CHAPTER XXX.

MINOR EVENTS OF THE THIRD YEAR.

BANDS OF GUERILLAS IN VIRGINIA AND THE EAST--UNSUCCESSFUL ATTEMPTS TO

CAPTURE MOSBY--IMPORTANT ACTION AT WAPPING HEIGHTS--NUMEROUS

ENGAGEMENTS IN THE SHENANDOAH VALLEY AND ON THE SLOPES OF THE BLUE

RIDGE--MINOR ENGAGEMENTS IN CONNECTION WITH THE PURSUIT OF LEE'S ARMY

AFTER GETTYSBURG--MINOR ENGAGEMENTS IN WEST VIRGINIA--INVASION OF

KENTUCKY BY CONFEDERATES UNDER GENERAL PEGRAM--THE CONFEDERATES'

ATTEMPT TO RECAPTURE FORT DONELSON--NUMEROUS SMALL BATTLES IN

TENNESSEE--LOYALTY OF THE PEOPLE OF EASTERN TENNESSEE AND WESTERN

NORTH CAROLINA--BATTLES AT FAYETTEVILLE, BATESVILLE, AND HELENA,

ARK.--OPERATIONS UNDER THE CONFEDERATE GENERAL MARMADUKE IN

MISSOURI--SACKING AND BURNING OF LAWRENCE, KAN.--CRUELTIES PRACTISED

BY CONFEDERATE GUERILLAS UNDER QUANTRELL AND OTHERS--CAPTURE OF

GALVESTON, TEXAS, BY THE CONFEDERATES--MILITARY OPERATIONS AGAINST THE

INDIANS.

Some of the smaller engagements of the year 1863 were so closely

connected with the great movements that they have been described in

the chapters devoted to those campaigns. Others were isolated from any

such connection, and the more notable of them are here grouped in a

chapter by themselves.

[Illustration: UNION SCOUTS.]

[Illustration: A GROCERY STORE IN SOUTHERN VIRGINIA.]

{330} [Illustration: BATTLE OF VERMILION BAYOU, LA.]

Suffolk, Va., on Nansemont River, southwest of Portsmouth, was held by

a National force that included the Eighty-ninth and One Hundred and

Twelfth New York Regiments, and the Eighth and Sixteenth Connecticut.

An amusing story is told in the "History of the Sixteenth

Connecticut," of its adventures when it first reached Suffolk. It

arrived in a dark night, the men not knowing which way to go, or what

they would find when they stepped out of the train, and most of their

officers having been left behind by accident. Setting out through the

darkness, they first tumbled down a steep embankment, then into a deep

brook, and finally brought up against a rail fence. Tearing this down,

they found themselves in a field, and set about hunting fuel for a

fire. Some of them, groping in the darkness, came upon a house which

they supposed to be uninhabited, and, beginning at the bottom, pulled

off all the clapboards as high as they could reach. When daylight came

they discovered that it was a handsome white house inhabited by the

owner and his family, who presently appeared on the scene and produced

a tableau. In the darkness one of the men had bored a hole into a

barrel of coffee, which he supposed was whiskey, and was found shaking

it violently and wondering why it did not run. Sunlight showed them

that they were on the outskirts of the town, and immediately the One

Hundred and Twelfth New York came to their relief with hot coffee,

etc. Suffolk really had very little military importance, and yet it

was the subject of considerable fighting. Gen. John J. Peck commanded

the National forces, and was subjected to much elaborate ridicule for

the extent to which he fortified the place. In January the

Confederates made an attack, and after some fighting were driven off,

and, with the assistance of the gunboats, six guns and two hundred of

their men were captured. In April a siege was begun by General

Longstreet, who failed in an attempt to carry the place by surprise,

and then constructed earthworks, intending to bombard it; but, as soon

as he opened fire from them, his guns were silenced by the gunboats on

the river and the heavy artillery in the National works. Early in May

he was needed to assist General Lee in the impending conflict of

Chancellorsville, and slowly drew off his men from Suffolk, {331} when

Generals Getty and Harland sallied out from that place with a column

of seven thousand men and attacked his powerful rear guard. A sharp

action ensued, which resulted in no immediate advantage to either

side, but in the night the Confederates left the field. Some

stragglers were captured, but otherwise there was no definite result

except that the siege was raised.

Guerilla bands, so numerous at the West, were few at the East, the

most noted being one led by John S. Mosby. In March he made a daring

midnight raid with a few of his men on Fairfax Court House, Va., and

captured and carried off Brigadier-General Stoughton, two captains,

and thirty men, with about sixty horses. In May he approached

Warrenton Junction with about three hundred men and attacked a small

cavalry force there. The National soldiers were feeding their horses

and did not have time to mount, but made a gallant resistance on foot,

until they were overcome by numbers. The Fifth New York cavalry then

came up, and, sabre in hand, charging upon the guerillas, killed and

scattered many, and wounded the rest, except a few whom they captured.

Among the killed was a Confederate spy who had just come from

Washington and had in his possession many important documents. Again,

at Kettle Run, Mosby attacked a railway train that was loaded with

forage. When the firing was heard, the Fifth and First Vermont cavalry

set out from Fairfax Court House and soon came up with the enemy. His

one howitzer was captured in a gallant charge, and a considerable

number of his men were killed. It was said that as fast as the band

was depleted by the casualties of battle it was filled up with picked

men sent from the Confederate army.

Several attempts were made to capture Mosby, but although there was an

occasional fight with his band, and a considerable number of his

followers fell, he himself eluded captivity till the end of the war,

when he issued an order announcing to his men that he was no longer

their commander, and they dispersed. The difficulty of capturing a

small mounted force, which is irresponsible and has no mission but to

roam in a lawless way over a country like that of Virginia, must be

always exceedingly great; but there was one opportunity to capture

Mosby and his band which would have been successful had the affair not

been disgracefully mismanaged. In April, 1863, one hundred and fifty

men of the First Vermont cavalry, under Captain Flint, set out to

capture them, and found them at a farm-house unprepared to fight.

Flint took his men through the gate, fired a volley at Mosby's men,

and then charged with the sabre, which would have been correct enough

if Flint had kept his command together; but he made the mistake of

dividing it and sending a portion around to the rear, in fear that the

guerillas would escape. Mosby quickly took advantage of this, ordered

a charge upon the detachment headed by Captain Flint, and succeeded in

cutting his way through, Flint and some of his men being killed. Of

the affair near Warrenton, in May, Mosby, in his somewhat boastful

"Reminiscences," gives this highly colored account:

"On May 2, seventy or eighty men assembled at my call. I had

information that Stoneman's cavalry had left Warrenton and gone south,

which indicated that the campaign had opened. My plan now was to

strike Hooker.

"Before we had gone very far, an infantry soldier was caught, who

informed me that I was marching right into the camp of an infantry

brigade. I found out that there was some cavalry on the railroad at

another point, and so I made for that. These troops had just been sent

up to replace Stoneman's. I committed a great error in allowing myself

to be diverted by their presence from the purpose of my expedition.

They were perfectly harmless where they were, and could not help

Hooker in the great battle then raging. I should at least have

endeavored to avoid a fight by marching around them.

"Just as we debouched from the woods in sight of Warrenton Junction, I

saw, about three hundred yards in front of us, a body of cavalry in

the open field. It was a bright, warm morning; and the men were

lounging on the grass, while their horses, with nothing but their

halters on, had been turned loose to graze on the young clover. They

were enjoying the music of the great battle, and had no dream that

danger was near. Not a single patrol or picket had been put out. At

first they mistook us for their own men, and had no suspicion as to

who we were until I ordered a charge and the men raised a yell. The

shouting and firing stampeded the horses, and they scattered over a

field of several hundred acres, while their riders took shelter in

some houses near by. We very soon got all out of two houses; but the

main body took refuge in a large frame building just by the railroad.

I did not take time to dismount my men, but ordered a charge on the

house; I did not want to give them time to recover from their panic. I

came up just in front of two windows by the chimney, from which a hot

fire was poured that brought down several men by my side. But I paid

them back with interest when I got to the window, into which I emptied

two Colt's revolvers. The house was as densely packed as a sardine

box, and it was almost impossible to fire into it without hitting

somebody. The doors had been shut from the inside; but the Rev. Sam

Chapman dismounted, and burst through, followed by John Debutts,

Mountjoy, and Harry Sweeting. The soldiers in the lower rooms

immediately surrendered; but those above held out. There was a

haystack near by; and I ordered some of the hay to be brought into the

house, and fire to be set to it. Not being willing to be burned alive

as martyrs to the Union, the men above now held out a white flag from

the window. The house was densely filled with smoke, and the floor

covered with the blood of the wounded. The commanding officer, Major

Steel, had received a mortal wound; and there were many others in the

same condition. All who were able now came out of the house.

"After a severe fight I had taken three times my own number prisoners,

together with all their horses, arms, and equipments. Most of my men

then dispersed over the field in pursuit of the frightened horses

which had run away. I was sitting on my horse near the house, giving

directions for getting ready to leave with the prisoners and spoil,

when one of my men, named Wild, who had chased a horse some distance

down the railroad, came at full speed, and reported a heavy column of

cavalry coming up. I turned to one of my men and said to him, '_Now we

will whip them._' I had hardly spoken the words when I saw a large

body of Union cavalry, not over two hundred or three hundred yards

off, rapidly advancing. Most of my command had scattered over the

field, and the enemy was so close there was no time to rally and

re-form before they got upon us. In attempting to do so, I remained on

the ground until they were within fifty yards of me, and was nearly

captured. So there was nothing to do but for every man to take care of

himself. The command I had at this time was a mere aggregation of men

casually gathered, belonging to many different regiments, who happened

to be in the country. Of course, such a body has none of the cohesion

and discipline that springs from organization, no matter how brave the

men may be individually. Men never fought better than they did at the

house, while the defenders were inspired to greater resistance,

knowing that relief was near. We had defeated and captured three times

our own {332} number, and now had to give up the fruits of victory,

and in turn to fly to prevent capture. My men fled in every direction,

taking off about fifty horses and a number of prisoners. Only one of

my men, Templeman, was killed, but I lost about twenty captured,

nearly all of whom were wounded."

