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CHAPTER XVI.

MILITARY OPERATIONS IN 1861-1862.

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Battles in the West.- From Belmont to Corinth.- SUCCESSES IN THE SOUTH.- FARRAGUT CAPTURES NEW ORLEANS. THE MONITOR. MCCLELLAN AND THE PRESIDENT.- POPE'S CAMPAIGN. MCCLELLAN RE-INSTATED IN COMMAND.

THAT a consecutive narrative might be given of the action of Congress and of the Executive, on the all-important question of slavery, up to the period of emancipation, military movements have been neglected. Everything depended upon the success of the Union armies. Laws and proclamations, without victories, would amount to little. The President realized this, and on the threshold of the war, his most anxious thought, and most difficult problem, was to find officers who could lead the Union troops to victory. The republic had few soldiers of experience. Scott and Wool had won reputation in the war of 1812, and in Mexico, but were old for active service. Military skill must be developed by costly experience. In his appointments to high command, the President, without regard to party or personal considerations, sought for skill and ability. None realized more fully than he, that the success of his administration depended upon the triumph of his armies. Hence, while he appointed Fremont, and Hunter, and McDowell, Banks, and others, from among his political and personal friends, he did not hesitate to give to those who had hitherto acted with the democratic party, such as McClellan, Halleck, Buell, Grant, and others, the very highest positions. The question

with him was-who will lead our troops to the most speedy and decisive victories?

The general plan of the war seemed to be first, to blockade the entire coast of the insurgent states; second, the military occupation of the border slave states, so as to protect and sustain the Union men resident therein; third, the recovery of the Mississippi River to the Gulf, by which the Confederacy would be divided, and the great outlet of the Northwest to New Orleans and the ocean would be secured; fourth, the destruction of the rebel army in Virginia, and the capture of Richmond, the rebel capital. To accomplish these purposes, and to resist their accomplishment, stupendous preparations were made on both sides.

In the autumn of 1861, General George B. McClellan had under his command, at Washington and its vicinity, on the line of the Baltimore and Ohio, and at Fortress Monroe, more than two hundred thousand well armed men. General Halleck, who was in command in the West, had a very large army. McClellan was a skillful organizer, and had the power of making himself personally popular, but was slow, very cautious, and was never ready. With his magnificent army, greatly exceeding that which confronted him-he lay inactive all the fall of 1861, and the winter of 1861-2, into February, permitting the Potomac to be closed by batteries on the western shore, above and below his army, and the rebel flag to be flaunted in his face, and in that of the government, from the Virginia hills overlooking the capital. '

It was the era of brilliant reviews and magnificent military displays, of parade, festive parties, and junketings. The President was impatient at this inactivity, and again and again urged action on the part of the General. But McClellan, having in August, 1861, offended General Scott, by whom he was styled "an ambitious Junior," and caused the

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1. "During all this time the Confederate army lay at Centerville, insolently men. acing Washington. It never presented an effective strength of over 50,Webb's Peninsular Campaign, p. 26.

000 men."

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old veteran to ask to be placed on the retired list, was left in command. When urged to action by the President, he always had some plausible excuse for delay. At length the patience of the Executive was exhausted, and, on the 27th of January, 1862, he issued an order that a general movement of the land and naval forces should be made, on the 22d of February, against the insurgents. This order has been much criticised. It was addressed to the army and navy generally, but was intended especially for General McClellan and his army.

A brief recital of what had been done at the West and elsewhere, will show that, with the exception of the great army of the Potomac, the forces of the republic had been active, energetic, and generally successful. On the 6th of November, 1861, General U. S. Grant, moving from Cairo, attacked Belmont, and destroyed the military stores of the enemy at that place. On the 10th of January, 1862, Colonel James A. Garfield attacked and defeated Humphrey Marshall, at Middle Creek, Kentucky. On the 18th of January, General George H. Thomas, a true and loyal Virginian, who, like Scott, was faithful to his flag, gained a brilliant victory over the rebel Generals Zollikoffer and Crittenden, at Mill Spring.

