506

BRAGG'S INVASION OF KENTUCKY.

accordingly. He pushed his army forward to Lebanon to cover it; but was soon satisfied, by an intercepted dispatch, that his opponent was pressing toward Louisville, and was threatening the main line of supplies for Buell's army, the Louisville and Nashville railway.

A RAILWAY STOCKADE.

At assailable points on this important highway he posted troops as soon as possible, and had strong stockades. built for its protection.

Bragg crossed the Cumberland at Carthage, eastward of Lebanon, entered Kentucky on the 5th of September, and made his headquarters at Glasgow, the capital of Barren County, where a railway connects with that between Nashville and Louisville. Breckenridge had been left in Tennessee with a large force of all arms, to retard Buell and invest Nashville, then garrisoned by the divisions of Thomas, Negley, and Palmer, under the command of General Thomas.

Bragg's advance under General J. R. Chalmers, about eight thousand • Sept. 1862. strong, with seven guns, pushed on toward Louisville, and on the 14th, two brigades' of the division of the Kentucky traitor, S. B. Buckner, under General Duncan, of Mississippi, encountered a little more

than two thousand Na

tional troops, under Colonel T. J. Wilder,' at Mumfordsville, where the railway crosses the Green River, and where a stockade and strong earth-works had been hastily constructed on

the south side of the stream and on each side of the road. Duncan arrived on Saturday evening, and demanded an unconditional sur

render.

⚫ Sept. 14.

It was refused,

and at four o'clock the next morning' the Confederates drove in the National pickets. A battle began in earnest at dawn, and raged for about five hours, when four hundred of the Fiftieth Indiana, under Colonel C. L. Dunham, came to the aid of the garrison. The assailants were repulsed with heavy loss."

Assured of final success, the Confederates remained quiet until the 16th,

1 Composed of Mississippi, Georgia, and Alabama troops.

2 These consisted of about 200 recruits of the Seventeenth Indiana, and Sixty-seventh and Eighty-ninth of the same State, and one company each of the Eighteenth Regulars, of cavalry, and of the Louisville Provost Guards. Their guns consisted of three 12-pounders and a 3-inch rifled cannon, under Lieutenant Mason. The Thirteenth Indiana and Thirty-third Kentucky batteries were also there and in position.

3 The writer is indebted to Stephen Bowers, chaplain of the Sixty-seventh Indiana, for the above plan of the fortifications, and also for an interesting account of the affair we are considering.

BRAGG'S PROCLAMATION.

507

a Sept.17, 1862.

when a large portion of Bragg's main body, under General (Bishop) Polk, appeared upon the hills on the north side of the river, overlooking the National camp, not less than twenty-five thousand strong. Wilder had been re-enforced by two regiments (Sixtieth and Eighty-fourth Indiana), but opposed the invaders with only four thousand effective men. He sustained a severe fight nearly all day, hoping Buell, then at Bowling Green, would send him promised relief. But relief did not come; and when, at sunset, the demand for a surrender was repeated, and Wilder counted forty-five cannon in position to attack his little force, he called a council of officers. It was agreed that further resistance would produce a useless sacrifice of life. At two o'clock in the morning" Wilder surrendered, and his troops marched out at six o'clock with all the honors of war.1 Bragg was greatly elated by this event, and, counting largely on the usual tardiness of Buell, as Lee had done on that of McClellan, he felt assured of soon making his head-quarters in Louisville, or, at least, of plundering rich Kentucky as much as he desired. On the 18th he issued a proclamation from Glasgow, in which he repeated the declarations of his subordinates, that the Confederate Army had come as the liberators of Kentuckians "from the tyranny of a despotic ruler," and "not as conquerors or despoilers. Your gallant Buckner," he said, "leads the van; Marshall [Humphrey] is on the right; while Breckenridge, dear to us as to you, is advancing with Kentucky's valiant sons to receive the honor and applause due to their heroism." He told them that he must have supplies for his

but that they should be fairly paid for; and he appealed to the women of Kentucky for encouragement, assuring them that he had come as a chival rous knight-errant to succor them from "fear of loathsome prisons or insult ing visitations" thereafter. "Let your enthusiasm have free rein," he said. “Buckle on the armor of your kindred-your husbands, sons, and brothers— ́ and scoff with shame him who would prove recreant in his duty to you, his country, and his God."

b Oct. 4.

From Mumfordsville Bragg's troops moved northward without opposition, and, on the 1st of October, formed a junction with those of Kirby Smith, at Frankfort, where they performed the farce of making Richard Hawes, formerly a Congressman, "Provisional Governor of Kentucky." At the same time Bragg's plundering bands were scouring the State under the "provisional" administration of bayonets, dashing up sometimes almost to Louisville, and driving away southward thousands of hogs and cattle, and numerous trains, bearing in the same direction bacon and breadstuffs of every kind. In every town the goods of merchants were taken, and worthless Confederate scrip given in exchange.3

1 Report of Colonel J. T. Wilder, September 18th, 1862. Wilder reported his entire loss during the siege at thirty-seven killed and wounded. The enemy," he said, "admit a loss of 714 killed and wounded on Sunday

alone."

