w^^mmMW. ^Pl ^m ^^^^ ^^S^ ^^s^ ^M:^< J^ «, jur^l^f'^ "^ ^feii ^^^^^H^ ^^Sl ^S^ ^^H BS 3m ^ ^^rm 1 "Cx^^^l^^^^T^? EMt *W p^ - ^^ j^cg^^^wi^jpi Ex - I»J1 D^^^r^S fe. ^ rM p ^ 1 .^^L ^? ^-^^ 5^ ^Kis' ^^*^^^1 ^ R U ^ 1 £j^^^^^ ^1 FI|P (Eampaigna nf t\}t (Etvitl Har — in the — lutt^ib ^UUb of Kmtvutx IBBl - IBfiS BY THOMAS H. M'CANN, OF HOBOK15N, N. J. Sergeant of Company "C," Ninetieth Regiment, New York State Veteran Volunteers, Nineteentii Army Corps, United States Army — November 19, 1861, to February 9, 1866. THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL WAR : fl 1861 1915 Served from November 19th, 1861 To February 9th, 1866. ( 3ob ^riiit 1315 ) ^ THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL, WAR PUBLISHER'S NOTE This story appeared originally in the Hudson Observer, of Hudson County, N. J., June, July and August, 1915, and is reproduced in book form by the kind permission of the publishers of that paper, to whom the author extends his thanks. THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL WAR Dedicated To the Po.stcrlti/ of ''The Blue and the Gray:' "So with an equal splendor, The niorninij;- sun rays fall, With a tonch impartially tender, On the blossoms blooming for all: Under the sod and the dew, Waiting the Judgment Day, BroidercMl with gold the Blue, Mello\\'ed with gold the Gray." —Francis Milea Finch. THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL WAR CONTENTS. Preface, Including ]iil>li(jgrai)hy. Chapters. Page. I. The CauscH of the War 9 II. . General Survey of the War 19 III. The Contest for the Border States, ISOl 24 IV. Naval Affairs to the Merrimac-Monitor Fight, 1S(U and lS(i2 39 V. Western Campaigns of 1Sn November 12, 1862, command was given Grant of all the troops within his department, and he was ordered to conduct operations against Vicksburg, and the Grays who intervened in command of John C. Pemberton who had succeeded Van Dorn. Grant advanced with 30,000 south through the tangled wilderness of the Tallahatchie region against Pemberton, while Sherman, then at Memphis, proceeded by transportation down the river to attack Vicksburg, Grant's aim lieing to endeavor so to engage Pemberton as to prevent him strengthening the stronghold. Grant's progress with his long trains, in which he was obliged to carry all his supplies through the swampy wilderness, was painfully slow. His base of supplies was at Holly Springs, Miss. This on the 20th of December was, unfortunately for Grant's plan, captured by a small force under Van Dorn and Forrest. Grant had warned Colonel Murphy, who was in command of Holly Spring, of the intended attack, but the post was surrendered without a shot being fired. Grant immediately sent cavalry to drive Van Dorn's menacing men from his rear, and in retaliation he ordered the gathering of forage and foodstuff? from a region fifteen miles in length east and west, allowing only P6 THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL WAR two months' supplies for families of those despoiled. The stores thus col- lected more than compensated his loss at Holly Springs. This loss of his base forced Grant to change his plan. Moving north- westerly to Memphis, he intended to join Sherman in the course down the river. But Sherman had already left, and, not knowing of the disaster at Holly Springs nor of Grant's change of plan, had landed his troops on either side of the river at Milliken Bend, just above Vicksburg. The clay bluffs of this region are about two hundred feet high, and in order to protect the surrounding flat land from flooding at high water, levees or embankments ten feet high, had been erected along the banks of the river and the tributary bayous. Behind these levees ran roads which the enemy could use without being seen. On December 29, Sherman, with part of his force, made a desperate attack on the bluffs. The charging parties on reaching the foot of them were hurled back by the Grays on the heights keeping up a murderous perpendicular fire down on the heads of the invaders. The terrible struggle lasted all day, and many of the Blues were compelled to dig holes in the banks to escape the destructive fire of the Grays on top of the cliff. Under the darkness of the night the Blues then retired, Sherman having found that his forces were not powerful enough to cope with these fortified bluffs. Besides this, his supply boats were being constantly menaced and often captured or destroyed by the enemy's gunboats coming into the Mississippi from the Arkansas River, which joined it a little north of his position. The base of these gunboats was some forty miles up the Arkansas at Arkansas Post, called by the Confederates Fort Hindman. Sherman pre- pared an expedition against this place, but, before he led it, he was superseded by orders from Washington bv General John A. McClernand. It was obvious that before any movement could be successfully main- tained at Vicksburg by the river, that this fort at the rear must be destroyed. This McClernand, with Sherman as second in command, did with the co-operation of the navy during the very cold weather. It surrendered with 5,000 men on January 10, 1863. After this Grant took personal com- mand. Ordering McClernand's division, then in Arkansas, to Milliken Bend, thus concentrating his scattered forces, he began reorganizing his troops for the capture of Vicksburg. One of the causes of this failure against Vicksburg was the working of the cross-purpose, brought about by Halleck and Grant planning one campaign while Secretary Stanton and General McClernand were, as Dodge puts it, secretly conferring about another. The President had been influenced by political considerations to give Sherman's command to McClernand, who was a Democrat and former member of Congress. Grant was incensed that a civilian soldier had been forced upon taking the place of his favorite subordinate, Sherman, a West Point graduate, and he spoke of the expedition against Arkansas Post in terms that would have been harsh if it had ended in failure instead of the brilliant success that really resulted. McClernand replied with natural indignation, in an insubordinate tone. Halleck, who had already had a controversy with the independent McClernand, allowed Grant to have his way, and McClernand was shortly transferred, Sherman resuming his old command. The Confederate Government about this time, in order to oppose an able general to Grant, placed Joseph E. Johnston in command of all Confederate forces between the AUeghenies and the Mississippi River. THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL WAR CHAPTER VI. Gulf Campaign of 1862. Capture of New Orleans by Farragut — Capture of Baton Rouge — Attempts on Vicksburg — Fight With the Confederate Ram A)-kansas — • Battle of Baton Rouge — The Fight at Thibodeaux — Butler's Administration of New Orleans. Before recounting the important operations which had been taking place in Virginia and east of the Alleghenies we will finish up the campaign of the year 18 62 that occurred in the Mississippi Valley. Captain David G. Farragut with his fleet of seventeen gunboats and twenty-one bombboats arrived at the delta of the mighty Mississippi River the latter part of February, 18 62. About the same time General Benjamin F. Butler embarked from Fortress Monroe, Virginia, with 13,000 troops to co-operate with him in the capture of New Orleans. Farragut was a Southerner by birth who severed, no doubt with many a heartache, ties of family, home and his native State of Tennessee to remain with the United States Navy in which he had been an officer. For thirty miles above the delta the tortuous Mississippi flows through a region of vast swamps covered densely by great trees each wierdly draped with a funereal veil of Spanish moss, and by a jungle of undergrowth inter- woven by thick entangling vines through which roam at will great alligators. These natural barriers formed an impregnable guard by land to the approaches of the Gulf metropolis of New Orleans some ninety miles above. A few miles above the delta, admist thsse gloomy surroundings, stood two old fortifications, Fort Jackson on the left bank of the river, and, less than half a mile further up, Fort Philip on the right, with a width of river about a half mile. "A vessel," said Draper, "attempting to pass this gauntlet would be under fire while sailing a distance of four miles." From land attack these forts, standing amidst the mire and forests were inaccessible to an enemy's troops. Their subjection therefore was purely a naval problem. This Fa'-ragut assayed to solve, and he planned at all hazards to force fourteen of his gunboats through the passage between the forts. Just below the forts the Grays had stretched across the whole width of the river a massive iron chain, supported by hulks hidden by a covering of heavy brush; this obstruction; however, the Union sailors during the darkness gallantly cut asunder in spite of the hot fire of the Grays' sharp- shooters. Behind this barrier lay the Confederate fleet of twelve gunboats, includ- ing two iron clad rams, the Louisiana and Manassas, besides many fire rafts. On the 18th of April, Porter, with his twenty-one bombboats, each manned with thirteen inch mortar, commenced from below a terrific bombardment of Fort Jackson. For six consecutive days and nights a continuous hail of iron was poured into the Grays' works, but, as had been anticipated by Farragut, this assault produced little effect. Leaving Commander David D. Porter with his flotilla below, Farragut with fourteen vessels of his fleet began the attempt to run the forts at 3:30 o'clock a. m., April 24. Reaching abreast of Fort Jackson the gunners of the fleet poured 58 THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL, WAR against the fort broadside after broadside of shot and shell with telling effect. Just then a fire raft lighting up the weird scenery came rushing down with the swift current and struck the Hartford, (Farragut's flagship), setting her ablaze, while at the same moment she was receiving a terrific fire from the Grays' fleet above, to which, nevertheless, she kept replying. Farragut, running the Hartford aground, fortunately succeeded in extinguish- ing the flames, then, backing off, he plunged his ship at one of the enemy's fleet and sank it. Having passed the first fort admist the blaze of burning ships, the Hartford plowed dauntlessly onward to the task of passing Fort Philip. Here occurred a repetition of the turmoil of flash and fire from the deadly guns of the fort and ships that was experienced before at Fort Jackson. After hammering the fort with well-aimed broadsides of grape and canister, he forced the exhausted garrison, within thirty minutes, to abandon their guns. Beset by perils on every hand from sunken ships and blazing fire rafts, Farragut's fleet proceeded steadily up the river, giving and taking at short range the fire of the opposing gunboats, until he had finally overcome or destroyed nearly all of them. When the sun rose, the Union fleet, with the exception of four vessels, three which had put back crippled, and a fourth which had sunk, was well above the forts. Porter, who, with his bombboats, had remained below, early in the morning demanded the surrender of Fort Jackson, but its commander refused to yield, whereupon the garrison of brave Grays, who had so gallantly stood by their guns during the terrible ordeal at night, mutinied and com- pelled their commander to hoist the white flag. In the afternoon Farragut anchored off New Orleans, compelling the small force of only 2,000 Grays under command of Mansfield Lovell to evacuate the city, and thus he secured to the Nation the first and wealthiest city of the seceded States, the sixth in rank in the Union, and in foreign trade next to New York, with a population of over 140,000 souls. On Farragut's requesting the Mayor to haul down the Confederate flag and to raise instead the "Stars and Stripes," he received a refusal framed In spread-eagle rhetoric. Ignoring this political bambast, he sent some mariners ashore who raised the Union standard over the public buildings. A citizen with more zeal than discretion hauled down one of these Union flags for which impetuous act he was later on tried, condemned and shot by order of General Butler. This action brought from President Davis a proclama- tion denouncing Butler as a felon. Butler with his troops entered New Orleans May first unmolested, and proceeded to organize the police and city government for the protection of life and property, and for the care of the city's health enforced strict sanitary requirements. His sway at New Orleans, nevertheless, was very unpopular, since, being a rank abolitionist, he adopted a most drastic and distasteful policy regarding the negro. Farragut's fleet accompanied by some eleven hundred troops under command of General Thomas Williams, an able officer of the regular army, proceeded at once up the Mississippi River, under the blazing rays of a tropical sun, to the capture of Baton Rouge, the State capital, which yielded THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL WAR 59 with its population of seven thousand on May 13. The City of Natchez in the State of Mississippi was next subdued without much resistance. The great stronghold, Vicksburg, was reached by the fleet and troops of General Williams on May 18. A day or two before this a detachment of Blues on going ashore at Warantown ten miles below Vicksburg for wood, encountered a force of Grays and in the skirmish which ensued, there occurred the spilling of the first blood in the Army of the Gulf through the wounding of Sergeant-Major N. H. Chittenden and Private E. C. Perry, of the Fourth Wisconsin Regiment. The sailors aboard the fleet, like the soldiers on the transports, suffered torture from the miasmatic climate and the burning rays of a tropical sun. Below the humid air was stifling, while on deck the sun-glare was still more unbearable. It was an arduous task for those inhabitants of a temperate zone, without time even to get acclimated to these enervating tropical environments to bring out the full scope of nervous energy required of them. It had been but a short time before Farragut reached Vicksburg that General Beauregard began fortifying that important commanding place on the Mississippi River. Irwin in his history of the Nineteenth Army Corps says: "The town stands at an abrupt bend of the river where within ten miles the winding river doubles upon itself, forming on the low ground opposite a long flnger of land, barely three-quarters of a mile wide. Opposite the extreme end of this peninsula known as De Soto, the bluff reaches the highest point attained along the whole course of the river, the crest standing about 250 feet above the mean stage of water. Sloping gradually toward the river the bluff follows it with diminishing altitude for two miles. Below the town the bluffs draw away from the river, until about four miles beyond the bend, their height diminish to about 150 feet." Farragut found that his guns could not be elevated sufficiently to fire upon the fortifications stationed on the high bluffs, and, even if the national forces had succeeded in capturing the citadel, the small command of General Williams would not have been able to hold it. However, Farragut opened fire upon the lower batteries for a few hours, after which the Blues retired down the river; while passing Grand Gulf the transports were fired on, and a small affair took place in which the Grays were driven back into the country. On May 29, the Blues were back in Baton Rouge, where orders were received from Washington to capture Vicksburg at once. Farragut, being reinforced by Porter's mortar flotilla, and Williams command being raised to three thousand, the second advance was made, the transports and fleets reaching Vicksburg June 25. In order to get the transports with troops and munitions to the north of Vicksburg without running the batteries, Williams began the cutting of a canal across the neck of land directly west of the forts. With twelve hundred negroes the work was carried on day and night, so that by July 4 a ditch nearly two miles long, thirteen feet wide and eighteen feet deep, was completed, but unfortunately a storm then occurred, during which the clay banks gave way, causing the project to be abandoned. In the meantime; the fleet advanced to the attack alone. 60 THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL WAR Farragut succeeded with some of his vessels in running the forts the night of June 28, while Porter's flotilla kept up an incessant bombardment from below. Continuing up the river, Farragut joined the Union fleet under Charles Henry Davis on July 1, when he received an amazing order from Washington to send Porter and the bombboats to Hampton Road, Virginia. Farragut then applied to General Halleck, who was at Corinth, for troops to assist Williams in the land assaults on Vicksburg, but Halleck, replied: "I cannot; am sending reinforcements to Curtis in Arkansas and Buell in Tennessee, besides the President wants me to send seventy-flve thousand troops to help the Army on the Potomac in Virginia." The reason for this latter request we will discover when we review the dis- astrous campaign of McClellan before Richmond, which had occurred in the meantime. While Farragut was above Vicksburg in company with Commodore Davis, he learned of the Grays constructing a very formidable ironclad ram named the Arkansas, up the Yazoo River. He thereupon sent the gun- boats Crandolet and Tyler with his ram Queen o/ the West upon an expedition up the Yazoo to look the new monster over. These ships met the enemy's fleet so suddenly that neither squadron had steam up. Still, they com- menced firing upon each other. In the engagement the Arkansas was seriously injured, but kept up the fight, and, running the gauntlet of the Union fleet, giving and taking blow upon blow at short range, finally succeeded in getting to safety under the guns at Vick.sburg. Farragut's whole fleet now ran the batteries of Vicksburg a second time on his way south, and in passing the Arkansas gave her a thrashing, which, however, made little effect upon the heavy iron mail. Convoyed by the fleet, Williams' troops in transports were landed once again at Baton Rouge. The Blues were but a short time at this State capital when the Grays determined to act on the aggressive. General Breckinridge with four thousand troops, accompanied by the great iron- clad Arkansas, taking advantage of Farragut's absence, whose fleet was then engaged in the capture of Corpus Christi, Texas, flercely attacked Williams during a fog, but met with a severe repulse. The Arkansas, getting some injury to her machinery, was compelled to run aground and was finally blown up by her commander. Poor Williams was killed leading a charge — a severe loss to the Blues, who at that time had too many lawyers and political generals among the commanders, and too few scien- tifically educated soldiers. The Grays suffered in this respect to some extent, as for instance in the case of their Secretary of War, Judah P. Benjamin, who knew little or nothing of military affairs, yet injudiciously interfered with Stonewall Jackson in the Shenandoah Valley campaign, thereby nearly causing the loss to the Confederate cause of that gallant and brave strategist, since it was only General Johnston's entreaties that prevailed upon Jackson to yield in his determination of leaving the army and returning to his former professorship at the Virginia Military Institute. This also reminds us of the like case of General Grant the day after the battle of Shiloh, and makes one feel like stopping to speculate upon what the probable outcome might have been had these two great generals of the Gray ^and the Blue retired as they strongly contemplated doing. THE CAMPAIGNS OP THE CIVIL WAR Cjl As the Grays were gathering in considerable force under General "Dick" Taylor with the intention of retaking New Orleans, the Union troops at Baton Rouge, now under General Halbert Eleazer Paine, who succeeded Williams, were concentrated at Carrolton, a suburb of the metropolis. The commander of the Grays, Richard Taylor, was a relative by marriage to the President of the Confederacy, Jefferson Davis. With skill and energy he organized an army for the defense of the "Teche" and "La Fourche," those fertile regions of southwestern Louisiana lying between the great Mississippi and Atchafolaya rivers. "All this portion is low and flat, and intercepted by numerous bayous of which the Teche and La Fourche are typical. The streams, or bayous as they are called, are navigable for light draft vessels, and along their banks run narrow roads, while elsewhere there is hardly a spot of dry land to place one's foot on." As Irwin says: "Besides, the land is heavily wooded and crossed by numerous narrow irrigation ditches of considerable depth. The country thus affords defensive positions at once more stronger and more numerous than to be found in most flat regions. Small bodies of troops familiar with the topography have also the further advantage that there are points from which their position and number cannot be easily made out." The Campaign of 1862 here consisted in the Blues and Grays chasing each other up and down these narrow bayou roads, the advantage being first with the one and then with the other. About October, when the Grays were getting uncomfortably near New Orleans, Butler sent an expedition consisting of four light-draft gunboats and a brigade under General Godfrey Weitsel up the Mississippi River to Donalsonville, which lies at the mouth of the bayou La Fourche. Un- molested this force got as far inland as Thibodeaux, when, reaching the awaiting Grays fourteen hundred strong under General Alfred Moulton in a strong defensive position, it gave battle and was fortunate enough to drive the Grays out of their entrenchments. In his retreat Moulton ordered the destruction of the only railroad in that section, the New Orleans and Opolousas, which connected Berwick Bay in West Louisiana with New Orleans. Had it not been for a heavy storm, which delayed Franklin Buchanan's co-operating fleet of gunboats, it certainly would have gone hard with the Grays. As it was the Blues captured the Confederate gunboat Seger ; then, ascending the Teche some fourteen miles above Brashear City, they came in touch again with Moulton and another gunboat, when a small engagement took place. While General Weitzel was maneuvering on the Teche, General Thomas with his brigade was sent to restore the New Orleans and Opolousas Railroad. This closed the cam- paigning of the Army of the Gulf for the year 1862. Through the unequaled heroism of the Navy, the Blues had gained for the Union the great metropolis of New Orleans, which was a very severe loss to the South, as the inhabitants almost to a man were devout seces- sionists. Strong in the faith that their cause was just, they now squirmed under the restraint of a conquering foe from sending succor to their numerous sons, even then marching and fighting under Lee, Johnston, Price and other generals in Virginia and elsewhere. These people were never conquered; they never failed to give vent to their convictions whenever they dared. The women especially showed 62 THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL WAR their loyalty to the Southern cause in many ways, crossing a street to avoid passing under the National flag, and ostentatiously drawing in their flowing skirts when passing Union soldiers in the streets. For such acts Butler very ungallantly reprimanded them in a scandalous and certainly ungentle- manly official order. In what striking contrast was the humane and soldierly action of Stonewall Jackson in the Barbara Frietchie episode in Frederick, Maryland, who when the passing Grays threatened to tear down the Union banner flying over her house, ordered his furious command to march on and leave the patriotic old lady alone. While the main object of the Blues, that of opening the Mississippi River to the commerce of the world, had failed, they had, however, suc- ceeded in reducing the Grays' commanding points to two — Vicksburg and Port Hudson. THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL WAR 63 CHAPTER VII. Eastern Campaigns of 1862. Lincoln's War Order — McClellan's Advance on Richmond — Fair Oaks — The Seven Days' Battle — Malvern Hill — The Shenandoah Campaign — Cedar Run — Second Battle of Bull Run — Lee's Sortie Into Maryland — Antietam — Burnside Replaces McClellan — The Emancipation Proclamation — Fredericks- burg. On March 8, 1862, the day of the Union disaster preceding the triumph of the Monitor over the Merrimac, President Lincoln issued a war order which divided that part of the Army of the Potomac intended to advance upon Richmond into four corps commanded respectively by Major-General Irvin McDowell and Brigadier-Generals E. V. Sumner, S. P. Heintzelman, and E. D. Keyes, and provided that a reserve be left for the defense of Wash- ington under Brigadier-General James S. Wadsworth. He also ordered the formation of a fifth corps from the troops of Brigadier-General James Shields and Major-General Nathaniel P. Banks in the Shenandoah Valley, and placed Banks in command of it. On March 11, by another order, the President relieved McClellan from chief command of all the armies, retaining him as the head of the Army of the Potomac. This was done to enable him to devote his sole attention to the proposed campaign of the Army of the Potomac on Richmond, against the delay in the beginning which the President, the press and the whole North were bitterly complaining. The long protracted advance of General McClellan upon Richmond finally began March 13, 1862, over a month after the capture of Forts Henry and Donelson by Grant, and a few weeks before the great battle of Shiloh, Tennessee. In the course of thirty-seven days the grand Army of the Potomac, numbering one hundred and twe«ty-two thousand splendidly equipped troops, was transported from Washington to Fortress Monroe, Virginia. Another six weeks was consumed by McClellan in organizing his vast army and making preparations in the way of erecting heavy batteries for the siege of Yorktown, behind the entrenchments of which the Grays, only eight thousand strong, under John B. Magruder, for a while watched these maneuvers, and then quietly slipped off west to Williamsburg on the James River, where they were joined by General James Longstreet's Corps. Mc- Clellan ordered one division under General Joseph Hooker to follow the retiring Magruder which he promptly did, and meeting the Grays at Williamsburg the first engagement took place that lasted nine hours, result- ing in the Blues being badly repulsed by overwhelming numbers. General Hooker laid the blame of the defeat upon McClellan for not supporting his advance, the General-in-Chief with one hundred thousand troops standing idly in the rear during the entire battle. It was not until May 8 that the grand march of fitfy miles "On to Richmond" began. This movement by the Blues compelled the Grays to evacuate Norfolk and its Navy-yard on the south bank of the James, which was promptly occupied by General John E. Wool's forces. 64 THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL WAR McClellan established an excellent base of supplies to his north at White House on the York River, where supplies and troops could be brought by vessels to West Point and thence by the Richmond and York Railroad to his army. By May 22 the Union Army reached unmolested Bottom Ridge on the Chickahominy River within ten miles of Richinond. Two days later General Fitz-John Porter with a small force was advanced as far north as Hanover Courthouse in order to open the way for McDowell, who was supposed to be moving south from Fredericksburg. Porter was attacked when he reached the north side of the South Anna River, but he repulsed the enemy. Then, getting orders from Washington to return to McClellan, he re-crossed the South Anna, burning the bridges behind him, and retired to the main army without further molestation on the twenty-ninth. This was a case, which often happened with the Blues, of receiving orders from the War Department over the head of McClellan, of which he very properly complained. In the meantime, as we shall read in the next chapter, General Jackson was making his famous dash down the Shenandoah Valley. The first position occupied by the Federal Army in its attack upon Richmond was a line twelve miles long stretched along the north bank of the Chickahominy River, with its left resting near Fair Oaks, a station on the Richmond and York Railroad. The river at the time was swollen by freshets, and a large part of the heavily wooded swampy country was inundated, causing a heavy sick list among the Blues, McClellan himself being one of the victims. The Grays had destroyed all the bridges and occupied a strong position in front of Richmond. In spite of the wretched roads, Heintzleman's and Keyes' Corps managed to cross over to the south side of the river. As these two corps were confronting the entire Confederate Army that lay con- centrated between the Chickahominy and Richmond, and there was but one bridge for getting McClellan's main army over to their assistance, it was soon realized that Heintzleman and Keyes were in a very perilous position. Quick to see the chance, General Joseph E. Johnston on May 31 in a heavy downpour of rain, made a vicious attack on these corps, forcing them back until their left rested on White Oak swamp and their right in the direction of Bottom Bridge. Johnston made desperate efforts to reach this bridge, and thus cut off the two isolated corps, and he no doubt would have succeeded, had not E. V. Summer in the meantime, whose corps lay on the north side of the river, quickly constructed two frail bridges by which he got John Sedwick's division with twenty-four Napoleon cannons over to the rescue. With these fresh forces pouring a terrific fire on to their flanks, the Grays were driven back with frightful slaughter, during which General Johnston was wounded. Thus the fifteen thousand troops under Sumner saved the day, and ended the battle of "Fair Oaks" or "Seven Pines," the first of the memorable "Seven days' fight on the peninsular." Johnston was an experienced officer in the Mexican War of whom General Scott had said, "he had but one bad habit, that of getting wounded." The next day the Confederates renewed the attack, but were driven back in great disorder. General Hooker in hot pursuit chasing them to within THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL, WAR 65 four miles of Richmond, when, in spite of his protests, McClellan called him back. While the Federal Army lay waiting for clear weather and the expected coming of McDowell's Corps, the Confederate cavalry, fifteen hundred strong under General J. E. B. Stuart made a most dashing and brilliant maneuver by riding deliberately around McClellan's right, and, getting to his rear, destroying a lot of stores, and capturing many prisoners on June 13; then turning, unmolested, he reached Richmond with his booty in safety. McClellan's forces at this time were said to number one hundred and fifty-seven thousand. On Johnston's retirement on account of his wounds, the Confederate government appointed as commander-m-chief, General Robert E. Lee, who after his operations in West Virginia, had been sent to the Atlantic Coast to erect defensive works through North and South Carolina. Taking personal command of the army at Richmond, Lee began gather- ing in all the scattered troops. Stonewall Jackson, after his skilfully managed escape from the Shenandoah Valley, of which we shall read, was also to join him. Lee was also greatly re-enforced through the operations of the "Conscription Act," forcing all white males between the ages of eighteen and thirty-five into the armies In the meantime McClellan's army, occupying the same position on either side of the Chickahominy, built several bridges over the stream and erected defensive works. On June 2 5 Hooker was again ordered to advance towards Richmond and although opposed stubbornly by the enemy, he succeeded in gaining ground, when Stonewall Jackson just from the valley, suddenly appeared at Hanover Court-house, threatening McClellan's base at White House, causing Hooker to be again recalled. Lee planned to leave Richmond, which had been fortified, to a small defending force, and with his army to cross the Chickahominy to the west of McClellan's extreme right. McClellan now determined to move his base of supplies from the White House to City Point on the James River; take his entire army to the south side of the Chickahominy, and thence march upon Richmond. The movements that followed brought about what was called the Seven Day's battle. On June 26 the Confederates under A. P. Hill crossed to the north of the Chickahominy, expecting to join with Jackson in the attack on the Federal right, which was in a strong position at Beaver Dam Creek about one mile above Mechanicsville. Not waiting for Jackson, Hill made a vicious attack on the Blues under General Porter, but was repulsed with a loss of fifteen hundred. This was called the battle of Mechanicsville^ During the night McClellan crossed his army to the south side of the river, leaving Porter to protect the approaches to the bridges when he was to cross himself and destroy them. The next day Hill again attacked Porter and was again repulsed, still he kept to the attack. The Federals, being re-enforced on the north side of the river now numbered thirty-five thousand. A 3 p. m. the fighting was so severe that other forces were sent across to assist Porter. Several times the Grays charged upon their foe, but were driven back each time with heavy loss, the losses of the Federals being also severe. About 4 p. m. Jackson reached Hill, and, joining forces, they made most desperate attacks, in which the Confederate conscripts, charging them with a yell right up to the very muzzles 66 THE C AMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL. WAR of Porter's cannons, were mowed down like grass. Just then the lucky arrival of brigades under French and Thomas Francis Meagher prevented a rout of Porter's command. Finally a dashing charge by four companies of Federal cavalry supported by the infantry under French and Meagher, forced back the Grays; thus near evening closed the battle of "Gaine's Mills" or "Cold Harbor." McClellan's loss was nine thousand men and twenty-two guns. During the night all of the United States troops got to the south side of the Chickahominy. Thinking to capture McClellan's base at White House, Jackson and Hill moved upon that place, but found that General Stoneman had removed all the stores he could to City Point and destroyed the balance, which was a bitter disappointment to the Confederates. McClellan, on the 28th, sent a remarkable dispatch to Washington, saying "his soldiers had been over- whelmed by a vastly superior force," and that he "would be glad to cover his retreat and save the personnel of this army;" that "no one need blush for the Army of the Potomac." To the Secretary of War he wrote: "If I save this army now I tell you plainly that I owe no thanks to you or any other person in Washington; you have done your best to sacrifice the army." We now know that McClellan always overestimated Lee's strength, and this kept him continually calling for re-enforcements that could not be sent him, and made him hesitate in his movements and to act over cautiously. On the 29th, McClellan, after blowing up his bridges, instead of advanc- ing upon Richmond, as intended, began to retreat southeast to Malvern Hill that stands at a bend in the James River. Lee, by rapid marches with a force half that of McClellan's, determined to thwart the retreat. He also got his whole army on the south of the Chickahominy. In the afternoon, Magruder, meeting Sumner's and Heintzleman's Corps near Savage Station on the Richmond and York Railroad, made an attack which was repulsed. Sumner, in falling back during the night, was obliged to leave twenty-five hundred sick and wounded at the station. The next clash was at Frazier's Farm on the 30th, when Longstreet and Hill at 4 p. m. made a desperate attack upon Geo. A. McCall's division, but were again defeated and held at bay. At noon Jackson reached the White Oak Bridge which Franklin, in command of McClellan's rear guard had destroyed, and there stood on the other side barring the passage of Jackson the whole afternoon, thus allowing the main army to get away. Finally, during the night McClellan's whole army was camped on Malvern Hill. This is an elevated plateau cleared of timber nearly two miles long by a mile wide, with several con- verging roads running over it. In front are numerous defensible ravines, the ground sloping along gradually towards the north and east, some four hundred yards to the woodland giving clear range for artillery in those directions. Towards the northwest .the plateau falls off more abruptly to a ravine, which extends to the James River. On July 1 the famous battle of Malvern Hill and the last of the "Seven Days' Battle" here took place. With the whole of his command aligned around the rim of the hill, fortified with seventy cannons, McClellan calmly awaited the onslaught of the foe. The day opened very hot. Skirmishing began at about 10 a. m., but it was not until 6 p. m. that the main attack by Lee began, accompanied by heavy fire from his batteries in the woods. Charge after charge was made by the gallant Grays up the slopes of the Hill, often to within a few yards of the Federal guns, when, being forced back by the galling fire THE CAMPAIGNS OP THE CIVIL, WAR 67 with terrible slaughter, the Blues would dash out of their ramparts and chase the panic-stricken foe, capturing standards and prisoners. Thus the battle was kept up until 9 p. m., when, during a heavy rain, McClellan's jaded troops, who had been continually fighting by day and retreating by night for seven days, were ordered to fall back to Harrison's Landing on the James, which place they reached near noon the next day. The ex- hausted Grays, finding in the morning that the enemy had again slunk away, attempted but with feeble efforts to pursue them. Finally they began their retirement to Richmond, where they were received by the joyous acclamation of the people, and hailed as heroes who had driven the invaders from their soil. In the North just the opposite feeling prevailed. The grand and thoroughly equipped army of one hundred and sixty thousand which left in early March with so much eclat lay stricken defeated, with near half its number lost. McClellan's force now was only eighty-six thousand. On August 4, after a month's rest the Army of the Potomac was ordered to Acquia Creek on the south bank of the Potomac thirty miles southeast of Washington as the crow flies. The reason of this move will be understood when we review the next disaster to the Union Army, that under General Pope, in northern Virginia, which will shortly be related. In view of McClellan's advance on Richmond by way of the "Peninsula," the Grays, who had occupied Manassas as a military base since Bull Run, evacuated this position in April, and McDowell's Corps was sent thither in order to cover Washington, and with the intention of his ultimately joining the Army of the Potomac as it advanced from Fortress Monroe, Virginia on to Richmond. General Banks with his corps was then sent into the Shen- andoah Valley with Harper's Ferry as a base. General Fremont's Corps was at this time west of the Alleghenies in northwest Virginia, the scene of the operations of 1861, and within easy reach to join Banks in his advance up the Valley. The beautiful and fertile Shenandoah Valley lies in a depression formed by one of the numerous folds of the Alleghenies on the west and a parallel range called the Blue Ridge Mountains some forty miles east. The Valley stretches south over one hundred miles from Harper's Ferry, the latter situated in a gap in the Blue Ridge through which the Shenandoah River joins the Potomac on its course east to the sea. The "Daughters of the Stars," (Indian for Shenandoah) divides about a day's march south of Harper's Ferry. The main stream, hugging the base of the Blue Ridge, flows through a valley, the Luray, formed on the west by a short range of mountains called Massanutten, while the northern fork runs its course through the Shenandoah Valley proper. Through these two valleys, time after time, during the four years of war, tramped and fought the weary armies of the Blue and Gray. Many a hard-fought battle was lost or gained by the valiant foes on the fertile farms of these picturesque valleys during the great struggle, for there was hardly a month that some military movement, some raid or some battle was not occurring on those rich old Virginia homesteads. The Blue Ridge Mountains are pierced by several gaps a few miles apart that gives access from the valley into East Virginia. These passages were time and again taken and retaken by both armies, and afforded excellent opportunities for strategic movements. C8 THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL WAR At the close of the narrative of the operations of 1861, we left the Grays under General Stonewall Jackson in the Shenandoah Valley near Winchester. When General McClellan, in the early Spring of 1862, started from Washington with the Army of the Potomac on his campaign against Richmond, this movement compelled Jackson to retire up the Valley; fur- thermore his position was threatened by Banks at Harper's Ferry, McDowell on the east side of the Blue Ridge, and Fremont in West Virginia. During his winter stay in the Valley, Jackson had not been idle. He destroyed a portion of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad and the canal near Harper's Ferry, thus breaking up these communications between Washington and the West, and preventing the hastening of troops to protect Washington from Ohio. As Jackson retired up the Valley, he was closely followed by Shields' Division of Bank's command. Turning suddenly at Kernstown, he gave battle, but, being repulsed, was obliged to hurry onward by forced marches, safely reaching Harrisonburg in the early part of May. Here he was reinforced by Richard S. Ewell's Corps, increasing his forces to 17,000. Banks about this time was a short distance to the north of Harrisonburg; his force, however, had been greatly reduced by the sending of Shields' Division over the Blue Ridge to support McDowell. Lee directed Jackson to make a feint movement, to give the impression that he was leaving the Valley. Taking 6,000 "Foot Cavalry," as his infantry had been dubbed, he descended the Valley a short distance, crossed through one of the gaps into East Virginia, and then, by a circuitous route, rapidly returned and joined Ewell. Banks, now finding himself out- numbered two to one with his base one hundred miles to the north, de- termined to get out of his perilous position by making a "ma.sterly retreat." General Fremont was ordered to get quickly from the west into the Valley to the support of Banks, but Jackson prevented this move. Leaving Ewell to keep an eye on Banks he sallied forth to meet Fremont's advancing columns, and ran up against a brigade under General Robert H. Milroy at a place called McDowell, where after several hours of hard fighting he suc- ceeded in driving the Blues back some thirty miles. The Blues being reinforced, another battle ensued resulting in their being again forced back to Franklin, a place about thirty-five miles northwest of Banks' position. Jackson, realizing that he was straying too far from the main force under Ewell, was anxious to get back in order to accomplish the capture of Banks' army. Still it was absolutely necessary to this end to prevent Fremont from getting into the Valley. In this object Jackson was greatly assisted by the friendly farmers who, felling large trees blocked up the roads and then set fire to the forests on the mountain sides. Jackson, now quickly returning to the Valley, joined Ewell and then began the chase after Banks, who had just started on his retreat, being compelled to destroy a large quantity of stores that it would have been impossible for him to carry along. It was the worst season of the year for army movements; the roads were rivers of mud, the fields were bogs, but in spite of these serious obstacles, both Blue and Gray pushed on with most remarkable speed. Banks' route was down the Shenandoah, while Jackson rushed through the Luray intending to head his enemy off at Front Royal. This place he reached on May 30, capturing there Colonel Kenly's small garrison. THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL WAR 69 Banks was then directly to the west of Jackson and in great peril. Destroying- everything that would impede his haste, he ordered a forced march, and reached Winchester at midnight with the Grays close at his heels. Continuing the tireless march day and night, his rear guard in constant combat with Jackson's advances, finally, on May 2 6, he got what was left of his exhausted command in safety on the north side of the Potomac River near Williamsburg some distance west of Harper's Ferry. He had lost, however, over two thousand prisoners and several thousand small arms. Jackson then continued north threatening Harper's Ferry. This brilliant dash of Jackson filled the minds of the authorities at Washington with the greatest apprehension for the safety of the city. The State Governors were ordered to have every available man ready for instant march to the protection of the Nation's capital. President Lincoln took possession of every railroad for the purpose, and every effort was now made to bag the wily Jackson. McDowell, still east of the Blue Ridge, .having advanced well south of Fredericksburg, was, in spite of his protests, ordered to fall back towards Washington, for he knew full well, as an able commander, that Jackson's small force could accomplish no great harm. Fremont was directed to get quickly into the Valley in Jackson's rear. In so doing, instead of taking a direct easterly route, he marched north- easterly and entered the Valley June 1, but instead of being south of the enemy, he found himself to the north, for Jackson, seeing his peril, had quickly retired. In the meantime McDowell had sent Shields' Division up the Luray, while Banks pushed south to swell the forces against the Grays. Jackson with speed and skill got his command at Harrisonburg, when turning suddenly upon Fremont at Port Republic he gave battle. This not only resulted in a repulse of the Grays, but they lost one of their fine generals, Ashley, who was killed. Shields and Fremont were separated by the river, and Jackson was obliged to divide his force of some 13,000 in order to prevent their union. Still retreating, closely followed by Fremont, Jackson waited at a hamlet called Cross Keys for Fremont's attack, which occurred June 8, when the Blues Vv^ere completely checked. Then Jackson determined to turn against Shields. Leaving a small force in front of Fremont, and hurling his main body of troops upon Shields' advancing columns, he drove them back five miles after a ferocious and stubborn fight on the part of the Blues. Shield now being re-enforced by fresh infantry and artillery, the battle was renewed, resulting in Jackson being compelled to retire. The fighting in this engagement was most terrific on both sides, one battery alone being won and lost three times. Jackson now rapidly crossed the river to the south, and, burning the bridge behind him, slipped with his whole command through the mountains, and joined Lee near Richmond ready to take part in the seven days' fight, of which we have read. "In Napoleonic style he had made a magnificent dash down the Valley, caused troops to be taken from McClellan who was then in front of Rich- mond; out-generaled both Shields and Fremont; given the people of the North a fright for the safety of their capital, and performed one of the greatest strategic movements in the history of the war." Draper- Jackson having left the Valley, Shields returned to McDowell, while Fremont and Banks retired to their original positions. 