NEW MADRID AND ISLAND NUMBER TEN.
A division belonging to General Pope's command in Missouri went with
General Curtis to Pea Ridge and Arkansas. A considerable portion of what
was left was sent up the Tennessee and Cumberland to General Grant. On
February 14, 1862, General Pope was summoned to St. Louis by General
Halleck, and on the 18th General Halleck pointed out to him the
situation at New Madrid and Island No. Ten, and directed him to organize
and command a force for their reduction. On the 19th Pope left for Cairo
to defend it from an attack then apprehended from Columbus. This
apprehension being found to be groundless, he proceeded by steamboat,
with a guard of 140 men, thirty miles up the river, and began at once to
organize his expedition.
Major-General Polk, commanding at Columbus, having received instructions
from the Confederate War Department, through General Beauregard, to
evacuate Columbus and select a defensive position below, adopted that
embracing Madrid Bend on the Tennessee shore, New Madrid on the Missouri
shore, and Island No. Ten between them. The bluffs on the Missouri shore
terminate abruptly at Commerce. Thence to Helena, Arkansas, the west
bank of the Mississippi is everywhere low and flat, and in many places
on the river, and to much greater extent a few miles back from the
river, is a swamp. From Columbus to Fort Pillow, the Tennessee shore is
of the same character. The river flowing almost due south for some miles
to Madrid Bend, curves there to the west of north to New Madrid, and
there making another bend, sweeps to the southeast and then nearly east,
till, reaching Tiptonville, a point nearly due south of Madrid Bend, it
turns again to the south. Island No. Ten begins at Madrid Bend and looks
up the straight stretch of the river. From Island No. Eight, about four
miles above Island No. Ten, the distance across the land to New Madrid
is six miles, while by river it is fifteen. The distance overland from
Island No. Ten to Tiptonville is five miles, while by water it is
twenty-seven. Commencing at Hickman, between Madrid Bend and Columbus, a
great swamp, which for a part of its extent is a sheet of water called
Reelfoot Lake, extends along the left bank of the Mississippi, and
discharges its waters into the Mississippi forty miles below
Tiptonville, leaving between it and the river the peninsula which lies
immediately below Island No. Ten, and opposite New Madrid. Immediately
below Tiptonville the swamp for many miles extends entirely to the
river. The peninsula is, therefore, substantially an island, having the
Mississippi on three sides, and Reelfoot Lake, with its enveloping
swamp, on the other. A good road led from the Tennessee shore, opposite
Island No. Ten, along the west border of the swamp and the lake to
Tiptonville. The only means of supply, therefore, for the forces on
Island No. Ten and this peninsula, were by the river. If the river were
blockaded at New Madrid, supplies must be landed at Tiptonville and
conveyed across the neck of the peninsula by the road. From this
peninsula there was no communication with the interior except by a small
flatboat which plied across Reelfoot Lake, more than a mile across, by a
channel cut through the cypress-trees which cover the lake. Supplies
and reinforcements could not, therefore, be brought to any considerable
extent by the land side; nor could escape, except by small parties, be
made in that direction. A mile below Tiptonville begin the great swamps
on both sides of the Mississippi. If batteries could be planted on the
lowest dry ground, opposite and below Tiptonville, so as to command the
river and effectually intercept navigation, the garrison of Island No.
Ten and its supports would be cut off from reinforcements and from
escape.
General Polk began the evacuation of Columbus on February 25th. One
hundred and forty pieces of artillery were mounted in the works. All
these, except two thirty-two pounders and several carronades, which were
spiked and left, were taken to Island No. Ten and the works in
connection with it. Brigadier-General McCown with his division went down
the river to Island No. Ten, on February 27th, and General Stewart, with
a brigade, followed to New Madrid on March 1st. The rest of the infantry
marched under General Cheatham, by land, March 1st to Union City. Next
day General Polk, having sent off the bulk of the great stores
accumulated at this place, destroyed the remainder and moved away with
his staff and the cavalry. The force that went from Columbus to Island
No. Ten included General Trudeau's command of ten companies of heavy
artillery and the Southern Guards who acted as heavy artillery. The
light batteries were brigaded with the infantry.
Some progress had been made in throwing up batteries on the island and
at the bend. Sappers and miners were at once set to work, aided by the
companies of heavy artillery and details from the infantry. By March
12th, four batteries, scarcely above the water-level, were completed on
the island and armed with twenty-three guns, and five batteries on the
main-land, armed with twenty-four guns. Battery No. 1, on the main-land,
called the Redan, armed with six guns, was three thousand yards in an
air-line above the point of the island. A line of infantry
intrenchments, _en crémaillère_, extended from the Redan to the water of
a bayou which connects with Reelfoot Lake. A floating battery, anchored
near the lower end of the island, added ten guns to its defence. Later,
a fifth battery was erected on the island, and the number of guns in
battery on the island and on the main-land, at the bend, was increased
to fifty-four, exclusive of the floating battery. On the Missouri shore
a bastioned redoubt, called Fort Thompson, with fourteen guns, stood
below the town, and an earthwork with seven guns, called Fort Bankhead,
just above the town. Infantry intrenchments extended these forts, and a
field-battery of six pieces was added to the armament of the upper fort.
