BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE 525 of much value: Russell, My Diary North and South (1862), by an intelligent correspondent of the London Times; Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's Diary, 2 vols. (1866); Gurowski, Diary from March 4, 1861, to November 12, 1862 (1862); and Pike, First Blows of the Civil War (1879). On the fall of Fort Sumter see: Crawford, Genesis of the Civil War (1887); Doubleday, Reminiscences of Forts Sumter and Moultrie (1876); and Roman, Military Operations of General Beauregard, 2 vols. (1884). Books in sympathy with the South are: Jefferson Davis, Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government, 2 vols. (1881); Stephens, War between the States, 2 vols. (1867); Curry, The Southern States in Relation to the United States (1894); Fowler, Sectional Controversy (1865); Du Bose, Life of W. L. Yancey (1896); and Wise, Life of Henry A. Wise (1899). For Independent Reading Russell, My Diary North and South (1862); Reuben Davis, Recollections of Mississippi and Mississippians (1900); Wilmer, Recent Past from a Southern Standpoint (1900); Clayton, White and Black under the Old Régime (1899); Morse, Life of Lincoln, 2 vols. (1893); Riddle, Recollections of War Times (1895); and Forney, Anecdotes of Public Men (1873). CHAPTER XXV THE WESTERN CAMPAIGNS A BIFURCATED INVASION THE task of the North was to enter Southern territory, suppress resistance, and restore the authority of the union: that of the confederacy was to resist conquest. The Northern invasion was a bifurcated movement, one part operating on the east and the other on the west of the Appalachian mountains. It was hoped that each would roll back the confederate resistance and, by uniting below the southern end of the mountain system, give the finishing stroke to the confederacy somewhere in northern Georgia. As it fell out, the union advance was checked by Lee's army in the East, but it was steadily successful in the West. The Mississippi river and all of Tennessee were gradually secured, and by the middle of 1864 northern Georgia was occupied by a strong and victorious army. The western division had done its allotted task, and now turned northward to help the Eastern troops complete the capture of Richmond. The present chapter will describe as a whole the Western movements and the succeeding chapter will deal with the operations in the East. 1. West Virginia. THREE PRELIMINARY OPERATIONS, 1861 The conquest of the West began properly in 1862, but in 1861 there were three important preliminary episodes: 1. While the people of western Virginia were busy creating a new state a union army under General McClellan drove back the confederate forces which came from the east to maintain the Virginia authority. In several sharp engagements McClellan's fame was established, and he was called to Washington to command a greater army. In the western counties he was succeeded by Rosecrans, who had Robert E. Lee for an opponent. Lee's force was inadequate, and was forced over the mountains, and it was not until he had won his brilliant victories in the campaign around Richmond in the following year that the Southern people forgot his present ill fortune. 2. The success of the unionists in preventing secession in Missouri (see page 517) was followed by a determined confederate effort to retake the state by arms. At first it seemed successful, and the federal General Lyon was killed. But he was avenged by General 2. Missouri. THE ADVANCE ON NASHVILLE the Ohio. 527 Pope, who with a strong force drove the confederate army out of Missouri. Late in 1861 Halleck was given command on both sides of the Mississippi, with headquarters at St. Louis. He well understood the art of war, but proved slow in execution. Under him, however, served several brilliant generals, and affairs in his department progressed favorably. 3. The confederates wished to make the Ohio river their line of defense, although they had not 3. Holding troops enough to hold Kentucky. But in September, 1861, General Grant, then acting under Frémont, defeated this plan. by seizing Paducah and Cairo. The result was that the enemy established his lines from the Mississippi at Island No. 10, New Madrid, and Columbus, thence eastward to Forts Henry on the Tennessee and Donelson on the Cumberland, and after that at Bowling Green, Kentucky, a place nearly due north of Nashville, with which it was connected by sixty miles of railroad. To the eastward a small force occupied central and eastern Kentucky, where union sentiment was strong; but a federal force drove it back in January, 1862. By these three preliminary