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sent the greater part of his army to their assistance. On this point, General Barnard, Chief of Engineers in the Army of the Potomac, speaks as follows in his official report of the Peninsular campaign:

"At last the moment came when action was imperative. The enemy assumed the initiative. We had warning of when and where he was to strike. Had Porter been withdrawn the night of the 26th of June, our army would have been concentrated on the right bank of the Chickahominy River, while two corps, at least, of the enemy's force were on the left bank. Whatever course we then took, whether to strike at Richmond and the portion of the enemy on the right bank, or move at once for the James, we would have had a concentrated army and a fair chance of a brilliant result, in the first; and in the second, if we accomplished nothing, we would have been in the same case on the morning of the 27th as we were on that of the 28th, minus a lost battle and a compulsory retreat. Or had the fortified lines, thrown up expressly for that object, been held by twenty thousand men, as they could have been, we would have fought on the other side with eighty thousand men instead of twenty-seven thousand. Or, finally, had the lines been abandoned, with our hold on the right bank of the Chickahominy, we might have fought and crushed the enemy on the left bank, reopened our communication, and then returned and taken Richmond.

As it was, the enemy fought with his whole force-except enough left before our lines to keep up an appearance-and we fought with twenty-seven thousand men, losing a battle and nine thousand men. By this defeat we were driven from our position, our advance for conquest turned into a retreat for safety, by a force probably not greatly superior to our own."

In his report of this campaign, General Robert E. Lee, who assumed command of the rebel army in Richmond after the battle of Fair Oaks, states that, perceiving it was McClellan's plan to attack the city by regular approaches, he determined to construct defensive lines so as to enable a part of his forces to protect the city, while the remainder would be at liberty to operate against General McClellan's communications between the York and James Rivers. After Jackson, with the assistance of Ewell, in the Shenandoah Valley, had succeeded in "diverting the army of McDowell at Fredericksburg from uniting with that of McClellan," he summoned him to his immediate command. His works of defence were now completed; Stuart had made a raid around the Federal lines, acquiring thereby much valuable information; Jackson, after a forced and secret march, had arrived, and all things were in readiness to turn upon the besiegers. Huger and Magruder remained behind the defences, while the four commands of A. P. Hill, D. H. Hill, Longstreet, and Jackson swept down the north bank of the James and engaged our forces at Mechanicsville. In the subsequent battles of Gaines's Mill, Glendale, or Nelson's Farm, as it is sometimes called, and Malvern Hill, he constantly speaks of attacking superior numbers, which affords a curious contrast to McClellan's estimate that the rebel army numbered two hundred thousand men. Both generals are probably equally far from the truth, and there now seems little doubt that the rebel force, as General Barnard has observed, was "not greatly superior to our own." Otherwise it is difficult to understand why it retired so precipitately from the bloody field of Malvern and took refuge again behind the defences of Richmond. During the progress of the Peninsular campaign the condition of the Confederacy had undergone a great change for the better. At the time the Army of the Potomac landed on the Peninsula, the rebel

armies were demoralized by the defeats of Port Royal, Mill Spring, Fort Henry, Fort Donelson, Roanoke Island, and other battles; and reduced by sickness, loss in battle, expirations of periods of service, &c.; while the conscription law was not yet even passed. It seemed as if it needed but one vigorous effort to end the war. The day of the initiation of the campaign of this magnificent Army of the Potomac was apparently the day of the resuscitation of the Confederate cause, which seemed to grow pari passu with the slow progress of its operations. The loss of a month before Yorktown was an enormous gain to the enemy. The bad roads, the nature of the obstacles offered by the Chickahominy to an advance, and, it may be added, the constitutional slowness and caution of the Federal commander, all prolonged the time so as to give the enemy two additional months. Thus, from the 1st of April, when McClellan landed at Fortress Monroe, to the 1st of July, when his shattered columns reached James River, three months had elapsed, during which time the Confederates may be said to have raised an army by conscription, concentrated all their strength, and hurled it at the grand Army of the Potomac with fatal effect, because it was not concentrated, nor with all the digging were the important points fortified. There were no defences at White House, nor were there any defensible tetes-depont or strong positions prepared to cover the débouchés from the bridges to the left bank of the Chickahominy. All this was taken full advantage of by an enemy who did not leave any means unused to insure success, and who struck with his whole concentrated force..

