280

CONFEDERATES DRIVEN OUT OF MISSOURI.

southward, with a hope that they might strike Price's flank. They were too late. The false movement in departing from the direct westward line of march was now painfully evident. The delay occasioned by it left Price a way of escape, and he eagerly accepted it. Instead of twenty-three thousand recruits, which had been promised him, the Confederate leader had not received over six thousand; and he felt the necessity of getting out of Missouri, and beyond the grasp of his pursuers, as quickly as possible. He fled rapidly southward, and passed into Arkansas, not, however, without receiving some parting blows. One of these was given by Pleasanton at the Marais des Cygnes, where, at four o'clock on the morning of Oct., 1864. the 25th, he opened his cannon upon the camp of the astonished fugitives. Price instantly arose and fled, and was followed by Pleasanton to the Little Osage River, where he made a stand, with eight guns in position. The brigades of Benteen and Phillips, of Pleasanton's command, gallantly charged upon the Confederate lines, captured the eight guns and a thousand men, including Generals Marmaduke and Cabell, and five colonels; also many small-arms, wagons, mules, and other materials of war. Sandborn now came up, and then Pleasanton took his jaded men and horses to Fort Scott for rest, while Smith marched his wearied troops to Harrisonville, the capital of Cass County, for the same purpose.

The Kansas troops, with Benteen's brigade, continued the pursuit, followed by Sandborn's cavalry. They drove the fugitives whenever they attempted to make a stand, until they reached Newtonia, in the southwest corner of Missouri. Price was then moving at a panic pace, strewing the line of his march with the wrecks of wagons and other materials of war, broken and burnt. He turned at Newtonia and offered battle."

October 28. He was gaining decided advantages, when Sandborn, who had marched one hundred and two miles in thirty-six hours, came up and assisted in defeating him. Price again fled, and made his way into Western Arkansas, followed by Curtis, who found Colonel La Rue, who was occue Nov. 14. pying Fayetteville, with the First Arkansas (Union) Cavalry, closely besieged by an overwhelming force. Colonel Brooks had surrounded the post with two thousand Confederates, whom La Rue easily kept at bay until Fagan's division of Price's flying army came to his assailant's assistance. The united forces were carrying on the siege vigorously, when Curtis came up and drove off the Confederates, with heavy loss to them of men and materials. This was the end of the last invasion of Missouri. Price went out of the State much weaker than when he went in, while the total loss of the Nationals, in officers and private soldiers, during his invasion, was only three hundred and forty-six. And his exit was made under very discouraging circumstances. The autumnal elections in the Free-labor States had gone heavily against the Opposition, and consequently the last hope of the Confederates of securing peace and independence by the aid of the Peace Faction, and such of the Opposition party as were willing to follow them, faded away. Grant was then closely besieging Petersburg and Richmond; Atlanta had been captured by the Nationals, and Sherman, the conqueror, was on his march toward the sea; and everywhere eastward of the Mississippi the strength of the Confederate armies and the moral supports of the cause of the Conspirators were rapidly diminishing.

AFFAIRS IN EAST TENNESSEE.

281

Let us now turn our eyes for a moment eastward, and see what events of importance were occurring in the hilly country of Central and Eastern Kentucky and in East Tennessee, before we proceed to a consideration of the great campaigns against Richmond and Atlanta which Lieutenant-General Grant organized after his appointment to the chief command of the Armies. of the Republic.

a Dec. 14, 1868.

On the retirement of Longstreet from Knoxville' and his withdrawal toward Virginia, he was pursued by cavalry under Shackleford, Wolford, Graham, and Foster, into Jefferson County, where, near Bean's Station, on the Morristown and Cumberland Gap road, he turned" sharply upon his pursuers. A brisk conflict was kept up until night, when the Nationals had been pushed back nearly a mile. The contest was indecisive, but somewhat sanguinary, Shackleford, who was in chief command of the pursuers, losing about two hundred men. Longstreet's loss, it was computed, was much greater. He sought, during the struggle, to strike Shackleford in the rear, by sending a force down the left bank of the Holston, to cross at Kelly's Ford, and come up from the west. The vigilant General Ferrero prevented this movement, by sending General Humphrey to hold that ford. Longstreet, being unable to follow up his advantage acquired at Bean's Station, on account of the snow and cold, a large number of his men being barefooted, now fell back toward Bull's Gap, at the junction of the Rogersville branch with the main railway.

Dec. 11.

General Burnside had now retired from the command of the Army of the Ohio, which was assumed by General John G. Foster, his successor in North Carolina. The first event of much importance that occurred after Foster's accession and the affair at Bean's Station, was a fight, between Mossy Creek and New Market, by the * Dec. 29. National advance at Knoxville, under General S. D. Sturgis, with an estimated force of nearly six thousand Confederates, under the notorious guerrilla chief, J. H. Morgan, and Martin Armstrong. The Confederates were vanquished, with a loss never reported, but estimated at full three hundred men. Sturgis's loss was about one hundred. At the same time, Wheeler, with about twelve hundred mounted men, had come up from Georgia, and was boldly operating between Knoxville and Chattanooga, his most notable achievement being an attack upon a National sup- d Dec. 28. ply-train, near Charlestown, on the Hiawassee, which was guard

d

ed by only one hundred men, under Colonel Siebert. Of course, Wheeler easily captured the train, but it was not so easy to hold it, for, immediately after the seizure, Colonel Long came up to Siebert's assistance, with one hundred and fifty of the Fourth Ohio Cavalry and Colonel Laibold's Second Missouri Infantry. These, with Siebert's men, retook the train, and drove Wheeler back, with a loss of forty-one killed and wounded and one hundred and twenty-three made prisoners. The Union loss was only sixteen.

