USA > Georgia > The army reunion : with reports of the meetings of the societies of the Army of the Cumberland; the Army of the Tennessee; the Army of the Ohio: and the Army of Georgia > Part 11
USA > Ohio > The army reunion : with reports of the meetings of the societies of the Army of the Cumberland; the Army of the Tennessee; the Army of the Ohio: and the Army of Georgia > Part 11
USA > Tennessee > The army reunion : with reports of the meetings of the societies of the Army of the Cumberland; the Army of the Tennessee; the Army of the Ohio: and the Army of Georgia > Part 11
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Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24
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the rebel works in front, they met the cavalry entering them tri- umphantly from the left and rear. This was too much for the rebel host. Broken and crushed, like grain between the upper and nether millstones, it fled ingloriously, under a pall of dark- ness, from the field. The many instances of personal daring that characterized the night fighting which followed-Spaulding's headlong charge in the dark, against rebel barricades ; Ham- mond's gallant conduct at Hollow Tree Gap; the stirring affair at the West Harpeth, where Hatch, Coon, Hammond and the Fourth Regulars overwhelmed the rebel rear guard, and cap- tured their last battery ; the thousand cases of unrecognized and unrewarded valor which marked the terrible fifteen days of marching, bivouacking and skirmishing, without rations, and without forage, through a country already desolated by the march of contending armies ; the almost human suffering of the starving, overworked horses, as they sank, by thousands, in the half-frozen morasses which lined our route, would require a Xenophon to depict them. We shall never forget the toil, exposure, hunger and suffering.of that terrible winter campaign. But we were amply repaid for it all by the unstinted com- mendations bestowed upon us by our comrades of the infantry, but, more than all, by the consciousness of our duty done, against more than mortal odds. From that day forth, there was no word of ridicule for the cavalry, in the Army of the Cumberland. The new corps had bathed its guidons in blood, and was gener- . ously hailed as full brother in the field of honor.
The next two weeks were spent in cantonments along the banks of the Tennessee. Five divisions, in all twenty-seven thousand men, were collected, seventeen thousand of whom were mounted and ready for service. Knipe was sent to join Canby ; Johnston, with three brigades, was left to keep watch over the rebels of Middle Tennessee ; Hatch was encamped at Eastport, waiting to receive new arms and a remount, before following out
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Speech of General Wilson.
a route marked out for him. The rest of the corps, nearly four- teen thousand strong, splendidly mounted and equipped, and nearly all provided with the best fire-arms ever put into the hands of a soldier-the Spencer carbine and riffe-began their wide-spread march through the desolate region of Northern Alabama. Concentrating at Elyton, Croxton was detached to move upon Tuscaloosa, while the main force, with the impetuous Upton in advance, headed boklly for Selma. Forrest, with Roddy, Armstrong and Crossland, were encountered at Mon- tevallo, again at Randolph and Ebenezer Church, but were swept out of the way like chaff before the whirlwind. Marching twenty-five and thirty miles a day, with constant fighting, was a poor day's work. On the second day of April, Selma, the last Southern stronghold, was carried by storm. Thirty-two field guns, three thousand men and horses, and large quantities of valuable military property, fell into our hands, while Forrest and his generals succeeded in escaping under cover of night, by leaving their followers to their fate. I can not do justice to the knightly gallantry displayed upon that occasion by Long, Minty, Miller, and their devoted troopers. The chivalry of Spain, in
their palmiest days, never excelled it. The field over which they advanced was as level and unimpeded as this floor, and was swept in all directions by the fire of sixteen guns. The works which they carried were a strong bastioned line, covered by a deep moat, and still farther out, by a stockade five and a half feet high. The attacking force of one thousand five hundred and fifty men and officers, in single line, faltered not, but, relying upon their trusty Spencers, dashed forward without a waver, scaled the stockade as boys play leap-frog ; poured into the ditch, and clambered over the parapet defended by a force numerically greater than their own. Long, Miller, McCormick, Biggs and Dobbs, with over two hundred of their comrades, were stricken down; but Selma was ours, and "fairly won !" Pausing only
