark., engagement, 344. + +----, N. C., 43, 440-441; + arsenal destroyed, 517. + +----, W. Va., engagement, 218, 339. + +Fenton, William M., N col., Secessionville, 219; + Wilmington Island, 221, 223. + +Fernandina, Fla., 69. + +Ferrero, Edward, N b'v't maj.-gen., port., 339; + Knoxville, 342. + +Final Battles, The, 439-447. + +Finegan, Joseph, C brig.-gen., wounded, Cold Harbor, 368; + Olustee, Fla., 436. + +Finley, Clement A., N b'v't brig.-gen., attitude toward Sanitary + Commission, 324. + +First U. S. Flag raised in Richmond after the War, The, 453-454. + +First Union Victories, 66-82. + +Fisher, Joseph W., N b'v't brig.-gen., port., 429. + +Fisher's Hill, Va., 406; + battle, 409. + +Fishing Creek, Ky., battle, 73. + +Fisk, Clinton B., N b'v't maj.-gen., 41. + +Fitzgerald, Louis, N lieut.-col., 24. + +----, ----, arrested, 316. + +Fitz Hugh, Norman R., C maj., captured, 164. + +Fitzhugh's Woods, Ark., fight, 437. + +Five Forks, Va., battle, 443; + Sheridan reconnoitering at, ill., 444. + +Fleetwood, Va., battle, 249. + +Fletcher, Thomas C., gov. of Md., port., 18. + +Flint, W. H., N capt., killed, 331. + +Florence, S. C., prison camps, 321, 415. + +Florida secedes, 9. + +----, C cruiser, captured, Bahia, Brazil, 372. + +Floyd, John B., U. S. sec'y of war, 9, 10, 20, 48; + C brig.-gen., Fort Donelson, 77, 79; + port., 80; + W. Va., 113, 114; + explains flight from Donelson, anecdote, 503. + +Flusser, Charles W., N comr., killed, 435. + +Flynn, ----, N capt., Libby Prison, 348, 349. + +Fogg, Mrs. Isabella, 539. + +Folly Island, Charleston Harbor, 290. + +Foote, Andrew H., N rear-adm., Ft. Henry, 76; + Island No. 10, 99; + port., 100. + +Foraging, 499, 504. + +Foraker, Joseph B., N capt., port., 429. + +Force, Manning F., N b'v't maj.-gen., Vicksburg campaign, 277; + quoted, 316; + Bald Hill, Atlanta, 389; + port., 390. + +Ford's Theatre, Washington, D. C., President Lincoln assassinated, + 449. + +Foreign relations, 65, 66, 371. + +Forest City, Minn., attacked by Indians, 234. + +---- Queen, N vessel, destroyed, 348. + +---- Rose, N gunboat, Waterproof, La., 437. + +Forman, James B., N col., killed, Stone River, 481. + +Forrest, Jesse, C col., raid, 532. + +----, Nathan B., C lieut.-gen., Fort Donelson, 79; + Sacramento, 115; + Lexington, 225; + Murfreesboro', 226; + La Vergne, 227; + Trenton, Tenn., 229; + Parker's Cross Roads, Tenn., 229; + destroys railroads, 271; + Dover, 295; + Fort Pillow, 320; + Fort Donelson, 340; + defeats Smith, 375; + port., 528; + raid, 532. + +----, W. H., C capt., raid, 532. + +Forsyth, George A., N b'v't brig.-gen., port., 409. + +Fort Barrancas, Fla., 35. + +---- Bartow, N. C., 72. + +---- Beauregard, S. C., 71, 292. + +---- Butler, La., 382. + +---- Clark, N. C., ill., 68, 69. + +---- Columbus, N. Y., Beall executed, 528. + +---- Craig, N. M., battle, 233. + +---- Darling, Va., 454. + +---- De Russy, La., captured, 375. + +---- Donelson, Tenn., 75, 76; + attack on, 77; + surrender of, 79; + ill., 82, 295; + attacked by Wheeler and Forrest, 340. + +---- Fisher, bomb-proof, ill., 439; + captured, 441. + +---- Gaines, Ala., 391. + +---- Gregg, Petersburg, Va., 445; + defence of, ill., 446. + +---- Halleck, Idaho, engagement, 348. + +---- Hamilton, New York Harbor, 17. + +---- Hatteras, N. C., 68; + ill., 69. + +---- Henry, Tenn., 75; + surrender of, 76, 77. + +---- Hindman, Ark., captured by McClernand, 272, 273. + +---- Jackson, La., 35, 90, 93; + ill., 94, 95, 221. + +---- Johnson, Charleston Harbor, 11. + +---- King, Tenn., 312. + +---- Lincoln, colored inf., ill., 239. + +---- McAllister, Ga., 348; + captured, 423, 514. + +---- McRae, Fla., 35. + +---- Monroe, Va., commanded by Butler, 45, 49; + ill., 66, 68, 74, 143, 162, 163, 185, 349, 368, 397; + peace conference, 441; + President Davis a prisoner, 448. + +---- Morgan, Ala., 35, 391-393. + +---- Moultrie, S. C., cut, 7; + abandoned by Anderson, seized by rebels, 10, 12, 15, 35, 229, 289, + 292. + +---- Negley, Tenn., 312. + +---- Pickens, Fla., 10; + ill., 415; + landing reinforcements at, ill., 500. + +---- Pillow, Tenn., 226, 307; + captured, 320. + +---- Pulaski, Ga., 25, 185, 220; + bombarded, 221; + ill., 222, 289. + +---- Ridgley, Minn., besieged by Indians, 234. + +---- St. Philip, La., 35, 90, 93; + ill., 94, 95, 221. + +---- Smith, Ark., occupied by Blunt, 344. + +---- Steadman, attack on, 485, 487; + positions at, diagram, 487; + obstructions, 488; + taken, 489. + +---- Stevens, D. C., action, 403, 404. + +---- Sumter, S. C., ills., 4, 7; + occupied by Anderson, 11; + preparations for defence, 12; + bombarded, 15; + surrendered and evacuated, 17; + destroyed by Gillmore, 18, 289-294; + recapture celebrated, 18, 35. + +---- Wagner, S. C., 24; + colored troops, 237, 239; + assaulted, 290-294; + Sanitary Commission, 325. + +---- Walker, S. C., ill., 70, 71. + +---- Warren, Mass., 63. + +---- Whitworth, Petersburg, Va., 445. + +---- Wood, Tenn., 312, 313. + +Forty Thieves, 316. + +Foster, Abby Kelly, 18. + +----, Emery, N maj., Warrensburg, Mo., 230. + +----, John G., N maj.-gen., ports., 11, 73; + at Sumter, 11; + N. C. expedition, 72; + advance on Petersburg, 398; + port., 401; + in command of Savannah, 439. + +----, Robert S., N b'v't maj.-gen., port. with staff, 334. + +----, Stephen Collins, "Old folks at home," 134; + port., 134. + +----, ----, N maj., Lone Jack, Mo., 231. + +Fox, Gustavus V., N capt., port., 11, 15. + +Fox's, Col. William F., "Three Hundred Fighting Regiments," quoted, + 479. + +---- "Regimental Losses in the American Civil War," credited, 485. + +France, war with Austria, 23; + recognizes Confederates as belligerents, 63; + unfriendly to the United States, 66. + +Franco-German war, losses in, 476. + +Franklin, William B., N maj.-gen., port., 49; + at Bull Run, 55, 57; + Peninsular campaign, 141-158; + port., 150; + 2d Bull Run, 169; + Antietam campaign, 176-179; + Burnside's campaign, 193, 195; + Sabine Cross Roads, 377; + Pleasant Hill, 379. + +Franklin, La., engagement, 345. + +----, Tenn., engagement, 295, 340, 341; + battle, _Map_, 426, 427, 429, 430, 510. + +Frazier's Farm, Va., 159. + +Frederick, Md., 175, 250, 268. + +Fredericksburg, Va., 144, 150; + ill., 193; + battle, 195-200; + taken by Sedgwick, 241, 242, 243, 362, 363, 477. + +Fredericktown, Mo., engagement, 118. + +Free Soil party, 9. + +Fremantle, Arthur James, British army, Gettysburg incident, 268. + +Frémont, John C., N maj.-gen., candidate for presidency, 9; + commands in Missouri, 79, 118; + Peninsular campaign, 154, 163; + attempts at emancipation, 182, 185; + Shenandoah Valley, 216, 217; + port., 218; + nominated for president, 412; + withdraws, 413; + arraigns administration, 415. + +Frémont's Body Guard, Springfield, Mo., 118-121. + +French, William H., N maj.-gen., Fredericksburg, 195-198, 250; + Rappahannock Sta., 334, 335; + Robertson's Tavern, 336; + port., 339. + +Frontier, Army of, 231. + +Fry, Jacob, N col., Trenton, Tenn., 229. + +----, James B., N b'v't maj.-gen., port., 530. + +----, Speed S., N brig.-gen., 73; + port., 77. + +----, ----, C maj., Vicksburg, 282. + +----, ----, murdered, 316. + +Fugitive Slave Law, 185. + +Fuller, Charles D., N (female) pvt. 46th Pa. inf., 470. + +----, John W., N b'v't maj.-gen., division rallying at Atlanta, ill., + 516. + + +Gadsden, Ala., 295. + +Gaines's Mill, Va., Battle, 155, 156. + +Gainesville, Va., 53, 54. + +Gallatin, Tenn., action, 227. + +Galveston, Texas, captured by Magruder, 348; + "Hatteras" sunk, 372. + +Gamble, Hamilton R., N gov. of Mo., 41. + +Gantt, E. W., C maj.-gen., port., 146. + +Gardner, John L., N b'v't brig.-gen., 10. + +----, ----, N capt., Edward's Ferry, 111. + +----, ----, N lieut., Butler, Mo., 231. + +Garfield, James A., N maj.-gen., in Ky., 73; + port., 79; + Pound Gap, 223; + Chickamauga, 299, 301. + +Garland, Samuel, Jr., C brig.-gen., killed at South Mountain, 176. + +Garnett, Richard B., C brig.-gen., killed, Gettysburg, 259, 451. + +----, Robert S., C brig.-gen., 49; + killed in W. Va., 45. + +Garrett, ----, C col., Plymouth, N. C., 218, 219. + +Garrison, William Lloyd, 18; + port., 190. + +Gary, M. W., C maj.-gen., 462; + port., 508. + +Gazette, Cincinnati, O., 201; + correspondent taken prisoner, 520. + +Geary, John W., N b'v't maj.-gen., Bolivar Heights, 111; + port., 306; + Chattanooga, 308, 313; + occupies Savannah, 423. + +Geible, ----, N sergt., killed, Gettysburg, 255. + +General Lyon, N transport, burned, 469. + +General officers killed, 484, 485. + +Geneva, Switzerland, court of arbitration, 375. + +George, Mrs. E. E., 540. + +Georgetown, D. C., 403. + +----, Ky., Morgan's raid, 532. + +Georgia secedes, 9; + 50th inf., Antietam, 180; + 13th inf., Wilmington Island, 223; + hopes of her secession from the Confederacy, 420; + militia recalled by Gov. Brown, 420; + spirit of tolerance in, 423; + legislative peace resolutions, 431. + +---- regimental losses, 10th, 18th, 5th, 37th, 9th, 15th, 21st, 17th, + 44th inf., 484. + +----, C cruiser, 372. + +Georgia Central R. R., destroyed, 422. + +Gerdes, F. H., lieut. U. S. Coast Survey, 91. + +Germania Ford, Va., 335, 336, 355, 357. + +Germans in Mo. loyal to the Union, 117. + +Germantown, Tenn., 306. + +----, Va., 169. + +Getty, George W., N b'v't maj.-gen., Suffolk, Va., 331; + Wilderness, 457; + Cedar Creek, 411. + +Gettysburg, 249-269. + +----, Pa., approached by Lee, 250; + battle, 251-269; + _Map_, 251; + ills., 260, 264, 266, 351; + compared with Waterloo, 259; + cemetery dedicated, 269; + Sanitary Commission, 327, 361, 368, 387; + incident of battle, 465; + Lee's retreat, ill., 467; + charge of 1st Minn. inf. compared with Balaklava, 476; + losses at battle, 259, 477. + +Gibbon, John, N maj.-gen., South Mountain, 176; + port., 180; + Fredericksburg, 195; + port., 255; + Gettysburg, 259; + advance on Petersburg, 400. + +Gibbons, Mrs. A. H., 538. + +----, James Sloane, "We are coming, Father Abraham," 128. + +Gibbs, Alfred, N b'v't maj.-gen., port., 406. + +Gibraltar, "Sumter" abandoned, 372. + +Gibson, Horatio G., N b'v't brig.-gen., port., 347. + +----, Randall Lee, C brig.-gen., port., 508. + +----, ----, C aide, 164. + +Gilbert, Charles C., N brig.-gen., Perryville, 201. + +Gilchrist, ----, C, 32. + +Gill, George W., b'v't brig.-gen., port., 167. + +Gillis, ----, N capt., 15. + +Gillmore, Quincy A., N maj.-gen., destroys Sumter, 18; + Ft. Pulaski, 220, 221; + port., 289; + siege of Charleston, 290-294; + Somerset, Ky., 339, 340. + +Gilmer, Jeremy F., C maj.-gen., port., 314. + +Gilmore, James R., "Edmund Kirke," peace mission, 412. + +----, Patrick S., "When Johnny comes marching home," 136. + +Gilson, Helen L., hospital services and death, 327. + +Gist, S. R., C brig.-gen., killed, 430. + +Gladden, Adley H., C brig.-gen., killed at Shiloh, 101. + +Gladstone, William E., favors the Confederacy, 269. + +Glazier, Willard, N capt., siege of Charleston, 204. + +Glendale, Va., 159. + +Godwin, A. C., C brig.-gen., killed, Winchester, 407. + +Goff, Nathan, Jr., N b'v't brig.-gen., port., 440. + +Goldsboro' N. C., 441. + +Goldsborough, Louis M., N rear-adm., N. C. expedition, 72; + port., 73. + +Gooding, Michael, N col., Perryville, 201. + +----, Oliver P., N b'v't maj.-gen., Bayou Teche, La., 347, 348. + +Goodyear. W., N sergt., Millen, Ga., prison, 415. + +Goose Creek, Va., ill., 410. + +Gordon, George H., N b'v't maj.-gen., ports., 167, 389. + +----, John B., C lieut.-gen., 403; + Cedar Creek, Va., 411; + ports., 445, 487; + Gettysburg anecdote, 465-467; + _Article_, 485-494; + Petersburg, 485; + advises Lee to surrender, 486, 493; + attacks Ft. Steadman and Hare's Hill, 487; + captures the fort, 489; + abandons it, 491; + gives up Union spies to Sheridan, 493; + refuses to surrender to Sheridan, 493; + prevents rifleman from shooting Sheridan, 493. + +----, Mrs. John B., Petersburg, 488. + +Gordonsville, Va., 163, 164, 193, 433. + +Gorman, Willis A., N brig.-gen., port., 530. + +Gosport Navy Yard, destruction of ships, 28, 29; + cut, 36. + +Goss, William, N pvt., Powell's River bridge Tenn., 437. + +Govan, Daniel C., C brig.-gen., captured, Atlanta, 390. + +Governor's Island, New York Harbor, 14. + +"Grafted into the Army," Henry C. Work, 137. + +Graham, Charles K., N b'v't maj.-gen., Gettysburg, 265; + port., 530. + +Granberry, H. B., C brig.-gen., killed, 430. + +Grand Ecore, La., 379, 381. + +---- Gulf, Miss., action, 274. + +Granger, Gordon, N maj.-gen., attack on Van Dorn, 295; + Chickamauga, 299-302; + port., 301; + Knoxville, 311; + Franklin, Tenn., 341; + Mobile, 391. + +----, Moses M., N col., Cedar Creek, Va., 411. + +Grant, Alfred, N capt., 523. + +----, Ulysses S., N gen., ports., 31, 107, 490; + Cairo, 73; + Ft. Henry, 75; + Ft. Donelson, 76-79; + Pittsburg Landing, 100; + Shiloh, 101-108; + Belmont, 122; + review of Porter case, 170; + comment on battle of Iuka, 204; + Jackson, 206; + comment on battle of Corinth, 207; + Vicksburg campaign, 270-279, 295; + in command military division of the Mississippi, 305; + Chattanooga, 305-309; + Christian Commission, 326, 342, 350; + appointed lieut.-gen., 351; + Wilderness, 354-357; + port., 356; + Spottsylvania, 358-362; + North Anna, 362; + Cold Harbor, 365, 368, 369; + escapes capture, 375; + plans for Sherman's Atlanta campaign, 383, 387; + plans capture of Mobile, 391; + advance on Petersburg, 397-400; + defence of Washington, 402-404; + sends Sheridan to the Shenandoah, 405, 406; + despatch to Sheridan after Winchester, 409; + final campaign against Lee, 442-446, 451; + "pie order," 459; + col. of 21st Ill. inf., 483, 491. + +Grapevine bridge, 147; + ill., 160. + +Gravelly Run, Va., 443. + +Graves, E. E., N col., 105; + Richmond, 454. + +Great Kanawha Valley campaign, 113. + +Greble, John T., N lieut., killed at Big Bethel, 45. + +----, Mrs. Edwin, 539. + +Greeley, Horace, port., 186; + correspondence with President Lincoln, 186; + peace conference, 412; + gives bail for Davis, 448; + cartoon, 462. + +Green, Thomas, C brig.-gen., killed, Pleasant Hill, 379. + +----, ----, N ord.-sergt., Plymouth, N. C., 218, 219. + +Green River, 115. + +Greene, Samuel D., N comr., 85; + port., 87. + +----, W. N., N capt., at Chancellorsville, ill., 481. + +Greencastle, Pa., 176. + +Gregg, David McM., N b'v't maj.-gen., Brandy Sta., Va., 249; + Gettysburg, 267; + Robertson's Tavern, Va., 335; + Hawes's Shop, 363; + port., 435. + +----, John Irvin, N b'v't maj.-gen., Middleburg, Va., 267; + Gettysburg, 268; + port., 356. + +----, Maxcy, C brig.-gen., Antietam, 180; + killed, Fredericksburg, 196. + +Gresham, Walter Q., N b'v't maj.-gen., port., 386. + +Grierson, Benjamin H., N maj.-gen., cavalry raid, 274. + +Griffin, Charles, N maj.-gen., port., 57; + at Bull Run, 55, 57, 59. + +----, Simon G., N b'v't maj.-gen., port., 401. + +Grose, William, N b'v't maj.-gen., Murfreesboro', 212; + Chattanooga, 308. + +Grover, Cuvier, N b'v't maj.-gen., 2d Bull Run, 172, 173; + Irish Bend, La., 345; + port., 378. + +Groveton, Va., battle, 167-168. + +Guenther, Francis L., N lieut., Murfreesboro', 210, 212. + +Guerilla warfare, 79, 215, 223, 227-231, 316, 331, 345. + +Guinea Station, Va., 362. + +Gulf, Dept. of the, N, 185. + +Gurowski, Adam, Polish count, criticisms, 236, 237. + +Guyandotte, W. Va., 113. + + +Hagerstown, Md., 176, 177. + +Haines, Alanson A., N chap., Spottsylvania, 361. + +----, Thomas, N capt., Harrisonburg, 216. + +Haines's Bluff, Miss., 271, 272, 273, 275. + +"Hairpins," "Sherman's," 375. + +Hall, A. S., N col., Milton, Tenn., 295; + Statesville and Vaught's Hill, Tenn., 340, 341. + +----, Charles S., "John Brown's Body," 136. + +----, Maria M. C., Miss, 538. + +----, Norman J., N col., at Sumter, 11. + +----, R. H., capt. U. S. art'y, Ft. Craig, N. M., 233. + +----, Susan E., Miss, 540. + +----, ----, N surg., Spottsylvania, 361. + +Halleck, Henry W., N maj.-gen., commands in Mo., 73, 75; + port., 79; + supersedes Frémont, 79; + Corinth, 108; + gen.