USA > Indiana > The soldier of Indiana in the war for the union, Vol. I > Part 43
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THE SOLDIER OF INDIANA.
that the high rank of the eastern army was due, but to various causes, chiefly to its immense size, its perfection in dress and drill, and its position near the National and not far from the Rebel capital, where also it was of easy access to intelligent visitors and newspaper correspondents.
November 1st, 1861, General McClellan was appointed commander-in-chief of all the armies of the United States. The reflected greatness of his office, added to his untiring activity and unfailing suavity, gave him an unprecedented popularity. From army and country he received that infat- uated devotion which is called hero-worship.
Shortly after the battle of Bull Run the Confederate lines were advanced as far as Munson's Hill, a few miles from Alexandria, but they were withdrawn just as a secret night attack, of which they were no doubt informed, was to go into operation. During several months the main body of the hostile army extended from Aquia creek to Winchester, never advancing beyond Centreville, and never numbering in the whole line more than one hundred and fifteen thousand, in front of McClellan, that is east of the mountains never amounting to more than eighty thousand.
The Army of the Potomac grew daily. In October it con- sisted of more than one hundred and fifty-two thousand, and it continued to increase until the first of February its max- imum was attained, two hundred and twenty-two thousand, one hundred and ninety-six. As the autumn of 1861 in Vir- ginia was remarkably open and warm, and the roads were so smooth and hard that they invited to an onward movement, it occasioned general surprise and disappointment that when McClellan was provided with so magnificent an army, his dispatches to the war department should be of one unexciting and unvaried tenor: "All quiet on the Potomac!" Twice the quiet was broken. Once at Ball's Bluff in October, when nineteen hundred men, engaged in a reconnoissance, under General Stone, met four thousand, were driven back to the river, and there, as no adequate means to cross the stream had been provided, were driven into the water, or slaughtered. The Sixteenth Indiana, though not belonging to the unfor- tunate reconnoitring party, was brought to the spot shortly
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THE PRESIDENT'S ANXIETY.
after, and engaged in a brisk skirmish. Two of its men were shot while standing on picket, and two were drowned while recrossing the river.
The Potomac quiet was broken again when two large for- aging parties met near Drainesville, to the complete discom- fiture of the smaller, which, this time, was the Confederate force.
As autumn wore away, and winter came slowly on; as an open and pleasant December passed, with Washington in a partial state of siege, its avenue to the ocean quite cut off, and dependent for subsistence on a single railroad, which was also the only source of supply to the army; as exposure and monotony began to destroy the health and life of the troops, and as subordinate officers of every grade declared themselves ignorant of the numbers of the enemy, McClellan, having ordered all deserters and contrabands to be sent unquestioned to him at Washington, grave doubts in regard to the compe- tency of the General arose, especially in the minds of those whose position enabled them to see the play of wires, or the inner workings of events. They feared that McClellan was timid, or that he was ambitious, or that his loyalty was chilled by the aspect the war was assuming towards slavery. "The President was greatly depressed in consequence of the des- perate condition of the national affairs-with an exhausted treasury-the hostile feeling of foreign nations-the frightful condition of the national finances-the want of co-operation between the leading Generals of the army, Buell and Halleck, corresponding direct with Washington, would have no cor- respondence with each other-and worse than all, the long inactivity of the Army of the Potomac." He said to Gen- eral McDowell, from whom the above sentence is quoted: " If something is not done soon with the army to save the country, the whole bottom of things will fall out. If General McClellan don't intend to do something with the Army of the Potomac, I should like to borrow it for awhile, provided I can see it can be made to do something. Napoleon could not stand still with such an army."