[Illustration: COLONEL JOHN S. MOSBY, C. S. A.--A GROUP OF MOSBY'S

RAIDERS.]

In March General Hooker, learning that a Confederate force, under

Stuart, had set out for Fauquier and the adjoining counties to enforce

the draft, determined to send out a large cavalry force to intercept

them, and at the same time to make a reconnoissance on the south side

of the Rappahannock. The troops chosen for this work were the First

and Fifth regulars, the Thirty-fourth and Sixteenth Pennsylvania, the

First Rhode Island, the Fourth New York, and the Sixth Ohio, with a

battery of six guns, all under the command of Gen. William W. Averill.

At the close of the first day's march the expedition encamped near

Kelly's Ford on the Rapidan, and the next morning, the 17th, on riding

down to the ford, found the passage disputed. The Confederates had

constructed abatis along the southern bank and were in strong force.

Several attempts to cross the stream by separate regiments were

ineffectual, until a squadron of the First Rhode Island, led by

Lieutenant Brown, plunged boldly through the stream, cut their way

through the abatis, charged up the bank, and routed the enemy in their

immediate front. The whole force then crossed and formed in line of

battle. As they moved on, the Confederates charged upon them, but were

met in a counter charge and broken. Rallying, they attempted it again,

and again were broken and put to flight. Meanwhile the Pennsylvania

regiment struck them on the flank, and the artillery opened upon them.

When a point about a mile and a half from the river had been reached,

General Averill re-formed his line, which then moved through the woods

and fired as it went. The Confederates now, for the first time,

brought their artillery into play, of which they had twelve pieces,

and the shot fell fast among Averill's men. Following this, the

Confederates made another charge, but were broken by the Third

Pennsylvania. A participant says: "From the time of crossing the river

until now there had been many personal encounters, single horsemen

dashing at each other with full speed, and cutting and slashing with

their sabres until one or the other was disabled. The wounds received

by both friend and foe in these single combats were frightful, such as

I trust never to see again." A running fight was now kept up, the

Confederates retreating slowly, and occasionally halting to use their

artillery, until a point six miles from the river was reached, when

General Averill, finding that his artillery ammunition was nearly

exhausted, and that there were strong intrenchments not far ahead,

ordered a return. The Confederates, who had been retreating, now

advanced in their turn, and annoyed the retiring column somewhat with

their artillery. General Averill lost nine men killed, thirty-five

wounded, and forty captured. The Confederate loss is not exactly

known, but Averill's men brought away sixty prisoners, including Major

Breckenridge, of the First Virginia cavalry. In {333} this action was

killed John Pelham, commander of Stuart's horse artillery, who was

called the "Boy Major" and had won high reputation as an artillerist.

His fall is the subject of the finest poem produced at the South

during the war, written by James R. Randall.

"Just as the spring came laughing through the strife

With all its gorgeous cheer,

In the bright April of historic life,

Fell the great cannoneer.

The wondrous lulling of a hero's breath

His bleeding country weeps;

Hushed in the alabaster arms of Death

Our young Marcellus sleeps.

Nobler and grander than the child of Rome,

Curbing his chariot steeds,

The knightly scion of a Southern home

Dazzled the land with deeds.

Gentlest and bravest in the battle-brunt,

The champion of the truth,

He bore his banner to the very front

Of our immortal youth.

A clang of sabres 'mid Virginian snow,

The fiery pang of shells--

And there's a wail of immemorial woe

In Alabama dells.

The pennon drops that led the sacred band

Along the crimson field;

The meteor blade sinks from the nerveless hand

Over the spotless shield.

We gazed and gazed upon that beauteous face;

While round the lips and eyes,

Couched in their marble slumber, flashed the grace

Of a divine surprise.

O mother of a blessed soul on high,

Thy tears may soon be shed!

Think of thy boy with princes of the sky,

Among the Southern dead!

How must he smile on this dull world beneath,

Fevered with swift renown--

He, with the martyr's amaranthine wreath

Twining the victor's crown!"

When Lee, after Gettysburg, retreated southward up the Shenandoah

Valley, Meade pursued on the eastern side of the Blue Ridge in a

parallel line, taking possession of the passes as far southward as

Manassas Gap. On the 22d of April, he learned that a Confederate corps

was near the western end of that gap, which was held by Buford's

division of cavalry alone. The Third Corps, then guarding Ashby's Gap,

was thereupon ordered down to Manassas Gap, and made a prompt and

swift march, reaching Buford at midnight. The next day, from a lofty

point on the mountains, the movements of a large part of the

Confederate army could be seen. One immense column was in plain sight,

consisting, first, of several thousand infantry, followed by disabled

soldiers mounted on horses that had been taken in Pennsylvania, the

rear being brought up by a large body of cavalry, while the wagon

trains were moving on a parallel road further west, and all were

pushing southward as rapidly as possible. It was thought that a

movement through the gap might cut the Confederate column in two, and

this was accordingly ordered. Berdan's sharp-shooters, the Twentieth

Indiana, the Sixty-third Pennsylvania, and the Third and Fourth Maine

Regiments, of high reputation as skirmishers, were pushed forward, and

soon brushed away the small Confederate force that occupied its

western end. This fell back upon a supporting force posted on a lofty

hill. Here the sharp-shooters kept the attention of the Confederates

while the Maine regiments silently crept up the face of the hill,

unobserved from its summit, delivered a volley, and then made a rapid

charge which cleared the hill of all Confederates except those that

were disabled or made prisoners. It was then discovered that the main

body of the Confederate force that was intended to dispute the passage

of the gap was on another line of hill, still farther to the west, and

strongly fortified. The Excelsior brigade, commanded by General

Spinola, was now brought forward to dislodge the enemy. Passing

through the line of skirmishers, the men of this brigade soon reached

the slope of the hill, which was ragged and precipitous and swept by a

fire from the crest. Without a minute's hesitation they scrambled up

the ascent, which was more than three hundred feet high, grasping at

the bushes and points of rock until they reached the summit, when they

fired a volley, fixed their bayonets, gave a shout, and rushed upon

the enemy, who immediately fled in confusion. General Spinola was

twice wounded in this assault, and the command devolved upon Colonel

Farnum, who immediately re-formed the line and set out to carry in a

similar manner another crest, which he succeeded in doing, and took a

considerable number of prisoners. At this point of time, General

Meade, having learned that a Confederate corps was moving down the

valley to take part in this action, ordered the troops to discontinue

their advance and hold the points already gained. At the same time he

brought up the bulk of his army in anticipation of the battle the next

day. But when the sun next arose the Confederates had all disappeared.

By this movement General Meade lost two days in the race of the armies

southward, which enabled the Confederates to get back to their old

ground, south of the Rappahannock, before he could reach it. This

action is known as the battle of Wapping Heights. The National loss

was one hundred and ten men, killed or wounded; the Confederate loss

is unknown.

In August, General Averell's cavalry command made an expedition

through the counties of Hardy, Pendleton, Highland, Bath, Green Briar,

and Pocahontas. They destroyed saltpetre works and burned a camp with

a large amount of equipments and stores. They had numerous skirmishes

with a Confederate cavalry force, commanded by Gen. Samuel Jones, and

at Rocky Gap, near Sulphur Springs, a serious engagement. This battle

lasted two days. On the first day the Confederates opened the fire

with artillery, which was answered by Averell's guns, and a somewhat

destructive duel ensued. The Confederates attempted to capture

Averell's battery by charging across an open field, but were repelled

by its steady fire. On the other hand, similar charges were made seven

times in succession by a portion of Averell's men, and not one of them

was successful. When, finally, Averell's ammunition was nearly

exhausted, and he learned that the enemy was about to be reinforced,

he withdrew from the field in good order. The loss in this engagement

was about two hundred on each side.

In an irregular and unsatisfactory campaign of manoeuvres between

Meade and Lee, along the slopes of the Blue Ridge, after the battle of

Gettysburg, but before the retirement to winter quarters, there were

some engagements which would have been notable had not the whole

campaign resulted in nothing. One of these was at Bristoe Station,

three miles west {334} of Manassas Junction, October 14th, when Meade

was making retrograde movements, and Lee attacked his rear guard with

A. P. Hill's corps. The Second Corps formed the rear of Meade's line,

and marched to Bristoe on the south side of the track of the Orange

and Alexandria Railroad, with flankers well out on both sides, and

skirmishers deployed. About noon, the advance of this corps, which was

Gen. Alexander S. Webb's division, reached the eastern edge of woods

that look out toward Broad Run. The rear of the Fifth Corps, which

preceded the Second on the march, had just crossed the Run. Suddenly

they were fired upon by artillery which emerged from the woods by an

obscure road, and then a line of Confederate skirmishers appeared on

the hill north of the railroad. Immediately General Webb's division

was thrown forward in a line south of the railroad, with its right

resting on Broad Run, and General Hays's division took position at

Webb's left, while Caldwell's faced the railroad, and a section of

Brown's Rhode Island battery was put in position on the other side of

Broad Run where it could enfilade the enemy's skirmishing line, and

the remainder was placed on a hill west of the Run. Arnold's famous

battery was also put in a commanding position. Very soon Confederates

opened a furious fire of artillery and musketry from the edge of the

wood; but when the National battery began its work their batteries

were very soon silenced, and their skirmishing line melted away.

General Warren ordered a detail of ten men from each regiment in that

part of the Fifth Corps which had participated in the fight, to rush

forward and bring off the Confederate guns, which, for the minute,

seemed to have been deserted. With a cheer the men crossed the

railroad track, climbed the hill, wheeled pieces into position, and

fired them at the retreating Confederates, and then dragged them away.

