executed was regarded as merely an unimportant cavalry raid, for only a
few squadrons were drawn up in line to oppose us, and a battery of four
guns were placed in a position to command the plank-road from Germana,
over which we had been marching for the last two hours. The main body of
the troops were listlessly reposing, while some regiments were looking
on, drawn up on dress parade; artillery horses were quietly grazing at
some distance from their guns, and the whole scene presented a picture
of the most perfect heedlessness and nonchalance, compatible only with
utter unconsciousness of impending danger.
"While complacently gazing on this extraordinary spectacle, somewhat
touched myself apparently with the spell of listless incaution in which
our antagonists were locked, I was startled with the sound of closely
approaching footsteps, and, turning in their direction, beheld a patrol
of six or eight of the enemy's infantry just breaking through the bushes
and gazing at me with most unmistakable astonishment. I had no time to
lose here, that was certain; so quickly tugging my horse's head round in
the direction of my line of retreat, and digging my spurs into his
sides, I dashed off from before the bewildered Yankees, and was out of
sight ere they had time to take steady aim, the bullets that came
whizzing after me flying far wide of the mark.
"On my return to the spot where I had left Stuart, I found him, with
Jackson and the officers of their respective staffs, stretched out along
the grass beneath a gigantic oak, and tranquilly discussing their plans
for the impending battle which both seemed confidently to regard as
likely to end in a great and important victory for our arms. Towards
five o'clock Jackson's adjutant, Major Pendleton, galloped up to us and
reported that the line of battle was formed and all was in readiness for
immediate attack. Accordingly the order was at once given for the whole
corps to advance. All hastened forthwith to their appointed posts,
General Stuart and his staff joining the cavalry, which was to operate
on the left of our infantry.
"Scarcely had we got up to our men when the Confederate yell, which
always preceded a charge, burst forth along our lines, and Jackson's
veterans, who had been with difficulty held back till that moment,
bounded forward towards the astounded and perfectly paralyzed enemy,
while the thunder of our horse-artillery, on whom devolved the honor of
opening the ball, reached us from the other extremity of the line. The
more hotly we sought to hasten to the front, the more obstinately did we
get entangled in the undergrowth, while our infantry moved on so rapidly
that the Federals were already completely routed by the time we had got
thoroughly quit of the forest.
[Illustration: TRIUMPH OF STONEWALL JACKSON.]
"It was a strange spectacle that now greeted us. The whole of the
Eleventh Corps had broken at the first shock of the attack; entire
regiments had thrown down their arms, which were lying in regular lines
on the ground, as if for inspection; suppers just prepared had been
abandoned; tents, baggage, wagons, cannons, half-slaughtered oxen,
covered the foreground in chaotic confusion, while in the background a
host of many thousand Yankees were discerned scampering for their lives
as fast as their limbs could carry them, closely followed by our men,
who were taking prisoners by the hundreds, and scarcely firing a shot."
That the story of panic here told is not too much colored by the
writer's sympathy for his cause, may be seen by the following extract
from Lossing's "Civil War in America," a work whose sympathies are
distinctly on the other side. After saying that Jackson's march had not
passed unobserved by the Federals, who looked on it as a retreat towards
Richmond, and were preparing for a vigorous pursuit of the supposed
fugitives, Lossing thus describes the Confederate onset and the Federal
rout:
"He (Jackson) had crossed the Orange plank-road, and, under cover of the
dense jungle of the wilderness, had pushed swiftly northward to the old
turnpike and beyond, feeling his enemy at every step. Then he turned his
face towards Chancellorsville, and, just before six o'clock in the
evening, he burst from the thickets with twenty-five thousand men, and,
like a sudden, unexpected, and terrible tornado, swept on towards the
flank and rear of Howard's corps, which occupied the National right; the
game of the forest--deers, wild turkeys, and hares--flying wildly before
him, and becoming to the startled Unionists the heralds of the
approaching tempest of war. These mute messengers were followed by the
sound of bugles; then by a few shots from approaching skirmishers; then
by a tremendous yell from a thousand throats and a murderous fire from a
strong battle line. Jackson, in heavy force, was upon the Eleventh Corps
at the moment when the men were preparing for supper and repose, without
a suspicion of danger near. Deven's division, on the extreme right,
received the first blow, and almost instantly the surprised troops,
panic-stricken, fled towards the rear, along the line of the corps,
communicating their emotions of alarm to the other divisions.... In the
wildest confusion the fugitives rushed along the road towards
Chancellorsville, upon the position of General Carl Schurz, whose
division had already retreated, in anticipation of the onset, and the
turbulent tide of frightened men rolled back upon General A. Von
Steinwehr, utterly regardless of the exertions of the commander of the
corps and his subordinate officers to check their flight. Only a few
regiments, less demoralized than the others, made resistance, and these
were instantly scattered like chaff, leaving half their number dead or
dying on the field."
