266

• April, 1862.

CAPTURE OF HUNTSVILLE.

struck across the country with a supply-train, sufficient for only two days' provisions, in the direction of Huntsville, making forced marches all the way. On the 10th he left Fayetteville, in Lincoln County, Tennessee, crossed the State line the same day, and entered Northern Alabama, somewhat depressed in spirits by a rumor that Grant had been terribly defeated in a battle near Pittsburg Landing. Mitchel had passed through a very hostile region, but now began to perceive some signs of loyalty among the inhabitants,' and before midnight he was cheered by another rumor that Grant had been victorious and that Beauregard was in flight toward Corinth. Both rumors were true, as we shall observe pres

ently.

Mitchel had pushed on with his cavalry to within eight miles of Huntsville, the capture of which and the seizure of the Memphis and Charleston railway there was the chief objective of his rapid march. There he halted for his artillery and infantry to come up, that he might prepare for striking a decisive blow. His entire march had been so rapid and well masked that the Confederate leaders were puzzled. They could obtain no positive information of his whereabouts or his destination. It was only known that he was moving southward with the apparent fleetness of a northern gale, and was spreading consternation among the inhabitants into whose midst his armed hosts suddenly appeared.

At this last halting-place no tents were pitched, for work was to be done before the dawn. The weary troops slumbered around their campfires in the evening, and when the half-moon went down, at April 11. a little past two o'clock in the morning," they were summoned to their feet by the shrill notes of a bugle. They were soon in motion toward Huntsville, with one hundred and fifty of Kenner's Ohio cavalry and a section of Captain Simonson's battery, in advance, supported by Turchin's brigade, the whole commanded by Colonel Kenner, who, as we have observed, was the first to enter deserted Nashville. What force might meet them, none could conjecture. Every thing must be developed by action. Two working parties, well supported by troops, were sent with picks and crowbars to tear up the railway at the east and west of the town, while the cavalry moved directly upon the city and the railway station. Never was a surprise more complete. It was accomplished at a little before dawn, while the inhabitants were yet in bed. "The April 11. clattering noise of the cavalry," wrote a spectator," aroused them from their slumbers in the dawn of the morning, and they flocked to door and window, exclaiming, with blanched cheek and faltering tongue, 'They come! they come! the Yankees come!' Men rushed into the streets almost naked, the women fainted, the children screamed, the darkies laughed, and for a time a scene of perfect terror reigned." Seventeen locomotives, more than one hundred passenger cars, a large amount of supplies of every kind, and about one hundred and sixty prisoners were the spoils of this bloodless victory.

1 On this day's march, Mitchel's army passed the extensive estate of L. Pope Walker, the Confederate "Secretary of State," which stretched along the road for miles. The mansion had been deserted, and the furniture removed: but a host of slaves remained who gave the "Yankees" a cordial welcome. One of the slaves had a heavy iron ring and bolt fastened to one of his legs, which he said he had worn for three months.

MEMPHIS AND CHARLESTON RAILWAY SEIZED.

267

a April, 1862.

General Mitchel did not tarry long at Huntsville. Appointing Colonel Gazeley, of the Thirty-seventh Indiana, Provost-Marshal, and finding himself in possession of an ample supply of rolling stock on the railway, he immediately organized two expeditions to operate along its line each way from Huntsville. One, under Colonel Sill, went eastward as far as Stevenson, at the junction of the roads leading to Chattanooga and to Nashville, where five locomotives and a considerable amount of other rolling stock were captured. The other, under Colonel Turchin, went westward to Decatur1 and Tuscumbia, south of Florence, from which an expedition was sent southward as far as Russellville, the capital of Franklin County, Alabama. Neither of these expeditions encountered any serious opposition, and on the 16th Mitchel said to his soldiers, "You have struck blow after blow with a rapidity unparalleled. Stevenson fell, sixty miles to the east of Huntsville. Decatur and Tuscumbia have been in like manner seized, and are now occupied. In three days you have extended your front of operations more than one hundred miles, and your morning guns at Tuscumbia may now be heard by your comrades on the battle-field made glorious by their victory before Corinth." He had placed his army midway between Corinth and Nashville, opened communication with Buell, and controlled the navigation of the Tennessee for more than one hundred miles. For these achievements, accomplished without the loss of a single life, Mitchel was commissioned a Major-General of Volunteers, and, with orders to report to the War Department directly, his force was constituted an independent corps.

