Slavery and Four Years of War Part 39

Morris, who enlisted in 1864 as a private soldier, and was thereupon honorably discharged as a Lieutenant.

The Confederate Army was now in occupancy of Frankfort, Lexington, c.u.mberland Gap, and most of middle Kentucky. Buell's army, largely reinforced by fresh troops and numbering, present for duty, 65,886,(24) was apparently besieged at Louisville. Nelson had retired there from his disaster at Richmond (August 30th), and had collected a very considerable army and thrown up some breastworks.

At West Point I obtained permission to proceed with the advance of the army to Louisville, having previously been notified of my appointment as Colonel of a newly-organized regiment.

On reaching Louisville I first saw President Lincoln's 22d of September Proclamation, announcing that on January 1, 1863, he would proclaim all slaves within States or designated parts of a State, the people whereof should be in rebellion, "thenceforward and forever free." The idea of prosecuting the war for the liberation of slaves in rebellious States had, to say the least, had not been fostered in Buell's army, hence there was much criticism of this proclamation by officers, and some foolish threats of resigning rather than "fight for the freedom of the negro." Even the army, fighting patriotically to suppress the rebellion, did not then fully appreciate that it was not in G.o.d's divine plan that peace should ever come to our stricken country until our banner of liberty waved over none but freemen.

On the 24th of September the President issued an order creating the Department of the Tennessee and a.s.signed to its command Major- General George H. Thomas; and the same day Buell was ordered to turn his command over to him and to retire to Indianapolis.(25) These orders were forwarded by Colonel McKibben, but not delivered until the 29th.(26) Buell immediately turned over his command to Thomas, but the latter, with his natural modesty, protested against accepting it in the emergency. Halleck suspended the order, and Buell again resumed command, announcing Thomas as second in command.(26)

More than a year elapsed before General Thomas was again given so important a command as the one he thus declined, and then he relieved Rosecrans and took command of the Army of the c.u.mberland when it was besieged by Bragg at Chattanooga. Thomas, though diffident to a degree, was one of our greatest soldiers. He served uninterruptedly from the opening to the close of the war, distinguis.h.i.+ng himself in many battles, especially at Stone's River, at Chickamauga, on the Atlanta campaign (1864), and at Nashville, December 15 and 16, 1864. He was admired, almost adored, by the soldiers of the Army of the c.u.mberland, and he deserved their affection. His princ.i.p.al characteristics differed from those of Grant, Sherman, Meade, or Sheridan, who, though great soldiers, each differed in disposition, temper, and quality from the others. General Thomas, being a Virginian by birth, was at first expected and coaxed to go into the rebellion, then later he was abused and slandered by statements coming from the South to the effect that he had contemplated going with his State. There is no evidence that he ever wavered in his loyalty to the Union.

I had Grant's opinion of General Thomas as a commanding officer when I was making an official call on him at City Point, December 5, 1864, just at the time Hood was besieging Nashville. Grant had been urging Thomas to fight Hood and raise the siege, fearing, as Grant then said, Hood would cross the c.u.mberland and make a winter raid into Kentucky. Thomas refused to fight until fully ready.

Grant, after inquiring of me about the roads and hills around the south of Nashville, of which I had acquired some knowledge in the spring and fall of 1862, said, somewhat impatiently:

"Thomas is a great soldier, and though able, at any time, with his present force to whip Hood, he lacks confidence in himself and the disposition to a.s.sume the offensive until he has seventy-five per centum of the chances of battle, in his own opinion, in favor of success."

Thomas was born July 31, 1816, and died in San Francisco, March 28, 1870. His body is buried at Troy, N. Y. Sherman, in command of the army, in announcing his death, said:

"The very impersonation of honesty, integrity and honor, he will stand to posterity as the _beau-ideal_ of the soldier and gentleman.

Though he leaves no child to bear his name, the old Army of the c.u.mberland, numbered by tens of thousands, called him father, and will weep for him in tears of manly grief."

I witnessed, in princ.i.p.al part, a great tragedy resulting from a quarrel between high officers of the Union Army. This occurred September 29, 1862, at the Galt House, Louisville, whither I had repaired to tender my resignation to Buell as Lieutenant-Colonel of the 3d Ohio Infantry, to enable me to accept promotion.

General Jeff C. Davis had been in command of a division under General William Nelson at Louisville, and had in some way incurred Nelson's censure. Nelson relieved him of command and ordered him to report to Wright, the department commander, at Cincinnati.

Wright ordered Davis to return to Louisville and report to Buell for duty. Davis, being from Indiana, returned _via_ Indianapolis, and from there was accompanied to Louisville by Governor Oliver P.

