JOHNSONVILLE RAID AND FORREST’S MARINE EXPERIENCES, NOVEMBER, 1864
October and November, 1864, covered the most successful and
aggressive period of General Forrest’s remarkable exploits. Volumes
could be written describing the details of his marvellous marches
and his almost indescribable triumphs with the means and men at
his command. From August 23rd to October 15th, 1864, his capture
of Athens, Alabama, the expedition into middle Tennessee, the
destruction of the Tennessee and Alabama railway, the capture of
Huntsville, destruction of the Sulphur trestles, the battle at
Eastport, had presented an array of experiences and won victories
enough to make him and his men heroes for the years to come. Within
these fifty-three days the actual and incidental losses inflicted
upon the Federals cannot be fully estimated. He had killed and
captured thirty-five hundred men and officers of the Federal Army,
added nine hundred head of horses to his equipment, captured more
than one hundred and twenty head of cattle, one hundred wagons
and their supplies, and possessed himself of three thousand stand
of small arms and stores for his commissary ordnance and medical
supplies, which made glad the hearts of his hungry, ill-clad and
debilitated followers.
Six long truss bridges had fallen before his relentless destroyers,
one hundred miles of railroad had been completely wrecked, two
locomotives, with fifty freight cars, had been demolished, thousands
of feet of railway trestles, some of sixty feet in height, had been
hewn down and given over to flames, to say naught of hundreds of
thousands of other property essential to Federal occupation. He had
caught up one thousand men in Middle Tennessee for his own command
and enabled six hundred men who had either straggled or been cut off
from General Wheeler when he had raided the same territory a short
while before to come out to the commands. It had cost Forrest three
hundred men and officers, killed or wounded. Some of his bravest
and best had died on the expedition. Many of them were men whose
places could now never be filled, but according to the economics of
war, the price paid was not too great for the results obtained. He
had traversed over five hundred miles and left a savagely marked
trail of ravage and destruction wherever he had come. Not a day was
without some sort of contact with the enemy, and every hour was
full of danger and peril, demanding ceaseless vigilance and wariest
care. On January 13th, 1864, a new Department styled “Forrest’s
Cavalry Department” was organized out of West Tennessee and Northern
Mississippi. Hardly had the new year been ushered in when the Federal
Government, with ten thousand well-equipped and well-drilled cavalry,
undertook to force a way down from Memphis to Meridian, taking in
some of the Confederate strongholds like Pontotoc, Okolona, Columbus
Junction and Macon, a distance of two hundred and fifty miles, to end
at Macon. General Sherman was to move from Vicksburg with an army
of twenty thousand troops. Co-operation of the cavalry was deemed of
the greatest importance. To lead these horsemen, William Sooy Smith,
not only a great engineer, but a successful soldier, was placed in
command. Telegraphic communication had been opened between Vicksburg
and Memphis, so that it was hoped these forces, thus co-operating,
might keep in touch with each other. General Sherman made good his
march to Meridian, playing havoc with railroad connections and
other property in Mississippi. General Smith however failed to keep
his engagement. He had been delayed in starting, until the 11th of
February, from his rendezvous, Colliers Station, twenty-five miles
southeastward from Memphis. He waited here for Colonel George E.