Commodore Hollins, of the Confederate navy, aided the land-forces with
eight gunboats. General McCown, making an inspecting visit to the
position on February 25th, found there Colonel Gantt, of Arkansas, with
the Eleventh and Twelfth Arkansas, and two artillery companies, acting
as garrison to Fort Thompson, and at once, before returning to Columbus,
ordered Colonel L.M. Walker, with two regiments from Fort Pillow, to
guard the defences just above New Madrid.
General Pope having landed at Commerce with 140 men, regiments and
batteries rapidly arrived from Cairo, St. Louis, and Cincinnati. With
the assistance of able and experienced officers, Generals Schuyler
Hamilton, Stanley, Palmer, and Granger, the troops were brigaded,
divisions formed, and the command organized. Colonel Plummer being
promoted to brigadier-general after the arrival before New Madrid, the
organization was modified. As finally organized, it comprised five small
infantry divisions. First, commanded by General D.S. Stanley,
comprising First Brigade, Colonel John Groesbeck, Twenty-seventh and
Thirty-ninth Ohio; and Second Brigade, Colonel J.L.K. Smith, Forty-third
and Sixty-third Ohio. Second Division, General Schuyler Hamilton,
comprising First Brigade, Colonel W.H. Worthington, Fifth Iowa and
Fifty-ninth Indiana; and Second Brigade, Colonel N. Perczell,
Twenty-sixth Missouri Infantry and Sands' Eleventh Ohio Battery. Third
Division, General J.N. Palmer, comprising First Brigade, Colonel J.R.
Slack, Thirty-fourth and Forty-seventh Indiana; and Second Brigade,
Colonel G.N. Fitch, Forty-third and Forty-sixth Indiana Infantry,
Seventh Illinois Cavalry, and Company G, First Missouri Light Artillery.
Fourth Division, comprising First Brigade, Colonel J.D. Morgan, Tenth
and Sixteenth Illinois; and Second Brigade, Colonel G.W. Cumming,
Twenty-sixth and Fifty-first Illinois, First Illinois Cavalry, and a
battalion of Yate's sharpshooters. Fifth Division, General J.B. Plummer,
comprising First Brigade, Colonel John Bryner, Forty-seventh Illinois
and Eighth Wisconsin; and Second Brigade, Colonel J.M. Loomis,
Twenty-second Illinois, Eleventh Missouri Infantry, and Company M, First
Missouri Light Artillery. Besides these was a cavalry division,
commanded by General Gordon Granger, comprising the Second and Third
Michigan Cavalry; also an artillery division, commanded by Major W.L.
Lothrop, comprising the following batteries: Second Iowa, Third
Michigan, Company F, Second United States Artillery, Houghtaling's
Ottawa Light Artillery, Fifth, Sixth, and Seventh Batteries of the First
Wisconsin Artillery, and De Golyer's battery, afterward Company H, of
the First Michigan Artillery. In addition to these was a command under
Colonel J.W. Bissel, called the Engineer's Regiment of the West,
comprising the Fifteenth Wisconsin and Twenty-second Missouri Infantry,
the Second Iowa Cavalry, a company of the Fourth United States Cavalry,
a company of the First United States Infantry, and battalion of the
Second Illinois Cavalry. The army commander, the division commanders,
and other officers, nearly a dozen in all, were graduates of West Point.
The men of this army had, therefore, better opportunity than most others
to learn quickly something of the business of military life, and acquire
habits of military discipline.
The road from Commerce to New Madrid was, for the most part, a
dilapidated corduroy, tumbling about a broken causeway through a swamp.
M. Jeff. Thompson, "Brigadier-General of the Missouri State Guard,"
designed to hold a "very important session of the Missouri Legislature,"
at New Madrid, on March 3d--a session which was to last, however, but
one day. When General Pope moved out from Commerce, on February 28th,
Schuyler Hamilton in front, Thompson undertook to oppose the advance
with a detachment of his irregular command and three light pieces of
rifled artillery. The Seventh Illinois Cavalry charged, captured the
three guns, took two officers and several enlisted men prisoners, and
chased Thompson and the rest of his band sixteen miles, almost to the
outskirts of New Madrid. Dragging through the mud by short marches,
Hamilton's division reached New Madrid on the morning of March 3d.
