guns at and near battery Stevens, opened a terrific fire upon the
rebel battery. Meantime, detachments from the Eighty-ninth New York
Volunteers, Lieutenant-Colonel England, and the Eighth Connecticut,
Colonel Ward, in all two hundred and eighty men, embarked on board the
gunboat Stepping Stones, Lieutenant Lansom, at a point about a mile
above the battery. Protected by the artillery fire, the gunboat boldly
steamed down the river about two hundred yards above the rebel works,
the shore at that point being an abrupt bluff. Immediately the troops
disembarked, wading to their waists in water, ascended the bluff, and
with loud cheers charged on the rear of the fort. Meantime, the
gunboat’s crew had landed four boat howitzers, placed them in
position, and opened on the fort. The enemy, taken completely by
surprise, were only able to deliver two or three volleys of musketry,
and fire one gun, when our troops entered the work, and captured the
entire party of seven officers and one hundred and thirty men, with
five brass guns, and a large supply of ammunition.”
The capture of this battery so alarmed the rebels that they at once
turned all their attention to their own position, and the most earnest
preparations were made in all haste to resist the terrible artillery
fire of the Union batteries, which was now turned with all their
strength against their front.
Perpetually on the look-out for any change in the plans or position of
the enemy, General Peck was constantly sending out reconnoitering
parties, who, getting into skirmishes with the enemy’s outposts, would
drive them back to the rebel main line, and were then in turn forced
back themselves by formidable numbers. The work of fortifying continued
to go on during the whole three weeks of the siege; the labor of
erecting batteries, building roads and bridges, and cutting timber, went
briskly forward during the night, after days of severe fighting. Nothing
could exceed, nor no praise do justice to the constant patience,
courage, and devotion to duty manifested by the brave troops who
defended Suffolk.
Rebel reinforcements began to arrive about the 20th of April, returning
from their unsuccessful attack on Fort Washington. Day by day the enemy
grew stronger. But no fear of defeat troubled the brave Unionists, nor
did the thought of surrender occur to them.
By the 30th of April a rebel reinforcement, consisting of General D. H.
Hill’s troops, and numbering ten thousand, arrived and joined the
already strong army of General Longstreet; and such was Longstreet’s
opinion of the town’s fortifications and inner strength, that
notwithstanding his own very superior numbers, he began to feel that
after all he would be compelled to forego his plan of capturing Suffolk.
He would not retire, however, without a final effort; and new batteries
were constantly constructed, but no sooner unmasked, than they were
silenced by the deadly fire of the gunboats, and Parrotts from the Union
works. Victory had spread her wings above the Union forces, and was
waiting to fold them and settle down upon the National banner. General
Longstreet was soon compelled to acknowledge his attack a failure; and
the approaching conflict between the armies of Hooker and Lee (elsewhere
described), gave him a good excuse for raising the siege of Suffolk.
On the 3rd of May General Longstreet drew off his men, and commenced his
retreat. They were pursued by a strong Union force under General Getty
and General Harland; the enemy was overtaken, and some sharp skirmishing
took place between him and his pursuers, which was at length ended by
darkness. Under cover of the night the rebels retreated.
The next day a rebel cavalry force, numbering four hundred, was
encountered at Chuckatuck by small Union force, who routed them with
musketry and artillery. A short distance from Hill’s Point, the rebels
were encountered by another Union force under Colonel Dutton, and caused
them considerable annoyance for the remainder of the day. At midnight on
the 3rd of May, the Union troops under Corcoran, Dodge and Foster,
started in pursuit of the flying rebels; but without any result except
the capture of a few hundred stragglers. This ended the siege of
Suffolk; during which the National loss was forty-four killed, two
hundred and one wounded and fourteen missing. Four hundred rebel
prisoners were captured in all; and the enemy had gained absolutely
nothing, with a loss of one thousand five hundred men in killed wounded
and prisoners; five guns, and a very large quantity of stores and small
arms.
