THE RAIDERS
In February, 1864, both North and South were straining every nerve for
the last act of the grand drama of blood and tears. The Presidential
election would be held in November to choose a successor to Abraham
Lincoln. At this moment Lincoln was the most unpopular, the most
reviled, the most misunderstood and the most abused man who had ever
served as President of the United States. The opposition to him inside
his own party was fierce, malignant, vindictive and would stop short of
nothing to encompass his defeat in their nominating convention. They had
not hesitated even to accuse his wife of treason.
Military success and military success alone could save the
administration at Washington. George B. McClellan, the most popular
general of the Union army, was already slated to oppose Lincoln on a
platform demanding peace.
If the South could hold her own until the first Monday in November, the
opposition to the war in the North would crush the administration and
peace would be had at the price of Southern independence.
No man in America understood the tense situation more clearly than
Jefferson Davis. His agents in the North kept him personally informed of
every movement of the political chess board. Personally he had never
believed in the possibility of the South winning in a conflict of arms
since the death of Jackson had been given its full significance in the
battle of Gettysburg. He had however believed in the possibility of the
party of the North which stood for the old Constitution winning an
election on the issue of a bloody and unsuccessful war and, on their
winning, that he could open negotiations for peace and gain every point
for which the war had been fought. It all depended on the battles of the
coming spring and summer.
Grant, the new Commander-in-Chief of the armies of the Union, had been
given a free hand with unlimited resources of men and money. He was now
directing the movements of nearly a million soldiers in blue.
Sherman was drilling under his orders an army of a hundred thousand with
which to march into Georgia--while Grant himself would direct the
movement of a quarter of a million men in his invasion of Virginia.
The Confederate President saw at once that Lee's army must be raised to
its highest point of efficiency and that it was of equal importance that
Joseph E. Johnston should be given as many or more men with which to
oppose Sherman.
To allow for Johnston's feeble strategy, Davis sent him 68,000 soldiers
to Dalton, Georgia, to meet Sherman's 100,000 and gave Lee 64,000 with
which to oppose Grant's 150,000 threatening to cross the Rapidan and
move directly on Richmond.
Socola had informed the War Department at Washington that the
Confederate Capital had been stripped of any semblance of an effective
garrison to fill the ranks of Lee and Johnston.
General Judson Kilpatrick was authorized to select three thousand picked
cavalry, dash suddenly on Richmond, capture it and release the 15,000
Union prisoners confined in its walls and stockades.
These prisoners Grant steadily refused to receive in exchange. In vain
Davis besought the Federal Government to take them home in return for
an equal number of Confederate prisoners who were freezing and dying in
the North.
Grant's logic was inexorable. Every Confederate prisoner exchanged and
sent back home meant a recruit to Lee's army. It was cruel to leave his
men to languish in beleaguered Richmond whose citizens were rioting in
the streets for bread, but he figured these prisoners as soldiers dying
in battle. The Confederate Government had no medicine for them. The
blockade was drawn so tight scarcely an ounce of medicine could be
obtained for the Confederate army. Davis offered the Washington
Government to let their own surgeons come to Richmond and carry medicine
and food to their prisoners. His request was refused.
The only thing Grant conceded was his consent to Kilpatrick's attempt to
free and arm these 15,000 prisoners and loose them with fire and sword
in the streets of the Confederate Capital.
Little did the men, women and children of Richmond dream that they were
lying down each night to sleep on the thin crust of a volcano.
Captain Welford in the pursuit of Socola and Miss Van Lew had found that
the woman on Church Hill persisted in her visits to the prisons. Libby,
which contained a number of Union officers of rank, was her favorite.
On the last day of February his patient watch was rewarded. He had
placed a spy in Libby disguised as a captive Union soldier.
This man had sent the Captain an urgent message to communicate with him
at once. Within thirty minutes Welford confronted him in the guardroom
of the prison.
The Captain spoke in sharp nervous tones:
"Well?"
"I've something big--"
He paused and glanced about the room.
"Go on!"
"There's a plot on foot inside to escape--"
"Of course. They're always plotting to escape--we've no real prison
system--no discipline. Hundreds have escaped already. It's nothing
new--"
"This _is_ new," the spy went on eagerly, "They let me into their
councils last night. There's going to be a big raid on Richmond--the men
inside are going to fight their way out, arm themselves and burn the
city. When they get the signal from the outside they'll batter down the
walls and rush through--"
"Batter down the walls?"
