MEMPHIS, VICKSBURG AND ARKANSAS POST.
CHANGES IN COMMAND--RESTORING ORDER AT MEMPHIS--SHERMAN'S VIEWS
OF THE SITUATION--GRANT'S CRITICAL POSITION--MOVING AGAINST
PEMBERTON--MEETING WITH PORTER--THE EXPEDITION AGAINST
VICKSBURG--WHY IT DID NOT SUCCEED--THE SURRENDER AT HOLLY
SPRINGS--SHERMAN REMOVED FROM COMMAND--THE CAPTURE OF ARKANSAS
POST--GENERAL McCLERNAND.
The meagre honors of the Corinth campaign belonged to Sherman. This
fact was recognized at the time by Grant, who wrote: "His services as
Division Commander in the advance on Corinth, I will venture to say,
were appreciated by General Halleck beyond those of any other division
commander." The War Department appreciated them, too, for on May 26th
gave him a commission, dated May 1st, as Major-General of Volunteers.
It has been said, probably with justice, that had Halleck remained
at St. Louis and let Grant conduct the campaign against Corinth,
Beauregard and his whole army would have shared the fate of Buckner
and his forces at Fort Donelson. But Halleck's over-cautiousness in
approaching fortifications that were armed chiefly with "Quaker guns,"
allowed his prey to escape. And even after the flight of Beauregard
from Corinth, Halleck made no important effort to pursue and capture
him. Sherman was sent through the town, and a few miles beyond, to
see if he could find anybody to fight, and then, finding none, went
into camp at Chewalla, where he busied himself for a time with putting
railroad rolling stock in order for the use of the army.
And now Halleck dispersed the great army he had gathered. He sent
Buell and his troops toward Chattanooga, and Pope to Missouri; while
Grant with a fragment was to remain in command in Western Tennessee
and Northern Mississippi. Halleck himself had intended doubtless to
pursue his march southward to the Gulf of Mexico, hoping to free the
Mississippi as he went, for Farragut had already opened the mouth of
that river. This was a magnificent programme, but the energy of the
Rebel government had materially disarranged it. Jefferson Davis became
furiously angry with Beauregard for his defeats at Shiloh and Corinth,
and removed him from command, putting Bragg in his place. At the same
time conscription enormously swelled the Rebel ranks. McClellan's
movements in Virginia did not seem to secure Washington. He, moreover,
was soon removed and Halleck was called from the West to take his
place. This left Grant in command in Tennessee. Buell as ordered,
hurried toward Chattanooga. But Bragg was there before him, and
fortified. Not only that, but he gathered such an army as was a menace
to Kentucky and Ohio. Buell retreated, and more troops had to be taken
from Grant's army to support him. This depletion of his forces made it
impossible for Grant to continue the southward march. But his stern
tenacity of purpose held him where he was, keeping an unyielding grip,
though against great odds, on all that had thus far been gained.
On June 9th, Sherman set out for Grand Junction, an important railroad
centre and strategic point, fifty-two miles west of Memphis. He
took his own division and Hurlbut's, and on the 13th occupied Grand
Junction. The enemy were at Tupelo, Miss., forty-nine miles below
Corinth. Sherman remained at or near Grand Junction for some weeks,
engaged in repairing and protecting the railroads and in similar work.
His experience there was one long wrangle with the planters, who were
trying to cultivate the soil, and were constantly complaining of the
damage done by the moving armies.
Halleck reached Washington early in July, and on the 15th of that month
Grant directed Sherman to proceed to Memphis and take command of that
important place. Memphis was in a bad plight. Nearly all the men had
left the city to enter the Rebel army or to avoid the Union troops, and
the place had fallen into the hands of a horde of speculators. Sherman
undertook to establish order and govern the place as a military post.
His instructions were few; he was to act upon his own discretion.
