War declared between the North and South.--Garfield forms a
regiment from the Western Reserve.--Is appointed
Colonel.--General Buell's Order.--Garfield takes charge of
the 18th Brigade.--Jordan's perilous journey.--Bradley
Brown.--Plan of a Campaign.--March against Marshall.
The Ohio legislature was still in session when, upon that
never-to-be-forgotten April day, in 1861, Fort Sumter received the first
rebel shot. The news was quickly followed by a call from President
Lincoln for seventy-five thousand men. This, proclamation was read in
the Ohio senate, and amid deafening applause, Garfield immediately
sprang to his feet, and moved that Ohio should contribute twenty
thousand men and three million dollars as the quota of the state.
Although the preservation of the Union was the first thought that
presented itself to the minds of the people, another and deeper
impulse--the overthrow of slavery--filled their hearts and nerved their
hands for the coming conflict.
To his old pupil, Mr. Hinsdale, Garfield writes--
"My heart and thought are full almost every moment with the terrible
reality of our country's condition. We have learned so long to look
upon the convulsions of European States as things wholly impossible
here, that the people are slow in coming to the belief that there may be
any breaking up of our institutions; but stern, awful certainty is
fastening upon the hearts of men. I do not see any way, outside a
miracle of God, which can avoid civil war with all its attendant
horrors. Peaceable dissolution is utterly impossible. Indeed I cannot
say that I would wish it possible. To make the concessions demanded by
the South would be hypocritical and sinful; they would neither be obeyed
nor respected. I am inclined to believe that the sin of slavery is one
of which it may be said that without the shedding of blood there is no
remission."
Garfield, always as quick to act as to speak, immediately offered his
services to Gov. Dennison, who at once sent him to Missouri to obtain
five thousand stands of arms that General Lyon had placed there.
These having been safely shipped to Columbus, Gov. Dennison then sent
Garfield to Cleveland to organize the seventh and eighth regiments of
Ohio infantry. He would have appointed him colonel of one of them, but
Garfield, with his usual modesty, declined because he had had no
military experience. He agreed, however, to take a subordinate position
if he could serve under a West Point graduate.
The governor then appointed him lieutenant-colonel, and commissioned him
to raise a regiment from the Western Reserve. He hoped to have his old
schoolmate, Captain Hazen, of the regular army, for colonel, but when
the governor sent on for his transfer, General Scott refused to release
him.
Meanwhile, the Hiram students had laid aside their books, and flocked
with patriotic ardor to the standard of their old leader. The greater
part of this forty-second regiment, indeed, was made up of Campbellites,
whose noble self-sacrifice in the days that followed will never be
forgotten.
When the regiment went into camp at Columbus it was still without a
colonel. Again the governor begged Garfield to assume the command, and
after repeated requests he finally consented.
After making the decision, he wrote thus to a friend:--
"One by one my old plans and aims, modes of thought and feeling, are
found to be inconsistent with present duty, and are set aside to give
place to the new structure of military life. It is not without a regret,
almost tearful at times, that I look upon the ruins. But if, as the
result of the broken plans and shattered individual lives of thousands
of American citizens, we can see on the ruins of our own national errors
a new and enduring fabric arise, based on a larger freedom and higher
justice it will be a small sacrifice indeed. For myself I am contented
with such a prospect, and, regarding my life as given to the country, am
only anxious to make as much of it as possible before the mortgage upon
it is foreclosed."
Great noble heart! How grand and pathetic these words seem to-day as we
read them in the light of the last sad tragedy!
The Forty-second regiment did not leave for the South until the middle
of September. It was then ordered to join General Buell's forces at
Louisville. While in camp near Columbus, Garfield applied himself to the
study of military tactics. With his carpenter's tools he cut out of some
maple blocks a whole regiment, and with these ingenious marionnettes he
mastered the art of infantry. Then, forming a school for his officers,
he required regular recitations in military tactics and illustrated the
different movements of an army by means of his blocks. After this he
could easily institute all sorts of drills, and his regiment soon gained
the reputation of being the best disciplined in Ohio.
When the regiment reached Cincinnati, a telegram was received from
General Buell, requesting a personal interview with Colonel Garfield.
The latter hastened on to Louisville and presented himself at the
General's headquarters, the following evening.
Looking the young colonel through and through with his clear, piercing
eye, General Buell took down a map, and pointed out the position of
Humphrey Marshall's forces in East Kentucky. He then marked the
locations where the Union's troops were posted, described the country,
capabilities, etc., and said to his visitor,--
"If you were in command of the sub-department of Eastern Kentucky, what
would you do? Come here at nine o'clock to-morrow morning and tell me."
