GENERAL JAMES SHIELDS. 333 his residence in California, whence he was called to Washington soon after the commencement of the rebellion, by his appointment as Brigadier-General of volunteers, in which capacity he succeeded General Lander, on the death of that officer, in his command on the Upper Potomac. them slightly, and the missing are twen- He was elected to the state legislature, ty-four. The enemy's loss is more diffi- and in 1843 became Judge of the Sucult to ascertain than our own. Two preme Court of the State. Two years hundred and seventy were found dead after he was Commissioner of the genon the battle-field. Forty were buried eral land office at Washington. He by the inhabitants of the adjacent vil- served in the Mexican war as Brigadierlage, and, by a calculation made by the General of Volunteers, and was severely number of graves found on both sides of wounded at Cerro Gordo, for his gallanthe valley road between here and Stras- try on which occasion he was brevetted burg, their loss in killed must have been Major-General. He was again wounded about five hundred, and in wounded, one at Chapultepec. Returning to Illinois at thousand. The proportion between the the close of the war, he was chosen killed and wounded of the enemy shows United States Senator from that State. the closeness and terrible destructive- On the conclusion of his term he settled ness of our fire-nearly half the wounds in Minnesota on lands awarded for his being fatal. The enemy admit a loss of army services, and represented that between one thousand and fifteen hun-State on its admission to the Union, as a dred killed and wounded. Our force in United States Senator. He next made infantry, cavalry, and artillery, did not exceed 7,000. That of the enemy must have exceeded 11,000. Jackson, who commanded on the field, had, in addition to his own stone-wall brigade, Smith's, Garnett's, and Longstreet's brigades. Generals Smith and Garnett were here in person. The following regiments were known to have been present, and from On the receipt of the dispatches from each of them were made prisoners on General Shields announcing the result of the field--the 2d, 4th, 5th, 21st, 23d, the battle, Secretary Stanton, from the 27th, 28th, 33d, 37th, and 42d Virginia; War Department,. wrote in reply: 1st regiment provisional army, and an "While rejoicing at the success of your Irish battalion. None from the reserve gallant troops, deep commiseration and were made prisoners. Their force in in- sympathy are felt for those who have fantry must have been 9,000. The cav- been victims in the gallant and victorious alry of the united brigades amounted to contest with treason and rebellion. Your 1,500. Their artillery consisted of thir- wounds, as well as your success, prove ty-six pieces. We had 6,000 infantry that Lander's brave division is still braveand a cavalry force of seven hundred ly led, and that wherever its standard is and fifty and twenty-four pieces of ar- displayed rebels will be routed and purtillery."* sued. To you and the officers and soldiers under your command the department returns thanks." General Banks also "congratulated the officers and soldiers of General Shields' division, and especially its gallant commander, on the auspicious and decisive victory gained over the rebels on the 23d instant. The division had already achieved a renown against superior forces, against a subtle and barbarous enemy, disencumbered of General James Shields, the commander of the Union forces in this wellfought engagement, was a native of the County of Tyrone, Ireland. Born in 1810, he emigrated to the United States in his youth, and at the age of twentytwo settled in Illinois, where he devoted himself to the profession of the law. * Brigadier-General James Shields to Major-General Banks. Winchester, Virginia, March 29, 1862. everything. That is victory!"* GenGen- Presbyterian divine, who has shown his eral Shields, also, in a general order con- regard for the Union in the publication gratulated his command on the "glorious of an elaborate volume entitled "Political victory" which they had achieved: "They Fallacies-an examination of the false defeated an enemy whose forces outnum- assumptions and refutations of the sophbered them, and who are considered the istical reasonings which have brought on bravest and best disciplined of the Con- this civil war." On the outbreak of the federate army. He also congratulates rebellion, it is said, "Jackson, who is an them that it has fallen to their lot to open elder in the Presbyterian church, spent the campaign on the Potomac. The open- a day and a night in endeavoring to coning has been a splendid success. Let vert Dr. Junkin to secession views, the them inscribe 'WINCHESTER' on their ban- two arguing together during a whole day, ners, and prepare for other victories." and praying together during the night following, without effect, however, upon Dr. Junkin, who was afterward obliged to leave the country and seek refuge in the Northern States." Jackson entered the rebel service as colonel at the very beginning of the war, and was engaged in the first attack upon Harper's Ferry. He confronted General Patterson in his advance in that region previous to the battle of Bull Run, in which he bore a part, and was afterwards on duty with the army in Virginia to the time of his present appearance in the valley of the Shenandoah. Thoroughly in earnest, even fanatical in devotion to the cause which he had espoused, a soldier with a genius for his profession, he brought to the service a local knowledge of the country, a presence of mind in emergencies, and an activity in the field, in pursuit and retreat, which made his name memorable in many an engagement of the war. The Confederate commander, General Thomas Jonathan Jackson, better known by his title of "Stonewall Jackson," from an incident, it is said, in this battle of Winchester, of a portion of his command fighting behind a stone wall, was a native of Lewis County, Virginia. Born in 1826, he was yet in the prime of manhood. A graduate of West Point of the class of 1846, with the appointment of 2d Lieutenant in the 2d Artillery, he had served in Mexico with the battery of Captain Magruder, the well known general in the rebel service. Lieutenant Jackson was brevetted captain and major for his gallantry in the campaign of General Scott at Cherubusco and Chapultepec. In 1852 he resigned his rank in the army in consequence of impaired health, and became a Professor in the Military Institute of Lexington, Virginia. His first wife was the daughter of the Rev. Dr. George Junkin, an eminent * General Banks's Order. Strasburg, March 26, 1862. * Biographical notice in Appleton's Cyclopædia. CHAPTER LX 1. THE BATTLE OF PITTSBURG LANDING, APRIL 6, 7, 1862. THE first prominent mention of Pittsburg Landing, in the affairs of the war, is in a dispatch of Lieutenant Commanding Gwin of the 1st of March, 1862. On that day, being in command of the gunboat Tyler, at the town of Savannah on the Tennessee river, in Hardin county, bordering on Mississippi, "having learned that the rebels had occupied and were fortifying a place called Pittsburg, ARMY MOVEMENTS IN TENNESSEE. 