OPERATIONS AT ISLAND NUMBER TEN.
Commodore Foote, having repaired the gunboats disabled at Fort Donelson,
sailed from Cairo the day that New Madrid fell into the hands of General
Pope. He had seven gunboats and ten mortars, besides several tugs and
transports. Colonel Buford, with fifteen hundred troops, accompanied the
expedition.
The mortars were untried. They were the largest ever brought into use at
that time, weighing nineteen thousand pounds, and throwing a shell
thirteen inches in diameter. The accompanying diagram will perhaps give
you an idea of their appearance. You see the mortar mounted on its
carriage, or bed as it is called. The figures 1, 1 represent one cheek
of the bed, a thick wrought-iron plate. The figures 2, 2 represent the
heads of the bolts which connect the cheek in view to the one on the
other side. The bed stands on thick timbers, represented by 3, and the
timbers rest on heavy sleepers, 4. Figure 5 represents a thick strap of
iron which clasps the trunion or axis of the mortar, and holds it in its
place. This strap is held by two other straps, 6, 6, all iron, and very
strong. The figure 7 represents what is called a bolster. You see it is
in the shape of a wedge. It is used to raise or depress the muzzle of
the mortar. The figure 8 represents what is called a quoin, and keeps
the bolster in its place. The figure 9 represents one of the many bolts
by which the whole is kept in place on the boat.
[Illustration: A MORTAR.]
The boat is built like a raft, of thick timbers, laid crosswise and
bolted firmly together. It is about thirty feet long and twelve wide,
and has iron plates around its sides to screen the men from Rebel
sharpshooters. The mortar is more than four feet in diameter. It is
thicker than it is long. To fire a mortar accurately requires a good
knowledge of mathematics, of the relations of curves to straight lines,
for the shell is fired into the air at an angle of thirty or forty
degrees. The gunner must calculate the distance from the mortar to the
enemy in a straight line, and then elevate or lower the muzzle to drop
his shell not too near, neither too far away. He must calculate the time
it will take for the shell to describe the curve through the air. Then
he must make his fuses of the right length to have the shell explode at
the proper time, either high in the air, that its fragments may rain
down on the encampment of the enemy, or close down to the ground among
the men working the guns. It requires skill and a great deal of practice
to do all this.
The mortar flotilla was commanded by Captain Henry E. Maynadier,
assisted by Captain E. B. Pike of the engineers. There were four Masters
of Ordnance, who commanded each four mortars. Each mortar-boat had a
crew of fifteen men; three of them were Mississippi flatboatmen, who
understood all about the river, the currents and the sand-bars.
Commodore Foote's flotilla consisted of the Benton, 16 guns, which was
his flag-ship, covered all over with iron plates, and commanded by
Captain Phelps; the Mound City, 13 guns, commanded by Captain Kelty; the
Carondelet, 13 guns, Lieutenant Walke; the Cincinnati, 13 guns, Captain
Stemble; the St. Louis, 13 guns, Captain Dove; the Louisville, 13 guns,
Lieutenant Paulding; the Pittsburg, 13 guns, Lieutenant Thompson; the
Conestoga, 9 guns, Lieutenant Blodgett; in all, 103 guns and 10 mortars.
The Conestoga was used to guard the ammunition-boats, and took no part
in the active operations. Commodore Foote had several small steam-tugs,
which were used as tenders, to carry orders from boat to boat.
The Southern people thought that Island No. 10 could not be taken. On
the 6th of March a newspaper at Memphis said:--
"For the enemy to get possession of Memphis and the
Mississippi Valley would require an army of greater strength
than Secretary Stanton can concentrate upon the banks of the
Mississippi River. The gunboats in which they have so much
confidence have proved their weakness. They cannot stand our
guns of heavy calibre. The approach of the enemy by land to
New Madrid induces us to believe that the flotilla is one
grand humbug, and that it is not ready, and does not intend
to descend the river. Foote, the commander of the Federal
fleet, served his time under Commodore Hollins, and should he
attempt to descend the river, Hollins will teach him that
some things can be done as well as others."[25]
[Footnote 25: Memphis Argus.]
On Saturday, the 15th of March, the fleet approached the island. The
clouds were thick and lowering. The rain pattered on the decks of the
gunboats, the fog settled upon the river. As the boats swept round a
point of land, the old river pilot, who was on the watch, who knew every
crook, turn, sand-bar, and all the objects along the bank, sung out,
"Boat ahead!"
The sailors scrambled to the portholes; Captain Phelps sprang from the
cabin to the deck.