2 It is notorious that Bragg, who was a supple instrument of Jefferson Davis, and was his special favorite on that account, had not the means, nor manifested the least intention to pay for any thing. When, a little later, he retreated from Kentucky, he plundered the region through which he passed of cattle, horses, and supplies of every kind that came in his way, without inquiring whether he took from friends or foes, or offering even promises of remuneration. The invasions of Kirby Smith and Braxton Bragg were plundering raids, like John Morgan's, on a greater scale. It was the wealth of Kentucky, and Southern Ohio and Indiana, which they marched from the Tennessee River to secure, and not the hope of subjugation or permanent occupation.

3 The Lexington Observer, in an article on the amount of plunder carried away by the marauders, says the Richmond Examiner was not far wrong when it said that "the wagon-train of supplies brought out of Ken

508

BUELL TURNS UPON BRAGG.

Regarding Kentucky as a part of the Confederacy, for her professed repre sentatives were in the "Congress" of the conspirators at Richmond, the conscription act was enforced there at the point of the bayonet.

And so the insane policy of "neutrality," which had brought the war into Kentucky, yielded its fruit of wide-spread distress, until the whole people held out their hands imploringly to the National Government, which many of them had affected to despise, begging for deliverance from Buckner and Breckenridge, and other native and foreign "liberators."

To that cry for help Buell responded, but in a manner that seemed to the impatient loyalists and suffering Kentuckians almost as if he was in league with Bragg for the punishment of that Commonwealth. He left Nashville on the 15th of September, and made his way to Louisville, in an apparent race with Bragg for that city. He won it in the course of a fortnight, but all that time his opponent was gathering in the spoils he came for without hindrance. The Government was dissatisfied, and relieved Buell, but at the urgent request of his general officers he was reinstated, with the understanding that he should take immediate measures for driving the marauders from Kentucky. Buell's army was then about one hundred thousand strong, while Bragg had not more than sixty-five thousand, including Kirby Smith's troops.

Buell turned toward his opponent on the 1st of October. His army was arranged in three corps, commanded respectively by Generals Gilbert, Crit tenden, and McCook. General George II. Thomas, who was Buell's second in command,' had charge of the right wing. It moved over a broad space, its right under the immediate command of Crittenden, marching by way of Shepherdsville toward Bardstown, to attack Bragg's main force, and the remainder moving more in the direction of Frankfort. The right soon began to feel the Confederates. Bragg fell slowly back to Springfield, impeding Buell as much as possible by skirmishing, that his supply-trains might get a good start toward Tennessee.

a Oct., 1862.

At Springfield Buell heard that Kirby Smith had evacuated Frankfort and crossed the Kentucky River, and that Bragg was moving to concentrate his forces at Harrodsburg or Perryville. He at once ordered the central division of his army, under Gilbert, to march on the latter place; and, toward the evening of the 7th," the head of the column, under General R. B. Mitchell, fell in with a heavy force of Confederates within five miles of Perryville, drawn up in battle order. pressed back about three miles without fighting, when General Sheridan's division was ordered up to a position on heights near Doctor's Creek, and General Schoepff's was held in reserve. When these dispositions for battle were completed it was nightfall.

These were

Buell was with Gilbert. Expecting a battle in the morning, he sent for,

tucky by General Kirby Smith was 40 miles long, and brought a million of yards of jeans, with a large amount of clothing, boots and shoes, and two hundred wagon-loads of bacon, 6,000 barrels of pork, 1,500 mules and horses, and a large lot of swine." This was a very small portion of the property swept out of the State during this raid. Seventy-four thousand yards of jeans were stolen from one establishment in Frankfort, and one person in Lexington was plundered of jeans and linseys valued at $106,000. "For four weeks," said the Observer, "while the Confederates were in the vicinity of Lexington, a train of cars was running daily southward, carrying away property taken from the inhabitants, and at the same time huge wagon-trains were continually moving for the same purpose."

1 Placed in that position on the 1st of September.

BATTLE OF PERRYVILLE.

509

the flank corps of Crittenden and McCook to close up on his right and left, and, if possible, surround the foe. A great drouth was then prevailing, and the necessity for making a circuitous march to find water caused half a day's delay in the arrival of Crittenden. Meanwhile Bragg, perceiving the threatened peril, had begun to retreat. He was anxious to secure the exit of his plunder-trains from the State, and when informed of the delay of Crittenden, he resolved to give battle at once to the other corps, and, if successful, to fall upon the delayed one on its arrival, or retreat with his spoils. His troops then consisted of five divisions; two under Hardee, and one each under Anderson, Cheatham, and Buckner: the whole immediately commanded by Major-General Polk. Smith was retreating farther to the east, taking with him the "Provisional Government in the person of poor "Governor" Hawes, and Withers had been sent to assist him.