SIEGE OF KNOXVILLE, TENNESSEE.
NOVEMBER 17-DECEMBER 6, 1863.
From the commencement of hostilities until the fall of 1863, no
successful measures had been adopted to relieve the inhabitants of East
Tennessee from the iron rule of rebellion. More than three-fourths of
the population were unconditionally loyal, and her brave soldiers fought
side by side with the men of the North and West in defence of the
Government, while their homes were being desolated by a stern and
vindictive foe. Hundreds of her citizens had suffered death from
imprisonment and privations, while thousands were unwillingly
conscripted in the rebel armies.
Much had been hoped for, when General Buell led a gallant army through
Kentucky, almost to her border, but the day of her emancipation had not
yet arrived.
In the fall of 1863, a determined effort was made by the Government to
occupy East Tennessee. General Burnside had been called to the command
of the Department of the Ohio, in the month of March, but the exigencies
of the Vicksburg campaign had deprived him of his troops, and he had
subsequently remained inactive. The surrender of that stronghold had
placed an army again at his disposal, and by the latter part of August
he was in condition to attempt the occupation of East Tennessee, and
thus cooperate with General Rosecrans, who was then in the midst of his
heavy campaign bearing on Chattanooga. It was feared that reinforcements
would reach Bragg at Chattanooga, through East Tennessee from Virginia,
and to General Burnside was assigned the duty of destroying the
communications between these points. He entered the State late in
August, about midway between the eastern and western boundaries, and
immediately occupied Knoxville, which was evacuated by the rebel General
Buckner, without a struggle. His retreat was so precipitate, and his
surprise so great, that he had no opportunity to notify the garrison at
Cumberland Gap of their danger, consequently the rebel forces at that
point, numbering some two thousand men, were environed by the Union
army, and compelled to surrender.
Knoxville was now delivered from the rebel rule; and the inhabitants
hailed the presence of their deliverers with the warmest tokens of joy.
Recruits flocked to the Union army by hundreds, from all the surrounding
country, much faster than they could be either armed or clad.
Though the capture of Knoxville was an easy enterprise on the part of
General Burnside, its retention promised to be a work of great
difficulty. He was two hundred and fifty miles from the base of his
supplies in Kentucky, and on either side of him were the two great
armies of the rebellion—Lee on the east, and Bragg on the south. The
country in the neighborhood swarmed with guerrillas, and important posts
in the vicinity were liable to, and subjected to frequented attacks from
the Confederate forces, yet too feeble to attack the main Union army.
Clothes and shoes began to fail, and economy became necessary in all
means of subsistence. The disastrous battle of Chickamauga, which
imperilled the existence of General Rosecrans’ army, tended to increase
the difficulties of General Burnside.
During the month of November it became certain that General Longstreet
had been detached from the army of General Bragg, with the design of
attacking General Burnside, at Knoxville. After fortifying the city in
such manner as to insure confidence in his ability to maintain it,
General Burnside advanced to meet his antagonist, cautiously luring him
on, to invite his withdrawal from the support of Bragg, and finally
falling back within the defences of Knoxville, on the 17th of November,
with the rebel army pressing close upon his rear. The Union army was
informed that there was now to be no more retreating. The old defences
were strengthened and new ones erected, rifle-pits dug, and trees felled
to resist the approach of the besiegers.
The city lies on the north bank of the Holston river, and a range of
hills protects it on the west. The rebels, therefore, prepared to attack
the defences from the north and east. Their line extended in a circular
form, with their right touching the river, thus cutting off all water
communication, and the supplies of the army were thenceforward to be
obtained by forage trains alone. A long siege was not feared by General
Burnside, as he had the promise of assistance from General Grant, who
had just been called to the command of the army confronting Bragg. The
brilliant victories of Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge now enabled
General Grant to hasten forward the expected succor. Of this fact
Longstreet soon became informed, but as he had confidently anticipated
the capture of the city and its defenders, he was loth to leave his
anticipated prey without a desperate and hasty effort for its seizure.