70 THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL WAR While at the zenith of fame after the victories of his army of the Mississippi General Pope was . ordered east on /une 26, and placed in com- mand of a new organization called the Army of Virginia, the intention of the War Department being to unite the separate commands of McDowell, Banks and Fremont under one commander, which would not only act as a defensive force between the enemy and Washington, but could operate In conjunction with McClellan's army at that time in front of Richmond. Among the first official acts of Pope was to remove General Fremont, whom he replaced by General Franz Sigel, who had done vast work in retaining Missouri to the Union. Burnside's corps, just returned from its victories in North Carolina, and now at Alexandria, Va., was also added to Pope's army, making his force forty-three thousand men. With considerable fanfare and meteoric official orders to his troops, in which by innuendo the former campaigns in Virginia were adversely re- flected upon, Pope sanguinely intimated that his future plans would involve only the offensive, that, "with headquarters in the saddle," he would advance to Richmond. In vain he prote.sted to the War Department against the retirement of McClellan before Lee, which was then taking place on the Peninsular, for, if the Army of the Potomac would but hold Lee in check a short time, he could get the Army of Virginia to the rear of the Con- federates and together the two armies would crush Lee. It was at this stage of affairs that General Halleck was called from Corinth, Miss., and made the General-in-Chief of all the United States forces, the Administration trusting thus to enable McClellan to give his sole atten- tion to the campaign and also to bring the operations of all the scattered departments under the one directing mind. General Lee, having driven McClellan's army after the "Seven Days' Battle" to Harrison Landing, determined to strike Pope before a union of the armies of the Potomac and Virginia could be consummated, and early in August with this intention he pushed his advance guards near Cedar Moun- tains on the south side of the Rapidan River a few miles west of Fredericks- burg. This was at the very time that General Bragg was making a successful sortie into Kentucky a jubilant period for the Grays and a correspondingly despondent one for the Blues. The rapid and skilful maneuvers of Lee which threatened Washington compelled the hurried shifting of the Army of the Potomac to Acquia Creek on the Potomac River to defend the capital, and also to be within easy dis- tance to assist Pope, who was now confronted by the whole of Lee's forces, outnumbering the Army of Virginia two to one. The tension of anxiety at the North was now so great that President Lincoln issued a call for three hundred thousand troops, by draft if necessary, to replace the frightful losses sustained on the firing lines. At the same time the Confederate Government passed a conscription law impressing into the armies every white male between the ages of eighteen and forty-five. It is surprising, and difficult to realize that the most ferocious fighting was done by these conscripts. The first clash between Lee's and Pope's armies occurred on August 9, near Culpeper Court House, on the Cedar Run stream, where Pope's advance of eight thousand under General Banks found themselves again confronted by their old enemy. It was part of Stonewall Jackson's army under com- THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL WAR 71 mand of General Early, the same Gray veterans who had chased Banks out of the Shenandoah Valley in the early spring. Cedar Run battle opened with several hours of heavy cannonading by the Blues. The wily Jackson so disguised his movements as to lead Banks into a fatal misconception of the position of his foe. Banks even sent word to General Pope, whose headquarters were some eight miles away at Culpeper Court House, that he expected no serious engagement, but hardly had the courier started with the dispatch, when Jackson's forces suddenly loomed in sight on the mountain slopes to the west, threatening his flank. The battle at once became general along the whole of Banks' front, the Blues on their right making gallant charges through fields of wheat and corn, driving everything before them, and at one time nearly turning the flanks of the Grays. Just then re-enforcements reaching the Confederates, they in turn undauntedly bore down upon the victorious Blues, and drove them back pell mell with terrible slaughter. Still the fighting was furiously kept up; the ranks of the Grays being further re-enforced with fresh men, they again charged and forced Banks' line back with still further fearful havoc, and night alone brought to an end the carnage of perhaps one of the fiercest battles of the war, for those two old foes seemed to have a deep settled grudge from the spring before to fight out. That night to the fagged out Grays fell the burdensome duty of burying the dead and caring for the wounded of both armies. Banks had again been outwitted, and outgeneraled by his old antagonist Jackson. Lee now rapidly cencentrated all his forces, with the intention of annihilating Pope's army before McClellan could come to his assistance. Making a feint movement as if to cross the Rappahannock River at the centre, he sent Jackson on a forced and adventurous march around to the rear of Pope's right. This the skilful captain so well executed that on August 26 he had his army between Pope and Washington. In this perilous position Pope kept clamoring for more troops to enable him to entrap Jackson. In response there were sent from McClellan's force of ninety thousand at Acquia a meagre twenty thousand composed of Heintzleman and Porter's Corps. Jackson had gained one great object of his bold sortie in the capture of Pope's depot of supplies, containing an immense quantity of food and munitions that his own famished army was sadly in need of. He also captured Pope's dispatch book, giving him the very important information he was seeking to know. Lee now rushed Longstreet's corps to the assistance of the threatened Jackson, who had now withdrawn to Manassas to await succor. On August 28, Jackson, without waiting for Longstreet, decided to take the chance of an attack, and a fierce battle ensued, which lasted all day and well into the night, resulting in the Blues slowly retreating. It was claimed by Pope that had General Fitz-John Porter obeyed his orders to rush west and to the rear of Jackson's position, which it was insisted he easily could have done, the result would have been the destruction of Jackson's forces. This battle was named by the Blues the "Second Battle of Bull Run," as it occurred near the site of the first encounter of the war. By the Grays it was called the "Second Manassas." All during the night and the forenoon of the twenty-ninth. Pope spent in 72 THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL WAR skilfully concentrating every available troop, vi^ith the intention of ovei-whelm- ing Jackson before Longstreet could come to 1;he rescue. But Longstreet's jaded troops had been pushing on with heartrendering continuous marches day and night. Near the end he was forced to bring his command through a narrow mountain gorge of but a few hundred yards wide, called Thoroughfare Gap, in the Bull Run Mountains, which range runs east and parallel to the Blue Ridge chain. At the opposite end of the gap a strong force of Pope's command stood guarding the pass, and from the sharp fire of the Blues' sharp- shooters the Grays were forced to retire. Taking the footpaths along the mountain slopes, Longstreet's infantry by strategy and rapid movements suc- ceeded in getting to Pope's rear, causing him to change front. This was promptly executed, and he desperately attacked both Jackson and Longstreet in their perilous positions. All during the afternoon the repeated charges of the Blues were repulsed, with terrible slaughter, by the steady Grays. This fear- ful fighting- was kept up until nine at night, when the Blues were driven with great loss from the field. On the morning of the 30th the firing lines of the combatants were but a few hundred yards apart and several miles in extent. At dawn the battle was renewed with vigorous fighting lasting until the fifternoon, when Pope, massing his forces against Jackson, caused a bloody encounter to ensue at close range. In charge after charge the Blues rushed on, only to be repulsed with fearful losses. Jackson's men now took the offensive, and rushed forward along the whole length of the line, hurling the Blues from position after position in their relentless onslaughts, and for the second time in the war the Nationals were forced across the memorable "Bull Run." In the mighty rush over the fields, the bodies of the killed and wounded Blues were crushed by the flying Grays' artillery and cavalry. Jackson's pursuit was kept up till one o'clock at night, when Pope's shat- tered army, being re-enforced by ten thousand under Generals Franklin and Sumner, took up a position at bay. Still the weary, but courageous Grays kept at the fight, endeavoring to get to Pope's rear, which they no doubt would have succeeded in doing had not a heavy cold, drenching rain, compelled the worn-out troops, who had been many days marching, and for the last three days continuously fighting, to give up plodding through the muddy roads. At Chantilly, or Ox Hill, on September 1, in the afternoon, these com- batants clinched again, and fought furiously until dark, the Blues loosing their Generals, Philip Kearney and Isaac I. Stephens. General Pope, in his report of the battle of the 30th, said: "The heavy assault of the enemy about 5 p. m., which was attended by great slaughter, was carried on for several hours. Our men behaved with firmness and gal- lantry, the right held its ground, but the left was forced back half a mile. Starvation stared both man and beast in the face." Broken and exhausted. Pope's army was compelled to retire under the protection of the Washington fortifications. Lee's army also was suffering for want of supplies, and he made an urgent appeal to the people of the South for food and clothes. In speaking of this event. Pollock says "Lee's men were Vjarefoot, ragged, foot sore by forced marches, and almost constant daily fighting." Thus General Lee had skilfully transferred the theatre of war from the gates of Richmond to the doors of Washington by outgeneraling McClellan and Pope, gaining glorious victories against a foe splendidly equipped and superior in numbers. When the news of his grand success reached his sister. THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL, WAR 73 Mrs. Marshall, then residing at Baltimore, she deplored the terrible losses of the Blues, for she was a staunch Unionist, and it is reported that she said, "but they can't lick Bob." Pope laid the blame of his disastrous defeat to the failure of the War Department in not sending to his assistance McClellan's thousands, who were standing inactive only a short distance from the field, and especially to the behavior of General Fitz-John Porter in refusing to obey his orders to move quickly between Jackson and Thoroughfare Gap on the 29th, and again re- fusing on the 30th, when ordered to get to the rear of Jackson's right, which it was claimed he easily could have done. Had these orders been promptly car- ried out, Jackson would have been crushed before the arrival of Longstreet. Pope then resigned in disgust from the service. Later on, General Porter was tried, found guilty, and dismissed from the army. After the war, however, fol- lowing an investigation by Congress he was exonerated of the charges of dis- obedience. Colonel Dodge says in his splendid "Bird's-Eye View of Our Civil War," .that "Pope attributed his overthrow to the failure of Fitz-John Porter to obey' orders to attack Longstreet on August 2!Jtli. Facts now well known ex- onerate this officer." At the particular solicitation of the Davis administration, Lee began, early in September, immediately after defeating Pope's Army of Virginia, his famous sortie north, which culminated in the memorable battle of Antietam. Without waiting for the much needed supplies from Rich- mond, he pressed forward unmolested, and crossing the Potomac River near Point of Rocks, just east of Harper's Ferry, on September 5, brought his Army of Northern Virginia for the first time into the country of the foe. Lee counted upon the people of Maryland reoeiving him with open arms, and upon assembling from the populace new recruits to augnnent his thinned ranks. Reaching Frederick, Maryland, on the 8th he issued an address to the inhabitants saying "he had come to right their wrongs," while his army marched through the town singing "Maryland, My Maryland,"" to the grand old German tune of "Tannenbaum". To Lee's dismay and surprise he found that the people he so much counted upon did not respond — in fact they remained decidedly lukewarm. This action was commented upon by a northern newspaper correspondent as follows: "Their expressions of joy and confidence appeared to have been lost in the one prevailing sentiment of wonder that the ragged men, stained with rain and dust and dirt, so devoid of pomp of war, so unlike what they had been accustomed to see of soldiers, could be the army which had defeated in so many engagements the splendid corps of the North." Lee's sudden appearance in Maryland raised the most intense consterna- tion throughout the North, especially in Pennsylvania. Troops rushed from Philadelphia to the protection of the State Capital, Harrisburg; McClellan was recalled to the command of the national fighting forces at hand, and ordered with the Army of the Potomac to follow and destroy the invaders. He reached Frederick just three days after Lee's address at that place. Lee now executed in the very face of McClellan a daring maneuver. He divided his army, sending Jackson, with twenty-five thousand troops, to capture Harper's Ferry, while the balance of his force was scattered through the South Mountains. At McClellan's advance, Lee finding the force under his personal command in a perilous position, issued orders to the scattered THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVII^ WAR parts to concentrate. A copy of this or^er falling into the hands of McClellan revealed not only the position of his foe, but informed him of Lee's plans. He then hurried his command on, intending to get control of two important gaps in the South Mountains before Lee could reach them. But Lee's forces won the race. These gaps Crampton and Turner, however, were finally occupied by the Blues after severe fighting. Jackson, on the 15th, after a grand but murderous bombardment of two hours from his strategically placed guns on the surrounding heights compelled the surrender of Harper's Ferry, with its garrison of thirteen thousand men, seventy-three guns and a large amount of valuable stores, then under the command of Miles. Thus the famous old arsenal, for a second time, fell into the hands of the Grays, all by reason of McClellan'a army remaining inactive several days, when it should have been hurrying to the relief of Miles. Leaving a small detachment to attend to the occupation of Harper's Perry, Jackson dashed with the utmost speed to join Lee, whom he reached on the 17th, jvist in time to take the most active part in the battle of Antietam. The delay required for the capture of Harper's Ferry, together with the fact of McClellan's army lying in his path, compelled Lee to give up his invasion of the North, and immediately, on the arrival of Jackson, he fell back to a defensive position on a ridge near Sharpsburg, about eight miles north of Harper's Ferry. To his rear was the Potomac River, to the front a rolling country with some cultivated fields bordering a sluggish creek called Antietain, from which the coming battle was to receive its name by the Blues, but the Grays called it Sharpsburg. On September 17, McClellan's army was drawn up on the hills on the opposite side of the creek; Burnside on the left confronting Longstreet; Fitz- John Porter in the centre opposed to D. H. Hill; Hooker and Sumner on the right facing Jackson. The battle opened at sunrise with a desperate and enduring artillery duel, followed soon after by an infantry contest, when Hooker's corps, making a furious charge through cornfields and up the slopes on Jackson, drove the Grays' front back into the woods on to their reserves, who, rallying, turned and pushed Hooker's men back again to the creek. "The carnage on both sides was horrible, more than half of Hooker's men were killed or wounded; every regimental commander but two were down, and the corps nearly destroyed." — Draper. At nine a. m. Mansfield's corps advanced to the support of Hooker; the Grays being re-enforced, another awful encounter took place over the same bloody field, in which General Mansfield was killed, Hooker wounded, and the Blues again forced back with direful slaughter to their first position. During all this terrific fighting on McClellan's right, the remainder of his vast army stood idly looking on. Sumner, who was to the left of Hooker, now advanced his corps to the assault. The Grays being further re-enforced charged upon the advancing Blues, causing them to retire, when Franklin, coming up, turned upon the foe and drove them back into their entrenchments on the ridge and thus saved the day. With the exception of several vain attempts about one o'clock p. m. on the part of Burnside on the left to take a bridge crossing the Antietam Creek, no other portion of McClelland's forces had been engaged in the famous battle. The number of the killed and wounded of both the Blues and Grays reached twenty thousand. Twenty-seven hundreds of the Grays' THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL WAR 75 dead were buried after the battle by the Blues. It was a drawn battle, each army occupying its original position. The number of the Blues engaged was 87,000; that of the Grays 50,000. Lee waited all of September 18 in anticipation of another attack, which, however, did not occur. With his army worn out with so many weeks of arduous marching and fighting, and without food and clothing, and with the rank and file thinned by frightful losses, he determined to retire and save his command. This he did without molestation during the night of the 18th. The next day McClellan telegraphed President Lincoln "Our victory is complete, the enemy is driven back into Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania are now safe." He made no attempt at pursuit, except to order an advance by Fitz-John Porter on the 20th, which was soon checked. He gave as a reason for his inaction that his army was exliausted and without supplies. The Grays' cavalry, under J. E. B. Stuart, now made a dash on Chambers- burg, Pennsylvania, where they destroyed a large quantity of stores and property and, finally, executing a complete circuit of McClellan's army, in which four thousand well equipped horsemen stood idle. He crossed the Potomac River east of the Union forces safely into Virginia. Lee retired quietly to Winchester among the friendly farmers in the Shen- andoah Valley, to rest and recruit his wornout command. For over five months the Blue and Gray had been continually marching, and fighting a dozen battles, with reckless audacity performing feats of valor, the like of which had never been witnessed in modern warfare. The Southern historian, Eggleston, in his excellent "History of the Con- federate War," in speaking of Lee's movements just before the battle OX Antietam, says: "Instead of advancing to conquer Washington or Baltimore, Lee fell back into a defensive position, there to meet an army nearly or quite twice as large as his own." In the meanwhile, the necessity of livkig upon the country had completely demoralized those "lewd fellows of the baser sort" who constitute a pestilently important contingent in every fighting force. Men were away raiding chicken coops, when they should have been in line with guns in their hands. Straggling was general beyond precedent, so that Lee declared that his army was "ruined by it," while D. H. Hill said in his report of the operations, "had all our stragglers been up, McClellan's army would have been completely crushed or annihilated; thousands of thieving poltroons had kept away from sheer cowardice." But with an "if," it is easy to explain anything. Re-enforcing McClellan's army to one hundred and fifty thousand strong, Lincoln urged an advance, but McClellan declined to do so until shoes and other supplies were provided. Finally, on November 1, he got under way, marching along the eastern base of the Blue Ridge, while Lee, on the other side, was hurrying south up the Shenandoah Valley. The hue and cry of the press and people at the North, "exasperated by McClelland's tardiness," forced the Administration to relieve him, whereupon Burnside was made the Commander of the Army of the Potomac. President Lincoln had been waiting for a great Union victory in order that he might issue, under favorable auspices, a Proclamation of Emancipa- tion of all slaves in insurgent territory, which by a fixed date should not have returned to allegiance to the Union. The battle of Antietam furnished this occasion, and the Proclamation was published on September 23, 1862. THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL WAR The measure was endorsed on the following day by a conference of Northern State Governors in Altoona, Pa., and generally approved by the press and prominent people of the North. Nevertheless, the ranks of the opposition in Congress to the Administration were greatly increased in the fall elections. Abroad, the Proclamation was hailed with approval by the common people, and the influence of this public opinion with their governments caused these to abandon all idea of intervention in America in favor of the Confederacy. The Proclamation became operative on January 1, 1863, none of the States or portions of States in rebellion having laid down their arms. Getting his army through the gaps of the Blue Ridge, Lee formed his line behind strong fortifications along a range of hills to the south of Fredericksburg. Burnside's force took up position on another range of hills north of the Rappahannock River, with the plain on which the city stood lying under command of the guns of both armies. As all the bridges crossing the river had been destroyed by Lee, Burnside was compelled to construct pontoons, which proved slow and hazardous work under the hot fire from the Grays' sharpshooters. However, on December 10, under support of a brisk bombardment by the artillery firing over their heads, some few national troops succeeded in getting across the river and driving the annoying sharpshooters away at the point of the bayonet. Shortly afterwards, pontoons being erected at several points, the army got across the river and took up position between the city and the fortified heights occupied by Lee. Lee's line was an arc concaved around the city, with the left under Longstreet a mile above, and the right under Jackson some four miles below the city, in all eighty thousand strong. The national risht was held by Sumner, the left by Franklin and the centre by Hooker. "These were practically separate armies and robbed the whole body of elastic force and mobility," says Dodge. On the foggy morning of December 13, 1862, the battle of Fredericksburg began by a division under General Meade, of Franklin's corps, charging on Jackson's right, and taking the heights; but not being promptly sup- ported the charges were forced back with a loss of over one-third their number. In the afternoon, Sumner's corps on the right advanced up the sloping plain -towards the enemy's works, under support of a bombardment by the artillery, which spread over the heads of the charging men "a canopy of iron." The Grays, carefully reserving their ammunition until Sumner's men got half way across the plain, suddenly opened a terrific concentrated fire along their whole front. Of the resulting carnage in- flicted on the Blues, Longstreet reported that "the gaps in the Union line made by our artillery could be seen half a mile off. The line was soon dispersed. Another one was sent forward, closing in two-thirds of the plain, but the charging party was raked right and left; falling back they reformed and a third time tried to take the ramparts by bayonet, but failed." Hooker in the centre reported "that when I gave orders for General Humphrey's division, four thousand strong, to charge the centre of the enemy's, the men moved forward with impetuosity and advanced within fifteen to six- teen yards of a stone wall, which was the advanced position held by the foe, and then they were thrown back as quickly as they had advanced, going and coming took only fifteen minutes, but they left behind seventeen hundred and sixty." The total loss to the Nationals is given for the entire battle at THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL WAR 77 thirteen thousand. "No such useless slaughter, with the exception, perhaps, of Cold Harbor in 18 64, occurred during our war," says Dodge. Regarding Lee's position impregnable, Burnside retired on the 15th to his original line on the range of hills north of the city, which move he made under cover of night. Towards the end of December preparations were made by Burnside to pass Lee and proceed on to Richmond, when he was relieved of coinmand and superseded by Major-General Joseph Hooker. Generals Franklin and Sumner were also relieved of their commands. This closed the campaigns between the Blue and Gray of the year 1862 in Virginia. Secretary of War Stanton in his report of December, 1862, said "that some eight hundred thousand troops had been equipped during the year and that Congress would have to provide for one million during 1863." From a survey of the field of operations it is apparent that whatever disasters our armies may have suffered, a great advance has nevertheless been made since the commencement of the war. When it began the enemy held Nor- folk, Va., and every part of the Southern coast; they also held the Missis- sippi from Cairo to New Orleans. Now the blockaded ports of Charleston, South Carolina, and Mobile, Alabama, alone remain to them, on the sea- . board, and New Orleans and Memphis have been wrested from them. Their possessions of Vicksburg obstructs the Mississippi, but it is to them of no commercial use. The enemy has been driven from Kentucky, West Tennessee, Missouri, part of Arkansas, and are fleeing before Grant in Mississippi and all their hopes in Maryland are cut off. In commercial, political and strategic points of view, more success had attended the Union cause than was ever witnessed upon so large a theater of war in the same brief period against so formidable an enemy. The military force of the Union is more mighty in all the elements of warfare than was ever before arrayed under one banner. Edward A. Pollard, the Southern historian, in his "Lost Cause," writes of affairs of this period of the war. "The series of disasters to the Confederates in the early part of 18G2 may be distinctly and sufficiently traced to human causes, to human mismanagement. No one who lived in Richmond during the war can ever forget these gloomy, miserable days. President Davis, to the popular complaint of inefficiency in the Department, replied that they had done all which human power and foresight enabled them to accomplish, and then lifted up in conclusion a piteous, beautiful, appropriate prayer for the favor of Divine Providence." Further on. Pollard says, "as to the Antietam campaign of 1802 the moral effect of their results was great and the position of the Confederates was now very different from what it had been in the early part of the year. The glory of their arms now attracted the attention of the world, and, although they had been forced to retire, they had proved that the subjugation of the South was a task which the enemy had only commenced. They had raised the siege of Richmond and threatened Washington; beaten the enemy back in that quarter to what had been the threshold of the war." The London Times declared that the history of these campaigns comprised a list of military achievements almost without parallel, and added "Whatever be the fate of the new Nationality or its subsequent claims to the respect of mankind, it will assuredly begin its career with a reputation for genius and valor which the most famous nations may envy." THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL, WAR CHAPTER VIII. The Vicksburg Campaign, 1863. Military Situation at the Beginning of the Year — Confederate Cruisers — • Grant's Second Campaign Against Vicksburg — Yazoo Expedition — Attack on Haines' Bluff — Capture of Grand Gulf — Grierson's Raid — Grant's Occupation of Jackson, Miss. — Battle of Champion Hills — Battle of Big Black River — Siege of Vicksburg — Its Fall — Confederate Repulse at Helena, Ark. — Capture of Port Hudson — Minor Engagements. At the commenceinent of the third year of the great struggle, the National armies numbered eight hundred thousand men including one hun- dred thousand black. The Navy had been increased to over four hundred vessels. While the Confederate forces closely approximated a like number of troops, their Navy consisted mainly of small crafts designed for the navigation of inland waters. At this time both North and South were bitterly complaining of mis- management in military affairs — the lack of scientific methods and the over-abundance of political generalship and interference with the com- manders in the field. The Southern historian, Pollard, states "that there were constant com- plaints of the incompetency with which the military affairs of the South were conducted by the maladministration of the political leaders dominating the ideas and plans of the generals in the field." This statement applies with equal force to the prevailing state of sentiment on the subject at the North. At the beginning of the third year of the war. Grant with the Army of the Tennessee was at Milliken Bend, Mississippi, preparing for the beleaguer- ing of Vicksburg, opposed by the armies of Joseph E. Johnston and Pemberton. The Army of the Cumberland under General Rosecrans was near Murfreesboro, in Tennessee, confronting the Grays under General Bragg. The Army of the Ohio under General Burnside was at Knoxville, opposed by General Bruckner. The Army of the Gulf was under General Banks, against whom was Richard Taylor. This department was preparing for the capture of Port Hudson, a very important stronghold on the Mississippi River, two hundred and fifty miles below Vicksburg, and some one hundred and thirty-five miles above New Orleans. The Army of the Potomac under General Hooker was to the north of the Rapidan River, in East Virginia, facing General Lee's Army of Northern Virginia, then entrenched at Fredericksburg. Maneuvering and fighting took place during the year of 1863 by these various armies almost simultaneously over the vast war zone. There was hardly a day when fighting was not going on between these combatants, but as only one campaign can be recited at a time, the reader must bear in mind that, while reviewing one of the scenes of action, others are taking place at the same time at the various places in the great theatre of war. THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL WAR 79 A sti'ingent blockade of ports along the three thousand miles of sea- coast was maintained by the National fleet. Nevertheless, blockade runners managed to get in and out without detection in spite of the hazardous undertaking. The Confederate crui-sers which had been built and fitted out in English ports were driving the National Commerce from the seas. Those privateers did inestimable damage, capturing many of the American merchant marine and securing vast treasures, all in spite of the Lincoln Administration's protest to the British Government for its violation of neutrality, by permitting the fitting out of these vessels in British ports. America's claims for the resulting damages, however, were finally admitted and settled for on the part of England under the so-called "Alabama Claims" by a Commission of Arbitration held in Geneva, Switzerland, in 1872, resulting in moral victory for America over England. The decision of the Commission was that the British Government should pay to the United States fifteen million dollars indemnity as the price for having sympathized with the "Lost Cause." At the beginning of the year we left General Grant's Army of the Tennessee preparing for his second campaign agaiitst Vicksburg, Mississippi. His army consisted of the 13th Corps under General McClernard; the 15th under General W. T. Sherman; the 16th under General Stephen Augustus Hurlburt, and the 17th under General James Birdseye McPherson. After the capture of Arkansas Post, already noted. Grant assembled his army at Young's Point, a landing place on the west banks of the Mississippi River, almost opposite Vicksburg, and separated from that strong- hold by a peninsula of fiat lands formed in a sharp bend of the river. In order to bring his forces south of the enemy's forts on the heights of Vicksburg, he began finishing the canal started the year before by General Williams of the Department of the Gulf. Granting this canal to be a success, it would turn the course of the river and leave Vicksburg inland. After the most indefatigable efforts, the laboring of day and night, extending to the middle of March, the sudden rising of the river, together with heavy downpours of rains, caused the dam to give way, after which the work on the canal was abandoned. There are two great turns in this portion of the inighty river; one to the north of Vicksburg called Milliken Bend, and the second to the south called New Carthage. These bends are connected to the west of the Mississippi by a parallel stream called Tensas River. Attempts were made by Grant to use this river as his route south by deepening its channels, but the falling of the waters and an unfavorable season compelled the engineers to give up their efforts. Entering the Mississippi just north of Vicksburg is the Yazoo River, which flows almost due south through the State of Mississippi. Some two hundred and fifty miles up this tortuous stream in Greenwood, where the Tallahatchie and the Yalobusha rivers join it. The mouth of the Yazoo had been closed by a levee. This the Blues cut, and the waters of the Mississippi River, which were ten feet higher than the lowlands behind the levee, rushed through, tearing up a passage. With the object of approaching Vicksburg by a northern route, Grant in the early part of March sent an expedition up the Yazoo, which, reaching Greenwood, attacked there Fort Pemberton, but failed in its capture. 80 THE CAMrAIGNS OF THE CIVIL WAR This whole region for hundreds of square miles is a vast heavy wooded swamp, cut up by numerous bayous, creeks and streams, with the forests so dense that torches, even in the daytime, had to be employed by the Blues to light their way throvigh the jungles, in their endeavors to clear the river of the heavy massive fallen logs, in order to make a passage for the gun- boats and transports. Besides this the country was malarial and the river water was so bad to drink that it was the cause of a constant and heavy sick list among the Blues, while the Grays, being to a great extent immune against the miasmatic climate, escaped much of this misery. The expedition of gunboats and a division under General W. T. Sherman met with insurmountable difficulties during constant rainy weather forging a way through these dense forests, jungles and marshes. Grant in his Memoirs in speaking of the canal and Yazoo incidents, says: "I, myself, never felt great confidence that any of the experiments resorted to would prove successful, nevertheless, I was always prepared to take advantage of them." Grant finally gave up trying to reach the rear of Vicksburg by way of the Yazoo marshes and on March 29 started for New Carthage, some forty miles below Vicksburg and seventy miles south of his camp at Milliken Bend, via the Tensas River. ' The problem before him, was how to get to the rear of Vicksburg, for it had been found impracticable of attack on the front from the low swamps on the west side of the Mississippi River. Therefore, Grant had but two courses to pursue; the first of which was to go back and make Memphis his base, and from there proceed along the railroads to the Yalobusha River; thence to Jackson, Miss. In his Memoirs as to this plan he says "that the retrogressive movement would have at that time been interpreted by the press and people at the North as a retreat on the part of my army." Accordingly, he adopted the second very hazardous plan of approaching Vicksburg from the south. This was another case of a General in the field being forced to do a technical wrong, in which much suffering for man and beast and expense for the government would be incurred, simply in deference to a censorious, meddlesome press bent on inflaming the people's minds, thus interfering with the scientific management of the war. While the east side of the Mississippi River at Vicksburg is composed of high bluffs, the west bank is a flat country cut up with numerous bayous, where there is hardly a bit of dry ground upon which to form a camp. Grant's army on its march south through these swampy regions was stretched along the banks of the narrow levees for miles, and to make matters still more hazardous, the river at the time was unusually high and the incessant rains, following an unprecedented winter, caused the greatest hardships for his army. The bluffs on which Vicksburg stands follows the left bank of the Yazoo, eleven miles to the north of the city at Haines' Bluff, where stood strong fortifications. Thence for a distance south of some seventeen miles to Warrenton these bluffs were a continuous line of entrenchments and batteries. To bring this southerly movement of Grant's to a success it was necessary for Porter's fleet to run the gauntlet of these miles of forts. The fleet started on April 16 with seven naval vessels, followed by three transports towing barges loaded with coal, and then three gunboats bring up the rear. Under constant fire, giving and taking at close range, the fleet forged through the THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL. WAR 81 terrific passage of iron hail, every vessel being struck many times. At night the Grays lighted huge bonfires, which brought the valorous fleet into plain view, making a scene "magnificent, but terrible." Finally at the end of several hours' constant fighting the fleet succeeded in getting past the batteries and out of range of the murderous fire, with the loss of one of the transports and half of the coal barges. The advance of Grant's army under command of McClernard reached New Carthage April 6, after wading most of the way along mired roads. These roads and numerous bridges had to be constructed by the engineers in order to bring up the wagons with the supplies. Pushing on ten miles further south, making the whole distance marched through this swampy country forty .miles, McClernard reached the place selected to cross to the east side of the Mississippi. It was very appropriately named Hard Times, and directly opposite was a fortified place called Grand Gulf, past which the fleet was compelled to run. By the use of the ti'ans- ports in Porter's fleet, McClernard's corps was gotten across the river on the 29th, landing a few miles below Grand Gulf at a point called Bruinsburg. General W. T. Sherman, still above at the starting place, was ordered by Grant to make a diversion by moving his corps up the Yazoo, threp,tening an attack on Haines' Bluff. This feint had the desired result of keeping the Grays under Generals Pemberton and Johnston engaged, and thus pre- venting their sending aid to the smaller force at Grand Gulf. On April 30 Grant completed his audacious movement and had his army of thirty-three thousand in the enemy's country, but with Vicksburg between his forces and his base of supplies. Some small force of Grays under Bowen came out of Grand Gulf in an endeavor to check the Blues' kdvance northward, but their numbers were not sufficient to cope with Grant's entire army, and after a short, but gallant flght, they were forced to retire to Vicksburg. The Blues then occupied the desei^ted Fort Gibson, restored a burned bridge, and rested a week waiting for the teams to catch up. About this time Colonel Grierson, with some one thousand Blue Cavalry, completed his arduous ride through the enemy's country, extending from Memphis, Tenn., to Baton Rouge. La. In sixteen days his force traversed six hundred miles, and not only destroyed large quantities of supplies, miles of railroads and many bridges, but kept the Grays from interfering with Grant's advance. Grant's army kept now pushing northward through a rough, hilly country, of which he says: "It stand on edge, as it were," the roads running along high ridges between which were deep ravines of heavy impenetrable forests. General Johnston, who was at Tallahoma, Tennessee, learning of Grant's movements, collected all the available troops and hastened to the aid of Pemberton, who was at Vicksburg, three hundred miles southwest. This was the General Joseph E. Johnston who was severely wounded on the Chickahominy River when he made the attack on McClellan's forces in the spring of 1862, and who, having recovered, had been transferred to the West in December, 1862, to oppose Grant. In the meantime, Grant forced his way to Jackson, Miss., which was fifty miles east of Vicksburg, at a junction of several important railroads, and to thwart the union of Johnston and Pemiberton he hurried McPhe^son'^ 82 THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL WAR corps to intervene, intending to get his whole army between both bodies of the Grays. * McPherson reached Clinton just west of Jackson and destroyed the rail- roads on May 13, where he was joined by Sherman's corps, which had only reached Hard Times a week before, after a march through the swampy Tensas country and the rough region of Mississippi. These corps meeting Johnston's Grays drove them eastward, and Sherman's corps entered and captured Jackson. Grant, learning that Johnston had ordered General Pemberton to evacuate Vicksburg and join him, determined to stop this union of the Grays' separated forces, and leaving Sherman to face Johnston, he turned west with the balance of his army to the attack of Pemberton. The foes met at Champion Hills about midway betwfeen Vicksburg and Jackson. Pemberton, in marching out of Vicksburg to meet Grant, had the intention of cutting off his base of supplies to the south, but Grant had abandoned that base and was energetically endeavoring to establish a new one to the north of Vicksburg, which he shortly afterwards succeeded in doing. In the battle of Champion Hills, Pemberton lost a lot of artillery and one of his generals, Tilghman, who was killed. After this defeat Pemberton fell back towards Vicksburg and concen- trated his forces on the Big Black River, twelve miles east of Vicksburg, at a strongly fortified post which, however, was carried by a gallant bayonet charge of the Blues Under General M. K. Lawler. Pemberton, burning the railroad bridge, abandoned the works, loosing eighteen pieces of artillery, and by nightfall his disordered command poured into the streets of Vicks- burg. Of this retreat of the Grays, Pemberton stated that it became a matter of "sauve que peut. The army which had gone forth from the town *to smite the enemy, was now a rushing, howling mob terrifying the citizens." The next day, Sherman having come up, his engineers erected a pontoon bridge and the whole army was gotten across the Big Black River. Up to this time Grant's army had in forty-six days marched one hun- dred and eighty miles; fought five battles, with continuous skirmishing daily; captured ninety guns, six thousand prisoners; prevented the union of John- ston's and Pemberton's forces, and compelled the latter to seek refuge behind the fortifications of Vicksburg. For most of the time his army lived on the country traversed, having at the start taken along but five days' rations. Communications were now opened with Porter's fleet, which had again run the fire of the Vicksburg batteries and was at the Yazoo River. Thus was established Grant's new ba.se of supplies to the north as he had planned. At noon. May 19, Vicksburg was invested by Grant's army, extending in a crescent fifteen miles long, with either flank resting on the Mississippi River. Further, defensive works were erected seven miles east of the besiegers to thwart any attempt of Johnston to raise the siege. A few days before Pemberton retired into Vicksburg, Johnston wrote him: "If Haines' Bluff be untenable, Vickburg is of no value; it cannot be held. If you are invested in it you must ultimately surrender. Instead of losing both places and troops, you must, if possible, save the troops. If not too late, evacuate Vicksburg and march northeast." It was too late, as Sherman says in his Memoirs, "I was gratified to enter Haines' Bluff," which THE CAMPAIGNS OP THE CIVIL WAR 83 he had found impossible of capture the January before. Pemberton had seen that the evacuation of Vicksburg meant the loss of very valuable stores there, and would also cause the fall of Port Hudson, which was being attacked by Banks' Army of the Gulf, and would mean the surrender of the Mississippi River, the severance of the Confederacy, and the loss of their great storehouse of supplies, western Louisiana. These were the factors which influenced him in casting the die of the defense of Vicksburg. Porter's fleet now advanced up the Yazoo unmolested and destroyed the naval establishment on May 31. The War Department hurried South re-enforcements to Grant until 1 army numbered seventy thousand. There were formed in entrenchments in the following order: McClernard's corps on the left, McPherson's at the centre, with Sherman's on the right. The Grays' opposing works, in many places not more than six hundred yards distant from the Blues, were manned by Baldwin on the left, Fitz Hugh Lee on the right, and Pemberton, with Smith and Farney, guarding the centre. The eight thousand fresh troops which had been stationed at Vicksburg during the preceding fighting added to the morale and encouragement of the Grays, and all went resolutely to the task of a determined defense, counting at the same time upon Johnston being able to raise the siege by attacking Grant's rear. This trust proved, however, to be visionary, for Johnston could not gather more than twenty thousand soldiers, most of them raw recruits, to attack Grant's defensive works to the east of his line. The first assault on the forts of Vicksburg was made on May 19, by a division led by General Blair of Sherman's wing in an attempt to carry a portion of the enemy's works. This failed in spite of gallant charges made by the Blues, who were repeatedly repulsed with fearful losses, the Grays firing down upon the chargers' explosive bullets, which inflicted barbarous wounds. On the 22nd, Grant again ordered a grand assault along the whole line, and a simultaneous bombardment by the fleet in front. One time during these frightful, but fruitless charges, Sherman's wing gained some ground for a short time, but it was soon dislodged under the terrific storm of shells and bullets against which no human being could stand. After the second failure Grant then set about the plan of a continuous siege until the enemy should be starved out. In spite of the incessant exchange of shots, the Blue and Gray boys during the arduous fifty-eight days of the siege did a great deal of fraternizing, yelling over the trenches to each other, exchanging jokes and jibes. Coffee was bartered by the Blues for tobacco. At many points the pickets would agree to cease firing, and enter into friendly conversations, after which they would return to their respective breastworks and take up the deadly sharpshooting at each other. The Southern historian, Pollard, gives the following graphic description of affairs in the lines of the Grays, which in fact was a counterpart of what was experienced by the Blues during that trying two months. "And now commenced a terrible task. Fort was erected against fort, and trench dug against trench, the enemy's sappers and miners, constructing their corridors and passages and pits, aimed a blazing fire of hostile musketry under the fierce rays of the summer sun. The Confederates confined to the narrow 84 THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL, WAR limits of their trenches, with their limbs cramped and swollen, never had by- day or night the slightest relief. They wefe exposed to burning suns, drenching rains, damp fog and heavy dews." Of the condition of the people in the city he recites: "The citizens, women and children, prepared caves in hills where they took refuge during the most incessant bombardment. The spirits of the troops were kept up by news received from Johnston's army by means of messengers who found a way through the swampy thickets of the Yazoo." Thus the exasperating siege dragged on, until, about July 1, Johnston arranged to make a diversion to the south of Grant's investing lines. On the 3rd a messenger was sent by him to Pemberton, informing that commander of the attempt at relief. This Pemberton never received, and on the next day, July 4, he surrendered. In Pemberton's official report he says that he selected the national holiday for capitulation to gratify the enemy's vanity. Grant and he were well known to each other, as they had served in the same division during the Mexican War. It was the deplorable condition of the populace at this time which caused Pemberton to surrender so early. Of the population of four thou- sand, including blacks, the greater portion was in hospitals, and progressive starvation had been threatening them for many days. A day or two before the surrender a mine was exploded by the Blues, which blew off the top of a hill whereon stood a fort manned by the Grays; by it a vast chasm was rent open and the force of the explosion threw several of the Confederates alive over into the Union lines. On that same day began the terrific battle of Gettysburg in Pennsylvania, where General Lee's invading army met defeat at the hands of General Meade's forces, a most despairing period indeed for the Southern cause, as four days after Pemberton's surrender, Port Hudson capitulated to General Banks. Two hours after Pemberton's surrender the National flag was hoisted by General Logan's division over the Vicksburg Courthouse, and Sherman was immediately despatched east to hunt up Johnston, for it was not Grant's character to stop to enjoy the fruits of one victory while the possibilities of another was near at hand. The garrison which surrendered numbered twenty-three thousand, with munitions enough to supply an army of sixty thousand. It occupied a week to parole the prisoners, and then they were marched out through the parade lines of the Blues without a word or cheer. Grant says: "Really, I believe there was a feeling of sadness just then in the breasts of the Union soldiers at seeing the dejection of their late antagonists;" and again he says in his Memoirs: "The news of the fall of Vicksburg with the victory at Gettysburg won by Meade the day before lifted a load of anxiety from the minds of the President and Cabinet and the loyal people at the North." On the same day of the surrender of Vicksburg, the Grays, ten thousand strong under General Holmes, attacked forty-five hundred Blues under Prentiss at Helena, Ark., but were defeated. This was the last attempt to raise Grant's siege of Vicksburg. Eggleston, in his history of the Confederacy, in commenting upon the momentous events, says: "After Vicksburg, the days of the dominance of Halleck and his kind were numbered, the time was approaching when THE CAMl'AIGNS OF THE CIVIL WAR 85 capacity was to take command in place of regularity; when sense was to replace shoulder straps; when the man under the uniform was to count for more than the uniform. The Galena clerk, Ulysses S. Grant, was a few months hence to succeed to the command of all the armies of the United States, replacing the pet of an antiquated system. Two-thirds of a year were yet to lapse before this change in the administration of Federal military affairs should completely take place, but its coming was sure, and with It the end of a struggle which had already cost the country much of its best blood and untold millions of treasure." The fall of Vicksburg was immediately followed by the destruction of the Grays' fleet. A few days after came the capture of Port Hudson by Banks, the last stronghold of the Confederacy on the Mississippi River. The first merchant steamer, the Imperial, sailed down to New Orleans. At last, as President Lincoln said, "the Mississippi now flows unvexed from its source to the sea." A number of small encounters took place in the West during the sum- mer, in which hard fighting occurred and great gallantry displayed by both Blue and Gray. These were at outpo.sts where the Blue defenders had been reduced in numbers by Grant in gathering every available man to his army at Vicksburg. The most important of these struggles, at Milliken Bend and Fort Hinman, were intended by the Grays as menacing movements against Grant's siege. But nothing was accomplished in that direction by these heroic efforts of the Grays that influenced the final result. General Johnston, at the approach of Sherman after the fall of Vicks- burg, fell back with his meager and poorly organized force of twenty thou- sand to Jackson, Miss., where the Blues under Sherman sallied forth to assail him, whereupon he retired one hundred miles further east to Meridian in safety. 