USA > Illinois > Military history and reminiscences of the Thirteenth regiment of Illinois volunteer infantry in the civil war in the United States,1861-65, pt 1 > Part 28
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2,873
22,451
Now, contrast these figures of the losses incurred by the English in reducing Sebastopol with those we incurred in capturing Vicksburg .-
Excluding the bloody battles of Corinth and Iuka, which were really part of the general operations against Vicksburg, we may say that the campaign against that stronghold began in October, 1862, when Grant was put in command of the troops officially designated as the "Thirteenth Army Corps." This included all in the districts of Mem- phis, Jackson, Corinth, and Columbus, and numbered about forty eight thousand five hundred men. Subsequently this force was largely swelled by regiments coming out under the second call.
The first serious engagement was Slierman's luckless assault at Chickasaw Bayou, December 29, 1862, where, out of the small force en- gaged he lost one hundred and ninety-one killed, nine hundred and eighty-two wounded, and seven hundred and fifty-six missing-one thousand nine hundred and twenty-nine in all.
The next was the capture of Arkansas Post January 11, 1863, where the rebels lost two hundred, killed and wounded and four thousand seven hundred and ninety-one prisoners, while the Union loss was one hundred and twenty-nine killed, eight hundred and thirty-one wounded and seventeen missing-total, nine hundred and seventy-seven.
Then came the long months of waiting around Milliken's Bend, where disease wrought its ravages unchecked.
The last movement against the city opened with the attack on Grand Gulf, where our loss was one hundred killed and wounded.
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HISTORY OF THE THIRTEENTH REGIMENT
At Port Gibson the rebels lost sixty killed, three hundred and forty wounded and three hundred and eighty-seven missing, while the Union troops had one hundred and twenty-nine killed, seven hundred and ten wounded and ten missing.
These operations brought Grant and Pemberton face to face, each with about fifty thousand men.
At Raymond, Logan's Division engaged and drove Gregg's com- mand from the field, losing sixty-five killed, three hundred and thirty- five wounded and thirty-two missing-total four hundred and thirty-two ; while the rebels reported having lost seventy-three killed, two hundred and twenty-nine wounded and two hundred and four missing-total, five hundred and five.
At Jackson we lost two hundred and ninety-five men, and the rebels eight hundred and forty-five.
At Champion Hills the Union loss was three hundred and ninety- seven killed, one thousand eight hundred and thirty-seven wounded and one hundred and seventy-four missing-total, two thousand four hun- dred and eight. The rebel loss was three hundred and eighty killed, one thousand and eighteen wounded and two thousand two hundred and forty-one missing-total, three thousand eight hundred and thirty-nine.
At Edward's Station the Union loss was two hundred and seventy- three killed and wounded, and the rebel loss, including missing, one thousand seven hundred and fifty-one.
On the 19th of May, and again on the 22d, Grant's army assaulted the works, suffering a loss of six hundred and three killed, three thou- sand two hundred and thirty-three wounded, and one hundred and seven- ty-nine missing. The rebel loss was small.
From that time until the surrender, July 4, the fighting was continuous, frequently severe, and every day showed losses. By the time that Pemberton capitulated Grant had lost, killed and wounded, ten thousand of the men whom he led across the river, and the rebels, including prisoners, over forty-six thousand.
While this was going on a force of fifty-six regiments, under General N. P. Banks, was besieging Port Hudson, which surrendered, with fifty- four hundred men July S. The besiegers lost in their several assaults and other operations five hundred killed and twenty-five hundred wounded.
In the attack on Milliken's Bend the Union loss was one hundred and fifty-four killed, two hundred and twenty-three wounded and one hundred and fifteen missing.
In the rebel assault on Helena they lost 400 killed, one hundred and eight-wounded, and nine hundred and ninety-three prisoners ; while our loss was fifty-seven killed, one hundred and twenty-seven wounded and thirty-six missing.
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ILLINOIS VOLUNTEER INFANTRY.
RECAPITULATION.
UNION LOST.
KILLED.
WOUNDED.
