USA > Indiana > The soldier of Indiana in the war for the union, Vol. II > Part 39
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454
THE SOLDIER OF INDIANA.
had been acting Brigadiers were remanded to their regiments. A stroke of General Halleck's pen gave the finishing touch to the reorganization of the Army of the Cumberland, by de- posing its commander.
General Rosecrans, in the excitement of the race over the mountains, had apparently grasped at more than his cool wisdom had planned, and in the battle he had performed an insignificant and singular part, but he had gained Chatta- nooga, the original object of the campaign, and he had not lost the esteem and affection of his soldiers. They looked after him regretfully, as he turned his back on the mountains and the disputed field. General Thomas assumed temporary command, while General Grant was called from the farther West to become Commander-in-Chief of the Army of the Cumberland and of additional forces which now began to concentrate about Chattanooga.
In the middle of September, when satisfied that Bragg was receiving reinforcements from the Army of Virginia, but too late for the impending conflict, General Halleck im- peratively directed Burnside and Hurlbut in East and West Tennessee, Grant in Mississippi, Schofield in Missouri, and Pope in the Northwest, to detach and forward portions of their forces. Immediately after the battle, he withdrew from the Army of the Potomac and forwarded the Eleventh and Twelfth corps, under the command of General Hooker. These last were the first upon the ground, reaching Bridge- port the first of October. As they were twenty thousand more months to feed, to say nothing of their horses and mules, their arrival was but a misfortune, unless they could open the railroad from Bridgeport, for which the prospect was not favorable.
Before the arrival of Hooker, Rosecrans advanced from Nashville and other points small bodies which had been left to guard his rear. Half of the Twelfth Indiana battery, which had been in Fort Negley more than a year, arrived at Bridgeport, in charge of Lieutenant Dunwoody, on the twenty-sixth of September, and was sent over Walden's bridge, without delay to Chattanooga.
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455
BROWN'S FERRY.
In consequence, General Hooker was obliged to leave troops along the line of communication. His only Indiana regiment, the Twenty-Seventh, was stationed at Tullahoma.
On the eighteenth of October, General Grant, on his way to his new field, telegraphed from Louisville to General Thomas to hold Chattanooga at all hazards. "I will hold on till we starve," was the reply, and it expressed not only the decision of General Thomas, but the resolution of the troops. They were entirely patient and cheerful, under hardships greater than they had ever before endured.
October 26, a movement was set on foot to gain possess- ion of the railroad from Bridgeport to the mouth of Lookout Valley. Hooker crossed the river at Bridgeport, and with Howard's corps and Geary's division of Slocum's, took up the line of march along the base of Raccoon Mountain, pushing the Rebel pickets before him. He was supported by one division of the Fourteenth corps, under Palmer, who had marched from Chattanooga on a road north of the river, hauling his guns and caissons, (a hundred men to each gun of Cox's battery,) up the Walden hills by picket ropes. Both Palmer and Hooker were closely observed, but they were not
molested. The same day, Turchin's brigade crossed the river from Chattanooga, and marching out of view, estab- lished itself in a concealed camp near the eastern bank, where the river, thrown to the north by the obtruding foot of Lookout, forms a peninsula called Moccasin Point, from its resemblance to an Indian moccasin. In the night, sixty pontoon boats, each laden with thirty men, armed with guns and axes, and all under the command of General Ha- zen, put out from Chattanooga, floated silently round Moc- casin Point, there being no need of oars in the strong current, passed the enemy's piekets without attracting their attention, and landed at Brown's Ferry on the western shore, opposite the concealed camp. The boats then rowed across, and re- turned with Turchin's troops and with bridge material. The enemy, who was now alarmed, was driven back. Strong intrenehments on a good position, and a bridge two hundred feet long, were commenced at once, and were completed be- fore noon of the twenty-eighth.
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456
THE SOLDIER OF INDIANA.
By this time, Hooker, who had followed a little stream, the Running Water, through a gorge, was in Lookout valley. From the heights on the west and from a succession of tim- bered hills with narrow crests, running three miles along the middle of the valley, the enemy kept up an ineffectual artil- lery fire, and once with musketry from the dense forest of one of the central hills, arrested the column, but he offered no se- rious opposition. He was effectually taken by surprise. When Hooker halted at night, his line fronted the east, his left being on the Tennessee river at Brown's ferry, and his right up the valley at Wauhatchie. At one in the morning the enemy attacked him, and fought hard during several hours, but he was defeated, and was hurried into inglorious flight by a pack of frightened mules mistaken for a body of cavalry.
