USA > Indiana > The soldier of Indiana in the war for the union, Vol. I > Part 29
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Notwithstanding the flight of a great number of citizens with their families, many secessionists, in fact, the great
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majority, remained in Nashville. They willingly accepted national protection, but were malignant in their feelings towards national troops, and not inclined to dissimulation. The women especially indulged in aversion towards northern soldiers, and finding words an impotent mode of expression unconsciously copied from the snake the trick of spitting, which that unhappy creature, it is surmised, was forced to adopt when deprived of the power of speech. Pollard says, "The ladies of Nashville gave instances of patriotism that were noble testimonials to their sex." They were generous to Confederate soldiers, and showed themselves good lovers as well as good haters.
As might be expected, Nashville was full of spies, and as General Johnston had retired no further than Murfreesboro, the surrounding country was infested with Confederate scouts and guerillas. John Morgan, whose name was already familiar to the second division, as he had harassed it throughout the winter, now made himself widely known as a partisan leader. Captain Scott, the commander of a body of Louisiana cav- alry, though less notorious and efficient, was scarcely less active. Sometimes openly in Confederate uniform, sometimes stealthily in citizens' clothes, but oftener in the dress of Fed- eral officers, these guerrilla chieftains, with or without com- mands, ranged the country.
Morgan was at home everywhere. He entered at night the house of a friend within the Federal lines, slept in the best bed, and departed with only a sly recognition. He walked on the streets of a town which was full of Federal soldiers, chaffered with the trades-people, gave them a wink, and received from them the result of their observations as to the numbers or movements of the enemy. He went into a Fed- eral telegraph office, sent a dispatch to a friend or an enemy in the North, and walked off unsuspected, or with threats imposed silence until his safety was secured. He waylayed a train, destroyed the cars and took the passengers prisoners. But his most common performance, as also that of Captain Scott, was a sudden swoop on Federal pickets.
One morning as company C, of the Thirtieth Indiana, was on the picket line south of Nashville, nearly a hundred Rebels
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PICKETS IN DANGER.
disguised in the national uniform, coolly rode up, and while their commanding officer informed the Federal Captain that there should be a different disposition of the pickets, they dashed upon the company and carried off four men. Pursuit was vain, as the enemy was out of musket range before the affair was really understood.
Another morning a still bolder attack was made by a larger troop, also in Federal dress. Approaching within fifty yards of a picket line of Wisconsin soldiers they fired on them before they were suspected. The pickets stood their ground, the long roll was sounded, and nearly the whole of McCook's division was called to arms. But the enemy meant nothing more than a dastardly destruction of pickets, and fled imme- diately.
One evening Captain Braden, an officer on General Dumont's staff, was attempting to make a purchase at a farm house on the Murfreesboro turnpike, when he was caught by about sixty of Morgan's band. They disarmed him, took from him a noble horse which he rode, and which belonged to General Dumont, mounted him on a poorer animal, and moved towards Murfreesboro to deliver him to General Hardee. After proceeding about twelve miles, the Captain saw a party of Federal cavalry at a distance. Managing to fall behind his captors, he put spurs to his horse, and wheeling him round, dashed into the woods. He was fired upon and pursued, but the Federal troops, who were out in search of him, came to his rescue, and in a sharp fight with the marauders, killed four, took four prisoners, and put the rest to flight. Besides Captain Braden, several captured teamsters were released.
Sometime after a fine horse of John Morgan's was cap- tured, and came into the hands of General Dumont, who satisfactorily retaliated by retaining the animal.
During the stay of the Army of the Ohio in Nashville, the Louisville railroad was completed, and the bridges were rebuilt; the troops were paid, were again thoroughly equipped and prepared for the field; the army was partially reorganized; Government stores in vast quantities were daily received, and Nashville was the scene of endless bustle and activity.
After the abandonment of Bowling Green, nothing was left
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to the Confederates in Kentucky but Columbus, and after the surrender of the two small forts at Clarksville, which com- manded the Bowling Green and Memphis railroad, Columbus was no longer tenable. Without waiting for a direct demon- station, the Confederates left in hot haste. A few Illinois troops who were scouring the hostile region of western Ken- tucky, heard a rumor of their departure, and cautiously approached the stronghold. They deliberately surveyed it from without; spying no enemy they entered, and looked suspiciously about them.
