USA > Kentucky > The history of Kentucky, from its earliest discovery and settlement, to the present date, V. 2 > Part 23
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49
611
BRECKINRIDGE EXPELLED FROM THE SENATE.
presiding, there were found indictments for treason, on the 6th of Novem- ber, against thirty-two notable citizens who had joined the Confederate arms, among whom were John C. Breckinridge, James S. Chrisman, Ben Desha, John M. Elliott, Humphrey Marshall, Ben J. Monroe, Phil B. Thompson, and John M. Rice. In ten days after, General Breckinridge assumed command of the First Kentucky brigade, Confederate States army. On December 2d, the United States Senate formally
" Resolved, That the traitor, John C. Breckinridge, be expelled."
1 On the 18th of November, the States' Rights party met, by delegates, . at Russellville, Kentucky, and organized a provisional government, under which the State went through the forms of admission into the Confeder- acy, on December 10th, and was accorded the right of representation. There were chosen, for governor, George W. Johnson; for secretary of state, R. McKee, and assistant, O. F. Payne ; for treasurer, John Burnam ; auditor, J. Pillsbury. The following were sent as delegates to the Con- gress, at Richmond, at an election on the 22d of January : W. B. Machen, J. W. Crockett, H. E. Reed, G. W. Ewing, J. S. Chrisman, T. L. Burnett, H. W. Bruce, George B. Hodge, E. N. Bruce, J. W. Moore, R. J. Breck- inridge, Jr., and John M. Elliott. In the Kentucky Provisional Council, Henry C. Burnett and William E. Simms were elected senators to the same Congress.
In the early autumn, it was obvious that the organization of the State troops for service in the Federal army had become pressingly important. There was some difficulty in the way of this, from the fact that Governor Magoffin and his cabinet were known to be in sympathy with the Southern cause. It is a remarkable fact that the governor should have been able to maintain himself in office through eighteen months of this strife of elements, by strictly adhering to the letter and forms of the constitution and laws. He would veto every obnoxious bill passed in behalf of the Union cause, or injurious to the other side ; but if the same was passed over his veto, he would faithfully execute it to the letter. This long forbearance and reli- ance on constitutional rights, under the severest chafing and provocations on both sides, evinced a spirit of profound regard for the law. However, Adjutant-General Brown having resigned about this time, a serious obstruc- tion was removed. John W. Finnell, in full Union sympathy, was appointed in his stead, and by his superior organizing ability and unwearying energy, gave great impetus and success to the arming, equipping, and alignment of the Kentucky volunteers. It was not long before twenty regiments of these were fully prepared and added to the Federal army. During the month of December, a total of sixty-two regiments were paid off within the State, besides the troops stationed convenient to the border.
In December, a sharp and sanguinary battle was fought at Munfordville, between a body of Texas cavalry and a regiment or two of Federal infantry,
I Thompson's First Kentucky Brigade, p. 46.
1
612
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY.
resulting in the defeat of the former, with over eighty killed and wounded. The loss of the latter was thirty. About the same time, General Forrest defeated a small force of Federals in McLean county, with some loss, but no decisive consequence, like numberless similar combats which were but the lesser incidents of the war, and many of which are not of record.
1 On the roth of January, 1862, General James A. Garfield, having crossed the Ohio river with a division of several regiments, and marched up the valley of Big Sandy, engaged the forces of General Humphrey Mar- shall, near Prestonburg, in Floyd county. The object was, most probably, a diversion or reconnoissance, as the firing was a mere skirmish at long range, with trifling loss on either side.
The most serious battle on Kentucky soil, to that date, was at Mill Spring, in Pulaski county. General George B. Crittenden, commanding the extreme right of the Confederate line, left his entrenched camp at Beech Grove, on the north bank of Cumberland river, on the 19th of January, with his forces of five thousand infantry and one battery of six pieces, just after midnight. He advanced ten miles to meet the advancing Federal army under General George H. Thomas, composed of not so large a number of men, of whom were Colonel Fry's Fourth Kentucky infantry and Colonel Wolford's cavalry, two out of the five regiments. At six o'clock the firing began, and in half an hour the battle raged furiously. Information received by Crittenden of an aggressive move in force on his position, led him to take the initiative, in the hope of beating his enemy in detail. General Zollicoffer, second in command, led the attack ; and for nearly four hours the fighting continued with doubtful result. 2 About this time, General Zollicoffer was killed by a pistol-shot at the hands of Colonel Fry, throwing the Confederate ranks into some disorder. The Federals were just then re- enforced by Colonel William Hoskins, at the head of the Twelfth Kentucky, and some other supports, who succeeded in making a flank movement, and pouring in a destructive fire. Other re-enforcements under Colonel John M. Harlan coming up and swelling the army of General Thomas to seven thousand men, the Confederates were driven back upon their camp, and closely invested for a renewal of the assault the next morning. Under cover of a heavy cannonading during the night, General Crittenden crossed his troops over the river, and safely retreated into Tennessee, abandoning ten pieces of artillery, seven hundred old muskets, one hundred and sixty wagons, twelve hundred horses and a quantity of ammunition and stores- quite a serious loss to the Southern army. The killed and wounded on each side were between three and four hundred. .