Hooker established his line strongly behind Lookout creek, his left flank on the Tennessee, his right on Raccoon moun- tain. Palmer's brigades at Bridgeport, Shell Mound, White- side and Tyner's stations protected the railroad and river. The Tenth Indiana battery, now under the command of Captain Naylor, remained at Moccasin Point, in a position which enabled it to throw shells on the front of Lookout and in the valleys of Lookout and Chattanooga. Turchin's brig- ade, which included the Eighty-Second Indiana, and Ha- zen's, in which was the Sixth Indiana, returned to the forti- fications of Chattanooga.
The Rebel line on Lookout was now in the form of a V, the point on the south bank of the river, more than a thou- sand feet above the batteries on Moccasin Point. On the east it stretched back four or five miles, forming a junction with the line on Missionary ridge. From the north end of Missionary ridge to the north end of Lookout, the Rebel front was about six miles long.
The situation of the Union army at this time is partially described by Major Leaming:
"We discover in the newspapers, published away up north as they are, that we are a wonderful set of fellows, and can take a battery, for instance, (as in the case of the repeated captures of Lookout mountain) on the top of a perpendicu-
457
THE SITUATION.
lar cliff two hundred feet high, (which one man could defend with stones for a year) simply by making a grand charge with bayonets. Now the truth is, that same battery and mountain are in the hands of the Rebel rascals this moment, and from them they send in daily their compliments in the shape of shot and shell. It is true that we have the river to within some three miles of this place, and steamboats arrive at the landing below Lookout, loaded with supplies, every day, and that there is no danger now of being starved out. The river after passing here runs south to the very foot of Look- out mountain, then doubling on its course, runs back almost due north for several miles, and then passes through the gap between Walden ridge and Raccoon mountain. We have possession of the latter point on the south side of the river, and the peninsula enclosed in the bend, but at the extreme southern curve, where the river strikes Lookout, and then turns north, the Rebels hold entire possession, and of course the river is not navigable just there. The distance by the river around the bend is twelve miles. Across the base of the peninsula thus formed, it is only about two miles. To this point, then, our steamers come, and, having unloaded, the supplies are hauled in wagons across the country and over the pontoon bridge to Chattanooga.
"The question now is, will we permit the Rebel army to sit quietly down in our front all winter, while we await the results of the conscription in the spring? If we drive them away now, or soon, the triangle of railroads, with Dalton as the apex and Chattanooga and Cleveland as the base, would make us a magnificent line of supplies, with our army lying in the enclosed space, and would at the same time make our connection with Burnside safe and expeditious. This would give us, too, the use of the Tennessee river to Knoxville. Perhaps small gunboats could be placed upon the river, and thus, for the greater part of the year, make an excellent pa- trol for that stream. 'All of which is most respectfully sub- mitted,' as our red tape documents say. For my part I am most anxious to get matters in the shape I have spoken of, before winter sets in, and am entirely willing to take a hand in having it donc. We want men. We must have men!
458
THE SOLDIER OF INDIANA.
Give them to us now, or in the spring, and we will wind up this rebellion, and let them go home in the fall. It might have been done this year, but the infernal Copperheads made such a row that the Government was scared off."
Sherman began to move his corps from the Big Black on the twenty-second of September. John E. Smith's division, which was at Helena, was transferred from the Seventeenth corps to the Fifteenth, and one of the divisions of the latter was left at Vicksburg, whence the remainder proceeded up the Mississippi. Being forced by want of fuel, to gather fence rails in some places, and to land wagons and haul wood from the interior in others, the voyage was slow, and it was the fourth of October before Sherman landed at Mem- phis. The wagon trains were moved under escort. Three divisions of troops were transported on the railroad as far as Corinth. The Fourth division, Ewing's, left Memphis on foot and made long marches each day. Small but active bodies of the enemy infested the way throughout. As Sher- man approached Colliersville, at noon of the day he left Memphis, he became aware of a fight in his front. At the same moment the train was stopped by the enemy's fire. Six companies of the Sixty-Sixth Indiana, in a stockade, were defending themselves gallantly against an investing force, but were sorely pressed. Sherman's escort, a single batallion, advanced in charge, whercupon, the enemy, who had already as much as he could do, abandoned the field. Nearly sixty of the small Union force were killed or wounded.
