Page images
PDF
EPUB

HE CROSSES THE POTOMAC.

403

mac encamped on the banks of the Antietam, and on the 13th, General Meade determined to assault the enemy's position. The waters of the Potomac were swollen at this time, and it was expected that Lee could not escape. The attack was to be made on the 14th, but on the night of the 13th, Kilpatrick examining his picket line, saw indications that the Confederates were leaving his front, and at seven A. M. he charged, and drove a portion of their rear-guard into the Potomac. At Falling Waters, he moved rapidly upon a veteran division of infantry, under Major-general Pettigrew. The enemy, taken by surprise, made a desperate resistance. After a spirited action, General Pettigrew was killed in a sabre charge. Pennington's Federal artillery covered the ground with the killed and wounded, and the rebels lost also fifteen hundred prisoners, two field pieces, and three battle flags. Kilpatrick, in his official report, says:"In this campaign, my command has captured four thousand five hundred prisoners, nine guns, and eleven battle flags."

The Confederates now retreated toward Staunton and Gordonsville. Their escape from General Meade occasioned much public discontent, as the North fully expected that a decisive battle would be fought, in which the enemy would be defeated, if not annihilated.

General Meade crossed the Potomac, and moved down the Loudon valley on Lee's flank. Lee continued his retreat to the Rapidan, and at the close of July, the Army of the Potomac took up its position on the banks of the Rappahannock. On the approach of autumn, it was necessary to resume the offensive, as it was ascertained that Lee was sending reinforcements to Bragg. The army therefore advanced about the middle of September, and Pleasonton moving the cavalry first, crossed the Rappahannock, and drove Stuart out of Culpepper. The cavalry guarded the flanks and rear of the army, which now had crossed the river. Meade had his head-quarters at Culpepper, and Lee lay encamped at Orange Court House. Though inferior in numbers, Lee crossed the Rapidan on the 9th of October, completely outflanked the Union general, and forced him to retreat. A severe cavalry battle took place, in which Pleasonton, Buford, Kilpatrick, Custer, and Davis led separate charges in person, and the plains of Brandy Station again witnessed the superiority of the Union cavalry, and the defeat of the enemy.

404 GRANT APPOINTED LIEUTENANT-GENERAL.

Lee having forced Meade to fall back to the line of Bull Run, destroyed the Orange and Alexandria railroad, from the Rapidan to Manassas. In the retrogade movement, General Warren, in a severe conflict with the enemy, on the 14th of October, at Bristow Station, compelled them to fall back, with the loss of thirteen hundred killed, wounded, and captured, six pieces of artillery, and two battle flags. On the 7th of November, Generals French and Sedgwick captured five hundred prisoners at Kelly's ford, and in a bril. liant dash on the rebel forts at Rappahannock Station, defeated the enemy, after an action of twenty minutes, capturing sixteen hundred prisoners, four guns, and eight battle flags. The army, on the night of the 1st of December, recrossed the Rapidan, and went into winter-quarters, confronted by those of the Confederates.

The third year of the history of the Army of the Potomac was now ended. During that period the policy of the Government was to crush out the rebellion by the same means as that which the anaconda takes to destroy its victim. A new system was now inaugurated, and the rebellion was destined to meet its end by the powerful blows of an athlete -of one skilled in the art of war, both from education and experience.

General Grant, with the title of Lieutenant-general, was at this period placed at the head of all the armies of the United States, and with the able subordinates, and brave patriots under him, achieved that glorious consummation, hereafter to be described.

A brilliant exploit was performed during the month of December, by General Averill, in destroying the East Tennessee and Virginia railroad successfully. The expedition started on the 16th. Bridges, stations, telegraphs, and other Confederate property were destroyed, two hundred prisoners and one hundred and fifty horses taken, and the brave troops "marched, climbed, and swam three hundred and fiftyfive miles." On the 3d of February, 1864, an expedition was made by General Sherman into central Mississippi. He ordered General F. W. Smith to start from Memphis, on the 1st, with eight thousand cavalry, and to move toward Meridian; while he, himself, left Vicksburg on the 3d, with twenty thousand infantry and twelve hundred cavalry, with provisions for twenty days. He marched east across the

GRANT'S FUTURE PLANS.

405

Big Black, by way of Champion Hills, Clinton, and Jackson, and by the middle of the month reached Meridian, the great railroad centre. His intention was to cut off Mobile from the aid of General Johnston, who had succeeded Bragg in the command of the Confederate army in the West. He proposed to defeat Polk, who was in his front, destroy the military dêpots and supplies within his reach, and then make a descent on Mobile, which Admiral Farragut was bombarding. General Smith, who, meanwhile, had not moved until the 11th, encountered the enemy at Okalona, and being defeated with loss, was compelled to return to Memphis. Sherman in vain waited for his coming, and after destroying one hundred and fifty miles of railroad, and killing, wounding, or capturing five hundred rebels, had to retrace his steps to Vicksburg. On the expedition, he had freed eight thousand negroes, and seized many horses.

