80

CHARGE OF FREMONT'S BODY-GUARD.

farmer told Zagonyi that the Confederate force in the town was full two thousand in number. He was not daunted by this information, but pushed forward. One of the foragers who escaped had heralded his coming, and when he approached the suburbs of the village, on the Mount Vernon road, at a little past four o'clock in the afternoon, he found twelve hundred infantry and four hundred cavalry well prepared, on the brow of a hill in front of sheltering woods, to receive him. Zagonyi was still undaunted. Notwithstanding White's Prairie Scouts had been separated from the Guard, Zagonyi was determined to fight. Turning to his officers, he said: "Follow me and do like me!" And to his little band of followers he spoke a few hurried words, saying: "Comrades! the hour of danger has come; your first battle is before you. The enemy is two thousand strong, and we are but one hundred and fifty. It is possible no man will come back. If any of you would turn back, you can do so now!" Not a man moved. Zagonyi was delighted. "I will lead you!" he exclaimed. "Let the watchword be, The Union and Fremont! Draw sabers! By the right flank -quick trot-march!" and away dashed the bold leader and his comrades with a shout down a narrow lane fringed with concealed sharp-shooters, with a miry brook and a stout rail fence ahead to oppose them. These were all passed in a few minutes, while the fire from the infantry in their front was terrible. On an eminence nearer stood the Confederate cavalry, ready to engage in the fray. Already the lane had been strewn with the fallen men and horses of the Guard, and yet Zagonyi's troops had not struck a blow. The moment for dealing that blow was now at hand. The word is given, and Lieutenant Majthenyi, with thirty men, dashed madly upon the center of the Confederate cavalry, breaking their line, and scattering the whole body in confusion over the adjoining corn-fields. Then Zagonyi shouts to the impatient soldiers he is holding in leashes, as it were, "In open order-charge!" and with the impetuosity of a whirlwind they sweep up the slope in the face of bullets that fly thick as hail. At the same moment fifty Irish dragoons of Major White's squadron, led by Captain McNaughton, fall upon the foe, and away scampers almost the entire body of Confederate infantry in wild search for safety. The remnant of the Guard, led by Zagonyi, follow the fugitive horsemen and smite them fearfully, chase them into the town, and fight them fiercely in detail in the streets and in the public square of Springfield, whilst Union women, undismayed by the dangers, come out, and, waving their handkerchiefs, cheer on the victors. When the conflict ended, the Confederates were utterly routed; and of the one hundred and fifty of Zagonyi's Guard, eighty-four were dead or wounded.' The action had lasted an hour and a half; and in the dim twilight of that bright October evening, the National flag was raised in triumph over the court-house.

At a little past midnight, Zagonyi, with a captured Confederate flag and only seventy of his Guard, and a few released prisoners, rode proudly but sadly out of Springfield, because it was unsafe for them to remain. They

1 Dispatch of Major Zagonyi to General Fremont, October 25, 1861. Report of Major Zagonyi to Colonel J. H. Eaton, Assistant Adjutant-General, October 28, 1861. Letter of Major Zagonyi to Mrs. Fremont, quoted in her Story of the Guard. Narrative of Major Dorsheimer, of Fremont's staff, in the Atlantic Monthly. The number of the Guard killed was 15; mortally wounded, 2; the remainder were wounded or made prisoners. Zagonyi said, "Of the wounded not one will lose a finger." The prisoners were released, and the actual loss to the Guard was only 17. So Zagonyi said in a letter to Mrs. Fremont, October 25, 1961.

OPERATIONS IN EASTERN MISSOURI.

81

fell back until they met Sigel's advance, between Springfield and Bolivar. The report of this brilliant charge and victory, which had preceded them, filled the whole army with delight and enthusiasm. "This was really a Balaklava charge," wrote Fremont. "The Guard numbered only one hundred and fifty. You notice that Zagonyi says he has seen charges, but never such a one. Their war-cry, he says, sounded like thunder. This action is a noble example to the army." There had been other noble examples for the army during its advance in Missouri.

Fremont's army arrived at Springfield at the beginning of November, inspirited by news of recent successes in the Department, and the prospect of speedily ridding Missouri of insurgents. While it had been moving forward, Lane and Montgomery, who, we have seen, had been driven back into Kansas by Price,' had crossed into Missouri again, to cut off or embarrass the Confederates in their retreat from Lexington. Montgomery pushed on to the town of Osceola, the capital of St. Clair County, on the Osage, but was too late to intercept Price. The armed Confederates at that place, after a brief skirmish, were driven away, and the village was laid in ashes, with no other excuse for the cruel measure than the fact that it was a rendezvous for the foe, and its inhabitants were all disloyal.