The marches of Ewing's division were excessively long. October 13, it went from Colliersville to LaGrange, thirty- three miles. It is not possible to imagine the weariness of men in the last ten miles of a march of this length, nor the profanity. One man swears that his feet are worn off, an- other that he has slung away his legs, and is stumping on his bloody knees, a third that he is forced to go on his bloody trunk. But the most, forbearing even such grim jokes, in- dulge their impotent rage in loud-mouthed imprecations against their superiors, of whose blind tyranny they seem to be the helpless victims. They curse their Captain, their Major, their Lieutenant Colonel, their Colonel. They curse
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459
SHERMAN'S MARCH FROM MEMPIHS.
their Generals of every degree. They curse the kind Presi- dent. They curse the war. They curse the Rebels, and, above all, the Copperheads at home, by whose machinations the war is prolonged. It is a melancholy fact that our army swore terribly. Yet in the ranks there were lofty-souled men, and not a few, whose lips an oath never stained; who trudged along in uncomplaining patience, while their feet smarted, their shoulders ached, and up and down their backs crept the chills of feverish fatigue; who were sharply wounded when beloved names were dragged down from Heaven into the dirt, and yet were silent.
From Corinth progress was slow, as the stringers and cross-ties of the railroad were burned, the rails were bent, and the bridges destroyed. For one day's advance two days were spent in work and waiting. On the twenty-seventh, after a severe fight at Cane creek, the advance occupied Tus- cumbia. The same day Sherman, in consequence of an or- der from Grant, dropped all work on the railroad, and spurred forward. His corps consisted of four divisions, commanded, the First by Osterhaus, the Second by Morgan L. Smith, the Third by John E. Smith, and the Fourth by Ewing. In the Third division were the Forty-Eighth and Fifty-Ninth Indi- diana. In the Fourth were the Twelfth, Ninety-Ninth and One Hundredth. The Eighty-Third and Ninety-Seventh were also included in Sherman's corps. The Tennessee river was crossed at Chickasaw, ten miles north-east of Iuka, on boats sent up from Cairo for the service. The Elk, at Rogersville, when Sherman reached it, was impassable, and he was obliged to prolong his march up to Fayetteville, where he crossed on a stone bridge. He went by Winches- ter and Decherd, descending the mountains into the valley of Battle creek. November 15, the column reached Bridge- port, having marched about two hundred and fifty miles, and the commander reported to Grant at Chattanooga. The tired troops were immediately set to work in a series of marches and countermarches, which were to end in a series of blows upon the secure enemy.
General Grant knew an opportunity when it stared him in the face, and unlike most men, recognized its fleeting nature.
460
THE SOLDIER OF INDIANA.
An opportunity now offered itself. Bragg had sent Long- strect's strong division into East Tennessee, and Burnside had lured the Virginia veterans to the vicinity of Knoxville. But Burnside was sorely beset, and must succumb if not re- lieved within a few days, while if ever there was a moment in which the hills round Chattanooga could be assaulted, it was the present, when they were shorn of a portion of their strength.
The emergency, and the half-starved condition of the men and animals about Chattanooga as well, roused Sherman and his troops to herculean exertions. They crossed the river on the pontoon bridge at Bridgeport. Ewing's division moved to Shell Mound, thenee along a deep gorge called Nickajack cove, and up the steep acclivity until at night it reached the summit of Raccoon Mountain. The eighteenth of November was a calm, clear day. The solemn glories of the mountains stirred the souls of the men who had wan- dered
"Through many a dark and dreary vale, And many a region dolorous,
Rocks, caves, lakes, fens, bogs, dens and shades of death,"
and roused anew the ardor of their patriotism. They were weary, but they desired no rest. Nor at this moment could rest, on any terms, have been granted them. Every hour increased the peril of Burnside.
Sherman's advance drove out of Trenton a small force of the enemy. One brigade occupied the little town, while an- other reconnoitred up the valley, and still another held a po- sition on the mountain. The last built camp-fires sufficient for the whole corps, so as to make it appear that a large force was concentrating at the point. Meantime the divisions of Osterhaus and the two Smiths, with the Forty-Eighth Indi- ana, as rear guard, entered Lookout valley. Ewing and the Smiths then, marching all day and all night of the nineteenth, passed quietly in the darkness through Hooker's camps, while the Rebel camp-fires, lit up the mountain side for miles along the line, crossed the Tennessee again, and pushed on over frightful roads until they gained a secluded valley, entirely concealed by high ridges, four miles above
461
CAPTURE OF ORCHARD KNOB.
