DEPARTMENT OF THE CUMBERLAND. 103 tory, and people began to regard Rosecrans as invincible. Victory followed his standard wherever he moved, and the soldiers, with that fondness for nicknames which always characterizes them, christened him "Old Rosy." Rosecrans believed that if Grant had supported him, as he requested him to do, he could easily have entered Vicksburg and saved the after sacrifice of men and money. Having returned from the pursuit, he established his headquarters at Corinth, where he remained till the 25th of October. In the meantime, the Government having created the Department of the Cumberland, and the Fourteenth Army Corps, he was placed at the head of it, and departed for Louisville, where he arrived on the 30th. With Buell's splendid army under his command, it was thought that he would immediately move on Bragg, and inflict that punishment on him, which he failed to receive at the hand of the former. Repairing to Nashville, he took a survey of his position, and began to lay his plans for the future. Bragg, in the meantime, had assembled his army at Murfreesboro', and was strongly fortifying himself, preparatory to winter quarters. 37 CHAPTER VI. OCTOBER. BUELL RESTORED TO COMMAND-MOVES OUT OF LOUISVILLE-BATTLE OF PERRYVILLE-RETREAT OF BRAGG PURSUIT-REMOVED FROM COMMANDMORGAN AT CUMBERLAND GAP-GALLANT DEFENSE OF CALL FOR REINFORCEMENTS-IS SURROUNDED BY A HUNDRED THOUSAND MEN-HIS EXTREME PERIL- -GALLANT RESOLVE TO MAKE A FORCED MARCH OF TWO HUNDRED MILES TO THE OHIO-BLOWS UP THE MOUNTAIN-DESTROYS HIS SIEGE GUNS-BURNS UP EVERYTHING-FEARFUL CONFLAGRATION AND EXRACE FOR LIFE PLOSION-TERRIFIC SCENE-MIDNIGHT MARCH-THE SUFFERINGS OF THE ARMY HILE Rosecrans was thus crowning the Federal arms WHILE with success, in the neighborhood of the Mississippi, and Butler was trying to bring order out of chaos in New Orleans, and Galveston in Texas was surrendered (October 9th) to Renshaw, Commander of our fleet there, important events were occurring in Kentucky and East Tennessee. Buell's sudden removal from the head of the army at Louisville, arrested his march against Bragg, which he designed to commence the next day. Thomas, however, telegraphed to Washington, entreating the authorities there to reconsider their action, and retain Buell in the command, as the proper person to be at the head of the army. They acceded to his request, and Buell at once addressed himself to the task of driving Bragg out of Kentucky; and on the 1st of October moved out of Louisville, in five columns. Bragg, though constantly skirmishing, began to retire, with the evident intention of forming a junction with Kirby Smith, who had fallen back from his threatened attack on Cincinnati, though he had BATTLE OF PERRYVILLE. 105 carried the rebel flag within seveniles of the city. Buell overtook the enemy at Perryville on the 7th. A partial engagement followed, which was renewed with great severity the next morning, by the enemy suddenly falling on McCook's brigade. Repulsed at first, he repeated the attack at noon, in which the whole left corps became engaged, and was terribly pressed till night fell, when the battle ended. Terrill's brigade was driven back in a rout, and he was killed, as well as Jackson, who commanded the division. The brave, heroic Rousseau, commanding the third division, bore the chief weight of the battle, and saved the left corps from total defeat. A charge by Sheridan, at night-fall, closed the fight. This partial disaster was attributed by Buell to the neglect of McCook to send him word that he was pressed with an overwhelming force, until it was too late to reach him before night with the other wing of the army, which was separated by a distance of five miles. Our loss in this engagement was about four thousand, leaving Buell but fifty-four thousand men with which to pursue Bragg, whose army numbered over sixty thousand. But the nature of the country was such that he could not force him to a battle, though he pressed him with unrelenting severity. At Crab Orchard, where the country suddenly changed, being barren and cut up into defiles, so that a small force could protect the retreating army, he stopped his pursuit, having captured in all, four or five thousand pris oners. But though he had driven Bragg out of Kentucky, and thus relieved the State, the Administration pretended to be dissatisfied at his not having destroyed the rebel army, and therefore removed him from his command. Whether Halleck, and the Secretary of War, really believed that Buell had not done all that could reasonably have been expected of him, or whether it was necessary, as usual, to have some 106 CUMBERLAND GAP. scape goat for their on military blunders, is left to conjecture. Cumberland Gap, which General Morgan, as before stated, had captured in the Spring, by a flank movement through Rogers' Gap, and immediately fortified, preparatory to a movement on Knoxville, was evacuated this September. The advance of Bragg into Kentucky, which compelled Buell to fall back rapidly to Nashville, left the enemy at liberty to push across the Cumberland Mountains, by various routes, and effectually cut Morgan off from his base of supplies, thus leaving him alone, to save himself as best he might. Strong in his position, he felt able to hold it against all odds, if he could be kept from starvation. He contested every foot of the advance of the enemy, and foraged the country in every direction that his forces could penetrate. In the meantime, he sent to Halleck, and General Wright of Ohio, for sup plies, saying that if his communications could be kept open, he would hold the Gap against the whole rebel army. At different times he sent out five expeditions, in which he killed and captured seven hundred of the enemy, with a loss to himself of only forty men. For more than two months, he saw the storm gathering thicker and darker around him, for as Buell fell back towards Nashville, the rebel flood poured like a deluge into Kentucky, so that by the 21st of August, Morgan found Kirby Smith on the north side, and Stevenson on the south side of the Gap. Still, he kept buoyant and cheerful. Not a desponding word escaped him-he always wrote in a confident tone, but said that his supplies were getting shorter and shorter, and that even his animals were failing for want of forage. He would not stir from his position, he declared, though he had to kill his mules for food, if he could see any movement set on foot to open his communications. The country became alarmed for his safety. The very stubbornness with which he held the grim fortress, A DESPERATE POSITION. 107 only ensured his destruction, if no elief should reach him. He at length put his army on half-rations, and still clung to his position, though he knew a hundred thousand men environed him, and held the entire country from the Gap to the Ohio. Thus, for thirty days, his brave soldiers were kept on halfrations; a great part of the time without bread, rice, flour or potatoes. The overwhelming enemy continued to draw closer and closer around him, every day narrowing his field. for forage, until at length, starvation began to stare him in the face. What now was to be done? He could hear of no movement for his relief, and he staid, waiting for it, until every known avenue of escape was closed against him. The rebel General telegraphed to Richmond, that Morgan's army might be considered prisoners of war, for its fate was sealed. True, one route we still left open-the wild, desolate region stretching for two hundred miles directly to the north-but this was reported by the engineers impossible for any army with artillery, if indeed it were possible for an army of ten thousand men, to be supported there at all, in the length of time it would take to traverse such a country. Yet the rebels seemed to think, that a man who had dragged siege guns up and over the cliffs of Cumberland Mountains, might attempt to escape by this route; and so Humphrey Marshall was sent to block it up, and, early in September, was making his difficult way through the sterile region to the north-east. In this painful dilemma, Morgan called a council of war, in which it was decided that the only alternative was an immediate evacuation or an unconditional surrender. This being decided upon, Morgan determined to make a desperate effort to save both his army and artillery, all but the siege guns, which he resolved to destroy. It was a dreary prospect at best that frightful march of two hundred miles, with ten times ten thousand men before, behind and on |