ROSECRANS SUPERSEDES BUELL.

523

at the ditch, when portions suddenly rose and delivered such murderous. volleys that the assailants recoiled. In a moment they rallied and came again to the encounter. The Eleventh Missouri and Twenty-seventh Ohio gave them fearful volleys, and then the word "Charge!" rang out along the line. The Nationals poured over the parapet, engaged in a terrible hand-tohand fight with the assailants, and soon sent them flying in wildest confusion to the shelter of the forest. By noon THE BATTLE OF CORINTH was ended, and the whole Confederate force was retreating southward.

Rosecrans ordered five days' rations and a rest until the next morning for his gallant troops (who had been marching and fighting for forty-eight hours), preparatory to a vigorous pursuit. Just before sunset General McPherson arrived, with five fresh regiments sent by General Grant, and early in the morning he went forward as the advance of the pursuers, and followed the Confederates fifteen miles that day. In the mean time another division from Grant, under General Hurlbut, which had been pushed forward to attack the Confederate rear or intercept their retreat, had met the head of Van Dorn's column near Pocahontas, on the morning of the 5th, and was driving it back across the Hatchee, toward Corinth, at Davis's Bridge, when General Ord, who ranked Hurlbut, came up and took the command. There was severe fighting there, in what is known as THE BATTLE OF THE HATCHEE, where the Confederates lost two batteries, and three hundred men made prisoners. Ord had fallen severely wounded during the engagement, and Hurlbut resumed the command.' His force was inferior, and he did not pursue. The Confederates made a wide circuit, and crossed the Hatchee at Crown's bridge, a few miles farther south, burning it behind them. McPherson, coming up, rebuilt it, and on the following day" pushed on in pursuit. The greater portion of the National army followed the fugitives to Ripley, and their gallant leader, satisfied that he could soon overtake and capture or destroy Van Dorn's army, was anxious to continue the pursuit. Grant thought it best not to go farther, and Rosecrans was recalled. The fugitives had been followed forty miles by the main body of the victors, and sixty miles by the cavalry.'

a Oct. 6, 1562.

A few days after his return to Corinth, and while the country was ringing with his praises, Rosecrans was relieved from his command, and ordered to report at Cincinnati, where he found orders for him to supersede Buell in command of the Army of the Ohio, which, as we have observed, was now called the Army of the Cumberland.

1 In this conflict General Veatch was also wounded. Ord's loss in that pursuit was heavier than that of the flying Confederates, who made a stand at three well-covered places, in succession.

2 General Rosecrans reported his loss in the battle of Corinth and in the pursuit at 2.859, of whom 31% were killed, 1,812 wounded, and 232 missing. We have no official report of the loss of the Confederates. Rosecranз estimated it at 1,423 killed, 5,692 wounded, and 2,248 prisoners, making a total of 9,363. Pollard admits that their loss was more than 4,500. Among the trophies were 14 flags, 2 guns, and 3,300 small arms. Rosecrans says that, according to the Confederate authority, they had 38,000 men in the battle, and that his own force was less than 20,000. General Hackelman was among the loyal slain.

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DEPARTMENT OF THE TENNESSEE.

CHAPTER XX.

EVENTS WEST OF THE MISSISSIPPI AND IN MIDDLE TENNESSEE.

HE repulse of the Confederates at Corinth was followed by brief repose in the Department over which General Grant had command, and which, by a general order of the 16th of October, was much extended, and named the Department of the Tennessee,' with head-quarters at Jackson. He made a provisional division of it into four districts, commanded respectively by Generals W. T. Sherman, S. A. Hurlbut, C. S. Hamilton, and T. A. Davies-the first commanding the district of Memphis, the second that of Jackson, the third the district of Corinth, and the fourth the district of Columbus.