movements the border states of Missouri and Kentucky, which Lincoln's tact had kept from secession, and the new state of West Virginia, were saved from the confederate arms. From that time the fiercest field of western operations was Tennessee. GRANT'S CAMPAIGN ON THE TENNESSEE, 1862 Fort Henry Captured. Late in January Grant formed a plan to cut the confederate line at Forts Henry and Donelson, only eleven miles apart. Receiving permission from Halleck he moved up the Tennessee with 17,000 men and seven gunboats. The confederates did not allow themselves to be surrounded, and surrendered the place after most of its defenders had withdrawn to Fort Donelson (February 6), which Grant lost no time in attacking. He sent his gunboats back to the Ohio and up the Cumberland, while he marched overland to Donelson. Here the first attack of the boats was repulsed, and they retired for repairs. Then Grant threw his force around the fort on the land side and was in a position to starve or storm it. For such a fate the occupants would not wait. At dawn on February 15 they attacked and drove back the union right, so that for a few hours the road was open. Grant was four miles away, and rode hurriedly to the danger point. Learning that the knapsacks of the Surrender captured confederates were filled with food, he divined that an escape was intended, and ordered an assault along all his line. It was delivered with great spirit, the confederate defenses were penetrated, and retreat was made impossible. During the night the generals in the fort, Floyd, Pillow, and Buckner, decided that surrender was necessary. Floyd had been Buchanan's secretary of war, and feared to be taken prisoner. He handed over the command of Fort Donelson. and escaped across the river in a skiff under cover of darkness. Two small steamboats arrived at dawn, and on them Pillow and some troops escaped. A body of cavalry under Forrest, who was soon to be a noted leader of light-horse troops, escaped along the river bank. The rest of the confederates, nearly 15,000, were surrendered by Buckner. In this action the union army numbered 27,000. Johnston Falls back to Corinth. The situation in Tennessee now shifted rapidly. Albert Sidney Johnston, in chief command of the confederates, hurriedly withdrew the force from Bowling Green to Nashville, and Buell, who had been watching it, followed leisurely. If he and Grant united their armies, the story of Fort Donelson would be repeated at the state capital. Johnston was too wise to be caught in a trap, and continued to retreat, spite of the censure of the Southern press. He finally halted at Corinth, Mississippi, important because it commanded the railroad from Chattanooga to Memphis. While he collected supplies and reënforcements his opponents leisurely overran western Tennessee. Grant's March 17 Grant, following the Tennessee river, arrived at Savannah with 45,000 men. Buell, with 35,000, was approaching from the northeast, and the plan was that the two forces should unite and crush Johnston, who had only 40,000. Grant thought his opponents could not take the offensive, and carelessly placed five divisions at Pittsburg Landing, on the west side of the river, twenty-three miles from Corinth, holding Lew Wallace's division at Crump's Landing, five miles north of that point. He failed to intrench, though ordered to do so by Halleck, and had his headquarters at Savannah, eight miles north of his main force and on the opposite side of the river. He was daily expecting Buell, who, in fact, reached Savannah April 5, where he was allowed to halt. The Battle of Shiloh. Johnston was an able general, and was anxious to fight before Buell came up. Moving out of Corinth, he fell on the union force in the early morning of April 6. Grant heard the firing, and hastened to the scene by boat. To his surprise, he found a heavy battle in progress, and his men fighting for their lives. He ordered Wallace and Buell to come up, and calmly watched the fray. Throughout the whole day the fighting continued, the federals being driven back, and Shiloh Church, the key of the field, was taken by Johnston, who, fighting with great courage, was struck in the leg as he led a regiment into a hazardous charge. He had previously ordered his surgeon to attend to the wounded elsewhere, and bled to death before aid could be found. His death discouraged his men, who, however, at nightfall held the ground the union force occupied in the morning and had forced their foe to take protection under the fire of the union gunboats. In the night Grant received 20,000 fresh troops from Wallace and Buell, and next morning renewed |