0296
0296f
Autobiography of General Samuel G. French
TWO WARS: AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF GEN. SAMUEL G. FRENCH,
An Officer in the Armies of the United States and the
Confederate States,
A Graduate from the U. S. Military Academy, West Point, 1843.
Mexican War;
War between the States, a Diary;
Reconstruction Period, His Experience;
Incidents, Reminiscences, etc.
Nashville, Tenn.:
Confederate Veteran.
1901.
Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1901,
By Samuel G. French,
In the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.
_THIS VOLUME IS DEDICATED_
TO
_MY WIFE AND CHILDREN_,
AND TO
_THE CONFEDERATE SOLDIERS_
WHO BATTLED WITH THE INVADING
FOE TO PROTECT OUR HOMES
AND MAINTAIN THE CAUSE FOR
WHICH OLIVER CROMWELL AND
GEORGE WASHINGTON FOUGHT.
PREFACE.
Some years ago, when living on an orange grove at Winter Park,
it occurred to me that my idle time might be usefully employed in
transcribing from memoranda and my diary many incidents of my life for
preservation in one manuscript for my children. This was continued at
intervals until it became as here presented. It was mainly discontinued
after my children became old enough to observe passing events for
themselves.
But inasmuch as a few books have been published containing errors in
describing some military operations in which I participated, justice to
the troops under my command induces me to publish my account of them as
recorded when they occurred.
This volume, then, is a simple narrative of passing events, without
discussing their importance and bearing politically in shaping the
destiny of the nation.
Although my lot was cast with the South, and whatever may be my
opinion of the action of the North before, during, and after the war
as expressed in these pages, I am as loyal to the Constitution and
as ready to uphold and maintain the rights and dignity of the United
States as any man within its boundary; and this was evidenced when I
tendered my services, as a soldier, to the President before war was
declared against Spain.
I do not know that I am indebted to any person, except Joseph M.
Brown, of Marietta, Ga., a son of Gov. Joseph E. Brown, for what I have
written, and to him I make acknowledgment for obligations.
THE AUTHOR.
Pensacola, Fla., May 1. 1899.
INTRODUCTION.
Of all forms of history, a good autobiography is the most pleasing
and attractive. If the writer has been a prominent and responsible
participant in great events, if high character warrants his
faithfulness to truth, and if the events of which he writes are in
themselves of great historic value, his autobiography will possess a
peculiar charm and interest for every intelligent reader.
The generation that recalls from memory the events of our history
connected with the admission of the great State of Texas into the
American Union and the war with Mexico which followed has nearly
all gone. Here and there a strong man survives whose memory is clear
and whose conscience is true. To hear him talk of these events, or
to read after him as he writes of the universal excitement in the
country--the angry debates in Congress, the opposition to the admission
of Texas, and to the war with Mexico, the brilliant campaign of Taylor,
the battles of Palo Alto, Resaca de la Palma, Monterey, and Buena
Vista--is to enjoy history in its most attractive form. The historian
who has been an active participant in the events of which he writes,
whose passions have been cooled by age, and whose judgment has been
disciplined by long years of experience and reflection enjoys an
immense advantage. However we may disagree with him in his criticisms
upon the conduct of men or upon their motives, if he be a man of high
and true character, we enjoy the greatest satisfaction in accepting
his positive statements as to facts which represent his own actions and
experiences.
Gen. French is such a historian. The clear, natural, dispassionate
style of his book--its freedom from bitterness, the tenderness with
which he dwells upon the history of his classmates at West Point,
several of whom became distinguished generals in the Federal army
(Grant, Franklin, Ingalls, and Quinby)--all these characteristics of
his autobiography soon win the confidence of the reader.
For the general reader of to-day, and especially for the survivors of
the Confederate Army, Gen. French's autobiography will possess peculiar
interest. The writer has enjoyed the opportunity of reading the advance
sheets of the book only through the account of the battle of Allatoona,
which was fought October 5, 1864, but as Gen. French participated in
the campaign of Gen. Hood up to its predestined disaster at Nashville,
the autobiography will be read with more than usual interest by
students of the ill-starred march into Tennessee and the battles of
Franklin and Nashville.
The venerable author of "Two Wars" has been an able and gallant soldier
of his country, and the simple and graphic manner in which he writes
of his distinguished services, and relates the great events in which
he bore a faithful part, entitle his book to the confidence of his
countrymen. It is a most valuable addition to our country's history,
and a book which will be of permanent use in the study of our great
Confederate struggle.
ELLISON CAPERS.
Columbia, S. C., July 1, 1901.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
PAGE
Ancestry--Thomas Ffrench--Military Aspiration--Important 1
Document--Appointment to West Point--New Jersey Farm Life--Great
Changes--A Real Yankee--Pennsylvania Hall--The Fashions--Capture
of a Hessian Soldier--Rufus Choate and Bishop Wainwright--West
Point--Cadet Life--Senator Wall--John F. Reynolds--The
Boycott--Rufus Ingalls--Requisites of a Commander
CHAPTER II.
Graduation--Commissioned Brevet Second Lieutenant, U. S. 20
A.--Ordered to Fort Macon, N. C.--Goldsboro--Journey to
Beaufort--Officers at the Fort--Life in a Casemate--Stormy
Atlantic--That Oyster Supper--The Wandering Cot--Adieu to Fort
Macon--Journey to Washington--Lieuts. George H. Thomas and John
Pope--Weldon, N. C.--Go to West Point--Prof. Morse--First
Dispatch--Hope Club, Washington--Dinner Given by Surgeon General
Lawson--Appointed Aid to Gen. Scott--British Gold--Col. S.
Churchill--Integrity of Old Army Officers--Leave Washington for
Fort McHenry--Society in Baltimore--Chief Justice Taney
CHAPTER III.
Death of Hon. A. P. Upshur, Secretary of State--Calhoun 30
Appointed--Treaty of Annexation of Texas--Declaration of the
State of Massachusetts--Texas Accepts the Resolution of
Annexation--Formation of Army of Occupation--Transferred to Maj.
S. Ringgold's Battery of Horse Artillery--Officers Sail for
Aransas Pass--The Wicked Captain--Becalmed--Cross Bahama
Banks--Key West--Out of Drinking Water--Fare on Board
Ship--Storm--Aransas Pass--St. Joseph's Island--Maj. Ringgold's
Cook--Embark for Corpus Christi--Game and Fish--Horse
Racing--White Horse of the Prairies--Trip to San Antonio--The
Town--Incidents of the Trip
CHAPTER IV.
President of Mexico Resigns, and Paredes Is Elected--Mexican 41
Troops Concentrating at Matamoras--Taylor Marches to the Rio
Grande--Rattlesnakes--Mirage--Wild Horses--Taylor Concentrates
His Troops at Arroyo, Colo.--Bull Fight--Mexicans Flee--Taylor
Goes to Point Isabel--Join Gen. Worth--Field Works--Arrival of
Gen. Ampudia--Orders Taylor to Leave--Taylor Declines--Col.
Cross Murdered--Lieut. Porter Killed--Gen. Arista
Arrives--Declares Hostilities Commenced--Capts. Thornton and
Hardee Captured
CHAPTER V.
Arista and His Cavalry--United States Excited--Two Hundred 47
Thousand Men Offer Their Services--Congress Declares "War
Existed by the Acts of the Mexican Republic"--Taylor Marches to
Point Isabel--Bombardment of Fort Brown--Capts. May and
Walker--Taylor Marches for Matamoras--Battle of Palo
Alto--Victory--Arista Falls Back to Resaca--Battle of
Resaca--Capture of Enemies' Batteries--Capts. May and
Ridgely--Gen. La Vega Captured--His Sword Presented to
Taylor--Duncan and Ridgely Pursue the Enemy--I Capture La Vega's
Aid--Col. McIntosh--Ride over the Field of Palo Alto--Death of
Lieuts. Chadburne and Stevens--We Take Possession of
Matamoras--Gen. Twiggs Appointed Governor--Twiggs and Jesus
Maria--Arrival of Gens. W. O. Butler, Robert Patterson, Pillow,
and Others--Promoted to Second Lieutenant--Officers of the
Company--March to Camargo--Thence to Monterey--Seralvo--Arrival
at Monterey
CHAPTER VI.
Monterey--Population--Gen. Ampudia--Gen. Worth--Capture a 61
Fort--Battery in a Hot Place--Bragg's Order Countermanded--Two
Long-Haired Texans--Capture the Bishop's Palace--Our Battery
Ordered to the East End of the City--Gens. Taylor and
Quitman--Street Fighting--Gen. Ampudia Surrenders--Gen. Worth,
Gov. Henderson, and Col. Jefferson Davis Commissioners--Enter
the City--Dine with a Mexican Gentleman--Death of Ridgely--Hot
Springs--Santa Anna President--Victoria Surrenders--Gen.
Scott--Vera Cruz--Return to Monterey--Death of Lieut.
Richey--Investigation of Richey's
Death--Monterey--Saltillo--Agua Nueva--Gen. Wool--Santa Anna
Advances--Majs. Borland and Gaines Captured--Taylor Falls Back
to Buena Vista--Mexican Army--Am Wounded--The Hacienda--Cavalry
Fight with Mexican Lancers--Flag of Truce--Victory--Carried to
Saltillo
CHAPTER VII.
Drs. T. C. Madison, U. S. A., and G. M. Provost--Surgical 85
Operation--Courtesy of a Mexican Woman--Leave Saltillo--Paltry
Escort--Safe at Monterey--The Rio Grande--Maj. W. W. H.
Davis--New Orleans--Gen. Pillow--Col. McIntosh--Bailey Peyton
and Sergeant S. Prentiss--Drunk by Absorption--Steamer for
Louisville--Racing on the River--Trip to Pittsburg, Pa.--By
Canal Boat to Harrisburg--Home--Report to the Adjutant
General--Go to Trenton, N. J.--Presentation of a Sword--Go to
Washington--John W. Forney's Bargain with Secretary
Buchanan--Capt. A. W. Reynolds--Sent to Troy, N. Y--Gen.
Wool--Leave Buffalo--Toledo--To Cincinnati by Canal--Society in
Cincinnati--Appointed Captain and Assistant Quartermaster--Start
for Washington--Cross the Alleghany Mountains by Stage--Six
Commissions in United States Army--Reception by Gen.
Jesup--Capt. Rufus Ingalls
CHAPTER VIII.
Ordered to New Orleans--Baton Rouge--Col. W. W. S. Bliss--Maj. 96
J. H. Eaton--Maj. R. S. Garnett--Taylor Nominated for
President--Return to New Orleans--Ordered to Vicksburg--"Gen."
McMacken, the Prince of Landlords--Bishop Polk--Sent to
Mobile--Regular Army at East Pascagoula, Miss.--Gen. Twiggs and
His Fiancée--Sail for
Galveston--Galveston--Houston--Austin--Troops Sent to Establish
Posts, now Cities--San Antonio--Death of Gen. Worth--El
Paso--Return to San Antonio--New Orleans--Call on Gen.
Twiggs--Twiggs and Tree--Sword Presented to Me--Dine at the
President's--Death of President Taylor--Fillmore
President--Capt. Ringgold, U. S. N.--Ordered to
Louisville--Return to Washington--Col. Joseph Taylor--Gen. W. O.
Butler--Maj. Gaines--Cincinnati--Salmon P. Chase
CHAPTER IX.
January, 1851, Ordered to El Paso--Capt. Sitgreaves--Sail for 107
Havana--Barnum and Jennie Lind--Sail for New Orleans--By Steamer
to Galveston--On the Gulf for Indianola--San Antonio--Report of
Expedition--Unprecedented March without Water--Indians--With
Gen. Jesup--Hartford Convention--Battles on the Canadian
Frontier--Gov. W. P. Duval (Ralph Ringwood)--United States
Senators--Clay's Magnetism--His Duel with John Randolph--Lieut.
R. F. Stockton, United States Navy, Duel with English Officers
at Gibraltar--John Howard Payne--Commodore Van Rensselaer
Morgan--My Marriage--Assigned to Fort Smith, Ark.--Trips to
Washita, Fort Gibson, and Towson--Choctaws and Cherokees--John
Ross--Journey from Fort Smith to Natchez, Miss.--A
Misanthrope--Gen. John A. Quitman--Death of Mrs. Roberts--Tender
My Resignation--Go to My Plantation--Go to San Antonio--Death of
Mrs. French--Sail for Europe--John Brown's Raid
CHAPTER X.
Canada, Boston, Rye Beach--Antislavery Party Nominates Lincoln 135
for President--His Election Evidence of Hostility to the
South--Mississippi Secedes--Gov. Pettus--Appointed Colonel and
Chief of Ordnance in the Army of the State of Mississippi--State
Had No Arms--Governor Sends an Agent to Europe to Purchase
Arms--Laboratory for Making Ammunition--Flannel and Paper to
Make Cartridges--Cartridges and Horse Collars--Only Old Flint
Muskets--Old Shotguns--Governor Objects to the State Troops
Going out of the State--Visit Home--Am Offered the Appointment
of Brigadier General, Confederate States of America
CHAPTER XI.
Leave for Richmond--Ordered to Evansport, Va., to Blockade the 140
Potomac--Worthless Ammunition--Forces on the Maryland
Shore--Constant Firing All Winter--Orders to Fall Back to
Fredericksburg--"Come to Richmond Immediately"--Orders from Gen.
Lee--New Berne Falls--Relieve Branch at Kinston--Ordered to
Wilmington--Build Defenses--Fort Fisher Constructed--Col.
William Lamb in Command--Running the Blockade--Whitworth
Guns--July 17, 1862, Placed in Command of the Department of
North Carolina and Southern Virginia--Defend a Line from the
Appomattox to Cape Fear--July 31, Shell Gen. McClellan's
Army--Constructed Defenses of Petersburg--Battle of
Fredericksburg--Pelham--President Calls for Me--Gen. Lee's
Considerate Conduct--Gen. Foster at Tarboro, N. C.--He
Interviews an Old Darky--Railroad Bridge at Goldsboro, N. C.,
Burned--Weak Defense Made--How I Got Supplies from Suffolk--Mrs.
Johnston and Gen. Viele--Was Fannie Cooper a Spy?--Martial
Law--Sidney Lanier--Flag of Truce Boats--Exchange of Prisoners
CHAPTER XII.
Telegram from Secretary of War--Go to Richmond--Declined Going 159
to Vicksburg--Gen. Longstreet--He Starts for
Suffolk--Suffolk--Capture of a Fort and Garrison--No Report Made
of the Capture--Statement of Lieut. George Reese--Longstreet
Ordered to Join Lee--Dispatches--Battle of
Chancellorsville--Withdraw from Suffolk--An Impertinent
Note--Court of Inquiry Asked for and Refused--Possible Result
Had Longstreet Obeyed Orders--Ten Dispatches to
Longstreet--Orders to Report to Gen. Johnston
CHAPTER XIII.
Leave Petersburg for Jackson, Miss.--Visit Home--My Division 178
Composed of the Brigades of Gens. Maxey, Evans, and
McNair--Extraordinary Correspondence between Gen. Johnston and
President Davis--Movements to Attack Grant at Vicksburg--Fall of
Vicksburg--Retreat to Jackson--Siege of Jackson--Visit
Home--Negro Troops Surround the House--Narrow
Escape--Vandalism--Johnston Takes Command of the Army of
Tennessee--Polk in Command of Army of Mississippi--A Court of
Inquiry That Was Not Held--My Division at Meridian--President
Davis--Jackson Burned--Sherman's Advance on Meridian--Ordered to
Mobile--Polk Crossing Tombigbee River--He Is Slow to Move--Go to
Demopolis--Mr. Fournier--Sent to
Lauderdale--Tuscaloosa--Montevallo--Reach Rome--Fight at
Rome--Join Gen. Johnston at Cassville
CHAPTER XIV.
Cassville--The Line of Battle--Hood's Line Not 196
Enfiladed--History of That Conference--Two Lieutenant Generals
Invite Their Commander to a Council of War--Johnston Obliged to
Fall Back--We Cross the Etowah River--Dallas--New Hope
Church--Constant Fighting--Rain, Rain--Death of Lieut. Gen.
Polk--Battle of the Latimer House--My Division Occupies Little
and Big Kennesaw Mountains--The Battle--Incidents of the
Battle--Confederates Save Wounded Union Soldiers from
Burning--Kennesaw During Night Bombardment--Col. Martin's Noble
Conduct--The Irony of Fate--Maj. Poten and French Soldier
CHAPTER XV.
Our Army Falls Back from Kennesaw--Confederate "Rebel 212
Yell"--Occupy Works on the Chattahoochee River--A. P. Stewart
Appointed Lieutenant General--Assumes Command of the Army of
Mississippi--Texas Brigade Fight to Obtain Tools--We Cross the
Chattahoochee--Arrival of Gen. B. Bragg--Gen. Johnston
Relieved--President Davis's Remark about Relieving Johnston from
Command--Johnston's Policy versus Hood's--Battle of Peachtree
Creek--We Occupy Atlanta--Battle of Atlanta--S. D. Lee Assigned
to Command of Hood's Corps--Gen. Ector Wounded--Capt. Ward
Killed--Battle of July 28, 1864--I Apply to Be Relieved from
Serving with Hood--Gen. M. Jeff Thompson--Condition of the Camps
of United States Troops--Evidence of the Terrible Fire of Small
Arms--Evacuation of Atlanta--Jonesboro and Lovejoy's Station
CHAPTER XVI.
From Lovejoy's to Lost Mountain--Big Shanty--Acworth--Destroying 223
Railroad--In the Rear of Sherman--Situation of the Two
Armies--Orders to Destroy the Etowah River Bridge--To Fill Up
the Railroad Cut at Allatoona--Hood Not Aware that Allatoona Was
Fortified and Garrisoned--March to Allatoona--Summons to
Surrender--No Answer--Gen. Corse's Report Erroneous--The
Fortifications--Strength of Forces--Equalization of Forces--Some
Federal Dispatches--The Battle--Corse's Account--Col. Ludlow's
Description--Desperate Fighting--The Main Line Captured--Enemy
Driven into an Interior Fort--Dispatches from Gen. Armstrong
Respecting Movements of the Enemy at Big Shanty--Withdraw to
Avoid Being Surrounded by Converging Forces--Corse's Dispatch to
Sherman--Provisions--Confederates Three Days and Nights without
Rest or Sleep--Pass by the Enemy--Evangelist P. P. Bliss Writes
the (Gospel) Hymn, "Hold the Fort"--Hood and His Erroneous
Publications in His Book--His Admiration for Corse--My
Admiration for the Confederates--The Soldier's Grave--The Lone
Grave--Lieut. Gen. A. P. Stewart's Note in Regard to This
Account of the Battle
CHAPTER XVII.
Return from Allatoona--Hood's Deportment--Cross the Coosa 285
River--Devastation around Rome--Rome Burned--Garrison of Resaca
Refuses to Surrender--Capture of the Seventeenth Iowa Regiment
at Tilton--Dalton Taken--Dug Gap--Dinner of Roasting
Ears--Supper--Captured Officers are Jolly Good
Fellows--Gadsden--Encampment at Mrs. Sansom's--Her Daughter a
Guide for Gen. Forrest when He Captured Gen. Streight--Cross the
Black Warrior River and Sand Mountains--Decatur--Some Fighting
at Decatur--Gen. Beauregard with Hood--Beautiful Valley of the
Tennessee made Desolate by War--Tuscumbia--Dreary March to
Columbia, Rain and Snow--Stewart's and Cheatham's Corps Cross
Duck River _en Route_ to Spring Hill--Hood Slept--Schofield
Passed By--Pursue Schofield to Franklin--Battle of
Franklin--Incidents--Remarkable Order for a Second Assault at
Night--Losses in My Two Brigades--Exchange of Prisoners Stopped
CHAPTER XVIII.
March to Nashville--Cold Weather--Partial Investment of the 302
City--Leave of Absence--Turn the Command Over to Brig. Gen. C.
W. Sears--Battle of Nashville--Hood Not Physically Able for the
Duties of a Commander in Want of All Supplies--Marshal
Saxe--Mulai Malek--Going to Nashville a Failure; Could Not Be
Otherwise--Leave for Columbus, Ga.--Marriage to Mary Fontaine
Abercrombie--Go to Meriwether County to Avoid Wilson's
Raid--Robbing in Columbus--Adventures of My Orderly--Yankees
Raid the Houses--Gen. A. Had No Pies--Gens. Lee and Johnston
Surrender--Terms Thereof--War with the Musket Ends
CHAPTER XIX.
Aspect of the Country at Termination of the War--The Returned 310
Confederate Soldier--Carpetbaggers--Lincoln's Vow--His
Proclamation Concerning Confiscation of Slaves--How the Slaves
Were Legally Liberated--Lincoln Murdered--Johnson President--His
Thirst for Vengeance--"Treason" to Be Made Odious--Grant
Declared That the Paroles Must Not Be Violated--Cost of a Bill
of Dry Goods in Confederate Money in 1864--Leave Columbus for
Greenville, Miss.--Desolate Home--The Good Israelite--Return to
Columbus--I Go with Mrs. French to Mississippi--Traveling
Incognito a Failure--Journey to New York in 1865--Incidents of
My Mother and Child When They Went North--Home
Confiscated--Edward Cooper's Kind Act--No One Would Touch
Mother's Trunks--Copy of a Contract in 1865, Whereby I Obtained
Funds--People under Espionage at the North--Return to the
Plantation--Northern Plan to Terminate the War
CHAPTER XX.
Freedmen's Bureau--Gen. O. O. Howard, Commissioner--Platform for 328
Reconstruction--Ironclad Oath--Natural Rights of Man--Civil
Rights--Negroes Made Citizens--Persecution--Agents of Freedmen's
Bureau--Personal Experience--Negro Justices--Some Trials--Judge
Shackelford--Secret Societies--William A. Sharkey--Gov. Adelbert
Ames--Sheriff Webber--Taxes--Board of Levee Commissioners
Dismissed--Religious Negroes--Bishop Wilmer--Prayers for the
President--Shotgun Election--Hegira--Carpetbaggers--Indissoluble
Union--Indestructible States--We Were a Conquered
Nation--Reconstruction Only a Definition for Deeds
Done--Strength of Respective Armies
APPENDIX.
SOME STATISTICS OF THE WAR 353
PERCENTAGE KILLED AND WOUNDED IN LATE WARS 355
SLAVE OWNERS IN THE CONFEDERATE ARMY 355
PRISON DEATHS AND PRISONERS 357
THE AUTHORITY TO TAX 358
COST OF THE WAR 359
NAVAL POWER OF THE UNITED STATES 359
NAMES, RANK, AND POSITIONS OF OFFICERS ON MY STAFF 359
GOVERNMENT IN LOUISIANA, 1875-76 360
VIOLATION OF PAROLES 365
CASSVILLE 367
SLAVERY PROCLAMATION AND CONFISCATION ACT 383
INDENTURE 385
OUR UNKNOWN DEAD 402
ILLUSTRATIONS, MAPS, ETC.
PAGE
SAMUEL G. FRENCH Frontispiece
PLAN OF BATTLE OF RESACA, MEX 52
PLAN OF BATTLE OF MONTEREY, MEX 63
MAP OF THE COUNTRY NEAR BUENA VISTA 75
PLAN OF BATTLE OF BUENA VISTA 79
JOHN C. FRENCH 119
JEFFERSON DAVIS 141
ROBERT E. LEE 171
JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON 179
LEONIDAS POLK 191
MAP OF CASSVILLE 197
MAP OF NEW HOPE CHURCH, GA 200
MAP OF BATTLE OF KENNESAW MOUNTAIN, JUNE 27, 1864 204
BATTLE OF KENNESAW MOUNTAIN 207
A. P. STEWART 213
MAP OF ATLANTA CAMPAIGN 224
F. M. COCKRELL 227
CAPTURE OF BLOCKHOUSE, ALLATOONA CREEK, OCTOBER 5, 1864 231
MAJ. D. W. SANDERS 235
MAP OF FORTIFICATIONS, ALLATOONA, GA 242
BATTLE OF ALLATOONA 250
SIGNAL TREE, ALLATOONA, OCTOBER 5, 1864 254
BATTLE OF ALLATOONA--CAPTURE OF REDOUBT "R" 259
RAILROAD CUT, ALLATOONA 269
JOSEPH M. BROWN 279
THE LONE GRAVE 282
MAP OF BATTLE OF FRANKLIN 293
JULIUS L. BROWN 363
THE INDENTURE 386
THE INDENTURE (reverse side) 390
HENRY WARD BEECHER SELLING SLAVES 393
JOSEPH E. BROWN 399
ERRATA.
The name of Joseph H. French, a brother of the writer, was
inadvertently omitted on page 3.
On page 323, eleventh line, Edward Cooper should be Louis Cooper.
On page 334, last line, H. N. Hood should be W. N. Hood.
TWO WARS.
CHAPTER I.
Ancestry--Thomas Ffrench--Military Aspiration--Important
Document--Appointment to West Point--New Jersey Farm
Life--Great Changes--A Real Yankee--Pennsylvania Hall--The
Fashions--Capture of a Hessian Soldier--Rufus Choate and
Bishop Wainwright--West Point--Cadet Life--Senator Wall--John
F. Reynolds--The Boycott--Rufus Ingalls--Requisites of a
Commander.
Inasmuch as the government of this country cannot grant any title to
nobility, nor can it be conferred by any foreign power, the people of
the United States have, to gratify a natural pride, been obliged to
obtain distinction in various ways. Among them may be mentioned the
accumulation of money, political preferment, the pride of ancestry, and
professional attainments.
The pride of ancestry is a very laudable one, and no doubt it has a
guiding influence in shaping the destiny of our lives. We discover it
in the honor felt by the members of such societies as those of the
Colonial wars, the Cincinnati, Sons of the Revolution, Aztec Club,
Sons of Veterans, and many others. And it is true: "Those will not look
forward to their posterity who never look backward to their ancestors."
Of the countless millions of human beings who in successive generations
have passed over the stage of life, most of them, on their exit, have
sunk into oblivion. The names of twenty-seven are all that are known of
the human family from man's creation down to the days of Noah.
From the deluge to the present time a few men of great genius as
poets, historians, warriors, conquerors, and criminals claim _general
recognition_ from mankind. All others are relegated or consigned to
the special history of a people, and thereby rescued from an otherwise
oblivion. As individuals they perish.
I am quite sure we are more indebted to Boswell for a true insight into
the life and character of Samuel Johnson than we are to his writings,
and there is the utmost interest attached to the home life of all the
world's great actors. Even as late as our revolutionary war we find
much interest in the part played by the fashionable ladies during the
war, and gossip of the Wistar parties, and card parties of New York and
Philadelphia. From the "Mischianza"[1] we have a clear insight to the
true and gentle character of Major André and his accomplishments; and
the beauty of some of the Quaker City belles.
Now in consideration of the desire of every gentleman to have a
knowledge of his ancestry, and some knowledge of the times in which
they lived, I purpose for the benefit of my children to write down
somewhat of things I have seen and a part of which I was, and to make
mention of some of the famous men with whom I have been acquainted
during the eventful years between 1839 and the present time (1895).
As I was an officer in the United States army from 1843 to 1856, and
a major general in the Confederate army, I purpose to relate some of
the events of the Mexican and Confederate wars in the course of this
narrative.
I was born in the county of Gloucester, State of New Jersey, on
November 22, 1818. My father's name was Samuel French, whose ancestry
in this country runs back to Thomas French, who descended from one of
the oldest and most honorable of English families. The Ffrenches were
Normans and went to England with William the Conqueror. In after days
some of the family went with Strongbow, the Earl of Pembroke, when he
invaded Ireland and "laid waste the country, reducing everything to
subjection," whereby they gained great possessions. Thomas Ffrench,
who was a descendant of the Norman Ffrenchs, was, as the register
shows, baptized in the church now standing in Nether Hayford, North
Hamptonshire, in the year 1537. The painting of that church you have.
A direct descendant of the aforesaid Thomas Ffrench, also named
Thomas Ffrench, an adherent of the Church of England, for some reason
abandoned it and became a member of the Society of Friends (Quakers),
and for this apostasy was persecuted and imprisoned. To escape
the persecution he sailed to the colonies, and when he returned to
England he became "one of the landed proprietors of West New Jersey in
America."
Taking passage for himself, wife, and nine children, he landed in
Burlington, West New Jersey, on the 23d of July, 1680, O. S.
In 1664 Charles II. granted to his brother, the Duke of York, the
territory along our coast north of the mouth of the Delaware river.
The duke sold the land lying between the Delaware and Hudson rivers to
the forty-first degree of north latitude to Lord John Berkeley and Sir
John Cartaret; who named it New Cæsarea, or New Jersey. They divided it
into East and West Jersey; but later, the grant being unsatisfactory
to the king, owing to conflicting claims of the proprietors and their
heirs, James in 1689 compelled them to surrender or sell their claims
to the crown, and all were embodied in one province, New Jersey. Thomas
French, under these proceedings, signed the articles relinquishing
to the king his proprietary privileges to the one-ninetieth of the
one-eighth of West Jersey. Thus New Jersey became a royal colony after
the king bought the rights of the proprietors. Sir John Carteret named
the land purchased New Jersey because he had been governor of the Isle
of Jersey off the coast of France in the English Channel.
My mother's name was Rebecca Clark. She was born January 1, 1790, at
Billingsport, on the banks of the Delaware river, in New Jersey. She
was married to my father on the 3d day of October, 1816. The names of
their children were: Garret, Samuel G., Charles C., John C., Sallie C.,
and George W.
Passing from family records, I will now revert to myself, and will
endeavor to show what creatures of circumstances most men are. One day,
when a boy (aged about eight years), my father left me at a store in
Market Street, near Water Street, Philadelphia, Pa., where he usually
obtained his family groceries. Over the door of that store was a modest
signboard, and on it was painted the names, Hamilton and Hood. Mr.
Hood was always kind to me, and usually gave me a paper of candy or
other sweetmeats. On this particular occasion, it being a rainy day, I
was left there alone with Mr. Hood, and I remember now--although near
seventy years have passed--what there and then occurred. Eating candies
and playing about in the store, I discovered hanging in the office a
picture of a young person (full-size bust) clad in a gray coat, with
three rows of round brass buttons thereon, braided horizontally. From
some cause it riveted my boyish attention. After looking at it for
some time, I exclaimed: "Who is that?" Mr. Hood replied: "That is my
son." "What is he dressed so fine for?" I asked. Mr. Hood then told
me his son was a cadet at the United States military academy at West
Point; that he was at school there. Dancing around, I said: "I want
to go to that school too." The response was, "Only a few boys can go
to that school; to get there the boy's father must have influence
with the President, and get an appointment from him," etc. I still
looked at the picture, and I can see it to-day as I did then. It will
never be effaced. As years rolled on, and I knew nothing about West
Point, except that it was not open to all applicants, it was fading
away in my mind, until one day when passing along Chestnut Street I
saw in the window of a clothing house a large picture of the cadets
of the United States military academy on dress parade. I gazed on it
a very long time, oblivious to all around me, calling to mind only
the remarks made to me by Mr. Hood; on these I pondered long, and
made some inquiries, and finally resolved to make an effort to get an
appointment to the academy. On entering school, kept by the Rev. Samuel
Aaron in Burlington, N. J., my roommate was a boy named Duer, who
was from Pennsylvania. One day he opened his trunk and showed me his
appointment as a cadet to the United States Military Academy. I told
him I wanted to go there also, and questioned him about how he obtained
the appointment. It was the same story that Mr. Hood had told me when
I was almost a child. But, undaunted by the requirements, I resolved to
act for myself, for up to this time I had not mentioned the subject to
either my father or mother, because the former belonged to the Society
of Friends, or Quakers; save only that, marrying "out of meeting,"
he was no longer regarded as an orthodox member, and they were not
considered as warlike people in any respect. Accordingly, when at home
one day, I wrote to the President of the United States asking in the
name of my father the appointment. As his name was the same as mine, I
supposed I would get the reply myself from the post office.
I was on the lookout for the answer, when one day in walked, to our
house, my Quaker Uncle Charles, and handed to my father a letter
that looked to me a foot long, and as it had on the envelope "War
Department, Engineer's Office" in large letters, he said he was
"anxious to know the contents of the document." As father replied
he did not understand why such a letter was sent to him, I rose "to
explain."
My father said but little, but my uncle created some confusion by
telling the family I was going to the "bowwows" and the "bad place."
Without waiting to first ascertain whether I was "going to the war" or
not, several of my Quaker aunts called soon after to say good-by before
I got shot, as they were sure the British would kill me, so filled were
their minds with "war's alarums" caused by the war of 1812.
When peace was restored and my uncle gone, my father told me that if
I really desired the position he would aid me in getting it. So one
day he took me with him and called on Charles C. Stratton, a relation
of ours living near by, and then a Whig Member of Congress. New Jersey
was not at that time divided into congressional districts, and a Whig
delegation was seated in Congress under "the broad seal of New Jersey,"
and had no influence with a Democratic administration; and so no
appointment came.
But, nothing discouraged, the following winter, being still at the
Burlington Academy, I called one day on Gen. Garret D. Wall, then one
of our United States Senators, a resident of Burlington. I made known
to him the object of my calling. He listened attentively to my request,
said that he knew my father and many of my relatives very well, and
that he would aid me. The winter passed, Congress had adjourned, and no
appointment came.
About this time my father, passing through the town of Woodbury, N. J.,
happened to stop at the courthouse, and meeting Senator Wall there,
asked him about my cadetship, who, on being told the appointment had
not been received, sat down in the court room, wrote a few lines to
the President, handed them to father, and told him to mail them. In a
few days the appointment came, the reward of diligent perseverance and
waiting.
Good Mr. Hood! I suppose I often stopped at his store in after years,
and yet I can only call to mind one allusion made to West Point.
He told me once that his son, Lieut. Washington Hood, was in Cuba
surveying a route for a railroad--for Tacon, Governor-General of
Cuba--from Havana to Matanzas.
