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CHAP. XIII.

MILITARY EVENTS IN KENTUCKY.

1549

strengthened the position of Polk at Columbus. General Hardee superseded General Buckner; and General Zollicoffer was firmly planted at Cumberland Gap, the chief passage between Eastern Kentucky and East Tennessee. Between the extremes of the Confederate line across Kentucky were fortified posts, the most important of which were Fort Donelson on the Cumberland River, and Fort Henry on the Tennessee River.

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Early in the year, General Buell had organized a large force at Louisville and its vicinity, by which he was enabled to strengthen various advanced posts, and throw forward, along the line of the Nashville and Louisville Railway, a large force destined to break the Confederate line across the State. The whole number of troops under his command was one hundred and fourteen thousand, arranged in four columns, commanded respectively by Brigadier-Generals Alexander McDowell McCook, Ormsby M. Mitchel, George H. Thomas and Thomas L. Crittenden acting as major-generals, and aided by twenty brigade commanders. These troops, who were citizens of

States northward of the Ohio River, with loyalists of Kentucky and Tennessee, occupied an irregular line across the first-named State, almost parallel with that of the Confederates.

General McCook was sent, with fifty thousand troops, down the railway toward Bowling Green, and pushed back the Confederate outposts to the south side of the Green River, at Mumfordsville, where a sharp contest occurred, when the insurgents were compelled to move on to Bowling Green. In the meantime stirring events were occurring in eastern Kentucky. On the 7th of January (1862) a body of Confederates under Humphrey Marshall were struck by Union troops, infantry and cavalry, led by Colonel James A. Garfield, near Prestonburg, on the Big Sandy River. The Confederates were dispersed and disheartened, and there Marshall's military career ended. The gallant services rendered by Garfield on that occasion won for him the commission of a brigadier-general. A few days later (January 19) a more important event occurred on the borders of the Cumberland River, further westward, at Beech Grove, near Mill Spring. Near there General Zollicoffer had established a strongly intrenched camp; but early in January he was superseded in command by General George B. Crittenden, his senior in rank. To General Thomas was assigned the duty of attacking this force, and if successful there to push on over the Cumberland Mountains into East Tennessee, where the Secessionists were persecuting the Union people without stint. When he was within ten miles of the Confederate camp, Thomas made preparations for battle. The Confederates had marched to meet the Nationals. They were led by Zollicoffer, and at early dawn on the 18th of January, the hostile troops met. A severe battle was fought, with great persistency on both sides, for the winner would gain an immense advantage for his cause. Thomas won the battle after a fierce contest, in which Zollicoffer was slain; and the discomfited Confederates fled into northeastern Tennessee, suffering intensely for lack of food and shelter in their flight across an almost barren country.

This blow effectually severed the Confederate line in Kentucky, and opened the way for a series of successful movements by which the insurgents were soon driven out of that State, and also Tennessee. The loss of the Nationals was two hundred and forty-seven men; and of the Confederates, three hundred and forty-nine. The spoils of victory were twelve pieces of artillery, a large amount of munitions of war, and more than a thousand horses, with wagons, intrenching tools, camp equipage, etc. For their bravery in the battle of Mill Spring or Somerset, the President publicly thanked General Thomas and his men. They had paralyzed the power of the Confederate line eastward of Bowling Green, and shortened it full one

CHAP. XIII.

BEAUREGARD ORDERED TO THE WEST.

1551 half. The bulk of the insurgents and their chief fortifications were then between Nashville and Bowling Green, and the Mississippi River. The defeat was severely felt by the Confederates. They perceived the urgent necessity for a bold, able, and dashing commander in the west, and supposing Beauregard to be such an one, he was ordered to Johnston's Department late in January (1862), and General G. W. Smith, who had been an active Democratic politician in New York city, was appointed to succeed him at Manassas.

The Confederates attributed their disaster at Mill Spring to the misconduct of the leader of the troops, General Crittenden. Some loudly accused him of treachery to the Confederate cause; while others, more charitable and better informed, charged his intemperate habits with the calamity. It was acknowledged by all to be an almost irretrievable misfortune.

When Beauregard left the army at Manassas, he issued a characteristic address to the troops, expressing a hope that he would be among them again, soon. "I am anxious that my brave countrymen here in arms," he said, "fronting the haughty array and muster of Northern mercenaries, should thoroughly appreciate the exigency." In allusion to the disquietude that was manifested by them because of their long enforced inaction, he said that it was no time for that army "to stack their arms, and furl, even for a brief period, the standards they had made glorious by their manhood." But they were much dispirited by the defeat of their armies at Mill Spring, and this was deepened by the capture of Roanoke Island soon afterward. This feeling amounted almost to despair when a more important reverse to their arms occurred on the Tennessee and Cumberland rivers at the middle of February.

CHAPTER XIV.