Waring, who had been instructed to come from Columbus, Kentucky, with
another brigade, under orders to unite with General Smith. Waring
left Columbus with several thousand cavalry, and with the best arms
of that period, and what was considered at that time amongst the
most thoroughly furnished cavalry forces that had ever gone from
the Federal lines. General Smith had informed General Sherman that
Forrest would strike him somewhere in Northern Mississippi between
Cold and Tallahatchee Rivers. After his invasion of West Tennessee,
General Forrest had been enabled to get together four brigades under
General Richardson, Colonel McCullough, General Tyree H. Bell and
General Forrest’s brother, Jeffrey E. Forrest. The Confederates
were not inactive, and they prepared to offer strongest resistance
to General Smith. The State Militia, under General Gholson, were
brought into line. Smith marched for several days unhindered, and
the absence of Confederate forces impressed him that it would not
be long before he would come in contact with Forrest. Northwestern
Mississippi was a great prairie country, producing the most grain of
any section of the Southwest. When the Federals reached West Point,
Mississippi, there were unmistakable signs of battle. There General
Smith learned that three Forrests were about, General Nathan Bedford,
Colonel Jeffrey E., and Captain William, and investigation disclosed
that the number of men with Forrest was about two thousand. General
Smith had now traveled half way from Memphis to Meridian, and Sherman
was waiting and watching for Smith’s coming. General Forrest had
studiously circulated reports magnifying the number of men under his
command. By the 21st of February, Smith felt that the impending blow
was about to fall. He hesitated and was lost. He turned back, and
Forrest’s hour of advantage had come. Colonel Waring in his book,
“Whip and Spur,” of this moment speaks as follows: “No sooner had we
turned tail than Forrest saw his time had come, and he pressed us
seriously all day and until nightfall.” The retrograde movement was
just commenced when Jeffrey Forrest’s orders were to fall in after
Captain Tyler’s battalion and to assail the Federal rear at every
chance. Pursuit was vigorous and active, and General Smith’s retreat
became almost a stampede. It was in one of these charges that Colonel
Jeffrey E. Forrest, commanding a brigade, the younger brother of
General Forrest, was killed. For over sixty miles, night and day, a
relentless pursuit was kept up. Forrest had four thousand men that
were new troops. A majority of them had seen service less than six
weeks. They were hardy men but mostly untrained soldiers, but they
prided themselves that they were the equals of any veterans.
By the time General Smith reached Memphis he had more of a mob than
an army. There was practically no organization left and it was almost
a case of everybody for himself and devil take the hindmost. Not
two weeks had elapsed since, in the pride of strength and full of
ambitious hopes, they had set out to cripple and destroy Forrest,
and now, with less than fourteen days to their credit as avengers
and destroyers, they came, humiliated by reverses, scattered in
fright, and with no signs of victory on their colors. Their leaders
could make but little excuse for their ignominious failure, and the
only chance to palliate or mitigate defeat was to magnify General
Forrest’s army that had at first stood them at bay and then, with
pitiless pursuit, had driven them to the place from whence they had
started with such dazzling dreams of glory and triumph.
This expedition disposed of, Forrest began at once to cut out new
work. There were no furloughs for him. War in his mind was constant,
ceaseless activity. The scarcity of horses and ammunition as well as
clothing was a constant charge upon Forrest’s energies. He could not
get from the Confederate quartermaster or commissary what he most
needed, and far out on the front he could not wait for transportation
even if the Confederates had the essential things. In the Federal
Army and outposts he always found an unfailing supply of those things
his men must have to faithfully fight.
Three regiments of Kentuckians, about this period, were sent over to
help General Forrest, and they were fully up to his high standard of
fighters. They only numbered seven hundred men after the decimation
of three years in infantry, but they proved a most valuable asset.
None of his men were more dependable. Buford, Lyon, Faulkner, Hale,
Thompson, Tyler and Crossland could always be counted on for gallant
leadership, and the men under them were never averse to fighting
at the closest range. These men needed clothing. The Government
had given them poor mounts, some of them had rope bridles, with no
saddles. They used blankets as a substitute and now and then rode for
a while bareback, until they drew from the Federal commissary, by
force, what they needed. Up in Kentucky, if any good horses were left
after impressment from both sides, these Kentucky boys would surely
find them. As for clothing, that would come in far greater quantities
than would be desired, and sight of home faces and home places would
make them stronger for the subsequent work at Bryce’s Cross Roads,
Harrisburg and Johnsonville, and other conflicts, where only highest
courage could avail.
Then, too, the Tennesseans, who had come from the northwestern part
of the State, also needed mounts and uniforms, and they longed to see
what the sad ravages of war had done for their homes and kindred in
that part of the South where the cauldron of pillage and bloodshed
seemed ever to be seething.
General Forrest reorganized his command into four brigades, and on
the 12th day of April Fort Pillow was taken. A year before this,
General Forrest had penetrated a considerable distance into Kentucky
and had captured a number of posts and looked askance at Fort Pillow.
This was deemed a valuable possession, it was used not only for the
defense of the river, but as a recruiting place for fugitive slaves.
The story of Fort Pillow has been told so often that it need not be
repeated here. The loss of Federals was supposed to be five hundred
killed and an equal number captured. Forrest’s loss was twenty
killed and sixty wounded. Fort Pillow was considered remarkable
among cavalry achievements. Forrest, with a few untrained soldiers,
had accomplished and won this great victory and given his foes new
reasons for animosity. Much, very much has been written and spoken
about Fort Pillow. It became a name with which to conjure the colored
troops, and through it abuse was so heaped upon General Forrest as to
create the impression that he was a brutal, ferocious and merciless
monster. The Federal Congress set afoot an investigation, but
Forrest’s defense from the calumnies heaped upon him satisfied his
friends, if it did not convince his enemies.
