OPERATIONS ON THE MISSISSIPPI. 271 sympathy with suffering, and his indig-figure so striking, a nature so noble, nation at cruelty and wrong, constituted and a career so gallant. While payhim a representative of true chivalry. ing this public tribute of respect, the He has died in the flower of his manly General commanding feels most deeply prime, and in the full bloom of his heroic that, in the death of this brave and virtues, but history will preserve the distinguished soldier, he has personally record of his life and character, and lost one of the truest and dearest of romance will delight in portraying a friends." CHAPTER LVI. EVACUATION OF COLUMBUS, KY., AND CAPTURE OF ISLAND No. 10.-MARCH--APRIL, 1862. COMMODORE FOOTE, with his flotilla, ample resources of the country supply, having rendered to his country the ef- to obstruct the advance of the armies of fective services, which we have de- the Union. To open the Mississippi was scribed, at Forts Henry and Donelson, a prime necessity of the war; it was dein opening the Tennessee and Cumber-manded by the interests of the great land rivers to the victorious progress of West, dependent upon its commerce for the army of the Union, lost no time in support, and its value in a strategic point entering upon operations on the Missis- of view to the belligerents, was obvious sippi, where the enemy, at the most im- at a glance. To gain control of its naviportant points, had from the commence- gation would be to divide the confederment of the war been engaged in erect-acy, to deprive it of a most important ing the most formidable defences. Along immediate means of subsistence for its a distance of over nine hundred miles, armies in the resources of Arkansas and from the mouth of the Ohio to the wa- Texas, and to cut it off effectually from ters of the Gulf, the river, at the great its great hopes of future advancement strategic points, bristled with fortifica- and the extension of its "peculiar institions. Beginning with Columbus in Ken- tution" in the vast territory of the tucky, at Island No. 10, dividing the Southwest. stream at the northern border of Ten- The first step in this great work of nessee, at Memphis and its vicinity, at opening the Mississippi, was in reality Vicksburg, and elsewhere, to New Or- made in the movement which resulted leans, above and below that city, where- in the possession of Nashville. When ever there was a line of railway com- General Mitchel, on the 19th of Februmunication to be guarded, where there ary, congratulated the soldiers of his was the greatest necessity for protec- division on their triumphant entrance of tion or the best opportunity of resisting Bowling Green, in sight of a retreatan enemy, the confederates had been at ing enemy, the fate of Columbus, "the work, excavating the hill-sides for bat-northern key to the Mississippi delta," teries, throwing up trenches, mounting was sealed. Outflanked, it was open on cannon on the heights, preparing mines all sides to attack, its communications by on the banks and torpedoes for the chan- land and river could readily be cut off; nel, equipping gunboats for annoyance or as an isolated position in Kentucky, defence in fine, employing every means when the whole of that State and a which ingenuity could suggest and the large portion of Tennessee were under : soon the authority of the Union, it was of ate. The question was soon decided, little value if it could be maintained, and however, by a dashing reconnoissance of its continued maintenance, beset as it was General Sherman and Captain Phelps by assailants, was no longer possible. Its with thirty soldiers, steaming directly military occupants, strongly as the place under the water batteries. The party, was fortified, did not wait for the attack. satisfied that their friends were in posThe fall of Nashville was a hint not to be session, landed, scaled the heights, and mistaken. Immediately upon that event raised the federal flag "amid the heartithe evacuation of Columbus was ordered est cheers of our brave tars and solby General Polk. Nashville was aban- diers." A body of four hundred of the doned on the 27th of February. On the 2d Illinois cavalry, sent out by General 1st of March, Lieutenant-Commanding Sherman from Paducah, had reached the Phelps, sent by flag-officer Foote from place the day before, and occupied a porCairo with a flag of truce to Columbus, tion of the works on the retreat of the returned with the report that the enemy enemy, and it was their flag which had were about leaving the place. "He saw been descried by the flotilla. General the rebels burning their winter quarters, Cullum, leaving a sick bed to go ashore, and removing their heavy guns