MINOR EVENTS OF THE FOURTH YEAR.
DESPERATE CONDITION OF THE CONFEDERACY--THE EXPORTATION OF COTTON,
TOBACCO, AND SUGAR PROHIBITED--THE THREATENED SECESSION OF NORTH
CAROLINA FROM THE CONFEDERACY--SWEEPING CONSCRIPTION ACTS--FORCES
UNDER GENERAL BUTLER ATTEMPT TO CAPTURE RICHMOND--NUMEROUS MINOR
ENGAGEMENTS IN THE SHENANDOAH VALLEY--BATTLE BETWEEN CAVALRY FORCES AT
TREVILIAN STATION--PLYMOUTH, N. C., CAPTURED BY THE
CONFEDERATES--BLACK FLAG RAISED AND NEGRO PRISONERS SHOT--THE
DESTRUCTION OF THE RAM "ALBEMARLE" BY A FORCE UNDER LIEUTENANT
CUSHING--DEFEAT OF FEDERAL FORCE AT OLUSTEE--ENGAGEMENTS AT DANDRIDGE
AND FAIR GARDENS, TENN.--OPERATIONS IN LOUISIANA AND MISSISSIPPI.
With the dawn of the fourth year of the war the statesmen and
journalists of the Confederacy showed by their utterances that they
knew how desperate were its straits, and how much its prospects had
waned since the victories of the first and second years. The _Richmond
Whig_ said: "The utmost nerve, the firmest front, the most undaunted
courage, will be required during the coming twelve months from all who
are charged with the management of affairs in our country, or whose
position gives them any influence in forming or guiding public
sentiment." The _Wilmington_ (N. C.) _Journal_ said: "Moral courage,
the power to resist the approaches of despondency, and the faculty of
communicating this power to others, will need greatly to be called
into exercise; for we have reached that point in our revolution--which
is inevitably reached in all revolutions--when gloom and depression
take the place of hope and enthusiasm, when despair is fatal, and
despondency is even more to be dreaded than defeat. Whether a crisis
be upon us or not, there can be in the mind of no one, who looks at
the map of Georgia and considers her geographical relations to the
rest of the Confederacy, a single doubt that much of our future is
involved in the result of the next spring campaign in upper Georgia."
The Confederate Congress passed, in secret session, a bill to prohibit
exportation of cotton, tobacco, naval stores, molasses, sugar, or
rice, and one to prohibit importation of luxuries into the
Confederacy, both of which bills were promptly signed by Mr. Davis. At
Huntsville, Ala., a meeting of citizens was held, at which resolutions
were passed deprecating the action of the South, and calling upon the
Government to convene the legislature, that it might call a convention
to provide some mode for the restoration of peace and the rights and
liberties of the people. The legislature of Georgia, in March, adopted
resolutions, declaring that the Confederate Government ought, after
every success of the Confederate arms, to make to the United States
Government an official offer to treat for peace. The _Richmond
Examiner_ said: "People and army, one soul and one body, feel alike,
in their inmost hearts, that when the clash comes it will be a
struggle for life or death. So far we feel sure of the issue. All else
is mystery and uncertainty. Where the first blow will fall, when the
two armies of Northern Virginia meet each other face to face, how
Grant will try to hold his own against the master-spirit of Lee, we
cannot yet surmise; but it is clear to the experienced eye that the
approaching campaign will bring into action two new elements not known
heretofore in military history, which may not unlikely decide the fate
of the gigantic crusade. The enemy will array against us his new
iron-clads by sea and his colored troops by land." In the western
districts of North Carolina the execution of the Confederate
conscription law created great excitement, and several public meetings
were held to consider the action of separating from the Confederacy
and returning to the Union. The _Raleigh Standard_ declared boldly,
that, if the measures proposed by the Confederate Government were
carried out, the people of North Carolina would take their affairs
into their own hands and proceed, in convention assembled, to
vindicate their liberties and privileges.
[Illustration: A FEDERAL SIGNAL STATION NEAR WASHINGTON.]