3 The forces had obviously been organizing and marshaling during the two months previous for the contest which must soon be waged for the
I Account of Colonel Henry Giltner, an officer present.
2 Collins' Annals of Kentucky.
3 General William Farrar (" Baldy ") Smith, in Magazine of American History, October, 1585 also official dispatches of Generals Buell, Halleck, McClellan, and secretary of war.
613
GENERAL HALLECK'S TIMIDITY.
supremacy and occupancy of Kentucky by the one combatant or the other. Under General Buell, in early December, 1861, there were seventy regi- ments of infantry, three of cavalry, and seven batteries of artillery in Ken- tucky, making a total effective army of sixty thousand soldiers. General Grant had at Cairo, at the same time, 16,571, and General C. F. Smith, 6,781 at Paducah. General Halleck's monthly report showed that he had in the closing month of the year ninety-one thousand soldiers under his com- mand in the Missouri department, which included those at Cairo and Padu- cah held for ready transport by water against Columbus or the forts on the Tennessee and Cumberland rivers. General Sherman, after succeeding to the command of the Kentucky, or Ohio river, department, on October 14th, remained until November 13th, when he was transferred to the Missouri department. General Buell was then appointed to the command thus vacated. The commander-in-chief of the United States army, General George B. McClellan, in dispatches sent in November, had defined the juris- dictions to Buell : "That portion of Kentucky west of the Cumberland river is, by position, so closely related to Illinois and Missouri that it has seemed best to attach it to Missouri." General Sherman, after a full sur- , vey of the field covered by the two commands, and menaced by the com- mand of the Confederate general, Johnston, gloomily reported to the war department at Washington that it would require not less than two hundred thousand well-armed and equipped troops to resist or overcome the military forces of the Confederates and the aid and comfort to the same which the sympathizing population were ready to give. General Halleck reflected the same discouraging view in his dispatches, and indulged them in his military measures to an extent that seemed to confuse his mind and to paralyze for the time the important arm of the service placed at his disposal. He seemed to exaggerate the proportions of the obstacles to be overcome, and to mani- fest a timidity and hesitation unequal to the demands of a first great emer- gency. 1 As our authorities say, confirmed by official reports and dispatches, that confronting Halleck's large army "the whole organized Confederate force against which he was operating in Missouri did not amount to over twenty thousand shoeless and half-armed men. The improvised naval arma- ments and transporting fleets on the connecting waters of the Mississippi, Ohio, Cumberland, and Tennessee rivers gave an advantage for a concen- trated attack on Columbus, Fort Donelson, or Fort Henry, while these points must be severally protected at all times by the divided Confederates in defense."
2 At this time, Major Munford reported to the Confederate Congress that the effective force at Bowling Green was 12. 500 and at Columbus and in- tervening points 20,899, which, with General Crittenden's command at Cumberland Ford and smaller detachments, approximated a total of 40, 000.
I General Baldy Smith, Magazine of American History for October, 1885. Official Reports.
2 General Baldy Smith, Magazine of American History, October, 1886. Official Reports.
614
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY.
