USA > Indiana > The soldier of Indiana in the war for the union, Vol. II > Part 34
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The Legion of Floyd and Harrison counties was called out. The Floyd regiment arrived in New Albany Sunday afternoon.
Monday General Boyle learned that Morgan was at Salt river, hesitating as to his course, though determined not to approach nearer the city.
So the Legion was sent home after signals had been agreed upon for assembling, in case of sudden need. Tuesday morning scouts reported Morgan falling back in the direction of Elizabethtown.
Tuesday afternoon the Lady Pike, as she was steaming up the river, came to a stop on seeing Rebel troops at Bran- denburg, on the Kentucky shore, and in possession of two United States steamers. Without making any investigation as to number, she turned and hastened down to Leavenworth, where she told the news, and shortly after took on board thirty men, Home-Guards, with one gun, under Captain Lyon. She then set off up the river again, but losing cour- age as she approached the point of danger, she landed the little force three miles below Brandenburg, on the Indiana shore. The gun was dragged by hand two miles, to Mauck- port, where two companies of the Sixth regiment of the Le- gion had hastily collected, under the direction of Major Pfrimmer and Colonel Timberlake. Assisted by this addi- tional force, the Leavenworth men hauled their gun a mile further, and at seven in the morning put it in position on the river bank opposite Brandenburg, which was entirely con-
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395
MORGAN CROSSES THE OHIO.
cealed by a heavy fog. At eight the captured boats, full of Rebels, could be seen through breaks in the fog. Captain Lyon's gun cast a shell across the river, producing such ap- parent alarm and confusion as to confirm a report that Mor- gan had not more than two hundred men, and was without artillery.
Very soon the Home-Guards were undeceived. A sharp cannonade opened on them from the southern heights, and two regiments pushed out from the southern shore. A squad of the Guards endeavored to hold the landing, another tried to drag off the gun, and a third attempted to hide the powder. The last succeeded, but the first was beaten back with loss, and the gunners, after having hauled the gun a half mile through mire and brier, were compelled to leave it behind, and attend to their own safety. Four men were killed, one died from exhaustion, and one was mortally wounded.
By this time militiamen were hurrying in from farms, up from Mauckport, and down from Corydon, but there was no use in trying to make a stand on the river, so they fell back on different roads. Major Pfrimmer moved directly north- ward, skirmishing with Morgan's advance, and joining Colonel Jordan, who was near Corydon with a reinforcement. Jor- dan extended his command, something less than five hundred "men, so as to cover all the roads from the river to Corydon. He then chopped down trees and threw up breastworks, but he was unable to hold his position. Accordingly he with- drew into the town, and surrendered.
Meantime Governor Morton issued a proclamation which roused the State. Although the fields were bending to the harvest, and the country had been so drained of men that women were wielding the sickle and binding the sheaf, no less than sixty-five thousand men tendered their services within forty-eight hours. Twenty thousand reported to ren- dezvous at Indianapolis alone. On Friday, the tenth, they began pouring into the city along every railroad and turnpike. Within three days thirty thousand men were organized into regiments, and sent into the field. Saturday an order was issued to check further enlisting.
396
THE SOLDIER OF INDIANA.
Where Morgan meant to go, nobody pretended to know. What he meant to do, everybody was able to guess. Con- sequently banks sent their gold, and most of their currency, to New York; the Branch of the State at Indianapolis, dur- ing the afternoon of the ninth, cancelled twenty-three thou- sand dollars of its own issue, and shipped two hundred and sixty thousand dollars in gold and currency; families buried, or otherwise concealed their silver plate; horses were hurried off to the North, and everything that could gratify the cu- pidity of the raiders was put out of the way.
It was rumored that Morgan desired, above all things, to burn Indianapolis, and that he would have no objection to include Governor Morton in the flames; but whatever might be his wishes, it was soon evident that he had no such de- termination. It is asserted that before he left Kentucky, his plan was laid to ride through Indiana and Ohio, and to re- cross the river near Buffington Island; but it is certain that no other course was open to him after he left Corydon, and that he could not have rested forty-eight hours without being overwhelmed.