Deploying, with the Twenty-seventh and Thirty-ninth Ohio in front as
skirmishers, Hamilton marched upon the town, pushed the enemy's pickets
back into the intrenchments, developed the line of intrenchment, drew
the fire of its armament--twenty-four, thirty-two, and sixty-four
pounders and field-pieces. The gunboats of Commodore Hollins' fleet took
part in the engagement. The water in the river was so high that it
lifted the guns on the boats above the banks. The reconnoissance
developed the fact that the intrenchments could be carried by assault,
but could not be held so long as the gunboats could lay the muzzles of
their heavy guns upon the river-bank and sweep the whole interior.
The reconnoissance made by General Hamilton showed the necessity of
having siege-guns. The troops were put into camp about two miles back
from the river; urgent request was sent to Cairo for heavy artillery,
and parties were pushed forward every day to harass the garrison and
keep them occupied. Colonel Plummer (soon after brigadier-general and
commanding a division of his own) was detached from Hamilton's division
and sent with the Eleventh Missouri, Twenty-sixth and Forty-seventh
Illinois Infantry, four guns of the First Missouri Light Artillery, and
one company of engineer troops, together with two companies of cavalry,
to act as outpost toward the interior--to Point Pleasant. The object was
to attempt by field-pieces to stop the passage of transport steamboats
up and down the river. Colonel Plummer, leaving camp at noon, March 5th,
proceeding by a circuitous road to avoid passing along the river-bank,
halted for the night in bivouac, without fires, within three or four
miles of the town. A gunboat prevented his cavalry and artillery from
occupying the town next day, but was driven away by the fire of the
infantry. The infantry and engineers prosecuted the work of digging
rifle-pits, and in the night places were sunk for the field-pieces by
excavating near the edge of the bank. By morning of March 7th the four
guns were in position, planted apart, with lines of rifle-pits
connecting them. When discovered, the gunboats immediately began a
furious assault. Plummer's artillery wasted no ammunition in useless
fire upon the iron-plated boats, and his guns were so shielded by their
position in sunken batteries, back from the edge of the bank, that the
fire of the gunboats passed harmless overhead. The deliberate fire of
sharpshooters from the rifle-pits, however, searching every opened
porthole, pilot-house, and every exposed point, was so annoying that the
fleet withdrew. Every day the gunboats opened upon the position, either
in stationary attack or while passing up and down the river. But, to
avoid the harassing fire from the rifle-pits, they kept, after the first
few attacks, near the opposite shore of the river. The steamboats used
as transports did not venture to pass up or down the river in face of
Plummer's batteries, and the enemy was restricted to the landing at
Tiptonville and boats below for all communication.
[Illustration: New Madrid and Island Number Ten.]
On the 6th, General Pope telegraphed that Colonel Plummer had not yet
been able to effect his lodgement at Point Pleasant, but that the
sharpshooters were trying to drive the artillerymen of the gunboats from
their pieces. Next day, the 7th, General Halleck telegraphed to Pope:
"After securing the roads so as to prevent the enemy's advance north,
you will withdraw your remaining forces to Sikeston, and thence to
Bird's Point or Commerce for embarkation. They will proceed up the
Tennessee to reinforce General C. F. Smith. Good luck." On the same day,
the 7th, General Pope reported by telegraph Plummer's success in
establishing himself, and nothing more was heard about abandoning the
expedition.
General Pope had asked for rifled thirty-twos. General Cullum, Halleck's
chief of staff, who was stationed at Cairo and had immediate charge and
supervision of sending reinforcements and supplies to the armies in
Halleck's department, not finding rifled thirty-twos, obtained three
twenty-four-pounders and one eight-inch howitzer. Colonel Bissell, of
the engineer regiment, who was in Cairo waiting for them, received these
four pieces on March 11th. They were shipped across the river to Bird's
Point, and sent by rail to Sikeston. At Sikeston a detachment from the
company of regular artillery, with horses, as well as the regiment of
engineers, were waiting. The pieces were quickly unshipped and mounted
on carriages. The engineers had such success in repairing the road, and
the artillery in conducting the pieces, that all arrived in good order
about sunset of the 12th.
Major Lathrop, commanding the artillery, had, on the 11th, reconnoitered
the ground and selected a position about eight hundred yards in front of
Fort Thompson, for batteries to contain the siege-guns. On Colonel
Bissell's arrival, he went again to the front and pointed out the
position selected. About dusk, two companies of the Thirty-ninth Ohio,
deployed as skirmishers, drove back the enemy's pickets toward the
works. At nine o'clock P.M., Colonel Bissell and Major Lathrop arrived
on the ground with Colonel Morgan, who had with him the Tenth and six
companies of the Sixteenth Illinois. The Tenth Illinois, advancing in
open order, pushed the enemy's pickets still farther back and close to
their works. The six companies of the Sixteenth followed with picks and
spades. Two companies of the Tenth, deployed as skirmishers, were pushed
forward, covering the front and flanks of the party, with orders not to
fire even if fired upon. The remaining eight companies of the Tenth
Illinois joined the Sixteenth as a working party. The lines of two
batteries for two guns each, and lines of infantry intrenchments, had
now been traced. The fourteen companies worked with such zeal that the
works were completed by three o'clock A.M. Captain Mower, of the First
United States Infantry, who, with Companies A and H of his regiment, had
been put in command of the siege-artillery, put the four pieces in
position; Colonel Morgan, recalling his pickets, posted his command in
the trenches. General Stanley moved out with his division in support,
and, at daylight, Mower opened fire upon Fort Thompson.