As there may be a desire in long after years to have a knowledge of
how the "well-to-do" farmers lived in the early part of the present
century in New Jersey, I will describe the condition of the people
at my father's. New Jersey was a slave State when I was born. In
1820 slavery was abolished; but there were two hundred and thirty-six
slaves for life in 1850 in the State, because it did not emancipate a
slave then in being. It only set free the _unborn babes_. You see the
difference between _abolition_ and _emancipation_? The superabundance
of the necessaries of life at that period can scarcely be realized
now, and every one fared sumptuously, and nearly all alike. Under the
house there were four cellars. As winter approached, perhaps forty
cords of oak and hickory wood, four feet in length, were hauled to
the wood pile. Some twenty or more fat hogs were killed, the hams
and shoulders sugar-cured and smoked in a large stone smokehouse. The
sides, etc., were salted down in great cedar tanks. The beeves were
killed, the rounds dried, not smoked, and the rest "corned." Minced
meat and sausage, in linked chains by the hundreds of pounds, cider
boiled down in great copper kettles, and apple butter and pear sauce
made without stint. Shad from the fishery were bought for salting down
for six dollars per hundred. Oysters by the wagon load were in winter
put in the cellar and kept fat by sprinkling them with brine and corn
meal. In bins the choice apples were stored, each variety by itself,
for daily use, while large quantities were buried in the earthen pits
for spring. On the swinging shelves was the product of the dairy,
cheese and butter. Four hogsheads were kept full of cider vinegar; and
"apple jack" (apple brandy) in barrels in a row, according to age;
great old-fashioned demijohns were kept full of cherries, wild and
cultivated, covered with brandy. Apples, peaches, pears, huckleberries,
currants, plums, etc., were dried on scaffolds in the sun for pies
and other purposes: and the children forgot not their ample supply of
chestnuts, shellbarks, hazelnuts, etc. Turkeys, geese, and barnyard
fowls were raised largely, but they were considered produce for sale.
There was no stint to these superabundant supplies, and they were
yearly consumed. Rabbits, pheasants, partridges, and woodcock were
abundant, and often were secured by trapping; and the ponds and streams
were filled with fish. I might perhaps convey to you a better idea of
the abundance of fruit and its cheapness by stating that I have seen
wagons come to the farm for peaches, and they were told to go into the
orchard and get as many as they wanted, and on coming out an estimate
would be made of the number of bushels gathered, and they were charged
ten cents per bushel. Apples, the finest of varieties, were unsalable,
and were hauled to the great public cider mill, ground up for cider,
and that distilled into brandy on shares--that is, the mills allowed
the farmer a certain number of gallons of brandy for every hundred
bushels of apples delivered. And as numerous as were these great cider
mills, I have seen the gates locked and teams turned away because of
the supply exceeding the capacity of the presses.
There were Germans who wove carpets, and mills that converted the wool
into cloth. All along the king's highway, which was marked with granite
shafts for milestones, each one denoting, in carved letters, how many
miles it was to Camden (Cooper's Ferry), there were smith's shops,
wheelwrights, cabinetmakers, and country shoemakers, and taverns for
entertainment of "man and beasts."
Daily, four-horse stagecoaches, carrying the mail and passengers,
passed over the road, and, by common consent, I suppose, they were
granted the right of way, or it may have been the last lingering
observance of respect to kingly prerogative.
Now somewhere in this part of the country there lived an old and
very polite Frenchman. He possessed a pony and a little wagon, and in
that wagon he carried a bench, his lasts, and his tools, for he was a
shoemaker, and went the rounds of the neighborhood to make, yearly,
the family shoes. Out of morocco imported from Barbary, calfskin
from France, and leather from the village tannery he fashioned most
beautiful boots and shoes for male and female; yes, neat and befitting
they were; and how long they lasted! Wonder not that I have introduced
you to this polite and kind old Frenchman. He belonged to the Emperor's
old guard, and after Waterloo he came to this country. Young as I was,
many times and oft would I persuade him to tell me of "the battles,
sieges, fortunes he had passed, of moving incidents of flood and field,
of hairbreadth escapes," and grand charges he had made under the eye
of the Emperor, how he detested England and loved the vine-clad hills
and pleasant fields of France. At our house he would fix himself up in
the loft over the carriage house, and then while at work he would tell
us boys so much about the "Little Corporal" and the grand marshals of
France.
His abiding faith in and admiration for the Emperor passed all bounds.
When it was known to all the world that Napoleon was dead, sleeping in
a lone grave in a far distant island, guarded by English bayonets, as
though he might "awake to glory again" and make the little monarchs
tremble once more even at his name, this devoted soldier of the old
guard would not believe it, and swore it was an English lie.
I have given these minute details of the manner in which the people
lived in New Jersey and adjoining States in the olden times, "when the
richest were poor and the poorest had abundance," to show you how well
they lived, how comfortably clad, and how content they were in the
days when trusts, combines, and protective tariffs were unknown, and
no great corporations existed. To-day (1895) these great combines have
destroyed individual competition, and impoverished more than half the
entire population of the country and reduced it to rigidity of hours
and the _slavery_ of _wages_. They control legislation, corrupt the
courts, subsidize the press, maintain advocates in the pulpits, and
this will estrange the poor from the rich more widely than the peasant
from the prince; and, continued, may implant an unkindly feeling,
which, if not placated, may have to be settled by a resort to arms.
What a change has sixty-five years wrought! The stagecoach has
disappeared on the advent of railroads, steam will be displaced by
electricity as the candle and lamp have been, and as the friction match
has banished the flint and steel and tinder box, the scythe and sickle
have been superseded by the mower, the magnificent sailing ships have
given way to the ocean racers. Ere long we will see the wind pass by
as we see the streams of water now. "The cloud of witnesses around that
hold us in full survey" may themselves be seen, for we are discovering
the secrets of Arcana every day; the source of life and the mystery of
death will soon be discovered.
When I was a boy the habitat of the Yankee did not extend south of
Connecticut, as bounded by that elegant writer, Washington Irving, in
his _veritable_ history of New York. In that Knickerbocker history you
will find the southern limit of the Yankee. Is it possible to conceive
that Wouter van Twiller, Rip van Winkle, William the Testy, or Peter
the Headstrong, and the drowsy, dreamy Dutch people of New Amsterdam
were Yankees? No! they dwelt farther north; yet they might have overrun
and subdued New Amsterdam had not their minds been diverted by a sudden
outbreak of witchcraft, that afforded these saints infinite amusement
in a pious way, which saved New Amsterdam. When I was young it was not
considered complimentary or prudent to call a boy of your own size a
"Yankee."
My first recollection of seeing a real Yankee was connected with a
clock. At home there stood in the hall an eight-day clock, nearly
eight feet high, and it is to-day in the city of Woodbury, N. J., in
possession of my sister, Mrs. John G. Whitall. On its face are the
words, "Hollingshead, Woodstown, N. J., 1776." I infer that it might
have commenced recording time about the hour that the liberty bell in
Independence Hall, Philadelphia, on a certain fourth of July rang out
the Bible proclamation of liberty to all the land, and the "inhabitants
thereof."[2] It is a clock of some repute. It has Arabic numerals to
express the hours. The pendulum was adjusted in length to the latitude,
and vibrated every second and recorded it. It marked the day of the
month, and the month itself, and a picture of a round-faced female
would peep up from behind the scenes just as the moon rose, and veiled
her face when she set. In the absence of the moon a ship sailed slowly
on.
It had another accomplishment: an alarm that was worse than a Chinese
gong. I should think that handsome clock, which has been recording time
now for one hundred and nineteen years, would have sufficed; but no!
One bright May morning, when all the fruit trees were in bloom, and the
white-faced bumblebees were buzzing around, and the air was redolent
with perfume, a wagon stopped at the gate, and a tall, lean individual
came to the door and wished to see the mistress of the house. Said he
was "a stranger in these parts, that his load was too heavy for his
horse, and that he had clocks and other notions." Father was not in,
so my mother gave him permission to leave a clock until such time as he
would call for it. So he brought in an eight-day clock about three feet
high and adjusted it on the mantel in the dining room. It was rather
ornamental, and instead of the common, everyday figures such as were
in the multiplication table, it had an I for one, and II for two, and
so on, which was the Roman style; and then when it struck the hours,
instead of ringing a bell, the hammer fell on a coil of wire, producing
a cathedral sound that died away far off.
We all soon got used to the clock, and some three months after when the
man called to take his clock away mother said she was attached to it
and would keep it. It was all a Yankee trick to sell the clock, for he
disposed of many others in the same way. The Yankee clock has ticked
its last tick, but the old eight-day clock may outlive the nation whose
hours from its birth it has, by seconds, recorded. All _your life_ you
have heard the people of this country north of the slave States called
Yankees, and the people south Confederates, which is not true, but only
an incident of the war.
In Philadelphia I was present at the dedication of Pennsylvania Hall,
May 15, 1838, an abolition edifice. It was announced that David Paul
Brown would officiate at the dedication. His reputation as a lawyer and
an orator was well known, and on this occasion he did some stage acting
with fine effect. He was hidden away from the surging audience in some
manner, and after the chairman had stated the object of the meeting he
closed his remarks by saying that David Paul Brown _had promised_ to
be present to deliver the address. Presto! From concealment he rose to
his full height and exclaimed: "And I am here to fulfill that promise,
a promise as freely given as it shall be fearlessly performed, and as
high priest of this day's sacrifice I dedicate this hall to freedom,"
etc. A short time after, in the presence of some _ten thousand
spectators_, I saw about twenty persons, unmolested, batter down the
doors and destroy the building by fire; and from its ashes sprung up
the free soil party.
As fashion plates of dress worn sixty years ago are not plentiful,
I will briefly refer to the tyrant, Fashion. Men wore tight pants,
two inches longer behind than before. In front they were cut away so
as to expose the instep, and were fastened down under the boot with
a pantaloon strap, and it was no small job to get the pants off. The
coat had a collar quilted to give it stiffness, and was, behind, about
four inches broad, and one could not throw his head back and well enjoy
a merry laugh. Then in front they wore as neck gear a _stock_, yes a
_stock_ about as comfortable as those public ones used for punishing
criminals. These stocks were nearly four inches wide, consisting of a
pad of bristles of the hog, fashioned to fit the neck, and were covered
with dark silks or satin. The lower part rested on the collar bone, and
the upper supported the head aloft while the shirt collar cut the ears.
It was "heads up, eyes to the front," and one seldom saw his boots.
Young men could not cross their legs when sitting in a chair without
accident. John Pope, better known as Gen. Pope, when on furlough
returned to West Point with nice linen pants, with straps at the bottom
and open down the front, which was found very convenient for a soldier
who had to wear a waist belt; and although it shocked the sense of
propriety of some maidenly ladies, it caught the eye of Maj. Richard
Delafield, Superintendent of the Academy. His hobbies were economy and
practical utility. He saw the advantage of Pope's breeches over the
broad flap buttoned at the side, and notwithstanding the protest of
Mrs. Delafield--who was reported to have said "the cadets thus dressed
should not come in person to the house with their account books for
orders"--and other ladies, that stern old soldier gave the tailor
permission to make the cadet pants open in front, and that consigned to
oblivion the broad flap pants. West Point then, as the Prince of Wales
now, set the fashions; Pope's pattern of breeches are now worn by all
Christian men, and some that are not of that religion.
Out of all the students that were at the academy in Burlington, I know
of but one living now, Gen. W. W. H. Davis, of Doylestown, Pa. He was
aid to Gen. Cushing during the Mexican war, and a general in the Union
army during the late war between the States.
After my appointment as a cadet I made no preparation for the
examination for admission to the Academy, because I had no doubt of
being able to meet the mental examination, for I had mastered nearly
every elementary branch of mathematics, including navigation and
Hutton's recreations in mathematics. I never understood or realized
the "recreation" concealed in that volume. Recreation, however, is
very often a matter of taste. There was a young officer on my staff,
W. T. Freeman, who found recreation in going on every expedition,
demonstration, or fight that was on hand; and that good soldier,
Gen. Richard S. Ewell, often would seek recreation by a visit to the
picket line to see what the "Yanks" were doing. Taste will differ, you
observe.
When the time was near at hand for me to report at West Point, some
of my Quaker aunts came to see me. They had gotten pretty well over
the belief that the British would kill me, or that we would soon have
another war with England. Our relatives were numerous about Trenton,
Evesham, Red Bank, Billingsport, and all the region around, and stories
of the old war were common. I will relate but one: When Count Donop,
with his six battalions of Hessians, came down through Haddonfield to
capture the fortifications on the Delaware river at Red Bank, a Hessian
soldier strayed away from the ranks, and, entering the back yard, came
up to the back porch of a farmer's dwelling. There was a churn (in form
a truncated cone--that is, it was big at the bottom and small at the
top); and moreover, it contained fresh buttermilk. The poor fellow took
up the churn and was enjoying a drink when a stout servant girl, coming
to the door, took in the situation at a glance, and, instead of crying
"Murder," she took hold of the bottom of the churn, raised it up, and
thrust it down quickly over his head. It was a tight fit, and as he
could not remove the churn he was captured, hid away, and delivered
to the garrison after the defeat of Donop's troops. Donop was killed.
Often and often I wandered over Red Bank and Billingsport when a boy,
sitting down on the great iron cannon strewn all around, meditating on
war.
I now bade adieu to good Quaker uncles and aunts (I say good--yes, more
deserving, truthful, honest people than the Quakers cannot be found,
for they are all good) and father and mother, and took the stage for
Philadelphia, thence by the Camden and Amboy railroad went to New York.
The two great hotels in New York then were the Astor House and the
American.
I felt lonely in the city crowd, and, strolling "down Broadway," heard
the noise of voices in a hall, or perhaps it was in a church, so I
went in, and soon the orator exclaimed, "It presented to the world
the first instance of a Church without a bishop," upon which great
applause followed, which I did not comprehend, and at the same time an
elderly gentleman rose up and left the stage, causing some commotion.
By the papers I learned that they were celebrating their New England
dinner, that the orator was Rufus Choate, and the indignant gentleman
was Bishop Wainwright, all of which led to a long and bitter newspaper
controversy. Leaving New York City, I went by steamer up the Hudson
river to my place of destination at the foot of the Catskill Mountains,
then robed in purple from the setting sun.
I shall never forget my voyage on the Hudson when life was young
and all was bright and fair, and hope imparted a feeling of joy and
gladness to all my environments. There were several candidates for
admission to the Academy at the hotel. In the morning when I came
down to breakfast I chanced to take a seat beside a smart-looking,
black-eyed boy, and, finding him not inquisitive, I remarked to him, "I
suppose you have a cadet appointment;" and in the twinkle of an eye he
answered my question by exclaiming, "May I ask you the same question?"
I was amazed, but reverting to his reply, I calmly and deliberately
told him that his inquiry would be responded to first, and then he
could answer mine at his leisure. That boy was from Connecticut. He
graduated second in his class; his name is George Deshon; he is a
Jesuit father, Redemptorist, and Paulist, and resides in New York City,
spending his life for the good of a fallen race.
I was having a pleasant rest at the hotel, and had been there two or
three days when an orderly made his appearance with an order for all
the candidates for admission to report at headquarters. Frederick
Steele, J. J. Booker, and I were assigned to a room in the south
barracks.
I cannot recall to mind much about the examination; I only remember
Capt. W. W. S. Bliss asking us some questions in a polite manner,
and then dismissing us. In due time we went into camp. J. J. Peck,
Vandergrift, and I were assigned to Company D, and occupied the same
tent.
As the State of New Jersey was not divided into congressional districts
at that time, it did not matter in what part of the State an applicant
resided. There were four vacancies in the State, and they were filled
by appointing Isaac F. Quinby, Shotwell, Vandergrift, and myself.
Shotwell and Vandergrift left the Academy.
During the encampment Senator G. W. Wall came to the Point on a visit,
and had all four of us call to see him. He expressed much interest in
us, and gave us good advice, as he was personally interested in our
success and welfare.
I carried with me to West Point a letter of introduction to John F.
Reynolds, of Pennsylvania, who, as general in the Union Army, was
killed the first day at Gettysburg. In his death the Federal army
sustained an almost irreparable loss. He was a soldier of marked
ability; kind, and, above all, was well loved, and the highest position
in the service awaited him without his seeking it. He was ever kind to
me, and later on, during the Mexican war, I was intimately associated
with him. The officers of Bragg's Battery of Monterey were G. H.
Thomas, J. F. Reynolds, and myself, and Reynolds and I occupied the
same tent, and I never knew him to speak an unkind word.
Cadet life at the Academy has often been described, and it is so well
known that I shall pass it by save with a few remarks. In the first
squad of cavalry Grant, when a cadet at West Point, rode the horse that
could jump a pole, one end against the wall about seven feet high while
the other end was held by a soldier over the top of his head. In the
second squad of our class Cave J. Couts rode the same animal. I never
envied them their enjoyment, yet I rode a horse (properly named Vixen)
that would go around the ring at a speed that would have distanced Tam
O'Shanter's mare when she crossed the bridge of Doon and lost her tail.
One day as our section in mathematics was marching to recitation hall
Frank Gardner produced an old silver-cased watch about four inches in
diameter. It, as a curiosity, was passed along from one boy to another
to examine; it chanced to be in Grant's hands as we reached the door
of the recitation room, and he slipped it under his coat bosom and
buttoned it up. The regular professor was absent, and cadet Zealous B.
Tower occupied his chair. He sent four cadets to the blackboards, Grant
being one. Grant had solved his problem and begun his demonstration,
when all of a sudden the room was filled with a sound not unlike a
Chinese gong. All looked amazed, and Tower, thinking the noise was
in the hall, ordered the door closed, and that only made the matter
worse. Grant, with a sober countenance, had the floor to demonstrate.
When the racket ceased the recitation proceeded. Tower had no idea
whence the noise came. Gardner had set the alarm in that antique piece
of furniture concealed in Grant's bosom, and it went off. Tower's
bewilderment and Grant's sobriety afforded us much amusement, which we
could not manifest until we got outdoors, and roared with laughter.
Of all the cadets in our class, I believe I. F. Quinby possessed the
most profound and the brightest intellect. It was scarcely necessary
for him to study a mathematical proposition. One day, thinking he would
not be "called up," he had not opened the text-book. However, Prof.
Mahan sent him to the blackboard, and announced a proposition for him
to demonstrate. In due time he faced the Professor ready to begin.
He demonstrated the proposition in an original manner, frequently
interrupted by the Professor, who failed to follow his reasoning,
and would not admit the proof to be conclusive. Then cadet William F.
Raynolds said: "Mr. Mahan, Mr. Quinby is right; I was attentive, and
followed him all through." The result was Quinby wrote out his mode
of demonstration and Raynolds handed it to the Professor next day, and
the proof was conclusive. Professors are not inclined to have students
deviate from the text-books. One day Grant failed to name the signs
of the Zodiac, aries, taurus, gemini, etc., so I was asked, some time
after, to repeat them, which I did as follows:
The Ram, the Bull, the Heavenly Twins, next the Crab the Lion
shines, the Virgin and the Scales,
The Scorpion, Archer, and the Goat, the Man who carries the
watering pot, and Fish with glittering tails.
and was told to translate it into the language of the text-book.
Professors were not dependent on patronage, and there was no marked
degrees of partiality shown any cadets. Prof. Wier kept one of my
paintings in water colors that I regretted very much. One day, years
after, I asked President Grant if he would not have the War Department
issue an order to have it returned to me, and he said: "Certainly, and
you may have any of _mine_ that are there." He knew I well understood
the humor in the remark about his paintings. However, I neglected to
write to him and thus secure my picture. When I visited the Academy in
1881 I saw it hanging on the walls (and it is there now). Those that
I left at my mother's in Woodbury, N. J., were confiscated and sold by
the United States marshal, and this would have shared the same fate had
it been there. After the Confederate war ended some of these paintings
were returned to me. Such acts of kindness I appreciated.
When we entered the first class, as usual, we had accorded us the
privilege of purchasing of the sutler, Mr. John DeWitt, many articles
that were denied the junior classes. Owing to some of the class not
being properly treated, the following document was drawn up, to wit:
We, the undersigned, do hereby agree that we will purchase
nothing from John DeWitt after this date, except what we have
already ordered, or whatever is absolutely necessary, the
reason being supposed manifest to every one.
JOHN H. GRELAND,
C. J. COUTS,
ISAAC F. QUINBY,
N. ETTING,
R. S. RIPLEY,
GEORGE STEVENS,
G. DESHON,
F. T. DENT,
HENRY F. CLARK,
J. H. POTTER,
R. HAZLETT,
HENRY M. JUDAH,
W. K. VAN BOKKELEN,
GEORGE C. MCCLELLAND,
U. H. GRANT,
C. G. MERCHANT,
J. JONES REYNOLDS,
L. NEILL,
JOHN PRESTON JOHNSTON,
J. J. PECK,
H. R. SELDON,
A. CROZET,
F. GARDNER,
L. B. WOODS,
T. L. CHADBOURNE,
E. HOWE,
S. G. FRENCH,
J. C. MCFERREN,
RUFUS INGALLS,
W. B. FRANKLIN,
JOSEPH ASFORDD,
West Point, April 15, 1843.
To explain this _boycott_ I copy a letter from Gen Rufus Ingalls to
Gen. Isaac F. Quinby, sent to me by the latter when he received it.
Quinby's familiar name was "Nykin."
PORTLAND, OREGON, September 16, 1889.
_My Dear "Nykin:"_ Your letter surprised me most joyously. I
was thinking of you constantly and lovingly. Do not give up.
Let us _live_ to the last possible hour. I hope to meet you
this fall--late perhaps. I came here two years ago to stay
three months, and here I am! I have had a "monkey and parrot
time of it," as these slips[3] will only partially disclose.
Read them at leisure. But I am now booming in luck, ... and
I expect to save some money out of the wreck for myself and
pretty wards. But what a fight all alone for it!
I am robust, never better. Habits perfect; fact. Why not at
70? Did we not cut old DeWitt because he caused some of us
to be reported? How is Hamilton? Write me, dear "Nykin." Nail
your flag high up, and don't regard dark clouds.
Very affectionately,
RUFUS.
Gen. Quinby, Rochester, N. Y.
My dear, good Rufus! How I recall the many happy days we have passed
together! My love for you was like unto Jonathan's for David, and you
have gone and left me, gone to your long home. Yet I can see you now.
I can see you at the card table having "fun" even though the "time be
4 A.M." There always was mirth when Ingalls was present. He was the
prince of good fellows; ever cheerful, never selfish, full of quaint
humor, and was wont to "set the table in a roar."
There is a story related of him that runs in this way: One night in the
spring of 1865 at City Point Grant and staff were sitting around their
camp fire. Conversation had lapsed into silence, which after a while
was suddenly broken by Grant exclaiming: "Ingalls, do you expect to
take that yellow dog of yours into Richmond with you?" "O yes, General,
he belongs to a _long life_ breed," was Ingalls's sober reply. Silence
returned, but there were sides ready to burst with suppressed laughter.
Ingalls possessed a brilliant mind. Grant states that, had it become
necessary to change the commander of the Army of the Potomac, he would
have given it to Ingalls. When at last Lee's weak lines were broken at
Petersburg, and certain corps commanders said they could not pursue
Lee, Ingalls whispered to Grant, "If you do not order an immediate
pursuit, you will be a ruined man; I will have supplies on hand;" and
the army was ordered to move at once in pursuit. This was told me by
Gen. Frederick Steele in 1865.
But to return to the boycott, I find this matter in the newspapers
of the day, and it is termed the oldest boycott known. I have copied
the signatures from a newspaper article to correct some of the errors
it contained; and I would observe that I cannot recall any member
of our class named Joseph Asfordd. About the signature of Gen. Grant
having been written U. H. Grant, we all knew that Gen. Harmer obtained
him the appointment, and that his real name was U. H. Grant, but the
appointment called for U. S. Grant, and he entered the Academy as U.
S. Grant, and was usually called "Uncle Sam Grant." Poor Stevens, who
it appears had this document in his possession, I saw drowned in the
waters of the Rio Grande when at the head of a squad of dragoons he
attempted to swim the river. The paper was, I presume as stated, sent
home with his effects, and the original, or facsimile, is now hung
up in the War Department in Washington City. Of those who signed it,
there are now living only four, Father Deshon, J. J. Reynolds, W. B.
Franklin, and your father, who is now writing this; and if I write two
other names, Gens. C. C. Auger and W. F. Raynolds, you have the names
of the six surviving members of our class in 1893.[4]
The class of 1843 is remarkable in one respect. So far as my
investigations have extended, every one of the class living in 1861
entered the military service, except Father Deshon; all obtained the
rank of general save one. In no class did all the graduates enter the
service, nor did those in the armies obtain uniformly such high rank as
the class of 1843.
When the encampment ends, and the cadets go into quarters and study
commences, the fourth class is formed into sections, taking their
names alphabetically. If they desire twelve cadets in the first
section, commencing at the A's and B's they go on down until twelve
are obtained; the second and other sections are formed in the same way;
study and recitation begins, and the struggle commences. At the end of
a week some are transferred up to the first and second sections, and
others down; and this continues until every one settles to the rank he
merits, or at least to the rank his studies entitle him to.
High class standing is not conclusive evidence of preëminent ability
as a commander. Of all the positions that mortal man has occupied on
earth, that of a great captain requires a combination of _more_ of
the rare gifts that God occasionally bestows on man, each differing
in character and quality, than any other profession. In him they must
_all_ be balanced and in harmony. He must be a great organizer, and
a skilled administrator; possessed of courage, untiring energy, and
keep the one great purpose in view, crushing every obstacle in the
way to its accomplishment. His powers of combination must be made with
mathematical precision; his knowledge of the country correct, and at
a glance comprehend the field of action; instant to detect an error
made by his antagonist, and prompt to avail himself of it; intuitive
knowledge of character, acute in discovering men's motives, faultless
in reasoning to enable him to fathom the designs of the enemy, and
maneuver so as to defeat them. Then comes the prestige of victory,
confidence in his success, love for his person; and the army in his
hands is as obedient to him as the ship to her helm, and will breast
the tempest, be it never so high. From Moses down history does not
mention the names of as many great soldiers, for whom "the stars in
their courses fought," as there are fingers on a man's hand, and the
star of Austerlitz, I think, guided the greatest of them all.
"He who ascends to mountain tops shall find
The loftiest peaks most wrapped in clouds and snow;
He who surpasses or subdues mankind
Must look down on the hate of those below."
I make no reference to heartlessness or selfishness, I speak only of
great intellects and boundless ambition that impels the man on, on,
upward, till crowns become baubles, and kings who wear them are moved
on the world's stage, and traded off like those on the chessboard, who
would subjugate the earth, and then sigh for other worlds to conquer.
There is a moral in the lives of some of the most renowned captains.
Joshua had trouble with his tribes; Alexander died from excess of
drinking in Babylon; Hannibal, living in exile, took poison to escape
being surrendered to the Romans; Pompey, thrice a consul, thrice
honored with a triumph, master of the world, was assassinated on
Egypt's barren strand and left without a handful of the earth (of all
the world he once possessed) to cover his remains; Cæsar was murdered
in the senate chamber; Cortez died in poverty in Seville, neglected
by his sovereign; Napoleon ended his days a prisoner in exile on a
desert island; "Stonewall" Jackson, in the zenith of his glory, was
accidentally killed by his own troops; R. E. Lee died, after declining
many honors, the president of a university in Virginia; Grant, more
fortunate, became President of the United States. Yet his life in after
years was embittered by his confidence in dishonest bankers, which
trouble, preying on his mind, shortened his days.
CHAPTER II.
Graduation--Commissioned Brevet Second Lieutenant, U. S.
A.--Ordered to Fort Macon, N. C.--Goldsboro--Journey to
Beaufort--Officers at the Fort--Life in a Casemate--Stormy
Atlantic--That Oyster Supper--The Wandering Cot--Adieu to
Fort Macon--Journey to Washington--Lieuts. George H. Thomas
and John Pope--Weldon, N. C.--Go to West Point--Prof.
Morse--First Dispatch--Hope Club, Washington--Dinner
Given by Surgeon General Lawson--Appointed Aid to Gen.
Scott--British Gold--Col. S. Churchill--Integrity of Old
Army Officers--Leave Washington for Fort McHenry--Society in
Baltimore--Chief Justice Taney.
I believe it was on the 9th day of June, 1843, the examinations ended,
we bade adieu to old Fort Putnam, the Crow's Nest, the Dunderburg, the
halls, the lovers' walk, the professors, in short to West Point and all
that it contained, and took passage on a steamer on the ever-beautiful
Hudson for New York City. A new life was opened to us, the wide world
was before us, and we believed we were equal to all environments,
and anxious for the strife; and, if I possess a correct power of
retrospection, we generally had a higher opinion of ourselves _then_
than we have had _since_ in the battle of life, amid joy and sorrow,
hopes and disappointment, praise and detraction, sordid avarice and
the little trust in the sincerity of man. In the course of time we
comprehended that "all is not gold that glitters."
In a day or two we began to separate for our homes, and I bade farewell
to some whose faces I never saw again. When the assignments to the
army were made, in July following, I was notified that I had been
commissioned a brevet second lieutenant in the United States army and
assigned to Company --, Third Regiment of Artillery, then stationed at
Fort Macon, N. C.
I was ordered to report for duty by the first day of October. Bidding
good-by to all at home, I started for Beaufort, N. C., Fort Macon being
on an island opposite to the town. I traveled by way of Baltimore,
Washington, Richmond, and Petersburg to Goldsboro; thence by stagecoach
to New Berne and Beaufort.
The journey was made without incident of note. On the train there was a
spruce individual from New York City on his way to Charleston. Some one
had alarmed him very much about "malaria," and he cautioned me against
rising in the morning until after the sun had dissipated the poisonous
vapors of the night. The consequence was I remained in bed at the
hotel in Goldsboro, waiting for the mist to rise before I did, until I
heard the stage horn calling for passengers, and I came near getting no
breakfast. But the driver was one of those happy-go-easy fellows, who
said: "I am in no haste; go and get your breakfast."
That New York man had alarmed me to such a degree that when a courtly
old gentleman came to the stage door with a large basket of scuppernong
grapes and requested me to take charge of them to Beaufort, bidding me
partake of them bountifully by the way, I thought death was concealed
in that basket as the asp was in the one given to Cleopatra. I was the
only passenger. After a while I consulted the driver, who was on the
box outside, as to the danger of eating grapes in that bilious country,
and he assured me there was none. So timidly I took one and found it
"was good for food" like the apple in the garden of Eden, and in spite
of fears I partook of them freely.
When I arrived in Beaufort I found there to meet me Lieut. C.
Q. Tompkins, and I sailed with him over to the fort. One company
constituted the garrison. The officers were Capt. W. Wall, Lieuts.
Tompkins and E. O. C. Ord, Dr. Glenn, and Capt. J. H. Trapier, engineer
officer. The company was composed of old soldiers and required but
little drilling, and so our duties were light. I spent most of my time
sailing on the sound and fishing. The waters teemed with fish, and both
game and oysters were abundant.
There had been a report that the company would soon be ordered to Fort
McHenry, Baltimore, and all were anxious to leave the place, for they
had been stationed there over two years.
As time passed on they expected by every mail the order for them
to leave, but it came not. However, one evening toward the close of
November when we were enjoying a good supper, Mingo, the best of old
colored servants, announced the arrival of the day's mail, and placed
all the letters before Capt. Wall. Opening a ten-inch buff envelope
from the War Department, he took therefrom a letter, and as he glanced
over it a smile played over his countenance, observed by all. Ord
exclaimed: "That is the order for Fort McHenry!" Dr. Glenn bet wine
with Ord that it was not; and while the bets were being arranged Capt.
Wall handed the letter to me. I read it with surprise; it was an order
for me to proceed to Washington City and report to the Board preparing
the artillery tactics, composed of Maj. John Munroe, Capts. Francis
Taylor and Robert Anderson. There was dejection of spirits on the faces
of all present; but Ord rose with the occasion, and ordered Mingo to
have three bushels of oysters in the shell prepared, and to bring on
the accompaniments. I left them late at the table and retired to my
casemate room, and I avow to this day that some invisible spirit seemed
to move my cot around the room. Round and round it went. I leaned
against the table in the middle of the room and enjoyed the circus for
a while, but the cot would not grow weary. After some vain attempts I
caught it as it passed by, threw myself on it, the light burned dim,
and I fell asleep.
But O the vivid recollections of the wild, incoherent dreams of that
night, the aching head and quickened pulse. Childish scenes arose. I
was at the home of my childhood. I was crossing the Delaware river on
the ice, as in days of yore, and was carried away on a floating cake.
It was dark, and no one heard me cry for help. Then I was at a hotel,
and a girl, once so lovely, on whom I lavished all the love of a child,
came in to dine. She was old, ugly, and changed, and I gazed on her in
horror. Next I was in command of a fort on the banks of a river, and
British ships of war were coming up; they opened fire, and I ordered
our guns to reply, and not one could be fired; in vain the gunners
worked while the fleet passed by, and I cried in agony of mind. Like a
kaleidoscope the vision changed. I became an essence of the Creator of
the universe, and the universe was heaven. A spirit robed in white was
with me. Gravitation was destroyed, and we moved with the rapidity of
thought, past the moon, past the sun, past the stars. Whither I wished
we went. Bright suns were on all sides, above and below, rolling in
silence in the infinite ethereal spaces which had no center and were
without bounds. When I asked what power held all these worlds in a
relative position no answer came. I was alone! Phantoms of a burning
brain! I was at West Point again, in Kosciusko's garden, walking on
the banks of the Hudson. I saw a cave and entered it, and immediately
a rock weighing tons dropped down and closed the entrance. A passage
led to another chamber, and again came a vast rock and closed it. I
was now in darkness in a vaulted cave, shut in from the world and all
the worlds that were shown me. As I sat down on a rock in despair, a
ray of light was seen through a crevice in the rocks. Hope came to my
relief. The passage was small. After I had got partly through, my body,
in fright, began to swell, and I could neither go on nor get back.
Breathing had nearly ceased, and I could not cry for help, or move hand
or foot.
From this condition I was awakened. The vision bore away, and I found
myself lying on my cot, and an old hag that had assumed the form of
a peculiar cat was standing on me holding me down on my back. Her
body was a part of a broomstick; her legs were rounds of a chair with
wire hinges at the joints; her head was like three sticks forming a
triangle, with ends projecting for ears. Her countenance was like a
cat's. Her forefeet were on my chest pressing it down so that I could
scarcely breathe, while her savage eyes glowed with rage in my face. I
was awake and remembered that circulation of the blood would relieve me
from this horrible nightmare. I gave my body a sudden turn, the blood
rushed through my veins, the witch flew through the window, and the day
was dawning. My head was swimming like a buoy on the water.
The elixirs of Cagliostro, the preparations of Paracelsus, the use of
_hashish_ of the Mohammedans, never produced visions or dreams more
strange and painful than did that, my first and unwilling trial of old
"Monongahela."
I drew a moral from my experience on that occasion, and have never
forgotten it. May you draw a good one from it also!
The next morning the officers accompanied me to the landing. Bidding
them good-by, I got in the boat and sailed over to Beaufort. My stay at
Fort Macon was pleasant, and I was not overjoyed to leave the place.