General Hobson, with cavalry and artillery, which included the Fifth Indiana under Lieutenant Colonel Butler, and the Fifteenth battery under Von Sehlen, followed him from the southern part of Kentucky. Nine miles from Brandenburg, his troops halted, while he, with a small escort, pushed on to Rock Haven, to make arrangements with gunboats for a si- multaneous night attack. The gunboats were not at hand, and General Hobson went back, reaching his men at one in the morning. He found it impossible to rouse them, so over- come were they with fatigue and sleep; but he started at dawn, and early on the eighth reached the Ohio river. Here he divided his force, sending one portion on gunboats up the river, and keeping the other on the trail of the invaders.
Scouts scoured the river counties. The Legion and Min- ute Men directed their march toward every point which had attractions for a hungry and angry enemy,-to Jeffersonville, to save the vast Government stores collected at that point, to places on the various railroads to prevent their destruction, and to all the crossings of the Ohio from Mount Vernon be-
397
CORYDON VISITED.
yond Lawrenceburg, in order to hinder escape. They were close on him, right and left and rear, and pressing toward his front. He had little time for replenishing purses or wardrobes, or for collecting horses. At Corydon, he levied twenty-one hundred dollars on mills, giving the owners the alternative of fire; his men stole or destroyed everything they could lay their hands on-from horses, of which they captured five hundred in the county, to babies' shoes and women's dresses. By flag of truce, they induced Mr. Glenn, who lived in the suburbs, to come among them, and then killed him, and burned his houses and barns. They killed William Heth, toll-gate keeper, and shot at a number of oth- ers. In other places, they committed comparatively few de- predations. As they were compelled to live off the country, of course they appropriated all the food they could find along their route. "There is a custom prevailing in Indiana and Ohio," says Basil Duke, Morgan's historian, "which is of admirable assistance to soldiery and should be encouraged- a practice of baking bread once a week in large quantities. Every house is full of it."
Trotting nineteen or twenty hours of the twenty-four, dodging here and there, breaking into small bands in order to slip through or around large forces, or concentrating to run over small bodies, the Rebels avoided a battle and sped on night and day. From Corydon, they proceeded to Salem, which made unavailing resistance.
"On the morning of the tenth," says the Rebel annalist, "we set out for Salem. Major Webber was ordered to take the advance, and let nothing stop him. He accordingly put his regiment at the head of the column, and struck out briskly. Lieutenant Welsh, of company K, had the extreme advance with twelve men. As he neared Salem, he saw the enemy forming to receive him, and, without hesitation, dashed in among them. The party he attacked was about one hun- dred and fifty strong, but badly armed and perfectly raw, and he quickly routed them. He pursued as they fled, and soon supported by Captain W. J. Jones' company, drove them pell mell into the town. Here some two or three hundred were collected, but as the Second Kentucky came pouring
398
THE SOLDIER OF INDIANA.
upon them, they fled in haste, scattering their guns in the streets. A small swivel used by the younger population of Salem to celebrate Christmas and Fourth of July, had been planted to receive us; about eighteen inches long, it was loaded to the muzzle, and mounted in the public square by being propped against a stick of firewood. It was not fired, however, for the man deputed to perform that important duty, somewhat astounded by the sudden dash into the town, dropped the coal of fire with which he should have touched it off, and before he could get another, the Rebels captured the piece. The shuddering imagination refuses to contem- plate the consequences had that swivel been touched off. Major Webber might have had some trouble with this force, which was being rapidly augmented, but for the promptness and vigor of his attack.
"A short halt was made in Salem to feed men and horses, and during that time several railroad bridges were burned. The Provost guard had great difficulty in restraining the men from pillaging, and was unsuccessful in some instances. Major Steele, of the Third Kentucky, had been appointed Provost Marshal of the division, and was assisted by picked officers and men from each of the brigades. Major Steele was a most resolute, vigilant, energetic officer, and yet he found it impossible to stop a practice which neither company nor regimental officers were able to aid him in suppressing. This disposition for wholesale plunder exceeded any thing that any of us had ever seen before. The men seemed act- uated by a desire to 'pay off' in the 'enemy's country' all scores that the Federal army had chalked up in the South. The great cause for apprehension, which our situation might have inspired, seemed only to make them reckless."
Ignorant of Morgan's arrival, a company of the Washing- ton county Legion entered the town to procure provisions and arms, and was immediately captured.