86 THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL WAR CHAPTER IX. The Gulf Campaigns, 1863. Enlistment of Negroes — Banks succeeds Butler — Failure of Expedition Against Galveston — Running the Port Hudson Batteries — Battle of Bisland — Irish Bend — Retreat Down the Teche — Siege of Port Hudson — Its Capture — Minor Engagements During the Siege — Cox's Plantation — The Writer's Per- sonal Experiences — A Poker Game Under Fire — The Texas Campaign — Sabine Pass — Brazos, Santiago^ — Re-enlistment of 90th New York Regiment. We left at the end of 1862 the Confederate forces in Louisiana under General Richard Taylor, occupying the Teche Country, and the Union troops under General Weitzel in control of the La Fourche, with headquarters at Thibodeaux. Near the end of 1862 the whole of Louisiana lying west of the Mis- sissippi River, except the delta parishes of Plaquemine and Terra Bonne, was formed into a military district called La Fourche, and General Weitzel was put in comimand of it. General Butler, with headquarters at New Orleans, organized the 1st and 2nd Louisiana Regiments of Infantry, and three troops of cavalry, enlisted from the white loyal citizens of the State. He also organized three regiments of negroes, calling them 1st, 2nd and 3rd La Native guards. He did this on his own account, and, while the act was not sanctioned by the Administration, still it was not interfered with. These, the first negro troops mustered into the service, were composed, not of slaves, but of what was called at the South "the free men of color." At first their officers were also colored men, but this arrangement was soon found to be impracticable, and thereafter all commissioned officers of negro regiments were white. The formation of the colored troops created con- siderable feeling and dissension among the white troops — even General Weitzel, one of the most obedient officers in the service, got into a dispute with Butler on the matter, declaring he was unwilling to command such troops, but as Irwin, in his history of the 19th Army Corps, says, "and to reflect that in little more than two years he, (Weitzel), was destined to accept with alacrity the command of a whole army corps of black men and at last to ride in triumph at their head into the very capital of the Confederacy." This took place in April, 1865, after the evacuation of Richmond, while Grant's army was chasing Lee on the Appomattox River. The malarious climate of Louisiana depleted Butler's troops during 1862 to the extent of some five thousand men, and the Government saw that prompt measures to strengthen the department would be necessary. There- fore, on November 8, 1862, General Nathaniel P. Banks, of Shenandoah Valley fame, was assigned to the command of the Department of the Gulf. This General had been injured at the battle of Richmountain while with Pope in the Army of Virginia; he was afterwards placed in charge of the defenses of Washington, and accomplished the tasks of clearing that city of thousands of stragglers, and of organizing proper provisions for the care of the thousands of sick and wounded and making the capital safe, for which services he received the personal thanks of President Lincoln. THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL WAR 87 The new troops to accompany Banks were placed under the command of General William Hemsley Emory. These new forces consisted of thirty- nine regiments of infantry, six batteries of artillery, and one battalion of cavalry; twenty-one of these regiments, however, were composed of men enlisted to serve only nine months. They were sent from Fortress Monroe, Va., in a fleet of transports under escort of the warship Augusta, as it was known that the Confederate privateers, Alabama and Florida, were in the Gulf of Mexico. In fact. Captain Semmes of the Alahama knew of the sailing of the fleet of transports, and lay about Galveston, Texas, (where he had been informed the troops were destined to disembark), intending to destroy both ships and troops, but the fleet assembled instead at Ship Island, just east of the Delta of the Mississippi, and thus escaped the privateers. Banks relieved Butler December, 1862, receiving orders to bend all his energies to the opening up of the Mississippi River, in which it was important to capture Port Hudson and get into communication with Grant at Vicksburg. Immediately on his arrival he sent Curvier Grover with five thousand men under the escort of a portion of Farragut's fleet to attack Baton Rogue, but, the enemy withdrawing, the Federals occupied that city without resistance. Grover took the precaution to strengthen the defenses, as only a day's march from Baton Rouge, that is at Port Hudson, lay twelve thousand Confederates under General Frank Gardner. In order to protect the Union people, and, if possible, to raise recruits, Banks, on December 24, 1862, sent a small force under Colonel Burrel to Galveston, Texas, but this expedition got only as far as landing on a pier, when it was attacked both by land and water forces, and was compelled to surrender. A number of the gunboats which had accompanied him were lost. Four, however, got safely away, on one of which was General Andrew J. Hamilton, the intended Military Governor of Texas, and his staff. It was not until the middle of February that the last of the troops assigned to Banks arrived, and the formation of the 19th Army Corps was completed, by organizing four divisions under Christopher C. Auger, Thomas W. Sherman, Emory and Grover, respectively. Each division had a battery, and the whole force numbered about twenty-five thousand men, but the regiments were badly equipped. About this time Grant was at Milliken's Bend preparing for the second attack on Vicksburg. Banks was to co-operate with him, but at the time of the formation of the 19th Corps, there were no means of communication between thes3 generals, and of course neither knew of the other's plans. As has been noted. Banks had been instructed to bend all his energies to the capture of the .stronghold on the Mississippi called Port Hudson, which lies two hundred and fifty miles south of Vicksburg, and one hundred and thirty- five north of New Orleans. That portion of the Mississippi lying between these two fortified positions was the only one in the control of the Confederates, the rest of the course, both north and south, being open. Port Hudson at that time was manned by sixteen thousand Grays in very strong fortifications. Late in January Admiral Porter sent a portion of his fleet to run the Vicksburg batteries. One of the boats, the Queen of the West, got through and destroyed several Confederate supply boats; then, running up the Red River, it de- stroyed more of the same kind, and finally got safely back to Vicksburg. Again, on February 5, the Queen of the West made a second run over the THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL WAR same course, but this time she did not get bacl^ for she was so badly disabled by the fire of the guns from Fort De Russy, on the Red River, that she was abandoned there by her crew. The Confederates, however, got her in com- mission again, and with another gunboat, the Wehl), attacked and sank the United States warship Indianola, on February 24. Thus the Confederates were in possession of this reach of the river, but Farragut got after them, and, on the night of March 14, for the fourth time attempted to run the batteries of Port Hudson. This time three of his vessels were disabled and forced to retire; one the Mississippi, was blown up. Farragut, aboard of the flagship Hartford, which was lashed to the side of the Albatross, alone succeeded in passing the batteries, and the next day he delivered a letter from Banks to Grant. Banks had intended to follow with Farragut's fleet, but it was found impracticable. Learning that the Confederates under General Richard Taylor were at Bis- land, a bend on the Teche, a short distance west of the junction of that bayou with the Atchafalaya River, Banks made preparations to attack these forces early in April at the very time Grant was vigorously pushing on in his Vicks- burg campaign. He sent ten thousand troops of the 19th Corps under com- mand of General Emory on the expedition up the Bayou Teche. At Fort Bisland, which was a simple breastwork on a bend in the Teche, a force of four thousand Grays, under command of General Alfred Moulton, which was defended by the gunboat Diana, awaited the approach of Emory. On April 13, as a portion of these troops reached Bisland, they met with an attack by Moulton's cavalry, which was followed by infantry, both of which they repulsed. The Blues then advanced to the attack through thickets of heavy willows and across deep ditches under a boiling hot sun, receiving in passing a galling enfilading fire from the gunboat Diana, but a well-directed shot from Weitzel's batteries, exploding in her engine-room, compelled Captain R. Arnold to take his ship up the bayou out of the fight. In the first charge a portion of the Blues, after a spirited fight, carried a part of the ramparts and captured nearly one hundred prisoners. At another part of the line a brisk encounter took place in impenetrable canebrakes, which was without results for either side. The next day the Grays retired. Emory's men, accompanied by the gunboat Clifton, followed the retreating Grays up the Teche, and, after some heavy skirmishing with their rear guards, entered without further opposition the town of Franklin. In the meantime the balance of Banks' army, under General Grover, were advancing, both by transports and roads, and on April 14 another clash occurred at Irish Bend. At the very beginning of an attack by the Blues, Colonel Edward L. Moli- nieux of the 159th New York was painfully wounded in the mouth just as he was giving the command "Forward." Desperate fighting lasted all day, in which the Diana, having been again repaired, took an important part. In the end the small force of Grays were compelled quickly to retire. They promptly burned the bridges, blew up the Diana, and set fire to all their transports ex- cept the hospital boat Cornie, filled with sick and wounded, which fell into the hands of the Blues. Captain Semmes, who but a day before had left his bat- tery to command the Diana, was taken prisoner by General Weitzel's men, but shortly afterwards cleverly escaped. Semmes afterwards commanded the fa- mous privateer Alabama. Banks, with a force of three times greater than that of his foe, hastened THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL WAR 89 up the Teche, and on April 24, without resistance, reached Opelousas, about fifty miles nearly directly west of Port Hudson. Here on a vast prairie plain he held a grand review of liis army. Irwin says "the troops, not as yet inured to the long- and hard marches, were indeed greatly diminished in numbers by the unaccustomed toil and exposure, as well as by casualties of battle, and the enervating effects of the climate, yet they presented a fine appearance, and were in the best of spirits." About this time the Confederates brought the Queen of the West into Ber- wiclv Bay, intending to assist Taylor on the Teche, but three of the national gunboats attacking her and her consorts at long range, she was soon in flames and sank. So ended the career of that famous naval vessel which had done important service on both sides. Banks leaving Opelousas, forged ahead due north, unopposed, over the grassy prairies to Alexandria, on the Red River, where Porter's fleet was wait- ing and where he expected to meet the promised troops from Grant, but in this lie was disappointed, as Grant's army was then pushing on to Vicksburg, and not a man could be spared. Banks' army, on May 7, reached Alexandria, where he received a di-spatch from Halleck, at Washington, to give up his march northward, and return at once to the attack of Port Hudson, which lay about one hundred miles south- east of his position. After resting a week he then set out for Bayou Sara, on the east side of the Mississippi River, a short distance northwest of the strong- hold of Port Hudson. While the Blues were at Alexandria the Grays, under Generals Taylor and Kirl)y Smith, made a threatening demonstration, but Weitzel chased them back forty miles, after which the Grays concentrated at Shreveport, an important town on the Red River, about two hundred miles directly west of Vicksburg. In his movement northwesterly through Louisiana, Banks had gathered up a large number of beeves and horses and fugitive slaves, which had to be sent south to Brashear City. This unpleasant duty fell to Colonel Chicker- ing of the 114th New York, who, with a few regiments and Snow's section of Nim's battery, was to retire down the Teche with the booty. Reaching Barre's Landing, he was joined by the writer's regiment, the 90th Naw York, under Colonel Joseph S. Morgan, who, being senior in rank, assumed com- mand of Chickering's forces. Some Grays, seeing this detached small force guarding a train of spoils eight miles long, endeavored to intercept it at a bridge. A spirited and lively race ensued between the Blues and Grays under a boiling hot sun, through dense dusty roads, for everything in the shape of soil in Louisiana is entirely devoid of stones. The bridge was gained first after several hours' hard marching by the Blues, when a terrific rainstorm stopped further progress for the day. A march of over twenty miles during the next day in which man and beast suffered from the tropical heat, brought the train to the south side of the Town of Franklin with the Grays close on its rear. Just as the jaded troops were about to camp for supper, the Grays of General Thomas Green's command made a vicious attack, which necessitated a double-quick march back to the town to assist the assailed rear guard. Fighting was kept up for a while, in which Nim's battery poured shot after shot into the pretty town, when, fearing the loss of the train, Morgan ordered a hasty retreat. The train, as has been stated, was eight miles in length, and, besides the troops, consisted of a cumbersome and motley band of five thousand 90 TH E CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL WAR negroes, tM'o thousand horses and fifteen hundred beeves. As Irwin says: "With the possible exception of the herd that set out to follow General Sherman's march through Georgia — which took place the next year — this was perhaps the most curious column ever put in motion since that which defiled after Noah into the ark." Without food or water this column pressed on throughout the entire night under a brilliant moon which kept the Grays informed of the move^ ments, so that during all night they kept hacking at the rear-guard. After a short rest for breakfast the weary troops reached Berwick the next day at noon. In the last thirty-one hours the command had covered forty-eight miles. On May 28, it crossed in safety to Brashear City, having been hotly pursued the whole time by the vigilant Grays. The train having been secured, the wearied troops the next day were hastened by transports to Port Hudson, and within another twenty-four hours they were under the cannonading, and fighting hard in the trenches with the main army. The surviving boys of the writer's regiment, who may happen to read the above account, will recall with deep interest those and the following strenuous days of army life. Returning to Banks' movements on to Port Hudson, we find that he met with but small opposition on his march to the Mississippi, and reached Point Coupee, and on May 22 crossed over the Mississippi to Bayou Sara, where, joined by Grover's division coming up from Baton Rouge, he imme- diately began passing around to the rear of Port Hudson. This strong hold was under command of General Frank Gardner, whose force had been depleted by repeated re-enforcements sent to Pemberton at Vicksburg until at this time he had but seven thousand to defend the citadel; according to attempts to advance Avith his smaller force to give battle to Banks at Bayou Sara was out of the question. He was, therefore, compelled to remain in his forts, and submit to a siege, with the hope of Taylor coming to his relief. On May 26, just one week after the investment of Vicksburg by General Grant, Banks began to draw a cordon with his ten thousand troops about the four and one-half miles of Port Hudson's entrenchments. In the river to the north and south of the fortified bluffs lay several ships and a mortar flotilla of Farragut's fleet, in one of which the now famous Admiral Dewey was serving. To prevent the Confederate garrison escaping west, a force of two regiments with a battery were stationed on the flats along the west bank of the river. The enemy never contemplated that move, however, but selected to stick to their guns, which they gallantly did to the end. The country inland of the town had, both by nature and the engineers been admirably laid out for an ideal defensive position. In the first place the region was a dense forest of luxuriant magnolia and liveoak trees of great size and beauty. The contour of the ground might be said to be cyclonicly varied in folds as if an earthquake had struck it, that is to say, along the four and one-half miles of the works starting at the river edge of the south, for the first quarter of a mile northward are ridges running about parallel to the forts, which a tourist would call picturesque, but which the investing engineers declared a curse. Further to the north extended beau- tiful cultivated cotton fields, and then the dense woods rolling up and down ridges and ravines terminated at the north end in an impassable swamp. THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL WAR 91 Now came the engineer with his ax and felled nearly every one of those lovely magnolias for a width along the east of the forts of three hundred yards, leaving the massive trunks and branches lying in a tangled mass mixed up with the heavy growth of sturdy underbush, forming what is technically called an abatis. On this beautiful May morning- a portion of Banks' force under General Weitzel appeared at the edge of the forest near the north end of the works, and attacking the outposts, succeeded in driving them back into their forts, after which he very prudently withdrew into the veil of the forest to await the arrival of the main army. Banks' cordon of about seven miles in length was perfected late that night, when he issued an order "that Port Hudson must be taken to-morrow." At break of day the ships and the army artillery began furiously to pound the stronghold with shot and shell for some hours, and then ceased, when the troops were ordered to attack, which at the beginning was mainly done on the right and centre, General Thomas W. Sherman, through some misunderstand- ing, not getting ahead until the afternoon. To assist the troops in passing the ditches, a squad of each regiment carried planks and bags filled with cotton. In the dense forest, regiments were never in view of each other, and as there were no roads, that prompt communication indispensable in a battle, was not obtainable. In the tangled mass of obstruction the movement of the charg- ing lines assumed the nature of "bushwhacking efforts." In several places along the fronts the troops gallantly reached within a few yards of the crest of the bluffs, on which, behind their entrenchments, the Confederates lay with mus- ketry and artillery waiting for a close range at the chargers; these opening a galling flre hurled the Blues down into the fallen timber. The men, not daring to expose themselves, hid until darkness came on, and to add the agony some of the abatis caught fire from the bursting shells. In trying to struggle through the entangled branches the men's clothes and equipment were nearly torn from their bodies, and many were shot down in the act of climbing the great trunks of the fallen trees. Despite the desperate fighting and carnage, no serious loss had occurred to the Confederates, yet the cost to the Union Army was the fear- ful one of two thousand. Irwin says, "The confidence of the troops in their commander was rudely shaken. It was long indeed before the men felt the same faith in themselves, and it is but the plain truth to say that their re- liance in the department commander never quite returned." When night came on the wuonded were searched for and brought to the overcrowded field hospitals under the big trees. The surgeons were inade- quately supplied with medical stores, and overworked to exhaustion. "To the hospitals came large numbers of men not too badly hurt to be able to walk, and to all the tired troops the whole night was rendered dismal to the last degree by the groans of their suffering comrades, mingled everywhere, the wounded with the well, the dying with the dead," says Irwin. Banks requested of Gardener a truce early the next morning to remove his dead and wounded from the underbrush; this was at first refused, but finally late in the afternoon Gardener yielded. This agonizing delay was terrible to the severely wounded men lying on the damp mould under the heavy logs and scorched by the blazing sun. The 19th Army Corps had every available man in the trenches, there being no reserves except a small body of cavalry at the rear watching the menacing Grays' movements from that direction. The writer's regiment. 92 THE CAMPAIGNS OP THE CIVIL WAR with Chickering's former command, reached the front on the 30th, after their arduous march down the Teche. The 90th New York was assigned to Weitzel's division near the north end, or right of line, and its colonel, Joseph S. Morgan, was put in command of a brigade. Night and day the incessant fire of the artillery and musketry was kept up. The Grays' sharpshooters were so keen that it was certain death to expose even a finger. They got so accurate in their aim that, in spite of the screens of bushes placed in front of the guns, the cannoneers dared not load or fire, until finally iron plates were set up in front of the gunners for protection. In most cases along the line the forts of the Blue and Gray were as close as three hundred yards, and any time a man on either side exposed himself he was instantly detected and a shower of bullets sent at him. Even the fringe of bushes along ramparts was no protection, for the enemy, knowing that behind these lay the foe, kept a steady fire through the twigs, compelling the men, inost of whom were suffering from sickness that the surgeons were entirely unable to ameliorate, to stay low in the cramped sultry trenches. Irwin, in speaking of the condition of the men of the 19th Corps at this period, says: "One of the eight regiments from the Teche Country — the 16th New Hampshire — had suffered so severely druing its six weeks' confinement in the heart of the pestilential swamps that it was reduced to a mere skeleton, without strength either numerically or physically. It was easy to see that officers and men alike were suffering from some aggravated form of hepatic disorder due to malarial poison." The Confederates to the rear under General Logan were constantly hovering around and kept Grierson and his cavalry busy chasing them away. Once during the siege Logan gobbled up one thousand uniforms and other stores from a landing on the river outside of the lines. It was not many days before the batteries all along the front got good control of the Grays' forts, knocking out twelve of their heavy guns. Towards the end of the siege the Confederate batteries did not reply or fire as often as the Nationals, for it was necessary that they should save their short supply of ammunition. At midnight on the 10th of June, during a heavy rainfall, a feint attack was made by skirmishers of the Blues along the whole line for the purpose of feeling the enemy's position and bringing him out of his trenches, but it was a failure, attended by considerable loss. The 12th of June was selected by Banks for a joint bombardment by the army and navy. This was continued furiously for an hour, the shells falling into the Grays' works at the rate of one a second; "three of the defenders' heavy guns were dismounted during the day, yet they suffered little loss in men, for, long before this, nearly the whole garrison had accustomed themselves to take refuge in their caves and gopher holes at the first sound of the Union cannon, and to await its ces.sation as a signal to return to their posts at the parapets. They were not always so fortunate, however, for more than once it happened that three or four men were killed by the bursting of a single ghell." — Irwin. As soon as the bombardment was ended Banks demanded the immediate surrender of the place, but Gardener replied: "My 4uty requires me to defend this position, and, therefore, I decline to surrender." Arrangements were then begun at once for another grand assault along the whole line. THE CAMPAIGNS OP THE CIVIL WAR 93 This took place during- a fearfully hot day, on June 14. The charges, the repulses, the carnage, the suffering, all were duplicates of the failure of the 27th of May. Irwin says: "The repulse of the day may be summed up as a bloody repulse; beholding the death and maiming of so many of the best and bravest of the officers and men, the repulse may be even termed a disaster. In the whole service of the 19th Army Corps darkness never shut in upon a gloomier field. Men went about their work in a silence stronger than words." The loss in killed, wounded and missing amounted to eighteen hundred and five, the one hundred and eighty missing as in the first assault were set down as killed, as no prisoners were taken. The writer's regiment, with General Weitzel, was a part of the line which got up to the parapet, and had this charging party been promptly supported, it would doubtless have scaled the ramparts and taken the fort. Yet there Is no question but that the defenders would have been promptly re-enforced and perhaps all hands captured. As it was, the 90th and 91st New York were hurled back under terrific fire down into the dismal forest of logs, and, like their comrades along the whole front, were compelled to stay under cover together, suffering from the intense tropical sun and perishing of thirst until dark, when all who were able to crawl or walk got out. In these two regiments thirty-seven per cent, of their number were shot, but the 8th New Hampshire, at another part of the line, lost fifty-six per cent. These grewsome figures give some idea of the carnage of that terrible assault along a sheet of flame seven miles long. To add to the suffering of the wounded lying in the bush. Banks could not bring himself to ask for a suspension of hostilities until the evening of the 16th for the relief of the suffering and the burial of the dead. But three days and two nights had already passed; most of the hurt and those, the most grievously, were already beyond the need of succor. The same thing had occurred with Grant at Vicksburg. After the 14th of June the siege progressed steadily without further attempt at assault, which was now deferred to the last resort. At four points a system of regular approaches by sappers and miners were begun, and labor was carried on at the trenches inces.santly night and day. Banks issued a call for one thousand volunteers to form a storming party, which was responded to almost immediately by willing bold men. The Grays under Logan and Taylor threatened the base and rear of the besiegers, gave Banks such concern and anxiety that he wrote to Wash- ington of the matter. At the end of June four thousand men had been lost, and there were over that number sick in the hospital. There being no reserves, every man was in the trenches "when the end came at last the effective force out.side of the cavalry, hardly exceeded eight thousand, while even of this small number every officer and man might well have gone on the sick report had not pride and duty held him to his post." — Irwin. "As the summer days drew out, the heat grew more intense, the brooks and springs and wells dried up, the creek between the lines lost itself in the pestilential swamp; the Mississippi River fell, exposing to the sun a wide margin of festering ooze. The mortality and sickness were enormous." The cavalry and artillery horses and wagon mules suffered for want of forage, and when the Grays under General Taylor on July 3 cut off supplies, these poor beasts were literally starving until the place fell, and it was not until a week after Taylor's blockade was raised and the supplies arrived 94 THE CAMPAIGNS OP THE CIVIL WAR from Grant, that the stress was wholly relieved. At last, on July 7, the sappers and miners had finished their dicing. Each mine was charged with one thousand five hundred pounds of powder. The 9th had been chosen by Banks for the explosion of the mines and the dash of the "forlorn hope" storming party into the breach. Early that day the gunboat General Price came down the river with the grateful news that Vicksburg had surrendered to General Grant on July 4. Like a flash the news reached the regiments; their bands started up the "Star Spangled Banner," and cheer upon cheer went up from the weary troops. The news was thrown into the enemy's trenches, who called it "a daurned Yankee lie." The gunboats fired a national salute with shot and shell. The next day Gardener capitulated, and the tedious and terrible siege was over. The prisoners numbered six thousand three hundred and forty men; with them were captured nearly one hundred cannons. The men were paroled, but the Confederate Government, as in the case of Vicks- burg, declared the parole void, and the men were later on pressed into service. The officers, however, were retained as prisoners. The total loss of the 19th Corps during the forty days' siege was four thousand three hundred and sixty-three, or nearly one-half its number. The Confederate loss was said to be about one-quarter that of the National. Inside of the Confederate line an eye-witness tells of the condition of affairs there as follows: "All around Port Hudson there was not a square rod but bore some indisputable mark of the iron deluge that had passed over it. The earth was plowed up; trees might be seen with their bark completely shot off, and some, twice the bulk of a man's body, were fairly cut in two by the solid shot. The river fortifications were terribly effective, and might have resisted every attack, had they been impregnable elsewhere. Far down in the bowels of the lofty bluffs the garrison had dug recesses for their ammunition magazines." Caissons conveyed the ammunition to the troops along the trenches which transport was hazardous in the extreme. As an instance of this danger, it happened one day that a shell fired from a large mortar of the battery to which the writer was serving, hit one of these caissons. Its contests exploded and some of the iron missies flew over into the National lines and wounded some of his comrades. After the surrender, the writer, with John McGrande, of Hoboken, crawled over the abatis to the enemy's trenches, and the Grays there explained to him what occurred at the time of that wonderful shot. It seems that one of the caissons to which two mules were hitched stood near the edge of a bluff, a short distance back of the breast works. His informant said that the shell passed high over the men in the trenches, then, as it fell earthward, it passed very close to the side of the caisson overhanging the ravine, and just as it reached the level of the bluff it exploded, and in.stantly the caisson blew up, the exploding contents knocking it and the mules over and down into the deep ravine, while in the trenches a number of men were killed and wounded. "How many of you men were caught?" he asked; "for we saw that our shell and shot reached your breast works," and when told only two or three were hit he seemed thunderstruck. About midnight of the lovely clear night of July 8, the writer was chatting with the sergeant who had command of a regular army battery adjoining the mortar battery to which he was assigned. Both armies knew THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL WAR 95 of the coming assault of the morrow, and, as if resting to gain vigor for the approaching fray, all was hushed and still. Suddenly, some two miles off to the left near the centre of the opposing lines of forts, rang out loud and clear in the still air a bugle call from the Confederate works. The sergeant, turning to the writer, said: "Do you know what that means?" "No — " "Well, that is the 'Truce Call,' which you never before heard. They are wisely going to surrender, and the boys won't have a chance to spring that mine they have been a month making." In a few moments a similar bugle call resounded from the Blues' side. Presently was seen two torches ap- proaching each other from either line. All the men then retired to their caves in the hills to fight the mosquitoes and other parasites, and sleep if possible. At daybreak the writer was awakened by loud cheers — an orderly came dashing down the lines on a white horse crying: "Stop firing, they have surrendered." Soon the Blue and Gray boys rushed over their parapets and down the slopes and mingled freely with each other fraternizing in the happiest manner, until orders came for all to return to the ranks. Irwin gives the following description of the surrender, which the writer was sadly unable to witness, as his regiment was immediately ordered to join Weitzel's division in an expedition to the attack of Taylor at Donald- sonville. "The ceremonies were simple and short. General Andrews was designated to receive the surrender, and at seven o'clock on the morning of the 9th, the column of occupation, composed of two regiments from each division, entered the sallyport, or gateway, on the Jackson road. The Con- federate troops were drawn up in line. Gardener at their head, every officer in his place, the right of the line rested on the edge of the open plain south of the railway station; the left extended towards the village. At the word "Ground Arms!" from their tired commander, followed by the command of execution from the bugle.s, every Confederate soldier bowed his head and laid his musket on the ground as a token of submission, while Gardener himself tendered his sword to Andrews, who, in a few com- plimentary words, waived its acceptance. At the same instant the Stars and Bars, the colors of the Confederacy, were hauled down from the flag- staff where they had so long waved in defiance; a detachment of sailors from the naval batteries sprang to the halyards and rapidly ran up the flag of the United States; the guns of Duryea's battery saluted the colors; the garrison filed off as prisoners of war, and all was over." During the entire siege of Port Hudson, the Grays under Taylor, Moulton and Logan had been doing all they could with their respective small forces to harrow Banks. One of their successful escapades was the capture of Brashear City on June 22 with munitions amounting to five million dollars' worth of property. Then followed the surrender of a small garrison of Blues at Bayou Ramos. Next a furious attack was made on the garrison at Donaldsonville, General Taylor's purpose being to use the fort for blockading the river and preventing supplies reaching Banks at Port Hudson, from New Orleans. This engagement brought about a sanguinary hand-to-hand fight, even brickbats being at one time hurled at the defenders, who returned the compliment with similar missiles, when finally the Grays withdrew. They then placed cannons along the banks of the river behind natural embankments at several places, and 96 THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL WAR were thus enabled to force Banks' supply ships to retire to New Orleans. After the surrender of Port Hudson, Farra^ut's fleet chased these menacing forces away, when at last, as Lincoln said, "The Mississippi flowed unvexed to the sea." At one time General Taylor so seriously threatened New Orleans that General Emory, who was in command there, begged Banks to raise the siege of Port Hudson and come to his assistance. But Banks answered that the gunboats would have to be depended upon to protect New Orleans, as he was determined to remain and capture the stronghold. It was, however, a close call, for had not Vicksburg surrendered to Grant as it did on July 4, Banks' efforts might have been a failure. When the Grays at Donaldsonville saw Weitzel's troops approaching on transports from Port Hudson, and thus threatening to flank their river bat- teries that during the siege had prevented supplies for Banks from moving north, they withdrew some six miles up the Bayou La Fourche. These forces of Grays were under the immediate command of General Green. Just as Weitzel started from Port Hudson he became so seriously ill that the surgeons ordered him north, which placed the command of the expedition under General Grover, and his own brigade, the 1st, fell to the command of Colonel J. S. Morgan of the 90th New York, the writer's regiment. On July 13, just a month after the fearfu-1 assault on Port Hudson, Grover's advance disembarked at Donaldsonville. One brigade under General Dudley was dispatched at once up along the west bank of the Bayou La Fourche, while Morgan's brigade moved parallel along the opposite bank. The halt was made at Cox's plantation, about four miles above Donaldson- ville, near night time. The Grays under General Green stood facing Morgan, and on the other side of the bayou Dudley was confronted by General Major. Irwin, in the "19th Army Corps," gives the following account of the fight which ensued the next afternoon: "Green took the initiative, and, favored by a narrow field of a rank growth of corn, dense thickets of willows and deep ditches, common to all sugar plantations in these lowlands, and his own superior knowledge of the country, he fell suddenly with his whole force upon the heads of Dudley's and Morgan's columns, and drove them in almost before they were aware of the presence in their front of anything more than the pickets. "Morgan handled his brigade badly, and soon got it, or suffered it to fall into a tangle whence it could extricate itself only by retiring. This Fairly exposed the flank of Dudley, who was making a good fight, but had already enough to do to take care of his front against the fierce onset of Green's Texans. The result of this bad management was, that the whole •?ommand was in effect clubbed and on both banks driven back a mile until Paine came to its support; then Grover rode out, and seeing what had hap- pened, drew in his whole force." With the risk of boring the reader, but for the benefit of the inembers of the old 90th New York, the writer cannot refrain from telling of two ludicrous events which he witnessed during this disgraceful affair. His regiment, the 90th New York, reached Cox's plantation the evening before, when he and a chum named Barnes, served during the night on the THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL WAR 97 picket line. The next morning he joined his regiment, which was on the right of Morgan's line, stretched out along with the brigade on the fields at right angles with the bayou's high levee. During the forenoon Green's guns kept sending shells over the heads of the troops, but not being well aimed, did little harm. It must be noted that, just as the regiment started from New Orleans for Port Hudson, the men were paid off, and, having had no chance to spend any money during the forty days' siege, all had their pockets full of "greenbacks." The regiment about noon stacked arms and all lay around resting, awaiting whatever might turn up. A little in advance of the line of the stacked muskets the writer noticed five of his company sitting on the grass gambling at "straight poker" — among them he refnemberE wcro Drummer Murray, Frank Foley and Frank Tinelli, the latter two from Hoboken. Just as he and Sergeant Wolff were abou*' to step over to watch the gamblers, a shell burst right over the heads of the group of players, the concussion knocking down both Wolff and the writer, and when the smoke and dust of the explosion cleared away, there were seen all five of the players stretched prone upon their stomachs in every direction, except Drummer Murray, whose right hand was grasp- ing the "pot" or stake of money. Curiously, not a man had been hit, and when all got to their senses, there was a great laugh on Murray. Wolff exclaimed, "Murray's greedy act is another illustration of 'the ruling passion strong in death.' " In the next instant all was in uproar; the enemy in the hollow away round to the left could be plainly seen fighting and capturing the whole picket line, half a mile away. The shells now came — fast and furious — ^they had got the aim right — the men rushed to their guns and formed line of battle. Just then there was heard a noise and great com- motion in the rear of the 90th Regiment, and, coming from that perilous direction, it caused all hands to turn, expecting to find the enemy in the rear. It was not the foe, however, but a big mule — the uproar was caused by the negro cooks of Company C attempting to strap upon his back the hot kettles in which they had been boiling beef. The big animal did just what any sensible mule would do, when the temperature of its hide is raised to the boiling point. He kicked the kettles well to the front, and then dashed to the rear along the road right through the regimental band and smashed over half of their treasured musical instruments, and as the boys said, "he is still going strong." This all took but a minute or so. Instantly the line was busy firing at the approaching Grays, as they came charging over the fields and through the willow thickets along the bayou road. The noise of battle was heard from the other side of the bayou where the fight was going on, also hot and furious. Suddenly orders were given by Morgan to change front and line up along the road with backs against the levee; which was done on the rush — that was the tangle which Irwin says Morgan got the brigade into and which caused the disaster, for now only the thin edge of the right flank was opposed to the charging Grays. The writer was at this flank, and while firing at visible and invisible foe, he could not help at one time, while plugging home a cartridge with his ramrod, notice the gallant manoeuvre of a group of not more than twenty Blue cavalry, who, dashing forward into the field, directly opposite him, and deploying on the gallop in a circle, delivered their fire on the charg- ing Grays, and then dashed back to safety. The yell of the chargers were now close; two or three of them dashed forward out of the thicket in the road at the 98 THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL WAR exposed flank on the right, not more than fifty yards distant. Instinctively the writer and his comrade, Allen, aimed and fired simultaneously, felling the most ativanced Gray. Then were seen other Grays coming from the left, and sud- denly there was heard a piercing yell from the rear, "retreat quick!" Horror! Company C was there alone; the rest of the command had retreated and were off in the high cornfields out of sight. It was the isolated position of the com- pany which the Grays had observed, and dashing on, they were determined to capture it; as it was a number were shot and some surrendered. The writer rushed for the cornfield. Did he run? Well, yes; he flew over the deep ditches between the furrows of corn, although it seemed to him he was hardly walking. Did you ever have the nightmare and dream that you were -being pursued by some savage animal and yet could not move a limb? — well, that was the writer's sensation, only worse. For a second the question arose — which way? when luckily he discerned some distance off the regimental flag flying just above the corn, and, through what seemed a hailstorm of screech- ing bullets, which kept clipping the cornstalks about him, he reached the flag, which was planted in a vegetable garden, where the regiment had concluded to halt and make a stand, and fell exhausted into a bed of beets. Again he saw the same group of cavalry charging and fighting like heroes off to the left in the open field. A few moments afterwards all got quiet — the battle was over — Oh, for a drink! Then came a reaction; the physical exertion had been painful, but now The mental anguish was awful. Pride had had a fall. Licked! Ran like cow- ards! What will the other brigades say of the First Brigade? The events narrated certainly did not occupy more than an hour, during which the loss to Grover's command was flfty-six killed, two hundred and seventeen wounded, and two hundred prisoners, or five hundred in all, with two cannons of Dud- ley's brigade. The Ninetieth New York lost over one-third of its number. The following day, after a cold, rainy night, a truce was arranged to enable the Blues to bury their dead. The body of the writer's chum, Barnes, who served with him on the picket on the night of the 13th, was found with two bullet holes, a deep sabre cut on the hand and the cruel prints of a horses hoof on the forehead. His other chum, Leander Monroe, was missing. He had beet, one of the pickets who were captured at the onset, but a month or so after- wards he was exchanged and returned seriously sick. The splendid band of which the boys were fondly proud played no more and on the heads of Corporal Blaney. who was in charge of the cooking, and his stupid negroes were heaped the imprecations of not only the members of the regiment, but also of the whole brigade, who had so often enjoyed the melodious strains of the now defunct band. The Grays, under Taylor, after hearing of the surrender of Port Hudson, retired up the Teche, carrying with them the immense booty that they had se- cured at Brashear City. Banks at first intended to follow them up, but, there being no gunboat at hand to assist and the weather getting hotter and hotter, he ordered his fagged-out command into summer quarters for rest and reor- ganization. Colonel Morgan went North, and, the numbers of the 90th being so depleted, it lost its rank of regiment, and through the remaining two years and a half service was designated as a battalion. On July 25, Grant sent Banks the 13th Corps, numbering about fourteen thousand, under command of General Washburn, the proper commander. Gen- THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL. WAR 99 eral Orel, being sick in hospital. These forces were to replace depletion made by several regiments of "nine months' men," whose time of service had ex- pired. By the end of August the Department of the Gulf numbered thirty- seven thousand troops. Up to this period no serious attempts of invading Texas had been under- taken by the National Government; but now events in Europe of a very menac- ing character made it necessary to get a foothold there. This was occasioned by the efforts of Emperor Napoleon III. of France, to establish "a Latin Empire, to be built upon the ruins of Mexican liberty," and to gobble up a portion of Louisiana. The French troops on June 10, 1863, marching into the capital of Mexico, "vamped up a sham throne and upon it set the unfortunate Austrian puppet, Maximilian," whu later on was abandoned by Napoleon and assassinated by the Mexicans. Thus was ended Napoleon's I ash venture in interfering in the great struggle between the North and South, which had been brought about, no doubt, by victories of the National forces during the summer at Gettysburg, Vicksburg and Port Hudson. Early in September, Banks dispatched an expedition of troops in trans- ports under Generals Weitzel and Franklin with gunboats to capture Sabine Pass, which was guarded by a small sandwork named Fort Griffin, manned by only two hundred and fifty Grays under command of Captain F. H. Odium, and including a battery under Richard W. Dowling, together with the gun- boat Ben. The Blues' plan of assault was to have their gunboats engage the fort, while the troops made a landing. At the onset of the fleet two of the gunboats were almost immediately crippled and got aground by the well- aimed shots of Bowling's cannoneers. The effort to land the troops was abandoned, and the expedition returned to New Orleans in sorry plight, having lost over one hundred men, two hundred inules and two thousand rations thrown into the sea. In the latter part of October, Banks organized another Texas expedition of four thousand troops for the capture of the Rio Grande River. After long delays, and great peril from heavy seas and weather, the expedition landed at Brazos Santiago, November 4, and on the 6th captured Browns- ville, some thirty miles up the Rio Grande from its mouth. As Irwin says: "Banks now set about occupying successively all the passes or inlets that connect the Gulf of Mexico with the land-locked lagoons or sounds of the Texas coast from the Rio Grande to Sabine, and by the end of December had taken possession of the fringe of the coast as far east and north as Matagorda Bay. So far he had met with little opposition, the Confederate force in this part of Texas being small. The Brazos and Galveston were still to be gained, and here, if anywhere in Texas, a vigorous resistance was to be counted on. Banks was bending everything to the attempt when, as the New Year opened, the government stopped him and turned his head in a new direction." On the 16th of November a small force of the Thirteenth Corps under General Washburn took a battery commanding Aransas Pass, which was soon followed by the capture of Fort Esperanzo at Matagorda Bay. Banks then put his command into winter quarters, and so ended the campaign of the Department of the Gulf of the year 18 63. During the time the army was in winter quarters the Government made a call on the "three years regiments" whose time would expire within a few 100 THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL WAR months, to re-enlist for another term of three years. The writer's regiment, 90th New York, was at this time scattered by companies for eighty miles along the stations of the Opelousas and New Orleans railroad. It was the oldest regiment, having been mustered into service in November, 1861, and had but eight months more to serve. Under the inspiring influence of the victories of the past summer and fall, and learning that U. S. Grant was to be made commander-in-chief of the National forces, every man was imbued with confidence that another year or so must restore the Union. They realized that with the opening of spring weather strenuous work would be required of them; they still had eight months to serve; why not re-enlist and finish the fighting? was argued. Further, as an inducement to enter for another three years the following bounties were offered; four hundred dollars from the United States, three hundred dollars from the County and seventy-five dollars from the State of New York, besides which each man was to receive thirty days furlough at New York. The time of the furlough could not be definitely fixed, however, but it was promised the men as soon as it could be safely arranged. The writer, with nearly the whole regiment, and in fact about all of the other "three years regiments," responded to the call, and in this way the Government secured the services of the trained veterans. On February 19, 1864, the 90th New York was mustered out of its first term of service and immediately mustered into its second, receiving the title of the "90th New York State Veteran Volunteers." It was finally discharged from the service February 9, 1866, remaining, as we shall learn, nearly all this time in the 19th Army Corps, making a service in the army of four years and three months. Up to the time of its re-enlistment the 90th New York had suffered severe lo.sses. Starting from New York in the latter part of 1861, with one thousand strong, it numbered scarcely more than a quarter of its original force. The depletions had been caused by the loss, at Key West and Dry Tortugas, Florida, in the early months of 1862, of nearly two hundred deaths from yellow fever, and by many score of discharges because of incapacity resulting from the dreadful scourge. At one time of the epidemic the sick list was so full that there were not sufficient men well to bury the dead, and at one stage of the illness the dead were buried at sea, there being no time or men to hack out graves in the hard coral formation of which Key West is composed. This great loss, together with the killed, wounded and missing resulting from the campaign with the Department of the Gulf, brought the numbers of the regiment fit for duty at the beginning of 18 63, to not more than two hundred. THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL. WAR 101 CHAPTER X. Campaigns of the Army of the Potomac, Chancellorsville to Gettysburg, 1863. Chancellorsville — Death o^' Stonewall Jackson — Lee Invades the North — Brandy Station — Winchester — Mead Succeeds Hooker — Gettysburg — Re- treat of Lee — Minor Engagements. Having recounted the campaigns of Grant's and Banks' armies in the Mississippi Valley, we must now go back and review the movements of the armies in Virginia which had taken place in the interim. The disastrous campaign of the Army of the Potomac under General Burnside in 18 62, which resulted in defeat at the battle of Fredericksburg, left the Blues in that department considerably disorganized. To make mat- ters worse, a large number of the officers and men very much disapproved of President Lincoln's proclamation of Emancipation, claiming that that action on the part of the Administration was not only unconstitutional, but was unfair to the soldiers since it had turned the object of the war on the part of the North from its avowed purpose of saving the Union, the cause for which they had enlisted, to that of freeing the slaves. This feeling among the troops was so intense, that during the army's stay in winter quarters a great many deserted the ranks. Lincoln's view was that emanci- pation was a military measure necessary to save the Union. General Hooker was appointed on January 26, 1863, to succeed Burn- side. He was confronted with the severe task of getting order out of chaos. At this time eighty thousand of the Army of the Potomac were absent, and the term of some forty thousand men who had enlisted for nine months ' and also two years was about to expire within a few months. Nevertheless, in early spring, Hooker had completed his organization of one hundred and twenty thousand men with four hundred guns, divided into seven army corps, respectively, commanded by Generals John F. Reynolds, D. W. Couch, Daniel E. Sickles, George G. Meade, John Sedgwick, Oliver O. Howard and Henry W. Slocum, with twelve thousand cavalry under Stoneman. The map of the Rappahannock and Rapidan rivers in the region of Hooker's campaign of Chancellorsville, Virginia, resembles somewhat a tuning fork lying east and west. At the eastern end of the handle lies Fredericksburg on the south side of the Rappahannock River, which tends upward and westward along the handle about twelve miles to the fork, where the Rapidan joins it near United States Ford. The northerly prong is the Rappahannock, while the Rapidan forms the southerly one. Chancellors- ville, the site of the main battle, is a few miles almost directly south of the United States Ford. North of the site and lying to the south of the Rapidan is the famous Wilderness of entangled dense forests and ravines. Early in April, Lee's force of sixty thousand occupied the fortifications on St. Marye's Heights to the south of Fredericksburg. Hooker's army of one hundred and twenty thousand was at Falmouth, a few miles to the northwest. Perhaps no campaign of the war has been the subject of such con- troversy, so much literature and mystery, as that of Chancellorsville. 