ORDERED TO GREENSBORO', N. C.âMARCH TO THE DAN RIVERâASSIGNED TO THE
COMMAND WEST OF THE MISSISSIPPIâLEAVING WASHINGTONâFLIGHT OF GENERAL
EARLYâMAXIMILIANâMAKING DEMONSTRATIONS ON THE UPPER RIO
GRANDEâCONFEDERATES JOIN MAXIMILIANâTHE FRENCH INVASION OF MEXICO AND
ITS RELATIONS TO THE REBELLIONâASSISTING THE LIBERALSâRESTORATION OF
THE REPUBLIC.
pb207.jpg (121K)
Full Size
The surrender at Appomattox put a stop to all military operations on
the part of General Grant's forces, and the morning of April 10 my
cavalry began its march to Petersburg, the men anticipating that they
would soon be mustered out and returned to their homes. At Nottoway
Court House I heard of the assassination of the President. The first
news came to us the night after the dastardly deed, the telegraph
operator having taken it from the wires while in transmission to
General Meade. The despatch ran that Mr. Lincoln had been, shot at 10
o'clock that morning at Willard's Hotel, but as I could conceive of
nothing to take the President there I set the story down as a canard,
and went to bed without giving it further thought. Next morning,
however, an official telegram confirmed the fact of the assassination,
though eliminating the distorted circumstances that had been
communicated the night before.
When we reached Petersburg my column was halted, and instructions given
me to march the cavalry and the Sixth Corps to Greensboro', North
Carolina, for the purpose of aiding General Sherman (the surrender of
General Johnston having not yet been effected), so I made the necessary
preparations and moved on the 24th of April, arriving at South Boston,
on the Dan River, the 28th, the Sixth Corps having reached Danville
meanwhile. At South Boston I received a despatch from General Halleck,
who immediately after Lee's surrender had been assigned to command at
Richmond, informing me that General Johnston had been brought to terms.
The necessity for going farther south being thus obviated we retraced
our steps to Petersburg, from which place I proceeded by steamer to
Washington, leaving, the cavalry to be marched thither by easy stages.
The day after my arrival in Washington an important order was sent me,
accompanied by the following letter of instructions, transferring me to
a new field of operations:
"HEADQUARTERS ARMIES OF THE UNITED STATES.
"Washington, D. C., May 17, 1865.
"GENERAL: Under the orders relieving you from the command of the Middle
Military Division and assigning you to command west of the Mississippi,
you will proceed without delay to the West to arrange all preliminaries
for your new field of duties.
"Your duty is to restore Texas, and that part of Louisiana held by the
enemy, to the Union in the shortest practicable time, in a way most
effectual for securing permanent peace.
"To do this, you will be given all the troops that can be spared by
Major-General Canby, probably twenty-five thousand men of all arms; the
troops with Major-General J. J. Reynolds, in Arkansas, say twelve
thousand, Reynolds to command; the Fourth Army Corps, now at Nashville,
Tennessee, awaiting orders; and the Twenty-Fifth Army Corps, now at
City Point, Virginia, ready to embark.
"I do not wish to trammel you with instructions; I will state, however,
that if Smith holds out, without even an ostensible government to
receive orders from or to report to, he and his men are not entitled to
the considerations due to an acknowledged belligerent. Theirs are the
conditions of outlaws, making war against the only Government having an
existence over the territory where war is now being waged.
"You may notify the rebel commander west of the Mississippiâholding
intercourse with him in person, or through such officers of the rank of
major-general as you may selectâthat he will be allowed to surrender
all his forces on the same terms as were accorded to Lee and Johnston.
If he accedes, proceed to garrison the Red River as high up as
Shreveport, the seaboard at Galveston, Malagorda Bay, Corpus Christi,
and mouth of the Rio Grande.
"Place a strong force on the Rio Grande, holding it at least to a point
opposite Camargo, and above that if supplies can be procured.
"In case of an active campaign (a hostile one) I think a heavy force
should be put on the Rio Grande as a first preliminary. Troops for
this might be started at once. The Twenty-Fifth Corps is now
available, and to it should be added a force of white troops, say those
now under Major-General Steele.