Leaving Salem in the afternoon, Morgan spent the night in Lexington. The next day, Saturday the eleventh, he passed through Paris, and skirmishing on the right and left, reached Vernon. The troops from Indianapolis ought here to have been in his front, but they were not. Although, with
399
VERNON THREATENED.
that good fortune which seldom deserts the forethoughtful, Governor Morton had just procured a large quantity of arms, and was able in consequenec to answer every requisition, the inefficiency, resulting from drunkenness, of another officer, interposed a delay of cight hours at a crisis when every mo- ment was golden.
Greatly to the chagrin of General Wallace, who had been appointed to the command of a force to be taken to Madi- son, the train which should have left at eight in the morning of Saturday, was not off until four in the afternoon. At Columbus another vexatious delay occurred, and it was Sun- day morning before Wallace reached Vernon, fifteen miles above Madison. Fortunately, other troops had just arrived. General Love, after going to New Albany and Seymour, proceeded to Vernon, and reached it in the evening of Sat- urday. At North Vernon he found Colonel Burkham with part of a regiment, and at Old Vernon, a mile distant, Colo- nel Williams, with two hundred men, besides a number of armed citizens of Jennings county. Williams had just ar- rived, and had put but a small portion of his force in position when Morgan appeared in his front and made a demand for surrender. He replied that he "was able to hold the place, and that if Morgan got it he must take it by hard fighting." Morgan asked a reconsideration. Williams detained the bearer of the second flag of truee because he approached nearer than was warranted by military usage.
At this juncture, General Love arrived. He returned the messenger, inspected the position, and then sent Williams to Morgan to ask a delay of two hours for the removal of women and children. After a detention of an hour and a half, Colonel Williams was informed that thirty minutes would be allowed for the purpose, with fifteen minutes for his return to our lines. The women and children accord- ingly hastened out of Vernon; and General Love prepared to receive the terrible onslaught. He prepared and waited. There was no movement, no sound in the direction of the enemy's lines. Not a gun, not even a departing hoof broke the stillness of the night.
At length it appeared that during the prolonged negotia-
400
THE SOLDIER OF INDIANA.
tions, the wily enemy had withdrawn, and was now swiftly pushing toward the east.
The next day, Sunday, General Love turned over his com- mand to General Wallace, who, failing in all endeavors to get means to pursue in force, ordered Colonel Shuler, of the Hundred and Third regiment of militia, to mount as many men as possible and follow Morgan as long as he was within the State lines. Shuler mounted one hundred and forty-six men and set out at four in the afternoon. Monday forenoon he gained the advance of Hobson. Late in the afternoon he began to pick up Rebel stragglers.
The Hundred and Fifth, Colonel Shryock, fell in with Shuler, and although on foot, followed at so rapid a pace, that during the afternoon it marched more than twenty miles. Shuler reached the Whitewater to find the bridge burned, and to see the enemy's rear resting at Harrison, but by the time he had forded the river the Rebels were all gone. At five in the morning he started again, but the raiders having traveled all night, were now twenty-five miles ahead, so at Batavia, Shuler left the chase to the indefatigable Hobson and the militia of Ohio.
Morgan swept round Cincinnati, and along many roads to the river, which he struck near Pomeroy. Before he could cross it gunboats steamed to his front, and horsemen mounted the hill in his rear. He fled up the river fourteen miles, and again attempted to effect a crossing. More than three hun- dred of his men succeeded in gaining the southern bank be- fore gunboats in front and pursuers in the rear again put an end to the attempt. Basil Duke's command received and partially checked an assault which was gallantly made by three regiments led by a detachment of the Fifth Indiana, but after a severe fight it was forced to surrender. Lieuten- ant O'Neill, of the Fifth, conducted himself with distinguished gallantry in this affair. Six days more of hot and panting chase brought down Morgan and the last of his band.
Long before the raid came to an end, the militia of Indi- ana had disbanded and returned to the avocations of civil life; even several regiments, which had been stationed at Cincinnati at Morton's request, had been allowed to return.
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401
ORGANIZATION OF TROOPS.
The One Hundred and Fifth, Colonel Shryoek, before dis- banding, suffered from a blunder as serious an injury as is often inflieted in battle. While reconnoitring near Law- renceburg on the night of the fourteenth, a sudden aların, produced, probably, by rapidly approaching Union cavalry, caused confusion. A single shot was followed by rapid firing. It lasted but a minute, yet five men were killed and eighteen wounded.