At length, in the last of January, the President reluctantly resumed a power, which he had suffered to lie in abeyance,
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THE SOLDIER OF INDIANA.
because of his greater trust in McClellan's military ability than in his own; and as Commander-in-Chief of the armies of the Union issued an order that February 22d be the day for a general movement of the forces of the United States against the insurgent forces. The order was communicated to the heads of the different armies, but it was not published until the lapse of nearly two months. In the West, as already related, it added to the activity and animation prevailing there; but it had no perceptible effect in the East. Military labors, building fortifications and drilling, continued with unvaried industry and exactness. The General seemed like one doomed to everlasting preparation. He was, however, revolving in his mind an important change in his plan of operations. Being under the impression that the force in his front was almost double its real size, he determined, if he could gain the President's approval, instead of making the advance which had now for six months been contemplated, to attack Richmond by the lower Chesapeake while the mass of the Confederate army was still at Centreville and Manas- sas. The President objected, arguing that the change would require a greater expenditure of time and money, would involve more risk, and in case of disaster would scarcely allow of retreat. He said: "Going down the bay in search of a field instead of fighting at or near Manassas, is only shifting not surmounting a difficulty. You will find the same enemy, and the same or equal intrenchments at either place." The General claimed that the roads in the Peninsula were passa- ble at all seasons of the year; that the woods were less dense than near the Potomac; and above all that the assistance he would gain from the navy would enable him to overcome much greater obstacles than he could hope to surmount without this assistance. After some discussion, much con- sideration and a concession on the part of the General of forty or fifty thousand troops for the defence of Washington, the President waived his preference.
March 9th General McClellan issued an order for the move- ment of his army. Immediately all was activity in the long motionless Army of the Potomac. The order seemed equally to affect the Confederates. On the same day they evacuated
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THE OLD BATTLE-GROUND.
their strong line at Manassas. When the National troops approached the fortifications of Centreville, which stretched from a point a half mile north of the town, as far south as the eye could reach, they found that in spite of a bold front they were not of sufficient strength to allow of the mounting of heavy guns, and that a part of the Confederate artillery consisted of logs of wood painted in imitation of artillery. The discovery of the "Quaker guns" was made with mingled amusement and indignation; but it was with unmingled chagrin that they saw the log cabins in which the Confed- erates had comfortably wintered, while they, in flapping tents, battled with rain and snow. The desolate plains of Manassas were crossed, lines of dismantled fortifications were left behind, and Manassas Junction was reached before any evi- dence of haste on the part of the enemy was seen. Here bridges, depots and machine shops were still burning.
The old battle ground threw a shade of solemnity over the exhileration which resulted from change of scene, and the belief that the movement was an onward march to Richmond. Broken trees and long, dismal trenches, on which the grass, springing up everywhere else, refused to grow, marked the spots where the struggle was close and hard. General McDowell, the commander on that ill-fated day, rode now beside McClellan, and pointed out the places where the chief movements had occurred, and doubtless how the day might have been different.
The young General, as he listened to the stern, experienced man who rose and fell that 21st of July by the mere force of circumstances, could scarcely avoid a foreboding that the stream which had hitherto borne him smoothly was now "nearing some verge to make a short, an angry and precipi- tate descent."
General McClellan did not proceed beyond the fires which suggested proximity to the enemy. He returned to Wash- ington, and expeditiously prepared for a removal to the James. On the 14th he issued a spirited proclamation, in which occurred, with a slight variation, an expression he had used in one of his first proclamations in West Virginia. Then it was, "I fear but one thing, that you will not find foemen
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THE SOLDIER OF INDIANA.
worthy of your steel;" now, "I will not disguise it from you, you have brave foemen to encounter, foemen well worthy of your steel." As he had had no conflict with the enemy, except in the blunder at Ball's Bluff, and the victory at Drainesville, it is probable the change in his estimate of his enemy's valor was due to the vast preparations he had him- self made.
Never since the commencement of the war had the national prospect been so bright as it was early in the spring of 1862. A wonderful change had come over everything. Half a mil- lion men were in the field, among them not one enforced soldier. They were men who had an interest in the struggle on account of their business, and their families, and because they felt the Government must be sustained; and youth, who were still more generous, even if less patriotic. In every quarter success was attending the patriot arms. With the Confederates the change of the past few weeks was as great. The time for which their troops entered the service was expiring, their conscript law was not yet passed, and their losses in forts and battles were numerous and disastrous. It was the almost universal belief that one good gripe at the Confederate throat would end the war.
