246

ISLAND NUMBER TEN ABANDONED.

return, the Carondelet silenced a battery opposite Point Pleasant, and Captain Marshall, with a few men, landed and spiked its guns.

That night, at the urgent request of Pope, Foote ordered the Pittsburg, Lieutenant Thompson, to run the blockade. It was done, and she arrived at New Madrid at dawn on the 7th, when Captain Walke went down the river with the two gun-boats to silence batteries near Watson's Landing, below Tiptonville (Tennessee), where Pope intended to disembark his troops (then on the steamers that had passed through the canal), on the Tennessee shore, in the rear of Island Number Ten. A few days before, he had established batteries of 32-pounders, under Captain Williams, of the First Regular Infantry, opposite that point.

The troops on the steamers comprised General Paine's division, and consisted of the Tenth, Sixteenth, Twenty-second, and Fifty-first Illinois regiments, with Houghtailing's Battery. A heavy rain-storm was sweeping over the country, but it did not impede the movement. Captain Walke performed his assigned duty admirably, and struck the final blow that secured a victory for the Nationals. At noon he signaled to Pope that the batteries were silenced. The steamers with the troops immediately moved forward, and when they commenced crossing the broad river (which Pope said was

tion on Island Number Ten. Positive information concerning the flanking canal had been given at Confederate head-quarters there, but the story was not believed until the steamers were seen emerging from the bayou at New Madrid, when hope forsook them. Sinking their gun-boat, Grampus, and six transports in the river between the island and New Madrid, so as to form, as they supposed, effectual obstructions to navigation, they abandoned every thing and fled.

It was important to capture the fugitives, and for that purpose Pope directed Stanley and Hamilton, who had come down by land, to cross their divisions. He pushed his troops on toward Tiptonville as fast as they were landed. They met and drove back the Confederates, who were attempting to fly toward Union City. These were joined at Tiptonville that night by many fugitives from Island Number Ten. The wildest confusion prevailed among them. They were driven to the swamps by Pope's advancing forces, and, at four o'clock in the morning, hemmed in on all sides, and finding it impossible to escape, they sur

April 8,

1862.

a

CAPTURE OF ISLAND NUMBER TEN.

247 rendered unconditionally, laid down their arms, and received each his parole.

a April 4, 1862.

At almost the same hour, Commodore Foote received a flag of truce from Island Number Ten, with an offer to surrender the island to him. Up to that time, the Confederates on the island had been ignorant of the disaster that Walke and Pope had inflicted upon their friends below, and those who had fled in that direction expected to find shelter behind the batteries near Tiptonville. There had been grave doubts in the minds of the commanders on the island concerning their ability to hold it, ever since the Carondelet ran the blockade," and Beauregard's quick perceptions were satisfied that the siege. must soon end in disaster and perhaps disgrace. So, on the morning after the passage of that .vessel,' he turned over the command on s April 5. the island to General McCall, leaving McCown in charge of the troops on the Tennessee and Kentucky shores, and, with a considerable body of the best troops, departed for Corinth, in Upper Mississippi, there to prepare to check a formidable movement of the Nationals toward Alabama and Mississippi, by way of Middle Tennessee and the Tennessee River, which we shall consider presently.

On assuming command, McCall issued a flaming order announcing it,' and within thirty-six hours afterward he, too, satisfied of imminent danger, ordered his infantry and Stewart's battery to the Tennessee shore, in a position favorable to escape, leaving only the artillerists on the island. The latter was the force that offered to surrender to Foote, and the entire number of his prisoners was only seventeen officers, three hundred and sixty-eight private soldiers, four hundred sick, and one hundred men employed on the Confederate vessels. The number of prisoners taken by Pope and Foote together was seven thousand two hundred and

seventy-three, including three generals and two hundred and seventy-three field and company officers. The spoils of victory were nearly twenty batteries, with one hundred and twenty-three cannon and mortars, the former varying from 32 to 100-pounders; seven thousand small arms;

2

MAGAZINE OPPOSITE ISLAND NUMBER TEN.

an immense amount of ammunition on the island and in magazines at points

1 The following is a copy of the order which was found at the Confederate head-quarters on the island: "SOLDIERS,-We are strangers, commander and commanded, each to the other. Let me tell you who I am. I am a general made by Beauregard-a general selected by Beauregard and Bragg for this command, when they knew it was in peril. They have known me for twenty years; together we have stood on the fields of Mexico.

