Slavery and Four Years of War Part 32

( 2) An abstract of a return of Loring's forces for October, 1861, shows present for duty 11,700 of all arms.--_War Records_, vol.

v., p. 933.

( 3) While the Third Ohio was temporarily camped in Cheat Mountain Pa.s.s (July, 1861) word came of the Bull Run disaster, and while brooding over it Colonel John Beatty, in the privacy of our tent, early one morning before we had arisen, exclaimed in substance: "That so long as the Union army fought to maintain human slavery it deserved defeat; that only when it fought for the liberty of all mankind would G.o.d give us victory." Such prophetic talk was then premature, and if openly uttered would have insured censure from General McClellan and others.

( 4) This prediction has been fulfilled. Major Wm. McKinley was inaugurated President of the United States March 4, 1897.

( 5) _Citizen Soldier_ (Beatty), p. 51.

( 6) _Ante_, pp. 161, 196.

( 7) _Citizen Soldier_, p. 60-1.

( 8) William White was then a common pleas Judge; in March, 1864, he became a Judge of the Supreme Court of Ohio, a position he held until his death. He was appointed by President Arthur and confirmed by the Senate (March, 1883) United States District Judge for the Southern District of Ohio; his sudden death prevented his qualifying and entering upon the duties of the office. He was remarkable for his judicial learning, combined with simplicity and purity of character. Born (January 28, 1822) in England, both parents dying when he was a child, having no brother or sister or very near relative, poor, and almost a homeless waif, he, when about ten years of age, came in the hold of a s.h.i.+p to America. From this humble start, through persevering energy and varying vicissitudes he, under republican inst.i.tutions, acquired an education, won friends, became eminent as a lawyer and jurist, and earned the high esteem of his fellow-men, dying (March 12, 1883) at Springfield, Ohio, at sixty years of age, having served as a common pleas Judge eight years and Judge of the Supreme Court of Ohio nineteen years.

His only son, Charles Rodgers White (born May 25, 1845), also became a distinguished lawyer and judge, and died prematurely, July 29, 1890, on a Pullman car on the Northern Pacific Railroad, near Thompson's Falls, Montana, while returning from Spokane Falls, where he, while on a proposed journey to Alaska, was taken fatally ill.

( 9) _War Records_, vol. v., p. 192.

(10) Kimball's Report, _War Records_, vol. v., p. 186.

(11) Rust's Report, _War Records_, vol. v., p. 291.

(12) W. H. F. Lee served through the war; was wounded and captured at Brandy Station, 1863; chiefly commanded cavalry; became a Major- General and was surrendered at Appomattox. He, later, became a farmer at White House, Virginia, on the Pamunkey, and was elected to Congress in 1886. His older brother, George Was.h.i.+ngton Custis Lee, a graduate of West Point, served with distinction through the war; also became a Confederate Major-General, and was captured by my command at the battle of Sailor's Creek, April 6, 1865. Robert E. Lee, Jr., General Lee's other son, also served in the Confederate army, but not with high rank.

(13) Colonel Starke was, as a General, killed at Antietam. His son, Major Starke, met me March 26, 1865, between the lines in front of Petersburg, under a flag of truce, while the killed of the previous day were being removed or buried. On Lee's surrender I found him, and gave him his supper and a bed for the night.

(14) _Mana.s.sas to Appomattox_ (Longstreet), p. 112.

(15) West Virginia was admitted as a State in April, 1863, with forty-eight counties, but Congress consented, by an act approved March 10, 1866, that the counties of Berkeley and Jefferson should be added.--_Charters and Cons._, Par II., p. 1993.

CHAPTER V Union Occupancy of Kentucky--Affair at Green River--Defeat of Humphrey Marshall--Battles of Mill Springs, Forts Henry and Donelson --Capture of Bowling Green and Nashville, and Other Matters

The State of Kentucky, with its disloyal Governor (Magoffin), also other state officers, was early a source of much perplexity and anxiety at Was.h.i.+ngton.

The State did not secede, but her authorities a.s.sumed a position of neutrality by which they demanded that no Union troops should occupy the State, and for a time also pretended no Confederates should invade the State.

It was supposed that if Union forces went into Kentucky her people would rise up in ma.s.s to expel them. This delusion was kept up until it was found her Legislature was loyal to the Union and civil war was imminent in the State, when, in September, 1861, both Union and Confederate armed forces entered the State.

General Robert Anderson was (August 15, 1861) a.s.signed to the command of the Department of the c.u.mberland, consisting of the States of Kentucky and Tennessee.

Bowling Green was occupied, September 8th, by General Simon Bolivar Buckner, a native Kentuckian, formerly of the regular army. It had been confidently hoped he would join the Union cause. President Lincoln, August 17th, for reasons not given, ordered a commission made out for him as Brigadier-General of Volunteers, and placed in General Anderson's hands to be delivered at his discretion.( 1)

Buckner decided to espouse the Confederate cause while still acting as Adjutant-General of the State of Kentucky. The commission, presumably, was never tendered to him.