The fall eleetions of 1863, which, in Indiana, were con- fined to county officers, were favorable to the Administra- tion. Troops were recruited and military organizations were formed, throughout the year, as in the previous years of the war.
The Twenty-Second, Twenty-Third and Twenty-Fourth batteries, which were organized in November and December of 1862, were retained several months for service in Indiana, mainly in guarding prisoners of war. The Twenty-Second was tampered with by Secessionists, until many of its mem- bers became dissatisfied and deserted. Six men, it was af- terwards discovered, belonged to the secret treasonable soci- ety, whose existence was not yet positively known, though strongly suspected. In March, it was sent to Kentucky. It earried with it the taint of treason, from which it was only purified by fire, but no organization in the war more nobly did its duty when it was fairly put to the test.
The Twenty-Fourth battery also went to Kentucky in March. A section of the Twenty-Third accompanied the Seventy-First under Colonel Biddle, to Monroe, Sullivan and Greene counties, in order to quell disturbances.
The Fifteenth battery, which was surrendered to the enemy on Maryland Heights, was returned to the field in March, 1863, having been exchanged and provided with new guns. In Kentucky it was employed against the guer illas, especially Morgan's band, which constantly kept that State in turmoil.
In June, Governor Morton called upon each Congress- ional District for a regiment to serve during a term of six months. But it was now near the time of harvest, and there
26
402
THE SOLDIER OF INDIANA.
was already such a deficiency of labor in the country, that the harassed farmers knew not where to turn, consequently the call received but a cold response. Only four regiments were organized: the One Hundred and Fifteenth, Colonel Mahan; One Hundred and Sixteenth, Colonel Kise; One Hundred and Seventeenth, Colonel Brady, and One Hun- dred and Eighteenth, Colonel Jackson. Before the appoint- ment of its field officers, the Hundred and Sixteenth was sent to Dearborn, Michigan, to guard a United States arsenal at that place. In September it was recalled, and sent to Nicholasville, Kentucky, where the six months troops were brigaded together.
During the fall and winter, six cavalry regiments and six infantry regiments were recruited and organized for three years service, but, except the Seventh, they were not sent into the field until the spring of 1864.
The cavalry regiments were the Seventh, Colonel Shanks; Ninth, Colonel Jackson; Tenth, Colonel Pace; Eleventh, Colonel Stewart; Twelfth, Colonel Anderson, and Thir- teenth, Colonel Johnson. The Infantry regiments were the One Hundred and Twentieth, Colonel Barter; One Hundred and Twenty-Third, Colonel McQuiston; One Hundred and Twenty-Fourth, Colonel Burgess; One Hundred and Twenty-Eighth, Colonel DeHart; One Hundred and Twenty-Ninth, Colonel Case, and One Hundred and Thir- tieth, Colonel Parrish.
The Seventh cavalry consisted of twelve hundred and thirteen men organized into twelve companies. It was raised largely at the expense of the private means of J. P. C. Shanks, who was commissioned its commanding officer.
Colonel Shanks had already done excellent, though short military service. During the session of Congress, of which he was a member, in 1861, he accompanied the army to the Bull Run battle-field. When the firing grew hot, rout and ruin threatened, and other civilians fled, he seized a musket, and, entering the ranks of the Sixty-Ninth New York, fought throughout the day. He afterward, on General Fremont's staff, rendered efficient assistance in organizing and moving troops in Missouri.
403
GENERAL BRAGG'S POSITION.
CHAPTER XXI.
TULLAHOMA.
There is none of you so mean and base That hath not noble lustre in your eyes. I see you stand like grey-hounds in the slips,
Straining upon the start. The game's afoot .- King Henry V.
While General Rosecrans gathered strength at Murfrees- boro for a further advance into the South, General Bragg established his army in intrenched camps behind the Coffee Hills, a high, rough and rocky spur of the Cumberland range. Eighteen hundred infantry, under General Polk, at Shelby- ville, protected by cavalry reaching to Columbia and Spring Hill, formed his left. Twelve hundred infantry, under Gen- eral Hardee, in the vicinity of the mountain gaps on the east of Shelbyville, and covered by cavalry reaching to McMinn- ville, constituted his right. His centre was eighteen miles back of Shelbyville, at Tullahoma. General Buckner's division held East Tennessee, from Knoxville to Chattanooga. At any point in his front he could readily concentrate forty thousand men, while, should a falling back be advisable be- fore a battle, he could draw together a larger army
Preliminary to the opening of the campaign, Rosecrans made ostentatious demonstrations on Bragg's left. The most important of these was a violent and successful attack by General Mitchell's cavalry division on a Rebel cavalry outpost. The Fourth and Second Indiana cavalry were in Mitchell's division, and were engaged in the affair.