General McClellan seemed to understand the crisis. In a surprisingly short time his vast army was at Alexandria, pre- pared to go down the bay. The embarkation commenced on the 17th of March. The weather was beautiful; the sky was a cloudless dome; the Potomac was a mirror of light; birds were returning from the South; trees were budding, and balmy winds were blowing. A blue river of soldiers flowed steadily from the massed army towards the hundreds of wait- ing vessels. The music of a hundred bands swept over every other sound, and filled earth and sky. All was ominous of good.
In a long past age the shores of the Piræus witnessed a similar scene. "The crowds of foreigners, drawn thither by curiosity, were amazed by the grandeur of the spectacle, and the citizens accompanying were moved by deeper and more stirring anxities. Their sons and brothers were starting out into a sea of undefined possibilities. At this final parting
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A PARALLEL.
ideas of doubt and danger became fearfully present, and the relatives now separating at the water's edge could not banish dark presentiments. The moment immediately succeeding the farewell was peculiarly solemn and touching. Silence having been enjoined and obtained by sound of trumpet, both the crews on every ship and the spectators on shore followed the voice of the herald in prayer to the gods for success, and in singing the pæan. Officers on every deck made libations with goblets of silver and gold. Never in Grecian history was an invocation more unanimous, emphatic and imposing addressed to the gods. Never was the refusing nod of Zeus more stern and peremptory."
Thus the historian of ancient Greece introduces the nar- rative of the Syracusan expedition, which brought night upon the noon of Athens. With little change the words may open the peninsula campaign.
Never had the United States felt so intense an interest in an undertaking. Never were prayers more unanimous and emphatic. They rose, not at sound of trumpet, from the waterside, and uttered by one voice, in one hour, of that, the vastness of the army and the wide extent of the country would not allow; but from church, fireside and closet, for many a day and week. Never were prayers more earnest, and never was the refusal of Jehovah more stern and per- emptory.
The parallel may be drawn farther. In McClellan existed the timidity, the slowness, the lukewarmness, the barometer- like sensibility, rising and falling with outside pressure, and almost the superstition which mark the character of Nicias. Where the unfortunate Greek stood in awe of eclipses, the American had a correspondingly enervating fear of the ballot. For the soldierly and far-sighted Lamachus we may read Sumner, or, though their rank was lower, Kearney or Hooker. There was also more than one Alcibiades high in the Army of the Potomac.
The evening of March 17th was dark and stormy. Qld Nicias would have deplored the evil omen.
»By the first of April the whole of Mcclellan's army was encamped' near Hampton, and looking forward to an early
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THE SOLDIER OF INDIANA.
entrance into Richmond; but the General determined to forego the principal object he had come so far to gain, the co-opera- tion of the navy, in order to avoid the terrible Merrimac, which had possession of the river, and to advance instead along the peninsula, between the York and the James. IIe moved consequently towards Yorktown, and on the 4th of April brought his army up before that place.
Yorktown is seventy miles from Richmond, on the south side of York river. It was already famous for the siege of Lord Cornwallis within its walls, whence he came, according to an old Yankee joke, with the corn shelled off, and his name reduced to Cobwallis.
The Confederate works, which in outline were almost the same as those of the British in the former siege, were incom- plete. General Magruder was in command. His force, according to the largest estimate, was eleven thousand. It was divided among Yorktown, Gloucester, Mulberry Island and the line of the Warwick, a little stream running nearly across the peninsula, between salt marshes and forests.
" The sooner the siege is commenced the more easily will the capture be accomplished," Lamachus said as the Greeks approached Syracuse. "Every day that is given Cornwallis may cost us many lives," declared Washington when he was before Yorktown. Mr. Lincoln wrote to McClellan: "It is the precise time for you to strike a blow. By delay the enemy will relatively gain upon you,-that is, he will gain faster by reinforcements and fortifications than you can by reinforcements alone. It is indispensable that you strike." Magruder understood the position as well. "Every hour that you hold out brings us reinforcements," he emphatically assured his troops.
The Confederates held out, and the Federals held off until fifty thousand men were at Yorktown and in the neighboring garrisons. But the Union army was by no means idle. Every man, who was not employed as picket or outpost, was up to his knees in mud and water every day, and all day, making roads and bridges, intrenchments and ditches.