ANCIENT MORTAR.

Give them your confidence now; give it to me when I have earned it. Soldiers! the Mississippi valley is intrusted to your courage, to your discipline, to your patience. Exhibit the vigilance and coolness of last night and hold it."

2 Among the mortars on the island was an ancient one, already alluded to, made of bronze and bearing the name of George, the Second of England, which fact declared that it was more than one hundred years old. It was formerly in Jackson Square, New Orleans, where it was regarded as a precious trophy, it having been captured by the Americans from the British during the battle near that city, at the close of 1814 and the beginning of 1815. Many of the cannon were from the Navy Yard at Norfolk. See page 897, volume I.

248

EFFECT OF THE VICTORY.

along the Kentucky and Tennessee shores; many hundred horses and mules with wagons, et cetera, and four steamers afloat.

Never was a victory more complete and decisive, for very few men escaped and very little property was destroyed.' During the whole of his

POPC'S

BEAD QUARTERS

POPE'S
ARMY

NEW MADRID

FT THOMPSON

PT PLEASAN

POPE'S
CROSSING

operations in the siege, Pope did not lose a man, nor meet with an accident; and the casualties in the fleet were very few. There did not seem to be evidence of much loss of life on the part of the Confederates; but everywhere, from Beauregard's and McCall's head-quarters on the island to the smallest tent, there were proofs of the greatest haste in leaving. Among other things found at head-quarters was a bundle of important official papers, one of them containing a drawing of Fort Pillow on the river below.

REELFOOT LAKE

CONFEDERATES
CAPTURED

MAP OF THE OPERATIONS OF POPE AND FOOTE, 2

be estimated.

The victory at Island Number Ten produced the most profound sensation throughout the entire republic. Its importance to each party in the conflict could scarcely The announcement of it went over the land simultaneously with that of the hard-won triumph at Shiloh on the Tennessee River, which we shall consider presently, and was followed, a few days afterward, by that of the capture of Fort Pulaski, at the mouth of the Savannah River. Every loyal heart was filled with joy and hope, and Government securities, which

April 7, 1862.

were at two and a half and three per cent. below par, immediately commanded a premium. The Confederates almost despaired. It was probable that Memphis, one of their strongholds on the Mississippi, where they had im

mense workshops and armories, would CONFEDERATE HEAD-QUARTERS, ISLAND NUMBER TEN, soon share the fate of Columbus. It was probable that the great river would speedily be patrolled from Cairo to New Orleans by the almost invincible armored vessels of the Government, and the rich supply-country west of that stream be separated from the rest of the confederacy. They also apprehended that the great line of railway running almost parallel with the Mississippi, between Southwestern Tennessee and New Orleans, would be seized

1 The value of the captured property was estimated at over a million of dollars. The steamers that were sunk were easily raised.

2 The figures on this map refer to the numbers of the islands.

In this little picture is seen a representation of one of the "plantation bells" that Beauregard called for.

THE CONFEDERATES ALARMED.

249

by National troops. Panic everywhere prevailed along the "Father of Waters" below Island Number Ten. Martial law was proclaimed in Memphis, and the specie of the banks there was removed to places of supposed safety. Many inhabitants fled; and the troops that "guarded the city," and secessionists that remained, proposed to lay it in ashes if it could not be saved from "northern invaders;" but the mayor somewhat allayed the panic caused by this proposition by publicly proclaiming ("not as magistrate," he said, "but as John Park"), that "he who attempted to fire his neighbor's house, or even his own, whereby it endangers his neighbor's, regardless of judge, jury, or the benefit of clergy, I will have him hung to the first lamp-post, tree, or awning."