There she was, a steamer, just visible through the fog a mile ahead. It
was the Grampus, owned by Captain Chester of the steamer Alps, who had
two of the mortar-boats in tow. He belonged to Pittsburg, and used to
carry coal to Memphis. When the war broke out the Rebels seized his
steamboats and his coal-barges, and refused to pay him for the coal they
had already purchased. The act roused all his ire. He was a tall,
athletic man, and had followed the river thirty years. Although
surrounded by enemies, he gave them plain words.
"You are a set of thieves and rascals! You are cowards, every one of
you!" he shouted.
He took off his coat, rolled up his shirt-sleeves, bared his great
brawny arms, dashed his hat upon the ground.
"Now come on! I'll fight every one of you, you infernal rascals! I'll
whip you all! I challenge you to fight me! You call yourselves
chivalrous people. You say you believe in fair play. If I whip, you
shall give up my boats, but if I am beaten, you are welcome to them."
They laughed in his face, and said: "Blow away, old fellow. We have got
your boats. Help yourself if you can."
A hot-headed secessionist cried out, "Hang the Yankee!"
The crowd hustled him about, but he had a few old friends, who took his
part, and he succeeded in making his escape.
Captain Phelps looked a moment at the Grampus. He saw her wheels move.
She was starting off.
"Out with the starboard gun! Give her a shot!"
Lieutenant Bishop runs his eye along the sights of the great eleven-inch
gun, which has been loaded and run out of the porthole in a twinkling.
There is a flash. A great cloud puffs out into the fog, and the shot
screams through the air and is lost to sight. We cannot see where it
fell. Another--another. Boom!--boom!--boom!--from the Cincinnati and
Carondelet. But the Grampus is light-heeled. The distance widens. You
can hardly see her, and at last she vanishes like a ghost from sight.
We were not more than four or five miles from the head of the island.
One by one the boats rounded to along the Kentucky shore. The sailors
sprang upon the land, carrying out the strong warps, and fastening us to
the trunks of the buttonwood-trees.
There was a clearing and a miserable log-hut near by. The family had
fled, frightened by the cannonade. We found them cowering in the
woods,--a man, his wife and daughter. The land all around them was
exceedingly rich, but they were very poor. All they had to eat was hog
and hominy. They had been told that the Union troops would rob them of
all they had, which was not likely, because they had nothing worth
stealing! They were trembling with fear, but when they found the
soldiers and sailors well-behaved and peaceable, they forgot their
terror.
The fog lifts at last, and we can see the white tents of the Rebels on
the Tennessee shore. There are the batteries, with the cannon grim and
black pointing up stream. Round the point of land is the island. A
half-dozen steamboats lie in the stream below it. At times they steam up
to the bend and then go back again,--wandering back and forth like rats
in a cage. They cannot get past General Pope's guns at New Madrid. On
the north side of the island is a great floating-battery of eight guns,
which has been towed up from New Orleans. General Mackall has sunk a
steamboat in a narrow part of the channel on the north side of the
island, so that if Commodore Foote attempts to run the blockade he will
be compelled to pass along the south channel, exposed to the fire of all
the guns in the four batteries upon the Tennessee shore, as well as
those upon the island.
Two of the mortar-boats were brought into position two miles from the
Rebel batteries. We waited in a fever of expectation while Captain
Maynadier was making ready, for thirteen-inch mortars had never been
used in war. The largest used by the French and English in the
bombardment of Sebastopol were much smaller.
There came a roar like thunder. It was not a sharp, piercing report, but
a deep, heavy boom, which rolled along the mighty river, echoing and
re-echoing from shore to shore,--a prolonged reverberation, heard fifty
miles away. A keg of powder was burned in the single explosion. The
shell rose in a beautiful curve, exploded five hundred feet high, and
fell in fragments around the distant encampment.
There was a flash beneath the dark forest-trees near the encampment, a
puff of white smoke, an answering roar, and a shot fell into the water a
half-mile down stream from the mortars. The Rebels had accepted the
challenge.
Sunday came. The boats having the mortars in tow dropped them along the
Missouri shore. The gunboats swung into the stream. The Benton fired her
rifled guns over the point of land at the Rebel steamboats below the
island. There was a sudden commotion. They quickly disappeared down the
river towards New Madrid, out of range. During the morning there was a
deep booming from the direction of Point Pleasant. The Rebel gunboats
were trying to drive Colonel Plummer from his position.