He would try to carry Knoxville by storm.
One of the principal defences of the place was called Fort Sanders, in
honor of a brave general who had fallen in the early part of the siege.
It was situated on a high hill on the northeast corner of the town, and
was composed of well-planned earthworks. This fort commanded the
approaches to the city both from the north and east, and its capture was
a necessity before the assailants could enter Knoxville. The sides of
the hill had been covered with a dense forest of pine, which had been
felled, and now presented an abattis or network of brush or timber,
almost impassable, to within two or three hundred yards of the fort,
where a cleared space intervened, affording free range for grape or
canister. The works consisted of a ditch and parapet.
Three picked regiments were assigned the duty of storming this fort by
General Longstreet. On the night of the twenty-eighth of November these
regiments succeeded in pushing their way through the pine abattis,
reaching the edge of the clearing, after a short interval of skirmishing
with the defenders, and lay on their arms at the edge of the abattis
until daybreak on the morning of the twenty-ninth, when a charge was
ordered. A scene of carnage and desperate valor now ensued, which had
many parallels during this fratricidal war. As the rebels advanced
across the open space, a furious storm of grape and canister met them,
and decimated their ranks. A network of unseen wires, which had been
interlaced across the approach, now entangled their ranks, and threw
many of the men to the ground, who were trampled under feet by their
comrades. The air was filled with the whiz of minie balls. Yet still the
intrepid assailants rushed on, over the bodies of their dead and wounded
comrades, until they reached the ditch, where they encountered a
continuous storm of hand-grenades thrown into the midst of the
struggling mass, and exploding with horrible effect. One of the
assailants reached the parapet, and waved a Confederate flag, only to be
hurled into the ditch the next instant, a mangled corpse. None of the
rebels entered the fort, while scores lay dead before it. The whole
force of the garrison was but three hundred—far less than the dead and
dying who strewed the ground around it. The Federal loss was four killed
and eleven wounded.
General Longstreet, now despairing of success, abandoned the siege, and
retreated southward. On the sixth of December General Sherman entered
the city with reinforcements, and railroad communication with
Chattanooga was opened.
OPERATIONS IN TENNESSEE.
SEPTEMBER 20-DECEMBER 31, 1863.
The great battle of Chickamauga, ending on the 20th of September, 1863,
resulted, as we have seen, in no material advantage to the rebels and in
no additional success to the arms of the Union. It was substantially an
equal and a fruitless contest—“a drawn battle.” Upon both sides the
losses were very heavy. General Rosecrans lost sixteen thousand eight
hundred and fifty-one men, all told, and a large quantity of material of
war. General Bragg, on the other hand, lost eighteen thousand. Upward of
two thousand rebels were captured by the National troops.
On the 2d of October, General Rosecrans issued the following order,
dated at the Headquarters of the Department of the Cumberland, at
Chattanooga.
“_Army of the Cumberland_: You have made a grand and successful
campaign; you have driven the rebels from Middle Tennessee. You
crossed a great mountain range, placed yourselves on the banks of a
broad river, crossed it in the face of a powerful opposing army, and
crossed two other great mountain ranges at the only practicable
passes, some forty miles between extremes. You concentrated in the
face of superior numbers; fought the combined armies of Bragg, which
you drove from Shelbyville to Tullahoma, of Johnston’s army from
Mississippi, and the tried veterans of Longstreet’s corps, and for two
days held them at bay, giving them blow for blow, with heavy interest.
When the day closed, you held the field, from which you withdrew, in
the face of overpowering numbers, to occupy the point for which you
set out—Chattanooga.
“You have accomplished the great work of the campaign; you hold the
key of East Tennessee, of Northern Georgia, and of the enemy’s mines
of coal and nitre. Let these achievements console you for the regret
you experience that arrivals of fresh hostile troops forbade your
remaining on the field to renew the battle; for the right of burying
your gallant dead, and caring for your brave companions who lay
wounded on the field. The losses you have sustained, though heavy, are
slight, considering the odds against you, and the stake you have won.
