river to the gunboats of Commodore Goldsborough; and on the 15th of May,
the iron-clads Galena, Monitor and Naugatuck, ascended to Ward’s, on
Drury’s Bluff, about eight miles below Richmond, where they encountered
a heavy battery and two separate barriers formed of piles and sunken
vessels. The banks of the river were lined with sharpshooters, who
effectually prevented any attempt to remove the obstructions. The Galena
ran within about six hundred yards of the battery, and opened fire; the
Monitor attempted to pass ahead of her, but found her heavy guns
ineffective at close range, as they would not admit of sufficient
elevation to bear on the position of the enemy. The Aroostook and Port
Royal, wooden vessels, were attached to the flotilla, but, of course
were not adapted to an attack on fortifications of this nature, though
they bravely took part in the distance.
After an engagement of over three hours, the Federal vessels were
compelled to relinquish the attack, without having produced any apparent
effect upon the battery. The Naugatuck was disabled by the bursting of
her 100-pound Parrott gun, and the Monitor was struck several times but
received no injury. The Galena was not so fortunate. Thirteen shot
penetrated her iron sides, starting the knees, planks, and timbers, and
killing or wounding about twenty-five of her crew. Commodore Morris of
the Port Royal was wounded in the engagement.
The gunboat Ellis, Lieutenant W. P. Cushing, captured the town of
Onslow, on New River Inlet, N. C., on November 23rd, destroying the salt
works and securing three schooners and ten whale boats. The Ellis ran
aground and was blown up by her commander, who secured his prizes
without loss.
NAVAL OPERATIONS ON THE MISSISSIPPI.
MAY TO DECEMBER, 1862.
Commander Palmer of the Iroquois, took possession of Baton Rouge on May
7th, which place was subsequently occupied by the military forces under
General Williams.
After the brilliant operations of the United States naval forces under
Commodore Farragut which resulted in the capture of New Orleans,
immediate steps were taken by that commander to ascend the river, and
occupy such positions as would enable him to cooperate with important
army movements then in contemplation. Seven vessels were sent up the
Mississippi under Captain Craven, while the smaller steamers under
Captain Lee were ordered to ascend as high as Vicksburg.
Commander S. P. Lee, with the advance of the squadron, arrived near
Vicksburg, May 18, and in reply to his demand for surrender, received a
defiant refusal. Flag-Officer Farragut arrived a few days afterwards,
accompanied by a column of troops under General Williams. Additional
naval forces soon afterwards arrived, including Commodore Porter’s
mortar fleet, which had done much effective service in the reduction of
Forts Jackson and St. Philip, at the mouths of the river. Porter opened
the bombardment on the night of June 26–27, directing fire partly
against the town and partly against some formidable batteries on the
heights. On the morning of the 27th, the Owasco, Lieutenant Guest, ran
up abreast of the town and threw in some incendiary shells, which failed
to explode. At three o’clock on the morning of the 28th the squadron
made a move to pass the batteries, the mortar fleet supporting them as
at the battle of Forts Jackson and St. Philip. The Hartford and several
other vessels succeeded in passing the range of batteries, which
extended full three miles, and did this too in the face of a strong
current, but as there was not a sufficient land force to cooperate in
the attack, no substantial benefit resulted from the movement. The enemy
were several times driven from their batteries, but returned to their
guns as soon as the ships had passed.
Forming a junction with the western gunboat flotilla of Flag-Officer C.
H. Davis, Farragut concerted with that officer and General Williams an
expedition up the Yazoo River, consisting of the gunboats Carondelet and
Tyler, and the ram Queen of the West, strengthened by sharpshooters from
the army. They started on the morning of July 15, and near the mouth of
the river encountered the Confederate ram Arkansas. A severe fight
ensued, in which both the Carondelet and the Tyler were partially
disabled, and the Arkansas then entered the Mississippi and passing
boldly through the surprised fleets of Farragut and Davis, took refuge
under the guns of Vicksburg.
Farragut now determined to repass the batteries for the double purpose
of supporting the rest of his squadron and destroying the Arkansas in
passing; to assist in which Flag-Officer Davis added to his force the
ram Sumter, Lieutenant Commanding Erben. Toward evening, Davis opened a
bombardment, for the purpose of covering the movement, and Captain
Farragut succeeded in getting below Vicksburg again with little loss of
life, but his designs against the Arkansas were defeated by the darkness
of the night.