-in-chief, 163, 169, 175, 197; + plans for East Tenn., 203, 250, 270, 271; + despatch to Rosecrans, 305; + letter to Grant, 307, 308, 362, 368; + despatch to Grant, 405. + +Halltown, Va., 111; + occupied by Sheridan, 406. + +Hamburg, S. C., 322. + +Hamilton, Andrew J., N brig.-gen., port., 315; + quoted, 315. + +----, Charles S., N maj.-gen., Iuka, 203, 204; + Corinth, 206, 207. + +----, Schuyler, N maj.-gen., Island No. 10, 99; + port., 101. + +----, William, N naval lieut., Mobile Bay, 392. + +Hamlin, Hannibal, Vice.-Pres. of the U. S., 316, 412. + +Hammersley, L. C., quoted, 517. + +Hammond, William A., N brig.-gen., port., 414. + +Hampton, Frank, C lieut.-col., killed, Brandy Sta., Va., 249. + +----, Wade, C lieut.-gen., Gettysburg, 259; + opposes Sherman in S. C., 440; + port., 445, 462, 531. + +Hampton Roads, Va., 29, 68, 69, 72; + "Monitor" and "Merrimac," 83-87, 91; + "Florida" sunk, 372. + +Hancock, Winfield S., N maj.-gen., Peninsular campaign, 143; + port., 173; + Fredericksburg, 195-199; + Gettysburg, 252-265; + port., 255; + Wilderness, 354-356; + Spottsylvania, 358-361; + North Anna, 362, 363; + Cold Harbor, 365; + advance on Petersburg, 397-400, 451; + Gettysburg, 476; + Winchester, 486; + port., 532. + +----, ----, N spy, anecdote, 509. + +Hankinson's Ferry, Miss., engagement, 274. + +Hanover, Pa., engagement, 268. + +---- Junction, Va., 144, 362, 363. + +---- Old Church, Va., engagement, 151. + +Hanson, Roger W., C brig.-gen., killed, Murfreesboro', 211. + +Hardee, William J., C lieut.-gen., Corinth, 100; + Shiloh, 103; + port., 105; + Pine Mountain, 386; + evacuates Savannah, 423; + evacuates Charleston, 440; + Averysboro', 441. + +"Hardee's Tactics," 23, 456. + +Harding, Abner C., N brig.-gen., Dover, 295; + Ft. Donelson, 340. + +Hare's Hill, battle (Ft. Steadman), 485, 487. + +Harker, Charles G., N brig.-gen., killed, Kenesaw Mountain, 387. + +Harland, Edward, N brig.-gen., Suffolk, Va., 331. + +Harney, William S., N b'v't maj.-gen., 28; + port., 29, 39, 49. + +Harper, Kenton, C maj.-gen., Va. militia, 28. + +Harper's Ferry, Va., U. S. arsenal seized by John Brown, 7; + ill., 13; + destroyed by N garrison, 27; + ill., 36; + operations about, 47; + destroyed and deserted by C, 47, 111; + _Map_ of vicinity, 141; + ill., 174; + Antietam campaign, 175-180, 192, 250, 403, 406; + anecdote, 462. + +Harriet Lane, N gunboat, Ft. Sumter, 15; + Galveston, 348. + +Harris, "Coon," N spy, executed, 506. + +----, Elisha, Sanitary Commission, 324, 325. + +----, Isham G., gov. Tenn., 44, 227. + +----, Matthias, N chap., 12, 18. + +----, Mrs. John, 533. + +Harrisburg, Pa., approached by Lee, 250. + +Harrison, Benjamin, N b'v't brig.-gen., port., 423. + +----, M. La Rue, N b'v't brig.-gen., Fayetteville, Ark., 344. + +Harrisonburg, Va., action, 216; + occupied by Sheridan, 409. + +Harrison's Island, Potomac River, 109. + +---- Landing, Va., 160, 163. + +Harrodsburg, Ky., 201. + +Harrold, Daniel C., reward offered for arrest, 510. + +"Harry Birch," N merchantman, ill., 76. + +Harsen, Dr., Sanitary Commission, 324. + +Hart, Orson H., N brig.-gen., port., 150. + +----, Peter, 17, 18. + +Hartford, N cruiser, New Orleans, 90-93; + Mobile Bay, 391-395; + ill., 394. + +Hartranft, John F., N b'v't maj.-gen., Antietam, 179. + +Hartsuff, George L., N maj.-gen., port., 297. + +Hartsville, Mo., engagement, 344, 345. + +----, Tenn., captured by Morgan, 229. + +Harvey, Cordelia P., Mrs., port., 534, 536. + +Hatch, Edward, N b'v't maj.-gen., port., 337; + Wyatt's, Miss., 343. + +----, John P., N b'v't maj.-gen., 163. + +Hatteras, Cape, "General Lyon" burned near, 469. + +----, N steamer, sunk by "Alabama," 372. + +---- Inlet, N. C., 67, 72. + +Haupt, Hermann, N brig.-gen., port., 167. + +Havana, Cuba, 63. + +Hawes's Shop, Va., action, 363, 364. + +Hawkins, Morton L., N lieut., Winchester, Va., 407. + +----, Rush C., N b'v't brig.-gen., N. C. expedition, 72. + +Hawkins's Zouaves, 72, 218. + +Hawley, Harriet F., Mrs., 538. + +Haxall's Landing, Va., 159, 368. + +Hayes, Rutherford B., N b'v't maj.-gen., South Mountain, 176; + Clark's Hollow, 218; + port., 219; + Winchester, 407; + Cedar Creek, 411, 481. + +Hayne, Paul Hamilton, "The Black Flag," 133. + +Hays, Alexander, N b'v't maj.-gen., Bristoe Sta., Va., 334; + Robertson's Tavern, Va., 336; + killed, Wilderness, 357; + port., 361. + +----, Harry T., C brig.-gen., Antietam, 180; + port., 363. + +----, William, N brig.-gen., port., 401. + +Hazel Grove, Chancellorsville, 242. + +---- Run, Fredericksburg, 199. + +Hazen, William B., N maj.-gen., ports., 30, 514; + Murfreesboro', 212; + Fort McAllister, Ga., 423, 513, 514; + (sketch), 514. + +Hazlett, Charles E., N lieut., killed, Gettysburg, 254, 260, 261. + +Heath, Herman H., N b'v't maj.-gen., port., 401. + +Heg, Hans C., N col., killed, Chickamauga, 299. + +Heintzelman, Samuel P., N maj.-gen., port., 49; + Bull Run, 54, 55; + Peninsular campaign, 143; + Pope's campaign, 168; + port., 262. + +Helena, Ark., engagement, 344. + +Helm, Benjamin H., C brig.-gen., killed, Chickamauga, 299. + +Helper, Hinton R., "Impending crisis," 182. + +Henry, Guy V., N b'v't brig.-gen., port., 436. + +Henry house, Bull Run, 57; + ills., 58, 60, 165. + +Hensie, ----, murdered, 316. + +Herbert, ----, C brig.-gen., Iuka, 206. + +Herron, Francis J., N maj.-gen., Prairie Grove, Ark., 233. + +Heth, Henry, C maj.-gen., port., 399; + defence of Petersburg, 400. + +Hickman, Ky., 226. + +Hicks, Thomas H., gov. Md., 43. + +Higginson, Thomas W., N col., writes on negro soldiers, 239. + +Hill, Ambrose P., C lieut.-gen., Peninsular campaign, 154-162; + port., 158; + Antietam campaign, 176-179; + Chancellorsville, 242; + Culpeper, 249; + Shenandoah Valley, 250; + Bristoe Sta., Va., 334; + Wilderness, 354; + defence of Petersburg, 398, 400; + killed, 445, 451, 491, 492. + +----, Daniel H., C lieut.-gen., Peninsular campaign, 154-159; + port., 158; + Antietam campaign, 176. + +----, Joshua, 425. + +----, Sylvester G., N b'v't brig.-gen., killed, 430. + +Hillier, case of, 315. + +Hilton Head, S. C., 69; + ill., 70, 71, 185, 219. + +Hindman, Thomas C., C maj.-gen., Shiloh, 101; + Prairie Grove, 233. + +Hines, Thomas A., C capt., imprisoned, 526. + +Hinks, Edward W., N b'v't maj.-gen., 25; + after Ball's Bluff, 110; + port., 114; + advance on Petersburg, 397. + +Hitching. J. H., N brig.-gen., killed, Cedar Creek, Va., 410. + +Hodgesville, Ky., action, 115. + +Hodge's Mills, N. C., 218. + +Hoff, H. K., N rear-adm., port., 370. + +Hogg, ----, N lieut.-col., killed, Bolivar, Tenn., 227. + +Hoke, Robert F., C maj.-gen., Plymouth, N. C., 317, 433-434. + +Holden, William W., peace candidate, N. C., 420. + +Hollins, George N., C commodore, 99. + +Holly Springs, Miss., captured by Van Dorn, 271. + +Holmes, Oliver Wendell, comment on Brownell, 395; + at Antietam, 478. + +----, Theophilus H., C lieut.-gen., at Bull Run, 53; + Helena, Ark., 344. + +----, ----, N capt., mangled by hounds, 322. + +Holt, Joseph, N sec'y of war, 14, 20, 48. + +Home, Jessie, Miss, 538. + +Homestead bill, vetoed by Buchanan, 183. + +Hood, John B., C gen., Antietam, 177; + Gettysburg, 252, 254; + Chickamauga, 303; + port., 383; + Atlanta campaign, 385-390; + supersedes Johnston, 387; + protests to Sherman, 419; + pursued by Sherman, 420; + Nashville, 427; + Franklin, Tenn., 427-430; + Nashville, 430; + compared with Logan, 517. + +Hooker, Joseph, N maj.-gen., Peninsular campaign, 143; + port., 150; + Groveton, 168; + 2d Bull Run, 169; + Antietam campaign, 176-180; + Burnside's campaign, 193-196; + port., 241; + supersedes Burnside, 241; + Chancellorsville, 241-243; + Culpeper, 249; + relieved of command, 250, 263; + in Tenn., 305; + Lookout Mountain, 308, 309, 313, 331, 332, 358; + Resaca, Ga., 385; + near Marietta, 386; + Peach Tree Creek, 387; + retired, 390; + cartoon, 459. + +Horseshoe Ridge, Chickamauga, 299. + +Hospital corps, ambulance drill, ill., 497. + +Hough, Daniel, N artilleryman, 17. + +Hovey, Alvin P., N b'v't maj.-gen., Champion's Hill, Miss., 275. + +Howard, Henry W. B., _Articles_, 455-459, 507-512. + +----, Oliver O., N maj.-gen., 49; + ports., 30, 57, 513; + at Bull Run, 55, 57; + Chancellorsville, 241-245; + Gettysburg, 251, 252; + Chattanooga, 314; + Atlanta, 390; + commands Army of the Tenn., 390; + in march to the sea, 422-430; + _Article_, 513-519. + +Howe, Mrs. Julia Ward, "Battle Hymn of the Republic," 127. + +Howland, Mrs. Joseph, 537. + +----, Mrs. Robert S., 537. + +Hubbard, ----, N maj., Roan's Tanyard, Mo., 230. + +Hudson, Mo., 122. + +Huey, Pennock, N b'v't brig.-gen., Chancellorsville, 242. + +Huger, Benjamin, C maj.-gen., 49; + Fair Oaks, 147, 150; + port., 155. + +Hughes, John, archbishop, Roman Catholic Church, 36. + +----, ----, C guerilla, killed at Independence, Mo., 231. + +Humes, Thomas W., Rev., quoted, 316. + +Humonsville, Mo., engagement, 230. + +Humorous Incidents of the War, 455-459. + +Humphreys, Andrew A., N maj.-gen., Gettysburg, 252-263, 445. + +Hunt, Henry J., N b'v't maj.-gen., Fredericksburg, 195; + Gettysburg, 257, 263, 265; + port., 262. + +----, Lewis C., N brig.-gen., port., 159. + +Hunter, Andrew, port., 183; + arrested and residence burned, 319. + +----, David, N maj.-gen., port., 49; + at Bull Run, 54, 55, 163; + attempts at emancipation, 182, 185; + Ft. Pulaski, 221; + depredations in Shenandoah Valley, 317-319, 368, 402; + succeeded by Sheridan, 405, 406. + +----, D. C., C col., Charleston, Mo., 117. + +----, R. M. T., C peace com'r, 441. + +Huntersville, Va., raided, 114. + +Hunton, Eppa, C brig.-gen., port., 508. + +Huntsville, Ala., peace meeting, 431. + +----, Mo., 230. + +Hurlbut, Stephen A., N maj.-gen., Shiloh, 100; + port., 105; + Corinth, 207-209; + Vicksburg campaign, 273, 308; + Memphis, 340; + Meridian, 375, 532. + +Husband, Mary M., Mrs., port., 536, 537. + +Hutchinson family, singers, 182. + +Hutchinson, Minn., attacked by Indians, 234. + + +Illinois _Infantry_, 11th, Lexington, 225; + 17th, Frederickstown, 118; + 19th, Chattanooga, 314; + 20th, Vicksburg, 277, Atlanta, 389; + 22d, Charleston, 117; + 23d, Lexington, 118; + 30th, Vicksburg, 279, Atlanta, 389; + 31st, Atlanta, 389; + 49th, Pleasant Hill, 379; + 56th, "Gen'l Lyons" disaster, 469; + 58th, Pleasant Hill, 379; + 73d, 412; + 74th, Murfreesboro', 211; + 83d, Dover, 295; + 88th, 96th, 115th, Chickamauga, 299. + +---- _Cavalry_, 2d, Bolivar, 227; + 7th, Charleston, 230; + 9th, Rocky Crossing, 342; + 20th, Ripley, 340. + +---- regimental losses, 11th and 89th inf., 481; + 21st, 31st, 36th, 40th, 55th, 93d inf., 483. + +Illinois Central R. R., 140, 193. + +Imboden, John D., C brig.-gen., 27; + Gettysburg, 259; + accusation against Hunter, 317-319; + Charlestown, Va., 334; + Newmarket, Va., 433; + port., 434. + +"Impending Crisis," Helper's, 182. + +Incidents, Thrilling, 464-472. + +Independence, Mo., engagement, 230; + surrendered, 231. + +Indian Territory, Dept. of, 81. + +Indiana _Infantry_, 3d, Shirley's Ford, 231; + 6th, Hodgesville, 115, Chickamauga, 299; + 7th, Bolivar, 437; + 16th, Richmond, 224; + 20th, Manassas Gap, 333; + 32d, Munfordville, 115; + 33d, Camp Wildcat, 114; + 48th, Iuka, 204; + 51st, 348; + 55th, Richmond, 224; + 68th, Chickamauga, 299; + 69th and 71st, Richmond, 224; + 89th, Pleasant Hill, 379. + +---- 9th cav., in "Sultana" disaster, 469; + 19th inf. loss at Bull Run, 477. + +---- regimental losses, 14th inf., 481; + 19th inf., 481; + 27th inf., 481. + +Indianola, N gunboat, Vicksburg, 277. + +Indians, in Confederate service, 80, 231; + uprising in Northwest, 234, 348; + Tennessee, 317. + +Individual Heroism and Thrilling Incidents, 464-472. + +Infantry, U. S., 8th (colored), Olustee, Fla., 436. + +Ingalls, Rufus, N b'v't maj.-gen., port., 398. + +----, ----, N quar.-gen., 156. + +Ingersoll, Robert G., N col., Corinth, 207; + Lexington, Ky., 225. + +Ingraham, Duncan N., C commodore, siege of Charleston, 289. + +Innes, W. P., N col., Murfreesboro', 211. + +Iowa _Infantry_, 5th, Iuka, 204; + 7th, Belmont, 122; + 10th and 16th, Iuka, 204; + 23d, Milliken's Bend, 240; + 39th, Parker's Cross Roads, 229. + +---- 1st cavalry, Jackson, 230. + +---- regimental losses, 5th, 7th, 9th, 22d, 483. + +Ireland, ----, N col., Lookout Mountain, 313. + +Irish Bend, La., battle, 345, 347; + ills., 346, 376. + +"Irish Brigade," (23d Ill. inf.), Lexington, 118; + (63d, 69th, and 88th N. Y. inf.), Fredericksburg, 197-199. + +"Iron Brigade," Gettysburg, 251. + +Ironside, English vessel, 87. + +Irving, Washington, quoted, 459. + +Irwinsville, Ga., President Davis captured, 448. + +Island No. 10, ill., 98, 99, 226, 307. + +Iuka, Miss., battle, 203-206. + +Iverson, Alfred, C brig.-gen., 33; + Gettysburg, 252. + +Ives, Joseph C., C col., port., 450. + + +Jacinto, Miss., 204, 205. + +Jackson, Conrad F., N brig.-gen., killed, Fredericksburg, 196. + +----, Claiborne F., gov. of Mo., 37; + efforts to make the State secede, 38; + proclaims invasion of State by U. S. troops, 39. + +----, James S., N brig.-gen., killed, Perryville, 201. + +----, Thomas J., "Stonewall," C lieut.-gen., Harper's Ferry, 28, 47, + 49; + Bull Run, 53, 55, 111; + prayer in camp, ill., 130; + Peninsular campaign, 143-162, 163; + Cedar Mountain, 164; + Sulphur Springs, 166; + Groveton, 167, 168; + 2d Bull Run, 168, 169; + Manassas Junction, 171; + Antietam campaign, 175-177; + Shenandoah Valley, 193, 216; + killed, Chancellorsville, 242; + port., 245; + advocates the black flag, 316, 451; + anecdote, 463. + +Jackson, Miss., 270, 274; + captured, 275; + evacuated, 342, 375. + +----, Mo., action, 230. + +----, Tenn., 206, 207, 271. + +Jackson's Ford, Chancellorsville, 243. + +Jacob's Ford, Va., 335, 336. + +Jacques, James F., N col., peace mission, 412. + +James, Army of the, commanded by Butler, 351, 365; + Grant's left wing, 351; + advance on Petersburg, 397. + +James Island, Charleston Harbor, 292, 293. + +---- River, ill., 468. + +---- River Canal, locks destroyed, 442. + +Jamestown, Va., 144. + +Janeway, ----, N maj., Hawes's Shop, Va., 364. + +Jardine, Edward, N b'v't brig.-gen., port., 285. + +Jefferson, Va., 166. + +Jefferson City, Mo., 39, 118. + +Jenkins, Albert G., C brig.-gen., Gettysburg, 259; + killed, 433. + +----, Micah, C brig.-gen., killed, Wilderness, 356. + +----, Thornton A., N rear-adm., port., 393. + +Jetersville, Va., fight, 446. + +"John Brown's Body," Charles S. Hall, 136. + +John Cabin Bridge, near Washington, ill., 404. + +John Ross house, near Ringgold, Ga., ill., 460. + +Johns, Thomas D., N b'v't brig.-gen., Romney, 113. + +Johnson, Andrew, mil. gov. Tenn., 44, 226; + port., 227; + nominated for vice-president, 412; + reviews armies in Washington, 450. + +----, Bradley T., C brig.-gen., burning of Chambersburg, 319, 403; + Penn. raid, 404; + port., 411, 531. + +----, Bushrod R., C maj.-gen., port., 80. + +----, Reverdy, 43. + +----, Richard W., N b'v't maj.-gen., captured at Gallatin, Tenn., 227. + +----, William P., C col., port., 450. + +----, ----, N capt., 105. + +----, ----, N capt., comdg. gunboat Forest Rose, Waterproof, La., 437. + +Johnson's Island, Lake Erie, prison, 528. + +Johnston, Albert Sidney, C gen., Corinth, 100; + killed at Shiloh, 101; + port., 104, 451. + +----, Edward, C maj.-gen., captured, Spottsylvania, 359, 362. + +----, James D., C comr., Mobile Bay, 392. + +----, Joseph E., C gen., Harper's Ferry, 28, 47, 49; + port., 55; + Bull Run, 54, 57, 59, 62; + Peninsular campaign, 140-146, 151; + Jackson, Miss., 275, 276, 342; + 295; + supersedes Bragg, 311; + Dalton, Ga., 353; + port., 383; + Atlanta campaign, 383-390; + Dalton, 383; + Resaca, 385; + Kenesaw Mountain, 387; + superseded by Hood, 387; + blamed by Davis, 420; + reinstated, 439; + opposes Sherman in the Carolinas, 439-441; + surrender to Sherman at Durham Sta., N. C., 446; + foresees the end, 448; + cartoon, 463. + +----, Robert D., C brig.