Chattanooga, and on the opposite side of the river. Oster- haus was detained at Brown's ferry by a break in the bridge, caused partly by drift-wood on the river, which was swollen by heavy rains, and partly by logs thrown into the stream by the enemy. Notwithstanding incessant toil, it was the twenty-third of November before the troops were in such or- der as to warrant movement for attack. Then the line ran thus: In Lookout valley, near Brown's ferry, Hooker, with his Twelfth corps, Osterhaus and Cruft, the last temporarily in command of two of Stanley's brigades, of Palmer's corps; on Moccasin Point, artillery, under Captain Naylor; about Chattanooga, and forming the centre, Thomas, the divisions of Sheridan and Wood forming his front, the division of Johnson, and the corps of Howard and Palmer his rear; and Sherman, with Davis' division, to take the place of that of Osterhaus, about as far above as Hooker was below Chatta- nooga. The line crossed the Tennessee three times, and its extremities were thirteen miles apart. The frowning heights, studded with Rebel artillery, and lifting their brazen heads to the clouds, seemed not less impregnable than when defended by the whole of Bragg's army. But the enemy, when he awoke to the situation, was silent, anxious and bewildered. Early on Monday, the twenty-third, a deserter reported to Grant that one of Buckner's divisions had gone to join Long- street, that another had started, and that Bragg was with- drawing his army. After all the vast effort that had been made, the coveted opportunity seemed on the point of elud- ing the eager grasp. But as Sherman's force was strained to the utmost to get into position, the assault could not be lastened. Thomas prepared to throw out a strong recon- noissance, of Wood's division supported by Sheridan's, toward Orchard Knob, a bald, conical mound, a hundred feet high, and three quarters of a mile directly to the front. At two in the afternoon Wagner, Harker and Colonel Sher- man advanced their brigades to the music of the drum, so steadily and beautifully that it is said the Rebels in front supposed the movement to be a grand parade, and watched it, leaning on their rifles; and so rapidly that they swept be- fore them pickets and picket reserve, captured the rifle-pits,
462
THE SOLDIER OF INDIANA.
with over two hundred men, and established themselves on Orchard Knob, before Bragg had time to send up reinforce- ments from his main camp.
A passage from a letter of Captain Williams, in Turchin's brigade, describes the movement as seen from one of the forts in Chattanooga:
" Yesterday afternoon the whole army moved out of its camps, and took position in line of battle along the picket lines. Our heavy guns in the forts opened up, and threw their scorching shells into the Rebel camps on Missionary Ridge, and the Rebels, in turn, paid their compliments to us. I stood upon the parapet of Fort Negley, beside two thirty- pounder Parrotts. General Palmer, who now commands the Fourteenth corps, and General Johnston, the successor of General Rousseau, were there, viewing the movement through their glasses. I never expect to see such a grand sight again. It is not often that one can take in, in one view, the well- defined lines of two such armies. But little fighting was done, however, except the driving in of the enemy's pickets on our left, and the capturing of some two hundred pris- oners."
Hooker was early at work on the morning of Tuesday, -, bridging Lookout creek, which had suddenly risen, throwing troops up the valley to cross near Wauhatchie, and posting batteries on every available hill to enfilade the Rebel intrench- ments, preparatory to a demonstration which was to be a feint or a serious attack, according to circumstances, and which was undertaken to draw the attention of the enemy from Sherman's proceedings. Redoubts, redans and pits, low down the face of Lookout, repelled approach from the direction of the river, and restricted operations to the left flank, which, though also well fortified, presented a less for- midable front.
Geary and Cruft, while the enemy was engrossed by the bridge-building near the mouth of Lookout creek, marched up the valley, and under cover of a heavy fog, captured the pickets along the creek, swung round near Wauhatchie, and marched northward, their right, Whitaker's brigade, far up the rugged steep, and their left, the brigades of Grose and
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463
THE BATTLE ABOVE THE CLOUDS.
Wood, on the east bank of Lookout creek. They dipped down through gullies and gorges, climbed over ledges, and bowlders, and breastworks, in the face of heavy opposition, and, with the help of the artillery on the hills, in Lookout valley, on Moccasin Point, and even in Fort Negley at Chattanooga, gained the whole western slope, and struggled round to the north, where, midway between the summit and the river, was a line of earthworks on a projecting shelf.
It was a dark day, but at this point and upward the as- cending columns were occasionally seen from Chattanooga and watched with the intensest interest, through rifts in the clouds hanging round the top and sides. At noon the com- bat was plainly visible on the verge of the beetling cliff, the national banner fluttering in the breezes of that lofty region, and slowly ascending from rock to rock. Then the scene was all shut out, and the mountain was wrapt in an impen- etrable mantle of gray, while only the roar and crash of arms, and shouts, ringing out clear and shrill, reached the anxious valley.