On the 22d, Commander W. D. Porter, with the iron-clad gunboat Essex,
and Lieutenant-Colonel Ellet, with the ram Queen of the West, made
another attempt to destroy the Confederate vessel, but the attack though
executed with great gallantry under the fire of the batteries, did not
succeed. The Essex ran down to Farragut’s fleet, and Farragut having
been instructed by the navy department to drop down the river before the
water got too low, it was arranged that Commander W. D. Porter should
remain below Vicksburg with the Essex and Sumter.
On the 28th of July, Farragut arrived at New Orleans, leaving the
Katahdin and Kineo at Baton Rouge. On the 5th of August, the
Confederates made a vigorous land attack upon the latter place, which
was repulsed after a severe contest. The gunboats were not able to
assist until toward the close of the action, when they threw their
shells directly into the midst of the enemy with great effect. The
Arkansas had dropped down the river to take part in the attack, but was
not brought into action, one of her engines having broken down. The next
morning, Porter, who was then at Baton Rouge with the Essex, moved up to
attack her, but before the fight had fairly begun her other engine gave
way, and she was run ashore, abandoned, and set on fire by the crew.
About an hour afterward she blew up. On the 11th, Farragut sailed for
Ship Island and Pensacola, which latter place, having been evacuated by
the Confederates, was now made the depot of the Western Gulf Squadron.
Commander W. D. Porter remained at Baton Rouge until August 23, when,
the town having been evacuated by the Federal troops, he proceeded up
the river to reconnoitre batteries reported in progress at Port Hudson,
and thence ascended to Bayou Sara to obtain coal, where his boat’s crew
was fired upon by guerrillas. Some of the buildings were thereupon
burned, and a few days afterward, as the firing was repeated, the rest
of the place was destroyed. Afterwards a boat’s crew from the Essex,
sent ashore at Natchez to procure ice for the sick, was attacked, by
some two hundred armed citizens, one of the sailors being killed, and an
officer and five men wounded. Commander Porter immediately opened fire
on the town, set a number of houses in flames, and continued the
bombardment for an hour, after which the mayor surrendered. On her way
down to New Orleans, the Essex had a brisk engagement, on September 7th,
with the Port Hudson batteries.
In the mean time, several vessels of Captain Farragut’s squadron had
been employed on the coast of Texas, where acting volunteer Lieutenant
J. W. Kittredge, with the bark Arthur, the little steamer Sachem, and a
launch, captured Corpus Christi, after several spirited engagements with
the enemy’s batteries, but was unable to hold the town, and was himself
made prisoner, September 14, while on shore exploring.
On September 26, Acting Master Crocker, with the steamer Kensington and
schooner Rachel Seaman, and Acting Master Pennington, with the mortar
schooner Henry Janes, captured Sabine Pass, taking a battery of four
guns without loss.
On the 4th of October, Commander W. B. Renshaw, with the steamers
Westfield, Harriet Lane, Owasco, and Clifton, and the mortar schooner
Henry Janes, captured the defences of the harbor and city of Galveston
without the loss of a man. The resistance was feeble: the first shell
from the Owasco burst immediately over a heavy 10-inch Columbiad mounted
on Fort Point, causing a panic in the fort, and depriving the defenders
of their main reliance.
Toward the end of October, Lieutenant Commander T. McKean Buchanan, with
the steamers Calhoun, Estrella, Kinsman, and Diana, and the transport
St. Mary’s, having on board the Twenty-first Indiana regiment, was sent
to the Atchafalaya river, La., to cooperate with a land force under
General Weitzel. On Nov. 1, near Brashear City, he captured the
Confederate despatch boat A. B. Seger, and the next day had an
engagement with an iron-clad gunboat and some land batteries on the
Bayou Teche. The batteries were silenced, but the gunboat, being behind
a row of obstructions across the channel, escaped up the river.
Lieutenant Commander Buchanan then returned to Brashear City to repair
damages. On the 6th, the Kinsman discovered and burned two steamers in
one of the small bayous in the neighborhood.
Early in August, an expedition was concerted between Flag-Officer Davis
and General Curtis, which moved up the Yazoo, and captured a battery of
heavy guns, field pieces, munitions of war, &c., besides taking the
Confederate transport Fairplay, loaded with one thousand two hundred
Enfield rifles, four thousand new muskets, four field guns, mounted
howitzers, small arms, a quantity of fixed ammunition, &c.