Ten o'clock came, the hour for divine service. The church flag was flung
out on the flagstaff of the Benton, and all the commanders called their
crews together for worship. I was on board the Pittsburg with Captain
Thompson. The crew assembled on the upper deck. There were men from
Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island, from the Eastern
as well as the Western States. Some of them were scholars and teachers
in Sabbath-schools at home. They were dressed in dark-blue, and each
sailor appeared in his Sunday suit. A small table was brought up from
the cabin, and the flag of our country spread upon it. A Bible was
brought. We stood around the captain with uncovered heads, while he read
the twenty-seventh Psalm. Beautiful and appropriate was that service:--
"The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear?
The Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be
afraid?"
After the Psalm, the prayer, "Our Father which art in heaven."
How impressive! The uncovered group standing around the open Bible, and
the low voices of a hundred men in prayer. On our right hand, looking
down the mighty river, were the mortars, in play, jarring the earth with
their heavy thunders. The shells were sweeping in graceful curves
through the air. Upon our left hand, the Benton and Carondelet were
covering themselves with white clouds, which slowly floated away over
the woodlands, fragrant with the early buds and blossoms of spring. The
Rebel batteries below us were flaming and smoking. Solid shot screamed
past us, shells exploded above us. Away beyond the island, beyond the
dark-green of the forest, rose the cloud of another bombardment, where
Commodore Hollins was vainly endeavoring to drive Colonel Plummer from
his position. So the prayer was mingled with the deep, wild thunders of
the cannonade.
A light fog, like a thin veil, lay along the river. After service, we
saw that strange and peculiar optical illusion called _mirage_, so often
seen in deserts, where the thirsty traveller beholds lakes, and shady
places, cities, towns, and ships. I was looking up stream, and saw,
sweeping round the wooded point of land, something afloat. A boat or
floating battery it seemed to be. There were chimneys, a flagstaff, a
porthole. It was seemingly two hundred feet long, coming broadside
towards us.
"Captain Thompson, see there!"
He looked at it, and jumped upon the pilot-house, scanned it over and
over. The other officers raised their glasses.
"It looks like a floating battery!" said one.
"There is a porthole, certainly!" said another.
It came nearer. Its proportions increased.
"Pilot, put on steam! Head her up stream!" said Captain Thompson.
"Lieutenant, beat to quarters! Light up the magazine! We will see what
she is made of."
There was activity on deck. The guns were run out, shot and shell were
brought up. The boat moved up stream. Broadside upon us came the unknown
craft.
Suddenly the illusion vanished. The monster three hundred feet long,
changed to an old coal-barge. The chimneys became two timbers, the
flagstaff a small stick of firewood. The fog, the currents of air, had
produced the transformation. We had a hearty laugh over our preparations
for an encounter with the enemy in our rear. It was an enemy more
quickly disposed of than the one in front.
The Rebels in the upper battery waved a white flag. The firing ceased.
Commodore Foote sent Lieutenant Bishop down with a tug and a white flag
flying, to see what it meant. He approached the battery.
"Are we to understand that you wish to communicate with us?" he asked.
"No, sir," said an officer wearing a gold-laced coat.
"Then why do you display a white flag?"
"It is a mistake, sir. It is a signal-flag. I regret that it has
deceived you."
"Good morning, sir."
"Good morning, sir."
The tug steams back to the Benton, the white flag is taken down, and the
uproar begins again. Lieutenant Bishop made good use of his eyes. There
were seven thirty-two-pounders and one heavy rifled gun in the upper
battery.
Commodore Foote was not ready to begin the bombardment in earnest till
Monday noon, March 17th.
The Benton, Cincinnati, and St. Louis dropped down stream, side by side,
and came into position about a mile from the upper batteries. Anchors
were dropped from the stern of each gunboat, that they might fight head
on, using their heavy rifled guns. Their position was on the east side
of the river. The Mound City and Carondelet took position near the west
bank, just below the mortars. The boats were thus placed to bring a
cross fire upon the upper Rebel battery.
"Pay no attention to the island, but direct your fire into the upper
battery!" is the order.
A signal is raised upon the flag-ship. We do not understand the
signification of the flag, but while we look at it the ten mortars open
fire, one after another, in rapid succession. The gunboats follow. There
are ten shells, thirteen inches in diameter, rising high in air. There
are handfuls of smoke flecking the sky, and a prolonged, indescribable
crashing, rolling, and rumbling. You have seen battle-pieces by the
great painters; but the highest artistic skill cannot portray the scene.
It is a vernal day, as beautiful as ever dawned. The gunboats are
enveloped in flame and smoke. The unfolding clouds are slowly wafted
away by the gentle breeze. Huge columns rise majestically from the
mortars. A line of white--a thread-like tissue--spans the sky. It is the
momentary and vanishing mark of the shell in the invisible air. There
are little splashes in the stream, where the fragments of iron fall.
