USA > Pennsylvania > History of the Fifteenth Pennsylvania volunteer cavalry which was recruited and known as the Anderson cavalry in the rebellion of 1861-1865; > Part 64
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and there embark on four transports and proceed under the cover of two gunboats to Decatur. When we reached Bridgeport, I found that under orders from General Thomas, which had succeeded in getting through by telegraph, General Steadman had gone on with all his troops increased by several regiments from Bridgeport, to Cowan, leaving orders for us to follow, marching-the distance being 37 miles with the Cumberland Mountains to cross.
The pontoon expedition was thus abandoned, and Steadman had fol- lowed out the other alternative suggested in his instructions. It turned out that General Granger, whose brigade had been at Decatur and was at that time retreating toward Stevenson, had so slightly destroyed his own bridge at Decatur that the rebels had saved enough to enable them to use it at that place, also that a force of rebel cavalry had entered Hunts- ville after Granger retreated and captured a locomotive and eighteen cars, which they could probably make excellent use of between Decatur and Pulaski to supply their main army. These circumstances and also perhaps the belief that he might want Steadman's force nearer at hand, had induced General Thomas to change the destination of these troops to Cowan.
But when Steadman reached Cowan, another telegraphic order came by the direct line from General Thomas, directing him to come at once to Nashville, with his whole force. As Steadman had with him nearly all the troops intended for the protection of the important points of Chattanooga, Bridgeport, and Stevenson, he was at first disposed not to credit this order, but to attribute it to the enemy, who had possibly placed an operator of their own somewhere along the wire and were trying to entice him into a trap. The operator at Cowan, however, assured him that he was familiar with the "writing" of the Nashville operator who transmitted the dispatch, and that it was genuine. "What!" said the General, "leave all this country south of the Cumberland Mountains comparatively abandoned?" It was no time to ask questions, however, even had he been able to do so, which he was not, as the wire was almost immediately cut after the transmission of the last important dispatch. So Steadman crowded his troops again into his eleven trains and started shortly after midnight of Wednesday, November 29th, for Nashville. We afterwards learned indirectly that he reached there safely with the exception of his last train, which, as I heretofore stated, was fired into and captured within a few miles of Nashville. Whatever General Stead- man may have thought at the moment of his sudden and unexpected movement I think myself that it was strategically correct, and as soon as I heard of its successful execution my opinion of General Thomas' ability was raised. Behind the strong fortifications we have at every important point this side of the mountains, small forces can hold large ones at bay for a long time. We have abundance of provisions, which will last still longer for small garrisons, while the country hereabouts is not capable of sustaining a large force of the enemy. Finally these places are not of the importance to the enemy that they used to be
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before Sherman destroyed the lines of communication south of them. All the rails from Dalton to Atlanta have been taken up and brought to Chattanooga and the bridges destroyed, besides the destruction of railroads beyond Atlanta. If Hood should be badly defeated, these places would be in no danger, as he could not then afford to retreat this way; while if Nashville is taken, Chattanooga would not be of much consequence to us, and the fewer troops left here, probably the better. But above all it could not be unwise, since Hood was showing an inten- tion to risk a pitched battle in front of Nashville, to have the positive advantage of the immediate use of Steadman's 7000 soldiers in that en- counter rather than the possible benefit that they might be, under certain conditions at Chattanooga and Bridgeport. I therefore think that the midnight order, which was received so suspiciously at Cowan was a very wise one-but its fulfillment was a close scrape. I should think Steadman's soldiers would not soon forget that ride "along the perilous edge of fate." To return to the cavalry: As soon as General Steadman received the order to proceed on to Nashville, he telegraphed to me at Bridge- port to return to Wauhatchie, but through an inadvertence of the tele- graph operator I never received the dispatch until I reached Cowan. Unwilling then to return, if there was a possibility of our doing anything on the flank, and knowing that everything of this kind would depend on the result of a battle, which might even then be taking place near Nashville, I concluded to remain at Tantallon and telegraph to General Thomas, via Cumberland Gap, for further orders. After four days these orders came "to return to Wauhatchie." So back we came, and here we are on half rations of hard bread and salt pork-the rations having wisely been reduced as soon as the blockade began. We have fresh beef, however, with desiccated vegetables, and some onions. The first is growing so much tougher every day, with the poverty of the grazing and no corn to feed to the cattle, that it is a nice question how tough it will be at the expiration of another week. Doubtless the only use it will then be fit for will be to make pepper pot.
