332 BATTLES OF CHATTANOOGA. [1863. "battle above the clouds." That night battalions were seen crossing the disk of the rising moon. The next day, the 25th, Hooker was to pass down the eastern slope of Lookout Mountain, cross Chattanooga valley, and strike the left of Bragg's position as now held on the crest and western slope of Mission Ridge. But the destruc 1863.] CAPTURE OF MISSION RIDGE. 333 tion of a bridge by the retreating enemy delayed him four hours, and Grant saw that Bragg was weakening his centre to mass troops against Sherman. So without waiting longer for Hooker, he ordered an advance of the centre held by Thomas. Under the immediate leadership of Generals Sheridan and Wood, Thomas's men crossed the valley, walked right into the line of Confederate works at the base of Mission Ridge, followed the retreating enemy to a second line half-way up the slope, took this, and still keeping at the very heels of the Confederates, who thus shielded them from the batteries at the top, reached the summit and swept everything before them. Bragg's army was completely defeated, and its captured guns were turned upon it as it fled. He himself, after vainly trying to rally the fugitives by riding among them and shouting, "Here's your commander!" being answered derisively, "Here's your mule!" was obliged to join in the flight. In these battles the National loss was nearly six thousand men. The Confederate loss was about ten thousand, of whom six thousand were prisoners, and forty-two guns. Bragg established the remainder of his army in a fortified camp at Dalton, Ga., and was soon superseded in command by General Joseph E. Johnston. Granger and Sherman were sent to the relief of Burnside at Knoxville, and Longstreet withdrew to Virginia. The Chattanooga campaign was perhaps the most picturesque of any in the war, and was full of romantic incidents. CHAPTER XXI. THE BLACK CHAPTER. So far as the military situation was concerned, the victories at Gettysburg and Vicksburg wrote the doom of the Confederacy, and there the struggle should have ended. That it did not end there, was due partly to a hope that the Democratic party at the North might carry the next presidential election, but more largely to the temper of the Southern people, which had been concentrated into an intense personalized hatred. This began before the war, was one of the chief circumstances that made it possible to carry the conspiracy into execution, and seemed to be carefully nursed by Mr. Davis and his ministers. General Andrew J. Hamilton, who had been Attorney-General of Texas, in a speech delivered in New York in 1863, declared that two hundred men were hanged in Texas during the presidential canvass of 1860, because they were suspected of being more loyal to the Union than to slavery. Judge Baldwin, of Texas, speaking in Washington in October, 1864, said: "The wrongs inflicted on the Union men of Texas surpass in cruelty the horrors of the Inquisition. From two to three thousand men have been hanged, in many cases without even the form of a trial, simply and solely 1863.] PERSECUTION IN TEXAS. 335 because they were Union men and would not give their support to secession. Indeed, it has been, and is, the express determination of the secessionists to take the life of every Union man. Nor are they always particular to ascertain what a man's real sentiments are. It is sufficient for them that a man is a d—d Yankee. One day a secessionist said to the Governor of Texas, 'There is Andrew Jackson Hamilton-suppose I kill the d-d Unionist.' Said the Governor, Kill him or any other Unionist, and you need fear nothing while I am Governor.' As I was passing through one place in Texas, I saw three men who had been hanged in the course of the night. When I inquired the cause, I was told in the coolest manner that it was to be presumed they were Union men." In Grayson county, a man named Hillier, who had come from the North, was forced into the Confederate army. Soon afterward his wife was heard to remark that she wished the Union army would advance and take possession of Texas, that her husband might return and provide for his family. This being reported to being reported to the Provost Marshal, he sent six men dressed in women's clothes, who dragged her to the nearest tree and hanged her in the sight of her little children. In the mountainous portions of Virginia, Tennessee, and North Carolina, where comparatively few slaves were kept, large numbers of the people were opposed to secession, and for their devotion to the Union they suffered such persecution as had never been witnessed in this part of 336 THE BLACK FLAG. [1863. the world. It was perhaps most violent in east Tennessee. Among the numerous deliberate and brutal murders, committed by men in Confederate uniform, were those of the Rev. L. Carter and his son, in Bradley county, the Rev. M. Cavander, in Van Buren county, the Rev. Mr. Blair, of Hamilton county, and the Rev. Mr. Douglas — all for the simple reason that they were Unionists. Many of the outrages upon the wives and children of Union men were such as any writer would shrink from recording. Those who could get away fled northward, often after their homes had been burned and their movable property carried off, and became subjects of charity in the free States. In Virginia, Governor Letcher wrote to a man named Fitzgerald, who had been arrested on suspicion of Unionism, and asked to be released: "In 1856 you voted for the abolitionist Frémont for President. Ever since the war, you have maintained a sullen silence in regard to its merits. Your son, who, in common with other young men, was called to the defence of his country, has escaped to the enemy, probably by your advice. This is evidence enough to satisfy me that you are a traitor to your country, and I regret that it is not sufficient to justify me in demanding you from the military authorities, to be tried and executed for treason." The Lynchburg "Republican" said, "Our people were greatly surprised, on Saturday morning, to see the black flag waving over the depot of the Virginia and Tennessee Railroad Company. We are for displaying that flag throughout the whole |