-gen., wounded, Spottsylvania, 362. + +----, Sarah R., Mrs., 536. + +Joinville, Prince de, port., 142. + +Jones, Catesby, C com., 85. + +----, David R., C maj.-gen., at Bull Run, 53, 175. + +----, Edward F., N b'v't brig.-gen., 23. + +----, John B., quoted, 413. + +----, John M., C brig.-gen., Gettysburg, 259; + port., 361. + +----, Roger, N lieut., 27. + +----, Samuel, C maj.-gen., Rocky Gap, Va., 333; + port., 335; + Fairmont, W. Va., 337; + Jonesville, Va., 433. + +----, W. H., 10. + +Jones Island, Ga., 220. + +Jonesboro', Ga., 390, 422. + +Jonesborough, Miss., 209. + +Jonesville, Va., fight, 433. + +Jordan, ----, N col., captured, 295. + +Journal, Chicago, Ill., 311. + +----, Louisville, Ky., 209. + +----, Wilmington, quoted, 431. + +Journal of Commerce, New York, 33. + + +Kanawha, State of (West Virginia), 45. + +Kane, George P., 24. + +Kansas _Infantry_, 1st, losses, 483; + 2d, Cane Hill, 232; + 6th, Independence, 230; + 7th, 185; + 11th, Cane Hill, 232; + 1st colored reg., Butler, 231. + +---- 5th cavalry, Pine Bluff, 344. + +Kautz, August V., N b'v't maj.-gen., port., 443. + +Kearney, Philip, N maj.-gen., Peninsular campaign, 143-158; + Pope's campaign, 166-168; + port., 168; + killed, Chantilly, Va., 169, 451, 470. + +Kearsarge, N cruiser, ill., 371; + destroys "Alabama," 372; + ill., 373. + +Keenan, Peter, N maj., Chancellorsville, 242; + port., 245. + +Keifer, J. Warren, N b'v't maj.-gen., Wilderness, 357. + +Kelley, Benjamin F., N b'v't maj.-gen., port., 39; + at Philippi, 45; + Romney, 113, 216. + +Kellogg, Robert H., N sergt.-maj., Andersonville prison, 321; + Florence, S. C., 415. + +----, ----, N capt., recaptured, 322. + +Kelly, James, N corp., killed, Gettysburg, 260. + +----, Patrick, N col., Fredericksburg, 199. + +Kelly's Ferry, Tenn., anecdote, 468. + +---- Ford, Va., 165, 166; + action, 332; + action, 334, 335. + +Kelton, John C., N b'v't brig.-gen., port., 176. + +Kemper, James L., C maj.-gen., Gettysburg, 259. + +Kendrick, Rev. J. Ryland, quoted, 423. + +Kenesaw Mountain, Ga., ill., 366; + occupied by Johnston, 385, 386; + battle, 387. + +Kennedy, John A., draft riots in New York, 285. + +Kentucky, refuses to secede, 35; + struggle for, 41; + _infantry_, 4th, 73; + 5th, losses, 481; + 8th, Lookout Mountain, 314; + 15th, Perryville, 201, losses, 481; + 18th, Mr. Sterling, 224, Richmond, 225; + 34th, Powell's River bridge, 437; + _cavalry_, 7th, Big Hill, 224; + 8th, Rural Hills, 229. + +Keokuk, N ironclad, siege of Charleston, 289. + +Kerns, Mark, N capt., 158. + +Kernstown, Va., action, 216. + +Kettle Run, Va., action, 331. + +Key West, Fla., 91. + +Keyes, Erasmus D., N maj.-gen., 49; + at Bull Run, 55, 57; + Peninsular Campaign, 143; + port., 150. + +Kilmer, George L., _Articles_, 520-532. + +Kilpatrick, Judson, N maj.-gen., cavalry superiority, 250; + Gettysburg, 259; + Aldie, Va., 267, 268; + Rappahannock Sta., 335; + Atlanta, 390, 405; + in march to the sea, 422; + Averysboro', 441, 513; + port., 528, 531. + +Kimball, Nathan, N b'v't maj.-gen., Kernstown, 216; + port., 422. + +King, Edward A., N col., killed, Chickamauga, 299. + +----, E. M., N lieut., port., 274. + +----, Rufus, N brig.-gen., Groveton, 167. + +Kingston, Ga., 385. + +----, Tenn., 308. + +Kinsman, N gunboat, Bayou Teche, La., 345. + +Kinston, N. C., 461. + +Kirk, Edward N., N brig.-gen., killed, Murfreesboro', 211. + +Kirkland, William W., C brig.-gen., wounded, Cold Harbor, 368. + +Kittridge, Walter, "Tenting on the old camp-ground," 139. + +Kline, ----, N drum sergt., Spottsylvania, 361. + +Knight, William, Andrews's raid, 529. + +Knowles, ----, N quar.-mas., Mobile Bay, 391. + +Knoxville, Tenn., 73, 308, 311; + siege, 342. + +Kreutzer, William, N col., Fair Oaks, 147; + Cold Harbor, 365. + + +Lafayette, Ga., 297, 298. + +La Grange, Tenn., 274. + +Lake Borgne, La., 91. + +---- Providence, La., 273; + ill., 274. + +Lamont, ----, C cav., Tom's Brook, Va., 410. + +Lamphere, ----, N lieut., Richmond, Ky., 224. + +Lampson, R. H., N lieut.-comr., "Mount Washington," 348. + +Lancaster, Mo., 122. + +----, S. C., 440. + +Lander, Frederick W., N brig.-gen., Blooming Gap, 217, 218. + +Landrum, J. J., N lieut.-col., Cynthiana, 223. + +Lane, James H., C brig.-gen., wounded, Cold Harbor, 368. + +Last Confederate Council of War, 492. + +Last Days of the Confederacy, 485-494. + +Latane, William, C capt., 151. + +Lauman, Jacob G., N b'v't maj.-gen., Jackson, Miss., 342. + +La Vergne, Tenn., 211; + engagement, 227. + +Law, E. McIver, C maj.-gen., wounded, Cold Harbor, 368. + +Lawler, Michael K., N b'v't maj.-gen., Big Black River, Miss., 275. + +Lawrence, Kan., plundered by Quantrell, 345. + +----, Mills, Mo., 344. + +Lawrenceburg, Ky., action, 225. + +Lawson, ----, N surg.-gen., death, 324. + +Lawton, Alexander R., C brig.-gen., Antietam, 180; + port., 508. + +Leap for Liberty, A, 523-524. + +Lebanon, Ky., captured by Morgan, 297. + +----, Tenn., engagement, 229. + +Le Clerc, ----, N capt., port., 142. + +Ledbetter, ----, C col., 316. + +Ledlie, James H., N brig.-gen., advance on Petersburg, 399. + +Lee, Albert L., N brig.-gen., port., 382. + +----, Edmund I., residence destroyed by Hunter, 319. + +----, Fitzhugh, C maj.-gen., 164; + port., 265; + Trevilian Sta., Va., 433, 493. + +----, G. W. C., C maj.-gen., port., 165, 445, 450. + +----, Robert E., C lieut.-gen., ports., 17, 165, 183, 487; + commands Va. troops, 28; + resigns from U. S. service, 35; + commands in W. Va., 44, 49, 114; + Peninsular campaign, 143-162; + operations against Pope, 163-171; + Antietam campaign, 175-180; + Winchester, 191; + Fredericksburg, 193-197, 217; + Chancellorsville, 241-246; + Gettysburg, 249-269; + letter to Pres. Davis after Gettysburg, 268; + retreat through Shenandoah Valley, 333; + Rappahannock Sta., 334, 335; + Robertson's Tavern, 336, 342, 350, 351; + Orange C. H., Va., 353; + Wilderness, 354-357; + Spottsylvania, 358-362; + Cold Harbor, 365, 368, 369; + defence of Petersburg, 397-400, 406; + plans to escape Grant, 442; + withdraws in retreat from Richmond and Petersburg, 445; + surrenders to Grant at Appomattox C. H., 446; + farewell address to his army, 446; + surrender to Grant, ill., 447; + begs for rations in Richmond and Petersburg, 485; + discouragement in March, 1865, 486; + orders Gordon into Petersburg, 487; + last council of war, 493; + at Appomattox, ill., 494. + +----, Wm. H. F., C maj.-gen., port., 399. + +----, ----, C col., 17. + +Leesburg, Va., 109; + battle anecdote, 463. + +LeFavour, Heber, N b'v't brig.-gen., Chickamauga, 303. + +Lefferts, Marshall, N col., 7th N. Y. regiment, 24, 25; + port., 33. + +Le Gendre, Charles W., N b'v't brig.-gen., port., 276. + +Leggett, Mortimer D., N maj.-gen., Bald Hill, Atlanta, 387, 388; + port., 414. + +Leggett's Hill (Atlanta), battle, 387. + +Leighton, ----, N capt., adventures as a spy, 509. + +LeRoy, William E., N comr., Mobile Bay, 392. + +Letcher, John, gov. of Va., 9, 32, 33; + port., 165; + quoted, 316; + residence burned by Hunter, 318, 319. + +Lewis, J. E., N capt., 523. + +Lewisburg, W. Va., 113, 317, 318. + +Lexington, Mo., 109; + battle, 118; + ill., 116. + +----, Tenn., captured by Forrest, 225, 229. + +----, Va., devastated by Hunter, 318, 319. + +----, N gunboat, Shiloh, 101; + Fort Donelson, 340; + Grand Ecore, La., 381. + +Libby Prison, ills., 320, 520; + 321, 323, 348, 349, 454; + tunnel and escape, 521, 531. + +Liberty Gap, Tenn., action, 297. + +Liberty party, 259. + +Lick Creek, Shiloh, 100. + +Licking River, 115. + +Lincoln, Abraham, ports., frontispiece, 6; + elected President of the U. S., 9; + first call for troops, 18, 35; + reviews 7th N. Y. reg., 25; + inaugural address, 29; + proclaimed rebellion, 35; + early military embarrassments, 48; + calls for more troops, 49; + Peninsular campaign, 143; + port., 147; + hatred of slavery, 182; + correspondence with Horace Greeley, 186; + emancipation proclamation, 187, 189; + visits McClellan, 191; + criticised by Gurowski, 236, 237; + letter to Hooker, 241; + address at Gettysburg, 269; + letter to Grant at Vicksburg, 277; + attitude toward Sanitary Commission, 324; + appoints Grant lieut.-gen., 351; + instructions to Minister Adams, 374; + port., 402; + exposed to fire, Fort Stevens, 404; + letter to Grant about Shenandoah, 405; + despatch to Sheridan after Winchester, 409; + renominated for president, 412; + re-elected, 415; + receives peace commission at Ft. Monroe, 441; + assassinated, 449; + 2d inaugural address quoted, 450; + cartoons, 455-463; + anecdotes, 457; + visits camp, 503. + +Little, Henry, C brig.-gen., killed, Iuka, 204, 206. + +Little Rock, Ark., 35, 470. + +Little Round Top, Gettysburg, 252; + ill., 253, 260, 261. + +Livermore, Mary A., Mrs., port., 536, 540. + +Logan, John A., N maj.-gen., ports., 30, 517; + Champion's Hill, Miss., 275; + Vicksburg, 279, 307, 316; + Atlanta, 389, 390, 483, 513; + (sketch), 517. + +Logan's Cross Roads, Ky., 73. + +London Morning Advertiser, London, Eng., quoted, 269. + +Lone Jack, Mo., engagement, 231. + +Long Bridge, D. C., ill., 22, 62. + +----, Va., 368. + +Longfellow, Henry W., from "Building of the Ship," 35; + port., 190; + quoted on slavery, 184. + +Longstreet, James, C lieut.-gen., 49; + at Bull Run, 53; + port., 55; + Fair Oaks, 150; + Peninsular campaign, 154-162; + Thoroughfare Gap, 166, 167; + Groveton, 168; + Antietam campaign, 175-180; + Culpeper, 193; + Fredericksburg, 195, 197; + Culpeper, 249, 250; + Gettysburg, 252-268; + port., 265; + Chickamauga, 298-302, 308; + in Va., 311; + Suffolk, Va., 329; + Knoxville, 342, 351; + Wilderness, 354-357; + wounded, ill., 358; + Spottsylvania, 358, 368; + foresees the end, 448; + Ft. Steadman, 488, 491; + covers Lee's retreat, 492. + +Lookout Mountain, Tenn., 263, 303-314; + ills., 304, 309, 310; + battle, 308-313. + +Loomis, Cyrus O., N b'v't brig.-gen., Perryville, 201; + Murfreesboro', 210, 212; + Lookout Mountain, 314. + +Loomis's Battery, ill., 205. + +"Lorena" (author unknown), 133. + +Loring, William W., C maj.-gen., Fayetteville, W. Va., 218. + +Losses, at Gettysburg and Waterloo, 259, 476; + in Franco-German War, 476; + highest percentage of, in National and Confederate regiments, 476; + comparative, at Gettysburg, Spottsylvania, Wilderness, Chickamauga, + Chancellorsville, and Antietam, 477; + of separate regiments, 477-485. + +Lost Mountain, Ga., occupied by Johnston, 385; + abandoned, 386. + +Loudoun Heights, Va., 111. + +Louisa C. H., Va., fight, 433. + +Louisiana secedes, 9; + 18th inf., Shiloh, 101; + 3d inf., Iuka, 206; + "Tigers," Gettysburg, 254. + +Louis Napoleon, unfriendly to the United States, 66, 375. + +Louisville, Ga., 422. + +----, Ky., 209, 307, 383. + +Love, ----, N capt., 84. + +Lovell, Mansfield, C maj.-gen., at N. O., port., 96. + +Lowe, John W., N col., 113; + killed at Gauley River, 114; + port., 483. + +----, T. S. C., balloonist, port., 154, 162. + +----, ----, C col., killed, Fredericktown, Mo., 118. + +Lowell, Charles R., Jr., N brig.-gen., killed, Cedar Creek, Va., 410. + +----, James Russell, quoted on slavery, 183. + +"Loyal Mountaineers," quoted, 316. + +Lubbock, Francis R., C col., port., 450. + +Luray Valley, Va., 409. + +Lynch, William F., N b'v't brig.-gen., Pleasant Hill, 379. + +----, ----, C, killed, Belmont, 122. + +Lynchburg, Va., 319. + +Lyon, H. B., C brig.-gen., port., 434. + +----, Nathaniel, N brig.-gen., port., 38; + captures disloyal camp, Mo., 38; + defeats McCulloch, Dug Spring, Mo., 41; + is by him defeated at Wilson's Creek, Mo., and killed, 41; + property bequeathed to U. S. government, 41, 451. + +Lyons, ----, Judge, Richmond, 454. + +Lytle, William H., N brig.-gen., Perryville, 201; + killed, Chickamauga, 299, 301. + + +McAllister, Robert, N b'v't maj.-gen., Wilderness, 357. + +McArthur, John, N b'v't maj.-gen., Corinth, 206, 207. + +McCall, George A., N brig.-gen., Ball's Bluff, 109; + Peninsular campaign, 154-158. + +McCarthy, Harry, "The Bonnie Blue Flag," 136. + +McCauley, Charles S., N commodore, 28. + +McCausland, John, C brig.-gen., burning of Chambersburg, 319, 320, + 404. + +McClellan, George B., N maj.-gen., ports., 15, 140; + Philippi and Rich Mountain, 45; + in command Army of the Potomac, 45, 109; + W. Va., 113; + general-in-chief, 140; + Peninsular campaign, 140-162; + port., 147; + "Little Mac," "Young Napoleon," 160; + Harrison's Landing, 163; + Antietam campaign, 175-180; + attitude toward slavery, 182, 183; + inaction after Antietam, 191, 192; + succeeded by Burnside, criticised by Gurowski, 236, 237, 365, 368, + 369; + nominated for President, 413; + defeated, 415; + cartoon, 456; + anecdote, 456. + +----, Mrs. George B., port., 140. + +----, H. B., C major, 164. + +McClelland, U. S. revenue cutter, 10. + +McClernand, John A., N maj.-gen., 49; + Fort Donelson, 77; + Shiloh, 100, 101; + port., 108; + Columbus, Ky., 223; + Vicksburg campaign, 270-276. + +McCook, Alexander McD., N maj.-gen., port., 205; + Murfreesboro', 210; + Chickamauga, 298-301. + +----, Anson G., N b'v't brig.-gen., port., 527. + +----, Daniel, N pvt., killed, Buffington's Ford, 297. + +----, Daniel, N brig.-gen., Chickamauga, 302; + killed, Kenesaw Mountain, 387. + +----, D. N., N col., Dandridge, Tenn., 436. + +----, Edward M., N b'v't maj.-gen., Perryville, 201; + port., 389; + Newnan, Ga., 390. + +McCulloch, Ben, C brig.-gen., Dug Spring and Wilson's Creek, 41; + port., 45; + killed at Pea Ridge, 80, 81. + +McCullough, ----, C col., Bolivar, Tenn., 227. + +McDonald, ----, N color-sergt., Fort Wagner, 292. + +McDowell, Irwin, N maj.-gen., 24, 49; + port., 51; + at Bull Run, 53, 54, 57, 59, 60, 61, 63; + Peninsular campaign, 141-160; + Pope's campaign, 167-169; + cartoon, 461. + +McDowell, Va., engagement, 216. + +McGowan, Samuel, C brig.-gen., wounded, Spottsylvania, 362. + +McIntire, ----, N, Somerset, Ky., 340. + +McIntosh, James, C brig.-gen., killed at Pea Ridge, 80. + +----, John B., N b'v't maj.-gen., Shenandoah Valley, 406. + +McKean, Thomas J., N b'v't maj.-gen., Corinth, 206, 207. + +McKinstry, Justus, N brig.-gen., port., 230. + +McLaughlin, N. B., N b'v't brig.-gen., captured at Ft. Steadman, 489. + +McLaws, Lafayette, C maj.-gen., Antietam campaign, 175-177; + port., 177. + +McLean, Nathan C., N brig.-gen., port., 422. + +McLean House, Appomattox, where Lee surrendered, ills., 447, 494. + +McMahon, Martin T., N b'v't maj.-gen., port., 367. + +McMichael, ----, N maj., Chickamauga, 301. + +McMillen, W. L., N brig.-gen., port., 437. + +McMinnville, Tenn., 305. + +McNeil, John, N b'v't maj.-gen., Cape Girardeau, Mo., 230. + +McPherson, James B., N maj.-gen., 107, 108; + Corinth, 207; + port., 210; + Vicksburg campaign, 273, 275; + Meridian, Miss., 375; + Atlanta campaign, 383-390; + Resaca, 383, 385; + killed, 390; + ill., 388, 451; + scene of death of, ill., 482; + compared with Logan, 517. + +----, William, 41. + +McRae, Alex., capt., U. S. cav., killed, Ft. Craig, N. M., 233. + +Mackey, T. J., C capt., _Article_, 465. + +Macon, Ga., 390, 422. + +Madison, Ga., 425-427. + +Madison University, Hamilton, N. Y., company recruited from, 479. + +Magenta, Italy, 23, 169. + +Magoffin, Beriah, gov. of Ky., 41. + +Magruder, John B., C maj-gen., port., 45; + at Big Bethel, 45, 49; + Peninsular campaign, 143-162; + captures Galveston, 348. + +Mahone, William, C maj.-gen., port., 445. + +Maine _Infantry_, 3d and 4th, Manassas Gap, 333; + 5th and 6th, Rappahannock Sta., 335; + 12th, Richmond, 445; + 20th, Gettysburg, 254; + Rappahannock Sta., 335. + +---- 1st art'y, losses, 477; + 5th bat'y, Winchester, 407, losses, 483. + +Majthenyi, ----, N adj., 121. + +Mallory, Stephen R., C sec'y of the navy, port., 36. + +----, W. B., C capt., 185. + +Malsbury, ----, N, Hawes's Shop, Va., 364. + +Malvern Hill, Va., battle, 159; + ill., 156. + +Manassas, C ram, at N. O., 93; + ill., 94. + +Manassas Gap, Va., battle, 333, 472. + +Manassas Gap Railroad, 168. + +Manassas Junction, Va., 45, 52, 53, 54, 60, 140; + evacuated, 143, 166, 167, 171. + +Manhattan, N monitor, Mobile Bay, 391. + +Mansfield, Joseph K. F., N maj.