But they had not gone far when the enemy came out of the wood again

and charged upon them. Whereupon they dropped the battery, resumed

their small arms, drove back the charge, and then brought off the

guns. A participant says, "I have heard some cheering on election

nights, but I never heard such a yell of exultation as rent the air

when the rebel guns, caissons, and equipments were brought across the

railroad track to the line of our infantry." The Confederates now

tried the experiment of attacking the Second Corps, and two regiments

of North Carolina troops charged upon its right over the railroad.

When they reached the track, they were met by two or three deadly

volleys, which sent them rapidly back again. They became broken, and

hid themselves behind rocks and logs, or came in as prisoners, when

the National line was advanced. Still their main body kept up the

fight until dark, when they finally retired into the woods, after

losing six guns, two battle flags, seven hundred and fifty prisoners,

and an unknown number in killed or wounded. Among the Confederate

losses in this section was Brig.-Gen. Carnot Posey, mortally wounded.

There was considerable desultory fighting around Charlestown Va. On

the 15th of July a National cavalry force overtook and attacked a

Confederate force near that place, and captured about one hundred

prisoners, afterward holding the town. On the 18th of October a

Confederate cavalry force, under Gen. John J. Imboden, attacked the

garrison, finding them in the court-house and other buildings, and

demanded the surrender; to which the commander, Colonel Simpson,

answered, "Take me if you can." Imboden then opened fire on the

court-house with artillery at a distance of less than two hundred

yards, and of course soon drove out the occupants. After exchanging a

volley or two, most of the National troops surrendered, while some had

escaped toward Harper's Ferry. Two hours later a force came up from

that place and drove out Imboden's men, who retired slowly toward

Berryville, fighting all the way.

[Illustration: BREVET MAJOR-GENERAL R. S. FOSTER, AND STAFF.]

In its slow pursuit of the Army of Northern Virginia, the Army of the

Potomac, early in November, came up with that army at Rappahannock

Station, where the Orange and Alexandria Railroad crosses the Rapidan

River. General Lee showed an intention to get into winter quarters

here, for the ground was elaborately fortified on both sides of the

river, and his men were known to be building huts. General Meade made

his dispositions for a serious attack at this point. Lee had a strong

force intrenched with artillery on the north side of the river to

prevent any crossing, and works extended thence for a considerable

distance in each direction, while the main body of his army was on the

south side of the river and also intrenched. General Meade placed the

Fifth and Sixth Corps under the command of General Sedgwick, fronting

Rappahannock Station. General French was placed in command of the

First, Second, and Third Corps, and ordered to move to Kelly's Ford,

four miles below Rappahannock Station, cross the river, carry the

heights on the south side, and then move toward the enemy's rear at

Rappahannock to {335} assist General Sedgwick's column in its front

attack. General Buford's cavalry was to cross the Rappahannock above

these positions, and General Kilpatrick's below. Sedgwick's column

arrived within a mile and a half of the river at noon, on the 7th of

November, and threw out skirmishers to examine the enemy's works. At

the same hour, French's column arrived at Kelly's Ford. General French

promptly opened the battle with his artillery, sent a brigade across

the river which captured many prisoners in the rifle trenches, and an

hour later crossed the division and began the laying of pontoon

bridges, so that his entire command crossed before night. General Lee,

believing that the demonstration at Rappahannock Station was a feint

and that at Kelly's Ford the real movement, heavily reinforced his

troops at the Ford. Those on the north side of the river at

Rappahannock Station were also reinforced. Sedgwick's plan of attack

was to have the Fifth Corps get possession of the river bank on the

left, and the Sixth Corps on the right, and plant his batteries on

high ground, from which he could compel evacuation of the works. This

movement was made, and the batteries opened their fire, but the

Confederates did not leave the works. In the edge of evening it was

determined to make an assault in heavy force. The artillery kept up a

rapid fire, until the assaulting column, led by Gen. David A. Russell,

had moved forward and approached near to the works. This movement

appears to have been a surprise to the Confederates, and it was

carried out so systematically and rapidly that the storming party, led

by the Fifth Wisconsin and the Sixth Maine Regiments, carried the

works in a few minutes. The Forty-ninth and One Hundred and Nineteenth

Pennsylvania were close after them, and the Fifth Maine and One

Hundred and Twenty-first New York at the same time carried the

rifle-pits on the right, while the One Hundred and Twenty-fifth New

York and the Twentieth Maine, which had been on picket duty, promptly

joined in the assault. This gallant affair was a complete success, and

General Wright remarked at the time that it was the first instance

during the war in which an important intrenched position had been

carried at the first assault. The National loss in killed and wounded

was three hundred and seventy-one men. The Confederate loss, killed,

wounded, and missing, was nearly seventeen hundred, including thirteen

hundred captured. The captures also included seven battle-flags,

twelve hundred stands of small arms, and four guns. When the

Confederate commander learned of the disaster, he burned his pontoon

bridge, and in the night fled back to Mount Roan, from which position

the next day he withdrew to his old camps south of the Rapidan. A

heavy fog on the 8th prevented the National commander from pursuing in

time to effect anything.

[Illustration: MAJOR-GENERAL SAMUEL JONES, C. S. A.]

[Illustration: BREVET MAJOR-GENERAL WILLIAM W. AVERELL.]

[Illustration: BRIGADIER-GENERAL HENRY PRINCE.]

When the Army of Northern Virginia retired from the action at

Rappahannock Station to the south side of the Rapidan, it took up an

intrenched position stretching nearly twenty miles along the river,

from Barnett's Ford above the railroad crossing to Morton's Ford

below. The cavalry were thrown out to watch the fords above and below

this position. Lee then constructed a new intrenched line, nearly at

right angles with the main line, to protect his right flank. As soon

as the railroad was repaired, General Meade began another advance, and

after considering Lee's new position, determined to attack him by

crossing at the lower fords and moving against his right flank. He

planned to move three columns simultaneously, concentrating two of

them at Robertson's tavern, and then advance rapidly westward by the

turnpike and the plank road to strike Lee's right and overcome it

before it could be reinforced from the more distant wing. The orders

were issued for the movement to begin on the 24th of November, but a

heavy rainstorm delayed it two days. Everything was carefully

explained to the corps commanders, and all possible pains were taken

to make the different parts of the great machine move harmoniously.

The Third and Sixth Corps were to cross at Jacob's Ford and move to

Robertson's Tavern, through wood roads which were not known except

through inquiry. The ground to be moved over was a part of the

so-called Wilderness, which was made famous when Grant began his

overland campaign the next spring. The Second Corps, crossing at

Germanna Ford, was also to move to Robertson's Tavern. The First and

Fifth Corps were to cross at Culpeper Mine Ford, and move to the plank

road at Parker's Store, advancing thence to New Hope Church, where a

road comes in from Robertson's Tavern. Gregg's cavalry division was to

cross at Ely's Ford, covering the left flank, while the other

division, under Custer, was to guard the fords above, facing the main

line of the enemy. Merritt's cavalry was to protect the trains. Every

experienced soldier knows how difficult it is to bring about

simultaneous and concentric movements of large bodies of troops

separated by any considerable distance, and moving by different

routes. Any one of many contingencies may stop the progress of any

column or send it astray, and very few such plans have ever succeeded.

This one of General Meade's was devised with the utmost care, and

every possible provision against miscarriage seemed to have {336} been

made. Yet at the very outset, on the morning of the 26th, there was a

delay of two hours in crossing the river, because the Third Corps was

not up in time, and then there was a further serious loss of time

because the bridges for Jacob's Ford and Germanna Ford were found to

be a little too short, lacking only one pontoon each. The river banks

here on the south side are more than one hundred feet high, and very

steep, so that it was only with great labor that the wagons and the

guns could be taken up. The artillery of two corps had to be taken to

another ford than that by which the infantry of this corps crossed. It

happened, therefore, that when the day was spent the heads of the

column, instead of being at Robertson's Tavern, were only about three

miles from the river, while the tavern is six or seven miles from the

river by the road. These fords had all been watched by Confederate

cavalry, and the movements of the Army of the Potomac were by this

time well known at the Confederate headquarters. They had been

inferred still earlier when the Confederate signal men saw the troops

and trains moving in the morning. One thing, however, General Lee did

not know--whether it was Meade's intention to attack his army where it

was, or to move eastward toward Richmond and draw it out of its

intrenchments. In the night of the 26th Lee drew his army out of its

lines and put it in motion ready to act in accordance with either of

these movements of Meade, as the event might determine.

[Illustration: BRIGADIER-GENERAL MICHAEL CORCORAN.]

[Illustration: COLONEL HIRAM BERDAN.]

[Illustration: BRIGADIER-GENERAL JOHN S. WILLIAMS, C. S. A.]

Thus affairs were in a state likely to produce exactly such a conflict

in the Wilderness as actually was produced when Grant crossed the

Rapidan in the spring of 1864, but there was this difference, that it

was Meade's intention to turn westward and attack Lee where he was,

while it was Grant's intention to move eastward, get out of the

Wilderness if possible, plant himself across Lee's communications, and

compel him to leave his intrenchments. In the afternoon of the 27th,

the leading division of the Fifth Corps, commanded by Gen. Alexander

Hays, came into collision with the leading division of Early's

Confederate corps, and drove back his skirmishers on the turnpike,

while Webb's division to the right, with Rodes's Confederate division

in its front, promptly deployed, and drove back his skirmishers toward

Raccoon Ford. The National troops in deploying possessed themselves of

a strong position, and the Confederate commanders were not willing to

attack until reinforced, but their reinforcements were delayed near

Bartlett's Mills by being fired upon by the Third Corps pickets, and

the expectation of an attack at that point. General French, commanding

the Third Corps, appears to have blundered as to the road he was to

take, and at the forks took the right hand instead of the left, which

not only threw his corps nearer the enemy, but prevented him from

appearing where he was expected at Robertson's Tavern at the same hour

when the Second Corps arrived there. He then blundered still further

by halting and sending word that he was waiting for the Fifth Corps,

when in fact the Fifth was waiting for him. By the time that orders

had passed back and forth explaining his error, the enemy had begun to

throw out a large infantry force upon his right flank. The plan of

action was then necessarily so far changed, as that General French was

ordered to attack the enemy in his front at once, which he did, the

divisions engaged being those of Carr, Prince, and Birney. The

heaviest fighting fell upon Carr's division, and there were charges

and countercharges, the lines swaying back and forth several times.