A little later, when Sturgis was occupying Dandridge, the capital of Jefferson County, he was attacked by the troops of Morgan and Armstrong, and after fighting them until night, and breaking their force by a charge led by Colonel D. M. McCook, fell back

1 See page 175.

Jan. 16, 1864.

282

LONGSTREET RETURNS TO VIRGINIA.

to Strawberry Plain, on the railway, with a loss of about one hundred and fifty men.' At about the same time General Robert Vance went over the Smoky Mountain from North Carolina, into East Tennessee, with about four hundred cavalry and two pieces of artillery. It was a most perilous march, over icy roads. Vance left the bulk of his force at the foot of the mountain, and led one hundred and seventy-five men on a reconnoissance toward Sevierville, south of Dandridge. On the way he heard of a National wagon

• Jan. 14, 1864.

train moving not far off. On this he pounced in a fierce charge, and captured seventeen wagons and twenty-six men. With his plunder he attempted to return by way of the head of Cosby Creek, where, on the following morning, he was surrounded by the Fourth Illinois Cavalry, under Major Davidson, who thoroughly dispersed the Confederates and captured General Vance, with a part of his staff and about a hundred men, and recaptured the prisoners and wagons. From that time until the close of January, Sturgis was continually menaced by Longstreet, who appeared to be determined to repossess himself of Knoxville; but his movement was only a mask, behind which his army soon retired into Virginia.

Morgan and his men lingered in East Tennessee about four months after Longstreet withdrew into Virginia. His numbers were comparatively few, but he managed to so magnify them as to command the respect of the National forces in that region. Finally, late in May, when Union troops were co-operating with the Grand Army of the Potomac in its movement on Richmond, and were making their way into Southwestern Virginia for the purpose of seizing the great railway communications between Lee and Johnston, Morgan, who, even with some disjointed cavalry forces co-operating, was too feeble to oppose them, was sent over the mountains into Kentucky to raid through that State, and, if possible, divert some of the National forces from Southwestern Virginia and East Tennessee. As this was the last important raid in which that dashing leader was engaged, and as his career was brought to a close a few months later, when he disappeared from the scenes of the great drama, we will here anticipate the depending order of events a little, and trace in outline a record of Morgan's most notable experiences during the summer of 1864.

1 The cold at that time was intense, and the soldiers suffered much for want of food for awhile. The men had nothing but shelter tents, and their clothing was nearly worn out; and yet, in this condition, with patriotism undiminished by suffering, these half-naked, half-starved soldiers, whose terms of service there expired, cheerfully re-enlisted. It was the history of Valley Forge repeated at Strawberry Plain.

2 At the beginning of January, 1864, some spicy but courteous correspondence occurred between Generals Foster and Longstreet, concerning the circulation of handbills among the soldiers of the latter, containing a copy of President Lincoln's Amnesty Proclamation. See page 232. It was having a powerful effect, and Longstreet found the number of desertions from his ariny rapidly increasing. Whereupon he wrote to Foster, saying he supposed the immediate object of such circulation was to induce desertions and win his men to the taking of an oath of allegiance to the National Government. He suggested that it would be more proper to make any commu nications to his soldiers on the subject of peace and reconciliation through the commanding general, rather than by handbills. Foster replied that he was right in supposing that the object of the handbills was to induce men in rebellion against their Government to lay down their arms and become good citizens, and he sent twenty copies of the Amnesty Proclamation to Longstreet, that he might himself, in accordance with his own suggestion, show his desire for peace, by circulating them among his officers and men. Longstreet regarded this as "trifling over the great events of the war," when Foster replied by communicating through him to his army the terms upon which there might be a speedy restoration of peace throughout the land," which was, in substance, absolute submission to the National authority. He also inclosed a copy of an order, which he had felt compelled to issue, on account of the frequent capture of Confederates in the National uniform, by which corps commanders were directed to shoot dead "all rebel officers and soldiers wearing the uniform of the United States Army, captured in future within our lines."

MORGAN'S RAID IN KENTUCKY.

283

May 29, 1864.