With this vivid picture of an army in a panic, we shall again take up
Von Borcke's personal narrative at the point where we left it:
"The broken nature of the ground was against all cavalry operations, and
though we pushed forward with all our will, it was with difficulty we
could keep up with Jackson's 'Foot-cavalry,' as this famous infantry was
often called. Meanwhile, a large part of the Federal army, roused by the
firing and the alarming reports from the rear, hastened to the field of
action, and exerted themselves in vain to arrest the disgraceful rout of
their comrades of the Eleventh Corps. Numerous batteries having now
joined the conflict, a terrific cannonade roared along the lines, and
the fury of the battle was soon at its full height. Towards dark a
sudden pause ensued in the conflict, occasioned by Jackson giving orders
for his lines to reform for the continuation of the combat, the rapid
and prolonged pursuit of the enemy having thrown them into considerable
confusion. Old Stonewall being thoroughly impressed with the conviction
that in a few hours the enemy's whole forces would be defeated, and that
their principal line of retreat would be in the direction of Ely's Ford,
Stuart was ordered to proceed at once towards that point with a portion
of his cavalry, in order to barricade the road and as much as possible
impede the retrograde movement of the enemy.
"In this operation we were joined by a North Carolina infantry regiment,
which was already on its way towards the river. Leaving the greater part
of the brigade behind us under Fitz Lee's command, we took only the
First Virginia Cavalry with us, and, trotting rapidly along a small
bypath, overtook the infantry about two miles from the ford. Riding with
Stuart a little ahead of our men, I suddenly discovered, on reaching
the summit of a slight rise in the road, a large encampment in the
valley to our right, not more than a quarter of a mile from where we
stood; and, farther still, on the opposite side of the river, more
camp-fires were visible, indicating the presence of a large body of
troops.
"Calling a halt, the general and I rode cautiously forward to
reconnoitre the enemy a little more closely, and we managed to approach
near enough to hear distinctly the voices and distinguish the figures of
the men sitting around their fires or strolling through the camp. The
unexpected presence of so large a body of the enemy immediately in our
path entirely disconcerted our previous arrangements. Nevertheless
Stuart determined on giving them a slight surprise and disturbing their
comfort by a few volleys from our infantry. Just as the regiment,
mustering about a thousand, had formed into line according to orders,
and was prepared to advance on the enemy, two officers of General A. P.
Hill's staff rode up in great haste and excitement, and communicated
something in a low tone to General Stuart, by which he seemed greatly
startled and affected.
"'Take the command of that regiment, and act on your own
responsibility,' were his whispered injunctions to me, as he immediately
rode off, followed by the other officers and the cavalry at their
topmost speed.
"The thunder of the cannon, which for the last hour had increased in
loudness, announced that Jackson had recommenced the battle, but as to
the course or actual position of affairs I had not an iota of
information, and my anxiety being moreover increased by the suddenness
of Stuart's departure on some unknown emergency, I felt rather awkwardly
situated. Here was I in the darkness of the night, in an unknown and
thickly wooded country, some six miles from our main army, and opposite
to a far superior force, whom I was expected to attack with troops whom
I had never before commanded, and to whom I was scarcely known. I felt,
however, that there was no alternative but blind obedience, so I
advanced with the regiment to within about fifty yards of the enemy's
encampment and gave the command to fire.