-gen., port., 49, 52, 53; + Antietam, 177-180; + killed, Antietam, 180, 451. + +Manson, Mahlon D., N brig.-gen., Richmond, Ky., 224, 225. + +March to the Sea, The, 419-430. + +"Marching through Georgia," Henry C. Work, 129. + +Marietta, Ga., Atlanta campaign, 385, 520. + +Marion County, Tenn., secessionists assessed by Negley, 226. + +Marmaduke, John S., C maj.-gen., Cape Girardeau, Mo., 230; + port., 231; + Cane Hill, Ark., 232, 233; + Prairie Grove, Ark., 233; + Pine Bluff, Ark., 344; + Springfield, Mo., 344. + +Marsh, Jason, N col., Murfreesboro', 211. + +Marshall, Humphrey, C brig.-gen., Big Sandy River, 73, 223; + port., 225. + +----, William R., N b'v't brig.-gen., Big Mound, Dak., 348. + +----, ----, N corp., Bolivar Heights, 111. + +Marston, Gilman, N brig.-gen., Cold Harbor, 367. + +Martin, Frank, N (female) pvt., 8th and 25th Mich. inf., 470. + +----, Thomas S., N lieut.-col., port., 485. + +Martindale, William F., N capt., Shepherdstown, W. Va., 319. + +Martinsburg, W. Va., engagement, 111, 175, 176, 406, 407. + +Marye's Hill, Va., ill., 194; + battle, 195, 197. + +Maryland, struggle for, 43; + invaded by Lee, 175; + 2d inf., Antietam, 179; + slavery abolished, 415; + 6th (N) inf., losses, 481; + 1st (C) inf., losses, 484. + +Maryland Heights, Md., 403. + +Mason, Charles, N spy, executed, 507. + +----, James M., 63; + port., 65. + +----, of Virginia, C spy, 505. + +Massachusetts _Infantry_ regts., 6th, attacked in Baltimore, 5, 23, + ill., 32; + 8th, 24, 25; + 11th, Pope's campaign, 171, Chancellorsville, 245; + 13th, Bolivar Heights, 111; + 15th, Ball's Bluff, 110; + 19th, 110, Fredericksburg, 195, 478; + 20th, Fredericksburg, 195, sundry battles, 477-478; + 38th, Bayou Teche, 348; + 54th, Fort Wagner, 239, 290. + +---- _Cavalry_, 4th, Richmond, 454. + +----, regimental losses, infantry, 12th, Antietam and Manassas, 477; + 15th, 477. + +Massanutten Mountain, Va., C signal station, 411. + +Matchett, Charles G., N capt., Franklin, Tenn., 341. + +Matthias, Charles L., N col., Iuka, 204. + +Maxey, Samuel B., C brig.-gen., port., 318. + +May, ----, C col., mayor of Richmond, 454. + +----, ----, N lieut.-col., Rural Hills, Tenn., 229. + +Mayfield, Ky., 223. + +Mayne, Frank, N (female) sergt., 126th Pa. inf., 470. + +Maysville, Mo., battle, 232. + +Meade, George G., N maj.-gen., 2d Bull Run, 169; + Fredericksburg, 195; + supersedes Hooker, 250; + Gettysburg, 251-269; + port., 252; + portrait group, 268; + pursues Lee, 333; + Rappahannock Sta., 334; + Robertson's Tavern, Va., 335, 336; + Mine Run, Va., 337; + Wilderness, 354, 358; + Cold Harbor, 365, 368; + advance on Petersburg, 397. + +----, Richard K., N 2d lieut., port., 11; + at Sumter, 12; + joins C, 11. + +----, ----, N col., killed, Cold Harbor, 367. + +Meagher, Thomas F., N brig-.-gen., Antietam, 180; + port., 196; + Fredericksburg, 197, 502. + +Measure of Valor, The, 476-485. + +Mechanicsville, Va., Peninsular campaign, 144-155. + +Mecklenburg, N. C., 190. + +Meigs, Montgomery C., N brig.-gen., port., 23, 49. + +Memminger, C. G., N sec'y of the treasury, port., 26. + +Memphis, Mo., engagement, 230, 231. + +----, Tenn., 206, 270, 271, 273, 306, 340; + Smith's raid, 375. + +Memphis and Charleston Railroad, 100. + +Mendon, Mass., 190. + +Meredith, Solomon, N b'v't maj.-gen., Gettysburg, 251. + +----, ----, Judge, Richmond, 454. + +Meridian, Miss., captured by Sherman, 375. + +Merion, N. L., warden Ohio penitentiary, 527. + +Meriwether, ----, C lieut.-col., killed, Sacramento, 115. + +Merrill, Lewis, N b'v't brig.-gen., Hartsville, Mo., 344, 345. + +Merrimac, N frigate, 28, 29; + as C ironclad, ill., 83; + destroys "Cumberland" and "Congress," 84; + battle with "Monitor," ill., 85, 86, 87; + destroyed, 217. + +Merritt, Wesley, N maj.-gen., 268; + Robertson's Tavern, 335; + port., 356, 405; + Shenandoah Valley, 406-410. + +Metacomet, N gunboat, Mobile Bay, 392. + +Metcalfe, Leonidas, N col., Big Hill, 224. + +Mexico, French forces in, 66, 382. + +Miami, N gunboat, Plymouth, N. C., 434. + +Michigan _Infantry_, 1st, loss at Bull Run, 477; + 2d and 5th, 470; + 7th, 11th, 478; + 8th, Secessionville, 219; + Wilmington Island, 221, 470; + 9th, Murfreesboro', 226; + 12th, 105; + 22d, Chickamauga, 303; + 25th, 470; + losses--1st, 4th and 24th, 483; + 9th engineers, Murfreesboro', 211; + 1st cav., 470; + 4th cav., Murfreesboro', 211. + +----, N gunboat, Lake Erie raid, 528, 529. + +Middle Boss Island, Lake Erie, 528. + +Middleburg, Va., action, 250, 267. + +Miles, Dixon S., N b'v't brig.-gen., 49; + Harper's Ferry, 175, 176. + +----, Nelson A., N maj.-gen., advance on Petersburg, 400, 479; + port., 530. + +----, W. Porcher, C capt., 17. + +Milford, Mo., 122. + +Military railroad, ill., 486. + +Mill Springs, Ky., battle, 73, 76; + ill., 78. + +Milledgeville, Ga., 422. + +Millen, Ga., prison camps, 321, 415, 423. + +Miller, John F., N b'v't maj.-gen., Liberty Gap, 297. + +----, M. M., N capt., Milliken's Bend, 240. + +Milliken's Bend, La., battle, 240, 271, 277. + +Milroy, Robert H., N maj.-gen., Buffalo Mountain, 114; + McDowell, 216; + port., 217; + Winchester, Va., 250. + +Milton, Tenn., battle, 295, 340. + +Mine Run, Va., action, 336, 337, 353. + +Minnesota, 3d inf., Fitzhugh's Woods, Ark., 437; + 1st inf., charge at Gettysburg compared with Balaklava, 476. + +----, N cruiser, 68, 85. + +Minor Engagements of the first year, 109-122. + +Minor Events of the second year, 215-234. + of the third year, 329-349. + of the fourth year, 431-437. + +Mint, New Orleans, La., 95, 97. + +Minty, Robert H. G., N b'v't maj.-gen., Murfreesboro', 211. + +Missionary Ridge, Tenn., 263; + ill., 296, 303-312; + battle, 309, 311, 405. + +Mississippi secedes, 9; + 6th inf., Shiloh, 101; + 2d inf., Gettysburg, 260. + +----, regimental losses, 16th, 18th, 29th, 6th, 8th inf., 484. + +----, N cruiser at N. O., 90, 91, 93; + ill., 94. + +----, military division of the, commanded by Grant, 305. + +Mississippian, Jackson, Miss., quoted, 316. + +Missouri, struggle for, 35, 38; + guerilla warfare, 79; + minor engagements, 117-122. + +---- _Infantry_, 6th Vicksburg, 272; + 11th, Iuka, 204; + 13th and 14th, Lexington, 118; + 25th, 105; + 26th, Iuka, 204. + +---- _Cavalry_, 1st, Sugar Creek, 231; + 7th, Warrensburg, 230; + 18th, Rocky Crossing, 342. + +----, regimental losses, (N) 11th inf., 483; + 12th inf., 483; + 13th inf., 483. + +---- compromise, 7. + +----, Dept. of (N), 73. + +Mitchel, Ormsby M., N maj.-gen., Bowling Green, 76. + +Mitchell, Robert B., N brig.-gen., Perryville, 203; + port., 205; + Chickamauga, 299. + +Mitchell's Ford (Bull Run), 53. + +Mizner, John K., N b'v't brig.-gen., Iuka, 203. + +Moale, Edward, 11. + +Mobile, Ala., 307, 353, 375, 391-395. + +Mobile Bay, defences, 391; + battle, 391-396; + ill., 396. + +Mobile and Ohio R. R., 100, 375. + +Moccasin Point, Tenn., 312, 314. + +Mohain, ----, Capt., port., 142. + +Molineaux, Edward L., N b'v't maj.-gen., 24. + +Monitor, N ironclad, invented by Ericsson, 84; + battle with "Merrimac," ill., 85, 86; + foundered, ill., 88. + +"Monitor" and "Merrimac," 83-87. + +Monocacy, Md., battle, 402, 403. + +Monongahela River, 113. + +Montauk, N monitor, destroys the "Nashville," 348. + +Montgomery, Ala., seat of C government, 9, 32, 33, 526-532. + +Monticello, N cruiser, 531. + +Monticello, Ga., 427. + +Moore, Absalom B., N col., Hartsville, Tenn., 229. + +----, Thomas O., gov. of La., port., 96. + +----, ----, N capt., Ripley, Tenn., 340. + +Moorefield, W. Va., action, 337. + +Moorehead City, N. C., 72. + +Morell, George W., N maj.-gen., port., 180. + +Morgan, Edwin D., gov. of N. Y., port., 18; + influence, 448. + +----, George W., N brig.-gen., Vicksburg campaign, 272. + +----, John H., C brig.-gen., Murfreesboro', 209; + port., 211; + Cynthiana, Ky., 223; + Hartsville, Tenn., 229; + Milton, Tenn., 295; + raid into Ohio, 297; + port., 297; + Vaught's Hill, Tenn., 340; + Snow Hill, Tenn., 341; + Crockett's Cove, W. Va., 433, 526-532. + +----, Mrs. John H., port., 211. + +----, John T., C brig.-gen., port., 427, 474; + _Article_, 472-474. + +----, ----, N maj., Pleasant Hill, La., 379. + +Morgan's Escape, 526, 527. + +Morris, George U., N lieut., port., 84. + +----, William H., N brig.-gen., port., 357. + +----, ----, col., killed, Cold Harbor, 367. + +Morris Island, Charleston harbor, 5, 12, 14, 15, 288-294. + +Morton, Oliver P., gov. of Ind., port., 18; + influence, 448. + +Morton's Ford, Va., 335. + +Mosby, John S., C col., 164; + operations in Va., 331; + quoted, 331, 332; + port., 332. + +Moss, Lemuel, Christian commission, 326. + +Mott, Gershom, N maj.-gen., Spottsylvania, 359; + port., 530. + +----, Samuel R., N b'v't brig.-gen., Chancellorsville, 246. + +Moultrieville, S. C., 11. + +Mount Roan, Va., 335. + +Mount Sterling, Ky., 223, 224. + +Mount Vernon, action, Ala., 10, 35. + +Mount Washington, N gunboat, 348. + +Mountjoy, ----, N cav., Warrenton Junction, 331. + +Mouton, Alfred, C brig.-gen., killed, Sabine Cross Roads, 377. + +Mower, Joseph A., N maj.-gen., ports., 30, 514; + Iuka, 204; + Pleasant Hill, 379, 483. + +Mullany, J. R. M., N naval com., Mobile Bay, 393. + +Mulligan, James A., N b'v't brig.-gen., port., 117; + Lexington, Mo., 118. + +Munfordville, Ky., battle, 115; + ill., 112, 200. + +Munsell, Mrs. Jane R., 540. + +Munson, Gilbert D., N col., Bald Hill, Atlanta, 389. + +Murfreesboro', Tenn., battle, 209-213; + ill., 202; + _Map_, 211; + captured by Pillow, 226, 227, 295, 298, 340, 405. + +Murphy, R. C., N col., Holly Springs, 271. + +Murray, ----, N maj., 3d Ky. Cavalry, 115. + +"My Maryland," James Ryder Randall, 131, 413. + + +Naglee, Henry M., N brig.-gen., ports., 159, 552. + +Nag's Head, N. C., 72. + +Nashville, Tenn., 79, 209, 226, 307, 308, 340, 383; + battle, _Map_, 426. + +----, C cruiser, ill., 76; + destroyed, Fort McAllister, Ga., 348. + +Nashville and Chattanooga R. R., 209. + +Nassau, West Indies, 288. + +Natchitochez, La., 379. + +National finances (The), 415-417. + +Naval Academy, U. S., 25, 47. + +Navy, the condition at the opening of the war, 66. + +"Neckties, Jeff Davis's," 375. + +Negley, James S., N maj.-gen., Falling Waters, 111; + port., 226; + Sweeden's Cove, 226; + Nashville, 227. + +Nelson, William, N maj.-gen., Shiloh, 101, 103, 513; + Richmond, Ky., 225; + port., 226; + killed by Gen. Jeff. C. Davis, 513. + +Nelson's Farm, Va., 159. + +Neosho, N gunboat, Grand Ecore, La., 381. + +Newark, O., arrest of (C) Lieut. S. B. Davis, 471. + +New Berne, N. C., 67, 72, 193. + +New Carthage, La., 274. + +Newcomer, ----, N private, spy, 510. + +New Era, N gunboat, Fort Pillow, 320. + +New Hampshire _Infantry_--5th, losses in battle, 477; + Antietam, 178, 179; + 6th, Antietam, 178, 179; + 7th, Olustee, 436; + 9th, Spottsylvania, 361; + 10th, Cold Harbor, 367; + 13th, Fredericksburg, 199. + +New Hope Church, Ga., battle, 385; + ill., 466. + +New Hope Church, Va., 335. + +New Ironsides, N frigate, Fort Wagner, 292, 293. + +New Jersey, 15th infantry, Spottsylvania, 361; + 1st cavalry, Harrisonburg, 216; + Hawes's shop, 363, 364; + 2d cavalry, 348; + infantry losses--8th, 12th, 15th, 480. + +New Lisbon, O., Morgan's surrender, 297. + +New Madrid, Mo., 99. + +New Market, Va., 159, 433. + +New Mexico, invaded, 233, 234. + +Newnan, Ga., 390. + +New Orleans, La., 10, 35, 83; + important to Confederacy, 88; + ill., 89; + defences, 90; + determination of U. S. to capture, 91; + captured, 96, 270, 307, 350, 375, 391, 395. + +Newport News, Va., 45. + +Newton, John, N b'v't maj.-gen., port., 192. + +Newtown, near Kernstown, Va., 216. + +New Ulm, Minn., Indian massacre, 234. + +New York _Infantry_ regts., 1st, 2d, 3d, Big Bethel, 25; + 4th, Kelly's Ford, 332; + 5th (Duryea's) Zouaves, Big Bethel, 45; + 6th, 25; + 7th, Big Bethel, 45; + 8th, 9th, 25; + 11th, draft riots, 287; + 22d, ill., 176; + 40th, Gettysburg, 254, 260; + 42d, Ball's Bluff, 109; + 43d, 479; + 44th, ill. of camp, 48, port. group officers, 287; + 45th, Tybee Island, 220; + 48th, 220; + 51st, Antietam, 179; + 57th, ambulance corps, ill., 475; + 63d, 69th, Fredericksburg, 198, 199; + 71st, 25; + 81st, 85th, Fair Oaks, 147; + 89th, Suffolk, 329, 478; + 92d, Fair Oaks, 147; + 95th, 479; + 98th, Fair Oaks, 147, 150, Cold Harbor, 365, 367; + 112th, Suffolk, 329; + 118th, Cold Harbor, 367; + 121st, Rappahannock Sta., 335; + 124th, Gettysburg, 254, 260; + 125th, Rappahannock Sta., 335; + 140th, Gettysburg, 254, 260; + _Cavalry_, 1st, Shepherdstown, 319; + 5th, Warrenton Junc., Va., 331; + 8th, Brandy Sta., 249; + _Artillery_, 14th, battle flags, ill., 472, Petersburg Crater, 479; + regimental losses, inf., 5th (Duryea's Zouaves), Bull Run, 477, 479; + 40th, 42d, 44th (Ellsworth Avengers), 48th, 49th, 51st, 52d, 59th, + 61st, 63d, 69th, 70th, 76th, 79th, 81st, 82d, 83d, 84th, 86th, + 88th, 93d, 97th, 100th, 479; + 101st, 477; + 109th, 111th, 112th, 120th, 121st, 124th, 126th, 137th, 140th, + 147th, 149th, 164th, 170th, 480; + regimental losses, heavy art'y, 7th, 8th, 9th, 14th, 478; + furnished one-sixth of all troops, 479. + +New York, N. Y., departure 7th reg., 24; + ill., 33; + mass meeting in Union Square, 236; + draft riots, 285-287; + Sanitary commission, 324. + +Niagara Falls, N. Y., peace conference, 412. + +Nichols, Edward T., N naval com'r, port., 370. + +----, Geo. Ward, N maj., quoted, 422. + +Nicholls, Francis T., C brig.-gen., port., 260. + +Nields, Henry C., N actg. ensign, Mobile Bay, 392, 393. + +Nims, Ormond F., N capt., Sabine Cross Roads, 377. + +Nolen, ----, N capt., Charleston, Mo., 230. + +Norfolk, Va., 28, 83, 87; + surrenders to Wool, 217. + +Norfolk and Petersburg R. R., 398. + +North Anna, Va., 362, 363. + +North Atlantic squadron, 234. + +North Carolina secedes, 35, 43; + 1st inf., Tranter's Creek, 218; + proposes to secede from Confederacy, 316; + peace movement in, 420; + regimental losses, 26th, 11th, 4th inf., 483; + 27th, 2d inf., 484. + +North Carolina, C ram, 531. + +Northrop, Lucius B., C com.-gen., brutality, 320, 321. + +Nugent, Robert, N b'v't brig.-gen., port., 196; + Fredericksburg, 198, 199. + +Nullification Act of S. C., 7. + + +O'Brien, FitzJames, N capt., 24; + fatally wounded, Blooming Gap, 217. + +----, Henry J., N col., killed, New York draft riots, 287. + +Oglesby, Richard J., N maj.-gen., port., 276. + +Ohio _Infantry_, 3d, Perryville, 201, anecdote, 468; + 4th and 5th, Blue's Gap, 216; + 6th, Kelly's Ford, 332; + 7th, Cross Lanes, 113; + 8th, Blooming Gap, 217; + 9th, Logan's Cross Roads, 73; + 10th, Perryville, 201, Murfreesboro', 211; + 14th and 17th, Camp Wildcat, 114; + 20th, Vicksburg, 277, 279; + 23d, Clark's Hollow, 218, South Mountain, 176; + 25th, Huntersville, 114; + 34th, Fayetteville, 218, Winchester, 407; + 40th, Lookout Mountain, 313; + 62d and 67th, Fort Wagner, 291, 292; + 78th, Atlanta, 389; + 82d, McDowell, 216; + 92d, Shiloh, 107; + 93d, Lebanon, 229; + 96th, Chickamauga, 303; + 102d, Sultana disaster, 469; + 107th, Gettysburg, 255; + 108th, Hartsville, 229; + 115th, Sultana disaster, 469; + 122d, Cedar Creek, 411. + +----, 5th cavalry, Rocky Crossing, 342. + +----, losses, 7th inf., 481; + 23d inf., 481; + 25th inf., 481; + Sands's batt'y, 483. + +Ohio, Army of the, commanded by Schofield, 383. + +"Old Folks at Home," Stephen Collins Foster, port., 134. + +Old Fort Wayne, Ark., battle, 232. + +Olden, Charles S., gov. of N. J., port., 18. + +Oliver, John M., N b'v't maj.-gen., Corinth, 206. + +Olmstead, Charles H., N col., Fort Pulaski, 220, 221. + +Olmsted, Frederick Law, sanitary commission, 325. + +Olustee, Fla., colored troops, 237; + battle, 436. + +O'Meara, ----, N col., killed, Chattanooga, 314. + +"On to Richmond," 52, 140. + +Oneida, N gunboat, New Orleans, 90, 93; + ill., 94; + Mobile Bay, 393. + +Opdyke, Emerson, N b'v't maj.