Page images
PDF
EPUB

CHAPTER XI.

THE MARCH TO CHATTANOOGA AND THE BATTLE OF MISSIONARY RIDGE.

WHILE Sherman's corps was resting on the Big Black, the situation of affairs in the central region became such as to require the concentration of all available troops for operations in that theatre of war. Rosecrans had in August expelled the enemy from Middle Tennessee, and, by the 9th of September, by a brilliant series of flank movements, had compelled Bragg to evacuate his strong fortified position at Chattanooga, and fall back behind the Lookout and Mission mountains. Burnside had, at the same time, driven the rebels from East Tennessee, and had occupied Knoxville and Cumberland Gap. Having lost the Mississippi, the enemy was now endeavoring to save Tennessee, and was bringing troops from the east and from the west to reinforce Bragg, so as to enable him to take the offensive, and drive the Union army to the Ohio. Longstreet's corps was on its way from Virginia, and Loring's division had arrived from Johnston's army.

On the 13th September, orders were sent from Washington to Burnside to move down the Tennessee towards Chattanooga, and to Hurlbut at Memphis and Grant and Sherman at Vicksburg, to send all their available forces to Corinth and Tuscumbia to co-operate with Rosecraus, in case Bragg should attempt to turn his right flank and invade Tennessee. On the 23d, Howard's eleventh corps and Slocum's twelfth corps were detached from the Army of the Potomac, united under the command of Major-General Hooker, and ordered to Nashville.

On the 22d, having received a telegram from General Grant, directing him to detail one division to march to Vicksburg, and there embark for Memphis, Sherman dispatched Osterhaus with his first division. At four o'clock that afternoon it was on the march, and embarked the next day. On the 23d, Sherman was called in person to Vicksburg, and instructed to prepare to follow with his whole corps, except Tuttle's third division, which was to be left with General McPherson to guard the line of the Big Black, and to be replaced in the Fifteenth Corps by John E. Smith's division of the Seventeenth Corps, consisting of three brigades, commanded respectively by Brigadier-General Matthias, Colonel G. B. Baum, Fifty-sixth Illinois, and Colonel J. J. Alexander, Fiftieth Illinois. This division was already on the way, and, by the 27th, at the earliest moment when it was possible to procure steamboat transportation, Sherman followed in person, with Morgan L. Smith's second division, and Ewing's fourth division. Owing to the low stage of water in the river and the scarcity of wood on the banks, the last of the fleet did not reach Memphis until the 4th of October. There Sherman found orders from the general-in-chief, General Halleck, to conduct the Fifteenth Army Corps, with all other troops which could be spared from the line of the Memphis and Charleston railway, to Athens, Alabama, and thence report for orders to General Rosecrans, at Chattanooga. He was substantially to follow the railway eastwardly, repairing it as he moved, looking to his own lines for supplies, and was in no event to depend for them upon Rosecrans, the roads in whose rear were already overtaxed to meet the wants of his own army. Osterhaus' first division was already in front of Corinth, and John E. Smith's, styled the third, at Memphis, moving out by rail, but the capacity of the railroad was so limited that it was soon found that animals and wagons could be moved more rapidly by the common road, and the whole of Ewing's fourth division moved in the same manner.

On the 11th of October, having put in march the rear of the column, Sherman started for Corinth by railway, in a special

train, escorted by the battalion of the Thirteenth Regular Infantry, and reached Collierville station at noon. The Sixtyninth Indiana, under Colonel D. C. Anthony, was at that moment gallantly defending the post against the attack by the rebel General Chalmers with a force of nearly three thousand cavalry and eight field-guns, and Sherman's escort arrived just in time to assist in his defeat. The next day Sherman reached Corinth, and ordered General Frank P. Blair, who had again reported to him at the outset of the march, and whom he had assigned to duty as his second in command, to take charge of the advance, and push forward to Iuka with the first and second divisions of Osterhaus and Morgan L. Smith, while he himself remained behind a few days to push forward the troops as they came up, and to direct the repairs. On the 19th, he reached Iuka, and on the following day, in accordance with a previous agreement with Rear-Admiral Porter, two gunboats and a decked coal-barge reached Eastport to assist in crossing the Tennessee. While the repairs of the railway were progressing, Sherman ordered General Blair to push forward with the two divisions under his command, and drive the enemy, consisting of Roddy's and Ferguson's cavalry brigades, and a number of irregular cavalry, in all about five thousand strong, under the command of Major-General Stephen D. Lee, beyond Tuscumbia. After a short engagement, Blair drove the enemy from his front, and entered Tuscumbia on the 27th of October.

