THOMAS'S CAMPAIGN TO NASHVILLE. 451 toons, he marched rapidly to Franklin, eighteen miles from Nashville, as in case of the rebels reaching Harpeth river first, he would be cut off. It was a race for life. Schofield was impeded with his train, which, when transported safely over the river, he resolved to strike the rebels a blow; and, protected by his breast works, he, on the 30th of November, awaited their approach. The battle of Franklin began by a bold attack of Hood on the Union centre, which he carried, and forced back General Wagner, with the loss of two guns. In rallying, the latter officer charged in turn, retook the guns, and captured a rebel brigade. Cox, Wagner, Opdyke, and Stanley fought with great resolution, but Hood succeeded, though with great loss, in capturing their first line of works. At sunset, the struggle became terrible, when Cox and Stanley reformed, and strove to drive back the enemy. Night ended the contest, and Hood retired with the loss of six thousand men, having had also six general officers killed, six wounded, and one captured; the Federal loss was two thousand three hundred. Schofield, having thus severely punished the enemy, fell back to Nashville. On the same day arrived the commands of General A. J. Smith, from St. Louis, and Steedman, with five thousand men, and a colored brigade, from Chattanooga. The rebel army lay on the hills around Nashville, five miles from the city, and General Thomas occupied intrenchments near it. The whole range of hills, in the Federal lines, was a net-work of fortifications. On the 2d of December, Thomas opened with his batteries, and eight gunboats, together with the iron-clad Neosho, came up the river Cumberland. When Thomas was ready, being still in need of a cavalry force, the Secretary of War ordered General Wilson to impress all the good horses in Tennessee and Kentucky. Grant was now impatient, and did not understand the reason of Thomas's delay, but the latter could not, at the time, impart them, for reasons which were afterward satisfactory to the comman der-in-chief. On the 14th of December, Thomas gave orders to the army to be ready for the assault at early dawn, next morning. The plan was a feint on the enemy's right, and then a sudden attack on his left and centre. Smith, with the Sixteenth corps, on the (Union) right, moved forward at daybreak; 452 UTTER DEFEAT OF HOOD. Wilson's cavalry protected his right, and Wood, with the Fourth corps, closed in on his left; Schofield, with the Twenty-third corps in reserve, being stationed on the left of the latter. The heavy firing on their extreme right roused the Confederates at day dawn, and before they could tell its meaning, Smith and Wood dashed upon them, and drove their left back on the centre, while Wilson fell upon their flank and rear. Hood now hurried up all his troops from the right, and strengthened his centre so that no advantage could be taken of any weak point. The night ended the combat, in which the enemy had lost two thousand prisoners and sixty guns. During the night, Hood contracted his lines. He had sent off his cavalry, and Thomas had no fear of any interruption from that source, as he also had sent Wilson with the Federal cavalry, in the rear, by a circuit, in order to conceal the movement. The latter general waited anxiously for the approach of the hostile cavalry. Hood was awaiting an attack, and Smith and Schofield would have gladly gratified him by making one, but Thomas restrained them, till four P. M., when the cavalry, creeping in upon Hood's rear, the report of their carbines told that the favorable moment had come. The assaulting columns advanced with shouts, stormed the rebel batteries, scaled the hill, and captured the strong fort which commanded the Franklin pike, together with nine guns. Over five thousand prisoners, including one major-general, three brigadiers, and two hundred commissioned officers, were captured; the field was covered with the rebel dead and wounded, and forty pieces of artillery, and large quantities of small arms fell into the hands of the victors. In two days, Thomas had taken eight thousand prisoners, and nearly sixty pieces of artillery. The Fourth corps, and the cavalry of Wilson, began the pursuit. Hood, on the evening of the 19th, crossed Duck river, and took up the bridge; Forrest's cavalry joined him at Columbia, and Cheatham's corps also united with him soon after. The defeated Confederates fled to Alabama, and the campaign ended. Thus virtually closed the war in the extensive valley of the Mississippi. CHAPTER XLIV. JULY-SEPTEMBER, 1864. EARLY'S INVASION OF MARYLAND-WALLACE DEFEATED-GRAND UPRISING OF THE MILITIA AT THE NORTH-REBELS NEAR WASHINGTON-BURNING OF CHAMBERSBURG—WRIGHT AND HUNTER RELIEVED SHERIDAN IN COMMAND IN THE VALLEY-FAILURE OF THE MINE AT PETERSBURG-CALL FOR MORE TROOPS-CAPTURE OF FORTS GAINES AND MORGAN, MOBILE-DUTCH GAP CANAL-WARREN'S FIGHT FOR THE WELDON RAILROAD-BATTLE OF REAM'S STATION-SHERIDAN IN THE SHENANDOAH VALLEY-PURSUIT OF EARLY-MOSBY CAPTURES THE TRAINS SHERIDAN RETREATS-BOLIVAR HEIGHTS-SECOND ADVANCE OF SHERIDAN-BERRYVILLE-EXPLANATION BY GRANT-BATTLES OF OPEQUAN CREEK AND FISHER'S HILL-EARLY DEFEATED-BROWN'S GAP-SHERIDAN RETIRES-HIS REPORT-NEW POSITION-LEAVES FOR WASHINGTON-GRANT'S SUDDEN MOVEMENT ON THE JAMES EARLY'S ATTACK IN SHERIDAN'S ABSENCE-ROUT OF THE ARMYSHERIDAN'S OPPORTUNE ARRIVAL-THE ENEMY OVERTHROWN-THE PURSUIT THE REBELS ABANDON SHENANDOAH VALLEY. WHEN Hunter left the Shenandoah valley, Maryland was again invaded. On the 2d of July, the enemy was moving on Martinsburg, and Sigel, on the 3d, crossed the Potomac in retreat. Weber, in command at Harper's Ferry, also crossed the river, and occupied Maryland Heights. Frederick City was alarmed, the