I could lie on that treacherous cot and be lulled to sleep by the
ever-murmuring sea, or awakened by the thundering waves of the stormy
Atlantic that seemed to make the island tremble at the shock; and I
could tell at night by the lightning's "red glare" and the breaker's
roar when a storm was moving on over the Gulf Stream.
The casemate used for a magazine adjoined mine, and in it were stored
many thousand pounds of powder, and the lightning rods did not quiet
all my fears when those violent thunderstorms passed over the island.
Along the shore near Cape Lookout these violent winds had buried large
pine forests in sand ridges.
Well, I journeyed back to New Berne alone in the same Concord
stagecoach I came in, and remained there all night.
I now began to observe the difference in manners, customs, and
deportment of the Southern people from the people in the North. I shall
refer to this, perhaps, farther on. I noticed that the outer door
to the general lounging room was never shut. The weather was cold;
servants piled on the hearth pine wood in abundance, till the flames
roared up the chimney; men came in and men went out, and never a door
was closed.
After supper the landlord drew up a chair near mine, close by the
bright fire, and we entered into a conversation about the people and
the surrounding country.
A negro servant came in to replace the fuel and departed, and I
availed myself of the occasion to ask the landlord for what purpose
doors were made, and he was amazed at my want of information on such
common affairs. I think I demonstrated to him that to keep the doors
closed would be economy in fuel and comfort to his guests. He must
have been convinced, for in the morning I found the servants closed
the doors when passing in and out. This custom of open doors prevailed
generally in the South. When I boarded the train at Goldsboro, among
the passengers were two officers that were at the Academy whilst I was
there, George H. Thomas and John Pope. As Thomas was on a visit to his
home in Southampton County, Va., on the line of the Weldon and Norfolk
railroad, he persuaded Pope and myself to go on with him and take the
steamer from Portsmouth to Baltimore instead of the route by Richmond;
and so we remained all night in Weldon. The weather was cold and the
ground covered with snow, and the accommodations miserable. I little
thought then that I would be destined, nineteen years after, to sleep
there again with snow on the ground and a tent for shelter, but so it
was. On the way to Norfolk the rails were covered with frost and the
driving wheels slipped so that we all had to get out the cars and help
push the train over a slight ascent to a bridge. There was not much
comfort on the trains in those days.
On reaching Washington I reported to the Board of Artillery. They
handed to me the manuscript of work to be published, and directed me to
prepare drawings of horses, harness, guns, gun carriages, and all the
maneuvers of the battery to be illustrated by plates.
I was engaged in the performance of this duty from the early part
of December, 1843, to November 12, 1844. When the drawings were
all finished, there were added drawings of all heavy guns, their
carriages, implements, etc., and I am pleased to state that the Board,
after comparing them with the manuscript, accepted them without the
alteration of a line, letter, or dot.
I went to West Point to make the drawings for the horse artillery.
During the latter part of my stay there I occupied a room at Mrs.
Kinsley's. Lieut. John Newton, W. S. Rosecrans, William Gilham, and W.
R. Johnston also had quarters there. They were on duty as assistant
professors in the Academy. From West Point I returned to Washington
and made the plates of the heavy artillery. Thence in September I
went to meet the Board at Old Point Comfort. Gen. John B. Walbach was
in command of the post, a gallant old German who entered our army in
1799. A large number of officers were on duty there. The hotel was
filled with beauty and fashion; and, as I had nothing special to do,
I was free to join in the amusements the locality afforded. From Old
Point Comfort I returned to Washington early in November, 1844. During
the summer of this year, and whilst the Democratic convention was in
session in Baltimore, Prof. Morse invited Lieut. I. F. Quinby and me
to ride with him to the capital to test the telegraph line built from
Washington to Baltimore by act of Congress. On arriving at the capital
the Professor signaled to the operator in Baltimore, and in a short
time the following message was received by him:
Convention not in session now. Polk stock in the ascendency.
Douglass now addressing the people.
Or words to that effect; and this was the first telegram ever sent
in the United States. I have seen it stated that the first message
_announced the nomination_. That must be an error, because the one he
received was before the nomination had been made.[5]
From Washington I was ordered to join my company at Fort McHenry.
That order to leave Fort Macon, and about which so much anxiety was
manifested when I left there, was afterwards received and the company
moved accordingly. Maj. Samuel Ringgold was in command of the post,
and among the officers were Randolph Ridgely, W. H. Shover, Abner
Doubleday, E. O. C. Ord, and G. W. Ayers, and P. G. T. Beauregard was
the engineer officer.
Fort McHenry, at this time, was considered one of the most desirable
posts to be stationed at in the whole country.
During the autumn and winter there was a great deal of gayety in
Baltimore, and some of the officers of the post were generally at the
balls and parties given. The ladies of Baltimore from their ancestors
inherited beauty; and from their environments naturally acquired
retiring manners, low and sweet voices, gentleness, attractive grace;
and, conscious from childhood of their social position, they were
sprightly, exhibited hauteur to none, and moved in the mazy dance so
courtly, so slow, and "courtesied with a grace that belonged to an age
in the long, long ago."
On one occasion a masked and fancy dress ball was given by a gentleman
with whom I was not acquainted, to which many of the élite of the city
were invited. A description of that ball which was promptly published
in the New York _Herald_ created much excitement. The writer, not
content with describing dresses and characters represented, touched
truthfully some tender points peculiar to each individual. There were
many accused of the authorship, and all denied it. Rewards were offered
for the discovery of the writer. No one thought it could have been done
by any person not present at the ball, but so it was. Only two persons
could name the writer.
I went with him, about two days after the publication, the round of
morning calls, and we had much enjoyment at the criticisms made by
the ladies. Many were indignant; others enjoyed it. Some equivocal
expressions had been used in reference to one young lady. She first
shed tears; then, smiling, said: "Well, I would rather be described
as it was written than not to be mentioned at all." The writer was a
promising young lawyer, long since in his grave. I have not seen the
other confidant since the war. He was in the Confederate army.
One of the most accomplished young ladies in Baltimore was Miss
Charlotte R. She belonged to no "circle," but was beloved by all. Among
her admirers at that time were Chevalier Hulseman, _Charge d'Affairs_
for Austria, Lieut. Ord, and myself. Two years after, on the banks of
the Rio Grande, before a battle that was inevitable, I sat by a fire
and committed to the flames letters that I did not intend should be
read by any one, and, being alone, perchance some were moistened by a
tear.
My father was in politics a Whig, and firmly believed Gen. Jackson
deserved to be shot for hanging Arburthnot and Ambriester when he
took possession of Florida; and he thought Roger B. Taney no better
than a robber because he removed the government deposits from the
United States Bank. Now among the pleasant families that I visited
at this time in Baltimore was that of Chief Justice Taney, a man so
kind, gentle in manner, so plain and unpretending at his home, that
I wondered to what extent a venal party press would vilify a pure and
honest man who faithfully interpreted the law.[6]
While in Washington in 1843 I made my home at the "Hope Club," a club
composed mainly of unmarried army officers permanently stationed, or
at least on duty there. Gen. George Gibson, Commissary General, was
the president of the club. He was one of the best men I ever met;
kind and considerate of the feelings of every one, a gentleman of
the olden time, a man of patience and unruffled temper. He and Judge
Bibb, Secretary of the Treasury, would go to the long bridge and fish
all day for a minnow, or even a nibble. Capt. J. C. Casey was the
Treasurer. He was a very entertaining man, and had more influence with
the Seminole Indians than any one connected with the government. He was
a commissary, and they had abiding faith in him because, as they said,
"he told them no lies."
One day on taking my seat at dinner I turned up my plate and found
under it a note from Surgeon General Thomas Lawton inviting me in the
evening to dine with him. As I saw no one else had an invitation, and
I was only a lieutenant, I was not inclined to go alone, but Gen.
Gibson, Casey, and others told me to go by all means. At this time
Lieut. Thomas Williams came in and found an invitation also, and it was
decided we would go.
The Doctor had a dinner of thirteen courses, provided by the prince
of restaurant caterers. The wines were old and rare. The guests were
Gen. Scott, Commander in Chief of the Army; Col. Sylvester Churchill,
Inspector General; Lieut. Williams, and myself. Scott, Churchill, and
the Doctor discussed the war of 1812 on the Canadian line, and the
battles fought there; told how once they had so many prisoners and
so few to guard them that they cut the suspenders of the prisoners
to prevent their escape so easily, as it required one hand to hold
their breeches up. I remember another that shows there must have
been a good feeling between the officers on either side. Maj. Lomax,
for some purpose, was sent to the British camp; and when he returned
he was eagerly asked what news he had. "News! why there is British
gold, yes, British gold in this camp." That seemed to imply treason,
and an explanation was demanded, and it was given when Lomax from
his pockets covered the table with English sovereigns. He had been
entertained cordially by the British officers. The dinner did not end
until midnight. Gen. Scott drank sherry only, except when sampling some
choice wines that the Doctor bid the butler open. Col. Churchill was in
fine humor, and partly
O'er a' the ills o' life victorious.
At last the hour arrived to leave; then Gen. Scott, raising himself
to his full height, and either impressed with the importance of the
occasion, or thinking perhaps he was again at Lundy's Lane, "ordered
his own aid, Lieut. Williams, to conduct Col. Churchill to his
home, declaring it was not prudent for him to venture in the streets
unprotected." Then turning to me with much dignity, he announced: "And
I appoint Lieut. French a special aid to accompany me to my residence."
The streets were deserted and silent, and the walk short. Taking his
arm, I went with him to his home, rang the bell, and his servant met
him at the door, and there my services as aid terminated. In after days
and after years he was ever considerate and kind to me. The conqueror
lives, but the man is dead. But O how pleasant the recollection of the
times when those pure and knightly men with generous hearts, untouched
by avarice, never closed the "door of mercy on mankind." Such men were
Gens. Scott, Jesup, Gibson, Towson, Lawson, Totten, Abert, Cooper, and
others. Then men served God and their country rather than mammon. The
maddening, wild, and frantic rush for wealth was unknown, and life was
one of enjoyment without extravagance.
CHAPTER III.
Death of Hon. A. P. Upshur, Secretary of State--Calhoun
Appointed--Treaty of Annexation of Texas--Declaration of
the State of Massachusetts--Texas Accepts the Resolution
of Annexation--Formation of Army of Occupation--Transferred
to Maj. S. Ringgold's Battery of Horse Artillery--Officers
Sail for Aransas Pass--The Wicked Captain--Becalmed--Cross
Bahama Banks--Key West--Out of Drinking Water--Fare on
Board Ship--Storm--Aransas Pass--St. Joseph's Island--Maj.
Ringgold's Cook--Embark for Corpus Christi--Game and
Fish--Horse Racing--White Horse of the Prairies--Trip to San
Antonio--The Town--Incidents of the Trip.
At this time there was being discussed by the public a matter that was
destined soon to put an end to the pleasant life we were leading here.
After the death of Abel P. Upshur, Secretary of State, John C. Calhoun
was appointed to fill the vacancy, and the question of the admission
of Texas as a State was discussed, and on the 12th of April a treaty
of annexation was signed by him; and it was rejected by the Senate of
the United States. So bitter was the feeling that, notwithstanding the
purchase of Louisiana and Florida [and Alaska since], Massachusetts,
through her Legislature, declared that Congress had no right or power
to admit a foreign State or Territory into the Union; and that if Texas
was admitted it _would not be binding on her_. By this Massachusetts
made a declaration which the State could not carry out without
_seceding_ from the Union, yet she seceded not.
Soon after the inauguration of Mr. Polk as President a resolution for
annexation was passed by Congress, and on June 23, 1845, Texas accepted
the resolution, and became a State in the Union December 29.
It became evident now, when Texas accepted the resolution, that the
government would be obliged to defend the new State from invasion by
Mexico, and the army officers were anxious to go to the frontier to
defend the boundary of the country. To meet the threats of Mexico,
an army of occupation was gradually formed at Corpus Christi. When
the order came for Maj. Ringgold's battery of horse artillery to
be in readiness to move, and the Adjutant General came over to Fort
McHenry to transfer some of Capt. Wall's men to Ringgold's company, I
asked Ringgold if he wished me to go with him. Taking me by the hand,
he exclaimed, "My dear fellow, yes;" and, turning to the Adjutant
General, he asked him to make the transfer and 'twas done, and I made
preparations to leave.
The ship Hermann was chartered, and the horses, to the number of
one hundred and fifty, were put on board the ship between decks, in
temporary stalls, secured by broad canvas bands under their bodies to
prevent them from being thrown from their feet by the motion of the
vessel. The company officers were Ringgold, Ridgely, Shover, Fremont,
and myself. The officers left in the fort were Wall, Tompkins, and Ord.
After we left, this company was ordered to California. W. T. Sherman
was with it; and they were quiet on the shore of the Pacific during the
war. I met Ord once after the war in Washington. His hobby then was the
Australian boomerang. He took me to a room, about sixty by forty, to
show me how he could throw them to the end of the room and make them
come back and fall at his feet. He was studying out some machine to
discharge them rapidly and thereby fill the air with scythe blades to
cut off the heads of an enemy, and every boomerang that did not strike
an enemy was to return to the fort. I could not see why this boomerang,
when it returned, would not injure the person that sent it. And thus it
is; we all have some hobby on hand, but fortunately most of them are
as harmless as Ord's boomerang, except we cannot get off this kind of
a horse and rest and sleep as we do from a real horse.
The day came when the cry was heard: "All on board." "Farewell," the
parting word of friends, was spoken, the lines cast off, and the ship
passed down the Patapsco river to Chesapeake Bay, to the Atlantic. The
voyage to Aransas Pass was tedious and not particularly eventful. The
captain was a scoundrel and a sinner. I found amusement in going aloft
and sitting in the foretop surveying the ocean's wide expanse without
intrusion. When we neared the Bahamas we were becalmed nine days, and
the wicked captain would lie on his back and curse even his Creator.
I had, as well as the captain, made all the observations for latitude
and time, to compare with his. We reached the "Hole in the Wall" about
sunset, and I made a sketch of it; passed Great Stirrup-cay light about
10 P.M. At 2 A.M. the captain and mate came into our cabin, where his
chart was on the table, and he tried to impress on the mate that the
light ahead was the Florida light; that he had crossed the Gulf Stream
and was nearing the Florida coast; and that the ship's course should
be changed southerly. I heard this with alarm, for I could not believe
it possible that we had passed the "Great Isaacs" and the Straits of
Florida. I went on deck at the dawn of day, and saw white sand and
rocks that did not appear more than a dozen feet beneath the water.
I went forward, found the captain, and asked him if he was not on
the Bahama Banks. He denied it. I went immediately and made known the
situation to Maj. Ringgold. He appeared to take but little interest in
the matter, supposed the ship was all right, etc.
About sunrise he came out, and I called his attention to the shoal
water and rocks and the lighthouse on our _starboard_ bow. He spoke
to the captain about what I told him, and was informed that I was a
boy and did not know what I was talking about. The blue line of the
deep water was in front of us, and a bark under full sail on the other
side of the lighthouse heading south; and as we neared each other our
captain took his trumpet and asked, "What ship is that?" and the reply
was prompt, "What in h-ll are you doing there?" I turned to the Major
and asked him if that answer did not explain the situation. The bark
was the Caleb Cushing, bound to New Orleans laden with ice. I believe
to-day it was an attempt to wreck the ship, where life was safe, to get
the insurance.
As we were nearly out of drinking water, there was a necessity to run
into the nearest port for a fresh supply, and the ship put into Key
West. What a relief! That miserable captain had fed us on junk meat,
boiled dried-apple pudding, and hardtack with weak coffee. I have never
eaten any of these dishes since. We remained in Key West one day and
night, and sailed the next morning. There we got some West Indies fruit
and plenty of limes.
The ship was now provisioned with green turtle, the only meat I saw in
the market in the town, and now turtle was substituted for salt beef;
and henceforth it was turtle steak, turtle soup (in name only), and
turtle at every meal until it became as unpalatable as junk beef. Some
days after leaving Key West clouds from the south-east began to fly
over, extremely low, driven by a current just above us. The captain
took in sail, leaving only spread the jib, fore-topsail, main topsail,
and spanker, and I believe the mainsail. I was sitting in the cabin
when all at once tables, chairs, trunks, and everything moveable were
shot to the starboard side in a heap. I caught hold of some fixtures,
got out the cabin, which was on deck, and clung to the weather shrouds.
The ship was nearly on her side. The captain jumped for the halyards,
sailors slid down the deck, feet foremost, to let them go. I had
been anxious to be in a storm on the ocean, and here was one quite
unexpected.
What riveted my attention mainly was the roaring of the tempest through
the rigging. The great shrouds vibrated with a sound that made the
ship tremble, and every rope and cord shrieked aloud in a different
tone according to size, creating a thundering, howling, shrieking roar
that impressed me with awe not unlike that I felt _under_ the falls of
Niagara. I was so fascinated with the music of the tempest that I was
oblivious to the thought of danger, until the ship began to rise from
her side, and when she rose well on her keel I thought the horses would
kick the vessel to pieces.
When we arrived at Aransas Pass the sea was high and the wind strong,
and no lighters would venture outside to come to us. The discharging
the cargo was tedious, as the horses had to be swung to the yardarms
and lowered into the pitching tugs alongside. I had been forty-six days
on board ship, and joyous was it to be landed on St. Joseph's Island.
I will make a small digression here, because it will shed some light
on matters hereafter, and show that a camp may have some attractions as
well as a palace.
Maj. Ringgold carried with him a middle-aged colored servant who had
much experience in arranging dinner and supper parties in Baltimore.
He cared for nothing save to surprise us with dishes that would have
delighted Lucullus. Such pompano, baked red snappers, boiled red fish,
delicate soups, turkeys, geese, ducks, and game birds on toast. In
pastry he had no superior. Never could we, by money or otherwise,
discover how he prepared his sauces. In taste in arranging a table
he resembled Ward McAllister, and he was fitted for a "chef" at
Delmonico's or the Waldorf.
Ridgely had an old slave servant, and Shover and I colored men
hired. They were all true and faithful servants, yet in disregard of
instructions they would ride down and find us on the battlefield with
a good luncheon. They always wished to go with us when there was a
prospect of a fight. So now you can understand how much I rejoiced to
leave that villainous captain and ship, and enjoy again the luxury of
a clean table.
The terms of annexation proposed by the United States were accepted
July 4, 1845, and Gen. Taylor was already at Corpus Christi with a
considerable force when we landed on St. Joseph's Island. Consequently
our stay on the island was soon terminated by our embarking on a light
draft steamer for Corpus Christi. As the water is shoal in front of
this place, the steamer was anchored near a mile from shore, and the
horses thrown overboard and made to swim to land. Corpus Christi is
on the westerly side of the Nueces River, and consequently the United
States troops were occupying the disputed territory. I have no date to
guide me now, but it must have been about the last of October when we
landed on the barren sands of the Bay of Nueces. Here a permanent camp
and depot were established, and discipline in the troops commenced.
There was but _one_ house in this _town_ at that time. It was a canvas
town. It was not an unpleasant place to be in. Lieut. John B. Magruder
was a good theatrical manager, and under his charge a theater was
constructed, and a fair company of actors enlisted. This attracted
some professional of the boards, and thus nightly entertainments were
provided. The disciples of Isaac Walton had rare sport in the bay and
streams; and sportsmen a field for all kind of game. During the winter
a cold "norther" prevailed, and thousands of green turtle, pompano,
red fish, red snappers, and other of the finny tribe were benumbed and
cast on the shores on every side. The number of wild geese that nightly
came from the prairies to rest on the waters of the bay was beyond
estimate. A few miles up the bay, at sunset, the geese would obscure
the sky from zenith to the verge of the horizon, and bewilder the young
sportsman, who would always want two or three at a shot instead of one.
Ten minutes, usually, would suffice to get as many geese as our horses
could carry.
Deer and turkeys were abundant, but on the open prairie would
provokingly move along in front of the hunter just out of range of
shot. Jack or English snipe would rise from the marshy places in flocks
instead of a brace. There was a bird frequently seen in the roads and
paths near camp, always alone, shaped like a game cock, that excited
curiosity. Finally it was shot, and is now known as the chaparral cock.
Soldiers found amusement in betting on Mexican ponies trained to stop
instantly on the slightest touch of the reins. A line would be marked
in the sand on the seashore, and the rider of the pony would take all
bets that he could run his pony a hundred yards at full speed and stop
him instantly (say) within a foot of the line, and not pass over it;
and they generally won the bets.
Many fleet ponies were brought there, and racing was a daily
occurrence. On one occasion the officers got up a grand race. Capt.
May and Lieut. Randolph Ridgely were to ride the respective horses.
When mounted, May's feet nearly reached the ground; and they rode
"bareback." It was an exciting race. On they came under whip and spur
amidst the crowd shouting wild hurrah. As they crossed the goal, May
thoughtlessly checked his pony, and instantly the animal straightened
his forelegs and stopped; but May, not having braced himself, went on.
Seizing the pony by the neck with both hands, his legs rose in the air,
and he made a complete somersault, landing on the ground some twelve or
more feet in front of the pony. As he was not injured, the crowd went
wild with joy.
A great number of Mexicans would daily visit our camp with horses, or
rather ponies, saddles, bridles, blankets, and other horse equipments
for sale. I have had a horse and saddle offered for seventy-five
dollars, or seventy for the saddle and five for the horse. I bought the
best trained hunting pony that I have ever known for fifteen dollars.
The owner protested that he was "mucho bueno" for hunting, and so he
proved. At full speed he had been trained to stop instantly the moment
a motion was made to fire the gun. I once had this pony to go up and
rub the side of his head on the wheel of a piece of artillery when
being fired rapidly in battle. He loved the smell of gunpowder better
than I did. Nearly all the officers bought ponies for themselves or
servants to ride. We heard so much about the great snow-white horse of
the prairies, with a long flowing tail that swept the green grass, and
a mane below his knees, that I thought it was a phantom horse on the
land like the flying Dutchman on the sea. I was mistaken. I heard one
day he had been lassoed and sold to the quartermaster of the post, so
I went "for to see" him. There he was, chained to the pole of an army
wagon. He would kick at every person and animal that ventured near him.
I left him kicking at the man who fed him on hay tied on the end of a
twenty-foot pole. What became of this emblematic horse I cannot tell.
The desire "to know the world by sight and not by books" was increased.
I had seen the Atlantic's deep heaving swells, the tempest in its
might on the gulf, the calms on the borders of the tropics, with those
never-to-be-forgotten beauties caused by the setting sun behind those
wonderful clouds. Every evening as the sun declined, great banks of
blue and purple clouds would form, presenting to the eye, without the
aid of imagination, the most lovely plains, bold mountain ranges, whose
tops were draped in fantastic clouds. Temples that were as gloomy as
Egypt's; castles as enchanting as those on the Rhine; chariots with
horses; human faces and animals in silhouette; lions in repose and
lions rampant; phantasms woven out of clouds by rays of the setting
sun; all, all changing in expression and form by the gentle movements
of the clouds, fading away in outline into one vast glow of crimson
twilight that dissolved into air;
"And like the baseless fabric of a vision, left not track
behind."
And now learning that a small train of wagons would soon leave for San
Antonio, I obtained a month's leave to visit that city, made memorable
by the defense of the Alamo and other tragic events. When the time came
to start I met Lieut. W. L. Crittenden, who told me he had a leave and
was also going with the train. The expedition was in charge of Capt.
N. B. Rossell. When we came to the San Patricio crossing of the Nueces
river the train could not cross by reason of the rains. Impatient of
delay, I proposed to Crittenden and two gentlemen from Kentucky that
we "cut loose" from the train and proceed on our journey. There was
with the train a Mr. Campbell, who lived in San Antonio, and he was
willing to undertake to pilot us over this unknown, untrodden, pathless
country.
At the close of the first day, the guide and I being in advance, we
came to a small, clear, bubbling brook, and he said: "Here we will
encamp for the night." So, dismounting, I hitched my pony and went
up the stream in quest of turkeys that I heard gobbling. I found
them going to roost, and covetous of numbers, I would not shoot one
and return as I should have done. I heard the party shouting for me.
So, waiting till a number of turkeys were in the tree, I fired both
barrels, and only two of the birds fell when I expected double that
number. When I went to get the birds, alas! they were on an island and
I had to leave them. It was now dark, and as I had crossed to the left
bank of the stream I went on down until I supposed I was near the camp,
and made a soft halloo! No answer. I then shouted louder and louder;
then all was silence. I felt a peculiar crawling sensation running over
me, and I think my hair objected to my wearing my hat. I took a survey
of the situation. I was alone in an Indian country; it was very dark,
and I must not pass over the trail where we crossed the stream. Aided
with the light of matches and burning grass I discovered the trail
and found my pony hitched where I left him. Mounting him, I followed
the trail. After a while I heard far away some one halloo. It was
Crittenden returning for me. We met, and I reached camp in no pleasant
mood. It was an experience I have only once since undergone, and the
sensations of the mind when lost are bewildering.
It was the average estimate of the party that the number of deer that
moved to the right and left of our trail was not less than twelve
hundred, besides numerous antelope. Out of all this number we never
killed one, for we had no rifle, and they would walk off or keep
provokingly just out of gunshot. We killed all the turkeys we wanted
for food. In four days we reached San Antonio. There were but _four
white families_ living in the town at that date: Volney Howard, Tom
Howard, our guide Campbell, and Mrs. Bradley. Lands were offered us at
six cents per acre that commands now over a thousand dollars per acre,
and the population is at present fifty thousand.
At the San Pedro Springs, the source of the San Antonio river,
where the river in its strength gushes up from the earth, we found
Col. Harney encamped with a squadron of dragoons. He had built an
observatory from which to obtain a view of the surrounding country.
From the top hundreds of deer could be seen quietly grazing on the
prairies near by.[7]
Wild hogs and large wolves infested the chaparral around the hills,
and were caught in traps. The country is beautiful to the eye, and
the city sleeps in what may be termed a valley, by reason of the low
hills on the north and east. To the west the plain extends to the
Medina river. Western Texas in the months of March and April is lovely
beyond comparison. The green grass is hidden beneath flowers of every
color; not flowers here and there, but one unbroken mass, presenting
a richness of coloring beyond the art of man; as we ride along there
are acres of solid blue, then of white, now of yellow, then pink and
purple; then all mixed up of every hue, as I once saw petunias on the
lawn at Capo di Monti, in Naples.
My stay in San Antonio depended on the departure of the train. There
were a number of army officers waiting the convenience and protection
of the wagons. The evening of our departure was notable for an incident
illustrating the power of imagination over bodily feeling. Most of the
officers had arrived at the camping ground in advance of the wagons,
and were sitting under the trees when they came. As the train was
passing by Crittenden got up and took from his pocket what was called
a pepper box pistol and fired at a tree in a line parallel to the
road. Just at that time Lieut. Lafayette McLaws left the train to come
where we were, and shouted: "Quit firing, I am shot." As he was not in
range, no one regarded what he said, and Crittenden kept on firing the
revolver.
When McLaws rode up he had a wild look, and the bosom of his shirt was
red with blood. A ball hitting the tree had glanced off at an angle and
struck him. He was taken from his horse and the wound examined. There
was the hole where the bullet entered the breast, and he was spitting
blood; and no surgeon being present he was put in a wagon to be taken
back to San Antonio. He was resting on his back on straw and I was by
his side. Again he spit some blood. He said: "My days are numbered.
My whole chest is filled with blood, and I can feel the blood shaking
inside as though I were filled with water." He was satisfied that he
would soon die from internal hemorrhage; and perhaps he would, but
fortunately it was discovered that the ball had also _hit his index
finger_, that he had unknowingly sucked it in his mouth, and this
was the blood he was spitting up. I therefore got out the wagon and
left him. On arrival in San Antonio the wound was probed by a surgeon
and the ball discovered near the spine. It was a glancing shot that
pressing against the skin followed the line of least resistance until
arrested by the spine. He soon recovered and came back to Corpus
Christi.
On the way back, when we struck the Nueces river we discovered that the
timber was a _turkey roost_. As the train was going only three miles
farther on to camp, a young man, son of Col. McIntosh, and I agreed
to remain there until dark and kill some turkeys. McIntosh selected a
tree under the bank near the river; I fastened my pony to a bush on the
plain and sat under the bank in the woods on the second bottom. About
sunset great flocks of turkeys began to appear until the plains were
alive with them. They were disturbed by my pony being tied there. As it
grew dark they came into the trees or woods, flock after flock, in such
numbers that they bent the limbs and fell to the ground all around me.
I made seven shots, shooting only at the head as they were so near me.
I picked up six fine gobblers (I would shoot no hens), and, staggering
under the load, reached my pony. I threw the turkeys down and mounting
my pony rode to McIntosh. McIntosh had fired both barrels, and had one
turkey. He had stopped without any other ammunition. Accompanying me
back to where my game was, we tied the turkeys and put them over the
necks of our horses and went into camp. I have no doubt that more than
a thousand turkeys flew into that timber to roost; they were on the
ground all around me, and they could have been killed with a walking
stick. I do not believe they had ever heard a gun fired before. By the
stupidity of not protecting game by proper laws it has all disappeared
long since. Indians obtained rifles and ammunition from traders, and
the deer were killed solely for their skins; and the wild members of
the Legislature looked on and said: "Let the boys hunt whenever they
please; the country and all it contains belongs to them." It is now
justly held that all game belongs to the State and becomes the property
of the individual only as permitted by law, and after it is killed.
CHAPTER IV.
President of Mexico Resigns, and Paredes Is Elected--Mexican
Troops Concentrating at Matamoras--Taylor Marches to the
Rio Grande--Rattlesnakes--Mirage--Wild Horses--Taylor
Concentrates His Troops at Arroyo, Colo.--Bull
Fight--Mexicans Flee--Taylor Goes to Point Isabel--Join Gen.
Worth--Field Works--Arrival of Gen. Ampudia--Orders Taylor
to Leave--Taylor Declines--Col. Cross Murdered--Lieut.
Porter Killed--Gen. Arista Arrives--Declares Hostilities
Commenced--Capts. Thornton and Hardee Captured.
During the winter the friendly Mexicans who came to the camp would tell
us of the preparations their government was making for war.
At the close of December, 1845, Herrera was forced to resign the
presidency of Mexico, and Paredes was elected in his place; and
detachments of troops began to move north, concentrating at Matamoras,
on the Rio Grande, and the aspect of affairs looked quite belligerent.
On the 22d of February, 1846, a depot of supplies was established by
our troops at Santa Gertrudes, some forty miles in advance on the route
to Matamoras. On the 7th of March the tents of our company were struck
preparatory to a move, and the day following the line of march for the
Rio Grande commenced.
The advance troops were a brigade of cavalry and Ringgold's battery
of horse artillery. To be more minute, the order of march was: a
company of cavalry, then our battery, then the main body of cavalry.
As you can get all important matters from history, I shall allude only
to what history generally omits, and relate minor affairs or scenes
behind history, like that unknown behind the stage. The first night out
we encamped at a beautiful place covered with blue flowers like the
hyacinth. It was pleasant to look at, an enchanting scene that would
have been drowsy and dreamlike from the fragrance of the flowers had
we not discovered nearly every man grazing his horse carrying a small
pole with which he was killing rattlesnakes. That night I slept on the
ground and dreamed a great centipede was crawling over me, and I awoke
with a great scream, like Dudu, from her sleep.
We had breakfast at daylight, and while we were sitting by the camp
fire waiting for the bugle to call, and watching the wild geese flying
around overhead bewildered by the fires, I held my gun pointing at
them, and by some mishap it went off and alarmed the camp; but a goose
fell down, nevertheless, near me. The guide, Pedro, said we had sixteen
miles to march that day to the next camp. Our line was diverging
somewhat inland from the gulf shore, and all the prairie was one green
carpet of grass and flowers as far as the eye could reach, when all at
once there was a great ocean on our left and not far distant. Officers
galloped to Pedro to learn what was the matter, and ere an explanation
was had the _mirage_ was gone, the ocean was gone, and we were on the
lone prairie as before.
The third day we were marching quietly along when an alarm was sounded.
To our right and a little to the rear in the horizon was what appeared
to be a column of cavalry bearing down on us. As it came nearer and
nearer the cry arose: "Wild horses, wild horses!" Our battery was
closed up, the advanced company of cavalry moved on, leaving a large
opening; the dragoons massed, making an interval for the herd to pass
through. On and on they came and, at full speed, with their long
flowing manes and tails, passed through the open space made by the
battery and dragoons. There were between two and three hundred. As
soon as they passed Capt. May, Lieut. Ridgely, and some other officers
were after them on their fine horses with lariat in hand, and after a
ride of a mile or more came back each with a young colt. They stayed
with our horses several days and then disappeared. When we encamped a
pony that I had bought for my servant to ride was bitten on the face
by a rattlesnake near the door of our tent. The animal was treated
with ammonia and whisky. The next morning his head was so swollen that
I left him behind. A servant of the paymaster, when the infantry came
along, found the pony and brought it on to the Rio Grande and returned
it to my boy.
The infantry marched by brigades at a day's interval. The officers and
men being in uniform, wearing caps, had their lips and noses nearly raw
from the sun and winds, and could not put a cup of coffee to their lips
until it was cold. I wore an immense sombrero, or Mexican straw hat. On
the route I was often told: "When Gen. Taylor comes up you will be put
in arrest for wearing that hat." The army concentrated near the Arroyo
Colorado, where the general commanding overtook us. I went over to call
on him the next morning, and found him in front of his tent sitting
on a camp stool eating breakfast. His table was the lid of the mess
chest. His nose was white from the peeling off of the skin, and his
lips raw. As I came up he saluted me with: "Good morning, lieutenant,
good morning; sensible man to wear a hat." So I was commended instead
of being censured for making myself comfortable. His coffee was in a
tin cup, and his lips so sore that the heat of the tin was painful.
A day or so after this the advance pickets encountered a herd of wild
cattle that all ran away except an old bull that showed fight. Hearing
shots in advance I galloped on and found four or five cavalrymen
around this animal, that looked as if he might be the grandsire of the
herd. Every shot fired from the carbines had failed to penetrate the
skin. I was armed with my shotgun and a brace of old pistols made in
Marseilles, France, that Lieut. U. S. Grant gave me to carry along for
him. I fired both these pistols at the enraged animal, and the balls
only made the skin red by removing the hair. We now persuaded a dragoon
to put himself in front of the beast while I approached within twenty
feet of his side, and from my gun fired a ball that penetrated the
lungs. Still he pawed the earth and charged the horses, some of which
were injured, and inspired new life to all around him while his own was
ebbing. At last a dragoon dismounted, cautiously approached, shot him
in the forehead, and the already weakened bull fell on his knees and
rolled on his side--dead.