"Yes, sir--"
"How?"
"They've loosed two big rafters and have them ready to use as battering
rams--"
"You're sure of this?"
"Sure's God's in heaven. Go in and see for yourself--"
Captain Welford gave a low whistle.
"This is big news. There are enough prisoners in Richmond to make an
army corps--eleven hundred in here--twenty-five hundred at Crew and
Pemberton's--at Belle Isle and the other stockades at least fifteen
thousand in all. They are guarded by a handful of men. If they realize
their power, they can batter their way out in five minutes and sweep the
city with blood and fire--"
He stopped suddenly, drew a deep breath and turned again to the man.
"That'll do for you here. Take a little rest. You'd as well go back into
a lion's den when they find out that I know. They'd spot you sure and
tear you limb from limb."
The spy saluted.
"Report to me a week from to-day at the office. You've earned a
vacation."
The man saluted again and passed quickly out.
Captain Welford asked the Superintendent to call his prisoners together.
"I have something to say to them."
A thousand silent men in blue were gathered in the assembly room of the
old warehouse.
Captain Welford boldly entered the place carrying a box in his hand. He
placed it on the floor, sprang on it and lifted his hand over the crowd:
"I've an announcement to make, gentlemen," he began quietly amid a
silence that was death like. "The Department which I represent has
learned that you are planning to batter down the walls and join a force
of raiders who are on the way to capture Richmond--"
He paused and a murmur of smothered despair, inarticulate, bitter, crept
through the crowd.
"To forestall this little scheme, I have planted a thousand pounds of
powder under this building. I have mined every other prison. The first
one of you that lifts his finger to escape gives the signal that will
blow you into Eternity--"
Dick stepped from the box and made his way out without another word. He
could feel the wild heart beat of baffled hope as they followed him to
the door with despairing eyes.
A murmur of sickening rage swept the prison. An ominous silence fell
where hope had beat high.
The same strategic announcement was made in every prison in Richmond. No
mines had been laid. But the story served its purpose. Fifteen thousand
men were bound hand and foot by fear. Three hundred soldiers guarded
them successfully. Not a finger was lifted to help their bold rescuers
who were already dashing toward the city.
Colonel Ulric Dahlgren was crossing the James above Richmond to strike
from the south side, while General Kilpatrick led the attack direct from
the north, Dahlgren crossed the river at Ely's Ford, passed in the rear
of Lee's army, captured a Confederate court martial in session, but
missed a park of sixty-eight pieces of artillery which had been left
unguarded.
When they again reached the James at Davis' Mill, where a ford was
supposed to be, none could be found. Stanton had sent from Washington a
negro guide. They accused the negro of treachery and hung him from the
nearest limb without the formality of a drumhead court martial.
At dawn on March first, Bradley Johnson's cavalry, guarding Lee's flank,
struck one of Kilpatrick's parties and drove them in on the main body.
They pursued Kilpatrick's men through Ashland and down to the outer
defenses of Richmond.
Hero the raiders dismounted their twenty-five hundred men and prepared
to attack the entrenchments. Wade Hampton immediately moved out to meet
him. Bradley Johnson's Marylanders drew up in Kilpatrick's rear at the
same moment, and captured five men bearing dispatches from Dahlgren. He
would attack on the rear at sunset. He asked Kilpatrick to strike at the
same moment.
Johnson boldly charged Kilpatrick's rear with his handful of men and
drove him headlong down the Peninsula to the York River. The Confederate
leader had but seventy-five men and two pieces of artillery but he hung
on Kilpatrick's division of twenty-five hundred and captured a hundred
and forty prisoners.
Dahlgren at night with but four hundred men boldly attacked the defenses
on the north side of the city. He was met by a company of Richmond boys
under eighteen years of age. The youngsters gave such good account of
themselves that he withdrew from the field, leaving forty of his men
dead and wounded.
In his retreat down the Peninsula, he failed to find Kilpatrick's
division. His command was cut to pieces and captured and Dahlgren
himself killed.
The part which Socola had played in this raid was successfully
accomplished without a hitch. He was compelled to answer the drum which
called every clerk of his Department to arms for the defense of the
city. In the darkness he succeeded in pressing into Dahlgren's lines and
on his retreat made his way back to his place in the ranks of the
Confederates.
It was a little thing which betrayed him after the real danger was past
and brought him face to face with Jennie Barton.