USA > Indiana > The soldier of Indiana in the war for the union, Vol. II > Part 5
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"OCTOBER 10th, 8 A. M. "Honorable E. M. Stanton, Secretary of War:
"In the execution of a long conceived plan, I have de- coyed the pestiferous Rebel Stuart across the Potomac for the purpose of capturing him. The meshes of my net have been admirably laid. We have him now, and there will be no more Bull Runs.
" Respectfully, G. B. MCCLELLAN."
"SECOND DISPATCHI.
"10:30 A. M., OCTOBER 10th, 1862.
"Stuart is taking up hundreds of my stragglers. They will cumber his march. We have him now.
"G. B. MCCLELLAN."
"THIRD DISPATCHI.
"12 M., OCTOBER 10th, 1862.
"Stuart is robbing the Dutch farmers of their horses and giving them orders for payment upon me. He cannot travel with led horses. We are drawing the meshes round him. "G. B. MCCLELLAN."
"FOURTH DISPATCH.
"Stuart has entered Chambersburg and captured the Dutch burgesses. They are too fat to ride. Have a special train to take him on to Washington.
"G. B. MCCLELLAN."
"FIFTH DISPATCH.
"6:15 A. M., OCTOBER 11th, 1862.
"Stuart is off from Chambersburg, so heavily laden with blankets, overcoats, shoes and boots that he can hardly travel. Have the train waiting at the Relay House.
"G. B. MCCLELLAN."
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THE SOLDIER OF INDIANA.
"SIXTH DISPATCH.
"Stuart is making for Frederick, just as I had planned. I am tightening the net. All right. He is bagged.
"G. B. MCCLELLAN."
"SEVENTH DISPATCH.
"8 A. M., OCTOBER 11th, 1862.
"According to my original plan, Stuart has disappeared. Route unknown. G. B. Mc."
"EIGHTH DISPATCH.
"4 P. M., OCTOBER 11th, 1862.
"Just as I wished, Stuart has gone to the east of Frede- rick. All the better; Pleasonton will pounce upon him at the fords, when his horses are well blown, and bag the entire gang of marauders. G. B. MCCLELLAN."
"NINTH DISPATCII.
"2 P. M., OCTOBER 12th, 1862.
" Stuart has been driven across the Potomac-Dutch bur- gesses, stolen blankets, overcoats, shoes, boots and all. Maryland and Pennsylvania are safe. I may safely claim a victory. General Pleasonton, my chief of cavalry, accom- plished this daring feat without losing a man. This was mainly owing to his great prudence in not engaging the enemy. According to my original plan, Stuart was allowed to cross back without molestation. And so this dangerous raid lias been suppressed without bloodshed.
"I am your obedient servant, " GEORGE B. MCCLELLAN."
The tone of triumph evident in these ironical dispatches was justifiable. Stuart crossed and recrossed Maryland, entered Pennsylvania, burned the government stores at Chambersburg, took all he wanted from the country people, and outran, avoided and evaded all his pursuers. In short, he met with a success which, to use his own language, " beggars description."
49
IN PURSUIT OF STUART.
Although Pleasonton's cavalry and Robinson's infantry gained nothing, they suffered not a little in the pursuit. Robinson's brigade started at daylight, after having been kept all night in readiness to move. At dark it bivouacked at Rockville. At four the next morning it was again on the march. It was forced to move so rapidly, and with so little rest, that during the day one hundred and fifty men fell ex- hausted by the roadside and two died from fatigue. New regiments suffered the most, but even our old Twentieth found the march almost intolerable. The brigade passed through Poolesville at dark, moved four miles farther in rain and mud, and reached Conrad's Ford at midnight-three hours after the raiders had crossed.
Pleasonton passed through Hagerstown the first day and bivouacked at Mechanicstown, where he arrived several hours after dark. He resumed the march after a short halt, and proceeding much of the way on the double-quick, passed through Frederick at daylight, and reached the mouth of the Monocacy early in the forenoon. Receiving the support of a small portion of Stoneman's command, the advance reached the Potomac close on Stuart's trail, and began firing on the only visible portion of the enemy. The fire was briskly returned and an engagement ensued, which, resulting in no loss to either side, enabled Stuart's main force to cross the river at another point. The Rebel rear-guard then decamped.
A miss is as good as a mile, and Pleasonton's cavalry, after this fruitless march of seventy-eight miles in twenty- four hours, returned fatigued and disconsolate to camp.
