CHAPTER I

Produced by Steve Schulze, Charles Franks and the Online Distributed

Proofreading Team. This file was produced from images generously

made available by the CWRU Preservation Department Digital Library.

MILITARY REMINISCENCES OF THE CIVIL WAR

BY JACOB DOLSON COX, A.M., LL.D.

_Formerly Major-General commanding Twenty-Third Army Corps_

VOLUME I.

APRIL 1861--NOVEMBER 1863

PREFACE

My aim in this book has been to reproduce my own experience in our

Civil War in such a way as to help the reader understand just how

the duties and the problems of that great conflict presented

themselves successively to one man who had an active part in it from

the beginning to the end. In my military service I was so conscious

of the benefit it was to me to get the personal view of men who had

served in our own or other wars, as distinguished from the general

or formal history, that I formed the purpose, soon after peace was

restored, to write such a narrative of my own army life. My

relations to many prominent officers and civilians were such as to

give opportunities for intimate knowledge of their personal

qualities as well as their public conduct. It has seemed to me that

it might be useful to share with others what I thus learned, and to

throw what light I could upon the events and the men of that time.

As I have written historical accounts of some campaigns separately,

it may be proper to say that I have in this book avoided repetition,

and have tried to make the personal narrative supplement and lend

new interest to the more formal story. Some of the earlier chapters

appeared in an abridged form in "Battles and Leaders of the Civil

War," and the closing chapter was read before the Ohio Commandery of

the Loyal Legion. By arrangements courteously made by the Century

Company and the Commandery, these chapters, partly re-written, are

here found in their proper connection.

Though my private memoranda are full enough to give me reasonable

confidence in the accuracy of these reminiscences, I have made it a

duty to test my memory by constant reference to the original

contemporaneous material so abundantly preserved in the government

publication of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate

Armies. Where the series of these records is not given, my

references are to the First Series, with the abbreviation O. R., and

I have preferred to adhere to the official designation of the

volumes in parts, as each volume then includes the documents of a

single campaign.

J. D. C.

NOTE.--The manuscript of this work had been completed by General

Cox, and placed in the hands of the publishers several weeks before

his untimely death at Magnolia, Mass., August 4, 1900. He himself

had read and revised some four hundred pages of the press-work. The

work of reading and revising the remaining proofs and of preparing a

general index for the work was undertaken by the undersigned from a

deep sense of obligation to and loving regard for the author, which

could not find a more fitting expression at this time. No material

changes have been made in text or notes. Citations have been looked

up and references verified with care, yet errors may have crept in,

which his well-known accuracy would have excluded. For all such and

for the imperfections of the index, the undersigned must accept

responsibility, and beg the indulgence of the reader, who will find

in the text itself enough of interest and profit to excuse many

shortcomings.

WILLIAM C. COCHRAN. CINCINNATI, October 1, 1900.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I

THE OUTBREAK OF THE WAR

Ohio Senate, April 12--Sumter bombarded--"Glory to God!"--The

surrender--Effect on public sentiment--Call for troops--Politicians

changing front--David Tod--Stephen A. Douglas--The insurrection must

be crushed--Garfield on personal duty--Troops organized by the

States--The militia--Unpreparedness--McClellan at Columbus--Meets

Governor Dennison--Put in command--Our stock of munitions--Making

estimates--McClellan's plan--Camp Jackson--Camp Dennison--Gathering

of the volunteers--Garibaldi uniforms--Officering the troops--Off

for Washington--Scenes in the State Capitol--Governor Dennison's

labors--Young regulars--Scott's policy--Alex. McCook--Orlando

Poe--Not allowed to take state commissions.

CHAPTER II

CAMP DENNISON

Laying out the camp--Rosecrans as engineer--A comfortless

night--Waking to new duties--Floors or no floors for the

huts--Hardee's Tactics--The watersupply--Colonel Tom

Worthington--Joshua Sill--Brigades organized--Bates's

brigade--Schleich's--My own--McClellan's purpose--Division

organization--Garfield disappointed--Camp routine--Instruction and

drill--Camp cookery--Measles--Hospital barn--Sisters of

Charity--Ferment over re-enlistment--Musters by Gordon

Granger--"Food for powder"--Brigade staff--De Villiers--"A Captain

of Calvary"--The "Bloody Tinth"--Almost a row--Summoned to the

field.

CHAPTER III

McCLELLAN IN WEST VIRGINIA

Political attitude of West Virginia--Rebels take the

initiative--McClellan ordered to act--Ohio militia cross the

river--The Philippi affair--Significant dates--The vote on

secession--Virginia in the Confederacy--Lee in

command--Topography--The mountain passes--Garnett's army--Rich

Mountain position--McClellan in the field--His forces--Advances

against Garnett--Rosecrans's proposal--His fight on the

mountain--McClellan's inaction--Garnett's retreat--Affair at

Carrick's Ford--Garnett killed--Hill's efforts to intercept--Pegram

in the wilderness--He surrenders--Indirect results

important--McClellan's military and personal traits.

CHAPTER IV

THE KANAWHA VALLEY

Orders for the Kanawha expedition--The troops and their

quality--Lack of artillery and cavalry--Assembling at

Gallipolis--District of the Kanawha--Numbers of the opposing

forces--Method of advance--Use of steamboats--Advance guards on

river banks--Camp at Thirteen-mile Creek--Night alarm--The river

chutes--Sunken obstructions--Pocotaligo--Affair at

Barboursville--Affair at Scary Creek--Wise's position at Tyler

Mountain--His precipitate retreat--Occupation of

Charleston--Rosecrans succeeds McClellan--Advance toward Gauley

Bridge--Insubordination--The Newspaper Correspondent--Occupation of

Gauley Bridge.

CHAPTER V

GAULEY BRIDGE

The gate of the Kanawha valley--The wilderness beyond--West Virginia

defences--A romantic post--Chaplain Brown--An adventurous

mission--Chaplain Dubois--"The river path"--Gauley Mount--Colonel

Tompkins's home--Bowie-knives--Truculent resolutions--The

Engineers--Whittlesey, Benham, Wagner--Fortifications--Distant

reconnoissances--Comparison of forces--Dangers to steamboat

communications--Allotment of duties--The Summersville post--Seventh

Ohio at Cross Lanes--Scares and rumors--Robert E. Lee at Valley

Mountain--Floyd and Wise advance--Rosecrans's orders--The Cross

Lanes affair--Major Casement's creditable retreat--Colonel Tyler's

reports--Lieutenant-Colonel Creighton--Quarrels of Wise and

Floyd--Ambushing rebel cavalry--Affair at Boone Court House--New

attack at Gauley Bridge--An incipient mutiny--Sad result--A notable

court-martial--Rosecrans marching toward us--Communications

renewed--Advance toward Lewisburg--Camp Lookout--A private sorrow.