The force in Forts Thompson and Bankhead numbered about three thousand
effectives, according to General A.P. Stewart, who had general command
of both; thirty-five hundred, according to General Gantt, who commanded
at Fort Thompson, and had been promoted after being assigned to the
command. The fire from Captain Mower's guns was the first notice General
Gantt or his men had of the erection of the batteries. Fort Thompson
replied with all its guns. Fort Bankhead joined with its heavy ordnance
and field-battery. Commodore Hollins brought his fleet close in shore
and aided the bombardment. Captain Mower, by direction of General Pope,
paid little heed to the forts, but directed most of his fire to the
boats. The forts on either side were little injured. One twenty-four
pounder in Mower's battery, and one thirty-two in Fort Thompson, were
disabled. The gunboats were struck, but not seriously injured.
In the evening, General McCown visited Commodore Hollins on his
flag-ship, and, after a conference, sent for General Stewart. Commodore
Hollins stated that he had been positively assured that heavy artillery
could not be brought over the wet and swampy country, and he was not
prepared to encounter it. General McCown said it was evident to him that
Pope intended, by regular approaches, to cut off Fort Thompson. He told
A.P. Stewart that reinforcements could not be expected within ten days.
Stewart said he could not hold out three days. All agreed, then, that
the forts must be evacuated, and immediately.
About ten o'clock P.M. a gunboat and two transports reported to Colonel
Walker at Fort Bankhead, and General Stewart proceeded with two gunboats
to Fort Thompson.
According to Colonel Walker's report, the evacuation and embarkation at
his post was orderly, though impeded by a heavy rain-storm, and
restricted by the very insufficient transportation afforded by the
boats. He was unable to carry off any of the heavy guns, but succeeded
in shipping the guns of Bankhead's field-battery, leaving their limbers
and caissons behind. General Gantt's report represents a like state of
affairs at Fort Thompson. But, according to General Stewart's report,
his directions were imperfectly carried out. One twenty-four pounder was
pulled off its platform into the swamp in its rear, where it sank so
deep in the mud that it was impossible to move it. No attempt was made
to remove more. The storm began at eleven o'clock. "The rain was
unusually violent, and the night became so dark that it was difficult to
see, except by the flashes of lightning. The men became sullen and
indifferent--indisposed to work. I spent some time in collecting
together such of them as were idle and urged them to carry off the boxes
of ammunition from the magazine, and pass them aboard the boat. At
length I learned from Captain Stewart that all the guns had been spiked,
that rat-tail files had been sent up for the purpose from one of the
gunboats, with orders to spike the guns. I replied that no such orders
had been given by me, that the spiking of the guns should have been the
last thing done." "Soon after this an artillery officer informed me that
Gantt's regiment was going aboard the boats, that Captain Carter was
hurrying them, telling them he intended to save his boats, and would
leave them to shift for themselves if the enemy fired." "I directed the
artillery officers, before the boats left, to make an effort to get
their tents on board. They subsequently reported that they could not get
many of the men together in the darkness and rain, nor induce the few
whom they did collect to do anything at it." General Stewart ordered
the pickets who had been sent out to cover the movement to be recalled,
and the tents and quarters to be searched. Thirteen men, however, were
left. One of the gunboats took in tow a wharf-boat at the landing, which
was used as a hospital and contained several hundred sick. Between three
and four o'clock in the morning the boats pulled out and left.
Morgan's brigade, after constructing the works in the night of the 12th,
remained in the trenches till relieved early in the morning of the 14th.
At two o'clock A.M. of the 14th, General Hamilton advanced with his
division to relieve General Stanley in support, and with Slack's brigade
of Palmer's division to relieve Morgan's brigade in the trenches. "The
darkness was palpable, the rain poured down in torrents, the men were
obliged to wade through pools knee-deep. Silence having been strictly
enjoined, the division, hoping to have the honor of leading in the
assault on the enemy's works, moved steadily forward with cheerful
alacrity; those assigned to that duty taking post in the rifle-pits half
full of water, without a murmur." A heavy fog obscured the dawn. About
six o'clock two deserters reported that the fort had been hastily
abandoned in the night, after a portion of the guns had been spiked.