102 THE CAMPAIGNS OP THE CIVIL WAR With an army twice as large as his adversary's, Hooker started to carry out a brilliant plan which, in conformity with the ordinary rules and fortunes of war, should have resulted In the destruction or capture of his foe. But, according to an old saying, "war is a hazard of possibilities, probabilities, luck and ill-luck." In brief, the plan comprehended sending General Sedgwick with thirty thousand troops acro.ss the Rappahannock at Fredericksburg to turn Lee's right, and, in connection with these troops, Stoneman with twelve thousand well equipped cavalry to push rapidly around to Lee's rear and thus cut off the anticipated retreat towards Richmond. Hooker with the main army was to cross the fords of the Rappahannock and Rapidan; clear the Wilder- ness, and threaten Lee's retreat to the west, for it was reasoned that, these movements being successfully carried out, Lee would be forced to retire or give battle in the open against overwhelming numbers. But the first part of the plain tailed, for Stoneman, who started on his flanking movement on Ai>ril 13, was, on account of the high stage of the water in the Rappahannock, greatly delayed, and when a portion of his command got across the river they were vigorously attacked by General J. E. B. Stuart's cavalry and compelled to re-swim the flood. As the ford did not become pas.sable until two weeks later, it was then too late for Stoneman to act in conjunction with the general plan. Hooker with the main army, on April 27, began his movement to the west and south. Crossing the Rappahannock and Rapidan by the fords, and also by use of pontoons, he got his army without opposition east of the Wilderness in front of Chancellorsville. Lee, detecting the plan, and leaving eighty-five hundred troops under General Early at Fredericksburg to check Sedgwick, rapidly and unobserved brought the remainder of his army into a strongly fortified position south of Hooker. Some desultory fighting now took place, while Hooker advanced to improve -his poor position; then for some unexplained reason, instead of boldly taking the offensive and dashing at Lee with his superior numbers, he retired on the defensive to his original position. His line formed a horse- shoe, with the left or east wing towards Falmouth under Meade, Slocum in the centre convexed towards Lee, and the right wing under Howard. To the rear was the United States Ford, and a few miles further east Banks' Ford of the Rappahannock River. To the right and front of Howard was a dense forest, with numerous creeks and ravines, and Howard, supposing that Lee's main force lay still in the fortification east at Frede"icksburg menaced by Sedgwick, saw no reason why he should be molested. But Lee now made a most daring move. Dividing his army in the very face of a vastly superior force, he sent Stonewall Jackson on hurried marches a dis- tance of fifteen miles by obscured roads through forests and ravines quietly to get to the rear of the complacement Howard, while he personally remained to watch the enemy in his front. This movement to the northwest was, as usual, most expeditiously made by the alert Jackson. On May 2, Sickles' command, which formed Howard's extreme right, managed to capture a regiment of Grays who were screening Jackson's movements, and, although a part of Jackson's moving forces were observed, this was interpreted as Lee's retiring to Richmond. By five p. m. Jackson's force got well to the rear of Howards' right, and the surprise would have been complete had not THE CAMPAIGNS OP' THE CIVIL WAR 103 the impetuous onrush of the Grays' charging line stampeded deer and other game in the woods, which rushing towards the Blues' line apprised them of the enemy's approach just as they were comfortably getting supper. Not having time to form, the Blues were driven panic-stricken from their camps. A few hundred cavalry and some artillery rallied and managed to stay the onrush of the Grays, at the same time doing great havoc to their charging lines. Night coming on closed the Grays' advance, but caused a sad and melancholic event for the Grays. It seems that Stonewall Jackson, who was well to the front reconnoitering for future plans, while riding back with his staff, was mistaken by his own men as the leader of some Blue cavalry, and they fired at the supposed enemy. Three balls struck Jackson. At the same moment the Blues charged, passing over Jackson's prostrate form, but were immediately forced back. Jackson's men then placed him upon a litter, when suddenly one of the litter carriers was shot and fell, causing the wounded Jackson to be thrown to the ground, where he was obliged to remain until the galling fire slackened. Finally he was taken to the hospital, where an arm was amputated. Eight days after, this well beloved leader, one of the South's greatest commanders, answered the last roll call, having fallen in the midst of triumph, being the hero of First Battle of Bull Run, Shenandoah, the Seven Day Fight, Second Battle of Bull Run, Harper's Ferry, Antietam, Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville. The name "Stone- wall" was a nickname he received at the First Bull Run when someone observing his command standing firm, said: "See Jackson standing there like a stone wall." His real name was Thomas Jonathan Jackson. A. P. Hill, who took Jackson's place, being soon afterwards wounded, was suc- ceeded by General J. E. B. Stuart. The Blues, under Alfred Pleasanton and David D. Birney, getting some forty guns in position, kept up the night attack, which caused considerable confusion in the rank of the Grays. During Jackson's movement to the enemy's right, Lee with his small force made demonstrations in front of Hooker by marching and countermarching, which kept that General guessing. During the night Hooker rearranged his lines, which he still kept in the horseshoe shape in front of the United States Ford on the Rappahannock River. The left faced east, and was under command of General Winfield S. Hancock, of Couch's Corps; Slocum held the centre facing south; Sickles, still in the extreme right facing west, occupied an important knoll called Hazel Grove, which placed him between Lee and Stuart. Lee saw that this eminence was the key to the Blues' position, for with his guns there he could enfilade Hooker's whole horseshoe. But his men did not have to win it by attack, for, unfortunately for the Blues, Hooker, seeming not to appre- ciate the importance of the position, ordered Sickles to retire, whereupon the Grays promptly grabbed the coveted Hazel Grove, and planted there some thirty guns. Lee's army was now stretched along some six miles, while Hooker's forces were massed behind entrenchments. The battle was renewed on Sunday, May 3, by the Grays at sunrise attacking Hooker's right under the watchword. "Charge and remember Jackson." Time and again their charging lines were checked and rolled back by the gallant Blues, who in turn were themselves repelled, both sides thus fighting back and forth over a field where were intermingled the dead and dying of friend and foe. Later, the dry leaves and brush catching 104 THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL. WAR fire, the helpless wounded and dead were all consumed. General Hooker wa.s knocked senseless by a falling timber of a' house which had been struck by a shell, and thereupon General Couch temporarily assumed command. Sickles, not receiving reinforcements and getting out of ammunition, now fell further back. The Grays' well placed guns at Hazel Grove began now to sweep the plains of Chancellorsville, causing great destruction in the ranks of the Blues. By ten o'clock a. m. Lafayette McLaw's division of the Grays joined Stuart, and together they pressed Daniel E. Sickles, French and Slocum back, and held the field while forty thousand under Meade, Reynolds and Howard stood idly by. In the meantime Sedgwick, in front of Fredericksburg confroiiting Early's small force of thirty thousand, pushed his way across the Rappahannock on the 4th, and carried St. Marye's Heights. The famous old stone wall that Burnside's braves failed to reach the year before was won at la.st, but at terrible cost. The charging brigade of General Shaler, (of Engle- wood, N. J.), was virtually "blown away by the heavy artillery fire. It staggered, reeled, and when at last it reached the wall, one thousand men had been lost in ten minutes." This success of Sedgwick was an anxious moment for Lee, as that connmander now .seriously threatened the Grays' right and rear. Lee then rushed Richard McLaw and Henry Anderson to the support of J. E. Early, and at evening Sedgwick's advance was checked at Salem, near Hooker's extreme left. Hooker now ordered a noiseless retreat of his v/hole army across the Rappahannock to its original position at Falmouth, which was accomplished in the night during a terrific rainstorm, and when Lee advanced to the attack the next morning he found his enemy had flown. This was another instance where Lincoln's Administration had failed to find a commander competent to direct the superb Army of the Potomac and to outmarch "Bobby Lee." The result of Hooker's cainpaign, says Eggleston, "cannot be ascribed to the superiority on the one side, or an inferiority on the other. The true cause of the Blues' defeat was that 'General Lee was master in the great game of war.' " Stoneman's cavalry had managed to get within a few miles of Richmond, but beyond destroying railroads, easily repaired, nothing of importance was accomplished. Hooker's loss was put at seventeen thousand, Lee's at thir- teen thousand. At this date — the spring of 1863 — the whole North was thrown into the slough of despond. The splendid Army of the Potomac had been beaten again. Neither Grant nor Banks had yet succeeded in taking Vicksburg or Port Hudson. The Confederate cruisers were driving American commerce from the seas. The attack on Charleston had failed. Galveston, Texas, had fallen into the hands of the Grays. The Army of the Cumberland, under Rosecrans, lay inactive confronting Bragg in Tennessee. Lee now determined upon another sortie north with the object of carry- ing the war into the enemy's country. After the defeat of the Blues under General Hooker at Chancellorsville in May, the Confederate Administration strengthened General Lee's army to the number of one hundred and twenty thou.sand troops, and ordered him to push north and carry the war into the Free States. Probably at no THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL. WAR 105 other period of the war, had the Grays so well an equipped army as that which started under Lee from FredericksV)urg, Virginia, June 3, 1863, on its famous sortie into Maryland. On the other hand, the Army of the Potomac under General Hooker had been reduced not only by casualities of battle, but also by the discharging of many seasoned veterans whose terms of service had expired, so' that it now numbered but eighty thousand. Since, owing to disapproval of the Emancipation Proclamation, strenuous efforts were being made at this time in the North to bring about a cessation of hostilities, Lee's invasion, if successful, would have put the Confederacy in a position to exact favorable terms. Again at the North there arose bitter hositility against the drafting of citizens into the armies, which grew to such proportions that New York City was under mob rule for several days in the early part of July, coinpelling the Administration not only to call out all the State militia, but to send home New York troops from the front to quell the rioters. Leaving A. P. Hill, who had recovered from his wound, at Fredericks- burg to engage the attention of Hooker, Lee pushed on with the mass of his army northwest to Culpeper Court House, putting a splendid body of cavalry under Stuart in the advance. Hooker, detecting this menacing movement on Washington, sent his cavalry under Alfred Pleasanton to thwart the advance. These horsemen clashed at Brandy Station, where the Grays repelled the onslaught of the Blues. On June 13, Lee's advance under Ewell was in the Shenandoah Valley, when Hill was ordered to leave Fredericksburg and join the main army. Hooker now planned to advance and give Lee battle, but General-in-Chief Halleck, at Washington, fearing defeat of the Nationals, ordered a retire- ment of the Army of the Potomac to the protection of the capital. Reaching the Valley the Grays easily subdued a small force of seven thousand under Robert H. Milroy at Winchester, capturing four thousand, the balance escaping to Harper's Ferry. One wing of Lee's forces under Longstreet marched rapidly along the east side of the Blue Ridge Mountains, and finally his whole army crossed the Potomac River at Williamsport and Shepardstown on June 26. This movement threatened not only Harrisburg, Penn., but even Balti- more and Philadelphia, and threw the whole North into an uproar of panic, compelling Lincoln to call out the entire militia of the neighboring States. In the meantime Hooker had been moving northward parallel to Lee, and crossed the Potomac at Edwards' Ferry the same day that Lee got his army into Maryland. He thereupon requested that the eleven thousand troops at Harper's Perry be sent to augment his forces, but this the War Department refused to do, whereupon Hooker, in disgust, resigned as com- mander-in-chief. General Meade being appointed in his place. Harper's Ferry was promptly evacuated, and the eleven thousand troops then joined Meade. On June 28 Lee's forces were scattered throughout Pennsylvania, one part at Chambersburg, another at Carlisle, and still another at York, procur- ing their sustenance from the fertile fields of the farmers, and no small amount of treasure and supplies from the merchants of the helpless towns. These depredations were committed in direct violation of General Lee's 106 THE CAMPAIGNS OP THE CIVIL WAR famous order No. 73, in which he admonished his troops at the very start of the campaign, "that we make war only upon armed men." The cavalry under Stuart, instead of keeping with Lee's main army, went prowling towards Washington. They followed Hooker, and, observing his crossing of the Potomac, passed around his advance and joined that part of Lee's army at Carlisle. This absence of the cavalry left Lee without that important arm upon which a commander depends for gathering news of the movements of his enemy. Meade on the other hand had his cavalry feeling about, and was in full knowledge of the whereabouts of the foe. At this time the strengths of the opposing forces were about equal, numbering some ninety thousand each. Lee pushed on towards Harrisburg, the capital of Pennsylvania, directly north of Frederick, in Maryland, the same town where a year ago he had harangued the populace prior to the battle of Antietam. He was several days in advance of Meade, exacting on the way supplies of food and clothing from the unprotected inhabitants of the country. As Draper says: "At this period the Richmond Government had hoped that, by the unresisted advance of Lee's army towards Philadelphia, and the promised rising of the rioters in New York and Boston, the National Government would be terror-stricken and li.sten to terms of peace and the separation of the South. President Davis even despatched Alexander H. Stephens, the Vice-Pre-sident, to seek an interview with Lincoln, but that mission proved abortive by reason of Lee's defeat at Gettysburg — later on." Meade advancing towards the passes in the South Mountains, that exten- sion of the Blue Ridge northward across the Potomac River, where the year before McClellan and Lee's boys had clashed and threatened to cut off the Grays' communication to the South. Lee thereupon concentrated his army on the east side of that range near a small town called Gettysburg, close to the southern boundary of Pennsylvania, and directly south of Harrisburg. Meade at the same time selected a strong defensive position at Pipe Creek some fifteen miles southeast of Gettysburg, his army occupying a line stretched from Manchester on the east to Emmettsburg on the west, just south of the northern boundary of Maryland. Gettysburg lies in a valley near a ridge which divides the watershed of the region, the streams flowing south emptying into the Potomac, and those taking a northerly course running into the Susquehanna River. To the north, close behind the town of Gettysburg, which nestles in a valley, is a range of hills that, after running west a short distance, take an abrupt turn and continue almost due south for several miles. This was Seminary Ridge, occupied by Lee's army. A mile or so directly south of the town is another ridge, called Cemetery Ridge, running also in a curved direction and parallel to Seminary Ridge. A little southeast of the town there is a ridge called Culp Hill, with Rock Creek flowing at its base. Between these two ridges lay a pleasant cultivated valley, a mile or more wide, where on that beautiful summer day, on which the battle occurred, herds of cattle were peacefully grazing. A few miles south of the town is a spur on Cemetery Ridge called Round Top, over four hundred feet in height, while a short distance to the north of this is another smaller prominence called Little Round Top. Behind the Cemetery Ridge to the east are rocky ledges and broken fields. It was on Cemetery Ridge that Meade's army was finally po.sted. THE CAMI'Ai aNS OF THE CIVIL, WAR 107 Early in the morning of July 1, Hill and Heth's corps of Lee's army were advancing- eastward towards Gettysburg along the rear of the westerly slope of Seminary Ridge, when within two miles of the town they suddenly en- countered John Buford's cavalry, whom the Grays forced back into Gettys- burg, which was then occupied by John T. Reynolds' corps. Another engagement immediately took place, during which General Reynolds fell mortally wounded. General Abner Doubleday taking his place. About eleven a. m. the 11th Corps of the Blues under Howard arrived and established several batteries on Cemetery Hill, directly south of the town. At the beginning the fortunes of war were with the Blues, who captured General Archer, but Hill and Swell's corps coming up, in number fifty thousand, pushed the twenty-one thousand Blues pell-mell through the streets of Gettysburg up on to Cemetery Hill, with a loss of ten thousand men and sixteen guns. Lee, coming up in person, not knowing the strength of his enemy, called a halt to the assault of Cemetery Hill at four p. m., await- ing the arrival of Longstreet's corps. We now know that had he permitted his superior force to continue the assault of Cemetery Hill, the small detached force of Meade's army must surely have been overwhelmed. The news of Reynolds' defeat and death reached Meade some fifteen miles south at Pipe Creek about one o'clock. He immediately hurried General Hancock's corps forward to the support of Howard. Hancock, observing the important strong position afforded by Cemetery Ridge, advised Meade to hurry his whole army to its occupation, which was accomplished by the troops noiselessly marching all night under a full moon, all but Sedgwick's corps getting in position along the crest of the ridge before daybreak. The latter did not arrive until two p. m. Slocum was on the extremie right on Gulp Hill; to his left came Wads- worth; next curving around the bend was Howard, followed to the left by Hancock, Sickles and Sykes' corps ranged along the ridge to the left as far as Round Top. Sedgwick's and Reynolds' corps, the latter being now under General Newton, formed a reserve to the east of Round Top in such a position that a short march would bring them to the assistance of any part of the entrenched line along Cemetery Ridge that might be assaulted. Lee's army was also busy during the night getting alignment on Seminary Ridge, the thick woods along the crest and westerly slopes con- cealing its movements. Lee's line occupied "a vast crescent" Ave miles long. Longstreet held the right opposite Round Top on Cemetery Ridge, with Hill and Swell stretching north and east behind Gettysburg. Enthused by the success of the day before, the Grays were eager to finish up their half-beaten foe, but they did not know what the Blues had been doing during the night. General Meade intended to have his line continuous along the crest of the ridge, but General Sickles advanced down into the fields three-quarters of a mile, leaving between his forces and those of Hancock's a gap of a quarter of a mile. Meade, noticing the perilous position of Sickles, ordered him to withdraw on to the ridge. General John Bell Hood, who was at the extreme right of the Gray line, which extended somewhat south of the Blues' left, suddenly rushed his division forward to the capture of Little Round Top, which was the key to Meade's position, for with this in control of the Grays their batteries could rake the whole of the Blues' entrench- ment along the ridge. 108 THE CAMPAIGNS OF TH E CIVIL WAR Of the importance of Little Round "i^p, Meade said himself: "If the enemy had taken Little Round Top I could not have held my line." The conflict between Hood and Vincent of Sickles' corps was desperate, but resulted in the Blues holding- the "Top." Longstreet, too, had seen Sickles' isolated situation, and, getting artillery into an enfilading position, he raked the ranks of the Blues, creating appalling havoc. Sickles himself being wounded and his whole command driven back on to the Ridge. One division under General Andrew A. Humphries, how- ever, happened to get isolated during the retreat, and received the full force of the attacking Grays, but, by skilful manoeuvering, he succeeded in getting his command up on to the main line, at the terrible loss, however, of one-half his numbers. Again and again Hood's Grays charged to the capture of Little Round Top, only in the end of the bloody struggles to be forced back into the wheat-fields in the valley, with General Hood severely wounded. Late in the afternoon, Ewell's Grays on the left, after a gallant assault, succeeded in getting a foothold in Slocum's entrenchment on Culp Hill, but the lost ground was recovered the next morning when at dawn General Gerry of the 12th Corps, after a desperate encounter, succeeded in driving Ewell's men back on to Seminary Ridge. Four hours during the afternoon the cannoneers of the Blue and Gray "kept the air alive with shots and shells," and darkness alone closed the fighting of the second day's struggle. Draper gives the following account of the last day: "On Friday, July 3, a day ever memorable in American history, the morning sky was covered with broken clouds, here and there at intervals the sunbeams fitfully gleam- ing between them. Pickett's division and Stuart's cavalry had joined Lee, who now prepared to attack the whole line of his foe, aiming to capture the low ridge occupied by Hancock near the centre, concentrating opposite this latter position nearly one hundred and fifty guns. With the exception of the fight in the early morning between Ewell and Gerry's men at Culp Hill all was quiet along the lines until one o'clock p. m., when suddenly the Grays' batteries belched forth, and the incessant cannonading of both armies across the narrow valley was kept up for over two hours." Of this artillery duel one of Hancock's Blues wrote: "We lay behind a slight rise of ground just sufficient to hide from the view of the enemy. It was awful hot, the sun smote down upon us. and we were all so close to the ground that not a breath of air could reach us." During this terrific cannonading "which filled the air with demoniacal noises, the ground seemed to reel as it from an earthquake, making a scene terrific but sublime." Seeing the impending assault by Lee's infantry, Henry J. Hunt, General Meade's Chief of Artillery, gave orders to the gunners to reserve their ammunition for the coming charge of the Grays. The Grays' terrible storm of iron had dismounted many of the Blues' guns, and killed their horses by the score, necessitating the urging forward from the rear other guns. While along the Grays' lines on Seminary Ridge hovered a dense smoke made by their artillery fire, the cannonading suddenly ceased, and the Grays prepared to assault Meade's fortified lines. Then ensued that memorable gallant charge of the Grays, one of the greatest infantry assaults ever witnessed in warfare. In order to prevent Meade reinforcing his left, Lee THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL WAR 109 sent Stuart's cavalry around to the right and rear of SlAcum, but this move- ment was met and frustrated by Grigg's infantry and Custer's cavalry, which, after a desperate battle, forced Stuart to retreat. The Blues' cavalry under J. H. Kilpatrick then charged the Grays' right just before the famous assault l)y the Confederate General, George E. Pickett. It was three o'clock p. in., when out of the woods on Seminary Ridge Appeared to the wondering eyes of the entrenched Blues on Meade's left the Gray chargers, their line extending east well around towards the town of Gettysburg. It was Pickett's division of Longstreet's corps of Virginia Veterans, some five thousand strong, proceeding down the slopes in parade like procession, their front thickly covered with skirmishers. Then followed L. A. Kempler's and Garnett's brigades forming the first line, with Armistead in support. Pickett's veterans were flanked on their left by Heath's division of Hill's corps, commanded by I'ettigrew, and on their right by Wilcox's brigade of McLaw's corps, the whole line constituting a charging force of twenty thousand strong stretched out to the extent of two or more miles. The Southern historian, Pollard, relating the Grays' side of the action which followed, says: "The five thousand Virginians led the attack. As they reached the Emmettsburg Road at the foot of the slope, the Con- federate guns which had fired over their heads to cover the movement ceased, and there stood exposed these devoted troops to the uninterrupted fire of the enemy's batteries, while a fringe of musketry along a stone wall marked the further boundary of death to which they marched. No halt — no waver, through half a mile of shot and shell pre.ssed on this devoted column. It was no sudden impetus of excitement that carried them through this terrible ordeal; it was no thin storm of fire which a dash might pene- trate and divide. In every inch of air was the wing of death. Against the breast of each man's body reared the red crest of destruction." The fire from the one hundred guns on Cemetery Ridge tore vast gaps in the advancing ranks of the Grays. The charge was first directed against Doubleday's lines, but the hot fire from Round Top made the assaulting array bend towards its own left and thus brought the attack more on Han- cock's position. Two Blue regiments of Standard's brigade, who were in a grove in front oi tiancock's left at an angle with the main line gave the chargers an appaling flanking fire, while they were at the same instant subjected to the murderous shots of Hancock's cannon in front. This caused the line to sway .still more to the left, and brought the weight within three hundred yards of R. B. Hayes and Gibbons, it received the fire from these troops. That fire it returned. In front of Hayes it broke, and he captured fifteen colors and two thou.sand prisoners. The right of that portion of the Virginians before Gibbons was at the same time checked. It doubled in towards the left, thus reinforcing its centre, and throwing the point of contact in full force on Webb's brigade. About this time General Hancock, by the side of General Standard, was wounded. The Virginians were now in the very focus of the fire. Webb's brigade was posted in two lines, two of its regiments being behind a stone wall and breastworks, the third behind the crest sixty paces to the rear, so disposed as to be able to fire over the heads of those in front. As the smoke 110 THE CAMPAIGNS OP THE CIVIL WAR enveloped the attacking mass, the last glimpses that were caught showed that it was reeling and breaking into fragments; but, though its organiza- tion was lost, the Virginians individually rushed forward. Coming out of the cloud that enclosed them, and headed by General Armistead, they touched at last the stone wall. The two regiments holding the wall fell back to the regiment in the rear; there they were reformed by the personal efforts of General Webb and his officers. Encouraged by the apparent retreat, the Virginians planted their battle flags on the wall, and pushed over the breastworks. A desperate hand to hand conflict now ensued, the clothes of the men being actually burned by the powder of the exploding cartridges, while the Blue cannoneers were clubbed and bayonetted at their guns. The shout of the victorious Grays as they went over the crest of the wall was heard by a group of breathless spectators on Seminary Ridge, who had been watching with intense interest and anxiety the inspiring spectacle. Longstreet turned to General Lee to congratulate him — the day was won. But, alas, in that same instant Lee saw the line wave and knew that Pickett was giving way. At that moment reinforcements were rushing to Webb from all sides. Men and officers were fighting together. Pickett's chargers at the wall were literally crushed. Of fifteen of their field officers only one remained unhurt. Pollard says: "Of their three brigade commanders Garnett was killed, Armistead mortally wounded and left on the field, and Kemper carried away to die. Companies and regiments of the Grays threw down their arms and, rushing over the battlements into the lines of their foe, gave themselves up in despair rather than attempt running the gauntlet of the murderous fire a second time in the strife to reach their base a mile to the rear." The Blues under Gibbons in this way captured twelve colors and twenty-five hundred prisoners." Continuing, Pollard tells us: "The flankers on the left of Pickett's charges, under Pettigrew, composed mostly of raw recruits, when ordered forward to the support of their battling comrades, became panic-stricken and fied, with hundreds taken prisoners. Of twenty-eight hundred but eight hundred and thirty-five remained. Wilcox's flankers on the right made a movement as if to renew the attack, but the raking fire of the Blues under Sykes hurled them back a full mile. So, also, McLaw's and Ewell's feints failed. A mass of the remains of Pickett's division fled back towards Seminary Ridge, its ranks diminished every instant by the relentlessly accurate aim of the Blue cannonaders." Such was the fate of that desperate attempt of the Grays against the entrenched Blues on Cemetery Ridge. The battle of Gettysburg was a drawn one, but the "dream of the passage of the Susquehanna River ended," and nothing now remained for Lee but to get the remainder of his gallant army back safely, if possible, into Virginia. The losses of the Blues were reported at twenty-three thou- sand one hundred and eighty-six, of which twenty-eight hundred and thirty- four were killed, and thirteen thousand seven hundred and thirty-six were wounded, with six thousand six hundred and forty-three taken prisoners. The losses of the Grays were thirty-six thousand, of which five thousand were killed and twenty-three thousand wounded. The Southern Pollard, in his "Lost Cause," in reciting the fearful carnage, says: "In Pickett's THE CAMPAIGNS OP THE CIVIL, WAR 111 division alone, out of twenty-four regimental officers but two escaped hurt. The 9th Georgia, out of two hundred and fifty, came back with but thirty- eight, while the 8th Georgia rivalled even that ghastly record." Those seasoned veterans of the Blue and Gray who fought each other so unflinchingly in these series of engagements, were the same troops who had clashed during the seven days' battle on the Peninsular the year before, and again, at Antietam, Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville. Both were Americans, and by their endurance and valor astonished the world by a wonderful heroism never before displayed on any battlefield. Lee lingered in his preparations until July 5. when he started south- ward, retiring in perfect order with his supply trains, herds of cattle and horses and seven thousand prisoners. On reaching Hagerstown he found the rain had so swollen the Potomac River that it was impossible to make a crossing. He, therefore, en- trenched in anticipation of the impeding attack of Meade, but the Blues offered no battle. Finally, on the 12th, he crossed his entire army safely on pontoons in the very face of his enemy, and in the end reached his old headquarters on the Rapidan. Meade, who had been following, also took up the old position opposite on the Rappahannock. "He had spared the North the invasion, but had not conquered Lee." These were indeed despondent days for the Confederacy; within a few days of each other in that memorable July of 1863, three great disasters befell their armies. Vicksburg to Grant, Port Hudson to Banks, and Gettysburg to Meade. During the fall detached affairs occurred between Lee's and Meade's forces, "who never could remain without some passage at arms." Among these must be mentioned: The Roberson river fight, October 10 and 11, the Brandy Station on the next day, Bristol on the 14th, Buckland Mills on the 19th, Bealton on the 2 4th, Sedgwick's and French's capture of Kelly's Ford on the Rappahannock River on November 7, when two thousand Grays were taken prisoners. In all these engagements most gallant fight- ing and many examples of intrepid personal bravery took place, and were exhibited in the ranks of both combatants. In December both of the jaded armies went into winter quarters for a much needed rest. Still, this could not come to all, for Lee despatched Longstreets's corps into Georgia to assist Bragg against Thomas at Chat- tanooga, while to offset this the Blues of the 11th and 12th Corps were rushed under General Hooker to the relief of Thomas. 112 THE CAMPAIGNS OP THE CIVIL WAR CHAPTER XL Naval Operations, 1863. DuPont's Naval Expedition Against Charleston, S. C. — Gillmore's and Dahlgren's Expedition Against the Same — Fort Wagner — Minor Engagements. During the time of the campaigns of the armies in Virginia and the Mississippi Valley important operations against Charleston, S. C, had been taking place. The blockade of Charleston harbor had been ineffective to prevent blockade-runners going in with foreign supplies and escaping with cotton. While this trading by English capitalists was hazardous in the extreine. still the profits were so enormous that a large amount of capital was invested l)y them in the dangerous enterprise. They built ships of light draft, great power and speed, painted the color of the sea, and manned by daring commanders. To stop the blockade-runners, old hulks were sunk at the harbor entrance, but this expedient was made abortive by the swift tidal currents displacing the sands at the bottom, and allowing the obstruction to sink. The capture of the harbor alone remained as the only means of breaking up the business which, by bringing vast supplies to the Grays, was pro- longing the war. In April, 18 63, Admiral Samuel F. DuPont, with a fleet of seven modern monitors, many gunboats and a ram, made a vicious naval attack upon the forts defending the outer harbor, but, after a heroic and terrible struggle, in which nearly all his ships were disabled, DuPont abandoned the fight and was compelled to admit defeat. The aim of the Grays' gunners in the forts was wonderfully accurate; for instance, the gunboat Keokuk was penetrated and sunk by nearly one hundred shells from the guns on Fort Beauregard. A like fate nearly happened to the Weehawken. The second Charleston expedition, which started in the early summer months of 18 63, was composed of a large force of troops commanded by Quincy A. Gillmore, accompanied by a fleet under Admiral John A. Dahlgren. After strenuous efforts Gillmore succeeded in getting a foothold on the marshes of Folly Island, near where the Grays had erected an important work called Fort Wagner, which was manned with the heaviest armament. On July 11, wading waist deep through the marshes under a canopy of shot and shell made by the fleet's bombardment, the Blues made a vigorous assault on Fort Wagner, but the Grays hurled them back, destroy- ing nearly every one of the chargers. Gillmore then settled down to a systematic siege of the fortifications, and in the arrangement of the batteries exhibited great engineering skill. In the malarious swamps and under broiling Southern suns the deaths among the Blues were very numerous, and the sick list contained nearly every able-bodied man. The miasmatic low lands produced among the un- acclimated Northerners "country fever," something akin to that terrible scourage of yellow fever, which mowed down their numbers faster and THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL WAR 113 more surely than assaults on the batteries, and made the sacrifice astounding. In August the Blues inaugurated a continuous day-and-night bombard- ment of both Forts Wagner and Sumter. Tliey battered the old briclv fort, out of which the Grays had permitted Major Anderson to retire in 1861 with all honors of war, to a pile of rubbish. Neverthele.ss, a small band of Grays under command of Major Elliot, sheltered only behind sandbags, hung on to the citadel. Then followed a .savage onslaught by the Blues upon the garrison in Fort Wagner which compelled the Grays to retire, thus giving Gillmore possession of Morris Island. He then sent forward a fleet of whaleboats conveying infantry to capture Fort Sumter. This assault not only failed, but nearly every assailant was either killed or captured. During this attack by the army Admiral Dahlgren's fleet lay patiently waiting at the Charleston harbor entrance ready to rush forward when Gillmore conquered the fort; that opportunity, however, never came. Continuing his siege, Gillmore now erected in the swamps platforms on pile foundation, to support batteries of heavy thirty-six inch Parrott guns of long range, nicknamed by the soldiers "Swamp Angels," wherewith to bombard Charleston five miles inland. Although a fierce continuous bom- bardment was maintained day and night for a whole week, no serious effect was produced in the city. While Gillmore at these enormous sacrifices of life and treasure had succeeded in capturing the main defensive works of Charleston, he was nevertheless entirely unable to subdue the city, nor did it fall into the hands of the Federals until the spring of 1865, when Sherman's advance forced the Grays to evacuate the historic place. The Southern historian, Eggleston, in speaking of the murderous attack on Fort Wagner, says: "In all the war no more desperate work was done than that of both the Federal and Confederates on the face of Fort Wagner. The fire was incessant, and whether it came from siege guns, from field pieces, frorri rifles or from pi.stols held in the hand, it was all at pistol range. And it was all murderous in its effect. Yet on neither side was there for one moment a sign of flinching by day or by night. Many scores of men were shot through the body as they slept and at no moment of the twenty-four hours was any man secure against this danger." During the summer and fall the Blues in more or less strength made, from Port Royal, many advances inland in the endeavor to destroy the Charleston and Savannah Railroad, but all these efforts failed to dislodge the gallant defenders. This was especially so at Pocotaligo and Coosa- whatchie, where the defenders held to their works against several times their number of assailants. 114 THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL WAR CHAPTER XII. The Chattanooga Campaign, 1863. Rosecrans' Campaign Against Chattanooga — Morgan's Raid Inta Ohio — Wheeler's and Forrest's Raids Through Tennessee — Chickamauga — Thomas Replaces Rosecrans — Grant Comes to His Aid — Battle of Chattanooga — Sherman's Relief of Burnside at Knoxville — Southern Bravery. For several months after the battle of Murfresboro, or Stone River, which occurred January 2, 1863, the Army of the Cumberland, commanded by General Rosecrans, lay quietly confronting the Grays under General Bragg in Tennessee. The War Department, knowing that Bragg's force had been considerably depleted by sending reinforcements, during Grant's Vicksburg campaign, to Johnston and Pemberton, early in June, instructed Rosecrans to advance, drive Bragg south into Georgia, and capture Chattanooga, that important railroad junction near the intersection of the boundaries of the three States, Alabama, Georgia and Tennessee. This campaign extended through several months, the result of which had perhaps most decisive effects on the conduct of the war. These opera- tions were of gigantic dimensions and replete with dramatic and picturesque features. While Grant was besieging Vicksburg, Banks, Port Hudson, and Meade was contending with Lee in Pennsylvania, Rosecrans on June 25 began the execution of his orders. At this time Bragg was near Chattanooga, Buckner's Grays were at Knoxville, Tenn., in the eastern mountains some one hundred miles northeast of Chattanooga, while another force of Grays under General Samuel Jones was stationed near Abington in southwestern Virginia. Between Buckner and Jones was Cumberland Gap, the well known pass in the formidable barrier of the Alleghenies which, as Jefferson Davis tells us, "the first pioneer, Daniel Boone, went into Kentucky, and the only one in that region by which it was supposed an army with the usual artillery and wagon train could march from the North into East Tennessee. It was, therefore, fortified in hopes of being a barrier to an advance on communications which Buckner and Jones were to defend. It was in com- mand of General I. W. Frazier with a force of twenty-three hundred." By the latter part of August, Rosecrans' command of seventy thousand crossed the mountains to Stevenson and Bridgeport, Tenn., after tedious delays due to incessant storms, during which at one time it rained seventeen consecutive days, swelling the streams and making roads and fields quagmires. Burnside, with twenty-five thousand Blues, had in the meantime advanced from Kentucky towards Knoxville, Tennessee, using pack mules to convey his supplies across the rugged mountains. At Burnside's approach Buckner was forced to retire with his five thousand troops towards Chat- tanooga; in the end he joined Bragg near that place, and on September 19 they attacked Frazier at Cumberland Gap and compelled him to surrender. When Rosecrans reached Chattanooga, finding the forts impregnable to assault, he stopped but short time to shell the stronghold, and then pushed THE CAMPAIGNS OP THE CIVIL WAR 115 rapidly southward into Georgia, with Dalton and Rome as his objective points. This movement compelled Bragg to evacuate Chattanooga and hasten to the succor of Georgia, and, as the reinforcements sent by Lee under Longstreet were to come via Atlanta, Bragg, as Davis says, "determined to retire towards the expected reinforcements, so as to meet the foe in front when he should emerge from the mountain gorges." In the meantime two important side issues had been undertaken by the Grays, of which mention must be made before recounting the famous struggles between Rosecrans and Bragg. Bragg sent General Morgan with two thousand cavalry on a raiding expedition around to the rear of Rosecrans' army, which meeting little resistance, succeeded in sacking Columbia and Lebanon in Kentucky. Then crossing the Ohio River at Brandenbviry on two captured steamers, Morgan directed his course through Indiana towards Cincinnati, and burned mills and factories on the outskirts of that city. Brandenbury on the Ohio River was reached July 26, where his force was surrounded and compelled to surrender. A short time afterwards, Morgan personally succeeding in breaking prison at Columbus, O., where he had been incarcerated in the State Penitentiary, and making good his escape. Another cavalry raid by the Grays under Generals Joseph Wheeler and Forrest was made through northern Tennessee, where they came into bloody encounters with the Blues under Gordon, Granger and Sleight. The latter, while endeavoring to push south to the rear of Bragg, was caught in an isolated position, and compelled to surrender his band of two hundred horse- men to the ever alert Forrest. During August in his movement into Georgia Rosecrans had gotten his forces very much scattered, they being at one time stretched out over forty miles. Bragg on September 7, with the intention of concentrating and hurling a heavy force against these detached corps of the Blues, in hope of over- whelming first one and then another before they could be concentrated, succeeded without being observed by Rosecrans in taking up a position with his whole force of thirty-five thousand on the eastern side of Chickamauga Creek, a sluggish stream flowing northward along the easterly slope of Missionary Ridge and emptying into the Tennessee a few miles east of Chattanooga. The name Chickamauga most appropriately is Indian for River of Death. The famous battle took place on the west banks of the creek from which it was named, about ten miles in a direct line southeast of Chat- tanooga and a short distance south of a gap in Missionary Ridge at Ross- ville, which was one of several passes in the Ridge which gave egress and ingress between the Valley of Chattanooga in the west and that in which the Chickamauga flowed on the east. The Missionary Ridge is a very rugged mountain eight hundred feet in height above the valley. On the 8th, Bragg's formation occupied a line along the east side of the Chickamauga, with right at Lee and Gordon Mills, three or four miles south of the site of the battle. From here his line extended southwestward, passing the south end of Missionary Ridge to Lafayette twenty-five miles southwest of Chattanooga, and lying on the easterly slope of the range called Lookout, which, running south and parallel with Missionary Ridge, forms the Valley of Chattanooga. 116 THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL WAR On the morning of the 9th, five thousand of Rosecrans' scattered com- mand, coming from the west side of Lookout, tfirough Stevens' and Cooper's Gaps, ran up against the very centre of Bragg's line, and promptly retired back into the mountains. At this time Thomas' corps, in Rosecrans' command, was arranged along the western side of Chickamauga Creek in the vicinity of Rossville Gap. With the intention of getting his army between Thomas and Chattanooga, Bragg moved his line to the northeast and east of the creek, leaving Wheeler's cavalry near where the five thou.sand Blues had attempted to enter Chattanooga Valley in the morning, this being done to veil the movement against Thomas. In the meantime Rosecrans, by forced marches, was gathering his scat- tered columns, and finally succeeding in getting a line formed along the easterly slope of Missionary Ridge directly opposite Bragg's army. The formation was, A. McD. McCook's corps on the right about opposite Lee and Gordon Mills, Chittenden's corps in the centre, and Thomas on the left; in all fifty-two thousand troops, with five thousand cavalry under command of Granger in reserve. By evening of September 18, Hood from Virginia, with Walker's division, reached the Chickamauga, and at daybreak the next morning the rest of Bragg's forces were on the west bank of the creek. The Grays' line on the 19th was composed as follows: Buckner on the left, his flank resting on the creek about a mile below Lee and Gordon- Mills; on his right Hood with his own and Johnston's division; while Walker formed the extreme right. The cavalry under Forrest flanked Walker, while those under Wheeler flanked Buckner. It will thus be seen that Bragg, aiming to get between Rosecrans' left and Chattanooga, had moved his forces north- eastward down the Valley. Forrest's cavalry, advancing became involved with such a large force of the enemy that Walker was compelled to send a brigade to his support. This large force was the left wing of Rosecrans' army under Thomas, who, seeing Bragg's formation in his front and anticipating his aim, took the initiative and attacked. The assault was gallantly met by Walker's men, who in a counter-charge broke through two of Thomas' lines and captured two batteries and a number of prisoners. Being reinforced, Thomas' men dashed at their assailants and, after furious fighting, regained the lost ground. At this the Grays' reserves under Cheatham pushed forward into the fray, whereupon terrific fighting ensued, which continued for three hours, with varying results and a doubtful final outcome. It was near sunset when Cleburne's division of Grays pressed across the bloody field and charged Thomas' breastworks, and received a crushing fire of musketry that made them reel. Instantly the batteries rushed to their assistance and opened a terrific fire on the Blues, under cover, of which chargers reformed and forced Thomas' men back a full mile, and at night slept victorious upon the field of battle. During the night Longstreet's Virginian veterans of Gettysburg fame came up from Ringgold, Ga., whereupon Bragg reformed his line in two wings. The right one under General Polk was composed from left to right as follows: Breckinridge, Cleburne, Cheatham, Walker and Forrest's cavalry on the flank. The left wing under Longstreet was made up of Preston, THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL WAR 117 Heindman, Johnson, (Hood) Law, Kershaw, Stewart and Wheeler's cavalry, in all about forty-seven thousand strong. Bragg had intended to begin the attack by his right wing against Thomas early in the morning of September 20, but this was inadvertently delayed until nine a. m. In speaking of this part of the fighting, Jefferson Davis says: "Many partial successes were gained in the beginning by the Confederates, but in the first operations the troops so frequently moved to the assault without the necessary cohesion in a charging line, that nearly all early assaults by our right wing were seriously repulsed with loss, though at first invariably successful, our troops were subsequently compelled to retire before the heavy reinforcements constantly brought up." Wheeler now struck Rosecrans' right a savage blow, which, with Longstreet's skilfully conducted flanking movement, enveloped that end of the Blues' line. The fighting raged furiously from four p. m. until dark, when Rosecrans' right and centre .gave way in great disorder. At this moment General Philip Sheridan, rallying a considerable portion of a division, rushed to the aid of Thomas on the left. And now, as Draper says: "A historical moment had come; Thomas proved equal to the task, though half the army had abandoned him, he held the ground." At one time when Thomas was thus alone, some of Longstreet's force discovered a gap in the hills on Thomas' right flank, which they hurried to occupy. Fortunately just then Granger with his reserves arrived and threw a brigade of cavalry and six guns into the gorge. Two divisions of Longstreet's men charged up to within a few yards of Granger's guns, when just at sunset they reeled and fell back. In the meantime Thomas was repelling attack after attack on his left center and right. At night he retired to Rossville in good order, capturing on the way some five hundred isolated Grays, but was compelled to leave on the battlefield his dead and wounded. The next morning found all of Rosecrans' force within the forts of Chfittanoog^. This great victory for the Grays brought them eight thou- sand prisoners, fifty-one guns, fifteen thousand small arms and a large amount of stores. The Blues having evacuated Lookout Mountain, Bragg occupied it, and thus was able to cut off the supplies from Roaecrans' army. Pollard says of the battle of Chlckamauga, "that nothing was more brilliant in all of Napoleon's Italian campaigns. Chickamauga was equally as desperate as the battle of Areola; but it was productive of no decisive results, and we shall see it was followed, as many other brilliant victories of the Confederacy, by almost immediate consequences of disaster. The aggregate of the combatants was over one hundred thousand, and the losses were about one-third their number." On the 24th, the Grays made a vicious as.sault on Rosecrans' forts about Chattanooga, which was stubbornly repelled. Bragg then retired with his exhausted and depleted army to Missionary Ridge for rest and reorgani- zation. The bottling up of Rosecrans in Chattanooga gave Bragg control of all the railroads and also the Tennessee River, thus obliging the Blues' supply trains to make long circuitous routes through the mountain passes and along muddy roads. These trains were frequently attacked and destroj'ed by the dashing Gray cavalry and in the end the Blues' base of supplies was entirely cut off. Rosecrans' command was now in a most deplorable condi- tion, famine and starvation staring the soldiers and animals in the face. 1L8 THE CAMPAIGN S OF THE CIVIL WAR The number of horses had diminished to such an extent that there were not sufficient of them to bring a battery into position. The team mules died to the number of ten thousand, and, as the soldiers said, "the mud was so deep that we could not travel by the roads, though we got along pretty well by stepping from mule to mule as they lay dead by the way." Rosecrans was now relieved, and Thomas placed in command. As early as September 22 Halleck had directed Grant to send every available force to the assistance of Rosecrans' Army of the Cumberland, and now the Administration bent every effort to the succor of Thomas' imprisoned and starving army in Chattanooga. On October 16 General Grant was ordered to assume command of the Armies of the Cumberland, Ohio and Tennessee. He immediately tele- graphed Thomas to hold on at all hazards, who replied: "I will do so until we starve." The 11th and 12th Corps of the Army of the Potomac, under General Hooker, consisting of twenty-three thousand troops, were transported safely by rail from the Rapidan in Virginia to Stevenson, Ala., a distance of twelve hundred miles in seven days, a wonderful achievement, considering the very inadequate railroad facilities of the period. At the same time General Sherman was ordered to hurry his Army of the Tennessee, then at Memphis, with all speed to Chattanooga. Grant in person reached Thomas on October 23. Without counting the forces under Burnside then at Knoxville, the troops now under command of Grant numbered eighty thousand, while Bragg's force was reported as being only sixty thousand. Going back we find that immediately after the fall of Vicksburg' Grant's army, during a vigorous campaign, had cleared the country for over one hundred miles around him of all threatening forces, and there was no enemy of serious proportions to oppose him, and only roving guerrillas whose depredations, while numerous and annoying, had no influence on the general r'^sults of the war. Prior to Rosecrans' advance it had been intended by the Administration to have Grant join with Banks for the capture of Mobile, Ala., but the necessity of detaching niany troops from Grant's command not only to rein- force Rosecrans, but also to keep up a force in Arkansas against the Grays there under Price, deferred the Mobile camjjaign to the beginning of 1865. Sherman started from Memphis for Chattanooga early in October witn three divisions of his 15th Corps and some eighty thousand of the 16th Corps. The task before these veterans was a march of three hundred and thirty miles through a hostile country, infested by roving bands of guer- rillas — so named by the Blues, though their title in the Confederate Army was "Rangers." They were not outlaws, but bodies of fighters mainly made up of bold, brave, dashing men, free to roam as they pleased, and throughout the war, although not attached to the organized armies, they gave effective assistance to them by prowling about the flanks of the enemy and inflicting losses of prisoners and stores. The greatest of these bands was that under Colonel John S. Mosby, whose skilful dashes in the Shenan- doah Valley during 1863 and 1864 compelled the Union commanders to detach considerable forces from their armies in order to watch and ward off these pests. Sherman's orders from Halleck were to repair all the destroyed rail- roads and bridges as he proceeded, so as to maintain his base of supplies at THE CAMPAIGNS OP THE CIVIL WAR UU Memphis. This Grant found, however, occupied so much time, tliat he established a new base for Sherman at Eastport, Tenn., bringing south supplies by the Tennessee River and the railroads, and ordered Sherman to push on. By rapid marches Sherman reached Chattanooga in the early weeks of November. Grant's forces now about Chattanooga depended for supplies on a single- track railroad over one hundred miles long to his base at Nashville. To guard and keep intact this long line of communications against the incessant attacks of the vigilant Grays' cavalry, he was obliged to detach some ten thousand troops under General Dodge to patrol the vital artery. Hooker's two corps from the Army of the Potomac, a few weeks before Sherman's arrival, succeeded in making a lodgement at Bridgeport on the Tennessee River, about twenty-flve miles directly west of Chattanooga, and threatened the left flank of Bragg's army posted on Lookout Mountain. Grant without delay rushed supplies to Thomas' famishing army imprisoned in Chattanooga. Of this he says in his Memoirs: "It is hard for any one not an eye-witness to realize the relief this brought; the men were soon reclothed and also well fed; an abundance of ammunition was brought up and a cheerfulness prevailed not before enjoyed in many weeks. Neither officers nor men looked upon themselves as doomed." Now, what turned out to Ije a very serious military error was committed by the Confederate Government. In the very face of Grant's preparations, Longstreet's veterans were ordered on November 4 to dash north to the attack of Burnside's isolated force at Knoxville, Tennessee, thus greatly depleting Bragg's already small army. Grant instead of detaching from his army, forces to chase after Long- street, as was anticipated, instructed Burnside to lure the Grays as far north as. possible by retiring before Longstreet's advance, and at the same time Grant sent a strong force of cavalry to cut off Longstreet's communi- cation to the south. The site of the famous battle of Chattanooga may be described as follows: General Thomas' Army of the Cumberland was strongly entrenched in a semi-circle south and east of Chattanooga in the Cheat or Chattanooga Valley, with the Tennessee River to its rear. Spreading out south of Thomas, the Valley had a width of six miles, its boundaries on the east being Mis- sionary Ridge, a range eight hundred feet in height above the Valley, run- ning almost due north and south, and ending abruptly at the north end near where the Chicamauga Creek enters the Tennessee River, and where stood the railroad station of Bragg's base of supplies. The west side of the Valley was formed by the range called Lookout Mountain, towering some fifteen hundred feet above the Valley, the northern end of which fell precipitously to the Tennessee River. By reason of a great bend in the river the bluff of Lookout lies almost due south of Chattanooga. To the west of Lookout runs parallel another range called Racoon Mountain, and in the intervening Racoon Valley was stationed Hooker's corps. Bragg's line on November 23, commenced with its right in rifle pits at the base of the north end of Missionary Ridge. Then, stretching southward along the crest of the ridge for a few miles almost to Rossville, it turned abruptly west and continued across Chattanooga Valley and up on to Look- out. It will thus be seen that the northern end of the battlefield of Chicka- 120 THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL WAR mauga, Rossville, was the southern end of that of Chattanooga, on Missionary- Ridge. Bragg's right wing was commanded by General Hardee, under whom were the divisions of Cleburne, Walker, Cheatham and Stevenson. The left under General Breckinridge was composed of his own division, Stewart's and parts of Buckner and Hindman's divisions. During the night of the 24th some of Hooker's men scaled the precipitous woody sides of Lookout and drove the Grays east down into the Valley. This movement was conducted while the crest of Lookout was enveloped in a dense fog, which fact gave rise to the title of "Hooker's battle above the clouds." The left of the Blues' line was made up the same day by getting a lodgement on the south side of the Tennessee River opposite Hardee, this being expeditiously accomplished by Sherman's men making rapid marches during the night to avoid being observed by the Grays from the heights of Missionary Ridge. Sherman was greatly assisted by Grant's foresight in having ample pontcjon bridges ready in advance to cro.ss the Tenne.ssee. One of these was thirteen hundred feet long. Thomas* corps still maintained the centre about Chattanooga. Draper, in his History of the Civil War, says in substance, that the famous battle of Chattanooga consisted of three acts: 1st. The passage of the Tennessee River by Sherman contributing to the left, upon which wing fell the weight of battle, thus compelling Bragg to weaken his centre in order to protect his base of supplies at the railroad station near Chickamauga Creek, which it was supposed Sherman was aiming for. 2nd. The capture of Lookout by Hooker. 