FORREST IN TENNESSEE.

501

While Morgan was spreading consternation in Kentucky, he was operating as boldly in the heart of Tennessee, and, like the former, was preparing the way for a more formidable invasion. On the morning of the 13th of July he suddenly appeared before Murfreesboro', below Nashville, with about three thousand men,' and attacked the smaller National force there under General T. L. Crittenden, and Colonel W. W. Duffield of the Ninth Michigan. After a severe engagement in and near the town, the Nationals were defeated, and, with their leaders, were made prisoners. Forrest seized a quantity of valuable stores and decamped with his booty for other hostile operations.

Forrest's appearance so near Nashville produced much anxiety for the safety of that city, and the strengthening of the post by fortifications upon. the surrounding hills was pushed on with great vigor by General Nelson, who was in command there. The State-House in the city was strongly fortified by casting up earth-works for cannon immediately around it, so that it became a powerful citadel overlooking the town and the surrounding country; and the most active preparations were made to meet an expected attack. At the same time the guerrillas were bold. They made raids to within sight of the city, and during the whole month of August it was seriously threatened. An attempt was also made by some guerrillas, under Woodward, who captured Clarksville, to retake Fort Donelson, then held by a part of the Seventy-first Ohio, under Major J. H. Hart. Woodward had about seven hundred men, foot and horse. He demanded the surrender of the fort. Hart refused, and Woodward made an attack. He was soon repulsed with heavy loss, and fled; while the Nationals behind. their intrenchments did not lose a man.

a Aug. 25, 1862.

While these raids were agitating Tennessee and Kentucky, Bragg was moving with a view to the recovery of these States. He and Buell had marched in nearly parallel lines eastward toward Chattanooga, the former on the north of the Tennessee River, and the latter south of it. Bragg . moved with the greatest celerity, and

won the race, and with full forty thousand men he turned his face toward the Ohio. His force was divided into three corps, commanded respectively by W. J. Hardee, Leonidas Polk, and E. Kirby Smith. The latter was sent to Knoxville, and the former two held Chattanooga and its vicinity. Buell disposed his army in a line stretching from Huntsville, in Alabama, to McMinnsville, in Warren County, Tennessee. His headquarters, late in August, were at Huntsville, and General Thomas commanded the left wing at McMinnsville.

E. KIRBY SMITH

1 Forrest's force was composed of one regiment each from Texas, Alabama, and Tennessee, and two from Georgia.

2 The National force was composed of portions of the Ninth Michigan and Third Minnesota infantry regiments, companies of the Fourth Kentucky and Seventh Pennsylvania cavalry, and two companies of Hewitt's Kentucky battery; in all about 2,000 men.

502

INVASION OF KENTUCKY.

So lay the opposing armies when E. Kirby Smith left Knoxville, and passing through Big Creek Gap of the Cumberland Mountains, with about six thousand men and a train of one hundred and fifty wagons, penetrated Kentucky by way of Knox County. By this movement he so completely outflanked and imperiled General G. W. Morgan, at Cumberland Gap,' that the latter blew up the works there and fled toward the Ohio, harassed nearly all the way by seven hundred of John Morgan's guerrillas.

Smith's troops marched rapidly with very little encumbrance, and subsisted most of the way over the mountain region upon green corn, with the anticipation of living on the fat of the land in the Blue Grass region of Kentucky, and perhaps reveling in the luxuries of Louisville and Cincinnati. His cavalry, under Colonel J. S. Scott, nine hundred strong, led the invasion, and scattered among the people a proclamation, telling them that good treatment would be the reward of good behavior, but hanging and destruction of property would be the fate of every man who should fire from the woods on the Confederate troops.

Smith's course was in the direction of Frankfort, at which point he might choose Louisville or Cincinnati as his grand objective in further movements. His invasion caused wide-spread alarm; and to Indiana and Ohio, where troops were in readiness for the field, all eyes were turned for power to roll back the fearful tide. Major-General Lewis Wallace had just been assisting Governor Morton in raising troops in Indiana. He offered to command a regiment for the crisis, and one was given him. He took with him to Louisville the Sixty-sixth Indiana, and offered his services to General Boyle, whom he ranked. They were accepted, and with the Sixty-sixth he hastened to Lexington, where he was put in command of all the troops there. But they were too few. He called for more from the region north of the Ohio, and they hastened to his standard in large numbers, for he was exceedingly popular. Leading men of Kentucky also flocked thither, and he was about to move forward to relieve Morgan at Cumberland Gap, and confront Smith with men full of the most glowing enthusiasm, when he was suddenly superseded in command by General William Nelson. The change dampened the ardor of the troops, especially those of Indiana.