All was as silent as the castle of the Sleeping Beauty. Here was everything that indicated life-chairs, tables, stoves, beds, provisions, letters, newspapers; and everything which signified destruction or defense-muskets, bayonets, immense piles of torpedoes, and one hundred and fifty pieces of artil- lery, commanding the river for nearly three miles; imbedded in the bluff was one end of a massive chain which had stretched across the river to prevent the passage of the gun- boats, and was broken by the current; but no human being was visible.
Only a thorough examination could convince the scouts that they had really entered into possession of the vast and formidable fortifications of Columbus, and then they had no flag to signify their triumph, and their authority. However, they bought some striped calico in the little town, manufac- tured a banner, and the next day welcomed Commodore Foote, whose gunboat fleet, with a hundred spy-glasses directed towards the strange flag, slowly drew near.
Kentucky was at last free. The national colors floated from Louisville to Bowling Green, from Maysville and Mill Spring to Columbus.
And in Tennessee the Stars and Stripes were planted never more to be removed.
The retreat of General Price in Missouri, his defeat on Sugar Creek, the loss of Henry, Donelson, Bowling Green, Nashville and Columbus, especially the fact that Bowling Green, Nashville and Columbus had fallen without a blow, struck terror and grief to the heart of the Confederacy. But the resolution of the South, like iron hardened by burning,
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ROUSED BY DEFEAT.
was only strengthened by trial and defeat. The Governor of Arkansas issued a proclamation, drafting into service within twenty days every man in Arkansas subject to military duty. The Governor of Tennessee called upon every man who could obtain a weapon to march with the armies. He bade the old and the young, wherever they might 'be, to stand as pickets to the struggling armies, and he appealed to all citizens to open their purses and their store-houses of pro- visions to the soldiers. The Governor of Mississippi directed every man who was able to bear arms to have his arms in readiness; and required the appointment of enrollers in all the counties preparatory to drafting, and for the establishment of gunshops. A terribly earnest spirit pervaded all the officials of the Confederate Government, and started a system of measures which led to the passage of a stringent conscrip- tion act.
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CHAPTER XXVIII.
NEW MADRID AND ISLAND NO. 10.
ON the day designated by the President's General Order, the anniversary of Washington's birthday, the Army of the Mississippi, under the command of General Pope, left St. Louis to join Commodore Foote in the long projected move- ment down the river. It landed at Commerce, where it was reinforced by five Indiana regiments, the Thirty-Fourth, Forty-Third, Forty-Sixth and Forty-Seventh, which had spent the winter in Kentucky, and the Fifty-Ninth, which was just organized, and was the first to reach Commerce. Jesse J. Alexander, Colonel of the last named regiment, had been a captain in the Mexican war, and afterwards a member of the State Senate. He was engaged in business as a banker when appointed to the position. The Indiana regiments were bri- gaded together, and Colonel Slack was assigned to the com- mand of the brigade, which was placed in the third division of the army, under General Palmer. The Fifty-Ninth was shortly after removed to Colonel Worthington's brigade.
General Pope's army numbered forty thousand men when he moved from Commerce. He met with no opposition, except some slight skirmishing with Jeff Thompson, who was always found roving the banks of the great river, but the mud was so deep and universal that his progress was scarcely five miles a day, and it was the 3d of March when he arrived in the vicinity of New Madrid.
On abandoning Columbus, General Beauregard, to whom the defence of the Mississippi river had been entrusted, fell back about forty-five miles to Island No. 10, which, with New Madrid, now formed the left of the new Confederate line, and became the chief barrier to Federal progress.
Island No. 10 is situated at the base of one of the short turns which retard the current of the Mississippi, and New
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DEFENCES OF NEW MADRID
Madrid is at the top of another, and is northwest of the island. Southeast of New Madrid is a long, narrow promontory; north of No. 10 is a similar tongue of land. From No. 8, which is on a straight line above No. 10, to New Madrid the distance is six miles across the land, while by water it is fifteen. The distance from No. 10 south to Tiptonville is five miles by the road and twenty-seven by the river. Reelfoot lake, a large body of water, surrounded by hundreds of acres of impassable swamp, extends along the base of the peninsula opposite New Madrid, making it in reality an island, and flows into the river forty miles below Tiptonville.