This fight was not conducted according to all the rules of the ring
at Madrid. We had, however, a dozen picadors and a matadore, and they
performed feats of valor without the approving smiles of black-eyed
señoras or the applause of the grandees, which in Spain nerves the
actors to daring deeds; but there was a compensation, for there were
no hisses when one fled from the bull to save his horse, or sought a
raking position in the rear to encourage those in front. The lesson
I drew from this kind of recreation was that at the next bullfight I
would be found among the spectators and not in the arena.
This continued firing by the advance guard caused troops to hasten
to the front to ascertain the reason of the tumult, and when it was
reported to Gen. Taylor that according to the rules of Texas, Mexico,
and Spain a bull had been found, an amphitheater marked out, and that a
real bull fight had taken place; that the noble animal had been slain
for amusement, and that his cavalry was not well trained and had been
tossed by the bull, he grew irate, and alas! to spoil our little game
of recreations away in front, caused an order to be issued forbidding
all firing on the march, unless necessitated by the presence of the
enemy. Henceforth the bulls, deer, and jack rabbits became friendly
with us, and we passed them by in silence.
Nearly every day small armed parties of Mexicans were seen away in
advance, and once when we rode to a small pond to water our horses we
found a party of Mexican lancers watering theirs also. A few words of
salutation passed, when they moved on and disappeared. Once they set
the prairie on fire, and we had to drive through the leaping flames
with our guns and caissons filled with ammunition.
On the 19th the head of the column was halted and went into camp about
three or four miles off the stream called Arroyo Colorado, to wait
the arrival or concentration of all the troops, about four thousand
in number, and preparation to cross was made by the engineers. On the
morning of the 20th, our battery was put in position on the banks of
the river where the earth had been cut down for it to cross, and where
its fire could command the opposite shore and cover the landing of the
infantry. Notice had been given the engineer officer by the Mexicans
that the forces on the Mexican shore were under positive orders to
fire on any of our troops attempting to cross. Again a like notice was
sent to Gen. Taylor, and a proclamation that had been issued by Gen.
Mejia a day or two past was handed to him. During this time an awful
din was made on the Mexican side by bugle calls away down, and far up
the river, and kettledrums and fife in the woods in front. Our guns
were loaded and matches lit when the old General gave the command for
the infantry to cross. The head of the columns plunged into the water,
holding their cartridge boxes and muskets high, and, landing, deployed
at once right and left. Other troops crossed above on the right, and
when all moved forward not a Mexican was seen.
On the 24th we arrived at a point on the main road running from Point
Isabel to Matamoras which was ten miles from Point Isabel and a like
distance from Matamoras. Gen. Worth was directed to move on toward the
Rio Grande near Matamoras with the infantry, while Gen. Taylor, with
our battery and the dragoons, went down to meet Maj. Munroe at Point
Isabel, where he had established a depot of supplies for the army. On
the 26th Gen. Taylor, with his escort of cavalry and artillery, joined
the main body under Worth, and on the 28th the army encamped on the
river bank opposite Matamoras.
The arrival of Gen. Taylor with his army, quietly taking the position
he did, no doubt produced some consternation. Mexican infantry was seen
in motion in the city. They had the river picketed and batteries placed
to bear on our camp.
The Mexican commander insisted that all was lovely, and that there
was no war; that the acts of hostility were little events--little
incidents--to make our arrival interesting and pleasant. That the
Consul for the United States in Matamoras was free, and a gentleman
of leisure, but that Gen. Taylor could not interview him without
permission from the Commandante.
Notwithstanding "the distinguished consideration" and affectionate
regard expressed in the communications for the Americanos, Gen. Taylor
concluded to put up some field works or fortifications out of courtesy
to those being constructed by the Mexicans. We were in the land of
Moab, and the promised land was on the other side. There was the city
embowered in green foliage, with tropical plants around the white
houses, and there, when the sun was declining, would assemble the
female population to see and to be seen, and listen to the music of the
various bands. "Dixie" was not then born, the "Bonnie Blue Flag" had
not then been waved; and we played "Yankee Doodle" because it made a
loud noise, the "Star-Spangled Banner" because it waved over us, "Hail,
Columbia" because it was inspiriting, and the sweetest airs from the
operas for the beautiful senoritas with the rebosas that disclosed the
sweet faces they were designed to hide. The music from the other side I
cannot recall now, only it rose with a "voluptuous swell" that floated
over the water and died away softly in the distance with the breath
that made it. And all the while on our side the shore was lined with
officers and soldiers enjoying the scene before them--that had a short
existence.
"Ampudia has come! Ampudia has come!" was heralded by every Mexican
that came into our camp vending the products of the farms. And so it
was. He came clothed in modesty, and made a display of it immediately
by sending a dispatch on the 12th ordering Gen. Taylor to get out of
his camp in twenty-four hours, and not to stop on this side of the
Nueces. I do not believe Taylor was much acquainted with fear, because,
instead of "folding his tents like the Arabs, and silently stealing
away," he had the audacity to remain just where he was until the
twenty-four hours had expired, and long after.
About this time Col. Cross, of the quartermaster's department, was
murdered by some one and his body thrown in the chaparral. I was with a
party of officers that was riding up the river, not expressly in search
of Col. Cross's body, some seven or eight days after he was missed, and
we observed some vultures resting in an old tree top. I rode in toward
them, and saw a blue coat on the ground. It was Col. Cross's, and some
of his remains were there. They were afterwards gathered up and cared
for properly. One of the parties, a detachment of dragoons, sent in
search of Cross's body got into a fight with the Mexicans and Lieut.
Porter was killed; and yet there was no war?
And now a greater than Ampudia had arrived, and on the 24th of April
Gen. Arista assumed command of the Mexican army now encamped in and
around the city, and he informed Taylor that he considered hostilities
commenced, and had "let slip the dogs of war." The enemy was now
reported to have crossed to our side in large numbers, and parties
were sent out to make reconnoissances, one of which was captured by the
Mexicans; and Capts. Thornton and Hardee were now prisoners of war.
CHAPTER V.
Arista and His Cavalry--United States Excited--Two Hundred
Thousand Men Offer Their Services--Congress Declares
"War Existed by the Acts of the Mexican Republic"--Taylor
Marches to Point Isabel--Bombardment of Fort Brown--Capts.
May and Walker--Taylor Marches for Matamoras--Battle of
Palo Alto--Victory--Arista Falls Back to Resaca--Battle
of Resaca--Capture of Enemies' Batteries--Capts. May and
Ridgely--Gen. La Vega Captured--His Sword Presented to
Taylor--Duncan and Ridgely Pursue the Enemy--I Capture
La Vega's Aid--Col. McIntosh--Ride over the Field of
Palo Alto--Death of Lieuts. Chadburne and Stevens--We
take possession of Matamoras--Gen. Twiggs appointed
Governor--Twiggs and Jesus Maria--Arrival of Gens. W. O.
Butler, Robert Patterson, Pillow, and others--Promoted
to Second Lieutenant--Officers of the Company--March to
Camargo--Thence to Monterey--Seralvo--Arrival at Monterey.
And now Arista, on the part of the Mexican government, having declared
that war existed; and some of our forces, both men and officers,
having been killed or captured, the pony express carried this news to
the city of New Orleans; and as there was no telegraph, it spread all
over the country and became magnified like "the three black crows."
The apprehension that we were cut off from communicating with home by
Arista's army occupying a position between us and Point Isabel was
widespread, and impromptu meetings held for volunteers to go to the
relief of our army, and thousands responded to the call. Congress was
in session, and it promptly declared that "war existed by the acts of
the Mexican Republic," and authorized the President to accept into
service fifty thousand volunteers. As over two hundred thousand men
offered their services, it may be, as Mark Twain once observed, that
many persons "persuaded their wives' relations" to avail themselves of
this unique occasion to visit the land of the Aztecs, and enjoy balmy
breezes under the shade of the acacia, the bamboo, and the pomegranate,
with transportation free. In the meantime we were in blissful ignorance
that we were in such danger, and did not know it until our friends came
to our relief.
When Arista landed a part of his force on our side of the river, it
was put in the field under the command of Gen. Torrejon, and, being
cavalry, had gained possession of the road leading to Point Isabel,
thus cutting off all the creature comforts that we daily enjoyed. If
it did not affect our pockets, it curtailed the duties of our _chef de
cuisine_, and diminished the pleasures of the table. In plain English,
rations were getting short, and the less we had to eat the harder we
worked on the fort and other defenses.
May Day, when our friends were inhaling the fragrance of the bloom
of the peach and cherry, the rose and the violet, and children were
dancing around the maypole, we were striking our tents, packing up
"traps," burning letters, preparatory to leaving for Point Isabel. A
mocking bird that would sit on the ridgepole of my tent and sing to
me daily, and warble sweet notes by moonlight, now sat on the fence
adjoining and sung a parting song, for I never saw him again, and it
filled my heart with sadness. Sing on, dear bird; I hear thee now!
The Seventh Regiment of Infantry, Bragg's company, or battery, and
a company of foot artillery were left in the fort under Maj. Brown,
and Gen. Taylor started for Point Isabel, where our supplies were in
store. The day following we arrived, and I was delighted to see old
ocean again. Our departure should not have been made an occasion for
sensible persons to rejoice, for did we not trust about six hundred men
to entertain the Mexicans during our absence? and thus notify them that
we purposed to return, and did we not do so?
"And I have loved thee, ocean," and I love thee still, and I was
content to hear thy voice again and be near thee; but life is a dream,
and from that dream I was awakened at dawn on the morning of the 3d.
I was sleeping on the ground. A dull distant sound broke on my ear.
I rested my head on my elbow, and heard nothing; putting my ear again
to the earth, I heard the boom! boom! of distant cannon. It was heard
by others, and soon the camp was astir. It was now certain from the
continuous sounds that Fort Brown was being bombarded. Gen. Taylor sent
out Capts. May and Walker to communicate with Maj. Brown, and Walker
succeeded in getting into the fort and returning. The defense of Point
Isabel was to be intrusted to Maj. Munroe, assisted by the navy in
command of Commodore Connor; and the army, now reduced to two thousand
four hundred men, was to move to the relief of the garrison in Fort
Brown.
About noon on the 7th this little force started to meet Arista, who
was between us and Fort Brown, without a question or doubt of getting
there, although it was known the enemy's force numbered about eight
thousand men. It was near noon on the 8th of May when far away over the
broad prairie, dimly outlined, was seen a dark line directly in front
of us. It was the Mexican army drawn up in battle array across our road
to Matamoras. When we arrived where there was water Gen. Taylor halted
to give the men time to fill their canteens and to have a little rest.
Soon the long roll sounded, hearts beat, pulses kept time, and knees
trembled and would not be still. Our line was formed as follows: the
fifth infantry (Col. McIntosh), Ringgold's battery, third infantry, two
long, heavy iron eighteen pounders, fourth infantry, and two squadrons
of dragoons posted on our right, all commanded by Col. Twiggs, formed
the right wing; the left was a battalion of foot artillery, Duncan's
battery, and eighth infantry. In some respects it was a laughable thing
to see the deployment of our line, of which the Mexicans were quiet
spectators. Looking back from where we came into battery, which was
executed in a half minute and in advance of the infantry, I could see
the two great, long, heavy iron eighteen pounders, and the white-topped
ammunition wagons lumbering along to get into line, drawn by a team
of twenty oxen each. They came into line by words of command not laid
down in the work on tactics; they described a great semicircle at the
commands, "Haw, Buck! haw, Brindle! whoa, Brandy!" and finally got
their muzzles pointed to the front. If we had had elephants in place
of the oxen, it would have been more picturesque, and presented a fine
panorama.
Arista must have thought he had performed his whole duty when he
barred the road with his troops to prevent Taylor from advancing. He
had been in line of battle all the morning awaiting our coming, yet he
_permitted us to deploy undisturbed_, although we were in easy range
of his guns, instead of assuming the offensive as he should have done.
With a courtesy becoming a knight of the Middle Ages he permitted
Lieut. Blake, in the presence of the armies, to ride down to within
musket shot of his line, to dismount and survey his troops through his
glass, then to remount and ride along down his front without allowing
a shot to be fired at him. As this reconnoissance had unmasked his
artillery, he ran his guns to the front, and the artillery on both
sides commenced firing. My rank assigned me to the duty of sitting on
my horse to look at the fight and watch the caissons. Presently a small
shell came along and struck the driver of the lead horses. The shell
entered his body after carrying away the pommel of his saddle, and
exploded the moment it left his body, as fragments of it wounded his
horse in the hip, split the lip and tongue, and knocked out some teeth
of a second horse and broke the jaw of Lieut. Ridgely's blooded mare.
That was the first man I saw killed in battle. It was war, but it was
not pleasant, and I thought it was no place for me to sit on my horse
idle; so, dismounting, I gave my horse to a horse holder, and walked
to the howitzer on the right, took command of it, and helped work it.
As no one demurred at what I was doing, I remained in charge of it all
day. I would prefer to take my rod and line and go fishing, even if I
got only a nibble, than to sit still on a horse offering myself as a
target for cannon balls. To have a hand in the fray is quite another
matter.
I shall not describe this battle. It was almost and altogether an
artillery fight. Once the Mexican cavalry with two pieces of artillery
under Torrajon made a detour to our right with a view of turning
it, or capturing our wagon train. This movement was defeated by the
Fifth Infantry and two pieces of artillery being sent to meet it.
The infantry formed in square, and when the Mexican cannon were being
loaded to fire on the square, Ridgely and I came up, and so _quickly_
did we bring our guns into action that we unlimbered, loaded, and fired
before the Mexicans could; in fact they did not fire a cannon shot, but
retreated _slowly_ back whence they came. Why they moved so doggedly
slow under fire I could not tell; perhaps it was Mexican pride. Not
long after this Maj. Ringgold, while sitting on his horse, was struck
with a cannon shot, from the effects of which he died. Maj. Ringgold
was an accomplished officer and an elegant gentleman, and his loss was
a source of universal regret. Lieut. Ridgely succeeded to the command
of the battery. The firing ceased about dusk. Our loss was only ten
killed and forty-four wounded. Arista stated that his loss was two
hundred and fifty-three. They turned their guns on our batteries; we
fired at their infantry as instructed. During the night Arista fell
back to a strong position on the banks of a dry bed of a stream about
thirty yards wide called Resaca de la Palma. It runs through a wood
with a dense undergrowth of chaparral, the woods on either side being
perhaps a mile wide. From the prairie on which the battle of Palo
Alto had been fought the road enters the woods that border the Resaca,
crosses it, and leads on to Matamoras.
Early on the morning of the 9th Taylor sent Capt. McCall with about
two hundred men in advance to discover the position of the enemy. He
found them in force at Resaca, returned, and so reported to the general
commanding.
There have been men who _create occasions_ and avail themselves of
the circumstances arising therefrom; but man generally is the creature
of circumstance, and I mention this because it has an application to
persons who were engaged in this day's battle. From Gen. Taylor down no
one in this army had had much practical experience in the _art_ of war,
and from practice knew but little of the peculiar province of each arm
of the service.
Because the artillery rendered such signal service on the field
yesterday Gen. Taylor was impressed with the idea that it was available
for pursuit of cavalry in mountain passes, for storming entrenchments,
or charging a line of battle. Having discovered the position of the
enemy, the General had the trains parked on the prairie and left in
charge of a battalion of foot artillery and the two eighteen pounders.
May's dragoons were held in reserve on the prairie near where the road
enters the woods.
[Illustration: PLAN OF BATTLE OF RESACA, MEX.
Fought May 9, 1846.
1. Ridgely's guns when he called for May's dragoons to capture
Mexican Battery.
2. Position of Ridgely after the charge.
3. Position of Mexican battery when captured.
4. United States infantry moving to attack.
5. May's dragoons previous to the charge.
6. Reserve.
7. Mexican infantry.
8. Mexican cavalry.
9. Mexican artillery.]
These arrangements completed, our battery, now under the command of
Ridgely, was ordered to advance, take the road through the woods and
chaparral, and attack the enemy. Here then was the singular tactics
of a battery of horse artillery all alone, leaving the entire army
behind, moving down the road through the woods without any support
whatever. Capt. Walker was our guide. He and I and Ridgely were in
advance. We had gone half a mile or more when crash through the tree
tops came a shot from the unseen batteries in front. "At a gallop,
march," was the order, and on we went until the road turned to the left
about forty-five degrees. At the turn we halted, and this gave us a
battery front (in part) to their guns near the bank of the dry river.
We could not see their guns, nor they see ours, owing to undergrowth,
but the guns were discharged at the smoke that each other made. We
kept advancing "by hand" down the road. Their skirmishers now began
to annoy us. Ridgely came to me and said: "Go to Gen. Taylor and ask
him to send some infantry supports." I got on my horse and galloped
back up the road at full speed, met Gen. Taylor, Maj. Bliss, and other
staff officers in the road, and delivered the message. The reply was:
"The infantry has been deployed and will soon be there." I returned
at a run. No one was to be seen anywhere. We had now been fighting
the enemy's guns alone for more than a half hour, and had driven them
from off the plain into the ravine or dry bed of the river, and had
obtained possession of an open camping ground directly in front of
their pieces and not over a hundred yards distant. Again Ridgely came
and said: "Go to Gen. Taylor as quick as possible, and tell him to
_send me_ assistance to capture the Mexican batteries in front of us."
The road and also the woods on both sides were now full of our infantry
moving forward. I soon met Gen. Taylor, delivered the message, adding:
"General, their guns are just in our front and can be taken." His only
answer was: "_My! my! G--d, where is May? I can't get him up!_"[8]
Nothing more was said, and I returned. By this time our infantry was
engaged with the enemy on the right of the road. The firing was very
heavy. I had been back with my gun about ten minutes, when down the
road came May, in column of fours; he halted and exclaimed: "Hello!
Ridgely, where is that battery? I am ordered to charge it." Ridgely
said: "Hold on, Charley, till I draw their fire, and you will soon
see where they are." Our guns fired, and theirs replied. Away went May
toward the Mexican guns, and our guns after him at a run. We came up to
them muzzle to muzzle, only theirs were below the banks of the ravine
and ours above. May had swept the gunners away and was out of sight on
the other side in the chaparral. I was in command of the twelve-pound
howitzer, and as I gave the order in battery, "Fire to the front!" a
Mexican regiment behind some earthworks in the ravine and on the other
side, with their right directly in front, fired a volley. Two drivers
fell, the wheel locked the gun in turning, a horse fell, and it was
with difficulty we could unlimber. I said to the sergeant, "Run for a
canister," but before he got back a gunner slipped in a shell, and on
top of that in went the canister. I could not prevent it, so great was
the din of muskets. I fired the gun myself. The wheels were lifted from
the ground. Two more canisters were fired before the regiment broke;
but at that moment our infantry opened on them, and all was over in
our immediate front. The second gun had horses killed, drivers and
men shot, and it locked a wheel in the same way. Ridgely sprang from
his horse and leaped into the dead driver's saddle, straightened the
team, and that gun came into action. What the other two did I know
not. Just as our firing ceased up rode Gen. Taylor with his staff, and
complimented us. As he sat there on his horse May's men began to come
back. A sergeant came up first and reported that he had captured Gen.
La Vega; next an infantry officer came and reported La Vega was his
prisoner; and then May returned and, riding up to Gen. Taylor, drew
from a scabbard a sword. Taking it by the point, he presented it to the
General with these words: "General, I have the honor to present to you
the sword of Gen. La Vega. He is a prisoner." It was gracefully done.
Taylor looked at it a moment and returned it to May. While we were
all there in a group down the road came Duncan's battery and crossed
the ravine. Ridgely could not stand that, and said to me: "French ask
the General if we cannot cross over too." The reply was: "No, you have
done enough to-day." Ridgely laughed, saying, "I can't receive orders
from you;" and away he went with the guns after Duncan, leaving me to
follow as soon as I repaired the damage to my gun. In a few minutes I
crossed. No one halted me. I found Duncan firing away to the left and
front, where it was reported troops were retreating. We soon moved on.
At this time I saw a man hiding behind some bushes about twenty yards
from the roadside. I went to him, and as my knowledge of Spanish had
not been cultivated, I undertook to ask him his rank (seeing he was an
officer), and tried to say to him: "¿Teniente o capitan?" It must have
been badly pronounced, for he replied, "Si, senor," and, suiting action
to the word, he put his hand in his pocket and handed me a biscuit. At
that moment up rode Dr. Barnes and Capt. Kerr, and Barnes exclaimed:
"Great heavens! French asked this gentleman for bread." No doubt the
officer, who was an aid to Gen. La Vega, understood me to say: "¿Tiene
usted pan?" ("have you any bread?"). Barnes, who afterwards became
surgeon general of the United States army, declared to the end I asked
that gentleman for bread, and never failed to tell the story on me in
company.
Well, on we went for over four miles to Fort Brown. What a welcome we
received! They had heard the sound of battle on the 8th, and again on
the 9th, and had seen the Mexicans crossing the river in great haste
and confusion. Great was the commotion in Matamoras that night. Now
when darkness came, Ridgely remembered that he had come on without
orders--in fact, pretty nearly against orders--and he told me to
ride back and see Gen. Taylor and ask for orders. So I rode back
over the road alone. Gen. Taylor was glad to hear from the garrison;
said Ridgely could remain on the Rio Grande until further orders. J.
Bankhead Magruder[9] was at headquarters, and declared it was very
imprudent for me to return by myself, and insisted that he should
send me under the protection of an escort. I accepted two men, but
as they were not mounted, the progress was too slow. I dismissed them
and galloped back safely. Duncan, who was an ambitious man, was much
disappointed that he never got sight of the enemy on the 9th; but it is
true, history to the contrary notwithstanding.
You now have the true history of the circumstances that led May to be
sent to charge that battery; it originated in the brain of Ridgely.
Duncan, who was not in the action, was made a brevet major for Palo
Alto, and lieutenant colonel for Resaca. Ridgely, who was distinguished
for his gallant conduct in both battles, was rewarded only with a
brevet captaincy, which he declined, for the two battles. Capt. May
was, if I remember aright, rewarded with two brevets without any
distinguished service, or special service at all in the first battle.
There is nothing like blowing a horn and having friends at court. I
mention this without any reflection on those two good soldiers, and
reference is thus made to point out that true service and just merit
does not always meet with its proper reward. Such is the way of the
world.
The conduct of our troops in this battle was courageous in the extreme.
Banners were captured by gallant old officers from the hands of the
enemy and held aloft in the front during the conflict that was in
some instances hand to hand. And yet the loss would not indicate such
resistance, for our killed were only thirty-nine, and the wounded about
eighty.[10] It certainly shows less stubborn resistance on the part of
the Mexicans than was found in the civil war. Col. McIntosh was pinned
to the earth with bayonets, one entering his mouth and passing through
his neck; he was rescued, and lived only to give his life for his
country at Molino del Rey. The day following was spent in burying the
dead and caring for the wounded, and in an exchange of prisoners. Our
battery, with some infantry, constituted an escort for the prisoners
to Point Isabel. On the way there I rode over the field of Palo Alto.
I saw a number of the dead that had not been buried. The flesh of the
Americans was decayed and gone, or eaten by wolves and vultures; that
of the Mexicans was dried and uncorrupted, which I attribute to the
nature of their food, it being antiseptic. I observed this also at
Monterey.
Again I was where I could see the wild waves of ocean play and come
tumbling on the shore; but like most pleasures it was short, for we
were soon on the march back to Fort Brown.
If we remember that Taylor had been given twenty-four hours, out
of distinguished consideration for his character, to get away from
before Matamoras, or take the consequences, and was so impolite in not
obeying; and if we consider that when we did leave it was regarded as
a flight; and if we call to mind the rejoicings of the people that we
had fled, we can in a measure realize the sudden change from high hopes
to despondency, from expected joy to overwhelming sorrow when they
saw their soldiers returning, not with captured flags and the spoils
of war, not with waving banners and triumphant shouts of victory, but
fleeing when no one pursued, and madly plunging into the river to gain
the shore which they lately left with expectations not realized.
On the 10th we stood on our bank of the river, the other shore so near
and yet so far! An army with no pontoon train! no bridge whereon to
cross a deep, narrow river! Where was the great organizer that makes
war successful? For one week the troops remained in front of the city
unable to cross for the want of adequate means.
On the 18th, when the advanced squadron of dragoons was swimming across
the river, Lieut. George Stevens was drowned. Balance such a man's life
with the cost of a pontoon bridge! Two of my classmates, brave men,
were now released from war. T. L. Chadbourn was killed at Resaca, and
now Stevens drowned! both men dear to me. I saw poor Stevens
"Beat the surges under him, and ride upon their back."
then sink and rise no more.
We crossed the river unmolested, and took possession of the town. Gen.
Twiggs was appointed governor of the place, and under his police system
perfect order was maintained. Many pleasant families remained and to
some of us a cordial welcome was given at all times.
My time was passed pleasantly in the city during the months of June,
July, and part of August. Our battery was in camp near the headquarters
of Gen. Twiggs. A path leading to the city passed close in front of his
office tent, and many persons went to and fro.
One day I was sitting with the General. It was a beautiful afternoon.
We were under the shade of some trees, and soldiers and strangers
passing by so near would salute or otherwise recognize the General.
However, at this time a Mexican came along with a tall sombrero on
his head and passed without noticing the General. He was hailed by
the General, came back, and was asked: "What is your name?" He took
off his sombrero politely, and answered: "Jesus Maria." Twiggs raised
both hands above his head and exclaimed: "Go away! go away from me! go
away!" and the surprised Mexican passed on. I inferred from the great
excitement the General exhibited at the name of the Mexican that his
ancestors may have worshiped in the Temple of Jerusalem, or fought with
the Maccabees in defense of their religion.
Whilst the forces under Taylor were resting in camp at Matamoras, the
quartermaster's department was busy in procuring light-draft boats to
navigate the Rio Grande, it having been determined to establish a depot
of supplies at Camargo, a town on the river nearly a hundred miles
above Matamoras, preparatory to an advance on Monterey.
Under the act calling for volunteers there were appointed to command
them two major generals, W. O. Butler, of Kentucky, and Robert
Patterson, of Pennsylvania: and G. J. Pillow, of Tennessee, T. L.
Hamer, of Ohio, John A. Quitman, of Mississippi, Thomas Marshall, of
Kentucky, Joseph Lane, of Indiana, James Shields, of Illinois, were
commissioned brigadier generals, and men to the number of near six
thousand were, as volunteers, added to Taylor's force, increasing it to
nine thousand.
This force was organized into three divisions: the first under Gen.
Twiggs, the second under Gen. Worth, and the third under Gen. W. O.
Butler, who was with Gen. Jackson at New Orleans when he defeated the
English under Pakenham. Nearly fifty years after, another Butler, Gen.
Benjamin F. Butler, figured at New Orleans, and I would not that you
mistake them, for they were one to the other as "Hyperion to a satyr."
In June I was promoted to the high rank of second lieutenant of the
Third Artillery, and sometime during the summer was assigned to Bragg's
company of artillery, whose lieutenants were George H. Thomas, John
F. Reynolds, and myself. They were all agreeable officers, but even to
this day I recall, like a woman, my first loves, Ringgold, Ridgely, and
Shover.
Early in August the first division started for Camargo. It was an
uninteresting march, hot and dusty beyond conception. By the middle of
August the forces started for Monterey. We now left the alluvial lands
of the Rio Grande, and the country was free from dust. From Seralvo we
obtained the first view of the lofty peaks of the Sierra Madre range of
mountains, seventy odd miles distant, and they created much discussion
as to whether they were mountains or clouds. From Seralvo to Monterey
the country was beautiful, rich, and fertile. We passed groves of
ebony, Brazil wood, oak, pecan, mesquite, etc. The fields of corn were
in silk, melons and vegetables of every variety were ripe; and later on
in the season we had oranges, lemons, limes, pomegranates, bananas, and
grapes.
One morning when we were between Seralvo and Marin I received an order
to remain and assist Lieut. D. B. Sacket in having the mule train
loaded. I thought it strange that an artillery officer should be put on
that duty, and felt indignant; but I was repaid in a measure by what
took place, for I sometimes enjoy a little "fun." After the muleteers
had packed the old trained mules and started them one after another on
their way, there remained a number of wild mules to have their packs
put on, I believe for the first time. One was lassoed and thrown and
the pack saddle put on. Then, for his load, two barrels of crackers
were securely put on. All being ready, the blind was removed from his
eyes. He looked slowly around, showed the white of his eyes, took one
step, humped himself, and kicked so high that the load overbalanced
him and he fell on his back unable to rise, and brayed aloud. Soon
a blind was removed from another; he surveyed the load from right to
left with rolling eyes, squatted low, humped himself, sprang forward,
stood on his forefeet and commenced high kicking, exploded the barrels
of "hardtack" with his heels, threw the biscuit in the air with the
force of a dynamite bomb, and ran away with the empty barrels dangling
behind, as badly scared as a dog with tin buckets tied to his tail. A
third, when his blind was removed, stepped lightly to the front, but
casting his eyes on either side, made a loud bray, closed down his
tail, and disappeared through the chaparral as quick as a jack rabbit,
followed with loud Mexican denunciations that I cannot translate. In
this manner four or five cargoes were lost, and the pack train moved
on. I was sorry for the poor Mexicans, but I could not but laugh at
the mules. My duty ended when the train started; so leaving it in the
charge of Lieut. Sacket with his dragoons, I rode on alone and did not
overtake my company until it had encamped.
We arrived at Monterey on the 19th. The dragoons and the two batteries
of field artillery encamped with Gen. Taylor at his headquarters at
Walnut Springs, three miles from the city.
CHAPTER VI.
Monterey--Population--Gen. Ampudia--Gen. Worth--Capture
a Fort--Battery in a Hot Place--Bragg's Order
Countermanded--Two Long-Haired Texans--Capture the
Bishop's Palace--Our Battery Ordered to the East End of
the City--Gens. Taylor and Quitman--Street Fighting--Gen.
Ampudia Surrenders--Gen. Worth, Gov. Henderson, and Col.
Jefferson Davis Commissioners--Enter the City--Dine with a
Mexican Gentleman--Death of Ridgely--Hot Springs--Santa Anna
President--Victoria Surrenders--Gen. Scott--Vera Cruz--Return
to Monterey--Death of Lieut. Richey--Investigation of
Richey's Death--Monterey--Saltillo--Agua Nueva--Gen.
Wool--Santa Anna Advances--Majs. Borland and Gaines
Captured--Taylor Falls Back to Buena Vista--Mexican
Army--Am Wounded--The Hacienda--Cavalry Fight with Mexican
Lancers--Flag of Truce--Victory--Carried to Saltillo.
Monterey, an old city, the capital of the State of Nuevo Leon,
contained about forty thousand inhabitants. It is situated on the left
bank of the San Juan, a small stream that empties into a larger one of
the same name.
It had three forts. The main one, called the Black Fort, was out on
the plain north of the city. Fort Tanaria was in the suburbs, in the
northeast part of the city; and about two hundred yards distant south
of it was a third fort, the guns of which commanded the interior of
the Tanaria. The hill on the slope of which was the bishop's palace was
also fortified; and strong earthworks surrounded the city on the north
and east sides, with isolated works to the south and west.
Gen. Ampudia was in command, with a force of seven thousand regular
troops, and a large volunteer force. A reconnoissance of the place by
the engineer officers, having been completed, dispositions to capture
the city were made by detaching Gen. Worth, with his division, and
Col. Hays, with his Texas regiment, to gain the road to Saltillo, by
storming its defenses, and thereby cutting off the supplies of the
enemy and holding his line of retreat. To accomplish this part of Gen.
Taylor's plan, Worth started late on the 20th, and on the 21st made the
attack, and was successful in carrying the detached works and securing
the road to Saltillo. By way of _divertisement_, or at most a diversion
in favor of Worth, Gen. Taylor moved Garland's division of regulars and
a division of volunteers, some cavalry, and our battery, down to the
northeast part of the city. As is often the case, this demonstration
terminated in a fight, and the capture of the fort or redoubt called
Tanaria and buildings adjacent. Our battery penetrated by a street some
distance into the city. The houses were mainly built of soft stone
or adobe, and the shot from the batteries in the town passed through
the buildings, covering the men, horses, and guns with lime and dust,
blinding us so that we could see nothing. From this situation we were
ordered out. In passing an opening in the works a shot killed the two
wheel horses to one of the caissons, and Lieut. Reynolds and I with
the men threw, or pushed, the horses and harness into the ditches on
either side, and after we had done this and gone some distance, another
shot passed through two horses of one of the guns. These horses were
loosed, and with their entrails dragging, in agony of pain, I suppose,
commenced eating the grass.
Having gotten out, Bragg ordered me back alone to the ditch in the edge
of the town to save the harness that was on the horses. I met Gen.
Taylor, who inquired where I was going. When told, he said, "That is
nonsense," and ordered me to go to camp, where the battery had been
sent. My ride back was rather exciting. For the distance of a half
mile or more I was on the plain in open sight of the Black Fort, or the
citadel. The gunners must have become quite vindictive, for they opened
fire on me, a lone horseman. I had to watch the smoke of each gun,
check my horse, and as the shot would cross ahead push on, stopping
to allow each shot to pass in front. I think the smoke prevented the
gunners from discovering that I halted at every discharge of a gun.
At any rate, every shot passed in front of me. I never forgave Bragg
for that picayune order, and it was supplemented on the 23d by another
equally as wild. As we were withdrawing from the city, we had to go up
a straight road leading from a four-gun battery. A shot struck a driver
on the elbow, carrying away his forearm. He fell _dead_ from his horse,
singular but true, and Bragg directed me to dismount and take off the
man's sword. I did so; and took from his pocket a knife, for I thought
I might be sent back if I did not save that too. I presented the sword
to Bragg, and desired him to take charge of the knife, but he declined,
as it was not _public_ property. I write down these little things, for
they give instances of the observance of details, characteristic of
this officer, not obtained from history.
[Illustration: PLAN OF MONTEREY, MEX.
1. Black Fort.
2. Fort Tanaria.
3. Redoubt.
4. Main Plaza.
5. French's gun.
6. Thomas's gun.
7. Bragg's battery--first day.
8. United States troops advancing on Fort Tanaria.]
The day following, the 22d, our battery was ordered to occupy, in
reserve, a depression in a plain north of the citadel. But they knew we
were there, and searched for us with shot. As I have observed already,
the garrison of the citadel was vindictive, and fired at any one in
sight and range. Sure enough, soon two long-haired Texans, on ponies,
rode down and halted near each other, on the plain, and we watched
events. Bang! went one of the heavy guns in the citadel; the ball
passed over us and went between the two Texans. One wheeled his horse
back for camp, and the other galloped down to our guns and remarked:
"Them darned fool Mexicans shoot mighty wild; they came near hitting
me." He thought the shot was directed at us, and not at him.