MISSING.
Chickasaw Bayou
191
982
756
Arkansas Post
121
831
17
Port Gibson
130
718
5
Champion Hills
426
1,842
182
Vicksburg
545
3,688
303
Port Hudson
500
2,500
Milliken's Bend
154
223
115
Jackson
100
800
100
Helena .
457
127
36
2,244
IO,7II
1,514
Thus we see that the actually killed in the fighting for Vicksburg exceeded the entire number of English killed in the two years of fight- ing for Sebastopol. If we had the numbers of the wounded who died, of the "missing" who were really killed, and of the men who were killed by the foul water and malaria of those deadly swamps, the disparity would appear much greater.
Yet the Crimean war was a great struggle among three of the then strongest nations in the world, with two other nations taking part, while the opening of the Mississippi was merely one of our campaigns.
GENERAL PEMBERTON.
The officers and soldiers who captured Vicksburg and its garrison, could think severely of General Pemberton, because he had been an officer of the United States Army and so a traitor to his country, yet as a man whom they had succeeded in defeating, they could afford to think leniently about him, if not generously. But many in the South were evidently ungen- erous in their thoughts and severe in their estimate of him.
The following, taken from what is called a Standard His- tory of the Southern side will show this :
"The appointment of General Pemberton to the defense of Vicksburg was an unfortunate one. It was probably the most unpopular single act of President Davis, who was con- stantly startling the public by the most unexpected and gro- tesque selections for the most important posts of public service. General Pemberton had not fought a battle in the war. He was a Pennsylvanian by birth. He had been a Major in the old United States service, and from this incon-
344
HISTORY OF THE THIRTEENTH REGIMENT.
siderable rank, without a single record of meritorious service in the Confederacy, he had been raised by a stroke of Presi- dent Davis' pen to the position of Lieutenant-General, and put in command of a post, second only in importance to the Confederate Capital.
"He had previously had some uneventful commands at Norfolk and at Charleston. He was removed thence on account of frequent protests, but in each instance with promo- tions, as if the President was determined in each instance to mark his contempt for public opinion, which did not appreci- ate his favorite, or hoped to inspire a dull brain by adding another star to his collar. He was sent to Vicksburg with a larger command and a more extensive field, to show event- ually the accuracy of the public judgment as to his capacity for even subordinate positions. With armies so intelligent as those of the Confederacy, no man unfit for command could long maintain their confidence and respect. He might in- trench himself in all the forms and parade of the schools, but intelligent soldiers easily penetrated the thin guise and dis- tinguished between the pretender and the man of ability.
"So it was at Vicksburg. Pemberton had already there given early evidence of his unfitness for command. While Grant was assiduously engaged under his eyes for months in preparing the powerful armament which was to spend its force on the devoted fortress, his adversary took no notice of the warning.
"The water batteries which might have been strengthened were afterwards found so imperfect as to inflict but slight damage on the gun-boats, and permit the run of all the trans ports of a large army with equal impunity. The fortifications of Grand Gulf where Grant was making his next demonstra- tion, had been neglected until the tardy attempt rendered the accumulations of guns and stores there an easy prey to the enemy. Vicksburg with an abundant country about it, had only two months' instead of twelve months' provisions.
"How was Pemberton engaged? Immersed in official trifles, laboriously engaged in doing nothing, while the mur-
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ILLINOIS VOLUNTEER INFANTRY.
murs around him, and the friction of events had developed personal characteristics which, with want of confidence of officers and men, rendered him highly unpopular.
"Of a captious and irritable nature, a narrow mind, and a slave of the forms and fuss of the schools, General Pemberton was one of those men whose idea of war began with a bureau of clothing and equipment, and ended with a field day of dress parade. Warning after warning was sounded, but President Davis turned a deaf ear to them ; not perhaps that he cared especially for Pemberton, but because his own vanity was so exacting, that even to question his own infallibility of selec- tion was an offense not to be condoned. General Pemberton, who appeared to have been at last aroused to a sense of the danger of his position, telegraphed the news of Grant's move- ment to General Johnston. He received orders to attack at once, but the bewildered commander, without the resolution to risk a decisive battle, committed the unpardonable error of allowing his army to be cut up in details by an enemy with massed forces."