General Meade, unwilling to bring on a general engagement until he

could get his army together, had been holding the First and Fifth

Corps in their positions waiting for French's corps to join them, and

there was a little fighting in front of the Fifth when the enemy came

close to its lines. General Lee was quite as reluctant to attack in

force as was General Meade, and that night he drew back his army

within its intrenchments. A hard storm the next day delayed all

movements, and when, toward evening, Meade advanced to the eastern

bank of Mine Run, he found that the Confederate intrenchments on the

western bank were altogether too strong to justify an assault. Sending

the Fifth Corps, in the night of the 28th, to threaten the Confederate

right flank in the {337} morning, and turn it if possible, Meade

directed his other corps commanders to search for possible weak points

in the enemy's lines. One was found on the extreme Confederate left

and another near the centre, while the First and Fifth Corps

commanders reported that there was no weak spot whatever in their

front. A simultaneous assault on these points was arranged for the

morning of the 30th, to be covered, as usual, by a heavy artillery

fire. The guns opened promptly at the designated hour, and were as

promptly replied to by the Confederate artillery; but before the

assault began, General Warren sent word to General Meade that he found

the enemy had so strengthened the works on their right, as to make an

assault there hopeless. General Meade, therefore, gave orders to

suspend the attacks that were already begun at the other points, and

here the campaign virtually ended. There was no other possible

movement, except to march around the right of the Confederate

position, and for this it would have been necessary first to bring

over the trains which had been left on the north side of the river.

Further, the weather was very severe; some of the pickets had been

frozen to death, and the roads were rapidly becoming impassable.

General Meade, therefore, withdrew his army to the north side of the

Rapidan in the night of December 1st. In this unfortunate and

altogether unsatisfactory affair, Meade lost about a thousand men,

most of them in the Third Corps; the Confederate losses were reported

at about six hundred.

Early in the morning of January 3d, a strong Confederate cavalry force

made a dash upon Moorefield, W. Va., and after a contest of several

hours with the garrison, was driven off. The Confederates, however,

carried away sixty-five prisoners and some arms and horses.

In April a Confederate force of five hundred men descended the Kanawha

on flat-boats and attacked Point Pleasant, which was garrisoned by

fifty men under Captain Carter of the Thirteenth Virginia (National)

Regiment. A fight of four hours ensued, the garrison successfully

defending themselves in the court-house, and refusing to surrender

even when the Confederates threatened to burn the town. After the

assailants had lost about seventy men, and inflicted a loss on the

garrison of nearly a dozen, they withdrew, and their retreat was

hastened by some well-directed shots from a Government transport in

the river.

[Illustration: A FORAGING PARTY.]

[Illustration: BREVET MAJOR-GENERAL EDWARD HATCH.]

{338} [Illustration: BRIDGE BUILT BY UNITED STATES TROOPS, WHITESIDE,

TENN. (From a Government photograph taken during the war.)]

The most considerable engagement that resulted from an expedition

under General Jones was near Fairmount, where the Baltimore and Ohio

Railroad crosses the Monongahela River. The defensive forces here

consisted of only three hundred men, while the Confederates numbered

several thousands. At their approach, a company of militia and armed

citizens went out on the hills to meet them, and made such good

preparations for disputing their passage by the turnpike, that a force

was sent around the slopes to drive them off, which was accomplished

after some fighting. As the Confederates approached the suspension

bridge, a part of the defensive force made a gallant stand, taking

shelter in a foundry and firing with great effect upon the Confederate

skirmishers and sharp-shooters. After a time, this little force fell

back, and the Confederates crossed by the suspension bridge and

advanced toward the railroad bridge. At the latter there was a similar

attack and defence, until the detachments that had crossed at the

suspension bridge came up in the rear of those who defended the

railroad bridge, and the little band was summoned to surrender. This,

however, they did not do until they were completely surrounded and

could fight no longer, when they raised a white flag and the firing

ceased. Hardly had this taken place, when a detachment of National

troops came up the railroad with two guns, and shelled the

Confederates on the west side of the river. The Confederates then set

about destroying the railroad bridge, which at that time was the

finest in the United States. It was of iron, supported on tubular

columns of cast iron, which rested on massive {339} stone piers, and

had cost about half a million dollars. They poured powder by the

kegful into the hollow iron column and exploded it, blowing the whole

structure into the river. They had lost in the fight nearly a hundred

men, while the National loss was but half a dozen. After robbing every

store in the town, and destroying much private property, including the

law and private libraries of Governor Pierpont, which they carried

into the street and burned, the Confederates departed.

On the 13th of July a cavalry expedition of two regiments, commanded

by Col. John Toland, set out to cut the railroad at Wytheville, Va.

They crossed Lens Mountain, reached Coal River, and moved along that

stream toward Raleigh Court House, where they began to meet with

resistance. They then ascended the Guyan Mountain, and descended on

the other side into an almost unknown valley, where, writes one of the

officers, "The few inhabitants obtained a livelihood largely by

digging ginseng and other roots. They live in huts that the Esquimaux

would scorn to be invited into. Long, dirty, tobacco-dried,

sallow-complexioned women stare at you as you pass. Ask them a

question, they answer you, giving what information they possess, but

it is so little as to render you no assistance. Here stands a small,

dirty tavern, with two or three half-starved old men gazing upon the

Yankees as they march by." The expedition crossed the Tug Mountains,

and descended to Abb's Valley. Here they captured a small Confederate

camp with thirty-six men. The writer just quoted says of Abb's Valley:

"The scenery beggars description for beauty. As far as the eye can

reach, stretch hills and vales in every direction. The country is

rich, owned principally by wealthy citizens who were very influential

in bringing about the rebellion, living in luxury and ease. They

little dreamed that they, living in so remote a place, should be made

to feel the weight of the hand of war." The expedition then marched to

Clinch River, and crossed Rich Mountain. "The people had heard much

and seen little of Yankee soldiers, and the white population looked

upon us with fear, ready to give all when attacked. On the other hand,

the negroes assembled in groups, threw themselves in every conceivable

form, jumping, singing, dancing, yelling, and giving signs that the

year of jubilee had come. The white men fled as we approached, leaving

their homes at our mercy, which were not molested, except those that

had been used in some way to benefit the rebel army; in such cases,

they were always destroyed." The next march was across Garden

Mountain, Rich Valley, and Walker's Mountain, to the vicinity of

Wytheville. Here the Confederate pickets were encountered, and

skirmishing began. When the whole body of the expedition charged upon

the town, they found the Confederates not in line of battle, but in

buildings commanding the principal streets, from which they opened

fire upon the advancing column. This firing from the houses was

participated in by citizens, and also to some extent by women, and was

very effective. The three companies that first rode into the town

discovered two pieces of artillery in position, and made a dash and

captured them. Colonel Toland hurried up with the remainder of his

force, and, finding that the enemy could not otherwise be dislodged

from the buildings, gave orders to burn the town. The officers were

the special mark of the sharp-shooters, and in ten minutes the colonel

fell dead, when the command devolved upon Colonel Powell, who also was

struck and had to be carried off, seriously wounded. Reinforcements

were sent to the Confederates from various points, but before they

arrived the town was laid in ashes, and the expedition fell back,

burning a bridge behind them. They then slowly retraced their line of

march, with occasional skirmishes on the way, but finding their chief

hardships in the lack of food and the exhaustion of the horses. "We

ascended Blue Stone Mountain by file. The road was very steep, and ere

we reached the top twenty-three horses lay stretched across the road,

having fallen from exhaustion. The descent was terrible, cliffs ten to

thirty-one feet, down which the smooth-footed horse would slip with

scarce life enough to arrest his progress, except it be stopped by

contact with a tree or some other obstacle." They at length reached

Raleigh, N. C., where provisions were forwarded to them from

Fayetteville. They had been absent eleven days, and had ridden about

five hundred miles. Their loss was eighty-five men and three hundred

horses.

[Illustration: MAJOR-GENERAL W. H. FRENCH.]

[Illustration: BREVET MAJOR-GENERAL EDWARD FERRERO.]

An invasion of Kentucky by the Confederate General Pegram, with about

two thousand six hundred men, in March, came to a sudden end at

Somerset, in the central part of the State. General Gillmore, with

twelve hundred mounted men, set out from that town to attack him, and

found him in a strong position at Dutton's Hill, twelve miles from

Somerset. Gillmore drew up in line of battle, placed his guns in the

centre, and, in an artillery fight of an hour and a half, dismounted

three of the enemy's pieces. He then ordered his wings to advance,

which they did in the face of a brisk fire. But, disregarding this,

they pressed on up the hill rapidly until the enemy broke and fled. A

body of Confederate cavalry, led by Scott and Ashby, were then

detected in a flank movement. This was promptly met, and, after a

short conflict, sixty of them were made prisoners and the remainder

were put to flight. Three miles from Somerset the Confederates made a

stand, but here again they were routed, and {340} in the night they

crossed the river, where it was said many of them were drowned. The

Confederate loss was nearly a hundred killed or wounded, besides many

prisoners. Gillmore's loss was about forty. They placed a battery on

the river bank in the morning, but Gillmore's artillery soon knocked

it to pieces, and in another dash four hundred cattle that they had

taken were recaptured. His men captured the flags of a Louisiana and a

Tennessee cavalry regiment. A participant wrote: "Wolford himself

pursued the rebel leader, Colonel Scott, so closely that when within

thirty paces of him, with levelled pistol he called upon him to die or

surrender. At the moment, Wolford's horse was shot, and Scott escaped.