Colonel Lamborn left for Dalton on Monday with his battalion to pro- tect "my triangle" as General Meagher (who has been left in command at Chattanooga) called it. I have not heard yet whether the Patriot accompanied him or not. There were several tribes of somewhat audacious guerrillas hovering around the southern apex of the railroad triangle, which the active imagination of sundry nervous post commanders has induced the General to transform into as many brigades of Wheeler's cavalry. I presume as soon as Colonel Lamborn has proved that "three regiments of Georgia cavalry" are not "lying in Broomtown Valley" and that "Horton's rebel brigade" is not "near Spring Place threatening to attack Dalton," he will be allowed to return here to his "moutons," which means fencing. Yours,
W. J. P.
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NASHVILLE, February 7, 1865.
MY DEAR FRANK,-
I have received your favor referring to the offer of Mr. Wright.
Whatever it is intended to be, I must, with many thanks to him for his good opinions and to you for your good offices, decline it.
My reasons for this are even stronger than they were at the close of the Corinth campaign.
It is possible that the war is nearly over. I hope it is. But war is such a delicate and critical affair that even with our present superiority in men, position, and prestige, a slight accident or blunder may set everything back and prolong the contest another year or two.
The loss of my services would have been trivial had I resigned the command of my company in June, 1862; it would be greater now that an experience of nearly three years with much more important commands has been added.
But my chief reason for not leaving the army at this time, is that I cannot leave my Regiment, in consequence of its peculiar history, in the hands of anybody else whatever. I left it once, to my sorrow, and it came near being ruined. The blot its reputation then received has been so thoroughly effaced that I think if General Thomas were asked to-day he would say it is the best regiment of cavalry in his army.
Since I returned from Richmond, I have guarded its honor with constant vigilance. Its time of service is out next September, and I must stay with it to the end.
Yours truly,
WM. J. PALMER.
NASHVILLE, February 7, 1865.
MY DEAR FRANK, --
I received your brief letter as we were about leaving our camp near Huntsville for a twelve days' scout after guerrillas. The scout terminated on Friday last when we returned to camp with 25 prisoners, including a Captain and two Lieutenants. This is the way we have been carrying out General Thomas' order to rest our horses. Yesterday morning I left Huntsville for this intolerable city in the hopes that I would get to see General Thomas and General Whipple, but the former has not yet arrived and the latter has gone on to Louisville, whither I may also proceed to-morrow.
General Thomas has not much of an army left now. The 23d Army Corps has gone east, A. J. Smith's (16th) Corps by transport to Mobile, and there is nothing left here but the 4th Army Corps, which is at Huntsville, and the cavalry at Eastport. The cavalry will probably soon set out, if it has not already started across the State of Alabama, to take Selma and Montgomery, and destroy the railroad communications of Alabama and Mississippi. Whether we shall accompany the expedi- tion I do not know. Large expeditions of cavalry are very apt to be mismanaged, so that I do not much care to go along with it. I think the pursuit of Hood's army after the Nashville battle might have been
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more vigorous. I also think that this expedition should have started immediately after Hood recrossed the Tennessee, for then they could have done all the mischief they wanted to in Alabama, and have gone to Mobile before meeting any efficient resistance. As it is, one or two corps of Hood's army have used these railroads to get rapidly on the road to Augusta, whither they are going to endeavor to impede Sherman.
General Thomas is so well pleased with our pontoon and supply train expedition, and with the manner in which we paid our compliments to Roddy, Russell and Lyon, that he has (I learned to-day) recommended me to the President for a "star." As that was done, however, more than a year ago, by another Major-General, the information has not troubled my equanimity much, and I imagine the result will be about the same as it was then. If Old Abe is waiting for me to send a deputation of politicians to Washington to blow my trumpet he will probably wait for some time.
I have, with much regret, approved Charles Lamborn's resignation. Venus has woven her meshes around him. General Thomas has not approved it yet, but will probably do so. That makes Betts Lieutenant- Colonel, and Wagner Major.
I am anxious to get your long letter. What has become of poor Airey? Yours,
WM. J. PALMER.