CHAPTER VI

CARNIFEX FERRY--TO SEWELL MOUNTAIN AND BACK

Rosecrans's march to join me--Reaches Cross Lanes--Advance against

Floyd--Engagement at Carnifex Ferry--My advance to Sunday

Road--Conference with Rosecrans--McCook's brigade joins me--Advance

to Camp Lookout--Brigade commanders--Rosecrans's personal

characteristics--Hartsuff--Floyd and Wise again--"Battle of

Bontecou"--Sewell Mountain--The equinoctial--General Schenck

arrives--Rough lodgings--Withdrawal from the mountain--Rear-guard

duties--Major Slemmer of Fort Pickens fame--New positions covering

Gauley Bridge--Floyd at Cotton Mountain--Rosecrans's methods with

private soldiers--Progress in discipline.

CHAPTER VII

COTTON MOUNTAIN

Floyd cannonades Gauley Bridge--Effect on Rosecrans--Topography of

Gauley Mount--De Villiers runs the gantlet--Movements of our

forces--Explaining orders--A hard climb on the mountain--In the post

at Gauley Bridge--Moving magazine and telegraph--A balky

mule-team--Ammunition train under fire--Captain Fitch a model

quartermaster--Plans to entrap Floyd--Moving supply trains at

night--Method of working the ferry--Of making flatboats--The Cotton

Mountain affair--Rosecrans dissatisfied with Benham--Vain plans to

reach East Tennessee.

CHAPTER VIII

WINTER-QUARTERS

An impracticable country--Movements suspended--Experienced troops

ordered away--My orders from Washington--Rosecrans objects--A

disappointment--Winter organization of the Department--Sifting our

material--Courts-martial--Regimental schools--Drill and picket

duty--A military execution--Effect upon the army--Political

sentiments of the people--Rules of conduct toward them--Case of Mr.

Parks--Mr. Summers--Mr. Patrick--Mr. Lewis Ruffner--Mr.

Doddridge--Mr. B. F. Smith--A house divided against itself--Major

Smith's journal--The contrabands--A fugitive-slave

case--Embarrassments as to military jurisdiction.

CHAPTER IX

VOLUNTEERS AND REGULARS

High quality of first volunteers--Discipline milder than that of the

regulars--Reasons for the difference--Practical efficiency of the

men--Necessity for sifting the officers--Analysis of their

defects--What is military aptitude?--Diminution of number in

ascending scale--Effect of age--Of former life and

occupation--Embarrassments of a new business--Quick progress of the

right class of young men--Political appointments--Professional

men--Political leaders naturally prominent in a civil war--"Cutting

and trying"--Dishonest methods--An excellent army at the end of a

year--The regulars in 1861--Entrance examinations for West

Point--The curriculum there--Drill and experience--Its

limitations--Problems peculiar to the vast increase of the

army--Ultra-conservatism--Attitude toward the Lincoln

administration--"Point de zêle"--Lack of initiative--Civil work of

army engineers--What is military art?--Opinions of experts--Military

history--European armies in the Crimean War--True

generalship--Anomaly of a double army organization.

CHAPTER X

THE MOUNTAIN DEPARTMENT--SPRING CAMPAIGN

Rosecrans's plan of campaign--Approved by McClellan with

modifications--Wagons or pack-mules--Final form of plan--Changes in

commands--McClellan limited to Army of the Potomac--Halleck's

Department of the Mississippi--Frémont's Mountain

Department--Rosecrans superseded--Preparations in the Kanawha

District--Batteaux to supplement steamboats--Light wagons for

mountain work--Frémont's plan--East Tennessee as an objective--The

supply question--Banks in the Shenandoah valley--Milroy's

advance--Combat at McDowell--Banks defeated--Frémont's plans

deranged--Operations in the Kanawha valley--Organization of

brigades--Brigade commanders--Advance to Narrows of New River--The

field telegraph--Concentration of the enemy--Affair at

Princeton--Position at Flat-top Mountain.

CHAPTER XI

POPE IN COMMAND--TRANSFER TO WASHINGTON

A key position--Crook's engagement at Lewisburg--Watching and

scouting--Mountain work--Pope in command--Consolidation of

Departments--Suggestions of our transfer to the East--Pope's Order

No. 11 and Address to the Army--Orders to march across the

mountains--Discussion of them--Changed to route by water and

rail--Ninety-mile march--Logistics--Arriving in Washington--Two

regiments reach Pope--Two sent to Manassas--Jackson captures

Manassas--Railway broken--McClellan at Alexandria--Engagement at

Bull Run Bridge--Ordered to Upton's Hill--Covering

Washington--Listening to the Bull Run battle--Ill news travels fast.

CHAPTER XII

RETREAT WITHIN THE LINES--REORGANIZATION--HALLECK AND HIS

SUBORDINATES

McClellan's visits to my position--Riding the lines--Discussing the

past campaign--The withdrawal from the James--Prophecy--McClellan

and the soldiers--He is in command of the defences--Intricacy of

official relations--Reorganization begun--Pope's army marches

through our works--Meeting of McClellan and Pope--Pope's

characteristics--Undue depreciation of him--The situation when

Halleck was made General-in-Chief--Pope's part in it--Reasons for

dislike on the part of the Potomac Army--McClellan's secret

service--Deceptive information of the enemy's force--Information

from prisoners and citizens--Effects of McClellan's illusion as to

Lee's strength--Halleck's previous career--Did he intend to take

command in the field?--His abdication of the field command--The

necessity for a union of forces in Virginia--McClellan's inaction

was Lee's opportunity--Slow transfer of the Army of the

Potomac--Halleck burdened with subordinate's work--Burnside twice

declines the command--It is given to McClellan--Pope relieved--Other

changes in organization--Consolidation--New campaign begun.

CHAPTER XIII

SOUTH MOUNTAIN

March through Washington--Reporting to Burnside--The Ninth

Corps--Burnside's personal qualities--To Leesboro--Straggling--Lee's

army at Frederick--Our deliberate advance--Reno at New Market--The

march past--Reno and Hayes--Camp gossip--Occupation of

Frederick--Affair with Hampton's cavalry--Crossing Catoctin

Mountain--The valley and South Mountain--Lee's order found--Division

of his army--Jackson at Harper's Ferry--Supporting Pleasonton's

reconnoissance--Meeting Colonel Moor--An involuntary

warning--Kanawha Division's advance--Opening of the battle--Carrying

the mountain crest--The morning fight--Lull at noon--Arrival of

supports--Battle renewed--Final success--Death of Reno--Hooker's

battle on the right--His report--Burnside's comments--Franklin's

engagement at Crampton's Gap.

CHAPTER XIV

ANTIETAM: PRELIMINARY MOVEMENTS

Lee's plan of invasion--Changed by McClellan's advance--The position

at Sharpsburg--Our routes of march--At the Antietam--McClellan

reconnoitring--Lee striving to concentrate--Our delays--Tuesday's

quiet--Hooker's evening march--The Ninth Corps command--Changing our

positions--McClellan's plan of battle--Hooker's evening

skirmish--Mansfield goes to support Hooker--Confederate

positions--Jackson arrives--McLaws and Walker reach the field--Their

places.