Captain Mower and Lieutenant Fletcher, commanding the two companies in
charge of the siege-guns, were dispatched into the fort to hoist the
American flag. Two field-batteries, besides the heavy artillery, great
quantities of ammunition for small arms as well as for the artillery,
tents, stores of all sorts, the wagons, horses, and mules of the troops
at Fort Thompson, were found. The wagons and animals at Fort Bankhead
had been sent across the river a few days before. General Beauregard,
whose command included these defences, ordered an inquiry into the facts
of the evacuation of New Madrid. The inspecting officer reported
substantially in accordance with the report of General A.P. Stewart.
Immediately the evacuation was confirmed, Hamilton's division was moved
into the works and their guns were turned toward the river. Without
delay, batteries were at night sunk at points along the river just back
of the river-bank, and the captured siege-guns, hauled laboriously by
hand down the the strip of more solid ground between the river and
swamp, were placed in position in them. The lowest battery was below
Point Pleasant, and opposite and a little below Tiptonville. This
extended General Pope's line seventeen miles along the river. The lowest
battery commanded the lowest solid ground on the Tennessee shore--all
below was swamp. This battery, if maintained, cut off the enemy alike
from retreat, and from reinforcements and supplies. When the morning of
the 15th disclosed the muzzles of the heavy guns peering over the
river-bank as over a parapet, five gunboats moved up within three
hundred yards, and with furious cannonade strove to destroy them. In an
hour and a half one gunboat was sunk, others damaged, gunners on them
shot from the rifle-pits on shore, and the fleet retired.
On March 15th, Commodore Foote moved with his fleet of gunboats and
mortar-boats to the neighborhood of Island No. 10, and next day engaged
the batteries on the island and the main-land, at long range, to
ascertain their position and armament. Next day five gunboats and four
mortar-boats moved down to within two thousand yards of the upper
battery or redan, and opened fire. The batteries on main-land and island
replied. One hundred pieces of heavy ordnance rent the quivering air
with their thunder. The rampart of the redan had been constructed
twenty-four feet thick, but the high water beating against it had washed
it, and, by percolation, softened it. The heavy shot from the gunboats
passed though it. Thirteen-inch shells exploding in the ground made
caverns in the soil. Water stood on the ground within, and the
artillerists waded in mud and water. The conflict lasted till evening.
The staff of the signal-flag used in the redan was shattered by a shot;
but the officer, Lieutenant Jones, picking up the flag, and using his
arm as a staff, continued signalling. The rampart of the redan was torn
and ridged, and one sixty-four gun was dismounted and another injured,
an officer killed, and seven enlisted men wounded. On the island a one
hundred and twenty-eight pound gun burst. In the fleet a gun burst on
the Pittsburg, killing and wounding fourteen men.
The fleet and batteries exchanged fire with greater or less severity
every day. On the 21st, another large gun, called the Belmont, burst on
the island. In the course of these engagements the redan was finally
knocked to pieces and ceased to reply; and, on April 1st, an expedition
from the fleet landed, drove off a detachment of the First Alabama which
was guarding it, and spiked its guns. The work of erecting new batteries
and mounting guns, as well as repairing damages, was continued as long
as the island was occupied.
On the night of March 17th, General McCown left for Fort Pillow with the
Eleventh, Twelfth, and Colonel Kennedy's Louisiana, Fourth, Fifth, and
Thirty-first Tennessee, Bankhead's and six guns of Captain R.C.
Stewart's batteries, and Neely's and Haywood's cavalry, leaving at
Madrid Bend the First Alabama, Eleventh and Twelfth Arkansas, and
Terry's Arkansas Battalion, three Tennessee regiments, commanded
respectively by Colonels Brown, Clark, and Henderson, Colonel Baker's
regiment of twelve companies called the Tennessee, Alabama, and
Mississippi regiment, five guns of Captain Stewart's field-battery, and
Captain Hudson's and Captain Wheeler's cavalry. Besides these were the
companies of heavy artillery, and what other troops, on the island and
below, the reports do not show. Most, if not all of the troops taken to
Fort Pillow by General McCown, proceeded to Corinth and joined the force
which General A. S. Johnston was gathering there. General McCown on his
return arrived below Tiptonville on March 20th, and established his
headquarters at Madrid Bend next day.
General Pope had now established his army and batteries on the right
bank of the river, so as to prevent the escape of the enemy until the
river should fall. To capture them he must cross the river. General
Halleck telegraphed to him on March 16th to construct a road, if
possible, through the swamp above the bayou, which comes into the river
just above New Madrid, to a point on the Missouri shore opposite Island
No. Ten, and transfer thither enough of his force to erect batteries and
aid the fleet in the bombardment of the island. Pope despatched Colonel
Bissell to examine the country with this view, directing him at the same
time, if he found it impracticable to build the road, to ascertain if it
were possible to dig a canal across the peninsula, from some point above
the island to New Madrid. The idea of the canal was suggested to General
Pope by General Schuyler Hamilton, an officer whose gentle refinement
veiled his absolute resolution and endurance till they were called into
practice by danger and privation.