"To be clear on this last point, I think the Rio Grande should be
strongly held, whether the forces in Texas surrender or not, and that
no time should be lost in getting troops there. If war is to be made,
they will be in the right place; if Kirby Smith surrenders, they will
be on the line which is to be strongly garrisoned.
"Should any force be necessary other than those designated, they can be
had by calling for them on Army Headquarters.
"U. S. GRANT,
"Lieutenant-General.
"To MAJOR-GENERAL P. H. SHERIDAN,
"United States Army."
On receipt of these instructions I called at once on General Grant, to
see if they were to be considered so pressing as to preclude my
remaining in Washington till after the Grand Review, which was fixed
for the 23d and 24th of May, for naturally I had a strong desire to
head my command on that great occasion. But the General told me that
it was absolutely necessary to go at once to force the surrender of the
Confederates under Kirby Smith. He also told me that the States lately
in rebellion would be embraced in two or three military departments,
the commanders of which would control civil affairs until Congress took
action about restoring them to the Union, since that course would not
only be economical and simple, but would give the Southern people
confidence, and encourage them to go to work, instead of distracting
them with politics.
At this same interview he informed me that there was an additional
motive in sending me to the new command, a motive not explained by the
instructions themselves, and went on to say that, as a matter of fact,
he looked upon the invasion of Mexico by Maximilian as a part of the
rebellion itself, because of the encouragement that invasion had
received from the Confederacy, and that our success in putting down
secession would never be complete till the French and Austrian invaders
were compelled to quit the territory of our sister republic. With
regard to this matter, though, he said it would be necessary for me to
act with great circumspection, since the Secretary of State, Mr.
Seward, was much opposed to the use of our troops along the border in
any active way that would be likely to involve us in a war with
European powers.
Under the circumstances, my disappointment at not being permitted to
participate in the review had to be submitted to, and I left Washington
without an opportunity of seeing again in a body the men who, while
under my command, had gone through so many trials and unremittingly
pursued and, assailed the enemy, from the beginning of the campaign of
1864 till the white flag came into their hands at Appomattox Court
House.
I went first to St. Louis, and there took the steamboat for New
Orleans, and when near the mouth of the Red River received word from
General Canby that Kirby Smith had surrendered under terms similar to
those accorded Lee and Johnston. But the surrender was not carried out
in good faith, particularly by the Texas troops, though this I did not
learn till some little time afterward when I was informed that they had
marched off to the interior of the State in several organized bodies,
carrying with them their camp equipage, arms, ammunition, and even some
artillery, with the ultimate purpose of going to Mexico. In
consequence of this, and also because of the desire of the Government
to make a strong showing of force in Texas, I decided to traverse the
State with two columns of cavalry, directing one to San Antonio under
Merritt, the other to Houston under Custer. Both commands were to
start from the Red RiverâShreveport and Alexandriaâbeing the respective
initial pointsâand in organizing the columns, to the mounted force
already on the Red River were added several regiments of cavalry from
the east bank of the, Mississippi, and in a singular way one of these
fell upon the trail of my old antagonist, General Early. While
crossing the river somewhere below Vicksburg some of the men noticed a
suspicious looking party being ferried over in a rowboat, behind which
two horses were swimming in tow. Chase was given, and the horses,
being abandoned by the party, fell into the hands of our troopers, who,
however, failed to capture or identify the people in the boat. As
subsequently ascertained, the men were companions of Early, who was
already across the Mississippi, hidden in the woods, on his way with
two or three of these followers to join the Confederates in Texas, not
having heard of Kirby Smith's surrender. A week or two later I
received a letter from Early describing the affair, and the capture of
the horses, for which he claimed pay, on the ground that they were
private property, because he had taken them in battle. The letter also
said that any further pursuit of Early would be useless, as he
"expected to be on the deep blue sea" by the time his communication
reached me. The unfortunate man was fleeing from imaginary dangers,
however, for striking his trail was purely accidental, and no effort
whatever was being made to arrest him personally. Had this been
especially desired it might have been accomplished very readily just
after Lee's surrender, for it was an open secret that Early was then
not far away, pretty badly disabled with rheumatism.