CHAPTER XV

ANTIETAM: THE FIGHT ON THE RIGHT

Hooker astir early--The field near the Dunker Church--Artillery

combat--Positions of Hooker's divisions--Rocky ledges in the

woods--Advance of Doubleday through Miller's orchard and

garden--Enemy's fire from West Wood--They rush for Gibbon's

battery--Repulse--Advance of Patrick's brigade--Fierce fighting

along the turnpike--Ricketts's division in the East Wood--Fresh

effort of Meade's division in the centre--A lull in the

battle--Mansfield's corps reaches the field--Conflicting opinions as

to the hour--Mansfield killed--Command devolves on Williams--Advance

through East Wood--Hooker wounded--Meade in command of the corps--It

withdraws--Greene's division reaches the Dunker Church--Crawford's

in the East Wood--Terrible effects on the Confederates--Sumner's

corps coming up--Its formation--It moves on the Dunker Church from

the east--Divergence of the divisions--Sedgwick's passes to right of

Greene--Attacked in flank and broken--Rallying at the Poffenberger

hill--Twelfth Corps hanging on near the church--Advance of French's

division--Richardson follows later--Bloody Lane reached--The Piper

house--Franklin's corps arrives--Charge of Irwin's brigade.

CHAPTER XVI

ANTIETAM: THE FIGHT ON THE LEFT

Ninth Corps positions near Antietam Creek--Rodman's division at

lower ford--Sturgis's at the bridge--Burnside's headquarters on the

field--View from his place of the battle on the right--French's

fight--An exploding caisson--Our orders to attack--The hour--Crisis

of the battle--Discussion of the sequence of events--The Burnside

bridge--Exposed approach--Enfiladed by enemy's

artillery--Disposition of enemy's troops--His position very

strong--Importance of Rodman's movement by the ford--The fight at

the bridge--Repulse--Fresh efforts--Tactics of the

assault--Success--Formation on further bank--Bringing up

ammunition--Willcox relieves Sturgis--The latter now in

support--Advance against Sharpsburg--Fierce combat--Edge of the town

reached--Rodman's advance on the left--A. P. Hill's Confederate

division arrives from Harper's Ferry--Attacks Rodman's flank--A raw

regiment breaks--The line retires--Sturgis comes into the

gap--Defensive position taken and held--Enemy's assaults

repulsed--Troops sleeping on their arms--McClellan's reserve--Other

troops not used--McClellan's idea of Lee's force and plans--Lee's

retreat--The terrible casualty lists.

CHAPTER XVII

McCLELLAN AND POLITICS--HIS REMOVAL AND ITS CAUSE

Meeting Colonel Key--His changes of opinion--His relations to

McClellan--Governor Dennison's influence--McClellan's attitude

toward Lincoln--Burnside's position--The Harrison Landing

letter--Compared with Lincoln's views--Probable intent of the

letter--Incident at McClellan's headquarters--John W.

Garrett--Emancipation Proclamation--An after-dinner discussion of

it--Contrary influences--Frank advice--Burnside and John

Cochrane--General Order 163--Lincoln's visit to camp--Riding the

field--A review--Lincoln's desire for continuing the

campaign--McClellan's hesitation--His tactics of discussion--His

exaggeration of difficulties--Effect on his army--Disillusion a slow

process--Lee's army not better than Johnston's--Work done by our

Western army--Difference in morale--An army rarely bolder than its

leader--Correspondence between Halleck and McClellan--Lincoln's

remarkable letter on the campaign--The army moves on November 2--Lee

regains the line covering Richmond--McClellan relieved--Burnside in

command.

CHAPTER XVIII

PERSONAL RELATIONS OF McCLELLAN, BURNSIDE, AND PORTER

Intimacy of McClellan and Burnside--Private letters in the official

files--Burnside's mediation--His self-forgetful devotion--The

movement to join Pope--Burnside forwards Porter's dispatches--His

double refusal of the command--McClellan suspends the organization

of wings--His relations to Porter--Lincoln's letter on the

subject--Fault-finding with Burnside--Whose work?--Burnside's

appearance and bearing in the field.

CHAPTER XIX

RETURN TO WEST VIRGINIA

Ordered to the Kanawha valley again--An unwelcome surprise--Reasons

for the order--Reporting to Halleck at Washington--Affairs in the

Kanawha in September--Lightburn's positions--Enemy under Loring

advances--Affair at Fayette C. H.--Lightburn retreats--Gauley Bridge

abandoned--Charleston evacuated--Disorderly flight to the

Ohio--Enemy's cavalry raid under Jenkins--General retreat in

Tennessee and Kentucky--West Virginia not in any Department--Now

annexed to that of Ohio--Morgan's retreat from Cumberland

Gap--Ordered to join the Kanawha forces--Milroy's brigade also--My

interviews with Halleck and Stanton--Promotion--My task--My division

sent with me--District of West Virginia--Colonel Crook

promoted--Journey westward--Governor Peirpoint--Governor

Tod--General Wright--Destitution of Morgan's column--Refitting at

Portland, Ohio--Night drive to Gallipolis--An amusing

accident--Inspection at Point Pleasant--Milroy ordered to

Parkersburg--Milroy's qualities--Interruptions to movement of

troops--No wagons--Supplies delayed--Confederate retreat--Loring

relieved--Echols in command--Our march up the valley--Echols

retreats--We occupy Charleston and Gauley Bridge--Further advance

stopped--Our forces reduced--Distribution of remaining

troops--Alarms and minor movements--Case of Mr. Summers--His

treatment by the Confederates.

CHAPTER XX

WINTER QUARTERS, 1862-63--PROMOTIONS AND POLITICS

Central position of Marietta, Ohio--Connection with all parts of

West Virginia--Drill and instruction of troops--Guerilla

warfare--Partisan Rangers--Confederate laws--Disposal of

plunder--Mosby's Rangers as a type--Opinions of Lee, Stuart, and

Rosser--Effect on other troops--Rangers finally abolished--Rival

home-guards and militia--Horrors of neighborhood war--Staff and

staff duties--Reduction of forces--General Cluseret--Later

connection with the Paris Commune--His relations with Milroy--He

resigns--Political situation--Congressmen distrust Lincoln--Cutler's

diary--Resolutions regarding appointments of general officers--The

number authorized by law--Stanton's report--Effect of Act of July,

1862--An excess of nine major-generals--The legal questions

involved--Congressional patronage and local distribution--Ready for

a "deal"--Bill to increase the number of generals--A "slate" made up

to exhaust the number--Senate and House

disagree--Conference--Agreement in last hours of the session--The

new list--A few vacancies by resignation, etc.--List of those

dropped--My own case--Faults of the method--Lincoln's humorous

comments--Curious case of General Turchin--Congestion in the highest

grades--Effects--Confederate grades of general and

lieutenant-general--Superiority of our system--Cotemporaneous

reports and criticisms--New regiments instead of recruiting old

ones--Sherman's trenchant opinion.