Colonel Bissell found no place where a road could be constructed; but,
by following up the bayou (called John's Bayou in the Confederate
reports, called Wilson's Bayou on the map made by the United States
engineers) which comes into the river immediately above New Madrid, he
traced it into the swamp and found that, in connection with depressions
and sloughs, a continuous, though tortuous water-way could be gained at
that high stage of water, from a point in the river between Islands
Eight and Nine and the river at New Madrid. The length of this channel
was twelve miles. Part of it had to be excavated to get sufficient
depth; for six miles it passed through a thick forest of large trees.
General Pope immediately sent to Cairo for four light-draught steamers,
and tools, implements, and supplies needed to cut a navigable way.
Colonel Bissell was at once ordered to set his entire command at work,
and to call upon the land force on the fleet for aid if needed. For six
miles Bissell had to cut through the forest a channel fifty feet wide
and four and a half feet deep. Sawing through the trunks of large trees
four and a half feet under the surface of the cold water was a work of
extreme toil and great exposure. The trees when felled had to be
disentangled, cut up, and thrust among the standing trees. Overhanging
boughs of trees, growing outside the channel, had to be lopped off.
Shallow places were excavated. The whole had to be done from the decks
of the little working-boats, or by men standing in the water. The men
were urged to incessant labor; yet they toiled with such ardor that
urging was not needed. General Halleck telegraphed to Pope, Friday,
March 21st, that he would not hamper him with any minute instructions,
but would leave him to accomplish the object according to his own
judgment, and added: "Buell will be with Grant and Smith by Monday." In
nineteen days, April 4th, the way was open and clear; and on the 5th,
steamers and barges were brought through near to the lower mouth, but
not near enough to be in view from the river.
The Confederate officers on the island were aware of the attempt to
secure this cut-off across the peninsula. Captain Gray, engineer, in a
report or memorandum, dated March 29th, spoke of "the canal being cut by
the enemy," and of heavy guns planted to be used against any boat that
might issue from the bayou, as well as batteries erected along the
shore, from about a mile and a half below New Madrid down to
Tiptonville. But General McCown, when turning over the command to
General W.W. Mackall, who relieved him on March 31st, said to him that
the National troops were endeavoring to cut a canal across the
peninsula, but they would fail, and that Mackall would find the position
safe until the river fell, but no longer.
The task which General Pope had proposed to himself--to cross a wide,
deep, rapid river, in the face of an enemy holding the farther shore in
force, was sufficiently arduous at first. Now that Captain Gray's
industry had lined the river-shore with batteries armed with
twenty-four, thirty-two, and sixty-four pound guns, and eight-inch
howitzers and columbiads, sufficient to blow out of the water any
unarmed steamer that should venture to cross, the task was impracticable
with his present resources. He applied to Commodore Foote, and urgently
repeated the application, for two gunboats, or even one, to be sent down
the river some dark night to engage these batteries below New Madrid.
But the Commodore was not willing to risk his boats in a voyage along
the front of miles of batteries, and declined. On March 28th Halleck
telegraphed: "I have telegraphed to Commodore Foote to give you all the
aid in his power. You have a difficult problem to solve. I will not
embarrass you with instructions. I leave you to act as your judgment may
deem best."
Pope set to work to make floating-batteries, to be manned by his troops.
Each battery consisted of three heavy barges, lashed together and bolted
with iron. The middle barge was bulkheaded all around, so as to have
four feet of thickness of solid timber at both the ends and the sides.
Three heavy guns were mounted on it and protected by traverses of
sand-bags. It also carried eighty sharpshooters. The barges outside of
it had a first layer, in the bottom, of empty water-tight barrels,
securely lashed, then layers of dry cotton-wood rails and cotton-bales
packed close. These were floored over at the top to keep everything in
place, so that a shot penetrating the outer barges would have to pass
through twenty feet of rails and cotton before reaching the middle one,
which carried the men and guns. The outer barges, thus bulkheaded with
water-tight barrels and buoyant cotton-bales, could not sink. These
barges, when all was ready, were to be towed by steamers to a point
directly opposite New Madrid. This could be done safely, as the shore at
the point and for a mile and a half below was swamp, and the nearest
battery was necessarily below the swamp. When near the opposite shore
the floating-batteries were to be cut loose from the steamers and
allowed to float down-stream to the point selected for the landing of
the troops. As soon as they arrived within short range they were to drop
anchor and open fire.