on the discovered what appeared a large magabluffs, but the guns in the water batter-zine smoking from both extremities, which ies remained intact. He also saw a large force of cavalry drawn up ostentatiously on the bluffs, but no infantry were to be seen as heretofore, and the encampment seen in an armed reconnoissance, a few days before, had been removed. Large fires were visible in the town of Columbus, and upon the river banks below, indicating the destruction of the town, military stores and equipments." he saved from explosion by ordering the train to be cut. He found the works “of immense strength, consisting of tiers upon tiers of batteries on the river front, and a strong parapet and ditch, crossed by a thick abatis, on the land side. The fortifications appeared to have been evacuated hastily, considering the quantities of ordnance and ordnance stores, and number of anchors and the remnant of the Thus informed of the situation of af- chain which was once stretched over fairs, Commodore Foote immediately pre- the river, and a large supply of torpepared to gain possession of the town. A does remaining. Desolation was visible flotilla, under his command, of six gun- everywhere, huts, tents, and barricades, boats, commanded by Captains Dove, presenting but their blackened remains, Walke, Stemble, Paulding, Thompson, though the town was spared." The reand Shirk, and four mortar-boats, in sult to the Union arms was thus ancharge of Captain Phelps, U. S. N., with nounced in the same dispatch of General three transports, carrying General Sher- Cullum to Major-General McClellan at man's brigade, composed of Colonel Bu- Washington: "Columbus, the Gibraltar ford's 27th Illinois regiment, and a bat- of the West, is ours, and Kentucky is talion of Ohio and Illinois troops, on the free, thanks to the brilliant strategy of 4th of March advanced cautiously to the the campaign, by which the enemy's cenlong contemplated enterprise of planting tre was pierced at Forts Henry and the stars and stripes on the rebel works. Donelson, his wings isolated from each On approaching Columbus a flag was dis-other, and turned, compelling thus the covered on the summit of the bluffs, the evacuation of his stronghold of Bowling true character of which it was difficult to Green first, and now Columbus.”* determine, whether national or confeder *Flag-Officer Foote to the Hon. Gideon Welles. Cairo, March 1, 1862. If the abandonment of Columbus by * General Cullum to Major-General McClellan. Colum bus, Kentucky, March 4, 1862. GENERAL POPE AT NEW MADRID. General Polk and his forces freed Kentucky from the presence of the confederates, the advantage gained by the Union army was but a step in its onward progress on the Mississippi. As one "Gibraltar" was silenced another stronger rose in the way. To the threatened obstacles of Columbus in the way of the flotilla, Commodore Foote and the coop 273 General Pope. Indeed the movement of the latter was an essential preliminary to the attack by the river fleet upon Island No. 10. On the 3d of March, the very day the national flag was raised on the deserted rebel works at Columbus, General Pope, who had been moving down the right bank of the Mississippi with his com erating army on land. succeeded the for- mand, chiefly of Ohio and Illinois troops, midable obstacles at Island No. 10, and its vicinity, on the Tennessee shore, whither the rebels had transported their forces and artillery. Island No. 10the numbering of the islands of the river beginning at its junction with the Ohio is situated some forty miles below Cairo, at the bottom of a great bend of the Mississippi, where the stream, in a sharp curve, sweeps around a tongue of land projecting from the Missouri shore, and pursuing thence a north-westerly course to New Madrid, on the western bank, descends past a similar narrow promontory of Tennessee soil, on its great southerly track. An enemy therefore in command of the river would have the opportunity, not only of making a direct attack by water, but of landing troops above or below the island, on the outer side of the two narrow promontories which enclosed it, and attacking it from the opposite shores. The distance across the upper end of the first promontory, four miles above the island, to New Madrid is six miles, and by the river is fifteen. The passage across the second promontory from Tiptonville, the first station on the left bank of the river below, is five miles, while by water it is twenty-seven. On the Tennessee shore a great swamp extended, cutting of communication with the interior, so that the garrison at the island had to depend mainly, if not altogether, for its supplies, reinforcements, and way of escape, if