"A hail of bullets rattled through the forest, and as volley after
volley was fired, the confusion and dismay occasioned in the camp were
indescribable. Soldiers and officers could be plainly seen by the light
of the fires walking helplessly about, horses were galloping wildly in
all directions, and the sound of bugles and drums mingled with the cries
of the wounded and flying, who sought in the distant woods a shelter
against the murderous fire of their unseen enemy. The troops whom we
thus dispersed and put to flight consisted, as I was afterward informed,
of the greater part of Averil's cavalry division, and a great number of
the men of this command were so panic-stricken that they did mot
consider themselves safe until they had reached the opposite side of
the Rapidan, when they straggled off for miles all through Culpeper
County.
"Our firing had been kept up for about half an hour, and had by this
time stirred up alarm in the camps on the other side of the river, the
troops of which were marching on us from various directions.
Accordingly, I gave orders to my North Carolinians to retire, leaving
the task of bringing his command back to the colonel; while, anxious to
rejoin Stuart as soon as I could, I galloped on ahead through the dark
forest, whose solemn silence was only broken by the melancholy cry of
hosts of whippoorwills. The firing had now ceased altogether, and all
fighting seemed to have been entirely given up, which greatly increased
my misgivings. After a tedious ride of nearly an hour over the field of
battle, still covered with hundreds of wounded groaning in their agony,
I at last discovered Stuart seated under a solitary plum-tree, busily
writing despatches by the dim light of a lantern.
"From General Stuart I now received the first intimation of the heavy
calamity which had befallen us by the wounding of Jackson. After having
instructed his men to fire at everything approaching from the direction
of the enemy, in his eagerness to reconnoitre the position of the
Federals, and entirely forgetting his own orders, he had been riding
with his staff-officers outside our pickets, when, on their return,
being mistaken for the enemy, the little party were received by a South
Carolina regiment with a volley that killed or wounded nearly every man
of them and laid low our beloved Stonewall himself. The Federals
advancing at the same time, a severe skirmish ensued, in the course of
which one of the bearers of the litter on which the general was being
carried was killed, and Jackson fell heavily to the ground, receiving
soon afterward a second wound. For a few minutes, in fact, the general
was in the hands of the enemy, but his men, becoming aware of his
perilous position, rushed forward, and, speedily driving back the
advancing foe, carried their wounded commander to the rear."
Jackson received three balls, one in the right hand and two in the left
arm, one of these shattering the bone just below the shoulder and
severing an artery. He was borne to the Wilderness tavern, where a
Confederate hospital had been established, and there his arm was
amputated. Eight days after receiving his wounds, on the 10th of May, he
died, an attack of pneumonia being the chief cause of his death. His
last words were, as a smile of ineffable sweetness passed over his pale
face, "Let us cross over the river and rest under the shade of the
trees."
Thus died the man who was justly named the "right hand" of General Lee,
and whose death converted his last great victory into a serious disaster
for the Confederate cause, the loss of a leader like Stonewall Jackson
being equivalent to the destruction of an army.
_JOHN MORGAN'S FAMOUS RAID._
The romance of war dwells largely upon the exploits of partisan leaders,
men with a roving commission to do business on their own account, and in
whose ranks are likely to gather the dare-devils of the army, those who
love to come and go as they please, and leave a track of adventure and
dismay behind them. There were such leaders in both armies during the
Civil War, and especially in that of the South; and among the most
daring and successful of them was General John H. Morgan, whose famous
raid through Indiana and Ohio it is our purpose here to describe.
Morgan was a son of the people, not of the aristocratic cavalier class,
but was just the man to make his mark in a conflict of this character,
being richly supplied by nature with courage, daring, and
self-possession in times of peril. He became a cavalry leader in the
regular service, but was given a free foot to control his own movements,
and had gathered about him a body of men of his own type, with whom he
roamed about with a daring and audacity that made him a terror to the
enemy.
Morgan's most famous early exploit was his invasion of Kentucky in 1862,
in which he kept the State in a fever of apprehension during most of
the summer, defeating all who faced him and venturing so near to
Cincinnati that the people of that city grew wild with apprehension.