CHAPTER XXI

FAREWELL TO WEST VIRGINIA--BURNSIDE IN THE DEPARTMENT OF THE OHIO

Desire for field service--Changes in the Army of the

Potomac--Judgment of McClellan at that time--Our defective

knowledge--Changes in West Virginia--Errors in new

organization--Embarrassments resulting--Visit to General

Schenck--New orders from Washington--Sent to Ohio to administer the

draft--Burnside at head of the department--District of

Ohio--Headquarters at Cincinnati--Cordial relations of Governor Tod

with the military authorities--System of enrolment and

draft--Administration by Colonel Fry--Decay of the veteran

regiments--Bounty-jumping--Effects on political parties--Soldiers

voting--Burnside's military plans--East Tennessee--Rosecrans aiming

at Chattanooga--Burnside's business habits--His frankness--Stories

about him--His personal characteristics--Cincinnati as a border

city--Rebel sympathizers--Order No. 38--Challenged by

Vallandigham--The order not a new departure--Lincoln's

proclamation--General Wright's circular.

CHAPTER XXII

THE VALLANDIGHAM CASE--THE HOLMES COUNTY WAR

Clement L. Vallandigham--His opposition to the war--His theory of

reconstruction--His Mount Vernon speech--His arrest--Sent before the

military commission--General Potter its president--Counsel for the

prisoner--The line of defence--The judgment--Habeas Corpus

proceedings--Circuit Court of the United States--Judge Leavitt

denies the release--Commutation by the President--Sent beyond the

lines--Conduct of Confederate authorities--Vallandigham in

Canada--Candidate for Governor--Political results--Martial

law--Principles underlying it--Practical application--The intent to

aid the public enemy--The intent to defeat the draft--Armed

resistance to arrest of deserters, Noble County--To the enrolment in

Holmes County--A real insurrection--Connection of these with

Vallandigham's speeches--The Supreme Court refuses to

interfere--Action in the Milligan case after the war--Judge Davis's

personal views--Knights of the Golden Circle--The Holmes County

outbreak--Its suppression--Letter to Judge Welker.

CHAPTER XXIII

BURNSIDE AND ROSECRANS--THE SUMMER'S DELAYS

Condition of Kentucky and Tennessee--Halleck's instructions to

Burnside--Blockhouses at bridges--Relief of East

Tennessee--Conditions of the problem--Vast wagon-train

required--Scheme of a railroad--Surveys begun--Burnside's efforts to

arrange co-operation with Rosecrans--Bragg sending troops to

Johnston--Halleck urges Rosecrans to activity--Continued

inactivity--Burnside ordered to send troops to Grant--Rosecrans's

correspondence with Halleck--Lincoln's dispatch--Rosecrans collects

his subordinates' opinions--Councils of war--The situation

considered--Sheridan and Thomas--Computation of

effectives--Garfield's summing up--Review of the situation when

Rosecrans succeeded Buell--After Stone's River--Relative

forces--Disastrous detached expeditions--Appeal to ambition--The

major-generalship in regular army--Views of the President

justified--Burnside's forces--Confederate forces in East

Tennessee--Reasons for the double organization of the Union armies.

CHAPTER XXIV

THE MORGAN RAID

Departure of the staff for the field--An amusingly quick

return--Changes in my own duties--Expeditions to occupy the

enemy--Sanders' raid into East Tennessee--His route--His success and

return--The Confederate Morgan's raid--His instructions--His

reputation as a soldier--Compared with Forrest--Morgan's start

delayed--His appearance at Green River, Ky.--Foiled by Colonel

Moore--Captures Lebanon--Reaches the Ohio at Brandenburg--General

Hobson in pursuit--Morgan crosses into Indiana--Was this his

original purpose?--His route out of Indiana into Ohio--He approaches

Cincinnati--Hot chase by Hobson--Gunboats co-operating on the

river--Efforts to block his way--He avoids garrisoned posts and

cities--Our troops moved in transports by water--Condition of

Morgan's jaded column--Approaching the Ohio at

Buffington's--Gunboats near the ford--Hobson attacks--Part captured,

the rest fly northward--Another capture--A long chase--Surrender of

Morgan with the remnant--Summary of results--A burlesque

capitulation.

CHAPTER XXV

THE LIBERATION OF EAST TENNESSEE

News of Grant's victory at Vicksburg--A thrilling scene at the

opera--Burnside's Ninth Corps to return--Stanton urges Rosecrans to

advance--The Tullahoma manoeuvres--Testy correspondence--Its real

meaning--Urgency with Burnside--Ignorance concerning his

situation--His disappointment as to Ninth Corps--Rapid concentration

of other troops--Burnside's march into East Tennessee--Occupation of

Knoxville--Invests Cumberland Gap--The garrison surrenders--Good

news from Rosecrans--Distances between armies--Divergent lines--No

railway communication--Burnside concentrates toward the Virginia

line--Joy of the people--Their intense loyalty--Their faith in the

future.

CHAPTER XXVI

BURNSIDE IN EAST TENNESSEE

Organizing and arming the loyalists--Burnside concentrates near

Greeneville--His general plan--Rumors of Confederate

reinforcements--Lack of accurate information--The Ninth Corps in

Kentucky--Its depletion by malarial disease--Death of General Welsh

from this cause--Preparing for further work--Situation on 16th

September--Dispatch from Halleck--Its apparent purpose--Necessity to

dispose of the enemy near Virginia border--Burnside personally at

the front--His great activity--Ignorance of Rosecrans's

peril--Impossibility of joining him by the 20th--Ruinous effects of

abandoning East Tennessee--Efforts to aid Rosecrans without such

abandonment--Enemy duped into burning Watauga bridge

themselves--Ninth Corps arriving--Willcox's division garrisons

Cumberland Gap--Reinforcements sent Rosecrans from all

quarters--Chattanooga made safe from attack--The supply

question--Meigs's description of the roads--Burnside halted near

Loudon--Halleck's misconception of the geography--The people

imploring the President not to remove the troops--How Longstreet got

away from Virginia--Burnside's alternate plans--Minor operations in

upper Holston valley--Wolford's affair on the lower Holston.

APPENDIX A

APPENDIX B

MILITARY REMINISCENCES OF

THE CIVIL WAR

CHAPTER I

THE OUTBREAK OF THE WAR

Ohio Senate April 12--Sumter bombarded--"Glory to God!"--The

surrender--Effect on public sentiment--Call for troops--Politicians

changing front--David Tod--Stephen A. Douglas--The insurrection must

be crushed--Garfield on personal duty--Troops organized by the

States--The militia--Unpreparedness--McClellan at Columbus--Meets

Governor Dennison--Put in command--Our stock of munitions--Making

estimates--McClellan's plan--Camp Jackson--Camp Dennison--Gathering

of the volunteers--Garibaldi uniforms--Officering the troops--Off

for Washington--Scenes in the State Capitol--Governor Dennison's

labors--Young regulars--Scott's policy--Alex. McCook--Orlando

Poe--Not allowed to take state commissions.

On Friday the twelfth day of April, 1861, the Senate of Ohio was in

session, trying to go on in the ordinary routine of business, but

with a sense of anxiety and strain which was caused by the troubled

condition of national affairs. The passage of Ordinances of

Secession by one after another of the Southern States, and even the

assembling of a provisional Confederate government at Montgomery,

had not wholly destroyed the hope that some peaceful way out of our

troubles would be found; yet the gathering of an army on the sands

opposite Fort Sumter was really war, and if a hostile gun were

fired, we knew it would mean the end of all effort at arrangement.