Let us turn again to the banks of the Tennessee, and see what was occurring there.

General Grant arrived at Savannah on the 17th of March, and made his head-quarters at the house of Mr. Cherry, eight or nine miles below Pittsburg Landing, which General Smith had chosen for his own. The latter had already selected the position of the army in the vicinity of Pittsburg Landing. On its right was Snake Creek, and on its left Lick Creek, streams which formed good natural flank defenses against approach. The whole country for miles around was mostly covered with woods, in some parts filled with undergrowth, and at others presenting a beautiful open forest, composed of large red oak trees. Pittsburg Landing, the post on the river nearest to the Confederates, was protected by the gun-boats Tyler and Lexington. Sherman's division formed a sort of outlying picket, while those of McClernand and Prentiss were the real line of battle, with General C. F. Smith's, commanded by W. H. L. Wallace, in support of the right wing, and Hurlbut on the left. Lewis Wallace's division was detached and stationed at Crump's Landing, to observe any movements of the Confederates at Purdy, and to cover the river communications between Pittsburg Landing and Savannah. The latter was made the depot of stores, to which point General Halleck at St. Louis continually forwarded supplies of every kind.

1 Here the railway sonthward from Nashville connects with the Memphis and Charleston road.

2 General Mitchel's thanks to his soldiers, Camp Taylor, Huntsville, April 16th, 1862.

Letter of General Sherman to the Editor of the United States Service Magazine, January, 1865. "The ground was well chosen," General Sherman wrote: "On any other we surely would have been overwhelmed, as both Lick and Snake Creeks forced the enemy to confine his movements to a direct front attack, which new troops are better qualified to resist than when the flanks are exposed to real or chimerical danger."

268

1862.

POSITION OF GRANT'S ARMY.

From the time of Grant's arrival at Savannah until the first week in April, very little of interest occurred. The commander-in-chief continued a March 17, his head-quarters at Savannah; and there seemed to be very little apprehension of any attack from the Confederates. No breastworks were thrown up, or abatis formed in front of the National army, at whose rear lay the broad and deep Tennessee River. The greater portion

of General Sherman's division was then lying just behind Shiloh Meetinghouse.' General Prentiss's division was encamped across the direct road to Corinth, and General McClernand's was behind his right. These three divisions formed the advanced line. In the rear of this, between it and the Landing, lay General Hurlbut's division, and that of General Smith, under General W. H. L. Wallace. General David Stuart's brigade, of Sherman's division, lay on the Hamburg road, near its crossing of Lick Creek, on the extreme left. General Lewis Wallace's division was still at Crump's Landing.

Such was the disposition of Grant's army on the eventful Sunday morning, April 6, 1862. Nearly four miles intervened between parts of Sher

1 The meeting-house (see page 268) was destroyed after the battle there, early in April. Near it some of the severest of that struggle occurred. The above picture shows the appearance of its site when the author visited it, four years after the contest. Nothing remained but a few logs of which it was built. Several had been carried away, to be manufactured into canes.

2 General Smith was then so ill at his head-quarters at Savannah that he could not take the field. In passing from General Lewis Wallace's head-quarters on a steam-boat, two or three weeks before, he fell from the guard into his yawl, and abraded his leg between his knee and his foot. The hurt disabled him, and it resulted in a fever, which, in connection with chronic dysentery, contracted while serving in Mexico, proved fatal. He died at the house of Mr. Cherry, on the 25th of April, 1862.

THE CONFEDERATE ARMY AT CORINTH.

269

man's division; and large gaps existed between the divisions of McClernand and Prentiss. The extreme left of the line was commanded by unguarded heights, overlooking Lick Creek, which were easily approached from Corinth. The eleven thousand men at Corinth three weeks before had increased to over forty thousand, and the skillful Johnston and active Beauregard were at their head. Re-enforcements had been continually arriving there, while General Buell was making easy marches across Tennessee, to the assistance of Grant, and great uncertainty existed as to the time when he might be expected.