The character and antecedents of the garrison had much to do with
the events of the histories connected with its capture. Renegade
Tennesseans and fugitive slaves comprised the larger part of its
defenders. The white men there had perpetrated many wrongs and
outrages upon the defenseless families of the Tennesseans under
Forrest. Great numbers of his men had come from the regions where
these hideous wrongs had been inflicted. Feeling was high on both
sides. Human passions had been thoroughly aroused in Confederate and
Federal hearts, and both sides were rejoiced at a chance to “have it
out.” Neither side went into the conflict looking for any signs of
surrender, and had the Confederates changed places, they would have
fared no better than those they defeated and captured. But the fall
of the Fort was a great windfall to General Forrest, and while it
increased the hate of his foes, it detracted nothing from his renown
and fame amongst his own people.
Many Federal generals had tried their hand with Forrest only to
meet failure. William Sooy Smith had lost, and General Stephen A.
Hurlbut had also failed. General C. C. Washburn had taken his place
and then Samuel D. Sturgis came and then Bryce’s Cross Roads. Later
followed the Confederate defeat at Harrisburg, which for awhile
saddened Forrest’s heart. Wounded shortly after this battle, General
Forrest was forced to ride in a buggy with his torn foot lifted up
so as to cause him the least pain. It was persistently rumored that
he had died of lockjaw, and there would have been no tears among
the Federals if this had turned out to be true. By the beginning of
August, General Forrest had recovered from his wounds sufficiently
to enable him to enter upon one of his greatest exploits. Riding
into the heart of Memphis, he caused Generals Washburn, Buchland
and Hurlbut to flee from their beds at night and seek safety in the
forts around the city. General Washburn’s uniform and effects were
captured, but he managed to escape. General Washburn sought to lay
the blame for this successful and marvelous feat upon General A. J.
Smith. Under all the circumstances, Forrest’s raid into Memphis was
admittedly amongst the most brilliant and daring cavalry exploits
of the war. That two thousand men should avoid the cities in which
the Federal garrisons were quartered, pass them by, travel a hundred
miles, and then rush into the city of Memphis, make good their escape
with an embarrassing contingent of supplies and prisoners, up to that
time had few if any parallels.
The tremendous power and efficacy of the methods of General Forrest
had at last been realized, and the Government at Richmond resolved to
turn Forrest loose upon Sherman, in connection with General Richard
Taylor, who had command of the department of the Mississippi. General
Taylor, sympathizing with Forrest in his style of fighting, on the
16th day of September, 1864, set him afloat for twenty-one days’
operations on the rear of the enemy. Forrest’s entry into Memphis had
caused A. J. Smith’s army to return to that city and had temporarily
withdrawn a large and threatening force from Mississippi. Up to
that time General Taylor had never seen Forrest. He described him
as a tall, stalwart man with grayish hair, kindly countenance and
slow of speech. Nature made General Forrest a great soldier. With
opportunities for the development of his marvelous genius, there
could have been no limit to his performances.
On the 16th day of September, Forrest started from Verona,
Mississippi, with three thousand five hundred and forty-two effective
men. He undertook to cross the Tennessee River at Newport, where
boats had been provided. The artillery, ordnance and wagons were
crossed at Newport, but Forrest waded the river at Colbert Shoals.
Chalmers commanded one division and Buford the other. Reinforcements
now joined Forrest, which made four thousand five hundred soldiers,
four hundred of which, however, were dismounted and were following
on foot with the expectation of capturing mounts during the raid.
These hardy men were glad, by walking and many times running, to be
allowed to join the expedition. A horse was the most desirable of all
earthly possessions. They were hesitant at no fatigue and hardship
which led them to a mount. Those who went with Forrest well knew they
would at some point be sure of a captured beast. They all had some
friend who would ride and tie with them. Here and there, on some
short stretch of good road, they might when nobody was looking get a
lift in an ammunition wagon. Then, too, they could escape the slush
and mud in the bespattered road, and trotting alongside the fences
or passway, they would find it no great task to keep even with the
artillery and heavily loaded horses, unless when the haste of battle
or the rush of pursuit quickened the pace of the advancing column.