{432} [Illustration: CHARGE OF CONFEDERATE CAVALRY AT TREVILIAN
STATION, VIRGINIA.]
As the war {433} progressed, and the Confederate armies were depleted
by the casualties of battle and the illness attendant upon the
hardships of the camp, the conscription became more sweeping, and at
last it was made to embrace every man in the Confederacy between
eighteen and forty-five years of age. This almost emptied the
colleges, until some of them reduced the age of admission to sixteen
years, when they were rapidly filled up again. But even these boys
were held subject to military call in case of necessity, and in some
of the battles of the last year cadets of the Virginia Military
Institute took part, and many of them were killed. Another noticeable
effect was the diminution in the number of small and detached military
operations, because the waning resources of the Confederacy were
concentrated more and more in its principal armies.
On the first day of the year a detachment of seventy-five men,
commanded by Major Henry A. Cole, being on the scout near Harper's
Ferry, suddenly encountered, near Rectortown, a portion of General
Rosser's Confederate command, and a stubborn fight ensued. The result
was that fifty-seven of Cole's men were either killed or captured, and
the remainder made their escape. Two days later a Confederate force,
under Gen. Sam Jones, suddenly attacked an Illinois regiment,
commanded by Major Beers, near Jonesville, and after a desperate fight
compelled them to surrender.
On the 6th of February, an expedition, organized by General Butler for
the purpose of dashing into Richmond and releasing the prisoners
there, marched from Yorktown by way of New-Kent Court House. They
failed in their purpose to surprise the enemy at Bottom's Bridge,
where they were to cross the Chickahominy, because, as a Richmond
newspaper said, "a Yankee deserter gave information in Richmond of the
intended movement." The Confederates had felled a great number of
trees across the roads and made it impossible for the cavalry to pass.
There was great consternation in Richmond, however, and in the evening
of the 7th the bells were rung, and men rushed through the streets
crying, "To arms, to arms! the Yankees are coming." The home guard was
called out, and the women and children ran about seeking places of
safety.
Early in May, General Crook, with about seven thousand men, moving
from the mouth of New River through Raleigh Court House and Princeton
toward Newbern, met a Confederate force, under Albert G. Jenkins, on
Cloyd's Mountain, on the 9th. In the engagement that ensued, the
Confederates were defeated and General Jenkins was killed. The next
day a cavalry force under General Averell was met at Crockett's Cove
by one under General Morgan, and was defeated. General Crook, after
the battle of Cloyd's Mountain, destroyed the bridge over New River
and a considerable section of the Virginia and Tennessee railroad.
On the 15th of May, General Sigel's force in the Shenandoah Valley
being in the northern outskirts of the town of Newmarket, General
Breckenridge moved up from the south to attack him. The town is
divided by a ravine running at right angles to the Shenandoah, and in
the beginning the contest was mainly an artillery battle, both sides
firing over the town. Then General Breckenridge's cavalry, with one or
two batteries, made a detour to the right, and obtained a position on
a hill where they could enfilade the left of Sigel's line, and drove
back his cavalry on that wing. At the same time Breckenridge advanced
his infantry and pushed back Sigel's whole line about half a mile.
Later in the day, repeating the same tactics, he pushed Sigel back a
mile farther, but did not accomplish this without severe fighting. One
notable incident was the capture of an unsupported battery on the
right of Sigel's line, which had been playing with terrible effect
upon Breckenridge's left. One regiment of veterans and the cadets of
the Military Institute were sent to capture it, which they did at
terrible cost. Of the five hundred and fifty men in the regiment, two
hundred and forty-one were either killed or wounded, nearly all of
them falling in the last three hundred yards before they reached the
battery. Of the two hundred and twenty-five boys from the Institute,
fifty-four were killed or wounded. When night fell, Sigel crossed the
river and burned the bridge behind him. General Imboden, who commanded
Breckenridge's cavalry in this action, says: "If Sigel had beaten
Breckenridge, General Lee could not have spared the men to check his
progress (as he did that of Hunter, a month later) without exposing
Richmond to immediate and almost inevitable capture. The necessities
of General Lee were such that on the day after the battle he ordered
Breckenridge to join him near Richmond with the brigades of Echols and
Wharton."