4 GUN-BOAT FLEET-EXPEDITION AGAINST FORTS HENRY AND DONELSON-CAPTURE OF FORTS HENRY AND HIEMAN - NAVAL EXPEDITION UP THE TENNESSEE ITS DISCOVERIES ARMY REORGANIZED-SIEGE OF FORT DONELSON CHANGE IN TEMPERATURE- ENGAGEMENTS ON LAND AND WATER-A DESPERATE MEASURE ATTEMPTED-COUNCIL OF WAR-COWARDICESURRENDER OF FORT DONELSON-ARMY POSTAL SERVICE-PANIC AT NASHVILLE-SURRENDER OF THE CITY-PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT FOR TENNESSEE-EVENTS ON THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER -SIEGE AND CAPTURE OF ISLAND NUMBER TEN-MOVEMENT TOWARD CORINTHNATIONAL ARMY AT PITTSBURG LANDING-BUELL'S ARMY ON THE MARCH.

W

HEN the Confederate line in Kentucky was broken, the National Government determined to concentrate the forces of Halleck and Buell for a great forward movement to push the Confederates toward the Gulf of Mexico. Fremont's plan for providing gun-boats for the western rivers, to co-operate with the armies, had been carried out. Twelve of these vessels (some of them covered with iron-plates) had been constructed at St. Louis and Cairo, and at the close of January these were armed with one hundred and twenty-six heavy guns and some lighter artillery, and were placed under the command of flag-officer A. H. Foote of the National navy. When everything was in readiness, some feints were made to deceive the Confederates. These were reconnoissances down each side of the Mississippi River from Cairo; and Thomas feigned a movement in force against East Tennessee.

In the meantime an expedition against Fort Henry on the Tennessee River, and Fort Donelson on the Cumberland River, where those streams approach each other to within a distance of about twelve miles, had been prepared. The land troops were placed under the command of General U. S. Grant, assisted by General C. F. Smith. Commodore Foote was called to the Tennessee with his flotilla of gun-boats; and at dawn on the 3d of February, 1862, a portion of that flotilla was only a few miles below Fort Henry, on that stream, and the land troops were disembarking from transports. The fort lay at the bend of the stream, on the right bank, and its guns commanded a reach of the river for about two miles. It was armed with seventeen guns, twelve of which could sweep the river. At the time we are considering, the garrison in the fort and troops encamped around it,

CHAP. XIV.

CAPTURE OF FORTS HENRY AND HIEMAN.

1553

numbered less than three thousand, commanded by General Tilghman, of Maryland, a graduate of the West Point Academy. Grant and Foote had asked and obtained permission of Halleck to attack Fort Henry, and that was the task which they attempted on the morning of the 3d of February.

Both arms of the service proceeded to strike Fort Henry simultaneously The land force was composed of the divisions of McClernand and Smith. The armed flotilla in hand consisted of the gun-boats Essex, St. Louis, Carondelet, and Cincinnati. The river below Fort Henry had been strewn with torpedoes, but these were successfully fished up before the attack. Opposite Fort Henry was Fort Hieman, situated upon a great hill, from which artillery might be brought to bear upon assailants of the former. To silence its batteries. a portion of the land troops went up that side of the river, while others proceeded to gain a point between Forts Henry and Donelson. The flotilla moved forward and opened the contest at noon on the 6th, and before the land troops could reach a position to co-operate, the fort, with its little garrison, had been surrendered to Foote. A tremendous rain-storm, with thunder and wind, which occurred the night before, had made the roads so heavy, and so swelled the little streams, that the march of the troops was difficult and slow. The garrison made a gallant defence; but at the end of one hour's conflict, they were compelled to strike their flag. Fort Hieman was also surrendered. This was a naval victory of great importance, because it proved the efficiency of gun-boats on the narrow western rivers in co-operation with land forces. Therefore the fall of Fort Henry was hailed as a most happy omen of the success of the Union cause. Halleck telegraphed to McClellan: "Fort Henry is ours! the flag of the Union is re-established on the soil of Tennessee. It will never be removed!" The Secretary of the Navy wrote to Foote: "The country appreciates your gallant deeds; and this department desires to convey to you and your brave associates, its profound thanks for the service you have rendered."

This victory inflicted a severe blow upon the power of the Confederates. It gave to the Nationals the possession of formidable and important posts; also a firm footing in the vicinity of stronger Fort Donelson, and in the rear of Columbus, on the Mississippi. There was now no obstacle to the river navy in its passage up the Tennessee to the fertile regions of northern Alabama toward the heart of the Confederacy. Thitherward Foote sent Lieutenant-commander S. L. Phelps, on the night after the capture of the fort, with three vessels, to reconnoitre the borders of the river. Those vessels went steadily onward, seizing Confederate vessels and destroying Confederate property, as far up as Florence, in Alabama, at the foot of the

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