CHAPTER XXV.

Department of Missouri.-General Halleck.-Negotiations with Price.-Van Dorn, Curtis, and Sigel.-Pea Ridge.

In resuming the thread of events at the West, we may recall the situation of affairs at the close of 1861, as we described them in a previous chapter. Missouri, then under Halleck,* had been cleared

* Henry Wager Halleck is a native of New York. He entered the Military Academy at West Point in 1835, being then nineteen years of age, and on graduating stood third in his class. He was brevetted second lieutenant of engineers, made assistant professor of engineering at West Point in 1839, and in 1845 was appointed first lieutenant. In 1847, Lieutenant Halleck was brevetted captain for gallant conduct in Mexico and California. From 1847 to 1849 he acted as secretary of state of the province of California, under Generals Mason and Riley. In 1847-48 he was also chief of the staff to Commodore Shubrick on the Pacific coast; and in 1549 was a member of the convention and of the committee to form and draft the Constitution of the State of California. He was appointed captain of engineers in July, 1853, but in August of the next year resigned. At the breaking out of the rebellion Mr. Halleck,

who, as a lawyer, was enjoying a lucrative practice at San Francisco, threw up his business and offered his services to the Government. On the 19th of August, 1861, he was commissioned majorgeneral in the regular army. On the 18th of November he appeared at St. Louis, Mo., to assume command of the Department of the West, then temporarily held by General Hunter. In April his command was extended to Kentucky and Tennessee. On the 15th of April he took command at Pittsburg Landing, conducted the investment of Corinth to a successful issue, and on the 11th July was appointed General-in-Chief at Washington, which position he held until March, 1864, when, on the appointment of General Grant to the chief command, he became chief of staff to the army at Washington. In April and May. 1865, he held temporary command in Rich

mond.

of Confederates, and Kentucky and Tennessee had, under Buell, been restored to Union control. It was well known that the enemy enjoyed the most perfect means of information, by which the Union plans were continually thwarted. In some measure to remedy this, General Halleck issued the following order :—

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"1. It has been represented that important information respecting the numbers and condition of our forces is conveyed to the enemy by means of fugitive slaves who are admitted within our lines. In order to remedy this evil, it is directed that no such persons be hereafter permitted to enter the lines of any camp, or of any forces on the march, and that any within such lines be immediately excluded therefrom.

"2. The General Commanding wishes to impress upon all officers in command of posts and troops in the field the importance of preventing unauthorized persons of every description from entering and leaving our lines, and of observing the greatest precaution in the employment of agents and clerks in confidential positions.

"By order of Major-General Halleck.

"WILLIAM MCMICHAEL,

"Assistant Adjutant- General”

The order, although, according to General Halleck, one of purely military necessity, was made a matter subsequently of congressional discussion. Early in January. General Pope, in command of Central Missouri, was at Tifton, while Price was at Osceola, with Generals Rains and Stern in the neighborhood of Lexington. Early in the year General Price opened a negotiation with General Halleck in relation to a number of guerrillas and "bush-whackers" who had been captured while in the act of burning railroad bridges, and in reply to threats of retaliation, the latter replied:

"No order of yours (Price's) can save from punishment spies, marauders, robbers, incendiaries, guerrilla bands, &c., who violate the laws of war. But if any of Price's men are captured in the garb of soldiers, they shall be treated as prisoners of war."

