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STONE'S RIVER
The Turning-Point of the Civil War
By
WILSON J. VANCE
New York
The Neale Publishing Company
1914
(Copyright, 1914)
By The Neale Publishing Company
TO MY WIFE
ORDER OF CONTENTS
Page
Preface 7
Introduction 9
Chapter
I North and South in 1862 12
II Foreign Relations in 1862 21
III The Armies and Their Leaders 31
IV The First Day's Battle 44
V The Night and the Next Day 55
VI The Second of January, 1863 59
VII What Might Have Been,--and What Was 63
Appendix 67
STONE'S RIVER
PREFACE
While many authorities were consulted in the preparation of this work,
particular acknowledgment is due John Formby's "The American Civil War,"
wherein was suggested the proposition that is here laid down and expanded;
to Van Horne's "History of the Army of the Cumberland," which gives the
campaigns of that organization in minute detail; to several of the papers
and books of Charles Francis Adams,--documents that deal principally with
the diplomacy of the Civil War, and to the published and spoken words of
the author's father,--the late Wilson Vance,--orderly to the brigade
commander whose charge against orders turned defeat into victory in the
battle here described. The book grows out of a short article published in
the Newark _Sunday Call_, December 29, 1912,--an article that attracted
considerable attention, rather because of the novelty of the theory
advanced than because of other merit.
It may be permissible to add that few persons,--comparatively,--conceive
the bearing on the outcome of the Civil War, of the campaigns and battles
that took place beyond the Alleghanies. There is more than one pretentious
history, which would lead a reader to suppose that all of the events of
importance took place upon the Atlantic seaboard. It does not diminish in
the least either the merit or the renown of the armies that measured their
strength in that confined arena to suggest that the movements that
resulted in the transfer of the control over hundreds of thousands of
square miles of territory,--territory that teemed with the fruits of the
earth,--was, taken in connection with the naval blockade, a very
considerable factor in the wearing down and final collapse of the Southern
Confederacy.
WILSON J. VANCE
NEWARK, N. J., JULY 14, 1914.
INTRODUCTION
On the banks of a shallow winding stream, traversing the region known as
Middle Tennessee, on the last day of December, 1862, and on the first and
second days of January, 1863, a great battle was fought,--a battle that
marked the turning point of the Civil War. Stone's River, as the North
designated it, or Murfreesboro,--to give it the Southern name,--has
hitherto not been estimated at its true importance. To the people of the
two sections it seemed at the time but another Shiloh,--horrifying,
saddening, and bitterly disappointing. Its significance, likewise, has
escaped almost all historians and military critics. But now the
perspective of half a century gives it its proper place in the panorama of
the great conflict.
Gettysburg, indeed, may have been the wound mortal of the Confederacy. But
Gettysburg was, in very truth, a counsel of desperation, undertaken when
the South was bleeding from many a vein. When Lee turned the faces of his
veterans toward the fruitful fields of Pennsylvania, a wall of steel and
fire encompassed his whole country. Warworn Virginia cried out for relief
from the marchings of armies, that her people might raise the crops that
would save them from starvation. Grant had at last established his lines
around the fortress that dominated the Mississippi, and only by such a
diversion, was there hope that his death-grip would be shaken. The day
after Pickett's shattered columns had drifted back to Seminary Ridge
Vicksburg was surrendered, and the control of the mighty river passed to
the forces of the North.
But it was at Stone's River that the South was at the very pinnacle of
confidence and warlike power; and it was here that she was halted and
beaten back,--never again to exhibit such strength and menace. It was here
that the tide of the Confederacy passed its flood, henceforth to recede;
here that its sun crossed the meridian and began its journey to the
twilight and the dark. Southern valor was manifested in splendid lustre on
many a field thereafter, but the capacity for sustained aggression was
gone. After Stone's River, the Southern soldier fought to repel rather
than to drive his foe.
Yet Stone's River was almost a tale of triumph for the Confederacy.
"God has granted us a happy New Year!" was the message flashed to Richmond
at the close of the first day's fighting by General Braxton Bragg,
Commander of the Army of the Tennessee. Two-thirds of the Army of the
Cumberland had been hurled out of line, and now lay clinging with
desperation to the only road from which it could secure supplies, or by
which it could retreat, and to lose which meant destruction. There was
reason, therefore, in the Southern general's exultation, as he waited for
the morrow to give him complete success. He could not know that the army
upon which had been inflicted so terrific a blow was to gather new
strength out of the very magnitude of its disaster and to return such a
counter-stroke as would give it the field and the victory. Neither could
he see that his failure here meant failure for his cause; that because at
Stone's River success had not crowned his efforts, his own magnificent
army was to be pressed further and further from the territory it claimed
as its own; that Fate had here entered the decree,--against which all
appeals would fail,--for the preservation of the Federal Union and the
death of the Confederate States of America.
