Page images
PDF
EPUB

1863.]

IN VIRGINIA AGAIN.

371

the mind of the President. General Meade replied by asking to be relieved of the command, but this was refused. Meade then crossed the Potomac and followed Lee to Culpeper CourtHouse, when Lee fell back across the Rapidan. The Confederate government, believing that the campaign in Virginia was over for the year, sent Longstreet with part of Lee's army to the aid of Bragg, who was then opposing Rosecrans at Chattanooga. Meade's force was also much reduced, some troops being sent to aid in the siege of Charleston, some to put down the draft riots in New York, and finally, after Rosecrans's defeat at Chickamauga, General Hooker was sent to Tennessee with the Eleventh and Twelfth Corps. After that, Meade and Lee watched each other closely, and though there were several fights, no general battle took place during the remainder of the year. In the latter part of November, Meade made preparations to move against Lee, but bad weather delayed him and the attempt was given up, and both armies finally went into winter quarters.

[graphic][merged small]

CHAPTER XXXI.

CHICKAMAUGA.—CHATTANOOGA.—KNOXVILLE.

ROSECRANS MOVES AGAINST BRAGG.-CAVALRY FIGHTS.-VAN DORN ATTACKS FRANKLINSTREIGHT'S RAID.-JOHN MORGAN ACROSS THE OHIO.-INDIANA AND OHIO AROUSED.-MOBGAN DEFEATED.-HIS CAPTURE. THE RAIDERS' PLUNDER.-AN OLD HERO.-CHATTANOOGA. BRAGG FALLS BACK.-BATTLE OF CHICKAMAUGA.-THOMAS'S BRAVERY.-ROSECRANS RETREATS TO CHATTANOOGA.-JOHNNY CLEM.-HALF RATIONS.-GRANT IN COMMAND.-HE OPENS COMMUNICATIONS.-BURNSIDE IN EAST TENNESSEE.-ARRIVAL OF SHERMAN.-THE BATTLE ABOVE THE CLOUDS.-PULPIT ROCK.-STORMING OF MISSIONARY RIDGE-HERE IS YOUR MULE. BRAGG'S RETREAT.-LONGSTREET'S DEFEAT. SHERMAN'S MARCH TO KNOXVILLE-STARVING ON ROAST TURKEY.

AFTER taking Murfreesboro, General Rosecrans remained

inactive for a long time. In the spring of 1863 he was urged to move against General Bragg, who with more than fifty thousand men was posted not far south of Murfreesboro. Rosecrans had about sixty thousand men, but was not so strong in cavalry as the Confederates. He had, too, to draw most of his supplies from Louisville over a single line of railroad, which required many men to guard, for the greater part of it ran through a hostile country.

There were many cavalry raids during the early months of the year, so that both sides were kept busy. In February, General Wheeler, Bragg's chief of cavalry, tried to capture Fort Donelson, so as to stop the navigation of the Cumberland River, by which some of Rosecrans's supplies came in steamboats to Nashville. The fort had not been repaired after its capture by Grant, but the village of Dover near it had been fortified, and it was then held by Colonel A. C. Harding with about six hundred men. The Union men fought bravely, and in the evening the gunboat Fair Play came up and opened a fire on the Confederates, which drove them away in confusion, with a loss of more than five hundred men. Harding's loss was one hundred and twenty-six.

Early in March, General Van Dorn appeared near Franklin with a large force of mounted men. Colonel Colburn, of the Thirty-third Indiana, moved southward from Franklin with twenty-seven hundred men. Van Dorn and Forrest met him, and after a fight of several hours Colburn had to surrender

1863.]

CAVALRY RAIDS.

373

with thirteen hundred of his men. Soon afterward Colonel Hall with about fourteen hundred Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois troops had a fight with John Morgan. After a struggle of three hours the latter was defeated with a loss of three or four hundred killed and wounded.

In April, Van Dorn again attacked Franklin, where General Gordon Granger was in command of about five thousand troops. Van Dorn, with a force nearly twice as large, assaulted a fort which the Union troops were building, but the few guns which had been mounted opened a destructive fire upon him in front, while the Union cavalry attacked his rear. He was obliged to fall back with a loss of five hundred prisoners and many killed and wounded; but he recovered most of ais prisoners, and retired safely to Spring Hill. Van Dorn was soon after shot in his tent by a Southern gentleman whose wife he had insulted. Though Van Dorn was surrounded by his staff officers, the gentleman succeeded in mounting a horse and escaping in safety to Nashville.

