History of Sangamon County, Illinois, together with sketches of its cities, villages and townships, educational, religious, civil, military, and political history, portraits of prominent persons, and biographies of representative citizens, Part 52

Author: Interstate publishing co., Chicago. [from old catalog]
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Chicago, Inter-state publishing company
Number of Pages: 1084

USA > Illinois > Sangamon County > History of Sangamon County, Illinois, together with sketches of its cities, villages and townships, educational, religious, civil, military, and political history, portraits of prominent persons, and biographies of representative citizens > Part 52

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the reflex of the popular will-the individualized Agora, through which the voice of the Nation is heard, not only in the present, but in after times also, so, it is not to be wondered, that Jackson, with such qualities as he possessed, should have been that man to the people of his time. The pride we feel in the man is not a partizan pride; it arises from what he did for his country. There is no vandal hand to tear away the first leaf in chaplet of laurels, and the smoke of destruction which was to obscure his fame has passed away for ever."

In 1846 Mr. MeClernand was elected a third time to Congress, and this time also without op- position. In the course of the following sum- mer, he was frequently called upon to address the soldiers returning from the war. At a pub- lic dinner given in Fairfield, to celebrate the return of our Illinois Volunteers, being called upon, he delivered an address which thus con- cludes:

"Now, gentlemen, in conclusion, allow me to exhort you to support our civil institutions, as one of the highest duties encumbent on citizens and patriots. Study and understand their two- fold character. Remember that they are both local and general, State and Federal; and to what is Federal accord the things which are Federal, and to what is State the rights of the States. in short, uphold the whole system of confining the action of the several parts to their appointed spheres. Thus guarded and pro- tected, the Union will long endure as the ark of our political safety. Like the grain of mustard seed compared in the parable to the Kingdom of God, it will grow and continue to grow, until its shadow shall cover the whole earth."

In 1848 Mr. MeClernand was re-elected to Congress, though not without opposition.

In 1849, as a member of a select committee on certain charges against President Polk for having established a tariff of duties in the posts of the Mexican Republic, Mr. MeClernand, in a minority report on behalf of himself and Mr. Venable, another member of the committee, de- fended the action of the President with great power and incontrovertible argument.

In 1850, at the instance of other leading men, Mr. McClernand prepared and offered the first draft of the famous compromise measures of that year. But the same subject being taken up in the Senate by the committee of which Mr. Clay was the chairman, who reported a bill which passed both Houses. Mr. McClernand presided in a committee of the whole during its progress through the House. During this

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session Mr. McClernand delivered an elaborate speech on the same subject.

Ile also, at the same session, drafted the bill granting a quantity of land in aid of the con- struction of the Illinois Central Railroad and its Chicago branch. His colleague, Senator Doug- las, being furnished with a copy, introduced it into the Senate, and, with amendments, it passed both Houses and became a law.

In the same year and during the same ses- sion, as chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, he brought forward a plan for the re-organization of the State Department.

In 1851, declining re-election, he retired from Congress, after eight years' faithful service and a most brilliant and successful career in the cause of his country and of good government, and removed to Jacksonville, Illinois.

In 1852 he was chosen a second time an Elector for President and Vice-President, and voted for Pierce and King.

In 1856 he made a powerful speech at Alton, Illinois, deprecating the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, and predicting danger to the coun- try as its consequence.

This speech produced a great sensation at the time, and provoked the wrath of many of the Democratic leaders. Mr. McClernand being asked how he dared to give expression to such heterodoxical sentiment, answered, that it was "because he esteemed his country and his fame of higher value than the interests of party."

In 1856, he removed to Springfield, the capital of Illinois, and soon gained a commanding po- sition in the State and Federal Courts.

In 1858, he wrote a letter on the Kansas im- broglia, which was extensively circulated.

In 1859, he was elected from the Capital to the popular branch of Congress, to fill the va- cancy caused by the death of Major T. L. Har- ris.

In 1860, he introduced a bill repealing the law organizing the Territory of Utah, and merging that Territory in others. This was his plan for overcoming the ascendancy of the Mormons, and arresting the evils of polygamy.

