USA > Indiana > The soldier of Indiana in the war for the union, Vol. II > Part 44
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Throughout the march a Rebel force, under Taylor and Green, was never far off, but it made no serious opposition. October 17, Major Conover, with two hundred men of the Sixteenth Indiana, captured from the enemy three thousand head of cattle without the loss of a man. A month had now been consumed, and the army turned to retrace its steps. November 3, the advance, the Nineteenth corps, was at Ver- million Bayou, and the rear, McGinnis' division, was at Car rion-Crow Bayou, and, McGinnis being very ill, was under the command of General Cameron. General Washburn, temporarily in command of the Thirteenth corps, accompa- nied the rear. The position of Colonel Owen's brigade, three miles to the right and front, tempted the cautious though 33
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THE SOLDIER OF INDIANA.
eager enemy to break his reserve. He fell upon Owen unex- pectedly, and in the surprise captured nearly the whole of the Sixty-Seventh. A few men, under Major Sears, cut their way out.
The Sixtieth, in turn, under command of Captain Goelzer and of Lieutenant Richardson, a gallant officer on Owen's staff, with the other troops of the brigade, fought well, and though forced to fall back, occupied sufficient time in the movement to enable the train, and also several paymasters, who had just arrived, to get a fair start toward safety.
General Cameron and Colonel Slack hastened to Owen's support. The enemy was checked, pushed back to the cover of a wood, through which Owen had retreated, and was eventually driven into the prairie from which he had emerged. Cavalry continued in pursuit three miles, the enemy not at- tempting to turn.
General Washburn reckons the Federal loss at seven hun- dred and sixteen, and the Rebel loss at four hundred and twenty-five. Forty-seven of our wounded were humanely returned by the enemy, because he had not the means to take care of them. The Sixtieth lost five killed, twenty-seven wounded, of whom several died within a few days, and ninety-three captured.
During the fight, and after the advance of McGinnis' di- vision, a Rebel cavalry force swept round the left, and ap- peared before the camp, but was held off by the troops in charge, the Eleventh Indiana, Twenty-Ninth Wisconsin, and Twenty-Fourth Iowa.
Horace Greeley asserts in his "History of the American Conflict" that the "Sixty-Seventh Indiana ingloriously sur- rendered without having lost a man." General Burbridge, who reached the field with General Cameron, wrote to Gov- ernor Morton, December 3,1863: " Their conduct (he is speak- ing of the Sixtieth and Sixty-Seventh) in the late affair at Grand Coteau was what was to have been expected from their noble record upon many hotly contested fields, and I desire to join my pride and gratification, at having such men in my command, to the just pride of the State at having sent them to fight in behalf of our beloved Union."
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THIRTEENTH CORPS MOVES TO TEXAS.
Again he speaks of his "hearty approval of the general conduct and discipline, the gallantry on the field, and the soldierly bearing in camp of the two regiments."
Captain Hendricks, of the Sixty-Seventh, was mortally wounded; eight others were wounded, and two hundred and six surrendered.
Colonel Bringhurst was complimented by Generals Wash- burn, Cameron and Burbridge for the promptness with which he brought the Forty-Sixth to the field.
During the return of the expedition no other affair of im- portance occurred. Cavalry troops frequently came in con- tact with small bodies of the enemy, and several times at- tacked Rebel camps. On the eighth, in a skirmish, the Six- teenth lost Captain McFeely and several men. On the twentieth, with its brigade, it made an attack on an outlying camp, and captured one hundred men, with twelve officers and a stand of colors. On the twenty-third a portion of the Sixteenth captured forty Rebels. Two days afterward, with the Sixth Missouri, the Sixteenth captured seventy Rebels, and drove a large force across Vermillion Bayou. Again it captured twenty-three. Once it captured a black bear, which had possession of a deserted Rebel camp.