Hoping almost against hope that blood would not be shed, and that

the pageant of military array and of a rebel government would pass

by and soon be reckoned among the disused scenes and properties of a

political drama that never pretended to be more than acting, we

tried to give our thoughts to business; but there was no heart in

it, and the morning hour lagged, for we could not work in earnest

and we were unwilling to adjourn.

Suddenly a senator came in from the lobby in an excited way, and

catching the chairman's eye, exclaimed, "Mr. President, the

telegraph announces that the secessionists are bombarding Fort

Sumter!" There was a solemn and painful hush, but it was broken in a

moment by a woman's shrill voice from the spectators' seats, crying,

"Glory to God!" It startled every one, almost as if the enemy were

in the midst. But it was the voice of a radical friend of the slave,

who after a lifetime of public agitation believed that only through

blood could freedom be won. Abby Kelly Foster had been attending the

session of the Assembly, urging the passage of some measures

enlarging the legal rights of married women, and, sitting beyond the

railing when the news came in, shouted a fierce cry of joy that

oppression had submitted its cause to the decision of the sword.

With most of us, the gloomy thought that civil war had begun in our

own land overshadowed everything, and seemed too great a price to

pay for any good; a scourge to be borne only in preference to

yielding the very groundwork of our republicanism,--the right to

enforce a fair interpretation of the Constitution through the

election of President and Congress.

The next day we learned that Major Anderson had surrendered, and the

telegraphic news from all the Northern States showed plain evidence

of a popular outburst of loyalty to the Union, following a brief

moment of dismay. Judge Thomas M. Key of Cincinnati, chairman of the

Judiciary Committee, was the recognized leader of the Democratic

party in the Senate, [Footnote: Afterward aide-de-camp and acting

judge-advocate on McClellan's staff.] and at an early hour moved an

adjournment to the following Tuesday, in order, as he said, that the

senators might have the opportunity to go home and consult their

constituents in the perilous crisis of public affairs. No objection

was made to the adjournment, and the representatives took a similar

recess. All were in a state of most anxious suspense,--the

Republicans to know what initiative the Administration at Washington

would take, and the Democrats to determine what course they should

follow if the President should call for troops to put down the

insurrection.

Before we meet again, Mr. Lincoln's proclamation and call for

seventy-five thousand militia for three months' service were out,

and the great mass of the people of the North, forgetting all party

distinctions, answered with an enthusiastic patriotism that swept

politicians off their feet. When we met again on Tuesday morning,

Judge Key, taking my arm and pacing the floor outside the railing in

the Senate chamber, broke out impetuously, "Mr. Cox, the people have

gone stark mad!" "I knew they would if a blow was struck against the

flag," said I, reminding him of some previous conversations we had

had on the subject. He, with most of the politicians of the day,

partly by sympathy with the overwhelming current of public opinion,

and partly by reaction of their own hearts against the false

theories which had encouraged the secessionists, determined to

support the war measures of the government, and to make no factious

opposition to such state legislation as might be necessary to

sustain the federal administration.

The attitude of Mr. Key is only a type of many others, and makers

one of the most striking features of the time. On the 8th of January

the usual Democratic convention and celebration of the Battle of New

Orleans had taken place, and a series of resolutions had been

passed, which were drafted, as was understood, by Judge Thurman. In

these, professing to speak in the name of "two hundred thousand

Democrats of Ohio," the convention had very significantly intimated

that this vast organization of men would be found in the way of any

attempt to put down secession until the demands of the South in

respect to slavery were complied with. A few days afterward I was

returning to Columbus from my home in Trumbull County, and meeting

upon the railway train with David Tod, then an active Democratic

politician, but afterward one of our loyal "war governors," the

conversation turned on the action of the convention which had just

adjourned. Mr. Tod and I were personal friends and neighbors, and I

freely expressed my surprise that the convention should have

committed itself to what must be interpreted as a threat of

insurrection in the North if the administration should, in opposing

secession by force, follow the example of Andrew Jackson, in whose

honor they had assembled. He rather vehemently reasserted the

substance of the resolution, saying that we Republicans would find

the two hundred thousand Ohio Democrats in front of us, if we

attempted to cross the Ohio River. My answer was, "We will give up

the contest if we cannot carry your two hundred thousand over the

heads of your leaders."

The result proved how hollow the party professions had been; or

perhaps I should say how superficial was the hold of such party

doctrines upon the mass of men in a great political organization. In

the excitement of political campaigns they had cheered the

extravagant language of party platforms with very little reflection,

and the leaders had imagined that the people were really and

earnestly indoctrinated into the political creed of Calhoun; but at

the first shot from Beauregard's guns in Charleston harbor their

latent patriotism sprang into vigorous life, and they crowded to the

recruiting stations to enlist for the defence of the national flag

and the national Union. It was a popular torrent which no leaders

could resist; but many of these should be credited with the same

patriotic impulse, and it made them nobly oblivious of party

consistency. Stephen A. Douglas passed through Columbus on his way

to Washington a few days after the surrender of Sumter, and in

response to the calls of a spontaneous gathering of people, spoke to

them from his bedroom window in the American House. There had been

no thought for any of the common surroundings of a public meeting.

There were no torches, no music. A dark crowd of men filled full the

dim-lit street, and called for Douglas with an earnestness of tone

wholly different from the enthusiasm of common political gatherings.

He came half-dressed to his window, and without any light near him,

spoke solemnly to the people upon the terrible crisis which had come

upon the nation. Men of all parties were there: his own followers to

get some light as to their duty; the Breckinridge Democrats ready,

most of them, repentantly to follow a Northern leader, now that

their recent candidate was in the rebellion; [Footnote: Breckinridge

did not formally join the Confederacy till September, but his accord

with the secessionists was well known.] the Republicans eagerly

anxious to know whether so potent an influence was to be

unreservedly on the side of the country. I remember well the serious

solicitude with which I listened to his opening sentences as I

leaned against the railing of the State House park, trying in vain

to get more than a dim outline of the man as he stood at the

unlighted window. His deep sonorous voice rolled down through the

darkness from above us,--an earnest, measured voice, the more

solemn, the more impressive, because we could not see the speaker,

and it came to us literally as "a voice in the night,"--the night of

our country's unspeakable trial. There was no uncertainty in his

tone: the Union must be preserved and the insurrection must be

crushed,--he pledged his hearty support to Mr. Lincoln's

administration in doing this. Other questions must stand aside till

the national authority should be everywhere recognized. I do not

think we greatly cheered him,--it was rather a deep Amen that went

up from the crowd. We went home breathing freer in the assurance we

now felt that, for a time at least, no organized opposition to the

federal government and its policy of coercion would be formidable in

the North. We did not look for unanimity. Bitter and narrow men

there were whose sympathies were with their country's enemies.

Others equally narrow were still in the chains of the secession

logic they had learned from the Calhounists; but the broader-minded

men found themselves happy in being free from disloyal theories, and

threw themselves sincerely and earnestly into the popular movement.

There was no more doubt where Douglas or Tod or Key would be found,

or any of the great class they represented.