Missouri continued in a very disturbed condition, and martial law having been declared in St. Louis, General Halleck issued order No. 24, ordering the property of secessionists to be assessed for the benefit of the fugitives from the southwestern section of the State, where the Confederates held control. The property of those who failed to pay their assessments was seized under execution. Soon afterward he ordered that the president and officers of the Mercantile Association and of the Chamber of Commerce, who had shown unequivocal sympathy with the secessionists, should take the oath of allegiance, on pain of being deposed and punished for contempt. The press in Missouri was subjected to the martial law. The publisher of the Boone County Democrat having been found guilty of criminal publications, under the style of "Letters from the Army," was sentenced to be banished from the State, and his business property confis cated and sold. General Halleck approved the finding and sentence, and directed the printing-office to remain in charge of the quartermaster until further orders; that the prisoner be placed outside the State of Missouri, and that if he returned during the war, without per

HISTORY OF THE GREAT REBELLION.

mission, that he be arrested and placed in close confinement in the Alton military prison. These proceedings being returned to the War Department, they were approved by the Secretary, and an order issued that the form of procedure should be adopted in like cases by the commanders of all the military departments.

Military movements began early in the year to show renewed activity. On the 29th January, the Confederate General Van Dorn* issued a general order, assuming command of the department comprising Arkansas, Missouri, and Louisiana, and about the same time the National forces under General Curtis marched from their cantonments in Northern and Central Missouri in the direction of Springfield. Price gradually fell back from that neighborhood toward Arkansas. Early in January, General Sigel was in command at Rolla, awaiting re-enforcements, which it was alleged had been raised for him. Of the six regiments thus raised, two were sent to the Potomac, one was given to General Pope, one to General Hunter, and of the remaining two, four companies only were with Sigel, and those were not equipped. these and other reasons Sigel tendered his resignation. The difficulties were settled, however, by the appointment of General Curtis † to command. The divisions of Sigel and Asboth followed Price by a road through Mount Vernon, while General Jefferson C. Davis and General Carr took the road through Cassville, over the old battleThe columns came up with the enemy at ground of Wilson's Creek. Crane Creek on the 14th of February, but too late to attack. The enemy retired during the night, and on the morning of the 15th, at

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General Earl Van Dorn was a native of Mis, sissippi, and graduated at West Point in 1842. In the same class were Gustavus W. Smith and Mansfield Lovell. On the 1st of July, 1842, he was appointed brevet second lieutenant in the Seventh United States Infantry, and was made a fall second lieutenant on the 30th of November, 1844. On the 3d of March, 1847, he was promoted to a first lieutenancy, and on the 18th of April was brevetted captain for his conduct at Cerro Gordo. In the following August he received a further brevet of major, for his conduct at Contreras and Churubusco; and on the 13th of September he was wounded while entering the city of Mexico. He was alde to General P. F. Smith during the years 1848 and 1849. He was secretary and treasurer of the Military Asylum of Pascagoula, Miss., from January, 1852, to June, 1855, and was made full captain of the Second United States Cavalry in March, 1855. In July, 1856, he was distinguished in the command of the expedition against the Camanches in Northern Texas. Again, on the 1st of October, 1858, in the command of the expedition against the Camanches, near Witchita village, Texas, he gained a decided victory, but was himself four times wounded-twice dangerously. On the 18th of May, 1859. he was again, in action with a body of He joined Camanches, completely victorious. the rebel canse, was appointed a brigadier-general, and in January, 1862, assumed command of the He fought at Pea trans-Mississippi district. Ridge, Corinth, and in several lesser engagements, and was shot on May 8, 1863, by Dr. Peters, of Nashville, for improper intimacy with the wife of the latter.

+ General Samuel R. Curtis was born in New York in 1807, and graduated at West Point, in

1831, as brevet second lieutenant of the Seventh
Infantry. He resigned on the 80th of June, 1832.
He practised as a civil engineer in Ohio from that
time until 1887. From April, 1887, to May, 1839,
he was civil engineer of the Muskingum River
improvement. He next practised law in Ohio,
undertook the colonelcy of the third regiment of
Ohio volunteers in the Mexican war, and fought
in Mexico. After the discharge of his regiment,
in the United States service during the campaign
he served in the staff of Brigadier-General Wool,
as acting assistant adjutant general, and afterward
acted as the civil and military governor of Saltillo,
in Mexico, in 1847. On his return home he was
This
appointed chief engineer of the Des Moines River
improvement, in the State of Iowa.
ition he filled from December 4, 1847, to Jan-
He was afterward returned to
uary 1, 1850.
Congress to represent a district of the State of
the second regiment of Iowa Volunteers. He was
Iowa. While serving in Congress he commanded
appointed a brigadier-general of volunteers May
17, 1861, and resigned his seat in Congress. For
some time he had charge of the city and district
of St. Louis. When General Halleck assumed
command of the department, General Curtis was
ordered to Rolla, as a dépôt of concentration of
the troops now under his command. In January,
1862, as acting major-general, he assumed com-
mand of a corps d'armée, and went in pursuit
of General Price and his rebel troops. He defeat-
ed the rebels at Pea Ridge, March 6-8, 1862, sub-
sequently occupied Helena, Ark., and was, March
1862 he was assigned to the command of the De-
21, appointed major-general. In the latter part of
partment of Missouri; was removed May, 1868,
and, in 1864 appointed to the Department of Kan-