By the time the two columns were ready to set out for San Antonio and
Houston, General Frank Herron,âwith one division of the Thirteenth
Corps, occupied Galveston, and another division under General Fred
Steele had gone to Brazos Santiago, to hold Brownsville and the line of
the Rio Grande, the object being to prevent, as far as possible, the
escaping Confederates from joining Maximilian. With this purpose in
view, and not forgetting Grant's conviction that the French invasion of
Mexico was linked with the rebellion, I asked for an increase of force
to send troops into Texas in fact, to concentrate at available points
in the State an army strong enough to move against the invaders of
Mexico if occasion demanded. The Fourth and Twenty-fifth army corps
being ordered to report to me, accordingly, I sent the Fourth Corps to
Victoria and San Antonio, and the bulk of the Twenty-fifth to
Brownsville. Then came the feeding and caring for all these troopsâa
difficult matterâfor those at Victoria and San Antonio had to be
provisioned overland from Indianola across the "hog-wallow prairie,"
while the supplies for the forces at Brownsville and along the Rio
Grande must come by way of Brazos Santiago, from which point I was
obliged to construct, with the labor of the men, a railroad to
Clarksville, a distance of about eighteen miles.
The latter part of June I repaired to Brownsville myself to impress the
Imperialists, as much as possible, with the idea that we intended
hostilities, and took along my chief of scoutsâMajor Youngâand four of
his most trusty men, whom I had had sent from Washington. From
Brownsville I despatched all these men to important points in northern
Mexico, to glean information regarding the movements of the Imperial
forces, and also to gather intelligence about the ex-Confederates who
had crossed the Rio Grande. On information furnished by these scouts,
I caused General Steele to make demonstrations all along the lower Rio
Grande, and at the same time demanded the return of certain munitions
of war that had been turned over by ex-Confederates to the Imperial
General (Mejia) commanding at Matamoras. These demands, backed up as
they were by such a formidable show of force created much agitation and
demoralization among the Imperial troops, and measures looking to the
abandonment of northern Mexico were forthwith adopted by those in
authorityâa policy that would have resulted in the speedy evacuation of
the entire country by Maximilian, had not our Government weakened;
contenting itself with a few pieces of the contraband artillery
varnished over with the Imperial apologies. A golden opportunity was
lost, for we had ample excuse for crossing the boundary, but Mr. Seward
being, as I have already stated, unalterably opposed to any act likely
to involve us in war, insisted on his course of negotiation with
Napoleon.
As the summer wore away, Maximilian, under Mr. Seward's policy, gained
in strength till finally all the accessible sections of Mexico were in
his possession, and the Republic under President Juarez almost
succumbed. Growing impatient at this, in the latter part of September
I decided to try again what virtue there might be in a hostile
demonstration, and selected the upper Rio Grande for the scene of my
attempt. Merritt's cavalry and the Fourth Corps still being at San
Antonio, I went to that place and reviewed these troops, and having
prepared them with some ostentation for a campaign, of course it was
bruited about that we were going to invade Mexico. Then, escorted by a
regiment of horse I proceeded hastily to Fort Duncan, on the Rio Grande
just opposite the Mexican town of Piedras Negras. Here I opened
communication with President Juarez, through one of his staff, taking
care not to do this in the dark, and the news, spreading like wildfire,
the greatest significance was ascribed to my action, it being reported
most positively and with many specific details that I was only awaiting
the arrival of the troops, then under marching orders at San Antonio,
to cross the Rio Grande in behalf of the Liberal cause.
Ample corroboration of the reports then circulated was found in my
inquiries regarding the quantity of forage we could depend upon getting
in Mexico, our arrangements for its purchase, and my sending a pontoon
train to Brownsville, together with which was cited the renewed
activity of the troops along the lower Rio Grande. These reports and
demonstrations resulted in alarming the Imperialists so much that they
withdrew the French and Austrian soldiers from Matamoras, and
practically abandoned the whole of northern Mexico as far down as
Monterey, with the exception of Matamoras, where General Mejia
continued to hang on with a garrison of renegade Mexicans.