Life was worthless to a cavalryman under the great leaders of the
Confederate troopers if he had no horse, and thus these nervy men
for days followed the expedition, with unfailing faith that in a
reasonable time General Forrest would at least give them a sufficient
chance with their enemies to enable them to forage upon the Federal
Government for the much needed steed. None who ever witnessed these
dismounted battalions marching on foot to the scenes of devastation
and battle could fail to be impressed with the power of the human
will or the strenuosity of the human body under the impulse of war’s
hopes and calls.
At this time there was a railroad which ran from Nashville,
Tennessee, to Decatur, Alabama, called the Alabama and Tennessee
Railroad. This had been a feeder for Federal commissary and
general supplies, and General Forrest undertook to destroy it.
The Confederates had not been expected. Athens, Alabama, was the
first Federal stronghold to fall. Forrest’s presence had never been
suspected until his troops were in sight of the place. It surrendered
without contest. Nine hundred prisoners were captured at Athens.
This invasion of Forrest stayed for a little while Sherman’s great
march to the sea. From Pulaski, Tennessee, General Forrest moved to
the Nashville & Chattanooga Railroad. He reported that the enemy had
concentrated at least ten thousand men on the 27th of September, and
on the 28th he began to play havoc with the railroad at Fayetteville
and Tullahoma. The Federal forces, under the direction of General
Sherman, were concentrated in the hope of capturing Forrest. General
Sherman telegraphed that he could take care of the line between
Atlanta and Chattanooga, but the line from Nashville to Chattanooga
must be protected by others. The rage of Forrest’s enemies was
evidence enough to convince the men of the South that he had done his
work well. At that time General Sherman telegraphed to General Grant
on the 29th of September, in which he said, speaking of Forrest, “His
cavalry will travel 100 miles in less time than ours will travel
10.” He also said, “I can whip his infantry, but his cavalry is to
be feared.” Again he telegraphed to General Elliott, chief of the
cavalry department of the Cumberland, “Our cavalry must do more, for
it is strange that Forrest and Wheeler should encircle around us
thus. We should at least make 10 miles to his 100.”
On the 1st of October, on this raid, Forrest reached Spring Hill,
twenty-six miles from Nashville. So far no reverses. The time had
come now for General Forrest to escape. On the 3rd of October, with
all possible speed, to avoid the Federal columns, he marched south,
reaching Florence, Alabama, where he had forded the river two weeks
before, but now it was swollen and could no longer be passed. At
this point, in what would be considered almost a crisis, Forrest was
compelled to carry a thousand of his men out to an island in the
Tennessee River, which was filled with an impenetrable growth of cane
and timber of all kinds, and hide his boats behind the island, while
the enemy was still watching to prevent his troops from crossing.
General Forrest, in speaking of this wonderful expedition, said, “I
captured 86 commissioned officers, 67 government employees, 1,274
non-commissioned officers and privates and 933 negroes, and killed
and wounded 1,000 more, making an aggregate of 3,360, being an
average of one to each man I had in the engagements.” He further
says, “I captured 800 horses, 7 pieces of artillery, 2,000 stands of
small arms, several hundred saddles, 50 wagons and ambulances with a
large amount of medical, commissary and quartermaster’s stores, all
of which have been distributed to the different commands.”
Now a still greater victory and a new departure in military work was
to mark the closing months of 1864, in which General Forrest acted
with an independent command. Towards the end of the war, Memphis
became a center of the most important operations. The Mississippi was
always open and it gave entrance into the grain fields of the West
and through the Ohio, the Missouri, the Wabash and the White Rivers,
and put at the service of the Federal Army abundant supplies of food
and raiment.
The Tennessee River, the fifth largest stream in the United States,
like the New River, is one of the marvels of nature. Rising far up
in the mountains, close to the Virginia line, it pushes its way
southwardly through Tennessee, swinging around into Alabama, as if by
some capricious fancy, it changes its direction and then turns north
about four hundred and fifty miles to its mouth, where it mingles its
waters with those of the Ohio, _sixty_ miles above its union with
the Mississippi. After leaving Alabama, pursuing its course within
fifty miles of the Father of Waters, it appears to be reluctant to
reinforce that stream with which it runs parallel for hundreds of
miles. It would appear according to reason and nature that it should
again have veered to the west and effected its connection with the
Mississippi, but as if wishing to defy this mighty stream, it still
moves onward and northward. It comes then within two miles of the
Cumberland, which is fed by the waters from the mountains close to
where the Tennessee River has its source, and then, as if running a
race with the Cumberland, it flows along parallel with that stream
and, at last, wearied by its tortuous journeys for nine hundred
miles, at Paducah it mingles its waters with those of the Ohio, and
these in turn pass westward and reach the Mississippi at Cairo.