Access to No. 10 from the interior was impossible, except by a small flatboat, which plied two miles along the lake, and through a passage cut in the cypress swamps. New Madrid seemed to be the only vulnerable point, and it was not to be expected, as the river was the only means of supply for the forces on the island and on the peninsula around it, except a road from Tiptonville along the west bank of Reelfoot lake, that New Madrid would be left without formidable defences.
Its fortifications, however, though they were considerable, did not compare in strength with those of the island. They consisted of a bastioned earthwork, mounting fourteen heavy guns, about a half mile above the town, and another fort of like construction, mounting seven pieces of heavy artillery, at the lower end of the town, together with lines of intrench- ments running round from one to the other. Five regiments of infantry and several companies of artillery formed the gar- rison. Six gunboats, which had formerly been part of the armament before Columbus, and which carried from three to eight heavy guns each, were anchored along the shore, and looked directly over the low and heavy banks. The approaches were commanded by at least sixty pieces of heavy artillery.
General Pope had no heavy field pieces; it was impossible to operate against such a force with light artillery, and he sent to Cairo for a few siege guns. Meantime he thoroughly reconnoitered the ground, lined the river bank below with rifle-pits for a thousand men, and established artillery in sunken batteries of single pieces between the rifle-pits. This arrangement presented but a slight mark to Rebel gunboats,
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while it so blockaded the river that transports could neither go up nor down without suffering under a heavy fire.
At this stage of affairs General Mackall, whom Beauregard had placed in command, reinforced New Madrid from the island, increasing the garrison to about nine thousand. About the same time four heavy siege guns reached General Pope. They arrived at sundown on the 12th. The men fell to work as soon as it was dark, threw up two lines of breastworks, placed the guns in battery within eight hundred yards of the enemy's redoubt, and opened fire at daylight. The Rebel commodore immediately collected his whole fleet of gunboats at New Madrid, and poured a rapid and furious, but inaccu- rate, fire upon the breastworks. The cannonading, begun so early, continued through the day, nevertheless the trenches were advanced and were extended until they reached round the town. During the afternoon, an attempt was made to flank our batteries, but the expedition came suddenly upon some field guns which were concealed by trees, and supported by the Indiana Forty-Third, and was driven in confusion back into the works.
Ohio and Illinois troops were the grand guard for the night; but a terrible thunder-storm raged, and they were unable to discover through the darkness of the night and the turmoil of the tempest any evidences of movement on the part of the enemy.
At three in the morning, while it was yet dark, and the rain was pouring down, General Palmer called out his division to march to the relief of the troops in the trenches. When the color-bearer of the Forty-Seventh appeared with his flag, Colonel Slack told him to take it back and get his rifle and bayonet; he expected an earnest day, and wanted every man to carry his gun. His orders were to throw up new intrench- ments several hundred yards nearer the enemy, to replant the batteries, and to be prepared to storm the fortifications at the point of the bayonet. Men never went into battle with a higher resolve than that with which the Indiana brigade now moved, through field and wood, mud and water, up to the intrenchments.
They received an easy triumph. A rumor met them that
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GUNBOATS AND INDIANA REGIMENTS.
the place was abandoned. Colonel Slack sent forward a reconnoitring party, which made the discovery that Fort Thompson was vacant at the same time that a deputation of citizens, with a flag of truce, sought an interview with General Pope to surrender the town.
The Forty-Seventh regiment was the first to enter, and the banner of the Thirty-Fourth was the first to rise within the walls.
The Confederates fled during the storm. They left their dead unburied, with many other though less painful evidences of haste. Thirty-three cannon remained within the fortifica- tions, with great numbers of small arms and a large amount of ammunition.