Early in June General Sheridan was sent out with the cavalry of the
Army of the Potomac, about eight thousand strong, to strike the
Virginia Central Railroad near Charlotteville, where it was expected
he would meet the force under General Hunter moving through the
Shenandoah Valley. He intended to break the main line at Trevilian
Station, and the Lynchburg branch at Charlotteville. He encountered
the enemy's cavalry near Trevilian Station on the morning of the 11th.
Sending Custer's brigade to the left, and Torbert with the remainder
of his division to the right, Sheridan moved directly forward with his
main body. The enemy was found dismounted in the edge of the forest,
his line stretching across the road. Sheridan's men also dismounted,
and promptly attacked. Sharp fighting ensued, in the course of which
the enemy was driven back two miles with a heavy loss. Williston's
battery was then brought up, and with great skill sent its shells into
the mass of fleeing Confederates, whose retreat was turned into a wild
rout. A portion of the defeated force, retreating toward Louisa Court
House, was struck by Custer's brigade, which defeated them, and
captured about three hundred and fifty men. But a little later Fitz
Lee's Confederate cavalry came up in the rear of Custer, and captured
his wagon-train and headquarters baggage. One of his guns also was
captured, but was recaptured in a charge that he led in person. Custer
and his whole command came so near being captured when the enemy
closed around them, that, when his color-bearer was killed, he tore
the flag from the staff and hid it in his bosom. That night the
remainder of the enemy retired toward Gordonsville. The next day
Sheridan's men destroyed about five miles of the railroad. In the
afternoon Torbert advanced toward Gordonsville, and found the
Confederates in position across the railroad, facing east. Here they
attacked them again, chiefly on their left wing, and again bringing
forward Williston's battery, punished them severely, but not so as to
drive them from their position before dark. In these actions Sheridan
lost about six hundred men. The Confederate loss is not fully known,
but it was probably larger. Sheridan now learned that Hunter would not
conclude to meet him, and that he was likely instead to encounter
Ewell's corps. He therefore turned back, and recrossed the North Anna.
Plymouth, N. C., had been held for some months by a garrison of
sixteen hundred men, under General Wessells, when it was attacked on
April 17, 1864, by the Confederate General Hoke, with about five
thousand men. Skirmishing and artillery firing began early in the
morning, and very soon the National camps {434} were riddled by shot
from the guns. The skirmishers retired within their works, and the
Confederates pressed up to these in heavy masses, and were shot down
in great numbers. One of the forts, which stood some distance in front
of the general line of fortifications, was supplied with hand
grenades, and these were used with great effect. But at last this work
was captured. The next day the attack was renewed, and a most gallant
defence was made. General Hoke, who had been promised a promotion in
case of his capturing the place, was determined to do it at whatever
cost. Three times he demanded its surrender, and three times he was
refused, when he said: "I will fill your citadel full of iron; I will
compel your surrender if I have to fight to the last man." It is
doubtful, however, if he would have succeeded but for the assistance
of the ram _Albemarle_, which came down the river and got into the
rear of the National position. Lieutenant Blakeslee, of the Sixteenth
Connecticut Regiment, says: "There was a force of five or six thousand
in line about six hundred yards in front of our works. At this hour a
rocket was sent up as the signal for the attack, and a more furious
charge we never witnessed. Instantly over our heads came a peal of
thunder from the ram. Up rose a curling wreath of smoke--the batteries
had opened, and quickly flashed fierce forks of flame--loud and
earth-shaking roars in quick succession. Lines of men came forth from
the woods--the battle had begun. We on the skirmish line fell back and
entered Coneby redoubt, properly barred the gates and manned the
works. The enemy, with yells, charged on the works in heavy column,
jumped into the ditch, climbed the parapet, and for fifteen murderous
minutes were shot down like mown grass. The conflict was bloody,
short, and decisive. The enemy were in such numbers that we had to
yield. The gate had been crushed down by a rebel shot, and the enemy
poured in, to the number of five or six hundred, with thousands on the