About one hundred and fifty miles from Memphis, on the Tennessee
River, was a little town called Johnsonville, and at that time it was
at the head of the navigable part of the Tennessee River. To that
point the larger boats could most always come and it was a great
depot for supplies, and in an emergency these might be carried over
to Nashville or Memphis, as either one or the other might require.
Forrest was beginning now fully to recover from the effects of the
loss of the troops he trained in the earlier months of the war.
Successful beyond all question in cavalry service, he had again
gathered about him a corps of almost invincible men. His new recruits
and such soldiers as were reimbued with patriotic impulses, after
having left the army when it abandoned Tennessee, by Forrest’s coming
into West Tennessee, cheerfully returned to the post of duty and
under the impulse of Forrest’s success, and the love and courage with
which he impressed all who once saw him enter battle. The ranks of
depleted skeleton regiments were partially filled, and the commanders
of these new organizations had now, under Forrest’s eye and control,
learned how he deemed it wisest to fight, and they were ready to do
and dare all that his impetuous valor required, or his marvelous
skill as a leader pointed out as the true way to carry on war under
the conditions that then existed in his department.
He had now a division of more than four thousand men. He felt sure
he could trust them in all emergencies, and he was eager and willing
to put them to the highest test, and he undertook at this period
what will always be considered as a remarkable cavalry foray, the
expedition to Johnsonville, Tennessee.
Before undertaking this arduous work, Forrest had pleaded for a
furlough. This had been promised, but an emergency arose which
neither he nor General Taylor could foresee or control, and it became
impossible for him to be absent even for a brief while; and so
Chalmers and his division were directed to report to General Forrest
at Jackson, Tennessee, on the 16th day of October.
General Forrest and General Dick Taylor were kindred spirits. Their
relations were most happy and pleasant. They were men who fought
the same way and thought the same way, and Taylor recognized the
greatness of Forrest and fully understood that he did best when left
to his own devices.
On October 12th, 1864, Forrest telegraphed Chalmers, commander of
one division, “Fetch your wagons and the batteries with you. I will
supply you with artillery ammunition at Jackson.” Buford was ordered
to take up his line of march for Lexington, a short distance from
the Tennessee River, where Forrest had crossed in his December,
1862, expedition. Gun boats and transports were being moved along
the Tennessee River. These could go a little south of Chattanooga,
and the line of communication had been protected and held open from
the river to General Sherman and his men. Forrest had resolved to
destroy some of these gunboats and capture some of the transports. He
needed some new guns, the clothing, shoes, arms and ammunition of his
troopers needed replenishment and, too, he had a conviction that he
could enact such scenes on the Tennessee as would disquiet Sherman at
Atlanta and by imperiling the river transportation, and destroying
the railroads north of Chattanooga, he could bring Sherman, by sheer
starvation, out of Georgia. It was a splendid conception, and could
the Confederacy have sent Forrest on one line and General Wheeler on
the other, it would have stopped or delayed the march to the sea, and
prolonged the war another year. Optimists said, it might bring final
victory to the banners of the Southland.
On this Johnsonville raid, as often before, he marched with such
tremendous rapidity and covered his movements so thoroughly that the
enemy knew nothing of either his plans or his positions, until far
up in Tennessee they felt the touch of his avenging powers. He had
parked batteries at Paris Landing and Fort Heiman on the Tennessee
River, and his men began to wait for the unsuspecting Federals before
his foes had an inkling of what he really intended to do. He struck
the river about forty miles above Johnsonville. The two batteries
were five miles apart. He knew what all his enemies were doing,
but they caught naught of where he had gone, or was going. Like a
great beast of prey, he hid along the river banks in the cane and
undergrowth, watching and waiting for his victims to cross his path,
or to come his way. A vast majority of the people of West Tennessee
were intensely loyal to the South, and it was only here and there
that Federal persuasion could win from a native any facts about the
movements of any Confederate force. News about Federal movements was
always accessible to Forrest’s scouts, who knew accurately every
road and by-way of this entire region. It was one hundred and fifty
miles to Memphis where a large Federal force was stationed, but
none passed Forrest’s line to carry tidings of his doings, and when
Forrest’s guns opened on the transports and gunboats on the river,
north of Johnsonville, it was a most startling revelation to the
Federals of the ubiquitous movements of the Confederate chieftain.