But, to return to more important proceedings. Behold, now a glorious
sight!
To the northwest of Monterey, and in the suburbs of the city, there
is a very high hill called Independencia, that swells abruptly from
the plain, except on the southern slope, which is more gentle. On
this slope, about halfway up, there is a massy palace, known as the
bishop's palace. It was fortified and garrisoned, and the summit was
crowned with a fort. The capture of this hill was necessary because it
commanded the Saltillo road and prevented Gen. Worth from entering the
city. As I have observed, our battery was put in reserve, and we were
in open sight of the hill Independencia.
Early in the morning when the fog rose, the battery on Independencia
hill opened, and a solitary gun responded from a distant one, which our
troops had captured the day previous. And now the base of Independencia
hill was encircled in smoke, and almost simultaneously a wreath of
smoke above it burst into view. The attack on the hill with infantry
had begun. Our men could be seen climbing up from rock to rock, and
the smoke from every musket indicated whether it was fired _up_ or
fired _down_ the hill. Gradually the circles of smoke moved higher and
nearer, as our men ascended, and when, near the top, they commingled
into one the excitement was intense. Troops on both sides looked on
in silence, with hearts throbbing, now with hope, and now stilled with
fear, as the line of battle advanced or receded. But soon it was seen
that higher up the hill the combatants struggled, until with one wild
shout and rush the lines closed, and the top smoked like a volcano.
And then through the rifts of smoke we saw our men leaping over the
parapets, and the Mexicans retreating down the slope. We clap our
hands with joy, and wave our caps! Now, the scene changes. From out
the bishop's palace swarms of men issue and rush up the hill to retake
the fallen fort. They are met halfway. Our hearts are hushed as we
look on. The enemy recede, break and run for the palace, where foe
and friends commingled, enter together, and all is still. A heavy gun
flashes, and a shell bursts _over_ the city from a captured cannon. The
flag descends, the stars and stripes go up and wave over the bishop's
palace, and the battle is won; and then arose a shout of joy so loud,
so long, it seemed to echo from the sky.
There was not much progress made on the 22d, in the eastern part of the
city, except to gain a firm footing on the edge of it, by troops under
Gen. Quitman. On the morning of the 23d our battery was ordered to the
eastern end, and remained inactive while the infantry steadily advanced
from house to house. The dwelling houses all had flat roofs, surrounded
by walls about three feet high forming so many small fortresses. The
house tops were filled with the enemy, and they commanded the streets;
besides, the streets leading to the main plaza had been barricaded,
and they crossed others at right angles. Gen. Quitman, about noon,
ordered Bragg to send a piece of artillery to drive the enemy from
a main street running the whole length of the city. To my surprise,
instead of sending Lieut. George H. Thomas, a second in command, he
ordered me with the twelve-pound howitzer to report to Gen. Quitman,
who instructed me to clear the street.
I could see no troops in this street, except those on the house tops
two or three squares in advance: so I moved on down until the musket
balls began to clip and rattle along the stone pavement rather lively.
To avoid this fire, I turned my gun to the left, into a street leading
into the plaza. To my astonishment, one block distant was a stone
barricade behind which were troops, and the houses on either side
covered with armed men. They were evidently surprised, and did not
fire at us. We were permitted to unlimber the gun, and move the horses
back into the main street. I politely waved my hand at the men at the
barricade, which should read I shook my fist at them, and gave the
command to load. Instantly the muskets were leveled over the barricade
and pointed down from the house tops, and a volley fired at us that
rattled like hail on the stones. My pony received a ricochet musket
ball that struck the shoulder blade, ran up over the withers, and was
stopped by the girth on the other side. I dismounted, and turned back
to the gun. The two men at the muzzle were shot. One poor fellow put
his hands to his side and quietly said, "Lieutenant, I am shot," and
tried to stop the flow of blood. I had the gun run back into the street
by which we entered the city. I now resorted to a device once practiced
by a mob in the city of Philadelphia; two long ropes were made fast
to the end of the trail, one rope was held by men on the lower side of
the barricaded street, and the other by the men above. The gun was now
loaded, and leveled in safety, then pushed out, and pulled by the ropes
until it pointed at the barricade, and then fired. The recoil sent the
gun back, and the rope brought it around the corner to be reloaded.
In this manner the gun was worked for two hours, and with all this
protection, four out of the five gunners were killed or wounded.
We had not been at this cross street very long before Texans,
Mississippians, and regulars began to arrive and cross under cover
of the smoke of the gun to the other side, and gain possession of the
house tops. Next Gen. Taylor and staff came down the street on foot,
and very imprudently he passed the cross street, escaping the many
shots fired at him. There he was, almost alone. He tried to enter the
store on the corner. The door being locked, he and the Mexican within
had a confab, but, not understanding what was said, he called to Col.
Kinney, the interpreter: "Come over here." The Colonel said ----, and
went over at double-quick, and made the owner open the door. The store
was empty. Here Gen. Quitman joined him with some troops and a gun in
charge of Lieut. G. H. Thomas. Quitman directed me to take my howitzer
down to the next cross street, but to save my men and horses. I
suggested that Thomas should put his gun in position first, and let us
pass over through the smoke. Comprehending the matter at once, he said:
"No, you remain here, and let Thomas pass over when you fire." Thomas
moved to the next street, and turned his gun into it. His street was
barricaded also, and defended by a piece of artillery. The infantry and
riflemen now made good progress in gaining possession of the houses,
and driving the enemy toward the plaza.
The command of Gen. Worth was all day working toward the plaza from
another direction, by breaking through the walls from house to house,
so that when night came, the Mexican troops were pent up in the main
plaza. Before dusk, the Mexicans being driven back, our two pieces of
artillery were withdrawn and ordered to camp at Walnut Springs.
I have gone into these details to show the simplicity of character
and coolness of Gen. Taylor which endeared him to his soldiers. No one
discussed depots of supplies, base of communications, lines of retreat,
or strategic positions; but every one knew that the brave old soldier
would fight the enemy, wherever he found them, to the end. During the
night some pieces of artillery, and a large mortar were put in position
and opened fire on the heart of the city, now so very crowded with
people.
Early on the 24th Gen. Ampudia sent a communication to Gen. Taylor,
asking permission to leave the city, with his troops and arms
unmolested. Of course this was refused, and finally resulted in the
appointment of Gen. Worth, Gen. Henderson, and Col. Jefferson Davis
commissioners to meet Gens. Requena and Ortega, and M. M. Llano,
commissioners on the part of the Mexican army, who arranged the terms
of the capitulation. I went to see the poor fellows depart. As they
marched by, the soldiers each carried his musket in one hand, and a
long stalk of sugar cane in the other, off of which they were regaling
themselves.
They were permitted to retain their arms. In connection with the
capitulation, an armistice for two months was agreed to, subject to
ratification by the respective governments; and now came rest. Our loss
was nearly five hundred, and among the killed was another classmate,
Lieut. Robert Hazlitt. I should have mentioned that when the expedition
for the capture of Monterey started Gen. Robert Patterson was left in
command of the district of the Rio Grande.
After the departure of the Mexican troops, a friendly intercourse was
established between our officers and the most respectable families in
the city, noted on their part for gracefulness of movement, gravity of
manners, extreme politeness, and genuine hospitality.
On one occasion, after dinner, a handsome Mexican saddle elicited the
attention of the guests, and to my surprise the next day a servant came
to my tent with a note, and the saddle, "begging me to accept it with
consideration," etc. A few days afterwards I returned the saddle, with
a small present, upon the grounds that it was too handsome for daily
exposure in service, etc.
Lieut. Randolph Ridgely brought with him a fine old setter dog, and, as
partridges were abundant, I found exercise and amusement in hunting.
Lieut. J. F. Reynolds was generally with me, and we would return with
all the game we could carry, as the birds were tame and numerous. We
also enjoyed the waters of the hot springs near by, now quite a resort
for invalids.
On the 27th of October, Capt. R. Ridgely was killed by his horse
slipping and falling in the main street of the city, where the smooth
natural rock was the pavement. He was, in my estimation, "the fearless
and irreproachable knight," the Bayard of the army. What a ball is to
a young lady, a fight was to him; it made his step light and his eye
radiant with delight, while joyous smiles beamed from his face. It
seemed the very irony of fate that he, who had raced his steed on the
sea wall of Charleston, and leaped over into the ocean unharmed, should
meet an untimely end from a horse falling in an open street. His father
lived on Elk Ridge, near Baltimore, a gentleman of the olden school,
of an age of the courtly past, and as John Randolph, of Roanoke, was a
frequent visitor there, Randolph Ridgely was named for him.
The death of Capt. Ridgely promoted Bragg to his company, and Capt. T.
W. Sherman to Bragg's company. Thus Bragg now became the commander of
the late Maj. Ringgold's battery of artillery.
It would appear as if some State governor, or some idle general would
issue a "Pronunciamento" every new moon in Mexico, in hopes of becoming
President of that republic; and thus it was that half the people of
Mexico could not tell who was President. And now Paredes was deposed,
and Santa Anna, who was permitted to enter Mexico by the United States
authorities as a man of peace,[11] reigned in his place. About the
middle of September he arrived in the city of Mexico, and hastened
soon after to San Luis Potosi to assume the command of the army thrice
defeated by Gen. Taylor.
To carry out the wishes of the War Department, to have Tampico
captured, Gen. Taylor started for Victoria, a small town, the capital
of the State of Tamaulipas, on or about the middle of December, with
the troops commanded by Gens. Twiggs and Quitman, leaving Gen. Worth in
Saltillo with his division.
On reaching Montemorelos he received information from Gen. Worth that
Santa Anna was marching on Saltillo, and turned back with all the
troops except those under Gen. Quitman and our battery. Gen. Quitman
was to continue on to Victoria. The march was uninterrupted down this
beautiful and fertile valley. On our right towered the lofty range of
the Sierra Madre Mountains in one unbroken chain and sharp serrated
edge, that looked thin enough for a man to sit astride of. In fact, at
Santa Catarina, there is a vast hole through this ridge near a thousand
feet below the crest, through which clouds, as if in another world,
could be seen moving by day, and stars by night.
The town of Linares is in a rich, wide, and beautiful valley or plain
divided into large sugar estates cultivated by peon labor. The orange
trees were very large, and all the citrus fruits abundant. As we
journeyed on, one day Christmas came, and as usual it came on time,
and, although we were in the land of the saints, we had not faith
enough to believe that Santa Claus would make us a visit. So I went
into the mountains in quest of a wild turkey for dinner, and failed to
kill one. What were we to do? Reynolds or our servants had succeeded in
procuring some eggs. With them visions of pudding and "eggnog" arose.
We could get "pulque," get "aguardiente," from the maguey plant, but it
was villainous fire water. In this dilemma I sent my servant in quest
of our doctor--Dr. C. C. Keeney, I think it was--to tell him to call
immediately. The eggs were all beaten up ready. The doctor arrived. We
made him a prisoner, and told him that he could not be released until
he wrote a note to his steward to send him a bottle of brandy and a
bottle of rum. He did it on the ground that we all were in want of a
stimulant, and on this occasion the doctor took his own prescription.
When Plymouth Rock smiles, wonder not that we, far away from home,
tried to make the service suit the day, and the day to be one of
rejoicing that immortality was brought to light.
We encamped one night at a hacienda not far from Victoria. The owner
was very civil and kind; invited us to his drawing-room, walked with us
in his large orange grove laden with golden fruit, which was protected
by a high stone wall. He possessed a vast sugar estate, and said that
he had over five hundred peon laborers on it. As far as we could see
there was only sugar cane.
On the 29th of December we marched into the great square, or plaza, of
Victoria without meeting with any resistance. The troops were drawn up
in line, the officers to the front and facing the alcazar.
The alcalde left his office, crossed the plaza, and after a short
address presented the keys of the city to Gen. Quitman. The Mexican
standard was hauled down, and as the United States flag was thrown to
the breeze the band began to play, when all at once, in emulation,
three or four jackasses began to bray, and bray, and drowned all
proceedings, amidst roars of laughter that could not be restrained,
especially among the volunteers.
We had been in camp but a few days when Gen. Taylor arrived with Gen.
Twigg's division, and almost at the same hour Gen. Patterson came in
from Matamoras with a large force.
Before I tell you any more I must inform you of certain proceedings
and events that happened or took place in the past. One was that the
President had ordered the commander in chief, Gen. Winfield Scott, to
take the field as he desired, and to proceed to Vera Cruz, and advance
on the City of Mexico from that place. Of course all the troops in
Mexico were subject to his orders. Accordingly, when Gen. Scott came
to the mouth of the Rio Grande, he made known to Gen. Taylor the
particular troops that he wished him to order to Vera Cruz by duplicate
dispatches. The letter sent to Monterey reached there after Gen. Taylor
had started for Victoria. It was reported, and I presume it is true,
that the letter was opened and read by Gen. Marshall. If so, then he
knew its importance. He committed two grave errors: First, he should
have known that it was all important that the dispatches should be
so sent as not to fall into the hands of the enemy; and secondly,
he should not have required an officer to go to almost certain death
when it was not necessary. What did he do? He placed these dispatches
in the hands of Lieut. John A. Richey, and sent or permitted him to
carry the dispatches _alone_ through the enemy's country one hundred
and fifty miles to Gen. Taylor at Victoria. The consequence was that
as Lieut. Richey was leaving the town of Villa Gran he was "lassoed"
by a Mexican, pulled from his horse, murdered, and the dispatches
forwarded in all haste to Santa Anna, who learned how Gen. Taylor would
be stripped of all the United States troops and most of his volunteer
force, how Gen. Scott was on his way to Vera Cruz to capture that city,
and then to march on his capital.
Santa Anna's decision was prompt and decided. It was what a great
commander would have done. He decided to attack Gen. Taylor without
delay, defeat him, if possible, recover all the territory lost, even
to the Nueces river; then fly to the defense of his capital in time to
meet Gen. Scott before he passed the strong defenses of Cerro Gordo.
He did not succeed in defeating Gen. Taylor, but he met Scott as he
had planned to do. This was told by Col. Iturbide, a son of the last
emperor of Mexico, whom I met after the war.
When Gen. Taylor received the duplicate of the orders from Gen. Scott
at Victoria, and learned how he was to be stripped of nearly all
the gallant men who had won for him the three battles, he gave the
necessary orders for the departure of the troops called for, and this
embraced the divisions of Gens. Worth and Twiggs, and most of Gen.
Patterson's forces. In short, all the _regular_ troops were sent to
Vera Cruz, except four field batteries of artillery and two squadrons
of dragoons, in all about six hundred men. I will not write here my
opinion, as formed from observation or otherwise, of Gen. Taylor's
equanimity of mind on that occasion. However, it was reported that by
mistake he once put mustard in his coffee instead of sugar. Wonder
not at his perplexity. He had enough to irritate him. He had some
apprehension, no doubt, that the enemy might make an advance from
San Luis Potosi on his now small force: but what wounded his pride
was--Apollyon behind him--the party opposed to the annexation of any
territory south had expressed a wish that our troops might be welcomed
by the Mexicans with "bloody hands and hospitable graves;" and the
administration, alarmed at his growing popularity with the Whig party,
hoping to divide or parallel his fame with another, sent Gen. Scott
with such an inadequate force that _he_ was obliged to deprive Gen.
Taylor of such troops as I have stated. So Gen. Taylor had Santa Anna
in _front_, the jealous administration and the anti-annexation party in
Congress to fight _behind_ him. The sequel will disclose his intrepid
character, and his triumph in the end over all.
In the latter part of January Gen. Taylor took his departure from
Victoria for Monterey. His escort consisted of Col. Jefferson Davis's
regiment of Mississippi Rifles, two squadrons of dragoons, and our
battery. My heart was not so light nor my feelings so buoyant as when
we went journeying southward. I have mentioned how Lieut. Richey was
murdered at Villa Gran and his dispatches taken. When Gen. Taylor
reached that town he directed our battery and the dragoons to be halted
in the plaza, and, sending for the alcalde, held a court to investigate
the murder of Richey. The murderer was demanded. The alcalde said that
he did not know who was the guilty man, and could not produce him.
The general did not credit his story; said he would hang him if he
did not give information as to who was the criminal. The alcalde was
very much frightened, and turned pale and trembled. The examination of
such persons as were called was fruitless, and ended in Gen. Taylor
notifying the alcalde that he would levy a contribution on the town
of (I believe) some $50,000 as indemnity, which would have to be paid
in three weeks unless the murderer was caught and delivered to him. In
all this the priests assisted the alcalde, and endeavored to pacify the
General.
When the court left the hall the General discovered that his baggage
wagons had been halted, and that vexed him, and to further irritate
him, a piece of artillery blocked the road by not being able to get up
a steep hill. The General pulled the driver's ear, got the piece up,
and ordered it to remain outside the road until everything had passed.
When he rode away, I ordered the gun into the road, and it was driven
on. I never learned whether the murderer of Richey was apprehended or
not.
When we arrived at Monterey we went into our old camp at Walnut
Springs. We had some idle time to ride out in the country. The scenery
around Monterey is very beautiful. There are near the city two isolated
mountains--Saddle Mountain and Mitra Mountain--behind which the chain
of the Sierra Madre rises in towering grandeur from the plain to the
height of near five thousand feet, stretching beyond vision as one
vast wall of rock, with a serrated edge seemingly as sharp as a saw,
and inaccessible to man. Nearly every morning a canopy of clouds would
form around the breast of Saddle Mountain, extending overhead to the
distance of five or six miles. Gradually, as the day advanced, the
clouds from the outer edge would sail gently away one after the other,
disrobing the mountain and exposing the beauty of its form to view.
Once I was on the mountain above the clouds, in the bright sunshine
looking down upon this billowy sea. Beyond was the lofty ridge glowing
in the sun; around, hiding the plain for miles distant, was an ocean
of clouds white as snow, softer than carded wool, lighter than down,
rolling and swelling as silent as the heavens above them. Then they
floated slowly away, melting into air, and left me to look down on the
gross earth to which I must return.
When Gen. Worth believed that Santa Anna was on the march to Saltillo,
Gen. Wool left Parras and hastened to Agua Nueva, and held that place,
which is seventeen or more miles in advance of Saltillo.
Sometime in the early part of February our company left Monterey, and
we began our march to Saltillo. Moving west, we passed the bishop's
palace. Thence the road runs along the base of the Cerro de la Mitra
Mountains for miles, with the Sierra Madre on the left; and, although
this immense ridge was about eight miles distant, it was so abruptly
high and the atmosphere so clear that it appeared not more distant than
one could cast a stone.
Marching on, we passed some mills; then through a valley in the
mountains, highly cultivated, trees bordering the road, and then down
an incline to the hacienda of Rinconada, closed in by mountains.
The road then ascends by a high grade to Los Muertos, thence on to
Saltillo. The ascent to Los Muertos reminded me of Thiers's description
of the road rising up the Incanale to the plateau of Rivoli, in his
account of that battle in Napoleon's Italian campaigns. I am sure no
troops could advance up that incline, straight and narrow, against
well-served artillery. It was not fortified by the Mexicans to any
extent, because it could be turned by two distant passes. This march of
sixty odd miles was interesting in a high degree. Lofty mountains, deep
valleys, wild, narrow passes, beautiful green fields in cultivation,
babbling brooks surprising me at every turn. During this march from
Monterey to Saltillo we made or gained an elevation of over four
thousand four hundred feet, and we were now over six thousand feet
above the ocean. The city is built on a slope that rises across the
valley from mountains to mountains. You must understand that when we
rose from out that steep ascent at Los Muertos there was apparently a
plain before us, but really it was a valley, with continuous mountains
on either side, all the way to Agua Nueva; thence, on south toward the
City of Mexico as far as the eye could see were blue peaks towering in
the sky.
As you will soon have a battle on hand "and a famous victory," I will
here give you some idea of the ground. Leaving the city of Saltillo
and going south, the first place of note is the hacienda of Buena
Vista,[12] five miles distant, with its thick adobe (sun-dried brick)
walls and flat roofs; next, a point eight miles from the city called La
Angustura (the Narrows), which became the center of the battlefield.
Farther on is Encantada, the enchanted place, and then Agua Nueva,
nearly twenty miles from Saltillo. The ravines on the left of the road
at Angustura ran back to the base of the mountain, and to the right of
the road were deep gullies (barrancas), some extending to the mountains
on the west. At one place the ravines on the left and the gullies
on the right approach so near that there is room only for the road,
forming the Narrows.
[Illustration: MAP OF THE COUNTRY NEAR BUENA VISTA.]
It was about the 8th of February when we reached Saltillo, and soon
after we were sent to the front at Agua Nueva. From many sources came
corroborative testimony that the enemy was advancing on Saltillo by
detachments. Seventy volunteers, under Majs. Borland and Gaines, were
captured at Encarnacion, within twenty miles of where we were encamped.
On the 20th Col. May was sent to Hediondo on a reconnoissance, and
some of his troops were captured, but he returned with the information
given him by a deserter from the Mexican army that Santa Anna, with an
army of twenty thousand men, was at La Encarnacion, only twenty miles
distant from Agua Nueva. May got back early on the morning of the 21st,
and a few hours after Maj. McCulloch arrived with like information,
with this difference: He went to Encarnacion, climbed a lofty peak that
overlooked the encampment of the Mexicans, and computed their number
_for himself_. This was confirmation strong.
On the 20th I went hunting with Lieut. R. L. Moore, of the Mississippi
regiment. The day was warm; the winds were in their caves; an ominous
silence pervaded all nature; the sun did not dazzle the eye, and was
distinct in outline, like the full moon; the game was tame and stupid;
Moore was heavy of heart and dreamy. There was something peculiar in
this silence--like the desert--like the stillness that oft precedes the
tempest and the earthquake. Did Moore have a premonition of his death?
He fell in the coming battle. The day left a lasting impression on my
mind, it was so weirdlike and mystical.
"By a divine instinct men's minds mistrust
Ensuing danger; as by proof, we see
The water swell before a boisterous storm."
On the 21st, as I have mentioned, both May and McCulloch returned
to camp. Bragg, in his usual sarcastic manner commenting on May's
expedition, remarked: "I perceive that it is harder to _lose_ one's
reputation than to make it."
It being an open country for some distance around Agua Nueva, Gen.
Taylor, considering the great superiority of the enemy in numbers,
resolved to fall back to Angustura, the narrow pass, near Buena Vista.
Our company went into camp on the plain above and near the city. On the
morning of the 22d, we moved down to the site selected for the field
of battle. If the Hudson river, where it passes through the Catskill
Mountains, were dry and wider, and its surface furrowed by deep ravines
and water gullies crossing it, it would resemble the field of Buena
Vista.
Capt. Washington's battery of eight guns was placed in the road at
the Narrows. Thence a ravine ran in a southeasterly direction. At the
mouth of this ravine, on the plain, the line of infantry commenced
and extended on the left toward the mountains. The howitzer which I
commanded was put in position on the left of Col. Bissell's Second
Regiment of Illinois. Lieut. G. H. Thomas had his gun on the right of
this regiment. It was not long before away in the distance clouds of
dust were seen growing larger and nearer as the cavalry came in sight;
then came artillery and infantry moving to their right and confronting
our line, with bands playing and banners waving. Hours were consumed in
this movement. In the meantime Gen. Santa Anna under a flag of truce
sent to Gen. Taylor a long communication, particularly informing him
that he was surrounded by twenty thousand men, and to avoid being cut
to pieces, called on him to surrender at discretion, that he would
be treated with the consideration belonging to the Mexican character,
etc., and inscribed it: "God and liberty! Camp at Encantada, February
22, 1847. Anto. Lopez de Santa Anna."
It was in the Spanish language, and had to be translated to the
General. Turning to Maj. Bliss, his adjutant general, he announced a
very forcible reply that was toned down by Maj. Bliss to the following:
HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF OCCUPATION, }
NEAR BUENA VISTA, February 22, 1847.}
_Sir:_ In reply to your note of this date summoning me to
surrender my forces at discretion, I beg leave to say that I
decline acceding to your request.
Z. TAYLOR,
Major General U. S. A., Commanding.
Senor Gen. D. Anto. Lopez de Santa Anna, Commanding in Chief,
Encantada.
As no signs of an advance had been made, and as none could be attempted
until after the return of the flag of truce, I rode down to where Gen.
Taylor was to learn the purport of the dispatch. I regret now that I
did not write down the exact words made by the General in his verbal
reply.
I am sorry that I have no time to write you a description of this
battle, but you will find it in some of the histories of this war. I
can only tell you what relates to me and what I saw and heard.
At 3 P.M. the firing of a solitary gun by the enemy was the signal
for battle; and immediately the enemy began ascending a ridge of the
mountain on our left. At the same time our troops began climbing up
another. These two ridges, like the sides of a triangle, met at a point
halfway up the mountain side; so the higher they went the nearer they
approached each other. This skirmishing on the mountain continued long
after dark, and the bright flashes of the muskets imparted an interest
to the surroundings.
When this prelude terminated, under the watchful sentinels, the two
armies rested as best they could during the night. If you will bear
in mind that the height of Mount Washington is 6,234 feet, and that
the plain or valley of La Encantada is 6,140 feet above tide water,
you will not be impressed with the idea that we were slumbering in an
atmosphere as balmy as Egypt. On the contrary, the wind swept along the
valley like a young Dakota blizzard.
Maj. John Munroe, one of the kindest men to be found in the army, may
have derived his knowledge of Connecticut "bundling" from the veritable
historian Diedrick Knickerbocker or otherwise; but be that as it may,
he suggested to Lieut. J. F. Reynolds and me that we should "bundle" to
keep warm during the night. So a blanket was spread on the ground and
the others used for covering. The Major slept to windward, and Reynolds
to leeward. In all my varied experience in life I cannot recall a night
when I came so near perishing from cold. Yet there was nothing severely
frozen, only the wind carried off all the heat from our bodies. When we
got up I could not keep my teeth quiet. Some of the men of the company
had a little fire, and we warmed our hands. Everybody was shivering.
My servant was in camp at Saltillo, and I do not remember getting any
breakfast; I know I had no dinner or supper.
[Illustration: PLAN OF BATTLE OF BUENA VISTA.
Fought February 22, 23, 1847.
(flag) Headquarters of Taylor.
A--Hacienda of Buena Vista.
B--La Angustura.
C--Deep gullies.
D--High land.
E--Plateau.
F--Ravines.
G--Broad ravine.
H--Encampment.
I--Elevated ridge.
J--Occupied by enemy on the 22d.
K--Slope of the mountain occupied by our forces on the 22d.
L--Position of O'Brien's and Indiana Regiment.
M--Enemy's battery.
N--Bragg's Battery and Kentucky Volunteers.
O P Q--Gorges.
R--Second Illinois and Lieuts. Thomas's and French's guns.
S--Two of Sherman's guns.
T--United States dragoons.
U--Texas Rangers.
V--Lane's Indiana Volunteers.
W--Arkansas and Kentucky cavalry.
X--Column of first attack.
Y--Lombardeni's Division.
Z--Pacheco's Division.]
Santa Anna was very considerate in not having reveille till a late
hour, and then it was sounded in one command after another, perhaps
to impress us with the number he had. Everything was done with Spanish
gravity suitable to the occasion. There was no running to and fro, but
decorum marked their proceedings, for I had an opportunity to judge.
There had been some skirmishing since daylight up in the mountain,
which was merely a side show. I was ordered by Col. Churchill to go to
the base of the mountain and ride down the side of the ravine in front
of the enemy to ascertain if it could be crossed by artillery. I did
as directed, and was not fired at. This was before the heavy masses
of infantry were put in motion. I reported the ravine impassable for
artillery.
The enemy's infantry was formed into three columns of attack. One moved
down the road toward Washington's battery. The central one was composed
of two divisions commanded by Gens. Lombardini and Pacheco. Their third
column had been deployed already, and a part of it had been skirmishing
all the morning on the mountain side. I took the greatest interest in
the central column. Pacheco managed to get his division in a ravine by
entering it at the gorge, and moved up concealed, directly in front
of us. I tried to burst shells over them by shortening the fuses, as
they were only about one hundred and fifty yards distant. Their firing
increased rapidly. As Lombardini was advancing across the plateau
to Pacheco's right, Pacheco's division rose from the ravine (to form
line with him) directly opposite the Second Illinois troops. Instantly
Bissell's and Lane's infantry opened fire on them, and Thomas and I
used canister as rapidly as men (so well trained as ours were) could
serve the guns.
Unfortunately some of Lane's troops gave way and fled, and this enabled
the enemy to gain our left flank and rear. At this time I was struck
with an ounce musket ball in the upper part of the right thigh while
my left foot was in the stirrup in the act of mounting my horse. The
shot was not painful at all, and the sensation was that of being struck
with a club. I was put on my horse, as I could not walk. Soon after, to
prevent being entirely surrounded, we were ordered to fall back toward
the road, and came into line facing toward the mountain, and opened
fire, now taking the enemy in flank and rear as they were crossing the
plain. I refused to be taken from my horse and put in a wagon, knowing
I would be "lanced" by the Mexicans in case of disaster, so I sat on my
horse all the rest of the day walking him sometimes to the battery when
it remained in one place any length of time. In the attack made in our
rear Reynolds came by with his guns, and we drove back a large body of
cavalry alone. Reynolds at the caissons prepared the shells, cut the
fuses himself, and I directed the firing until the Mexican troops were
driven beyond the range of the shells. He then moved in pursuit at full
gallop and left me alone. The enemy was now in our front, left flank,
and rear. When Reynolds left me I concluded to go to the hacienda of
Buena Vista, now close by; but before I reached there I noticed the
Arkansas and Kentucky cavalry forming in line a little way to the east
of the hacienda, and at the same time I saw a brigade of the enemy's
lancers coming from the base of the mountain to attack them. As I had
never seen a cavalry fight, I watched it with a great deal of interest,
being close by. The enemy were over two to one of ours. They came on
in solid column, received the fire of our men without being checked
at all, rode directly through our men, using their lances freely on
every side. After passing over our troops they went near the hacienda,
and were fired on by our men on the top of the building as they passed
by. This brigade of lancers crossed the road to the west, then went
south and joined the army where Santa Anna was, thereby having made the
complete _circuit of our army_ during the battle.
When this affair was ended I saw another body of the enemy's cavalry
coming down from near the mountains heading for the hacienda, and
our infantry moving to intercept them. Observing large crowds around
and in the buildings, I went to them. I asked them, I begged them,
implored them to fall into line, not to fight, but to show themselves
to the enemy. I got about twenty into a company, and while waiting
for others to join one by one those that I had asked went into the
building for their companions until finally I was left alone, none of
them returning. By this time the cavalry referred to came on down in
splendid style, and, instead of making a headlong charge, halted in
front of the Mississippians and Indianians under Col. Jefferson Davis,
and were repulsed with heavy loss. One of the guns of our battery was
also engaged in this isolated fight. Why this cavalry rode down into
the very jaws of death and came to a halt I never heard explained.
Weary, tired, and weakened by loss of blood, with my leg stiff and
useless, I rode into the court of the hacienda, and was taken from
my horse and carried into a very large room and laid on the floor.
The whole floor was covered with wounded. I was placed between two
soldiers. One had both legs broken below the knee. The scene almost
beggars description. The screams of agony from pain, the moans of the
dying, the messages sent home by the despairing, the parting farewells
of friends, the incoherent speech, the peculiar movements of the hands
and fingers, silence, the spirit's flight--to where? And amidst all
this some of the mean passions of humanity were displayed. Near me was
a poor soldier hopelessly wounded. He was cold, and yet a wretch came
and, against remonstrances, took the blanket off him, claiming that it
was his.
On the field I was twice taken from my horse by the surgeons and had
the wound probed, but no probe could reach the ball. No surgeon was at
the hacienda, so there I remained until after dark. I think there must
have been seven or eight hundred able-bodied men at the buildings who
had left ranks. When the firing ended Gen. Taylor came. A tailboard
of a wagon was brought in, I was placed on it and carried out and put
in a common wagon (by the General, Dr. Hitchcock, Col. May, and some
others) between two wounded men. One of them was Col. Jefferson Davis,
the other a lieutenant of volunteers. I said to the General I hoped
he would gain a complete victory on the morrow, and his reply was:
"Yes, yes, if too many of my men do not give me the slip to-night." I
think he made this reply because he was mortified and pained to find
so many men at the hacienda who had deserted the field, many of them by
carrying off the wounded and not returning to their companies.
I was taken to our camp at Saltillo, put on the ground in my tent
with but little covering, and left alone. Where my servant was I know
not. The camp was silent, every one being away on or near the field
of battle. It was to me a night of bodily suffering. About daylight
I heard footsteps and called aloud, and was answered by a passing
soldier coming to my relief. That morning I was moved to a hospital
and received medical attention, and soon after I was sent to a private
house occupied by the wife of one of our soldiers, where I received
every care and was made comfortable.
When I left my gun I went in search of an army surgeon, as I was urged
to do by Lieut. Thomas, because I became dizzy and had to be taken from
my horse for a while. I found Dr. Hitchcock somewhere in the field and
exposed to some fire from the enemy in front. He advised me to take a
wagon and go to the hospital. He was extracting a ball from Capt. Enoch
Steen, of the dragoons, who was wounded, and who, perhaps to divert
his mind from what the doctor was doing, or for relief from pain, was
cursing two men who had stopped on their way back to their company to
see the operation performed. He ordered them away, called them cowards,
and other vile names; but still they moved not until a musket ball came
passing by more closely than others, knocked the hat off the head of
one of them, and left his head white where it cut the hair from his
scalp. He dropped his musket and jumped and danced around like mad,
crying out, "I am killed, I am killed," to Steen's amusement and relief
from the knife, by diverting his attention.
After the right wing of the Mexican army, which had gotten away behind
us, had been checked, it began to fall back along the base of the
mountains, and succeeded finally in reaching the position it started
from by a _trick_ of Santa Anna's. Under a flag of truce, which our
troops respected, he sent a message to Gen. Taylor "_to know what he
wanted_," and when our troops stopped firing he withdrew his right
wing.[13]
After this came the last great effort of the enemy. He massed his
troops and made the second grand attack very much as he did in the
morning, and over the same ground. How near he came being successful
by this sudden attack on the force centered about Angostura while so
many of our men were away near the base of the mountains in our rear,
you will find in the published accounts of the battle; and it was
caused by the enemy making the attack before our troops could get on
the plateau by reason of the circuitous route around the ravines that
could not be crossed. I did not see this last struggle. Lieut. O'Brien
lost his guns. Bragg would have lost his in a few minutes had not our
battery and Davis's and Lane's regiments arrived the moment they did
to meet the advancing mass of the enemy. It was a death struggle. Our
concentrated fire swept away the advancing line, the second faltered,
halted, fell back, and the field was won.