Vicksburg, a city of Mississippi, situated on a group of high eminences known as the Walnut Hills, on the eastern bank of the Mississippi River, at a bold turn of the stream, and a point of great military importance, had been fortified by the Confederates, and was daily growing stronger. It was becoming a Gibraltar for them in opposing the grand scheme of the Nationals for gaining the command of the Great River, and thus severing important portions of the Confederacy. Toward the seizure of that point operations in the southwest were now tending. Vicksburg was not in General Grant's department, but its capture became his great objective, as well as that of others, and for that purpose a large portion of his forces had moved southward, and at the beginning of December had taken post between Holly Springs and Coldwater, on the two railways diverging from Grenada, in Mississippi, and the Tallahatchee River, behind which lay the Confederates in strength. There he was prepared to co-operate with the National forces westward of the Mississippi, and on the river below. That we may have a clear understanding of the relations of these co-operating forces, let us glance a moment at their antecedents, and especially their more recent movements. These forces, in other forms and numbers, we left, in former chapters, some under General Curtis, after the battle of Pea Ridge, and others under General Butler and Admiral Farragut.5

Let us first follow the fortunes of Curtis's army after the battle of Pea Ridge. We left it at Batesville, on the White River, in Arkansas, on the

1 The newly organized Department included Cairo, Forts Henry and Donelson, Northern Mississippi, and those portions of Tennessee and Kentucky lying west of the Tennessee River.

2 Here was the first blockade of the Mississippi. See page 164, volume I.

2 See

page 253.

4 See page 352,

See page 345

CURTIS'S MARCH TOWARD THE MISSISSIPPI.

525

6th of May,' where Curtis expected to find gun-boats and supplies, in charge of Colonel Fitch. The lowness of the water in the river had prevented their ascent, and one of the war-vessels had been destroyed by explosion in a struggle with a Confederate battery at St. Charles. This was a great disappointment to Curtis, for he had expected to advance on Little Rock, the capital of Arkansas. Being compelled to depend for his supplies by wagontrains from Rolla, far up in Missouri, he did not feel warranted in making aggressive movements, and he remained at Batesville until the 24th of June, when he moved on toward the Mississippi, crossing the Big Black River on pontoon bridges, and traversing a dreary country, among a thin and hostile population, until he reached Clarendon, on the White River, a little below the mouth of the Cache River.

• June 25, 1862.

Curtis was joined at Jacksonport by General C. C. Washburne, with the Third Wisconsin cavalry, which had made its way down from Springfield, in Missouri, without opposition. Southward the whole army moved, across the cypress swamps and canebrakes that line the Cache, and on the 7th of July the advance (Thirty-third Illinois), under Colonel A. P. Hovey, was attacked by about fifteen hundred Texas cavalry, led by General Albert Rust. Hovey halted until Lieutenant-Colonel Wood came up, with the First Indiana cavalry and two howitzers, when these re-enforcements made an impetuous charge, and put the foe to flight with heavy loss. They left one hundred and ten of their dead to be buried by the victors. The latter lost eight killed and forty-five wounded.

Curtis was again doomed to disappointment on reaching the White River at Clarendon, where he expected to meet gun-boats and supplies. These had gone down the river only twenty-four hours before his arrival. He was now short of provisions, and the people being intensely hostile, he felt compelled to go to the Mississippi by as short a journey as possible. After a most wearisome march of sixty-five miles, he reached Helena, in Phillips County, between the 11th and 13th of July. Washburne, with twenty-five hundred cavalry and five howitzers, had marched that distance in twenty-four hours. The infantry brought with them a few Arkansas volunteers, and a large number of negroes, who sought liberty and protection under the old flag.

Both the National and Confederate powers were weak in Arkansas at this time. Price and Van Dorn, with their armies, and a large number of the Arkansas troops, had been called to Corinth and vicinity, and when Governor Rector summoned militia to defend his capital when Curtis menaced it, the response was so feeble that he fled from the State, leaving the archives to be carried to Arkadelphia, more in the interior. Ten regiments had been drawn from Curtis to re-enforce the army in Tennessee about to attack Corinth, and he had not strength enough to seize the Arkansas capital. Rector's flight left the State without a civil head, and John S. Phelps, of Missouri, was appointed its military governor, but he could not take his seat in the capital, and his authority was nominal.