Morton, who, with another friend, was with Davis in the vestibule of the Galt House about 9 A.M. when Davis accosted Nelson, demanding satisfaction for the injustice he claimed had been done him, and, it was said, at the same time flipped a paper wad in Nelson's face.(27) Nelson retorted by slapping Davis in the face with the back of his hand, and then, after denouncing Morton as Davis'

"abettor of the deliberate insult," at once pa.s.sed from the vestibule to adjoining hallway and started up the steps of a stairway, apparently going towards his room. He soon, however, returned to the hall and walked quietly in the direction of Davis. The latter meantime had obtained a pistol from his friend, and as Nelson approached fired on him, the bullet striking Nelson in the left breast, just over the heart, producing what proved, in half an hour, to be a mortal wound.(27) The incident was a deplorable one.

Nelson was an able, valuable officer, and had proved himself such on many fields. He was known to be hasty, and sometimes unwarrantably rough in his treatment of others, yet he promptly repented of any act of injustice and made amends as far as possible. Davis was placed in military arrest by Buell, but later was released, by orders from Was.h.i.+ngton, to be allowed to become amenable to civil authority. Still later he was restored to the command of a division, then given a corps, and, by his gallantry, soldierly bearing, and general good conduct to the end of the war, atoned in some degree for the b.l.o.o.d.y deed.

My resignation was accepted on this memorable 29th of September, 1862, and thenceforth my official connection with my first regiment, its gallant officers and soldiers, and with the n.o.ble Army of the Ohio and the other great armies of the West, ceased, and forever, and not without the deepest regret, especially in parting from Colonel John Beatty, with whom I had, as more than a friend and companion, eaten and slept, marched and bivouacked, on the closest terms of confidence, without receiving from him an unkind or ungenerous word, for seventeen months, although he was my immediate superior officer, and we had both gone through many hards.h.i.+ps and vexatious trials together. This was the more remarkable as we were each of sanguine temperament and obstinate by nature.

Beatty was appointed by President Lincoln a Brigadier-General of Volunteers, November 29, 1862, and he thereafter, as before at Perryville, especially distinguished himself at Stone's River and Chickamauga. He has since served three terms in Congress with distinction.

It was my good fortune to meet and shake hands, one year and about eight months later, with some of the survivors of this Western army at Greensborough, North Carolina, after Lee's surrender, and on the occasion of the surrender of Joe Johnston's army to Sherman.

Although my humble connection with Buell's army ceased at Louisville, I will summarize its history, covering a few days longer.

Polk's and Hardee's corps const.i.tuting Bragg's army we left in the vicinity of Bardstown and Harrodsburg, with some portions at Frankfort and Lexington. Kirby Smith was at Salvisa, about twenty miles northeast of Perryville, with the main body of his army, and, believing he would be the first attacked, called loudly for reinforcement, and Bragg sent him, on the eve of Perryville, Withers and Cheatham's divisions from Polk and Hardee's corps. Bragg placed Polk in command of his army in the vicinity of Perryville, and repaired to Frankfort to witness the inauguration (October 4th) of a new Secession Provisional Governor of Kentucky--Richard Hawes (28)--her former one, George W. Johnson, having been killed at s.h.i.+loh while fighting as a private soldier.

Buell, being further reinforced with new troops, mostly from Ohio and Indiana, commenced, October 2d, a general movement against both Bragg and Smith. General Joshua W. Sill's division of General Alexander McD. McCook's corps, followed by General Ebenezer Dumont with a raw division, moved through Shelbyville towards Frankfort.

McCook, with the two remaining divisions of the First Corps, commanded, respectively, by Generals L. H. Rousseau and James S.

Jackson, moved from Bloomfield to Taylorsville, where he halted the second night. Crittenden's corps marched _via_ Bardstown on the Lebanon and Danville road, which pa.s.sed about four miles to the south of Perryville, with a branch to it. Gilbert's corps moved on the more direct road to Perryville. Thomas, second in command, accompanied Crittenden on the right, and Buell kept his headquarters with Gilbert's corps, the centre one in the movements.

As the Union columns advanced, the armies of Bragg and Kirby Smith found it necessary to commence concentrating. For some reason, not warranted by good strategy, two points of concentration were designated by Bragg, Perryville and Salvisa, twenty miles apart.

Smith persisted in the belief he would be the first to be struck by the advancing army.

General Sill, on the road to Frankfort, encountered some opposition on the 3d, but on the 4th pressed the enemy back so close that the booming of his cannon interrupted Richard Hawes in the reading of his inaugural address. Bragg, while witnessing the ceremony, received dispatches announcing the near approach of the Union columns.(29) This led to a general stampede of the a.s.sembly, most of which was Confederate military, and the inaugural was never finished. Hawes fled from the capital, half inaugurated, accompanying the army, and this was about the last heard of a secession Governor of Kentucky.