The Forty-Seventh, during the return march, suffered the loss of ten men and two teams, which were surprised and captured by Texas cavalry. A few days afterward the For- ty-Seventh surprised the Texas camp, and captured a whole regiment.
Colonel Owen, of the Sixtieth, resigned at the close of the Teche campaign. Captain Goelzer was commissioned Lieu- tenant Colonel, and in the spring received the commission of Colonel. Lieutenant Colonel Barter also resigned, being unable, on account of the wound received in the battle of Champion Hills, to continue longer in the army. His place was filled by Major Grill.
The army had not all reached Brashear when the Thir- teenth corps began to move off in regiments and brigades, first from Berwick Bay, later from New Orleans to the coast of Texas.
During the Teche diversion Banks, with upward of twenty
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THE SOLDIER OF INDIANA.
vessels, and Herron's division of six thousand men, now un- der Dana, sailed over a smooth sea, and with favorable winds, excepting one blast of a "Norther," to the western edge of Texas. He effected a landing at Brazos Santiago the first of November, and driving before him a small body of the enemy, proceeded thirty miles up the Rio Grande to Browns- ville. Here he left Dana with part of the force, and return- ing to Brazos Santiago, met there, on the fifteenth of Novem- ber, the first installment of the Thirteenth corps. With this reinforcement, which included the Eighth and Eighteenth Indiana, he sailed up the coast toward Corpus Christi Pass.
Captain Black recounts the story of the Eighteenth dur- ing its sojourn on the Texan coast: "On the night of No- vember 16, the Eighteenth landed, in small boats, on the foot of Mustang Island, where the troops from the other vessels had already landed before dark. Gathering together around their drift-wood fires, they partially dried their clothing, drenched with the surf through which they had waded from the boats, and there lay down in the sand to sleep, or to listen to the wailing of the breakers. At daylight, leaving Captain Black with his company and an additional detail to guard the commissary stores and ammunition landed on the beach, the Eighteenth followed the force which had marched up the island. At the head of the island, which is twenty miles long, the Rebels had a hundred men, with a battery of two large old United States guns, and an old iron howitzer, bear- ing an inscription commemorating its presentation to the Republic of Texas. These commanded Aransas Pass for the protection of blockade runners. On the morning of the nineteenth, without firing a shot, the little garrison surren- dered themselves and their rusty artillery to the Yankee ad- vance guard."
The following night a Norther came up and caused great suffering to the Eighth, the most of the men being without blankets, and the camp equipage being yet on board the steamer. For three days the regiment was without any shel- ter, and even without sufficient wood to make a comfortable fire.
" Here the Eighth and Eighteenth were joined by the re-
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FORT ESPERANZA CAPTURED.
mainder of their brigade. On the twenty-second the troops crossed Aransas Pass to St. Joseph's Island, up the beach of which they marched the next day to Cedar Bayou, which was crossed on the night of the twenty-fifth in small boats. Two days marching up the beach of Matagorda brought them to Fort Esperanza, a very formidable Rebel work at the head of the island where the town of Saluria formerly stood, commanding the entrance to Matagorda Bay. A severe 'Norther,' blowing so cold that the men could not, for a moment, dispense with their blankets, impeded operations considerably, but on the twenty-ninth the outer works were occupied by Colonel Washburn's brigade, the men running a mile along the beach in single file, under the fire of a one hundred and sixty pound Columbiad. Preparations were made for storming the fort in the morning, but during the night the garrison blew up the magazines, and retreated to the main land, and the same night Colonel Washburn's brigade occupied the head of the island. The army remained here till the twenty-third of December, when the First brig- ade, to which the Eighth and Eighteenth were attached, un- der command of General Warren, sailed up to Indianola. The remainder of the white forces crossed to Matagorda Peninsula, where a large body of troops were collected, pre- paratory to the invasion of Texas, which, however, never took place, one or two expeditions, by the First brigade, six- teen miles north-west, to Port Lavacca, being the only ad- vances ever made from the coast. Quartered in deserted houses, the troops at Indianola passed the winter with its frequent ' Northers' quite pleasantly. Good shelter, oysters and sea breezes secured universal health; and the kindly dis- posed citizens, most of whom were women, enlivened, by their presence, almost nightly gatherings to trip the light fan- tastic toe."