3rd. The attack and capture of Missionary Ridge by the charge of the centre under Thomas. On the morning of 2 5th, Hooker advanced from Lookout down into the valley almost due ea.st. The destruction of the bridges over the Chattanooga River together with the stubborn resistance kept up by Brecken- ridge's men, delayed until three p. m. the accomplishment of Grant's plan, which was to have the wing of his army under Hooker strike Rossville, about four miles south of Thomas' center wing. Reaching the gap at Rossville, Hooker pushed a part of his forces around to the east of the ridge, and drove the slender number at Bragg's left back up on to the crest. This was the same gap through wTiich Thomas on the night after the battle of Chickamauga had retreated to Chattanooga. All morning, in the attempt to crush Sherman, Bragg kept massing forces to his right, where the fighting was maintained murderously and incessantly. At one time, when it seemed Sherman must go down, Grant hurriedly detached to him reinforcements from Thomas' left, the move- ment being distinctly observed by Bragg from his elevated headquarters on Missionary Ridge. Grant's headquarters were on Orchard Knob, which Thomas had cap- tured the day before. This was a commanding knoll lying midway between the City of Chattanooga and Missionary Ridge, from which the commander had a full view of nearly all the operations from Sherman on the Tennessee River to Hooker at Rossville, ten miles south of Sherman. Between three and four in the afternoon, just at the critical moment in Sherman's wing, and as Hooker was driving the Grays' left northward, THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL WAR 121 Grant ordered Thomas' center wing to charge. "Like a thunder bolt" the Army of the Cumberland fell upon the weakened lines of its enemy's center, and sent it in full flight up Missionary Ridge. Reaching the crest the Grays turned at bay, and a fearful hand to hand contest ensued in which frightful numl)ers were slain on both sides. Time and again Thomas tried to restrain his eager chargers, but to no avail. In the meantime fierce fighting was continuing along the whole line. The end of the bloody struggle came at midnight, when Bragg's army fled in disorder, hotly pursued by the Blues. Grant, however, called a halt just as Hooker's men had met a serious check at Ringgold, and ordered preparations made for the rescue of Burnside from Longstreet at Knoxville. Sherman, in relating the Battle of Chattanooga, says in his Memoirs: "The first day was lowering and overcast, favoring us greatly, because we wanted to conceal from Bragg whose position overlooked our movements. The second day was beautiful, clear and bright, and many times I could not help stopping to look across the vast field of battle and admire its sublimity." Pollard, in his "Lost Cause," states that at one time "Bragg in attempting to rally the broken troops advanced into the fire, and exclaimed: 'Here is your commander,' and was answered with the derisive shouts of an absurd catch phrase: 'Here's your mule.' Bragg's army notoriously lacked confi- dence in their commander; it also lacked artillery horses and made weak and suspicious by the detachment of Longstreet." As has already been stated, early in March Burn.side had. been placed in command of the Army of the Ohio, consisting of some twenty thousand troops then at Richmond. Ky. While Rosecrans was advancing on to Chattanooga, he pushed on into Tennessee, and, after arduous mountain climbing, conveying his supplies by pack mules, succeeded in capturing Knoxville on September 9, compelling the defenders under General Buckner to fall back on to Bragg's army at Chattanooga. Then followed, as we have learned, the movement of Long- street north to assail Knoxville in early November. Longstreet's and Burnside's men first clashed at London on November ] 6, after which the Blues retired into the fortifications of Knoxville. The following day Longstreet's forces made furious assault on the beleaguered Blues in hopes to carry the works, but their frantic efforts resulted only in bloody repulses. Knowing that Burnside's army had but three weeks' supplies on hand, Longstreet then settled down to a siege until starvation should force his enemy to surrender. Learning on the 29th of Bragg's defeat at Missionary Ridge, he made a final desperate assault on Fort Sanders, and another on the south side of Burnside's work, but, in spite of the desperate chargers and furious fighting, the Blues held to their guns. Immediately after the battle of Chattanooga Sherman's weary and worn out veterans started with but two days' rations on their tramp of seven days to the relief of their twelve thousand comrades bottled up by Long- street in Knoxville. In his Memoirs Sherman says: "My troops had been in constant motion since March, when they left the Big Black River. Long periods, the troops were without regular rations; marching throu.gh mud and over rock barefooted without a murmur; in all four hundred miles; three succeeding days without sleep; crossed the Tennessee, fought the battle of Chattanooga, and then pushed on one hundred and twenty miles 122 THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL, WAR more in bitter cold weather through the sodden roads of Tennessee to raise the siege of Knoxville." Long'street on learning of the approach of Sherman hurriedly retired northeastwardly to cross the mountains, with the intention of joining Lee in Virginia via the railroad. The Blues under Arerill had, however, de- stroyed the railroad. Not having been properly supported by the Government, Longstreet was now completely isolated in a wild mountainous country; the weather was bitter cold; his men were barefooted and half famished, with daily skirmish encounters between his own and the Blues' foraging parties. And so the dreary winter drew out, for it was not until February that the rail- road was sufficiently repaired to enable Longstreet to join Lee in Virginia. Thus, too, these Virginia veterans had been on the go since March — had fought at Chancellorsville, tramped with Lee in Penn- sylvania, constituted the main fighting line at Gettysburg, rushed south to Bragg, taking a very active part in the battle of Chicka- mauga, and then had marched off again against Burnside at Knoxville, where they made bloody assault after assault on impregnable works; and at last remained famishing during bitter cold weather in the barren regions of the Allegheny Mountains. This is surely a record of suffering, endurance, bravery and heroism of which every American boy and girl may feel proud, for these achievements were made by their countrymen. It was not Longstreet's genius alone which accomplished such marvelous undertakings, never before equaled in modern warfare. No — it was American grit. And so while General Sherman testifies to the fortitude of his Northern heroes, we find registered the same bravery, dignity, enlightment and genius equally displayed by their Southern brothers. Aside from whatever question, rancor or prejudice may bring into the controver.sy as to which side was right or which wrong, there stands out the majesty of American civilization to which the children of these un- daunted Blues and Grays may well point with patriotic pride. All the great generals, including Grant and Lee, constantly maintained that their victories resulted from the self sacrifice and endurance and courage of their common soldiers. In speaking of these vast achievements of Americans we must not forget that equal courage and fortitude was displayed by that vast number of foreign-born soldiers which constituted the armies of the North. But still the war was, nevertheless, planned and executed by American genius. The leading generals of both North and South were educated soldiers from the National Military School at West Point, N. Y. Nearly every Gray was native born, and the vast majority of the Blues were also American, for even among the troops enrolled in the State of New York, which sent forth the greater number of foreigners, the number of these constiuted but one- third of the whole enlistment from that State. After the defeat of Chattanooga, President Davis very reluctantly relieved Bragg, and appointed General Joseph E. Johnston in his place. The Grays then retired to Dalton, Georgia. Eggleston, in his "History of the Confederate War," in speaking of these operations of 1863, says: "The campaign had been dramatic in many of its features and peculiarly picturesque in some of them. It cost the lives of six to ten thousand men on both sides. It left the Federals masters of Chattanooga, placing the Confederates in an uncertain defensive position against which future operations were comparatively easy." THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL WAR 123 CHAPTER XIII. Campaign in the West and Southwest. Sherman's Meridian Campaign — General Forrest's Operations — Fort Pillow — Grant Made Lieutenant-General — Military Situation in Spring of 18 64- — Grant's General Plan — Red River Campaign — Battle of Sabine Cross- Roads — Pleasant Hill — The Navy in the Red River Campaign — Engineer Bailey's Dam— Mansura Plains — Crossing of the Atchafalaya — Steel's March — Canby Takes Command of the West Mississippi Department — Return East of the 19th Army Corps- — Failure of Price's Raid in Missouri. After the fall of Vicksburg, July 4, 18 63, it was the intention of the War Department to have Grant's victorious army follow up and destroy, if possible, Johnston's force, which was then in the vicinity of Meridian, Miss. The intense heat of summer, accompanied by an extended drought, however, delayed the operation. Then, as has been related, Sherman's forces were hurriedly sent to the rescue of Thomas at Chattanooga, and, soon afterwards, to the succor of "Burnside at Knoxville, Tenn. At the end of December Sherman was back again at Memphis in command of McPherson and Hurlburt's corps. Thomas was at Dalton, Ga., confronting Johnston. "Now is the time to strike at Meridian and Selma," Sherman wrote General McPherson then at Vicksburg, from which place it was planned to set out. Sherman's Meridian expedition consisted of ten thousand troops formed from the divisions of McPherson and Hurlburt's corps, together with twenty- fTve hundred cavalry under General W. Sooy Smith. The objects of this expedition was told by Sherman in a letter he wrote General Banks, then at New Orleans: "I propose," said he, "to avail myself of the short time allowed me here to strike a blow at Meridian and Dimopolis. I think I can do it, and the destruction of the railroads, west, north and south of Meridian will close the door of rapid travel and con- veyance of stores from Mississippi and the Confederacy east. That will make us all less liable to the incursions of the enemy towards the Mississippi River. I intend to leave Vicksburg about January 25, and hope to be near Meridian February 10." Continuing, he advised Banks, with his 19th Army Corps to .make a feint on Mobile, Ala., in order to draw from Johnston's forces at Meridian, and at the same time to attack Shreveport, La. "For," said he, "it is not to our interests to go beyond Meridian until we can take Mobile and the Alabama River." Meridian and Selma lay directly east of Vicksburg and distant from that place, respectively, one hundred and twenty and two hundred and thirty miles. Shreveport lay directly west and about one hundred and seventy miles from Vicksburg, all as the crow flies. That portion of Johnston's army then at Meridian was under the command of General Polk, with four thousand cavalry under General Forrest in northern Mississippi, while another force of four thousand horsemen under Stephen Lee were in southern Mississippi. W. Sooy Smith's cavalry reached Meridian February 10, 1864, and destroyed the railroads. Sherman's infantry started from Vicksburg 124 THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL WAR February 3, in light marching order and with but twenty days' rations. Reaching- Jackson, about half way towards Meridian, they completely surprised the enemy, who in their hurried retreat failed to destroy a pontoon bridge they had constructed over the Pearl River, which Sherman's men made prompt use of in the pursuit, and reached, on the 14th, Meridian, which was found evacuated by Polk's small force. The 15th was employed by Sherman's men in destroying- all the railroads, besides depots, arsenals, hospitals and hotels, sparing only the dwellings of the inhabitants. Having carried out his mission of destruction, Sherman left on the 20th for his return to Vicksburg. His march westward was acconnpanied by a horde of seven thousand tattered and famished negro fugitives. As Draper states: "These simple people believed the day of Jubilee, of which they had so often sung in their hymns and begged for in their prayers, had come at last." Pollard, the Southern historian, says: "Polk's army was in no condition to give battle, being but half of Sherman's numbers, and he, therefore, evacuated Meridian and retired to Dimopolis. Meanwhile General Forrest with not more than twenty-five hundred cavalry had been detached to watch the movements of W. Sooy Smith and Grierson's cavalry, and was left to confront eight thousand of the best equipped cavalry that the Blues had ever put in the field. But the great Gray cavalry chief of the West showed no hesitation. He struck the enemy on the broad prairies near West Point, and at Okalona on the twenty-first day of February he had a more important action, and put the enemy in shameful retreat to Memphis." Meeting with no resistance Forrest continued north, leaving destruction in his path, and, reaching Paducah, Ky., held by Colonel Heck with but eight hundred and fifty men, demanded its surrender, but was refused. Three vicious, but unavailing assaults were then made by Forrest's men upon the works in which they lost heavily. This determined Forrest to abandon the conquest. He then struck out for Fort Pillow on the Mississippi River, which was garrisoned by some three hundred white and four hundred black soldiers. On the 12th of April he made the attack at sunrise, during which the commander of the fort. Major Booth, was killed. The surrender of the fort was then demanded within twenty minutes, but refused by Major Bradford. An assault was immediately made and the fort carried. "The carnage did not stop with the struggle of the storming, but continued as a carnival of murder until night, and was renewed again the next morning. The fugitives were dragged from their hiding places and cruelly murdered." For black soldiers there was no mercy; "they were massacred because they were negroes, and the whites, because they were fighting with niggers." Stephen Lee, Forrest's commander in extenuation, said: "You had a servile race armed against their masters, and in a country which had been desolated by almost unprecedented outrages." As to the Fort Pillow massacre, which created at the North, especially among the radical politicians and press, deep seated resentfulness that to a considerable extent permeated the army, the Southern historian, Eggleston, says: "But from beginning to end the Confederates refused to recognize the right of their enemy to enlist their run-away slaves in war against them. THE CAMPAIGNS OP THE CIVIL, WAR 125 From first to last they refused to regard negroes as soldiers entitled to be treated as such. So when Forrest found Fort Pillow garrisoned chiefly by negro troops, even had he desired it to be otherwise, he could not have prevented the slaughter that ensued. His men simply would not make prisoners of war out of negroes in arms, and the result of the struggle was a Federal loss of five hundred killed together with nearly all their white officers, while the Confederates, according to Forrest's report, lost but twenty men. In his dispatches written at the time of excitement Forrest said: "It is hoped that these facts will demonstrate to the Northern people that negro soldiers cannot cope with Southerners." After the Fort Pillow affair Forrest retired into Mississippi, while a force of twelve thousand Blues under General Sturges gave chase after him. Early in June those forces clinched, and the result of the desperate encounters was to compel Sturges to fall back to Memphis with a loss of between three thousand and four thousand. In the endeavor to stop the skilful Forrest from repeating his raiding operations, another expedition was sent against him in July under A. J. Smith, but this new enemy Forrest forced back to Memphis. Again in Augu.st, Smith sallied forth to annihilate his intrepid foe, Init he was again outwitted by the wily Forrest, who suddenly, unobserved, got to the rear of Smith's forces, drove them back, and even dashed into the city of Memphis and occupied it for several days, after which he retired in safety to Mississippi. On March 9, 18 64, Ulysses S. Grant received from the hands of President Lincoln in the presence of the Cabinet at Washington his commission as Lieutenant-General. No one since George Washington had been raised to that exalted station, G,eneral Scott having been made only Brevet Lieutenant- General. General Grant having been appointed commander-in-chief, the nine- teen different army corps, constituting the entire Federal Army, were now brought for the first time in the history of the war under one single directing master mind. Grant in his Memoirs states the military situation at this time as follows: "The Mississippi River was guarded from St. Louis to its mouth; the line of the Arkansas was held, thus giving us all of the North West north of that river. A few points in Louisiana, not remote from the river, were held by the Federal troops, as was also the mouth of the Rio Grande. East of the Mississippi we held substantially all north of the Memphis and Charleston Railroad, as far east as Chattanooga, thence along the line of the Tennessee and Holston rivers, taking in nearly all of the State of Tennessee. West Virginia was in our hands; and that part of old Virginia, north of the Rapidan and east of the Blue Ridge we also held. "On the seacoast we had Fortress Monroe and Norfolk in Virginia, Plymouth, Washington and New Berne in North Carolina, Beaufort and Folly and Morris Islands, Hilton Head, Port Royal and Fort Pulaski in South Carolina, and Georgia, Fernandina, St. Augustine, Key West and Pensacola in Florida. The balance of the southern territory, an empire in extent, was still in the hands of the enemy." Sherman, who had succeeded me in command of the military division of the Mississippi, commanded all ih(> troojis in the territory west of the 126 THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL WAR Alleghenies and north of Natchez, with a large movable force about Chat- tanooga. * » * In the east the opposing forces stood in substantially the same relation towards each other as three years before, or when the war began. They were both between the Federal and Confederate capitals. * * * "That portion of the Army of the Potomac not engaged in guarding lines of communications was on the northern bank of the Rapidan. The Army of Northern Virginia confronting it on the opposite bank of the same river was strongly entrenched, and commanded by the acknowledged ablest general in the Confederate army (Lee.) * * * -phe L^nion armies were now divided into nineteen departments, though four of them in the west had been concentrated into a single military division. The Army of the Potomac was a separate command, and had no territorial limits. There were thus seventeen distinct commanders. Before this time these various armies had acted separately and independently of each other, giving the enemy an opportunity often of depleting one command, not pressed to reinforce another more actively engaged. I determined to stop this. To this end I regarded the Army of the Potomac as the centre, and all west of Memphis, along the line described as our position at the time and north of it, the right wing; the Army of the James under General Butler (with head- quarters at Fortress Monroe) as the left wing, and all the troops south as a force in the rear of the enemy * * * Officers and soldiers on furlough, of whom there were many thousands, were ordered to their proper commands; concentration was the order of the day." He then states that the 9th Corps of over twenty thousand strong under General Burnside, then at Annapolis, Maryland, was added to the Army of the Potomac. "My general plan was to concentrate all the force possible against the Confederate armies in the field. There were but two such, as we have seen, east of the Mississippi River, and facing north. The Army of Northern Virginia, General Robert E. Lee commanding, was on the south bank of the Rapidan, confronting the Army of the Potomac. The second under Joseph E. Johnston was at Dalton, Georgia, opposed to Sherman, who was still at Chattanooga. Besides these main armies the Confederates had to guard the Shenandoah Valley, a great storehouse to feed their armies from, and their line of communications from Richmond and Tennessee. Forrest, a brave and intrepid cavalry general, was in the west with a large force, making a larger command necessary to hold what we had gained in middle and west Tennessee. We could not abandon any territory north of the line held by the enemy, because it would lay the Northern States open to invasion. * * * i arranged for a simultaneous movement all along the line. Sherman was to move from Chattanooga, against Johnston, Atlanta being his objective point. Cooke commanding in West Virginia, was to move from the mouth of the Gauley River, with a cavalry force and some artillery, the Virginia and Tennessee Railroad to be his objective. Sigel was in com- mand in the Shenandoah Valley. He was to advance up the Valley, cover- ing the North from an invasion through that channel, as well by advancing as by remaining at Harper's Ferry. Every mile he advanced gave us possession of stores on which Lee relied. Butler was to advance by the James River, having Richmond and Petersburg as his objective * * * Banks in the Department of the Gulf was ordered to assemble all the troops THE CAMPAIGNS OP THE CIVIL WAR 127 he had at New Orleans in time to join in the general move, Mobile being his objective." Grant's orders to the commanders of the various departments were to keep constantly and incessantly at work during all seasons. For, as he said, "The lasting peace of the nation could not endure until the entire military power of the Confederacy was utterly destroyed. To hammer continually against the armed forces of the enemy and his resources until by mere attrition, if in no other way, there should be nothing left to him, but an equal submission with the loyal section of our common country to the Constitution and laws of the land." General Halleck was now relieved as General-in-Chief and assigned as Chief of Staff, and, as Draper aptly puts it, "the chief interest of the war now centered upon Grant and Sherman," the former taking personal com- mand of the proposed operation east of the Alleghanies, while Sherman was to conduct those in the Mississippi Valley, his orders from Grant being to "get as far into the enemy's country as you can, and inflict all the damage you can against their war resources." "I will stay," said Grant, "with the Army of the Potomac and operate against Lee." The Washington Administration for some unexplained reason, in spite of the numerous places occupied along the Gulf coast by Banks' forces, as has been stated in Chapter IX, ordered the abandonment of the Texas movement, and instructed Grant, Banks and Admiral Porter to join in fitting out a powerful expedition against Shreveport, Louisiana, that great storehouse of the Confederacy for supplies going from West Louisiana and Texas to the armies east of the Mississippi. Shreveport, one hundred and seventy-five miles directly west of Vicks- burg as the crow flies, was connected with the latter city by rail, and thence with the railroad system of Mississippi, Georgia and the Carolinas inade a most important base of supplies. The Shreveport campaign contemplated that Banks with the 19th Corps should move northwest via the Red River from New Orleans, William Steele advancing south from Arkansas, and two divisions of the 16th Corps under General Mower with one division of the 17th Corps from Sherman's army then at Vicksburg, moving southward under command of General A. J. Smith; these three wings it was intended should assemble at Alexandria on the Red River about March 17. On March 2 Porter's fleet was at the mouth of the Red River consisting of nineteen ironclads; A. J. Smith's force got there in transports on the 1 1th, and, uniting with the fleet, sailed up the tortuous river through the swampy regions of Louisiana, and in passing" subdued the only defensive works, that of Fort De Russy. They also recaptured the famous gunboats Indianola and Harriet Lane which had fallen into the hands of the Grays the year before. The troops and fleet then proceeded up the river and arrived at Alexandria on the 16th, one day before the scheduled date. The 19th Corps under General Franklin on its march of one hun- dred and sixty miles from the lower Teche Country, strung out along the devious levee roads of that swampy malarious region, finally reached Alex- andria on the 24th, seven days late. Franklin's well drilled and equipped veterans entered the city march- ing, with regimental bands playing, in a precision of parade that elicited the admiration of both friend and foe. 128 THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL WAR Alexandria lies just above the margin between the swampy region and the highlands of Louisiana. A short distance above the town the Red River is blocked by bars of sand and rock, which form rapids, and not- withstanding the slowly rising water it was with difficulty that the lighter draft gunboats were gotten above the shallow places. By April 3 twelve gunboats and thirty transports were above the town en route for Shreve- port, their place of destination, something over one hundred miles to the northwest. The usual seasonable rising of the river had been counted upon, but this year the water was abnormally low, and "bare rock" divided the fleet. Furthermore, the supplies for the thirty-one thousand troops had to be landed from the boats at Alexandria, and then teamed as the army ad- vanced. On March 29 Banks received from General Grant, now the Commander- in-Chief of all the national forces then in Virginia operating against Lee, instructions that, if his forces were not able to capture Shreveport by April 25, he should abandon the exposition and return A. J. Smith's forces post haste to General Sherman in Missis.sippi, and send the 19th Corps to New Orleans. Without waiting for the third wing under General Steele from Arkansas, Banks advanced on to Shreveport through an interminable wilderness of dense pine forests. His wagon train of supplies of food and ammunition stretched out twelve miles along the narrow roads, sodden from rains, and so the in- fantry made very slow progress. The Grays' cavalry, commanded by General Green, together vi^ith two divisions of General Price's troops from Arkansas, joined General Richard Taylor, thus making a force of sixteen thousand men. While these forces numbered but half of Banks' invaders, Taylor, with his superior knowledge of the country, could choose his own fighting ground. This he did by taking a stand on a "small clearing in the dense forests. It was but half a mile wide and across the road it stretched only three-quarters of a mile, while down the middle it was divided by a deep ravine," says Irwin. This is the site of the battle of Sabine Cross-Roads or Mansfield, which occurred on April 8. When Banks' advance forces, numbering but five thousand, reached the clearing, Taylor's men suddenly delivered a vigorous charge, led by General Moulton with his division of ten thou.sand, that enabled him largely to overlap the fianks of the five thousand Blues cramped in the narrow opening. The first onrush of the Grays was checked for a time; then, rallying, the Gray chargers under General H. P. Bee and Walker turned the Blues' whole left, and, after a stubborn fight, captured a quantity of provisions; a Union disaster would have occurred but for the grim, defiant stand of Nims' Battery. Irwin says that: "Hearing the fighting at the front. Generals Franklin and Emory of the 19th Corps hurried forward, when just as they reached the firing lines Franklin's horse was killed and himself badly wounded. The handful of thirteen hundred of the 13th Corps which composed the assaulted left crumbled and fell back, and the retreat once fairly begun all attempts to stay its course were idle, for every man knew just how far back ho must go to find room out of the dense forest to form a line of THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL. WAR 129 battle longer than the road was narrow. In the retreat the column came upon a tangled mass of supply wagons marshed in a slough, thus holding up the retreating line which resulted in forcing Nims to abandon the guns of his battery, and thus twenty-three cannons were lost, three on the field and twenty in the jam, besides one hundred and seventy-five wagons, eleven ambulances and over one thousand draft animals. After this there was only one mass of men, wagons and horses crowding to the rear." Emory now, about 5 p. m., forcing his way to the front through the confused rabble with the first division of the 19th Corps, finally found an open space big enough to deploy, when he saw the enemy coming, some stopping to loot the well-filled trains of the Blues. Their main force, how- ever, charged with a wild yell. There had been only time and room enough for Emory to deploy one regiment to meet and face this onslaught in the dense forest and obstructed road. This was the gallant 161st New York. Irwin says: "This regiment as skirmishers held their ground so well that time was gained to bring up the whole division, but when at last the Confederate line of battle refused any longer to be held back by a fringe of skirmishers it became a serious question whether friend and foe might not enter the Union lines together. As the gallant Gray charges came down on the thin line of skirmishers, the 161st was ordered to retire, while the division, kneeling, waiting ready, opened a fierce fire at point blank range which threw back the assailants with heavy loss. Again and a.gain the Grays attempted to turn both flanks of the division, but failed, and the battle of Sabine Cross Roads ended. The Blues lost over two thousand, while Taylor admitted a loss of one thousand. This fierce battle was named by the Grays Mansfield;" technically it was called a fight in a Mind defile." Banks, realizing that he would be unable to reach Shreveport within the date fixed by Grant, and that in accordance with his instructions the 1 9th Corps was to be ready on May 1 for the contemplated attack on Mobile, and A. J. Smith's troops were to be returned to. Vicksburg, felt that there was nothing left for him but to retreat. Furthermore, the drinking-water, which the inhabitants of this region obtained by gathering the rain-fall from roofs into huge wooden tanks, had been exhausted by both armies, so that the men would be forced to use the unhealthy river water and thus create a large sick list. Taylor, detecting Banks' retrograde move, kept close at his heels. To throw off their annoyers, the Blues made a stand on April 9 on one of those scarce and small openings in the forests, near a hamlet called Pleasant Hill. Here the Grays made repeated charges, but were checked. The fighting by both sides was most furious, and at some places on the limited clearing hand-to-hand encounters occurred in which great heroism was displayed by both Blue and Gray. The result was, however, a bad repulse for the Grays. Kirby Smith, one of their generals, writing of the battle in the year 188 8, said: "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 with but feeble opposition on his advance to Shreveport." But Banks, following his orders, could but retire. Still, as he retreated, the Grays kept constantly harassing his rear, when on the 24th another affair 130 THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL WAR occurred at Cane River. Finally, on April 25, Banks got his army back to Alexandria, from which he had started March 26. The Navy, which had been advancing up the Red River, was notified of the battles and change of plans, and ordered to return to Alexandria. The sailing of the gunboats down the river was difficult in the extreme, because of the lowering of the water, making the channels tortuous, narrow and shallow, so that many of the vessels often got aground, when the Grays from the high banks would attack them. In some of their charges the Grays frequently reached the gunboats' decks, but they were driven off by streams of boiling water, and in the end, although they made desperate efforts at capture of the gunboats, not a single one was lost. Banks was compelled to wait at Alexandria many days to give time for the gunboats to get down. During this stay the writer was detailed as a guard over the mansion of a Doctor French to prevent the soldiers from committing depredations, and especially from taking the tank water. Many times during his term of duty, when a sickly looking soldier would plead for a canteen of tank water, and was about to be ordered off, kind- hearted Mrs. French would intercede and say, "Let that poor fellow have some." She had sons then fighting with Lee in Virginia. This custom of protecting private property was adhered to by Banks during all his cam- paigns in Louisiana. The boys of the writer's regiment will remember that but three companies under command of Major Smart, of Hoboken, accom- panied Banks' expedition up the Red River, and the rest of the regiment remained at Fort Butler, opposite Donaldsonville, under Lieutenant-Colonel Shaurman. Going back to March 2 6 to recount the movements of the navy co- operating with Banks on his ill-fated advance to Shreveport, Irwin tells us that "when Porter's fleet arrived at Alexandria the river was unusually and unexpectedly low for the season of the year, and in consequence the gunboats were unable to pass the i-apids just west of the town. The Eastport hung for three days on a rock in great peril. Then followed the hospital boat Woodford, which was wrecked in the attempt to pass the rapids. By April 5 five gunboats and thirty transports succeeded in floating safely above the obstructions. Those whose draft would not permit of passing the rapids consisted of seven gunboats and several transports which were obliged to remain below, the bare rock thus dividing the fleet in twain." During the month that that portion of the fleet ascended the river, the water had fallen six feet, and for more than a mile the rocks at the rapids laid bare. In order to get the hemmed-up vessels below the rapids, Engineer Lieutenant-Colonel Joseph Bailey proposed the construction of a dam in the river below the bare rocks. It was begun on April 30. The width of the river at the site was seven hundred and fifty-eight feet, and to dam up sufficient water to float the imprisoned gunboats it was necessary to make the dam seven feet high. The wings at either end were constructed in "crib," or square boxes, formed of heavy logs, after which they were filled with stone, bricks and old heavy machinery taken from nearby destroyed sugar houses and cotton gins. In the middle between these wings was left a gap of one hundred and fifty feet, that was finally closed by sinking four THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL WAR 131 large coal barges. The construction of the clam was completed in nine days. Above the town was another bar, and after the dam was finished the water soon rose on this latter to such an extent as to give a depth of eight feet. Promptly three light draft gunboats got over and anchored in the basin of the dam. The next day, unfortunately, the pressure of the current, which was nine miles an hour, forced out two of the coal barges at the centre, tearing a gap of sixty feet, through which, as Irwin says, "the precious fluid madly rushed, to the chagrin of the builders." At the sight of this, Admiral Porter, mounting quickly a horse, gal- loped to the upper falls, and called over to the larger of the gunboats, the Lexington, to run through the gap. With full head of steam she made the plunge, the writer with nearly every other soldier off duty rushing down to the river banks to witness the inspiring sight. They stood silent in breathless suspense, as for a moment the Lexington struck — reeled — then suddenly rushed through, whereupon the pent-up feelings of the onlookers broke out in a loud roar of cheers that reverberated through the forests. Three other gunboats instantly followed and got through. Still six others were imprisoned above, being shoaled by the fast receding water. To save these Lieutenant-Colonel Bailey began the construction of other dams on the bar and rocks of the obstructing upper rapids, disposed in such a manner as to force the water, coming from above to concentrate and flow into one narrow channel. Every man who could wield an ax, negroes and troops, went zealously to work, and, incessantly laboring under the guidance of the engineers, succeeded in accomplishing the work in three days, and on the 12th and 13th the fleet was enabled to pass the danger zone. For this great achievement Bailey received the thanks of Congress, and was afterwards, on June 14, 1864, made a brigadier-general by Presi- dent Lincoln. During the construction of the dam Banks' army was virtually invested in Alexandria by Taylor's small army. Taylor's whole forces marched below the town, captured Fort De Russy, and intercepted the supply boats coming up. Then they endeavored to obstruct and delay Porter's fleet on its way down by sinking three captured vessels in the channel just above the fort. From one of the supply ships, coming up the river, they captured a large mail, and, when the army on its march south reached Fort De Russy, the ground there was found thickly covered with thousands of letters that had all been torn open by the captors. The writer spent an hour hunting among the mass in hopes of finding letters addre.ssed to him, but in vain. Still it was reported that a number of the soldiers were fortunate enough to do so. The fleet being now in navigable water, the expeditionary forces began on May 13 their return to New Orleans. As far down stream as Fort De Russy the army marched along the western bank of the river to protect the fleet, which was constantly being flred upon by the enemy from the opposite shore; there was hardly a smokestack that was not riddled by bullets, and some of the hulls had huge holes in them. Besides annoying the gunboats, the energetic Grays made frequent attacks on Banks' immense wagon train of captured cotton, and by killing- mules, would thus blockade the road and delay the march. 132 THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL WAR Reaching Fort De Russy the army then turned inland, leaving the navy to proceed alone. The Blues and Gi'ays had another set-to at Mansura Plains, on May 16, or as the place is called, Avoyelle Prairie. The edge of the plain was reached at nightfall by the rear guard of Banks' army and its enormous wagon train, that, when .stretched out along the road in single file, was forty miles in extent. The writer happened to be detailed that day as company cook, a duty to which every private of the company was required to take his turn. To the unmilitary readers a little explanation is here necessary. In camp or garrison the company cook was kept busy supervising two negroes in preparing meals, but it was different during active campaigning, when each soldier carried in his haversack several days' rations, consisting of ground coffee, hard crackers (hard tack) and raw salt pork or salt beef, and boiled in his tin cup his own coffee. On the marches it was only when beeves were captured that the company cook had anything to cook. At this time, however, as the country had been repeatedly scoured by both com- batants, not even this task of boiling fresh beef was left for the cook. As a fact, the army for many weeks subsisted on less than half rations, due to the capture by .the Grays of the supply boats at Fort De Russy. As company cook, the writer had been traveling all day with the regimental wagon. In passing an expo.sed point along the river bank one of the six wagon mules was shot. The falling of the animal held up the wagon train, and in a few minutes the canvas wagon covering was literally stripped into rags by the rapid volleys from the Grays' sharpshooters on the opposite shore. No one dared to approach the wounded kicking mule, until within a few minutes a couple of pieces of artillery came along and sent some shells across the river, when the firing of the Grays slackened sufficiently to allow killing the mule, rolling the carcass down the river bank, and pushing on with the train. When the writer awoke at dawn the next morning a most inspiring and sublime sight was presented to his view, never to be forgotten. The prairie, entirely denude of trees and shrub, might have been between two and three miles wide and some seven long. The rays of the ri.sing sun glistened upon the bayonets and banners of the thirty thousand troops, drawn up in massive close columns stretching clear across the whole width of the plain and hemmed in on either side by walls of dense pine forests. At a distance the army appeared like a huge blue carpet studded with beads made by the reflections of the morning light upon the guns and bayonets, and interspersed here and there with splashes of color formed by the waving flags of mounted staffs of the various generals. The cavalry on either flnak presented an effect of a vari-colored ribbon-border to the mass of blue. In front of the immense phalanx of troops could be seen, extending the entire width of the plain, the glittering guns, caissons and horses of the artillery. Behind the infantry was parked the thousands of wagons composing the train, each with its team of six mules in massive columns, making with their white canvas coverings a striking color contrast with the blue, while back of these again shone out another fringe of blue behind which stood out a wonderful effect of variegated colored ribbon pro- duced by the cavalry and artillery forming the rear guard. The whole enormous formation occupied perhaps two miles of the prairie's length. THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL. WAR 133 At the sound of the bugle the whole pageantry took life, and moving forward under the scintillations produced by the glorious sun, creating an entrancing scene of grandeur impossible of description. A short march then ))rought to view in the distant part of the prairie a mass of Gray color expanding like an immense blanket across the plain, which as the Blues' phalanx approached, gradually unfolded until the ranks of the foe with colors flying was brought into full view. It seemed then that a pitched battle was now imminent. But the whole formation kept on with steady measured tread; the artillery from time to time galloped a short distance to the front, unlimbered and sent their messengers of death over the Grays' ranks, while the smoke from the guns added still a new color effect to the inspiring scene. About noon the writer joined his company, which was in the center of the front line, and he could distinctly discern the gunners of the enemy loading and firing their artillery, while the smoke from their guns rolled up like a great veil in front of their lines. With the shells of the enemy roaring and bursting over its head, the grand array of the Blue kept slowly moving forward, while the line of Gray, with equal cadence and precession receded. Now and then the cavalry on either flank would dash forward, wheel, fire and return. Thus, the steady tread and the roar of the artillery duel continued for an hour or so, when suddenly the Grays' formation dissolved from sight into the dark forests. This was a wise movement on their part, for their numbers were entirely too small to cope with the Blue's formidable battle array. In spite of the Grays' steady cannonading the loss to the • Blues was small, but Lieutenant Haskins' Battery F, 1st U. S., at one time got exposed to an enfilading fire from the enemy's guns and suffered severely. At length, about noon, the end of the prairie was reached, when the magnificent pageant of the Blues gradually began to melt away, as the army and trains deployed into single columns along the road. And now occurred a fortunate episode in the history of the 19 Corps' campaigns in Louisiana. Just as the troops emerged from the prairie, there was found a large brook of rapidly running clear, cold, sparkling water. Never before had such a sight met the eyes of the soldiers, and never again did it occur during their stay in the State. The next hold-up for the retreating army was the crossing of the Atcha- falaya River, at Simmesport, but Engineer Bailey's ingenuity solved the problem. Porter's fleet, having reached the place of crossing several days ahead of the troops, Bailey anchored side by side across the stream twenty- two of the gunboats, thus forming a bridge, by which troops, cannons and wagons were gotten safely over to the opposite shore. Taylor's Grays had been following and harassing their retreating foe, and, in their attempt to thwart the crossing of the Atchafalaya, brought about on May 19 a fierce encounter in which the Blues lost three thousand men. A short march brought Banks' army to Morganza Bend on the Mississippi, May 22, where the much-needed supplies awaited it, for during the march down from Alexandria the troops and animals had been subsisting on less than half rations. Here the 19th Corps was camped, and A. J. Smith's men were sent by transports up to Vicksburg, Mississippi. This disastrous campaign on the Red River, it was claimed, was inspired by greedy cotton speculators. 134 THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL. WAR and the purpose of the immense train of wagons was to convey the vast stores of cotton captured on the marches. * During the time of the movements of Banks, General Steel had been endeavoring to join him. He left Little Rock, Arkansas, on March 24, with some seven thousand troops. In his front opposing him were the Grays under General Price, whose cavalry divisions were commanded by Generals Fagan and Marmaduke. These forces first clashed on April 10, but. Price's object being to lure the Blues farther from their base of supplies, he gave them no serious re- sistance. Reaching Camden, on the Washita River. Ark., some one hundred miles north of Shreveport, as the crow flies, Steel, hearing of Banks' disaster at Sabine Cross Roads, wisely concluded to proceed no further. Price was then joined on April 20 by part of Taylor's men from the Red River under Kirby E Smith; these united forces fell upon Steel, com- pelling him to beat a hasty retreat, and, although he destroyed bridges in passing, he was overtaken on April 30, when a fierce fight occurred. Hurry- ing on "he reached Little Rock, with his half .starved and greatly reduced numbers, after the six weeks' of ineffectual work, thinking no longer of Halleck's wild scheme of conquest, nor even of Grant's wish to hold the Red River, but rather hoping for some stake of good luck to enable him to defend Arkansas and keep Price out of Missouri," says Irwin. He was shortly joined by A. J. Smith's returning troops, and Price was then held at bay. Banks stopped at Morganza Bend on the Mississippi River and en- trenched. The intense -heat and enduring drought prevented his foe from offering battle, but he hung aljout the outposts and did depredations of a guerrilla character. The 19th Corps suffered fearfully from disease during the six weeks' stay in the tropical heat and malarious surroundings. In order to permit Banks to assume personal charge of the Department of the Gulf the troops were put under the immediate command of General E. R. S. Canby, on May 11th, with the title of Military Division of West Mississippi. Grant's desire now was to have Canby and Farragut capture the port of Mobile, Ala., as its possession would give Sherrnan, who was then operating in Georgia again.st Atlanta, a near and surer base, beside insuring a safe line of retreat in case of emergency; again, as Grant remarked, " a line extending from Atlanta Ga., to Mobile, Ala., would split the Confederacy in twain." But the capture then of Mobile was not to be consummated, for the terrific losses of Grant in his campaigns against Lee in Virginia from May 5 to June 15, estimated at sixty-one thousand men, compelled the abandon- ment of the Mobile expedition, and Canby was ordered to hurry the 19th Corps to Petersburg, Va. On July 3, 1864, the 1st and 2nd Divisions of the 19th Corps, under command of General Emory, started on steamships for Petersburg, Va. This was a joyous event in the career of the Corps, for, as Irwin says in his history of the 19th Army Corps, "To regret leaving the lowlands of Louisiana at this sickly season, the poisonous swamps, the filthy water, the overpower- ing heat and the intolerable mosquitoes was impossible; yet there can have been no man in all that host that did not feel, as the light, cool breezes THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL WAR 135 of the Gulf fanned his brow, a swelling of the heart and a tightness of the throat at the thought of all that he had seen and suffered, and the remem- brance of the many thousands of his comrades who had succumbed to the dangers and trials on which he himself was now turning his back for the last time." Among the minor operations of the year on the western frontier of the war may be mentioned Price's Missouri raid. About the middle of September, 1864, General Price, with 10,000 Con- federates, attempted a raid into Missouri. The Blues, under Rosecrans, who was the Commander of the Department of Missouri, were greater in num- bers than Price's force, but they were greatly scattered throughout the State. General Curtis, who was commandant of the Arkansas Department, made the first effort to head off Price, and, on October 22, these forces clashed in the battle of Big Blue, where Price was defeated with the loss of all his guns. Again, he was beaten at Fort Scott, whereupon he retired to Arkansas, where, as Pollard says, "he went into winter quarters with his men in a worse plight than when they started from that State, and the conclusion of his campaign was an undoubted failure." These constitute the operations west of the Mississippi River during 1864. 