Changes of Union commanders were taking place in the West with such frequency as to alarm the loyal people and shake their faith in early success.

Brigadier-General W. S. Harney, in command of the Department of the West, with headquarters at St. Louis when the war broke out, was relieved, and, on May 31, 1861, Nathaniel Lyon, but recently appointed a Brigadier-General of Volunteers, succeeded him. Lyon lost his life, August 10th, while gallantly leading his forces at Wilson's Creek against superior numbers under General Sterling Price. General John C. Fremont a.s.sumed command of the Western Department, July 25th, with headquarters at St. Louis. He was the first to proclaim martial law. This he did for the city and county of St. Louis, August 14, 1861.( 2)

He followed this (August 30th) with an _emanc.i.p.ation proclamation_, undertaking to free the slaves of all persons in the State of Missouri who took up arms against the United States or who took an active part with their enemies in the field; the other property of all such persons also to be confiscated. The same proclamation ordered all disloyal persons taken within his lines with arms in their hands to be tried by court-martial, and if found guilty, shot.( 3)

President Lincoln disapproved this proclamation in the main. He ordered Fremont, by letter dated September 2d, to allow no man to be shot without his consent, and requested him to modify the clause relating to confiscation and emanc.i.p.ation of slaves so as to conform to an act of Congress limiting confiscation to "_property_ used for insurrectionary purposes."

Lincoln a.s.signed as a reason for this request that such confiscation and liberation of slaves "would alarm our Southern Union friends and turn them against us; perhaps _ruin our rather fair prospect for Kentucky_.": Fremont declining to modify his proclamation, Lincoln, September 11th, ordered it done as stated.( 4)

But as matters did not progress satisfactorily in Fremont's Department, he was relieved by General David Hunter, October 24th, who was in turn relieved by General H. W. Halleck, November 2, 1861.( 4)

Brigadier-General U. S. Grant, September 1, 1861, a.s.sumed command of the troops in the District of Southeastern Missouri, headquarters Cairo, Illinois.( 5)

The most notable event of 1861, in Grant's district, was the spirited battle of Belmont, fought November 7th, a short distance below Cairo. Grant commanded in person, and was successful until the Confederates were largely reinforced, when he was obliged to retire, which he did in good order.

The Confederates were led in three columns by Generals Leonidas Polk, Gideon J. Pillow, and Benjamin F. Cheatham.

The event, really quite devoid of substantial results to either side, save to prove the valor of the troops, was the subject of a congratulatory order by Grant, in which he states he was in "all the battles fought in Mexico by General Scott and Taylor, save Buena Vista, and he never saw one more hotly contested or where troops behaved with more gallantry."( 5) The Confederate Congress voted its thanks to the Confederate commanders and their troops for their "desperate courage," by which disaster was converted into victory.( 5)

General Robert Anderson was relieved, October 6, 1861, and General W. T. Sherman was a.s.signed to command the Department of the c.u.mberland.( 6)

Sherman personally informed Secretary of War Cameron and Adjutant- General Lorenzo Thomas (October 16th) that the force necessary in his Department was 200,000 men.( 6) This was regarded as so wild an estimate that he was suspected of being _crazy_, and he was relieved from his Department November 13th.( 7) Thereafter, for a time, he was under a cloud in consequence of this estimate of the number of troops required to insure success in a campaign through Kentucky and Tennessee. We next hear of him prominently in command of a division under Grant at s.h.i.+loh.

As the war progressed his conception of the requirements of the war was more than vindicated, and he became later the successful commander of more than two hundred thousand men.( 8)

Brigadier-General Don Carlos Buell relieved Sherman of the command of the Department of the c.u.mberland, and was a.s.signed (November 9th) to the Department of Ohio, a new one, consisting of the States of Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, that part of Kentucky east of the c.u.mberland River, and Tennessee, headquarters, Louisville.( 9)

The War Department ordered from the commands of Generals c.o.x and Reynolds in Western Virginia certain of the Ohio and Indiana regiments, and this order caused the 3d Ohio, with others, to counter-march over November roads _via_ Huttonville, Beverly, Rich Mountain, and Buchannon to Clarksburg, from whence they were moved by rail to Parkersburg, thence by steamboat to Louisville. By November 30th, the 3d was encamped five miles south of the city on the Seventh Street plank road, and soon became part of the Seventeenth Brigade, Colonel Ebenezer Dumont commanding, and (December 5th (10)) of the Third Division, commanded by General O. M. Mitchel, both highly intelligent officers, active, affable, and zealous; the latter untried in battle.

Mitchel's division moved _via_ Elizabethtown to Bacon Creek, where it went into camp for the winter, December 17, 1861.