General McClellan intended to take Gloucester by landing on the Severn river in the rear of the fort, a force which was
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PREPARATIONS COMPLETE.
then to go up the left bank of the York in the direction of West Point. General McDowell was to execute the move- ment, but his corps, as it was on the point of embarking at Alexandria, was unexpectedly detained by the President for the defence of Washington, and in consequence McClellan's second plan of advance was put out of joint. A little unfair- ness on his own part was the occasion of Mr. Lincoln's inter- ference. In spite of his promise, he made arrangements to withdraw all but twenty thousand troops from the front of the capital, excusing himself on the plea that he included in his calculation the forces in the Valley and in West Virginia. As these were really not available in case of a rapid approach of the enemy, the President did not accord to him the credit of having observed the conditions on which he was allowed to remove his operations to the peninsula. However, after a short delay, he permitted Franklin's division of McDowell's corps to proceed down the bay.
By the first of May all the work that could be contrived was done; roads were corduroyed; trenches were dug; parallels, pontoon bridges and crib-bridges were completed; platforms for batteries were laid, batteries were arranged; magazines were finished; gabions, fascines, abatis, excavations, embra- sures, redoubts were all in order. "A terrific bombardment was to be opened on the town; the finest troops were to be set apart to follow up the bombardment by a grand assault; the steam transports waited a signal to push immediately up the York river, and to land Franklin's troops at the upper part of the stream on the Confederate line of retreat."
The curtain was to be raised on the 4th of May. On the 3d the whole of Magruder's line engaged in active firing. On the night of the 3d balls from besieged and besiegers con- tinually crossed each other in the air. The sky blazed and roared with streaming, falling and bursting shells. At mid- night the tumult reached its climax. Before daylight all was quiet in front of Yorktown, and all was quiet within the fortifications, but all was stir and activity on the narrow roads beyond, for the enemy was hastening to Richmond.
" Few men were killed in the siege of Yorktown, but disease took a fearful hold of the army, and toil and hardship, unre-
34
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THE SOLDIER OF INDIANA.
deemed by the excitement of combat, impaired the morale. McClellan did not carry so good an army from Yorktown as he took there." (Barnard.)
General McClellan telegraphed to the Secretary of War that he would "push the enemy to the wall." Accordingly, after two days he was able to get Franklin's troops, ten thousand splendid soldiers, which had been lying two weeks on the transports in order to be ready to sail at a moment's notice, off to West Point.
Meantime his cavalry and horse artillery with five divisions of infantry, pushed on to Williamsburg, where they encoun- tered and carried a difficult line of works, with the loss of nearly three thousand men. The Union army fought the battle of Williamsburg at great disadvantage, but with great bravery. McClellan telegraphed to the Secretary of War, "I shall run the risk of at least holding them in check here, while I resume the original plan."
He did not, however, resume the original plan, although before he left Williamsburg Norfolk was taken, the Merrimac destroyed, and the blockade of the James broken up. Ignor- ance of the peculiar difficulties presented by the Chickahom- iny, and a desire to keep up a direct railroad communication with the North, and to connect with McDowell coming from Fredericksburg, determined his adherence to the present route. He moved slowly, on account of the roads, which were almost impassable, and occupied two weeks in traversing forty miles to the Chickahominy, where he resumed digging and chop- ping, bridge and road making. On the 19th he received an order to advance his right to meet McDowell's left. After eight days he made the movement, but it had no other result than the extension of his line, as it was at this juncture that General Jackson, who, with fifteen brigades, left Richmond early in May, threatened Washington from the Valley.