Garfield went back to his hotel, found a map of Kentucky, the latest
census report, etc., and then with paper, pen, and ink, sat down to his
problem. When daylight came he was still at work, but nine o'clock found
him at General Buell's headquarters with the sketch of his plans all
completed.
The elder officer read it, and immediately made it the foundation of a
special order by which the Eighteenth Brigade, Army of the Ohio, was
organized, and Colonel Garfield was made its commander.
Soon after, the new brigadier received his letter of instructions from
General Buell, which was in substance an order to unite in the face of
the enemy two small companies of soldiers that were stationed far apart,
and drive the rebel General Marshall out of Kentucky.
Garfield set out for Catlettsburg without delay, and found his regiment
had gone on to the little town of Louisa, some twenty-eight miles up the
Big Sandy river.
The whole surrounding country was in a great state of excitement. The
Fourteenth Kentucky regiment had been stationed at Louisa, but hearing
that Marshall with all his forces was closely following them, they had
hastily retreated to the mouth of the Big Sandy.
On the day before Christmas, Garfield joined his troops at Louisa, much
to the relief of the terror-stricken citizens, who were just preparing
to cross the river to find a place of safety.
The young commander had two very important and difficult things to
accomplish. First, he must communicate with Colonel Cranor; then he must
unite his own forces to that officer's, in the face of a greatly
superior enemy that could, and probably would, swoop down upon them as
soon as they made the least movement.
Going to Colonel Moore of the Fourteenth Kentucky, he said,--
"I want a man who is not afraid to take his life in his hand for the
saving of his country."
"There is John Jordan from the head of Blaine," was the reply, "I think
we could rely upon him."
Jordan was immediately sent for, and, notwithstanding his uncanny
appearance, Garfield was at once prepossessed in his favor. He was tall
and lank, with hollow cheeks and a curious squeaking voice. Born and
bred among the Kentucky hills, he was rough and untutored, but his
clear, gray eyes showed an unflinching courage and a downright honesty,
that Garfield read with unerring intuition.
"Are you willing to risk your life for the country?" he asked.
"Oh, yes, sir!" was the ready response. "When I volunteered, I gave up
my life for jest what it was wuth. If the Lord sees fit to make use of
it now, I'm willin' He should take it."
"Do you mean you have come into the war not expecting to get out of it?"
"Yes, gin'ral, that's how I meant it."
"And are you willing to die rather than give up this despatch?"
"That's the gospel truth, gin'ral."
"Well, then, I think I can trust it with you."
So saying, Garfield rolled up into the form of a bullet the tissue-paper
on which the despatch was written; he then coated it with warm lead and
gave it to Jordan. He also gave him a carbine, a brace of revolvers, and
the swiftest horse in the regiment.
The dangerous journey was to be taken only by night, and in the day-time
the messenger was to hide in the woods.
It was just at midnight of the second day when Jordan reached Colonel
Cranor's quarters at McCormick's Gap with his precious bullet.
Upon opening the despatch the colonel found it was dated Louisa, Dec.
24th. The order read to move his regiment as soon as possible to
Prestonburg, to take as little baggage and as few rations as possible,
as the safety of his command would depend upon his expedition. Hours
were worth months at such a time; and early on the following morning
Colonel Cranor's regiment was on the move. It consisted of one thousand
one hundred men, while Garfield's larger division numbered about
seventeen hundred. The enemy, under Gen. Marshall, were stationed with
the main body of their forces near Paintville; but a company of eight
hundred were at West Liberty, a town directly on the route by which
Colonel Cranor was to join General Garfield. It was a hazardous
expedition, but the brigadier colonel knew he must obey orders.
On the morning after Jordan's departure for Cranor's camp, Garfield set
out with his men and halted at George's Creek, which was only twenty
miles from Marshall's intrenched position at Paintville. The roads along
the Big Sandy were impassable for trains, so Garfield decided to depend
upon boats to transport his supplies. At this time of the year, however,
the stream was very uncertain, as heavy freshets often rendered
navigation impossible for a number of days.
Garfield, however, was used to contending with difficulties, and was not
easily discouraged. Taking ten days' rations, he chartered two small
steamboats and all the flat boats he could find, and loaded them with
provisions.
Next morning, just as they were starting, one of the soldiers came up to
Garfield and said,--
"There's a rough-looking man out here, colonel, who says he must see
you."
Garfield stepped forward, and immediately recognized in the
disreputable-looking tramp before him, Bradley Brown, one of his old
companions on the canal boat.