The disloyal inhabitants of New Orleans were also filled with the most dreadful apprehensions. The Governor of Louisiana (Moore), who had been chiefly instrumental in that State in bringing on the war, issued a despairing appeal to the people;' while in Richmond, the head-quarters of the conspirators, the most gloomy apprehensions were entertained by them and by the disloyal inhabitants. "The trepidations and murmurings, the croakings and prophesyings of doom that have possessed many of the citizens of Richmond during the past week," wrote a resident of that city, "would be enough to make us despair of the republic, if we could suppose the masses of the people of the Confederate States were equally timorous and irresolute."

There were reasons for despondency, for upon every breeze of intelligence from the West, for several weeks preceding, were borne to Richmond

tidings of disaster to the Confederate cause. There were desperate reasons why the most vigorous efforts should be put forth to stay the southern march of the Nationals; and conscriptions and impressments were commenced.

1 "This is not the hour for vain regrets or despondency," said Moore. "No, not even for hesitation. An insolent and powerful foe is already at the castle gate. The current of the mighty river speaks to us of his fleets advancing for our destruction, and the telegraph wires tremble with the news of his advancing columns. In the name of all most dear to us, I entreat you to go and meet him." But there was little disposition to comply with the Government's wishes. When a letter from General Beauregard, which he sent by his Surgeon-General, Dr. Choppin (see note 3, page 238), making an urgent demand for New Orleans to send 5,000 troops to him at once, to save the city," and it was read by the Surgeon to the First and Second City Brigades, who were called out, their reply was, "We decline to go."

Richmond correspondent of the Memphis Appeal.

250

NATIONAL TROOPS IN ARKANSAS.

Jackson, in Tennessee, and Grand Junction,' on the southern border of that State; Corinth, in Mississippi, and Decatur, in Alabama, all of them along the line of the Charleston and Memphis Railway, that stretches from the Mississippi to the Atlantic seaboard-were made places for the rendezvous of troops from Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama. And while Johnston was fleeing southward before the followers of the energetic Mitchel, to join his forces to those of Beauregard, the latter was gathering an army at Corinth to confront a most serious movement of the Nationals up the Tennessee River, already alluded to.

While Grant and Foote were pulling down the strongholds of rebellion in Middle Tennessee and Western Kentucky, the National troops, under

SAMUEL R. CURTIS.

Generals Curtis, Sigel, and others, were carrying the standard of the Republic, in triumph into Arkansas, in the grand movement down the Mississippi Valley toward the Gulf. We have observed how Price was expelled from Missouri and driven into Arkansas. He was closely followed by the National forces under the chief command of General Samuel R. Curtis, of Iowa, who crossed the line on the 18th of February, his troops cheering with delight as they saw the old flag waving in triumph over the soil of another of the so-called Confederate States. On the same day, General Halleck sent a thrill of joy

to every loyal heart, by telegraphing to General McClellan, "The flag of the Union is floating in Arkansas. doing its duty nobly."

The army of the Southwest is

Curtis pushed on, notwithstanding his effective fighting force was continually diminishing, by the planting of guards along his extended line of communication with his sources of supply and re-enforcements. He captured here and there squads of Missouri recruits for Price's army; fought the halting Confederates at the strong positions of Sugar Creek, the Cross Hollows, and other places in mountain defiles; and his cavalry penetrated as far as Fayetteville, the capital of Washington County, near the northwestern border of the State. The Confederates fled so hastily from Cross Hollows that they left behind them their sick and wounded, and stores that they could not take away. They burned their extensive barracks there, left poisoned provisions

1 Grand Junction was a very important point, being at the junction of the Charleston and Memphis Railway and the railway from New Orleans to Jackson, in Tennessee. It was only about two miles northward of the State of Mississippi. During all the time that the Confederates held that section of the country, Grand Junction was the scene of large gatherings of troops. See page 348, volume I.

2 Here, on the 20th of February, some of Curtis's cavalry, under Colonel Ellis, and Majors McConnell, Wright, and Bolivar, made a desperate charge on a brigade of Louisianians, under Colonel Hubert. Two regi ments of infantry, under Colonels Phelps and Heron, and Captain Hayden, with his Dubuque Battery, followed in support of the National cavalry. There was a sharp but short fight, and the Confederates were dispersed. The loss of the Nationals was nineteen, killed and wounded.