-gen., port., 302. + +Opequan, Va., 406; + battle, 407, 409. + +Orange and Alexandria R. R., 166, 250, 334. + +Orange Court House, Va., Lee's headquarters, 353. + +Orchard Knob, Tenn., ill., 296, 312, 313. + +Ord, Edward O. C., N maj.-gen., Dranesville, 113; + Iuka, 203-205; + port., 207; + Corinth, 207; + Vicksburg, 276; + Southside R. R., Va., 443, 445. + +O'Bierne, James R., N b'v't brig.-gen., port., 552. + +O'Rorke, Patrick H., N lieut., Ft. Pulaski, 221; + killed, Gettysburg, 254, 261; + port., 261. + +Osage Island, Mo., battle, 231. + +Ossipee, N gunboat, Mobile Bay, 392. + +Osterhaus, Peter J., N maj.-gen., port., 423, 483. + +Ould, Robert, C col., 322. + +Overend, W. H., artist, 394. + +Overland campaign, The, 350-369. + +Owasco, N steamer, Galveston, 348. + +Owen, Joshua T., N brig.-gen., port., 357. + +----, Robert Dale, 189. + +Owl Creek, Shiloh, 100, 103. + +Oxford, Va., 362. + +Ozark, Mo., 344. + + +Pactolus, N. C., 218. + +Paducah, Ky., 76, 320. + +Paine, Halbert E., N b'v't maj.-gen., attitude toward slavery, 185. + +Paine's Cross Roads, Va., fight, 446. + +Paintsville, Ky., 73. + +Palmer, Innis N., N b'v't maj.-gen., Fair Oaks, 150; + port., 159. + +----, James S., N commodore, Mobile Bay, 392. + +----, John M., N maj.-gen., Murfreesboro', 212; + port., 226; + La Vergne, Tenn., 227, 229, 514. + +Palmerston, Lord, favors the Confederacy, 269. + +Palmetto flag, cut 9; + raised at Charleston, 9. + +Pamlico Sound, N. C., 67. + +Paris, France, treaty, 374. + +----, Va., 267. + +Paris, Comte de, ports., 142, 147. + +Parke, John G., N maj., North Carolina expedition, 72; + port., 73; + advance on Petersburg, 399; + near Petersburg, 443, 445. + +Parker, Ely S., N b'v't brig.-gen., port., 530. + +----, Foxhall A., N comr., Mobile Bay, 392. + +----, Reuben, N pvt., 1st Vt. inf., adventure of, 502. + +Parker's Cross Roads, Tenn., battle, 229, 230. + +---- Store, Va., 335. + +Parrott, E. A., N col., Dog Walk, 225. + +Parsons, Charles C., N lieut., Perryville, 201; + Murfreesboro', 212. + +----, Emily E., Miss, port., 537, 539. + +Pass ŕ l'Outre, Miss. River, La., 91. + +Patrick, Marsena R., N b'v't maj.-gen., port., 180. + +Patriotism, Oration on, 464. + +Patterson, Joseph, Christian commission, 326. + +----, Robert, N maj.-gen., at Harper's Ferry, 47; + at Bull Run, 54; + port., 57; + Bunker Hill, 111. + +Patton, W. T., C col., 113. + +Paul, Gabriel R., N maj.-gen., port., 257; + Gettysburg, 259. + +Paulding, Hiram, N rear-admiral, 29; + port., 370. + +Pawnee, N cruiser, 15, 29. + +Paxton, E. F., C brig.-gen., killed, Chancellorsville, 242. + +Pea Ridge, Ark., battle of, 80; + ill., 81, 231. + +Peabody, Everett, N col., 105. + +Peace, 448-454; + convention, 182; + negotiations, 441. + +Peach Tree Creek, Ga., battle, 387. + +Peck, John J., N maj.-gen., Suffolk, Va., 329. + +Pegram, John C., C maj.-gen., in W. Va., 45, 49; + port., 204; + Somerset, Ky., 339; + Wilderness, 357. + +----, R. G., C capt. art. at Petersburg mine, 470. + +Pelham, John, C artillery, killed, Kelly's Ford, Va., 333. + +Pelouze, Louis H., N b'v't brig.-gen., port., 406. + +Pemberton, John C., C lieut.-gen., supersedes Van Dorn, 209, 271; + Vicksburg, 274-280; + port., 275. + +Pender, William D., C maj.-gen., killed, Gettysburg, 259. + +Pendleton, George H., nominated for vice-president, 413. + +----, William C., C brig.-gen., 493. + +Peninsula Campaign (The), 140-162. + +Pennsylvania _Infantry_, 3d and 16th, Kelly's Ford, 332; + 27th, 24; + 28th, Bolivar Heights, 111; + 34th, Kelly's Ford, 332; + 46th, 470; + 49th, Rappahannock Sta., 335; + 51st, Antietam, 178, 179; + 51st, losses, 479; + 63d, Manassas Gap, 333; + 71st, Ball's Bluff, 109; + 81st, Antietam, 178, 179; + 85th, 322; + 104th, Fair Oaks, 146-150; + 119th, Rappahannock Sta., 335; + 126th, 470; + 141st, losses, 470; + _Cavalry_, 1st, Hawes's Shop, 363; + 7th, Murfreesboro', 211; + 8th, Chancellorsville, 242; + 15th, Murfreesboro', 211; + losses, 11th inf., 480; + 28th inf., 480; + 49th inf., 480; + 72d inf., 480; + 83d inf., 480; + 93d inf., 480; + 119th inf., 480; + 140th inf., 481. + +Penrose, William H., N brig.-gen., port., 406. + +Pensacola, Fla., 10, 393; + bombardment, ill., 475. + +Pensacola, N sloop, at N. O., 90, 91, 93. + +Perkins, George H., N naval capt., New Orleans, 95; + Mobile Bay, 392. + +Perrin, Abner, C brig.-gen., killed, Spottsylvania, 362, 451. + +----, James H., N col., 479. + +Perryville, Ky., battle, 201, 307, 405. + +Peter, W. G., C lieut., executed as a spy, 507. + +Petersburg, Va., 353, 368, 387; + approached by Grant, 397-400; + map of vicinity, 399; + explosion of mine, 399; + ill., 400, 402, 406; + fighting before, 443; + outer defences taken, 445; + evacuated, 445, 492; + Court House, ill., 468; + Burnside's Mine, 469; + Crow's Nest observatory, ill., 469. + +Peterson, Margaret Augusta, hospital services and death, 327; + port., 327. + +Pettigrew, J. Johnston, C brig.-gen., port., 155. + +Peyton, ----, C col., 493. + +Phelps, S. Ledyard, N lieut.-com., Peninsular campaign, 154. + +----, Thomas S., N rear-adm., 156; + survey of Potomac River, 234. + +Philadelphia, Tenn., action, 342. + +Philippi, W. Va., battle, ill., 39, 45. + +"Philippi races," 45. + +Phillips, Jesse L., N b'v't brig.-gen., Rocky Crossing, Miss., 342. + +----, Wendell, port., 190. + +Philo Parsons, Lake steamer, captured by raiders, 528, 529. + +Pickens, Francis W., gov. S. C., 14. + +Picket, N gunboat, exploded, 219. + +Pickett, George E., C maj.-gen., Gettysburg, 257-268; + port., 263, 387. + +----, Mrs. Lasalle Corbell, article, 453, 454. + +Pierce, E. W., N b'v't brig.-gen., at Big Bethel, 45. + +----, Franklin, president of the U. S., 36; + attitude toward slavery, 183; + opposed to the war, 284. + +Pierpont, Francis H., gov. W. Va., 45; + port., 48. + +Pierre Bayou, Miss., 274. + +Pike, Albert, C brig.-gen., 80, 81; + "Dixie," 131; + port., 131. + +Piketon, Mo., 122. + +Pillow, Gideon J., C brig.-gen., 41; + Fort Donelson, 79; + port., 80. + +Pilot Knob, Mo., 118; + ill., 119. + +Pin Indians, 81. + +Pine Bluff, Ark., engagement, 344. + +----, Tenn., fight, 437. + +Pine Mountain, Ga., occupied by Johnston, 385; + Polk killed, 386. + +Pinkerton, Allan, port., 233. + +Pinney, Oscar F., N capt., Perryville, 201. + +Pipe Creek, near Gettysburg, 251, 252, 263. + +Pittsburgh Landing, Tenn., 100; + ill., 102, 107. + +Pittsburgh, N gunboat, Island No. 10, 99. + +Pleasant Hill, La., battle, 378, 379. + +Pleasonton, Alfred, N maj.-gen., Chancellorsville, 242; + Brandy Sta., Va., 249; + Aldie, Va., 250; + port., 250; + Gettysburg, 251; + Upperville, Va., 267. + +Plummer, Joseph B., N brig.-gen., at New Madrid, 99; + Fredericktown, Mo., 118. + +Plymouth, N. C., 67; + engagement, 218, 219, 317; + captured by Gen. Hoke, 433-434. + +----, N frigate, 29. + +Pocahontas, N vessel, 15. + +----, Miss., 207. + +Pocotaligo, S. C., 220, 439. + +Poe, Orlando M., N b'v't brig.-gen., port., 552. + +Poindexter, ----, C col., Roan's Tanyard, Mo., 230. + +Point of Rocks, Va., 28, 397. + +Point Pleasant, W. Va., action, 337. + +Polk, James K., President of the U. S., attitude toward slavery, 183. + +----, Leonidas, C lieut.-gen., 99; + port., 100; + Shiloh, 103, 209; + Chickamauga, 298, 303; + Meridian 375; + Atlanta campaign, 385; + killed, Lost Mountain, 386, 451. + +Pollard, E. A., quoted, 213, 316. + +Pope, John, N maj.-gen., 79; + New Madrid, 99; + Island No. 10, 100; + port., 163; + commands Army of Va., 163; + campaign, 163-173; + map of operations, 166, 358; + cartoon, 457. + +Pope's campaign, 163-173. + +Poplar Grove Church, ill., 350. + +Port Gibson, Miss., action, 274. + +Port Hudson, La., 240, 270, 271, 273; + surrendered, 276, 308, 345, 391. + +Port Republic, Va., action, 216; + occupied by Early, 409. + +Port Royal, S. C., 60, 71, 289. + +Porter, Andrew, N brig.-gen., 49; + at Bull Run, 55, 57. + +----, David, commodore U. S. navy, 76, 90. + +----, David D., N rear-adm., port., 90; + at N. O., 90-95; + Baton Rouge, 270; + Vicksburg campaign, 271-277; + Alexandria, La., 375; + Grand Ecore, La., 381, 382. + +----, Eliza C., Mrs., 534. + +----, Fitz-John, N maj.-gen., at Harper's Ferry, 47; + Peninsular campaign, 155-162; + Pope's campaign, 168-170; + port., 168; + court-martialed, 169; + Antietam, 178. + +----, Horace, N b'v't brig.-gen., Fort Pulaski, 221; + Chickamauga, 302; + port., 530. + +----, Peter A., N col., killed, 478. + +----, William D., N commodore, Fort Henry, 76; + port., 270. + +----, ----, N col., killed, Cold Harbor, 367. + +Porterfield, G. A., col., Va. vols., 44. + +Portsmouth, Va., 217, 329. + +----, N vessel, at N. O., 90, 92. + +Posey, Carnot, C brig.-gen., Bristoe Sta., Va., 334. + +Potomac, Army of the, commanded by McClellan, 45, 165, 169, 175; + commanded by Burnside, 193; + commanded by Hooker, 241; + commanded by Meade, 250; + pursues Lee, 258; + Grant's headquarters, 351, 353; + organization, 354; + advance on Petersburg, 397; + defence of Washington, 402; + review in Washington, 450; + in winter quarters, ill., 499. + +---- River, surveyed, 234; + aqueduct bridge, ill., 473. + +Potter, Robert B., N maj.-gen., Antietam, 179; + port., 401. + +----, ----, N col., Tranter's Creek, N. C., 218. + +Potter House, Atlanta, Ga., ill., 428. + +Pound Gap, Ky., action, 223. + +Powell, William H., N b'v't maj., 105. + +----, ----, 33. + +----, ----, N col., Wytheville, Va., 339. + +Powell's River Bridge, Tenn., fight, 437. + +Prairie Grove, Ark., battle, 233. + +Preble, George H., N commodore, port., 370. + +Preliminary Events, 5-18. + +Preliminary Operations in the West, 375-382. + +Prentiss, Benjamin M., N maj.-gen., Shiloh, 100-107; + port., 105; + speech on negro soldiers, 239; + Helena, Ark., 344. + +Preparation for Conflict, 19-29; + in the North, 23, 35, 36. + +Presidential Election (The), 412-415. + +Press, Nashville, quoted, 507. + +Preston, John S., C brig.-gen., port., 318. + +----, William, C maj.-gen., port., 281. + +Prestonburg, Ky., 73. + +Price, Sterling, C maj.-gen., 39, 41; + port., 45; + in Mo., 79, 118, 122; + in Ark., 80; + Iuka, 203-206; + Corinth, 206; + Helena, Ark., 344. + +Prince, Henry, N brig.-gen., port., 335; + Robertson's Tavern, Va., 336. + +Princeton, W. Va., 218. + +Prisons and Escapes, 520-527. + +Pryor, Roger A., C brig.-gen., 17; + port., 508. + +Pulaski Monument, Savannah, Ga., ill., 115. + +Putnam, Douglas, Jr., N col., 107. + +----, Haldimand S., N col., killed, Fort Wagner, 290. + + +Quantrell, W. C., C guerilla, Independence, Mo., 230; + Warrensburg, Mo., 230; + Lawrence, Kan., 345. + +Quarantine Station, La., 95. + +"Queen Caroline," 154. + +Quinby, Isaac F., N brig.-gen., Vicksburg campaign, 273. + + +Raccoon Ford, Va., 164, 166, 336. + +Radcliffe, ----, C supply agent, 510, 511. + +Raids and Raiders, Union and Confederate, 528-532. + +Rains, Gabriel J., C brig.-gen., port., 277. + +----, James E., C brig.-gen., port., 158; + killed, Murfreesboro', 211; + Tazewell, Tenn., 227. + +Raleigh, N. C., 441. + +---- Court House, W. Va., 339. + +----, C gunboat, 531. + +Ramsay, George D., N brig.-gen., port., 414. + +----, Joseph G., N lieut., killed at Bull Run, 59. + +Ramseur, Stephen D., C maj.-gen., wounded, Spottsylvania, 362, 403; + killed, Cedar Creek, Va., 410. + +Randall, A. W., Gov. of Wis., port., 18. + +----, James Ryder, "My Maryland," 131; + "Boy Major," 333. + +Randol, Alanson M., b'v't brig.-gen., 158. + +Rankin's Hotel, Cynthiana, Ky., 223. + +Ransom, Matthew W., C maj.-gen., port., 491. + +----, Robert, Jr., C maj.-gen., Antietam, 180; + port., 195. + +----, Thomas E. G., N b'v't maj.-gen., 316; + Sabine Cross Roads, 378. + +----, ----, N lieut.-col. 22d Ill., 117. + +Rappahannock Ford, Va., 166. + +---- Station, Va., 166; + action, 334, 335. + +Raritan, N cruiser, 29. + +Rations, Confederate, short, in March, 1865, 485. + +Raum, Green B., N brig.-gen., port., 311. + +Rawlins, John A., N b'v't maj.-gen., 107, 108; + ports., 31, 552. + +Raymond, Henry J., Republican convention, 412; + cartoon, 462. + +----, Miss., action, 274, 278. + +Reagan, John H., C postmaster-genl., port., 26; + captured with Davis, 448. + +Realf, Richard, N lieut., Chickamauga, 301. + +Reams Station, Va., action, 400. + +"Rebels" (author unknown), 132. + +Rectortown, Va., fight, 433. + +Red River Expedition, 375-382. + +Redfield, H. V., quoted, 502. + +----, Jas., N lt.-col., killed, 420. + +Redwood, Minn., destroyed by Indians, 234. + +Reese, Harry, N sgt. at Burnside's Mine, Petersburg, 469. + +Refusal of Governors of certain States to furnish troops, 36, 37. + +Register, Baltimore, Md., 33. + +Reilly, James W., N brig.-gen., 429. + +Remington, ----, N lieut., Gettysburg, 260. + +Reminiscences of the Battle of Bull Run, 472-474. + +Reno, Jesse L., N maj.-gen., N. C. expedition, 72; + port., 73; + Pope's campaign, 164-169; + killed, South Mountain, 176, 451. + +Renshaw, W. B., N com'der, killed, Galveston, 348. + +Republican, Lynchburg, Va., quoted, 316. + +Republican Party, convention, 412. + +Resaca, Ga., battle, 383, 385. + +Review of the Army, 450; + ill., 452. + +Reynolds, John F., N maj.-gen., Cheat Mountain, 114; + Pope's campaign, 166, 168; + port., 250; + killed, Gettysburg, 251-267, 451; + monument, 552. + +----, Joseph J., N maj.-gen., Chickamauga, 298, 299. + +Rhode Island, 1st inf., 25, 193; + Kelly's Ford, 332; + 5th inf., 470. + +Rice, James C., N brig.-gen., killed, Spottsylvania, 362. + +Rich Mountain, W. Va., action, 45. + +Richardson, Albert D., N correspondent, adventures, 520-523. + +----, Israel B., N maj.-gen., 49; + at Bull Run, 54; + killed, Antietam, 180; + port., 485. + +----, William P., N b'v't brig.-gen., port., 414. + +Richmond, Ky., 200; + battle, 224, 342. + +----, Miss., 275. + +----, Va., seat of C government, 9, 33; + ill. of capitol, 28, 140-162, 163, 164, 193, 197, 307; + Libby Prison, ills., 320, 520; + prison camps, 321, 354-369, 387, 397-399; + map of vicinity, 399, 402, 406; + visit of peace commissioners, 412; + evacuated, 445; + warehouses fired, ironclads blown up, 445; + occupied by Gen. Weitzel, 445; + ill., 451; + U. S. flag raised, 454; + C cemetery, ill., 512; + N cemetery, ill., 525. + +----, N cruiser, at N. O., 90, 93. + +Ricketts, James B., N b'v't maj.-gen., port., 57; + at Bull Run, 55, 57, 59; + Thoroughfare Gap, 167; + defence of Washington, 402. + +----, R. Bruce, N capt., Gettysburg, 254, 255. + +Riddle, William, N maj., Gettysburg, 267. + +Riggen, ----, N private, killed, Gettysburg, 255. + +Ripley, Roswell S., C brig.-gen., at Port Royal, 71; + Antietam, 180. + +Ripley, Miss., 206. + +----, Tenn., action, 340. + +Ritchie, John, N b'v't brig.-gen., Shirley's Ford, Mo., 231. + +Roanoke Island, N. C., 71; + map, 75, 193. + +---- Sound, N. C., 71. + +Roan's Tanyard, Silver Creek, Mo., engagement, 230. + +Robbins, Walter R., N b'v't brig.-gen., Hawes's Shop, Va., 363, 364. + +Roberts, Benjamin S., N b'v't maj.-gen., Ft. Craig, N. M., 233. + +Robertson's Tavern, Va., action, 335, 336. + +Robertsville, S. C., 439. + +Robinson House, Bull Run, ill., 165. + +Robinson, James S., N b'v't maj.-gen., port., 386. + +----, John C., N b'v't maj.-gen., Gettysburg, 252; + port., 363. + +----, Samuel, N spy, executed, 529. + +Rock Creek, Gettysburg, 252, 254. + +Rockbridge (Va.) cavalry, 319. + +Rocky Crossing, Miss., battle, 342. + +Rocky Gap, Va., engagement, 333. + +Rodes, Robert E., C maj.-gen., port., 146; + Antietam, 180; + Robertson's Tavern, 336; + Ft. Stevens, D. C., 403; + killed, Winchester, 407; + port., 411. + +Rodgers, C. R. P., N rear-adm., port., 69. + +----, John, N rear-adm., port., 69; + siege of Charleston, 290. + +Rodman, Isaac P., N brig.-gen., killed, Antietam, 180. + +Rogersville, Ky., battle, 224, 225. + +Rolla, Mo., 79. + +Rome, Ga., 307, 308. + +Romney, W. Va., engagements, 113, 216. + +Root, George F., "Tramp, tramp, tramp, the boys are marching," 125; + "The Battle Cry of Freedom," 138. + +Rosa, Rudolph, N col., Tybee Island, 220. + +Rosecrans, William S., N maj.