Pemberton determined to surrender Vicksburg on the anniversary of the Fourth of July for the very singular reason that it would gratify the vanity of the enemy to enter the stronghold of the great river on that particular day, and that such a concession might procure better terms than any other time.
The preliminary note for terms was dispatched on the 3d of July. Correspondence on the subject was continued through the day and until 9 o'clock the next morning. General Pemberton came out and had a personal interview with Grant in front of the Federal lines, the two sitting for an hour and a half in close communion. A spectator says, "Grant was silent and smoking, while Pemberton, equally cool and careless in manner, was plucking straws and biting them as if in merest chit-chat." It was a terrible day's work for such sang froid. It was the decisive event of the Missis- sippi Valley.
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346
HISTORY OF THE THIRTEENTH REGIMENT
AT MEMPHIS.
After a tedious passage up the river on September 29th we found ourselves at Memphis, Tennessee. While many of the men had been in the city before, this was the first time we were here as a regiment. The summer before Companies A and B had been here as an escort to General Carr. Mem- phis is the one great city between St. Louis and New Orleans. It is high and dry on the east bank of the river and near the south line of Tennessee. It is finely situated and a great commercial center. I think it had as high as thirty thousand of a population before the war, and it now has about sixty thousand. One drawback to it is that it is sometimes scourged by the Yellow Fever, which drives the people away and unsettles the growth of population. Memphis was a thoroughly secession town.
The Confederates of course had hoped to hold the river from Cairo to the Gulf. When General Grant took Fort Henry, Columbus, Kentucky became untenable. Then Island Number Ten became their "Little Gibraltar." This was sought after by our forces and early in April 1862, it fell into our hands with many stores.
About this time was fought the battle of Shiloh. The rebels then occupied Corinth, Mississippi, with their great army while Fort Pillow and Fort Randolph guarded the Mississippi river, so that Memphis was supposed to be safe. But when General Beauregard evacuated Corinth, Fort Pillow was abandoned and then the only thing that stood in the way of our possessing Memphis was the fleet of rebel gun-boats. They were anchored before the city, June 6th, 1862, when our superior fleet of gun-boats and rams made their appearance.
The fleet consisted of the General Van Dorn (flagship), General Price, General Bragg, General Lovell, General Beau- regard, Jeff Thompson, Sumpter and Little Rebel. All under the command of Commodore Montgomery. The fight opened at once, but only lasted a few hours. The Jeff Thompson, Beauregard, Sumpter and Bragg were disabled, run ashore or
347
ILLINOIS VOLUNTEER INFANTRY.
set on fire while the crews fled on the opposite side of the river. There were but one or two of the boats that were not used up. The city, of course, was at once taken possession of. It remained in our hands as one of the great distribution and hospital centers during the remainder of the war.
In one of the public squares was a statue of President Andrew Jackson, and on the monument was the sentence, "The Union must and shall be preserved." The word Union had been chiseled out. This would be but a pointer to the disloyal sentiment of the place. Quite a number of the Thir- teenth regiment are numbered with the great army of loyal soldiers who are buried there.
A CAISSON EXPLODES.
The dangers of life and limb to soldiers are many besides those on the battle-field. We had an illustration of this on the levee at Memphis while one of our batteries was being removed from the boat. The incline from the landing to the city level is steep and paved with heavy cobble-stones. One of the guns had been unloaded and was being pulled up the hill. The men mounted the caisson in which the ammunition is packed. The box was full of percussion shells and must not have been properly packed, for as a wheel struck a stone one of the shells exploded and that set off the rest and four brave soldiers were killed or wounded. A few months later the same thing occurred as a battery was crossing the railroad track at Huntsville, Alabama, with the same sad results.
OFF TO CORINTH.