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long enough to bridge the swollen Alabama, we pushed forward toward Montgomery, raising the starry flag over the first capital of the Confederacy. Destroying the cotton, boating, and military stores, we continued our hurrying march toward the Chattahoo- chee ; LaGrange capturing Fort Tyler at West Point, and Upton the tete de pont, at Columbus. It is not too much to say that these actions were never surpassed for audacity and resolution. The attack on Columbus was made after nine o'clock at night. Upton, assisted by Winslow, Noble and Benteen, led his three hundred chosen troops, dismounted, elbow to elbow, like " Gren- adiers of the Guard," straight against the breastwork that barred his road, and although three thousand rebel infantry, and fifty- two guns, throwing all kinds of missiles, did all in their power to hold them at bay, he swept every thing before him. Even the bridges, and the very guns for their defence, were captured before the bewildered rebels could retreat beyond them. The assault upon Fort Tyler was scarcely less remarkable, although it was made by daylight. When it is considered that the ditches of this work were impassable, that three bridges, on three sides of the work, were laid, and each of them used by columns which crossed the rebel parapets almost simultaneously, it will be acknowledged that both officers and men had passed by the days of half-measures in warfare, and were equal to any emergency. Night fighting is the crucial test of discipline, and it is no more than justice to say that Cromwell's Ironsides could not have met it better than did Upton's Division at Columbus. The cavalry learned there, at Selma and Nashville, one of the greatest lessons in warfare-that there is no cover so good as darkness, and no protection so complete as resolute courage in times of great peril ; that caution is the virtue of prosperity, but audacity that of great emergencies !
We tarried at Columbus thirty-six hours, burning and destroying, while the advance guard opened the road to Central
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Speech of General Wilson.
Georgia. Next Macon, with its garrison of major-generals and militia, fell an unresisting prize into our hands. A few days thereafter Croxton, who by a series of masterly marches had outwitted Jackson, burned Tuscaloosa, and fought Adams near Eutaw, making a wide sweep to the northward and east- ward, rejoined us in the heart of Georgia, where we were stopped by something more difficult than rebel lines to break. I refer to the armistice which preluded peace. I need not explain to an assembly of soldiers, that there were sad hearts among us that day-sad and glad ones too-for while we all rejoiced as good citizens that the war was ended, it must not be forgotten that our columns were moving toward Virginia at the rate of forty miles a day, and that we had hoped within twenty days to unite our forces with those of Sheridan, and to measure our metal with his in patriotic rivalry. But the last battle had been fought, and there was nothing left for us but to gather in the fruits of our victory. Learning from rebel sources that Davis was a fugitive, and believing that he would be restrained by neither armistice nor capitulation, we took possession of rail- roads and telegraph lines, sent scouts throughout Northern Georgia, and detachments to all important points between Marietta and St. Marks. With Upton at Augusta, Alexander at Coosa, Winslow at Atlanta, Minty and Croxton at Macon and along the line of the Ocmulgee, with detachments on the Chattahoochee and the Flint, and McCook at Tallahassee, we barred all doors and patrolled all roads leading to the South and West. The first information of Davis' movements was obtained from a rebel citizen who had seen him at Salisbury; but this was soon supplemented and confirmed by the untiring zeal of Lieutenant George O. Ycoman, Acting Inspector General of Alexander's brigade. This gallant young officer, with a detach- ment of twenty men, all disguised as rebels, joined Davis' escort near the Savannah river, and by sending in couriers kept his
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commanding officers informed of all the movements of the rebel chieftain. It was upon this information that Croxton and Minty were directed to select their best regiments, the one to march eastward to the Oconee, and the other to march southeastward along the Ocmulgee. The story of the pursuit and capture has been told in detail. You have heard how Harnden, with the First Wisconsin cavalry, struck the trail at Dublin-thanks to the information given by a colored man-and how the Colonel and his men followed without food or forage for three days and nights, through swamps. morass, and forest, to the neighborhood of Irwinville, all the time gaining upon the fugitives, and all the time becoming more firmly convinced that he was on the right track; how Pritchard, with the Fourth Michigan, crossed the trail at Abbeville, and after skirting the Ocmulgee several miles further, turned also toward Irwinville ; and how, in the gray of the dawn of the roth of May, his troopers captured the President of the so-called Southern Con- federacy, not booted and spurred, with his visor down, but struggling ungracefully in the encumbering garb of woman. What an ignoble and pitiful end ! What more ignoble stain could the gallows fix upon such a man? How wisely Providence ordered events ! In that hour the country was overwhelmed with sorrow for the untimely death of the beloved Lincoln ; the colors of the nation were draped in black, and sadness had driven the smile from every countenance - when lo! the news of Davis's capture, in disguise, flashed across the wires, and spread with,lightning speed. The effect was magical ; it was the farce after the tragedy, and a laugh of derision followed the wail of mourning.