Santa Anna, when referring to this battle, frequently declared that he
"won the victory, only Gen. Taylor did not know when he was whipped,"
and just stayed there, while _he_ was obliged to go back for water,
provisions, and forage, and left the field to Taylor. I take this
occasion to express my gratification to Santa Anna, even at this late
date, for not staying on the field he had won, and I acknowledge his
distinguished consideration in permitting me to remain at Saltillo. How
vexatious it must have been to Santa Anna in his old age to recall to
mind that the ignorance of Gen. Taylor in not knowing he was whipped so
changed his destiny, and no doubt he thought how truthful is the line:
"Where ignorance is bliss 'tis folly to be wise."
We had present 4,691 officers and men, and our loss was: killed, 272;
wounded, 388; missing, 6; total, 666. The relative number of wounded to
the killed is very remarkable. Usually there are five or more wounded
to one killed. The enemy numbered over 20,000 men. Although their
reports place their loss at over 4,000, it falls short of the real
number.
At dawn on the following morning it was discovered that Santa Anna
had retreated to Agua Nueva. Gen. Taylor, with a proper escort, rode
to Encantada and sent Col. Bliss to Santa Anna for an exchange of
prisoners captured before the battle. This was effected. The wounded
Mexicans even from Encarnacion were removed to Saltillo for medical
care.
Here we have the achievements of one plain, unpretending practical,
common sense man, who was ever observant of duty, and whose declaration
was, "I will fight the enemy wherever I find him," summed up in four
victories--Palo Alto, Resaca, Monterey, and Buena Vista. Success,
ordinarily, is the measure of the greatness of a soldier.
CHAPTER VII.
Drs. T. C. Madison, U. S. A., and G. M. Provost--Surgical
Operation--Courtesy of a Mexican Woman--Leave
Saltillo--Paltry Escort--Safe at Monterey--The Rio
Grande--Maj. W. W. H. Davis--New Orleans--Gen. Pillow--Col.
McIntosh--Bailey Peyton and Sargeant S. Prentiss--Drunk by
Absorption--Steamer for Louisville--Racing on the River--Trip
to Pittsburg, Pa.--By Canal Boat to Harrisburg--Home--Report
to the Adjutant General--Go to Trenton, N. J.--Presentation
of a Sword--Go to Washington--John W. Forney's Bargain with
Secretary Buchanan--Capt. A. W. Reynolds--Sent to Troy,
N. Y.--Gen. Wool--Leave Buffalo--Toledo--To Cincinnati by
Canal--Society in Cincinnati--Appointed Captain and Assistant
Quartermaster--Start for Washington--Cross the Alleghany
Mountains by Stage--Six Commissions in United States
Army--Reception by Gen. Jesup--Capt. Rufus Ingalls.
I now come back to personal matters. The weather was springlike. The
door of my room in Saltillo opened on the street on a level with
the pavements, and through it and the windows I could see all the
passersby, and it imparted a cheerfulness to the surroundings.
My physician was Thomas C. Madison, United States army, a most
estimable gentleman and skillful surgeon. Several consultations were
held in my case. They would not cut for the ball because they could not
discover where it was. I was becoming emaciated, and felt conscious
that I could not live unless the ball was removed. I had now been on
the cot over forty days, and I demanded that they should extract the
ball, for I could tell them _where_ it was. So next day Dr. Madison
came, and with him Dr. Grayson M. Prevost. They declined to use the
knife, but promised to come on the morrow, and Dr. Madison came alone
next morning. No one was present but my servant. I placed my finger
over where I was sure the ball was then located, and told him to
perform his duty, that I was responsible for the result. In those days
there was no anæsthetic known, and surgical instruments were not often
made for special purposes. As I predicted, the doctor found the ball.
I was watching his face intently, and the moment he touched the ball
I saw an expression of delight come over his countenance. Suffice to
say, for the want of modern instruments, he cut a gash, or hole, large
enough to insert his finger and a large steel hook to get the ball out.
I think the doctor was in a better humor than I was, for I had said bad
words to my servant for not holding my foot. I found afterwards it was
the tetanus that cramped or contracted the muscles of the leg. In three
days I managed to sit on the side of my cot; and some days after, with
crutches, I went to the door and looked into the street.
And now I must tell you a little incident. From my cot I could see a
Mexican woman who almost every afternoon would sit on her doorstep. She
must have been very old, for her hair was as white as snow, her cheeks
were bony, and her hands without flesh. She must have sympathized with
me, though her enemy in war, for on seeing me at my door she rose from
her seat, made a slight courtesy, and soon after sent me a bunch of
fresh flowers by a little girl.
"One touch of nature makes the whole world akin."
Sometime early in April I was informed that I could have an ambulance,
with leave to return to the United States and report to the Adjutant
General in Washington.
I was furnished with an escort of _two men_ on horses and my servant,
five in all, to pass through the enemy's country to Monterey, a
protection really inadequate. We reached Rinconada late in the day,
and my bed was the counter of an abandoned store. The next day we
arrived at Monterey safely, and I was made very comfortable by the
quartermaster. I remained in the city until a train of wagons left for
Camargo for army supplies, and when we started I took one "last, long,
lingering" look at the surroundings of the city which had but a few
months before been to me so pregnant with exciting events.
The journey to Camargo was devoid of particular interest. I found a
government steamer there, and took passage for Point Isabel, or Brazos
Santiago. On the trip down the river we saw a great many cattle that,
in attempting to get water, had sunk in the mud to perish. Some had
only their heads visible; others, a part of their bodies. It was a
piteous sight to see the poor beasts, while yet alive, being devoured
by buzzards.
When I arrived at Matamoras Capt. W. W. H. Davis came down to the
steamer to see me. He was a student with us at Burlington, N. J., and
was a general in the United States army during the late war, and is now
a resident of Doylestown, Pa. When in Matamoras he was a member of the
staff of Gen. Caleb Cashing. He had retained my mail, and brought it to
me on the steamer. Among the letters was one from Hon. Garret D. Wall
informing me that the citizens of New Jersey had caused a sword to be
made for me, and had placed it in his hands for presentation, at such
place and time as would suit my convenience. This was a surprise to me,
for no one had informed me of these matters.
On arrival at Point Isabel there were a brig and a steamer ready
to sail for New Orleans. I was put on board the brig, but it was
so dirty that I could not remain, preferring to risk my life on the
old sidewheel steamer James L. Day. As I was taken ashore I met Col.
McClung, of Mississippi, also wounded, going on the brig, where he
remained. On the steamer were some officers on their way to New Orleans
from Gen. Scott's army, and among them was Gen. Gideon J. Pillow,
who was wounded slightly at Cerro Gordo. The steamer was unfit for a
voyage on the ocean, although the weather was calm and the sea smooth.
I amused myself watching from my cot the partition boards slide up
and down, caused by the gentle rolling of the vessel. On reaching New
Orleans we landed aside of some ship, on which I was placed, put in a
chair, hoisted up and run out the yardarm, and lowered on to the wharf.
I think we arrived in New Orleans about the 18th of May. At the St.
Charles I met a number of old friends, army officers and civilians, and
among the latter were Col. Bailey Peyton and S. S. Prentiss. In a few
days I learned to locomote very well on one leg and my crutches.
Some few days after we arrived in the city a grand illumination and
street procession was gotten up to celebrate some victory of our
army in Mexico, and late in the afternoon a committee called on me to
participate. About 8 P.M. Col. MacIntosh and myself were escorted to
a barouche drawn by four white horses, to take our place in the line
of procession. The streets were crowded with people. The horses did
not like the crowd, the shouts, the music, nor the transparencies,
and manifested it by frequently standing upon their hind legs; and
had it become necessary to get out of the carriage, I was not able to
do so. The Colonel and I were put on exhibition as two "heroes" from
the war. The Colonel, as you remember, deserved it, for he was once
pinned to the earth with bayonets and lances. One bayonet went in his
mouth and passed through his neck into the earth. I rejoice to say we
were returned to our landlord, from whom we had been borrowed, safely.
I write this to show you how evanescent these things are. To-day we
are the idols of the crowd; to-morrow we pass along the same street
unobserved, unheeded, unknown save to friends. So passes away much of
the glory of this world.
One evening after tea Col. Peyton and Mr. Prentiss asked me if I was
able to join them in a short walk down the street. We had gone but
a little way when, passing a door, we heard some one speaking, and
loud applause in a hall, the floor of which was on a level with the
pavement. Mr. Peyton said: "Let us go in." It proved to be a political
meeting called for the purpose of expressing a preference for some one
of the prominent men in the Whig party for the presidency. Mr. Hunt,
who was speaking, closed his address in a few minutes after we entered.
We were close to the door by which we had entered. Some one saw Mr.
Prentiss, and called out: "Prentiss!" He turned to gain the street, but
the crowd would not let him pass, while "Prentiss! Prentiss!" came from
a hundred mouths. He exclaimed to his friend: "Why did we come here?"
There was no alternative but to face the standing crowd. He uncovered
his head and in a few words excused himself. It was in vain! The cry
was everywhere: "Go to the platform!" Getting into a chair that chanced
to be near the door, he spoke somewhat as follows, as I recall it after
a lapse of near fifty years:
_Mr. Chairman and Friends:_ As I was passing along this
street with some friends I saw lights in this room and heard
loud applause, and we entered to ascertain what was the
object of the meeting, and from the closing remarks made by
the distinguished gentleman who has just taken his seat I can
infer the object of this assemblage.
When a young lady has been robed for a grand ball her
maid opens and places on the toilet table before her her
jewelry case, that she may select such as will be the most
appropriate for the occasion. She takes out the sapphires and
arrays them on her person to embellish her charms, but she
places them on the table before her. The attendant encircles
her swanlike neck with pearls, emblems of her purity, but
she has them placed beside the sapphires. They put diamonds
in her ears, and the sparkling cross rests on her bosom,
flashing incessant lights as it rises and falls with every
breath. She surveys them carefully; then has them removed and
put aside also. And now rubies, the most costly of stones,
are contrasted with her fair complexion; and at last they
too are removed and laid with the others. She surveys them
all, contrasts their qualities, and as each would be alike
appropriate for the occasion, she stands undecided which
is preferable. Now, Mr. Chairman, when I open the casket
of _Whig jewels_, and gaze on their varied brilliancy, I
am as undecided as the young lady was. They differ in some
respects, but each is qualified for the opportunity, and I
hesitate which I would commend as most worthy to occupy the
presidential chair.
How nicely he evades an expression of preference for any one for the
office, and this without offense to any of the aspirants!
While speaking of Mr. Prentiss I will relate to you as best I can a
story of his reply to Mr. P., who accused him of intoxication while
they were each making the joint canvass for Congress from Mississippi.
And I will premise it by stating that P. had the reputation of being
a lover of whisky. It was before a large and appreciative audience
of Prentiss's friends, and in joint debate that the charge was made.
In replying to that Mr. Prentiss said in his rejoinder, as I heard it
related:
_Ladies and Gentlemen:_ Many of you know me well, you have
been present with me at numerous social entertainments,
and I acknowledge it is true that I have a taste for the
light wines of Italy and the pleasant wines of France.
Wines have been the common beverage of mankind on festive
occasions from the remotest ages. They impart a genial
warmth to my feelings, a glow of tenderness to my heart,
awaken my imagination, enlarge my sympathy, and give to music
enrapturing charms, until in the fullness of joy I forget the
ills of life and love my fellow-men.
I assure you, my friends, I have never been drunk from
_drinking_ whisky; but my opponent here is never so happy
as when he retires to his room and draws from the closet his
demijohn of whisky, throws it over his back, tips it over his
shoulder: and no music is so sweet to his ear as the sound
of the whisky singing "gurgle, gurgle, gurgle," as it leaps
into the cup, save only that other sound of "gargle, gargle,
gargle," as he pours it down his capacious throat.
I have told you that I have never been drunk from drinking
whisky. But by whisky, ah! I remember me now; I was once
made drunk, and it happened in this way. Sometime ago I
had occasion to attend court in a remote county, sparcely
settled, and where there was but little accommodation for
the court. I arrived after night and repaired to the house
pointed out to me where I could get lodging. The proprietor
said his rooms were all full, but there was one room occupied
by a lawyer that had a double bed in it, and perhaps he would
share it with me. When I was ready to retire the landlord
took a tallow candle and conducted me to the room. By the dim
light I saw my present opponent in bed asleep, oblivious to
sounds. I retired and slept by his side. When morning came
I found myself possessed of a strange feeling; I was dizzy,
sick, drunk. Yes, _drunk by absorption!_
When Mr. Prentiss began the great speech he made in New York City a
clergyman took his watch from his pocket to note the time; and two
hours after, when Mr. Prentiss fell exhausted, this clergyman felt his
pocket for his watch. It was gone, and he thought he was robbed, until
he discovered his watch open in his left hand. He was so captivated and
_en rapport_ with the wonderful orator that he was oblivious to time,
and stood there in the vast crowd listening to the words as they fell
from his lips. Turning to a friend, he exclaimed: "Never tell me that
man is not inspired."
I could tell you many things about this remarkable man, but time
and other matters forbid. I will say, however, that I believe that
_Alexander Hamilton_ and _S. S. Prentiss_ head the list of all men in
the United States who have achieved greatness in early life. Prentiss's
oratory burst on the people like a meteor athwart the sky, and ended as
suddenly with his early death.
When I left New Orleans the surgeons advised me that I should go by
water as far as I could on my journey north, and avoid the shaking
of the railroad cars. I took passage on the steamer Chancellor for
Louisville, and when we backed out from the levee and headed up the
river we saw a steamer--the Belle of the West, I think it was--close
behind us, and then the race began. For fifteen hundred miles it was a
bitter struggle; first one ahead and then the other, according to the
landings made. Now the Belle would be ahead and then our pilot would
quit the main channel and by taking the "chutes" come out ahead. Then
we would be overtaken and run side by side. Often the two boats ran
with their guards touching, allowing the passengers of the two steamers
to converse with each other and have a jolly time. On the Belle was a
lady with her three daughters, of whom you will hear more hereafter. At
Paducah, finding a number of barrels of resin, our captain bought them
to use with the wood to increase the steam. So on and on we went, with
boilers hissing and volumes of black smoke rolling from the smokestacks
or chimneys, forming great clouds that were wafted away by the winds.
After five or six days and nights of clanking of the fire doors,
ringing of the bells above and below, and the blowing of whistles, we
arrived at Louisville just fifteen minutes behind the Belle.
When I look back on the danger incurred from the explosion of a boiler,
I cannot recall to mind one word of protest from any passenger against
carrying such a high pressure of steam, or of asking the officers to
desist. On the contrary, every one would shout for joy and wave their
handkerchiefs on the passing boat.
However reprehensible, those races were common in the palmy days of
steamboats on the "Father of Waters."
From Louisville I went to Cincinnati, thence on a small steamer to
Pittsburg. Here I took passage on a canal boat for the east. As time
was no object to me, I was not impatient of delay, and enjoyed the
wild mountain scenery of the Alleghanies, and the pretty views along
the blue Juniata; and as chance would have it, among the passengers
were the lady (Mrs. J. L. Roberts) and her daughters that were on the
Belle of the West, to whom I was presented by the gentleman who came
to Pittsburg to meet them. They went by canal because one of them had
been injured by having been thrown from their carriage. From this time
on they were kind friends of mine, and I recall with delight the many
happy days that I subsequently passed at their home on their plantation
back of Natchez, Miss.
I reached home in June, and my father and mother welcomed me--whom the
newspapers had reported killed in battle--with a joy not unlike that
given to him for whom the fattened calf was killed.
I soon reported at the Adjutant General's office, and was given
indefinite leave. Returning home, I received a note from a friend in
the office of the Quartermaster General soon after, telling me that
there were some vacancies in the quartermaster's department, and that
if I would return to Washington and report to the department for duty I
might be made captain and assistant quartermaster in the regular staff;
but I did not go until sometime in July.
I received a letter from Senator G. D. Wall stating that it was the
wish of the committee that I should be in Trenton on the fourth of July
to receive the sword that was to be presented to me. So I repaired
to Burlington, and in company with him and the Rt. Rev. G. W. Doane,
bishop of New Jersey, went to Trenton. When the people were leaving
the hotel for the public hall where the presentation was to take place,
the Senator sent me the manuscript of his intended remarks. It was too
late to write anything in reply, as the carriages were waiting; so we
got in and went to the hall. I was very much frightened. There were
many on the stage or platform, and among them an officer of the navy in
uniform. I had on a citizen's dress.
Mr. Wall made a very appropriate address, and delivered the sword to
me. I am sure that I made a very poor reply, and the only good thing
was its brevity. But think of it! Wall did not say anything that he had
written, but made an extempore speech, much to my surprise. When it was
ended Senator W. L. Dayton said to the General: "You made an excellent
address." "Well, I have a much better one in my pocket," was his reply.
As I was comparatively a stranger to most of the large audience, I
think the officer in uniform was taken for me, for when I rose to
receive the sword there was a hum of surprise all over the house. I was
glad when the presentation was ended. The next thing in order was to
dine with the "Society of the Cincinnati," of New Jersey. I was invited
to dine with the "Society of the Cincinnati" of Pennsylvania also, but
declined. One dinner was ample, and I was not strong.
In a day or two I returned to Washington. I was ordered by Dr. A. S.
Wotherspoon to quit all labor, and after he had bandaged my leg he kept
me on my back three weeks. It did no good; no adhesion of the parts was
made. I was vexed; so I took from my trunk a bottle of I know not what,
obtained in New Orleans, only it smelled of turpentine, and injected it
into the wound. I got up in the morning to go home, but lo and behold,
the bandages were all saturated with blood and the wound inflamed.
So, instead of going home, I was put on my back again. However that
injection inflamed the sinus in my leg, and when bandaged again all the
interior grew together, and in three weeks I was on my crutches, and
my toes, or foot, touched the ground for the first time for about six
months. So I was permanently cured by accident.
I had made application to the President for the appointment of
assistant quartermaster some time in June. Now one day in July, when
I was kept in bed by the doctor, a friend of mine, Mr. Nugent, came
to my room to impart to me the information that I would not get
the appointment because I could not "take the field," and that it
would be given to Lieut. A. W. Reynolds, who was in Philadelphia on
recruiting service. Nugent was connected with a newspaper, and was
at times an assistant in the office of James Buchanan, Secretary of
State, if I remember aright. On that day J. W. Forney, editor of _The
Pennsylvanian_, a Democratic paper in Philadelphia, was in the office
of Mr. Buchanan, and agreed to throw George M. Dallas, Vice President,
overboard and support Mr. Buchanan for the presidency provided certain
things were done by him for Mr. Forney. One of these items was that A.
W. Reynolds should be appointed assistant quartermaster. I asked Nugent
what special service Reynolds had rendered, as he had not been in
Mexico at all, to entitle him to promotion. "Why he has always carried
his _recruits_ to the polls to vote for Forney's Democratic friends."
And thus it was; and on the 5th of August Reynolds was appointed "to
take the field." Reynolds was a genial fellow, and "took the field"
by remaining in Philadelphia until the spring of 1848, when he went to
Matamoras to bring some mules to the States.
Lieut. Derby, alias John Phœnix, alias John P. Squibob, that prince
of humorists, and I had now located ourselves on Fourteenth Street,
near Willard's, expecting to have a pleasant time during the coming
winter, when one day about the 8th of September a messenger from the
War Department brought me a note asking me if I was able to go to the
arsenal at Troy, N. Y., to select a six-gun field battery, caissons,
harness, etc., all complete, and take it with me, by way of the lakes
and canal, to Cincinnati, Ohio.
I replied that I would leave immediately. While at Troy I met Gen.
Wool. He had come home from Buena Vista. He had some friends to meet
me at a dining, and I remember his pun on a young lady to whom I was
presented, "Miss Hart, one of _deer_ family." The battery was shipped
on a canal boat to Buffalo. I went by train. Stopped in Rochester all
night. The next morning, October 16, the ground was covered with snow,
which made me apprehensive that the navigation by canal would close in
Ohio before I could reach there. When the steamer arrived at Cleveland
the water had been let out of the canal, so we went on to Toledo.
From there I went on to Cincinnati by passenger boat. I was the only
passenger, except local ones getting on and off along the route. Toledo
was no town at all, and the sidewalks were "paved" with gunwales of
barge boats, and here and there a plank, and the mud!
I remained in Cincinnati during the months of November and December
idle, awaiting orders. There were many parties given, and the society
people were pleasant and accomplished. During the day, however, nearly
all the men were busy, and I used to say there were but three young men
idle in the city--Grosbeck, Febiger, of the navy, and myself.
Early in January, 1848, Senator J. D. Westcott informed me that the
President had appointed me captain and assistant quartermaster, and
sent my name, among others, to the Senate for confirmation.
The commission is dated January 12, 1848. I had been in the service
only four and a half years and had received six commissions--viz.,
brevet second lieutenant, United States army; second lieutenant,
Third Artillery; brevet first lieutenant, United States army; first
lieutenant, Third Artillery; brevet captain, United States army; and
captain and assistant quartermaster in the general staff of the army,
outranking some officers that had been from twelve to eighteen years
in service. The brevets were bestowed for "gallant and meritorious
services at the battles of Monterey and Buena Vista, Mexico."
When I was informed of the appointment I went up the river to
Brownsville, Pa., thence to Cumberland, Md., by stage. The weather was
intensely cold. Snow covered the plains and the mountains, and travel
had made the roads very smooth and slippery. In going down Laurel
Mountain we barely escaped an accident. The stagecoach, when held back,
would swing around on the icy incline and go down sideways, and to
prevent this the driver gave reins to the horses and we were descending
at a gallop, when turning a point we met an eight-mule team that had
the inside track, leaving our driver just a possible space to pass.
He measured the space and saw the danger instantly, barely missed the
hubs of the enormous wagon, and, as he sheered in behind the wagon,
our hind wheel on the right threw down the mountain side a quantity
of earth, snow, and rocks. There were nine of us in the coach, which
gave us the privilege of stopping at night. A member of the Senate from
Missouri was opposed to the delay; he must be in Washington, and so the
party was divided. The narrow escape from death settled the matter, for
when we got out for supper no one said to the driver: "We will go on
to-night."
On arriving in Washington I was ordered to report to Gen. Thomas S.
Jesup, Quartermaster General of the army. He received me courteously,
but observed in a pleasant manner: "Capt. French, neither you nor Capt.
Rufus Ingalls were recommended by me for appointment in my department;
you were commissioned over officers that I recommended. Besides, the
regulations of the army forbids any officer from becoming a captain and
assistant quartermaster until he has been _five years_ in service, and
neither of you have been in the army five years."
It was suggested to him that experience was a slow but very good
teacher; that one of his last appointees had not been in the field,
while Capt. Ingalls and I had served nearly two years in Mexico, and
from experience had derived some knowledge of the duties of officers of
the department which should overbalance length of years of service in
garrison at home, and that we should not be condemned before trial.
It is a remarkable fact that Gen. Ingalls was retained, from the
beginning to the end of the war, as the chief quartermaster of the
Army of the Potomac under its many commanders. It is proof of his great
administrative ability.
CHAPTER VIII.
Ordered to New Orleans--Baton Rouge--Col. W. W. S.
Bliss--Maj. J. H. Eaton--Maj. R. S. Garnett--Taylor
Nominated for President--Return to New Orleans--Ordered
to Vicksburg--"Gen." McMacken, the Prince of
Landlords--Bishop Polk--Sent to Mobile--Regular Army at
East Pascagoula, Miss.--Gen. Twiggs and His Fiancée--Sail
for Galveston--Galveston--Houston--Austin--Troops Sent to
Establish Posts, now Cities--San Antonio--Death of Gen.
Worth--El Paso--Return to San Antonio--New Orleans--Call on
Gen. Twiggs--Twiggs and Tree--Sword Presented to Me--Dine
at the President's--Death of President Taylor--Fillmore
President--Capt. Ringgold, U. S. N.--Ordered to
Louisville--Return to Washington--Col. Joseph Taylor--Gen. W.
O. Butler--Maj. Gaines--Cincinnati--Salmon P. Chase.
I was ordered to report for duty to Col. D. D. Tompkins in New Orleans,
and remained there some three months. From that city I was put on duty
at Baton Rouge, La., where Gen. Taylor and his family were living at
the barracks. Of his staff, Col. Bliss, Maj. Eaton, and Capt. R. S.
Garnett were with him. One day I was walking down town with Mrs. Taylor
and her daughter Bettie, when a steamer landed, and brought the news
of the General's nomination for President. Mrs. Taylor expressed regret
that he was nominated; said "he had honors enough;" but added, however,
"Since he has become a candidate, I hope he will be elected, and if he
be, I will not preside at the White House."
From Baton Rouge I went to New Orleans; thence to Vicksburg, Miss.,
July 4, 1848, to muster out of service the regiment of Mississippi
riflemen commanded by Col. Reuben M. Davis. We lived at the Prentiss
House, kept by that prince of landlords, Gen. McMacken, who always
"cried" his bill of fare. He said that when he kept a hotel in Jackson,
Miss., he was obliged to do so, because so many of the members of
the Legislature at that time could not read the printed ones, and he
continued it to the day of his death. He was exceedingly pleasing in
manners. On one occasion, seeing a gentleman of a commanding presence
enter the dining room and seat himself at the table, he welcomed
him with: "Good morning, general." "That is not my title, sir." "Ah,
excuse me, judge." "Mistaken again, sir." "Well, bishop, what will you
be helped to?" "Why do you call me bishop?" "Because I am sure that
you stand at the head of your profession, whatever it may be." That
gentleman was Bishop Leonidas Polk, afterwards a Confederate general.
During the summer and fall there was yellow fever in Mobile and New
Orleans; but no one regarded it, except to leave the cities at night if
possible; during the day business went on as usual.
On my return to New Orleans I was ordered to Mobile, Ala., to take
charge of government property, and to muster out a company of Alabama
cavalry. This finished, I was kept there awaiting orders. In the
meantime the army from Mexico had returned, and was encamped at East
Pascagoula, and in September I was ordered there.
The evening I arrived there was a ball given at the hotel. I met there
a young, tall, and pretty lady from Mobile, with whom I was acquainted.
She personated the morning star. Leaving the "floor," she took a seat
on a sofa beside Gen. Twiggs, and I seated myself on the other side of
her. She declined several sets, and I remained talking with her. All
the while the General said but a few words. The windows were open, and
I felt some one on the gallery pull my hair. I went out to ascertain
the meaning of it. Two or three officers came up, and said: "French,
don't unpack your trunk; you will be ordered away in the morning. Don't
you know that young lady is Gen. Twiggs's fiancée? He is as jealous as
a Barbary cock." I mention this because of something hereafter.
I remained in Pascagoula until the army had been sent hither and
thither, according to the wants of the service. The last shipment of
troops was some cavalry to Galveston, and I followed on after them,
last of all, in an old propeller. It so happened, as I was leaving
the wharf, that a captain of a vessel had just made an observation
of the sun to get the time, and I set my watch by it. When we got out
on the gulf a cyclone came on. The ship had no chronometer, and only
anthracite coal, which made but little steam. The propeller was now
spinning in the air; then motionless when under water. Finally the
captain had to run before the wind to the south.
Some days after, when running north, we saw land, and made
observations. I got the longitude from my watch. It said thirty miles
from Galveston. The captain said that the land was the mouth of the
Sabine river. Two hours after, we saw the shipping in Galveston,
proving my observation correct. The wind was still blowing hard. No
pilot boat could come out for us. It was a government ship, and I
ordered the captain to make the harbor. The trouble was to find the
outer buoy. Finally it was discovered, and we got in safely.
Gen. Twiggs had been assigned to the Department of Texas, and I found
him in Houston. We remained there a few days; and, when the dragoons
started for Austin, Twiggs, his aid, Capt. W. T. H. Brooks, and I
took the stage for Austin also. It had been raining all day and all
night when we started. From Houston to a small mound on the prairie
twenty-five miles on the road the land was all under water, and still
it rained. We crossed the Brazos river about noon, and went on in the
rain, which continued all night. At 2 A.M. the driver turned out of
the road, and down went the coach till the body was on the ground. The
driver said that there was a farmhouse about four miles farther on.
A horse was unhitched, and Gen. Twiggs was put on it bareback to ride
to the house. Two passengers went on foot. I had in a satchel $5,000
in gold (government funds), which was in the box under the hind seat.
Brooks said that he would stay there and guard it, if I would go on
and get help. I also mounted a horse and overtook the General. When
we reached the house, the farmer got up, had a fire made to dry our
clothing, and agreed to send some mules to bring in the coach. The
General made so many abusive remarks about Texas and the people that
the farmer got mad, and said that the stage might "stay where it was;"
but when he was satisfied that the remarks made by Twiggs were not
personal, he started the servants for the coach. The General and I had
to rest in the one bed the best we could.
The coach came up about eight in the morning. The General declared that
he would go no farther, but return to New Orleans. Now, the truth was,
he wished to go back to meet that young lady. I was told that when she
returned to Mobile some of her old and experienced friends persuaded
her to marry a younger man, who had long solicited her hand. When the
General reached New Orleans he was sadly disappointed; but he found
consolation soon after in marrying the widow of Col. Hunt, late of the
United States army.
We left Taylor's (the farmer) the same day, and went on to Plum Creek;
and, as it was not fordable, we had to stop with a widow and her
two daughters. Her house had only one room, and a cock loft gained
by a ladder. The following persons found shelter with the family
that night--viz., Maj. Ben McCulloch, Durand and his two sisters,
our two passengers, the postmaster, Brooks, myself, and the stage
driver--thirteen in number.
After supper was over our hostess lit her cob pipe, and enjoyed her
evening smoke, after which she politely offered it to those inclined
to indulge. When the time arrived to retire, the old woman had no
trouble in disposing of her ten guests. She merely said, "You men can
go aloft," and there on the floor we passed the night. It was well that
the General remained at Taylor's. The morning dawned clear, but the
creek was not fordable until noon. In the course of time the stagecoach
reached Austin, where I remained during the winter, furnishing
transportation for troops to the frontier; and where they were located
are now to be found the cities of Waco, Dallas, Fredericksburg, etc.
The sword plants the banner, and a city is built around it.
In the month of February, 1849, I received an order from the
Quartermaster General to go to San Antonio and fit out a train to go
to El Paso with the troops to be stationed there. For that purpose I
bought one thousand one hundred and eighty oxen, and collected about
two thousand head of mules, six hundred of which were wild mules from
Mexico, and I have never had any admiration for that animal in his
native state since, for, like his sire as told in the book of Job,
"neither regardeth he the crying of the driver."
To-day (November 22, 1894) is my birthday, and I am now six years past
the time alloted to man by the psalmist. For this I am truly grateful
to Him from whom all blessings flow, and I will henceforth endeavor to
walk humbly before him.
I had established my camp on the prairie about nine miles from the
city, where there were almost four hundred hired men. In March the
cholera made its appearance, and in a malignant form. Some cases
occurred in camp, and, as I could not get a physician to go out there,
I wrote for Dr. Baker, of Austin, an elderly man, to come over and take
charge of it. On his arrival I furnished him with a mule, and gave him
directions to find the camp. Night came on, and no doctor returned.
The next morning about nine o'clock he rode up to my office with his
umbrella under his arm, his mouth drawn up, the picture of despair. I
asked him: "Are many sick in camp?" He shook his head in the negative.
He was invited to dismount and come into the office, which he did, and
told his grievance. It appears that he found camp, attended to the few
sick, and started to return to the city. When he reached the Salado, a
small stream a few miles from town that was about ten feet wide, his
mule declined to cross the creek; neither would she wet her feet, as
the doctor did, and be led over. All attempts were futile. So, worn
out, the doctor sought the shelter of a tree, and sat there all night
holding in his hands the bride reins. In the morning the animal was
still stubborn, and the doctor in despair. No lone sailor on a raft
in midocean hailed an approaching sail with more delight than did the
doctor a Mexican coming down the road. He made known his trouble to
the Mexican, who said: "Si, Señor, me fix him." The man got off his own
mule, mounted the doctor's, rode off about fifty yards; then applying
whip and spur at every leap, the mule could not stop, but was plunged
into the water. He rode quietly across three or four times, and then
the doctor had no more trouble. The next trip the doctor was furnished
with a pony. He was a kind old gentleman, and went on with us to El
Paso as physician.
In May Gen. Worth arrived to take command of the department. A few
days after, he died of cholera, and the command devolved on Gen. W. S.
Harney.
The expedition to Paso del Norte was under the command of Maj.
Jefferson Van Horne, Engineer Officer Col. J. E. Johnston, and the
Quartermaster (myself). The object of the expedition was to march a
part of the third regiment of infantry to Paso del Norte to garrison
that place, and my train was to convey public stores there for their
future use and to open a public road to that point now called El Paso.
There was no road, not a path, from San Antonio to Paso del Norte. All
was an unknown, untrodden extent of plains, hills, and mountains over
which perhaps no white man had ever traveled, except two United States
engineers who had ridden over it in returning from New Mexico.
We left San Antonio June 1, 1849, and arrived at El Paso early in
September. We remained there nearly a month. At that time El Paso
was a town on the Mexican side of the Rio Grande river. There was
but _one_ building on the Texas side, and that was the Maggoffin's
hacienda. Vegetation at El Paso grows very rank, and fruit exceedingly
fine. The grape attains a large size, and bunches weighing four pounds
were common. I brought with me cacti, in form like an acorn, and so
large that the hoops had to be removed from a clothing tierce (a small
hogshead) to put a single one inside for transportation.
I pass over all description of the country and incidents of the
journey home, because I leave you the original diary, and my report
was published by the United States government.[14] The oxen and wagons
drawn by them were all turned over to the post quartermaster, and I
returned with the mule teams only.
Our return to San Antonio was over the Guadalupe mountains, down
Delaware Creek to the Horse-head crossing of the Pecos river, thence
down that stream to where we crossed it on our way out. There is now a
railroad from San Antonio to El Paso, following generally our route,
which runs on to the City of Mexico.[15] Remaining in San Antonio
long enough to make out my accounts, I proceeded to New Orleans. I
there found Gen. Twiggs in command, and called from courtesy to see
him at his headquarters. His aid, Capt. W. T. H. Brooks, who, as I
have related, remained in the stage when it sank in the mud, informed
me that the general commanding said I must shave off my beard, as a
general order to the effect had been issued by the adjutant general.