In December, the Thirty-Fourth, Forty-Ninth, Sixty- Ninth, Sixtieth and Sixty-Seventh Indiana, with four com- panies of the Forty-Sixth, and other portions of the Thir- teenth corps, landed on Matagorda peninsula or island.
General Dana, after scouring the country on the Rio Grande, and finding that the enemy still fell back before
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THE SOLDIER OF INDIANA.
him, left at Brownsville a garrison, part of which was the little remnant of the Twenty-Sixth, and with his main force he also sailed for Matagorda.
However, when all the troops were collected on the shores of Matagorda bay, nothing more important was attempted than the building of a line of strong forts across the island. In March, 1864, they began to be withdrawn. A most un- fortunate occurrence marked the opening of the withdrawal.
The Sixty-Ninth started at daybreak on the morning of the thirteenth, and arrived at Saluria Bayou, near the Espe- ranza, about two in the afternoon. The bayou, more than a hundred yards wide, was very rough under the influence of the rising tide and a strong wind. Seven companies had crossed safely on a flat, or floating bridge, made by fasten- ing planks on three pontoon boats, and drawn from one shore to the other by means of ropes, and K, G and B, with a few members of other companies, were in the middle of the stream when the water began to run over the boat. The men were in heavy marching order with knapsacks, haver- sacks, canteens, and forty rounds of cartridge, but they were not alarmed, as they supposed the water was but four or five feet deep.
A further description may be given in the words of Lieu- tenant Smith:
" I staid on the bridge until the water was up to my neck, and then a surge of the crowd threw me overboard. When I rose, I was caught and pulled under again. I was dragged down repeatedly. I had on my overcoat, sabre, heavy boots and very thick clothes, as the day was very cold. Finally, I freed myself from the drowning men, and caught hold of a floating knapsack. I could now look about me a little. It was a terrible sight. The water was covered with knapsacks, canteens, haversacks and caps. Men were screaming and crying for help.
" Several boats were set afloat, and planks were thrown in, but they were carried above us by the tide. One man came out in a boat and picked up a number of the drowning men. I drifted some four hundred yards from where the accident took place. My knapsack was saturated with water, and
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CROSSING SALURIA BAYOU.
sinking; I could barely touch it with the tips of my fingers, and keep my head above water. I was getting faint. All the blood in my body seemed rushing to my head. I was growing blind and sick; but I struggled to retain my con- sciousness, for I heard them calling to me from the shore to keep up a little longer. Captain Collins started toward me on a flatboat, but the tide carried him above me. He threw me a piece of board. I caught it and clung to it until a boat reached me. I fainted as soon as I was taken in, and do not remember anything more until I was on shore and some man was rubbing me. I was put into an ambulance with Major Bonebrake and Captain Linville, and taken to a hospital."
Twenty-two brave men, who had safely encountered the dangers of many a battle, found a melancholy death in Sa- luria Bayou.
Assistant Surgeon Witt and Lieutenant Tremor were among the drowned. Beside the Indianians, negroes, who had the treacherous vessel in charge, were lost in the water.
The last of the Thirteenth corps left the coast of Texas in April. Nearly all the citizens of Indianola had been supplied from the commissary department since the first occupation of the town, and now found it necessary to emigrate to New Orleans.
