SIEGE OF KNOXVILLE RAISED.

175 dozen bullets, rolled, with his flag, into the ditch, which Benjamin's guns in the salient swept with a murderous enfilading fire. That hero actually took shells in his hand, ignited the fuses, and threw them over into the ditch with terrible effect. The storm was too heavy for the assailants there, and about three hundred of them surrendered. Then the assault ceased. Fort Sanders was saved, and with it, without doubt, Knoxville, and possibly Burnside's army. Longstreet had promised his soldiers that they should dine in Knoxville that day; but they were otherwise engaged, in burying their dead outside of its defenses, by permission of General Burnside, who lent them ambulances to remove the bodies of their comrades within the Confederate lines.

" Nov. 1863.

While Burnside was thus resisting Longstreet, heavy columns were moving to assist him. So soon as he was assured of victory at Chattanooga, on the night of the 25th," General Grant ordered General Granger, with his own (Fourth) corps, and detachments from others, twenty thousand strong, to re-enforce Burnside. Sherman was ordered in the same direction, so as to make the business of relief surely successful, and on the night of the 30th he was at Charleston, where the East Tennessee and Georgia railway crosses the Hiawassee River. There was also Howard, Davis, and Blair, who had concentrated at Cleveland the day before; and there Sherman received orders from Grant to take command of all the troops moving to the relief of Knoxville, and to press forward as rapidly as possible. This was done. The army crossed the Hiawassee the next morning, and pushed on toward Loudon, Howard in advance, to save the pontoon bridge there. The Confederates stationed at that point burned it when Howard approached, and fled,' and Sherman's entire force, including Granger's troops, was compelled to move along the south side of the river, with the expectation of crossing Burnside's bridge at Knoxville. Sherman sent forward his cavalry, which entered the Union lines on the 3d, when Longstreet, finding his flank turned and an overwhelming force of adversaries near, raised the siege and retreated toward Russellville, in the direction of Virginia, pursued by Burnside's forces. Thus ended the SIEGE OF KNOXVILLE, a day or two before the beginning of which occurred the memorable raid of General Averill upon the railway east of it, already mentioned. Burnside issued a congratulatory order to his troops after Longstreet's flight, and a few days afterward another was promulgated, which directed the naming of the forts and batteries at Knoxville, that constituted its defenses, in honor of officers who fell there."

› Dec. 2.

• Dec. 5.

d Dec. 11.

1 The ground in front of the fort was strewn with the dead and wounded. In the ditch, alone, were over two hundred dead and wounded, including two colonels-McElroy, of the Thirteenth Mississippi, and Thomas, of the Sixteenth Georgia-killed. "In this terrible ditch," says a Confederate historian, "the dead were piled eight or ten feet deep. In comparatively an instant of time we lost 700 men, in killed, wounded, and prisoners. Never, excepting at Gettysburg, was there in the history of the war a disaster adorned with the glory of such devoted courage, as Longstreet's repulse at Knoxville."-Pollard's Third Year of the War, 163. The National loss in the fort was only eight killed and seven wounded. Pollard says: "The Yankees lost not more than twenty men killed and wounded." The entire Union loss in the assault was about one hundred.

2 See page 118.

3 The Army of the Ohio," he said, "has nobly guarded the loyal region it redeemed from its oppressors, and rendered the heroic defense of Knoxville memorable in the annals of the war."

The following is a list of the forts and batteries, their position and their names, as mentioned in Burnside's order: Battery Noble, south of Kingston road, in memory of Lieutenant and Adjutant William Noble,

176

REJOICINGS OF THE LOYAL PEOPLE.

With the re-enforcements brought by Granger, Burnside felt able to cope with Longstreet, and advised the return of Sherman's troops to Knoxville, because Bragg, informed of the weakness of that post on account of their absence, might return in force and place it in groat peril, at least. Sherman accordingly fell back, and before the close of December his troops were in winter quarters in the vicinity of Chattanooga. Bragg had already been relieved of command, at his own request, his forces turned over to the equally incompetent Hardee, and, as we have seen, a commission was given to the former, which charged him "with the conduct of the military operations of the Confederacy." Already the hearts of the loyal people of the land were overflowing with joy and gratitude because of the victories at Chattanooga and Knoxville. The President recommended them to meet in their respective places of worship, and render united thanks to God "for the great advancement of the National cause;" and in a brief letter to Grant,' he thanked that soldier and his men for their skill and bravery in securing a "lodgment at Chattanooga and Knoxville." Congress voted thanks and a gold medal for Grant, and directed the President of the Republic to cause the latter to be struck "with suitable emblems, devices, and inscriptions." Grant was the recipient of other tokens of regard of various kinds; and the Legislatures of New York and Ohio voted him thanks in the name of the people of those great States.

a Dec. 7, 1863.