Yet the situation hung upon us like a nightmare. Garfield and I were

lodging together at the time, our wives being kept at home by family

cares, and when we reached our sitting-room, after an evening

session of the Senate, we often found ourselves involuntarily

groaning, "Civil war in _our_ land!" The shame, the outrage, the

folly, seemed too great to believe, and we half hoped to wake from

it as from a dream. Among the painful remembrances of those days is

the ever-present weight at the heart which never left me till I

found relief in the active duties of camp life at the close of the

month. I went about my duties (and I am sure most of those I

associated with did the same) with the half-choking sense of a grief

I dared not think of: like one who is dragging himself to the

ordinary labors of life from some terrible and recent bereavement.

We talked of our personal duty, and though both Garfield and myself

had young families, we were agreed that our activity in the

organization and support of the Republican party made the duty of

supporting the government by military service come peculiarly home

to us. He was, for the moment, somewhat trammelled by his

half-clerical position, but he very soon cut the knot. My own path

seemed unmistakably clear. He, more careful for his friend than for

himself, urged upon me his doubts whether my physical strength was

equal to the strain that would be put upon it. "I," said he, "am big

and strong, and if my relations to the church and the college can be

broken, I shall have no excuse for not enlisting; but you are

slender and will break down." It was true that I looked slender for

a man six feet high (though it would hardly be suspected now that it

was so), yet I had assured confidence in the elasticity of my

constitution; and the result justified me, whilst it also showed how

liable to mistake one is in such things. Garfield found that he had

a tendency to weakness of the alimentary system which broke him down

on every campaign in which he served and led to his retiring from

the army much earlier than he had intended. My own health, on the

other hand, was strengthened by out-door life and exposure, and I

served to the end with growing physical vigor.

When Mr. Lincoln issued his first call for troops, the existing laws

made it necessary that these should be fully organized and officered

by the several States. Then, the treasury was in no condition to

bear the burden of war expenditures, and till Congress could

assemble, the President was forced to rely on the States to furnish

the means necessary for the equipment and transportation of their

own troops. This threw upon the governors and legislatures of the

loyal States responsibilities of a kind wholly unprecedented. A long

period of profound peace had made every military organization seem

almost farcical. A few independent military companies formed the

merest shadow of an army; the state militia proper was only a

nominal thing. It happened, however, that I held a commission as

Brigadier in this state militia, and my intimacy with Governor

Dennison led him to call upon me for such assistance as I could

render in the first enrolment and organization of the Ohio quota.

Arranging to be called to the Senate chamber when my vote might be

needed upon important legislation, I gave my time chiefly to such

military matters as the governor appointed. Although, as I have

said, my military commission had been a nominal thing, and in fact I

had never worn a uniform, I had not wholly neglected theoretic

preparation for such work. For some years the possibility of a war

of secession had been one of the things which would force itself

upon the thoughts of reflecting people, and I had been led to give

some careful study to such books of tactics and of strategy as were

within easy reach. I had especially been led to read military

history with critical care, and had carried away many valuable ideas

from this most useful means of military education. I had therefore

some notion of the work before us, and could approach its problems

with less loss of time, at least, than if I had been wholly

ignorant. [Footnote: I have treated this subject somewhat more fully

in a paper in the "Atlantic Monthly" for March, 1892, "Why the Men

of '61 fought for the Union."]

My commission as Brigadier-General in the Ohio quota in national

service was dated on the 23d of April, though it had been understood

for several days that my tender of service in the field would be

accepted. Just about the same time Captain George B. McClellan was

requested by Governor Dennison to come to Columbus for consultation,

and by the governor's request I met him at the railway station and

took him to the State House. I think Mr. Larz Anderson (brother of

Major Robert Anderson) and Mr. L'Hommedieu of Cincinnati were with

him. The intimation had been given me that he would probably be made

major-general and commandant of our Ohio contingent, and this,

naturally, made me scan him closely. He was rather under the medium

height, but muscularly formed, with broad shoulders and a

well-poised head, active and graceful in motion. His whole

appearance was quiet and modest, but when drawn out he showed no

lack of confidence in himself. He was dressed in a plain travelling

suit, with a narrow-rimmed soft felt hat. In short, he seemed what

he was, a railway superintendent in his business clothes. At the

time his name was a good deal associated with that of Beauregard;

they were spoken of as young men of similar standing in the Engineer

Corps of the Army, and great things were expected of them both

because of their scientific knowledge of their profession, though

McClellan had been in civil life for some years. His report on the

Crimean War was one of the few important memoirs our old army had

produced, and was valuable enough to give a just reputation for

comprehensive understanding of military organization, and the

promise of ability to conduct the operations of an army.

I was present at the interview which the governor had with him. The

destitution of the State of everything like military material and

equipment was very plainly put, and the magnitude of the task of

building up a small army out of nothing was not blinked. The

governor spoke of the embarrassment he felt at every step from the

lack of practical military experience in his staff, and of his

desire to have some one on whom he could properly throw the details

of military work. McClellan showed that he fully understood the

difficulties there would be before him, and said that no man could

wholly master them at once, although he had confidence that if a few

weeks' time for preparation were given, he would be able to put the

Ohio division into reasonable form for taking the field. The command

was then formally tendered and accepted. All of us who were present

felt that the selection was one full of promise and hope, and that

the governor had done the wisest thing practicable at the time.

The next morning McClellan requested me to accompany him to the

State Arsenal, to see what arms and material might be there. We

found a few boxes of smooth-bore muskets which had once been issued

to militia companies and had been returned rusted and damaged. No

belts, cartridge-boxes, or other accoutrements were with them. There

were two or three smooth-bore brass fieldpieces, six-pounders, which

had been honeycombed by firing salutes, and of which the vents had

been worn out, bushed, and worn out again. In a heap in one corner

lay a confused pile of mildewed harness, which had probably been

once used for artillery horses, but was now not worth carrying away.

There had for many years been no money appropriated to buy military

material or even to protect the little the State had. The federal

government had occasionally distributed some arms which were in the

hands of the independent uniformed militia, and the arsenal was

simply an empty storehouse. It did not take long to complete our

inspection. At the door, as we were leaving the building, McClellan

turned, and looking back into its emptiness, remarked, half

humorously and half sadly, "A fine stock of munitions on which to

begin a great war!" We went back to the State House, where a room in

the Secretary of State's department was assigned us, and we sat down

to work. The first task was to make out detailed schedules and

estimates of what would be needed to equip ten thousand men for the

field. This was a unit which could be used by the governor and

legislature in estimating the appropriations needed then or

subsequently. Intervals in this labor were used in discussing the

general situation and plans of campaign. Before the close of the

week McClellan drew up a paper embodying his own views, and

forwarded it to Lieutenant-General Scott. He read it to me, and my

recollection of it is that he suggested two principal lines of

movement in the West,--one, to move eastward by the Kanawha valley

with a heavy column to co-operate with an army in front of

Washington; the other, to march directly southward and to open the

valley of the Mississippi. Scott's answer was appreciative and

flattering, without distinctly approving his plan; and I have never

doubted that the paper prepared the way for his appointment in the

regular army which followed at so early a day. [Footnote: I am not

aware that McClellan's plan of campaign has been published. Scott's

answer to it is given in General Townsend's "Anecdotes of the Civil

War," p. 260. It was, with other communications from Governor

Dennison, carried to Washington by Hon. A. F. Perry of Cincinnati,

an intimate friend of the governor, who volunteered as special

messenger, the mail service being unsafe. See a paper by Mr. Perry

in "Sketches of War History" (Ohio Loyal Legion), _vol. iii._ p.