The abandonment of so much territory in northern Mexico encouraged
General Escobedo and other Liberal leaders to such a degree that they
collected a considerable army of their followers at Comargo, Mier, and
other points. At the same time that unknown quantity, Cortinas,
suspended his free-booting for the nonce, and stoutly harassing
Matamoras, succeeded in keeping its Imperial garrison within the
fortifications. Thus countenanced and stimulated, and largely supplied
with arms and ammunition, which we left at convenient places on our
side of the river to fall into their hands, the Liberals, under General
Escobedoâa man of much force of characterâwere enabled in northern
Mexico to place the affairs of the Republic on a substantial basis.
But in the midst of what bade fair to cause a final withdrawal of the
foreigners, we were again checked by our Government, as a result of
representations of the French Minister at Washington. In October, he
wrote to Mr. Seward that the United States troops on the Rio Grande
were acting "in exact opposition to the repeated assurances Your
Excellency has given me concerning the desire of the Cabinet at
Washington to preserve the most strict neutrality in the events now
taking place in Mexico," and followed this statement with an emphatic
protest against our course. Without any investigation whatever by our
State Department, this letter of the French Minister was transmitted to
me, accompanied by directions to preserve a strict neutrality; so, of
course, we were again debarred from anything like active sympathy.
After this, it required the patience of Job to abide the slow and poky
methods of our State Department, and, in truth, it was often very
difficult to restrain officers and men from crossing the Rio Grande
with hostile purpose. Within the knowledge of my troops, there had
gone on formerly the transfer of organized bodies of ex-Confederates to
Mexico, in aid of the Imperialists, and at this period it was known
that there was in preparation an immigration scheme having in view the
colonizing, at Cordova and one or two other places, of all the
discontented elements of the defunct ConfederacyâGenerals Price,
Magruder, Maury, and other high personages being promoters of the
enterprise, which Maximilian took to readily. He saw in it the
possibilities of a staunch support to his throne, and therefore not
only sanctioned the project, but encouraged it with large grants of
land, inspirited the promoters with titles of nobility, and, in
addition, instituted a system of peonage, expecting that the silver
hook thus baited would be largely swallowed by the Southern people.
The announcement of the scheme was followed by the appointment of
commissioners in each of the Southern States to send out emigrants; but
before any were deluded into starting, I made to General Grant a report
of what was going on, with the recommendation that measures be taken,
through our State Department, looking to the suppression of the colony;
but, as usual, nothing could be effected through that channel; so, as
an alternative, I published, in April, 1866, by authority of General
Grant, an order prohibiting the embarkation from ports in Louisiana and
Texas, for ports in Mexico, of any person without a permit from my
headquarters. This dampened the ardor of everybody in the Gulf States
who had planned to go to Mexico; and although the projectors of the
Cordova Colonization Schemeâthe name by which it was knownâsecured a
few innocents from other districts, yet this set-back led ultimately to
failure.
Among the Liberal leaders along the Rio Grande during this period there
sprang up many factional differences from various causes, some
personal, others political, and some, I regret to say, from downright
moral obliquityâas, for example, those between Cortinas and
Canalesâwho, though generally hostile to the Imperialists, were
freebooters enough to take a shy at each other frequently, and now and
then even to join forces against Escobedo, unless we prevented them by
coaxing or threats. A general who could unite these several factions
was therefore greatly needed, and on my return to New Orleans I so
telegraphed General Grant, and he, thinking General Caravajal (then in
Washington seeking aid for the Republic) would answer the purpose,
persuaded him to report to me in New Orleans. Caravajal promptly
appeared, but he did not impress me very favorably. He was old and
cranky, yet, as he seemed anxious to do his best, I sent him over to
Brownsville, with credentials, authorizing him to cross into Mexico,
and followed him myself by the next boat. When I arrived in
Brownsville, matters in Matamoras had already reached a crisis. General
Mejia, feeling keenly the moral support we were giving the Liberals,
and hard pressed by the harassing attacks of Cortinas and Canales, had
abandoned the place, and Caravajal, because of his credentials from our
side, was in command, much to the dissatisfaction of both those chiefs
whose differences it was intended he should reconcile.