necessary, upon the river. The Missouri shore might have afforded a refuge had it not been promptly occupied and firmly held by the national forces under with an efficient artillery and engineering force, presented himself before New Madrid, the key to Island No. 10 on that side of the river. Once in possession of that point, he could effectually cut off the retreat of the rebels. His overland march from Commerce, above Cairo on the right bank of the Mississippi, which he left on the 22d of February, to New Madrid, at this season, a distance in a straight line of some forty miles, was one of extraordinary difficulty. The roads, as usual in the spring in this region, were deep and heavy. Artillery and wagons were drawn through the mud and sloughs; the men "waded in mud, ate in it, slept in it, were surrounded by it, as St. Helena is by the ocean. For days the column could advance, and that in imperfect order, but five miles from morning to night. On approaching New Madrid, General Pope found the place occupied by five regiments of rebel infantry and several companies of artillery. One bastioned earthwork, mounting fourteen heavy guns, about half a mile below the town, and another irregular work at the upper end of the town, mounting seven pieces of heavy artillery, together with lines of entrenchment between them, constituted the defensive works. Six gunboats, carrying from four to eight heavy guns each, were anchored along the shore, between the upper and lower redoubts. The country was perfectly level for miles around, as the river was so high, that the guns of the gunboats looked directly over the and * Cairo correspondent of the New York Times, March 13, 1862. banks, the approaches to the town for seven miles were commanded by direct and cross fire from at least sixty guns of heavy calibre. "It would not have been difficult," continues General Pope in his official report, "to carry the intrenchments, but it would have been attended with heavy loss, and we should not have been able to hold the place half an hour, exposed to the destructive fire of the gunboats." As the enemy were not disposed to come out of their entrenchments, it was necessary to reduce the place by siege, and heavy guns were ordered for the purpose from Cairo. In the meantime, General Pope sent Colonel Plummer, of the 11th Missouri, with three regiments of infantry, three companies of cavalry, and a field battery of 10-pound Parrot and rifled guns, to Point Pleasant, on the river, twelve miles below, with orders to make a lodgment on the river bank, to line the bank with rifle pits for a thousand men, and to establish his artillery in sunk batteries of single pieces between the rifle pits. The position was taken and held in spite of the cannonading of the enemy's gunboats, thus maintaining an effective blockade of the river to transports from below. As the possession of New Madrid would involve the loss of Island No. 10, the enemy made every effort to strengthen the position. They sent reinforcements from the island until, on the 12th, when the siege guns, sent for by General Pope, arrived, they had nine thousand infantry, besides their artillery force and nine gunboats, to resist the assailants at New Madrid. the flanks with the whole of their heavy artillery on land and water. General Pope ordered his fire concentrated on the gunboats, and in a few hours several of them were disabled, while three of the heavy guns in the enemy's main work were dismounted. "The cannonading," says General Pope, in the report from which we condense this narrative," was continued furiously all day by the gunboats and land-batteries of the enemy, but without producing any impression upon us. Meantime, during the whole day, our trenches were being extended and advanced, as it was my purpose to push forward our heavy batteries in the course of the night to the bank of the river. Whilst the cannonading was thus going on on our right, I instructed General Paine to make demonstrations against intrenchments on our left, and supported his movements by Palmer's division. The enemy's pickets and grand guards were driven into his intrenchments, and the skirmishers forced their way close to the main ditch. A furious thunder-storm began to rage about eleven o'clock that night, and continued almost without interruption until morning. Just before daylight, General Stanley was relieved in his trenches, with his division, by General Hamilton. A few minutes after daylight, a flag of truce approached our batteries, with information that the enemy had evacuated his works. Small parties were at once advanced by General Hamilton to ascertain whether such was the fact, and Captain Mower, 1st United States