On the 26th of September, the ram Queen of the West and two transports
having been fired into by the Confederates at Prentiss, Miss., the town
was shelled and burned.
On December 13th the gunboat Cairo, while ascending the Yazoo, was blown
up by a torpedo, and sank in fifteen minutes after the explosion. It is
remarkable that none of the crew were killed, or even seriously hurt.
HOOKER’S CAMPAIGN IN VIRGINIA.
JANUARY 26, 1863.
After the disastrous battle of Fredericksburg, General Burnside’s army
remained inactive at Falmouth for several weeks. The Army of the Potomac
was then as strong in numbers as it had ever been. An important movement
on the 26th of January was frustrated by a severe storm, and the army
after marching fifteen miles, was compelled to return to its original
position. General Burnside then tendered the resignation of his command
to the President, which was accepted.
On the 26th of January, 1863, the command of the Army of the Potomac was
transferred from General Burnside to General Hooker. On the same day,
Generals Sumner and Franklin were removed from the command of the right
and left divisions of the army.
At this period the extreme cold rendered it impossible for any movement
to be made either by the Army of the Potomac or by its opponent, at
Fredericksburg. Occasional rebel raids, and cavalry movements were the
only operations taking place on either side. The cavalry of the enemy
made a raid, marked with considerable success, as far inside the Union
lines as Fairfax Court-House, in Virginia. This occurred about March
12th, and the rebels carried off Brigadier-General Stoughton, whom they
surprised in bed, besides capturing a detachment from his brigade, with
horses and other property.
Five days later, a sharp fight took place between a body of cavalry,
under General Averill, and a force of the enemy’s cavalry, near Kelly’s
ford. Nothing more of special interest transpired until April 13th, when
an expedition of cavalry, artillery and infantry, from the Federal army
proceeded in detachments to Bealton, Warrenton, Rappahannock, and
Liberty, with Major-General Stoneman in command. Thence, General
Stoneman moved to the Rapidan fords, and took possession of them; these
operations being in advance of a grand movement to cross the
Rappahannock, and attack General Lee on the opposite side.
GENERAL STONEMAN’S CAVALRY RAID.
MAY 1, 1863.
The storms which ensued prevented active movements by General Stoneman
until the 29th of April. On that day he crossed at Kelly’s Ford. The
division of General Averill moved to the Orange and Alexandria railroad,
and encountered two regiments of the enemy, who retired towards
Gordonsville. Thence he proceeded to Culpeper, and dispersed a force of
the rebels there, capturing their rear guard, and seizing a large amount
of flour, salt, and bacon. The enemy were pursued by way of Cedar
Mountain toward the Rapidan. Here he received a dispatch from General
Stoneman, desiring him to push the enemy as vigorously as possible, and
keep him occupied. On the 1st, scouting parties were sent up and down on
both sides of the Rapidan. On the 2d, orders were received by him to
join General Hooker at United States Ford, at once.
General Stoneman, after crossing at Kelly’s Ford, moved the main body of
his command across Fleshman’s creek, and encamped for the night in an
open field. On the next day, the 3d, General Buford crossed the Rapidan,
two miles below Racoon Ford, and drove a body of infantry from the ford,
where General Gregg crossed later in the day. A lieutenant and thirteen
privates of an artillery company were captured here. At night, the whole
force bivouacked one mile from the river. On the next day the march was
commenced, and at Orange Spring, a force of the enemy, approaching by
railroad, barely escaped capture. That night, the command encamped at
Greenwood, one mile from Louisa Court House, through which the Virginia
Central railroad passes, connecting Gordonsville with Richmond. On the
next day, the 2d of May, a squadron of the Tenth New York, under Colonel
Irwin, was sent five miles above the town, and another of the same
regiment, under Major Avery, was sent the same distance below, to
destroy the track of the road, while Colonel Kilpatrick took possession
of the town. The track was torn up for some distance, the telegraph cut,
and some commissary stores seized. In the afternoon, the command moved
to Thompson’s Four Corners. From this place, as headquarters, several
expeditions were sent out. On the next morning, Colonel Wyndham
proceeded to Columbia, on the James river, where the Lynchburg and
Richmond Canal crosses the river. An unsuccessful attempt was made to
destroy the aqueduct. Five locks were injured, three canal boats, loaded
with commissary stores, and five bridges, were burned, and the canal
lock cut in several places. A large quantity of commissary stores and
medicines in the town were also destroyed. Another detachment, under
Captain Drummond, of the Fifth United States Cavalry, destroyed the
bridge over the James river, at Centreville. Other small parties were
sent out in different directions, and some skirmishing took place with
small parties of the enemy. At the same time, a force, consisting of the
Tenth New York and First Maine, with two pieces of artillery, was sent
out under General Gregg, to destroy the railroad bridge at Ashland,
while Colonel Kilpatrick, with the Harris Light, and Twelfth Illinois,
Lieutenant-Colonel Davis, were to go between Ashland and Richmond,
destroying the railroad, bridges, &c. General Gregg destroyed the
railroad bridge across the South Anna, on the road from Columbia to
Spottsylvania; thence he moved east, and destroyed the road to Beaver
Dam Station. He then turned north to the Richmond and Gordonsville
turnpike, sending out a detachment to burn the Ground Squirrel bridge.