The, day after I got to Brownsville I visited Matamoras, and had a long
interview with Caravajal. The outcome of this meeting was, on my part,
a stronger conviction than ever that he was unsuitable, and I feared
that either Canales or Cortinas would get possession of the city.
Caravajal made too many professions of what he would doâin short,
bragged too muchâbut as there was no help for the situation, I made the
best of it by trying to smooth down the ruffled feathers of Canales and
Cortinas. In my interview with Caravajal I recommended Major Young as
a confidential man, whom he could rely upon as a "go-between" for
communicating with our people at Brownsville, and whom he could trust
to keep him informed of the affairs of his own country as well.
A day or two afterward I recrossed the Gulf to New Orleans, and then,
being called from my headquarters to the interior of Texas, a fortnight
passed before I heard anything from Brownsville. In the meanwhile
Major Young had come to New Orleans, and organized there a band of men
to act as a body-guard for Caravajal, the old wretch having induced him
to accept the proposition by representing that it had my concurrence.
I at once condemned the whole business, but Young, having been
furnished with seven thousand dollars to recruit the men and buy their
arms, had already secured both, and was so deeply involved in the
transaction, he said, that he could not withdraw without dishonor, and
with tears in his eyes he besought me to help him. He told me he had
entered upon the adventure in the firm belief that I would countenance
it; that the men and their equipment were on his hands; that he must
make good his word at all hazards; and that while I need not approve,
yet I must go far enough to consent to the departure of the men, and to
loan him the money necessary to provision his party and hire a schooner
to carry them to Brazos. It was hard in deed to resist the appeals of
this man, who had served me so long and so well, and the result of his
pleading was that I gave him permission to sail, and also loaned him
the sum asked for; but I have never ceased to regret my consent, for
misfortune fell upon the enterprise almost from its inception.
By the time the party got across the Gulf and over to Brownsville,
Caravajal had been deposed by Canales, and the latter would not accept
their services. This left Young with about fifty men to whom he was
accountable, and as he had no money to procure them subsistence, they
were in a bad fix. The only thing left to do was to tender their
services to General Escobedo, and with this in view the party set out
to reach the General's camp, marching up the Rio Grande on the American
side, intending to cross near Ringgold Bar racks. In advance of them,
however, had spread far and wide the tidings of who they were, what
they proposed to do, and where they were going, and before they could
cross into Mexico they were attacked by a party of ex-Confederates and
renegade Mexican rancheros. Being on American soil, Young forbade his
men to return the fire, and bent all his efforts to getting them over
the river; but in this attempt they were broken up, and became
completely demoralized. A number of the men were drowned while
swimming the river, Young himself was shot and killed, a few were
captured, and those who escapedâabout twenty in allâfinally joined
Escobedo, but in such a plight as to be of little use. With this
distressing affair came to an end pretty much all open participation of
American sympathizers with the Liberal cause, but the moral support
afforded by the presence of our forces continued, and this was
frequently supplemented with material aid in the shape of munitions of
war, which we liberally supplied, though constrained to do so by the
most secret methods.
The term of office of Juarez as President of the Mexican Republic
expired in December, 1865, but to meet existing exigencies he had
continued himself in office by proclamation, a course rendered
necessary by the fact that no elections could be held on account of the
Imperial occupation of most of the country. The official who, by the
Mexican Constitution, is designated for the succession in such an
emergency, is the President of the Supreme Court, and the person then
eligible under this provision was General Ortega, but in the interest
of the Imperialists he had absented himself from Mexico, hence the
patriotic course of Juarez in continuing himself at the head of affairs
was a necessity of the situation. This action of the President gave
the Imperialists little concern at first, but with the revival of the
Liberal cause they availed themselves of every means to divide its
supporters, and Ortega, who had been lying low in the United States,
now came forward to claim the Presidency. Though ridiculously late for
such a step, his first act was to issue a manifesto protesting against
the assumption of the executive authority by Juarez. The protest had
little effect, however, and his next proceeding was to come to New
Orleans, get into correspondence with other disaffected Mexicans, and
thus perfect his plans. When he thought his intrigue ripe enough for
action, he sailed for Brazos, intending to cross the Rio Grande and
assert his claims with arms. While he was scheming in New Orleans,
however, I had learned what he was up to, and in advance of his
departure had sent instructions to have him arrested on American soil.