It seemed that he belonged to the rebel army, and had heard a few days
previous that Garfield, for whom he had always cherished a strong
affection, was commanding the Union forces in that part of Kentucky.
Going to Marshall he told him of his former acquaintance with Garfield,
and the help it might now prove to them if he should enter the camp and
find out all about the Union forces. Marshall was entirely deceived by
the plausibility of Brown's argument, never once dreaming that the
tables might be turned upon himself.
Brown's real purpose was to warn Garfield of the rebel's strength and
purpose, and he desired, above all things, to serve in the ranks of his
old benefactor. He was just the man that the Union army wanted for a
scout, and Garfield, when assured of his loyalty, employed him to
reconnoitre through the mountain borders of Virginia.
The safe return of Jordan the following day, after many hairbreadth
escapes, encouraged Garfield to organize a "secret service," which
Rosecrans used to call "the eyes of the army."
It was a long, wearisome march for the Union forces, but on the sixth of
January, 1862, they arrived within six miles of Paintville. While they
were halting there, a messenger arrived from General Buell with an
intercepted letter of Marshall's to his wife. It disclosed the fact that
the rebels had four thousand four hundred infantry and six hundred
cavalry, and that they were daily expecting an onslaught of ten thousand
from the Union forces.
Garfield assembled a council of his officers.
"What shall we do?" he said. "Is it better to march at once, or wait for
Cranor and his forces?"
All but one of the officers declared it was better to wait, but that one
said: "Let us move on at once--our fourteen hundred can whip ten
thousand rebels."
Garfield paused a moment, as if in deep reflection. Then he exclaimed,
"Well, forward it is. Give the order."
There were three roads that led down to the enemy's intrenchment. One of
these was a river road upon the western bank; another was a very
winding road and came in at the mouth of Jenny's Creek: the third and
most direct lay between the others, but it was very difficult to pass
because of the intervening ridges.
In order to mislead Marshall as to the real strength of his forces,
Garfield ordered a small division of his infantry to approach by the
river road, drive in the enemy's pickets, and then move rapidly after
them, as if preparing an attack upon Paintville. A similar force was
sent off two hours later along the mountain road. A third detachment was
ordered to take the road at the mouth of Jenny's creek.
The result of this strategy was just what Garfield had foreseen. When
the pickets on the first route were attacked, they hurried back to
Paintville in great confusion, and sent word to Marshall that the Union
army was coming up by the river road. A large detachment of the rebel
forces was at once dispatched to this point, but, by the time they
reached them, the tidings had come that Garfield's forces were
approaching by the mountain road. The rebel general then countermanded
his first order, only to find his pickets had been attacked at another
point. Finally, in utter confusion, they abandoned Paintville and fled
to the fortified camp, declaring that the whole Union army was in hot
pursuit.
Garfield immediately pushed forward and took possession of Paintville.
This was on the afternoon of January 8th. Later in the evening, a rebel
spy came to Marshall's camp and told him that Cranor, with three
thousand three hundred men, was within twelve hours' march to the
westward.
The rebel general naturally concluded that he was to be attacked by a
band of Union forces far outnumbering his own. He therefore broke up
camp and retreated so hastily that he was obliged to leave behind a
large quantity of his supplies.
At nine o'clock in the evening, Garfield, with a thousand of his men,
took possession of the deserted camp, and waited there for the arrival
of Cranor.
Next morning Cranor arrived, but his men were so tired and footsore they
seemed in no condition for making an attack. Garfield, however, knew
that the time had come for a decisive challenge, and so he ordered to
the front all who were able to march. Eleven hundred,--and four hundred
of these were from Cranor's exhausted ranks--obeyed the call, and
hastened after Marshall and his retreating army.
The Union forces had marched about eighteen miles when they came to the
mouth of Abbott's Creek, three miles below Prestonburg. Here Garfield
learned that Marshall and his army were encamping on the same stream
some three miles distant. As it was then nine o'clock in the evening he
ordered his men to put up their tents, and then he sent a messenger back
to Lieutenant-Colonel Sheldon, who had been left in command at
Paintville, and ordered him to bring up the remainder of the army as
soon as possible.
The whole night he spent in reconnoitring about the country, so eager
was he to know the exact arrangement of Marshall's troops and the
probable contingencies of a battle.
Jordan's ride through the enemy's country had been of invaluable service
to him. Marshall had strongly posted his army on a semi-circular hill at
the forks of Middle Creek, and was quietly waiting there in ambuscade
for the approach of the Union forces.
It was a chill night, and a driving rain added to the cheerlessness of
the dreary bivouac in the valley.