General Banks had a good hold on the coast of Texas, and was at New Orleans making arrangements for reinforcements sufficient to enable him to penetrate inland, when he received peremptory suggestions from Halleck again to try a Lou- isiana route. The Commander-in-Chief was induced to change the direction of the movement, or rather to return to the original plan by the hope of making the march itself of account, clearing out Kirby Smith and his forces, now oper- ating from Shreveport, at the head of navigation on the Red, and opening that region of vast cotton fields to trade, while moving undeviatingly toward the recovery of Texas. Ac- cordingly, carly in March, Emory's division of the Nineteenth corps, McGinnis' division, temporarily under Cameron, and Ransom's, of the Thirteenth corps, the last two very small, with Lee's division of cavalry, were concentrated at Brashear,
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THE SOLDIER OF INDIANA.
under the supervision of General Franklin, preparatory to a march through the now familiar Teche country to Alexan- dria. At the same time four divisions of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth corps, under General A. J. Smith, with twenty powerful armed steamers of all classes, in the command of Admiral Porter, were moved from Vicksburg to Simmesport, preparatory, also, to an advance on Alexandria. From Alex- andria, the point of junction, the united forces were to pro- ceed, by land and water, up the Red to Shreveport, which, General Steele, with sixteen thousand men from Little Rock, was to reach at the same time.
Important circumstances and conditions of the expedition were unpropitious. Indeed few undertakings of the war gave, at the outset, as plain indications of failure. Banks was ostensibly the leader, but he was endowed with only a sort of advisory leadership, and was subject to the depriva- tion, at any time, of A. J. Smith's force, which, as a loan, might be likened to a note payable on demand. Steele, hav- ing to move in a distant region, entirely beyond the possibil- ity of communication, was quite independent, even of an advisory authority. The large gunboats could be serviceable only in March and April.
Celerity of movement was not only desirable, but essen- tial, yet Franklin did not leave Brashear until ten days after the date prescribed. Banks left New Orleans, and joined his army as soon as it was on the march, but having to move slowly on account of skirmishing between the cavalry divis- ion, in advance, and hostile troops which contested the way, he did not reach Alexandria until a week after the arrival of the co-operating forces, his rear entering on the twenty-sixth of March.
Smith and Porter, the former especially, had also been forced to fight their way. Immediately after the arrival of gunboats and transports at Simmesport, a reconnoitring party went out several miles to Yellow Bayou, and discovering two large but incomplete carth-works, evidently but lately deserted, followed the trail of the enemy, and captured five wagons loaded with tents, for which it substituted sugar and molasses. On the night of March 13, Smith, with his troops
521
FORT DE RUSSEY CAPTURED.
in light marching order, set out for Fort De Russey, thirty- five miles distant, where, according to report, the enemy was prepared to dispute if not to arrest progress. The march was annoyed by skirmishers, and obstructed by the burning of a bridge, nevertheless it was accomplished before four in the afternoon of the following day.
De Russey was by no means an insignificant fort. It con- sisted of two distinct and formidable earth-works, which were connected by a covered way, was armed with eight siege and two field guns, and was manned by a garrison numbering two hundred and eighty-three.
Under the open mouths of the artillery, to which, as the movement progressed, musketry was added, General Smith drew his lines through heavy woods into an open space within a hundred yards of the fort. His batteries, the Third Indiana being the first to begin, opened and kept up a brisk cannonade. At the close of two hours' firing, he threw for- ward the first brigade of the Sixteenth corps to storm the west wall. The Fifty-Eighth Illinois on the right, Eighty- Ninth Indiana in the centre, and One Hundred and Nine- teenth Illinois on the left, rushed up with a cheer, had reached the ditch and were plunging down, when a white flag brought them to a stand. The loss in the assault was small. That of the Eighty-Ninth was ten-one killed.
The troops destroyed the works, and with the boats, which, after removing obstructions of piles and chains in the river, arrived just as the fort surrendered, went on to Alexandria, about a hundred and fifty miles above Fort De Russey. The enemy retired, burning cotton as he moved, and the town surrendered without resistance.