In the mean time, on the 19th and 20th of September, Rosecrans, endeavoring to concentrate his scattered columns in the presence of the enemy, had been attacked by Bragg, had fought the bloody battle of Chickamauga, had retreated to Chattanooga, and was there practically invested. On the 18th of October, Major-General Grant, who had been sent for some time before, arrived at Louisville, and in pursuance of orders issued by the War Department on the 16th, and delivered to him by the secretary of war in person, assumed command of the Military Division of the Mississippi, comprising the departments of the Ohio, the Cumberland, and the Tennessee, and the three large armies operating therein. Upon his

recommendation, the secretary of war immediately issued orders assigning Major-General Thomas to the command of the Department of the Cumberland, and Major-General Sherman to that of the Department of the Tennessee. Sherman received these orders at Iuka, on the 25th of October, accompanied by instructions from General Grant to retain personal command of the army in the field. Investing Major-General McPherson, at Vicksburg, with full authority to act in his stead in regard to the State of Mississippi, and conferring upon Major-General Hurlbut a similar authority as to West Tennessee, he at once published the following instructions for the guidance of the officers and soldiers of his department in their relations with the citizens :

"All officers in command of corps and fixed military posts will assume the highest military powers allowed by the laws of war and Congress. They must maintain the best possible discipline, and repress all disorder, alarms, and dangers in their reach. Citizens who fail to support the Government have no right to ask favors and protection; but if they actively assist us in vindicating the national authority, all commanders will assist them and their families in every possible way. Officers need not meddle with matters of trade and commerce, which by law devolve on the officer of the Treasury Department; but whenever they discover goods contraband of war being conveyed towards the public enemy, they will seize all goods tainted by such transactions, and imprison the parties implicated; but care must be taken to make full records and report such case. When a district is infested by guerrillas, or held by the enemy, horses and mules, wagons, forage, etc., are all means of war, and can be freely taken, but must be accounted for as public property. If the people do not want their horses and corn taken, they must organize and repress all guerrillas or hostile bands in their neighborhood.

"It is represented that officers, provost-marshals, and others in the military service, are engaged in business or speculation on their own account, and that they charge fees

for permits and passes. All this is a breach of honor and law. Every salaried officer of the military service should devote every hour of his time, every thought of his mind, to his Government, and if he makes one cent profit beyond his pay, it is corrupt and criminal. All officers and soldiers in this department are hereby commanded to engage in no business whatever, save their sworn duty to their Govern

ment.

"Every man should be with his proper corps, division, brigade, and regiment, unless absent, sick, wounded, or detached by a written order of a competent commander. Soldiers when so absent must have their descriptive rolls, and when not provided with them the supposition is that they are improperly absent. Mustering officers will see that all absentees not away by a written order from their proper commander are reported on the muster-rolls as deserters, that they may lose their pay, bounty, and pensions, which a generous Government and people have provided for soldiers who do their whole duty. The best hospitals in the world are provided for the wounded and sick, but these must not be made receptacles for absentees who seek to escape the necessary exposures and dangers of a soldier's life. Whenever possible, citizens must be employed as nurses, cooks, attendants, stewards, etc., in hospitals, in order that enlisted men may be where they belong with their regiments. The medical inspectors will attend to this at once. The general commanding announces that he expects the wounded and sick to have every care possible; but this feeling must not be abused to the injury of the only useful part of an army-a soldier in the field.

"In time of war and rebellion, districts occupied by our troops are subject to the laws of war. The inhabitants, be they friendly or unfriendly, must submit to the controlling power. If any person in an insurgent district corresponds or trades with an enemy, he or she becomes a spy; and all inhabitants, moreover, must not only abstain from hostile and unfriendly acts, but must aid and assist the power that protects them in trade and commerce."

« PreviousContinue »