On the 17th the Third Indiana cavalry took part in a re- connoissance, under the command of General Hancock, to Charlestown. The Rebels opened fire on the Union force when it was a mile and a half from Charlestown. Han- cock's artillery replied, and after an engagement of two. hours, drove the Rebels to the hills beyond the town.
On the 26th of October, 1862, McClellan began the pas- sage of the Potomac, and with the obstruction of heavy rains and deep mud, accomplished it by the 2d of Novem- 4
50
THE SOLDIER OF INDIANA.
ber. General Lee immediately, although with no appear- ance of haste, retired from Winchester, where he had held his army concentrated, wagoning his supplies over eighty miles of bad roads.
General Slocum, to whom General Mansfield's corps had fallen, remained on the line of the Potomac. The Twenty- Seventh Indiana was stationed at Dam No. 4, with about five miles of guard duty. It occupied cabins, which had been built the preceding winter by the Twelfth. The right wing of the army took up its line of movement along the base of the Blue Ridge, Pleasonton's cavalry in advance, exchanging shots from morning until night with Stuart, who covered the Rebel rear, and Kimball's brigade forming the extreme right of the infantry. The left wing moved on the opposite side of the valley, along the Catoctin and the Bull Run Mountains. Nearly all the teams were used for the transportation of provisions, and the men had nothing with them but what they carried on their backs. Unable to sleep, on account of the cold, they sat around huge fires half the night.
At every pass in the Blue Ridge a skirmish occurred, but in the end all the passes were seized by Pleasonton, or by Pleasonton and infantry forces which came to his support, and they were held as long as their abandonment would have enabled the enemy to trouble McClellan's communica- tions with the Potomac.
November 1st, Pleasonton had a sharp skirmish at Phila- mont-Doubleday's old brigade, now Hoffman's, supported him. November 2d, he had another sharp skirmish at Union, supported by the same infantry force. The Seventh Indiana lost four killed and six wounded. On the same day the Fourteenth Indiana gained Rockford Pass, and held it twenty-four hours, in spite of several efforts of the enemy to retake it. On the 3d, Pleasonton had a severe fight at Up- persville, and on the 4th at Ashby's Gap. In the latter en- gagement, Hoffman's brigade again took part.
At Barber's cross-roads Stuart made a stubborn stand. He barricaded the road behind a hill with plows and harrows, and placed guns on both sides, so that if Pleasonton, gal-
51
MCCLELLAN RELIEVED FROM COMMAND.
loping down the pike, should bring up against the barricade, he would be demolished with a cross-fire from the artillery. However, the Union cavalry discovered the barricade, aban- doned the main road, and charged from right and left with such impetuosity that Stuart was glad to escape with the loss of twenty-two men. In all the cavalry engagements the Third Indiana bore an active and honorable part.
At two o'clock on the morning of November 6th, the Third was roused to move in advance and take possession of Wa- terloo, a little place on the Hagaman river, a branch of the Rappahannock, and a narrow but deep stream. It had marched until nine of the preceding evening, up and down the mountains, but it now moved briskly forward. Waterloo was deserted, but the bridge was burning, having been kin- dled by Stuart's rear guard, which was seen around a fire beyond the river. Firing commenced at daylight from the opposite side of the river, and continued until Pleasonton, in the afternoon, appeared in the Rebel rear.
Lieutenant Deming, with the Sixteenth Indiana battery, which had been at Washington since the battle of Antietam, and did not arrive at Harper's Ferry in time to join its corps, followed the army at a long distance. At Snicker's Gap he was attacked by three hundred Rebel cavalry. Having no gunners, Deming retreated, fighting to the best of his ability over twenty-eight miles, and losing seven men, four of them killed. He crossed the Potomac at Berlin with all his guns.
Sigel's corps broke up its encampment at Germantown the same time that the main body of the army crossed the river, and also took up the line of march. The pioneers of the corps gathered up the bones of the dead, in the woods and roads near Bull Run, and hid them from the passers by.
On the 7th of November, 1862, the Army of the Potomac was once more encamped on the line of the Rappahannock. That night a messenger from Washington delivered to the Commander-in-Chief orders to report immediately to the President. General McClellan devoted the next day-a cloudy, snowy day-to the transfer of the command, and to a final parting with his officers. The following day he vis- ited the various camps, reviewed the troops, and parted with
52
THE SOLDIER OF INDIANA.
the men. On the third he commenced his journey. It was a short journey, but it occupied no little time, as he stopped at every station to receive the salute of troops drawn up in line.