The Federal generals knew he was loose somewhere, but they had
no power of divining where he might break out to terrorize their
garrisons and destroy their railroads or depots of supplies. Forrest,
Wheeler, Hampton, Stuart and Morgan had the most efficient scouts
that ever kept an army informed of an enemy’s movements. Forrest’s
territory for operation was larger than that of any of these other
leaders, and he never once failed, thanks to the courage, daring and
intelligence of his scouts to know just how many they were and just
where he would find his foes.
A grateful people will some day build a monument to these daring and
successful purveyors of information, who deserve a very large share
in the splendid victories and triumphs of the Confederate cavalry.
The South may never know their names, but the world will some day
fairly and justly measure what they were in the campaigns which will
live forever amongst the most brilliant of military exploits.
Forrest was playing a great game. He had taken big risks and was
figuring on tremendous stakes. In the night time he made all
necessary dispositions. His scouts had told him that boats were
coming and Forrest was glad, for he had come for boats. The
Confederates had waited both patiently and impatiently all the night
long. Patiently, because they felt sure of their prey; impatiently,
for they anxiously desired to feed upon the good things the vessels
contained, and also because they had made a long and trying march
and, tiger-like, they were ready to spring upon the victim. It
was chilly and raw. It had been raining heavily off and on during
the past week. The river bottoms, or even the hill tops, were not
comfortable places in October without fire, and these things, added
to the excitement that preceded great actions, made the Confederate
troopers long for the coming of the rising sun. There was something
in the very surroundings that gave portent of great deeds and
glorious triumphs on the morrow, when they should be sent forth on
their mission, and it was difficult to repress, even amidst their
depressing environments, the enthusiasm which they felt sure must
break forth in the inevitable happenings of the next twenty-four
hours.
Early in the morning of October 29th, the _Mazeppa_, a splendid
steamboat, laden with freight, and two barges which she was towing
to Johnsonville, came around the great bend of the Tennessee River.
The sections of artillery had been posted some distance apart on the
river. Passing the lower one, the boatmen discovered its presence
only to find themselves between the two hostile batteries. Both were
turned loose and in a few minutes the boat was crippled and the pilot
headed for the shore. She was abandoned, and the crew in wild dismay
found refuge in the woods along the banks. The immediate trouble was
that the Confederates were on the opposite side from the stranded
steamer. In this crisis, a valiant Confederate, Captain T. Gracy of
the 3rd Kentucky, came to the rescue, and although the water was
chilling and the current swift, he strapped his revolver around his
neck, mounted on a piece of driftwood, and with a board for a paddle,
propelled himself across the stream. Keeping true to the instincts of
the sailor, the pilot refused to desert his care, and he surrendered
to the naked captain who had so bravely crossed the stream. This was
probably, in some respects, the richest capture that Forrest had
ever made, and his soldiers began to unload the cargo and carry it
away from the river bank to a place where it might be watched and
preserved until it could be taken away.
The Federal gunboats got the range on the _Mazeppa_ and opened such
a heavy fire that its new captors were glad to consign the boat to
the flames, while they energetically packed and hauled its precious
contents to places so far inland that the guns of these sea fighters
could not find the places of hiding.
A little while and another large steamer, the _J. W. Cheeseman_,
approached the upper battery. It was allowed to pass in between the
two Confederate positions. No sooner had she gone well into the trap
than fire was opened upon her, both from the troops upon the shore,
and from the artillery, and her officers were glad to hasten the
surrender of this splendid steamer. The gunboat, _Undine_, had also
gone in between the batteries, but the Confederate artillery were
not afraid of gunboats, and so they pounded her so severely that
she was disabled and driven to the shore, and her crew and officers
hastily abandoned her and escaped through the woods, while she became
a prize to Confederate daring and marksmanship. In a little while,
the transport _Venus_ moved up the river. On this boat was a small
detachment of Federal infantry. This boat was attacked by Colonel
Kelley and his men, and so heavy was the iron hail upon her that she,
too, was glad to surrender and with the gunboat was brought safely to
the shore. Half the garrison were killed or wounded and all captured.