While waiting for the arrival of Banks' main army, Gen- eral Mower, with Lucas' brigade of cavalry, Brown's Indiana battery, and two or three thousand infantry, including our Eighty-Ninth, made a rapid march twenty miles west to Henderson's Hill, where he surprised and captured a Rebel camp, with two hundred and fifty men, four guns and two hundred horses. The part performed by the Sixteenth Indi- ana is narrated by Captain Cox:
"About nine o'clock Lieutenant Colonel Redfield arrived
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THE SOLDIER OF INDIANA.
and took command of the three companies of the Sixteenth Indiana, F, G and B. Being informed by a man who offered to act as guide that a party of Rebels was cating supper at a house within their lines, we started to capture them. Ar- riving at the place as silently as possible, we passed in single file around the field until we reached their rear; then, dis- mounting, went to the front and rear of the house. Colonel Redfield knocked at the cabin door, and inquired if any Con- federate officers or soldiers were there. A Rebel Sergeant leveled a pistol at him, but one of our boys fortunately sent. a bullet through the Sergeant's arm. The Rebels broke out of both doors, but being driven back, threw up their arms and surrendered. We found it was a party of fifteen, who had just returned from a scout, under the command of the famous Ned Smith. We afterwards ascertained that a com- pany was on picket a half mile down the road, but when we got in their rear they skedaddled. After wandering some time through the woods the Colonel, being unable to find the way to the bayou, concluded to go into camp and await day- light. The wounded scout said although his wound pained him, he would lose his arm before he would show us the way out of the woods. Pickets were posted and large fires were built, around which our little tired band tried to dry their drenched clothes.
"A courier was captured from Taylor's army, and soon af- terward Captain D'Elgi, of Taylor's staff, who had been sent to communicate with Colonel Vincent, was brought in. He said he would have the pleasure of seeing us all under guard before daylight. Our prisoners kept increasing until they numbered thirty-nine enlisted men, one Surgeon, one Captain and one Lieutenant. At last, long wished for day broke, and Colonel Redfield moved us back to the infantry whose position he had discovered. Captain D'Elgi told me in the morning that the advance of General Dick Taylor's ' army was only a half inile in our rear. We now learned the whereabouts of the remainder of our forces. General Mower, with seven companies of the Sixteenth, under Captain Doxcy, and the Thirty-Fifth Iowa, had captured two hundred and fifty-nine prisoners, including nineteen officers and four pieces
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HENDERSON'S HILL TAKEN.
of artillery; they had marched to the rear of the hill upon which was situated the Rebel camp. Companies A and I deployed, met a detail of twenty-five men and three offi- cers, and captured them without noise. The column again moved forward, capturing pieket post after picket post, until at last the inner guards, depending upon the out posts for security, merely asked the boys where they were from, as they passed. The head of the column would answer, 'Shreve- port,' and pass on. The Rebs. would say, 'Hurrah for Shreveport!' and only awaked to their condition when taken up by the rear guard. So four abreast the Sixteenth Indiana . rode into the midst of the Rebel camp on Henderson Hill. The only shots fired were as they attempted to take a few officers at a large white house. The Thirty-Fifth Iowa cap- tured two pieces of artillery, and Captain Doxey and Ser- geant Obert, of the Sixteenth, ran to the other section, around which the cannoniers were clustering, getting their pieces ready for action, and with their revolvers drove the Rebels away until they were joined by more men. Thus quietly was Henderson Hill surrounded and captured. It was a strong natural fortification."
The number of Indiana troops in the Red river expedition was small. The Sixteenth, refitted and remounted since the Teche campaign, under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Redfield; the Forty-Sixth, in Cameron's division; the Sixtieth and Sixty-Seventh, the latter numbering not more than one hundred and fifty, in Ransom's division, with Emerson tem- porarily in command of the brigade, and Klauss' battery, all in the Thirteenth corps; Companies G and H, of the Twen- ty-First, in the Nineteenth corps; the Eighty-Ninth, Colonel Murray, the Ninth battery, Captain Brown, and the Third battery, Captain Cockefair, were in the Sixteenth corps, Mower's division. The Eighty-Ninth included for the time one hundred and twenty-six men of the Fifty-Second. Company C, of the Fourth cavalry, was General Smith's escort. General MeMillan was in command of his brigade, in Emory's division. Golonel Lucas was acting Brigadier in Lee's cavalry division.