There may have been an effort at dramatic effect in this prolonged parting; but the inference is not necessary. It was a natural expression of reluctance to separate with the tried comrades of camp and field, and to relinquish a, posi- tion of honor and authority second to but one. McClellan had always been careful of the lives and thoughtful for the comfort of his men. He loved the splendid Army of the Potomac. He appreciated the sweets of power. No doubt he had chill forebodings of insignificance and obscurity. He keenly felt the triumph of his opponents. And their satis- faction was undisguised. "Great and glorious day! McClel- lan gone overboard!" wrote honest, growling Gurowski, one for all. It was a human weakness to fumble on the cup and put off the hateful draught the few hours of possible delay.
53
THE NEW COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF.
CHAPTER IV.
BURNSIDE AND FREDERICKSBURG.
The flowers of the forest, that fought aye the foremost, The prime of our land, are cauld in the clay.
-- Scotch ballad.
The Thirteenth of December,-a memorable day to the historian of the Decline and Fall of the American Republic !- London Times.
The same hour that McClellan was withdrawn, General Ambrose Everett Burnside was advanced to the head of the Army of the Potomac. Burnside was of Scotch origin, of Indiana birth, and of West Point education. He was one of the first to volunteer in 1861, and his regiment was among the first to reach Washington. In the tumult and disorder of the first battle of Bull Run, he was self-possessed. In the reorganization of the army in the following autumn, he was efficient. In the Burnside expedition to the South, he captured Roanoke Island, Newbern, Beaufort and Fort Macon by hard and well directed fighting. When ordered from North Carolina to the James to reinforce MeClellan, and from the James to the Rappahannock to reinforce Pope, he moved without the delay of an hour. He fought the battle of South Mountain. He gave and received hard and bloody blows at Antietam.
He was as firm, and frank, and modest, as he was prompt and brave. He had also that zeal which magnetizes other generous minds, and brings them into accordance, if not to subjection. His soldiers, honoring him much, but loving him more, regarded him with a pleasant familiarity. As soldiers always do to favorite commanders, they gave him a nick- name, talking of him in camp as "Old Burny." He came out of his tent and mounted his horse one day, in a new blouse-the old one, with which every man in his corps was acquainted, having been discarded. "Hurrah for Old Burny's
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THE SOLDIER OF INDIANA.
new blouse!" shouted a soldier. The cry was echoed and re-echoed by thousands of voices as regiment after regiment, drawn up in line, caught its meaning. The General looked around bewildered, but in a moment raised his hat with a smile.
By the rank and file Burnside was received with open arms. Probably no other man, except Hooker, whose con- duct at Antietam had given him great popularity, would have met an equally warm welcome. But many of the officers, especially in the highest positions, were so devoted to MeClellan, and so unjust and insubordinate, as to feel and express dislike to his successor. Burnside himself demurred. He even entreated the President to reconsider the appoint- ment. But his modest protestations were unheeded, as Lincoln could not afford to put in the position any but a successful man, and a man whom circumstanecs had pre- viously made prominent.
Lec's forces, at the time of the removal of MeClellan, were concentrated before Gordonsville, with the exception of Jackson's division, which still kept a hold on the Shenall- doah Valley. It was the expectation of General Halleck that within a few days a severe, if not decisive, battle would be fought on the Gordonsville route to Richmond. Such an expectation may have been in the mind of MeClellan; but Burnside had scarcely accepted the authority imposed on him, when he determined to relinquish all attempts to reach the Confederate Capital on the present route. He was con- vinced that even if successful in gaining Gordonsville, he would be forced to fall back from that point for supplies, while a movement on Fredericksburg, with more promise, as it might be made almost without attracting the notice of Lee, would secure an easy line of communication. He cal- culated, also, that Lee, hastening to confront him on the new route, would be forced to fight without the aid of Jackson's division, or delaying to be reinforced, would either be beaten in the race to Richmond, or so closely followed as to be unable to build fortifications after his arrival. Burnside's opinions were indorsed by General Sumner, who, uniting, as he did, the ardor of youth to the wisdom of age, seems to
55
A BOLD RECONNOISSANCE.
have stood higher in the confidence of his superior than any other officer.
The proposition for the change was sent to Washington, accompanied by the request that if it was approved that barges, filled with provisions and forage, be floated to Aquia creek; that materials be collected for the construction of wharves there; that all the wagons in Washington filled with hard bread and small commissary stores, a pontoon train long enough to span the Rappahannock twice, and a large number of cattle, be started down to Fredericksburg.