I did not obey, as I was under orders from the quartermaster general
to return to Washington, and did not consider myself in his command
at all. The next day I was at the general's office unshaved. He made
no remarks to me about it then, but some time that day Brooks came to
the hotel and ordered me to have my beard cut off. I did not go to the
barber. The next day I left New Orleans resolved to beard the adjutant
general in his den in Washington. On arrival there I found the shaving
order not enforced, and thus I saved my beard.
As I never met Gen. Twiggs again while I remained in the United States
army, I will take my leave of him. He was not a man well beloved by
officers or soldiers; he possessed no magnetic power; he was not genial
in temper or disposition, and yet he enjoyed a joke, and at times made
a pun. He entered the army in 1812. When that war terminated he was a
captain. On the reorganization of the army he was retained in service
and made a major. Being asked in what battle he gained his promotion,
he replied "in the _affair_ at _Ghent_," meaning the treaty of peace
with Great Britain. There was in the second regiment of dragoons
an officer named A. D. Tree, who possessed a frailty from which the
General was not exempt. On account of this, complaint was made to the
General about Tree. The General sent for Tree and asked him about the
matter. His reply was: "You cannot blame me; just as the Twigg is bent,
the Tree is inclined." The common influence of example was tacitly
acknowledged, his wit appreciated, and he withdrew under words of
advice from lips that smiled. When Twigg's native State seceded from
the Union, he resigned from the army and entered the service of the
Confederate States. His advanced age kept him from active operations in
the field. He had left in New Orleans the sword presented to him by the
State, together with his silver plate, and it was all seized by Gen.
Benjamin F. Butler, United States army, when in command in that city.
While I was absent in Texas, on the 8th of February, 1849, the Governor
of the State of New Jersey, in pursuance of a resolution passed
February 10, 1847 by the Legislature of that State, directing him to
procure swords to be presented to Capt. W. R. Montgomery, Lieut. N. B.
Rossell, Fowler Hamilton, and Samuel G. French, of the United States
army, for brave and gallant conduct displayed by them in the battles
of Palo Alto. Resaca de la Palma, and Monterey, made the presentation.
Richard P. Thompson, of Salem, N. J., acting in my behalf, received the
sword for me, and I am sure I will be pardoned for relating some of the
proceedings.
Gov. Haines, in his address, was pleased to say in reference to me at
Palo Alto:
While the battle was fiercely raging, a body of Mexican
lancers made a movement to the right, apparently with a
design upon the trains. The Fifth Regiment of Infantry, with
two pieces of artillery, were ordered to advance and check
them. To form in square to receive the impetuous charge of
the horsemen and to repel them, was the well-performed duty
of the Fifth Infantry; to scatter them in all directions was
the quick work of the battery under First Lieut. Ridgely,
assisted by Second Lieut. French.
At Palo Alto, and Resaca:
The bearing of Lieuts. French and Hamilton in both these
sanguinary engagements was marked for its gallantry and
courage, and merits our highest praise. Of the former it is
sufficient to say that he served a battery in conjunction
with Lieut. Ridgely, and in that duty contributed largely to
the success of our arms.
At Monterey:
Lieut. French performed deeds of daring worthy of
commendation. He was exposed during the attack to imminent
perils. Among others, the battery under his command advanced
through the blood-stained streets of the well-fortified town
in the face of the enemy's artillery and amidst showers of
balls from the musketry upon house tops. Of the five who
served his gun, four were shot down by his side. These are
the battles, and this but a small part of the brave and
gallant conduct referred to by the Legislature in their
resolution, and for which, in the name of the people of the
State, they desire to thank and to honor you. That they have
not misjudged is manifested by your subsequent conduct.
In the bloody and desperate conflict of Buena Vista, Lieut.
French bore himself with great intrepidity, and was severely
wounded. For his gallantry he has been promoted to the rank
of captain, and we have to regret that his services in a
distant part of the country deprives us of the pleasure of
his company here to-day, and requires him to be represented
by his friend.
Richard P. Thompson, Esq., on my behalf spoke as follows:
_Sir_: In behalf of Capt. French, to whose patriotic services
you have alluded in terms so eloquent and just, I accept
with profound gratitude this beautiful sword--the proudest
testimonial a brave man could desire from his native State.
It is a soldier's duty to obey with cheerfulness and alacrity
the call of his country--his post of honor is on the battle
field, amidst the "pride and pomp, and circumstances of
war,"--his loftiest ambition to bear that flag to victory
that never knew defeat, and to win for himself the approval
of his countrymen. When on the bloody fields of Buena Vista,
Palo Alto, Resaca de la Palma, and Monterey, Lieut. French
periled his life for his country, one bright and sunny hope
animated his young and gallant spirit, and this day, sir,
finds that glorious hope fulfilled. Here, in sight of the
battle ground of Trenton, the descendants of heroes are
proving to the world how Jerseymen appreciate and reward the
heroism of her sons.
To Capt. French, now absent on military duty, the events
of this day, sir, shall be faithfully transmitted, and I
can well imagine how his manly heart will overflow with
gratitude. The perils and privations he endured, the pain and
anguish of his wound, will be forgotten in the joy of this
event--in the knowledge that the Legislature of his beloved
State, with a magnanimity alike honorable to themselves
as to him, have placed in his hands this mute but eloquent
certificate of brave deeds in his country's service.
In accepting for him this evidence of the regard in which New
Jersey holds his bravery, in the presence of her assembled
representatives, and of this bright and beautiful array
of her mothers, wives, and daughters, I pledge myself to
you, sir, her chief Executive Magistrate, that my brave
young friend will treasure it as the proudest gift of his
life--that its keen and polished blade shall suffer no stain
from his dishonor--that in peace he will guard it with a
soldier's fidelity, in war defend with it the honor of his
country--unsheath it never in an unholy cause--and part with
it only when he shall be laid at rest "beneath a soldier's
sepulcher."
The inscription on the scabbard reads:
Presented by the State of New Jersey to Lieut. Samuel G.
French, of the third Regiment, United States Artillery,
for brave and gallant conduct displayed in the battles of
Palo Alto, Reseca de la Palma, and Monterey. Subsequently
distinguished at Buena Vista, and promoted to the rank of
captain.
AEQUM EST MILITEM
INTREPIDUM
HONORE
AFFICERE.
And so my good friend Mr. Thompson relieved me from the embarrassment
of returning thanks, publicly, for the sword delivered by the Governor.
While on this subject I will here remark that this sword and the former
one were taken from my summer home in Woodbury, N. J., in the absence
of the family, and with all personal property and realty sold by the
United States marshal at public outcry under the confiscation act of
1862.[16] Were the proceeds covered into the treasury?
I arrived in Washington during the winter of 1849-50, and made a
report of the expedition that was published by the government as I
have stated. The Quartermaster General, or the War Department, kept me
all the year 1850 in Washington, or within call, for any special duty
required.
Soon after my arrival in Washington I was honored with an invitation to
dine with the President. I had the pleasure of taking in to dinner Miss
Taylor, a young lady from Louisiana. The guests were too many for any
general conversation, and nothing of moment occurred.
I was in Philadelphia when the news of the death of the President was
received, July 9, 1850. Having been with him in all his battles in
Mexico, I was pained to hear of his death, and that I had lost a kind
friend. He had lived a soldier's life until elected President, and had
never heard the voice of detraction, or his name mentioned except for
praise, until he was forced into the political arena.
A lady friend of mine told me that she had a room at the hotel
adjoining the General's reception room, and thus involuntarily heard
much wrangling about the formation of his cabinet. Delegations of
politicians from different States would go so far as to demand that
certain men should be members of his cabinet as the price of loyalty
to the party and support of his administration. The enemy on the
battlefield never perplexed him as did his political _friends_ and the
pressure for appointment to office. He whose order and every word was
obeyed now found himself confronted by the bitterest opposition, which
perplexed him in the extreme, and, no doubt, it shortened his days.
Brave, honest, pure, sincere, as a soldier he never deviated from the
path of duty; and if we consider that the world has limited the fame of
a soldier to one single measure, _deeds performed_, by this test his
fame is imperishable. His every success was achieved by his daring,
steadfast determination to do his duty, and fight the enemy wherever
he found him, regardless of all odds. In this respect he might be
paralleled with Nelson.
Mr. Fillmore now became President. Soon after this the Gardiner claim
was being investigated, and I believe there were six commissioners to
be sent to Mexico to examine the _mine_. The President was to name
two of these commissioners; the Senate, two; etc. I was informed by
the Adjutant General that the President instructed him not to send me
on any duty out of the city, as he purposed to name me as one of his
commissioners. However, about a month after this, Senator Soule, of
Louisiana, came to the department to see me, and I believe my knowledge
of the Spanish language did not come up to his expectations; and, if I
remember aright, Lieut. Doubleday was named at his suggestion.
It was about this time that Capt. Ringgold, of the United States navy,
asked me urgently to go with him as the artist on an expedition to
make a coast survey of Kamchatka, and thence on south. He consulted the
Secretary of War, and obtained permission for me to go if he made the
application. He spoke of the climate in summer, and said in the fall
we would sail for the Sandwich Islands and pass the winter there. The
expedition was a tempting one, but other considerations induced me to
decline going. Capt. Ringgold was a brother of Maj. Ringgold, who was
killed at the battle of Palo Alto.
I think it was during this autumn that I was sent to Louisville, Ky.,
to purchase horses for the cavalry.
About the middle of December Col. Joseph Taylor, Maj. Gaines, his two
daughters, and I took passage on a steamer for Cincinnati. There was
much floating ice in the river, and snow began to fall, and it turned
very cold. The captain ran into the mouth of the Kentucky river to
avoid the heavy drift ice. In the morning we found the steamer fast in
frozen ice, and wagons and sleighs came alongside. Gen. W. O. Butler
came on board to see Col. Taylor, and, as there was no prospect of
the steamer leaving for weeks, arrangements were made for Gen. Butler
to send us on to Florence in his common two-horse farm wagon. The
next morning the trunks were put in for seats and we started on our
journey. The country was covered deep with snow, and the thermometer
was fourteen degrees below zero. I walked behind the wagon nearly all
the way to keep warm. The driver's hands were nearly frozen, and in
crossing an awful ravine the horses were not checked and the wheels on
one side would have missed the bridge and all in the wagon been killed
had not my trunk fallen out in front and stopped the wagon. Fortunately
no damage was done. The driver was to blame for not telling us his
hands were half frozen.
It was dark when we reached Florence, and for once fire could not
warm me for hours. Next day Col. Taylor bargained for a jumper (sled)
to take him and me to Cincinnati. We crossed the river on the ice,
and were driven up to the door of the hotel in the jumper. Next day
Hon. Salmon P. Chase joined Col. Taylor, and we went on to Washington
together.
CHAPTER IX.
January, 1851, Ordered to El Paso--Capt. Sitgreaves--Sail
for Havana--Barnum and Jennie Lind--Sail for New Orleans--By
Steamer to Galveston--On the Gulf for Indianola--San
Antonio--Report of Expedition--Unprecedented March without
Water--Indians--With Gen. Jesup--Hartford Convention--Battles
on the Canadian Frontier--Gov. W. P. Duval (Ralph
Ringwood)--United States Senators--Clay's Magnetism--His
Duel with John Randolph--Lieut R. F. Stockton, United States
Navy, Duel with English Officers at Gibraltar--John Howard
Payne--Commodore Van Rensselaer Morgan--My Marriage--Assigned
to Fort Smith, Ark.--Trips to Washita, Fort Gibson, and
Towson--Choctaws and Cherokees--John Ross--Journey from
Fort Smith to Natchez, Miss.--A Misanthrope--Gen. John A.
Quitman--Death of Mrs. Roberts--Tender My Resignation--Go to
My Plantation--Go to San Antonio--Death of Mrs. French--Sail
for Europe--John Brown's Raid.
In the early part of January, 1851, Gen. Jesup told me that he would
have to send me to El Paso again. I suggested that some other officer
be ordered on that duty, as I had made the trip once. He said that
there had been no rain in Western Texas for over a year; that the
report was the troops were out of provisions, and as I had been over
the road and knew the country, I must go again; that he would not
under such circumstances intrust the expedition to any one else. This
was complimentary, to be sure, and I pointed out the difficulties that
would be encountered on such a long journey over a now barren country,
destitute of water and grass; but told him I would do the best I could
to make the expedition a success.
Capt. Lorenzo Sitgreaves, topographical engineer, United States army,
was in the city under orders to make a survey of the Gila river, and,
as he had to go to El Paso, would accompany the expedition. With him
was Dr. S. W. Woodhouse, of Philadelphia, Pa. In due time we went to
New York, and sailed for Havana, Cuba.
In Havana at the hotel were P. T. Barnum with Miss Jennie Lind, James
G. Bennett and wife. We remained in the city about a week, and then
took steamer for New Orleans. Capt. Hartstine, of the United States
navy, commanded the steamer. He gave Miss Jennie his stateroom on
deck. I was sitting with Miss Jennie in her room when we entered the
Mississippi river. Soon a sweet little girl came in, and, dropping on
her knees before the songstress, said: "Miss Jennie, you promised that
you would sing for me when we got in smooth water. Please do, for the
winds and waves are still." And she sung "I Dreamt I Dwelt in Marble
Halls" and "Home, Sweet Home." O how melodious her voice sounded to
us alone there far away, where the waters of half a continent mingled
with the ocean, and awakened new emotions that moistened the eye with
a tear! I heard her sing on the stage, but I remember better her songs
to the little girl. She asked me about the length of the Mississippi
river, and her astonishment was great when I informed her that she
could go all the way from where we were, if the river were straightened
out, to her home in Stockholm.
When we arrived at the landing in New Orleans there were perhaps a
thousand persons present. The police appeared helpless. To land the
ladies looked like an impossibility. How could they get through that
crowd to the carriages? Miss Jennie would not attempt it. After a
long time Barnum's tact accomplished it. The crowd had seen both Miss
Jennie and Barnum's daughter on the deck when the steamer arrived. They
were now below deck in despair. Barnum arrayed his daughter like Miss
Jennie, covering her face with a thick veil, gave her his arm, and
met the crowd, worked his way through to a carriage that was covered
with people, and finally got his daughter inside, and jumped in. The
carriage moved slowly on, the mob after it to see her get out. Then
Miss Jennie was landed, and put in another carriage that followed.
But the crowd discovered the deception, met Miss Jennie, and escorted
her to her hotel. All this was merely a desire to see a distinguished
vocalist. An hour or two after, we also got on shore. I have failed
to tell you that Dr. Fisher, of Philadelphia, was one of our party.
He was employed by me as physician to render medical services to the
civil employees on the expedition. From New Orleans we took steamer to
Galveston, where we were detained some days.
How often do extremes meet! In New Orleans we had just listened to the
sweet voice of Jennie Lind; here we were entertained by an old negro
slave with music drawn out of a cheese box made into a banjo. He knew
but one song, and as he played it over and over we paid him to quit
instead of encouraging him to continue. It made me feel very sad to see
the poor fellow trying to please the people at the hotel with his rude
banjo and song. What a fall from a Cremona or Stradivarius to a cheese
box!
From Galveston we sailed to Indianola, and thence to San Antonio by
stage, where we arrived February 24.
As it will be too much trouble for me to abbreviate my report of this
expedition, I will, mainly for preservation, give it in full:
REPORT.
WASHINGTON CITY, November 2, 1851.
_General_: I have the honor to inclose to you the
accompanying report in relation to the late expedition to El
Paso, made in compliance with the following order:
QUARTERMASTER GENERAL'S OFFICE, }
WASHINGTON CITY, January 14, 1851.}
_Sir_: A large supply of stores for El Paso is on the way
from Baltimore to Indianola, Tex., as you are aware, to meet
an apprehended deficiency of subsistence for the troops at
that post and its dependencies in New Mexico. This supply
is to be taken to its destination in a public train. You are
selected to take charge of and conduct it. You will proceed
to San Antonio, and report to Maj. Babbitt for that service.
On your way thither you will stop at New Orleans, and
ascertain from Col. Hunt the state of the wagons which he has
shipped to Indianola by orders from this office; and if they
are not in every respect in a condition for the service in
which they are to be employed, you will call for whatsoever
you may think necessary to the efficiency of the service.
Should you obtain information on the route of the loss of any
of the wagons shipped recently from Philadelphia, you will
take measures to replace as many of them as you may think
necessary.
The expenses of the department are enormous, and they must,
if practicable, be reduced. You must therefore carefully
avoid any expense not absolutely required; but at the same
time, economy is not to be carried so far as to impair
efficiency.
Maj. Babbitt has been written to and informed that you are
to organize a train under his instructions, or to aid him
in organizing it, and that you are to have charge of it. Let
that service be performed in your usual manner, and with your
accustomed energy, and I am sure all will go right.
All the operatives employed must go armed, and if a small
escort be necessary in addition, the commanding general I
have no doubt will direct it. Let it however be as small as
possible, so as not to use so large a portion of the supplies
as are usually required for escorts.
Collect all the information you can in regard to the country,
its resources, the condition of the Indians who roam over it,
what are their numbers, and how they can best be controlled;
also whether settlements might not be formed on the route
sufficiently strong to protect themselves from the Indians,
and furnish supplies for emigrants and troops.
With entire reliance on your energy, talents, and zeal, I am
respectfully your obedient servant,
TH. S. JESUP, _Quartermaster General_.
Capt. S. G. French, Assistant Quartermaster, Washington City.
In pursuance of the above orders I proceeded to San Antonio,
and reported for duty on the 24th of February, and commenced
making preparations for the organization of the train. Many
of the wagons required for the service, and all the stores,
were still on the coast, and all the available means that
Maj. Babbitt had were immediately employed in bringing them
to the depot at San Antonio. An estimate of the number of
animals that would be required was made, and, as there
were not enough in his possession, some three hundred
were received by purchase, and formed into teams for the
road, and a small train thus organized was dispatched to
Indianola to hasten up with the subsistence. But little
hired transportation could be procured, for the severity
of the winter had destroyed all vegetation, and the cattle
could barely subsist. Some of the stores thus sent by the
citizens from the coast were nearly or quite a month on the
road up to the depot at San Antonio. By the last of April
most of the stores had arrived, the requisite number of
employees had been engaged, and the loading of the wagons
was commenced. As they received the loads, they were sent
in small detachments to Leona, the point I had designated
as the general rendezvous. By the 7th of May the last train
left the depot, and I started with it for Leona. The supplies
for El Paso were kept separate from those drawn for the
escort and employees, and, in order to avoid the expense
of transporting salt provisions for the command, I received
from the commissary of subsistence eighty days' fresh meat,
the beeves being driven along by men in the employ of the
contractors, and furnished when required. As the Indians on
the borders had manifested considerable hostility during the
spring, I deemed it necessary to ask of Maj. Gen. Harney,
commanding the department, the protection of an escort.
For this service a detachment of eighty men from the first
regiment of infantry was ordered; but, as the transportation
of their subsistence would incur considerable expense,
I thought it consistent with proper economy and perfect
safety to suggest its reduction to fifty men. The number was
accordingly diminished, and on my reaching Fort Inge I found
the escort there under the command of Capt. B. H. Arthur
awaiting my arrival, and I will here express my obligations
to him for the cheerful aid he always afforded me.
I encamped at the rendezvous on the 11th. On the 12th the
last of the wagons arrived, and the day following was
passed in making final preparations for our departure.
The entire expedition, comprising one hundred and fifty
wagons (including three belonging to Maj. Backus,[17]
Capt. Sitgreaves, and Lieut. Williamson, _en route_ to New
Mexico) and over one thousand animals, moved on the 14th,
and encamped on the banks of the Nueces. These numbers were
further increased by those of citizens availing themselves of
our protection to pass through the Indian country.
The march was now continued without any accidents or
unnecessary delay, until the night of the 23d, when we were
visited by a thunderstorm, accompanied by such violent gusts
of wind as to prostrate all our tents and expose us to the
rain till morning. We were encamped in the valley of the
San Pedro river, and, knowing that it was subject to sudden
overflows from heavy falls of rain, I examined the ford the
next day about noon, and could perceive only a slight rise
in the water, and therefore commenced crossing the baggage
wagons, giving directions for the main train to follow soon
after; but no sooner were the former completely over than
in the space of a few minutes the waters rose several feet,
thereby completely cutting off all communication with the
main train for nearly two days. The waters having subsided
enough so as not to enter the wagon bodies, the stream was
passed, and we continued the march again without interruption
to the Pecos river. We found the water of this stream low;
but an examination of the ford led me to believe that it was
still too deep to pass over in safety, and I was obliged
to cause three cylindrical iron rods, or wires, that had
been left across the river by the contractors for the year
previous, to be raised and secured to the shores by means of
strong cables, which being planked over formed a suspension
bridge forty feet in length, over which the wagons with the
stores were run by hand. About seventy wagons had been thus
passed across, when the end of one of the rods that was bent
at a right angle broke, and the bridge became impassable. A
second examination of the river led to the discovery of a
ledge of rocks affording a good bottom, where the rest of
the wagons were driven across with but little difficulty.
The west bank of the river having been gained, we resumed our
journey. At the Comanche Springs we were overtaken by Col. J.
D. Graham, U. S. army, topographical engineer, on his way to
the Mexican Boundary Commission, who continued with us to El
Paso.
The disappointment arising from not having water where on
former occasions it had been characterized as permanent
or living, together with the parched-up condition of the
country, caused me to move with more circumspection. The
Lempia was found dry its entire length, excepting one place,
that was a mile distant from the road and almost inaccessible
to animals, and another at its source at the Painted Camp.
I therefore remained at the last-mentioned place, and sent
expresses ahead to look for water, which resulted in the
discovery of a pool in a ravine twenty miles in advance,
to which point we moved. The condensation of vapor on the
mountain sides caused some rain to fall about ten miles
farther on the road, where the men in advance, by digging
trenches on the plain, drained it from the surface where it
had not been absorbed, in sufficient abundance for all the
animals. Preparations had been made in anticipation of a long
journey without water, by filling all the water barrels and
kegs at the Lempia. There was now but little hope of finding
water short of Eagle Springs, sixty-five miles distant, and
the weather being extremely warm, and the roads excessively
dusty, I started at two o'clock A.M.; but, much to the joy
of every one, a small hole containing water enough for a part
of the advance train was found about sunrise, and two others
containing sufficient to allow each animal a few quarts
were discovered where we halted at noon; again about sunset
some was found in a small water gulley in Providence Creek,
and each animal was given a few gallons as they passed by
and moved in advance in quest of an encamping place where
there was some grazing for the animals. But the dryness of
the herbage seemed only to increase the thirst of the poor
mules, and all night they kept up a continued braying. At
one A.M. I again started for the springs, still twenty-nine
miles distant, halting at eleven o'clock to give the animals
all the water in the kegs and to permit them to graze. Our
baggage wagons and the advance of the escort continued on
to the springs, which, to the astonishment of all, were so
nearly dry that the few animals with us scarcely got enough
to slake their thirst. I immediately set some men to the task
of digging out the springs, and dispatched a party several
miles up the mountains to where on a former occasion a large
stream was found running, but they returned and reported it
perfectly dry. As to procuring water from the springs where
the men were digging, it was an impossibility. While thus
perplexed, a thunder shower that hovered around a distant
peak of the mountains, and then rolled up the valley, for a
time inspired hope, but like the cloud it soon passed away.
About four P.M. the trains arrived, and I directed them to
continue the march all night to the Rio Grande, thirty-two
miles distant. All day difficulties had been accumulating.
In the morning an express had overtaken us, giving the
information that some of the mules belonging to the Boundary
Commission had strayed for water during the night, and they
were unable to move from Providence Creek. They could not
be left there without water; and, lest the missing animals
should not be recovered, I caused four teams to remain at
Eagle Springs; so that, should their animals be irrecoverably
lost, I might give assistance to get their wagons up to the
springs the next day, and resolved to remain in camp till
two o'clock the next morning, believing that ere then they
would reach our camp, which fortunately was the case. At two
o'clock in the morning I left the springs, and arrived at
the mouth of the cañon[18] through which the valley of the
Rio Grande is gained, about nine A.M., and found in it near
twenty wagons blocking up the passage, the animals exhausted
for want of water and from fatigue. They were immediately
loosed and driven to the river, eight miles distant, where
the main body was encamped, and in the evening these wagons
were brought into camp from out the cañon where they had
been left. Thus, from not finding water at Eagle Springs,
and being obliged to continue on to the Rio Grande, the
trains were forced to make a march of _ninety-six_ miles
_in fifty-two consecutive hours_, the last _sixty miles_
having been made in _thirty hours_. These marches were as
disagreeable as can well be imagined, and continued to be so
to the place of destination, owing to the intolerable heat,
the thermometer during the day in the shade standing at 110
degrees, and to the immense volumes of dust that rested on
either side the road like a cloud, obscuring everything from
the view, except when wafted away by the wind.
We reached El Paso on the 24th of June, forty-nine days
after leaving San Antonio, during which time thirty-nine only
were passed in traveling. The stores were all delivered in
good condition; and an estimate being made of what would be
required on the return trip, I found more salt provisions
on hand than were necessary, and therefore caused a part of
them to be left at San Elizario, whereby the supplies were
increased by about eighteen hundred rations. As soon as
the stores were delivered and I could complete my duties,
the journey homeward was commenced. We left El Paso on the
7th of July, and reached San Antonio on the 9th of August.
The same difficulty in regard to water was not experienced
when returning; for at Eagle Springs Mr. Smith, a gentleman
who had charge of a small train of wagons, arriving there
about a week after us, finding no water, remained there in
camp while his animals were being driven to the Rio Grande,
thirty-two miles distant, and dug out the springs to a
capacity four times greater than I had left them. I also
divided the train in sections, marching on consecutive days,
so as to let the springs fill during the intervals between
the departure and the arrival. The marches were always made
with a view to favor the animals, and the time of starting,
etc., was determined by the circumstances of distance, the
weather, grazing, and water. On the journey out, I generally
had the animals corralled at night for safety when there was
no moon; but after the stores were delivered, and the main
object of the expedition had been accomplished, more risk
could be afforded; and accordingly, from the time we left
the Rio Grande until the arrival at San Antonio, the animals
were herded all the time excepting when in harness. By thus
giving them every opportunity to graze, and always traveling
with a view to favoring them, I am pleased to state that they
returned to the depot in about as good condition as when they
started, after marching a continuous journey of more than two
thousand miles, if the trips to the coast from the depot be
included. The loss of animals from deaths, straying, thefts,
and otherwise, from the rendezvous to El Paso and back, was
two and a fraction to each hundred. No Indians were ever
met on the route, though the guard at night on two occasions
fired on what were supposed to be Indians. Often they hovered
near our camp, making signal fires on the mountains.
In regard to the country through which the route lies, you
were furnished with a description in a former communication.
Of course all the peculiar characteristics that it has
obtained from the formations remain the same; but every
feature of productiveness and beauty, derived from the
seasons in their annual course, is sensibly changed, and to
the eye it presents but little that is attractive, owing to
the drought. From the Nueces to the mountains, which divide
the waters that flow into the Pacific from those that flow
into the Atlantic, the whole country appears altered. But
little rain has fallen for near two years, and hills that
before were clothed in verdure now are bare. Valleys that
seemed to vie in fertility with the most favored appear
sterile; and plains where two years ago the tall grass waved
like fields of wheat now are rocky and barren. Parasitical
plants hang leafless to the trees, and the mistletoe has
ceased to put forth its buds. Where the prairie had been
swept over by the fires of the previous summer the surface
of the earth was still black and covered with ashes, and
nothing green showed that the spring season had passed. The
vegetation of the previous years had become so dried and
withered by the scorching rays of the sun that it appeared
cineritious, crumbling into ashes or dust when pressed in
the hand or trodden on by animals. The little lakes that
once bordered the streams were dried up, and the streams
themselves had often ceased to flow. Even the prairie dogs
had forsaken the central part of their town, from starvation,
and inhabited the suburbs bordering on the vegetation that
widely encircles them, remote from their former homes. It
seemed as if Providence had withdrawn his protecting care
and left the country to itself. I never before had such a
negative proof of the fertilizing properties of rain and
dews. The general aspect of that vast extent of country west
of the Nueces is thus changed from what it was two years
since, when it was an untrodden wilderness unknown to the
white man. A general drought has prevailed, and it was only
occasionally that green grass was found where a shower had
passed in the spring. Notwithstanding the tide of immigration
settling into the country, the acknowledged enterprise of
our people, the rapid subjugation of the wild lands to useful
purposes by the settlers, and the utmost protection that may
be given to the advance of all our settlements--yet such are
the few attractions that most of that region of country,
on the route west of the intersection of the table-lands
with the Rio Grande, Northern Mexico, or perchance to the
Pacific Coast, it will be a long time before it can attract
the attention of agriculturists, or even become a pastoral
country to any great extent. The establishment of a mail
route from San Antonio to El Paso may cause a small post
to be established at Live Oak Creek or Howard's Springs,
but, generally speaking, the San Felipe limits the fertile
portions of Texas (south of the great plain) in a westerly
direction.
I have endeavored to collect some information in regard to
the Indians, as required by your orders, and from having been
on duty in Texas principally, since 1848, during which time I
have traveled over a considerable portion of the country they
frequent (in the south and west as far as New Mexico), some
conclusions I have arrived at may differ from the generally
received opinions in regard to them.
Their numbers appear to have been considerably overestimated,
if the report of men who have been among them can be relied
on, and the information gained by Lieut. Col. Hardee in his
late expedition to their country be correct. It is believed
that the entire number, including all ages and the different
sexes, of all the tribes that frequent the border settlements
of Texas, in the Eighth Military Department, does not exceed
four thousand.
The respective numbers of the different bands may be set down
(by their own computation principally) about as follows:
Delawares, 63; Shawnees, 70; Tonkaways, 300; Quapas, 200;
Caddoes, 160; Anadoces, 200; Iones, 113; Keechies, 48;
Tawacanoes, 140; Wacoes, 114; Lepans, 350; Lower Comanches,
700; and the Northern Comanches at 1,500. These tribes
roam over the country watered by the Red, Trinity, Brazos,
Colorado, Nueces, and San Pedro rivers and their tributaries
near their sources. The Northern Comanches have the most
extensive range for the pursuit of the buffalo to the
north of the Canadian. They traverse the entire country to
the south, and by their ancient warpaths cross the Pecos,
continue to the Rio Grande, enter Mexico, and carry their
depredations far into the interior of that distracted
country. The southern band of Comanches, and all the other
tribes enumerated, are found frequently associated together,
and on the northern portions of the line near their home
visit those posts in seeming friendship.
That barren, dreary, and desolate region immediately west of
the Pecos has not sufficient claims to be in possession of
any Indians. The Northern Comanches pass over a portion of
it as they wander alternately from the north to the south,
and the different bands into which the Apaches are divided
approach its borders from the north and west.
The Apaches are divided into numerous bands, and, united with
other tribes in New Mexico, have been variously estimated
at from fifteen to thirty thousand, the former being perhaps
nearer the truth.
The condition of all these Indians, except some few of the
Delawares, is truly lamentable. Denied the possession of
lands and a home, despising industry, and regarding labor
as degrading, no provision is made for subsistence by the
cultivation of the soil; but, depending entirely upon the
flesh of the horse, the mule, the uncertainty of the chase,
and the few wild products of the country, they wander about
exposed to all the vicissitudes and every ill of life that
can arise from disease, extreme exposure to cold, nakedness,
and hunger bordering on starvation, leading an existence
more filthy than swine, and as precarious and uncertain
as the wolf; and this life is rendered, if it be possible,
even yet more intolerable by the almost entire absence of
laws respecting property and the rights of the individual.
Their views of property tend toward socialism, without that
restraint by which the strong are prevented from plundering
the weak, and but few injuries have legal redress. However
strongly their condition would seem to appeal to philanthropy
for relief, much sympathy is lost in the remembrance that
their code of morals inculcates many of our vices as their
cardinal virtues, and regards our virtues as so many vices or
traits of weakness, while their atrocious barbarities shock
every sensibility of nature and humanity. The experience
of the Jesuit fathers, other Christian missionaries, and
learned professors would almost incline us to believe that
the Indian is endowed with certain instincts, as they might
be called, that are inherent in his nature, and not always
directing him to good, which neither separation from his
people, education from infancy, the attainments of academies,
attractions of wealth, the refinements of society, nor the
doctrines and precepts of Christianity can destroy; and,
after all, he stands in nature an Indian still. Be this
as it may, of one thing we are certain, they are thrown on
our borders and violate our laws, and it becomes a question
how best to control them, and what policy to pursue in our
relations with them. They are now being encroached upon
by settlements on the frontier that will soon encompass
them on many sides. We are circumscribing their bounds,
limiting their hunting expeditions, and destroying their
game. And there is no checking these encroachments, for
the State of Texas claims possession of all the domain
within her boundaries, and no act of the agents of the
Federal government can at present cede them a portion of her
territory, or military force restrain the lawless traders
established in the Indian country. Treaties may be effected
with them, but they cannot stipulate to restrain citizens
from settling on their hunting grounds, nor grant them many
immunities. It is, under the present condition of affairs,
vain to suppose that the most skillful combinations for
military operations can check a famished, wild, and degraded
people from committing depredations on the lonely roads and
extended prairies, for the purpose of clothing their naked
women and children and to satisfy the calls of hunger; and
more especially so when these very acts are not regarded as
wrong, and are the only steps by which the untutored brave
gains distinction or renown among his people and receives the
awards due to valor. Theft with them is no crime, but only a
legitimate profession. In all civilized communities ambition
is satisfied in pursuing innumerable channels of a civil
nature. The Indian has but two, war and the chase, and they
are now no longer pleasures, but made a burden by the stern
necessities of providing subsistence.
How to control these nomadic tribes various plans have been
suggested, but all calling for legislative action, and I
feel a reluctance in alluding to them. But I know of none
more humane in the end than _to teach them the power of our
government_, then grant them a territory, dismount them as
far as necessary, feed and clothe them to a sufficient extent
to make them dependent on our agents, elevate the character
of their war and council chiefs in the estimation of their
respective tribes by treating them with some distinction and
consideration, whereby their influence over the bands will
become greater, and they will become instrumental in carrying
out our wishes. Encourage the cultivation of the soil, and
establish a few plain, salutary laws for their government
and for regulating the intercourse of the whites with them,
and have them enforced by the aid of the military; and then,
perhaps ere long, tranquillity may be known on the frontier
where for so many years partial war has been waged. A similar
policy might be urged from other considerations, especially
to prevent the immense amount of claims constantly growing
out of what are alleged to be Indian depredations, and the
expense of maintaining so large a force remote from points
where the supplies are drawn.