daylight, the pursuit was resumed and continued through the 16th and 17th, the enemy taking advantage of favorable positions to retard the advance. On the 17th he was re-enforced by two Louisiana regiments, under command of Colonel Herbert. This officer had been a member of Congress from California, and, while acting in that capacity, killed a waiter at Willard's Hotel in Washington. General Ben McCulloch also joined Price, who took up a position at Sugar Creek, whence he was driven after a brief conflict, and retired into Northwestern Arkansas, taking post in the Boston Mountains.

On March 1st, General Curtis issued an address to the people of Arkansas, exhorting them to remain at their homes; and telling them that the only object of the war was peace; and that in its prosecution the rights of all individuals would be respected.

The enemy at Boston Mountain, about fifty miles from Sugar Creek, were now re-enforced by Van Dorn's troops, by a body of Choctaw, Cherokee, and Chickasaw Indians, under Pike, and the division of MeIntosh. The force of the enemy was then composed of nine thousand Missouri State troops, under Price, six Arkansas regiments, under Ben McCulloch,* five Texan regiments, under Earl Van Dorn, and, it was estimated, some three thousand Indians, under Pike and McIntosh; in all, between twenty and twenty-five thousand men, with seventy guns. Van Dorn assumed the chief command of them. When General Curtis received information of the re-enforcements of the enemy, he fell back to Sugar Creek, a short distance south of Pea Ridge, in expectation of being attacked. On the 5th of March, Sigel, then at Bentonville, ten miles in advance, received orders to join the army at Pea Ridge. He executed the movement on the 6th. His rear-guard, embracing the Thirty-Sixth Illinois and the Second Missouri, were attacked by four Confederate regiments, but succeeded in cutting their way through, with a loss of twenty-eight killed and wounded, and a number of prisoners. Halting a section of his guns, with his infantry to sustain them, he would pour the grape and shell into the advancing rebel ranks, until, quailing before the murderous fire, they would break in confusion. Before they they could re-form, Sigel would limber up and fall back behind another portion of his battery, planted at another turn in the road. Here the same scene would be enacted, and so on continuously for ten miles. What made this march a most difficult achievement was the condition of the roads, which were in many places very narrow and badly cut up. This brought General Sigel's Division to the west end of Pen Ridge, where he formed a junction with Generals Davis's and Carr's Divisions. On the morning of the 5th, General Van Dorn

* General Ben McCulloch, better known heretofore as the major of the Texan Rangers, was born in Rutherford county, Tennessee, in 1814. He joined the Texan army under Gen. Sam Houston, and served gallantly at the battle of San Jacinto, where Santa Anna was taken prisoner, and his army of fifteen thousand men killed or taken prisoners. McCulloch afterwards settled in Gonzales county, Texas, and was employed on the frontier surveying and locating lands. He frequently led the wild border scouts against the Indians and Mexi

cans.

When the war broke out with Mexico, he |

rallied a band of Texan warriors on the banks of the Guadaloupe, and set out for the seat of war on the Rio Grande. His company was accepted by General Taylor, and served with credit at Monterey and Buena Vista He afterward joined General Scott's army, and continued with it to the conquest of the city of Mexico. For his services he was appointed United States Marshal of Texas by President Pierce. He early joined the secession movement, commanded at the battle of Wilson's Creek, and was killed at Pea Ridge, March 7, 1962

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