There are pillars of water tossed upward in front of the earthwork,
which break into spray, painted with rainbow hues by the bright
sunshine. A round shot skips along the surface and pierces the
embankment. Another just clears the parapet, and cuts down a tree
beyond. The air is filled with sticks, timbers, branches of trees, and
earth, as if a dozen thunderbolts had fallen upon the spot from a
cloudless sky. There are explosions deep under ground, where the great
shells have buried themselves in their downward flight. There are
volumes of smoke which rise like the mists of a summer morning.
There are some brave fellows behind that breastwork. Amid this storm
they come out from their shelter and load a gun. There it comes! A
flash, a cloud, a hissing, a crash! The shot strikes the upper deck of
the Benton, tears up the iron plates, breaks the thick timbers into
kindlings, falls upon the lower deck, bounds up again to the beams
above, and drops into Commodore Foote's writing-desk!
All around, from the gunboats, the mortars, from all the batteries, are
flashes, clouds of smoke, and thunderings, which bring to mind the
gorgeous imagery of the Book of Revelation in the New Testament,
descriptive of the scenes of the Last Judgment.
The firing ceased at sunset. The Benton was struck four times, and the
Cincinnati once. No one was injured by these shots, but one of the guns
of the St. Louis burst, killing two men instantly, and wounding
thirteen.
When the bombardment was at its height, Commodore Foote received a
letter from Cairo, containing the sad information that a beloved son had
died suddenly. It was a sore bereavement, but it was no time for him to
give way to grief, no time to think of his great affliction.
After the firing had ceased, I sat with him in the cabin of the Benton.
There were tears upon his cheeks. He was thinking of his loss.
Were he living now, I should have no right to give the conversation I
had with him, but he has gone to his reward, leaving us his bright
example. These were his words, as I remember:--
"It is a terrible blow, but the Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away;
blessed be His name. It is hard for me to bear, but no harder than it
will be for the fathers of the noble men who were killed on the St.
Louis. Poor fellows! I feel bad for the wounded."
He called the orderly who stood outside the cabin.
"Orderly, tell the surgeon that I want to see him."
The surgeon came in.
"Surgeon, I wish you to do everything you can for those poor fellows on
the St. Louis. Don't omit anything that will contribute to their
comfort."
"It shall be done, sir," said the surgeon, as he left the cabin.
"Poor fellows! I must see them myself. It is a great deal worse to have
a gun explode than to have the men wounded by the enemy's shot, for they
lose confidence. I have protested again and again to the Department
against using these old thirty-two-pounders, which have been weakened by
being rifled; but I had to take them or none. I had to pick them up
wherever I could find them. I have tried my best to get the fleet in
good trim, and it is too bad to have the men slaughtered in this way. I
shall try to do my duty. The country needs the services of every man. We
shall have a long war. I would like to rest, and have a little breathing
spell, but I shall not ask for it. I shall try to do my duty to my
country and to God. He is leading this nation in a way we know not of.
My faith is unshaken in Him. He will bring us out of all trouble at
last."
Thus, in the hour of battle, while attending to his duties, while
bearing up under the intelligence that a beloved son had died, he talked
calmly, cheerfully, and hopefully of the future, and manifested the care
and tenderness of a father for the wounded.
Although the gunboats ceased firing at sunset, the mortars were in play
all night. It was beautiful to see the great flash, illuminating all the
landscape, the white cloud rolling upward and outward, unfolding,
expanding, spreading over the wide river, and the bright spark rising
high in the air, turning with the revolving shell, reaching its altitude
and sailing straight along the arch of the parabola, then descending
with increasing rapidity, ending in a bright flash, and an explosion
which echoes and re-echoes far away. The next day I went with Captain
Maynadier across the point to reconnoitre the batteries on the island
and watch the explosions of the shells. We passed a deserted farm-house,
and saw a squad of Colonel Buford's soldiers running down pigs and
chickens. Crossing a creek upon a corduroy bridge, we came to a second
squad. One was playing a violin, and several were dancing; they were as
happy as larks. We stood upon the bank of the river opposite the island.