He assumed command at Memphis on July 21st, and immediately in his
vigorous way set about the construction of defenses and the evolution
of law and order from the prevailing anarchy. Wherever the head of
the family had joined the Rebel army, the family was compelled to
go South. All buildings belonging to Rebels were at once seized and
rented. The mayor and other civil officers were allowed to continue
their functions. No oath of allegiance was enacted from the residents
who remained in the city, Sherman regarding the fact of their remaining
as a profession of loyalty; but if they aided the Rebel cause in any
way, they were treated as spies. Trade in cotton, except on contracts
to be paid at the end of the war, was entirely prohibited. The slave
question then caused not a little trouble. The Government had not yet
fully decided to free them. But Sherman kept careful account of all
the work done for him by negroes, so that the Government might pay for
their services at the end of the war, if it so decided. Guerrillas he
suppressed remorselessly, hunting them down like so many wild beasts.
And he enforced the _lex talionis_. If a loyal family was harassed
by Rebels, he visited wrath upon the nearest secessionists. If the
property of a loyal man was destroyed, he destroyed an equal amount of
enemy's property. For every steamboat attacked by guerrillas, he drove
ten secessionist families into exile. These stern measures, which he
justified by the laws of war, soon restored order to Memphis.
A capital idea of the situation in that part of the country in the
summer of 1862, may be obtained from the following characteristic
letter, which Sherman wrote to his brother John under date of Memphis,
August 13th:
"MY DEAR BROTHER:--I have not written to you for so long that
I suppose you think I have dropped the correspondence. For six
weeks I was marching along the road from Corinth to Memphis,
mending roads, building bridges and all sorts of work. At last I
got here and found the city contributing gold, arms, powder, salt
and everything the enemy wanted. It was a smart trick on their
part, thus to give up Memphis, that the desire of gain to our
Northern merchants should supply them with the things needed in
war. I stopped this at once, and declared gold, silver, Treasury
notes and salt as much contraband of war as powder. I have one
man under sentence of death for smuggling arms across the lines,
and hope Mr. Lincoln will approve it. But the mercenary spirit
of our people is too much, and my orders are reversed and I
am ordered to encourage the trade in cotton, and all orders
prohibiting gold, silver and notes to be paid for it are annulled
by orders from Washington.
"Grant promptly ratified my order, and all military men here saw
at once that gold spent for cotton went to the purchase of arms
and munitions of war. But what are the lives of our soldiers to
the profits of the merchants?
"After a whole year of bungling the country has at last
discovered that we want more men. All knew it last fall as well
as now; but it was not popular. Now 13,000,000 (the General
evidently intended only 1,300,000) men are required when 700,000
was deemed absurd before. It will take time to work up these raw
recruits and they will reach us in October, when we should be in
Jackson, Meridian and Vicksburg. Still I must not growl. I have
purposely put back and have no right to criticise, save that I am
glad the papers have at last found out we are at war and have a
formidable enemy to combat.
"Of course I approve the Confiscation Act, and would be willing
to revolutionize the Government so as to amend that article of
the Constitution which forbids the forfeiture of land to the
heirs. My full belief is we must colonize the country _de novo_,
beginning with Kentucky and Tennessee, and should remove four
million of our people at once south of the Ohio River, taking the
farms and plantations of the Rebels. I deplore the war as much as
ever, but if the thing has to be done, let the means be adequate.
Don't expect to overrun such a country or subdue such a people in
one, two or five years. It is the task of half a century.
"Although our army is thus far South, it cannot stir from our
garrisons. Our men are killed or captured within sight of our
lines. I have two divisions here--mine and Hurlbut's--about
13,000 men; am building a strong fort, and think this is to be
one of the depots and bases of operations for future movements.
"The loss of Halleck is almost fatal. We have no one to replace
him. Instead of having one head, we have five or six, all
independent of each other. I expect our enemies will mass their
troops and fall upon our detachments before new reinforcements
come. I cannot learn that there are any large bodies of men near
us here. There are detachments at Holly Springs near Senatobia,
the present termini of the railroads from the South; and all
the people of the country are armed as guerrillas. Curtis is at
Helena, eighty miles south, and Grant at Corinth. Bragg's army
from Tripoli has moved to Chattanooga and proposes to march on
Nashville, Lexington and Cincinnati. They will have about 75,000
men. Buell is near Huntsville with about 30,000, and I suppose
detachments of the new levies can be put in Kentucky from Ohio
and Indiana in time. The weather is very hot, and Bragg cannot
move his forces very fast; but I fear he will give trouble.