Only the sharp pursuit of General G. C. Smith, with a superior cavalry
force, saved that rich city from being made an easy prey to Morgan and
his men.
As preliminary to our main story, we may give in brief one of Morgan's
characteristic exploits. The town of Gallatin, twenty miles north of
Nashville, was occupied by a small Federal force and seemed to Morgan to
offer a fair field for one of his characteristic raids. His men were
ready,--they always were for an enterprise promising danger and
loot,--and they fell on the town with a swoop that quickly made them its
masters and its garrison their captives.
While the victors were paying themselves for their risk by spoiling the
enemy, Morgan proceeded to the telegraph office, with the hope that he
might find important despatches. So sudden had been the assault that the
operator did not know that anything out of the usual had taken place,
and took Morgan for a Northern officer. When asked what was going on, he
replied,--
"Nothing particular, except that we hear a good deal about the doings of
that rebel bandit, Morgan. If he should happen to come across my path, I
have pills enough here to satisfy him." He drew his revolver and
flourished it bravely in the air.
Morgan turned on the braggart with a look and tone that quite robbed him
of his courage, saying, "I am Morgan! You are speaking to Morgan, you
miserable wretch. Do you think you have any pills to spare for me?"
The operator almost sank on his knees with terror, while the weapon fell
from his nerveless hand.
"Don't be scared," said the general. "I will not hurt you. But I want
you to send off this despatch at once to Prentiss."
The much-scared operator quickly ticked off the following message,--
"MR. PRENTISS,--As I learn at this telegraph office that you intend
to proceed to Nashville, perhaps you will allow me to escort you
there at the head of my troop."
"JOHN MORGAN."
What effect this despatch had on Prentiss history sayeth not.
With this preliminary account of Morgan and the character of his
exploits, we proceed to the most famous incident of his career, his
daring invasion of the North, one of the most stirring and exciting
incidents of the war.
The main purpose of this invasion is said to have been to contrive a
diversion in favor of General Buckner, who proposed to make a dash
across Kentucky and seize Louisville, and afterward, with Morgan's aid,
to capture Cincinnati. It was also intended to form a nucleus for an
armed counter-revolution in the Northwest, where the "Knights of the
Golden Circle" and the "Sons of Liberty," associations in sympathy with
the South, were strong. But with these ulterior purposes we have
nothing here to do, our text being the incidents of the raid itself.
General Morgan started on this bold adventure on June 27, 1863, with a
force of several thousand mounted men, and with four pieces of
artillery. The start was made from Sparta, Tennessee, where the swollen
Cumberland was crossed in boats and canoes on the 1st and 2d of July,
the horses, with some difficulty, being made to swim.
After successful encounters with Jacob's cavalry and a troop of
Wolford's cavalry, the adventurers pushed on, reaching the stockade at
Green River Bridge on July 4. Here Colonel Moore was strongly intrenched
with a small body of Michigan troops, and sent the following reply to
Morgan's demand for a surrender: "If it was any other day I might
consider the demand, but the 4th of July is a bad day to talk about
surrender, and I must therefore decline."
Moore proved quite capable, with the aid of his intrenchments, of making
good his refusal, Morgan being repulsed, after a brisk engagement, with
a loss of about sixty men, as estimated by Captain Cunningham, an
officer of his staff. Lebanon was taken, after a severe engagement, on
the 5th, yielding the Confederates a good supply of guns and ammunition,
and the Ohio was reached, at Brandenburg, in a drenching rain, on the
evening of the 7th. Here two steamers were seized and the whole force
crossed on the next day to the Indiana shore.
General Morgan's force had been swelled, by recruits gained in
Kentucky, until it now numbered four thousand six hundred men, and its
four guns had become ten. But he was being hotly pursued by General
Hobson, who had hastily got on his track with a cavalry force stronger
than his own. This reached the river to see the last of Morgan's men
safe on the Indiana shore, and one of the steamers they had used
floating, a mass of flames, down the stream.