Meanwhile Commander Henry Walke had volunteered to take his boat, the
Carondelet; and, on March 30th, Flag-officer Foote gave him permission
to make the attempt on the first dark night. The morning of April 4th
was a busy time on the Carondelet. The deck was covered with heavy
planks, surplus chains were coiled over the most vulnerable parts of the
boat, an eleven-inch hawser was wound around the pilot-house as high as
the windows; barriers of cordwood were built about the boilers. After
sunset, the atmosphere became hazy and the sky overcast. Guns were run
back, ports closed, and the sailors armed to resist boarders. Directions
were given to sink the boat if it became liable to fall into the enemy's
hands. At dusk, twenty sharpshooters from the Forty-second Illinois came
aboard to be ready to aid the crew in resisting boarders. After dark, a
coal-barge laden with baled hay was fastened to the port side of the
boat.
At ten o'clock the moon had gone down and a storm was gathering. The
Carondelet cast loose and steamed slowly down the river. The machinery
was adjusted so as to permit the steam to escape through the
wheel-house, and avoid the noise of puffing through the pipes. The boat
glided noiseless and invisible through the darkness. Scarcely had it
advanced half a mile when the soot in the chimneys caught fire, a blaze
shot up five feet above the smoke-stack. The flue-caps were opened, the
blaze subsided, and all was yet silent along the shore. The soot in the
smoke-stacks not being moistened by the steam, which was now escaping
through the wheel-house, became very inflammable. Just as the Carondelet
was passing by the upper battery--the redan--the treacherous flame again
leaped from the chimneys, revealing and proclaiming the mission of the
boat. Sentries on the parapets on shore fired, guards turned out,
rockets darted skyward; the heavy guns opened fire; and the brooding
storm broke forth, the lightning and thunder above drowning the flashes
and war below. The lightning revealed the position of the gunboat, but
it also disclosed the outline of the shore, enabling the pilots to steer
with certainty. The boat was pushed near to the Tennessee shore and to
the island, and put to its greatest speed. Impeded by the barge in tow,
its greatest speed was slow progress, and for half an hour the gunners
in the batteries watched the black night to see the hurrying Carondelet
shot for an instant out of the darkness at every lightning flash. Beyond
the batteries lay the floating battery, carrying nine guns, which had
been driven from its moorings the day before by the heavy fire of the
fleet. A light on the floating battery marked its position. A few shots
left it, but it evinced no eagerness to join in conflict. The
Carondelet, unharmed, untouched, fired the agreed signal, and fleet and
army knew at midnight the passage was a success.
On the morning of the sixth, Commander Walke, taking on board General
Granger, Colonel Smith, of the Forty-third Ohio, and Captain L.H.
Marshall, of General Pope's staff, steamed down the river under a heavy
fire from the batteries that lined the Tennessee shore, ascertained the
position of the batteries, and, on the return silenced the batteries
opposite Point Pleasant. Captain Marshall landed with a party and spiked
the guns. In the night of the 6th, Commodore Foote, in compliance with
General Pope's earnest request, sent the gunboat Pittsburg down to New
Madrid, where it arrived, like the Carondelet, untouched.
At the break of day of the 7th, in a heavy rain, Captain Williams, of
the First United States Infantry, opened with his thirty-two pounders
upon the batteries opposite him at Watson's Landing, where General Pope
proposed to land his troops. Commander Walke, with the two gunboats,
silenced the batteries along the shore. Three sixty-four pound guns,
standing half a mile apart, were spiked. A battery of two sixty-four
pound howitzers and one sixty-four pound gun maintained a contest till
two of the pieces were dismounted and the other disabled. The four
steamers came out of the bayou and took on board Paine's division. At
noon, Commander Walke signalled that all the batteries to Watson's
Landing were silenced and the way was clear. A spy in the employment of
General Pope, who had been taken from the Tennessee shore by Commander
Walke and forwarded by him to General Pope, brought the news that the
forces about Madrid Bend were in full retreat to Tiptonville. Paine's
division, sailing by just at that time, was signalled to stop, and the
news was communicated, with orders to land and push in pursuit to
Tiptonville with all dispatch. Colonel Morgan's brigade moved in
advance, followed by Colonel Cumming's brigade and Houghtaling's
battery. Abandoned camps and artillery were passed; prisoners were
gathered up. A detachment of cavalry fled as the column came in sight.
About nine miles from the landing, General Mackall was found well
posted, with infantry, artillery, and cavalry. The leading regiment
deployed in line, and General Mackall retired. Twice again he halted in
line as if to make a stand, and retreated as the National troops
approached. At night Morgan's brigade halted at Tiptonville, and found
shelter from the rain in an abandoned camp. The pickets of the brigade
gathered in 359 prisoners in the night. Cumming's brigade, being ordered
to explore the road coming from the north into the one over which they
were moving, came upon the river shore opposite the island, and learned
from a few prisoners taken there that but few troops were left on the
island. Finding no boats or other means of getting over to the island,
Cumming returned to the south, and marched till he came near the
camp-fires of the enemy, and then went into bivouac and advised General
Paine of his position. General Mackall found himself hemmed in to the
south and east by swamp, and to the north and west by Paine's division.