"An abstract of return from Johnston's entire command, December 12th, including Arkansas and East Tennessee, and also 12,000 raw and badly- armed volunteers in camp in Alabama, Arkansas, Mississippi, and Tennes- see, gives 77,908 of all arms." This, of course, embraced the twenty thou- sand badly-organized and armed volunteers confronting Halleck's army in Missouri. General Buell, in concert with General McClellan, was mar- shaling and disposing his forces for an advance against the Confederates in Kentucky, for which purpose the co-operation and concert of General Hal- . leck was indispensable. But the latter seemed not yet to have compre- hended or mastered the situation. He dispatched to McClellan : "This, general, is no army, but rather a military mob. You indicate an intention to withdraw a portion of troops from Missouri. I assure you this can not be done with safety. It seems to me madness. The 'On to Richmond' policy here will produce another Bull Run disaster." It was found neces- sary to restrict Halleck to the limits of Missouri, and to place the troops at Cairo and Paducah at the disposal of Buell. The latter wrote to the adju- tant-general, on the 23d, that he had seventy thousand men in his command, fifty-seven thousand for campaign duty. A week after, he dispatched to McClellan : " I intend a column of twelve thousand men, with three batter- ies, for East Tennessee. It is my conviction that all the force that can possibly be collected should be brought to bear on that point, of which Columbus and Bowling Green may be said to be the flanks. The center, that is, the Cumberland and Tennessee where the railroad crosses them, is now the most vulnerable point."
Every effort of human agency and power had been put forth by the Con- federate commander to recruit the strength of his long military line from Cumberland Gap, by Bowling Green and Columbus, far into Arkansas and Missouri, a distance of about four hundred miles. Requisitions were made for thirty thousand volunteers for a brief time, from the Southwest States. Many came forward, but the destitution of arms and munitions was such that barely one-half were serviceable. Thousands were armed only with old flint-lock muskets, hunting-rifles, or shot-guns, and many not at all. General Johnston apprehended a main attack in force on Bowling Green, but realized the weakness of the forts on the Cumberland and Tennessee, and the great danger of Nashville from the breaking of his line there. Re-enforced by Hardee, with four thousand men from Arkansas, by five thousand from Columbus, and some smaller bodies, his forces at Bowling Green were swelled early in January to nearly twenty-three thousand. On the 5th, the brigades of Floyd and Maney arrived from West Virginia, and were united with the divisions of Generals Buckner and Pillow, and sent forward for the defense of Fort Donelson. By a messenger to Richmond, he urged the forwarding of more men, saying, " I do not ask that my force shall be made equal to that of the enemy, but, if possible, it should be raised to fifty thousand men."
615
ENGAGEMENTS AT FORT DONELSON.
The defeat of General Crittenden on the extreme right, on January 19th, was a severe blow to the Confederate arms, and threatened a flank in that direction. On the 6th of February, the Federal plan was fully uncov- ered by the assault upon, and capture of, Fort Henry, on the Tennessee river, after a terrific bombardment by seven gunboats, with some fifteen thousand troops under General Grant, borne up on transports. General Tilghman, in command, sent off thirty-five hundred troops in retreat, before surrendering the fort and the garrison of seventy men. The loss in the fort was but fifteen men, killed and wounded ; but the barrier to an entrance into Tennessee was broken, and the rear of the Confederate army seriously imperiled. It was a second catastrophe.
1 The final third was soon to follow. In less than one week, General Grant, in command of forty-one regiments of infantry, four of cavalry, and ten batteries of artillery, supported by six gunboats, four of which were iron-clad, passed up the Cumberland river to Fort Donelson, near the Ken- tucky and Tennessee line. Fifteen thousand Confederate troops, under Generals Floyd, Pillow, and Buckner, in the order of their rank, re-enforced the garrison. The Second Kentucky infantry, Roger W. Hanson, colonel; the Eighth, under Colonel H. B. Lyon, and Graves' battery, were of Buck- ner's command. Through the 13th to the 16th day, the fighting was obstinate and sanguinary. On the night of the 13th, a midwinter storm of rain and sleet deluged the trenches, and exposed the half-sheltered troops to its pitiless fury, and to the intensest cold. The soldiers of both armies suffered terribly - for three days and nights from this interlude of warring weather; of the one army less, because better clothed and protected. On the 13th, General Grant led his forces, thirty thousand strong, to a general assault, sustained by his heavy artillery, while the gun- boats poured in a continuous fire from cannon and mortar upon the fortress. After desperate and sanguinary fight- ing for hours, the Federal army was repulsed and driven back. On the 14th, the gunboats were compelled to withdraw from the range of the fort, GENERAL SIMON B. BUCKNER. with two disabled and all more or less crippled. On the 15th, in a sortie made for the escape of the garrison, the battle was renewed with greater fury than ever, and the carnage very heavy. Under cover of Friday night, Generals Floyd and Pillow escaped with but a few of their commands, leaving General Buckner with the command of the army. On the 16th,
I Collins' Annals of Kentucky ; Thompson's First Kentucky Brigade; Official Reports.