NASHVILLE, February 12, 1865.
MY DEAR FRANK,-
I returned here from Louisville last. evening, and found that General Thomas had already arrived from Eastport. This morning I called upon him, when he received me very cordially and enquired pleasantly how "the Fifteenth" was getting along. The old soldier is in full glow of health, and I think is the finest looking, as well as the ranking officer of his army. Headquarters are now fully established at Nashville, and the branch office, which was at Chattanooga during Hood's blockade, has been moved up here. The General told me in the course of the interview that he had recommended me for the position of a Brigadier-General, once immediately after the close of the Atlanta campaign, a second time just before the Nashville battle, and thirdly when he forwarded to the War Department my report of our pursuit into Mississippi, and capture of Hood's pontoon bridge and the train. He then asked if I had any friends in Pennsylvania, who had influence at Washington, who would push the matter? I replied that I had friends of influence, but that I would not call upon them for such a purpose, and that if the authorities would not appoint me on General Thomas' recommendation, they could leave it alone. The General then said that the President had usually made appointments on the recommendation of Department Com- manders, but that the trouble was in the confirmation by the Senate, and that some political influence had usually to be exerted to effect this.
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He asked me who I knew? I told him Thomas A. Scott, former Asst. Secretary of War. The General said he knew Mr. Scott and that he would telegraph to him at once about the matter. After conversing on some other subjects, I was about rising to go, when he got me to write down for him Colonel Scott's address; I did so and took my leave.
Now my opinion is that when a General like old Thomas, who won himself the first and the last battle fought in the West, and was the chief instrument in winning all the rest-who has never been defeated in any that he has fought, either as commander or subordinate, and who has twice saved the army from destruction when commanded by others- who has just done his country the service of inflicting the most crushing defeat of the war upon an enemy who had assumed the offensive and advanced 300 miles from the point to which he was driven in the summer ; who was an experienced soldier when the war began, and who is well known never to say anything but what he means. When this cool, thoughtful, dignified old veteran recommends an officer at three different periods for promotion for gallantry and efficiency, it is rather hard that such a General should be obliged afterwards to telegraph to a citizen of Pennsylvania to aid him in placing the subordinate in the command that he thinks the interest of the service require. Looking at the case purely as an observer, it seems to me that in this particular the Republic needs mending. Don't you think so?
I consider the interest "Old Pap" manifested in me, in volunteering to do this in my behalf, which I wouldn't do for myself, as a compliment worth more than all the stars in the President's firmament. I don't claim to be particularly modest, but there are certain things which I don't think a man ought to beg for-and one of those is military promotion. You know I never would allow that in my men, and if it's a good rule for them, it must be for me. The only thing a soldier has the right to beg for is a chance to distinguish himself in the field.
We shall leave Huntsville in a few days and go back to Wauhatchie to refit. The General is going to give us Spencer carbines, and enough horses to supply those we have lost and that have been broken down in the service. You know "one can't make omelette without breaking eggs" as Monsieur Salignac says every time we have a man killed or wounded.
After we get fitted up, we are to go on a long and important expedition from which it is possible we will never return to Chattanooga. I cannot tell you where it is, because "Old Pap" pledged me to tell no man. He has picked out our Regiment specially to go because he says I can find the roads. He wishes me to command a brigade on the expedition. and hence apparently his haste about the confirmation matter. Please say nothing about the expedition at present. Yours,
WM. J. PALMER.
.
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CAMP AT MASTINS, NEAR HUNTSVILLE. February 27, 1865.
MY DEAR FRANK,-
I have received your four favors to the 16th inclusive.
One of the finest specimens of a country gentleman that I have ever met, was a man named Montcastle, in East Tennessee, near Mossy Creek. We camped on his plantation last winter one night, and although he was a rebel, he belonged to the Free-Masonry of Gentlemen, and before I knew it I found myself regretting every bushel of corn that we fed, and sympathizing for every one of his fence rails that we were compelled to burn. We did not inflict much damage, however, but the next day a regiment of cavalry paid him a visit, and be- cause he was a rebel, robbed him of his watch and all his money. despoiled his house and out buildings, and also stole his dishes and bed quilts. I have seldom sympathized so much with any sufferer in this rough business of war, as I have with him. He was obliged to leave his place, and I believe went North to earn a livelihood for his family.