Before us was the floating battery, which was formerly the New Orleans
dry-dock. It mounted eight guns. There were four batteries on the
Tennessee shore and several on the island. We could see the artillerists
at their guns. They saw us, and sent a shell whizzing over our heads,
which struck in a cornfield, and ploughed a deep furrow for the farmer
owning it. We went where they could not see us, and mounted a fence to
watch the effect of the mortar-firing. It was interesting to sit there
and hear the great shells sail through the air five hundred feet above
us. It was like the sound of far-off, invisible machinery, turning with
a constant motion, not the sharp, shrill whistle of a rifled-bolt, but a
whirr and roll, like that which you may sometimes hear above the clouds
in a thunder-storm. One shell fell like a millstone into the river. The
water did not extinguish the fuse, and a great column was thrown up
fifty feet high. Another buried itself deep in the ground before it
burst, and excavated a great hole. I learned, after the place
surrendered, that one fell through a tent where several officers were
sitting, playing cards, and that the next moment the tent, furniture,
officers, and fifty cartloads of earth were sailing through the air!
None of them were wounded, but they were bruised, wrenched, and their
nice clothes covered with dirt.
At night there was a storm, with vivid lightning and heavy thunder. The
mortars kept up their fire. It was a sublime spectacle,--earth against
heaven, but the artillery of the skies was the best.
You would have given a great deal, I dare say, to have seen all this;
but there is another side to the story. Can you eat dirt? Can you eat
grease in all its forms,--baked, boiled, fried, simmered? Can you bear
variegated butter, variable in taste and smell? Can you get along with
ham, hash, and beans for breakfast, beans, hash, and ham for dinner, and
hash, ham, and beans for supper, week after week, with fat in all its
forms, with cakes solid enough for grape-shot to fire at the Rebels,
with blackest coffee and the nearest available cow fifty miles
off?--with sour molasses, greasy griddle-cakes, with Mississippi water
thick with the filth of the great valley of the West, with slime from
the Cincinnati slaughter-houses, sweepings from the streets, slops from
the steamboats, with all the miasma and mould of the forests? The
fairest countenance soon changes to a milk and molasses color, and
energy lags, and strength becomes weakness under such living.
In boyhood, at the sound of a bugle, a drum, or the roar of a cannon,
how leaped the blood through my veins! But it becomes an old story. I
was quartered within a stone's-throw of the mortars, which fired all
night long, and was not disturbed by the explosions. One becomes
indifferent to everything. You get tired of watching the cannonade, and
become so accustomed to the fire of the enemy, that after a while you do
not heed a shot that ploughs up the dirt or strikes the water near at
hand.
General Pope sent word, that, if he had transports and a gunboat, he
could cross to the Tennessee shore and take the batteries in the rear.
The river was very high and the country overflowed. Near New Madrid
there is a bayou, which is the outlet of a small lake. It was determined
to cut a canal through the forest to the lake. Colonel Bissell with his
regiment of engineers went to work. Four steamboats were fitted up, two
barges, with cannon on board, were taken in tow, and the expedition
started. They sailed over a cornfield, where the tall stalks were waving
and swinging in the water, steamed over fences, and came to the woods.
There were great trees, which must be cut away. The engineers rigged
their saws for work under water. The path was fifty feet wide and the
trees were cut off four feet below the surface. In eight days they cut
their way to New Madrid, a distance of twelve miles. In one place they
cut off seventy-five trees, all of which were more than two feet in
diameter.
While this was doing, Commodore Foote kept the Rebels awake by a regular
and continuous bombardment, mainly upon the upper battery. He determined
to capture it.
On the night of the 1st of April, an armed expedition is fitted out from
the squadron and the land forces. There are five boats, manned by picked
crews from the gunboats, carrying forty men of the Forty-second
Illinois, under command of Colonel Roberts. The party numbers one
hundred. It is a wild night. The wind blows a gale from the south,
swaying the great trees of the forest and tossing up waves upon the
swift-running river, which boils, bubbles, dashes, and foams in the
storm. There are vivid lightning flashes, growls and rolls of deep,
heavy thunder. The boats cast off from the fleet. The oars have been
muffled. No words are spoken. The soldiers sit, each with his gun half
raised to his shoulder and his hand upon the lock. The spray dashes over
them, sheets of flame flash in their faces. All the landscape for a
moment is as light as day, and then all is pitch darkness.
Onward faster and faster they sweep, driven by the strong arms of the
rowers and the current. It is a stealthy, noiseless, rapid, tempestuous,
dangerous, daring enterprise. They are tossed by the waves, but they
glide with the rapidity of a race-horse. Two sentinels stand upon the
parapet. A few rods in rear is a regiment of Rebels. A broad
lightning-flash reveals the descending boats. The sentinels fire their
guns, but they are mimic flashes.
"Lay in quick!" shouts Colonel Roberts.
