THE WHIRLWIND
The draft of half a million men was scarcely completed when Rosecrans'
Western army, advancing into Georgia, met with crushing defeat at
Chickamauga, "The River of Death." His shattered hosts were driven back
into Chattanooga with the loss of eighteen thousand men in a rout so
complete and stunning that Charles A. Dana, the Assistant Secretary of
War, telegraphed the President from the front that it was another "Bull
Run."
Rosecrans himself wired that he had met with a terrible disaster. The
White House sent him words of cheer. The Confederate Commander, General
Bragg, rapidly closed in and began to lay siege to Chattanooga, and the
defeated Federal army were put on short rations.
The President turned his eyes now from Meade and his army of the Potomac
which Lee's strategy had completely baffled and gave his first thought
to the armies of the West. He sent Sherman hurrying from the Mississippi
to Rosecrans' relief and Hooker from the East. In the place of Rosecrans
he promoted George H. Thomas, whose gallant stand had saved the army
from annihilation and won the title, "The Rock of Chickamauga." And most
important of all he placed in supreme command of the forces in Tennessee
the silent man whom his patience and faith had saved to the Nation, the
conqueror of Vicksburg--Ulysses S. Grant.
On November the 24th and 25th, the new Commander raised the siege of
Chattanooga, and drove Bragg's army from Missionary Ridge and Lookout
Mountain back into Georgia.
At last the President had found the man of genius for whom he had long
searched. Grant was summoned to Washington and given command of all the
armies of the United States East and West.
The new General at once placed William Tecumseh Sherman at the head of
an army of a hundred thousand men at Chattanooga for the purpose of
reinvading Georgia, sent General Butler with forty thousand up the
Peninsula against Richmond along the line of McClellan's old march,
raised the Army of the Potomac to one hundred and forty thousand
effective fighters, took command in person and faced General Lee on the
banks of the Rapidan but a few miles from the old ground in the
Wilderness around Chancellorsville where Hooker's men had baptized the
earth in heroic blood the year before.
Grant's army was the flower of Northern manhood and with its three
hundred and eighteen great field guns the best equipped body of fighting
men ever brought together on our continent. His baggage train was over
sixty miles long and would have stretched the entire distance to
Richmond.
By the spring of 1864 when he reached the Rapidan Lee's army had been
recruited again to its normal strength of sixty-two thousand.
A great religious revival swept the Southern camps during the winter
and its meetings lasted into the spring almost to the hour of the
opening guns of the Wilderness campaign. Had whispers from the Infinite
reached the souls of the ragged men in grey and told them of coming
Gethsemane and Calvary?
Certain it is that though Lee's army were ragged and poorly fed their
courage was never higher, their faith in their Commander never more
sublime than in those beautiful spring mornings in April when they
burnished their bayonets to receive Grant's overwhelming host.
The Chaplain of Ned Vaughan's regiment was leading a prayer meeting in
the moonlight. An earnest brother was praying fervently for more
manhood, and more courage.
A ragged Confederate kneeling nearby didn't like the drift of his
petition and his patience gave out. He raised his head and called.
"Say, hold on there, brother! You're getting that prayer all wrong. We
don't need no more courage--got so much now we're skeered of ourselves
sometimes. What we need is provisions. Ask the Lord to send us something
to eat. That's what we want now----"
The leader took the interruption in good spirit and added an eloquent
request for at least one good meal a day if the Lord in his goodness and
mercy could spare it.
No persimmon tree was ever stripped without the repetition of their old
joke. They all knew the words by heart,
"Don't eat those persimmons--they're not good for you!"
"I know it, man, I'm just doin' it to pucker my stomach to fit my
rations!"
Ned was passing the door of a cabin in which a prayer meeting of
officers was being held. He was walking with his Colonel who was fond of
a sip of corn whiskey at times. He was slightly deaf.
The leader of the meeting called from the door:
"Won't you join us in prayer, Colonel?"
"Thank you, no, I've just had a little!" he answered innocently.
Ned roared and the brethren inside the cabin joined the laugh.
No body of men of any race ever marched to death with calmer faith than
those ragged lines of grey now girding their loins for the fiercest,
bloodiest struggle in the annals of the world.
Lee allowed Grant to cross the Rapidan unopposed and penetrate the
tangled wilds of the Wilderness. The Southerner knew that in these dense
woods the effectiveness of his opponent's superior numbers would be
vastly reduced. Longstreet's corps had not yet arrived from Gordonsville
where he had been sent to obtain food, and he must concentrate his
forces.
The days were oppressively hot, as the men in blue tramped through the
forest aisles of the vast Virginia jungle--a maze of trees, underbrush
and dense foliage. A pall of ominous silence hung over this labyrinth of
desolation, broken only by the chirp of bluebird or the distant call of
the yellowhammer.