Dec. 8.

e Dec. 17.

The writer visited the theater of events recorded in this and the two chapters immediately preceding it, in the spring of 1866. He left Murfreesboro' on the morning of the 10th of May, with his traveling companions already mentioned (Messrs. Dreer and Greble), and went by railway to Chattanooga. It was a very interesting journey, for along the entire route, at brief intervals, we saw vestiges of the great war in the form of forts, intrenchments, rifle-pits, block-houses, chimneys of ruined dwellings, battered trees, and the marks of wide-spread desolation. The block-houses were conspicuous, and sometimes picturesque, features in the landscape, and each one had a stirring history of its own. One of these, at Normandy (of which the sketch on the next page is a representation), built by a detachment of the One Hundred and Fiftieth New York, under Captain Richard Titus, was a good specimen. We noticed it just at the opening of a deep cove in the hills at the southern verge of the Duck River Valley, and from that point to Chatta

Second Michigan. Fort Byington, at the College, in memory of Major Cornelius Byington, Second Michigan. Battery Galpin, east of Second Creek, in memory of Lieutenant Galpin, Second Michigan. Fort Comstock, on Summit Hill, in memory of Lieutenant-Colonel Comstock, Seventeenth Michigan. Battery Wiltsie, west of Gay Street, in memory of Captain Wiltsie, Twentieth Michigan. Fort Huntington Smith, on Temperance Hill, in memory of Lieutenant Huntington Smith, Twentieth Michigan. Battery Clifton Lee, east of Fort H. Smith, in memory of Captain Clifton Lee, One Hundred and Twelfth Illinois Mounted Infantry. Fort Hill, at the extreme eastern point of the Union lines, in memory of Captain Hill, Twelfth Kentucky Cavalry. Battery Fearns, on Flint Hill, in memory of Lieutenant and Adjutant C. W. Fearns, Forty-fifth Ohio Mounted Infantry. Battery Zoellner, between Fort Sanders and Second Creek, in memory of Lieutenant Frank Zoellner, Second Michigan. Battery Stearman, in the gorge between Temperance Hill and Mabrey's Hill, in memory of Lieutenant William Stearman, Thirteenth Kentucky. Fort Stanley, comprising all the works on the central hill on the south side of the river, in memory of Captain C. B. Stanley, Forty-fifth Ohio Mounted Infantry. Battery Billingsley, between Gay Street and First Creek, in memory of Lieutenant J. Billingsley, Seventeenth Michigan. Fort Higley, comprising all the works on the hill west of the railway embankment, south side of the river, in memory of Captain Joel P. Higley. Fort Dickerson, comprising all the works between Fort Stanley and Fort Hig ley, in memory of Captain Jonathan Dickerson, One Hundred and Twelfth Illinois Mounted Infantry. See page 558, volume II.

1 See page 142.

A VISIT TO CHATTANOOGA.

177

nooga similar structures were frequently seen. We passed by the fortifications of Tullahoma, dined at Decherd, and in the afternoon descended the Big Crow Creek hollow, in the Cumberland mountains, to Stevenson, where we remained long enough to visit Battery

Harker, in front of it. It was a strong
work, that covered the village and its ap-
proaches, and had within its heavy earth-
walls a very substantial citadel, octagonal
in form, and made of logs, after the manner
of the block-houses. Stevenson was then
almost entirely a village of shanties, stand-
ing among the ruins of a once pleasant
town, on a slope at the foot of a high rocky mountain.

The

Passing on from Stevenson, we observed many earth-works and blockhouses; and at each end of the temporary railway bridge at Bridgeport, where we crossed the Tennessee River, we noticed heavy redoubts. At Shellmound we entered the mountain region south of the Tennessee. road gradually ascended, and in some places skirted the margin of the river, high above its bed. We soon reached one of the deep mountain gorges through which Hooker passed, and crossed it upon delicate trestlework two hundred feet in air above the stream that passed through it, the whole trembling fearfully as our heavy train moved over it at a very slow pace. Then we were among the lofty hills of the Raccoon mountains, and in a little while descended by a gentle grade into Lookout Valley, crossed the Lookout Creek at Wauhatchie, swept along the margin of the Tennessee, at the foot of Lookout Mountain, and arrived at Chattanooga at sunset, where we took lodgings at the Crutchfield House.