outside. Great confusion then ensued; guns were spiked, musket barrels
bent, and all sorts of mischief practised by the Union soldiers, while
the enemy were swearing at a terrible rate because we would not take
off equipments and inform them if the guns could be turned on the
town, and in trying to reorganize their troops, who were badly mixed,
to take the next work. We were prisoners, and as we marched out of the
fort, we could see at what a fearful cost it was to them. Of the
eighty-two men in this fort, but one was wounded." The Confederates
then worked their way from one redoubt to another, each of which was
obstinately defended, but finally captured, until all were taken, and
Plymouth was theirs. Lieutenant Blakeslee says: "The rebels raised the
black flag against the negroes found in uniform, and mercilessly shot
them down. The shooting in cold blood of three or four hundred negroes
and two companies of North Carolina troops, who had joined our army,
and even murdering peaceable citizens, were scenes of which the
Confederates make no mention, except the hanging of one person, but of
which many of us were eye-witnesses." The loss of the garrison in the
fighting was fifteen killed and about one hundred wounded. The
Confederate loss is not exactly known, but it appears to have been
well nigh two thousand.
[Illustration: BRIGADIER-GENERAL WILLIAMS C. WICKHAM, C. S. A.]
[Illustration: BRIGADIER-GENERAL H. B. LYON, C. S. A.]
[Illustration: BRIGADIER-GENERAL JOHN D. IMBODEN, C. S. A.]
When the iron-clad ram _Albemarle_ came down the Roanoke to assist
General Hoke in the capture of Plymouth, she not only bombarded the
garrison, but attacked the National flotilla there and destroyed or
scattered it. She wrecked the _Southfield_ by ramming, and when the
wooden gunboat _Miami_ gallantly stood up to the work and fired {435}
its broadsides against her iron walls, the shot simply rebounded or
rolled off, and one of these returning shots struck and killed Lieut.
C. W. Flusser who was in command of the _Miami_.
In the autumn, Lieut. William B. Cushing, of the United States navy,
who had performed many gallant exploits, and whose brother was killed
beside his gun at Gettysburg, formed a plan for the destruction of the
_Albemarle_. He obtained the sanction of his superior officer for the
experiment, which Cushing himself considered so hazardous that he
asked leave to make a visit to his home before carrying it out. On his
return he fitted up an open launch about thirty feet long with a small
engine, a twelve-pound howitzer in the bow, and a boom fourteen feet
long swinging at the bow by a hinge. This boom carried a torpedo at
the end, so arranged that it could be lowered into the water, pushed
under a vessel, and then detached from the boom before being exploded.
With fifteen picked men in this little craft, in the night of October
27th, Cushing steamed off in the darkness and found the ram at her
mooring at Plymouth. When he drew near he was discovered and sharply
challenged, whereupon he ordered on all steam and steered straight for
the ram. He was fired upon, but in the darkness the shot failed of its
mark. Then a large fire was lighted on the bank, and this revealed to
him the fact that the _Albemarle_ was protected by a circle or boom of
logs. Without hesitation, he drew back about a hundred yards, and then
under full headway drove straight at them, trusting to make his launch
slip over them into the enclosed space where the ram lay. In this he
was successful. By this time the crew of the ram were thoroughly
alarmed, and as Cushing stood on the bow with the exploding line in
his hand he could hear every word of command on the ram, and his
clothing was perforated with bullets. He now ordered the boom to be
lowered until the motion of the launch pushed the torpedo under the
ram's overhang. Then he pulled the detaching line, and, after waiting
a little for the torpedo to rise in the water and rest under the hull,
he pulled the exploding line. The result to the ram was that a hole
was torn in her hull which caused her to keel over and sink. At the
same instant a discharge of grape shot from one of her guns tore the
launch to pieces, and a large part of the mass of water that was
lifted by the torpedo came down upon her little crew. Cushing
commanded his men to save themselves, and throwing off his sword,
revolver, shoes, and coat, jumped into the water and swam for the
opposite shore. Making his way through swamps, and finding a skiff,
Lieutenant Cushing at last, almost exhausted, reached the National
fleet. One of his crew also escaped, two were drowned, and the
remainder were captured. The _Albemarle_ was of no further use.