Hobson's loss of time in crossing the stream gave Morgan twenty-four
hours' advance, which he diligently improved. The advance of Rosecrans
against Bragg had prevented the proposed movement of Buckner to the
north, and there remained for Morgan only an indefinite movement through
the Northern States with the secondary hope of finding aid and sympathy
there. It was likely to be an enterprise of the utmost peril, with
Hobson hotly on his track, and the home-guards rising in his front, but
the dauntless Morgan did not hesitate in his desperate adventure.
The first check was at Corydon, where a force of militia had gathered.
But these were quickly overpowered, the town was forced to yield its
quota of spoil, three hundred fresh horses were seized, and Morgan
adopted a shrewd system of collecting cash contributions from the
well-to-do, demanding one thousand dollars from the owner of each mill
and factory as a condition of saving their property from the flames. It
may be said here that Corydon was the principal place in which any
strong opposition was made by the people, the militia being concentrated
at the large towns, which Morgan took care to avoid, pursuing his way
through the panic-stricken villages and rural districts. There were
other brushes with the home-guards, but none of much importance.
The failure of the original purpose of the movement, and the brisk
pursuit of the Federal cavalry, left Morgan little to hope for but to
get in safety across the Ohio again. In addition to Hobson's cavalry
force, General Judah's division was in active motion to intercept him,
and the whole line of the Ohio swarmed with foes. The position of the
raiders grew daily more desperate, but they rode gallantly on, trusting
the result to destiny and the edge of their good swords.
On swept Morgan and his men; on rushed Hobson and his troopers. But the
former rode on fresh horses; the latter followed on jaded steeds. For
five miles on each side of his line of march Morgan swept the country
clear of horses, leaving his own weary beasts in their stead, while
Hobson's force, finding no remounts, grew steadily less in number from
the exhaustion of his horses. The people, through fear, even fed and
watered the horses of Morgan's men with the greatest promptness, thus
adding to the celerity of his movements.
Some anecdotes of the famous ride may here be fitly given. At one point
on his ride through Indiana Morgan left the line of march with three
hundred and fifty of his men to visit a small town, the main body
marching on. Dashing into the place, he found a body of some three
hundred home-guards, each with a good horse. They were dismounted and
their horses tied to the fences. Their captain, a confiding individual,
on the wrong side of sixty, looked with surprise at this irruption, and
asked,--
"Whose company is this?"
"Wolford's cavalry," was the reply.
"What? Kentucky boys? Glad to see you. Where's Wolford?"
"There he sits," answered the man, pointing to Morgan, who was
carelessly seated sideways on his horse. Walking up to Wolford,--as he
thought him,--the Indiana captain saluted him,--
"Captain, how are you?"
"Bully; how are you? What are you going to do with all these men and
horses?"
"Why, you see that horse-thieving John Morgan is in this part of the
country, cutting up the deuce. Between you and me, captain, if he comes
this way, we'll try and give him the best we've got in the shop."
"You'll find him hard to catch. We've been after him for fourteen days
and can't see him at all," said Morgan.
"If our hosses would only stand fire we'd be all right."
"They won't stand, eh?"
"Not for shucks. I say, captain, I'd think it a favor if you and your
men would put your saddles on our hosses, and give our lads a little
idea of a cavalry drill. They say you're prime at that."
"Why, certainly; anything to accommodate. I think we can show you some
useful evolutions."
Little time was lost in changing the saddles from the tired to the fresh
horses, the hoosier boys aiding in the work, and soon the Confederates,
delighted with the exchange, were in their saddles and ready for the
word. Morgan rode up and down the column, then moved to the front, took
off his hat, and said,--
"All right now, captain. If you and your men will form a double line
along the road and watch us, we will try to show you a movement you have
never seen."
The captain gave the necessary order to his men, who drew up in line.
"Are you ready?" asked Morgan.
"All right, Wolford."
"Forward!" shouted Morgan, and the column shot ahead at a rattling pace,
soon leaving nothing in sight but a cloud of dust. When the news became
whispered among the astonished hoosiers that the polite visitor was
Morgan instead of Wolford, there was gnashing of teeth in that town,
despite the fact that each man had been left a horse in exchange for his
own.