The same order, of the 12th of March, which gave Grant the command of all the armies of the United States, transferred that which he had lately held to General Sherman, It comprised the Military Department of the Mississippi, and included the departments of the Ohio, the Cumberland, the Tennessee, and Arkansas. The subordinate commanders of Sherman were, Generals McPherson, Hooker, Thomas, How ard, Hurlbut, Logan, Schofield, and Kilpatrick, the latter being in command of the cavalry. The two objective points in Grant's plan, were Richmond and Atlanta, against each of which he determined to move a great army, to act simAltaneously-the future will show with what success.

CHAPTER XL.

SEPTEMBER, 1863-MAY, 1864.

GRANT'S RESPONSIBILITIES-CALL FOR HALF A MILLION OF TROOPS-THE EXPEDITION INTO FLORIDA-BATTLE OF OLUSTEE-KILPATRICK'S RAID INTO RICHMOND-DEATH OF DAHLGREN-RAID OF FORREST INTO KENTUCKY-SURRENDER OF UNION CITY-ATTACK ON PADUCAH-MASSACRE AT FORT PILLOW-THE RED RIVER EXPEDITION-MARCH TO ALEXANDRIA -DEFEAT OF BANKS-STEELE RETREATS-RETURN OF THE GUNBOATS TO ALEXANDRIA-ENGINEERING SKILL OF COLONEL BAILEY-HIS PROMOTION -THE GUNBOATS SIGNAL AND COVINGTON, AND THE TRANSPORT WARNER DESTROYED-RETURN OF THE EXPEDITION-END OF BANKS' MILITARY CAREER-RETURNS TO NEW ORLEANS-CANBY IN THE FIELD.

GRANT, on assuming the command of all the armies of the United States, had a vast territory under his control, extending from the Potomac to the Rio Grande, an extent of over five thousand miles. In all this wide area, thousands upon thousands of men awaited his commands; six hundred war vessels lined the rivers and coasts for twenty-five hundred miles, and four thousand cannon were ready to hurl destruction on the foe. The earth swarmed with the hosts going forth to battle. In the North, all was bustle and military preparation. The giants of the North and South were about to grapple in a deadly struggle, in which one or the other must succumb.

The President, on the 1st of February, ordered a draft for five hundred thousand men, to take place on the 10th of March. On the 6th of February, an expedition of the Union forces left Port Royal for Jacksonville, Florida, and reached that place the next day. The expedition consisted of twenty steamers, eight schooners, and five thousand troops. The object was to penetrate as far as Lake City, and cut the railroad at Suwanee river. General Gilmore commanded, and after despatching Seymour's command to Baldwin, and another force to Sanderson, he returned to Jacksonville, and left Seymour in command in the field. The latter advanced one hundred miles inland, for the purpose of destroying the railroad near the Savannah river. On

KILPATRICK'S RAID-DEATH OF DAHLGREN.

407

the 18th, the army struck its tents and marched seventeen miles, and moving on the next day, had advanced but sixteen miles on the way to Lake City, when the enemy was encountered. Hamilton's battery went into action with four officers, eighty-two men, fifty horses, and four pieces; from its close proximity of one hundred and fifty yards to the enemy's line, half of this force of men and artillery was lost in twenty minutes. The different regiments, as they wheeled into position, were swept with a destructive fire; yet the fight continued with great fury, from two P. M. until dark, when Seymour, who had struggled in vain to gain the battle, withdrew his shattered forces, and leaving the wounded in the hands of the enemy, marched all night to Barbour. One fifth of his army of five thousand men was lost in this disastrous fight, which is known as the battle of Olustee, as it took place near a railroad station of that name. The occurrence produced much indignation in the North, and was condemned by many as a wanton sacrifice of the Union troops.

On the 28th, General Kilpatrick, with five hundred chosen cavalry, started on an expedition which had the noble object of setting at liberty the seventeen thousand patriots who were languishing in the different prisons of Richmond. Colonel Dahlgren, after having been led astray through the treachery of a guide, and fallen into an ambuscade, was shot down, and all but seventeen of his party of two hundred killed or captured. The body of this gallant young officer was treated with shameful indignity-unworthy even of the ferocious savage-and was buried in the middle of the road. By his loss, a part of the programme failed, and Kilpatrick, having carried the first line of rebel works, receiving no reply to the signal, at which Dahlgren was to advance, was obliged to retire from the strong force now threatening his retreat. His praiseworthy design was thus frustrated, and he returned with his command to Yorktown.

On the 24th of March, Forrest, at the head of the rebel forces in Tennessee, attacked Union City, which was shamefully surrendered by Colonel Hawkins. With six thousand men, Forrest, the next day, made an attack on Paducah, Kentucky, which was defended by Colonel S. G. Hicks, with six hundred and fifty-five men. Hicks refused to surrender, and retired to Fort Anderson, while the gunboats on the

« PreviousContinue »