During six months of almost constant marching and fighting between ' the Ohio river and the Gulf of Mexico, the Mississippi and the Atlantic, these troopers never went round a place they should have gone through. They justly
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Speech of General Wilson.
claim that they never got within sight of a gun that they did not take, whether posted in the open field, behind breastworks, or beyond streams ; that they never made a charge which failed, and never lost a bridge of their own, nor permitted the enemy to burn one over which he was retreating. They captured nearly fifteen thousand prisoners, thirty-two stands of colors, five fortified cities, and two hundred and eighty guns. They burned, or helped the rebels to burn, two hundred and fifty thousand bales of cotton ; destroyed railroads, bridges, cars, locomotives, foundries, ship-yards, factories, and military stores, as long as they could find them to destroy; after the surrender, they paroled fifty-nine thousand rebel soldiers belonging to the armies of Lee, Johnson, and Beuregard, and arrested the Postmaster General, Secretary of the Navy, Vice-President, and President of the Confederacy.
When the war ended, the seven divisions numbered thirty-five thousand men for duty ; the three divisions under my immediate command, fourteen thousand, exclusive of three full regiments of colored troops, recruited and organized, clothed with rebel uniforms, and armed with rebel rifles, while on the march. They had twenty-three thousand head of horses and mules, were provided with three excellent batteries of horse artillery, among which were Robinson's Chicago Board of Trade Battery, and Battery "M" and "I" of the Fourth United States Artillery , they were fully provided with arms and ammunition, and in every way justified the praise of General Sherman, when he said " they were the largest and best equipped body of mounted troops that ever fell under his command." They were equal to any duty which could have been required of them, except that of lying still in the enemy's country. Motion was the first law of their existence, as well as the principal component in the measure of their utility ; they required all the surplus product of one county to support them one day. I believe that the best
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cavalry is the best infantry mounted, and that mass or numbers, Into the square of the velocity with which either can go, is the true measure of its working capacity. Forrest came near the secret of cavalry, and, in fact, of all warfare, if there is any secret, when he said to one of my staff' officers : "Tell General Wilson that I don't know much about tactics, but I would give. more for fifteen minutes of the bugle on him than for three days of tactics." I am glad to say that we never gave him fifteen, nor five, nor one minute, but went for him all the time.
Neither the country nor the army appreciated the division, brigade and regimental commanders of the cavalry corps at their real worth. There were men among them fit for any command that could have been given them, and, as a class, they were as gallant and capable as ever drew sabre or wore uniform. It will always be regretted for their fame that the war did not last six months longer. They were, with a few exceptions, not yet turned of thirty. Upton, Alexander, Winslow, Crox- ton, LaGrange, Watkins, Murray, Palmer, Kitchell, Noble, Benteen, Young and Kelley, were of the younger set, while McCook, Minty, Long, Kilpatrick, Hatch, Knipe, Coon, R. W. Johnson, Hammond, Cooper, McCormick, G. M. L. John- son, Atkins, Spaulding, Pritchard, Miller, Harrison, Biggs, · Vail, Israel Garrard, and Frank White, were somewhat older, though still possessing the sinews of youth. Our grey-beards, and we had but few, were Harnden-as sturdy as Burley of Balfour, and Eggleston-the type of those who rode with Crom- well in Marston Moor. The rank and file were veterans in service, but young in years, and I can aver with truthfulness that I never saw their superiors for endurance, self-reliance and pluck. After they were massed at Nashville they believed themselves invincible. When armed withi Spencers it was their boast that, elbow to elbow, dismounted, and in single line, nothing could withstand their charge. "Only cover our flanks," said Miller
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Speech of General Pope.
before Selma, "and nothing can stop us!" In conclusion, it is my duty to add that I never saw one of them skulk before battle, or sneak to the rear after the action began. They seemed to know by instinct when the enemy might be encountered, and the only strife among them was to see who should be first in the onset. With a corps of such men, the more the better, properly mounted, armed and organized, nothing is impossible except defeat.