-gen., in W. Va., 45, 113; + ports., 114, 204; + Iuka, 203-205; + Corinth, 206-209; + supersedes Buell, 203, 209; + Murfreesboro', 209-212, 215; + Chickamauga, 297-303; + superseded by Thomas, 305, 308; + anecdote, 457, 481; + deceived by Mrs. Col. Thomas in Tennessee, anecdote, 506. + +Rosengarten, Joseph G., N maj., Gettysburg, 266. + +Ross, Anna M., Miss, 538. + +----, John, chief Cherokee Indians, 81. + +----, Marion A., N spy, executed, 529. + +Rosser, Thomas L., C maj.-gen., Wilderness, 356; + Tom's Brook, Va., 410; + Rectortown, Va., 433; + port., 491. + +Rossville, Ga., 299, 301. + +Rough and Ready, Ga., 422. + +Round Mountain, Ala., iron-works burned, 296. + +Round Top, Gettysburg, 252, 263, 265. + +Rousseau, Lovell H., N maj.-gen., 41; + Perryville, 201; + port., 205; + Murfreesboro', 212, 213. + +Rober, Tenn., action, 340. + +Rowan, Stephen C., N vice-adm., 15; + N. C. expedition, 72; + port., 73; + siege of Charleston, 293. + +Rowlett's Station, Ky. (see Munfordville). + +Royall, William B., N capt., 151. + +Rubadeau, ----, N sergt., killed, Spottsylvania, 361. + +Ruffin, Edmund, 15. + +Ruger, Thomas H., N b'v't maj.-gen., port., 386. + +Ruggles, Daniel, C brig.-gen., Shiloh, 103; + Rocky Crossing, Miss., 342. + +Runyon, Theodore, N brig.-gen., 49. + +Rural Hills, Tenn., engagement, 229. + +Russell, David A., N b'v't maj.-gen., Rappahannock Sta., 335; + killed, Winchester, 407; + port., 411. + +----, John, Lord, favors the Confederacy, 269. + +----, ----, Earl, neutrality discussion, 372, 373. + +Russia, friendly to the United States, 66. + + +Sabine Cross Roads, La., battle, 377, 378. + +Sacramento, Ky., engagement, 115. + +Safford, Mary J., Miss, 538; + port., 539. + +Sailor's Creek, Va., engagement, 446. + +St. Helena Island, S. C., 69, 71. + +St. Joseph, Mo., 38. + +St. Louis, Mo., 37; + loyal Germans, 41, 392. + +St. Louis and Cincinnati R. R., 140. + +St. Luke's Hospital, New York, draft riot, 285. + +St. Michael's Church, Charleston, S. C., ill., 294. + +St. Peter's Church, near White House, Va., ill., 155. + +Salem, Mo., 122. + +Salem Heights, Va., battle, 243. + +Salisbury, N. C., prison camps, 321, 440, 520. + +Salkehatchie River, S. C., fight, 440. + +Sanders, William P., N brig.-gen., killed, Knoxville, 342; + port., 480. + +----, ----, N col., Somerset, Ky., 340. + +Sandford, ----, N b'v't maj.-gen., at Harper's Ferry, 47. + +Sandusky, O., Lake Erie raid, 528. + +Sanitary and Christian Commissions (The), 324-328. + +Sanitary Commission, 324-328; + port., group officers, 326; + ill. of headquarters, 327, 448; + ill. of hospital, 540. + +San Jacinto, N frigate, 63; + ill., 63. + +Santa Fé, N. M., 233. + +Satraps, 283. + +Savage's Station, Va., battle, 158. + +Savannah, Ga., 32; + Pulaski Monument, ill., 115, 220, 289, 290, 423; + riot, 436, 439; + President Davis a prisoner, 448. + +----, Tenn., 101. + +Sawyer, Charles C., "When this cruel war is over," 127. + +----, Henry W., N capt., Libby Prison, 348, 349. + +Saxton, Rufus, N b'v't maj.-gen., 239; + port., 414. + +Scales, Alfred M., C brig.-gen., Gettysburg, 259. + +Scarytown, W. Va., 113. + +Schenck, Robert C., N maj.-gen., 49; + Bull Run, 55; + Shenandoah Valley, 216; + port., 217. + +----,----, N sergt., killed, Spottsylvania, 361. + +Schiller, J. C. F. von, quoted, 498. + +Schimmelpfennig, Alex., N brig.-gen., occupies Charleston, 440. + +Schoepf, Albin, N brig.-gen., Camp Wildcat, 73, 114. + +Schofield, John M., N maj.-gen., 41; + Atlanta campaign, 383-387; + port., 385; + with Thomas at Nashville, 421; + Franklin, 427-430; + joins Sherman at Goldsboro', 441. + +Schurz, Carl, N maj.-gen., port., 254. + +Schuyler, Philip, Jr., N maj., 24. + +Scott, John, N spy, executed, 529. + +----, John S., C col., Somerset, Ky., 339, 340. + +----, Thomas M., C brig.-gen., port., 341. + +----, Winfield, N b'v't lieut.-gen., port., 12, 20, 38, 48, 49, 52, + 53, 54; + retires, 140; + attitude toward Sanitary Commission, 324. + +Scribner, Benjamin F., N b'v't brig.-gen., port., 302. + +Searcy Landing, Little Red River, Ark., engagement, 231. + +Secession, contemplated, 7; + begun by South Carolina, ordinances by other States, 9. + +Secessionville, S. C., battle, 219; + ill., 221. + +"Secret History of the Confederacy," quoted, 316. + +Sectional feeling a cause of the war, 7. + +Sedgwick, John, N maj.-gen., Antietam, 178, 180; + Fredericksburg, 241, 242, 243; + port., 242; + Salem Heights, 243; + Gettysburg, 252, 259, 262; + Rappahannock Sta., 334, 335; + Wilderness, 354; + Spottsylvania, 358; + killed, 359; + ill., 360, 451. + +Seeley's Battery, losses, 483. + +Seelye, Miss ("Frank Thompson"), N private 2d Mich. inf., 470. + +Selma, Ala., 375. + +Seminary Ridge, Gettysburg, 251-256. + +Semmes, Paul J., C brig.-gen., killed, Gettysburg, 259. + +----, Raphael, C rear-adm., 9; + commands "Alabama," 371; + battle with "Kearsarge," 372; + port., 372. + +Sequatchie Valley, Tenn., 226. + +Serrell, Edward W., N b'v't brig.-gen., siege of Charleston, 294. + +Seven Days, 160. + +Seven Pines, Va., battle, 146. + +Sevierville, Tenn., fight near, 436. + +Seward, William H., N Secy. of State, port., 6, 65; + emancipation, 189; + criticised by Gurowski, 237, 283; + letter to Minister Adams, 372-374, 375; + with Lincoln at Ft. Monroe, 441; + attacked by an assassin, 449. + +----, William H., Jr., N brig.-gen., port., 362, 478. + +Seymour, Horatio, Gov. of New York, opposed to the war, 284; + port., 285; + speech to rioters, 287; + Democratic convention, 413. + +----, Thomas H., proposed for president, 413. + +----, Truman, N b'v't maj.-gen., port., 11; + at Sumter, 11; + 2d Bull Run, 169; + Wilderness, 357; + Olustee, Florida, 436. + +Shackelford, James M., N brig.-gen., East Tenn., 341. + +Shadrack, Perry G., N spy, executed, 529. + +Shady Grove Church, Spottsylvania, 359. + +Shaler, Alexander, N b'v't maj.-gen., 24; + port., 35; + Wilderness, 357. + +Sharpsburg, Md., Antietam campaign, 175-179. + +Shaw, Jas., Jr., N b'v't brig.-gen., port., 552. + +----, Robert G., N col., port., 238; + commands first colored regiment, 239; + killed, Fort Wagner, 24, 239, 290; + courage, 291. + +----, William T., N col., Pleasant Hill, 379. + +----, ---- N lieut., Hawes's Shop, Va., 364. + +Shelby, Joseph O., C brig.-gen., 437. + +Shelbyville, Tenn., 510, 529. + +Shenandoah, C cruiser, 372. + +----, Army of the, commanded by Sheridan, 405. + +---- City, Va., 111. + +---- Valley, 143-152, 163, 193; + campaign, 216; + invaded, 250; + Lee's retreat, 333, 353, 368, 402; + Sheridan's operations, 405-411; + map, 407. + +Shepherdstown, W. Va., 177, 180, 250, 319. + +Sheridan, Philip H., N maj.-gen., Perryville, 201; + port., 203; + Murfreesboro', 210; + cavalry superiority, 250; + Chickamauga, 299, 301; + Chattanooga, 309; + Wilderness, 354-356; + port., 356; + Todd's Tavern, 358; + Yellow Tavern, 359; + North Anna, 363; + Cold Harbor, 365; + Shenandoah Valley, 404-411; + port., 408; + Trevilian Station and Gordonsville, Va., 433; + raid on the upper James, 442; + Five Forks, 443-445; + reconnoitering at Five Forks, ill., 444; + stops Lee's retreat at Appomattox C. H., 446, 451; + on the James, 486; + quoted, 518. + +---- in the Shenandoah, 405-411. + +Sherman, Thomas W., N b'v't maj.-gen., 69; + port., 71. + +----, William T., N gen., ports., 30, 519; + under first fire, 39, 49; + at Bull Run, 55, 57; + Shiloh, 100-108; + Vicksburg campaign, 271-275; + Chattanooga, 305-314; + Knoxville, 342; + under Grant, 351-353; + quoted, 358; + Meridian, Miss., 375; + "Hairpins," 375; + Atlanta campaign, 383-390; + Resaca, 385; + Kenesaw Mountain, 387; + plans, capture of Mobile, 391, 397; + "March to the Sea," 419-430; + correspondence with Gen. Hood and mayor of Atlanta, 419; + instructions for the march, 422; + march through the Carolinas, 439-441; + receives Johnston's surrender at Durham Station, 446; + army reviewed in Washington, 450, 451; + anecdotes, 456, 458, 513, 517; + quoted, 515; + (sketch), 518. + +---- and his generals, history suggested by picture, group of, + 513-519. + +Shields, James, N b'v't maj.-gen., 143; + port., 152; + Winchester, 216; + Port Republic, 216, 217; + port., 219. + +Shiloh, Tenn., battle, 101-109; + map, 104. + +---- Church, 101; + ill., 103. + +Ship Island, Miss., 91; + ill., 92. + +Shipping Point, Potomac River, ill., 146. + +Shirley's Ford, Spring River, Mo., engagement, 231. + +Shreveport, La., 270, 271; + capture attempted by Banks, 375; + Gen. Kirby Smith surrenders the last Confederate army at, 446. + +Shufeldt, Robert W., N naval com'd., port., 370. + +Sibley, Henry H., C brig.-gen., port., 231; + Fort Craig, N. M., 233. + +----, ----, N brig.-gen., Indian campaign, 234. + +Sibley tents, 496. + +Sickles, Daniel E., N maj.-gen., Chancellorsville, 241-246; + Gettysburg, 252-266; + port., 262, 361, 479. + +Siege of Charleston, The, 288-294. + +Sigel, Franz, N maj.-gen., Carthage, 41; + Pea Ridge, 80; + Pope's campaign, 163-168; + port., 168, 172; + under Grant, 353; + Newmarket, W. Va., 433. + +Signal Hill, Chattanooga, 313. + +---- Station, near Washington, ill., 431. + +Sill, Joshua W., N brig.-gen., killed, Murfreesboro', 211; + port., 483, 529. + +Silver Creek, Mo., engagement, 230. + +Simpson, ----, N col., Charlestown. Va., 334. + +Sioux Indians, atrocities, 234. + +Slack, William Y., C brig.-gen., Pea Ridge, 80. + +Slater, ----, N lieut., 437. + +Slavens, Samuel, N spy, executed, 529. + +Slavery, a cause of the war, 5, 182. + +Slemmer, Adam J., N b'v't brig.-gen., 10. + +Slidell, John, 63; + port., 65. + +Slocum, Henry W., N maj.-gen., port., 30, 518; + Chancellorsville, 243, 250; + Gettysburg, 252; + succeeds Hooker, 390; + Atlanta, 390, 420; + in march to the sea, 422; + Averysboro', 441; + Bentonville, 441, 513; + (sketch), 518. + +Small, Jerusha R., Mrs., 539. + +Smith, Andrew J., N maj.-gen., Alexandria, La., 375; + Pleasant Hill, 378, 379. + +----, A. J., N maj., Cedar Creek, Va., 411. + +----, Caleb B., N Secy. of the Interior, port., 6. + +----, Charles F., N maj.-gen., 75; + Fort Donelson, 77; + port., 79; + Shiloh, 100. + +----, Edmund Kirby, C gen., invades Ky., 223, 224; + Richmond, Ky., 224; + port., 225; + Pleasant Hill, 379; + surrender at Shreveport, La., 446. + +----, Gerrit, gives bail for Davis, 448. + +----, Giles A., N maj.-gen., Atlanta, 389. + +----, Goldwin, 66. + +----, Gustavus W., C maj.-gen., Fair Oaks, 150, 151; + port., 427. + +----, Joseph, N rear-adm., port., 84. + +----, Morgan L., N brig.-gen., Atlanta, 389. + +----, Patrick, N private, Bayou Teche, La., 348. + +----, Preston, C maj.-gen., killed, Chickamauga, 299. + +----, T. Kilby, N b'v't maj.-gen., port., 378; + Pleasant Hill, 379. + +----, William, C maj.-gen., port., 508. + +----, William F., N maj.-gen., Peninsular campaign, 143; + Cold Harbor, 365; + advance on Petersburg, 397. + +----, William Sooy, N brig.-gen., raid from Memphis, 375. + +----, ----, N lieut., Lookout Mt., 313. + +----, ----, N ensign, recaptured, 322. + +Smyth, Thomas A., N b'v't maj.-gen., port., 357. + +Snake Creek Gap, Ga., 385. + +Sneedsboro', S. C., 440. + +Snicker's Gap, Va., 406. + +Snow Hill, Tenn., battle, 295, 341. + +Snyder, George W., N 1st lieut., port., 11; + at Sumter, 11. + +Solferino, Italy, 23, 169. + +Somerset, Ky., action, 339, 340. + +Sons of America, 521. + +Sons of Liberty, 528. + +Soule, Pierre, 96. + +South Carolina, Nullification Acts of, 7; + secedes, 9; + 1st inf., Antietam, 180; + colored regiment, 185; + 8th C inf. captured, 406; + 18th and 72d inf. at Petersburg mine, 470. + +----, regimental losses, 1st inf., 483; + 7th, 17th, 23d, 12th inf., 484. + +South Carolina railroad destroyed, 440. + +South Mountain, Md., battle, 176. + +Southampton, Eng., 372. + +Southern life under blockade, 425. + +Southfield, N gunboat, Plymouth, N. C., 434. + +Southside Railroad, Va., 443. + +Southwest Pass, Miss. River, La., 91. + +Speed, ----, N lieut., quoted, 429. + +Spencer, R. H., Mrs., port., 537, 538. + +Sperryville, Va., 163. + +Spies and scouts, Northern, 507-512. + +----, Southern, 505-507. + +Spinola, Francis B., N brig.-gen., Manassas Gap, 333. + +Spottsylvania, Va., 358; + battle, 359-362, 470; + losses at, 477; + Kilpatrick's raid, 531. + +Sprague, William, gov. of R. I., port., 18. + +Spring Place, Ga., 385. + +Springfield, Ill., 38. + +----, Mo., 41, 79; + engagement, 118-121; + ill., 120; + action, 344. + +Springfield Landing, La., 379. + +Stafford, ----, N sergt., Gettysburg, 255. + +Stahel, Julius X., N maj.-gen., Cross Keys, 216; + port., 218, 268. + +Standard, Raleigh, N. C., quoted, 431. + +Stanley, David S., N b'v't maj.-gen., Iuka, 203, 204; + Corinth, 206, 207; + Murfreesboro', 211; + port., 212; + Snow Hill, Tenn., 295, 305, 341; + Bradyville, 340; + Atlanta campaign, 386; + with Thomas at Nashville, 421. + +Stannard, George J., N b'v't maj.-gen., Gettysburg, 259, 262. + +Stannard's Battery, Camp Wild Cat, 114. + +Stansbury Hill, Fredericksburg, 199. + +Stanton, Edwin M., N sec'y of war, port., 6, 48, 143, 154, 295, 349, + 405; + cartoon, 463; + offers reward for arrest of Booth and accomplices, 510. + +Star of the West, N vessel, 5, 14. + +"Star Spangled Banner," 122. + +Starke, William E., C brig.-gen., killed, Antietam, 180. + +State sovereignty, a cause of the war, 5, 7, 35. + +Statesville, Tenn., action, 340. + +Staunton, Va., devastated by Hunter, 317, 318; + by Torbert, 409. + +Steadman, N capt., 71. + +Stedman, Griffin A., Jr., N b'v't brig.-gen., port., 362. + +Steedman, James B., N maj.-gen., port., 301; + Chickamauga, 302, 303. + +Steel, ----, N maj., Warrenton Junction, 331. + +Steele, Frederick, N maj.-gen., Vicksburg campaign, 271. + +Steele's Bayou, Miss., 273. + +Stein, ----, C, killed, Prairie Grove, 233. + +Steinwehr, Adolph von, N brig.-gen., Gettysburg, 252; + port., 255. + +Stephens, Alexander H., C vice-pres., port., 28; + speech against secession, 31; + speech defending slavery, 32; + writing about effect of Lincoln's proclamation of rebellion, 35; + speech, Charlotte, N. C, 307; + peace commissioner, 441. + +----, Malvina, N guide, 521. + +Stevens, Aaron F., N b'v't brig.-gen., Fredericksburg, 199. + +----, Alanson J., N lieut., Gettysburg, 254. + +----, Atherton H., Jr., N maj., 454. + +----, Isaac I., N maj.-gen., killed, Chantilly, Va., 169 and 479; + Secessionville, 219. + +----, Thaddeus, M. C., financial proposition, 416. + +Stevensburg, Va., 165. + +Stevenson, Carter L., C maj.-gen., port., 275. + +----, Thomas G., N brig.-gen., killed, Spottsylvania, 362. + +Stewart, Alexander P., C lieut.-gen., port., 313. + +----, George H., C brig.-gen., captured, Spottsylvania, 359, 362. + +----, William C., N color-bearer, Lebanon, Tenn., 229. + +----, ----, N lieut., Hawes's Shop, Va., 364. + +Stiles, Israel N., N b'v't brig.-gen., 429. + +Stimers, ----, engineer, "Monitor," 85. + +Stimpson, ----, N, Bolivar Heights, 111. + +Stiner, J. H., balloonist, 162. + +Stokes, James H., N capt., Murfreesboro', 212. + +Stone, Charles P., N brig.-gen., 20, 22; + port., 29; + at Harper's Ferry, 47; + Ball's Bluff, 109; + Sabine Cross Roads, 377. + +----, Ray, N b'v't brig.-gen., Gettysburg, 251. + +Stone Bridge (Bull Run), 52, 53, 54, 55, 60; + ill., 172. + +---- House (Bull Run), ill., 58. + +---- River, Tenn., battle, 209-213; + ill., 202; + _Map_, 211, 308. + +Stoneman, George, N maj.-gen., Warrenton, Va., 331; + captured, Clifton, Ga., 390. + +Stoner, ----, N ensign, recaptured, 322. + +Stoughton, Charles B., N b'v't brig.-gen., captured, Fairfax C. H., + Va., 331. + +Stovall, Marcellus A., N brig.-gen., port., 303. + +Stowe, Mrs. Harriet Beecher, port., 189. + +Strahl, Oscar F., N brig.-gen., killed, 430. + +Stranahan, Mrs. James S. T., port., 539, 540. + +Strasburg, Va., 28, 409, 410. + +Streight, Abel D., N b'v't brig.-gen., raid in Ala. and capture, 295. + +Stringham, Silas H., N rear-adm., port., 66, 68. + +Strong, George C., N maj.