• Sept. 20, 1861.

A month later the National troops gained a signal victory over the guerrilla chief, Thompson (who was called the "Swamp Fox," and his command, the "Swamp Fox Brigade "), at Frederickton, the capital of Madison County, in Southeastern Missouri. General Grant was in command at Cape Girardeau at that time. General Thompson and Colonel Lowe had been roaming at will over the region between New Madrid and Pilot Knob. Thompson, with six hundred men, had captured the guard at the Big River Bridge, near Potosi, and destroyed that structure on the 15th of October, and on the following day he and Lowe were at the head of a thousand men near Ironton, threatening that place, where they were defeated by Major Gavitt's Indiana cavalry, and a part of Colonel Alexander's Twenty-first Illinois cavalry, with a loss of thirty-six killed and wounded. Grant determined to put an end to the career of these marauders, if possible. Informed that they were near Frederickton, he sent out a considerable force under Colonel Plummer,* to strike them from the East, while Captain Hawkins, with Missouri cavalry, was ordered up from Pilot Knob on the Northeast, followed by Colonel Carlin with a body of infantry as a support, to engage and occupy Thomp

5

1 An accident occurred to Major White and prevented his being in this action. He had sickened on the way and been compelled to lag behind. When attempting to overtake his troops, he was made a prisoner, but escaped and reached Springfield on the morning after the fight, with a few Home Guards. Stationing 22 of his 24 men as pickets, he deceived the Confederates in the town with the belief that he had a considerable force with him. After receiving a flag of truce, and permitting them to bury their dead, he prudently fell back to meet the advancing army,

* Other detachments of cavalry from Fremont's army, besides those of White and Zagonyi, had been operating against the Confederates during the march of the main body. One of them, under Major Clark Wright, routed and dispersed a body of Confederates near Lebanon, in Laclede County, on the 18th of October; and on the following day the same forces captured the village of Lynn Creek. In the former engagement, after a charge, and a running fight for a mile and a half, there were about 60 Confederates killed and wounded, while the Union loss was only one man killed.-Report of Major Wright, October 13, 1861.

3 See page 66.

4 They consisted of the Eleventh, Seventeenth, and Twentieth Illinois, and 400 cavalry.

• These consisted of parts of the Twenty-first, Twenty-third, and Twenty-eighth Illinois, the Eighth Wisconsin, Colonel Baker's Indiana cavalry, and Major Schofield's Battery.

VOL. II.-6.

72

a June 10,

1861.

MILITARY AFFAIRS IN KENTUCKY.

he exhibited his contempt for the neutrality of Kentucky, by saying: "If he (Magoffin) should withhold his consent, my present impression is that I shall go forward and occupy the position, upon the ground of its necessity to protect Tennessee."1 The action of the people and the Legislature of Kentucky made Magoffin very circumspect. At the election in June, for members of Congress, there appeared a Union majority of over fifty-five thousand, and the Governor saw no other way to aid his southern friends than by insisting upon the strict neutrality of his State in outward form, in which its politicians had placed it. He had sent Buckner to confer with General McClellan (then in command at Cincinnati) on the subject, who reported that he had consummated an agreement officially with that officer, for a thorough support of that neutrality. He declared that McClellan agreed that his Government should respect it, even though Confederate troops should enter the State, until it should be seen that Kentucky forces could not expel them; and then, before troops should be marched into its borders, timely notice of such intended movement should be given to the Governor; also, that, in case United States troops were compelled to enter Kentucky to expel Confederate troops, the moment that work should be accomplished the National forces should be withdrawn. McClellan promptly denied ever making any such agreement with Buckner. Yet Magoffin insisted upon acting as if such an agreement had been actually entered into by the National Government; and Governor Harris, of Tennessee, to whom Buckner was directed by Magoffin to make an oral report of his conference with McClellan, determined to aid Kentucky in preserving that neutrality, because it promised his own State the best protection against the power of the Government troops.3