On the first of April, Johnston was informed that Van Dorn and Price were making their way toward Memphis from Central Arkansas, with thirty thousand troops, and would join him within a week. A day or two afterward he heard of the approach of Buell, and at once prepared for an advance upon Grant. His right, under General John C. Breckinridge,' eleven thousand strong, rested at Burnsville, ten miles east of Corinth; his center, more than twenty thousand in mumber, under Generals Hardee and Bragg, were massed at Corinth; and his left, under Generals Polk and Hindman, about ten thousand, extended northward from the Memphis and Charleston road. His cavalry pickets were continually scouring the country in all directions, and were surprised and gratified by never falling in with a scout or vedette from the National lines, though sometimes approaching within a mile and a half of them. Informed of this fact, and made fully acquainted, by spies and resident in

BRAXTON BRAGG.

a April, 1862.

formers, of the position and number of his opponent's army, Johnston was about to move forward on the 5th," to attempt to penetrate its center, divide it, and cut it up in detail, when information reached him that the troops from the west would certainly join him the next morning.

The Confederate forces were now within four miles of the National camp. They had moved silently forward by separate routes, in a heavy rain-storm, toward Shiloh, as the region around Shiloh Meeting-house was called, and on the morning of the 5th these divisions had joined on the range of rugged hills on which stood the little hamlet of Monterey, seven or eight miles from Corinth. Cautiously and silently they had moved still farther on, and halted near the intersection of the roads leading to Hamburg and Pittsburg Landing, and there it was resolved to wait for Van Dorn and Price. Yet there was peril in delay. If Buell should arrive, Johnston's golden opportunity might be lost. Becoming satisfied that evening that his forward movement was unknown to Grant, the chief commander called a council of war at eight

1 See page 76.

270

PREPARATIONS FOR BATTLE.

o'clock, and, after a deliberation of two hours, it was resolved to strike their enemy a blow before the dawn. Pointing toward the Union camp, at the close of the council, Beauregard said: "Gentlemen, we sleep in the enemy's camp to-morrow night."

a April 6, 1862.

The greatest precautions were now taken by the Confederates to prevent any knowledge of their presence reaching the Nationals. No one was permitted to leave the camp, and no fires were allowed, excepting in holes in the ground. It was a chilly and cheerless night, and many of the soldiers lay down in the gloom supperless. At three o'clock in the morning the whole army was in marching order, in three lines of battle, the first and second extending from Owl Creek on the left to Lick Creek on the right, a distance of about three miles, supported by the third and a reserve. The first line was commanded by General Hardee, and was composed of his own corps and Gladden's brigade of Bragg's corps, with artillery following by the main road to Pittsburg Landing. The cavalry was in the rear and on the wings. Bragg's corps, composing the second line, followed in the same order, at the distance of five hundred yards. At the distance of about eight hundred yards behind Bragg was Polk's corps, in lines of brigades, deployed with their batteries in rear of each brigade, also moving on the Pittsburg Landing road, supported by cavalry on the left wing. The reserves, commanded by Breckinridge, closely followed Polk's (third) line, its right wing supported by cavalry.

W. J. HARDEE

In this order the Confederate army was slowly advancing to battle early on Sunday morning, the 6th of April, over the rolling wooded country, while the Nationals were reposing in fancied security. It was one of the most delightful of those spring mornings, which so often give exquisite pleasure to the dwellers in that region; and he who in the gray dawn of that eventful day should have stood at the house of the widow Rey, on a branch of the Owl Creek, within the sound of voices of Sherman's camp near the Shiloh Meeting-house, would not have believed a prophecy that within an hour that Sabbath stillness would be broken by the tumult of battle, and those quiet woods just robed in the most delicate green, and enlivened by the songs of birds, would within sixty minutes be filled with sulphureous smoke, and all the hideous sounds

1 Statement of " An impressed New Yorker" (Thirteen Months in the Rebel Army, page 147), who was on Breckinridge's staff, and was present at the council.

2 General Johnston issued a stirring order to his troops when they were about to move, saying: "I have put you in motion to offer battle to the invaders of your country. With resolution and disciplined valor, becoming men fighting as you are, for all that is worth living or dying for, you can but march to decisive victory over the agrarian mercenaries who have been sent to despoil you of your liberties, your property, and your honor." He told them that the eyes and hopes of eight millions of people were resting upon them, and assured them that their generals would lead them to victory.