My own opinion is, we ought not to venture too much into the
interior until the river is safely in our possession, when we
could land at any point and strike inland. To attempt to hold all
the South would demand an army too large even to think of. We
must colonize and settle as we go South, for in Missouri there is
as much strife as ever. Enemies must be killed or transported to
some other country.
"Your affectionate brother,
"W. T. SHERMAN."
Near the end of August, Sherman wrote to Grant as follows:
"The guerrillas have destroyed several bridges over Wolf Creek; one at
Raleigh, on the road by which I had prescribed trade and travel to and
from the city. I have a strong guard at the lower bridge over Wolf
River, by which we can reach the country to the north of that stream;
but, as the Confederates have burned their own bridges, I will hold
them to my order, and allow no trade over any other road than the one
prescribed, using the lower or Randolph road for our own convenience.
I am still satisfied there is no large force of Rebels anywhere in the
neighborhood. All the navy gunboats are below, except the St. Louis,
which lies off the city. When Commodore Davis passes down from Cairo,
I will try to see him, and get him to exchange the St. Louis for a
fleeter boat, not iron-clad; one that can move up and down the river.
Of course, in spite of all our efforts, smuggling is carried on. We
occasionally make hauls of clothing, gold-lace, buttons, etc., but I am
satisfied that salt and arms are got to the interior somehow. I have
addressed the Board of Trade a letter on this point, which will enable
us to control it better.
"You may have been troubled at hearing reports of drunkenness here.
There was some after pay-day, but generally all is as quiet and orderly
as possible. I traverse the city every day and night, and assert that
Memphis is and has been as orderly a city as St. Louis, Cincinnati, or
New York.
"Before the city authorities undertook to license saloons there was
as much whisky here as now, and it would take all my command as
custom-house inspectors to break open all the parcels and packages
containing liquor. I can destroy all groggeries and shops where
soldiers get liquor, just as we would in St. Louis.
"The newspapers are accusing me of cruelty to the sick; as base a
charge as was ever made. I would not let the Sanitary Committee carry
off a boat-load of sick, because I have no right to. We have good
hospitals here, and plenty of them. Our regimental hospitals are in the
camps of the men, and the sick do much better there than in the general
hospitals; so say my division surgeon and the regimental surgeons. The
civilian doctors would, if permitted, take away our entire command.
General Curtis sends his sick up here, but usually no nurses; and it
is not right that nurses should be taken from my command for his sick.
I think that when we are endeavoring to raise soldiers and to instruct
them, it is bad policy to keep them at hospitals as attendants and
nurses."
Early in September the Rebels, under Van Dorn, seriously menaced the
line held by Grant's depleted army, and Grant had to call upon Sherman
for aid. All through that month Sherman held Memphis with a mere
handful of troops, and sent the rest of his forces out to make raids
and draw Van Dorn's attention away from Grant. But at the opening of
October the Rebels struck the blow they had so long threatened. Van
Dorn made a furious attack upon Corinth. Rosecrans defended the place
with equal vigor, and the Rebels were repulsed with dreadful slaughter.
Unfortunately this Union victory was not followed up with sufficient
celerity, and Van Dorn managed to retire to Holly Springs and there
reorganize his shattered forces. But the victory at Corinth changed
the condition of affairs throughout all that region. In Memphis the
Secessionists admitted that their cause was lost. The Union army,
so long on the defensive, resumed the offensive. Both sides were
reinforced, and preparations were made for another act in the great
drama. Of the Union reinforcements, two brigades were sent to Sherman,
at Memphis, and he began drilling them for more serious work.
At the middle of November, Grant sent for Sherman to meet him at
Columbus, Kentucky, bringing with him a good map of the country to the
southward. At that meeting Grant explained his plans for the winter's
campaign. His army now occupied the line from Memphis to Corinth,
and he proposed to move at once against Pemberton, who was with the
Rebel army near Holly Springs, behind the Tallahatchie River. He
would personally move on Holly Springs, and McPherson would meet him
there with the forces now at Corinth. Sherman was to leave a small
garrison at Memphis, and lead the rest of his forces to meet Grant
and McPherson. This movement against Pemberton was preliminary to the
greater work of taking Vicksburg. The plan was carefully carried out.