The oars bend in the row-locks. A stroke, and they are beside the
parapet, climbing up the slippery bank. The sentinels run. There is a
rattling fire from pistols and muskets; but the shots fall harmlessly in
the forest. A moment,--and all the guns are spiked. There is a commotion
in the woods. The sleeping Rebels are astir. They do not rally to drive
back the invaders, but are fleeing in the darkness.
Colonel Roberts walks from gun to gun, to see if the work has been
effectually accomplished.
"All right! All aboard! Push off!" He is the last to leave. The boats
head up-stream. The rowers bend to their oars. In a minute they are
beyond musket range. Their work is accomplished, and there will be no
more firing from that six-gun battery. Now the gunboats can move nearer
and begin their work upon the remaining batteries.
In the morning General Mackall was much chagrined when he found out what
had been done by the Yankees. It is said he used some hard words. He
flew into a rage, and grew red in the face, which did not help the
matter in the least.
At midnight, on the night of the 3d of April, the Carondelet, commanded
by Captain Walke, ran past the batteries and the island. It was a dark,
stormy night. But the sentinels saw her coming down in the darkness, and
every cannon was brought to bear upon the vessel. Shells burst around
her; solid shot, grape, and canister swept over her; but she was not
struck, although exposed to the terrific fire over thirty minutes. We
who remained with the fleet waited in breathless suspense to hear her
three signal-guns, which were to be fired if she passed safely. They
came,--boom! boom! boom! She was safe. We cheered, hurrahed, and lay
down to sleep, to dream it all over again.
The Carondelet reached New Madrid. The soldiers of General Pope's army
rushed to the bank, and gave way to the wildest enthusiasm.
"Three cheers for the Carondelet!" shouted one. Their caps went into the
air, they swung their arms, and danced in ecstasy.
"Three more for Commodore Foote!"
"Now three more for Captain Walke!"
"Three more for the Navy!"
"Three more for the Cabin-Boy!"
So they went on cheering and shouting for everything till they were
hoarse.
The next day the Carondelet went down the river as far as Point
Pleasant, had an engagement with several batteries on the Tennessee
shore, silenced them, landed and spiked the guns. The next night the
Pittsburg, Captain Thompson ran the blockade safely. The four steamboats
which had worked their way through the canal were all ready. The Tenth,
Sixteenth, Twenty-first, and Fifty-first Illinois regiments were taken
on board. The Rebels had a heavy battery on the other side of the river,
at a place called Watson's Landing. The Carondelet and Pittsburg went
ahead, opened fire, and silenced it. The steamers advanced. The Rebels
saw the preparations and fled towards Tiptonville. By midnight General
Pope had all his troops on the Tennessee shore. General Paine,
commanding those in advance, pushed on towards Tiptonville and took
possession of all the deserted camps. The Rebels had fled in confusion,
casting away their guns, knapsacks, clothing, everything, to escape.
When the troops in the batteries heard what was going on in their rear,
they also fled towards Tiptonville. General Pope came up with them the
next morning and captured all who had not escaped. General Mackall and
two other generals, nearly seven thousand prisoners, one hundred and
twenty-three pieces of artillery, seven thousand small arms, and an
immense amount of ammunition and supplies fell into the hands of General
Pope. The troops on the island, finding that they were deserted,
surrendered to Commodore Foote. It was almost a bloodless victory, but
one of great importance, opening the Mississippi River down to Fort
Pillow, forty miles above Memphis.
When the State of Tennessee was carried out of the Union by the
treachery of Governor Harris, and other men in high official position,
there were some men in the western part of the State, as well as the
eastern, who remained loyal. Those who were suspected of loving the
Union suffered terrible persecutions. Among them was a citizen of Purdy.
His name was Hurst. He told me the story of his wrongs.
Soon after the State seceded, he was visited by a number of men who
called themselves a vigilance committee. They were fierce-looking
fellows, armed with pistols and knives.
"We want you to come with us," said the leader of the gang.
"What do you want of me?"
"We will let you know when you get there."
Mr. Hurst knew that they wanted to take him before their own
self-elected court, and went without hesitation.
He was questioned, but would not commit himself by any positive answer,
and, as they could not prove he was in favor of the Union, they allowed
him to go home.
But the ruffians were not satisfied, and in a few days had him up again.
They tried hard to prove that he was opposed to the Confederacy, but he
had kept about his own business, had refrained from talking, and they
could not convict him. They allowed him to go for several months. One
day, in September, 1861, while at work in his field, the ruffians came
again. Their leader had a red face, bloated with whiskey, chewed
tobacco, had two pistols in his belt, and a long knife in a sheath. He
wore a slouched hat, and was a villanous-looking fellow.