[Illustration: BREVET MAJOR-GENERAL DAVID McM. GREGG AND STAFF.]
[Illustration: MAJOR-GENERAL GEORGE CROOK.]
[Illustration: BRIGADIER-GENERAL CHARLES T. EWING.]
During the early days of the year a constant fire was kept up upon
Charleston, and sometimes as many as twenty shells, loaded with Greek
fire, were thrown into the city in a day. The Charleston _Courier_
said: "The damage being done is extraordinarily {436} small in
comparison with the number of shot and weight of metal fired. The
whizzing of shells overhead has become a matter of so little interest
as to excite scarcely any attention from passers-by."
In Savannah, April 17th, there was a riot of women who marched through
the streets in procession, demanding bread or blood, many of them
carrying arms. They seized food wherever they could find it. After a
time soldiers were called out, and the leaders of the riot were
arrested and put into jail.
Early in February, Gen. Truman Seymour, by order of General Gillmore,
left Hilton Head with five thousand five hundred men for Jacksonville,
Fla., accompanied by five gunboats under Admiral Dahlgren. The object
of the expedition was to penetrate the country west of Jacksonville
for the purpose of making an outlet for cotton and lumber, cutting off
one source of the enemy's supplies, obtaining recruits for black
regiments, and taking measures to protect any citizens who might be
disposed to bring the State back into the Union. It was unfortunate
that the immediate commander of the expedition, General Seymour, did
not altogether believe in its objects. Marching inland, he dispersed
some small detachments of Confederate soldiers and captured some guns.
He then pushed forward for Suwanee River to destroy the bridges and
the railroad, and prevent communication between East and West Florida.
Meanwhile the Confederate general, Joseph Finegan, had been collecting
troops to oppose the expedition, concentrating them at Lake City, and
got together a force about equal to Seymour's. On the 20th of February
Seymour moved out from his camp on St. Mary's River to engage the
enemy, who threw forward some troops to meet him. They met near
Olustee, and a battle ensued, which was fought on level ground largely
covered with open pine forests. Seymour massed his artillery in the
centre, and opened from it a fierce fire which was very effective. He
then endeavored to push forth his infantry on both flanks, and at the
same time the whole Confederate line was advanced. The Seventh New
Hampshire and Eighth United States colored regiment, being subjected
to a very severe fire, gave way. The fire of the Confederates was then
concentrated largely on the artillery, and so many men and horses fell
in the short time that five of the guns had to be abandoned. The
Confederate reserves were then brought up to a point where they could
put in a cross-fire on the National right, and at the same time the
whole Confederate line was advanced again. The National line now
slowly gave way, and at length was in full retreat; but there was no
pursuit. The Confederate loss was nine hundred and forty men; the
National loss was one thousand eight hundred and sixty-one.
[Illustration: A UNION TRANSPORT ON THE SUWANEE RIVER.]
[Illustration: BREVET BRIGADIER-GENERAL GUY V. HENRY.]
[Illustration: REAR-ADMIRAL JOHN A. DAHLGREN.]
An escort of eight hundred men, who had charge of the wagon train with
commissary stores for the garrison at Petersburg, was suddenly
attacked, January 29th, near Williamsport, by several detachments of
Confederates who rushed in from different directions. There was a
stubborn fight, which lasted from three o'clock in the afternoon until
dark. When at last the Confederates, after several repulses,
succeeded, they had lost about one hundred men killed and wounded, and
the Nationals had lost eighty.