But on the 14th of January, 1861, he deliv- ered a speech in the House of Representatives on the Union and the phantom of "no coer- cion" while from its comprehensiveness, its accurate historical research, its close and conclu- sive argument, cannot be surpassed and scarcely equalled in the whole range of parliamentary literature. Those who wish to make themselves familiar with this great subject and its masterly treatment, ought, by all means, to peruse the

speech as it was delivered. We shall only be able to give one or two passages here which ap- pears to us perfect of their kind, and very gems of patriotism and eloquence. Mark the follow- ing:

"No! the Mississippi valley is a geographical unit. Its grand river, with its intersecting tribu- taries, reaching out in every direction to its ut- most limits, is the hand of Almighty God bind- ing it together in one homogeneous and complete whole. It is an organic body, inseparable except by violence to the laws of nature, and those other laws of commerce, education and society, which are the necessary results of the former. Let it be divided to-day, and ere long, when the frenzy of the hour shall have subsided. its dismem- bered parts will cleave together again by irre- sistible attraction; will reunite as the lips of an incised wound, by the just intention. A higher law than the slave-law must control the destiny of the Mississippi Valley, the law of mutual attraction and cohesion. I say this in no offen- sive, but in a philosophical sense, and the recon- struction jobbers of the day, if they would make permanent work, must bear it in mind."

Again, hear him on the subject of "coercion." " We hear the clamor of 'coercion'- of co- ercion of States. What is the foundation for this clamor? Do the friends of the Union pro- pose to invade South Carolina for the purpose of subjugating her people? Do they propose to force them to send her members of Congress back here, or to perform any other active Fed- eral duty? Not so! All we propose is to pro- tect the property and jurisdiction of the United States by defensive measures, no more. Is that coercion ?

"Again, sir, is it coercion of a State. for us to do that we are sworn to do-to support the Constitution and the laws and treaties of the United States? Is it coercion for us to main- tain possession of the treasures and other prop- erty of the United States? To stay the violent and lawless hand that would tear down the noble structure of our Government? Nay. more, is it coercion for us to let the flag of the I'nion stand upon the bosom of our country where our fathers planted it? To let the eagle of America sweep with buoyant wing the entire domain of this great Nation. Is this coercion? Why. sir, it is a perversion of all language, a mocking of all ideas to say so! Rather is it coercion for a State to require us to submit to her spoliation of the posts, arsenals, dock-yards, custom houses, post offices and the arms and munitions of the United States. Such submission, sir, in my

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opinion, would be in the last degree reprehensi- ble and disgraceful. Utter imbecility alone can tolerate it, and, if this be the condition of our Government, let us at once abolish it, and pro- claim to the world the sad fact that the last and most auspicious experiment of free Government has signally failed!"

In April, 1861, at the instance of Governor Yates, Mr. McClernand being still a member of Congress, accompanied an armed volunteer force from the Capital of Illinois to Cairo and occu- pied that place.

While there, he caused the steamers passing from St. Louis to Louisville and other interme- diate points in Missouri and Kentucky, to be brought to at Cairo, and thus he wrested from rebel agents a considerable quantity of arms and munitions designed for rebel use.

While at Cairo, he took great pains to inform himself respecting the condition of affairs in the southwest. He learned that there was, as vet, no rebel force either at Memphis, Corinth, Columbus or Madrid; and that public sentiment was still fluctuating between treason and loyalty, and that the most favorable opportunity for striking a decisive blow in the interest of the Union was still open.

Hastening back to Springfield, he laid this important fact before Governor Yates, and draw- ing up a plan of operations, accompanied the Governor to Washington, and laid it before the President, and, at the instance of the latter, be- fore Scott, the General in Chief.

It would have been well for the interests of the country, had Mr. McClernand's plan been carried out at that time. But Kentucky neutral- ity seemed to stand in the way, until those strongholds were seized and fortified by the enemy. Then, indeed, the Government and the whole country awoke to a full sense of their importance, and no wonder; for before they could be removed, the battles of Belmont, Forts Henry and Donelson, the fields of Shiloh and Madrid, the naval battle of Memphis, and the sieges of Island No. Ten and of Corinth, had to be fought, all of which might have been saved, if Mr. McClernand's prudent counsel had been followed in time.