When McIntire arrived, cheering his men forward on foot, the rebels

broke in confusion and fled. Wolford halted for ammunition, but

McIntire, with seventy-two men yelling like a thousand, followed

across an open field and into the woods, and here began the most

extraordinary flight and pursuit, I venture to assert, that has been

recorded during the war. The rebel panic increased with every rod

passed over in their terrific flight over hill and valley, brook and

rock, tangled brush and fallen timber. Any one to review the field

to-day would pronounce such a race over such ground impossible. At the

base of a precipitous hill, and embarrassed by the contracting valley,

high fences, and a complication of lanes, the rebels were evidently

about to turn at bay in very desperation, when additional

reinforcements, under Colonel Sanders, appeared dashing along at their

left. This completed their consternation, and they again broke, every

man for himself."

Early in January Gen. Stephen A. Hurlbut, commanding the district of

Tennessee, issued a proclamation at Memphis, in which he warned the

resident sympathizers with the Confederate cause that they must expect

to suffer if the guerilla operations, which had become very frequent

and annoying in that State, were continued. He alluded especially to

the threat to tear up the railroads, and declared that for every such

raid he would select ten families from the wealthiest and most noted

secessionists in Memphis and send them South.

A detachment of Confederates, commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel Dawson,

made a raid into Tennessee in January, and busied themselves

especially in burning all the cotton they could find. But on the 8th a

detachment of the Twentieth Illinois cavalry, under Captain Moore,

surprised Dawson's camp, near Ripley, at sunrise, and, without losing

a man, killed eight of the Confederates, wounded twenty, and captured

forty-six, while the remainder escaped.

On the last day of January a scouting party of National cavalry,

setting out from Nashville, came unexpectedly upon a portion of

Wheeler's cavalry at the little village of Rover, and immediately

attacked them. A hand-to-hand sabre fight ensued, which resulted in

the complete defeat of the Confederates, who had thus been taken

unawares. About twenty-five of them were disabled, and three hundred

made prisoners.

Fort Donelson, which Grant's army had captured in February, 1862, was

now held by six hundred men under Col. A. C. Harding, and on February

3, 1863, was attacked by a force of five thousand under Generals

Wheeler and Forrest. At the approach of the enemy Harding sent out his

cavalry to reconnoitre, but they were all captured. At the same time

his telegraph lines were cut, and he sent out mounted messengers to

bring up a gunboat that was down the river. He had hardly placed his

little command in position for defence, when the Confederates sent in

a flag of truce and demanded a surrender, which he declined. The enemy

then opened upon him with eight guns, and he replied steadily with

five, called in his skirmishers, and strengthened his line as much as

possible. The fight continued from noon till evening, when surrender

was again demanded and again refused. The Confederates now made

arrangements for an assault, and Harding placed his men in the

rifle-pits with fixed bayonets to await the onset. A distant gun told

him that help was coming, and very soon the black hull of the

_Lexington_ was seen moving up the river. The garrison began to cheer,

and when her shells were sent over their heads and fell among the

enemy, the siege was raised at once and the Confederates quickly fled

away. In a charge made at the moment when they broke, Harding took

some prisoners. He had lost about seventy-five men, killed or wounded,

and the Confederates over four hundred.

Learning that a Confederate cavalry force was foraging, plundering,

and conscripting, near Bradyville, twelve miles from Murfreesboro',

General Stanley set out (March 1st) with sixteen hundred men in search

of it. He found it strongly posted near the village, and at once

attacked and drove it through the town. The Confederates took up a new

position half a mile distant, where a ledge of rocks gave them good

shelter. Stanley then sent a squadron around their left flank, and

another to their right, while he made a show of attacking in front.

The Confederates stood their ground until they found themselves

subjected to two enfilading fires, when they at once gave way, and

Stanley's men rode in among them and used their sabres and pistols.

They were pursued three miles and completely disorganized. About

thirty of them were disabled, and a hundred taken prisoners.

Three days later a similar expedition, under Col. John Coburn, set out

from Franklin in search of a similar party of Confederates. They found

them near Thompson's Station, and were attacked by riflemen hidden

behind a stone wall near the depot. A few minutes later two batteries

opened upon them, and the enemy advanced in line of battle. Coburn's

infantry stood their ground bravely, but his artillery was badly

managed, and his cavalry retired instead of advancing. When his

ammunition failed, at the end of three hours, Coburn was obliged to

surrender with such of his forces as had not escaped. He lost four

hundred men, killed or wounded, and about twelve hundred captured.

About six hundred of the Confederates were disabled.

Still another of these expeditions left Murfreesboro', March 18, in

search of marauding bands of Confederates. It was commanded by Col.

A. S. Hall. At Statesville he encountered and quickly defeated a small

body of Confederate cavalry. At Auburn he discovered that a

Confederate force, superior to his own, was moving up to attack him,

whereupon he drew back to Vaught's Hill, near Milton, and formed his

line. One of his two guns began the fight by throwing shells over the

little village and into the advance guard of the enemy. The

Confederates, consisting of eleven regiments, commanded by Generals

Wheeler and Morgan, promptly attacked along the whole line. Hall's

guns were advantageously placed, and raked the lines of the enemy as

they advanced, while his infantry were very skilfully managed, and

held their ground against determined attacks on both flanks. A

detachment of cavalry which had passed around the right flank, and was

attempting to get into the rear, was met by such a deadly fire that it

immediately withdrew in confusion. The Confederates, enraged at the

execution of one of Hall's guns, concentrated a large force and made a

desperate rush for its capture. Hall's men allowed them to come within

forty yards, and then opened upon them with a fire of musketry so

destructive that they soon {341} broke and fled in confusion. The

assailants now drew off and contented themselves with cannonading at a

distance, which was kept up until one of Hall's skilfully managed guns

sent a shot which dismounted one of theirs, and then they withdrew

altogether. The Confederate loss in this action was about four

hundred, killed or wounded; the National loss was about forty.

Again, in April, General Stanley set out with a brigade of infantry

and two thousand cavalry to attack Morgan's and Wharton's Confederate

force at Snow Hill. After some preliminary skirmishes and desultory

fighting two regiments of Stanley's cavalry succeeded in getting into

the rear of the enemy, when they broke and fled, losing more than a

hundred men disabled or captured.

The Confederate General Van Dorn, who had been for some time

threatening to attack the garrison of Franklin, commanded by Gen.

Gordon Granger, appeared before the town on the 10th of April, with a

heavy force, and drove in the outposts. He then formed a strong

skirmish line, and behind this a line of battle ready for an immediate

charge. Granger's advance troops, consisting of the Fortieth Ohio

Regiment, commanded by Capt. Charles G. Matchett, were quickly placed

in a critical position, having both flanks menaced at the same time

that the enemy was advancing in front. Captain Matchett gave the order

to fall back at a double quick, and was, as he expected to be,

followed closely by the enemy's mounted skirmishers. Suddenly he

halted his regiment, faced them about, and gave the pursuers a volley

that drove them back from their main line, when he continued his

retreat. This manoeuvre was repeated several times in admirable style,

the front company each time retiring on the double quick to the rear

of the other companies, when they faced about and delivered their

fire. In this manner they reached the town, took advantage of the

houses and other defences, and checked any further pursuit. The

Confederates now opened fire with their batteries, which was replied

to by the siege guns in the fortifications, and by field batteries,

which drove them off. Meanwhile, a force under General Stanley had

moved out and struck the flank of the Confederates, capturing six guns

and two hundred prisoners. The National loss was about one hundred

men; the Confederate loss is unknown.

On the 7th of September a Confederate force of four regiments, which

had fortified Cumberland Gap and occupied it nearly a year,

surrendered to a National force under General Shackleford without

firing a gun.

General Shackleford, undertaking to drive the various bands of

Confederates out of East Tennessee, in September, found one near

Bristol, fought it, pursued it, and fought it again, until it made a

decided stand at Blountville, September 22. Here he opened fire upon

them, and the fight lasted from one o'clock till dusk, when the

Confederates were defeated, and fled, closely pursued by Colonel

Carter's command. They were ultimately dispersed, some of them taking

to the mountains, and the others returning to their homes.

[Illustration: BRIGADIER-GENERAL POWELL CLAYTON.]

[Illustration: BRIGADIER-GENERAL THOMAS M. SCOTT, C. S. A.]

[Illustration: MAJOR-GENERAL JAMES P. FAGAN, C. S. A.]

The position of General Burnside was peculiar, and probably was more

influenced by a feeling of personal regard than that of any other

commander on the National side. His enthusiastic loyalty, his bravery,

his hearty and manly conduct among his fellow patriots, and his

personal modesty were all perfectly evident. His capacity for a large

independent command was at least doubtful. Early in the war he had led

a successful expedition through many dangers of wind and wave on the

coast of North Carolina. Later he had made two notable failures--as a

corps commander at Antietam, and as commander of the army at

Fredericksburg. But he had never aspired to the chief command, which

really was thrust upon him, and he so frankly assumed the

responsibility and blame for his errors, that the feeling toward him

was much the same as that in the South toward Lee after his disastrous

failure at Gettysburg. Although he was not retained in command of the

Army of the Potomac, he was, in March, 1863, given command of the

Department of the Ohio, and his old corps, the Ninth, was sent to him

with the intention of having him go through eastern Kentucky and

Tennessee, and relieve the Union people there from the {342}

Confederate oppression and outrages that they were suffering. This

plan was delayed by the necessity of sending his corps to reinforce

Grant at Vicksburg, and Burnside was practically idle through the

summer. But late in August, with twenty thousand men, he set out from

Richmond, Ky., and moved southward into East Tennessee, where he met

with a most enthusiastic reception from the inhabitants. The stars and

stripes, which had been hidden away during the presence of Confederate

forces, were now waving from nearly every house, and supplies of all

kinds were freely brought to his forces. His coming, however, was not

the only reason for the withdrawal of the various Confederate bands

that had infested that region; these were being united to Bragg's army

to strengthen it for his contemplated movement on Chattanooga.