He was a man of fine feelings, had always been generous and kind to his poor neighbors, who were chiefly loyal. and was spoken of by them in the highest terms.
We frequently meet such men in our marches, and always make it a point to leave them as far as possible unmolested, so that they may remain to teach nobility by example to the communities in which they live. There are a few of them in North Alabama, and wherever met. I have found that my Regiment, by a sort of instinct, has respected them, and avoided even those smaller inflictions by which an army makes its presence felt. You may say that this is not war. I reply that within two weeks after Montcastle was despoiled, the regiment that laid its heavy hand upon him, and the division in which it was, were driven back to Sevierville in utter disorder by an inferior force of the enemy's cavalry, while the Fifteenth Pennsylvania was ordered out by General Sturges to hold the important road which their retreat had left open.
We leave Huntsville day after to-morrow for Wauhatchie, where the reinforcement of horses, for which we sent to Louisville, will join us within a few days after our arrival. I wish you could be here to-day to enjoy a taste of summer in February. This valley is more beautiful than the Cumberland Valley in Pennsylvania, and to-day it is like late May, if not June. Yours,
WM. J. PALMER.
ATHENS, GA., May 6, 1865.
DEAR FRANK JACKSON,-
I am so exceedingly busy at the moment with a courier party of fifty men starting from here to Dalton; that I have only time to say that I am well and have been so, that I now command Stoneham's Division of nine regiments, and wish Stoneman, or Gillem rather, had left it in better discipline when they retired (my own old brigade behaves finely), that
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the rebellion is over, that there will be no fighting in the Trans- Mississippi Department, that I succeeded in throwing my division in front of Jeff Davis, which caused him to disband his four brigades of cavalry escort (except what surrendered), and to take it "a la Scotch Cap," that I am now hunting him at every cross-road, ford, ferry, and bridge, from the Blue Ridge to Milledgeville. Also that if you people at home consent to anything short of immediate and unconditional emancipation, you will never cease to rue it. Pardon everybody but Jeff and remit confiscation of all other than slave property.
Please give the enclosed to Mr. Morton after reading it.
Respectfully yours,
WM. J. PALMER.
HEADQUARTERS OF CAVALRY DIVISION OF EAST TENNESSEE, ATHENS, GA., May 6, 1865.
MR. SAMUEL C. MORTON,
Philadelphia, Penna.
Dear Sir,-
I have no right to communicate directly with the President of the United States, being forbidden by the position I hold in the army, but as I have had peculiar and extraordinary opportunities of becoming acquainted with the phases of public sentiment among the most intelli- gent men in North and South Carolina and Georgia since the surrender of Lee's army, I have a strong desire that President Johnson should become acquainted with one or two points that I shall mention in this letter.
Of course everybody has abandoned the cause, and the most intelli- gent and influential men everywhere have candidly acknowledged to me that they are entirely in the power of the United States Government, and will have to submit to any terms that may be imposed. Not one of them has the slightest expectation of any continued resistance in the Trans-Mississippi Department-nor do they wish it. I am satisfied from the inquiries made of me by leading men in all the three States named, that a strong united effort will be made throughout the South to influence Northern sentiment to grant the gradual abolition of slavery. This is the utmost they hope for.
Now I hope most sincerely that those who have the settlement of this matter will not be influenced (by any fear of a sullen resistance to the authority of the Government or any desire to pacify the Southern people and make them give a cheerful submission to what is so unpal- atable) to yield this point. They should consent to nothing but an immediate and unconditional abolition of slavery. I have told these people everywhere that no matter what else is done, this is inevitable; that as they evidently expected universal confiscation, subjugation, and in some cases annihilation, they should deem the other mild terms; that as their labor system has to be reorganized on a compensatory basis, the sooner it is begun the sooner they will have a stable system-
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and that they have more to fear from insurrections and disturbances among the negroes if their emancipation is procrastinated, than if it were immediate, especially since the whites have been disarmed and so many of the blacks made soldiers.
Some of their leading people have partially admitted the force of these arguments, but all would, I am convinced, cheerfully submit to these terms if they found that this was the best and the worst, and that no general confiscation would ensue.
