MORGAN AND HIS MEN IN PERIL.

95

a short distance above Pomeroy, where the stream is divided by Buffington Island. His situation had been growing more critical every hour. Governor Tod, of Ohio, like Governor Morton, of Indiana, had summoned the people to arms, and the uprising of the loyal inhabitants was like that of the sister State on the west, and with like effect upon the friends and foes of the Government. The people did all they could to assist Hobson in his wearisome chase, by harassing the raiders, obstructing the roads, and removing or protecting Government property at different points. General Judah, who had arrived at Cincinnati with most of his division, was sent up the river with his command, in boats, to head off the invaders, and bodies. of militia were directed to move down from the north for the same purpose. Gun-boats were also patrolling the Ohio to dispute his passage of it. Yet Morgan moved on audaciously, plundering as he went, with a seeming assurance that he was invincible, until, at length, he made the fatal mistake of turning from his line of march to Berlin, in Jackson County, where the Government had a large number of animals. There he was confronted by a small force of militia, under Colonel Runkle, so well displayed, that, after spending much precious time in real or feigned movements for attack, Morgan thought it prudent to decamp, but only to find himself unexpectedly involved in a net of difficulties. Union forces were concentrating upon him from different points. Runkle was following him from Berlin; Hobson was within a few hours' ride, on the west; three regiments from Scammon's Kanawha division had come down from Parkersburg, and were watching for him; General Judah, who had landed at Portsmouth, was moving up with his whole division, from the southeast, and all the fords in that region were watched by gun-boats.

Such was the perilous situation of Morgan and his men, when, on the 18th of July, they reached the Ohio at Buffington Ford, and attempted to cross the river, under cover of artillery. There a severe engagement occurred, on the morning of the 19th, when General Judah's cavalry struck Morgan's flank, the head of Hobson's column, under General Shackleford, struck his rear, and two armed vessels, near, Buffington Island, opened upon his front. Hemmed in on three sides, about eight hundred of the raiders surrendered, and the remainder, leaving all their plunder behind them,' and led by Morgan, fled up the river, and attempted to cross to Belleville by swimming their horses. The gun-boat Moore, Lieutenant-commanding Fitch, interfered, and after about three hundred had thus escaped, the remainder, still led by Morgan, fled inland to McArthur, and, on a zig-zag line, pushed on in a northeasterly direction, fighting squads of militia, burning bridges, and plundering a little, until they were enveloped by militia and Home Guards, near New Lisbon, the capital of Columbiana County, with Shackleford's pursuing column in their rear, and compelled to surrender," first informally to Major Rae, of Shackleford's cavalry, and, half an hour later, formally to Shackleford himself. Thus ended, in death

"July 26, 1863.

1 This plunder consisted of lumber and pleasure-wagons; silks and other dry-goods of every kind, taken from merchants; bags full of men's, women's, and children's clothing; jewelry, horses, and mules, and a large amount of money.

At the opening of this battle the venerable Daniel McCook, the father of seven sons who were distinguished in the Union army, was mortally wounded. One of his sons, General Robert L. McCook, had been brutally murdered by a party of guerrillas, while sick, and riding in a carriage from Athens to Decherd, in Tennessee.

96

CAPTURE OF MORGAN.

or captivity, the career of more than four thousand bold raiders, who entered the Free-labor States three weeks before, excepting a little more than three hundred, who escaped at Belleville, under Colonel Adam R. Johnson, and found refuge in Southwestern Virginia. Morgan and several of his officers were taken to Columbus, the capital of Ohio, and confined in felon cells in the Penitentiary, from which the leader and six of his captains escaped in November following, and succeeded in reaching the Confederate lines in Northern Georgia.'

This was one of the most daring, reckless, and foolish raids of the war; and the leader, instead of receiving an ovation, as he afterward did, at Richmond, as a hero worthy of honor, should have been cashiered as a freebooter, who had robbed friends and foes alike for his own benefit. Instead of assisting the Confederate cause, he damaged it most seriously by arousing to intense action the then comparatively half-slumbering martial spirit of the loyalists in the Ohio region, and lessening the chances for that counter-revolution which the Confederates so much desired and relied upon. As an exhibition of endurance in man and beast, that raid was wonderful, pursued and pursuers sharing alike in that respect. For three weeks the race had continued without cessation, at the average rate of thirty-five miles a day.