Meanwhile Smith moved rapidly forward. His cavalry penetrated to Richmond, in Madison County, fighting and routing a battalion of Union cavalry at London, capturing one hundred and eleven of them, and repeating the exploit on a smaller scale at other places. The main body pushed on with celerity, and when approaching Richmond it was met by the force organized by Wallace and then commanded by General M. D. Manson, for Nelson had not arrived. That force was superior to Smith's in the number of its men and weapons; but it was largely composed of raw troops. Yet

1862.

Manson pressed forward to meet the invader. They came in colAug. 30, lision a little beyond Rogersville," and a severe battle was fought for three hours, when Manson was driven back, fighting gallantly. At this juncture Nelson arrived and took command, and half an hour afterward his troops were utterly routed and scattered in all directions. Nelson was wounded, and Manson resumed command; but the day was

1 See page 303.

CINCINNATI THREATENED BY THE CONFEDERATES.

503 lost. Smith's cavalry had gained the rear of the Nationals, and stood in the way of their wild flight. The disaster was terrible. General Manson, hurt by his horse falling on him, was made a prisoner: a fate shared by several hundred of his fellow-soldiers. The dispersion of his force was complete, and his losses very heavy. Considering the rawness of the troops and their lack of discipline (some of them not over thirty days old as soldiers, and many who had not yet experienced a battalion-drill), the prowess displayed by them in THE BATTLE OF RICHMOND marked it as one of the most creditable engagements of the war on the part of the Nationals.

2

a

a Sept. 2, 1862.

The elated victors pushed on to Lexington, where they were warmly welcomed by the secessionists of that stronghold of slavery in Kentucky. Their approach frightened the Legislature (then in session) from Frankfort. They adjourned to Louisville, whither the archives of the State and about a million of dollars in treasure from the banks of Richmond, Lexington, and Frankfort were carried. The movement was timely, for Smith tarried but little anywhere on his triumphal march. He did not then go farther toward Frankfort, however, but pushed on northward through Paris to Cynthiana, from which point he might at his option, as it appeared, strike Cincinnati or Louisville. The former city seemed to be more at his mercy, and he turned his face in that direction, confidently expecting to possess himself of its treasures of food, clothing, arms, and munitions of war in the course of a few days.

Sept. 1.

The invader was confronted by an unexpected force near Cincinnati. When Wallace was deprived of his command at Lexington, he returned to that city. When intelligence of the disaster at Richmond reached there, he was ordered to Lexington by General Wright, then in Louisville, to resume command of the shattered forces. At Paris he was recalled to Cincinnati to provide for its defense, and half an hour after his arrival' in that city he issued a stirring proclamation, as commander of that and the cities of Covington and Newport opposite, in which he officially informed the inhabitants of the approach of the Confederates in strong force, and that the preservation of these towns from the consequences of war must be effected by the active co-operation of the citizens. He ordered all places of business to be closed, and the citizens of Cincinnati, under the direction of the mayor, to assemble an hour afterward in convenient public places, to be organized for work on intrenchments on the south side of the river. He also ordered the ferry-boats to cease running, and proclaimed martial law in the three cities just named.

This was a bold, startling, but necessary measure. In accordance with the principle expressed in his proclamation,-" Citizens for the labor-Sol

1 These have been estimated only. There were no full official returns made. It is supposed to have been about equal between the belligerents. The National loss was estimated at about 5,000, killed, wounded, and prisoners. Manson was well supported in the struggle by General Cruft, who, as we have seen, distinguished himself at the siege of Fort Donelson. See page 215.

2 Encouraged by their friendly demonstrations, Smith issued a proclamation to the Kentuckians, assuring them that he came as a liberator, in the spirit of the State Supremacy Doctrine of the Resolutions of 1798. He had come, he said, to test the truth of what he believed to be a foul aspersion, that Kentuckians willingly joined in an attempt to subjugate their Southern brethren. Like all the other Confederate leaders, he talked about "the Northern hordes," who were treading the "sacred soil of the South."

“This labor," said the proclamation, ought to be that of love, and the undersigned trusts and believes it will be so. Anyhow, it must be done. The willing shall be properly creditel; the unwilling promptly visited. The principle adopted is, Citizens for the labor--Soldiers for the battle."

504

men.