On October Ist, 9 a. m., we took the cars and moved east- ward and at 7 p. m. we found ourselves landed at Corinth, Mississippi, ninety-three miles east and a little south of our starting point. We noted that the railroad was strongly guarded and at many places fortified. This railroad was a bone of contention through most of the war after it fell into our hands, as raiding parties from Mississippi could so easily
348
HISTORY OF THE THIRTEENTH REGIMENT
cross it and cut it. General Hurlbut said later, it took more men to defend it than it would to clear the whole State of Mississippi of rebels.
GENERAL SHERMAN ALMOST CAPTURED.
It was at a station on this road that General Sherman barely escaped capture. Memphis was always full of spies. As his train was to leave, the news was borne to a body of rebel cavalry, and when his train drew up at one of the sta- tions, a dash was made to capture him. The fight was made about the train and one of the General's horses was taken from the car and carried off. It was only with extreme gallantry on the part of his body-guard that the General was saved from capture. Had they succeeded, it would have been a sweet plum to that crowd.
Corinth is a town at time of this writing of two or three thousand persons. Its importance in war times grew out of the fact that it was a junction of railroads that needed to be defended in the interest of speedy transportation for the rebel forces. After the battle of Shiloh General Beauregard fell back and fortified the place, but after a few weeks, on May 30th, 1862, felt compelled to fall back still farther and so left it in our hands. We garrisoned and fortified it.
BATTLE OF CORINTH.
On October 3, 1862, just a year before we were landed in it, Corinth was the scene of a most determined battle. It was led by General Rosecrans on our part, and Van Dorn and Sterling Price on the other side. The fight was fierce, and the rebel forces made their way into the streets of the town, and even to the yard where General Rosecrans' headquarters were ; but, reinforcements coming, they were driven back and compelled to retreat.
On October 3d, we marched three or four miles to the southeast of the town and went into camp. The ground was
349
ILLINOIS VOLUNTEER INFANTRY.
favorable for a camp, but water was not readily procured, nor was what we did secure, good water. We spent our time here until the 9th, in drill, parade, and duties incident to camp-life. The writer remembers the camp, as having had while there, the most lonesome sense that he knew in all the three years of service. The winds moaned through the pines and the leaves rustled in a way that the occasion was a most dismal time.
October 9th .- Started on the road to Iuka Springs and came some twelve miles. The arrangement seems to be to extend the railroad to the east as parties are employed on repairing it. On the roth continued our march some eleven miles and camped at Iuka. This is quite a fine little town. It has five mineral springs, and is fixed up as a pleasure resort.
A sharp little battle was fought here just before the battle of Corinth in which General Price's army was the party who got worsted.
We stayed at this place a full week. One of the things that characterized our stay here, and it was not an unknown thing in army life, was a series of preaching and prayer meet- ings that developed something of a revival. War is serious business and men who engage in it ought to be serious and thoughtful men. While the opposite spirit seemed to have a large place, it was not universal, perhaps not so generally as it seemed. As thoughtfulness that is touched with pride, sometimes tries to hide itself by noisy demonstration, so as to put the world off the track of our thoughts.
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CHAPTER XXVI.
SHERMAN JUST ESCAPES CAPTURE .- MULTITUDE OF LITTLE FIGHTS .- A COUNTRY ' WHERE EVERY PROSPECT PLEASES, AND ONLY MAN IS VILE."-GEN. SHERMAN IN DANGER. .
I N REFERRING to our passage from Memphis to Corinth, allusion was made to the fact that on this passage General Sherman came very near being captured by General Chal- mer's cavalry. This occurred at Colliersville, a sta- tion on the railroad between the two places just referred to.
It was on Sunday, October 11, 1863, that General Chal- mers with some twenty-five hundred cavalry made a descent upon this place which was held by the Sixty-sixth Indiana Infantry, about two hundred and forty men present. It was a fortified place and contained quite an amount of stores.