“You hold in your hands the substantial fruits of a victory, and
deserve and will receive the honors and plaudits of a grateful nation,
which asks nothing of even those who have been fighting us, but
obedience to the Constitution and laws established for our own common
benefit.
“The General commanding earnestly begs every officer and soldier of
this army to unite with him in thanking Almighty God for His favors to
us. He presents his hearty thanks and congratulations to all the
officers and soldiers of this command, for their energy, patience, and
perseverance, and the undaunted courage displayed by those who fought
with such unflinching resolution.
“Neither the history of this war, nor probably the annals of any
battle, furnish a loftier example of obstinate bravery and enduring
resistance to superior numbers—when troops, having exhausted their
ammunition, resorted to the bayonet, many times, to hold their
positions, against such odds—as did our left and centre, comprising
troops from all the corps, on the afternoon of the 20th of September,
at the battle of Chickamauga.
(Signed) W. S. ROSECRANS,
Major-General Commanding.”
After the battle of Chickamauga, the Union army fell back to
Chattanooga, and assumed a strong position in front of that place,
abandoning, however, the passes of Lookout Mountain, which were
immediately occupied by the rebels. The Army of the Cumberland at this
time received its supplies, by way of Stevenson, and Bridgeport, from
depots at Louisville and Nashville. To cut railroad communication with
those points, and thus to paralyze the Union forces, was now the aim of
the Confederate commander; and to this labor he addressed his efforts,
with promptitude and with courage. But the line of railroad was well
defended. On the 23d of September, General Hooker was sent to Tennessee,
in command of the Eleventh and Twelfth corps of the Army of the Potomac,
and was assigned to the protection of the line of communication between
Bridgeport and Nashville. The rebels, in their vain endeavors to
intercept the Union communications, brought about several small
engagements, in which the Unionists were invariably victorious. Thus, on
the 2d of October a rebel force, four thousand strong, under Wheeler,
was defeated, at Anderson’s Cross Roads, by the First Missouri and
Second Indiana cavalry, under Colonel Edward McCook. The enemy lost one
hundred and twenty men, killed and wounded, eighty-seven prisoners, and
upwards of eight hundred mules; and was completely routed, and driven
back for miles. Thus, also, on the 6th of October, General Mitchell
attacked the enemy, in strong force, at Shelbyville, and put them to
flight, with heavy loss. They were, likewise, defeated at Farrington, on
the 8th of October, by the National troops under General Crook, who
captured on this occasion two hundred and forty prisoners, four pieces
of artillery, and one hundred stand of arms.
But other and more important movements were in contemplation at this
time. The Government at Washington, hearing that Bragg was to receive
reinforcements, and feeling that the crisis demanded an infallible
commander, determined to relieve General Rosecrans, and entirely to
reorganize the conduct of the war in the west. With this view General
Grant was directed to advance with his forces from Vicksburg, and to
assume command of the Departments of Tennessee, Cumberland, and Ohio. On
the 18th of October, General Grant arrived at Louisville, and entered
upon his new duties. The immediate direction of affairs in the
Department of the Cumberland was committed to Major-General G. H.
Thomas. The Department of Tennessee was assigned to Major-General W. T.
Sherman. The corps of Generals McCook and Crittenden were consolidated,
and stationed at Cincinnati. General Burnside, commanding the Department
of Ohio, was, at this time, with a considerable Union force, in the
vicinity of Knoxville, in the eastern part of the State.