"Come, you scoundrel. We will fix you this time," said the captain of
the band.
"What do you want of me?"
"You are an Abolitionist,--a Yankee spy. That's what you are. We'll make
you stretch hemp this time," they said, seizing him and marching him
into town, with their pistols cocked. Six or eight of them were ready to
shoot him if he should attempt to escape. They called all who did not go
for secession Abolitionists.
"I am not an Abolitionist," said Hurst.
"None of your sass. We know what you are, and if you don't hold your
jaw, we will stop it for you."
They marched him through the village, and the whole population turned
out to see him. He was taken to the jail, and thrust into a cage, so
small that he could not lie down,--a vile, filthy place. The jailer was
a brutal, hard-hearted man,--a rabid secessionist. He chuckled with
delight when he turned the key on Hurst. He was kept in the cage two
days, and then taken to Nashville, where he was tried before a military
court.
He was charged with being opposed to the Confederacy, and in favor of
the Union; also that he was a spy.
Among his accusers were some secessionists who owed him a grudge. They
invented lies, swore that Hurst was in communication with the Yankees,
and gave them information of all the movements of the Rebels. This was
months before General Grant attacked Donelson, and Hurst was two hundred
miles from the nearest post of the Union army; but such was the hatred
of the secessionists, and they were so bloodthirsty, that they were
ready to hang all who did not hurrah for Jeff Davis and the Confederacy.
He was far from home. He was not permitted to have any witnesses, and
his own word was of no value in their estimation. He was condemned to be
hung as a spy.
They took him out to a tree, put the rope round his neck, when some of
his old acquaintances, who were not quite so hardened as his accusers,
said that the evidence was not sufficient to hang him. They took him
back to the court. He came under heavy bonds to report himself often and
prove his whereabouts.
He was released, and went home, but his old enemies followed him, and
dogged him day and night.
He discovered that he was to be again arrested. He told his boy to
harness his horse quick, and take him to a side street, near an
apothecary's shop. He looked out of the window, and saw a file of
soldiers approaching to arrest him. He slipped out of the back door,
gained the street, and walked boldly through the town.
"There he goes!" said a fellow smoking a cigar on the steps of the
hotel. A crowd rushed out of the bar-room to see him. They knew that he
was to be arrested; they expected he would be hung.
As he walked into the apothecary's shop, he saw his boy coming down the
alley with his horse. He did not dare to go down the alley to meet him,
for the crowd would see his attempt to escape. They saw him enter the
door, and rushed across the street to see the fun when the soldiers
should arrive.
"Come in here," he said to the apothecary, as he stepped into a room in
the rear, from which a door opened into the alley.
The apothecary followed him, wondering what he wanted.
Hurst drew a pistol from his pocket, and held it to the head of the
apothecary, and said, "If you make any noise, I will blow your brains
out!" He opened the door, and beckoned to his boy, who rode up. "I have
four friends who are aiding me to escape," said he. "They will be the
death of you if you give the alarm; but if you remain quiet, they will
not harm you." He sprang upon his horse, galloped down the alley, and
was gone.
The apothecary dared not give the alarm, and was very busy about his
business when the soldiers came to arrest Hurst.
When they found he was gone, they started in pursuit, but were not able
to overtake him. He made his way to the woods, and finally reached the
Union army.
When General Lewis Wallace's division entered the town of Purdy, Hurst
accompanied it. He asked General Wallace for a guard, to make an
important arrest. His request was granted. He went to the jail, found
the jailer, and demanded his keys. The jailer gave them up. Hurst
unlocked the cage, and there he found a half-starved slave, who had been
put in for no crime, but to keep him from running away to the Union
army.
He released the slave and told him to go where he pleased. The colored
man could hardly stand, he was so cramped and exhausted by his long
confinement and want of food.
"Step in there!" said Hurst to the jailer. The jailer shrunk back.
"Step in there, you scoundrel!" said Hurst, more determinedly.
"You don't mean to put me in there, Hurst!" said the jailer, almost
whining.
"Step in, I say, or I'll let daylight through you!" He seized a gun from
one of the soldiers and pricked the jailer a little with the bayonet, to
let him know that he was in earnest. The other soldiers fenced him round
with a glittering line of sharp steel points. They chuckled, and thought
it capital fun.
The jailer stepped in, whining and begging, and saying that he never
meant to harm Hurst. Having got him inside, Hurst locked the door, put
the key in his pocket, dismissed the soldiers, and went away. He was
gone two days, and when he returned, _had lost the key_!