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THE SOLDIER OF INDIANA.
March 26, the united forces moved out from Alexandria. April 4, they arrived at Nachitoches and at Grand Ecore, the former an old French and Indian settlement on the de- deserted channel of Red river, the latter a dingy little town, on the main current. Several thousand troops had been or- dered back to Vicksburg, and several thousand had been left at posts along the Red to guard communications, as it was impossible to obtain subsistence in the poor pine region through which the march was now directed; in consequence, the number in the advancing column amounted to little, if any more than twenty thousand men. After a halt of two days, Lee, with his cavalry, moved on, pushing the Rebels slowly, and worsting them in a serious encounter, though with a loss to himself of sixty-two men. He moved more and more slowly. His men at length dismounted and crept from tree to tree. Behind the cavalry plodded Colonel Em-' erson's brigade. Back of Emerson, a train of wagons with difficulty was dragged along. The other troops and trains of the Thirteenth corps followed, and at the distance of sev- eral miles, the Nineteenth corps, with its wagons. A. J. Smithi's, was nearly twenty miles in the rear. There was but one road, and that so narrow, crooked and obstructed, that often it was necessary to halt while stumps were rooted up, logs were rolled out, and mud was bridged over. Shortly after noon of the eighth, Lee, from a clearing in the vicinity of Sabine Cross Roads, and not far from Mansfield, obscurely perceived the enemy in a dense undergrowth of pine, formed in strong line of battle. He halted and anxiously endeavored to wait for reinforcements. Banks, who soon reached the front, sent an order to Cameron to hasten forward, and dis- patched message after message to Franklin, to increase the speed of Emory's division. Meantime Lee was at the mercy of the enemy. Skirmishing grew hot and hotter. By four o'clock, it culminated in an exceedingly fierce battle. The cavalry scattered in confusion. The foremost infantry and artillery recoiled in disorder. General Ransom was dis- abled. Colonel Emerson was severely wounded. Many were killed. Many were captured. Eighteen guns, two of them from Klauss' battery, were lost.
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ROUT AT SABINE CROSS ROADS.
The jubilant enemy, pressing on, struck against Cameron's division, which, though just up and barely formed in battle line, showed a bold and resolute front. A desperate and prolonged effort at resistance ended in a sudden and fearful rout. The inextricable disorder and confusion of masses of wagons, riderless horses, frightened negroes, hundreds of whom were in the army as servants, put a decent retreat beyond the bounds of possibility. Three miles of terror- stricken flight brought the fugitives up a sloping field to a wood in the edge of which stood Emory's division,-Mc- Millan, Dwight and Benedict, right, centre and left,-braced to withstand the contagion of panic and the impetus of pur- suit. The wall opened before the flying troops and closed behind them, in the face of the headlong pursuers, who hast- ily drew up and made ready once more for the tug of battle. They were still three or four to one, and their line, as it as- sumed order, far overlapped the new opposing force, but they were flushed with their victory, and taking as a favora- ble omen the silence with which their approach was received, they pressed so close that they went down like grass beforc the mower's scythe, at the first volley. Again they flung themselves up toward the living rampart; and again that rampart swerved not a line. Repeatedly the charge was re- newed, and long the struggle continued, but night put an end to it, and under the cover of darkness the Rebels with- drew. Banks marched all night long, and with such silence and expedition that the enemy did not discover his retire- ment from the field until daylight, when his rear, Emory's division, after burying the dead and caring for the wounded, was well on its way; and his advance had accomplished fif- teen miles, and united with A. J. Smith at Pleasant Hill.
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