The project was not regarded with favor by the President and his advisers; but after a personal interview of some of the latter with Burnside, cordial co-operation was promised.
Under the direction of General Sigel a bold reconnois- sance was made to Fredericksburg to ascertain the strength of the enemy at that point. A hundred Ohio horsemen and sixty Indianians from Sigel's bodyguard, with the young hero, Ulric Dahlgren, at their head, formed the reconnoit- ring party. The sixty started from Gainesville on the morn- ing of Saturday, November 8th. Lookers-on, who conjec- tured the enterprise, shook their heads and predicted that the gallant band never would return; but the troopers, proud to do the dangerous duty, rode off gaily.
The additional one hundred fell in at Catlett's Station. As the expedition required secrecy, the march was through by-ways, where mud clogged the horses' steps, and as it equally required haste, it was continued all day and all the following night, with the allowance of an hour's rest. Nev- ertheless it was dawn of the 9th when the untiring troopers reached the Rappahannock. The water was high, and they hid in the woods while scouts searched for means to effect a crossing. A ferryman was found, but his boat could carry only small detachments. At length a ford was discovered. It was narrow and rocky, with holes in it from six to eight feet deep, but man by man the Indianians picked their way across.
Rebel troops were gathering in the streets of Fredericks- burg, and Dahlgren did not wait for the Ohio cavalry. Leaving orders that it should guard the crossing, he moved
56
THE SOLDIER OF INDIANA.
in a slow trot toward the town. The enemy approached him in detachments, and he quickened his pace. Lieutenant Carr, with a small number in advance, drove back one de- tachment and another until the edge of the town was reached. Then the whole band, led by Captain Sharra, dashed forward against a barricade of Rebel cavalry and engaged in a close fight with clubbed carbines and drawn sabres. Lieutenant Carr ran his sabre through an officer. Orderly Fitler, in a hand to hand struggle, struck down his opponent, and captured horse, carbine and sabre. The Rebels fled before a Union man fell; but after the streets were cleared Robert Gapen, of Terre Haute, who had followed the company as a volunteer, was shot from a window. He had cut a Rebel flag from its staff, and when he fell was. winding it around his body.
After learning the strength of the Rebel force-eight com- panies of Virginia troops-Dahlgren recrossed the river. Gapen was buried on the northern bank. Four others were missing, probably captured. With twelve men, Dahlgren made a further reconnoissance to Aquia creck. He then returned to Sigel, with twenty-nine prisoners and two wagon loads of gray cloth.
On the 9th a reconnoissanec was made, by the Eighth Illinois and the Third Indiana cavalry, to Little Washing- ton. Some skirmishing with a brigade of Rebel cavalry took place.
On the 11th two companies-A and B-of the Third Indiana, under command of Captain Patton, were sent on out-post duty to Jefferson, where they remained until the 15th, skirmishing more or less each day.
No body of men in the army did more faithful and efficient service during the campaign than the battalion of the Third Indiana. No regiment, except perhaps the Eighth Illinois, was as well mounted, and, consequently, able to stand the wear and tear of the campaign with as little wastage by reason of dismounted men.
November 15th, Burnside began his movement on Frede- ricksburg, sending, at the same time, a force toward Gor- donsville to distract the attention of Lee. The Second and
57
ADVANCE ON FREDERICKSBURG.
Ninth corps, forming, under Sumner, what was called the Right Grand Division, marched fifty miles in two and a half days, though encumbered with a heavy baggage train, and reached Falmouth on the 17th. A battery of artillery on the other side of the river opened on the advance. Sumner promptly answered the salutation, and within fifteen minutes forced the Rebel artillery to run. His orders were to remain in Falmouth, but the temptation to take the guns the enemy had left on the field was so strong, and there was so little to oppose him-the river being fordable in several places, and the whole Rebel force in Fredericksburg less than a thou- sand men-that he actually gave directions for crossing on the following day. At night, however, he held a council of his general officers to consider the propriety of the step. After hearing the opinion of several, he turned to Kimball and said: "Well, Kimball, what's your opinion?" "When I get your orders, General," was the reply, "I'll give my opinion by obeying them!" "That's what we all ought to do, gentlemen," said Sumner, and broke up the council. He revoked the order the same night; and sent a request to Burnside, who was eight miles distant, to be allowed to make the movement. The Commander-in-Chief replied that it was not advisable to occupy Fredericksburg until his com- munications were established. The older General recalled his experience on the Peninsula of the consequence of get- ting astride a river, and not only acquiesced but approved .*
Fredericksburg proved to be a Flodden field, and in the light of the result, Burnside's delay stands beside the for- bearance of the unfortunate James, who waited for his ene- mies to marshal themselves fairly on good ground, set fire to his tents, and descended a hill which gave him all the ad- vantages of a fortress, in order that the terms of combat might be equal.