Meanwhile, Longstreet, with his corps, had been detached from Lee's

army and sent to Bragg's, and had played an important part, as we have

seen, in the battle of Chickamauga. Various detachments of Burnside's

forces had encountered the enemy, and some of these actions have

already been described in this chapter.

The next important movement made by the Confederates was designed to

destroy Burnside's force, or drive it out of East Tennessee. That

mountainous region, with its sturdily loyal people, lying between the

disloyal portions of Virginia and North Carolina on the one hand, and

those of Tennessee on the other, was a constant source of discomfort

to the Confederate Government, and would evidently be a standing

menace to the Confederacy should its independence ever be established.

Hence their anxiety to clear it of Union sentiment, by whatever means.

About twenty thousand men, under the command of General Longstreet,

were detached from Bragg's army and sent out upon this errand.

Burnside had scattered his own forces pretty widely, and some of his

detachments were obliged to fight the enemy at various points before

they were all concentrated again. One of these actions was at the

village of Philadelphia, where two thousand men, under Col. F. T.

Wolford, were attacked by three times their number of Confederates,

and, after a gallant resistance, escaped with the loss of their

artillery and wagons, and managed to carry away half a hundred

prisoners. Reinforcements coming up, the train was recaptured and the

enemy driven in turn. About a hundred men were killed or wounded on

each side. Longstreet's general plan and purpose being now evident,

Burnside began the concentration of his forces, and, being joined by

his Ninth Corps again, had about the same number of men as Longstreet.

He chose an advantageous position at Campbell's Station, a dozen miles

southwest of Knoxville, and gave battle. He had no difficulty in

holding his own against the enemy, although their line was more

extended than his, for his artillery was in place while theirs had not

yet come up. But when, late in the day, they brought their guns to the

front, he was obliged to fall back to another strong position, which

he held until his trains were safely under way, and in the night fell

back still farther to the defences of Knoxville. In the action at

Campbell's Station he had lost about three hundred men; the

Confederate loss is unknown. Longstreet followed him slowly, and on

the 17th of November sat down before the city. The place was strongly

fortified, and although the Confederates by a quick assault carried a

position on the right of Burnside's line, they did not materially

impair his defences. In this affair Burnside lost about a hundred men,

including Brig.-Gen. William P. Sanders killed. Longstreet's men

skirmished and bombarded for ten days, at the end of which time,

having been reinforced, he determined upon the experiment of a heavy

assault. On the 28th of November he hurled three of his best brigades

against an unfinished portion of the works on Burnside's left, where

Gen. Edward Ferrero was in command. The assault was gallantly

delivered, but was quite as gallantly met, and proved a failure,

Longstreet losing about eight hundred men, including two colonels

killed, while the defenders of the works lost but one hundred. A few

days later Grant, having thoroughly defeated Bragg at Chattanooga,

sent a force under Sherman to the relief of Knoxville, and Longstreet

was obliged to abandon the siege, and returned to Virginia.

[Illustration: BREVET BRIGADIER-GENERAL CHRISTOPHER CARSON. (Kit

Carson.)]

When, in June, it was learned that a Confederate force was about to

make a raid upon the railroad in Northern Mississippi and destroy the

bridges, Lieutenant-Colonel Phillips, of the Ninth Illinois Cavalry,

was sent out to meet them with his own regiment and parts of the Fifth

Ohio and Eighteenth Missouri. At Rocky Crossing, on the Tallahatchie,

he encountered a Confederate force of two thousand men, infantry,

cavalry, and artillery, under General Ruggles, and, although he had

but six hundred men and no guns, he at once gave battle, and his men

fought so spiritedly and skilfully that they drove off the enemy,

inflicting a loss of one hundred and thirty-five in killed and

wounded, and captured thirty prisoners, themselves losing about

thirty-five men.

On the 16th of July, Jackson, capital of Mississippi, which had been

besieged by Sherman's forces since the fall of Vicksburg, was

evacuated by Johnston, who quietly moved away to the eastward, and the

National troops took possession of the town. During the investment

there had been no serious fighting, except on the 12th, when General

Lauman's division, on Sherman's extreme right, attempted to make an

advance and was repelled with heavy loss.

On the same day when Jackson was evacuated, Col. Cyrus Bussey,

Sherman's chief of cavalry, was sent out with a thousand horsemen and

a brigade of infantry to attack Jackson's cavalry, which was known to

be near Canton. The enemy was discovered within two miles of that

place, on the west side of Bear Creek, in a position to receive

battle. Colonel Bussey immediately deployed his forces and attacked.

The Confederates made several attempts to get by his flank and capture

his train, {343} but all were thwarted, and, after a somewhat stubborn

fight, the whole body of Confederates was driven back through the

woods and crossed the creek, destroying the bridge behind them. The

next day Bussey moved into the town, and destroyed the forges and

machinery that had long been employed in furnishing the Confederates

with war materials. He also burned the railroad buildings, with all

their contents, thirteen large machine shops, fifty cars, and other

property. The retiring force of Confederates had already burned the

depot and six hundred bales of cotton. Before the expedition returned

it destroyed about forty miles of the railroad that was used by the

Confederates for bringing supplies from the west.

On the 13th of October a National cavalry force, commanded by Colonel

Hatch, consisting of twenty-five hundred men with eight guns, appeared

before the town of Wyatt's, on the Tallahatchie, which was fortified

and held by a strong Confederate force. The Confederates began in the

afternoon with an attack on the National left, which was not

successful. They then massed their forces and made a desperate attempt

to break the centre, but were again foiled. Colonel Hatch slowly

advanced his line, keeping up a wary fight until evening, when the

Confederates retired under cover of darkness and crossed the river.

Colonel Hatch lost about forty men and captured seventy-five

prisoners, the Confederate loss in killed and wounded being unknown.

* * * * *

Arkansas was still the scene of occasional fighting, though always on

a small scale. It furnished supplies to the Confederacy, and was in

some respects a tempting field for foraging. Early in February a

detachment of cavalry, commanded by Col. George E. Waring, Jr., made a

raid in Arkansas and rode suddenly into the town of Batesville,

attacked the Confederate force there, defeated it, and drove it out of

the town. The Confederates fled in such haste that those who could not

crowd into the boats swam the river. Colonel Waring then remounted his

men with horses from the surrounding country.

On the 15th of the same month there was a fight at Arkadelphia between

a small party of National troops and one of Confederates, in which

about twenty men were disabled on each side.

[Illustration: BRIGADIER-GENERAL WILLIAM DWIGHT COMMANDING AT THE

BATTLE OF VERMILION BAYOU, LA. (From an original drawing by James E.

Taylor.)]

On the 18th of April a Confederate force of cavalry, with a section of

artillery and a considerable number of guerillas, made a night march

from the Boston Mountains and attacked the {344} National force at

Fayetteville, Ark., commanded by Col. M. L. Harrison of the First

Arkansas cavalry. They charged up a deep ravine and made a desperate

attempt to capture Colonel Harrison's headquarters; but he had had

some intimation of their coming, and had promptly thrown his men into

line for defence, so that every charge was gallantly repelled. The

Confederates then tried an artillery fire without doing much damage,

and finally a desperate cavalry charge upon Harrison's right wing,

which was met by a most destructive fire that caused them to recoil

and then to retreat in disorder to the woods. Harrison then sent out

two companies, which went within rifle-range of the enemy's artillery

and compelled them to withdraw their battery. Their wings were soon

broken, but their centre still made a stubborn fight, until about noon

that too gave way, and the whole force retreated. Harrison's loss was

thirty-five men. That of the enemy was unknown, except that about

sixty were captured and a considerable number were left dead or

wounded on the field.

Helena, Ark., on the Mississippi, one hundred and fifty miles above

Vicksburg, was held by a National force, under Gen. B. M. Prentiss,

when on the 4th of July it was attacked by about nine thousand

Confederates, under command of Generals Price and Holmes. Learning of

their coming, General Prentiss drew his entire force within the

fortifications. By a sudden rush, a detachment of the Confederates

captured a battery, drove some of the infantry out of the rifle-pits,

and were advancing into the town. But a portion of Prentiss's force

was boldly pushed forward to check them, and those in possession of

the battery were soon subjected to so severe a fire that they were

glad to surrender. The Confederates had now planted guns upon

commanding positions, with which they opened fire upon the works, but

at the same time the gunboat _Tyler_ had moved up to the scene and

soon began sending its broadsides along the slopes and through the

ravines that they occupied. Their batteries were ultimately silenced

by this fire, and their infantry lost heavily. A heavy fog settling

down caused a cessation of the engagement for some time, and when it

lifted the fighting was resumed, the Confederates making desperate

assaults upon the works and subjecting themselves to the terrible fire

of the heavy guns. After several hours of this reckless work, they

were drawn off, leaving their dead and wounded on the field and many

prisoners. Prentiss's loss was two hundred and thirty; that of the

Confederates, nearly two thousand, including the numerous prisoners.

An incident is told that illustrates the character of the fighting.

One assaulting column was led by a lieutenant-colonel who preceded his

men, and was standing on a log waving his sword and yelling wildly,

when the captain of the battery called out to him, "What do you keep

swinging that sword for? why don't you surrender?" "By what authority

do you demand my surrender?" said the Confederate officer. "By

authority of my twelve-pound howitzer," replied the captain. The

Confederate looked about him, saw that his command had melted away,

and then held out his sword saying, "Very well, sir, I surrender."