WALLACE'S DEFENSE OF CINCINNATI.

diers for the battle,"-Wallace had demanded the services of all able-bodied The response was wonderful. In the course of a few hours he had at his command an army of workers and fighters forty thousand strong. While many did not believe that danger was so nigh,' all confided in the General, and the citizens and soldiers of Cincinnati, and Dickson's brigade of colored men, and the "Squirrel Hunters" from the rural districts of Ohio, streamed across a pontoon bridge that had been erected in a day under Wallace's

directions, and swarmed upon the hills around Covington. There was a most stirring and picturesque night-march over that floating bridge, on which tons of supplies and many heavy cannon were also passing. Within three days after the proclamation was issued, a line of intrenchments, ten miles in length and semicircular in form, was thrown up, extending from the river bank above Cincinnati to the river bank below it, well armed and fully manned. Steamers had been suddenly converted into gun-boats, and the river above and below the pontoon bridge was patroled by a large number of them.

The work for protection, so promptly commenced and vigorously carried forward, was scarcely completed when General Heath, with full fifteen thousand of Smith's invading troops (whose ranks had been swelled by volun

1 "If the enemy should not come, after all this fuss," said a doubting friend to the General, "you will be ruined."-"Very well," he responded; "but they will come, and if they do not, it will be because this same fuss has caused them to think better of it."

2 This is a view of the passage of the troops over the pontoon bridge at Cincinnati on the night of the 3d of September, 1862. The bridge was laid along the line of the Suspension Bridge since erected. The unfinished piers of that bridge are seen on each side of the Ohio, in the picture.

3 The principal work was named Fort Mitchel, in honor of the brave commander and philosopher th the army.

BRAGG'S MARCH TOWARD KENTUCKY.

505

a Sept. 12, 1962.

teers from among the Kentucky secessionists), appeared. He was astounded and alarmed by the preparations to receive him, and retreated in haste under cover of darkness and a heavy thunder-storm, dismayed and disheartened. When the danger was averted, Wallace led several of the volunteer companies back to Cincinnati, where he was greeted with the huzzas of thousands of citizens, who regarded him as their deliverer,' and he was the recipient of public honors suggested by a sense of gratitude.'

Sept. 12.

Foiled in his attempt against Cincinnati, Smith turned his face toward Louisville. He took possession of Frankfort, the capital of Kentucky, on the day when Heath fled from before Wallace's lines. There he organized a city government, and issued a proclamation, telling the inhabitants that they must join his standard or be considered his enemies. Here he awaited an opportunity to join his forces to those of Bragg, which for almost three weeks had been moving northward.

Bragg crossed the Tennessee River at Harrison, just above Chattanooga, on the 21st of August, with thirty-six regiments of infantry, five of cavalry, and forty guns. Louisville was his destination. He pushed forward among the rugged mountains around the Sequatchee Valley, that lie well eastward of Nashville, and, sending out a strong cavalry force toward Buell's left at McMinnsville as a feint, had fairly flanked that leader's army, gained his rear, and was well on his way toward the Cumberland before the latter had fairly penetrated the Confederate general's designs.

The cavalry movement toward McMinnsville resulted in a serious fight near there. The horsemen were under General Forrest, who for several days had been hovering around Lebanon, Nashville, and Murfreesboro', and finally, on Saturday afternoon, the 30th of August, appeared a short distance from McMinnsville, making their way toward the road from that place to Murfreesboro', to cut off Buell's communications. Colonel E. P. Fyffe, of the Twenty-sixth Ohio, was ordered to take three regiments and prevent the threatened disaster. With his own regiment in advance, and the Seventeenth and Fifty-eighth Indiana following, he pressed forward five miles in sixty minutes, through woods, fields, and creeks, and soon afterward, when nine miles from his starting-place, encountered the foe, fifteen hundred strong. After a short struggle the Confederates were routed, and driven in such haste and confusion that they left every encumbrance behind them. Fyffe's troops were of General T. J. Wood's division, and were highly complimented by that commander in a general order.

Supposing Bragg was aiming at Nashville, Buell now took measures

1 Wallace issued an address to the citizens of Cincinnati, Covington, and Newport, commending their alacrity, fortitude, and bravery. "The most commercial of people," he said, "you submitted to a total suspension of business, and without a murmur adopted my principle-Citizens for labor-Soldiers for battle.' In coming times, strangers viewing the works on the hills of Newport and Covington will ask, Who built those intrenchments? You can answer, We built them.' If they ask, 'Who guarded them?' you can reply, We helped in thousands." If they inquire the result, your answer will be, 'The enemy came and looked at them, and stole away in the night.""

2 On the 17th of October following, the authorities of. Cincinnati publicly expressed their gratitude to Wallace for his services rendered to the city in its hour of peril; and on the 14th of March, 1863, the Legislature of Ohio, by joint resolutions, thanked him for "the signal service he had rendered the country at large" in the Army of the Republic, and especially for the promptness, energy, and skill exhibited by him in organizing the forces, planning the defense, and executing the movements of soldiers and citizens under his command at Cincinnati, which prevented the rebel forces under Kirby Smith from desecrating the free soil of our noble State."