There was a sharp engagement early in the morning of the 8th, when the Confederates attempted to repel the brigade of Colonel D. McCook,' of Sheridan's division, which Gilbert had ordered forward, accompanied by Barnett's battery and the Second Michigan cavalry, to occupy high ground, and to secure a watering-place. A desultory battle ensued, which lasted until nearly ten o'clock, when, just as General R. B. Mitchell's division was getting into line of battle on the right of the eminence occupied by McCook, the Second Missouri, of Pea Ridge fame, with the Fifteenth Missouri as a support, came to McCook's aid. The Confederates were quickly repulsed and driven back into the woods, heavily smitten on the flank by the Second Minnesota battery. In this engagement a part of the Ninth Pennsylvania cavalry performed gallant service. Thus ended the preliminary battle of that eventful day.

Mitchell and Sheridan were ordered to advance and hold the ground until the two flank corps should arrive. The head of that of McCook, under General Rousseau, moving up from

Macksville, on the Harrodsburg road, reached a designated point on Gilbert's left at ten o'clock in the morning. Only two of McCook's three divisions (Rousseau's and Jackson's) were present, that of Sill having been sent toward Frankfort. Rousseau advanced with his cavalry to secure the position, and the batteries of Loomis (Michigan) and Simonson (Indiana) were planted in commanding positions, when a reconnoissance was ordered to Chaplin's Creek, with the view of obtaining, if possible, a better position, where water for the troops might be had. This was done, and when McCook returned to his command, at about noon, his batteries were engaged in

Ohio.

LOVELL H. ROUSSEAU.

510

BATTLE OF PERRYVILLE.

an ineffectual duel with those of the Confederates. He ordered their commanders to save their ammunition, and seeing no enemy in force, and having no apprehensions of a battle until he should offer one, he proceeded to the right of his line.

The foe was even then coming stealthily upon him. Cheatham's division, well masked, had stolen up to McCook's left, which was composed chiefly of raw troops, under General Terrell, of Major-General James S. Jackson's division, and fell suddenly upon them in flank, with horrid yells. By a bullet of their first volley Jackson was instantly killed,' and the raw and vastly outnumbered brigade of Terrell broke and fled in utter confusion, leaving most of the guns of Parsons's battery as trophies for the victors. In . an attempt to rally his troops Terrell was mortally wounded, and died that night.

Fierce indeed was this charge, and when Terrell's force melted away the Confederates fell with equal fury upon Rousseau's division, standing ready and firmly at the foot of the hill to receive it. An attempt to flank and destroy Rousseau's left was gallantly met by Starkweather's brigade, and the batteries of Bush and Stone, who maintained the position for nearly three hours, until the ammunition of both infantry and artillery was nearly exhausted, and Bush's battery had lost thirty-five horses. The guns were drawn back a little, and the infantry, after retiring for a supply of ammunition, resumed their place in the line, not far from Russell's house.

Meanwhile Rousseau's center and right, held respectively by the brigades of Colonels L. A. Harris and W. H. Lytle, had fought stubbornly, repelling attack after attack led by Bragg in person, but losing ground a little, when the Confederates made a desperate charge upon Lytle's front, and hurled back his brigade with heavy loss. Lytle was wounded, as he supposed mortally, and refused to be carried from the field. This opened the way for the victors to Gilbert's flank, held by Mitchell and Sheridan, whose front had been for a short time engaged. And now the true mettle of Sheridan, so tried in many a hard-fought battle afterward, was proven. He held the key point of the Union position, and was determined to keep it. In the morning he had driven the foe out of sight, and had just repelled an assault on his front, when he was obliged to meet the triumphant force which had thrown back Rousseau's right. He quickly turned his guns upon them, and was fighting gallantly, when Mitchell pushed up Carlin's brigade to the support of Sheridan's right. This force charged at the double quick, broke the line of the Confederates, and drove them through Perryville to the protection of batteries on the bluffs beyond.'

In the mean time the brigade of Colonel Gooding had been sent to the aid of McCook. Forming on the extreme left of the National line, it fought with great persistence for two hours against odds, and losing full one-third • of its number, with its commander, whose horse was shot under him, made. prisoner. It was not until about this time (four o'clock in the afternoon)

1 General Jackson was a member of Congress from the Second Kentucky District, having been chosen by a very large majority over his secession opponent in 1861.

2 In this charge the Nationals captured fifteen heavily loaded ammunition wagons, two caissons with their horses, and a train-guard of one hundred and forty men.

* The brigade numbered only 1,428, and lost 549, killed, wounded, and missing.