CHAPTER VIII.

CAMPAIGN IN THE WEST.

OWING to several causes, the campaigns of Virginia had gradually assumed the characteristics of the more regular operations conducted by European armies; the desultory and detached movements which had tended to confuse the history of the earlier periods of the war had given place to combined operations of large bodies of troops, based on rules in conformity with the laws of strategy. The great battles had been fought by opposing armies, and the sympathies of the population of the country in which the campaigns had been conducted had not directly influenced their results. For these reasons, as well as from the fact that the geography of Virginia and Maryland is far better known than that of the Western States, the campaigns around Richmond and Washington present more objects of interest than those waged in the West and South. There the vast distances which separated the several objective points, the scattered positions of the forces, the desultory warfare waged by guerillas, and the combined political and military objects aimed at by the several generals, tended to confuse the movements of the armies, at the same time that it renders the task of presenting a connected narrative of events especially difficult.

As we have seen, the possession of the great rivers of the West enabled the Federals to penetrate far into the interior of the country, although in doing so they left in their rear an unfriendly population, ready at any moment to assist the efforts of a Confederate force, however small, or to harass the communications of the invading army by guerilla warfare.

Having, however, secured the course of the Mississippi and Tennessee Rivers, the Federal generals had been able to concentrate their forces about midway between the two, and even to advance beyond the great southern line of rail which connects Memphis with Corinth. They held the strategical point of Grand Junction with a detached force as far south as Holly Springs. But whilst with the assistance of the rivers they had reached the confines of the State of Mississippi, they had yet left a large extent of country in their rear avowedly hostile to the Union cause.

In order to comprehend the operations of the summer and autumn campaign of the West, a clear notion should be arrived at of the principal positions of the contending armies. As will be remembered, the impossibility of holding Memphis, the fall of New Orleans, and the passage both up and down the Mississippi of the Federal gunboats, together with the advance on Corinth of the main army of the West, had forced General Beauregard to retire about fifty miles south of Corinth, and to take up a position among the forests and swamps of Mississippi. As, therefore, Columbus, Island No. 10, and Fort Pillow had in succession formed the left of the Confederate line of defence in the West, so may Vicksburg be now considered as holding the same position. Owing, however, to the capture of New Orleans and the passage up the river of the

Federal ships of war, the trans-Mississippi department had been partially cut off from the States on the east of the river, and the Confederate line of defence was bent southwards from Vicksburg to the neighbourhood of Lake Pontchartrain and New Orleans.

The nature of the country in the State of Mississippi rendered the advance of an invading army extremely difficult, therefore a comparatively small force was necessary to guard the great Southern rails which intersected the State, and consequently the Confederates were able to assemble an army for the purpose of acting on the left rear of the Federal lines.

Following the course of the Confederate line of defence from Mississippi, we find that it passed along the Tennessee River south of Florence to Chattanooga, and then extended northwards through Eastern Tennessee, embracing Knoxville, to the Cumberland Mountains. Thus, although the Federals had possessed themselves of Kentucky, of the greater portion of Western Tennessee, and of a part of Mississippi, yet the Confederates were able to menace the left rear of their line by operations against Eastern Kentucky, and were much assisted in such operations by the possession of the railway from Chattanooga to Knoxville, and so westwards to Virginia. As, therefore, with regard to the campaign in Mississippi, the Federals had the advantage of possessing two sides of the square, and could press the Confederates from a line drawn from Memphis to Corinth, and on another line from Memphis down the Mississippi, so, on the other hand, the Confederates, with respect to the campaign in Kentucky and Tennessee, could either make their attack directly from the vicinity of Chattanooga, and from thence to Corinth, or from Knoxsville and the Cumberland Mountains.

The difficulty of procuring men to reinforce the armies, and subsequently the necessity of devoting its energy to the defence of Virginia, had prevented the Federal Government from prosecuting the war in the West with the vigour which had characterised the campaigns of Fort Donelson and Shiloh. For which reasons, after the occupation of Corinth, no great aggressive movement excepting the siege of Vicksburg had been undertaken. The heroic defence of that town, and their successes in Virginia, had, on the other hand, inspirited the Confederates, and a grand scheme was organised for an aggressive campaign, embracing the whole theatre of war in the West, and extending for a distance of between seven and eight hundred miles, from Cumberland Gap, on the borders of Eastern Tennessee and Kentucky, to the vicinity of the Lower Mississippi. It was proposed to assault Baton Rouge at the lower extremity of this line, to manœuvre against the Federal army in the vicinity of Corinth in the centre, and to operate from its extreme right against Eastern Kentucky. With these objects in view, a small army under General Breckenridge was assembled in Louisiana, a larger force under Van Dorn in Upper Mississippi, whilst a still more formidable army under General Bragg, who had succeeded Beauregard in the command of the West, was organised in Eastern Tennessee for the invasion of Kentucky.

As the geography of Mississippi was especially favourable to the Confederates for purposes of defence, so was that of Eastern Tennessee well-adapted for those of attack. The long line of rail, of which the whole extent from Chattanooga to Western Virginia, and so to Richmond, was in their hands, afforded means for the concentration of their forces. The country had been as yet

unhurt by the war, and was able to furnish supplies; and the range of the Cumberland Mountains, stretching from the confines of Eastern Virginia to Chattanooga, covered the approaches to Eastern Tennessee, and, whilst they furnished a screen behind which the Confederates could concentrate their forces, did not present a barrier to aggressive movements.

In addition to its strategical importance, the possession of Eastern Tennessee was of great consequence to the Confederates from its mineral wealth, and from the quantity of saltpetre or nitre which is found in some parts of the State, as also from the fact that the great salt works at Abingdon, Virginia, were immediately on the line of railway which intersects it.

To secure the possession of this country, and at the same time to have the means of attacking the western part of the State and Kentucky, it was necessary to hold the passes through the Cumberland Mountains. Through this range there are several passes or gaps, of which the principal and most northern is Cumberland Gap, on the direct road from Knoxville to Kentucky; whilst about halfway between Cumberland Gap and Chattanooga, over more broken and less high ridges, runs the road from Knoxville, by Kingston and Murfreesboro', to Nashville. Previous to the autumn campaign of the West, both of these routes had been threatened by the Federal forces from Kentucky and from Eastern Tennessee; indeed the pass of Cumberland Gap had been seized on the 18th June by the Federal General Morgan, and detachments from General Buell's army occupied Murfreesboro' and M Minnsville, on the road to Kingston; at the same time that a Federal force under General Mitchell threatened Chattanooga, and the country lying between that town and Corinth.