The last of May General Johnston, the commander of the Confederate forces, seized an opportunity, when the Union army was divided by the Chickahominy, to make an attack. General McClellan had thrown across two corps by means of Bottom bridge, and a corduroy bridge made by Sumner's men. General Sumner had several more bridges ready, but
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FAIR OAKS.
not yet laid; he had an old road, the Grape Vine road, under repair, but not yet complete. Two days more would proba- bly see his corps on the south side of the river, in the rear of the corps of Keyes and Heintzelman. The five other corps of the army were stretched along towards the northwest, until the tip of the right wing was twenty miles from the tip of the left. The sudden massing of the Union force, in the view of General Johnston, was not an imminent, but it was a possible danger; the sweeping round of the right over Mechanicsville bridge and New bridge was more probable. He determined to make an attack before this movement could be effected. Arranging his army to approach in three points, on the front along the Williamsburg road, on the right along the Nine Mile road, and on the left by the Charles City road, he commenced the movement early on the morning of the 31st. His arrangements were so complete that nothing seemed wanting to insure success but a rise in the river, and a heavy storm, which came up in the night, gave certain promise of that.
The Union picket line extended from the river on the right, across the York river railroad to the Williamsburg turnpike, which is parallel with the railroad, and on to the White Oak Swamp, about five miles, most of the men standing in water, or on tufts of grass and briers above the bog. General Casey's division, which consisted of raw and sickly troops, formed the van of the army, and was engaged in making intrenchments. A half mile in its front lay a Pennsylvania regiment, on the Williamsburg road, directly behind the line of pickets, on a spot called Fair Oaks, from a neighboring clump of oaks. Three quarters of a mile back of Casey, where seven pine trees stand in a group, General Couch's division was more securely protected by a finished line of rifle-pits and an abatis. On the right and rear of Couch, Kearney's division reached from near Savage's Station on the railroad to the river. On the left and rear of Couch, Hooker's division was on the borders of White Oak Swamp. Hooker and Kearney were. in Heintzelman's corps; Casey and Couch were in the corps. of Keyes.
About eleven pickets reported the enemy in sight, and the.
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THE SOLDIER OF INDIANA.
isolated Pennsylvania regiment went forward to their sup- port, but so hastily and with such a want of preparation that it was thrown into confusion. The disorder spread, and sev- eral regiments broke and ran. The Confederates cheered with a shrill shriek, which is peculiarly Southern, and has- tened in pursuit, capturing the unfinished works, filling woods and fields, not only in front but on both flanks, and pushing on nearly a mile before, at the second line of defence, near the Seven Pines, they met with a steady resistance. Couch's front stood bravely up to the enemy, but a Confederate force was gaining the bank in his rear, when General Sumner, having crossed the river and followed the sound of artillery, came to his assistance. Before night the round, hearty huzza of Northern voices gave assurance of a Northern victory.
Now was McClellan's opportunity, "that moment, so fleet- ing in war as in other circumstances." As easily as the fifteen thousand of Sumner's corps, forty thousand men might have been thrown over the new bridges, which needed but a few finishing strokes. If this had been done, in all probability the army would have marched into Richmond the next day. At seven in the evening General McClellan gave orders for the securing of the new bridges, and the crossing of the army at daybreak. The movement was prevented by the deceitful river, which, having delayed its rise twenty hours beyond the time calculated by General Johnston, began to swell in the middle of the night, and in a few hours submerged the extrem- ities, shook the foundations and tore off the planking of every new bridge, covering the little islands in the bogs, and spread- ing over the ground to the foot of the hills.
The same night reinforcements from the South reached Richmond, and were forwarded to Johnston. The Confed- erates renewed the battle, but fought with an indiscreet vehe- mence, which resulted in serious loss. Column after column which went forward against the Union front returned in shat- tered fragments. General Johnston was wounded, and forced to leave the field. The remnant of his army held out after his fall, but, in the end, broken and defeated, fled within the fortifications of Richmond.
" We might have gone right into Richmond," said General
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LIKE A SLAVE.
Heintzelman. "We should have gone to Richmond," said General Keyes. " We missed another opportunity," the Prince de Joinville wrote, "and these opportunities never returned." Consternation prevailed in the Confederate cap- ital; but General McClelian ordered his troops to refrain from pursuit, and quetly established his lines across the Williams- burg road, six or seven miles distant. Two days after the battle, General Hooker made a reconnoissance along the Williamsburg road, to a point within three miles and a half of the city, without seeing anything of the enemy.
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