McCook's division was advanced about six miles to Munfordville on Green River, and General George H. Thomas' division was ordered to Liberty, where he would be nearer the main army, and later his headquarters were at Lebanon, and his division, consisting of four brigades and some unattached cavalry and three batteries of artillery, was posted there and at Somerset and London.(11)

December 17th, four companies of the 32d Indiana (German), under Lieutenant-Colonel Von Treba, from McCook's command, on outpost duty at Rowlett's Station, south of Green River, were a.s.sailed by two infantry regiments, one of cavalry--Texas Rangers--and a battery of artillery. The gallantry and superiority of the drill of these companies enabled them to drive back the large force and hold their position until other companies of the regiment arrived, when the enemy was forced to a hasty retreat, both sides suffering considerable loss. Colonel B. F. Terry (12) of the Texas Rangers forced his men to repeatedly charge into the ranks of the infantry. In a last charge he was killed, and the attacking force retired in disorder.

Great credit was due to Colonel Treba and his small command for their conduct.

Colonel James A. Garfield was placed in command of the field forces in the Big Sandy country, Eastern Kentucky, and General Humphrey Marshall, of Kentucky, who made pretensions to military skill, confronted him, each with a force, somewhat scattered, of about five thousand men. Inexperienced as Garfield then was in war, he, in mid-winter, in a rough country, with desperate roads and with a poorly equipped command, with no artillery, displayed much energy and ability in pus.h.i.+ng his forces upon the enemy at Pres...o...b..rg and Paintsville, Kentucky. There were skirmishes December 25, 1861, at Grider's Ferry on the c.u.mberland River, at Sacramento on the 28th, at Fis.h.i.+ng Creek January 8, 1862, and a considerable engagement at Middle Creek, near Pres...o...b..rg, on the 10th, the result of which was to drive Marshall practically out of Kentucky, and to greatly demoralize his command and put him permanently in disgrace.

Next in importance came the more considerable fight at Logan's Cross-Roads, on Fis.h.i.+ng Creek, Kentucky, commonly called the battle of Mill Springs, fought January 19, 1862, General George H. Thomas commanding the Union forces, and General George B. Crittenden the Confederates. The Confederate troops occupied an intrenched camp at Beech Grove, on the north side of the c.u.mberland River, nearly opposite Mill Springs. General Thomas, with a portion of the Second and Third Brigades, Kenny's battery, and a battalion of Wolford's cavalry, reached Logan's Cross-Roads, about nine miles north of Beech Grove, on the 17th, and there halted to await the arrival of other troops before moving on Crittenden's position.

The latter, conceiving that he might strike Thomas before his division was concentrated, and learning that Fis.h.i.+ng Creek divided his forces, and was so flooded by recent rains as to be impa.s.sable, marched out of his intrenchments at Beech Grove at midnight of the 18th, and about 7 A.M. of the 19th fell upon Thomas at Logan's Cross-Roads with eight regiments of infantry and six pieces of artillery. The battle lasted about three hours, when the Confederate troops gave way and beat a disorderly retreat to their intrenched camp, closely pursued. They were driven behind their fortifications and cannonaded by the Union batteries until dark. General Thomas prepared to a.s.sault the works the following morning. With the aid of a small river steamboat Crittenden succeeded during the night in pa.s.sing his troops across the c.u.mberland, abandoning twelve pieces of artillery, with their caissons and ammunition, a large number of small arms and ammunition, about 160 wagons, 1000 horses and mules, also commissary stores.

Brigadier-General F. K. Zollicoffer, of Tennessee, who commanded a Confederate brigade, was killed at a critical time in the battle.

The number actually engaged on each side was about 5000. The Union loss was 1 officer and 38 men killed, and 13 officers and 194 men wounded, total 246.(13) The Confederate killed was 125, wounded 309, total 434. This victory was of much importance, as it was the first of any significance in the Department of the Ohio. It was the subject of a congratulatory order by the President.(13)

Notwithstanding this victory, President Lincoln, long impatient of the delays of the Union Army to advance and gain some decided success, issued his first (and last, looking to its character, only (14)) "_General War Order_" in these words:

"_President's General War Order No. 1._ "Executive Mansion, Was.h.i.+ngton "January 27, 1862.

"_Ordered_, That the 22d of February, 1862, be the day for a general movement of the land and naval forces of the United States against the insurgent forces. That especially the army in and about Fortress Monroe, the Army of the Potomac, the Army of Western Virginia, and army near Munfordville, Ky., the army and flotilla at Cairo, and a naval force in the Gulf of Mexico, be ready to move on that day.

"That all other forces, both land and naval, with their respective commanders, obey existing orders for the time, and be ready to obey additional orders when duly given.

"That the heads of departments, and especially the Secretaries of War and of the Navy, with all their subordinates, and the General- in-Chief, with all other commanders and subordinates of land and naval forces, will severally be held to their strict and full responsibilities for prompt execution of this order.