335 land mountains, with an occasional adventurous skirmish with the rebel troops in that region. On the 10th of March, Colonel James Carter, with his regiment of loyal Tennesseeans, left Camp Cumberland ford and traversed the mountains some forty miles to Big Creek Gap, in the neighborhood of Jacksboro' in Campbell county, where he encountered a body of rebel cavalry. Two of the latter were killed, four badly wounded, and fifteen taken prisoners, including a lieutenantcolonel. The tents of three companies with various camp equipage and a number of horses were obtained. Lieutenant Myers and a private of the Union party were wounded. Another brilliant affair of a similar character was conducted by Colonel Garfield, a few days after, from the camp at Piketon, Kentucky. A scouting party from the 22d Kentucky and 40th and 42d Ohio, with a hundred Ohio cavalry-about seven hundred in all-set out on the 13th of March for Pound or Sounding Gap, a pass in the Cumberland mountains about forty miles to the southeast, where a band of guerril las had established themselves to the annoyance of the surrounding country The march was a difficult one, along narrow paths, through rain and snow, in nine miles above on the right bank of the river-the best point in the river for that purpose-he determined to attack them." Accordingly, proceeding thither with the gunboat Lexington, Lieutenant Commanding Shirk, when they had advanced to within twelve hundred yards of the place, fire was opened upon them from a battery of six or eight field pieces, one of them rifled. The gunboats drawing nearer, secured an effective range, and soon silenced the batteries. Two armed boats were then landed from each vessel under cover of a discharge of grape and canister, and their small force of ninety men succeeded in driving back the rebels and holding them in check while they destroyed a house in the immediate vicinity of the batteries. The enemy then rallied, and the landing party finding themselves in the presence of a greatly superior force, stated at three regiments, retired to the boats under a heavy fire of musketry from the rebels. The Tyler was "perfectly riddled with balls." The casualties on the Union side, in this bravely conducted affair, were five killed and missing, and five wounded. The injury to the enemy is unknown, but was supposed to be considerable. "I feel confident," says Lieutenant Gwin in his report, that we inflicted a severe loss," fathomless, endless mud." Arriving at as several bodies were seen on the ground and many seen to fall." Lieutenant Gwin also announced his intention of remaining about Savannah, paying Pittsburg a daily visit, which he hoped would prevent the rebels from accomplishing their object. He had assured himself that the enemy were gathering in force on the northern borders of Alabama and Mississippi, with the evident intention of disputing the possession by the Union troops of middle Tennessee.** In the northeastern border of the State, the Union forces, few in numbers, were watching the gaps of the Cumber *Flag-Officer Foote to the Hon. Gideon Welles. Cairo, March 3, 1862. Reports of Lieutenant-Commanders Gwin and Shirk Elkton Creek, two miles from the gap, on the night of the 15th, he sent his cavalry up the road toward the front of the enemy's position, to divert their attention, while the next morning, Sunday, he led the infantry over the mountains by a precipitous path to take the rebel camp in flank. Emerging from the woods, he discovered the camp in a ravine, with the enemy apparently formed on an opposite hill. He drew up his line in front of them, when observing that they were falling back, he dashed through the ravine and up the hill, with fixed bayonets for a decisive charge. The enemy did not wait for the attack, but, availing themselves of their knowledge of the mountains, fled, leaving the military property in the camp, and commissary General Grant. His army, when it buildings, a spoil to the assailants. They reached its destination, embraced the diwere effectually ransacked, and what could not be carried off was burnt. The Union troops occupied the gap during the rest of the day and night, feasting on the enemy's larder, supplying themselves with guns and clothing previous to their return, without loss or injury, to Piketon. Several of the enemy were said to be wounded in this affair. A reconnoissance in force was made on the 22d from Camp Cumberland ford to Cumberland Gap. There was some skirmishing, and an artillery duel was carried on with the enemy, at too great a distance, however, to be effective on either side. The great movement on foot of the Union armies in Tennessee at this time was the junction of the forces of Generals Grant and Buell on the upper waters of the Tennessee River, with a view of controlling the lines of railway communication connecting the Mississippi with the East, and the border slave States of the rebellion with the Gulf of Mexico. As Columbus had been evacuated, and Island No. 10 was on the point of surrender in consequence of the victories ending in the occupation of Nashville, so the conquest of Memphis would be facilitated by advancing the Union forces to Corinth in Mississippi, the junction of the Memphis and Charleston and Mobile and Ohio Railroads. Tennessee would thus be firmly held in the grasp of the national army. It was a bold step from the lines in Kentucky at Bowling Green to the heart of the enemy's country at the northern boundaries of Mississippi and Alabama. Yet in the course of a month this change had been effected. The Union army, in possession of the capital, was pushing its advance to the southern boundary of Tennessee, and the best generals of the Confederacy were forming new lines of defence in States bordering on the Gulf. The "Tennessee Expedition," as it was called, was commanded by Major visions of Generals McClernand, Charles |