WILSON J. VANCE.
CHAPTER I
NORTH AND SOUTH IN 1862
Confederate enterprise, energy, and expectation were at the zenith in
1862. No other year saw the South with so promising prospects, with plans
of campaign so bold, with such resources, both latent and developed. Her
armies were at their fullest strength, for the flower of her youth had not
yet been destroyed in battle. Want and hunger had not yet begun to chill
the hearts of her people. Her political machinery, under the direction of
able leaders, had been skillfully adjusted to the needs of the new nation
and was now working smoothly and effectually. There had, indeed, come a
change of sentiment in the Southland. That boastful and flatulent
spirit,--the spirit that contemptuously slurred the strength and courage
of the foe and counted upon an easy victory,--was gone. In its place was a
temper far more formidable. The South realized now that before it was a
task of greatest magnitude, but her people rose to it in a spirit of
splendid sacrifice and with high, stern resolution.
The early part of the year, indeed, brought a series of reverses,
particularly in the West,--reverses that would have seemed fatal to a
cause, less resolutely supported. In January was fought the battle of Mill
Springs, where Thomas, in routing the Confederate forces, achieved the
first considerable Union success of the war. In February came Grant's
capture of Forts Henry and Donelson, which not only yielded thousands of
prisoners but left Middle Tennessee open to the invaders. The same month
witnessed the opening of operations in North Carolina by Burnside, which
resulted in the capture of Roanoke Island and (in March) of New Berne. Pea
Ridge, fought in March, dashed Confederate hopes of Missouri,--for a
season,--and the capture of New Madrid proved another heavy loss to the
South, in men, guns, and munitions. Early in April Fort Pulaski yielded to
Gillmore, and McClellan's great army began its progress up the Peninsula,
with Richmond as its announced goal. The siege-artillery of the Army of
the Potomac was still thundering at Williamsburg, when, on May 6 and 7,
was fought the bloody battle of Shiloh, in which the Confederates,--after
a striking initial success,--were driven from the field by Grant and
Buell, with the death of their loved commander, Albert Sidney Johnston, to
make more bitter their defeat. The echoes of Shiloh's guns had scarcely
ceased, before Island No. 10, with many prisoners and supplies, fell to
Pope, and the crowning Confederate disaster came on May 28, when Farragut
received the surrender of New Orleans,--the commercial metropolis, the
largest and wealthiest city, and the greatest seaport of the South.
But Confederate prestige, which had suffered sadly in these events, was
speedily restored in fullest measure. While McClellan was toiling slowly
up the Peninsula, Jackson was electrifying the whole South by his campaign
in the Shenandoah Valley, where, with a small force, he neutralized armies
aggregating 70,000 men, and terrorized the Federal capital. Kernstown,
Front Royal, Winchester, Cross Keys, and Port Republic, are names that
serve to recall some of the most brilliant exploits of the war.
His work in the valley accomplished, Jackson then slipped away in June to
aid Lee in the battles around Richmond,--battles that were to culminate
early in July in the retreat to Harrison's Landing and the reluctant and
humiliating withdrawal from the Peninsula of the Army of the Potomac.
While the withdrawal was still in progress, Lee fell upon the luckless
Pope, and in the second Battle of Bull Run all but crushed his
newly-constituted Army of Virginia. Then Lee gave the Northward road to
his victorious legions, and early in September began the invasion of
Maryland.
After the battle of Shiloh, the Confederate forces of the Middle
West,--under Beauregard,--had retired to Corinth, Miss., which Halleck,
at the head of more than 100,000 men,--having gathered together Grant's
army, Buell's and all the other forces under his command,--approached with
ridiculous caution. After a somewhat farcical siege, in which Beauregard
played successfully for time, Corinth was suddenly and expeditiously
evacuated, and the Confederate Army reappeared in a strong position at
Tupelo, when, Beauregard having fallen ill, Bragg assumed command.
Halleck now divided his forces again, Buell,--at the head of what was now
known as the Army of the Cumberland,--being sent into Middle Tennessee to
begin a campaign long urged by President Lincoln for the relief of the
Unionists in the eastern part of that State, and Grant being left in
Mississippi, with somewhat widely-separated detachments, which ultimately
he was to concentrate in the campaign for Vicksburg. The taking of Memphis
(June 6) had already given the Union forces a foothold on the great river
and domination over Western Tennessee. Halleck was summoned to Washington
in July, to take command of all the armies in the field.
The dispersion of the Union forces in his front did not pass unnoticed by
Bragg, who soon conceived and put into execution one of the boldest plans
of campaign of the war. Early in June he began the shifting of his Army of
the Tennessee to Chattanooga, where, in conjunction with Kirby
Smith,--commanding a Confederate Army in East Tennessee,--he perfected
his scheme of operation. The prelude of his campaign was exhibited in the
form of extensive raids by Forrest's Cavalry and Morgan's, in which the
Federal lines of communication were repeatedly cut, huge stores of
supplies taken or destroyed, and several important posts captured. Early
in August the heavy columns of Confederate infantry and artillery began
pouring through the mountain passes into the coveted territory of
Kentucky.