The clangor of war is over, and quiet reigns throughout the land ; our chargers are converted into plow-horses, our guidons aye folded tenderly away, our carbines and sabres hang rusting on the wall, our ranks are broken, and our troopers side by side gathering the victories of peace. The fire of patriotism yet burns brightly in their bosoms, and should, perchance, the bugles sound "to arms," they will rally to their standards and charge again for country, God and victory !
Music by the Band ; - " When Johnny Comes Marching Home."
TWELFTH TOAST ; - The Army of the Mississippi.
Speech of General JOHN POPE :
MR. PRESIDENT AND GENTLEMEN : As this is a reunion of officers belonging to organizations of Western troops, as they stood at the close of the war, and as I have not the honor to be a member of either, I had expected that I would be permitted to remain a silent guest, and avail myself of the privilege which your kindness and courtesy have conferred, to listen to the addresses of the distinguished officers who have spoken, and to renew with many of you the pleasant social intercourse which separation has so long obstructed. The toast just given, and the calls upon me,
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admonish me that more is expected, and I have not the privilege, even had I the inchnation, to refuse to respond.
Of all the armies here represented, the Army of the Tennessee is the oldest in years and in organization. But two others had birth at the same time, and stood side by side with that army at the siege of Corinth. These two armies were the Army of the Ohio and the Army of the Mississippi. General Buell, the able soldier who organized and commanded the Army of the Ohio, during its whole existence (an army noted in its day for its organization, its discipline, and its efficiency) is not here present, to speak in fitting terms in its honor; but General Thomas, the most renowned of its soldiers, whose name and fame are insepar- ably connected with it and its successor (the Army of the Cum- berland), sits on my right, and is, no doubt, both ready and willing to respond in its behalf.
Of the Army of the Mississippi, which it is my highest honor to have organized and commanded, it seems appropriate that I should say something, and I trust you will bear with me if I seem extravagant in the few remarks which I shall make. The official life of the Army of the Mississippi was not long, but it was long enough to inscribe on its banners "New Madrid," "Island No. 10," and "Corinth," "Second Corinth," and " Iuka ;" long enough to bear on its rolls such names as Schuyler Ham- ilton, C. S. Hamilton, Plummer, and Kirby Smith ; long enough to give to the Armies of the Tennessee and Cumberland such renowned soldiers as Rosecrans, Sheridan, Stanley, Mower, Granger, Corse, Palmer, Elliott, Noyes, Fuller, Sprague, Wager Swayne, Morgan, and many others ; long enough to contribute to these armies (mainly to the Army of the Tennessee), some of their best and most distinguished regiments. An organization which gave such deeds and such soldiers to the country, should not be suffered to be forgotten amongst men, and I esteem it a privilege that it has fallen to my lot to recall to remembrance its
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Speech of General Pope.
brilliant record. Of the pain and reluctance with which I found myself separated from that army in the midst of its successful career, by orders which I could not resist, and of what afterward befell, it perhaps does not become me to speak, except to say that in time of trial and misconception, confronted by difficulties which the country seems yet little to comprehend, I was strength- ened to endurance by the knowledge conveyed in a thousand assurances that the sympathy and confidence of that army went with me through all. But a few months after the evacuation of Corinth the organization of the Army of the Mississippi was broken up, and its commanders and its regiments absorbed in the Armies of the Tennessee and Cumberland. From that day their fortunes were identified with those armies. In the great cam- paigns which swiftly followed ; in their toils and perils; in their victories, and in their fame, the old regiments of the Army of the Mississippi bore their full part, and have their full share ; but I do not doubt, indeed I know, that even now, assembled here to recall and to enjoy the remembrance of their later achievements, and the fame of their latest army organizations, they look back with affection to the old Army of the Mississippi, and remember with pride and pleasure its brilliant history.
The War of the Rebellion, with all its brilliant deeds, and its heroic sacrifices, has been consigned to history, and its vivid impressions are fast fading from the minds of men. It seems emi- nently proper, then, that the gallant soldiers who played their part in this great war, and to whom the Government to-day stands indebted for its life, should meet together from time to time to keep alive the memories of the past achievements, and the cordial brotherhood which binds them together. But let us hope that the next reunion of the Western armies may embrace all those who at any time served in the armies of the West. Let us remember the many gallant officers wounded at Belmont, Donelson, and Shiloh ; at Pea Ridge, at Island No. 10, at
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Corinth, and at Perryville, and, because of their wounds, never able to rejoin their commands. Let us be mindful of the many officers separated at an early day from the Western armies by orders or other circumstances which they could not control. Let us recollect the numerous and widely dispersed forces serving in Missouri and Arkansas who played their part manfully in the field to which they were assigned. None of these belong to the army organizations here represented, and yet there is not one of them who did not feel an equal interest in the career of the Western armies, and does not feel an equal pride in their splendid achievements. Not as guests, but as members in full brotherhood, these men should be welcomed at any future reunion of the armies of the West.