We have observed that the Conspirators, at this time, were sweeping into their military ranks every able-bodied man they could lay their hands on. By a law of the Confederate "Congress," passed in 1862, Davis was authorized to call into the military service all "white residents of the Confederate States between the ages of eighteen and forty-five years, excepting exempts." The first class, or those under thirty-five years of age, were called out in 1862. After the battle at Gettysburg, and the discomfiture of Lee, Davis issued an address to the people of the Confederate States, calling out all who were liable to bear arms, between the ages of eighteen and forty-five years. It was supposed that this would summon to the field a little more than one hundred thousand men; but it was found that not more than ninety thousand remained subject to conscription. There were at least twenty thousand substitutes in the army, for planters and planters' sons were generally unwilling to take the field, excepting as officers; and it was reported that there were at least ten thousand fraudulent substitute papers held by persons not in service. And

July 15, 1863.

The father, living in Cincinnati, heard that the murderer of his son was with Morgan, and, under the impulse of strong resentment, took his rifle and joined General Judah as a volunteer. He was shot, and died two days afterward.

1 Morgan made his way from the prison, when he escaped, with Captain Hines, who left in his cell the following note, dated "Cell No. 20, November 20, 1868. Commencement, November 4, 1863. Conclusion, November 20. 1563. Number of hours of labor per day, three. Tools, two small knives. La patience et amère, mais son fruit est doux. By order of my six honorable confederates." This was an outline history of the method of their escape. They dug through the floors of their cells, composed of cement and nine inches of brickwork, into an air-chamber below, and then through the soft earth under the foundation walls of the penitentiary, making a passage into the yard. Captain Hines superintended this engineering. They had furnished themselves with a strong rope, made of bedclothes, with which they scaled the walls. They had, by some means, procured citizens' clothes, in which they escaped. Morgan and Hines went immediately to the railway station (one o'clock in the morning, November 28), and traveled toward Cincinnati. When near there, they went to the brake of the rear car, with it slackened the speed of the train, jumped off, made their way to the Ohio, and, crossing it in a skiff rowed by a boy, found shelter with sympathizing friends in Kentucky. The utter carelessness of the officer in charge of the prisoners, in not examining the cells, gave them the opportunity to escape. A reward of one thousand dollars was offered for Morgan, “dead or alive;" but the first positive news concerning him was an account of his ovation at Richmond. For a more minute account of this famous raid, see a volume entitled Morgan and his Captors, by Reverend F. Senour.

DESPOTISM OF THE CONSPIRATORS.

97

so loosely were military affairs managed, that deserters, stragglers, and absentees formed a very large proportion of the persons enrolled.

Aug. 1,

1863.

In view of these ugly facts and the discomfiture of the Confederate armies at nearly all points, Jefferson Davis issued another proclamation," in which he urged the immediate return to the army of all absentees, and alleged that if one-fourth or one-half of them should do so, there would be sufficient strength to achieve the independence of the Confederacy. He offered to grant full amnesty and pardon. to all who should immediately return to the ranks, excepting such as had been twice convicted of desertion. He appealed to the women, asking them to "take care that none who owe service in the field shall be sheltered at home from the disgrace of having deserted their duty to their families, to their country, and to their God." But it had become a hard task to draw men back into the ranks by persuasion. No bounties seemed to have been offered after the passage of the Conscription Act in 1862, nor efforts made to fill up the ranks with volunteers. So the Conspirators used their usurped power with a high hand, and men and supplies were forced into the service at the point of the bayonet, as it were. An agent was appointed in every county to seize, if necessary, supplies for the use of the army; and at about the close of 1863, the "Congress" at Richmond passed an act which declared every white man in the Confederacy, between the ages of eighteen and fiftyfive years, to be in the military service, and subject to the articles of war and military discipline and penalties; and that upon failure to report for duty at a military station within a certain time, he was liable to the penalty of death as a deserter. The history of civilized nations has no parallel to this despotic act. Davis and his fellow-conspirators had then reached a critical point in their wicked game, and seemed willing to sacrifice every man, ruin every family, waste all the property in the Confederacy, and see their section of the Republic converted into a wilderness' in a desperate effort to win, well knowing that failure would be ruin to themselves. They seemed to regard the "common people" as of no account, excepting as docile instruments for the aggrandizement of the slave-holding Oligarchy.

Let us now return to a consideration of the movements of the armies of Meade and Lee, which we left occupying opposite banks of the Potomac.' We will first turn aside for a moment to observe some operations on the Virginia Peninsula, designed to be co-operative with the Army of the Potomac.

It had been determined early in the campaign to menace Richmond by a reoccupation of the Peninsula which McClellan evacuated the year before. General Keyes, then in the Department of Virginia, under the command of General Dix, had been selected as the leader of the forces that were to effect it. He concentrated a considerable body of troops at Yorktown, and so soon as it was ascertained that Lee was moving toward the Potomac, Keyes was directed to make a demonstration on Richmond, then held by a few troops under Henry A. Wise. Colonel Spear, with his Eleventh Pennsyl vania and detachments of Massachusetts and Illinois cavalry, about one

1 See notice of the manifesto of Howell Cobb and Robert Toombs, note 2, page 471, volume II. 2 See page 75.

VOL. III.-85

98

1863.