In July, 1861, Mr. McClernand took his seat in Congress, and was active and influential in inspiring and arming the Nation for the approach- ing conflict. - With this view, he offered the fol- lowing preamble and resolution :

"WHEREAS, A portion of the people of the United States, in violation of their constitutional obligations, have taken up arms against the Na-

tional Government, and are now striving, by aggressive and iniquitous war, to overthrow it and break up the Union of these States ; there- fore,

"Resolved, That this House hereby pledges itself to vote any amount of money, and any number of men that may be necessary to insure a speedy and efficient suppression of such rebel- lion, and the permanent restoration of Federal authority every where within the limits and jurisdiction of the United States."

In the following month (August 4th), in com- mon with his colleagues from Illinois, he was called upon by the President, to recommend to him a list of names for appointment as Briga- diers, and to fix the order of their rank. All his colleagues united in recommending him for the first appointment ; but, refusing to recommend himself, and joining with the others in recom- mending U. S. Grant, the latter thus gained seniority of rank.

Immediately resigning his seat in Congress, Mr. McClernand returned to Illinois, with writ- ten authority to raise a brigade. His influence soon brought to his aid men of the highest char- acter. There was considerable competition to join his command; and before the expiration of August, he was ordered to Cairo by Major Gen- eral Fremont.

On the 5th of September, 1861, Brigadier Gen- eral McClernand assumed command at Cairo, and within two hours afterwards he had pro- vided the outfit and transports for the expedi- tion which resulted in the occupation of Padu- cah by General Grant.

While at Cairo, he inspired the soldiers with a laudable ambition to excel in drill and in dis- cipline. Under his command, Cairo itself be- came one of the most orderly and temperate cities of the Union.

On the 6th of November, he embarked his brigade at Cairo, under orders to descend the Mississippi and make a demonstration against Belmont, on the Missouri shore, opposite Co- lumbus, in Kentucky. On the 7th he disem- barked his forces, about a mile and a fourth above Belmont, and advanced rapidly npon that place. Several times he rallied his men and led them to the charge in person. Several times he rode between the hostrle lines, and encouraged his men by his presence and example. His sad- dle harness was torn in several places by hostile bullets; his horse was wounded in two places; one of his aides was killed, and the horses of the others killed or wounded under them.

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The enemy, after having been driven from their works, and their camp burned, were heavily reinforced fiom Columbus, and intercepted the Union forces on their return to their transports. Another battle must now be fought, to extricate our forces from perilous position,-and our little band of heroes proved themselves equal to the emergency. They fought with a valor and des- peration that would do honor to veterans; and after a terrible struggle gained the landing, where our transports were waiting to receive them. General MeClernand, with Captains Schwartz and Hatch, were the last to embark, and they remained on shore till the last transport was being pushed off.

In January, 1862, General MeClernand made an armed reconnoissance of the enemy's strong- hold, at Columbus. This expedition was de- signed as a diversion in favor of General Buell, who was expected to attack Johnson, at Bowling Green, and it caused a rebel force to evacuate Camp Beauregard, in Tennessee, destroy a rail- road bridge across Obien river, and to seek shel- ter within the fortifications of Columbus; and by it the dormant Union feeling in the hearts of the people was greatly encouraged.

In February, 1862, General McClernand, com- manding a division, led the advance of the fleet of transports up the Tennessee river; and on the 6th of that month, co-operating with the Mis- sissippi flotilla under Commodore Foote, moved by land upon Fort Henry. That fortress, as- sailed in front by gunboats, and threatened in the rear by the rapid advance of McClernand, was abandoned by the enemy; leaving seven- teen heavy guns to fall into our possession, be- sides eight field pieces, abandoned in their flight before the rapidly advancing forces of General McClernand.

On the 11th of February, MeClernand led the advance against Fort Donelson, and on the following day attacked and drove in the enemy's pickets.

On the fall of Fort Henry, the rebel troops that had evacuated that position rushed across the peninsula to Fort Donelson, a distance of some ten or twelve miles, adding their strength to the already powerful garrison at that point.

General Buckner had been in command of that post; General Pillow, from Columbus, had al- ready been ordered to strengthen him, and Gen- eral Floyd was also ordered to proceed imme- diately to Donelson with heavy reinforcements. Guns, ammunition, and all the necessary material of war, were sent there in great abundance from Nashville. The rebels had made their prepara-

tions for a long and desperate struggle; and on the 13th of February there were assembled with- in the ramparts not less than twenty thousand troops. They were commanded by Generals Floyd, Pillow, Buckner and Bushrod R. John- son. Floyd held the chief command.