-gen., killed, Fort Wagner, 290. + +----, George T., Sanitary Commission, 325. + +----, William E., N b'v't brig.-gen., ports., 277, 418. + +Stuart, George H., Christian Commission, 326. + +----, James E. B., C lieut.-gen., at Bull Run, 60; + Bunker Hill, 111; + Peninsular campaign, 150-152; + port., 158; + operations against Pope, 164-166, 192; + Chancellorsville, 242; + Culpeper, 249; + Aldie, Va., 250; + Gettysburg, 259, 267, 268; + in Va., 232; + Wilderness, 354; + Yellow Tavern, 359, 451. + +----, ----, N lieut.-col., Chattanooga, 314. + +Sturgis, Russell, 15. + +----, Samuel D., N b'v't maj.-gen., 41; + Antietam, 179; + Fair Gardens, Tenn., 436; + port., 437. + +Sudley Ford (Bull Run), 54, 55, 61. + +---- Mill (Bull Run), 167; + ill., 169. + +---- Road (Bull Run), 54, 55, 57. + +---- Springs, Va., 169. + +Suffolk, Va., _Map_ of vicinity, 141; + actions, 329, 331. + +Sugar Creek, Ark., 80; + action, 231. + +Sugar Valley, Ga., occupied by McPherson, 385. + +Sullivan, Jeremiah C., N brig.-gen., Iuka, 203. + +Sullivan's Island, Charleston harbor, 11, 292. + +Sully, Alfred, N b'v't maj.-gen., Whitestone Hill, Dak., 348. + +Sulphur Springs, Va., 166, 333. + +Sultana, N steamer, fatal explosion, 468. + +Summerton (Chattanooga), 314. + +Sumner, Charles, port., 189, 375. + +----, Edwin V., N maj.-gen., 49; + Peninsular campaign, 143-158; + port., 152; + 2d Bull Run, 169; + Antietam, 177-179; + port., 192; + Burnside's campaign, 193. + +Sumter, C cruiser, abandoned, Gibraltar, 372. + +Surratt, John H., reward offered for arrest, 510. + +Surrender of Lee, ill., 447. + +Susquehanna, N cruiser, 68. + +Swamp Angel, 294. + +Sweeden's Cove, Ala., engagement, 226. + +Sweeting, Harry, C cav., Warrenton Junction, 331. + +Switzerland, N ram, Waterproof, La., 437. + +Sykes, George, N maj.-gen., at Bull Run, 55; + Gettysburg, 252, 265, 266; + quoted, 479. + + +Tacony, C cruiser, 372. + +Talbot, Theodore, N 1st lieut., port., 11; + at Sumter, 11. + +Taliaferro, William B., C brig.-gen., 28; + port., 293. + +Tallahassee, C cruiser, 372. + +Tammany regiment, N. Y., 42d inf., 109. + +Taney, Roger B., U. S. chief-justice, 43, 186, 284. + +Taneytown, Md., 252. + +Taylor, Benjamin F., correspondent, describes battle Lookout Mt., + 311-314; + quoted, 504. + +----, C. Fred., N col., port., 484. + +----, Frank E., N lieut., Pleasant Hill, La., 378. + +----, Nellie M., Mrs., port., 533, 536. + +----, Richard, C lieut.-gen., Sabine Cross Roads, La., 377; + Pleasant Hill, 379; + port., 381. + +----, Samuel B., quoted, 526. + +----, Walter H., C maj., port., 165. + +Tazewell, Tenn., action, 227. + +Tecumseh, N monitor, Mobile Bay, 391-393. + +Templeman, ----, C cav., killed, Warrenton Junction, 332. + +Tennessee, struggle for, 35, 44; + 1st cav., Murfreesboro', 211; + terrorism in, 317. + +----, regimental losses, 8th inf., 483, 484; + 10th, 2d, 15th, 6th, 9th, 23d, 63d, 20th, 32d, 12th, inf., 484. + +----, C ironclad, Mobile Bay, 391, 392. + +----, Army of the, commanded by McPherson, 383; + commanded by Howard, 390. + +----, Army and dept. of, C 387. + +"Tenting on the old camp-ground," Walter Kittridge, 139, 413. + +Tents used in camp, 496. + +----, "A," 496. + +----, dog, 498. + +----, shelter, 498. + +----, Sibley, 496. + +----, wall, 496. + +Terrill, William R., N brig.-gen., killed, Perryville, 201. + +Terry, Alfred H., N maj.-gen., port., 290, 439; + siege of Charleston, 292; + Fort Fisher, 441; + joins Sherman, 441. + +----, B. F., C col., killed, Munfordville, 115. + +----, of Texas, C spy, 505. + +Texas, annexation of, 7; + secedes, 9; + 3d inf., Iuka, 206; + 1st inf., losses, 484; + 4th inf., losses, 484. + +Thoburn, Joseph, N col., killed, Cedar Creek, Va., 410. + +Thomas, George H., N maj.-gen., port., 49; + at Mill Springs, Ky., 73; + Falling Waters, 111; + Murfreesboro', 210, 263; + port., 298; + Chickamauga, 298-302; + supersedes Rosecrans, 305; + Chattanooga, 308, 309; + Atlanta campaign, 383-387; + "Circus," 383; + Peach Tree Creek, 387; + organizes an army at Nashville, 421, 430, 451; + anecdote, 457, 513. + +----, Lorenzo, N b'v't maj.-gen., 49; + address on colored soldiers, 238, 239. + +----, Mrs. Col. (C), of Tenn., deceives Gen. Rosecrans, anecdote, 506. + +Thompson, Francis W., N lieut.-col., Bull Pasture Mountain, 216. + +----, Frank (Miss Seelye), N (female) pvt., 2d Mich. inf., 470. + +----, George, 18. + +----, Jacob, U. S. sec'y of the interior, 9; + conspires with (C) Lieut. S. D. Davis, 471, 528. + +----, M. Jeff., C brig.-gen., Fredericktown, Mo., 118; + Charlestown, Mo., 230; + port., 231. + +Thompson's Station, Tenn., engagement, 340. + +Thoroughfare Gap, Va., 166, 167. + +Tilghman, Lloyd, C brig.-gen., at Ft. Henry, 75, 76; + port., 275; + killed, Champion's Hill, Miss., 275. + +Times, London, Eng., 62, 87, 196. + +----, Wheeling, Va., 33. + +Todd, H. H., N capt., 523. + +Todd's Tavern, Va., engagement, 358. + +Toland, John T., N col., Fayetteville, W. Va., 218; + killed, Wytheville, Va., 339. + +Tom's Brook, Va., action, 410. + +Toombs, Robert, C sec'y of state, port., 26; + C brig.-gen., Antietam, 180. + +Topliff, E. A., N pvt., Parker's Cross Roads, 230. + +Torbert, Alfred T. A., N b'v't maj.-gen., port., 405; + Shenandoah Valley, 406-410; + Trevilian Sta., Va., 433. + +Torrence, ----, N maj., Roan's Tanyard, Mo., 230. + +Totten, Joseph G., N b'v't maj.-gen., port., 35, 49. + +Tourtellotte, John E., N b'v't brig.-gen., at Allatoona, 420. + +Towns, ----, N capt., 318. + +Townsend, Edward D., N b'v't maj.-gen., port., 29, 49. + +----, Frederick, N b'v't brig.-gen., at Big Bethel, 45. + +Tracy, Benjamin F., N b'v't brig.-gen., 480. + +"Tramp, tramp, tramp, the boys are marching," George F. Root, 125. + +Tranter's Creek, N. C., battle, 218. + +Trebra, ----, N lieut.-col., 32d Ind., 115. + +Trent, British steamer, 63; + ill., 63, 65. + +Trent affair, 63, 65. + +Trenton, Tenn., captured by Forrest, 229. + +Trevilian Station, Va., ill., 432. + +Tribune, Cincinnati, quoted, 526. + +----, New York, N. Y., 186; + office attacked by rioters, 286; + correspondents captured, 520. + +Trobriand, P. Regis de, N b'v't maj.-gen., port., 262; + Gettysburg, 265, 266. + +Trobriand's (de) Zouaves, 499. + +Trumbull, Henry C. (Rev.), captured, Ft. Wagner, 291, 292. + +Tullahoma, Tenn., 297. + +Tunnel, Libby Prison, 521. + +Tunnel Hill, Ga., fortified by Johnston, 383. + +Turchin, John B., N brig.-gen., port., 311. + +----, Mrs. John B., 470. + +Turkey Bend, Va., 159. + +Turner, Nat, insurrection, 448. + +----, R. R., C maj., keeper Libby Prison, port., 321. + +Turner's Gap, Md., 176, 177. + +Tuscaloosa, Ala., 316. + +Tuscarora, N gunboat, Gibraltar, 372. + +Twiggs, David E., U. S. brig.-gen., 35, 49. + +Tybee Island, Ga., 220, 221. + +Tyler, Daniel, N brig.-gen., 49; + at Bull Run, 53, 54, 55. + +----, Erastus B., N b'v't maj.-gen., port., 57. + +----, Robert O., N b'v't maj.-gen., port., 362; + Spottsylvania, 362; + Cold Harbor, 367; + defence of Washington, 402. + +Tyler, N gunboat, Shiloh, 101; + Helena, Ark., 344. + +----, Tex., prison camps, 321. + + +Union City, Tenn., 225; + action, 226. + +Union Mills Ford (Bull Run), 52. + +Union Square, New York, N. Y., mass meeting, 236. + +United States Ford, Chancellorsville, 246. + +Upperville, Va., action, 250, 267. + +Upton, Emory, N b'v't maj.-gen., Spottsylvania, 359; + port., 367, 480. + +Ute Indians, Ft. Halleck, Idaho, 348. + + +Vallandigham, Clement L., M. C., opposes emancipation, 190; + opposition to Lincoln, 283; + banishment, 284; + port., 285; + Democratic convention, 413. + +Valparaiso, 90. + +Van Allen, James H., N brig.-gen., port., 247. + +Van Buren, Dr., Sanitary Commission, 324. + +Vance, Robert B., C brig.-gen., port., 213. + +----, Zebulon C., gov. N. C., quoted, 420. + +Van Cleve, Horatio P., N b'v't maj.-gen., Chickamauga, 301. + +Vanderbilt, Cornelius, gives bail for Davis, 448. + +Van Dorn, Earl, C maj.-gen., Pea Ridge, 80; + port., 81, 203; + Corinth, 206, 207; + superseded by Pemberton, 209; + Holly Springs, Miss., 271; + Franklin, Tenn., 295, 341. + +Van Gilder, ----, N ord.-sergt., Spottsylvania, 361. + +Van Pelt farmhouse, Bull Run, hospital, 464-465. + +Van Wyck, Charles H., N brig.-gen., port., 147. + +Varuna, N cruiser, at N. O., 93; + ill., 94. + +Vaught's Hill, Tenn., action, 340, 341. + +Verdiersville, Va., 164. + +Vermilion Bayou, La., ills. of battle, 330, 343; + battle, 347. + +Vermont, 1st and 5th cav., Kettle Run, Va., 331; + 8th inf., losses at Cedar Creek, 478; + 1st hvy. art'y, losses, 478; + 2d inf., losses, 478; + 4th inf., losses in Wilderness, 478; + Newport News, anecdote, 502. + +Vesey, Denmark, insurrection, 448. + +Vicksburg, Miss., campaign, 270-282; + _Map_, 271; + ill., 280, 295, 307, 308, 322, 350, 375. + +---- campaign, The, 270-282. + +Viele, Egbert L., N brig.-gen., 24; + Norfolk, 217; + port., 221. + +Vienna, Va., 52. + +Vigintal crop, the, 33. + +Vincent, Strong, N brig.-gen., Gettysburg, 252, 261; + killed, 254. + +Virginia, invaded by John Brown, 7; + secedes, 9, 33; + measures for defence, 27; + slave industry, 32; + struggle for, 44; + C 1st cav., Kelly's Ford, 332; + N 13th inf., Point Pleasant, 337; + C 54th inf., anecdote, 468. + +----, regimental losses, 17th, 32d, 4th inf., 484. + +----, C ironclad (see "Merrimac"). + +----, Army of, 163. + +----, Northern, Army of, C, Gettysburg, 262; + retreat, 334, 335, 353; + organization, 354, 387; + surrender to Grant, 446. + +Virginia and Tennessee R. R., 316; + destroyed, 433. + +Virginia Central R. R., 362, 363, 409, 531. + +Virginia Military Institute burned by Hunter, 318; + cadets, 433. + +Vollmer, David, C, killed, Belmont, 122. + +Von Borcke, ----, C, 164. + +Von Gilsa, Leopold, N col., Chancellorsville, 245. + +Voris, Alvin C., N b'v't maj.-gen., Fort Wagner, 291. + + +Wabash, N cruiser, 68, 71. + +Wade, Jennie, killed, Gettysburg, 259; + port., 267, 538. + +----, Mary E., Mrs., port., 533. + +Wadsworth, James S., N b'v't maj.-gen., Gettysburg, 267; + killed, Wilderness, 356, 451. + +Wagner, George D., N brig.-gen., Franklin, Tenn., 427. + +Wagons, army, 504. + +Wainwright, J. M., N comr., killed, Galveston, 348. + +Walke, Henry, N rear-adm., Island No. 10, 99; + port., 273. + +Walker, J. Bryant, N capt., Atlanta, 389. + +----, John G., C maj.-gen., Harper's Ferry, 175; + port., 177, 220. + +----, Leroy P., C sec'y of war, port., 26. + +----, W. H. T., C maj.-gen., wounded, Spottsylvania, 362. + +----, ----, C col., Belmont, 122. + +----, ----, imprisoned, 316. + +----, ----, N capt., Atlanta, 389. + +Wallace, Lew, N maj.-gen., Fort Donelson, 77; + Crump's Landing, 100; + Shiloh, 101-108; + port., 104; + defence of Washington, 402, 403. + +----, William H. L., N brig.-gen., Shiloh, 100, 101, 481. + +Waller, Francis A., N corp., Gettysburg, 260. + +Wampler, ----, imprisoned, 316. + +Wapping Heights, Va., battle, 333. + +War Democrats, 36. + +---- humor in the South, 459-463. + +---- in the West, 200-214. + +---- songs, 123-139. + +Ward, William T., N b'v't maj.-gen., port., 423. + +Ware, W. W., 349. + +Waring, George E., Jr., N col., Batesville, Ark., 343. + +Warner, ----, N maj., Gettysburg, 266. + +----, ----, C capt., 320. + +Warren, Gouverneur K., N maj.-gen., Big Bethel, 45; + 2d Bull Run, 169; + Gettysburg, 252-265; + port., 257; + Bristoe Sta., Va., 334; + Mine Run, 337; + Wilderness, 354; + Spottsylvania, 358-361; + North Anna, 362; + advance on Petersburg, 400; + relieved, 445, 479. + +Warrensburg. Mo., 118; + engagement, 230. + +Warrenton, Va., 193-197. + +Warrenton Junction, Va., 168; + attacked by Mosby, 331; + Grant escapes capture, 375. + +Warrenton Turnpike (Bull Run), 52, 53, 55, 57, 60, 167; + ill., 172. + +Warrior, English vessel, 87. + +Warwick River, Va., 143. + +Washburne, Elihu B., M. C., tribute to Hancock, 261, 262. + +Washington, John A., C col., killed at Cheat Mountain, 114. + +----, J. B., C aide, port., 79. + +Washington, D. C., C sympathizers, 19; + measures for defence, 20, 22; + N troops arrive, 25; + Peninsular campaign, 140-162; + threatened by Early, 402-404. + +----, N. C., 67, 218; + battle, 219. + +Washington College, Va., threatened by Hunter, 318. + +Washington in Danger, 402-404. + +Waterloo and Gettysburg compared, 259. + +Waterproof, La., fight, 437. + +Watkins, Louis D., N b'v't brig.-gen., 507. + +Wauhatchie, Tenn., action, 305, 313. + +Waynesboro, Va., action, 409; + engagement, 442. + +"We are coming, Father Abraham," James Sloane Gibbons, 128, 413. + +Wead, ----, N col., Cold Harbor, Va., 365; + killed, 367. + +Weatherby, ----, N lieut., Vicksburg, 279. + +Webb, Alexander S., N b'v't maj.-gen., Peninsular campaign, 150-160; + Gettysburg, 257, 259, 263; + Bristoe Sta., Va., 334; + Robertson's Tavern, 336; + Spottsylvania, 362. + +Webster, Fletcher, N col., killed, 477; + port., 480. + +----, Joseph D., N b'v't maj.-gen., Shiloh, 101, 108. + +----, ----, N maj., 25th Ohio, 114. + +Weed, Stephen H., N brig.-gen., killed, Gettysburg, 254, 261. + +Weehawken, N monitor, siege of Charleston, 289. + +Weekly Spectator, London, Eng., 65. + +Weitzel, Godfrey, N maj.-gen., Franklin, La., 345; + Vermillion Bayou, La., 347; + port., 443; + occupies Richmond, Va., 445, 454. + +Weldon R. R., Va., actions, 398, 400. + +Welles, Gideon, N sec'y of the navy, port., 6; + 49, 91. + +Wells, George D., N brig.-gen., killed, Cedar Creek, Va., 410. + +Wessells, Henry W., N brig.-gen., Plymouth, S. C., 433-434. + +Westfield, N vessel, destroyed, Galveston, 338. + +West Liberty, Ky., action, 114, 115. + +West Point, Va., 158. + +West Tennessee, Army of, 206. + +West Virginia, admitted to the Union, 9; + formation of, 44, 45; + cleared of Confederate troops, 113, 114; + 3d inf., Bull Pasture Mountain, 216; + 7th inf., Blooming Gap, 217. + +----, Army of, Shenandoah Valley, 411; + 7th inf. losses, 481. + +Wharton, John A., C maj.-gen., Snow Hill, Tenn., 341. + +Wheeler, Joseph, C lieut.-gen., Murfreesboro', 211; + port., 212; + Dover, 295; + Rover, Tenn., 340; + Fort Donelson, 340; + Vaught's Hill, 340; + Atlanta, 389, 390; + Confederate cavalry, 423; + opposes Sherman in S. C., 440. + +Wheeling, W. Va., 44, 45. + +"When Johnny comes marching home," Patrick S. Gilmore, 136. + +"When this cruel war is over," Charles C. Sawyer, 127, 413. + +Whig, Richmond, quoted, 431. + +Whilldin, ----, capt., 349. + +Whipple, Amiel W., N maj.-gen., killed, Chancellorsville, 242, 247. + +Whitaker, Walter C., N b'v't maj.-gen., Chickamauga, 299; + Lookout Mountain, 313. + +White, John H., N lieut.-col., port., 484. + +----, Julius, N b'v't maj.-gen., Harper's Ferry, 176. + +----, Mathew X., C capt., murdered, 319. + +----, ----, N maj., Springfield, Mo., 118, 119. + +White Oak Swamp, Va., battle, 158. + +White House, Va., Peninsular campaign, 144-162; + ill., 153; + 365, 368, 531. + +Whiteside, Tenn., ill. of bridge, 338. + +Whitestone Hill, Dak., engagement, 348. + +Whiting, William, quoted on emancipation, 190, 191. + +----, W. H. C., C maj.-gen., Peninsular campaign, 155. + +Whitney, Eli, cotton-gin, 5. + +Whittier, John G., from "Brown of Ossawatomie," 21, 182; + port., 190. + +Wickham, William C., C brig.-gen., port., 434. + +Wickliffe, ----, M. C., 190. + +Wiedrick, Michael, N capt., Gettysburg, 254. + +Wilcox, Cadmus M., C maj.-gen., port., 195; + Gettysburg, 476. + +Wilcox's Landing, Va., 468. + +Wild, ----, C cav., Warrenton Junction, 331. + +Wilderness, 335, 336, 353; + ill., 354; + battle, 355-357; + _Map_, 355, 387; + losses, 477. + +Wilderness Tavern, Va., Grant's headquarters, 355. + +Wilkes, Charles, N capt., 63, 65; + port., 65. + +Wilkeson, Frank, quoted, 358. + +Willard's Hotel, Washington, D. C., 25. + +Willcox, Orlando B., N maj.-gen., at Bull Run, 55, 57; + port., 401. + +William Aiken, U. S. revenue cutter, 10. + +William and Mary College, 33. + +Williams, Alpheus S., N b'v't maj.-gen., 513. + +----, E. C., N ensign, Red River expedition, 382. + +----, John S., C brig.-gen., port., 336. + +----, Thomas, N brig.