The cage was built of oak logs, and bolted so firmly with iron that it
took half a day, with axes, to get the jailer out. He never troubled
Hurst again, who joined the Union army as a scout, and did excellent
service, for he was well acquainted with the country.
While operations were going on at Island No. 10, I went up the river one
day, and visited the hospitals at Mound City and Paducah. In one of the
wards a surgeon was dressing the arm of a brave young Irishman, who was
very jolly. His arm had been torn by a piece of shell, but he did not
mind it much. The surgeon was performing an operation which was painful.
"Does it hurt, Patrick?" he asked.
"Ah! Doctor, ye nadent ask such a question as that; but if ye'll just
give me a good drink of whiskey, ye may squeeze it all day long."
He made up such a comical face that the sick and wounded all around him
laughed. It did them good, and Patrick knew it, and so, in the kindness
of his heart, he kept on making up faces, and never uttered a word of
complaint.
"He is a first-rate patient," said the surgeon as we passed along. "He
keeps up good spirits all the time, and that helps all the rest."
In another part of the hospital was one of Birges's sharpshooters, who
did such excellent service, you remember, at Fort Donelson. He was a
brave and noble boy. There were several kind ladies taking care of the
sick. Their presence was like sunshine. Wherever they walked the eyes of
the sufferers followed them. One of these ladies thus speaks of little
Frankie Bragg:--
"Many will remember him; the boy of fifteen, who fought
valiantly at Donelson,--one of the bravest of Birges's
sharpshooters, and whose answer to my questioning in regard
to joining the army was so well worthy of record.
"'_I joined, because I was so young and strong, and because
life would be worth nothing to me unless I offered it for my
country!_'"[26]
[Footnote 26: Hospital Incidents, New York Post, October 22, 1863.]
How noble! There are many strong men who have done nothing for their
country, and there are some who enjoy all the blessings of a good
government, who are willing to see it destroyed rather than lift a
finger to save it. Their names shall go out in oblivion, but little
Frankie Bragg shall live forever! His body lies in the hospital ground
at Paducah, but the pure patriotism which animated him, and the words he
uttered, will never die!
The good lady who took care of him writes:--
"I saw him die. I can never forget the pleading gaze of his
violet eyes, the brow from which ringlets of light-brown hair
were swept by strange fingers bathed in the death-dew, the
desire for some one to care for him, some one to love him in
his last hours. I came to his side, and he clasped my hand in
his own, fast growing cold and stiff.
"'O, I am going to die, and there is no one to love me,' he
said. 'I did not think I was going to die till now; but it
can't last long. If my sisters were only here; but I have no
friends near me now, and it is so hard!'
"'Frankie,' I said, 'I know it is hard to be away from your
relatives, but you are not friendless; I am your friend. Mrs.
S---- and the kind Doctor are your friends, and we will all
take care of you. More than this, God is your friend, and he
is nearer to you now than either of us can get. Trust him, my
boy. He will help you.'
"A faint smile passed over the pale sufferer's features.
"'O, do you think he will?' he asked.
"Then, as he held my hands closer, he turned his face more
fully toward me, and said: 'My mother taught me to pray when
I was a very little boy, and I never forgot it. I have always
said my prayers every day, and tried not to be bad. Do you
think God heard me always?'
"'Yes, most assuredly. Did he not promise, in his good Book,
from which your mother taught you, that he would always hear
the prayers of his children? Ask, and ye shall receive. Don't
you remember this? One of the worst things we can do is to
doubt God's truth. He has promised, and he will fulfil. Don't
you feel so, Frankie?'
"He hesitated a moment, and then answered, slowly: 'Yes, I do
believe it. I am not afraid to die, but I want somebody to
love me.'
"The old cry for love, the strong yearning for the sympathy
of kindred hearts. It would not be put down.
"'Frankie, I love you. Poor boy! you shall not be left alone.
Is not this some comfort to you?'
"'Do you love me? Will you stay with me, and not leave me?'
"'I will not leave you. Be comforted, I will stay as long as
you wish.'
"I kissed the pale forehead as if it had been that of my own
child. A glad light flashed over his face.
"'O, kiss me again; that was given like my sister. Mrs.
S----, won't you kiss me, too? I don't think it will be so
hard to die, if you will both love me.'
"It did not last long. With his face nestled against mine,
and his large blue eyes fixed in perfect composure upon me to
the last moment, he breathed out his life."
So he died for his country. He sleeps on the banks of the beautiful
Ohio. Men labor hard for riches, honor, and fame, but few, when life is
over, will leave a nobler record than this young Christian patriot.