These rebel forces, sheltered as they were be- hind the works of Fort Donelson, ought to have successfully resisted three or four times their number of an enemy in the open field,-yet the Union forces, which did not much exceed those of the rebels in number, in an incredibly short time overpowered the garrison and occupied the fortress, in spite of the efforts of the enemy to repel their attack. We shall soon see by what agency this was effected.

The disposition of the Union troops was as follows: General McClernand's division consti- tuted the right wing of the besieging forces, and lay to the west and south of the fortifications; General Smith's division occupied the left wing, menacing the foe to north and west. As yet, there was no center; this was to be occupied by the troops which were expected in the transports, on their way with the gunboats. The two wings of McClernand and Smith, together, constituted a force of twenty thousand men, with seventeen batteries of artillery and from twelve to fifteen hundred cavalry. The two wings touched each other, and at that central point, directly west of the fort, General Grant established his head- quarters.

Early in the afternoon of the 13th, "The Carondolet," one of the gunboats, arrived, and the entire fleet about midnight, when the work of disembarking the troops and stores com- menced. By noon of Friday, 14th, the troops, ten thousand in number, were landed and marched to join their comrades, and, under Gen- eral Lew Wallace, formed the center of the be- sieging force.

The morning of Saturday, 15th, opened cold and gloomy. A snow had fallen. The condi- tion of both armies was miserable; that of the rebels desperate. They were now surrounded on all sides. They were shut in from re-in- forcements and supplies. During the night the rebel officers held a consultation and decided on a sortie. For this purpose, under the veil of darkness and the storm, they massed nearly their entire force upon the southern, or left wing of the fortifications. They also quietly moved several of their batteries to this position. It was their plan to cut through the National line at this point. The line, thus broken and thrown into disorder, would be compelled to

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make a sudden change of position. In the con- fusion of this change they were to be attacked both in front and flank and driven back to the ontposts. The rebels hoped thus to effect a safe retreat to the South by cutting their way through our lines.

The National army enclosed the rebel fortifications in the form of a crescent. The extreme left tonehed the river on the north at the point where the transports landed. The ex- treme right touched upon Indian creek, at that time unfordable, on the south, and that creek emptied itself into the Tennessee river less than half a mile from the point touched by the right wing. As before stated, General McClernand was in command of the right wing, General Smith of the left, and General Lew Wallace of the center.

About daylight on the morning of the 15th (Saturday) the enemy, with nearly triple of Mc- Clernand's men, has made a furious attack on his line, in order to effect their purpose of cut- ting their way through his command and making their escape.

The enemy's habit of massing his forces and precipitating them upon a single point was not so familiar to our Generals at that time as it afterwards became, and no precautions had been taken to provide against or counteract it. On the contrary, General Grant had given orders on the previous day to Generals Wallace and Smith not to move from their respective posi- tions on any account whatever until they should hear from him, and it unfortunately happened at this particular juncture that he was absent from his headquarters to consult Commodore Foote at the landing respecting a renewal of the assault by the gunboats. The consequence was that General McClernand, with an effective force under ten thousand men, had to sustain the brunt of the battle, unsupported, from the early dawn until 1 o'clock p. M., not a solitary shot having been fired from any other part of our lines. On him, therefore, and his heroic soldiers alone, rested the whole burden of this terrible conflict for more than seven dreary hours, and impartial history will attest how he and his men bore themselves during this fiery ordeal, so trying to the spirit of the man and the soldier. They came out of that ordeal like gold purified in the furnace, and by it were enabled to prove their undying patriotism, their unconquerable valor ! Ilad they wavered or faltered never so little on that occasion, the battle was lost, and the great glory of the cap- ture of Donelson would have eluded our grasp.

Hear what Abbott says on this subject in his History of the Civil War, volume 1, page 467:

"Our troops, as usual, were outnumbered, but they fought with a bravery never surpassed by veterans. Even the foe was constrained to do homage to their valor. Notwithstanding the vastly superior force of the enemy, and, though unsupported by adequate artillery, the National troops drove their assailants back twice almost into their intrenchments."

Though General McClernand's urgent appeals for re-inforcements were unanswered, owing to the absence of General Grant, still he fought on intrepidly against his overwhelming assailants, until the woods and thickets in his front were riddled and whitened with bullets, and the line which he and the enemy held alternately was strewn with the dead bodies of friend and foe.