On this day it seemed to rain gunboats. Another one, the No. 29,
had probably heard the firing, and, coming down the river, anchored
within half a mile of the Confederate batteries and opened fire. This
was too slow a game for the Confederates, so General Chalmers took
the guns and his escort and a company of videttes, and going through
the cane and brush got nearer to the gunboat and soon drove it away.
The steamboat _Cheeseman_ could no longer be serviceable, her stores
were removed and flames lapped up what was left of her. The _Venus_
and the _Undine_ were slightly injured. The _Undine_ was one of the
largest gunboats that had been sent up the Tennessee river. She
carried eight twenty-four pound guns, and when she became a victim
to Confederate courage, her entire armament went with her. Her crew
attempted to spike the guns, but in this they were unsuccessful. In
all these captures the Confederate loss was one man severely wounded.
Five or six Federals were killed on the _Venus_, three killed and
four wounded on the _Undine_ and one wounded on the _Cheeseman_.
General Forrest, ever resourceful, and whose capacity for all
phases of war seemed unlimited, determined to begin a career as a
naval officer, and from the cavalry a volunteer crew was made up;
two twenty-four pounders were placed on the _Venus_, and Captain
Gracy placed in command. Gracy had shown himself to be a great land
fighter, but he was yet to make his reputation as a marine. The
captured gunboat was also put into commission. The new commodore
was directed to steam his boat up the river toward Johnsonville, a
few miles away, while the troops marched along the road parallel
to the river. The gunboats were put in charge of Colonel Dawson.
He evidently did not want to secure Forrest’s ill will, and so he
made a covenant with him that if he lost his fleet, Forrest was
not to “cuss” him. The boats got separated. The artillery were not
skilled so well on water as they were on land, and so when a Federal
commodore, with boats No. 32 and 29, got within range of the _Venus_,
they soon damaged her so badly that she was of no service, and was
run ashore and abandoned without even setting on fire. The _Undine_,
seeing the disaster to her companion ship, sought safety on the river
bank under the protection of the Confederate batteries. The Federal
gunboat soon closed in upon the _Undine_, and it was necessary to
abandon her, also, and set her on fire.
So far General Forrest had inflicted a great amount of damage upon
the Federals. He had captured the _Mazeppa_ with seven hundred tons
of freight, two other steamboats, two other gunboats, the transports
_Venus_ and _Cheeseman_, and another steamer over at Clarksville on
the Cumberland was also destroyed. It was not very far, something
like twenty-five miles, across to the Cumberland, and Forrest
undertook to operate upon both rivers. Johnsonville was on the east
side of the river.
On the 3rd day of November, Forrest reached the scene of action with
his chief of artillery, John W. Morton. Johnsonville, at this time,
appeared as a sort of heavenly resort, or a Commissary Utopia, to
the Confederates, and Forrest promptly undertook its destruction and
all that was gathered in it. The landing was filled with transports
and barges and gunboats. The great problem with the Confederates in
the later periods of the war was something to eat, wear, shoot and
ride, and the little town beside the Tennessee, with more supplies
than these oftentimes hungry and illy clad horsemen had ever dreamed
of, appeared to contain all the provisions in the world. On the
banks were houses filled to overflowing with valuable supplies,
and acres of army stores were piled around the warehouses. A new
battery had come up during the following night, under Captain Thrall.
This was placed just above the town, while the Morton and Hudson
batteries were placed just opposite and below the town. At two
o’clock Forrest opened with his artillery. He had kept his movements
so well concealed that the Federals at Johnsonville were unaware of
his presence until the Confederate guns announced the presence of an
enemy. Morton promptly opened fire upon the forts and gunboats. For
a little while the Federals had no apprehension that Forrest could
effect very much, but Morton, always skillful, soon obtained the
range and by cutting the fuses with precision, he put his shells
into the midst of the supply station. Flame and smoke soon began to
rise from many of the boats that lined the river, and from the goods
along the wharf and the warehouses. By nightfall, the boats and the
walls of the commissary were fired, and for three-quarters of a mile
up and down, the river presented a great forest of flame. Flames
illuminated the horizon for miles and huge volumes of smoke rose up
towards the heavens in glorious signals of a great consuming fire.