.
616
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY.
the latter, after vainly seeking an armistice, surrendered to General Grant not far from twelve thousand prisoners, among whom were the Kentucky troops. They were sent to Camp Morton, Indiana, and held six months before exchange.
The Kentucky troops engaged on the Federal side were the Seventeenth regiment, under Colonel John H. McHenry, and the Twenty-fifth, under Colonel James M. Shackelford. On both sides, the Kentucky troops bore themselves with noted gallantry. The Federal loss was over twenty-four hundred, mostly killed and wounded; that of the Confederates, fourteen hundred and seventy, besides the prisoners surrendered.
Nashville now lay open to easy approach of the Federal army, by land and river. A solid line of one hundred and fourteen thousand troops and one hundred and twenty-six pieces of artillery was moved southward by General Buell. On the 25th, they entered Nashville. On the 14th, Bowl- ing Green had been evacuated ; and on the 27th, the stronghold of Columbus was abandoned to the advancing and victorious armaments. The army of General Albert Sydney Johnston retreated through the midwinter storm of rain and ice, before described, in advance of the Federals, to Nashville, and from thence to Murfreesboro, where he was joined by the forces of General George B. Crittenden. The army was reorganized on the 23d of February, comprising three divisions, under Generals Hardee, Critten- den and Pillow. The brigade of General John C. Breckinridge included the Third, Fourth, Sixth, and Ninth Kentucky infantry, Ben Hardin Helm's First Kentucky cavalry, John H. Morgan's squadron, and the light batteries of Byrne and Cobb. Southward the march was continued to Decatur, where the Tennessee river was crossed. The troops fell back to Burnsville, Mis- sissippi, where the tents were pitched for camping. The army was much strengthened by the addition of the forces of General Beauregard, who became second in command.
Adjutant-General Finnell, on the 18th, reported the organization and officers of twenty-eight regiments of 24,026 infantry, six regiments of 4,979 cavalry, and two batteries of 198 men-29,203 effective volunteers in all, equipped for the Union service, in Kentucky.
1 " On the 6th of March, President Lincoln sent in to Congress a special message, recommending, with cogent argument, the enactment of the fol- lowing :
" Resolved, That the United States ought to co-operate with any State which may adopt a gradual abolishment of slavery, giving to such State pecuniary aid, to be used in its discretion, to compensate for losses or incon- veniences from such change of system."
The resolution passed both houses by a vote of three to one. Both Ken- tucky senators, Lazarus W. Powell and Garrett Davis, the latter Union, voted against it, as did the border State members, mainly. It was not dif-
I Collins' Annals of Kentucky.
-
617
BATTLE OF PITTSBURGH LANDING.
ficult to determine at this time that one result of the war must be the certain extermination of the peculiar institution, and the loss of the prop- erty value in slaves. Yet not a responsible statesman South dared to open his eyes and behold the fact in its stupendous reality, prophesy it to his people, and bid them accept and prepare for the inevitable. Its accept- ance then by Kentucky would have been worth one hundred millions of dollars to the slave owning citizens. The Southern rights men would have scorned the barter of such a compromise; those fighting on the Union side pledged that slavery should be intact, because the powers at Washington had pledged them the same, and they believed and trusted in that which was impossible. It is a phenomenal part of the war experience that, in no instance of several overtures made or suggested, did any repre- sentative body of the Southern people, Union or Secession, seriously consider the idea of compromise on the basis of a surrender of slavery, with compensation for the loss of property in the slave. There was an uncompromising and exalted pride in this that asserted itself over all con- siderations of wreck and ruin and poverty, the calamities of which were preferred to the humiliation of the other alternative.
Sunday morning, April 6, 1862, was serene and beautiful beneath a cloudless sky, near the border line of Mississippi and Tennessee. General Grant's army, forty thousand strong, was drawn up in order of battle near Pittsburgh Landing, with his fleet of gunboats and transports lying off in Tennessee river. General Buell was twenty-five miles in his rear, with thirty thousand men, pushing forward to form a junction. The Confederate commander divined the importance of crushing the two armies in detail. He strove hard to attack on the 5th ; but in wielding large and complex bodies of men, somebody is always laggard, or something important left undone. He was delayed until the 6th. On that morning, before the camps had all breakfasted, the roar of cannon from the front of Hardee's corps, of fifteen thousand men, signaled the attack upon the Northern army. Though the question has been disputed, the best authorities assure us that it was a surprise attack. The Federals, driven precipitately back for a little while, reformed under cover of the forest and undergrowth, and recovered in part the lost advantage. Bragg's corps intermingled with Hardee's, and Polk sent one brigade each to the right and left of Bragg, leading his remaining two brigades against the center.