The rebel General, Pillow, in his official report of this transaction, bears witness to the indomitable bravery and perseverance of our troops on this occasion. He says:

"The enemy did not retreat, but fell back, contesting every inch of ground."

And Abbott, in his History of the Civil War in America, says, speaking of this battle:

"For five hours, the blood-red tide of battle surged to and fro. For a long time, one brigade of General McClernand's division, under Colonel Oglesby, had to meet the whole force of the battle alone. General McClernand sent to Gen- eral Wallace for re-inforcements, but he had re- ceived his instructions. General Wallace, how- ever, forwarded his request to headquarters. General Grant was not there."

General Grant, having at length made his ap- pearance, and re-inforcements arriving about the same time, the enemy were driven back within their intrenchments, and next morning (Sunday, 16th) they surrendered unconditionally, and were made prisoners of war.

General McClernand's forces having mainly fought this glorious battle, suffered, conse- quently, the greatest loss in killed and wounded, nearly every fifth man being found on the list of killed, wounded, or missing.

The personal bravery of General McClernand throughout the whole of this terrible conflict was so conspicuous that the members of his staff frequently remonstrated with him for exposing himself so recklessly to the bullets of the foe; but on such occasions he would answer that "it was a case of desperation, and that desperation knows no reserve." When his officers sent in dispatches, stating that they were hard-pressed, he would dash fearlessly among the men, and

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by his courage and example stimulate them to perform their duty, exhorting them to maintain their ground at all hazards, "till General Grant or re-inforcements should arrive."

This forcibly reminds us of the Duke of Wel- lington and the British army at Waterloo. Whilst the Duke's soldiers were being mowed down by the French artillery, and it seemed to some of his staff impossible that the troops could maintain their ground much longer, the Duke kept looking at his watch, and was heard to ex- claim: "Would to God, that either night or Blucher would arrive!" Then, turning to his officers, he exclaimed: " Well, gentlemen, in any event, we must not submit while a man of us remains! What would they say of us in Eng- land?"

Immediately after the battle of Fort Donelson General McClernand was promoted to the rank of Major General.

March 4th, 1862, the division of General Mc- Clernand was ordered to march for the Tennes- see river, and it arrived at Pine Landing on the 5th. On the 10th, he moved up the river and arrived at Savannah, Tennessee, on the same day.

March 26th, General MeClernand had as- cended to Pittsburg Landing, and encamped near the west bank of the Tennessee river, twenty miles from Corinth, where the rebels were in large numbers. On the 27th he wrote to General Grant, urging him to come up from Savannah and see that a proper disposition of the divisions were made to meet the contingency of an attack.

On the 6th and 7th of April, 1862, was fought and won for the Union cause, the celebrated battle of Shiloh, a victory like that of Fort Don- elson, snatched from the jaws of defeat.

The forces of the rebels were over eighty thousand, and some say one hundred thousand, while the Union forces on the ground did not exceed forty thousand.

The attack was sudden and nnexpected. The rebels had concentrated an overwhelming force, according to their usual tactics, for the purpose of crushing out the small body of Union troops in advance of the main army, and thus securing an easy victory over the remainder; and it is almost a miracle that they did not succeed, and that our forces were enabled to escape utter an- nihilation. But the same unflinching courage which had saved them before, came to their succor once again, and, by the same almost su- perhuman exertions, saved them from destruc- tion.

When General McClernand had been aroused by the heavy sound of firing in his front, and observed the enemy to dash through the posi- tions of General Prentiss, he at once realized the danger, and instantly prepared to meet it. Addressing a few brief but burning words to his soldiers, to inspire them with courage and arouse their patriotism, and seizing a standard and waving it in the breeze, he led his men to the attack. A terrible struggle ensued. But it will be more satisfactory if we give here a few extracts from General MeClernand's official re- port of this great battle. He says:

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History of Sangamon County, Illinois, together with sketches of its cities, villages and townships, educational, religious, civil, military, and political history, portraits of prominent persons, and biographies of representative citizens, Part 52

Author: Interstate publishing co., Chicago. [from old catalog] Publication date: 1881 Publisher: Chicago, Inter-state publishing company Number of Pages: 1084

Author: Interstate publishing co., Chicago. [from old catalog]
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Chicago, Inter-state publishing company
Number of Pages: 1084