MEADE IN PURSUIT OF LEE.

thousand strong, made a sudden dash upon White House,' drove the Confed erates from the post, and pushed on to a point within ten miles of * June 25, Richmond, alarming Wise, the citizens, and the Confederate authorities to such a degree, that orders were issued for the closing of all places of business, and causing the Mayor to call upon the inhabitants to "Remember New Orleans," and to array themselves in defense of their homes. Turning northward, Spear galloped to Hanover Court-House and beyond, destroying the railway and capturing General W. H. F. Lee, wounded at Beverly Ford. Then sweeping through King William County, he returned to White House, then held by Keyes, who, on the 1st of July, moved five or six thousand troops toward the Chickahominy, under General Gettys, with fifteen hundred cavalry in advance, with orders to push on north of Richmond, destroy the railway bridge over the South Anna, and so cut Lee's communications with the Confederate capital. This, and much more that was expected, was not accomplished, and Keyes fell back, to the great relief of the Confederates in and around Richmond.

When Lee escaped into the Shenandoah Valley, Meade determined to follow him along the route pursued by McClellan in his race with the same foe the year before, keeping close to the eastern slopes of the Blue Ridge,

and using its gaps as circumstances might dictate. Only his cavalry advance, under General Gregg, entered the Shenandoah Valley. That leader crossed the Potomac at Harper's Ferry on the day when Lee passed over above, and, pushing on to Shepherdstown, he there encountered, fought and beat Confederate cavalry under Fitzhugh Lee, each party being dismounted, on account of the ground being rough and wooded, and each losing about oneone hundred men.

On the 17th and 18th of July, Meade's army crossed the Potomac, chiefly at and near Berlin, and moved rapidly southward by way of Lovettsville, Union, Upperville, and Warrenton, seizing the gaps of the Blue Ridge on its way. Its route was that which it had followed northward under Hooker a few weeks before. It reached Warrenton on the 25th of July, after a detention at Manassas Gap, where Meade had been led to expect an engagement of the two armies in large force. At that time Meade had the start of Lee in the race toward Richmond, the latter having halted at Bunker's Hill and endeavored to recall or distract his antagonist by a feint of recrossing the Potomac. He failed, and pushed his columns rapidly up the Shenandoah Valley, to meet the dangers which threatened his front and flank. He knew that a more vigilant and active commander than McClellan was his competitor in the race for the

1 See page 386, volume II.

THE OPPOSING ARMIES AT REST.

July 24, 1863.

99

prize of victory. His heavy columns pressed on near the mountain passes, and Buford, who, with his cavalry, had pushed well up into Manassas Gap, thought he discovered the presence of a greater part of Lee's army there and at Front Royal, and reported accordingly. Meade, believing it to be Lee's intention to press through the Gap, ordered a large part of his army to march upon it, at the same time directing French, with the Third (Sickles's) Corps, then guarding Ashby's Gap, to hasten forward to the support of Buford, who was calling for re-enforcements. This was done with so much rapidity, that the corps reached Piedmont before dark. Birney's division, temporarily under the command of General Hobart Ward, was sent immediately forward to Buford's aid, followed by the remainder of the corps, and on the following day there was a warm engagement at Wapping's Heights, where the Third and Fourth Maine-Kearney's veterans-and the Excelsior (New York) Brigade, led by General Spinola, gained renown by successful charges under the direction of General Prince, which drove the Confederates. The latter consisted of one of Ewell's brigades, which had been holding the Gap while a portion of Lee's army was passing by; and when, the next morning, the National troops pressed on to Front Royal, Lee's columns had all passed, and there was no foe to assail. Meade was disappointed. His detention at the Gap had given Lee a great advantage, who now swept rapidly around the right flank of the Army of the Potomac, through Chester Gap, and took position on the south side of the Rappahannock. Meade advanced slowly to that stream, when Lee retired to Culpepper Court-House. Then the opposing armies rested for some time. Troops were now drawn from each army and sent to other fields of service. Bragg was then severely pressed by Rosecrans, in Tennessee, and Lee was ordered to detach Long

so quickly constructed, that Meade's advance was not checked.

Lee took a strong position on the south side of the Rapid Anna-too strong for a prudent commander like Meade to attempt to carry by direct assault; so he planned a flank movement, and was about to attempt its execution, when his army was suddenly reduced in numbers by the withdrawal of the Eleventh and Twelfth Corps (Howard's and Slocum's) for