The cordial harmony, and the earnest good feeling so plainly manifested among the large number of officers who have taken part in this reunion, sufficiently demonstrate that neither widely separated homes, diversity of pursuits, nor differences of political opinion, have sufficed to weaken the strong friendships formed in stirring scenes of war, and cemented by so much glory and so much grief. It is to this feeling of personal regard among the members of the great armies which have so lately been re-absorbed into the bosom of the people that we are indebted for much of our immunity from personal and political bitterness and distrust, and as these great armies once saved the life of this nation by the power of their arms, it is by no means improbable that they may yet preserve it from further civil strife and convulsion through the influence of the personal attachment and confidence formed during the war, and strengthened and perpetuated during these army reunions.
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Speech of General Fletcher.
THIRTEENTH TOAST ; - Our Sister Armies of the East, the South, the Gulf, and the Frontier.
Speech of General THOMAS C. FLETCHER, of Missouri :
COMRADES : The fame of our sister armies is enrolled in the Capitol ; their deeds are preserved in the record of the events of the time. The glory they shed upon American arms will grow brighter and brighter as time shall reveal more fully all the causes which contributed to our final victory. On the most thrilling pages of the history of the great American War, there will be found inscribed the deeds of the ARMY OF THE EAST. Its fame can not be added to by any proceeding here on our part. It first taught the vaunting Southerner to respect the valor and the manhood of the men of the North. It exhibited first, and perhaps in highest degree, the persistence and power of endurance which distinguish the American soldier. Defeated, crushed, hurled back ; broken and bleeding, they rallied again and again, and were taken back by successive leaders to fight the bravest and best of the troops of the South. Roman and Grecian heroism will fail to claim the attention of the genera- tions of the future, when they shall read the story of the brave and true men who were nerved by faith in God, and in the justice of their cause to do the deeds of the Army of the East. Their deeds are history. No eulogy from me can add to their glory. No eloquence can add to the force of the plain facts of that history. '
And our SISTER ARMY OF THE SOUTH! Who would attempt the useless task of weaving a wreath of rhetoric above or about the chaplet of glory with which it crowned itself in the contest with the strong, well organized, desperate and well supplied enemy, on his own soil, and aided by the very climate, which was to him healthful, but full of disease and death to
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the stranger? We can only leave for the history of the Army of the South our testimony, as actors with it in the great general struggle for liberty and law, to the noble part it bore.
What can be said of the Army of the Gulf that has not been said of the Sister Armies of the East and of the South? When exultation gives place to the calmer enjoyment of the results of great achievements, then all the means which contributed to the final success are looked for and appreciated. The history of a nation is usually but the story of its wars; the first version, what the armies say of themselves, the later one, what they say of each other. We need not wait for the reason- ing and philosophical study of the coming time to trace out the decds of our Army of the Frontier, and to speculate as to its importance in the causes which contributed to the grand results of the war for liberty and the Union. The Armies of the Tennessee, Cumberland, Ohio, and Georgia lead it here by the hand as a sister to the very presence of the future, and before witnesses whose name and fame will outlive that of Cæsar and Bonaparte, and fade from freedom's scroll only with the name of Wash- ington-they proclaim our Army of the Frontier full sharer of their glory. Though comparatively few in their numbers, they were strong in their faith, and with heroic hand wrote "the fiery gospel in rows of burnished steel" all over the prairies, and along the river shores where the hand of the savage wielded the scalping-knife in Confederate service for the cause of slavery and rebellion. And where superior forces opposed, and lurking foes did foul murder in the name of war, through the valley dark with the terror and blood of neighborhood deadly strife, they led the patriot citizen up to the inspiring heights of new hope. Tradition, story, and song will hand down to the posterity of the brave and noble Union men of Southwest Mis- souri and Northern Arkansas the names and memory of our Army of the Frontier, and on the smoke-dried cottage wall
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