On the 17th of January, a Confederate force made a sudden and
determined assault upon the National lines near Dandridge, Tenn. But
the Nationals, though surprised, stubbornly stood their ground, and a
division of cavalry under Col. D. N. McCook charged the enemy and
decided the fate of the conquest. The National loss in this affair was
about one hundred and fifty men, nearly half of which fell upon the
First Wisconsin Regiment.
A body of National cavalry, commanded by General Sturgis, attacked the
Confederate force on January 27th, near Fair Gardens, ten miles east
of Sevierville. The fight lasted from daylight until four o'clock in
the afternoon, the Confederates being slowly pushed back, when finally
the National cavalry drew their sabres and charged with a yell,
completely routing {437} the enemy, and capturing two guns and more
than one hundred prisoners.
Early in February, a detachment of the Seventh Indiana Regiment
entered Bolivar under the supposition that it was still occupied by
National troops, and were surprised to find there a large detachment
of Confederates. When they learned that these were Mississippi troops,
the Indianians, shouting, "Remember Jeff Davis," made a furious attack
and drove out the Confederates in confusion, killing, wounded, or
capturing a large number of them.
At Powell's River bridge, February 22d, there was an engagement
between five hundred Confederates and two companies of the
Thirty-fourth Kentucky infantry. The Confederates made four successful
charges upon the bridge, and were repelled every time. Finally they
were driven off, leaving many horses, arms, saddles, etc., on the
field. A participant says: "The attack was made by the infantry, while
the cavalry prepared for a charge. The cavalry was soon in line moving
on the bridge. On they came in a steady solid column, covered by the
fire of their infantry. In a moment the Nationals saw their perilous
position, and Lieutenant Slater called for a volunteer to tear up the
boards and prevent their crossing. There was some hesitation, and in a
moment all would have been lost had not William Goss leaped from the
intrenchments, and running to the bridge, under the fire of about four
hundred guns, thrown ten boards off into the river, and returned
unhurt. This prevented the capture of the whole force."
Shelby's Confederate force was attacked on January 19th at a point on
the Monticello Railroad, twenty miles from Pine Bluff, by a National
force under Colonel Clayton, which in course of two hours drove the
Confederates seven miles and completely routed them. Clayton's men had
marched sixty miles in twenty-four hours.
An expedition commanded by Col. C. C. Andrews of the Third Minnesota
infantry ascended White River and marched thirty miles to Augusta,
from which place he set out April 1st in search of a Confederate force
under Colonel McCrae. It proved that McCrae's forces were divided into
scattered detachments, which were successively overtaken and defeated
by Colonel Andrews. At Fitzhugh's Woods, however, a large force of the
enemy was concentrated, and attacked Colonel Andrews's men in a sharp
fight that lasted more than two hours. Andrews took a good position,
and thwarted every effort of the enemy to carry it or flank it, when
at last they gave up and retired. He lost about thirty men, and
estimated the enemy's loss at a hundred.
In the middle of February, the Confederates made a determined attempt
to capture the fort at Waterproof, La. First, about eight hundred
cavalry drove in the pickets and assaulted the garrison, who might
have been overcome but for the assistance of the gunboat _Forest
Rose_, Captain Johnson, which with its rapid fire sent many shells
into the ranks of the Confederates, and after a time drove them away.
This proceeding was repeated later in the day with the same result.
Next day the Confederates, largely reinforced, tried it again. Before
the fight was over the ram _Switzerland_ arrived and took part in it,
and the result was the same as on the previous day.
[Illustration: BRIGADIER-GENERAL W. L. McMILLEN.]
[Illustration: BRIGADIER-GENERAL S. D. STURGIS.]
[Illustration]
[Illustration: SLAVES GOING TO JOIN THE FEDERAL ARMY.]
{438} [Illustration: "THE COUNTERSIGN."
"'Halt! Who goes there?' My challenge cry,
It rings along the watchful line;
'Relief!' I hear a voice reply;
'Advance and give the Countersign!'"]
{439}