The campaign began on the twenty-fourth of June. The same day a dismal and protracted rain set in, immeasurably increasing the difficulties and hardships of march, bivouac and battle. The Twentieth corps, McCook's, moved directly toward Shelbyville, the most prominent and accessible point
404
THE SOLDIER OF INDIANA.
in the enemy's line, in order still further to delude him into concentrating there, and to enable Thomas and Crittenden to gain, through the gaps in the hills farther east, a passage which would threaten the remote and nearly inaccessible rear.
McCook started early. At two in the afternoon, as he began to thread his way through the hills toward Liberty Gap, his skirmishers, five companies of the Thirty-Ninth Indiana, which was now mounted, met the skirmishers of the enemy, and as they pushed on, discovered a force of eight hundred infantry posted in front of the gap. General Wil- lich advanced his brigade, and failing in an attempt on the front, stretched out left and right to reach both flanks. Fail- ing also in this, he boldly engaged, while Colonel Miller, with the Second brigade, reinforced and lengthened his left, ena- bling him to stretch his right beyond the enemy. The left and right then changing front, closed in upon the gap, while the reserve regiments advanced directly upon its entrance. The enemy fled. Willich's and Miller's brigades pursued him a mile, then encamped, while Baldwin took up the ad- vance. The Sixth Indiana and the Louisville Legion, de- ployed as skirmishers, kept up a sharp fire, and made steady though slow progress until night.
Early in the morning Willich advanced beyond Baldwin, and posted the Thirty-Second Indiana and Eighty-Ninth Illinois in his front on an irregular ridge. The enemy, heavily reinforced, occupied the crest, slope and base of an opposite ridge. Desultory firing gave place near noon to a series of sharp engagements. The Rebels, leaving their position, which was secure and commanding, resolutely advanced un- der cover of artillery. They were repulsed, but they repeat- edly and fiercely renewed the movement. When Willich's ammunition was nearly gone, Miller brought his brigade to the front, and successfully met the enemy's struggles.
While triumphantly pushing forward, he was wounded by a rifle-ball, which entered his left eye. He was borne from the field, but his men pressed on. Davis' division reached the ground, and Simonson's battery added its thunders to the batteries of Johnson's division. But the Rebels were
405
LIBERTY GAP.
already routed. Nothing is known of their loss, except that seventy-five dead were left on the ground. Johnson lost thirty-nine killed and seventeen wounded.
The affair is in some respects more particularly narrated in a letter from Colonel Baldwin to General Thomas T. Crittenden:
"TULLAHOMA, July 2, 1863.
"DEAR GENERAL :- I snatch a few moments from pressing duties, to tell you something of our military operations since clearing Murfreesboro on the twenty-fourth of June. We moved out the Shelbyville road to some distance, and then turned to the left, taking a dirt road leading across the country to Liberty Gap, fourteen miles from Murfreesboro. The order of our march was the First, Second and Third brigades. The roads were bad, and it was after twelve o'clock when I reached the gap. Willich had two regiments deployed as skirmishers, and was blazing away. The gap is a narrow defile in the mountains, up which runs a crooked, bad road. It was raining in torrents, which continued all day and night. The skirmishing was sharp, the enemy re- sisting stubbornly, and men falling on both sides. We made but little headway until two of Miller's regiments moved to the right and flanked them, or rather forced back their left. They then retired up the pass half a mile. Re- ceiving reinforcements of five regiments, they made a stand on a strong position formed by the road turning square to the left and running five hundred yards along the base of a precipitous hill, and then entering the hills through a narrow defile.
"There I was put in. It was five o'clock when the Reb- els retired from their first position. I was then ordered to relieve General Willich and press them, but owing to the muddy ground and the change of position, I did not get thoroughly to work before six. I deployed the Sixth on the road extending to the right and left just before the road turned, and the Legion on the extreme right, with orders to take the hill, of which the enemy's position was an extension. They met with but little trouble, going up in fine style, though with the loss of two killed and seven wounded.
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