If slavery is not immediately got rid of, pacification will be indefinitely delayed, and political parties in the North will before long be based on this issue.
I would be glad to see even the leaders of the rebellion or most of them pardoned, and not a dollar's worth of other than slave property confiscated, in order to gain this point, and it might be done in a way to ensure the influence of these leaders to make the main point (imme- diate abolition) palatable to the Southern people.
The crime of rebellion is so great that any punishment of those con- cerned seems trifling and insignificant. And the value of the property that might be confiscated to the United States Government is absurdly small compared to the mere pecuniary advantages it would derive from the increase of taxable property in the South, in a very few years under a free labor system.
But let us have freedom everywhere-the whites of the South expect it, the negroes are longing for it, and civilization and peace demand it.
With kind regards to yourself, I am, Sir,
Yours very respectfully,
WM. J. PALMER, Brev. Brig. Genl. (Commanding Stoneman's Cavalry).
HUNTSVILLE, June 1, 1865. MY DEAR FRANK, --
On returning to Huntsville, after completing our modest circle of 2000 miles, I found, to my great pleasure, your favors of March 9th, 21st, and 25th and May 6th. As I wrote you about two days ago, one of my mails went astray over in that big hollow between Smoky Moun- tains and the Blue Ridge and I had no doubt but that some of your letters were in it. I sent up to Knoxville to trace that mail up, but my aide, who went for that purpose, returned a few days ago without a clue. So I am forced to forego the pleasure of reading any letter you may have sent to me in April.
In one of your letters you requested that I should let you know where our expedition was going to come out. I never did so, because after the interview I had with General Thomas, in Nashville, and at which he told me we were to go to South Carolina, the plans were all changed. While I knew generally that our amended objects were to cut the railroad
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in rear of Lee and Johnston, I knew very little else until we had crossed the Smoky Mountain. Otherwise I should have been pleased to write the one name which would have given you so much satisfaction.
You may be sure, had we actually reached the coast, that nothing would have pleased me better than to have encountered you on the beach in the interesting attitude that you have described, oysters and all. That sight would have atoned for all the fatigue and discomforts of so long a ride.
As I haven't heard from you or from a single soul at home since my return to Huntsville, I suspect that you have all gone off to some delightful watering place. But if you are not thus enjoying yourself better, can't you come out and meet us at Nashville? I shall have my horses there and we could ride out to the Ackland Place, the Harding Park, the Hermitage, Fort Zollicoffer, etc. I know every lane, hill, and meadow around Nashville and would have time to show you everything ; and each evening we would balance the account of the day by taking a plunge into the cool waters of the quiet Cumberland. I have always had a desire that you should see something of the country in which we have been campaigning for four years, and which I know better than I do any portion of Pennsylvania. I want to show vou before I leave the service the battlefields of Stone River, Tullahoma, Chickamauga, Lookout Mountain, and Missionary Ridge, and also, if possible, Shiloh and Knoxville. I can take you all around without cost, after you once reach Nashville. We shall start from here for Nashville in about a week and shall probably have to remain there about ten days before our papers are completed. Can't you meet me there?
Your reference to Captain (you're an unforgiving fellow) calls up a variety of old associations. I suppose now that the war is over, I may consider that the rope has been removed from my neck. It is true that Lieber says they can't hang a captured soldier for having been a spy on a previous occasion, but I had made up my mind that the Confederacy and old Winder might not have studied "Lieber," and that I would never be captured alive unless wounded. By the way, you will be gratified to learn that the last seen of old General Pendleton, Lee's chief of artillery, who captured me at Dam No. 4, and was so stupid as not to be able to comprehend the geological enthusiasm which would prompt a young man of my experience to cross the river at that time, was at Appomattox, where one of his officers, Lieut. Col. Lane, son of Jim Lane, whom we captured on the Catawba, told me he had seen him getting away at Appomattox Court House. His horse had thrown him in his anxiety to avoid capture, and not having time to recover a per- pendicular position he was still going ahead, horizontally. I have only one wish in regard to the old artillery General-I would like to put him through as rigid a course of cross-questioning as he did my unlucky self in the Valley of Virginia, to see if he could stand it as well. I could then say with content "Go! there is room enough in the world for thee and me." To this day, however, whenever I wish to have a vivid
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