1 The " reserve corps," of seven thousand, in three brigades, under com- mand of General Breckinridge, was brought up close in the rear of Polk's position, and held for supporting orders.
The brigade, composed mainly of Kentucky troops, was under command of Colonel Robert P. Trabue, and was made up of Colonel Ben Anderson's Third Kentucky, Colonel Hyne's Fourth Kentucky, Colonel Joseph H. Lewis' Sixth Kentucky, Colonel Thomas H. Hunt's Ninth Kentucky, the
I Thompson's First Kentucky Brigade, p. 90; Colonel Trabue's official report.
618
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY.
Fourth Alabama battalion, the Thirty-first Alabama regiment, Crew's Ten- nessee battalion, Byrne's and Cobb's two batteries, and Captain John H. Morgan's squadron of horse, in all about twenty-six hundred men. The two brigades of Bowen and Statham, of troops from other States, made up the remainder of the reserve corps. By order of General Breckinridge, Colonel Trabue formed his brigade in line of battle, in Polk's rear, and advanced, filing on the left, upon the Federal front. From this time until the army of General Grant was driven in disorderly defeat behind the banks of , the river, and under cover of the gunboats, this brigade was almost continu- ously in the hottest and most destructive fire between the two armies. On the first advance of Colonel Trabue. General Breckinridge received orders to march, with Bowen's and Statham's brigades, to a position far to the right of the one held, and thus separated from Colonel Trabue for another part of the field. This command was held in reserve until two o'clock. Both wings of the Federal army had been broken and routed, but the center yet held its ground. 1General Breckinridge now received orders to break the Federal line at the center. Moving by the left flank until opposite the point of attack, Bowen's brigade on the left, and Statham's on the right, the line
GENERAL ALBERT SYDNEY JOHN- STON was born at Washington, Mason county, Kentucky, February 2, 1802 ; was educated at Transylvania, and graduated at West Point. Served with distinction in the regular army, in the Black Hawk war; resigned in IS35, to enter the cause of Texan in- dependence ; in 1837, became com- mander-in-chief of her forces; and secretary of war for the Texas repub- lic, in 1839. In 1846, entered into the Mexican war, as colonel of First Texas infantry, and distinguished himself at Monterey; served on the Texas frontier some years; led the expedition against Utah, and ap- pointed to command in California. In 1861, he resigned, and entered the service of the Confederacy, and was put in the responsible command as- signed him, on account of the high GENERAL ALBERT SYDNEY JOHNSTON estimate of his military talents, by President Davis. General Johnston was undoubtedly possessed of rare military capac- ity, as shown in the marvelous skill and energy with which he brought order out of chaos, retrieved disaster, and crowned a difficult campaign with brilliant victory, just as he sealed his record with his life's blood on the fated field of Shiloh. Few men died more lamented and more inopportune, in the midst of the great sectional strife.
I General George B. Hodge's Official Report, as Staff Officer.
619
DEATH OF ALBERT SYDNEY JOHNSTON.
was formed and the attack made. The lines of the opposing forces were a sheet of flame, and men were falling by the hundreds. General Breckin- ridge determined to make a charge. Just as all was ready, the commander- in-chief, General Johnston, rode up, and learning the movement, determined to join in it. Conspicuous with his commanding person in full uniform, he awaited the signal. Together, generals, officers, and privates dashed for- ward at double-quick, upon the Federal front, facing a deadly fire of cannon and musketry. But the impetuous charge won the last position held, and the strong center shared the fate of the two wings. This victory was at a probably fatal cost. General Albert Sydney Johnston here received a wound that laid him upon the field among the slain.
About the mid afternoon, Colonel Trabue's brigade rejoined the other two brigades under Breckinridge, having fought their way through on the left wing ; and the reserve corps stood for over one hour in the midst of victorious comrades, behind the bluffs of Pittsburgh Landing, and under the bombardment of the gunboats, with the routed and disorderly remains of Grant's army in the valley between, and almost at their feet. Had General Johnston lived, the three hours remaining would probably have served for the capture of the whole, the defeat of Buell, and a triumphant return march to the Ohio river.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.