345.]

During this week McClellan was invited to take the command of the

troops to be raised in Pennsylvania, his native State. Some things

beside his natural attachment to Pennsylvania made the proposal an

attractive one to him. It was already evident that the army which

might be organized near Washington would be peculiarly in the public

eye, and would give to its leading officers greater opportunities of

prompt recognition and promotion than would be likely to occur in

the West. The close association with the government would also be a

source of power if he were successful, and the way to a chief

command would be more open there than elsewhere. McClellan told me

frankly that if the offer had come before he had assumed the Ohio

command, he would have accepted it; but he promptly decided that he

was honorably bound to serve under the commission he had already

received and which, like my own, was dated April 23.

My own first assignment to a military command was during the same

week, on the completion of our estimates, when I was for a few days

put in charge of Camp Jackson, the depot of recruits which Governor

Dennison had established in the northern suburb of Columbus and had

named in honor of the first squelcher of secessionism. McClellan

soon determined, however, that a separate camp of instruction should

be formed for the troops mustered into the United States service,

and should be so placed as to be free from the temptations and

inconveniences of too close neighborhood to a large city, whilst it

should also be reasonably well placed for speedy defence of the

southern frontier of the State. Other camps could be under state

control and used only for the organization of regiments which could

afterward be sent to the camp of instruction or elsewhere. Railway

lines and connections indicated some point in the Little Miami

valley as the proper place for such a camp; and Mr. Woodward, the

chief engineer of the Little Miami Railroad, being taken into

consultation, suggested a spot on the line of that railway about

thirteen miles from Cincinnati, where a considerable bend of the

Little Miami River encloses wide and level fields, backed on the

west by gently rising hills. I was invited to accompany the general

in making the inspection of the site, and I think we were

accompanied by Captain Rosecrans, an officer who had resigned from

the regular army to seek a career as civil engineer, and had lately

been in charge of some coal mines in the Kanawha valley. Mr.

Woodward was also of the party, and furnished a special train to

enable us to stop at as many eligible points as it might be thought

desirable to examine. There was no doubt that the point suggested

was best adapted for our work, and although the owners of the land

made rather hard terms, McClellan was authorized to close a contract

for the use of the military camp, which, in honor of the governor,

he named Camp Dennison.

But in trying to give a connected idea of the first military

organization of the State, I have outrun some incidents of those

days which are worth recollection. From the hour the call for troops

was published, enlistments began, and recruits were parading the

streets continually. At the Capitol the restless impulse to be doing

something military seized even upon the members of the legislature,

and a large number of them assembled every evening upon the east

terrace of the State House to be drilled in marching and facing, by

one or two of their own number who had some knowledge of company

tactics. Most of the uniformed independent companies in the cities

of the State immediately tendered their services, and began to

recruit their numbers to the hundred men required for acceptance.

There was no time to procure uniform, nor was it desirable; for

these independent companies had chosen their own, and would have to

change it for that of the United States as soon as this could be

furnished. For some days companies could be seen marching and

drilling, of which part would be uniformed in some gaudy style, such

as is apt to prevail in holiday parades in time of peace, whilst

another part would be dressed in the ordinary working garb of

citizens of all degrees. The uniformed files would also be armed and

accoutred; the others would be without arms or equipments, and as

awkward a squad as could well be imagined. The material, however,

was magnificent, and soon began to take shape. The fancy uniforms

were left at home, and some approximation to a simple and useful

costume was made. The recent popular outburst in Italy furnished a

useful idea, and the "Garibaldi uniform" of a red flannel shirt with

broad falling collar, with blue trousers held by a leathern

waist-belt, and a soft felt hat for the head, was extensively

copied, and served an excellent purpose. It could be made by the

wives and sisters at home, and was all the more acceptable for that.

The spring was opening, and a heavy coat would not be much needed,

so that with some sort of overcoat and a good blanket in an

improvised knapsack, the new company was not badly provided. The

warm scarlet color, reflected from their enthusiastic faces as they

stood in line, made a picture that never failed to impress the

mustering officers with the splendid character of the men.

The officering of these new troops was a difficult and delicate

task, and so far as company officers were concerned, there seemed no

better way at the beginning than to let the enlisted men elect their

own, as was in fact done. In most cases where entirely new companies

were raised, it had been by the enthusiastic efforts of some

energetic volunteers who were naturally made the commissioned

officers. But not always. There were numerous examples of

self-denying patriotism which stayed in the ranks after expending

much labor and money in recruiting, modestly refusing the honors,

and giving way to some one supposed to have military knowledge or

experience. The war in Mexico in 1847 was the latest conflict with a

civilized people, and to have served in it was a sure passport to

confidence. It had often been a service more in name than in fact;

but the young volunteers felt so deeply their own ignorance that

they were ready to yield to any pretence of superior knowledge, and

generously to trust themselves to any one who would offer to lead

them. Hosts of charlatans and incompetents were thus put into

responsible places at the beginning, but the sifting work went on

fast after the troops were once in the field. The election of field

officers, however, ought not to have been allowed. Companies were

necessarily regimented together, of which each could have but little

personal knowledge of the officers of the others; intrigue and

demagogy soon came into play, and almost fatal mistakes were made in

selection. After a time the evil worked its own cure, but the ill

effects of it were long visible.

The immediate need of troops to protect Washington caused most of

the uniformed companies to be united into the first two regiments,

which were quickly despatched to the East. It was a curious study to

watch the indications of character as the officers commanding

companies reported to the governor, and were told that the pressing

demand from Washington made it necessary to organize a regiment or

two and forward them at once, without waiting to arm or equip the

recruits. Some promptly recognized the necessity and took the

undesirable features as part of the duty they had assumed. Others

were querulous, wishing some one else to stand first in the breach,

leaving them time for drill, equipment, and preparation. One figure

impressed itself very strongly on my memory. A sturdy form, a head

with more than ordinary marks of intelligence, but a bearing with

more of swagger than of self-poised courage, yet evidently a man of

some importance in his own community, stood before the seat of the

governor, the bright lights of the chandelier over the table

lighting strongly both their figures. The officer was wrapped in a

heavy blanket or carriage lap-robe, spotted like a leopard skin,

which gave him a brigandish air. He was disposed to protest. "If my

men were hellions," said he, with strong emphasis on the word (a new

one to me), "I wouldn't mind; but to send off the best young fellows

of the county in such a way looks like murder." The governor,

sitting with pale, delicate features, but resolute air, answered

that the way to Washington was not supposed to be dangerous, and the

men could be armed and equipped, he was assured, as soon as they

reached there. It would be done at Harrisburg, if possible, and

certainly if any hostility should be shown in Maryland. The

President wanted the regiments at once, and Ohio's volunteers were

quite as ready to go as any. He had no choice, therefore, but to

order them off. The order was obeyed; but the obedience was with bad

grace, and I felt misgivings as to the officer's fitness to

command,--misgivings which about a year afterward were vividly

recalled with the scene I have described.