136 THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL, WAR CHAPTER XIV. Sherman's Atlanta Campaign, 1864. Topography of Atlanta and Vicinity — Military Situation on May 1 — Battle of Resaca — New Hope Church — Forrest in Mississippi — Kenesaw Mountain — Crossing the Chattahoochie — Hood Supersedes Johnston — Fight- ing About Atlanta — Death of the Blues' General, McPherson — Cavalry Raid of Stoneman and McCook — Evacuation of Atlanta — Character of Hood — Sherman's Depopulation of Atlanta. The two principal campaigns for 18 64, as outlintd by General Grant, were that of the forces in Virginia against Lee's Army of Northern Vir- ginia, and that in Georgia under General William T. Sherman against the Confederate General, Joseph E. Johnston. These were intended to inflict staggering blows upon vital points in a region of the Southern Confederacy that heretofore had escaped the horrors of war. They were to take place on either side of the numerous parallel Alleghany ranges over one thousand miles apart. While simultaneous operations in Arkansas by General Steel against the Confederates under General Price, and an expedition up the Red River in Louisiana by Banks' forces against Richard Taylor were to com- plete the cordon of aggressive movements of the Union armie.o. The operations of the two latter expeditions having been recited in chapter thirteen. Draper gives the following useful description of how the Mississippi States were geologically formed from the Atlantic Coast States: "The range of mountains (Alleghenies), commencing near the Canadian frontier, follows in a general manner the course of the Atlantic Coast line for more than twelve hundred miles, being nearest to it in the Northern States, and gradually receding until in the cotton regions its distance is two hundred miles. The Indians of the North gave it the name of the Alleghenies, those of the South the Appalachians. Among Americans it passes indif- ferently under both titles. 'It consists of a series of parallel foulds or flexures of the earth's crust, on the east side of which is a gentle inclining plain descending to the sea. To that plain great historical significance belongs. It was the seat of the English Colonial Settlements — the scene of the Revolutionary War. Between the Alleghenies and the Atlantic Ocean was the seat of power of the Con- federacy. The people of Georgia and the Carolinas viewed unmoved the disasters they had done so much to bring about upon the States of the Mississippi Valley, being themselves protected on the west by the impas.sable ramparts of the Alleghenies and on the north and south by the armies of Generals Lee and Johnston." And yet as the story unfolds it will be found that those regions, too, were to suffer the devastations of a cruel campaign. On May 1, 1864, General Sherman, then at Chattanooga ready to pro- ceed with the execution of that part of Grant's plan assigned to him, had the following forces under his command : The Army of the Ohio of thirteen thousand five hundred and fifty-nine, under General John M. Schofield; the Army of the Tennessee of twenty-four THE CAMPAIGNS OK THE CIVIL, WAR 137 thousand four hundred and sixty-five, under General James B. McPherson, and the Army of the Cumberland of sixty thousand seven hundred and seventy-three, under General George H. Thomas, a total of nearly one hun- dred thousand men and two hundred and fifty-four guns. Opposed to him was the Confederate Army of the Tennessee, under General Johnston, then at Dalton, Ga., some thirty-five miles south of Chat- tanooga. As to the numbers commanded by Johnston and the provisions made by the Confederacy to defend Georgia we quote Jefferson Davis from his "Rise and Fall of the Southern Confederacy." "At this time the official returns show that the effective strength of the Army of the Tennessee, counting the troops actually in position at Dalton, and those in the immediate rear of that place, was fifty thousand — ^en route under Polk which joined Johnston later at Resaca. Johnston's army then was not less than sixty-eight thousand six hundred and twenty, excluding from the estimate the thousands of men employed on extra duty amounting, as General Hood stated, to ten thousand. The long ranges of mountains, penetrated by few and difficult roads and paths, and deep and wide rivers, seemed to render our position one from which we could not be dislodged or turned, while that of the enemy depended for his supplies upon a single line of railroad from Nashville, Tenn., to where he was operating, was mani- festly perilous." Sherman planned to follow in columns parallel to the Western and Atlantic Railroad which connected Chattanooga with Atlanta, Ga. In the first forty miles south of Chattanooga that railroad ran through the several gaps in the mountain ranges, then proceeded through a wide valley where it crossed two rivers: first, the Oostanaula, near Resaca, a dozen miles south of Johnston's entrenched position at Dalton; second, the Etowah, near Kingston, some thirty miles further south. After this the road entered another series of mountains through the important passes of Allatoona and Kenesaw; south of the latter it crossed the great River Chattahoochie, about fifteen miles north of the City of Atlanta. Sherman's route following this railroad was along rugged mountain passes and dreary dense pine forests in an unbroken desolate country, and he was compelled to cross the rivers on pontoon bridges constructed in nearly every case under the fire of the enemy. The dark glens of the first mountain passes were each made im- pregnable by the fortifications of the Grays, for every ridge and command- ing position from Dalton to the City of Atlanta had been armed to the teeth. "To breast these growing ramparts; to cross these mighty rivers, re- quired of Sherman's army over one hundred days of constant and incessant marching, with either skirmishing or battle, fighting to the death daily between the Blue and the Gray."- — Draper. Prior to Sherman's start, that is on February 25, Thomas had advanced with the Army of the Cumberland against Dalton, but finding, after a re- connaissance, the position too strong for his small force to attack, he halted, holding, however, one of the mountain passes called Ringgold as an ad- vanced position. About this time the Davis Administration intended to put Johnston's force on the offensive, but this was found impracticable in the face of the accumulating troops under Sherman in the front. 138 THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL WAR The tactics employed by Sherman all through his campaign, which ultimately terminated in the capture of the "Gate City" of Atlanta, Ga., was to manoeuvre his army so as to keep it between Johnston's forces and the latter's base of supplies, thus turning the various fortified places that ex- tended in a chain from Dalton to Atlanta, and avoiding the hazard and sacrifice of directly assaulting these formidable works. On May 4, 18 64, Sherman's army was disposed as follows: McPherson^ at Gordon Mills, near the old battlefield of Chickamauga; Thomas, at Ring- gold, a station on the Western and Atlantic Railroad in a mountain gap about twenty miles northwest of Johnston's forces at Dalton; Schofield, at Red Clay, northeast of Thomas, near the Georgia State line and directly north of Dalton. The object of the advance on Resaca, a fortified station on the railroad some eighteen miles direct-south of Dalton, was to compel Johnston to evacuate his position by threatening his rear. McPherson was sent with twenty-two thousand troops to make this flanking movement on Resaca, while Thomas and Schofield were to advance slowly and be ready to swoop down on Johnston in case he weaken his force by sending detachments to thwart McPherson. Thomas, on May 7, reached Tunnel Hill, about halfway between his starting point and Dalton, driving the Grays outposts into Buzzard Roost Gap, which had been made virtually impregnable. The next day Schofield also reached within a few miles of Dalton; on the same day that McPherson arrived at Snake Creek Gap a few miles northwest of his objective, Resaca. Here, however, McPherson's flanking movement failed, for, deeming the enemy about Resaca too strong to successfully attack, he fell back west- wardly to the next range at a place called Ship Gap. Sherman then de- termined to make the flanking movement with his three armies. Leaving General Howard with the 4th Corps to the north of Dalton, he moved the rest of his forces through Snakts Creek Gap and by May 13 had his army deployed to the west of Resaca. These movements were slow and painful in the extreme, as the country was rough, hilly and covered with a jungle of pine forests and dense underbrush. This new position of Sherman's main army at his rear, threatening the destruction of the railroad bridge at Resaca, compelled Johnston to retire from Dalton, which he quickly executed on May 12, using the well-made roads that had been constructed for the purpose between the two fortified places. Howard then promptly occupied Dalton without resistance. Resaca lies on the north side of the Oostanaula River at the railroad crossing. McPherson's wing which formed Sherman's right, had its right resting on the river, with Thomas in the center and Schofield on the left. Opposing McPherson was Polk; then came Hardee in the center, and Hood on the right of Johnston's forces occupying the fortifications. At one p. m., on May 14, Sherman made assaults near his left centre at two different places, his charges being obliged to force their way through the dense forests, underbrush and across deep ravines under a terrific fire from the Gray's artillery on the hills, and, though they gallantly took to the task, in both instances they were hurled back with a loss of over one thousand. Johnston, then at four p. m., took the offensive in an attempt to turn Sherman's left, and his charges were on the verge of success at dusk, when Hooker's corps, entering fresh into the firing line, forced the Grays back to THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL WAR 139 their trenches with appalling loss. In the meantime McPherson had suc- ceeded in gaining a strong position on the right from which his artillery could enfilade the Gray's forts and which also commanded the railroad bridge. To dislodge McPherson's gunners, Johnston sent columns of chargers against them who fought desperately and incessantly until ten p. m., but were unable to push back their enemy. Sherman's engineers during the day constructed a pontoon bridge across the Oostanaula at Fay's Ferry, a few miles below Resaca, by which a division of McPherson's wing was crossed, and sent eastward, threatening the railroad at Calhoun, the next station, a few miles south of Resaca. Furthermore, a division of cavalry under Garrard was moving still farther south to cut the railroad. It cap- tured Rome, and destroyed arsenals and other military works at that place. The morning of the fifteenth opened with heavy skirmishing. Shortly after noon the Blues made several bloody but unsuccessful assaults. Finally a point at one portion of the ramparts was gained, where Hood's corps made desperate attempts to repel them. Under cover of darkness the Blue chargers dug out the earth at the end of a parapet, and hauled down the guns by means of ropes in the face of a merciless fire from the defenders above them. Then, rushing through the breach thus made, they drove the Grays out of their lunette, or moon-shaped fort. The loss to Sherman in these two bloody days at Resaca was five thousand, while that of Johnston was not as much by half. During the night Johnston retired across the Oostanaula, closely followed by Thomas. Schofield by obscure roads moved towards the northeast, while McPherson hastened over the pontoon bridge at Fay's Ferry. Forcing their way through impalpable dusty roads under a glaring hot sun, throwing aside everything that impeded their progress, the whole of Sherman's troops kept up the pursuit of their foe, and, after two of such exhausting days, the advance ran up against Johnston's forces, which had taken a stand at a place called Cassville, apparently ready to give battle in the open. Sherman urged his three wings forward, and on May 20, he had his army deployed in front of his enemy ready to accept the challenge to battle, but, as he says in his Memoirs, "the next morning found the enemy gone, and our cavalry was sent in hot pursuit." A short distance to the south of Cassville was the Etowah River, with only two means of cro-ssing; one the railroad bridge and the other a small one for wagons. In explanation of Johnston's not standing his ground at Cassville, it seems, as he himself relates, that on the 19th he met Polk and Hood late at night, who insisted that the position at Cassville was untenable, and that in their opinion the passage of the Etowah was imperative. To this John- ston replied: "I am not going to give battle here unless you all have your hearts in it." Consequently he ordered the retreat across the Etowah that night and the country north was abandoned to Sherman — "an order I have regretted ever since," said Johnston. The next stand now made by Johnston was at a very strongly fortified position about Allatoona Pass where the railroad crossed through another range of mountains. Jefferson Davis in his "Rise and Fall of the Southern Confederacy," says: "The region constituted a natural fortress of excep- tional strength; densely wooded; traversed by ranges of steep hills and 140 T HE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL WAR deep ravines, with but few poor roads. It was difficult to imagine a country better adapted for defense, where the numerical superiority of an invading army was more thoroughly neutralized, or where necessarily ignorant of the topography it was compelled to advance with great caution." But Sherman was not entirely ignorant of the nature of the country, for he tells us in his Memoirs that in 1844 when a lieutenant he was sent on an inspection tour to this very locality and had noted well the topography, especially AUatoona Pass, Kenesaw, etc. "I therefore knew," he says, "that the AUatoona Pass was very strong; would be hard to force, and I resolved not even to attempt it, but to turn the position via Dallas." This move- ment he began May 23, fitting out his men with twenty days' supplies. Dallas was about fifteen miles southwest of the AUatoona Pass and ten miles directly west of Marrietta, where were located the very formidable works of Kenesaw. Pollard thus described from the Southerner's point of view the move- ments which followed these attempts of Sherman to turn AUatoona Pass. "On the 25th the Federal advance under Hooker struck Stewart's division at New Hope Church, and a hot engagement of two hours ensued. The next two days there was constant skirmishing and fighting. Late in the afternoon of the 27th, Clerburne's division assaulted McPherson at Dallas (Sherman's extreme right) and left six hundred of the enemy's dead on the field. But these sharp encounters were of little significance; for it was evidently not Sherman's intention to make a great battle and risk dashing his army to pieces in trying to force the pass at AUatoona." In the meanwhile Thomas and Schofield were completing their developments, gradually over-lapping Johnston's right, that is to say, moving northeastward, and thus extending Sherman's lines nearer and nearer the railroad, the nearest point of which was Acworth, about midway between AUatoona Pass and Marrietta, Pollard says: "When on the 30th of May (Sherman's forces) had reached the railroad station near Marrietta, Johnston had no other choice than to abandon his position at New Hope Church, and retreat to the strong positions of Kenesaw, Pine and Lost Mountain." During all the movement continual bittle was in progress; "cannon and musketry resounded day and night along a line varying from six to ten miles." By June 1 Sherman got possession of all the roads between AUatoona, Acworth and New Hope Church, where the cavalry under Garrard and Stoneman occupied the evacuated pass. Sherman's formation at this time faced east; with McPherson on the right, Thomas at the center and Schofield on the left, but on the 4th, McPherson was shifted to the left in front of Acworth. Heavy rains now occurred for several days during which army move- ments were practically impossible. AUatoona Pass, seven miles north of Sherman's position, was fortified and made the Union force's secondary base. Colonel Wright with six hun- dred of his engineering corps in the meantime rebuilt the bridge at Resaca, making a record in military engineering of constructing a railroad bridge over six hundred feet long within one week. In this connection, Sherman Bays in his Memoirs, that in a conversation with General Johnston after the war, the latter asked him who his. engineer was; Sherman told him it was THE CAMPAIGNS OP THE CIVIL. WAR 141 Colonel Wright, a civilian. Johnston then replied: "We always had to admire those engineering achievements." He then related that at one time as his General, Wheeler, was reporting to him the destruction of the rail- road, he interrupted Wheeler to draw his attention to the trains actually moving over the very bridge he was reporting as destroyed. In his official report Sherman, in speaking of the results thus far achieved, said: "We have in a month's time, with a force not very superior to the enemy's, compelled him (Johnston) to fall back nearly one hundred miles, obliging him to abandon four different positions of unusual strength and proportions, have fought him six times, captured twelve guns, three colors, and over two thousand prisoners, and have destroyed important foundries, rolling mills at Rome and in AUatoona Pass." Before proceeding with the Kenesaw battles, we must relate a brilliant success achieved by the Grays under Forrest in Northern Mississippi, where he intercepted at Guntown on June 10, an expedition under General Sturgis on its way from Memphis to protect and operate in Sherman's rear. These forces he drove back in utter rout and confusion, pursuing them over one hundred miles, and capturing many prisoners. This stroke uncovered Sher- man's rear and made things look blue, as it left him one hundred and thirty-five miles from his base at Chattanooga in constant dread that cavalry might get upon his line and destroy it. In speaking of Forrest's operations Sherman says in his Memoirs that when he heard of Sturgis' defeat: "I expected that this would soon be followed by a general raid on all our roads in Tennessee. General A. J. Smith, with two divisions of the 16th and 17th Corps which had been with Banks up the Red River, had returned from that ill-fated expedition. On hearing of Sturgis' defeat I ordered Smith to go out from Memphis and renew the offensive so as to keep Forrest off our roads. This he did, finally defeating Forrest at Tupelo on the 13th, 14th and 15th of July, and he so stirred up matters in Northern Mississippi that Forrest could not leave for Tennessee." Sherman says: "Kenesaw, the bold and striking twin mountain, lay before us with a high range of chestnut hills trending off to the northeast, terminating to our view in another peak called Bushy Mountain. To our right was the smaller hill, Pine mountain, and beyond it in the distance, Lost Mountain; Kenesaw, Pine and Lost Mountains forming a triangle. Pine at the apex, Kenesaw and Lost Mountain at the base, covering perfectly the town of Marrietta and the railroad south to the Chattahoochee River. These summits were covered with batteries, and the spurs were alive with men busy felling trees, digging pits and preparing for the grand struggle * * * the whole country had become one vast fort; Johnston must have had fully fifty miles of connected trenches, with abatis and finished batteries. We crowded them day and night; pushed them from tree to tree, from ridge to ridge, from earthwork to earthwork; from their first position to their last a vast skirmish blazed from morning to night along ten to twelve miles of infantry lines." On June 14 the Grays met with a sad loss of their General, Leonidas Polk, who was instantly killed by a cannon shot which, it was said, Sherman himself had directed to be fired into a group of Confederate officers of whom he caught sight from a hill. Sherman in his Memoirs admits directing a battery to fire into a group of officers, but says that he had left the battery prior to its firing the shot that killed Polk. Polk had been educated for 142 THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL WAR military service, but just before the war served as an Episcopal Bishop of Louisiana. As Johnston kept contracting his lines between Kenesaw and Lost Mountain, Sherman followed him up, and by the 15th Thomas and Schofleld gained two miles, while McPherson on the left lapped well around to the north end of Kenesaw. On the 16th Johnston abandoned Lost Mountain, when Sherman's right was swung around so as to threaten the railroad south of Marrietta. For several days the rains again fell in torrents, making any movement almost impossible, but, as Sherman says, "still skirmishing was going on. The enemy and ourselves used the same form of rifle intrenchments, viz.: the trees and bushes were cut away for a hundred yards or more in front, serving as an abatis, the parapets four to six feet high; the dirt taken from a ditch outside formed a covered way, and the parapet was surmounted by a head log. The men of both armies became extremely skilful in the constructing of these works," but later on both armies employed negroes in order to spare the energies of the troops. "During the campaign," says Sherman, "hundreds if not thousands of miles of similar intrenchments were built by both armies, and, as a rule, which ever party attacked they got the worst of it." At that part of Sherman's line near Kulp House, Hooker in switching off by himself was vigorously assaulted on .Tune 22, but finally after hard fighting repulsed his assailants. Sherman on June 27 made two determined assaults on the enemy's works, one by McPherson's wing on the left and the other by Thomas at the centre, besides which incessant skirmishing was maintained along the remainder of the lines. Sherman says that Johnston's position was unusually strong. The Southern historian, Pollard, in describing the terrific fighting, says: "These bloody encounters were but the slaughter of thousands, for the chargers never came in contact with the Confederate works; they were swept by a fiery torrent of shot and shell, and when the attack was withdrawn more than three thousand of the enemy were scattered over the rugged ground dead or bleeding." Of this ghastly experiment Sherman was satisfied to write: "Failure as it was, and for which I assume the entire responsi- bility, I yet claim it produced great fruit, as it demonstrated to Johnston that I would assault and that boldly." Finding that the capture of the Grays' works about Marrietta by assault was too hazardous, Sherman resorted to rrianeuvering in order to turn John- ston's position as he had done before. To this end on July 2, McPheirson's wing marched around to the extreme right and moved five miles south to Turner's Ferry on the Chattahoochie River at a place about fifteen miles south of Marrietta. Johnston detecting this threatening move on his rear, the next day abandoned his Kenesaw works, and at three p. m., just as his rear guard was leaving Marrietta, Sherman in person entered the town. Johnston made his next stand at a fortified camp near Smyrna, twelve miles north of the railroad crossing of the Chattahoochie River, and six miles below Marrietta. Here from the 4th to the 9th of July fierce battling occurred. Sherman's formation surrounding Johnston's "Tete du pont" was as follows: McPherson on the extreme right reaching to the Cliattahooahie at Turner's Ferry, ten miles below the railroad, with Stoneman's cavalry still THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL WAR 143 further down stream; Thomas at the centre, and Schofield to his left; Gar- rard's cavalry working eastward to Rosswell where a good crossing of the river was found. The river at the railroad flowed almost due west, while a few miles up stream it turned almost at right angles northward, which brought Rosswell directly east of Sherman's center and eighteen miles above the railroad. During the night of the 9th Johnston crossed the river safely with his whole army, and took up position at Pine Tree Creek a few miles south of the railroad bridge. The Chattahoochie was a deep rapid stream with only one or two poor fords, and hence required the construction of pontoon bridges by Sherman's engineers. Johnston's position at Pine Tree Creek made it ditflcult and hazardous for Sherman to reach the southern side of the river. Sherman, however, so maneuvered as to give Johnston the impression that it was to the south of the railroad he intended to cross, his real aim being, however, by rapidly shifting masses of troops from his right to the left, to cross above and flank his foe. Leaving Stoneman's cavalry and some troops at Turner's Perry to make a feint, he ru.shed McPherson around to the extreme left near Rosswell. In the meantime, at Soap Creek, a few miles below Rosswell, the engineers had constructed pontoon bridges by which Schofield's wing was rushed across the river and took up a strong position on high ground. Again about two miles below Soap Creek another pontoon bridge was erected at Paice's Ferry, ready for Thomas' crossing. Then followed the making of another bridge at Rosswell for McPherson's wing. Thus Sherman had now three points of passage over the river above Johnston's position, with good roads leading to Atlanta, the buildings of which were in plain view of the en- couraged Blues, only eight miles away. Johnston, finding his army's flank threatened, now retired to the outer works of the city. Resting a few days, Sherman sent the cavalry to break up the railroad near Montgomery, Ala., General Rousseau accomplishing the task with but small loss. Sherman's supplies now came from Nashville, three hundred miles to the north by a single track railroad that was frequently broken up, trains of stores being captured by the ever active enemy, to avert which required the detaching of considerable forces to protect the trains and road. The excellent field telegraph kept Sherman and Grant at Petersburg, Va., in close communication. Sherman's next move was made on July 17 and 18, by sending McPher- son across the river at Rosswell; pushing rapidly southwest, he reached the Augusta Railroad, eighteen miles east of Decatur. Thomas also quickly crossed the river, and, by the 19th, Sherman's army was deployed to the east and north around Atlanta, with its heavy fortifications occupied by the Grays. On the 17th, General Johnston had been relieved of the command of the Confederates, and succeeded by General Hood. Pollard, the Southern historian, in his "Lost Cause" dwells at length on the removal of Johnston; he says "the fact was that he was subject to a deep intrigue in Richmond, to displace him from the command of the army, whose affections and confidence he had never ceased to enjoy. * * * General 144 THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL, WAR Bragg, the military adviser of President Davis, visited Johnston in his lines around Atlanta; never apprised him that his visit was of an official nature: put together everything he could to make a case against Johnson, and re- turned to Richmond with the alarming report that he was about to give up Atlanta to the enemy. In a letter later on, Johnston gave proof that the report of Bragg was nonsense. "The news of Johnston's removal and the appointment of Hood by the fiat of Davis struck a chill in the Confederate Army such as no act or menace of the enemy had ever done." Grant, in his "Memoirs," speaking of Johnston's removal says: "The very fact of a change of commanders being ordered under the circumstances was an indication of a change of policy, and that now they would become the aggressors — the very thing our troops wanted. * * * Yov my own part I think that Johnston's tactics were right. Anything that would have pro- longed the war a year beyond the time it did finally close, would probably have exhausted the North to such an extent that they might then have abandoned the contest and agreed to separation. The tactics pursued by Johnston were the same as employed by Lee in his move from the Rapidan to Richmond during the Campaign of 1864 against Grant, which received increased approbation at every stage of that retreat. All through the four years' war, the feeling existing between not only Generals Sherman and Johnston, but between all the leading generals of the two combatants, was characterized by honor. Nothing illustrates this better than when, twenty-nine years after the War, General Johnston, then aged and feeble, traveled from Washington to New York City to act as pall- bearer at General Sherman's funeral. To Sherman the appointment of Hood added new spirit. Hood now with reinforcements from the southwest had an effective army of forty-one thousand infantry and artillery and ten thousand cavalry. While Thomas, on July 20, was moving in columns across Pine Tree Creek and around to the north of Atlanta, he temporarily left a gap in the national lines. Hood, quick to see his chance, sallied forth out of the forts of Atlanta, and sent two divisions under command of Generals Walker and Bates of Hardee's corps into the opening between Sherman's lines, and, while the attack by the Grays was manfully and gallantly executed, they got caught, however, between the fires of the two separated wings of the Blues' line and in a very short time suffered a loss of twenty-five hundred before they got away. McPherson, on Sherman's left, the next day, ad- vanced to within a few miles of the city's defenses, but Hood, swinging around, attacked this wing and drove the advancing columns back with a loss of sixteen guns. It was about this time that the Blues lost their devoted General Mc- Pherson, who inadvertently advanced too far from the front of his line, and fell unexpectedly among the enemy's pickets, where he was killed. The Grays, under General Cheatham at the centre, were also successful, capturing six guns, but General John A. Logan, who had succeeded McPher- son, was ordered to charge, and his assault resulted in the recapture of the lost batteries. "Hood's next attack on the 22nd," says Pollard, "was one of the most reckless, massive and headlong charges of the war. When immense prices were paid for momentary successes and the terrible recoil of numbers gave THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL WAR 145. a lesson of the temerity of the Confederate commander." After this repulse Hood now retired within the inner lines of the Atlanta defenses. During the night five thousand Blue cavalry, under Stoneman, advancing from the east, and four thousand commanded by McCook from the west, joined forces about twenty-five miles south of Atlanta and destroyed a portion of the Macon Railroad, which was later, however, easily repaired by the Gray's engineers. Stoneman then asked permission of Sherman to proceed south and release the many thousands of Union captives then imprisoned at Andersonville, about one hundred miles south of Atlanta. With certain re- strictions Sherman consented. Stoneman's mission, however, not only failed, but he was made a prisoner himself, and General McCook nearly met the same fate. During the 26th and 27th of July, Sherman so maneuvered his army as to encircle Atlanta on the north, his right extending to Ezra Church, a few miles northwest of the city, while his left took up position near the Decatur road to the northeast of the city. Hood then reformed and attempted to give Sherman's forces at Ezra Church a crushing blow. The charge was made in open country and the Grays met with terrible slaughter — six times were they rallied in the on- slaught against the stubborn Blues. Those who reached the breastworks of rail piles were either killed or dragged over as prisoners. This murderous engagement lasted from noon until four p. m., when the chargers disap- peared, leaving their dead and wounded on the field between the lines, their loss being reported at five thousand. This failure of Hood to dislodge Sherman's right; the latter now free to move by that flank south and west of Atlanta; still he had to encounter heavy fortified positions which extended for miles around the city. Draper mentions certain changes in the commanders at this time in the Union Army. Hooker, considering himself disparaged by the assign- ment of General Howard to the command of McPherson's Army of the Tennessee, was relieved at his own request, and his corps given to General Slocum. Palmer, of the 14th Corps, was also superseded by General Jeffer- son C. Davis, and General Stanley succeeded General Howard. Sherman's next object was to get to the west and south of Atlanta and destroy the Macon Railroad. This was strongly fortified along its entire line. Rapidly rushing troops from his left around to the right, he kept extending his flank towards the railroad. Hood, observing this movement, followed it by gliding along parallel to Sherman. Twice on the 5th and 6th of August the Blues made inef- fectual attempts to break the Grays' lines, which now stretched along fifteen miles — extending in a crescent from East Point, a station on the Macon Railroad about five miles southwest of the city, around northeastward to Decatur on the Augusta Railroad . SI ..dii, deciding that to carry this position of the enemy was only possible by direct assault and at great sacrifice, resolved to maneuver to the south. First, however, he made such arrangements as to give Hood the impression that he intended to begin a siege of the city, and, for this pur- pose, among other preparations, had broughts from Chattanooga several heavy long range four and one-half inch guns. These were fired night and day, causing fire and destruction in the city. Then he sent some ten thousand 146 THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL WAR cavalry around to the east and north, who restroyed the railroad near Cal- houn, and captured a large quantity of storeS. On August 25, loading up his wagons with fifteen-days' supplies, Sher- man commenced the next move. First moving away that portion of his forces north of the city, he gave Hood the impression that he was retiring and giving up the siege. Marching the troops by circuitous routes, Sherman in a day got his entire army well to the Southwest of Atlanta. On the 29th, the whole army now moved eastward in three columns, that is to say, in three concentric circles around to the south of the city. On the left or inner circle was Schofield; at the center was Thomas, and the right or outer curve, Howard, who was aiming towards Jonesborough about twenty miles south of Atlanta. When Howard reached Jonesborough he halted after driving away some Grays who were guarding Flint River bridge, but the next morning he found himself confronted by a heavy force. Hood, observing Sherman's move, had hurried Lee's and Hardee's corps to Jonesborough, while he, with Stewart, remained at Atlanta. On the 31st of August Thomas and Schofield pushed east to the attack of the Macon Railroad. At the same time the Grays dashed out of Jonesborough at Howard, and, after two hours of des- perate, bloody fighting, were badly repulsed. During this engagement Thomas and Schofield, reaching the railroad, completely de.stroyed many miles of it. Sherman now began encompassing Jonesborough in the attempt to cap- ture Lee and Hardee, but those forces promptly retired southeastward. Hood, now finding Sherman's whole army between Atlanta and the other wing of his forces under Lee and Hardee, quickly recognized that he must evacuate Atlanta. He abandoned the city during the 1st and 2nd of September, blow- ing up the magazines, six locomotives, one hundred cars, also machine shops, depots and other works. "Atlanta is ours and fairly won!" Sherman tele- graphed Washington on September 2. General Grant, then besieging Lee in Petersburg, Va., ordered a salute to be fired in honor of the victory with shotted guns from every battery bearing on the enemy's works, along his lines of thirty miles. Sherman in token of his success received from President Lincoln a Major-General's Commission in the regular army. The Army of the Tennessee which Sherman started out to annihilate was still in existence, for Hood's forces now numbered over forty thousand. Sherman pursued the retreating Hood a few miles beyond Jonesborough, but, finding him strongly entrenched, abandoned the pursuit and returned to Atlanta. Eggleston reports that General Longstreet once said of Hood: "Hood is one of the best division commanders I ever knew. He would fight anybody, anywhere, at any time, but he has no more discretion than any pugnacious schoolboy might be expected to manifest." During the campaign from Chattanooga to Atlanta Sherman losses numbered thirty-three thousand. The Grays' losses are reported to have been forty-two thousand. Sherman now made Atlanta his depot for supplies that had to come three hundred miles by a single track railroad," constantly harassed at nearly every step by the enemy's active cavalry. He said: "I am not willing to have Atlanta encumbered with the families of our enemy." He therefore THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL. WAR 147 sent off to Gneral Hood four hundred and forty-six families and burned up all buildings except churches and dwelling houses. The writer in passing with his regiment through the city in 1866 was deeply impressed at the desolate sight of the burned city, and the abject and pitiful appearance of the poor people. Conspicuous among the build- ings remaining intact was the imposing structure of the Masonic Temple, and he could not help recalling with deep sorrow Sherman's now trite saying, "War Is Hell." The southern hi.storian Eggleston in his "Confederate War" says of Sherman's order to depopulate Atlanta: "The depopulation of Atlanta by the fiat of a military commander stands out in relief as the only occurrence of the kind that marked or marred the conduct of war on either side. It must be judged upon its own merits, without parallel or precedent to guide the mind that enquires concerning its humanity or its inhumanity." While Sherman was in Atlanta, a noteworthy interview occurred between himself and Governor Brown of Georgia, in which he intimated to the Gov- ernor that, if he would withdraw the Georgia troops from the Confederate Army, he, Sherman, would confine his men on the march to the sea to the highways, and would pay for all supplies taken from the country; other- wise his march would pursue the desolating lines of warfare. In speaking of this event Eggleston says: "The negotiations came to no practical result; the march was made and the desolation of it was well nigh unmatched in the world's annals. The intercourse is interesting as showing the condition into which the events of the great struggle had brought the southern mind." In desperation over the disasters which befell his armies, Jefferson Davis seemed at this time to have lost control of himself. He called on Hood and instructed him to abandon Georgia, and make a sortie with his army into Tennessee. With great surprise to Sherman, Hood then, on Sep- tember 29, crossed the Chattahoochie River on what was to prove his fatal expedition north. There being nothing to hinder him, Sherman could now march from Atlanta unmolested to the Atlantic Coast. This he accom- plished during November and December, as we shall relate later. \errf"' 148 THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL WAR CHAPTER XV. Hood's Tennessee Campaign, 1864. Hood's March to Nashville — Battle of AUatoona — Johnsonville — Spring Hill — Franklin — Nashville — Retreat of Hood. It was supposed by the Davis administration, that the offensive move- ment by Hood into Tennessee would draw Sherman from Georgia, in which case Hood would have an opportunity to fight the Union army in detail, but the removing of the only army between Sherman and the interior of the South and sending it on a perilous expedition North had been characterized as dementia on the part of the Confederate Administration, or as Pollard puts it: "To exchange the military advantage of interior lines for the grati- fication of a delusive invasion was the device of a politician, not of a soldier, a bid for temporary applause." Learning of Hood's intended raid north, Sherman, on September 29, the same day that Hood crossed the Chattahoochie, dispatched General Thomas with one division of the 4th and one of the 14th Corps in haste to Tennessee. At the beginning, Hood's course lay north along the old battlefields and route of the Campaigns of Sherman and Johnston, and, reaching AUatoona Pass, October 4, made preparations for a determined assault on the small garrison there. Sherman, leaving General Slocum at Atlanta, followed Hood with the rest of his forces. Colonel Tourtellett, with 800 men, in a well arranged blockhouse, com- prised the garrison at AUatoona. Sherman signalled General Cross, then at Rome, thirty-five miles northwest of the pass to hasten to Tourtellett's as- sistance, which he later did, taking with him 700 men. The little garrison of 1,500 men was, on October 5, desperately assaulted by between 4,000 and 5,000 men under General French, the result being a bloody repulse for French, both sides losing very heavily, the loss of the Blue's being nearly one-half of their number, with General Cross and Colonel Tourtellett wounded. Sherman, who witnessed the fight from Kenesaw, said: "I deemed the defense of AUatoona Pass so handsome that I issued special orders to the whole army regarding it." French had destroyed a considerable part of the railroad, but Wright's engineers quickly got it back again. Hood passing Resaca, Rome and the places made famous by the terri- fic fighting between Sherman and Johnston during the summer before, finally reached Dalton (the place from which Johnston started in May) on October 16, and captured the garrison; then, pushing south, he found his trains at Gadsden, Miss., in readiness to proceed north into Tennessee on what proved his fatal march to Nashville. It is almost beyond conception the endurance displayed by Hood's Grays, who had during the summer been not only constantly fighting but continually on the go, and now they were again ordered on a hurried tramp into Ten- nessee. In T. A. Dodge's excellent "Bird's Eye View of the Civil War," the writer, who was a lieutenant-colonel in the United States Army, says: "The Confederate armies, both in the east and the west, were always ready to move with less transportation than our own, partly because they possessed less THE CAMPAIGNS OP THE CIVIL. WAK 149 material and issued rations and equipage more regularly to the men. Certain it is that the Southern soldier did his wonderfully efflcient work on a basis of victuals, clothing and ammunition which generally would have kept a Federal force in camp as unfit to move. But even they had sometimes to delay their march for rations." Sherman now dispatched by rail General Schofield with the 23rd Corps to Chattanooga to join Thomas, and wired to Grant asking to be allowed to proceed on his march to the sea, protesting against following Hood, as that was the cherished idea of President Davis. He insisted that Thomas could accumulate about Nashville at least 50,000 troops, which would be ample to prevent Hood's advance north. Grant, therefore, assented, and on Novem- ber 10, Sherman started from Kingston with the 14th, 15th, 17th and 20th Corps, Kilpatrick and Garrad's cavalry, back for Atlanta, cutting off his telegraph communications with Grant. Then occured the strange and dramatic event of two hostile armies hurrying in opposite directions into an enemy's country, Sherman's destination being Richmond, Va., 1,000 miles away, and Hood's objective Nashville, 500 miles north. Hood's advance had attacked, on October 26, the Blues' garrison at Decatur, Miss., but, not succeeding in the capture, he brushed aside a force of cavalry, and then made a pause on the north side of the Tennessee River, near Florence, a place about midway between Decatur and the famous battleground of Corinth of 1862. His force now numbered about 54,000. A day or two later his cavalry under Forrest captured a gunboat and three transports. On November 2, at Johnsonville, he compelled the Blues to re- treat, which they did so hastily that they had to burn three gunboats, eiglit transports and a million and a half dollars worth of stores to prevent them falling into the hands of the enemy. Schofleld was to push on to Thomas and avoid getting into an engagement with the enemy. Thomas, then at Nashville, was strenuously organizing a motley army of 60,000, composed of A. J. Smith's portion of the army of the Tennessee, the 4th Corps and Wilson's Cavalry and a division of the 14th. Hood's route lay along a railroad which ran from Decatur northward to Nashville. Pulaski, Schofleld's objective, was a station about midway between the railroad terminals. Just north of that town the road crossed the Duck River, the next important town north being Franklin, about twenty miles south of Nashville. Forrest, with his cavalry, crossed the Duck River November 28, and the next day Hood's advance columns compelled Schofleld to retreat rapidly to Spring Hill. In this pursuit Forrest captured a considerable part of the Blues' trains. At 4 p. m. the Grays' advance came in contact with the Blues' rear guard at Spring Hill. With the object of cutting off the enemy's retreat, Hood liow ordered Cheatham to attack vigorously; this movement being slowly ex- ecuted, he ordered Johnson's division and Stewart's corps to the attack, but night coming on favored the Blue in their retirement. All during the night the Blues could be heard by the Grays getting away in the greatest dis- order; artillery wagons and troops intermingling and hurrying away. In spite of Hood's orders to pursue the fleeing foe, nothing was done, and the opportunity of capturing Schofleld's force was then lost. Hood in explana- tion claimed that "some of his generals had failed him at Spring Hill." Schofield in retiring was compelled to make a stand at Franklin, about eighteen miles south of Nashville; this was caused by the lack of 150 THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL WAR pontoons to get his army across the Harpeth River. He succeeded, however, in getting his artillery and wagons to the northern side of the stream, and then entrenched on the south of the town awaiting attack. As Jefferson Davis says in his "Rise and Fall of the Southern Confederacy," "the ensuing conflict was one of the bloodiest battles of the war. The position at Franklin was favorable for the defense; the Harpeth River by a short bend flows on two sides of the town and the works in front, forming a salient with flanks resting on the river, enclosed the town in something like a square, two sides being river and two sides entrenchments, the interior lines being strong and the outer ones new. Behind the town were two bridges, one on the main road, the other a pontoon." Con- tinuing, he says: "At 4 p. m. on November 30, the Confederates attacked and carried the first line of entrenchments; here the engagement was close and fierce, the combatants occupied the opposite sides of the entrenchments, our men carrying them in some places; many were killed entirely inside the enemy's works. Many of the Confederates were Tennesseans, fighting desperately to expel the invaders. The contest con- tinued until near midnight, when the Federals abandoned the place, leaving their dead and wounded behind. We had won a victory, but it was purchased at a fearful cost, 4,500, among them Generals Cleburne, Gist, John Adams, Strahe and Granberry. Around Cleburne lay thickly the gallant men who on his desperate a.ssault followed him." General Gordon, too, was made prisoner. Draper in describing this battle, says: "Some- times in battle there is a well marked moment in which the spontaneous act of a single man determines the issue. It was so at the battle of Franklin when the center was pierced and irretrievable ruin seemed impedding. Emerson Opdyke, who commanded the Brigade of Wagner's division, which had been placed in front to take the first assault of the enemy, seeing what had happened, without direction of any one, gave the order to his com- mand: 'First Brigade forward to the works,' and himself led the way. He forced back the enemy, and closed the gap." General Wood said: "It is not saying too much to declare that but for the skilful disposition made by General Opdyke (all of which was done entirely on his own judgment), the promptness and readiness with which he brought his command into action at the critical and decisive moment, and the signal personal gallantry he displayed in the counter assault on the enemy when he had broken our line, disaster instead of victory would have fallen on us at Franklin." This report was also endorsed by General Thomas: "Opdyke, who accomplished the critical exploit, had seen many of the great battles of the war. At Shiloh he had been twice wounded; he was at Chattanooga, and was one of the first to reach the crest of Missionary Ridge; was in the assault of Rocky Face; wounded again at Resaca; rendered important service at Peach Tree Creek, and was spared from the carnage at Franklin to perform other feats at Nashville." — Draper. At midnight Schofield withdrew to the northern side of the Harpeth River with a loss of over 2,000. A Northern writer states: "More heroic valor was never exhibited by any troops than was shown here by the Grays. These devoted troops were mowed down by grape and canister. Many of them were killed entirely inside of the works. Hood on the other hand used no artillery, being restrained on account of the women and children remaining in the town." The repulse of Hood at Franklin put his troops THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL, WAR 151 in deep depression of spirits. They had counted on getting between Schofield and Thomas, destroying the former's army and forcing Thomas out of Nashville back beyond the Ohio River. Schofield reached Nashville, where Thomas had now some 56,000 troops well fortified. On the other hand, Hood's forces, including cavalry, were said to have numbered about 40,000. On December 2, Hood proceeded to invest Nashville. Cheatham was on the right, Lee at the center, and Stewart on the left, this main line occupy- ing high ground on the south side of Brown's Creek with cavalry on either flank. Here was laid a two weeks siege of Thomas' works. Grant, fearing that Hood would give up the siege and cross the Cumberland River and get himself in the Blues' line of communications, thus compelling Thomas to evacuate Nashville, was getting impatient of Thomas' delay in taking the offensive, so tired of urging action, he actually started from Petersburg to assume command himself. He had just reached Washington, he says, "when I received Thomas' despa,tch announcing his attack on Hood, and the result as far as the battle had progressed. I was delighted; all fear and apprehension were dispelled." The main cause of Thomas' delay was the abominable w'fet cold weather. For days the fields and roads were a solid sheet of ice over which it was impossible to move either horse or man or wheel. "The Blues still held Murfreeboro with a garrison of 6,000 in forts," says Davis, "and a small force at Chattanooga and Knoxville. It was supposed that Thomas would take the offensive to relieve these garrisons and Hood hoped to capture Murfreesboro and open communications by rail- road to Georgia and Virginia, and he thought, if attacked by Thomas, he could defeat him and gain Nashville with its supplies and guns. The people of Tennessee were willing and able to furnish our army with supplies, and we had captured rolling stock to put the road to Pulaskie in operation." Battle of Nashville. Thomas' plan of attack was to make a feint on Hood's right, while he massed his main force to crush the enemy's left and then forge around to his rear. Hood's formation was: Stewart on the left, Lee in the center, and Cheatham on the right, while Forrest's cavalry was off on a raiding excursion on the right. The whole com- mand numbered about 44,000 men. Thomas' position was made up of A. J. Smith on the right, Woods in the center, Schofield and Steed- man on the left. Early in the morning of December 15, 1864, it was foggy, but the fog lifted by 7 o'clock, which enabled General Steed- man to make the feint on Hood's right. This threatening attack forced Hood to weaken his left and center, when General Smith and Woods then rushed into the main attack, and by 1 p. m. two redoubts had been taken. Schofield with his 23rd Corps was then pushed quickly far to the right of Smith, the cavalry in the meantime getting to Hood's left rear; these operations involved savage fighting all along the entire line until nightfall, resulting in the Grays being forced back at every point, with heavy loss, including 15 guns and 1,200 prisoners and a large quantity of stores. During the night both combatants readjusted their lines. Thomas kept Schofield and the cavalry on the right, Smith and Woods at the centre, with Steedman still on the extreme left. Hood transferred Cheatham to his left; Stewart held the center, with Lee at the right. Under cover of darkness, Hood reformed his line some two miles to the rear of his original position, a very strong one on the "wooded crests of closely con- nected hills." 