Such was the position of affairs, when General Grant took command of
these important operations. His first movement was to open a shorter
land communication between the Army of the Cumberland and its base of
supplies. This was necessary, because the rebels were, substantially,
investing Chattanooga; and to lose communication with its base of
supplies, would be to lose the army there intrenched. The movement was
effected in a very skillful manner, and at considerable peril, by
throwing a pontoon bridge across the river Tennessee, at a place called
Brown’s Ferry, about one mile and a half by land, and eight miles by
water, below the bridge at Chattanooga. The boats for this bridge were
floated down from Chattanooga, under cover of the night, and filled with
soldiers. More soldiers were then brought across the river at Brown’s
Ferry, the enemy was driven back on the hills on the shore, and the
bridge was constructed. It was nine hundred feet long, and the work of
building it occupied five hours. As soon as this step had been
successfully taken, General Hooker moved over from Bridgeport, crossed
the river at Brown’s Ferry, and so effected a junction with the forces
at Chattanooga. This opened the direct road to Kelly’s Ferry and so to
Bridgeport, and effectually baffled the enemy’s hopes of cutting off the
Union line of communication. General Grant now pursued, with comparative
freedom his campaign for clearing East Tennessee of the armed forces of
the Rebellion.
The rebel line at this time extended from Lookout Mountain, on the left,
to Fort Buckner, the extreme point of Missionary Ridge, on the right.
The position was, of course, on the south side of the Tennessee river.
The base of supplies was Atlanta. As soon as General Sherman arrived,
with his command, from Memphis, General Grant proceeded to carry out his
plan of the campaign. The rebel General Longstreet, with a considerable
force was now absent from Bragg’s army, having been detached to proceed
against the Union troops under General Burnside, at Knoxville. Bragg’s
army was, therefore, materially weakened. General Grant was not slow to
avail himself of this advantage. The plan upon which he proceeded
involved the following detail. A division of General Sherman’s troops
was to be sent to Trenton, threatening the enemy’s left flank. Under
cover of this movement, General Sherman’s main body was to cross the
Brown’s Ferry bridge at night and pass thence into a concealed camp of
the north side of the river, opposite South Chickamauga creek. One
division was to encamp on the North Chickamauga; about one hundred and
twenty pontoons were to be taken under cover of hills and woods, and
launched into the North Chickamauga; these were to be filled with men,
to be floated out into the Tennessee and down it, until opposite the
South Chickamauga (about three miles below), to effect a landing on the
bank, and throw up works; the remainder of the command was to be taken
across in the same boats, or a portion of them; the Tennessee and South
Chickamauga were to be bridged, and then the artillery crossed and moved
at once to seize a foothold on the bridge, taking up a line facing the
enemy’s right flank, near the tunnel. General Howard’s corps of General
Hooker’s command was to cross into the town by the two bridges, and fill
the gap between General Sherman’s proposed position and the main body of
General Thomas’s army. General Hooker, with the remainder of his force
and a division sent to Trenton, which should return, were to carry the
point of Lookout, and then threaten the enemy’s left, which would thus
be thrown back, being forced to evacuate the mountain and take position
on the ridge; and then the Federal troops, being on both flanks, and
upon one flank threatening the enemy’s communications, were to advance
the whole line or turn the other flank, as the chances might dictate.
Then a part of the force was to follow as far as possible, while General
Sherman destroyed the railroad from Cleveland to Dalton, and then pushed
on to relieve Knoxville, and capture, disperse, or drive off General
Longstreet from before it.
BATTLE OF LOOKOUT MOUNTAIN.
NOVEMBER 24, 1863.
General Grant’s forward movement against the rebel position on Lookout
Mountain commenced on the 24th. The preliminary movements had been
successfully carried out, the Tennessee having been bridged on the 23d,
and General Sherman’s troops pushed across the river. The ascent to
Lookout Mountain is very difficult, and was, of course, rendered all the
more arduous and perilous, by the enemy’s fortifications. But difficulty
was no bar, either to the gallant Army of the Cumberland or to its brave
leaders. Early on the morning of the 24th, General Hooker’s forces
commenced to move along the valley, greatly to the astonishment of the
rebels, who were watching the movement, from their vantage ground upon
the mountain, and who made no immediate opposition to the attempted
ascent of Lookout.