The only point of approach to the island now open to the enemy was the landing at Tiptonville. To command the landing Palmer's division was sent to Riddle's Point, which is opposite. It started at nine Sunday night, drawing three pieces of light artillery and one heavy iron twenty-four pounder by hand fourteen miles through mud and water and pathless woods. The men dug rifle-pits, and were ensconced in them when on Tuesday morning at sunrise they were discovered by two Rebel gunboats. At once, but slowly, the boats steamed up the river, and when within a half mile commenced firing upon the earthworks. In a short time five other gun- boats arrived and joined in the unequal contest. Two hours the four guns in the trenches responded to twenty on the boats, when, relying on their superiority, the boats approached the shore in front of the Forty-Seventh Indiana to effect a landing. Lieutenant-Colonel Robinson was in command of the regiment. The men were steady and trusty, but they had only one cannon, and their strength seemed trifling in com- parison with that of the gunboats. However, they lay still until they could distinctly hear the voices and could even dis- tinguish the words of the Rebel officers, when they rose and fired with correct aim, and their single cannon threw out its balls so accurately, that one boat was disabled and sent drifting down the river. This was but the opening of the struggle. It continued with determination on both sides. In the heat of the battle Sergeant Lindsay sprang forward and
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coolly removed from the gun a flag to save it from injury, and carrying it to the rear he planted it behind the rifle-pits. Another boat was seriously injured, when all withdrew.
Frequent efforts were afterwards made by the enemy to introduce supplies to the island, or to pass transports for the removal of troops, but the vigilant Indiana regiments in the rifle-pits frustrated every attempt.
Commodore Foote with the gunboat flotilla sailed from Cairo the day of the surrender of New Madrid. On the 16th he commenced bombarding the island, and continued can- nonading it day and night. In addition to seven gunboats he had ten mortars, which were larger than any that had ever been brought into use at that time. But they were inaccu- rate, and while the firing was noisy it was not sanguinary. It was evident that the rear of the fortifications must be reached in order to close the road to Tiptonville. While Pope prevented steamboats from ascending, he had not even a skiff by which he could cross to the Tennessee bank; but he was resolved to make the passage, and, greatly to the merriment of the Confederates, he cut a canal twelve miles in length, from one bayou to another, through corn-fields, woods and swamps, in the last of which he had to saw off a thousand large, strong trees three feet below the surface of the water.
Pope then requested Commodore Foote to send him one of his gunboats. The naval commander consented, but with hesitation, as running batteries was then an untried experi- ment. One dark, stormy night, a small force of Illinois troops landed at the upper Confederate fort on the Kentucky shore, and frightening the sentinels back, spiked all the guns. Two nights after, before the mischief was repaired, and while it was again dark and stormy, the Carondelet slid swiftly past, her guns silent and all her ports closed. The batteries on the island fired fast and furiously upon her; but an hour after she started she fired three signal guns to indicate her safety to the listening and anxious fleet. General Pope's army welcomed the vessel with wild delight, cheering for Commo- dore Foote, for the Carondelet, for its Captain, for its cabin- boy, and for the Navy!
Two nights after this feat of the Carondelet, the Pittsburg
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SURRENDER.
ran the batteries, and the next morning four little stern-wheel steamboats, which, after passing through Pope's canal, had lain hidden in a bayou, appeared in front of Pope's army. With this sight the conviction was forced upon the Confed- erates that success was hopeless, and that their only safety lay in flight, if indeed flight were not now unavailing. Some found their way over the lake and through the swamp, but the main force, after drawing up three times in line of battle, sur- rendered unconditionally to Pope's army, which, protected by the gunboats, had crossed the river at midnight.
The stores on the island were vast. The armament was magnificent. The fortifications were constructed with the highest engineering skill. Seldom has a success, so bloodless in its accomplishment, so great in its results, been achieved.
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THE SOLDIER OF INDIANA.
CHAPTER XXIX.
SHILOH.
"Is not death, when freely chosen and prepared for, the most solemn and beautiful thing to which life can aspire?"-Neibuhr.
"Men, in the glowing morning light, What gleams defiance from yonder height? See, 'tis the flaunting rebel flag!" With throbbing hearts, and eyes aflame, From soldiers' throats the answer came:
"Yes, 'tis the cursed rebel rag! It shall fall, though in falling it cost us life!
God be with you, children and wife!" Hark to the drum! Hark to the fife!
Through the ranks the summons pealing,
Rousing every noble feeling! God grant, my brother, If not in this world, that in another We meet again!" -The Battle. Adapted from Schiller, by G. W. Birdseye.