In the latter part of April, Colonel A. D. Streight was sent with a force of about eighteen hundred men around Bragg's army, with orders to cut railroads and destroy bridges, depots of supplies, factories, and do everything that would tend to injure the Confederate cause. After doing a great deal of damage, Streight was overtaken near Rome, Georgia, by Forrest, with about four thousand cavalry, and obliged to surrender. They were all sent to Richmond, and shut up in Libby Prison, in which so many Union men were confined during the war. In the following February, Streight and about one hundred of his officers escaped by making a tunnel under the walls of their prison.

But the most famous raid of this time was that made in July by John Morgan across the Ohio River. General Buckner was then in East Tennessee, near the borders of Kentucky, getting ready to make another dash toward Louisville, and Morgan went ahead to prepare the way. He crossed the Cumberland River into Kentucky with about three thousand mounted men, sacked Columbia, captured Lebanon with four hundred prisoners, and rode on through Bardstown to Brandenburg on the Ohio River, plundering and destroying as he went. Many Kentuckians had joined him on the way, and he then had four

thousand men and ten pieces of artillery. The advance of Rosecrans's army just at that time prevented Buckner from joining him, and Morgan determined to cross into Indiana. There were two gunboats in the river, but he kept them off with his artillery while his men crossed on two captured steamboats. Morgan then rode through Indiana toward Cincinnati, fighting home guards, tearing up railroads, burning bridges and mills, and capturing much property. The whole State was aroused by the danger, and thousands of armed men started after the bold riders. Morgan became alarmed, and after passing around Cincinnati, almost within sight of its steeples, turned toward the Ohio to cross again into Kentucky. A large Union force was following, others were advancing on his flanks, and gunboats and steamboats filled with armed men were moving up the river to cut him off. The people aided the pursuers all they could by cutting down trees and barricading the roads to stop Morgan's march. He was so delayed by these and other things that he did not reach the Ohio until July 19th. He hoped to cross at a place called Buffington Ford, but the Union men were upon him, and he had to turn and fight. After a severe battle, in which the Union troops were helped by gunboats which cut off the raiders from crossing the ford, about eight hundred of Morgan's men surrendered, and the rest, with Morgan himself, fled up the river fourteen miles to Bellville, where they tried to cross by swimming their horses. About three hundred men had succeeded in getting over when the gunboats came up and opened fire on them. A fearful scene ensued, for it was a struggle of life and death. Amid shots from the boats, the riders urged on their snorting horses. Some got across, some were shot, and some drowned. Morgan was not among the fortunate ones who escaped. With about two hundred men he fled further up the river to New Lisbon, where he was surrounded and forced to surrender.

This was a wonderful raid, but it did not do the Confederate cause any good. A large part of the property destroyed was private property, and this roused the anger of all the people of the Border States, a large part of whom had before taken little interest in carrying on the war. The battle-field and the roads leading from it were strewn with articles never seen in such places before. Mingled with broken arms, haversacks, and

1863.]

AN OLD HERO.

375

cartridge-boxes, one could pick up almost any article of household use or personal wear-crockery and tinware, cutlery, spoons, boots and shoes, hats, caps, and bonnets, pieces of calico and silk, ribbons, women's, men's, and children's clothing, and all kinds of useful things. On the persons of the captured were found many watches and much jewelry, and a good deal of money, both "greenbacks" and Confederate notes. Morgan and some of his officers were sent to Columbus and confined in the penitentiary, from which he and six others escaped in the following November by making a hole through the bottom of their cell and digging a tunnel under the foundations of the building into the prison-yard. Their only tools for doing this work were two small knives. They then scaled the walls by means of a rope made of their bed clothes, and traveled on the cars until near Cincinnati, when they jumped off the rear car, and, crossing the Ohio in a small boat, reached the Confederate lines in safety.

Among the mortally wounded in the fight at Buffington Ford was Major Daniel McCook, the father of eight sons, all of whom were in the Union service, and four of whom became generals. One of his sons, General Robert L. McCook, had been murdered by guerrillas in Tennessee, while riding sick in an ambulance. The old gentleman, who was born in 1796, heard that the man who had killed his son was with Morgan, and hastened from Cincinnati with his rifle to join the pursuers. He was shot in the breast, and though tenderly cared for, died two days afterward.

General Rosecrans began to march against Bragg on the 23d of June. His army was divided into three corps, under command of Generals Thomas, A. McDowell McCook, and Crittenden. Rosecrans's object was to capture Chattanooga, which, it will be remembered, General Buell had tried to take in 1862. Chattanooga, which in the Indian language means Hawk's Nest, is a small town in one of the passes of the mountains which separate the Atlantic part of the Southern States from the Mississippi Valley. There are several of these passes or gaps through the ranges of mountains, but that in which Chattanooga lies is one of the most important, because through it runs the Tennessee River and the railroads connecting the eastern with the western part of the Southern States. If the Union

« PreviousContinue »