The three forces moved simultaneously against Pemberton, and at the
same time General C. C. Washburne, under Sherman's orders, crossed the
Mississippi with five thousand cavalry, from Helena, Arkansas, and
marched toward Grenada, in the rear of Pemberton's army. This movement
alarmed Pemberton, and he hastily abandoned his works and retreated
to Grenada. Sherman joined Grant at Oxford, Miss., early in December,
and then a dispatch came from Halleck, who was at Washington, urging
Grant to proceed with the campaign against Vicksburg, with the aid of
Porter's fleet and any other available assistance.
Grant and Sherman discussed the proposed movement fully, and finally
agreed upon a plan. Sherman was to be heavily reinforced at Memphis,
and would have the co-operation of Porter's gunboats. He was to make a
swift movement on the Yazoo, and take Vicksburg from the rear, while
Grant, at Oxford, held Pemberton in check. Banks was then supposed to
be moving up the river from New Orleans, and everything bade fair for
the opening of the whole Mississippi. Sherman would have about forty
thousand men, and would conduct the campaign almost entirely according
to his own discretion, Grant's instructions to him being of the most
rudimentary description. So he returned to Memphis and prepared for the
work before him.
Sherman and Porter met at Memphis. Porter has left on record his
impressions of Sherman, and the latter's appearance and conduct at
their first interview there. Porter expected to find Sherman in
a full-dress uniform, and accordingly arrayed himself in all the
splendor of the Navy. But Sherman, having heard that Porter disliked
fuss and feathers, and generally dressed in working clothes, decided
to do likewise himself. The result was that when they met Porter
was sumptuously arrayed in blue and gold, and Sherman had on an old
and much worn suit of flannel, and each was much surprised at the
appearance of the other. Sherman's first words were: "Hello, Porter,
I'm glad to see you. You got here sooner than I expected, but I guess
we can get off to-night. Mighty cold, isn't it? Sit down and get
warm." Then he turned to a servant and told him to put some shirts and
underclothes in a gripsack, and "don't bother me with a trunk and traps
enough for a regiment."
It was intended to set out on December 18th, but the lack of steamboat
transportation delayed them until December 20th, when the start was
actually made. Before embarking Sherman issued the following unique
orders:
"I. The expedition now fitting out is purely of a military character,
and the interests involved are of too important a character to be mixed
up with personal and private business. No citizen, male or female,
will be allowed to accompany it, unless employed as part of a crew, or
as servants to the transports. Female chambermaids to the boats, and
nurses to the sick alone, will be allowed, unless the wives of captains
and pilots actually belonging to the boats. No laundress, officer's or
soldier's wife must pass below Helena.
"II. No person whatever, citizen, officer, or sutler, will, on any
consideration, buy or deal in cotton, or other produce of the country.
Should any cotton be brought on board of any transport, going or
returning, the brigade quartermaster, of which the boat forms a part,
will take possession of it and invoice it to Captain A. R. Eddy, Chief
Quartermaster at Memphis.
"III. Should any cotton or other produce be brought back to Memphis by
any chartered boat, Captain Eddy will take possession of the same, and
sell it for the benefit of the United States. If accompanied by its
actual producer, the planter or factor, the quartermaster will furnish
him a receipt for the same, to be settled for on proof of his loyalty
at the close of the war.
"IV. Boats ascending the river may take cotton from the shore for
bulkheads to protect their engines or crew, but on the arrival at
Memphis it must be turned over to the quartermaster, with a statement
of the time, place and name of its owner. The trade in cotton must
await a more peaceful state of affairs.
"V. Should any citizen accompany the expedition below Helena, in
violation of those orders, any colonel of a regiment, or captain of a
battery, will conscript him into the service of the United States for
the unexpired term of his command. If he shows a refractory spirit,
unfitting him for a soldier, the commanding officer present will turn
him over to the captain of the boat as a deck-hand, and compel him to
work in that capacity, without wages, until the boat returns to Memphis.