After their retreat from Nashville, the Confederates formed a new line of defence along the Charleston and Memphis railroad for the preservation of northern Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia. Grand Junction, Corinth, Florence, Stevenson, all situated on this railroad at points intersected by other roads, were important positions, and were guarded accord- ingly. Early in March General Beauregard assumed com- mand, and made his headquarters at Corinth, which was near the center of the line. He was shortly after joined by Gen- eral A. S. Johnston, with twenty-five thousand men, from Murfreesboro, by General Polk, with two divisions, from Columbus, by General Bragg, with ten thousand Alabamians, from Pensacola, by General Pillow, with the fugitives from Fort Donelson, and by new troops who had responded to the call of the Governors of Tennessee, Mississippi, Louisiana and Alabama. He expected Van Dorn with thirty thousand men from Arkansas, and he labored indefatigably to create an
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JOHNSON AND BEAUREGARD.
army so vast that the fact of its existence would revive the discouraged, and so powerful that it would check in one battle the progress of the victorious Union forces.
Corinth is a lively little town in the northwest corner of Mississippi, about twenty miles from Pittsburg Landing, on the Tennessee. It is built on low land, and on clay soil, and in consequence is swampy in wet weather and dusty in dry. In the direction of the river the conntry is thickly wooded, very hilly and crossed by numerous, rough, narrow, crooked roads. High ridges near the town afford such advantages for fortifications that it might have been made nearly impreg- nable. But Beauregard simply built separate redoubts, and connected them in part by a parapet and ditch, and in part by shallow rifle-pits. He felled the trees so as to give a good field of fire to the main road and beyond it. The fortifica- tions were undoubtedly strangely inferior, but the Confederate army, according to the testimony of Pollard, "in numbers, in discipline, in the galaxy of distinguished names of its com- manders, and in every article of merit and display, was one of the most magnificent ever assembled by the South on a single battle-field."
The Generals in chief command were all men of mark. The most of them, also, were men of a fine, stately presence. Johnston, Beauregard, Bragg, Hardee and Polk were all educated by the National Government at West Point.
Perhaps no Confederate commander, except General Lee, had the unquestioning confidence of the Rebel government and public to an equal degree with General Johnston. He was nearly sixty years old, and had spent his long life in the United States army. In his youth he was a duellist, and through his life he retained a high, stubborn temper, which he owed perhaps to Scotland, the land of his origin.
Beauregard, the commander of the department, and second in rank to Johnston, was at this time the hero of the hero- worshipping South-in genius a Napoleon, in chivalry a Bayard. In some points of character he was not unlike Napoleon. He was quick in thought, prompt in action, and no braver man ever carried a sword. He was, also, as Napo- leon is described by one of the best analyzers of his character,
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" behind his age, a man of the past. The value of the modern heart and growth he did not discern. He went groping in the medieval times, not having yet learned that ideas are stronger than blows. He was not the original genius he has been vaunted, he was a vulgar copyist."
Beauregard resembled Bayard less. Truth sat on the knight's manly lips; loyalty girded his armor on; honor pointed his sword; charity to the captive and the wounded drew upon his head the blessings of his enemy; and modesty veiled, while . it irradiated, his virtues and his genius. To preserve union he gave his life to his country. The historian says: "The traitor Bourbon (he who would have divided France into three independent paltry States,) found him mortally wounded, sit- ting with his face to the enemy and his eyes closed in prayer. In this posture, which became his character both as a soldier and as a Christian, he calmly awaited the approach of death. Bourbon expressed regret and pity at the sight.
"Pity not me," cried the high-spirited Chevalier; "I die as a man of honor ought, in the discharge of my duty; they indeed are objects of pity who fight against their king, their country and their oath."
General Beauregard knew truth and honor, modesty and loyalty only in name, and as for charity-under his polished French manner he concealed the keen cruelty of the shark .* He was as deficient in common sense as in the delicate attri- butes of manhood. Fancying the word " abolitionist" would fret the noble North, produce perhaps a mutiny in the north- ern ranks, he gravely and officially recommended its adoption instead of the more common terms Federal and Yankee.
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