While Magoffin endeavored to enforce neutrality as against National troops, he seems to have given every encouragement to the secessionists that common prudence would allow. They were permitted to form themselves into military organizations and enter the service of Tennessee or of the Confederate States; and recruiting for the latter went on openly. The Unionists soon followed the example, and "Camp Joe Holt" was established near Louisville, at an early day, as a military rendezvous for loyal citizens. This was chiefly the work of Lovell H. Rousseau, a loyal State Senator who, when he left the hall of legislation, prepared for the inevitable conflict for the National life. At about the same time, William Nelson, another loyal

1 Autograph letter of General Pillow to L. Pope Walker, May 15, 1861. He appealed to Walker for arms, and promised him, if he should comply with his request, that he would have 25,000 of the best fighting men in the world in the field in twenty days. "If we cannot get arms." he said, "it is idle to indulge the hope of successfully resisting the bodies of Northern barbarians of a tyrant who has trampled the Constitution under his feet." The Mayor of Columbus, B. W. Sharpe, seems to have been in complicity with Pillow in his designs for invading Kentucky. On the first of June he informed him by letter, that the citizens there were preparing to mount heavy guns and to collect military stores.

2 Letter to Captain Wilson, of the United States Navy, June 26, 1861.

* Autograph letter of Isham G. Harris to General Pillow, June 13, 1861.

4 Many young men joined the Tennessee troops under Pillow, and with his army were transferred to the Confederate service. So early as the middle of May, organizations for the purpose had been commenced in Kentucky. On the 17th of that month, William Preston Johnston, a son of General A. Sidney Johnston, of the Confederate Army, in a letter to Governor Harris, from Louisville, said: "Many gentlemen, impatient of the position of Kentucky, and desirous of joining the Southern cause, have urged me to organize a regiment, or at least a battalion, for that purpose." He offered such regiment or battalion to Governor Harris, on certain conditions, and suggested the formation of a camp for Kentucky volunteers, at Clarkesville or Gallatin, in Tennessee. This was one of many offers of the kind received from Kentucky by Governor Harris.

NEUTRALITY OF KENTUCKY.

73

Kentuckian, established a similar rendezvous in Garrard County, in Eastern Kentucky, called "Camp Dick Robinson." Both of these men were afterward major-generals in the Na

tional Volunteer service. The Government encouraged these Union movements. All Kentucky, within a hundred miles south of the Ohio River, had been made a military department, at the head of which was placed Robert Anderson, the hero of Fort Sumter, who, on the 14th of May, had been commissioned a brigadier-general of Volunteers.

a Aug. 19, 1861.

Aug. 24.

When Union camps were formed in Kentucky, Magoffin became concerned about the violated neutrality of his State, and he finally wrote to the President," by the hands of a committee, urging him to remove from the limits of Kentucky the forces organized in camps and mustered into the National service. The President not only refused compliance with his request, but gave him a rebuke' so severe that he did not venture to repeat his wishes. A similar letter was sent by the Governor to Jefferson Davis, softened with Magoffin's assurance that he had no belief that the Confederates would think of violating the neutrality of Kentucky. Davis, thus made apparently unmindful of the fact that his "Congress" at Richmond had authorized enlistments for the Confederate armies in Kentucky; that his officers were organizing bands of Volunteers on its soil, and that already Tennessee troops in his employ had invaded the State, and carried away six cannon and a thousand stand of arms, replied that his "government" had scrupulously respected the neutrality of Kentucky, and would as scrupulously maintain that respect "so long as her people will maintain it themselves."

Aug. 7.

The loyal Legislature of Kentucky assembled at Frankfort on the 2d of September. Its action was feared by the conspirators; and under the pretext of an expectation that National troops were about to invade the State, General Polk, with the sanction of Davis, and Governor Harris, of Tennessee, and the full knowledge, it is believed, of Governor Magoffin, proceeded to carry out General Pillow's favorite plan of scorning Kentucky's neutrality, and seizing Columbus. On the 30th of August, Polk telegraphed to Pillow, saying: "I shall myself be at New Madrid to-morrow to arrange for the future;" and on the 3d of September, De Russey, Polk's aid-de-camp, telegraphed to the same officer, that "the general-commanding determines, with troops now at Union City, to fall at once upon Columbus ;" and directed Pillow

1 The President said that, taking all means within his reach for forming a judgment, he did not believo it was the popular wish of Kentucky that the Union troops should be removed, and added: "It is with regret I search, and cannot find, in your not very short letter, any declaration or intimation that you entertain any desire for the preservation of the Federal Union."