Not waiting for the arrival of Longstreet on his forced march from
Gordonsville, Lee suddenly threw the half of his army on Grant's
advancing men with savage energy. Their march was halted and through
every hour of the day and far into the night the fierce conflict raged.
As darkness fell the Confederates had pushed the blue lines back,
captured four guns and a number of prisoners.
But Longstreet had not come and Lee's army of barely forty thousand men
were in a dangerous position before Grant's legions.
Both Generals renewed the fight at daylight. The Federals attacked Lee's
entire line with terrific force. Just as the Confederate right wing was
being crushed and rolled back in disorder, Longstreet reached the field
and threw his men into the breach. Lee himself rode to the front to lead
the charge and reëstablish his yielding lines.
From a thousand throats rose the cry:
"Lee to the rear!"
"Go back, General Lee!"
"This is no place for you!"
"We'll settle this!"
The men refused to move until their Commander had withdrawn. And then
with their fierce yell they charged and swept the field.
Lee repeated the brilliant achievement of Jackson at Chancellorsville.
Longstreet was sent around Hancock's left to turn and assail his flank.
The movement was a complete success. Hancock's line was smashed and
driven back a mile to his second defenses.
General Wadsworth at the head of his division was mortally wounded and
fell into the hands of the on-sweeping Confederates. Just as the
movement had reached the moments of its triumph which would have
crumpled Grant's army in confusion back on the banks of the river,
Longstreet fell dangerously wounded, struck down by a volley from his
own men in exactly the same way and almost in the same spot where
Jackson had fallen. General Jenkins, who was with him, was instantly
killed.
The charging hosts were halted by the change of Commanders and the
movement failed of its big purpose, though at sunset General John B.
Gordon broke through Sedgwick's Union lines, rolled back his right
flank, drove him a mile from his entrenchments and captured six hundred
prisoners with two brigadier generals.
The mysterious fate which had pursued the South had once more stricken
down a great commander in the moment of victory, and snatched it from
his grasp--at Shiloh, Albert Sydney Johnston; at Seven Pines, Joseph E.
Johnston; at Chancellorsville, Jackson, and now Longstreet.
Grant in two days lost seventeen thousand six hundred and sixty-six men,
a larger number than fell under Hooker when he had retreated in despair.
Any other General than Grant, the stolid bulldog fighter, would have
retreated across the Rapidan to reorganize his bleeding lines.
As one of his Generals rode up the following morning out of the
confusion and horror of the night, Grant, chewing on his cigar, waved
his right arm with a quick movement:
"It's all right, Wilson; we'll fight again!"
Next day the two armies lay in their trenches facing each other in grim
silence. Grant determined again to turn Lee's right flank and get
between him and Richmond.
Lee divined his purpose before a single regiment had begun to march.
Spottsylvania Court House lay on his right. The Confederate Commander
hurried his advance guard to the spot and lay in wait for his opponent.
The day of the 19th was spent by both armies in adjusting lines and
constructing breastworks. These fortifications were made by digging huge
ditches and on the top of their banks fastening heavy logs. In front of
these, abatis were made by filling the trees and cutting their limbs in
such a way that the sharp spikes projected toward the breasts of the
advancing foe.
While placing his guns in position General Sedgwick was killed by a
sharpshooter's bullet--a commander of high character and fearless
courage and loved by every man in his army.
On the morning of the 10th Hancock attempted to turn Lee's rear by
crossing the Po. The movement failed and he was recalled with heavy
losses under Early's assault as he recrossed the river.
Warren led his division in a determined charge on the Confederate front
and they were mowed down in hundreds by Longstreet's men behind their
entrenchments. They reached the abatis and one man leaped on the
breastworks before they fell back in bloody confusion. General Rice was
mortally wounded in this charge.
On the left of Warren, Colonel Emory Upton charged and broke through the
Confederate lines capturing twelve hundred prisoners, but was driven
back at last with the loss of a thousand of his men. Grant made him a
Brigadier General on the field.
The first day at Spottsylvania ended with a loss of four thousand Union
men. Lee's losses were less than half that number.
The 11th they paused for breath, and Grant sent his famous dispatch to
Washington:
"I propose to fight it out on this line if it takes all summer."
On the morning of the 12th Hancock was ordered to charge at daylight.
Lee's lines were spread out in the shape of an enormous letter V.
Hancock's task was to capture the angle which formed the key to this
position.
In pitch darkness under pouring rain his four divisions under Birney,
Mott, Barlow and Gibbon slipped through the mud and crept into position
within a few hundred yards of the Confederate breastworks.