"VI. Any person whatever, whether in the service of the United States
or transports, found making reports for publication which might reach
the enemy, giving them information, aid and comfort, will be arrested
and treated as spies."
Sherman had full command of this expedition, which was organized in
three divisions. He appointed A. J. Smith commander of the First
Division, Morgan L. Smith of the Second Division, and G. W. Morgan
of the Third Division. These forces comprised thirty thousand and
sixty-eight officers and men, and at Helena they were joined by
Frederick Steele's Division, with twelve thousand three hundred and ten
more. On Christmas eve they reached Milliken's Bend, and on Christmas
day a portion of the First Division landed and broke up the Vicksburg
and Texas Railroad for a long distance near the crossing of the Texas.
Sherman meanwhile pushed on and landed the second division opposite the
mouth of the Yazoo, to break up the same road at another point, only
eight miles from Vicksburg. The next day the remainder of the army,
escorted by Porter's gunboats, went up the Yazoo about twelve miles.
At noon of December 27th, Sherman's entire command was landed on the
south bank of the Yazoo, near the mouth of the Chikasaw Bayou. They
were really on an island, densely wooded, and surrounded by swamps and
quicksand. They drove the enemy's pickets toward Vicksburg and then
began to explore the country, which they found to be the worst piece of
land they had ever been on. Nature seemed to have done her utmost to
prevent their further movement forward, and the art of the enemy had
greatly increased the difficulties of the situation. Several futile
attempts were made to advance to a more advantageous position, and
then, on the morning of December 29th, Sherman ordered a general show
of attack all along the line, while an actual advance across the bayou
was to be made at two points.
The movement was as well planned as was possible under the
circumstances, and was executed with almost superhuman valor. Sherman's
men rushed at the bluffs which were crowned with Rebel batteries,
and fought their way up the steep front with desperate valor. They
actually with their fingers scooped out hollow caves in which to be
sheltered from the fire of the enemy, and all along the line performed
prodigies of heroism. But the Rebel works were impregnable, and they
had at last to fall back to their old position. Two other attacks were
planned, but were abandoned because of the inability of the gunboats to
co-operate. Meantime nothing was heard from Grant, who was to have come
up before this. So, on January 2d, Sherman reluctantly re-embarked his
troops, and returned to Milliken's Bend where, on January 4th, 1863,
he relinquished his command to McClernand who had been sent to relieve
him. Sherman took leave of his troops through the following farewell
order:
"Pursuant to the terms of General Order No. 1, made this day by General
McClernand, the title of our army ceases to exist, and constitutes
in the future the Army of the Mississippi, composed of two 'army
corps,' one to be commanded by General G. W. Morgan, and the other by
myself. In relinquishing the command of the Army of the Tennessee,
and restricting my authority to my own 'corps,' I desire to express
to all commanders, to the soldiers and officers recently operating
before Vicksburg, my hearty thanks for the zeal, alacrity, and courage
manifested by them on all occasions. We failed in accomplishing one
great purpose of our movement, the capturing of Vicksburg, but we were
part of a whole. Ours was but part of a combined movement in which
others were to assist. We were on time. Unforeseen contingencies must
have delayed the others.
"We have destroyed the Shreveport road, we have attacked the defences
of Vicksburg, and pushed the attack as far as prudence would justify;
and having found it too strong for our single column, we have drawn
off in good order and good spirits, ready for any new move. A new
commander is now here to lead you. He is chosen by the President of
the United States, who is charged by the Constitution to maintain and
defend it, and he has the undoubted right to select his own agents. I
know that all good officers and soldiers will give him the same hearty
support and cheerful obedience they have hitherto given me. There are
honors enough in reserve for all, and work enough too. Let each do
his appropriate part, and our nation must in the end emerge from this
dire conflict, purified and ennobled by the fires which now test its
strength and purity."