That night he bivouacked eight miles from Ashland. A detachment sent out
to burn the bridge at Ashland found it too strongly defended. Some
portions of the railroad track, however, were destroyed. Leaving Colonel
Kilpatrick and Lieutenant-Colonel Davis, General Gregg returned on the
next day to General Stoneman. On the night of the 4th, General Gregg
moved near Yanceyville, and was followed the next day by General
Stoneman and General Buford’s command. On the 5th, the retrograde
movement commenced, and crossing Racoon Ford, on the Rapidan, the
command arrived at Kelley’s Ford on the North Fork. Meantime, the
advance of Colonel Kilpatrick was made, and thus subsequently reported
by him:
“By directions from Major-General Stoneman, I left Louisa Court House on
the morning of the 3d instant, with one regiment (the Harris Light
Cavalry) of my brigade; reached Hungary, on the Fredericksburg railroad,
at daylight on the 4th; destroyed the depot and telegraph wires and
railroad for several miles; passed over to Brook turnpike, drove in the
rebel pickets; down the pike, across the brook, charged a battery, and
forced it to retire within two miles of the city of Richmond; captured
Lieutenant Brown, aid-de-camp to General Winder, and eleven men within
the fortifications; passed down to the left of the Meadow bridge on the
Chickahominy, which I burned; ran a train of cars into the river;
retired to Hanovertown on the peninsula; crossed and destroyed the ferry
boat just in time to check the advance of a pursuing cavalry force;
burned a train of thirty wagons loaded with bacon; captured thirteen
prisoners, and encamped for the night five miles from the river.
“I resumed my march at 1 P. M. of the 5th; surprised a force of three
hundred cavalry at Aylett’s; captured two officers and thirty-three men;
burned fifty-six wagons, the depot, containing upwards of twenty
thousand bushels of corn and wheat, quantities of clothing and
commissary stores, and safely crossed the Mattapony, and destroyed the
ferry again just in time to escape the advance of the rebel cavalry
pursuit. Late in the evening I destroyed a third wagon train and depot a
few miles above and west of the Tappahannock on the Rappahannock, and
from that point made a forced march of twenty miles, being closely
pursued by a superior force of cavalry, supposed to be a portion of
Stuart’s, from the fact that we captured prisoners from the Eighth,
First, and Tenth Virginia cavalry. At sundown discovered a force of
cavalry drawn up in line of battle about King and Queen Court House.
Their strength was unknown, but I at once advanced to the attack, only
to discover, however, that they were friends—a portion of the Tenth
Illinois cavalry, who had become separated from the command of
Lieutenant-Colonel Davis, of the same regiment.
“At ten A. M., on the 7th, I found safety and rest under our own brave
old flag within our lines at Gloucester Point. This raid and march
around the entire rebel army—a march of nearly two hundred miles—has
been made in less than five days, with a loss of one officer and
thirty-seven men, having captured and paroled upwards of three hundred
men.”
At the same time, Lieutenant-Colonel Davis, of the Twelfth Illinois, was
ordered to penetrate to the Fredericksburg railroad, and, if possible,
to the Virginia Central, and destroy communications. If he crossed the
Virginia Central he was to make for Williamsburg on the peninsula.