The First and Sixth corps forming, under Franklin, the Left Grand Division; and the Third and Fifth the Centre, under Hooker, encamped near Falmouth on the 18th and
#General Lee asserts in his official report that "Sumner attempted to cross the Rappahannock on the afternoon of the 17th, but was driven back."
ยท
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THE SOLDIER OF INDIANA.
19th. Here the Army of the Potomac waited twenty-two days for the pontoons, and for the establishment of commu- nications, impatiently looking on while Lee concentrated his forces on the Heights of Fredericksburg, dug long lines of intrenchments, and threw up carthworks for the protection of batteries.
Every hour of waiting was paid for in blood.
Fredericksburg is situated in a little valley formed by Stafford Heights and Marye's Hills. The plain is six miles long and from one to three in breadth. It is full of inequal- ities and gradually rises from the Rappahannock, which lies at the foot of Stafford Heights to the southern line of hills.
As soon as his pontoons were at hand, Burnside attempted to make the passage at Skinker's Neck, twelve miles below Falmouth, in order, by turning the right flank of the enemy, to avoid the formidable array on the heights in the rear of the town. On finding himself expected at that point, he hastened to effect a direct crossing while Lee's attention was divided. On the 10th of December he concentrated his army in the rear of Stafford Heights.
Since the failure of the pontoons to arrive at the proper time, an understanding had prevailed throughout the army that further attempts at progress were postponed until spring weather and spring roads should give better promise of suc- cess. Nevertheless, the troops surmised the meaning of the present movement. Oft repeated experience had worn out the wild enthusiasm of earlier days, and it was with manly solemnity that they made preparations for the battle. Quiet settled early over the crowded encampments on the night of the 10th. They sank in restful sleep who felt that their next night might be dreamless. The rumbling of artillery alone broke the stillness, until, before the first streaks of day, the bugle roused the army.
Four bridges opposite the city and two bridges two miles below were immediately commenced. A long line of gun- ners, on the heights, where one hundred and forty-three guns were in position, stood ready to open fire.
Under cover of a heavy fog engineers floated the boats out in the river. Swiftly and silently they made fast boat
59
CROSSING THE RAPPAHANNOCK.
after boat, and laid plank after plank. More than half the bridge was laid, when a double report of a signal gun rang from the Confederate hills; and Rebel sharpshooters, flying to their places, poured a deadly fire from the stone walls of the river street of Fredericksburg on the workmen of the four upper bridges. The workmen fled. After a half hour's quiet they returned, but only to fly to the hills a second time before a storm which riddled planks and boats. Again they set to work. A third time they were driven off. It was not possible to continue the task, while those sharp-eyed marks- men held Fredericksburg, and the guns on Stafford Heights endeavored to clear the city. Each gun fired fifty rounds. Hundreds of tons of iron were hurled across the river. Con- tinued roars, louder than the loudest thunder, shook the hills. Flames shot up through fog and mist.
Colonel Chapman's horsemen, who, with other cavalry, were moving from a distant picket line toward Falmouth, put spurs to their horses, hoping to reach the ground in time to be called into the conflict of a battle apparently too terri- ble to last many hours.
The firing ceased, and the smoke slowly cleared away. The further side of the city was battered, and isolated houses were in flames, but the street which sheltered the sharp- shooters was too close under Stafford Heights to be reached by the artillerists, and it was almost untouched. In conse- quence the workmen were in no way relieved.
At length volunteers-a forlorn hope-seizing pontoon boats, rowed themselves, in the face of the fire, and, with smaller numbers at every stroke of the oar, to the further bank, and chased the Rebels from cellars, walls and rifle-pits. Deafening cheers rose from the army, which, until this mo- ment, had stood in absorbed and silent attention.
Franklin, who directed the construction of the bridges two miles below Fredericksburg, met with little opposition, as the sharpshooters at that point had no other protection than rifle-trenches. Howard's division of Couch's corps crossed on the upper bridges, and bivouacked the night of the 11th in Fredericksburg. The next day the remainder of the right wing of the army and all of the left wing moved over the
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