It should be explained that Grant had not come up to join in the
demonstration against Vicksburg because, on December 20th one of
his subordinates had in a most disgraceful manner surrendered Holly
Springs, with its immense store of supplies, to the Rebels. The failure
of Sherman's expedition caused a great outcry against him throughout
the country, and he was charged with incapacity, how unjustly the
simple narrative fully demonstrates. Long afterward, when Vicksburg
had finally been taken, Grant officially declared: "General Sherman's
arrangement, as commander of troops in the attack on Chickasaw Bluffs,
was admirable. Seeing the ground from the opposite side of the attack
afterwards, I saw the impossibility of making it successful." Sherman's
losses in the attack were 175 killed, 930 wounded, and 743 prisoners.
The Rebel losses were 63 killed, 134 wounded, and 10 prisoners. As a
result of this miscarriage, and of the miserable surrender at Holly
Springs, Pemberton was left free, with his powerful army, to fall back
and occupy Vicksburg, and thus to hold it for a long time against the
combined attacks of the Union Army and Navy. Sherman's own estimate of
his work, in his farewell orders to his troops, must be regarded as
entirely just, and it is amply corroborated by the testimony of Grant
and Porter.
"The expedition failed," says General Grant, "more from want of
knowledge as to what would be required to open this route than from
any impracticability in the navigation of the streams and bayous
through which it was proposed to pass. Want of this knowledge led
the expedition on until difficulties were encountered, and then it
would become necessary to send back to Young's Point for the means of
removing them. This gave the enemy time to remove forces to effectually
checkmate further progress, and the expedition was withdrawn when
within a few hundred yards of free and open navigation to the Yazoo."
Admiral Porter also, in his official report, speaks of the want of
means of moving the troops through the bayous, as the chief difficulty;
"for," he remarks, "there were never yet any two men who would labor
harder than Generals Grant and Sherman to forward an expedition for
the overthrow of Vicksburg." He continues: "The army officers worked
like horses to enable them to accomplish what was desired.... No other
general could have done better, or as well as Sherman, but he had not
the means for this peculiar kind of transportation."
Under orders brought by McClernand the Army of the Tennessee was
divided in four corps, known as the Thirteenth, Fifteenth, Sixteenth
and Seventeenth, commanded respectively by McClernand, Sherman, Hurlbut
and McPherson, Grant remaining commander of the whole. Sherman's
corps formed the right wing, and consisted of the First Division,
under General Steele, and the Second Division under General David
Stuart, in the absence of Morgan L. Smith. Immediately upon arriving
at Milliken's Bend, on January 4th, the expedition was sent on in the
same boats, escorted by Porter's gunboats, to attack Arkansas Post,
or Fort Hindman, an old settlement on the north bank of the Arkansas
River, fifty miles from its mouth. This Fort was a very strong work,
situated on a high bluff at the head of a horseshoe bend in the river.
It was strongly armed and garrisoned by five thousand men under General
Churchill, who had been directed to hold the place till his last man
was dead. Sherman himself suggested the movement against this place,
considering the capture of it necessary to the reduction of Vicksburg
and freeing of the Mississippi.
[Illustration: ADMIRAL DAVID D. PORTER.]
On the night of January 4th Sherman and McClernand went into Porter's
cabin on the Black Hawk, and discussed the expedition, asking Porter
for his co-operation. Porter sat up in his bed and told them that
he was short of coal and could not use wood for fuel. He addressed
McClernand with a curtness amounting almost to discourtesy and Sherman
watched his opportunity to get him to go into another room, and
there asked him what he meant by it. Porter replied that he did
not like McClernand, that he had long had a strong prejudice against
him. Thereupon Sherman begged him, for the sake of the Union cause,
to sink all personal feeling and do his best to work in harmony
with McClernand. Porter promised to do so, and the discussion with
McClernand was resumed. It was finally agreed that both McClernand and
Porter were to go along with the expedition.