At the close of May, Morgan entered Kentucky by way of Pound Gap,* with about twenty-five hundred men, indifferently mounted. He managed to evade General Burbridge, who was in that region with a strong force, contemplating an advance into Southwestern Virginia in co-operation with Crook and Averill, who were to march up the Kanawha, in the direction of the Blue Ridge. Morgan always managed to live off the country he was in; so now he sent men ahead to seize fresh horses from friends or foes, and by that means his followers were soon so well mounted that they were enabled to sweep rapidly through the eastern counties of Kentucky, from Johnson to Harrison, by way of Paintville on the west fork of the Big Sandy, through Hazel Green, Owensville, and Mount Sterling, to Paris and Cynthiana, in the richest part of the commonwealth, and to give to that region a new claim to the title of "the dark and bloody ground." He captured Mount Sterling, Paris, Cynthiana, and Williamstown, almost without resistance; and burnt railway trains, stations, and bridges, tore up tracks, and plundered without fear, for the troops in the path of his desolation were too few or feeble to check him. His men were divided into raiding parties, and one of these, three hundred strong, led by Colonel Giltner, actually pushed General Hobson, with twelve hundred wellarmed men, into a bend of the Licking River, in Nicholas County, and captured him and his troops.

When General Burbridge was told of Morgan's passage of the mountains, he started promptly in pursuit, and, by a forced march of ninety miles, surprised him by a stout blow at Mount Sterling, which sent him ⚫ June 9. bounding forward. With a part of his force the guerrilla pushed into Lexington, and entering it just past midnight, burned the railway sta tion there and other property, and then hurried toward Frankfort. At the same time another portion of his followers set fire to Cynthiana, but near there Burbridge struck them an awfully shattering blow while they were breakfasting. That blow killed or wounded three hundred of them, while four hundred men were made prisoners, and a thousand horses were spoils for the victors. It also liberated some of Hobson's men. Burbridge's loss was about one hundred and fifty men.

Morgan was amazed and bewildered by this staggering blow, and, with the wreck of his command, he reeled back into Southwestern Virginia, and made his way into the valley of East Tennessee. There, with a small band, he did what he might to harass the Union troops in that region and distress the loyal inhabitants. Finally, early in September, when he was at Greenville, with his thin brigade lying near, his force was assailed by troops under General Gillem. These made a forced night march from Bull's Gap, sixteen miles distant. The Confederates were surprised and driven with a loss of about one hundred killed and seventy-five wounded. Morgan and a portion of his staff were then at the house of Mrs. Catherine D. Williams, in Greenville, which was surrounded by the Union troops, and the guerrilla leader was shot dead while trying to escape.

The writer, with his traveling companions already mentioned (Messrs. Dreer and Greble), visited Greenville and other places in the great Valley of East Tennessee, while on our journey, in May, 1866, from the scenes of Sherman's Atlantic campaigns, into Virginia, to visit the theater of the

284

THE GREAT VALLEY OF EAST TENNESSEE.

simultaneous campaign against Richmond. Having visited the principal places of conflict between Sherman and Johnston on our way to Atlanta from Chattanooga, we now journeyed back without halting until we reached Cleveland, the place of junction of the railways leading into the valley from Chattanooga and Dalton. There, at a little cottage-like inn, embowered in trees, and then sweetly perfumed by its garden of roses, we spent a night and part of a day, a portion of the time with Dr. Hunt, one of the stanch Unionists and patient sufferers of East Tennessee. Cleveland was a pleasant little village before the war, situated in the midst of a beautiful region, but now it was scarred and disfigured by the ravages of the demon of Discord. Troops of both parties had trampled upon all its pleasant places. Nearly seventy thousand were there at one time. On eminences around it were earth-works for cannon and the shelter of troops; and upon a ridge over

looking the railway station was the fine brick mansion of Mr. Raht, which General Howard used as head-quarters when he was there with his corps.

From Cleveland we journeyed to Knoxville by railway, seeing the evidences of the recent strife every where along the line of its track. At Charleston, where the railway crosses the Hiawassee, we saw strong earth-works, and a block-house on the margin of that little river, so beautiful in name and appearance. At Loudon these

were still more numerous and strong; and some, cast up by the soldiers of both parties, were seen at Lenoir and other places, between the Tennessee crossing and Knoxville. That region is extremely fertile, and was then fast recovering its former beauty and fruitfulness under the hand of intelligent and industrious cultivators. It presented a great contrast to the region in Georgia between Dalton and Atlanta, which was yet in the desolate state in which Sherman and Johnston had left it.

At Knoxville we were the guests of Governor Brownlow, whose name and deeds are so conspicuous in the annals of the Civil War in Tennessee. His house was the abode of intellectual culture and social refinement, and the open-handed hospitality which we found there will ever form one of the pleasantest recollections of our traveling experience. And there was something more precious than intellectual culture and social refinement under that roof. It was abounding patriotism and highest moral courage, exhibited not only by the master of the house, but by all, even the weakest members of it. In all the fiery trials of the Civil War to which that household was subjected-when the father, because of his devotion to the old flag of his country, was hunted like a wild beast in the mountains-the wife, and sons and daughters kept the altar fire of patriotism burning brightly within that dwelling. The National flag was kept waving over its roof in defiance of the scorn and threatenings of traitors; and when a company was sent from a Texan regiment encamped near the city, to haul down that flag, a young widowed daughter of Governor Brownlow (Mrs. Sawyer, afterward Mrs. Dr. Boying