Bragg's invasion of Kentucky was thus practically simultaneous with Lee's
invasion of Maryland; and the two movements caused the direst foreboding
and dismay in the North. The war was coming very close to the people of
that section when Confederate detachments appeared in the rear of
Covington, in sight of Cincinnati, and when the chief Confederate Army
crossed the Potomac into the Maryland that the Southern poets had already
immortalized in song. Not the least of the objects of these two campaigns
was the winning to the Confederate cause of the States invaded.
Nelson, with a small Union force, was badly beaten by Kirby Smith at
Richmond, Ky., August 23, and Louisville experienced the agonies of a
panic, for it was practically defenseless. Buell had been so mystified by
Bragg's movements that he did not start in pursuit until September 7, and
even then might not have reached Louisville in time, had not the
Confederate forces lost precious hours in taking Munfordville. But having
reached that city, Buell held the key to the situation, and Bragg was
forced to retire,--which he did slowly and carefully. At Perryville a
portion of Buell's army and some of Bragg's troops met on October 8 in a
fierce battle,--an engagement that will always be a source of mystery to
students, in that neither side took advantage of obvious opportunities.
Bragg, in this campaign, failed of a major object, which was to rouse
Kentucky for the Confederacy, though he went through the form of
inaugurating a Provisional Governor at the State capital, Frankfort; but
he did return South with long trains of fine horses and beeves, with
wagons richly laden with food and clothing, and with almost enough
recruits to offset the human wastage of his army on march and in battle.
Moreover, at the close of the campaign he was in the possession of some
territory heretofore held by Federal forces,--territory that was not
yielded up until almost a year later.
The disorganization in and near Washington,--consequent upon Pope's
defeat,--gave Lee an advantage which he improved by celerity of movement;
and he was well into Maryland before a Union army was got together to
oppose him. The command of this army was entrusted to McClellan, who
exercised his customary super-caution, one result of which was that
Harper's Ferry, with thousands of prisoners and great stores of military
supplies, fell,--with scarce a struggle,--into Lee's hands. This very
success might have been fatal to Lee,--for he had scattered his army to
accomplish this and other objects,--but McClellan, though fully aware of
the situation, moved too slowly, and the Southern general had time to
concentrate on the banks of Antietam Creek. Here, on September 17, was
fought one of the bloodiest battles of the war,--a battle in which the
Confederate Army stood off a foe twice as strong in numbers, and at length
retired at leisure, without further molestation. Like Bragg, Lee had
failed to win the State that he had invaded, but though he had suffered
tremendous losses, he had accomplished some important results.
The people of the North, it may be remarked without disparagement, were
better informed as to the events of the war than were the people of the
South. Their more thickly settled territory was abundantly supplied with
telegraph lines and railways, and their numerous populous cities boasted
many strong newspapers. Of these, not a few were hostile to the
administration, which also had to contend with a well-organized opposing
political party. To many persons in the North the campaigns of Lee and
Bragg seemed conclusive proof that the Confederacy, after almost two years
of fighting, was not only not weaker, but could at will practically carry
the war into Northern territory.
Lincoln, accepting the check at Antietam as a victory, had (September 22)
issued his preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, but the first effect of
this was probably adverse, for the fall elections went almost uniformly
against the President's party. The Nation's credit fell to a low ebb, and
offerings of Government bonds found few takers, only $25,000,000 worth
being sold during the year. Gold mounted to high and higher premiums, and
general business,--despite the artificial stimulus incident to the
production of war materials,--was dishearteningly poor.
Buell, because of his failure to do more against Bragg, was relieved of
the command of the Army of the Cumberland, which fell to Rosecrans, who
had achieved success at Corinth, during the fall. McClellan, because of
his failure to follow Lee after Antietam, was ordered to turn over the
Command of the Army of the Potomac to Burnside. As the end of the year
drew nigh, Rosecrans was established with his army at Nashville, and Bragg
was at Murfreesboro, 30 miles south. The events of that season were well
calculated to enthuse the Confederate and to depress the Federal force. On
December 13 was fought the Battle of Fredericksburg, where the Army of the
Potomac was repulsed, with frightful slaughter, by the Army of Northern
Virginia, under Lee. A week later, the immense depot of supplies at Holly
Springs,--supplies that Grant had gathered to aid him in his campaign
against Vicksburg,--was captured. On December 29, Sherman, in a
preliminary movement of this campaign, was hurled back, stunned and
bleeding, from an assault upon Chickasaw Bluffs.
Two days later was to open the pivotal battle in Middle Tennessee.