They proceeded up the White River and through the cut-off to the
Arkansas, and thus reached Notrib's farm, three miles from Fort
Hindman. There, on the evening of January 9th, they disembarked, and on
the next day moved forward to invest the fort. Sherman's men took the
advance and Sherman himself during the night crept forward to behind
a stump so close to the Rebel lines that he could hear them at work,
preparing for defence. He was thus listening to them, when, early in
the morning, a Rebel bugler sounded "as pretty a reveille as I ever
heard." Early on January 11th Sherman got his forces into position for
attack, and told McClernand that he was ready for the assault as soon
as the gunboats would open fire. At one P. M. the gunboats began and so
did the field batteries. The enemy did not reply, and in about fifteen
minutes Sherman ordered his columns forward. The infantry rushed
forward with a cheer, dashed across a hundred yards of open ground,
and then reached a strip about three hundred yards wide, covered
with timber, underbrush and logs, and much cut up with gulleys. Here
they encountered a fierce fire from the enemy, and their advance was
checked. But by three o'clock they were within a hundred yards of the
enemy's intrenchment, and could now see Porter's gunboats close to the
fort.
For an hour the fight raged furiously, and then, at four o'clock, the
enemy raised white flags all along his line. Sherman instantly ordered
his men to stop firing, and at the same time sent General Steele
with a brigade down the bayou at the right to prevent the enemy from
retreating in that direction. He then sent an officer forward to the
enemy's lines and followed in person with his staff. He found that the
fire of his troops had destroyed the enemy's intrenchments and that
they could resist no longer. Meeting Colonel Garland, Sherman asked
him who commanded the fort. Garland replied that General Churchill
did. "Where is he?" asked Sherman. "Inside the fort," said Garland.
So Sherman rode into the fort, which, he observed, was well built and
capable of much further defence. He found it, however, full of soldiers
and sailors from Porter's gunboats, and the boats themselves were
anchored at the river bank close by.
Sherman found Churchill in conversation with Porter and A. J. Smith.
But he had hardly greeted them before a report came in that General
Deshler, who commanded a brigade of Rebel forces, had refused to
surrender because he had received no orders from Churchill to that
effect, and the fighting was therefore likely to be resumed at once.
Accordingly Sherman and Churchill personally hurried to the scene. On
their way they met Colonel Garland, who had first displayed the white
flag, and Churchill angrily asked him why he had done so. Garland
replied that one of Churchill's own staff had ordered him to. Churchill
denied having authorized any such order, and a quarrel arose between
the two men, which Sherman ended by curtly remarking that it made no
difference whether Churchill had ordered the surrender or not, for they
and their troops were now all his prisoners. Then they went on to
where Deshler and his men were still holding out. Sherman rode straight
up to Deshler and asked him what he meant by his conduct, telling him
that he ought to know better. Deshler replied curtly, that he had not
been ordered by his superior officer to surrender. Thereupon Churchill
told him that he was in Sherman's power and might as well give in. This
ended the episode. Deshler told his men to stack arms, and the capture
of Arkansas Post was complete.
The Union loss in this engagement was 129 killed, 831 wounded and 17
missing, the majority being in Sherman's own corps. General Churchill
reported the Rebel loss at 75 or 80 wounded and an unknown number
killed, but these figures were grossly inaccurate; the Rebel loss was
much heavier than that of the Union army. By this surrender there
fell into the hands of the Union army five thousand men, seventeen
cannon, three thousand small arms in good condition, and forty-six
thousand rounds of ammunition. The prisoners were sent to St. Louis,
the fortifications were destroyed, and on January 15th the troops
re-embarked and returned to Milliken's Bend. Sherman was now anxious to
move directly toward Little Rock and drive the scattered Rebel forces
south of the river, but McClernand would not agree to this.
McClernand was greatly elated over the result of this expedition,
and took the credit practically all to himself. "It is glorious,
glorious!" he exclaimed to Sherman, "my star is in the ascendant." He
praised the conduct of the troops highly, but almost ignored the Navy,
being exceedingly jealous of Porter. Indeed in his official report
of the capture, he scarcely mentioned the action of the fleet. This
was unjust, for the gunboats rendered highly important services and
Porter led the attack in person. McClernand, however, condescended to
speak pleasantly of his subordinate officers, saying: "General Sherman
exhibited his usual activity and enterprise; General Morgan proved his
tactical skill and strategic talent; while Generals Steele, Smith,
Osterhaus and Stuart, and the several brigade commanders, displayed the
fitting qualities o£ brave and successful officers."