2 In the Senate were 27 Union and 11 Secession members, and in the Lower House 76 Union and 24 Secession representatives.

74

INVASION OF KENTUCKY.

to take his whole command immediately to Island No. 10.

a Sept., 1861.

This was done,

and on the 4th Polk seized Hickman and Columbus, and commenced the erection of batteries on the bluff near the latter place. He immediately telegraphed the fact to Davis, at Richmond, and to

THE BLUFF, AND POLK'S HEAD-QUARTERS, NEAR COLUMBUS.

Governor Harris, at Nashville. Then followed some transparent chicanery

1 Columbus is in Hickman County, about twenty miles below the mouth of the Ohio River.

2 On the same day General Polk issued a proclamation, in which he gave as a reason for his violation of the neutrality of Kentucky, that the National Government had done so by establishing camp depots for its armies, by organizing military companies within its territory, and by making evident preparations, on the Missouri shore of the Mississippi, for the seizure of Columbus. It was, therefore, "a military necessity, for the defense of the territory of the Confederate States, that a Confederate force should occupy Columbus in advance."

When General Fremont heard of this movement, he wrote a private letter to the President, dated the 8th of September, in which he set forth a plan for expelling the Confederates from Kentucky and Tennessee. The President urged its immediate adoption, but was overruled by his counsellors. Experts say, that had Fremont's plan been promptly acted upon, the war that so long desolated Kentucky and Tennessee might have been averted.

The following is a copy of Fremont's letter:

To the President:

HEAD-QUARTERS WESTERN DEPARTMENT, September 8, 1861.

MY DEAR SIR:-I send, by another hand, what I ask you to consider in respect to the subject of the note by your special messenger. In this, I desire to ask your attention to the position of affairs in Kentucky. As the rebel troops, driven out of Missouri, had invaded Kentucky in considerable force, and by occupying Union City, Hickman, and Columbus, were preparing to seize Paducah and Cairo, I judged it impossible, without losing important advantages, to defer any longer a forward movement. For this purpose I have drawn from the Missouri side a part of the force stationed at Bird's Point, Cairo, and Cape Girardeau, to Fort Holt and Paducah, of which places we have taken possession. As the rebel forces outnumber ours, and the counties of Kentucky, between the Mississippi and Tennessee Rivers, as well as those along the Cumberland, are strongly Secessionist, it becomes imperatively necessary to have the co-operation of the Union forces under Generals Anderson and Nelson, as well as those already encamped opposite Louisville, under Colonel Rousseau. I have re-enforced, yesterday, Paducah with two regiments, and will continue to strengthen the position with men and artillery. As soon as General Smith, who commands there, is re-enforced sufficiently for him to spread his forces, he will have to take and hold Mayfield and Lovelaceville, to be in the rear and flank of Columbus, and to occupy Smithland, controlling in its way both the Tennessee and Cumberland Rivers. At the same time Colonel Rousseau should bring his force, increased, if possible, by two Ohio regiments, in boats, to Henderson, and taking the Henderson and Nashville Ra Iroad, occupy Hopkinsville, while General Nelson should go, with a force of 5,000, by railroad to Louisville, and from there to Bowling Green. As the population in all the counties through which the above railroads pass are loyal, this movement could be made without delay or molestation to the troops. Meanwhile, General Grant would take possession of the entire Cairo and Fulton Railroad, Piketon, New Madrid, and the shore of the Mississippi opposite Hickman and Columbus. The foregoing disposition having been effected, a combined attack will be made on Columbus, and, if successful in that, upon Hickman, while Rousseau and Nelson will move in concert, by railroad, to Nashville, occupying the State capital, and, with adequate force, New Providence. The conclusion of this movement would be a combined advance towards Memphis, on the Mississippi, as well as the Ohio and Memphis Railroad, and I trust the result would be a glorious one to the country. In a reply to a letter from General Sherman, by the hand of Judge Williams, in relation to the vast importance of securing possession, in advance, of the country lying between the Ohio, Tennessee, and Mississippi, I have to-day suggested the first part of the plan. By extending my command to Indiana, Tennessee, and Kentucky, you would enable me to attempt the accomplishment of this all-important result, and in order to secure the secrecy necessary to its success, I shall not extend the communication I have made to General Sherman, or repeat it to any one else. With high respect and regard, I am very truly yours,

J. C. FREMONT.