Hooker's troops had been ordered to halt on the summit, but fired by success, they pressed on, driving their antago- nists from walls and pits, over the rocks and down the steeps. They were not ten thousand in number, and were in three divisions, which never before had been brought together, but they moved with the weight and with the harmony of a host, infused and inspired by one soul. At four o'clock their line was established, and was invulnerable, from the palisades on the eastern brow of the mountain to the mouth of Chatta- nooga creek. Carlin's brigade then moved from Thomas' extreme right, and lashing boats together, crossed the creek, and united the right wing with the centre. After night, in the misty moonlight, the enemy made an attempt to regain his lost ground, and the mountain rang once more with bat- tle cries, and flashed with battle fires. He was unsuccessful, and at midnight ceased his struggles.
While Hooker mounted and surmounted Lookout, Sher- man was less noisy, but was equally busy at the other end of the line. At midnight his troops moved out of the valley, and rapidly up the river to the pontoon boats, which had been
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464
THE SOLDIER OF INDIANA.
prepared, in the mouth of the North Chickamauga. The night was eloudy. The river was shrouded in darkness. Neither the national sentinels on the north bank, nor the Rebel piekets on the south, perceived the boats as they glided downward. Not a whisper broke the stillness. Not a sound was heard save the measured dip of the oars. Yet eighty boats carried at each passage a brigade of men. A small advance captured the out-guard along the river. The troops, as they landed and moved into designated positions, com- menced intrenching, such as had no tools working with their tin-plates, cups and spoons. Day dawned upon a strong line of rifle-pits, the length of two divisions. Rain drizzled, and fog rolled down the mountains, and spread through the valley, covering Sherman's proceedings from the enemy. Davis' division crossed before noon. Meantime pontoon bridges were commenced. By midday a bridge, thirteen hundred and fifty feet long, spanned the swollen Tennessee, and a shorter one crossed the Chickamauga. Five thousand cavalry and ten batteries of artillery passed over.
Meanwhile the line moved forward, and having gained three quarters of a mile, again intrenched, seeing dimly through the fog the top of Missionary ridge, and hearing the sullen roar of Hooker's battle miles away on the right. At two o'clock, it moved out in column of division toward a long strip of timber behind which the enemy was supposed to be in force. John E. Smith was in the centre, with Ew- ing on the right, and Morgan L. Smith on the left. The brigade of Colonel Alexander entered the timber in advance, moved through a difficult swamp, at the sharp sound of ri- fles deployed into line of battle, cleared the woods and reached the railroad, seeing the skirmishers half way up the mountain side, with here and there a Rebel disappearing over the crest. A few minutes more and the summit was gained, the enemy retreating to the next height. About four o'clock he attempted to regain his hastily abandoned posi- tion, but failed, though he occasioned Sherman severe loss.
General Thomas strengthened his positions during the day, and threw Howard's corps up the Tennessee to Sherman's
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Map of THE BATTLE FIELD OF CHATTANOOGA
Friar's Isty
V
tennessee
Rivey
Millitu
Bovce's Station ogni
Caldwell
Chicka
.Crutchfield
ANTA
AT
Rennes Hilson.
WESTERN
C
Williams
Flyingty
Shallanooy's
NOS. Mil
CHATTANOOGA
"M O'C C.A.S.I.N
C-
PÁN GAP
R
P.O I.N.T
RACCOON MTN
Look
RIDGE
Ros
muamertoy
VALLEY
NASHVILLE TRENTON RA
LELIE
Wauhatchee
LOOKOUTEMTN.
TTANOOGA
Scale of Miles
3
O
Cranes Hall
465
SHERMAN'S ASSAULTS.
right. Late at night, the sky cleared and a cold frost filled the air. Camp fires, far extended on right and left, revealed to both armies the lengthening of the Union line.
In our war there were battles of such gloom and terrible- ness, that, in spite of the great hearts which figured in them, the reader turns from their perusal with shuddering shame and horror. Such were Shiloh and Chickamauga. But the battle of Missionary Ridge, on the twenty-fifth of November, was all glorious. The preceding conflicts, in their singular success, had stirred the enthusiasm of the troops. They sprang to arms at dawn, and saluted with shouts the 'banner of beauty and glory' fluttering on the peak of Lookout. The sun himself, rising in an unclouded sky, and scattering the shades from the noble amphitheatre of Chattanooga, seemed to promise a crowning victory.
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