The Cumberland and Tennessee rivers, having their sources far within the rebel lines, and running to the north and west, empty into the Ohio. To secure these rivers from Union gun-boats, the insurgents had constructed and garrisoned Fort Henry, on the Tennessee, and Fort Donelson, on the Cumberland. Flag-officer Foote, one of the most skillful and energetic officers of the navy, commanded the Union fleet on the Western rivers. Co-operating with General Grant, they planned an attack on Fort Henry. On the 6th of February, Foote, with his gun-boats, attacked and captured that Fort-not waiting for the arrival of Grant, who was approaching. Grant and Foote then moved to the attack of Fort

1. The Records of the War of the Rebellion, Series 1, Vol. II, Part 3d, Correspondence, etc., pp, 4, 5. 6, etc.

Donelson. On the 16th of February, they invested the fort. After several days hard fighting, the rebel General Buckner sent a flag of truce to General Grant, asking a cessation of hostilities, to settle terms of surrender. Grant replied: "No terms except unconditional surrender can be accepted. I propose to move immediately on your works." Buckner did not wait the assault, but surrendered at discretion. This victory, and the note of Grant, gave to him the sobriquet of "Unconditional Surrender Grant." Arms, stores, and more than twelve thousand prisoners were captured. This brilliant victory electrified the country, and the President, impatient, and careworn over the long and mysterious delay of the army of the Potomac, looked ten years younger upon the evening of the reception of the inspiring news.

General Floyd, late the treacherous Secretary of War under Buchanan, and who had been in command, was conscious that a man who had plotted treason against the national government while in the Cabinet, deserved punishment as a traitor, and fled at night before the surrender. These substantial victories compelled the evacuation by the rebels of Kentucky, and opened Tennessee to the Union forces. Bowling Green, called by the insurgents the Gibraltar of Kentucky, was, on the 15th of February, occupied by General Mitchell of the Union army.

On the 24th of February, the Union troops occupied Nashville, the capital of the great state of Tennessee, and, in March thereafter, Andrew Johnson, having been appointed provisional governor, arrived, and the persecuted Unionists of the state gladly rallied around him. In East Tennessee -his old home-loyalty was general, and the Union flag was hailed with exclamations of joy and gratitude.

On the 6th, 7th, and 8th of March, was fought the battle of Pea Ridge, and General Halleck telegraphed with exultation: "The Union flag is floating in Arkansas." On the 13th of March, General John Pope, of Illinois, moving down the west bank of the Mississippi, compelled the evacuation of New Madrid, and then laid siege to Island No 10, in the

Mississippi, which, on the 7th of April, he captured, with provisions, arms, and military stores.

Thus the Union forces had been steadily advancing in the valley of the Mississippi. Buell's army was at Nashville, and the Confederates saw with dismay Missouri, Kentucky, Arkansas, and Tennessee, wrenched from them, and realized that unless the armies of Grant and Buell could be driven back, the whole valley of the Mississippi would be lost.

Lee seemed to calculate, with confidence, that all would remain "quiet on the Potomac" as usual, for he sent Beauregard from his army in Virginia to the West, while the rebel forces west of the Alleghanies were placed under the command of their ablest general, Albert Sidney Johnston. He realized the vast, perhaps decisive importance of the impending conflict in the valley of the Mississippi. In his address to his army, before the battle of Shiloh, he said: "Remember, soldiers, the fair, broad, abounding lands, the happy homes, that will be desolated by your defeat. The eyes and hopes of eight millions of people rest upon you."

On the 6th of April, the great armies met on the bank of the Tennessee and fought the terrible and bloody battle of Shiloh, or Pittsburgh Landing. General Grant occupied the southern bank of the river. Buell was approaching from the north. It was the intention of the Confederates to surprise and whip Grant before Buell could come to his support. Before six o'clock, on the morning of April 6th, the rebel columns attacked furiously, and rushing on like a whirlwind, threatened to drive the Union troops into the river. Grant arrived on the field at 8 A. M., and, rallying and re-forming his lines, with unflinching determination, continued the fight. Charge after charge was made by the impetuous and confident Confederates, but they were met with dogged and persistent courage. Thus the fight went on during the long day, but the Union troops were gradually forced back towards the river, into a semi-circle, with the river in the rear. The Union General Wallace, and the rebel com

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