As the first streaks of dawn pierced the murky clouds, without a shot,
the solid, silent lines of blue rushed this angle and leaped into the
entrenchments before the astounded men in grey knew what had happened.
So swift was the blow, so surprising, so overwhelming in numbers, the
angle was captured practically without a struggle and the three thousand
men within it were forced to surrender with every cannon, their muskets,
colors and two Generals. It was the most brilliant single achievement of
"Hancock the Superb."
Pressing on, Hancock's men advanced against the second series of
trenches a half mile beyond. Here the fight really began.
Into their faces poured a terrific volley of musketry and General John
B. Gordon led his men in a desperate charge to drive the invaders back.
Lee, seeing the dangerous situation, rode to the front with the evident
intention of joining in this charge.
Again the cry rang from the hearts of the men who loved him:
"Lee to the rear!"
They refused to move until he was led out of range of the fire. Gordon's
men charged and drove the Federal hosts back until at last they stood
against the entrenchments they had captured. Reinforcements now poured
in from both sides and the fighting became indescribable in its mad
desperation. Thousands of men in blue and men in grey fought face to
face and hand to hand. Muskets blazed in one another's eyes and blew
heads off. The dead were piled in rows four and five deep, blue and grey
locked in each other's arms. The trenches were filled with the dead and
cleared of bodies again and again to make room for the living until they
in turn were thrown out.
Ned Vaughan saw a grey color-bearer's arm shot away at the shoulder, the
quivering flesh smeared with mud, stained with powder and filled with
the shreds of his grey sleeve--and yet, without blenching, he grasped
his colors with the other hand and swept on into the jaws of this
flaming hell at the head of his men. The rain of musketry fire against
the trees came to Ned's ears in low undertone like the rattle of myriads
of hail stones on the roof of a house.
A grey soldier was fighting a duel to the death with a magnificently
dressed officer in blue, bare bayonet against bare sword. The soldier,
with a sudden plunge, ran his opponent through. With a shudder, Ned
looked to see if it were John.
A company of men in blue were caught and cut off by a grey wave and
were trying to surrender. Their officers with drawn revolvers refused to
let them.
"Shoot your officers!" a grey man shouted. In a moment every Commander
dropped and the men were marched to the rear.
Hour after hour the flames of hell swirled in an endless whirlwind
around this "Bloody Angle." Battle line after battle line rushed in
never to return. Ned saw an oak tree two feet in diameter gnawed down by
musket balls. It fell with a crash, killing and wounding a number of
men.
Color-bearers waved their flags in each other's faces, clinched and
fought like demons. Two soldiers, their ammunition spent, choked each
other to death on top of the entrenchment and rolled down its banks
among the torn and mangled bodies that filled the ditch.
In the edge of this red whirlwind Ned Vaughan saw a grim man in grey
standing beside a tree using two guns. His wounded comrade loaded one
while he took deliberate aim and fired the other. With each crack of his
musket a man in blue was falling.
In the centre of this mass of struggling maniacs the men were fighting
with gun swabs, handspikes, clubbed muskets, stones and fists.
The night brought no rest, no pause to succor the wounded or bury the
dead. Through the black murk of the darkness they fought on and on until
at last the men who were living sank in their tracks at three o'clock
before day and neither line had given from this "Bloody Angle."
The rain ceased to fall, the clouds lifted and the waning moon came out.
Ned Vaughan passing over the outer field saw a long line of men lying
in regular ranks in an odd position. He turned to the Commander.
"Why don't you move that line of battle now to make it conform to your
own?"
"They're all dead men," was the quiet answer. "They are Georgia
soldiers."
John Vaughan, on the other side, crossing an open space, came on a blue
battle line asleep rank on rank, skirmishers in front and battle line
behind, all asleep on their arms. There was no one near to answer a
question. They were all dead.
The blue and grey men were talking to one another now.
"Well, Johnnie," a Yankee called through the shadows, "I can't admit
that you're inspired of God, but after to-day I must say that you are
possessed of the devil."
"Same to you, Yank! Your papers say we're all demoralized anyhow--so
to-morrow you oughtn't have no trouble finishin' us!"
"Ah, shut up now, Johnnie, and go to sleep!"
"All right, good-night, Yank, hope ye'll rest well. We'll give ye hell
at daylight!"
For five days Grant swung his blue lines in circles of blood trying in
vain to break Lee's ranks and gave it up. He had lost at Spottsylvania
eighteen thousand more men. The stolid, silent man of iron nerves was
terribly moved by the frightful losses his gallant army had sustained.