The colonel of this regiment reported at about 10 o'clock a. m .: "General Chalmers, with a large force of cavalry and several pieces of artillery, attacked our camp. As soon as the enemy's lines were fairly formed they sent in a flag of truce, demanding the immediate surrender of the place. This was refused. They then opened with artillery. Just at this moment a train from Memphis arrived, having upon it General Sherman with his staff, and the Thirteenth United States Reg- ulars as an escort, numbering two hundred and forty officers and men. Some forty citizens were on the train, and they too were armed and bore their part. The fight was kept up until 3:30 p. m., when the enemy withdrew.
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ILLINOIS VOLUNTEER INFANTRY.
"The loss was, in the Sixty-sixth Indiana, killed four; wounded thirteen ; missing forty-one ; in the Thirteenth Reg- ulars, killed nine; wounded twenty-seven ; missing twenty- five. Twenty-five of the rebels were left dead on the field." General Sherman says among other things:
At noon we reached Colliersville and observing signs of danger, the train was stopped. The enemy at once opened with artillery. They threw some shells at us, but principally aimed at our train, disabling the locomotive and damaging some of the cars; they also killing and wounding eight of our horses. They got possession of one end of the train and set it on fire, but they were driven off from this and the fire put out. There is no doubt of our opportune arrival ; and that the efforts of the regulars saved the place, and what is more important, the rail- road at that point. I avail myself of the opportunity to record my high appreciation of the services of this small but devoted battalion. They have served near my person for a year, and have been subjected to every test, and have been proven equal to them all. They have suffered terri- bly; having lost in battle fully one-half of their original number. All the officers deserve a brevet.
The moment the enemy retired I gave orders for the repair of the road and wires. The next day, the 12th, I came on to Corinth to push on the organization and supplies necessary for the movement on which I am engaged.
W. T. SHERMAN.
This was one of the multitude of little fights that were hardly noticed and in which so many brave men were killed or maimed.
The special interest in this one is the fact that General Sherman, our corps commander, and a man so important and necessary to our service, was so imminently exposed to death or imprisonment.
Had he either been killed or taken prisoner, it might have given quite a different aspect to the campaign on which we were entering. We rejoiced over his safety.
At this time the thought is to repair the railroad to the Tennessee river at Tuscumbia, Alabama. The men are at work on the bridges and pushing things as fast as possible.
October 19th .- Our regiment was detailed for picket duty and sent some four miles east. This took us into Alabama
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HISTORY OF THE THIRTEENTH REGIMENT
and across Bear Creek. This Bear Creek Valley at this time of year was one of the most beautiful I ever looked upon. The look down the stream gave the appearances of a series of terraces on either hand ; the foliage, dark green pines, the brilliant oak leaves turned red by the cold weather and the chestnut leaves a beautiful yellow, gave a variety that was most pleasing to the eye. We might say of this country, "Every prospect pleases and only man is vile."
Our Division and General Blair's moved up the creek.
October 20th .- Moved up about thirteen miles to Cherokee station.
At this place we were opposed by a force of the rebel cav- alry commanded by Stephen D. Lee, numbering some five thousand, strengthened with artillery. The days spent here were full of anxiety and excitement as the rebels hung around us and made dashes both day and night; for more than a week it was a constant strain.
October 21st .- The Second Brigade of our Division bad quite a fight and loss to-day. Our cavalry were on the picket line and Colonel Torrence of the Thirtieth Iowa told them not to fire, for those were our men in front. The rebels had put on blue clothes to deceive us. The Thirtieth Iowa was then flanked, and fired into. Colonel Torrence was killed and many wounded and missing. The Fourth Iowa, our near and good friends, had one orderly sergeant killed and six men wounded. Some of our pickets were taken last night. The rebels made dashes on our pickets and then fled. This was kept up at short intervals.
October 25th .- At 1 o'clock a. m. Companies A and B of our regiment were sent out and stayed on the skirmish line till morning.
General inspection was ordered to see that everything was in the best of shape ; and an order left to move in the morning at 2 a. m., with three days' rations. Almost anything would be a relief from the present irritating surroundings.
October 26th .- We were up at 12 o'clock. Tents, baggage and sick were sent back to Dickson Station. We were on the
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