In the mean time National war-vessels had ascended the Mississippi to Vicksburg, and above, and exchanged greetings with others which had come down from Cairo. When New Orleans was fairly in the possession of the

1 See page 260.

526

LAND AND NAVAL FORCES ON THE MISSISSIPPI.

military power under Butler, Commodore Farragut sent a portion of his force up the river, for the purpose of reducing such posts on its banks as were held by the Confederates. Baton Rouge, the capital of Louisiana, was captured on the 7th of May without resistance. The Mayor refused to surrender it formally. So Commander Palmer, of the Iroquois, landed, and

& May 18.

"repossessed" the National arsenal there. Farragut arrived soon afterward, and the naval force moved on, with the advance under Commander S. P. Lee, on the Oneida, as far as Vicksburg," without opposition. May, 1862. There the troops of Lovell, who fled from New Orleans, after having halted at different places, were now stationed. Lee sum moned' the city to surrender, and was answered by a respectful refusal by the Mayor, and a preposterous note of defiance from "James L Autry, Military Governor and Commandant Post." M. L. Smith, the "Brigadier-General Commanding," also refused, and Lee prudently awaited the arrival of Farragut with the remainder of his squadron, a portion of Porter's mortar-fleet, and transports with four thousand land troops under General Thomas Williams. The latter were sent by General Butler to occupy and hold places that might be captured by the navy. It was expected that batteries would be found on the bluffs at Port Hudson, Elles's Cliffs, Natchez, and Grand Gulf, but no serious resistance was offered at those places. Williams landed below Elles's Cliffs, and made a circuit in the rear to capture a battery on their crown, but the troops had fled with their guns. There were no signs of opposition at Natchez, but fearing it at Grand Gulf, the troops landed, took possession of the town, and, in retaliation for being fired upon, they burned it before they left.

The whole force appeared off Vicksburg on the 26th of June, and that night the gun and mortar boats opened fire on the formidable Confederate batteries there. These were too elevated to be much damaged by the bom bardment, and, after two days of almost ineffectual firing, Farragut deter

1 See notice of its capture by the insurgents on page 181, volume I. The large turreted building seen in the above picture, above al the others, is the State-House of Louisiana.

2 "I have to state," said Autry, "that Mississippians don't know, and refuse to learn, how to surrender to an enemy. If Commodore Farragut or Brigadier-General Butler can teach them, let them come and try."

BRIEF SIEGE OF VICKSBURG.

527

mined to run by them. This he did without much harm,' at three o'clock on the morning of the 28th, with the flag-ship Hartford and six other vessels, leaving the mortar-fleet and transports below, and met the gun and mortar flotilla of Commodore Davis, and the steam-rams, under the younger Ellet

(the elder having just died at Cairo), who had come down from Memphis. Williams, under the direction of Farragut, made an attempt, with twelve hundred negroes, to cut a canal across the peninsula opposite Vicksburg, through which his transports might pass in safety, but failed; and such was the result of a bombardment by the floating batteries above and below the town. So, in the course of a few days, the siege was temporarily abandoned. A startling rumor now reached Farragut, to the effect that a formidable ram" was lying in the Yazoo River, which empties into the Mississippi above Vicksburg. She had been commenced at Memphis, and two days before the evacuation of Fort Pillow3

66

she was towed down the river with materials sufficient to finish her. She was now completed, with low-pressure engines possessing in the, aggregate nine hundred horse-power, and was named Arkansas. Farragut sent the gun-boats Carondelet and Tyler, and Ellet's ram, the Queen of the West, to reconnoiter her position. They passed cautiously up the Yazoo on the 15th, about six miles, when suddenly they encountered the formidable foe. A sharp contest ensued, in which the armored Carondelet, Captain Walke, bore the most con

He lost by the fire of the batteries fifteen killed and thirty wounded.

DAVID G. FARRAGUT.

2 This is from a sketch of the Cliffs made by the writer from the steamer Indiana, in April, 1866. These cliffs, on the east bank of the river, are at a sharp turn in the stream, about eighteen miles below Natchez. They are of yellow clay, and rise from one hundred and fifty to two hundred feet above the water.

3 See page 298.

4 This was a sea going steamer of 1,200 tons burden, and had a cutwater composed of a sharp, solid beak of