-gen., attitude toward slavery, 185; + killed, Baton Rouge, 270. + +----, ----, N lieut., Ft. Halleck, Idaho, 348. + +Williamsburg, Va., battle, 143-144. + +Williamsport, Md., 250; + fight, 436. + +Williston, Edward B., N lieut., Trevilian Sta., Va., 433. + +Willoughby Run, Gettysburg, 251. + +Willoughby's Point, Va., 217. + +Willow Springs, Miss., engagement, 274. + +Wilmington Island, Ga., engagement, 223. + +Wilson, C. H., N lieut., Wilmington Island, 223. + +----, George D., N spy, executed, 529. + +----, Henry, 190. + +----, James H., N maj.-gen., cavalry superiority, 250; + North Anna, 363; + Long Bridge, 368; + Shenandoah, 407; + Nashville, 430; + captures Davis, 448. + +----, ----, N capt., Lookout Mountain, 304. + +Wilson Small, N transport, 327. + +Wilson's Creek, Mo., battle, 41; + ill., 42. + +Winchester, Tenn., 226. + +----, Va., 47, 54, 59, 113, 143, 191; + engagement, 216; + captured by Ewell, 250, 403; + action, 404, 406; + battle, 407, 409; + Sheridan's ride, 410, 411. + +Winder, Charles S., C brig.-gen., killed, Cedar Mountain, 164. + +----, John H., C brig.-gen., port., 318; + Libby Prison, 321, 349; + Andersonville, 390; + death, 448. + +Winnebago, N monitor, Mobile Bay, 319. + +Winslow, John A., N naval capt., port., 371; + commands "Kearsarge" and destroys "Alabama," 372; + port., 372. + +Winthrop, Theodore, N maj., 24; + port., 35; + killed, Big Bethel, 45, 451. + +Wisconsin _Infantry_, 1st, Dandridge, 436; + 2d, losses, Bull Run, 477; + 3d, Bolivar Heights, 111; + 4th, 185; + 5th, Rappahannock Sta., 335; + 6th and 7th, Gettysburg, 259; + 12th, Atlanta, 389; + 15th, Chickamauga, 299; + 16th, Atlanta, 389; + 5th art'y, Perryville, 201. + +----, regimental losses, 2d inf., 483; + 7th inf., 483; + 20th inf., 483. + +Wise, Henry A., C brig-gen., in W. Va., 113; + gov. of Va., port., 183. + +Witherell, Mrs. E. C., 539. + +Withers, Jones M., C maj.-gen., port., 108. + +Wittenmeyer, Annie, Mrs., 538. + +Wolford, Frank, N col., Somerset, Ky., 340. + +----, F. T., N col., Philadelphia, Tenn., 342. + +Woman's Contribution to the Cause, 533-540. + +Women's Central Association of Relief, 324. + +Wood, Robert C., N b'v't brig.-gen., Sanitary Commission, 324. + +----, Thomas J., N maj.-gen., Chickamauga, 298-302; + Chattanooga, 309; + Atlanta campaign, 386. + +Woodford, Stewart L., N b'v't brig.-gen., port., 290. + +Woods, Charles R., N b'v't maj.-gen., port., 311; + Atlanta, 389. + +Woodsonville, Ky. (see Munfordville). + +Woodstock company, 1st Vt. inf., anecdote, 502. + +Wool, John E., N maj.-gen., port., 23, 49; + captures Norfolk, 217. + +Woolsey, Georgia M., Miss, 538. + +----, Jane C., Miss, 538. + +Worden, John L., N rear-adm., N. C. expedition, 72; + "Monitor," 85; + port., 87; + destroys the "Nashville," 348. + +Work, Henry C., "Marching through Georgia," 129; + "Grafted into the Army," 137. + +Wormeley, Katherine P., Miss, 537. + +Wright, Ambrose R., C maj.-gen., Antietam, 180. + +----, Horatio G., N maj.-gen., Secessionville, 219; + Rappahannock Sta., 335; + Spottsylvania, 359, 362; + North Anna, 362, 363; + Cold Harbor, 365; + advance on Petersburg, 398; + defence of Washington, 404; + port., 405; + Cedar Creek, 410, 411, 445. + +Wyatt's, Miss., action, 343. + +Wyndham, Percy, N col., Harrisonburg, 216; + port., 218. + +Wynkoop, ----, N lieut., Hawes's Shop, Va., 364. + +Wytheville, Va., action, 339. + + +Yankee, N steam-tug, 29. + +Yates, Richard, gov. of Ill., port., 18. + +Yazoo City, Miss., 273. + +Yazoo Pass, Miss., 273. + +Yellow Medicine, Minn., destroyed by Indians, 234. + +Yellow Tavern, Va., action, 359. + +York, Pa., occupied by Lee, 250, 251. + +Yorktown, Va., 143; + ills. of battery, 149, 151, 463. + +Young, Francis G., N capt., Ball's Bluff, 110. + +----, Pierce M. B., C maj.-gen., port., 508. + +----, ----, N adjt., Gettysburg, 255. + +----, ----, N eng. corps, Pleasant Hills, La., 379. + +Young Men's Christian Association, 325. + +Young's Branch (Bull Run), 55, 57. + + +Zagonyi, Charles, N maj., cav., Springfield, Mo., 118-121; + port., 121. + +Zelitch, ----, N ensign, Mobile Bay, 393. + +Zollicoffer, Felix K., C brig.-gen., Camp Wild Cat, 73, 114; + killed, Fishing Creek, 73; + port., 77, 451. + +Zook, Samuel K., N b'v't maj.-gen., killed, Gettysburg, 254; + port., 261. + +Zouaves, "Duryea's," 24; + "Chicago," 25; + "Fire," 25, 61; + "Hawkins'," 72, 218; + ill., 198. + +{551} [Illustration: (handwritten) A. Lincoln.] + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD*** + + +******* This file should be named 47746-8.txt or 47746-8.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/4/7/7/4/47746 + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will +be renamed. + +Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright +law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, +so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United +States without permission and without paying copyright +royalties. Special rules, set forth in the General Terms of Use part +of this license, apply to copying and distributing Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works to protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm +concept and trademark. Project Gutenberg is a registered trademark, +and may not be used if you charge for the eBooks, unless you receive +specific permission. If you do not charge anything for copies of this +eBook, complying with the rules is very easy. You may use this eBook +for nearly any purpose such as creation of derivative works, reports, +performances and research. They may be modified and printed and given +away--you may do practically ANYTHING in the United States with eBooks +not protected by U.S. copyright law. Redistribution is subject to the +trademark license, especially commercial redistribution. + +START: FULL LICENSE + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full +Project Gutenberg-tm License available with this file or online at +www.gutenberg.org/license. + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or +destroy all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your +possession. If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a +Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound +by the terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the +person or entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph +1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this +agreement and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the +Foundation" or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection +of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual +works in the collection are in the public domain in the United +States. If an individual work is unprotected by copyright law in the +United States and you are located in the United States, we do not +claim a right to prevent you from copying, distributing, performing, +displaying or creating derivative works based on the work as long as +all references to Project Gutenberg are removed. Of course, we hope +that you will support the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting +free access to electronic works by freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm +works in compliance with the terms of this agreement for keeping the +Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with the work. You can easily +comply with the terms of this agreement by keeping this work in the +same format with its attached full Project Gutenberg-tm License when +you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are +in a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, +check the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this +agreement before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, +distributing or creating derivative works based on this work or any +other Project Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no +representations concerning the copyright status of any work in any +country outside the United States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other +immediate access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear +prominently whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work +on which the phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, +performed, viewed, copied or distributed: + + This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and + most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no + restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it + under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this + eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the + United States, you'll have to check the laws of the country where you + are located before using this ebook. + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is +derived from texts not protected by U.S. copyright law (does not +contain a notice indicating that it is posted with permission of the +copyright holder), the work can be copied and distributed to anyone in +the United States without paying any fees or charges. If you are +redistributing or providing access to a work with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the work, you must comply +either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 or +obtain permission for the use of the work and the Project Gutenberg-tm +trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any +additional terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms +will be linked to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works +posted with the permission of the copyright holder found at the +beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including +any word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access +to or distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format +other than "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official +version posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site +(www.gutenberg.org), you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense +to the user, provide a copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means +of obtaining a copy upon request, of the work in its original "Plain +Vanilla ASCII" or other form. Any alternate format must include the +full Project Gutenberg-tm License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +provided that + +* You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is owed + to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he has + agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the Project + Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments must be paid + within 60 days following each date on which you prepare (or are + legally required to prepare) your periodic tax returns. Royalty + payments should be clearly marked as such and sent to the Project + Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the address specified in + Section 4, "Information about donations to the Project Gutenberg + Literary Archive Foundation." + +* You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or destroy all + copies of the works possessed in a physical medium and discontinue + all use of and all access to other copies of Project Gutenberg-tm + works. + +* You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of + any money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days of + receipt of the work. + +* You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work or group of works on different terms than +are set forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing +from both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and The +Project Gutenberg Trademark LLC, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm +trademark. Contact the Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +works not protected by U.S. copyright law in creating the Project +Gutenberg-tm collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may +contain "Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate +or corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other +intellectual property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or +other medium, a computer virus, or computer codes that damage or +cannot be read by your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium +with your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you +with the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in +lieu of a refund. If you received the work electronically, the person +or entity providing it to you may choose to give you a second +opportunity to receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If +the second copy is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing +without further opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS', WITH NO +OTHER WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT +LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of +damages. If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement +violates the law of the state applicable to this agreement, the +agreement shall be interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or +limitation permitted by the applicable state law. The invalidity or +unenforceability of any provision of this agreement shall not void the +remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in +accordance with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the +production, promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works, harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, +including legal fees, that arise directly or indirectly from any of +the following which you do or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this +or any Project Gutenberg-tm work, (b) alteration, modification, or +additions or deletions to any Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any +Defect you cause. + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of +computers including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It +exists because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations +from people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future +generations. To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation and how your efforts and donations can help, see +Sections 3 and 4 and the Foundation information page at +www.gutenberg.org + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent permitted by +U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is in Fairbanks, Alaska, with the +mailing address: PO Box 750175, Fairbanks, AK 99775, but its +volunteers and employees are scattered throughout numerous +locations. Its business office is located at 809 North 1500 West, Salt +Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887. Email contact links and up to +date contact information can be found at the Foundation's web site and +official page at www.gutenberg.org/contact + +For additional contact information: + + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To SEND +DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any particular +state visit www.gutenberg.org/donate + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. To +donate, please visit: www.gutenberg.org/donate + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project +Gutenberg-tm concept of a library of electronic works that could be +freely shared with anyone. For forty years, he produced and +distributed Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of +volunteer support. + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as not protected by copyright in +the U.S. unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not +necessarily keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper +edition. + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search +facility: www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. + |