A letter of introduction to the Rev. Thomas B. Van Horn, post-chaplain at Chattanooga, gave us a valuable friend, and a competent guide to historical places during the two or three days we were in that town and its vicinity. He was then in charge of the National Cemetery near Chattanooga, laid out under his directions, into which he was collecting the bodies of Union soldiers from the battle-fields of Southeastern Tennessee and Northern Georgia and Alabama, and from posts and stations within a circle from eighty to one hundred miles radius. Mr. Van Horn was residing, with his family, in the house not far from Grant's head-quarters, which both Thomas and Sherman had occupied as such-a pleasant embowered dwelling, unscathed by the storm of war that swept over the town. He kindly offered to accompany us to all places of interest around Chattanooga; and on the morning after our arrival we were seated with him in his light covered wagon, drawn by his spirited horses, "Joseph Hooker" and "John Brown." We first rode to the summit of Cameron's Hill, an alluvial bluff between the town and the river, which rises to an altitude of about three hundred feet. From its top we had a comprehensive view of the country around, including almost the entire battle-field on Lookout Mountain and along the Mission

1 This shows the elevation of the block-house, with the entrance to its bomb-proof magazine in the mound beneath it. It was constructed of hewn logs from 16 to 20 inches in thickness, with which walls from three to four feet in thickness were constructed. The lower story was pierced for cannon, and the upper story, or tower, for musketry.

2 See page 152.

VOL. III.-90

3 See page 151.

178

THE CEMETERY AT CHATTANOOGA.

aries' Ridge. It received its name from its owner, Mr. Cameron, an artist from Philadelphia, who, in the pleasant wood that covered it, built a house,

ruined walls of it may be seen in the foreground of the picture on page 163. From Cameron's Hill we rode to the Cemetery, in the direction of the Missionaries' Ridge, where Chaplain Van Horn officiated at the funeral of the child of a captain at the post. When the solemn service was over we carefully examined the Cemetery grounds and the holy work going on there under the direction of the chaplain. The Cemetery was beautifully laid out in the form of a shield, on an irregular

knoll, whose summit is forty or fifty feet above the surrounding plain. It was arranged in sections, the graves close by the side of each other in rows, with graveled walks between. In the center, on the top of the knoll, was a space reserved for a monument, in commemoration of the martyrs whose remains would be around it. The receiving-vault, as we have already observed,' was a natural cave, in which we saw the coffins containing the remains of the Union raiders hung at Atlanta. On the summit just above it, was made the sketch of Orchard Knob and the Missionaries' Ridge, on page 161, at the time of this visit. Then several hundred bodies were already gathered into the Cemetery, and that number of the tenants has since increased to thousands.3

On Friday morning, Mr. Van Horne took us to the battle-ground of

May 11, 1866.

Chickamauga, with which he was well acquainted, having been a participant in the action there, and since then an explorer of it

1 This house was on Walnut Street, near Fort Sherman. It belonged to an Englishman named Richardson, who had espoused the cause of the Confederates.

2 See page 802, volume II.

According to the report of the Quartermaster-General, under the title of "Roll of Honor," No. XI. there were, a few months after our visit, 9,623 bodies buried in that cemetery, of whom 2,860 were unknown. Of the whole number, 778 were colored.

LOOKOUT MOUNTAIN.

in search of the bodies of the dead.'

178

We passed through Rossville Gap, and

traveled the Lafayette road, visiting on the way the position of General Thomas, near Kelly's Farm,' and Lee and Gordon's Mill. We rode on to

block-house there, near the railway station, the most extensive and beautiful of any built by the National troops.

On Saturday we ascended Lookout Mountain by the zigzag road from Chattanooga Valley, a part of the way on foot, and a part in an ambulance kindly furnished us, with horses and a boy-driver, by Captain Wainright, the

post quartermaster. It was a slow, tedious, and wearisome journey, and it was late in the afternoon when we reached good quarters at the hotel in Summertown, on the crest of the mountain, where we spent the night, and greater portion of the next day. We had time before twilight to walk out

1 The bodies were buried here and there, all over the battle-field, where they fell. The method pursued by Mr Van Horne in searching for them, was to have one hundred men move in a line abreast, about three feet apart, through the woods and over the cleared ground where the battle was fought, first marking the graves found, and then disinterring the remains. Having thus swept in one direction, they wheeled, making the man next the space just gone over, the pivot, and in the same manner moving in the other direction. In this way the entire battle-field was traversed.

See page 134.

3 See page 134.

4 See page 133.

5 See map on page 168.