Government stores were removed, and the people fled with their goods. On the 6th, the enemy in force occupied Hagerstown, the alarmed inhabitants of which, in crowds conveyed their possessions to Baltimore, and all seemed to be abandoning the place. Grant had lately lost heavily, and for the time could render little assistance. The enemy encountered General Wallace, with Rickett's division, on the Monocacy, and compelled him to retreat with heavy loss. New York, Pennsylvania, and Masssachu setts, were called on for their quotas of militia. Troops hurried to Washington, and the presence of Grant's army might yet be required to defend the capital. It was fortunate that the Nineteenth corps had been ordered home; it was now at Hampton Roads, and hurried on to the capital with speed, followed by the Sixth corps, under General Wright. Early now moved rapidly on Washington, while 454 REBELS NEAR WASHINGTON-CHAMBERSBURG BURNED. a body of rebel cavalry, under Gilmor, on Monday, July the 11th, captured a train on the railroad between Baltimore and Philadelphia, and by destroying Gunpowder bridge, severed communication with Washington. General Franklin was captured on the train, but shortly afterward made his escape. Governor Bradford's house, in the suburbs of Baltimore, was burned by a rebel squad, while others plundered all that they could lay hands on. The main body moved on Washington, and when within less than two miles of that city, took up a position in front of Fort Stevens. In the latter part of Sunday the skirmishing was heavy, and the Union loss nearly 300. The Sixth corps arrived in time to save the fort, and the rebels withdrew. General Wright was now put in command of all the troops around Washington, and received orders to "push Early to the last moment." The rebel cavalry now fell back to the main body, and Early, though pursued by Wright, got safely across the Potomac with a vast amount of booty. General Wright crossed the Potomac at Edwards' Ferry, where Rickett's division now joined the corps. On the 24th, Early, pursued by Crook and Averill, fell on their cavalry in great force, and furiously, compelling them to recross the Potomac with loss. The southern shore, from Williamsport to Sheppardstown, was now in possession of the rebels, and they again tore up the Baltimore and Ohio railroad. On the 30th, McCausland recrossed the Potomac with a body of cavalry, and moving on Chambersburg, levied half a million of dollars on the inhabitants; but this being refused, he laid the greater part of the beautiful town in ashes. General Kelley met this force retreating toward Cumberland, and defeated and dispersed it. The rebels now held the Shenandoah valley, from which Early expected to obtain much grain, and Hunter, whose forces lay on the Monocacy, now confronted his old enemy. Grant paid Hunter a visit on the 4th of August, and gave him instructions. That night the troops advanced to Halltown. On the 11th, the Middle Department, and the Departments of West Virginia, Washington, and Susquehanna, were consolidated into the "Middle Military Division," and General Sheridan was appointed to the command. From that time, affairs in the valley, so often disastrous to the Union armies, during the various periods of the war, now began to wear a new and brighter aspect. EXPLOSION OF THE MINE AT PETERSBURG. 455 While these events were enacting, a desperate attempt was made by Grart to take Petersburg by assault. The capture of a large fort in front of Burnside's corps (Ninth), if carried, would admit the assailants within the enemy's works. A mine had been for some time constructing under Colonel Pleasants, of the Forty-eighth Pennsylvania, whose men were mostly miners. The mine was made with immense labor, and was four and a half feet high, four feet wide, and ran directly under the fort, which it was determined to blow up, after which a rush was to be made into the breach under cover of a powerful artillery fire. The 30th of August was the day fixed for the explosion, and General Grant, to secure success, made a strong demonstration north of the James in order to draw the rebel force from the real point at which the attack was to be made. Accordingly, on the 26th, Kautz's cavalry, two divisions of the cavalry corps, and the Second corps crossed the James to join the forces of General Butler, on the north side, and during the next day, the enemy were driven from an intrenched position, and suffered the loss of four guns. On the 28th, the Union lines extended from Deep Bottom to New Market road, and on this day whe enemy made an attack in heavy force, by which both sides. lost considerably. The large force thrown over by the enemy caused the first object of the movement to fail, and Grant now determined to assault Petersburg before the enemy's force could return. On the night of the 28th, therefore, one division of the Second corps was withdrawn and moved to relieve the Eighteenth corps in order that it might be prepared for the assault. The other two divisions of the Second corps, and the cavalry lately under Sheridan, were crossed over on the night of the 29th, and moved in front of Petersburg. On the 29th of August, at midnight, the Ninth corps was massed in front of the mine, ready when it exploded to make the assault. Three-and-a-half o'clock A. M., was the appointed hour for lighting the train, but the fuse went out, and daylight found the troops still waiting. The fuse was re-lighted, and the explosion took place at sunrise, blowing up the fort and those within it, and opening a gap fifty feet wide, by which Ledlie's division with Marshall's brigade in the advance, and the Fourteenth New York heavy artillery at once entered; 100 cannon now played on the rebel batteries, |