On the 1st day of September there was a fight at a place called

Devil's Backbone, sixteen miles from Fort Smith, between a portion of

General Blunt's forces, under Colonel Cloud, and a Confederate force

under Colonel Cabell, in which the latter was defeated and routed with

a loss of about sixty men, the National loss being fourteen. This was

an incident of the advance of General Blunt to Fort Smith, which place

he occupied on the 10th. It had been in the possession of the

Confederates since the beginning of the war.

The garrison at Pine Bluff, Ark., commanded by Col. Powell Clayton,

was attacked on the 25th of October by a Confederate force under

General Marmaduke. The Confederate skirmishers came forward with a

flag of truce, met Lieutenant Clark of the Fifth Kansas cavalry

outside of the town, and demanded a surrender. Clark replied, "Colonel

Clayton never surrenders, but is always anxious for you to come and

take him; and you must get to your command immediately, or I will

order my men to fire on you." Clayton sent out skirmishers to delay

the advance of the enemy, and then set three hundred negroes at work

rolling out cotton bales and barricading the streets, while he placed

nine guns in position to command every approach to the square. His

sharp-shooters were posted in the houses, and he then set the negroes

at work bringing water from the river and filling all the barrels they

could find, so that, if necessary, he might sustain a siege. The enemy

opened upon him with twelve guns, and in the course of two hours

succeeded in setting fire to several buildings, some of which were

destroyed before the flames were extinguished by the work of the

negroes. Meanwhile, Clayton's sharp-shooters had fired at every

Confederate that came within range, and succeeded in killing or

wounding about one hundred and thirty of them. Finding that he could

not set fire to the town, and could not assault the barricades without

heavy loss, Marmaduke retired from the field. Whereupon Clayton sent

out a pursuing force and captured some prisoners. Thirty-nine of

Clayton's men and seventeen of the negroes were killed or wounded.

Missouri, a slave State almost surrounded by free territory, was still

a ground of contention for small armed bands, although it had long

since become evident that it could not be taken out of the Union.

The garrison at Springfield, commanded by Gen. E. B. Brown, was

attacked by about five thousand men, under Marmaduke on the 8th of

January. Outposts at Lawrence Mills and Ozark were driven in by the

advancing enemy, while General Brown called in small reinforcements

from various stations and made hasty preparation to defend the place.

The convalescents in the hospitals were brought out and armed, and

three guns were made ready in the night. The Confederates advanced

slowly across the prairie, coming up in line of battle with three

pieces of artillery and cavalry on the wings. General Brown ordered

the burning of several houses south of the fort, to prevent their use

by the enemy, and opened with his guns as soon as the Confederates

came within range. Within an hour there was brisk fighting all along

the line, with several charges and counter-charges, in one of which

the Confederates captured a gun after a desperate fight. At the same

time a detachment of them took possession of an unfinished stockade.

The Confederates massed against the centre and the right wing

successively, and gained possession of several houses, from one of

which a sharp-shooter shot General Brown, wounding him so that he was

carried from the field, when the command devolved upon Colonel Crabb.

The fighting was kept up steadily with varying fortune, but with no

decisive result, till dark, when the Confederates withdrew. The

National loss in this action was one hundred and sixty-two men; the

Confederate loss is unknown.

Three days later Marmaduke came into collision at Hartsville with a

force of eight hundred men, commanded by Colonel Merrill, which was on

the march for Springfield. Early in the morning Merrill learned of the

approach of the Confederates, and threw his little command into line

of battle. The Confederates came up and fought them for an hour, and

then unaccountably {345} fell back. Finding that they were moving on

Hartsville by another road, Merrill moved to intercept them, and took

another position close to the town. Here he was attacked about noon,

first with artillery, and then in a cavalry charge. His infantry lay

flat upon the ground until the Confederate horsemen were within easy

range, when they rose and fired with such accuracy as to throw them

all into confusion. For three hours the Confederates continued to

attack in small bodies at a time, every one of which was repelled. In

the afternoon, they slowly gave up the attempt and fell back, and at

night they disappeared. Merrill lost about seventy-five men; the

Confederates nearly three hundred. The credit of the victory was given

largely to the artillery, which was served with great skill.

One of the most horrible occurrences of the war was the sacking and

burning of Lawrence, Kan., on the 21st of August, by the notorious

band of Confederate guerillas led by Quantrell. They rode suddenly

into the town, shooting right and left, indiscriminately, at whatever

citizens they happened to meet, and then, spreading through the place,

began systematic plunder. Where they could not get the keys of safes,

they blew them open with powder. They took possession of the hotels

and robbed the guests of everything valuable, even their finger-rings.

Unarmed people, who gave up their money and surrendered, were in

numerous instances wantonly shot. The guerillas appeared to have a

special animosity against Germans and negroes, and murdered all of

these that they could find. The only soldiers there were twenty-two

men at a recruiting station, and eighteen of these were shot. After

thoroughly sacking the town, the guerillas set many buildings on fire,

and a large portion of it was destroyed. It was estimated that their

plunder included about three hundred thousand dollars in cash.

The first action of the year in Louisiana was by a combined naval and

land force, under Gen. Godfrey Weitzel and Commander McKean Buchanan,

against the obstructions in Bayou Teche. It was found that the

Confederates had a steam vessel of war, called the _J. A. Cotton_,

there, that they had erected many batteries, and that they were now

collecting forces above Donaldsonville. General Weitzel set out, with

five regiments and three batteries, on the 11th of January, with the

gunboats _Calhoun_, _Diana_, _Kinsman_, and _Estrella_, the cavalry

and artillery going by land. They proceeded up the Atchafalaya, and on

the 14th found the enemy. The gunboats steamed up to a point near the

batteries and opened fire upon them, and received a fire in return,

but without any special effect. Here a torpedo exploded under the

_Kinsman_ and lifted her violently out of water, yet without doing

serious damage. Commander Buchanan then steamed ahead in his flagship,

the _Diana_, when he was subjected to a fire from rifle-pits, and he

was the first to fall, shot through the head. At this point the bayou

was very narrow, so that the longest of the gunboats could hardly turn

around in the channel. Meanwhile, the land forces had been put ashore

on the side of the river where the batteries were located, and while

one regiment gained the rear of the rifle-pits and drove out the

Confederates, taking about forty prisoners, the three batteries passed

around a piece of forest and took an advantageous position, from which

they opened fire upon the steamer _Cotton_. This craft made a vain

effort to fight these batteries, and was raked from stem to stern. She

finally retired up the bayou and gave it up, and the next morning she

floated down stream in flames. The expedition before returning

captured a large number of cattle, but the obstructions to navigation

of the bayou were not removed.

[Illustration: LIEUTENANT W. T. CLARK. (Afterward Brigadier-General.)]

[Illustration: BRIGADIER-GENERAL JAMES CRAIG.]

{346} [Illustration: THE BATTLE OF INDIAN BEND, LA.]

When Banks marched out to invest Port Hudson, a portion of his forces,

under Gen. Godfrey Weitzel, made a long detour to the west from New

Orleans and thence northward. At Franklin, on the Atchafalaya, a

strong force of the enemy was found, and Weitzel at once attacked it,

April 12th. There was spirited fighting with both infantry and

artillery through the day, but with no decisive result, and at night

the Confederates retreated toward Irish Bend. Here they met Grover's

division, which had been sent there to cut off their retreat, and on

the 14th there was another battle. The Twenty-fifth Connecticut

Regiment, thrown out as a skirmish line, advanced to the edge of the

woods, when they were met with a sharp musketry fire, and also came

within range of the Confederate battery and the Confederate gunboat

_Diana_. It was the first time that this regiment had been under fire,

but the men stood to the work like veterans, and very soon a brigade,

under Gen. Henry W. Birge, came to their support. Two guns were

brought up, which answered the artillery fire of the enemy; but still

the advance troops were suffering from a cross-fire, which was

increased by the appearance of two Confederate {347} regiments on the

right flank. One regiment was moved to the left, and advanced rapidly

upon the battery, firing as it went, when the guns were soon whirled

away to save them from capture. This regiment did capture the

battery's flag, and was just resting in supposed victory, when another

Confederate force came upon its flank, and it was hastily withdrawn. A

second brigade was now sent to the assistance of the first, and the

whole made a grand charge, before which the Confederates fled in

disorder; and when a third brigade came up and threatened the capture

of the gunboat _Diana_, her crew abandoned her and blew her up. Sixty

prisoners were taken, and some artillery horses and many small arms.

Out of three hundred and fifty men of the Twenty-fifth Connecticut

Regiment, which took the leading part in this action, eighty-six were

killed or wounded, and ten were missing. The Thirteenth Connecticut

lost seven killed and forty-six wounded. Many instances of peculiar

valor in this small but destructive battle are recorded. Of Lieut.

Daniel P. Dewey, who was killed at the point where the hostile lines

came nearest together, the adjutant wrote: "I saw him then, and the

sight I shall never forget--waving his sword above his head, calling

to his men, 'Remember you are Company A,' his whole bearing so brave

and heroic that it seemed almost impossible for any enemy to avoid

marking him. Standing unmoved in a rain of bullets, he had a word of

encouragement for every man near him, kindly greeting for a friend,

and even a merry quotation from a favorite song to fling after a shell

that went shrieking by. So I last saw him, so I shall always remember

him." Lieutenant Dewey had left his studies in Trinity College,

Hartford, to enlist.

At Vermilion Bayou there were several slight actions, the most

considerable of which took place October 10th. The Confederates being

discovered here to the number of six or seven thousand, together with

two batteries and a cavalry force, the Nineteenth Corps advanced to

take them. After cavalry skirmishing a line of battle was formed, and

the Confederates were driven across the bayou. Three batteries of

rifled guns were then brought up, and they were diligently shelled

wherever there was any appearance of them on the shore or in the

woods. The cavalry found a ford, and the infantry improvised a pontoon

bridge, which was partly supported by the burned portions of the

bridge that the enemy had used. The whole force then crossed the

bayou, but was not able to overtake the flying Confederates. A report

says: "The conduct of all concerned in this affair was excellent, and

the most conspicuous of all was the gallant General Weitzel on his

war-horse, riding boldly to the front, whither he had forbidden any

other going on horseback. His appearance inspired the troops with the

wildest enthusiasm, and the firing, which was warm and rapid before,

seemed to redouble as he rode along the line."