Some said that the Federal soldiers fired their own boats. Morton,
Thrall, Bugg, Zaring, Brown and Hunter, the men who directed the
artillery firing on this expedition, won splendid laurels by the
accuracy of their aim. Colonel Rucker had an extended experience in
artillery service in the Mississippi in the earlier stages of the
war; while General Lyon, who before his resignation from the United
States Army had served as an artillery officer, gave their assistance
in the important work of destroying the Federal boats and supplies.
The artillery were the chief instruments in this crowning act of
destruction, and all others in the other corps were glad to give
them due praise and plaudits for the splendid way in which they had
performed their part in this magnificent victory.
Forrest had now accomplished all he had come to do. He had burned
up millions’ worth of property. The Federals said he had thirteen
thousand men with twenty-six guns. Sherman, telegraphing General
Grant, said, “That devil, Forrest, was down about Johnsonville,
making havoc among the gunboats and transports.”
The roads had become well-nigh impassable, and the return march to
Corinth was slow and toilsome. On November 10th, however, he arrived
at Corinth in reasonably good order. He had been absent a little more
than two weeks. He had captured and destroyed four gunboats, fourteen
transports, twenty barges, twenty-six pieces of artillery, and six
million seven hundred thousand dollars’ worth of property. One thing
that particularly pleased the Confederates was the capture of nine
thousand pairs of shoes and one thousand blankets, and strange to
say, in all these operations and fourteen days’ fighting of the
Confederates, two were killed and nine wounded.
Forrest always was able to mystify his enemies. He had left enough
troops in the neighborhood of Memphis to keep the commanders there
busy and to fear an attack on the place. General Smith reported
from Memphis, on the 16th of October, that the houses had been
loop-holed for sharpshooters, and an inner line of cotton defenses
constructed, and told his commander that Forrest was at Grenada
on the Friday night before. Halleck, in Washington, wired Thomas
that Forrest was threatening Memphis. General Sherman was so
alarmed by this destruction of Johnsonville that he telegraphed to
General Grant, saying, “Sherman estimates that Forrest has 26,000
men mounted and menacing his communications.” The 23rd Corps was
despatched to Johnsonville, and up at Columbus, Kentucky, Sherman
had given orders that guns must be defended to death and the town
should be burned rather than that Forrest should get a pound of
provisions. The Federals seemed to be doing more telegraphing than
fighting and marching. While they were comforting each other or
alarming each other, Forrest’s soldiers, well dressed, well mounted,
thoroughly equipped, were pulling through the mud, trying to get out
of Tennessee. The mud and slush became such a menace that General
Forrest was required to use sixteen oxen to pull one gun. The teams
were doubled to carry the cannon, sixteen horses were hitched to a
single piece. The oxen would haul the guns ten or fifteen miles and
then were turned back to their owners, who were allowed to drive them
home.
On the 15th day of November, Forrest reached Iuka, and then by rail
from Cherokee Station, Forrest and his men were transferred to
Florence, Alabama. On this trip, horseshoes and nails became very
scarce. Many times Forrest was compelled to take the tires from the
farm wagons along the route and have these forged into shoes and
nails for the use of the horses.
This marvelous expedition was to close the really great destructive
career of General Forrest. The ink was hardly dry upon his letter
to General Dick Taylor, detailing a portion of the work under his
command, until orders were given for General Forrest to proceed at
once to Florence and there take command of the cavalry of the Army of
the Tennessee, under General Hood.
It was a sad mistake when the Confederate Government at Richmond had
failed, a year before, to invest General Forrest with command of the
cavalry of the Army of the Tennessee. He was not braver than General
Wheeler; he was not more patriotic than General Wheeler; but without
any reflection, it may be confidently said that from the same number
of men, General Forrest would get more fighting than any officer of
the Confederate Army, General Lee not excepted. When damage to his
enemies was to be calculated Forrest had no superior in the world. He
captured and destroyed more Federal military property than any other
officer of the war.
Forrest, like Wheeler, always went to the front. Both seemed destined
by miraculous interposition to be preserved from death. Many times
all those about them went down before the enemy’s fire. Both Forrest
and Wheeler were several times injured, but never very seriously. No
two men were more reckless or courageous on the battlefield, and no
two men with the means at their command ever did more for any cause
than Forrest and Wheeler. Of these two men many thousands of pages
might be written, and yet much would be left unsaid that ought to be
said in recounting their wonderful campaigns. With charmed lives,
with brave spirits, with courageous souls and intrepid hearts, they
seemed immune from death.