He watched with anguish the endless lines of wagons bearing his stricken
men from the field. Lee's forces had been handled with such consummate
and terrible skill, his crushing numbers had made little impression.
Grant was facing a new force in the world. The ordinary methods of war
which he had used with success in the West went here for nothing. The
devotion of Lee's men was a mania. Small as his army was the bulldog
fighter saw with amazement that it was practically unconquerable in a
square, hand-to-hand struggle.
Once more he was forced to maneuver for advantage in position. He
ordered a new flank movement by the North Anna River.
He had opened his fight with Lee on the 5th, and in two weeks he had
lost thirty-six thousand men, without gaining an inch in the execution
of his original plan of thrusting himself between the Confederate leader
and his Capital. Lee's army was apparently as terrible a fighting
machine as on the day they had met.
A truce now followed to bury the dead and care for the wounded. So sure
had Grant been of crushing his opponent he had refused to agree to this
during the struggle.
They found them piled six layers deep in the trenches, blue and grey,
blue and grey. Black wings were spread over the top with red beaks
tearing at eyes and lips while deep down below, yet groaned and moved
the living wounded.
God of Love and Pity, draw the veil over the scene! No pen can tell its
story--no heart endure to hear it.
The stop was brief. Already the cavalry were skirmishing for the next
position.
Again the keen eye of Lee had divined his enemy's purpose. By a shorter
road his men had reached the North Anna before Grant. When the Union
leader arrived on the scene he found the position of his advance
division dangerous and quickly withdrew with the loss of two thousand
men.
Once more he determined to turn Lee's flank and hurled his army toward
Cold Harbor. This time he reached his chosen ground before his opponent
and on the 31st, Sheridan's cavalry took possession of the place. The
two armies had rushed for this point in waving parallel lines, flashing
at each other death-dealing volleys as they touched.
Both armies immediately began to entrench in their chosen positions.
Lee, familiar with his ground, had chosen his position with consummate
skill. On June the 1st, the preliminary attack was made at six o'clock
in the afternoon. It was short and bloody. The Northern division under
Smith and Wright charged and lost two thousand two hundred men in an
hour.
Again Lee had placed his guns and infantry in a fiery crescent on the
hills arranged to catch both flanks and front of an advancing army.
Grant's soldiers knew that grim work had been cut out for them on that
fatal morning the third day of June. As John Vaughan walked along the
lines the night before he saw thousands of silent men busy with their
needle and thread sewing their names on their underclothing.
The hot, close weather of the preceding days had ended in a grateful
rain at five o'clock, which continued through the night and brought the
tired, suffering men gracious relief.
Grant decided to assault the whole Confederate front and gave his orders
for the attack at the first streak of dawn at four-thirty.
The charging blue hosts literally walked into the crater of a volcano
flaming in their faces and pouring tons of steel and lead into their
stricken flanks. Nothing like it had ever before been seen in the
history of war.
_Ten thousand men in blue fell in twenty minutes!_
The battle was practically over at half past seven o'clock.
General Smith received an order from Meade to renew the assault and
flatly refused.
The scene which followed has no parallel in the records of human
suffering. Its horror is inconceivable and unthinkable. Through the
summer nights the shrieks and groans of the wounded and dying rose in
pitiful endless waves. And no hand was lifted to save. For three days
they lay begging for water, groaning and dying where they had fallen. It
was certain death to venture in that storm-swept space. Only a few brave
men fought their way through to rescue a fallen comrade.
It was not until the 7th that a truce was arranged to clear this shamble
and then every man in blue was dead save two. Everywhere blood, blood,
blood in dark slippery pools--dead horses--dead men--smashed guns, legs,
arms, torn and mangled pieces of bodies--the earth plowed with shot and
shell.
Thirty days had passed since Grant met Lee in the tangled Wilderness and
the Northern army had lost sixty thousand men, two thousand a day.
It is small wonder that he decided not to try longer "to fight it out on
that line."
Lee had put out of combat as many men for his opponent as he had under
his command at any time and his army with the reinforcements he had
received was now as strong as the day he met Grant.
For twelve days the two armies lay in their entrenchments on this field
of death while the Federal Commander arranged a new plan of campaign.
The sharpshooting was incessant. No man in all the line of blue could
stand erect and live an instant. Soldiers whose time of service had
expired and were ordered home, had to crawl on their hands and knees
through the trenches to the rear.
The new Commander, on whose genius the President and the people had
planted their brightest hopes, had just reached the spot where McClellan
stood in June, 1862. And he might have gotten there by the James under
cover of his gunboats without the loss of a single life.
Again John Vaughan's memory turned to McClellan with desperate
bitterness. The longer he brooded over the hideous scenes of the past
month, the higher rose his blind rage against the President.