Bragg personally hurried to Harrodsburg and there met Polk, who gave him news of the movements of his army and of the approach of the Union columns. Bragg reached the conclusion that the wide front covered by the Union forces (about fifteen miles) afforded an opportunity to beat a part of them in an early engagement, and he therefore, at 5.40 P.M. of the 7th, ordered Polk to recall Cheatham's division, hitherto ordered to reinforce Smith, and to form a junction with Hardee's corps near Perryville, and there give battle immediately, and then move to Versailles, whither Smith was ordered with his army.(30) McCook was turned directly on Perryville and Sill was ordered in the same direction. Buell, at 7 P.M. of the 7th, seemed to be aware that stubborn resistance would be met with the next day at Perryville. He so advised General Thomas.(31) Polk, with Cheatham's division, reached Perryville about midnight of the 7th, and the troops were placed in position on a line previously established with the expectation that a battle would be opened early the following morning. The Confederate troops thus in position numbered about 18,000, while immediately opposed to them were no divisions yet in position, and, in fact, no real preparation for battle had been made on the Union side. There was some skirmis.h.i.+ng on the Confederate extreme left in the night, between Colonel Dan McCook's brigade of Sheridan's division, for the possession of the water in Doctor's Fork, but nothing more.

Bragg, at Harrodsburg, not hearing the battle open at dawn, hastened to Perryville, and there learned at 10 A.M. that a council of Confederate generals had been held, on Polk's suggestion, at which it was determined to act only on the defensive. He, however, after some reconnoissances and adjustment of the lines, ordered Polk to bring on an engagement.(32)

McCook with his two divisions came within about three miles of Perryville about 10.30 A.M. of the 8th, and there encountered some resistance, and later his troops were advanced and formed with the right of Rousseau's division, resting near a barn south of the Perryville and Mackville road, its left extending on a ridge through a corn field to a wood occupied by the 2d and 33d Ohio. The right of General William R. Terrill's brigade of Jackson's division rested on woods to the left of Rousseau, his left forming a crotchet to the rear. Starkweather and Webster's brigades of Rousseau and Jackson's divisions, respectively, were posted by McCook in support of the line named. Sheridan and R. B. Mitch.e.l.l's divisions of the Third Corps were posted, not in preparation for battle, several hundred yards to McCook's right, but supposed to be near enough to protect it.(33)

Save some clashes of the skirmish lines and bodies seeking positions, no fierce engagement took place until 2 P.M., when a determined attack in force fell on Terrill's brigade, causing it to soon give way, General James S. Jackson, division commander, being killed at the first fire, and Terrill fell soon after. McCook had previously (about 12.30 P.M.) ridden to Buell's headquarters, about two and a half miles distant, and informed him of the situation, but this did not awaken him to the apprehension that a battle was about to be fought. McCook's entire command present on the field was soon engaged against great odds. Of this Captain Fisher of McCook's staff informed Buell in his tent at 3.30 or 4 P.M., and Buell claimed it was his first news that a battle had been raging on his front.

Polk, with three divisions of infantry and a complement of artillery, and with cavalry on each flank, had fallen on the two unsupported divisions of McCook, choosing his place and manner of attack skilfully. Rousseau's right was struck soon after Terrill's brigade was driven back, and the whole of his division was soon in action.

The Confederates advanced under cover of their artillery fire, outflanking Rousseau's right. His troops stood to their work against odds and made a most gallant resistance. Their right was turned, when Gilbert's idle corps was near enough to have come at once into action and afforded it protection. McCook's command, though suffering much, was not driven from the field. My old regiment occupied the crest of a hill, its right behind a hay-barn.

In this position, under Colonel John Beatty, it fought, exposed to a heavy fire from the enemy's batteries and to a front and flank fire from his infantry. The barn at last took fire, and its flames were so hot the right of the regiment was forced to temporarily give way. Its loss was 190 of its then 500 men in line, including Captains Cunard and McDougal and Lieutenants St. John and Starr among the killed. Colonel W. H. Lytle, commanding the brigade, was wounded and captured.

The Confederates gained possession temporarily of only portions of the battle-ground, and night found McCook's corps still confronting them.

Sheridan and R. B. Mitch.e.l.l's divisions of the Third Corps in the evening made some diversion, driving back and threatening Polk's left. Buell late in the day ordered reinforcements sent to McCook, but they reached him too late for the battle. Polk claimed a victory, but while he had some temporary success, both armies slept on the field.