infantry, with companies A and H of that regiment was sent forward to plant the United States flag over the abandoned works. A brief examination of them showed how hasty and precipitate had been the flight of the enemy. Their dead were found unburied, their suppers untouched, standing on the tables, candles burning in the tents, and every other evidence of a disgraceful panic. Private baggage of officers and knapsacks of men were left be General Pope moved vigorously to the attack. The four siege guns, which had been forwarded with extraordinary effort and alacrity, were received in the evening; before the next morning they were placed in battery, well protected, within eight hundred yards of the enemy's main work, so as to command that and the river above it, and at daylight opened fire. The enemy replied in front and on COMMODORE FOOTE OPENS FIRE. 275 ford, of the 27th Illinois, with his regiment and other troops to the number of fifteen hundred in all, at Columbus, moved down the river and took possession of Hickman on the Kentucky shore. The next day, the 15th, the expedition approached Island No. 10; reconnoissances were made along the shores; the mortar vessels were placed in position, and every preparation made for the attack. The siege commenced commenced on the morning of Sunday the 16th, with a bombardment from the rifle guns of the Benton. The mortar-boats followed, and kept up the firing during the day, the enemy replying in the afternoon; but little was effected beyond trying the range of the guns upon the upper battery of the rebels on the Tennessee shore, two miles above their island fortifications, and upon the island itself. In the midst of this bombardment a touching incident occurred a message was brought to Commodore Foote, by a tug from Cairo, acquainting him with the death of his second son at New Haven-a promising youth of thirteen. "He received the sad hind. Neither provisions nor ammunition were carried off. Some attempt was made to carry ammunition, as boxes without number were found on the bank of the river where the steamers had been landed. It is almost impossible to give any exact account of the immense quantities of property and supplies left in our hands. All their artillery, field-batteries, and siege guns, amounting to thirtythree pieces, magazines full of fixed ammunition of the best character, several thousand stand of inferior small arms, with hundreds of boxes of musket cartridges, tents for an army of ten thousand men, horses, mules, wagons, intrenching tools, etc., are among the spoils. Nothing except the men escaped, and they with only what they wore. They landed on the opposite side of the river, and are scattered in the wide bottoms. I immediately advanced Hamilton's division into the place, and had the guns of the enemy turned upon the river, which they completely command. The flight of the enemy was so hasty that they abandoned their pickets, and gave no intimation to the forces at Island No. 10. The conse-intelligence on the deck," writes a corquence is, that one gunboat and ten large steamers which were there, are cut off from below, and must either be destroyed or fall into our hands. Island No. 10 must necessarily be evacuated, as it can neither be reinforced nor supplied from below."* The entire Union loss during this operation was fifty-one killed and wounded. The enemy's loss could not be ascertained, but a number of his dead left unburied and over one hundred new graves showed that he must have suffered severely. respondent on board the Benton, the flag-ship, "amid the smoke of our guns and the booming of the great mortars, and though quite overwhelmed for the time, with the sudden sorrow, was soon recalled from it, by his imperative duties, to the exciting scenes around him."* A battery of the 2d Illinois artillery was landed on the Missouri shore, and opened fire upon the rebel fleet near the island, suffering a loss of three men wounded by a shot from the enemythe only Union casualties of the day. The rebels are very strong," said a The same day that New Madrid sur- dispatch from the squadron to Cairo, rendered to General Pope, Commodore" and it is hard for us to get at them." Foote left Cairo with a fleet, including seven iron-clads and ten mortar boats, and having been joined by Colonel Bu * John Pope, Brigadier-General commanding, to Brigadier-General G. W. Cullum, Chief of Staff, etc. Headquarters District of the Mississippi, New Madrid, March 14, 1862 { } It was satisfactory, at the same time, to add, that "General Pope's guns at New Madrid command the river, preventing the passage of the rebel gunboats and transports, which are between New Mad *New York Tribune, March 24, 1862. |