[Illustration: COLONEL H. G. GIBSON.]

[Illustration: BREVET BRIGADIER-GENERAL S. J. CRAWFORD.]

[Illustration: AN ENCOUNTER BETWEEN A UNION AND A CONFEDERATE

SOLDIER.]

In April, another expedition, commanded by Col. O. P. Gooding,

consisting of one brigade, marched against the Confederate works on

the Bayou Teche. As soon as they arrived in sight of {348} the

batteries, on the 13th, they were met by an artillery fire, which they

returned at the same time that a large part of the infantry crossed

the bayou and gained a position partly in the rear. Here they were met

by a heavy skirmish line, which they gradually drove back into the

works. A portion of the intrenchments were then carried by assault,

when darkness put an end to the fight. In the morning it was found

that the enemy had fled. One hundred and thirty of them had been made

prisoners. Colonel Gooding's loss was seventy-two men, killed or

wounded. One of the many instances of personal daring and skill that

occurred in this great war is specially mentioned in the colonel's

report. In the course of the fight Private Patrick Smith, of the

Thirty-eighth Massachusetts Regiment, came suddenly upon three

Confederate soldiers in the woods. He shot one, and compelled the

other two to surrender, and brought them in as prisoners.

Galveston, Tex., had been occupied by National forces, and its harbor

closed to blockade-running, in October, 1862. On the first day of

January, 1863, a strong Confederate force, under Gen. John B.

Magruder, attacked the fleet and the garrison, and succeeded in

retaking the town and raising the blockade. The naval force there

consisted of six gunboats, under Commander W. B. Renshaw. Three

Confederate steamers were discovered in the bay by the bright

moonlight of the preceding night, and very early in the morning they

came down to attack the gunboats, while at the same time the land

force attacked the garrison. The gunboat _Harriet Lane_ was set upon

by two Confederate steamers, which were barricaded with cotton bales,

and carried rifled guns, besides a large number of sharp-shooters on

the decks. The _Harriet Lane_ made a gallant fight, and was rammed by

one of the steamers, which so injured itself in the collision that it

ran for the shore and sank. The other steamer then ran into the

_Harriet Lane_, made fast to her, sent volleys of musketry across her

deck, and boarded her. She was quickly captured; but her commander,

J. M. Wainwright, refused to surrender, and defended himself with his

revolver until he was killed. The first lieutenant and five of the

crew also fell. The _Owasco_, going to the assistance of the _Harriet

Lane_, got aground several times, and finally, seeing that the guns of

the _Harriet Lane_ were turned upon her, drew off, but continued the

engagement with the enemy on shore. The other gunboats had a similar

ill-fortune, and when some of them finally arrived within range of the

_Harriet Lane_ they were prevented from firing upon her by the fact

that the Confederates exposed her captured crew on deck. Flags of

truce, demanding surrender, were now sent in by the Confederates, who

used the opportunity while operations were thus suspended to capture

the garrison on shore, and get artillery into position to fire upon

the gunboats. Commander Renshaw declined to surrender, and ordered his

executive officer to blow up the _Westfield_, in case she could not be

got afloat. Arrangements for this were made, and the explosion took

place prematurely, killing Commander Renshaw, two other officers, and

a dozen of the crew. The remaining gunboats escaped and abandoned the

blockade. General Magruder then issued a proclamation declaring the

port opened to commerce.

The minor events of the third year included a few naval affairs of

some importance in their way. On the 14th of January guerillas

captured the steamer _Forest Queen_ at Commerce, Miss., and destroyed

her. The privateer _Nashville_ had been for some time blockaded by Du

Pont's vessels, where she lay under the guns of Fort McAllister, Ga.

She made several unsuccessful attempts to get to sea, and finally, on

the 27th of February, Commander John L. Worden, perceiving that she

had grounded, moved up rapidly with the iron-clad _Montauk_, and at

twelve hundred yards fired into her with eleven-inch and fifteen-inch

shells. Several of these exploded inside of the _Nashville_ and set

her on fire. She burned until the flames reached her magazine, when

she was blown into fragments. Worden had been assisted by three wooden

vessels of the blockading fleet, which kept down the fire of the

battery. On the Nansemond River, Va., in April, one of the National

gunboats, the _Mount Washington_, being disabled, the Confederate

gunboats came down to attack her, using both artillery and

sharp-shooters. Lieut. William B. Cushing, commanding the _Barney_,

went to her assistance, and after a sharp fight drove off the

Confederate boats and brought away the _Mount Washington_ in tow.

Three of his men were killed and seven wounded. He says in his report:

"It is only requisite to look at the _Mount Washington_ to see with

what desperate gallantry Lieutenant Lampson fought his vessel."

The troubles with Indians, which reached their height in the Minnesota

massacres of 1862, continued to some extent through 1863. In July a

body of troops, commanded by Lieut.-Col. William R. Marshall, had a

severe fight with them at a place called Big Mound, in Dakota. The

Indians were posted among the rocky ridges and ravines of the summit

range, and Marshall was obliged to make several detours to flank them

as he drove them successively from one ridge to another. At the same

time a detachment under Major Bradley had fought them on another

ridge, and finally, in a desultory fight that lasted from four o'clock

in the morning till nine o'clock at night, the Indians were completely

routed and scattered. Colonel Marshall lost eight men, including a

surgeon who was murdered before the fight, and killed or wounded about

one hundred of the Indians. In September there were several other

engagements of the usual character with the Indians, in Dakota, the

most considerable of them taking place at Whitestone Hill. Here Gen.

Alfred Sully's command attacked a party of Indians who had been

murdering and plundering, and not only defeated them and put them to

flight, but captured much of the property of the Indians, including

dogs, tents, and a large quantity of dried buffalo meat, all of which

he burned. He took more than one hundred Indians prisoners. On the 8th

of July there was a fight near Fort Halleck, Idaho, between the

garrison of the fort and a party of Ute Indians. The engagement had

lasted two hours, when the soldiers, led by Lieutenant Williams, made

a charge that finished the battle, and the Indians fled to the

mountains. Sixty of the Indians had been killed or wounded, and half a

dozen of the soldiers.

One of the incidents of this year well illustrates the true method of

dealing with a contingency that arises in nearly every war. General

Burnside had ordered the execution of two Confederate officers who

were detected in recruiting for their army within his lines--in other

words, inducing his men to desert. In this action he followed strictly

the laws of war. When it became known to the Confederate authorities,

they ordered that two captains should be selected by lot from among

the prisoners held in Libby, for execution in retaliation. The order

was transmitted to the keepers of the prison, who proceeded to carry

it out, and three chaplains among the prisoners were appointed to

conduct the drawing. The lot fell upon Capt. Henry W. Sawyer, of the

Second New Jersey cavalry, and Captain Flynn, of the Fifty-first

Indiana Regiment. The Richmond _Despatch_ said in its report: "Sawyer

heard the decision with no apparent emotion, remarking that some one

had to be {349} drawn, and he could stand it as well as any one else.

Flynn was very white and much depressed." The two condemned men were

conveyed to the headquarters of General Winder, who warned them not to

be deluded by any hope of escape, as the retaliatory punishment would

certainly be inflicted eight days from that time. Captain Sawyer

obtained permission to write to his wife, on condition, of course,

that the letter should be read by the prison authorities. In this

letter, after telling what had been done, he wrote: "The

Provost-General, J. H. Winder, assures me that the Secretary of War of

the Southern Confederacy will permit yourself and my dear children to

visit me before I am executed. You will be permitted to bring an

attendant. Captain Whilldin, or uncle W. W. Ware, or Dan, had better

come with you. My situation is hard to be borne, and I cannot think of

dying without seeing you and the children. I am resigned to whatever

is in store for me, with the consolation that I die without having

committed any crime. I have no trial, no jury, nor am I charged with

any crime, but it fell to my lot. You will proceed to Washington. My

Government will give you transportation to Fortress Monroe, and you

will get here by a flag of truce, and return the same way." Sawyer and

Flynn were then placed in close confinement in a dungeon under ground,

where they were fed on corn-bread and water, the dungeon being so damp

that their clothing mildewed. Captain Sawyer's letter had precisely

the effect that he intended--his wife immediately went to Washington

with it, and laid it before the President and the Secretary of War. It

happened at this time, that among the Confederate officers who were

held as prisoners by the National authorities were a son of General

Lee and a son of General Winder, and Secretary Stanton immediately

ordered that these officers be placed in close confinement, as

hostages for the safety of Sawyer and Flynn, while notification was

sent by flag of truce to the Confederate Government, that, immediately

upon receiving information of the execution of Sawyer and Flynn, Lee

and Winder would be likewise executed. The result was what it always

is when prompt and sufficient retaliation is prepared for in such

cases--none of the men were executed, and within three weeks Captains

Flynn and Sawyer were placed again on the same footing as other

prisoners in Libby. During the war, whenever there was a proposal of

retaliation for an outrage, there was always an outcry against it, on

the ground that it would only result in double murders. Those who made

such outcries could not have read history very attentively, or they

would have known that the result has always been exactly the opposite

of that.

[Illustration: CHAIN BRIDGE OVER THE POTOMAC RIVER, NEAR WASHINGTON.

(From a war-time photograph.)]

{350} [Illustration: CONSTRUCTING WINTER QUARTERS, ARMY OF THE

POTOMAC.]

[Illustration: POPLAR GROVE CHURCH. (Built by the United States

Military Engineer Corps.)]