152 THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL. WAR Thomas opened the attack on the second day by sending heavy columns against Cheatham and Stewart, while his cavalry kept gaining ground to Hood's rear. About 1 p. m. an assault by Steedman on the left was made by two brigades of white troops and Morgan's brigade of colored men. These chargers rushed across an open plain, and were received by a crushing fire of grape and canister, through which the assailants moved quickly until they neared the hill crest, when the Grays' infantry, reserving their ammunition, rushed forward and, delivering a galling fire, caused the chargers to reel, waver and fall back, leaving their dead and wounded, white and black mingling together. Schofleld's and A. J. Smith's commands on the right immediately rushed in and carried everything before them, breaking Hood's line in many places, capturing cannons, and, among the thousand or more prisoners, four generals. Steedman's repulsed white and black chargers, now hearing the yells of victory to their right, reformed and renewed their charge on Overton Hill, and, though under heavy fire, succeeded in carrying the works, capturing guns and prisoners. Hood's army now fled in hopeless con- fusion, pursued for miles until nightfall. Pollard says, in speaking of the epoch of this battle, "at 4 p. m., when the day was thought to be decided for the Confederates, there occurred one of the most extraordinary incidents of war. It is said General Hood was about to publish a victory along his whole line, when a Florida brigade of Bates' division, which was to the left of the Confederate center, gave way before the skirmish line of the enemy. Instantly Bates' whole division took the panic and broke in disorder the moment a small breach was thus made in the Confederate lines. The whole of two corps unac- countably and instantly fled from their ditches almost without firing a gun. It was a disgraceful panic; muskets were abandoned where they rested between the loopholes of the breastworks; everything that could impede flight was thrown away as the fugitives fled wildly from the battlefield. Such an instance of sudden unlooked for wild retreat, the abandonment of a victory almost won, could only have happened in an army where through demoralization the consequence of long, heavy, weary work and of tre- mendous efforts of great endeavors where success is not decided already lurked in the minds of the troops, and was likely to be developed at any time by the slightest and most unimportant circumstances." In the retreat, the Gray cavalry under Chalmers had barricaded themselves, but this was soon broken up by Hatch's division, and a large number of prisoners were captured, the rest of the defenders fleeing south- ward. The trophies of the Blues for the two days' battle were 4,462 prisoners, including 287 officers and 53 guns. The Grays abandoned on the field their dead and wounded. The pursuit by Thomas was mercilessly kept up. Hood attempted to make a stand at Franklin, but was too weak to do so. The heavy rains interfered with the pursuing Blues, for, as the flying Grays crossed the different streams, they destroyed the bridges over the swollen rivers. Pollard says: "Hood succeeded in escaping across the Tennessee, but only with a remnant of the brilliant force he had conducted across that river a few weeks before, having lost from various causes more than 10,000 men, half of his generals and nearly all his artillery. Sueh was THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL WAR 153 the disastrous issue of the Tennessee Campaign, which had put out of existence, as it were, the splendid army Johnston had given up at Atlanta, and terminated forever the whole scheme of Confederate defenses west of the Alleghenies." It was Forrest's brave cavalry, acting as rear guard, which enabled Hood on December 27 to gain the southern side of the Tennessee. Thomas reported of them that "the rear guard, however, was undaunted and firm, and did its work bravely to the last." After Thomas' army had ceased in the pursuit, General Palmer with 600 cavalry continued south and over- took and destroyed a train of 110 wagons and 500 mules. He burned the former and killed the latter; then, forcing his way to Decatur, which he reached January 6, 1865, he gave the last blow of the campaign at a distance of 200 miles south of Nashville, which Hood had invaded on December the 15th. Hood resigned January 23, 1865. Most of the survivors of his army, as well as those of Thomas' army had been continually marching and fighting over two hundred days, many times half clad, or half fed, tramp- ing through exhausting heat, in drenching rains and bitter cold, in a country of abominable roads, climbing rugged mountains, and bridging many deep and rapid rivers. A fitting close to the story of Hood's expedition is the following order sent by General Grant to Thomas on receipt of the news of Hood's retreat from Nashville, and in which he speaks apprehensively of Forrest: Washington, December 15, 1864. "Major-General Thomas: "The armies operating against Richmond have fired two prolonged guns in honor of your great victory. Sherman has fully established his base, and I hope to be able to fire a salute to-morrow in honor of the fall of Savannah, Ga. In all your operations, we hear nothing of Forrest. Great precaution should be taken to prevent him from crossing the Cum- berland or Tennessee rivers below Eastport. After Hood is driven as far as possible to follow him, you want to reoccupy Decatur and all other abandoned points." U. S. GRANT, Lieutenant-General. After the defeat of Hood, Grant had intended to send Thomas and his army raiding through Alabama, but it was finally decided to send A. J. Smith's corps to Canby against Mobile, and Schofield with the 23rd Corps to North Carolina to join Sherman as the latter marched northward from Savannah. Thomas with the remainder of his forces continued to operate in Tennessee. 154 THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL WAR CHAPTER XVI. Naval Operations, 1864-1865. Southern Privateering — Battle Between the Alahama and iiearsarf/e— Capture of the Privateer Florida — The Battle of Mobile Bay — Maritime Supremacy of the North — Capture of Fort Fisher — Battle of Kin(g)ston, N. C. At this point in our history, because of the bearing of some of the events on the next land campaign to be described, it is advisable to relate the naval operations of the year. The offensive actions were wholly on the Northern side, with the exception of the acts of the Confederate privateers. As the Confederacy had no navy, it resorted to fitting out vessels to prey upon the United States merchant marine. The history of the depredation of these privateers constitutes a chapter of interesting history that must be regarded as part of the Campaigns of the War. The Southern historian Pollard, says: "The privateering service of the Confederate States had not accomplished all that the public had expected from it; yet the sum of its results was formidable, and amounted to a considerable weight in the war. From the time the pilot-boat Savannah and the little schooner Jeff Davis sallied out in the first year of the war, terror had been struck into the entire commercial marine of the North. The Sumter, carrying nine guns, under command of Captan Raphael Semmes, was the first really formidable experi- ment of a Confederate privateer. After capturing a number of vessels as prizes, she was abandoned at Gibraltar, in January, 1862, as being unseaworthy. Since then the two most famous Confederate privateers were the Alahama and the Florida, which scoured the seas from the East Indies to the Atlantic Coast, inflicting on the United States Commerce and tonnage the most disastrous results." Up to January, 1864, the list of vessels of the American commercial marine captured by the Confederate privateers was 193, having a total value of some five million dollars, making with their cargoes of ten million, an aggregate of fifteen million. Of these 193 vessels, 62 were captured by the privateer Alabama, 26 by the Sumter and 22 by the Florida, not counting those captured by the Georgia and Tuscaloosa. But these privateering operations on the part of the Southern Confederacy had a most dramatic ending. In June, 1864, the privateer Alabama entered Cherbourg, France, for repairs. Pollard says: "A Federal steamer, the Kearsarge, was lying off the harbors. Captain Semmes in command of the Alabama might easily have evaded the Kearsarge. The business of the vessel was that of a privateer, and her value to the Confederacy was out of all comparison with a single vessel of the enemy * * * But Captain Semmes had been twitted with the name of "pirate" and he was easily persuaded to attempt an eclat for the Southern Confederacy by a naval fight within sight of the French coast, which contest it was calculated would prove the Alabama a legitimate war vessel, and give such an exhibition of the Confederate belligerency as possible to reverse the question of "recognition" in Paris and London. These were the secret motives a gratuitious fight with which Captain Semmes obliged the enemy off the port of Cherbourg." THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL, WAR 155 The Alabama carried in broadside six 32-pounders, one 7-inch and one 8-inch guns. The Kearsarge commanded by Captain Winslow, a North Caroliniaji, who had remained loyal to his flag, was armed in broadside with six 32-pounders, two 11-inch guns and one 28-pound rifle. The two vessels were thus about equal in match and armament, and their tonnage was the same, but the Kearsarge had her midship covered with heavy chains which were concealed by a sheating of planks. On June 19, 1864, the Alahama steamed out seven miles and met her foe, when, within a mile of each other, the exchange of shot became rapid. Circling about each other, at a distance of from one- quarter to one-half a mile, the battle was kept up hot and furious for over an hour, when Semmes, flnding his ship in a sinking condition, crowded all sails and putting on full steam, headed for the coast. But it was too late. The inrushing water through the rents in her side put out the flres of the Alahama, which was being pursued by the Kearsarge, firing continuously. When the latter reached within four hundred yards Semmes raised the white flag. It is said that, even after the token of surrender was up, five shots were fired upon the sinking Alabama by the Kearsarge. Semmes and a number of his sailors leaping overboard were picked up by the English yacht Deerhound, and carried to England, and thus escaped capture. The loss on the Confederate ship was thirty, while none was sustained on the Kearsarge. The termination of the Confederate privateering service was brought about in October, 18(M, by the capture of the Florida. She had eight guns, and had eluded the Kearsarge at Brest, France, chased the Federal warship Ericson to within a few miles of New York, then captured the steamer Electric Spark en route to New Orleans, and, finally, in the early days of October, entered the neutral port of San Salvador, Brazil. The Federal ship Wachusett happened also to lie in the same harbor, under command of Captain Napoleon Collins. Shortly after midnight of October G, the Wachusett quietly bore down on the Florida, while part of the crew were ashore and the rest asleep. The blow delivered by the Wachusett, under full steam, struck the Florida astern instead of midship as intended. In drawing off Collins demanded the surrender of the privateer, and in a few moments boarded it, fastened a hawser, and then at full speed towed her out to sea. This being a breach of neutrality, a few but harmless shots were fired at the Wachusett from the Brazilian forts. Later on the Federal Government apologized to Brazil. Captain Collins went through a form of censure. "The diplomatic apology did not prevent the Florida from being held as a prize and afterwards being 'accidentally' sunk in Hampton Roads," says Pollard. About the time Sherman reached Atlanta the plan of closing up Mobile harbor, Ala., was to be undertaken by Admiral Farragut. This important port in the Gulf of Mexico and the one at Wilmington, N. C, were the only remaining places along the three thousand miles of the blockaded coast still made use of by blockade-runners in bringing to the Confederacy foreign munitions of war, and exporting cotton. The formidable obstructions intended to make the defenses of the harbor impregnable are thus described by the Southern historian, Eggleston: "The entrance is a narrow one, and was obstructed by every device that engineering ingenuity could place in the pathway of an invading fleet. The only passage- way into the harbor lay between Fort Morgan (to the east) on Mobile Point and Fort Gaines (opposite) on Dauphin Island, three miles away. Two miles of this narrow passageway had been completely obstructed by driving piles 156 THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL WAR into sand, thus forming a fence tlirough wliicli the stoutest ship could not force its way. From the end of this pile fenqp eastward towards Fort Morgan, there extended a quadruple line of destructive torpedoes. The only open way into the harbor was a narrow passage left for the use of the blockade runners, directly under the guns of Fort Morgan." Besides the two forts there were water batteries close under Fort Morgan and a fleet inside, consisting of a powerful ironclad ram, the Tennessee, and three wooden vessels, the Morgan, Gaines and Selma. The Tennessee was con- structed on the same lines as those of the famous Merrimac, and was com- manded by the same person, now Admiral Buchanan. In the early days of August, 1864, General Canby sent a division of troops from New Orleans under command of General Gordon Granger to force a landing on Dauphin Island. This expedition was followed by Farragut's fleet, consisting of fourteen wooden vessels and four monitors, some of which had two turrets; otherwise all were built on the model of the celebrated Monitor. On August 5, early in the morning and at flood tide, Farragut advanced to the attack of Fort Morgan and the water batteries, with the intention of running through the narrow channel into the bay. The monitors took the lead, followed by the fourteen wooden vessels lashed together in pairs. As the fleet approached the fort, the monitor Tecumseh ran foul of a torpedo and suddenly sank, carrying down all the men who were below; most of those who had been on deck were picked up by the other ships. The disaster to the Tecumseh caused the fleet to hesitate, and for a while the ships were huddled together in imminent peril under a fierce fire from the enemy's batteries. The slacking of speed on the part of the fleet was brought about by the most advanced ship, the Brooklyn, with her consort, stopping in dread of torpedoes and of meeting the same fate which befell the Tecumseh. Instantly Farragut gave the signal, "Damn the torpedoes! Go ahead," and pushing his own ship, the Hartford, with its consort, the Mettaconnet, past the Brooklyn, he took the lead under full steam through the terriflc and incessant fire at short range from the fort and the torrent of shot and shell from the fleet lying in the inner harbor. In order to get a commanding view, Farragut climbed into the rigging, and, to prevent falling to the deck in case of being wounded, had himself lashed fast. It was 8 a. m. as the Hartford passed the fort, quickly followed by the other vessels, when she was immediately assailed by the ram Tennessee, which made a vicious dash at her, assisted by the other three vsssels. Captain Dayton of the Hartford relates that, "we could only direct our flre on but one of them at a time; the shots from the others were delivered with great direct- ness; a single one killed ten and wounded five."- The Selma then retired toward Mobile. Quickly Farragut ordered the unlashing and separating of the double ships, whereupon the Mettaconnet and Port Royal gave chase to the fleeing Selma, which overhauled her after steaming three miles. One 100-pound shot sufficed — it killed and wounded many, among the latter her commander — the Selma then surrendered; in the meanwhile the Gaines, getting badly injured, was run aground. All this time a pitched battle was raging between the remainder of Far- ragut's fleet and the ram Tennessee, which had undertaken the task of defending the harbor alone against her powerful adversary. It was believed that with her formidable iron armor she would be able to destroy the wooden ships in THE CAMPAIGNS OP THE CIVIL, WAR 157 the same manner that her prototype the Merrimac had sunk the Cumberland and Congress in Hampton Roads in 1862. Farragut had, however, covered his flagship with iron armor six mches thick, a thickness which up to that date had never been penetrated by the heaviest guns. Seeing- the Tennessee preparing to ram his flagship, Farragut ordered his whole fleet to rush in and attack the ram. The first vessel to strike the Tennessee was the monitor Monongahela, which gave a powerful blow under full head of steam that, however, did little injury. The Lackaivanna and Hartford each in turn then struck her. The latter in rasping along the side of the ram poured a whole broadside of nine-inch solid shot within ten feet range. At the same moment the Chickasaw made a stern attack, quickly followed by a fifteen-inch solid shot from the monitor Manhattan, which broke the iron armor of the ram's casement. In a second attack the three vessels named were joined by a fourth, the Ossipee. At the start the Hartford was accidentally rammed by the Lackawanna, which cut her side down to within two feet of the water line. Getting loose, however, she made a vicious plunge at the ram, and a few moments after Buchanan raised the white flag. Indeed, from the time when the Hartford struck her until the surrender the Tennessee had not been able to flre a gun, her port shutters being so badly damaged they could not be opened; besides she had lost her rudder. Buchanan was wounded in the leg, which was afterwards amputated, and his crew were in a smothering condition. The battle lasted one hour, the Blues losing one hundred and sixty- five killed, of which one hundred and thirteen went down on the Tecurnseh. Singularly enough there were no losses aboard the other monitors. But the forts were still in the hands of the Grays, resisting the combined fire and attacks from fleet and troops. It was not until the 8th, that Fort Gaines was compelled to surrender; this was soon followed by the blowing up of Fort Powell. Finally, on the 9th, Fort Morgan was invested, and, after a continuous terrific bombardment, it surrendered on the 23rd, yielding to the Blues nearly fifteen hundred prisoners and one hundred and four guns. The capture of the bay did not give to the Blues the City of Mobile, but it put at end the blockade-running at that port, which in itself was a most disastrous blow to the Confederacy, and another striking instance of the effectiveness of the naval supremacy of the North, which contributed so much to the final subjugation of the South. As Charles Francis Adams says in his "Studies, Military and Diplomatic," "The North's undisputed maritime supremacy made possible both Grant's operations in Virginia and Sherman's march to the sea," A Southern writer long after the war said: "Aptly did camp slang name the blockade the 'Conda.' It was the crush of the 'Conda' that squeezed us to death." After the capture of the forts guarding Mobile Bay, there was left to the Confederacy but one other port open to blockade runners, that of Wil- mington, N. C. The mouth of the Cape Fear River that leads from the coast to the City of Wilmington, was guarded by Fort Fisher, and numerous well placed torpedoes. As there were a vast number of inlets from the ocean to the harbor it was practically impossible for the navy effectively to seal up the port. Only the capture of Fort Fisher would put an end to blockade runners bringing in foreign supplies and taking cotton in return to Europe. While the capture of Fort Fisher would not only seal up the harbor, 158 THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL WAR Grant planned also to make Wilmington a new base of supplies for Sher- man's army, which was about to proceed northward from Savannah, Ga. In December, 1864, a fleet of 70 vessels under Admiral Porter, and 6,500 troops from Butler's Army of the James under command of General Weitzel formed as expedition for the capture of Fort Fisher. The fleet was, as Grant says in his Memoirs, "the most formidable armada ever col- lected for concentration upon a given point." Contrary to Grant's intentions, General Butler took it upon himself as senior commander of his Army of the James to accompany and direct the expedition. After considerable delay, occasioned by heavy seas, the fleet and trans- ports were obliged to put in to Beaufort, S. C, for repairs and supplies, but finally they reached the objective point on December 23. During the fury the next day of a terrific bombardment by the fleet, which soon silenced the guns of the garrison in Fort Fisher, 3,000 of Weitzel's men were landed. General Butler had conceived a scheme of exploding a powderboat near the fort, with the intention of blowing up the enemy's magazines. A ship named the Louisiana with over 200 tons of powder stored aboard was towed to within some 800 yards of the fort and then exploded. But the attempt to injure the fort was a fizzle, no damage whatever being done to the works — in fact the garrison were not aware of the explosion until they read it in the newspapers the next day about the "fiasco of Butler's toy." Just as Weitzel's men were about to assault the fort. Butler called a halt, declaring that the place was too strong to attack except at great sacrifice of life, whereupon Weitzel's troops re-embarked and the transports returned to Hampton Roads. Porter with his fleet, however, remained on the scene. Weitzel and his men complained bitterly of Butler's interference, claim- ing that had they been allowed to make the attack they felt sure of the capture of the fort. For his folly Butler was relieved of the command of the Army of the James, which resulted in a rancorous discussion between himself and General Grant. Butler had never been popular with his soldiers; he was not a scientifically trained soldier, while Generals Smith, Weitzel and others under him were, and his ignorant interference with their operations caused not only the failure of Fort Fisher, but other failures before Petersburg and Richmond, of which we shall read. Determined on the execution of his plans, Grant fitted out another expedition for the capture of Fort Fisher, adding to Weitzel's force 1,500 additional troops with a small siege train, and placing it under command of General Terry. As on the first occasion the expedition was beset by heavy weather during which the troops suffered greatly. From the Southern historian. Pollard, we have the Confederate side of the affair. He says: "General Braxton S. Bragg appeared again on the military stage, thrust there by President Davis in the second defense of Wilmington. A Virginian newspaper announced the event irreverently as follows: 'General Bragg has been appointed to command at Wilmington — Good-bye, Wilmington.' There was no confidence in this Confederate com- THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL. WAR 159 mander, and although Fort Fisher had held out against a naval bombard- ment and the garrison was largely increased when Bragg took command, it was very much feared that the enemy would obtain with him some new advantage; would effect some surprise or succeed by some untoward event." Bragg placed a force under General Hoke north of the fort to dislodge any attempt of Terry's men making a landing. General Terry, however, selected a most advantageous place for landing, some six miles north of Hoke's lines, and succeeded on January 10, during a heavy bombardment of the fort by the fleet, in disembarking the greater portion of his force, and as Pollard says, "through imperfect vigilance, Hoke was surprised to find the next morning that during the night Terry's men had forced their way through the thick marshy underbush and had placed themselves between the cavalry and his main line, and were entrenched in trenches extending clear across the peninsular from shore to shore. Hoke sent some of his men back to reinforce the garrison, which was in command of General Whiting, and then by orders of Bragg retired inland." For three days the fleet poured a prodigious fire into the fort from its four hundred guns, during which time Terry's men advanced without serious loss to within a hundred yards of the land front of the fortifications. The fleet then were signalled to cease firing, and the" Nationals, forming in their charging lines spaced a few hundred yards apart, vigorously assaulted the works. The slacking of the bombardment permitted the exhausted garrison to leave their bomb-proof where they had been cramped up during the attack by the fleet, to man their guns. The onslaught by the charging Nationals forced Captain Bradley to give way from the sally port. The encounter of the combatants at the gate of the fort was a terrific hand to hand fight lasting from seven o'clock until ten in the night and in which 700 of the heroic defenders of the fort were killed or wounded. As Pollard says: "The Confederates made a heroic defence in which bravery endurance and devotion failed to overcome numbers, and they were obliged to retire out of the fort." General Whiting, about midnight, finding further resistance impossible, surrendered his 1,800 exhausted troops, that being all there remained of his original garrison of 2,500. Bragg, finding Fxart Fisher fallen, evacuated Wilmington, blowing up its other defensive works. Forts Caswell and Anderson, just as Porter's fleet was advancing up the Cape Fear .River. On February 19, Grant's plan was consummated by the Nationals occupying Wilmington unmolested. At this time, as we will learn, Sherman's army was nearing the end of its advance through North and South Carolina from Savannah. Bragg, hoping to prevent the union of the victors of Fort Fisher with Sherman, retired to Goldsboro, N. C. In anticipation of the capture of Fort Fisher, Grant had ordered Scho- field, with the 23rd Corps of Thomas' army, after the defeat of Hood in Tennessee in December to proceed east. These troops reached Fort Fisher on February 22, when Schofield assumed command of the district called the department of North Carolina, General Terry returning to his post in front of Richmond. General Schofield, as instructed by Grant, immediately moved on to 160 THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL. WAR Goldsboro, which lay nearly 100 miles directly north of Wilmington. He marched by two separate columns, one from Wilmington, the other from New Berne. The latter column was attacked at Kingston, N. C, a few miles south of Goldsboro, by Bragg, who, besides his own troops, had a division of the Army of the Tennessee under General Hill. The ensuing battle of Kinston resulted in a bad defeat for Bragg, who lost 1,500 prisoners. Bragg now finding that a strong force of the enemy had maneuvered to his rear, made a feint attack on them and then dexterously withdrew out of his perilous position. Schofleld's first column then proceeded without serious resistance and entered Goldsboro on March 21, 1865, while his second column from Wil- mington reached the same place the following day. THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL WAR 161 CHAPTER XVII. Sherman's March to the Sea, 1864. Sherman Burns Atlanta — His Marching Orders — Sherman's "Bummers" — ■ Route of the March — Engagements at Macon and Griswaklville — Capture of Milledgeville and Augusta — Cavalry Fights Between Kilpatrick and Wheeler — Storming of Fort McAllister — Capture of Savannah. Having received assurance from General Thomas that he would be able to defend Tennessee against Hood's sortie, Sherman concentrated his 60,000 troops at Atlanta. Getting the approval of both President Lincoln and General Grant of his proposed bold movement through Georgia to the Atlantic Coast, Sherman divested his forces of all non-combatants, and for the second time ordered, in the early part of November, his chief engineer to set fire to Atlanta. Of this conflagration, it is said that over two hundred acres of buildings were in flames at one time. "Some four or flve thousand houses were reduced to ruins, with but four hundred left standing as the melancholy remnant of Atlanta." — Eggleston. On the authority of Eggleston, Sherman, after the war, in speaking of his raid through Georgia, is reported to have said: "At Atlanta I was in the midst of the enemy's country. My nearest base of supplies was Chattanooga, a hundred miles away. That place itself was liable to siege, and it lay the width of two States away from any real and ul- timate source of supplies on the Ohio River. The enemy might cut it off at any time, and, even if he failed to do that, I could not defend the hundred miles of single track railroad that connected it with Atlanta. At Atlanta my army was in the air. Its communications were likely to be cut off at any moment. Obviously I must either retire northward from that place or move southward in search of a new base of supplies. As there was no force south of me, capable of resisting my advance in that direction, I decided to march towards the south, thus securing a new base for myself, within easy sea communications, with sources of supply at the North, and at the same time cutting the Confederacy in two. Again and more important still, demonstrating the nearly complete collapse of the Confederate power of resistance. So I decided to make the march and change my base. That is all there was to it. But the poet got hold of it and instead of a 'military change of base,' he nicknamed it 'March to the Sea.' " The poet referred to was George F. Root, the musician, who composed at the time the well-known patriotic song, "Marching Through Georgia." On November 8, 1864, Sherman issued the following order to his army. "The General commanding deems it proper at this time to inform the men and officers of the 14th, 15th, 17th and 20th Corps that he has organized them into an army for a special purpose well known to the War Department, and to General Grant. It is sufficient for you to know that it involves a departure from our present base, and a long and difficult march to a new one. All the chances of war have been considered and provided 162 THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL WAR for as far as human sagacity can. All he asks of you is to maintain the discipline, patience and courage which have characterized you in the past, and he hopes through you to strike a blow at the enemy that will have a material effect in producing what we all so much desire, his complete over- throw. Of all things the most important is that the men, during the inarches and in camp, keep their places, and do not scatter about as stragglers or foragers, to be picked up by hostile people in detail. It is also of the utmost importance that our wagons should not be loaded with any- thing but provisions and ammunition. All surplus servants, non-coinbatants and refugees should now go to the rear, and none should be encouraged to encumber us on the march. At some future time we will be able to provide for the poor whites and blacks who seek to escape the bondage under which they are now suffering. With these few simple cautions he hopes to lead you to achievements equal in importance to those of the past." As the army would be obliged to live upon the country traversed, the orders for the necessary foraging were to allow each brigade commander to form daily a company of foragers of fifty men, with one or two commissioned officers. These parties got the nickname of "Sherman's bummers." They would start out ahead of the army early each morning, and, when loaded up with supplies, return to the main lines and turn over everything captured to the commissaries. Sherman says in his Memoirs. "No doubt many acts of pillage, robbery and violence were committed, for I have since heard of jewelry taken from women and the plunder of articles that never reached the commissary, but these acts were exceptional and incidental. I never heard of a case of murder or rape. At no time could I have carried along sufficient food and forage for a march of 300 miles long, foraging in some shape was necessary." These foraging parties had many narrow escapes from Wheeler's cavalry and the Georgia militia that hung about Sherman's army all the time, and many a pitched battle between them was fought. From Atlanta ran two railroads; the Georgia Railroad east to Augusta, the Central Georgia road southeast to Savannah on the coast. A short distance from Atlanta was the important town of Macon, and almost due north of it, and between the two roads, was Milledgeville, the capital of the State of Georgia. A third road ran from Augusta to Savannah. Sherman's route ran along these roads, and the army destroyed them so effectually as to make them impossible of repair. This was done by burning the ties and heating and twisting the rails out of shape. For the most part the country traversed was a rich fertile region, rife with abundance, being workshops and granaries of the Confederacy into which an enemy had as yet never penetrated. But now a swath of destruc- tion sixty miles wide and three hundred miles long was to be made across the State of Georgia, and area equal in width to the distance between New York City and Trenton, N. J., and in length to the distance from the Goddess of Liberty in the harbor of New York to nearly the Canadian line. Of the completeness of the destruction executed, Sherman in his official report of his Georgia Campaign stated: "We have consumed the corn and fodder in the region of country thirty miles on either side of a line from Atlanta to Savannah, as also the sweet potatoes, cattle, hogs, sheep and poultry, and have carried away more than 10,000 horses and mules, as well as countless number of slaves. I estimate the damage done to the State of THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL, WAR 163 Georgia and its military resources at $100,000,000, which have inured to our advantage, and the remainder is simply waste and destruction." The start was made on November 15, immediately after the burning of Atlanta. The position of the army on the march was: the right wing, consisting of the 15th and 17th Corps, under command of General Howard; the left wing, composed of the 14th and 20th Corps, under command of General H. W. Slocum; marching along the flanks of both infantry wings, the cavalry, numbering nearly 5,000 in two brigades, under command of General Judson Kilpatrick. Near Macon at Lovejoy Station a slight resistance was met with from 3,000 Georgia militia under Major-General G. W. Smith, but these were easily driven off. General Smith always believed his small force was up against a whole division, the reason for this erroneous impression being due to the fact that the opposing brigade under Walcutt was armed with the new Spencer repeating rifle. Up to the introduction in 1864 of these breach- loading guns both armies had used the old muzzle-loading muskets. The Grays' main forces, numbering about 15,000, were at Savannah, the department being under the able commander. General Hardee. He sent General Smith to guard Augusta, as it was found that Macon was not Sherman's objective, for, outside of a dash into the town by Kilpatrick's cavalry, Sherman did not molest that place. At Griswaldville a force of Grays under General Phillip attacked some of the 15th Corps, but they were badly punished, losing in killed and wounded 500. It was pitiful, says one writer, to send the green Georgia militia against the hardened veterans of Sherman's army, and yet they fought bravely and desperately against overwhelming odds. Sherman had so concealed the objective point of his march that the Georgia Legislature, which was in session in the capital — Milledgeville — were surprised, on November 22. by the sudden appearance of the foe, and compelled to make a most precipitous and undignifled retreat from the town. In a spirit of fun some of the Blues filled the chairs of the two Houses; conducted a debate upon the political issues of the day, and, by a small majority, voted that Georgia return to the Union. Sherman kept the main lines of route southeastward towards Savannah, but in order to delude the enemy, he sent Kilpatrick north to make a demon- stration against Augusta, where he destroyed factories, arsenals and other works. In this venture two regiments, the 83rd Indiana and the 9th Wisconsin cavalry, were separated from the main line by the Grays under General Wheeler, but after desperate fighting they finally succeeded in cutting their way out. Kilpatrick then moved southwestward towards Sherman's main line, but when he reached Louisville, Wheeler again attacked him in his entrench- ments. The savage assault made by the Grays got so hot that Sherman was obliged to dispatch General Band's division of infantry to Kilpatrick's assistance. This forced Wheeler to retire, after which he was chased by the Blues northeastward as far as Waynesboro. On December 2 several charges and counter charges took place between Kilpatrick and Wheeler. Getting to Wheeler's rear the Blues pushed the Grays back, pursuing them fully eight miles, at the same time burning bridges and much property. Two hundred wounded left by Wheeler 164 THE CAMPAIGNS OP THE CIVIL, WAR showed sabre wounds in testimony of the hard hand-to-hand fighting that occurred. On December 2, Sherman's army accomplished two-thirds of the journey in reaching Millen. So far the troops had been marching through the rich regions of Georgia. Now they were to march through flat sandy barren plains, thinly covered with great yellow pine trees, and sparsely inhabited by poor whites, where no supplies could be obtained. But Sherman's "bummers" had filled all the wagons with ample supplies for the ▼narch through these desolate lands. Sherman, leaving Millen, chose for his route the narrow peninsula lying between the Savannah and the Ogeechee rivers, leading directly to the metropolis of Savannah, where he intended getting in communication with the blockading fleet and thus reaching his new base. By December 10 he had his lines within five miles of Savannah investing it. His left rested on the Savannah River, with the extreme right ten miles south on the Ogeechee. One of the defenses of Savannah was Fort McAllister, situated at the mouth of the Ogeechee River which enters the ocean a few miles south of Savannah. It was a large enclosure with wide parapets and a deep ditch with thickly planted palisades. It contained 21 guns, and, while it had resisted three bombardments by the ironclads, it was not suitably arranged or armed for land attack. Sherman, leaving General Slocum in command of the army, personally took W. B. Hazen's division of the 15th Corps for the capture of Fort Mc- Allister. Building a bridge over the Ogeechee some fifteen miles west of the fort he got Hazen's division to the south side of the river. Starting at daybreak of December 13, Hazen, by 11 a. m., reached within a short distance of the fortification. Here delay was caused by the necessity of slowly and carefully removing from the ground sunken torpedoes. He then advanced and soon succeeded in silencing the heavy guns of the garrison. At 4 p. m. the bugle sounded the charge. The regiment rushed in, vieing with each other to plant the firjt flag upon the ramparts. As the chargers closed in on the palisades, sunken torpedoes exploded, tearing many of the troops to pieces, while the hot fire of the 200 gallant defenders rained down upon them furiously. Pushing on, they entered into a desperate and bloody hand-to-hand struggle with the defenders on the ramparts and quickly caused the gallant outnumbered garrison to succumb. By the capture of the fort, Sherman was now in communication with Dahlgren's fleet lying in Ossabaw Sound, and he telegraphed to Washington: "I regard Savannah as already gained." General Hardee, who was in command of the Gray forces defending Savannah, on the night following Sherman's demand for the surrender of the city and his forces, evacuated the place, and by means of steamboats and rafts got his whole command safely across the Savannah River to the South Carolina shore. He burned all his stores and the shipyard, and sank two of his ironclads. Sherman, after taking possession of the city without molestation, tele- graphed to President Lincoln: "I beg to present you, as a Christmas gift, the City of Savannah." THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL. WAR 165 CHAPTER XVIII. Grant's Campaign Against Richmond, 1864. Organization of Grant's Army — Cavalry Raid on Richmond — Battle of the Wilderness — Death of "Jeb" Stuart — Spottsylvania — The Bloody Salient — Failure of Butler's Attack on Richmond — Sigel's Failure in the Shenandoah Valley — Crook's Operations West of the Valley — Hunter's Victory at Pied- mont — Battle of the North Anna River — Grant Crosses the Pamunky — Battle of Cold Harbor — Losses — Grant Crosses the James — Siege of Peters- burg — The Crater — Minor Engagements. In the early part of the year 1864, as we have seen, General Ulysses S. Grant assumed personal command of the operations in Virginia, with the aim, as he wrote General Sherman, of "having the Union forces in Virginia pounding Lee, while those under Sherman in Georgia were hammering General Johnston, and Banks in Louisiana was forcing Taylor." Having recounted the campaigns of Sherman against Johnston in Georgia, and Hood against Thomas in Tennessee, and Banks' Red River Campaign in Louisiana, we will now review the operations which Grant personally conducted during the interim in Virginia against Lee. The National forces organized by General Grant for his offensive cam- paign in Virginia consisted as follows: Second Corps under General Hancock. Fifth Corps under General Warren. Sixth Corps under General Sedgwick. These three corps comprised the Army of the Potomac, and were placed under the immediate command of General Meade, the hero of Gettysburg. A fourth corps under General Burnside was added, which was to act inde- pendently for the reason that Burnside outranked Meade. The cavalry was commanded by General Sheridan, and the artillery by General Hunt. These forces numbered in all about 122,000 troops, with 300 guns. Besides this army in eastern Virginia, Grant had 20,000 under Benjamin F. Butler, of New Orleans fame, near Fortress Monroe, to which were shortly afterwards added 10,000 of General Gillmore's forces from North Carolina, the combined forces being christened the Army of the James. Furthermore, a column of 15,000, commanded by General Sigel, was in the Shenandoah Valley, and another force, under General Crook, in the Kanawha Valley, West Virginia. It has been estimated that at the commencement of the spring operations of 18 64, the entire National forces under command of General Grant throughout the entire War Zone nunnbered 662,345 troops. During the winter of 1863-4 the Army of the Potomac, under General Meade lay along the northern side of the Rapidan River, around Culpeper, confronting General Lee's Army of Northern Virginia. Culpeper is about fifty miles as the crow flies southwest of Washington, and about sixty miles in a direct line northwest of Richmond; Washington and Richmond being almost directly north and south of each other and about one hundred miles apart. At the opening of the campaign, in May, 1864, Lee's headquarters were at Orange Courthouse. His army consisted of Ewell's Corps on the south 166 THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL WAR bank of the Rapidan; Hill's Corps near headquarters, and Longstreet's Corps at Gordonsville. a station on the Virginia Central railroad, a few miles south of Orange Courthouse. These forces aggregated in all a strength of nearly 70,000, and occupied a line some twenty miles long, which was about right angles with Meade's position. During January and February, Grant, for the purpose of making a feint on Richmond, with the object also, if possible, of releasing the National prisoners at Libby Prison in that city, and above all of destroying as much as possible of Lee's railroad line to his base of supplies south, sent two columns of cavalry, one of 1,500, under General Custer, moving southwestward, the other of 5,000, under General Kilpatrick, pushing directly southward. Aside from destroying some mills, stores and railroad tracks, and getting for a short period within shooting distance of Richmond, these raids accomplished nothing of importance. In an attack by part of Kilpatrick's horsemen on the outer works of Richmond, they were not only badly repulsed by the defenders, who con- sisted for the most part of old men and departmental clerks, but were forced to retire eastwardly by another route. Another small portion of Kilpatrick's command under General Ulric Dahlgren, which had been endeavoring to maneuver to the northwest of Richmond, learning of Kil- patrick's failure, retired northeastward, and, falling into an ambuscade, was captured and Dahlgren himself was killed. Still aiming in demonstrations against Richmond, in the hopes of inducing Lee to weaken his command on the Rapidan by sending assistance to the Confederate capital. Grant ordered Butler with his Army of the James to the attack of Richmond on the east. This expedition started February 6, 1864, and was so poorly managed that nothing of importance was accomplished and Lee with his whole force Intact remained confronting Grant. Every preparation having been completed. Grant ordered a simul- taneous advance of the entire Union armies throughout the war zone on May 4, 1864. Sherman with nearly 100,000 troops began his Georgia Campaign against Johnston. Grant with 122,000 advanced to the attack of Lee. Butler with 30,000 was ordered to capture Petersburg, on the Appomattox River, some twenty miles directly south of Richmond. FYanz Sigel and Guillar Crook were to push into the Shenandoah Valley and destroy that magazine of Confederate supplies. Banks in Louisiana was to move to the attack of Shrevesport. Pollard, the Southern historian, says: "At this period Lee was greatly affected as he contemplated the disparity between the numbers of the National and Confederate forces." In an address to his army at the time, Lee said: "For your stricken country's sake, your wives and daughters, sisters and friends, be true to yourselves and our glorious cause. Never turn your back on the flag, nor desert the ranks of honor or the post of danger. The women of the South bestow all their respect and affection on the heroes who defend them." Grant in his Memoirs, says: "The armies now confronting each other had already been in deadly conflict for a period of three years with immense losses in killed and in deaths from wounds and sickness, and neither had made any real progress towards accomplishing the final end. THE CAMPAIGNS OP THE CIVIL WAR 167 The two armies had been confronting each other so long- without any decisive result that they hardly knew which could 'whip'. Here was a Btand off." The first battle, the Wilderness, was one of the most remarkable battles in the history of warfare, abounding in startling incidents of repeated repulses and victories for both Blue and Gray, for, during the two days of bloody fighting on May 5 and 6, Dame Fortune played fickle with both sides. At the end of the series of incessant encounters neither side could claim a victory, for the lines occupied by the combatants at the end were in the same position as they were at the beginning. Probably never in the history of warfare did a battle rage continuously for two days under conditions or in a place so utterly unsuited for army movements. The region was a wilderness of tangled masses of stout saggy underbrush and worn out tobacco fields intersected by deep ravines. In this dense thicket, which covered several miles in extent, the firing musketry lines were at times within one hundred yards of each other, and yet the combatants were invisible, the one to the other. The fighting was confined to infantry, as neither cavalry nor artillery were able to operate in such impossible lands. At midnight of May 3 and 4, Grant's army began quietly crossing the Rapidan River at the old fords of Germania and Ely, the same which General Hooker used the year before at the time of the disaster to the Union cause at Chancellorsville. Grant's object was to get his army south between Lee's position and Richmond. While the movement to the west or by Grant's right flank would bring the operations into open country, and that by the left flank would bring the armies into country badly suited to military movements because of the numerous streams flowing southeast- ward and thence at right angles to the path of the Union army, nevertheless he chose the latter because the coast afforded excellent bases for his supplies, and at the same time the movement enabled him to keep his forces con- centrated. To Grant's crossing of the Rapidan Lee offered no resistance; Lee was on the alert, however, and determined to take the' offensive and strike the advance columns of the foe as they passed along the north edge of the wilderness. Grant on the other hand had contemplated that Lee with his vastly inferior force would naturally retire and cover Richmond. Two parallel roads traverse the wilderness, northward from Orange Courthouse, with an average distance between them of four miles, the western one called the "Turnpike," the eastern one the "Plankroad;" all the rest of the country between, and east and west of these roads was impassable, being the dense thicket of the wilderness. These two roads intersected the roads used by Grant. Lee sent Ewell's Corps north by the Turnpike, while Hill's Corps he ordered forward along the Plankroad. Near the northern end of the Turn- pike was "Old Wilderness Tavern," which later on Grant made his head- quarters. On May 5 Warren's Fifth Corps and Sedgwick's Sixth Corps, advancing in columns some five miles apart, unexpectedly ran up against Edward Johnson's division of Ewell's Corps, with Rodes in close support of Johnson, 168 THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL WAR both advancing along the Turnpike within three miles of Old Wilderness Tavern. The result of the first clash was the retirement of the Grays and the death of their General. J. M. Jones, while endeavoring to stay the rout. Just at the right moment General Stuart rushed forward and filled the gap made by Jones' fleeing brigade. Gordon's and Daniel's division then joined the line and charged, sending the victorious Blues back in confusion over a mile. In the meantime Hill's Corps, advancing by the eastern "Plankroad," quickly deployed and formed line with Swell's men, which mo-vement brought the united wings of the Grays against Warren, who was to the left of Sedgwick. Grant rushed Getty's division of Sedgwick's right to the assistance of Warren's threatened left. An attack . made now by Getty and Warren was repulsed by Pegram's division; this was followed by a furious onslaught by Hay's men which did not expend itself until they had forced the Blues to retreat in confusion for nearly a mile. "In advance of all others in the face of the attack, these splendid troops, ha\ing left nearly one-third of their number on the field, fell back with Pegram's gallant men to the general line of battle." — Pollard. In the meantime Hancock's Corps, which had been sent on a route to the southeast, was recalled and hurried to the support of Getty, who was in a most perilous situation. At 3 p. m. the fighting at this portion of the line was fast and furious. Attack after attack was made by Han- cock, extending into the night; in the last attack General Pegram fell severely wounded. Five hours of this terrific slaughter ended without advantage to either side. During the night of the 5th, Burnside's Corps made a forced march of some thirty miles; crossed both the Rappahannock and Rapidan rivers, and, by the afternoon of the 6th, took position on the firing line between Hancock and Getty and Wadsworth, the two latter being in advance and somewhat to the right of Hancock. Longstreet's Grays about this time reached a point ten miles from the battlefield. About 5 a. m. of the 6th, i^well made a feint attack against Sedgwick on Grant's right, while at the same moment Hill was to execute the main assault on Hancock, but the latter opened the battle first by ordering General Wadsworth to take the offensive, and strike Hill on the flank. This order was vigorously executed, throwing Heth's and Wilcox's Grays into confusion, and pushing them back upon Longstreet's advancing columns, which had not yet deployed into line. This disaster now placed Lee's army in jeopardy of being cut in twain. At 11 a. m. Longstreet with some select brigades, passing to the right, suddenly attacked Hancock's left and succeeded in driving Grant's line back upon itself in great confusion fully a mile. At the time of Hill's rout and in the moment of imminent defeat, Lee, it is said, appeared at the front and took personal command of Long- street's successful charges. Grant, in his Memoirs, in speaking of this momentous period, says: "If the country had been such that Hancock and his command could have seen the confusion and panic of the lines of the enemy, he would have taken advantage so effectually that Lee would not have made another stand outside of his Richmond defenses." Grant might have added that it was General Lee's masterful foresight that selected first such a place as the tangled wilderness in which to assume THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL WAR 169 the offensive against an overwhelming adversary, and thus neutralize the disparity in numbers, and that his Napoleonic act of taking personal com- mand at a critical moment turned defeat into victory. As illustrating how ulterior events may affect the outcome of battle it will be remembered that, just at the time of Hill's retreat, an incident occurred which deterred Hancock from following up the pursuit of the flying Grays. It seems that in the morning Grant sent a part of Sheridan's cavalry to attack some of Hill's command under General Wofford, who was making a detour in an endeavor to get on Hancock's flank. It was the firing in this encounter to his east and rear that caused Hancock to pause. Then again another peculiar incident occurred nearly at the same time, to induce Hancock further to weaken his attacking columns. Word reached him that troops were seen moving in his rear, whereupon he detached a brigade to meet the supposed new foe, who, however, proved to be Union convalescents coming up from Chancellorsville to join him. In these encounters of Hancock and Hill, the Union General Wadsworth was killed, and shortly afterwards the Grays' General, Jenkins, was killed and Longstreet severely w^ounded, both being shot in mistake by their own men, just as a respite had taken place. After Longstreet's charge, both Grant and Lee gave orders to renew hostilities, but the intended encounters were prevented by the thicket catching fire. Draper, in his "Civil War," says: "That all during the afternoon in all directions the wounded men were straggling along or borne on stretchers through the thicket. The air was excessively close and made stifling by the smoke pervading the woods." Grant saj's: "Fighting had continued from 5 a. m., sometimes along the whole line, at others only in places. The ground fought over varied in width, but averaged three- quarters of a mile. The killed and wounded of both sides lay in this belt and could not be moved. Then the woods caught fire, and a great conflag- ration raged; still the fighting kept up until it became too hot for the men." During all the time of the ferocious battling between Hancock and Hill and Longstreet, Sedgwick and Warren on Grant's right were straining every nerve to force the Grays' left from their position, but without avail. Near dusk, when Sedgwick was obeying orders to fall back, his corps was viciously assailed by Gordon of Eweirs Corps, and his ranks were put into great confusion, in which he lost 3,000 prisoners, among them General Shaller, late of Englewood, N. J., and General Sej'mour. This suc- cess of the Grays now put Grant's army in a very perilous position, but Sedg- wick, just as night came on, reorganized his shattered troops, checked the onslaught of Gordon's men, and averted an imminent disaster to the whole army. The third day, the 7th of May, was occupied by both parties in recon- naissances and skirmishing along the whole line. The losses to Grant were 18,000, including 5,000 prisoners; to Lee they were 10,000, few of whom were captured. "An appalling aggregate of destruction illustrated by no brilliancy of maneuvers, the battle was a bloody bush fight." — ^Draper. A few days after the battle of the Wilderness, the Southern cause lost its most famous cavalry general — the renowned J. E. B., or "Jeb," Stuart. It occurred on May 10, when a portion of Sheridan's cavalry under Custer and Merritt encountered Stuart's men at Yellow Stone Tavern. Leading his horsemen on a desperate charge Stuart fell wounded and died the following day at Richmond. 