Two hours after midnight his adjutant-general took to General Paine
General Mackall's unconditional surrender.
Stanley's division followed Paine's, and was followed by Hamilton's.
These were overtaken by night and went into bivouac about half way
between the crossing and Tiptonville, and learned of the surrender next
morning while on the way to join Paine. Colonel Elliott, of the Second
Iowa Cavalry, sent with two of his companies by General Pope at dawn of
the 8th from Watson's up the river-bank, captured two hundred prisoners,
deck-hands and laborers as well as soldiers, the wharf-boat and
steamers, great quantities of ordnance and other stores, and standing
camps. Turning these over to Colonel Buford, who commanded the land
forces on the fleet, and who came over to shore from the island on a
steamer, he joined the forces at Tiptonville.
Lieutenant-Colonel Cook, commanding the Twelfth Arkansas, was appointed
commandant of the island by General Mackall on the morning of the 7th.
Lieutenant-Colonel Cook received, simultaneously with the order,
information of Mackall's retreat, and General Pope's landing and
pursuit. In the evening he abandoned the island with his regiment, and
turned over the command of the island to Captain Humes, of the
artillery. Before daylight of the 8th, Commodore Foote was visited by
two officers from the island, who tendered a surrender of it and all on
it. A gunboat was sent to ascertain the state of affairs. Having learned
three hours later of the crossing of the river by Pope, the flight of
General Mackall, and the evacuation of the shore-batteries, he sent
Colonel Buford, with a force of two gunboats, to receive possession of
the island. Seventeen officers and three hundred and sixty-eight
privates surrendered to him, besides the two hundred sick and employees
turned over to him by Colonel Elliott. Lieutenant-Colonel Cook found his
way through the swamp, on the night of the 7th, to the ferry across
Reelfoot Lake. In the course of the night he was joined by about four
hundred fugitives, mostly belonging to his own regiment, many of them
just from the hospital. Hungry, and cold, and drenched with rain, they
stood in the water waiting till they could be carried over the lake,
through the cypress trees, in two small flatboats and on some
extemporized rafts. It was noon of the 9th before the forlorn band were
all over, and, without knapsacks or blankets, many without arms, began
their weary march for Memphis.
All the troops but Cumming's brigade returned to their camps on the
Missouri shore on the 8th. Colonel Cumming, having charge of the
prisoners, returned on the evening of the 9th. General Pope, in his
final detailed report giving the result of all the operations, states:
"Three generals, two hundred and seventy-three field and company
officers, six thousand seven hundred privates, one hundred and
twenty-three pieces of heavy artillery, thirty-five pieces of field
artillery, all of the very best character and of the latest patterns,
seven thousand stand of small arms, tents for twelve thousand men,
several wharf-boat loads of provisions, an immense quantity of
ammunition of all kinds, many hundred horses and mules, with wagons and
harness, etc., are among the spoils." The capture embraced, besides, six
steamboats--two of them sunk--the gunboat Grampus, carrying two guns,
sunk; and the floating battery, carrying nine guns, which the crew had
ineffectually attempted to scuttle before abandoning it. Two of the
generals captured were brigadier-generals, Mackall and Gantt; the third
was perhaps L.M. Walker. When Major-General McCown was relieved on March
31st by Mackall, McCown and Brigadier-General Trudeau left.
Brigadier-General A.P. Stewart had left previously and reported for duty
at Corinth. Colonels Walker and Gantt were promoted brigadier-generals
after the siege began. General Walker appears, from his report of April
9th, dated St. Francis County, Arkansas, to have left on account of
ill-health some time before the surrender. The prisoners embraced,
including those on the island surrendered to the navy, seven regiments
and one battalion of infantry, one of the regiments having twelve
companies--eleven companies of heavy and one of light artillery, two
companies of cavalry, the officers and crews of the floating battery and
the steamboats, and laborers and employees.
The Mississippi was now open to Fort Pillow. General Halleck telegraphed
to General Pope: "I congratulate you and your command on your splendid
achievement. It exceeds in boldness and brilliancy all other operations
of the war. It will be memorable in military history, and will be
admired by future generations." On April 12th, General Pope and his
entire command embarked on transports and steamed down the river, in
company with the gunboat fleet. The force arrived in front of Fort
Pillow on the 14th. In a few days, before reconnoitring was completed,
Pope was ordered to report with his whole command, except two regiments
to be left with the gunboats, to General Halleck at Pittsburg Landing.