The failure of Buell to know or hear of the battle until too late to put his numerous troops near the field into it was the subject of much comment. Had Crittenden and Gilbert been pushed forward while Bragg's forces were engaged with McCook, his army should have been cut off, captured, or dispersed; Kirby Smith's lying farther to the north, would also have been imperilled.

Such an opportunity never occurred again in the war. It is said Buell was in his tent and the winds were unfavorable. But where were his staff officers, who should furnish eyes and ears for their General?

The Union loss was 39 officers and 806 men killed, 94 officers and 2757 men wounded, total 3696; and captured or missing 13 officers and 502 men, grand total 4211. Of these Rousseau's division lost 18 officers and 466 men killed, and 52 officers and 1468 men wounded, total 2004; and Jackson's division lost 6 officers and 81 men killed, and 8 officers and 338 men wounded, total 433; grand total, two divisions, 2437. The few others killed and wounded were of the three divisions of the Third Corps.(34)

The Confederate loss, as reported by General Polk, was 510 killed and 2635 wounded, total 3145; captured 251, grand total 3396.(34)

Bragg withdrew from the field of Perryville during the night after the battle and united his army with Smith's at Harrodsburg.

Commencing October 13th, he retreated through Southeastern Kentucky _via_ c.u.mberland Gap to the Tennessee, thence transferred his army to Murfreesboro, to which place Breckinridge, also Forrest's cavalry, had been previously sent.

Thus the great invasion ended. It bore none of the antic.i.p.ated fruits. Both Bragg and Kirby Smith felt keenly the disappointment that Kentucky's sons did not rally under their standards. Bragg frequently remarked while in Kentucky: "The people here have too many fat cattle and are too well off to fight."

From Bryantsville he wrote the Adjutant-General at Richmond:

"The campaign here was predicated on the belief and the most positive a.s.surances that the people of this country would rise in ma.s.s to a.s.sert their independence. No people ever had so favorable an opportunity, but I am distressed to add there is little or no disposition to avail of it."(35)

The conception of the invasion was admirable, and the execution of the campaign was vigorous, and, under all the circ.u.mstances, skilful, but if the Army of the Ohio had been rapidly moved and boldly fought, together with its numerous auxiliaries, both Bragg and Kirby Smith's armies would have been separately beaten and destroyed.

Buell's army pursued the enemy from Kentucky, and finally concentrated in front of Nashville. By direction of the President, October 24, 1862, the State of Tennessee east of the Tennessee River and Northern Alabama and Georgia became the Department of the c.u.mberland, and General W. S. Rosecrans was a.s.signed to its command, his troops to const.i.tute the Fourteenth Army Corps.(36) Buell was, at the same date, ordered to turn over his command to Rosecrans. The latter relived Buell at Louisville October 30th. Buell retired to Indianapolis to await orders. He was never again a.s.signed to active duty, though he held his Major-General's commission until May 23, 1864. He was not without talent, and possessed much technical military learning; was a good organizer and disciplinarian, but was better qualified for an adjutant's office than a command in the field. Many things said of him were untrue or unjust, yet the fact remains that he failed as an independent commander of an army during field operations. With great opportunities, he did not achieve _success_--the only test of greatness in war--possibly in any situation in life. He was not, however, the least of a cla.s.s developed and brought to the front by the exigencies of war, who were not equal to the work a.s.signed them, or who could not or did not avail themselves of the opportunities presented.

Rosecrans, while in command of the Army of the c.u.mberland, won the battle of Stone's River (December 31, 1862); then pushed Bragg across the Tennessee and fought the great battle of Chickamauga, September 19 and 20, 1863. He was relieved at Chattanooga by Thomas, October 19, 1863, and was a.s.signed to the Department of Missouri, January 28, 1864. In this new field Rosecrans displayed much activity and performed good service, but he was relieved again, December 9, 1864, and thereafter was on waiting orders at Cincinnati.

Notwithstanding some mistakes, his character as a great soldier and commanding general will stand the severe scrutiny of military critics. He was a man of many attainments, a fine conversationalist, and a genial gentleman who drew to him many devoted friends.

This chapter, already of greater length than was originally designed, must here end, as I must turn to other campaigns, armies, and fields of battle more nearly connected with my further career in the War of the Rebellion.

( 1) _War Records_, vol. xvi., Part I., pp. 838-841.

( 2) _Ibid_., Part II., p. 290.

( 3) _War Records_, vol. x., Part I., p. 910.

( 4) _Ibid_., vol. xvi., Part II., p. 404.

( 5) _Battles and Leaders_, vol. iii., p. 39, and see _War Records_, vol. xvi., Part II., pp. 394, 395.