170 THE CAMPAIGNS OP THE CIVIL WAR During the night of May 7, after the battles of the Wilderness, Grant commenced flanking tactics, by countermarching southward, that is to say, by keeping his left in place and doubling his right, he passed it in advance. The objective now was Spottsylvania, on the southern side of the Po River, about fifteen miles southeast of the Wilderness. As Warren's Corps during the night, moving from the right, passed Hancock's men on the extreme left, they were hailed with loud cheering which caused the Grays to believe another charge was in progress, and set them to firing vigorously, with, however, very little effect. This flanking movement of Gi-ant's gave Lee the impression that the Army of the Potomac was as of old retiring, and it is stated that he sent a telegram to Richmond saying that Grant was retreating to Fredericksburg. He ordered General Anderson, now in command of Longstreet's Corps on the right, to go into bivouac and start early in the morning for Spottsyl- vania Courthouse fortifications. And now again the fates of war interfered with both commanders' plans. While Grant's advance under Warren was silently making headway during the night, the forest fire in front of Anderson's men became so intense that he was obliged to move his line back out of the flames and dense smoke, and he then concluded to proceed to his destination at once instead of waiting for dawn. Thus by mere accident the Grays' advance reached Spottsylvania before the Blue. Besides this stroke of good fortune for the Grays another occurred for them, due to a confusion of orders on the part of Grant's forces. This is clearly explained by Grant in his Memoirs: "Sheridan's cavalry had had considerable fighting during the afternoon of the 7th, lasting at Todd's Tavern until after midnight with the field his at the close. He issued the necessary orders for seizing Spottsylvania and holding the bridge. over the Po River, which Lee's troops would have to cross. But Meade changed Sheridan's orders to Merritt, who was holding the bridge, and thereby left the road free for Anderson when he came up. Wilson was ordered to seize the town, which he did with his division of cavalry, but he could not hold it against Anderson's advancing corps, which had not been detained at the crossing of the Po, as it would have been but for the unfortunate change in Merritt's orders. Had Merritt been perVnitted to execute the order Sheridan gave him, he would have been guarding with two brigades of cavalry the bridge over the Po, which Anderson had to cross, and must have detained him long enough to enable Warren to reinforce Wilson and hold the town." As it was, when Warren's advance came up, they attacked Anderson, but were repulsed with heavy loss. In a second assault by Warren with his whole Corps, he succeeded in gaining an important position where he entrenched. Sedgwick, Hancock and Burnside were hurried to the sup- port of Warren before Lee could render help to Anderson. These move- ments were so slowly executed, however, that it was not until dawn when the forces joined. The principal delay was caused by a peculiar incident. It seems that Early, who commanded Hill's Corps at the time, had come by the same road which Hancock had taken, and when these forces met they naturally stopped to fight. In the meantime Warren, while waiting, continued fighting Anderson, but, as his attacks consisted in send- ing to the firing line only one division at a time against Anderson's whole THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL WAR 171 Corps, nothing- was gained. Furthermore, during this memorable night of the 7th, there nearly occurred a great calamity to the Nationals — the capture by the Grays of General Grant. It seems that he and Meade, by taking a wrong road, were riding directly into the enemy's lines, when fortunately an engineer discovered the error just in the nick of time and showed them the right way. The position of the two armies about Spottsylvania at noon of May 8 are described as follows: Lee occupied a semi-circle facing north enclosing the town; Anderson's forces on the left extended to the Po; Ewell came next, followed by Early on the right. On the Blue's side the 2nd Corps, under Hancock, was at the right; next was the 5th Corps, under Warren; next the 6th Corps, now under Wright, General Sedgwick having been killed in the morning by a sharpshooter while superintending the erection of a battery; Burnside followed Wright. This formation extended some six miles to the north of the Po. Later a part of Hancock's Corps was sent across the Po to Warren's left and another to the position of Wright. Grant says in his Memoirs: "The country was heavily timbered with occasional clearings. It was a much better country to conduct a defensive campaign in than an offensive one. Besides, while the streams Ny, Po, Mat. and Ta, all flowing nearly parallel and a few miles apart, were narrow with abrupt banks and could only be crossed by bridges on account of marshy bottoms." The forenoon of May 10 was_ mainly spent in heavy artillery firing. Later several charges by the Blues on the Grays' centre failed, during which the woods took fire, leaving many wounded to perish in the flames. A weak point being discovered in front of the 6th Corps, Colonel Upton, with twelve picked regiments, made an assault at 5 p. m. It came so sudden that the Grays broke, Upton's charges capturing 1,000 prisoners and several guns. It being found impractical to support the advantage gained, Upton was withdrawn; thus the day's hard fighting closed without result to either side, but with great cost of men to Grant. The next day nothing but skirmish-firing occurred between the combatants. Grant then sent the following dispatch to the War Department: "We have now ended the sixth day of hard fighting. The result to this time is very much in our favor. Our losses have been heavy as well as those of the enemy * * * We have taken over 5,000 prisoners in battle while the enemy has taken from us but a few stragglers. I propose to fight it out on this line if it takes all summer." On the 12th there occurred one of the bloodiest encounters of the whole war, brought about by an effort on the part of Grant's forces to capture a salient near Lee's center. A salient is the technical term for a place in a fortified line, which projects forward like a point or angle from the general line of the works. Troops and guns placed there can enfilade, or in other words, pour on a charging party from the salient a cross-fianking fire, which, with the firing from the front, generally places the assailants hors du combat. If, how- ever, the chargers succeed in capturing the salient, they in turn can send a raking fire front, right and left along the enemy's entrenchments, besides protecting themselves. 172 THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL WAR Early in the morning of the 12th, Hancock's columns, which had marched during the whole rainy night tt) join Burnside, got into position for the assault of the salient, while Wright 'and Warren maintained fighting on their respective fronts. During a dense fog, Hancok's chargers emerged from the woods, and, without firing a shot, marched in quick time against the "angle." When nearly half way to the enemy's line they suddenly gave forth a thunderous cheer, and taking the double quick rushed forward. Quickly tearing away the spiked abatis they got across into the salient, where they surrounded Johnson's division of Swell's Corps, taking three thousand prisoners, among them two generals, besides thirty-five guns. Hancock's victors then pushed on intending to cut Lee's army in twain, but they were shortly stopped as they ran up against a second line of entrench- ments behind which Ewell had retreated. Hill from the right and Ander- son from the left now rushed to Ewell's support, and, uniting against Hancock, he in turn was driven back. Wright's 6th Corps, was now hurried up to the support of Hancock; Warren and Burnside also began assault along their fronts; and soon battle was raging along the entire concaved lines. Five savage assaults were made by Lee's gallant men in their attempt to dislodge Hancock from their salient, and, although repulsed, they at many places planted their banner on the ramparts sheltering the Blues. To secure his position Hancock placed twenty of the captured guns against chargers. At this point Grant says in his Memoirs: "Five times during the day he (Lee) assaulted furiously, but without dislodging our troops from their new position. His losses must have been frightful. Sometimes the belligerents would be separated by only a few feet. In one place a tree eighteen inches in diameter was cut entirely down by musket balls. All the trees between the line were very much cut to pieces by artillery and musketry. It was three o'clock next morning before the fighting ceased. Some of our troops had been twenty-four hours under fire * * * At night Lee took a position in rear of his former one and by the following morning was strongly entrenched." Another contemporary writer says: "The angle of those works where the fire had been hottest and from which the Confederates had been driven * * * nien in hundreds, killed and wounded together, were piled in hideous heaps * * * some bodies had lain for hours under the concentrated fire of battle, being perforated with wounds. The writhing of wounded beneath the dead moved the mass at times; at times a lifted arm or a quivering limb told of an agony not quenched by the tithe of death. Bitter fruit this; a dear price it seemed to pay for the capture of a salient angle." — Draper. Leaving Lee and Grant grappling to the death at Spottsylvania, we must trace the doings of the forces under Butler on the James River and those under Sigel in the Shenandoah Valley, which were intended by Grant to co-operate with the Army of the Potomac. The Army of the James under General Butler set forward as did the Army of the Potomac and Sherman's Army in Georgia, in pursuance with General Grant's plan of campaign. Proceeding up the James River from Fortress Monroe, early in May, Butler reached without resistance City Point on the south side of the river at its confluence with the Appomattox River. In this position he threatened the city of Petersburg, an important railroad THE CAMPAIGNS OP THE CIVIL. WAR 173 centre some 20 miles south of Flichmond. The Grays, under General Beau- regard, who had rushed all available troops from North Carolina, confronted him and forced the Nationals to move to the north side of the James. From May 13 to the 17th, Butler demonstrated towards Richmond with Beauregard hard after him. On the 16th, at Drury Bluff, a few miles southeast of Richmond, Beauregard attacked Butler, aiming to turn his right. The assault failed, due mainly to a dense fog. Butler was forced, however, to retire, after a loss of 4,000, to Bermuda Hundred, at a large bend in the James, a few miles northwest of City Point, where, as Grant said, "the Army of the James was afterwards bottled up." These operations of the Army of the James were, therefore, a failure, for nothing was accomplished with the exception of the destruction of a few miles of the Danville railroad, a short distance south of Petersburg by cavalry under Kautz on May 12, the date of Grant's charge on the Bloody Salient at Spottsylvania. Butler's position at Bermuda Hundred being easy of defense against Beauregard's small force of Grays, Grant was induced to withdraw from Butler the 18th Corps under General Smith, and this reached the Army of the Potomac in time for Grant's attack on Cold Harbor, of which we shall learn later. Butler's failure to carry out Grant's plans was largely due to his persistance in dominating the ideas of his subordinate Generals, Smith and Gillmore. These gentlemen were trained and experienced soldiers, while Butler, a Massachusetts lawyer before the war, was devoid of military education. Grant knew this, and at the beginning designated in his order to Butler, Smith and Gillmore as "commanders in the field." Observing General Sigel's command advancing up the Shenandoah Valley, threatening his magazine of supplies to the west, Lee about the middle of May dispatched General Breckinridge, with 3,000 troops, which could be very illy spared during the operations against the Army of the Potomac, to contend against Sigel. The only troops confronting Sigel were a small body of cavalry under General Imboden. These united with Breckinridge's 3,000, and also the boy cadets of the military institute at Lexington (the Alma Mater of many of the South's noted men.) With these meagre forces. Breckinridge formed a thin line of battle, without reserves; nevertheless, he assumed the hazardous plan of taking the offensive against his more powerful adversary Sigel. The clash occurred on May 15, at New Market, where the Grays' small force were not only the victors, but, besides badly whipping Sigel, captured six guns and a large number of small arms. The site of the battle of New Market lies directly west of that of the Wilderness. The disaster of Sigel caused his removal by Grant, who placed Hunter in his stead. It will thus be seen that simultaneous fighting was going on at Grant's line by Butler and Sigel. During the period of the battles between Grant and Lee, General Crook in the Kanawha Valley, dividing his forces into two columns, crossed the mountains to the east by two separate routes. One under Averell struck the Tennessee and Virginia railroad, near Wytherville, May 19, then pro- ceeded to New River and Christiansburg, where, after tearing up railroad tracks, burning bridges and destroying depots, it formed a junction with Crook at Union, a place about 20 miles directly west of New Market, and on the west side of that fold of the Alleghenies which forms the western I)oundary of the Shenandoah Valley. Thus the Federal forces during May, 1864, were approaching Richmond 174 THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL, WAR by four different routes, that is to say, first from the southeast along the James under Butler; and from the north by three columns, one under Grant moving through eastern Virginia; the second under Sigel up the Shenandoah Valley, and the third, Crook's, moving parallel and v^^est of the latter. Hunter, who had succeeded Sigel, advanced up the Valley and gained a victory near Piedmont on June 6, capturing 1,500 prisoners. A few days after he was joined by Crook and Averell, making his force about 20,000. These forces began a demonstration against Lynchburg. Lee, seeing the danger to his base of supplies in the Shenandoah, hurried Early into the Valley to the rear of Hunter. This was about the middle of June, and at the time of Grant's attack on Lee at Cold Harbor, of which we will next learn. Early's movement forced Hunter to retire westward by way of the Kanawha, contrary to Grant's plan of having him work his way eastward towards the Army of the Potomac. Hunter's men suffered terribly in their march through the mountains, being without food; finally by July 1st, his command reached the upper Potomac. Grant, anticipating Hunter's move eastward, had sent Sheridan to co-operate with him, but Early's position in the Valley forced Sheridan to retire to White House. Thus, through the skilful strategy of Lee, Grant's plans for a demonstration up the Valley went awry. We must now return to the fierce fighting between Grant and Lee which had been going on in the meantime. After the fighting at Spottsylvania the armies lay quiet until May 19, when Grant next intended a flanking move to the southeast. This had been delayed on account of the heavy rains and soggy, impassable roads. The Army of the Potomac was just about to start on the 19th when Ewell made a spirited attack on Grant's extreme right, which was repulsed with heavy loss to the Grays. Finally, on May 21, both armies started south. Grant's on his flanking movement, Lee going by shorter interior roads and getting to his entrenchments on the southern side of the North Anna River ready to receive Grant's next attack. The site of these North Anna operations was just to the west of where the Richmond and Fredricksburg railroad crosses the North Anna, and about twenty miles in a direct line southeast of Spottsylvania Courthouse. On the 23rd, Warren's Corps, under the personal direction of General Grant, crossed to the south side of the North Anna at Jericho, some four or five miles west of the railroad, and drove in some of Hill's outer lines. Lee then attacked Warren in force, intending to drive him back into the river. In these bloody assaults Lee's troops were not only unsuccessful, but Warren captured 1,000 prisoners. Hancock's Corps crossed the next day about three miles east of where Warren did, while Wright's 6th Corps crossed where Warren did and then completed the line with Warren and Hancock. Burnside was at the centre north of the river. These crossings had hardly been completed by Grant when he was surprised to find that Lee's formidable entrenchment occupied a wedge- shape form with the point resting on the river and the legs completely separating Grant's wings. The eastern leg of the wedge rested upon an impassable swamp, while the western one ended at Little River. Burnside then endeavored to cross the North Anna at a middle point, but signally failed, after meeting with a heavy loss in killed and wounded. Warren's Corps also attempted to advance to the east, but nearly met with a serious disaster in so doing. Grant, now finding his army, so to say, cut in twain, determined to withdraw all his forces to the north side of the THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL WAR 175 river, as his two separated wings were powerless against Lee's strong position. In his Memoirs Grant says: "It was a very delicate move to get the right wing from its position south of the North Anna River in the presence of the enemy." He accomplished it, however, first by sending Wilson's cavalry around to the Little River on the right to make a feint, so as to give Lee the impression that it was from that direction an attack was to be made; then, during the night, he secretly brought the army back again across to the northern side of the river. A few miles south of Lee's position the North Anna, then the Little, and finally the South Anna fiow into the Pamunky River, whence the flowage of these streams is conducted east to the Chesapeake Bay. Grant at this time moved his base of supplies to White House at the lower portion of the Pamunky, where General McClellan had established his base in 1862 when conducting the famous Peninsula Campaign. Grant, after succeeding In stealing away across the North Anna and getting out of his stale mate position, continued his fianking movements towards Hanovertown on the Pamunky, some twenty miles in a direct line southeast of Lee's position. Sheridan's cavalry with the 6th Corps crossed the Pamunky at Hanovertown on the 28th after driving off a small force of Grays under General Barringer. Sheridan with his cavalry pushing south had an encounter at Hawes Shop, a few miles southwest of Hanovertown. Wilson was now recalled from the right, and made the rear guard, his feint movement having been successful. In the meantime Lee kept moving parallel with Grant, always confronting him and protecting the roads to Richmond. The combatants now occupied the same ground near Cold Harbor that they did in 1862. "The country we were now in," says Grant, "was a difficult one to move our troops over. The streams were numerous, deep, sluggish, and some- times spreading out into swamps grown up with impassable growths of trees and underbrush and difficult to approach except by roads." By the 29th, Grant got all his forces across the Pamunky except Burnside's Corps, which was left on the northern side to protect the trains. Sheridan in reconnoitering to the south towards Mechanicsville had an encounter in which his cavalry dismounted and attacked Infantry. At first he was beaten; then, being reinforced, he succeeded in driving the Grays off. On the 29th Grant made a reconnaissance in force to find Lee's lines, and if possible to flank them. An advance of but a few miles had been made when suddenly Hancock, who was on the centre of the line, ran up against fortified works, and in his attacks succeeded in taking and holding some rifle pits. In the meantime, Burnside was brought into line. Lee then took the offensive by making a vicious attack upon Warren; the Blues gave way, and at one time the Grays came near fianking Grant's left. Warren's men, however, recovered from their shock, and turned and hurled the enemy back a full mile. On the 30th, Wilson, after some slight skirmishing with the Grays' cavalry under General Young, entered Hanover Courthouse, about six miles northwest of Grant's line. About the same time Sheridan made an attempt to drive back the Grays' right, but failed. During these encounters of the 30th, the lines of the combatants were so close together that no move could be made by either without detec- tion by the other. 176 THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL, WAR The works which Grant was now encountering were the fortiflcations seven miles northeast of Richmond, the southern end of which was at Cold Harbor. At this latter place Sheridan on the 31st, after a bloody encounter, succeeded in carrying some works. The Grays being reinforced, counter- charged. Just as Sheridan's forces were preparing to give way, Wright's 6th Corps came up, and together they held the captured works. The 18th Corps, 16,000 strong, under General Smith of Butler's army, coming by forced marches from White House, reached Grant on June 1, when at 5 p. m. preliminary attacks were made on Lee's works about Cold Harbor. These were begun by the 6ih and 18th Corps, which succeeded in carrying and holding the outer line of works, but were unable to reach the inner one. The fighting was of the fiercest nature, especially on the part of the Grays, who made repeated charges in the endeavor to regain their lost works. These attacks extended well into the night, but were without results. Grant occupied all the next day in rearranging his forces, which imposed upon the men weary marches in order to bring the different corps into their respective positions. On June 3, at daybreak, during a drizzling rain. Grant's whole line advanced to the attack of Lee's formidable works. Barlow and Gibbons of Hancock's Corps on the Union left were sent in. Barlow's men soon planted their flags on the ramparts of the Grays, but were able to hold them only a short while, being driven out under a terrific fire. Finally they succeeded by entrenching in holding the ground just outside. Gibbons' line happened to advance into a swamp which cut it into two unequal parts. They charged the work, however, and in their unsuccessful assault lost many of their best officers. At the same time Wright and Smith, to the right of Hancock, made an unsuccessful assault. Warren, next on the right, used only his artillery, while Burnside, com- pleting the right line, had only reached a position from which Lee's left could be advantageously assailed, when General Meade, seeing the failure on the right, called him back. All these operations of both armies from May 31 to June 12, covered a territory over seven miles in length for the whole distance of which the Nationals were confronted by formidable fortifications. The formation was now: Hancock on the left, followed in succession by Wright, Smith, Warren, and finally Burnside on the right, with Wilson's cavalry flanking Burnside, and Sheridan guarding the lower cross- ings of the Chickahominy River and the base of supplies at White House. It will thus be observed that both armies were now on the old battle- field of 1862, and, as Pollard says: "The singular fortune of war had again made the Peninsula a deadly battleground." Horace Porter, who was an aide-de-camp of General Grant, relates that on the night before the Battle of Cold Harbor he noticed many soldiers of one regiment which had been selected to make the initial assault, pinning on the backs of their coats slips of paper on which were written the name and address of the bearer, so that in case of being slain their bodies would be identified and sent home. But as will be seen later, the device failed, for the killed and seriously wounded were never regained. The next desperate attacks of Grant's men on Lee's fortified line of Cold Harbor lasted but half an hour, but in that short space of time they lost 10,000, representing the number falling at 500 per minute, and still the Grays held their works. "Later in the day orders were issued to renew the THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL WAR 177 attack, but the whole army correctly appreciating what the inevitable issue must be, silently disobeyed." — Draper. Lee telegraphed to the War Department: "Our loss to-day has been small and our success, under the blessing of God, all wu could expect." Grant in his Memoirs, says: "I have always regretted that the last assault at Cold Harbor was ever made." The vast number of killed and wounded covered the ground between the lines. The sharpshooting of the Grays prevented the Blues going to the succor of their fallen comrades. Grant then wrote Lee pro- posing a cessation of hostilities in order to gather in his bleeding wounded. Nothing came of the correspondence, which lo.sted four days, and as Grant tells us, "in the interim all but two of the wounded had died." He also admits that at Cold Harbor "no advantage was gained to compensate the terrible loss." "Ten days," says Draper, "the armies remained watching each other, when Grant commenced his flanking move by crossing to the southern side of the James River, intending to demonstrate against Peters- burg. At the North the people were appalled at the arrival of the steady stream of legions of wounded. The Presidential campaign was on, Lincoln again nominated by the Republican party. General McClellan by the Democrats; the slogan of the latter was, "the war is a failure." Even Secretary of State Chase gave utterance to the oft quoted remarks: "So far Grant has achieved very little, and that little has cost beyond compensation. Sherman has done well and apparently more than Grant." Of the casualties incurred from the Wilderness to Cold Harbor, Grant in his Memoirs, after dwelling upon the difficulties, which his army had to contend with, speaks as follows: "Besides the ordinary losses incident to a campaign of six weeks, nearly constant fighting or skirmishing, about one-half of the artillery had been sent back to Washington." (In a prior chapter he said that the artillery was in the way, on account of the nature of the country and the fact that the fighting was mainly conducted by musketry and bayonet.) Many men were discharged by reason of the expira- tion of their term of service. His losses he then gives from the records of the Adjutant-General's office, as follows: Killed. Wounded. Missing. Aggregate. Wilderness, May 5 to 7 2,261 8,785 2,920 13,966 Spottsylvania, May 9 to 21 2,271 9,360 1,970 13,601 North Anna, May 23 to 27 285 1,150 217 1,652 Cold Harbor, May 31 to June 12... 1,769 6,752 1,537 10,058 Total 6,586 26,047 6,644 39,277 The above must be assumed to be right, as it is from the official record; still the Century War Book, vol. 14, page 182, gives Grant's losses to June 12, at 54,929 and Butler's 6,215. At any rate the National loss closely approximates Lee's entire force at the beginning of the campaign. Different methods were used by the Nationals and Confederates in. estimating the numbers engaged in campaigns. Grant in his Memoirs says: "The manner of estimating the number in the two armies differ materially. In the Confederate Army often only bayonets are taken into account, never I believe do they estimate more than are handling the guns of the artillery and armed with muskets or 178 THE CAMPAIGNS OP THE CIVIL WAR carbines. Generally the latter are far enough away to be excluded from the count in any one field. Officers and details of enlisted men are not included. In the Northern armies the estimate is most liberal, taking all with the army and drawing pay. Estimates in the same manner as ours, Lee had not less than 80,000 men at the start. His reinforcements were about equal to ours during the campaign, deducting the discharged men and those sent back. He was on the defensive and in a country in which every stream, every road, every obstacle to the movements of troops, and every natural defense was familiar to him and his army. The citizens were all friendly to him and his cause, and could and did furnish him with accurate reports of our every move. Rear guards were not necessary for him, and having always a railroad at his back, large wagon trains were not required. All circumstances considered, we did not have any advantage in numbers." Con- tinuing he says: "General Lee, who had led the Army of Northern Virginia in all these contests, was a very highly estimated man in the Confederate Army and States, and filled also a very high place in the estimation of the people and press of the Northern States. His praise was sounded throughout the entire North after every action he was engaged in; the number of his forces was always lowered, and that of the National forces exaggerated. He was a large austere man and I judge difficult of approach to his subordinates. "To be extolled by the entire press of the South after every engagement and by a portion of the press of the North with equal vehemence, was calcu- lated to give Lee the entire confidence of his troops, and to make him feared by his antagonists. It was not an uncommon thing for my staff officers to hear from Eastern officers. 'Well, Grant has never met Bobby Lee yet.' They were good and true officers who believed now that the Army of Northern Virginia was superior to the Army of the Potomac man to man. I do not believe so, except as advantage spoken of above made them so. Before the end I believe the difference was the other way. The Army of Northern Virginia became despondent and saw the end. It did not please them. The National Army saw the same thing and were encouraged by it." On the other hand the Southern historian, Pollard, says: "Six weeks had elapsed since the campaign begun, and its record of carnage in this brief time was unsurpassed, while on the other hand, never in such a space of time had such a sum of glory been achieved as that which illuminated the arms of Lee. When he stood in array against Grant on the Rapidan his force was not more than 50,000 men. It was this force which had compelled Grant after the fighting at the Wilderness and around Spottsyl- vania Courthouse to wait six days for fresh troops from Washington before he could move, and had baffled his favorite plan of reaching Richmond. Lee never received a single item of reinforcements until May 23. At Hanover Junction he was joined by Pickett's division of Longstreet's Corps, one small brigade of Early's Division of Ewall's Corps, which had been in North Carolina with Hoke, and two small brigades and a battalion of artillery under Breckinridge, the force under the latter which Grant had estimated at 15,000 did not exceed 2,000 muskets. When afterwards Lee fell back to the fortified lines immediately about Richmond he was joined then by Hoke's division from Petersburg, but at the same time Breckinridge's force had to be sent back into the Shenandoah Valley, THE CAMPAIGNS OP THE CIVIL WAR 179 and Ewell's Corps with two battalions of artillery had to be detached under Early's command to meet the demonstrations of Hunter, who succeeded Sigel, against Lynchburg. These counterbalanced all re-enforcements The foregoing statements show, indeed, that the disparity of forces between the two armies in the beginning of the campaign was never lessened after they reached the vicinity of Richmond, but on the contrary was largely increased." Neither of these writers mention, however, one well authenticated fact, that the National army was well fed, thoroughly equipped, had liberal medical attendance and supplies, and was regularly paid, while the Con- federate soldiers were not only poorly equipped, but suffered for want of clothes and were paid with paper money so badly depreciated that it had a very low purchasing power. However, aside from all technical arguments, the glorifying fact remains that both Blue and Gray put up fighting that has never been equalled in modern warfare, and there all the glory lies. After the failure at Cold Harbor, there were two courses which Grant might pursue. First to move southwestward and invade Richmond from the north, or second — to continue his left flank movement to the southeast, cross the James River and attack Petersburg, the "back door of Richmond," which lay twenty miles as the crow flies directly south of the Confederate capital. In choosing the latter he saw clearly that that campaign involved a tedious siege of Lee's army within the impregnable works about Petersburg which had been constructed by very skilful engineers during virtually the entire war. Nevertheless, with his vast army to the south of Petersburg, Grant could still continue his flanking movement by gradually extending his left westward and ultimately cut Lee's railroad communication with the rich magazines of supplies at the south and southwest, and in the end Lee, being thus isolated, would necessarily be compelled either to evacuate his forts or surrender. As will be learned. Grant with his overwhelming numbers and vast resources succeeded finally in achieving these aims, although the obstinate tenacity of the Gray veterans under masterful generalship of Lee deferred the inevitable result until the following spring. On the morning of June 15, Grant's entire army reached the northern banks of the James River opposite City Point, having, in order to screen the movement from Lee, marched over fifty miles in two days, while at the same time his cavalry were making demonstrations to the north of Lee's position and erecting earthworks as if feigning to stay. The crossing of an army of 130,000 men, guns, wagon teams and vast droves of cattle was an extraordinary engineering achievement. A pontoon bridge nearly three-quarters of a mile long, and wide enough for twelve men to march abreast, was thrown across the James River. Every available vessel was also pressed into use as a ferry. At the end of three days, that Is to say, on June 18, the last corps got across to the south side of the James. Draper thus described the formidable defenses erected about Richmond and Petersburg against which Grant's army had now to contend: "There were two lines of defenses covering Richmond, an e.xterior and an interior. The first encircled it on the north and east, at a distance of four to ten miles from the city. It terminated on the south at Chapin's Bluff (near where Lee crossed the James); over the river at this point was Fort Darling. This line ran westward across the railroad which connected Richmond and Petersburg. The second line environed the city from the northwest to the 180 THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL, WAR southeast at a distance of two miles, both extremities resting on the river." The works about Petersburg encircled ^t on the east and south until they reached the Boyton Road, then followed it to where Hatches Run crosses this point about twelve miles southwest of Petersburg in a direct line. The works then continued along the southern side of that stream in a northwesterly direction towards the Appomattox River. The above is a description of the works existing' when Grant began his Petersburg Campaign, but, as the Union gradually from time to tiine extended its left westward, these were simultaneously extended, keeping pace with encircling movements of Grant's works. Ultimately the length of Grant's line was thirty miles. In spite of all Grant's precautions, Lee detected his plan, and he, too, crossed the James with his army on pontoons at Drury's Bluff, about midway between Richmond and Bermuda Hundred, where Butler was stationed, and by the time Grant's army reached City Point his advance columns were in the defenses about Petersburg. While preparing to cross the James, Grant directed Butler to capture Petersburg, the defensive works of which were then but feebly armed by old men and boys. In compliance Butler sent on June 10, Gillmore's infantry with Kautz's cavalry on the mission. Meeting a stubborn resistance by what they took to be a vastly superior force, but which afterwards was found out to be but a few hundred, they retired, and thus the chance was lost of entering Petersburg as Grant had planned by a dash before Lee could man his works. Butler, again on the 14th, in accordance with Grant's order to .make another attack on the city, dispatched General Smith, who had been sent to Bermuda Hundred with all the troops he could spare, including a number of colored regiments. These forces succeeded in capturing by assault five redans with their guns east of Petersburg, penetrating two miles and cap- turing a few hundred prisoners. These outer defenses consisted of thirteen redans or field work with rifle pits, three miles long; which, as Grant says in his Memoirs, "had they been properly manned could have held out against any attacking force." Hancock with the 2nd Corps was now hurried across the James to the support of Smith. Confusion in orders delayed him several hours, during which time Lee's advancing columns reached the works in front of Smith. Hancock after some hard fighting captured another redan, when the break- ing out of the old wound in his left leg compelled him to relinquish the command to Meade. Desperate charging and fighting was now continued, which resulted in the Blues gaining three more redans in spite of the heroic resistance of the Grays under the immediate command of Beauregard, who in the two days following, after bloody combat, succeeded in recapturing some of the lost redans in spite of the re-enforcement sent to Meade. Soon after these encounters Lee's main forces were aligned along the whole inner defensive works, and thus the attempt of Grant to capture Petersburg by a dash before Lee could bring up his army was lost. The attempts had involved four days' bloody fighting in which Grant lost 10,000 men, the price paid for a few outer works. This extraordinary sacrifice of life for so small a gain determined Grant on a method of slow approaches against Lee's invulnerable works. As to losses up to this time. Draper says: "Grant had 64,000; Lee, 38,000." THE CAMPAIGNS OP THE CIVIL WAR 181 The account of the siege of Petersburg which Grant now inaugurated and which lasted until April of the next year, 18 65, will follow. Petersburg, the "l)aclv door of Richmond," is situated on the southern side of the Appomattox River, about twenty miles directly south of Rich- mond. The Appomattox, after flowing from its source in the west for many miles nearly parallel to the James River, takes at Petersburg an abrupt bend northward and empties into the latter near City Point. Petersburg was an important junction of several railroads and turnpikes by which supplies for Lee's army were brought from the fertile southern regions. It was Grant's desire to get control of these highways and, by cutting off supplies from Richmond and Petersburg, ultimately compel Lee to evacuate his position. Of these railroads, the Weldon ran almost due south from Petersburg, a second one, the South Side, ran westward and at about fifty miles north- west of Petersburg crossed the third, the Danville, which was the main line to the Gulf States. Lee's vast defensive works extended from White Oak Swamp northeast of Richmond to Hatcher's Run, about eight miles west of Petersburg as the crow flies. Eight miles of these works were to the north of the James River in front of Richmond. Then came a stretch of five miles in front of Bermuda Hundred, where Butler's army lay; the rest of the line swinging around in front of Petersburg and running thence to Hatcher's Run, in all some thirty miles in length. These works consisted of inner and outer lines of entrenchments and forts. After the four days of bloody assaults made by Meade in the middle of June, Grant proceeded to form a cordon of works on a range of hills encircling Petersburg, parallel with and around Lee's defenses, which in most cases were but a few hundred yards from the enemy's works. The picket entrenchments of both armies, which in all cases were advanced down into the valleys, were about fifty yards apart with heavy thick abatis in front. The rear of the National line was a forest of just the right-sized trees needed for building forts. Along the rear of Grant's line was constructed a railroad from City Point, which brought up the supplies. About July 1 Grant's formation of line was as follows: The Army of the James under Butler held Bermuda Hundred and all the region possessed north of the James. The 9th Corps under Burnside was at Petersburg; next on the left was the 5th Corps, under Warren; then the 2nd Corps under Burney; (Hancock being disabled); next the 6th Corps under Wright, which was broken to the left and south. As we will read, on July 8, Grant Was obliged to send the 6th Corps by water to join with the 19th Corps, most of which were disembarking at Washington after the trip from Louisiana and proceed with it to Washington to protect the Capital against Early, who, with 15,000 men was rapidly moving northward through the Shenandoah Valley with only two brigades, Wallace's and Rickett's at Monocacy to check him. In June, one of Burnside's officers suggested the boring of a mine under a six-gun battery at an angle in the Confederate's works; through the breach made by the explosion a charging party was to rush in. Grant very re- luctantly gave his consent to the project. The mine was completed July 25 and fired on the 30th, at 5 a. m. The main advancing tunnel through the hill occupied by Burnside's men was 500 feet long. From this to the right 182 THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL, WAR and left ran at right angles, boxes about 40 feet long running parallel with and directly under the Confederates' fort. In these latter were placed 12,000 pounds of powder. News of the construction of the mine reached the 18,000 population of Petersburg and caused -dire apprehension. Pollard, the Southern his- torian, page 537, thus describes what occurred within the Confederate lines when the mine was exploded: "The mine was exploded between four and five o'clock in the morning of July 30. An enormous mass of dull, red earth was thrown two hundred feet in the air; human forms, guns-carriages, and small arms were mingled in what appeared to be a bank of clouds blazing with lightning; a great shock smote the ear, and the ground trembled as if by an appalling convulsion of nature. Instantly, before the rumble of the explosion had died away, every piece of siege artillery on the enemy's line, and all the field artillery that could be brought into position opened as with the grand chorus of death. With such an infernal display to strike terror into the Confederates and to demoralize men suddenly awakened from sleep, the 9th Corps, 15,000 strong, marched out to attack and complete what was thought to be an easy and certain victory. The assaulting column, on reaching the scene of explosion, found that there had been opened here a huge crater one hundred and fifty feet long, sixty feet wide, and from twenty-five to thirty deep. It did not advance beyond it; instead of rushing forward and crowning the crest, the assailants made the most shameful exhi- bition of timidity; they huddled into the crater, they sought shelter there, and no commands or persuasion could move them further. A division of negro troops was thrown into the crater, this maw of death; and for two hours the mingled mass of white and black troops, utterly demoralized, unable to pluck up courage to make a determined charge upon the crest, swayed to and fro in the hollow of the exploded earthworks, while the Confederates were rapidly bringing up their artillery on right and left of the crater to destroy the enemy before he could extricate himself from the disgraceful coil. Once a feeble charge in which the black troops were put in advance was made towards the crest. It was encountered by Mahone's brigade. His men were ordered not to Are until they could see the whites of the negroes' eyes. At the first volley delivered at this distance the blacks broke; they were panic-stricken and past control; they rushed through the troops in the crater back to the original lines, while into this slaughter pen the Con- federates now poured an incessant storm of bombs and shells. Retreat across the open space in rear of it was to run the gauntlet of death. The ground all around was dotted with the fallen; while the sides and bottom of the crater were literally lined with dead, the bodies lying in every con- ceivable position. Some had evidently been killed with the butts of muskets, as their crushed skulls and badly smashed faces too plainly indicated; while the greater portion were shot, great pools of blood having flowed from their wounds and stained the ground. In a few short hours of the morning the enemy had lost between four and five thousand men, and had accom- plished nothing." Grant says of the mine in his Memoirs: "The officer selected for leading the charge, 'Lidlie,' besides being otherwise inefficient, proved also to possess a disqualification less common among soldiers. He ordered his men to charge, but remained himself ensconced in safety in the rear." Eggleston, the Southern historian, says: "If there had been in command of the troops THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL. WAR 183 set apart for assault, such a man as Sheridan, for example, or Hooker or Hancock, the chances were an even one or better that the force hurled suddenly upon Lee's broken lines could have made its way into Petersburg by impetuous advance." Immediately after the mine affair, General Burnside asked for leave of absence, which was granted, whereupon General Parke took his place. Eggleston says: "During the whole siege incessant firing was kept up by either side where port-holes were made by placing sand bags on top of the parapets in such a fashion as to leave holes through which the men might fire their guns. Even these port-holes were unavailable for use, if by chance the enemy looking towards them through a port-hole on the other side could see the sky beyond. The moment a man undertook to shoot through a port-hole, his head obscuring the light revealed his presence there to some sharp-shooter on the other side who was standing ready with gun aimed and 'bead' drawn, waiting to fire into the hole the instant the sky beyond should be obscured by human presence." Grant's aim now was to make every effort to extend his line westward so as to compel Lee to attenuate his force in keeping up with the Federal advance. Besides the constant musketry and artillery duelling which took place daily between the combatants along the whole line, there occurred several encounters which are chronicled as follows: In passing, one authority gives for the early days of July, 1864, the estimated forces as follows: About Petersburg and Richmond, Grant 85,295, after sending the 6th Corps and Sheridan's cavalry to head off Early's attack on Washington, of which we will read. Lee had 54,751 aside from these forces, with Early in the Shenandoah Valley. During July and August, while Sheridan and Early were struggling in the Valley, Grant spent much of his time in strengthening his entrenchment from the Appomattox east to Petersburg, and constructing the railroad along the rear of his force from City Point to a connection with the Weldon Railroad by which his army was supplied. On August 12, Hancock's Corps was secretly sent to make an attack on Deep Bottom, on the north side of the James, a short distance east of Rich- mond. The assault resulted in the capture by Hancock of six guns and a few hundred prisoners. The object of this movement was to have Lee divert forces from his main works about Petersburg so an attack could be made on the Weldon Railroad. Six days after Hancock's attack on Deep Bottom, Warren's 5th Corps struck the Weldon Railroad four miles south of Petersburg; this movement south by Warren left a gap in Grant's line, and Lee, quick to see the opportunity, on the 19th sent Mahone with his division to the attack. In a dash they captured 3,000 prisoners, after hard fighting, but were finally overwhelmed by numbers and driven back. On the 20th, Warren, in another attempt to destroy the Weldon Railroad, was repulsed; however, there had been up to this time twenty-four miles of the railroad ruined though to do it had cost Grant over four thousand men, during these last few days. Hancock was then recalled to help Warren at his railroad operations. With Hancock were Miles' and Gibbons' divisions. Lee hurried A. P. Hill against these; they clashed at Ream's Station, where tlie Federals were beaten v/ith a loss of 2,700. Again, on the 28th, Butler sent a force to the northern side of the James which captured Fort Harrison near Chapman's Farm and held it despite several heroic efforts on the part of the Grays to regain it. Butler's 184 THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL WAR forces then attempted to capture the next adjoining worli;s, Fort Gilmer, but could not succeed. Next Meade made