Colonel Sedgwick, commanding at Brownsville, was now temporary master
of Matamoras also, by reason of having stationed some American troops
there for the protection of neutral merchants, so when Ortega appeared
at Brazos, Sedgwick quietly arrested him and held him till the city of
Matamoras was turned over to General Escobedo, the authorized
representative of Juarez; then Escobedo took charge, of Ortega, and
with ease prevented his further machinations.
During the winter and spring of 1866 we continued covertly supplying
arms and ammunition to the Liberalsâsending as many as 30,000 muskets
from Baton Rouge Arsenal aloneâand by mid-summer Juarez, having
organized a pretty good sized army, was in possession of the whole line
of the Rio Grande, and, in fact, of nearly the whole of Mexico down to
San Louis Potosi. Then thick and fast came rumors pointing to the
tottering condition of Maximilian's Empire-first, that Orizaba and Vera
Cruz were being fortified; then, that the French were to be withdrawn;
and later came the intelligence that the Empress Carlotta had gone home
to beg assistance from Napoleon, the author of all of her husband's
troubles. But the situation forced Napoleon to turn a deaf ear to
Carlotta's prayers. The brokenhearted woman besought him on her knees,
but his fear of losing an army made all pleadings vain. In fact, as I
ascertained by the following cablegram which came into my hands,
Napoleon's instructions for the French evacuation were in Mexico at the
very time of this pathetic scene between him and Carlotta. The
despatch was in cipher when I received it, but was translated by the
telegraph operator at my headquarters, who long before had mastered the
key of the French cipher:
"PARIS, January 10, 1867. FRENCH CONSUL, New Orleans, La.
"To GENERAL CASTELNAU, at Mexico.
"Received your despatch of the 9th December. Do not compel the Emperor
to abdicate, but do not delay the departure of the troops; bring back
all those who will not remain there. Most of the fleet has left.
"NAPOLEON."
This meant the immediate withdrawal of the French. The rest of the
storyâwhich has necessarily been but in outlineâis soon told.
Maximilian, though deserted, determined to hold out to the last, and
with the aid of disloyal Mexicans stuck to his cause till the spring.
When taken prisoner at Queretaro, he was tried and executed under
circumstances that are well known. From promptings of humanity
Secretary Seward tried hard to save the Imperial prisoner, but without
success. The Secretary's plea for mercy was sent through me at New
Orleans, and to make speed I hired a steamer to proceed with it across
the Gulf to Tampico. The document was carried by Sergeant White, one
of my scouts, who crossed the country from Tampico, and delivered it to
Escobedo at Queretaro; but Mr. Seward's representations were without
availârefused probably because little mercy had been shown certain
Liberal leaders unfortunate enough to fall into Maximilian's hands
during the prosperous days of his Empire.
At the close of our war there was little hope for the Republic of
Mexico. Indeed, till our troops were concentrated on the Rio Grande
there was none. Our appearance in such force along the border
permitted the Liberal leaders, refugees from their homes, to establish
rendezvous whence they could promulgate their plans in safety, while
the countenance thus given the cause, when hope was well-nigh gone,
incited the Mexican people to renewed resistance. Beginning again with
very scant means, for they had lost about all, the Liberals saw their
cause, under the influence of such significant and powerful backing,
progress and steadily grow so strong that within two years Imperialism
had received its death-blow. I doubt very much whether such, results
could have been achieved without the presence of an American army on
the Rio Grande, which, be it remembered, was sent there because, in
General Grant's words, the French invasion of Mexico was so closely
related to the rebellion as to be essentially a part of it.
[Illustration]