Leaving the main body on the South Anna, on Sunday, May 3d, he passed
down the bank of that river, burning a bridge, and, dispersing a mounted
party of the enemy, struck the railroad at Ashland. Here he cut the
telegraph, tore up some rails, and burned the trestle-work bridge south
of the town. At the same time a train of cars, filled with sick and
wounded, arrived, and was captured. The prisoners were paroled, and the
locomotives disabled. Twenty wagons, with horses, were destroyed, and
several horses taken. Leaving at 6 P. M., a train of eighteen wagons was
met and destroyed, and Hanover Station reached at 8 P. M. Here thirty
prisoners were captured, and the railroad line broken. The depot,
storehouses, and stables, filled with government property were
destroyed, also a culvert and trestle-work south of the station. Among
the property destroyed were more than one hundred wagons, a thousand
sacks of flour and corn, and a large quantity of clothing and horse
equipments. The command then moved down within seven miles of Richmond,
and thence marched to Williamsburg, and then proceeded to Gloucester
Point, having destroyed property of the enemy valued at a million
dollars. Colonel Davis’s loss was thirty-five men.
HOOKER’S ADVANCE.
The weather now became very inclement; and storms succeeded each other
for several days. It was not till the 27th that the movement to cross
the Rappahannock was finally effected.
General Hooker’s army numbered about one hundred and twenty thousand
men, who were divided into seven separate corps. The army of General Lee
numbered about seventy thousand men; it held a line running from
northwest to southeast, with its right wing extending to Port Hudson on
the Rappahannock, and its left resting above Fredericksburg.
General Hooker’s plan of attack was as follows: three corps were massed
below Fredericksburg, and, crossing the river at West Point, were to
make a feint attack upon the enemy; having done this, the two corps were
to return instantly, and join the remaining four corps, and with them
recross the river at ten or twenty miles above Fredericksburg, thus
moving down upon the left of the enemy; and, according to General
Hooker’s idea, forcing the rebels to a battle outside their
intrenchments, which would compel them to fall back on Richmond. The
following description will give a clear idea of the position, at that
time, of the Army of the Potomac: Falmouth, the position occupied by
General Hooker’s army, is nearly opposite Fredericksburg on the north
bank of the Rappahannock. About twelve miles above, the Rapidan, a small
river, unites with a stream hitherto called the North Fork, to form the
Rappahannock. Lately, however, the North Fork had been called the
Rappahannock, and the Rapidan had been spoken of as a tributary.
The United States Ford is about one mile below the mouth of the Rapidan.
Banks’s Ford is about midway between the United States Ford and
Falmouth. Kelly’s Ford, where the four corps crossed the North Fork, or
the Rapidan, as it was now called, is about twenty miles above Falmouth.
Germania Ford, where the same force crossed the Rapidan, is about twelve
miles south of Kelly’s Ford, at a place called Germania Mills.
On Monday morning, April 27th, three corps under Major-General Howard,
Major-General Slocum, and Major-General Meade, marched to Kelly’s Ford,
which was reached on the afternoon of the following day, by General
Howard, who was in advance. Portions of the Seventy-third Pennsylvania,
and One Hundred and Fifty-fourth New York, amounting to two hundred and
fifty men, crossed in boats, and took position on the opposite side of
the river. No enemy was to be found, except a few pickets, who retired
before the skirmishers sent out to reconnoitre. During the evening the
remainder of General Howard’s corps crossed the river; General Slocum’s
bivouacked on the shore, and General Meade’s crossed the river some
miles further down. On Wednesday morning General Slocum’s corps also
crossed over; and on Thursday the last day of April, the three corps
advanced to Chancellorsville, and were massed at night at the point
where the Culpeper road joins the Orange Court-House road. General
Hooker arrived there at nightfall, and made the place his headquarters.
On the 29th the second corps under command of General Couch, had taken
up a position five miles above Fredericksburg, at Banks’s Ford. General
Sherman’s cavalry was sent to cut off the railway communication between
General Lee’s army and Richmond. Meanwhile, the remaining three corps of
the army under Major-Generals Sickles, Sedgwick, and Reynolds, had left
camps on Monday night, and taken up a position two miles below
Fredericksburg. On Tuesday morning, one division of General Sedgwick’s
corps crossed the river at this point; and one division of General
Reynolds’ corps crossed about a mile further down. General Sickles’
corps was detached from the remaining two on Wednesday, and ordered to
join General Hooker at Chancellorsville.
This was the position of General Hooker’s army on Friday, May 1st.