No sooner were these regiments off than companies began to stream in

from all parts of the State. On their first arrival they were

quartered wherever shelter could be had, as there were no tents or

sheds to make a camp for them. Going to my evening work at the State

House, as I crossed the rotunda, I saw a company marching in by the

south door, and another disposing itself for the night upon the

marble pavement near the east entrance; as I passed on to the north

hall, I saw another, that had come a little earlier, holding a

prayer-meeting, the stone arches echoing with the excited

supplications of some one who was borne out of himself by the

terrible pressure of events around him, whilst, mingling with his

pathetic, beseeching tones as he prayed for his country, came the

shrill notes of the fife, and the thundering din of the inevitable

bass drum from the company marching in on the other side. In the

Senate chamber a company was quartered, and the senators were there

supplying them with paper and pens, with which the boys were writing

their farewells to mothers and sweethearts whom they hardly dared

hope they should see again. A similar scene was going on in the

Representatives' hall, another in the Supreme Court room. In the

executive office sat the governor, the unwonted noises, when the

door was opened, breaking in on the quiet business-like air of the

room,--he meanwhile dictating despatches, indicating answers to

others, receiving committees of citizens, giving directions to

officers of companies and regiments, accommodating himself to the

wilful democracy of our institutions which insists upon seeing the

man in chief command and will not take its answer from a

subordinate, until in the small hours of the night the noises were

hushed, and after a brief hour of effective, undisturbed work upon

the matters of chief importance, he could leave the glare of his

gas-lighted office, and seek a few hours' rest, only to renew the

same wearing labors on the morrow.

On the streets the excitement was of a rougher if not more intense

character. A minority of unthinking partisans could not understand

the strength and sweep of the great popular movement, and would

sometimes venture to speak out their sympathy with the rebellion or

their sneers at some party friend who had enlisted. In the boiling

temper of the time the quick answer was a blow; and it was one of

the common incidents of the day for those who came into the State

House to tell of a knockdown that had occurred here or there, when

this popular punishment had been administered to some indiscreet

"rebel sympathizer."

Various duties brought young army officers of the regular service to

the state capital, and others sought a brief leave of absence to

come and offer their services to the governor of their native State.

General Scott, too much bound up in his experience of the Mexican

War, and not foreseeing the totally different proportions which this

must assume, planted himself firmly on the theory that the regular

army must be the principal reliance for severe work, and that the

volunteers could only be auxiliaries around this solid nucleus which

would show them the way to perform their duty and take the brunt of

every encounter. The young regulars who asked leave to accept

commissions in state regiments were therefore refused, and were

ordered to their own subaltern positions and posts. There can be no

doubt that the true policy would have been to encourage the whole of

this younger class to enter at once the volunteer service. They

would have been the field officers of the new regiments, and would

have impressed discipline and system upon the organization from the

beginning. The Confederacy really profited by having no regular

army. They gave to the officers who left our service, it is true,

commissions in their so-called "provisional army," to encourage them

in the assurance that they would have permanent military positions

if the war should end in the independence of the South; but this was

only a nominal organization, and their real army was made up (as

ours turned out practically to be) from the regiments of state

volunteers. Less than a year afterward we changed our policy, but it

was then too late to induce many of the regular officers to take

regimental positions in the volunteer troops. I hesitate to declare

that this did not turn out for the best; for although the

organization of our army would have been more rapidly perfected,

there are other considerations which have much weight. The army

would not have been the popular thing it was, its close

identification with the people's movement would have been weakened,

and it perhaps would not so readily have melted again into the mass

of the nation at the close of the war.

Among the first of the young regular officers who came to Columbus

was Alexander McCook. He was ordered there as inspection and

mustering officer, and one of my earliest duties was to accompany

him to Camp Jackson to inspect the cooked rations which the

contractors were furnishing the new troops. I warmed to his earnest,

breezy way, and his business-like activity in performing his duty.

As a makeshift, before camp equipage and cooking utensils could be

issued to the troops, the contractors placed long trestle tables

under an improvised shed, and the soldiers came to these and ate, as

at a country picnic. It was not a bad arrangement to bridge over the

interval between home life and regular soldiers' fare, and the

outcry about it at the time was senseless, as all of us know who saw

real service afterward. McCook bustled along from table to table,

sticking a long skewer into a boiled ham, smelling of it to see if

the interior of the meat was tainted; breaking open a loaf of bread

and smelling of it to see if it was sour; examining the coffee

before it was put into the kettles, and after it was made; passing

his judgment on each, in prompt, peremptory manner as we went on.

The food was, in the main, excellent, though, as a way of supporting

an army, it was quite too costly to last long.

While mustering in the recruits, McCook was elected colonel of the

First Regiment Ohio Volunteers, which had, I believe, already gone

to Washington. He was eager to accept, and telegraphed to Washington

for permission. Adjutant-General Thomas replied that it was not the

policy of the War Department to permit it. McCook cut the knot in

gallant style. He immediately tendered his resignation in the

regular army, taking care to say that he did so, not to avoid his

country's service or to aid her enemies, but because he believed he

could serve her much more effectively by drilling and leading a

regiment of Union volunteers. He notified the governor of his

acceptance of the colonelcy, and his _coup-de-main_ was a success;

for the department did not like to accept a resignation under such

circumstances, and he had the exceptional luck to keep his regular

commission and gain prestige as well, by his bold energy in the

matter.

Orlando Poe came about the same time, for all this was occurring in

the last ten days of April. He was a lieutenant of topographical

engineers, and was stationed with General (then Captain) Meade at

Detroit, doing duty upon the coast survey of the lakes. He was in

person the model for a young athlete, tall, dark, and strong, with

frank, open countenance, looking fit to repeat his ancestor Adam

Poe's adventurous conflicts with the Indians as told in the frontier

traditions of Ohio. He too was eager for service; but the same rule

was applied to him, and the argument that the engineers would be

especially necessary to the army organization kept him for a time

from insisting upon taking volunteer service, as McCook had done. He

was indefatigable in his labors, assisting the governor in

organizing the regiments, smoothing the difficulties constantly

arising from lack of familiarity with the details of the

administrative service of the army, and giving wise advice to the

volunteer officers who made his acquaintance. I asked him, one day,

in my pursuit of practical ideas from all who I thought could help

me, what he would advise as the most useful means of becoming

familiar with my duties. Study the Army Regulations, said he, as if

it were your Bible! There was a world of wisdom in this: much more

than I appreciated at the time, though it set me earnestly to work

in a right direction. An officer in a responsible command, who had

already a fair knowledge of tactics, might trust his common sense

for guidance in an action on the field; but the administrative

duties of the army as a machine must be thoroughly learned, if he

would hope to make the management of its complicated organization an

easy thing to him.

Major Sidney Burbank came to take McCook's place as mustering

officer: a grave, earnest man, of more age and more varied

experience than the men I have named. Captain John Pope also visited

the governor for consultation, and possibly others came also, though

I saw them only in passing, and did not then get far in making their

acquaintance.