Were the State of Texas to grant the Indians within her
borders a definite territory, ceding the jurisdiction thereof
to the United States, so that the proper laws regulating the
intercourse of the whites with them could be established and
enforced, and were they but partially clothed and fed, the
State would have peace on the frontier, immigration to her
shores would increase, the immense resources of the country
would be developed, and prosperity, spreading happiness among
her people, would spring up over her entire dominions.
The service upon which I have been engaged has induced me to
urge upon your consideration the propriety of recommending
to the honorable Secretary of War the necessity for, and
the advantages that would be derived from, a legislative
enactment whereby a limited number of employees could be
enlisted in the service of the department for a term of
years, subject to such rules and regulations as in such cases
may be established by proper authority.
When passing through Galveston I had the pleasure to examine
the establishment of Mr. G. Borden for the manufacture of
meat biscuit. Two cans, in a crushed state, containing five
pounds each, were purchased, and on our journey to El Paso
and back it was almost constantly used; and, in connection
with vegetables, was found an excellent article. We had
no such object in view as to test the usefulness to any
extent, but from its convenience and palatable qualities
it naturally came into daily use. I gave away one can of
it, which served a party of four persons, who came from New
Mexico to San Antonio without pack animals, as a reliable
dependence for food on a journey of about six hundred miles
to the nearest settlements. They made it a substitute for
animal food excepting when they chanced to meet game, and
spoke of it in commendable terms. In forming a _part_ of the
ration it would commend itself, economically, in a degree
somewhat proportionate to the diminution it would make in the
weight of the ration; but the military advantages it would
afford, where land transportation is difficult, and certain
results are to be obtained, cannot be so well calculated.
In many points of view it commends itself so favorably, as a
component part of the ration for particular service, that it
is worthy of more than a single trial.
During the months of March and April the teams were employed
in bringing up the supplies for the troops in the Eighth
Military Department, and were sent on any other duty that
the service required, and were not confined exclusively
to transporting the stores destined for the troops in New
Mexico. The provisions for the escort were conveyed from San
Antonio; and from the forage that I received were fed the
animals belonging to the officers' teams, and some was issued
to the train of the Boundary Commission in the service of
Col. Graham. These and other circumstances connected with
the general duties of the service have rendered it impossible
for me to present you with more than an approximate estimate
of the cost per pound for transportation to El Paso. I
have embraced in the calculation the cost of freight of the
provisions for the escort; the transportation of the rations
for the employees of the department, and the value thereof;
the compensation for service of all persons connected with
the train; the loss of animals; incidental expenses, etc.;
and find the cost per pound, from the Gulf to El Paso, to
be about nineteen cents. This will not exceed the expenses
per pound under the contract for the previous year, but it
exceeds that now paid citizens who own small trains and are
carrying, to a limited amount, by four cents per pound. To
the government the forage for the animals has been a heavy
item of expenditure, and although I allowed only a third
of the rations of corn, without long forage, yet it has,
owing to the exorbitant price it commands, amounted to over
two-fifths of the entire expense of the expedition.
When the grazing is good small trains of twenty or thirty
wagons may avoid the use of grain almost entirely by
traveling more slowly and stopping oftener to graze; and if
the department will thus risk supplies without escorts of any
kind, it may, to some extent, diminish expense, but it will
be attended with more uncertainty.
It may be gratifying to you to learn that during the time
we were absent on the journey, with the exceptions I have
mentioned, nothing of note occurred. The trains were always
ready to move at the hours designated, and would come into
camp without any of those vexatious delays caused by animals
"giving out" from fatigue, or the breaking of wagons, or
other accidents generally attendant on such expeditions.
Respectfully your obedient servant,
S. G. FRENCH.
_Captain and Assistant Quartermaster._
Maj. Gen. Thomas A. Jesup, Quartermaster General, U. S. A.,
Washington, D. C.
The officers who accompanied me were Capt. B. H. Arthur, in command
of the escort, and Col. J. D. Graham, Maj. Backus, Capt. Sitgreaves,
Lieut. Williamson, who availed themselves of the protection of the
expedition to go to El Paso; also my brother, John C. French, Bishop
Lama, and Mr. Wright, collecting plants for Prof. Gray. His herbarium
and large plants filled three wagons. I brought several loads of cacti,
embracing about sixty varieties. Unfortunately they were all frozen in
transit from New York to Philadelphia, an almost irreparable loss.
During the winter of 1851-52 I occupied a desk in Gen. Jesup's private
office. The morning hours, from nine to twelve, were generally given
to visitors calling on business or socially. Often were the battles
of Niagara, Lundy's Lane, and Chippewa fought over again, until the
hour to dine was at hand, and, when visitors ceased to call, the
General would look over the morning's mail, then hand the letters to
me to answer, telling me what reply to make to every letter. I found
it very difficult at first to answer so many letters handed to me one
after another, the answers to each verbally given me. Besides I seldom
reached the hotel until dinner was over.
The General used to tell me all about the war of 1812. How he was
ordered to Hartford on some ostensible service, but really to watch
the proceedings of the Secession Convention held at Hartford. Daily he
reported to President Madison, as far as possible, what the proceedings
were. They had the desire to _secede_, but were apprehensive of the
consequences.
[Illustration: JOHN C. FRENCH.]
As I have before me the proceedings of the Hartford Convention, and an
attested copy of the secret journal of that body published in Boston
by O. Everett, 13 Cornhill, 1823, I will give a few extracts from the
journal.
MEMBERS OF THE CONVENTION.
From Massachusetts: George Cabot, William Prescott, Harrison
Gray Otis, Timothy Biglow, Nathaniel Dane, George Bliss,
Joshua Thomas, Hodijah Bayliss, Daniel Waldo, Joseph Lyman,
Samuel W. Wilde, and Stephen Longfellow.
From Connecticut: Chauncey Goodrich, James Hillhouse, John
Treadwell, Zepheniah Swift, Nathaniel Smith, Calvin Goddard,
and Roger M. Sherman.
From New Hampshire: Benjamin West and Miles Olcott.
From Rhode Island: Daniel Lyman, Benjamin Hazard, and Edward
Manton.
George Cabot was chosen President of the Convention.
Convention assembled December 15, 1814, and prepared rules
and orders. 1. Meetings to be opened each morning with
prayer.... 2. The most _inviolable secrecy_ shall be observed
by each member of the Convention, including doorkeeper,
etc....
December 16, 1814, committee met, ... opened with prayer....
Committee reported the following to be proper _subjects_ for
the consideration of the Convention:
The powers claimed by the Executive of the United States
to determine conclusively in respect to calling out the
militia of the States into the service of the United States,
and dividing the United States into military districts with
an officer of the army in each thereof, with discretionary
authority from the Executive of the United States to call for
the militia to be under the command of such officer.... The
refusal of the Executive of the United States to supply or
pay the militia of certain States when called out in their
defense.... The failure of the Government of the United
States to provide for the common defense, ... leaving the
separate States to defend themselves, etc.
December 17, 1814, met and opened with prayer, ... and
adjourned.
Monday, 19th, met as usual. (Proceedings of no importance.)
Tuesday, December 20, and 21st, 22d, and 23d as well, opened
with usual prayers and adjournments.
Saturday, December 24, 1814, opened with prayer by Rev. Dr.
Jenkins.... The committee appointed to prepare and report
the measures as it may be proper for this Convention to adopt
respectfully report:
Article 1. Complains about the unconstitutional attempts of
the Executive Government of the United States to infringe
upon the rights of the individual States in regard to the
militia.... Recommends the adoption of decisive measures to
protect the States from usurpations, etc.
Article 2. Recommends the States to make provision for mutual
defense by retaining a portion of the taxes....
Article 3. Recommends certain amendments to the Constitution
of the United States as follows:
(1) That the power to declare and make war by the Congress of
the United States be restricted.
(2) That it is expedient to attempt to make provision for
restraining Congress in the exercise of an unlimited power to
make new States, and to admit them into the Union.
(3) That the powers of Congress be restrained in laying
embargoes and restrictions on commerce.
(4) That a President shall not be elected from the same State
two terms successively.
(5) That the same person shall not be elected President a
second time.
(6) That an amendment be proposed respecting slave
representation and slave taxation.
On motion it was voted that this Convention be adjourned
to Monday afternoon at three o'clock, then to meet at this
place.
Monday, December 26, 1814, the Convention met pursuant to
adjournment, etc.
On the 26th, 27th, and 28th nothing of importance was done.
On the 29th, after prayers, a proposition was referred to the
committee appointed on the 21st inst.:
That the capacity of naturalized citizens to hold offices of
trust, honor, or profit ought to be restrained; and that it
is expedient to propose an amendment to the Constitution of
the United States in relation to that subject.
But this is enough to show the drift and patriotism as they saw and
_felt_ it.
One day, being late to dinner as usual, the table at Willard's was
nearly deserted; but seeing Gen. Harney, I took a seat beside him. Soon
after, Gov. W. P. Duval, of Florida, came, and, seeing Gen. Harney, he
came over and was seated between us. I knew he was a good raconteur,
and hoped to have him relate some Florida stories. After he and the
General had talked over their experiences with the Seminoles and the
Florida war, I asked him to relate some of his adventures in early
life. He began the story of Ralph Ringwood, with his schoolboy days,
the imported "jack," putting him in the smokehouse, the fright of the
old negro housekeeper, Barbara, when she opened the door and the jack
brayed, his leaving home, and so on all the way through as related
by Washington Irving, with this difference, that he embellished it
with many more incidents. He gave us an amusing account of his first
visit to New York City. When he reached Washington City President
Jackson invited him to dine with him privately. He was not familiar
with regular courses at dinner, and came near getting nothing to eat,
for while he would be telling a story to Jackson the servant would
take his plate away, provisions and all, and put an empty one there.
This occurred so often that when he was "helped" again, while talking
to the President, he held on to his plate by holding his fork in it
perpendicularly, pressing it down hard. The Governor was a very amusing
story-teller, and I think he said the way "The Experiences of Ralph
Ringwood" came to be published was: Being at West Point Academy, a
member of the Board of Visitors, he was invited by Mr. Kemble, who
lived on the shore of the Hudson opposite West Point, to dine with
him, and there he met Irving and Spaulding and related to them his
experiences in early life.
From the time I returned from Mexico, in 1847, until 1854 I was
retained on duty in Washington City, to be sent on such incidental
service as occasion required, and I am happy to tell you that during
all these years I enjoyed the confidence and respect of all the
officers in the War Department.
There were long periods of leisure, and I passed much of my time
at the Capitol interested in the Congressional debates, especially
in the Senate, where, through a friend of mine, I generally enjoyed
the privilege of the seats under the gallery or on the floor. I have
listened to Everett, the scholar; Sumner, the rhetorician; Choate,
the lawyer; Calhoun, the metaphysician; Clay, the orator; Webster,
the expounder, and all the other Senators in their best efforts day
by day, and I must declare Henry Clay the most eloquent and persuasive
speaker of all. The glowing words fell from his lips as though they had
been touched by a burning coal from the altar of Elijah on Mt. Carmel.
The great natural gift of Savonarola was his. I could illustrate his
wonderful magnetic power over men by many occurrences.
In the Metropolitan Hotel the hall leading from the entrance of the
office was long and wide. Seats were arranged to the wall on either
side, and in this hall, at night, prominent persons were wont to
assemble. An Englishman of high official position, on a visit to this
country, had arrived in Washington and was a guest at the hotel. In the
evening a number of Senators and government officials called to pay
their respects to him. Now, without regard to the order of arrival,
I will merely observe: When Mr. Cass entered the hall a few persons
spoke to him on his way to the office. His card was sent up and he
was shown to the reception room. Mr. Clayton came in and was shown
up. Mr. Webster arrived, in buff vest and blue coat, and a cloud on
his brow, and on his way to the office exchanged a few words with some
of his friends. After a while Mr. Clay came. Instantly all rose from
their seats. Though the hall was filled, the crowd pressed around him.
He had a pleasant word for every one, and the gracious reception he
gave them was so magnetic that with difficulty he reached the office
and parted from his friends, leaving them _en rapport_ with him from
sympathetic cheerfulness. When I was first introduced to Mr. Clay he
said, "Ah, an élève of the Military Academy, I suppose?" and then
spoke in commendation of the school. I felt sure the shade of his
son rose up before him, for he was educated there, and was killed on
the battlefield of Buena Vista. I once related to Mr. Clay a story I
had heard about James K. Polk. His reply was emphatic: "It cannot be
true. No man with such a heart could ever have been President of the
United States." Contrast with this Mr. Benton's remark about Stephen A.
Douglas: "He can never be elected President of the United States. His
coat tail hangs too near the ground." I never heard Mr. Benton make a
speech in favor of a measure; he was generally in opposition. If asked
who I regarded the finest speaker in the Senate at that time, I would
reply: "Henry Clay." I think his reply to Mr. Soule, of Louisiana, on
the boundary of New Mexico the best speech I have ever heard. He was
the most self-reliant man I ever knew. Gen. Jesup, who knew him well,
told me that Mr. Clay's self-reliance prevented him being elected
President. He would frame a bill on an important measure, introduce
it, and whip the whole Whig party into supporting it. Mr. Webster
and other great men in the party disliked coercion, and their support
would be lukewarm, when he might have had their hearty coöperation if
he had, before presenting a bill, called them to his room, shown it
to them to make suggestions, and asked their support in advance, and
made them feel that it was their bill as well as his. But no; he was
a great leader of men, and commanded them to follow. That is well in
military affairs, but in politics it creates jealousy where the leader
is not established by law. In the Senate, where acts are recorded, he
did command; in politics the vote is secret, his rivals were envious
and, at heart, indifferent to his success, and he fell from his own
greatness in the struggle for the presidency.
I recall what Gen. Jesup told me of Clay's duel with John Randolph,
of Roanoke. When Randolph called Clay "a being so brilliant and so
corrupt, only to be compared, indeed, to one thing under the skies--a
heap of rotten mackerel by moonlight, that shines and stinks," Clay
challenged him. Gen. Jesup and Dr. Hunt were Clay's seconds, and Gen.
James Hamilton and Col. Tatnell were Randolph's. Gen. Jesup carried
the cartel to Randolph, who referred him to Hamilton. The preliminaries
were arranged and the parties met on the Virginia side of the Potomac
above the bridge over the Little Falls at 4 P.M. April 8, 1826.
Randolph drove out there in his morning wrapper. Randolph declared
that he would fire in the air, against which Hamilton remonstrated in
vain. Without relating the particulars of Randolph's wearing gloves,
and how, therefrom, his pistol was prematurely discharged, I will
only observe that at the word Clay fired, the ball passing through
Randolph's wrapper without touching his person; then Randolph fired
in the air. Seeing this, Clay advanced, seized Randolph in his arms,
and exclaimed, "I hope, my dear sir, you are not hurt. What do I not
owe you?" Randolph exclaimed, "Mr. Clay, you owe me a new wrapper,"
pointing to the rent made in it by the pistol ball.
But what I wish more particularly to relate is that many years after
this, when Randolph was passing through Washington on his way to
Philadelphia, he was driven to the capitol, a sick man, and carried
into the Senate chamber and placed on a sofa. It so chanced that Clay
was then speaking, and Randolph exclaimed: "Raise me up! be quick, that
I may hear that matchless voice once more." What testimony to Clay's
eloquence![19]
Randolph was Minister to the court of St. Petersburg. He died on
reaching Philadelphia, and his last words were: "Remorse! remorse!"
Washington was the home of many eminent men, remarkable for their
integrity in the administration of their duties, purity of character,
and modest manner of living. In the army there was Gen. Scott, the
brave and successful soldier. He had a few eccentricities in regard to
language. He called a lieutenant a "leftenant;" a clerk, a "clark."
If any one failed among us youngsters to not give "guard" the letter
"u" long, he would be corrected; and as president of military boards
he would assume to be recorder, and generally wrote the proceedings
himself. The press ridiculed him for writing "sparcely settled" and
"conquering a peace," and the Democratic party harped on his "hasty
plate of soup" when he was nominated for the presidency; to such mean
tricks will a party descend.
There was Gen. Nathan Towson, who so gallantly captured the British
brig Caledonia under the guns of Fort Erie, in October, 1812, ever
a polite gentleman; and Gen. George Gibson, J. G. Totten, and T. S.
Jesup, the last twice breveted for gallant service in the battles of
Chippewa and Niagara. And I often met Col. George Croghan, noted for
gallantry in defense of Fort Sandusky, and of whom President Jackson
said, when charges of intoxication were presented to him against
Croghan, "Tear them up; Col. Croghan may _drink_ whenever he pleases;"
and Col. J. B. Walbach, who was, if my memory serves me aright, one of
the defenders of the Tuilleries when it was destroyed.
There were, of course, many naval officers at the capital, and a
jovial, good set of men they were. Commodore R. F. Stockton resigned
after the explosion of the "big" gun (the Peacemaker) on the propeller
Princeton, and soon afterwards represented the State of New Jersey in
the Senate. Lieut. Stockton was, as I was told the story, on the U.
S. ship Delaware (in the harbor of Gibraltar), commanded by Commodore
Pattison. Dining one day at a hotel on the neutral ground, among others
present were three young English officers of the garrison and a young
man, captain of a fine American ship. The three officers had indulged
freely of wine, and made some offensive remarks to the young captain,
who resented them, and I think threw his plate at their heads. When
challenged, they refused to fight him, on the ground that socially
he was not their equal. Stockton handed them his card, and exclaimed,
"I will take that gentleman's place; you cannot refuse to fight me."
He fought all three and wounded them, and then challenged all the
officers of the garrison. When the commandant of the fortress heard
of it, he called at once on Commodore Pattison and in a good-natured
way suggested to him to get his madcap officer on board ship as soon
as possible and make a few days' cruise, or he would have no officers
of the garrison left to command the guns. Pattison acknowledged the
necessity, weighed anchor, and went seaward.[20]
When John Howard Payne was Consul at Tunis, in 1841, he incurred a
debt for the repairs of a building for the consulate. The bey refused
to pay the bill, as he had formerly done to the foreign Consuls. This
claim had been pending since Payne's death, in 1842; so, in hopes
of settling the matter, Capt. Van Rensselaer Morgan was given a good
vessel and ordered by the Secretary of the Navy to proceed to Tunis
and adjust the claim if possible. Selecting his officers, he sailed
for the Mediterranean. One of his officers selected was skilled in
international law, and from the state papers made out a strong case
in favor of the United States. Capt. Morgan was a plain, unpretending
man, possessed of much common sense. On arriving at Tunis, he was
informed that the bey was at his country palace, a few miles distant.
The captain procured a carriage, and took two of his officers with him
and drove out to see his mightiness, the bey--a prince in rank.
When admitted to the audience chamber, instead of making salaams he
walked directly up to the bey and in a frank and friendly manner took
his hand and, shaking it heartily, said: "How do you do, Mr. Bey,
how do you do? Don't get up, Mr. Bey, don't get up; I will take a
seat alongside of you. I hope you are well. How are Mrs. Bey and the
children? I hope they are _all_ well. I have been a long time coming,
and I am glad to see you, Mr. Bey. We have a fine ship; you must come
and see us, Mr. Bey, do come." The Captain, after a short interview
about current events, rose to leave, and with some expression of
solicitude for the bey's health, he retired a few steps, when, suddenly
stopping, he turned to the bey, drew from his pocket a large envelope,
and remarked, "O, Mr. Bey, I forgot to hand you these papers. Here
they are. Don't read them now; you will have plenty of time to do that
before we leave."
When the Captain was on his way back to his ship, an officer of the
court, riding furiously, overtook him, rode past, and, planting his
horse in front of the carriage, stopped it, and, bowing, exclaimed: "O
howadji, the bey says that claim will be paid."[21]
A few years ago I was the guest of Commodore Morgan at the life-saving
station on Indian River, or rather on the broad Atlantic near Indian
River inlet, and I regret that I did not think to ask him to tell me
the story himself.
Society in Washington in the forties was largely Southern, and had
not lost the courtly dignity and grace of colonial days. It was quiet,
gentle, and refined, where it is now loud, boisterous, and rough in a
measure, from the power of suddenly accumulated wealth that dominates
over all the conditions of life, social and industrial. On New Year's
and other occasions we used to call on Mrs. Madison. Her face retained
marks of that beauty that has been transmitted to canvas and adorns
the East Room of the presidential mansion. I have seen her wearing a
turban.
On the 1st of April, 1853. I received a letter informing me of the
death of Joseph L. Roberts, who died on the 28th of March previous at
his residence on his plantation near Natchez, Miss., and requesting me
to come there immediately, if possible. Gen. Jesup, ever considerate
as he was, gave me leave to visit the family. Mr. Roberts had been the
cashier of the branch Bank of the United States at Norfolk, Va., then
president of the branch Bank of the United States Bank of Pennsylvania,
and at his death was the agent of the latter institution. His wife was
Miss Mary Symington, one of the beautiful women of Philadelphia.
As I had been engaged to Miss E. Matilda, their second daughter, we
were married on the 26th of April, 1853, and soon after we went to
Washington.
I remained on duty in the War Department until the spring of 1854. As
I had become tired of hotel life, and wished the quietness of a home, I
requested Gen. Jesup to assign me to some Western post, and he sent me
to Fort Smith, Ark.
The military reservation of Fort Smith is separated from the town by a
street, and the dividing line between Arkansas and the Choctaw Nation
runs through the garrison grounds. When Mrs. French crossed the street
and went into the town, I became both the commander and the garrison,
and "my right there was none to dispute."
My duties were light and were mainly receiving and forwarding supplies
to the troops stationed at Forts Washita and Gibson. Several times I
went in a light carriage to Fort Washita, through the Choctaw people,
a distance of one hundred and eighty miles, accompanied by only my
servant boy. The accommodations on the road were always clean and good
and the people kind. On one occasion my duties required me to go from
Washita to Fort Towson (eighty miles), on the Red river, to examine
the public buildings and sell them. Col. Braxton Bragg fitted me out
on a mule with a hard saddle, and I started off alone. That day I rode
forty miles to "the boggy" without seeing any person; rested at night
with an Indian family, and rode the next day to Fort Towson. I was met
there by a committee of Choctaws, wealthy men and well educated. One
of them owned slaves in number sufficient to raise three hundred bales
of cotton yearly, and "lived sumptuously every day." They went with me
to examine the buildings. It would have been folly to sell and destroy
such property, for it would bring nothing. So I recommended that it be
deeded to the Choctaws for an academy, and it was given to them.
I made a journey to Fort Gibson through the Cherokee Nation. I had been
advised to stop and take breakfast with an Indian family, for I would
there, no doubt, see two beautiful and accomplished girls, members of
the family. Report had not done them justice. There was only a delicate
shade of Indian color in the white skin. They were lithe, tall, and
graceful; and nature gave them hands as beautiful as ever Praxiteles
shaped in marble. They had lately returned from Troy, N. Y., where they
had been educated by Miss Willard. Pope's
Lo the poor Indian, whose untutored mind
Sees God in clouds, or hears him in the wind,
does not apply to the Choctaw and Cherokee Indians; many of them
are well educated. I became acquainted with John Ross, chief of the
Cherokees, in Washington, and lately sent to Mr. Clyde, of New York, a
letter from John Ross to frame and place in the saloon of his steamship
Cherokee.
Indian blood is being rapidly diffused with the blood of the white
man--a half-breed, quarter, and eighth. Fred Douglass is dead--a
mulatto. Shall we credit his intelligence to the white blood or the
negro? Suppose he had been an octoroon? What then!
Sometime during the year 1855 Col. Henry Wilson made Fort Smith his
headquarters, and with him came Lieut. J. H. Potter, adjutant of the
Seventh Infantry, who was a classmate of mine. He was a jovial, good
fellow, and a wound in his leg made it an excellent indicator of
rain, and was used to guide us on hunting expeditions. Partridges were
numerous, and during the hunting season nearly every afternoon Mrs.
French and I in a carriage, and Lieut. Potter on his pony, would ride
over the prairie and have rare sport. We had well-trained dogs and
open shooting, and time passed pleasantly on. From this dream life I
was awakened to make a visit to Natchez, Miss., on business connected
with the estate of Mr. J. L. Roberts. In company with a French planter
on the Teche, in Louisiana, whom I invited to go with me, I started
in an ambulance for Little Rock. The weather was bitterly cold, the
thermometer being ten degrees below zero. The close of the second day
brought us to the usual "stopping place," but all accommodations were
occupied by the sheriff, guards, and prisoners. The owner of the house
told me I would have to go on to Little Rock, unless Capt. ----, who
lived seven miles farther on, could be induced to let us stay overnight
with him; but that he was a misanthrope, and would see no one. The
gray, leaden sky, the biting wind, the snow that was falling in dry
pellets, and the bitter cold made our situation desperate, and induced
me to try the Captain with a little adulation.
How lonely and dreary everything was! I knocked at the door, I heard
the bolts slide, and the door was slowly opened by the Captain. I
introduced myself to him, and told him that I was informed he lived
here; that, regarding him as a Mexican veteran, I had called to pay my
respects to him; that I was present and witnessed the gallant fight his
command made with the Mexican lancers at the hacienda of Buena Vista;
that I never was so cold before in my life, except the night of the
battle of Buena Vista. He was silent till I finished. He took my hand,
and said: "Come in." He ordered the horses taken out, introduced me to
his wife, and we passed a pleasant evening before a great blazing fire.
Doubt not my word, but no one in Arkansas then believed that we entered
the portals of that door.
Learning that no steamers could reach Little Rock, we went to Duval's
Bluff, on the White river, for a boat; got on the first one that
arrived. The Captain said he was bound for Memphis, but would land us
at the mouth of the White river to get a down boat.
When near the mouth of the White river, the captain of the boat
informed me that the wharfboat at the mouth of the river had been
removed, and that he would carry us up the Mississippi until we met
a down boat, and put us on that. The wind was blowing violently, and
the river full of floating cakes of ice; and when we met a boat, so
violent was the wind, it would not answer our hail to stop, and we went
on up. In the midst of all this snow, ice, and gale the boat caught
fire in the hold, and the flames burst up the hatchways very high. The
hatches were soon covered with wet mattresses, steam driven into the
hold, cotton on deck thrown overboard, and the boat landed where the
bank was high and the water deep. Baggage and furniture were put on
shore, and fires built. Holes were bored in the hull of the boat, but
the cotton on fire could not be extinguished. About dusk the captain
announced that he would put the baggage on the boat again and run up
the river three miles to a place where he could scuttle her in shoal
water and put out the fire. All the passengers walked through the deep
snow to the landing above, except one man and his wife, the Frenchman,
and myself. It was not pleasant to be on the river in such a gale, and
with the boat deck hot from the fires beneath; and when we did land and
made fast to a wood barge, the owner, seeing we were on fire, ran out
and cut our line with his ax to send us adrift. What a punishment the
crew of the steamer gave him for cutting our line!
In time a steamer going up took us on board and carried us to Helena.
After trials innumerable, and too long to write, I reached Natchez
safely. Nothing during the late war equaled this journey in the
suffering I leave untold. I rode out to the residence of Gen. John A.
Quitman, and asked him to go on my bond. He said: "Certainly I will.
Take dinner with us, and I will then go down with you." When we reached
the clerk's office, he asked Mr. Inge, the clerk, what the amount
would be, and I think he replied about one hundred and eighty thousand
dollars. Asking for a _blank bond_, he signed it, and said: "Fill this
out when necessary with any sum required." It was a kind act, and all
he said was: "If you should have any trouble, let me know it, and I
will aid you."
Mrs. Mary S. Roberts died April 5, 1854, and it devolved on me to take
out letters of administration on the estate. I then returned to Fort
Smith and continued on duty there until March 29, when I tendered my
resignation. A reply to this letter was as follows:
ADJUTANT GENERAL'S OFFICE, }
WASHINGTON, D. C., April 24, 1856. }
_Sir_: Your letter of the 29th ult., tendering the
resignation of your commissions of first lieutenant, Third
Artillery, and captain and assistant quartermaster has been
received and laid before the Secretary of War, by whom I
am instructed to say that, as your communication appears to
have been written under an impression that your leave would
not be extended, he desires that you will state, with as
little delay as practicable, if this supposition be correct,
or whether it is your intention to leave the service in any
event. A decision upon your letter of resignation will be
deferred until you are heard from upon the subject.
I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant,
S. COOPER, _Adjutant General_.
Capt. S. G. French, Assistant Quartermaster, United States
Army, Greenville, Miss.
As I had now, among other property, a plantation on Deer Creek, near
Greenville, and over a hundred servants on it, I asked in reply that
my resignation be accepted. To this letter I received an answer: "Your
resignation has been accepted by the President of the United States to
take effect the 31st inst. [May]."
While living at Fort Smith, Ark., was born Matilda Roberts French, on
the 16th of August, 1855.
The summer of 1856 was passed mainly in Canada, and in the autumn we
returned to the plantation. In the spring of 1857 Mrs. French and her
little girl went on a visit to her sister, Mrs. John C. French, in
San Antonio, Tex., and in May following I joined her there. And here a
great sorrow crossed my path.
On the morning of June 13 Mrs. French greeted me with joy and hope,
but ere the day was passed her life ended in that sleep "that knows no
breaking." She went to the grave for her baby boy, and took him with
her. O, the irony of fate! She, the peer of the noblest, crowned by
every grace, the idol of the house, the gentle mother, the handmaiden
of charity, the priestess of religion, a believer in its promises,
bowed to His will, and left all that makes life attractive before age
or disease or disappointment or grief or sorrow had chilled her heart,
and left a smile on her face for weeping friends, when her pure spirit
rose to meet her God. Her remains rest with her babe on her breast,
beside her parents, in a vault at Laurel Hill Cemetery, Philadelphia,
Pa., where the waters of the beautiful Schuylkill gently flow by the
portals of her tomb.
I remained in San Antonio until autumn, when I returned home. In March,
1858, I embarked on the steamer Europa for Liverpool. As I leave you
my journal of travels in Europe, I shall mention only some of the
principal places visited.
Most of the traveling in Italy was in private carriage, and only in
daylight. In Naples, Rome, and Florence I remained a month each.
From London I went to Paris, Lyons, Marseilles, Toulon, Naples,
Rome, Florence, Pisa, Modena, Bologna, Mantua, Verona, Venice, Milan,
Como, Isola Madre, Isola Bella, Simplon Pass, Domo-dosola, Martigny,
Chamoni, Geneva, Bienne, Berne, Interlaken, Wingen Alps, Grindenwald,
Basle, Baden-Baden, Ulm, Munich, Salzburg, Ischl, Lintz, Danube River
to Vienna, Prague, Dresden, Berlin, Potsdam, Frankfort, Wiesbaden
down the Rhine, Cologne, Liege, Brussels, Waterloo, Paris, London,
Windsor Castle, Birmingham, Sheffield, Doncaster, Carlisle, Edinburgh,
Sterling, Callander, The Trosacks, Lake Katrine, Dunbarton, Glasgow,
Belfast, Irish Causeway, Dublin, Chester, Liverpool, home.
Soon after my return from Europe I was kindly invited by Benjamin Gould
to make him a visit in Boston. His son, N. Goddard Gould, had, as I
have stated, been my traveling companion for many months. Their home
was in Penberton Square. The family was composed of charming, refined,
cultured people, and I retain only pleasant recollections of their
kindness.
I passed the winter in San Antonio, Tex., and the summer at Rye Beach,
N. H. This year (1859) some notable events occurred that had important
bearings in shaping the history, if not the destiny, of the country.
Harriet Beecher Stowe's publication of an imaginative work, "Uncle
Tom's Cabin," Hinton Helper's pamphlet called a manifesto, and John
Brown's raid in Virginia, to raise an insurrection among the slaves
and to kill the whites, like distant thunder, presaged the coming
storm. His purposes of _murder_ were well known to many prominent
abolitionists of the North, who assisted him by contributions to obtain
arms to carry out his murderous designs. The party consisted of the old
murderer, his three sons, thirteen white men, and five negroes from
the North. They obtained possession of the armory at Harper's Ferry
October 16, killing a negro, the mayor of the town, and other citizens.
On arrival of the United States troops under Col. R. E. Lee, the armory
was captured. Some were killed in the assault, and the remainder taken
prisoners. These were tried and hung.
This infamous outrage on the State of Virginia, instead of being
condemned by the people of the North, won their admiration, sympathy,
and love for John Brown, and by some he is compared to our Saviour,
and "his soul is still marching on," without peace or rest, like
the wandering Jew--on, on--a punishment for his crimes. These events
induced an uncalled for and unjust feeling of hatred toward the South,
and the intensity of this hatred is most significantly displayed
in the _apotheosis_ of this murderer, and the _consecration_ of his
crimes. Could this be otherwise than a warning to the Southern people?
The statutes made by the Northern States for the _abolition_ of
_slavery_ never set _free_ a _living slave_. They emancipated only the
unborn. Now you can comprehend the difference between _abolition_ and
_emancipation_.
After the war began many unusual expedients were resorted to designed
to increase the wild frenzy of the people North. Among them was the
spectacle of Henry Ward Beecher selling slaves from the pulpit stage of
his Plymouth Church, Brooklyn. So noted was this exhibition that it is
related as one of the eight notable events of the nineteenth century.
I attribute this act of his to _heredity_.
CHAPTER X.
Canada, Boston, Rye Beach--Antislavery Party Nominates
Lincoln for President--His Election Evidence of Hostility
to the South--Mississippi Secedes--Gov. Pettus--Appointed
Colonel and Chief of Ordnance in the Army of the State
of Mississippi--State Had No Arms--Governor Sends an
Agent to Europe to Purchase Arms--Laboratory for Making
Ammunition--Flannel and Paper to Make Cartridges--Cartridges
and Horse Collars--Only Old Flint Muskets--Old
Shotguns--Governor Objects to the State Troops Going out
of the State--Visit Home--Am Offered the Appointment of
Brigadier General, Confederate States of America.
I spent the summer of 1860 at Rye Beach, Boston, and in Canada. When I
returned I found the animosity between the two great political parties
very bitter. Slavery, for the first time in the history of the United
States, had consolidated all the "isms" and all parties against the
South, and nominated Abraham Lincoln for the presidency, save only
the Democratic party, and that was divided. On my journey home I found
intense excitement all the way on account of a sectional nomination for
President, and the election of Lincoln was deemed an open declaration
of hostility to the people of the South, and drove them to the act
of secession. And the people of Mississippi, in convention assembled,
repealed all the laws and ordinances by which she became a member of
the Federal Union, and on January 9, 1861, she was a sovereign and
independent State.
About the middle of February I received a verbal message from the
Governor, J. J. Pettus, that he wished to see me, and soon after I
went to Jackson. The Governor informed me that I had been appointed a
lieutenant colonel and chief of ordnance in the army of the State of
Mississippi on February 12, 1861.
On assuming the duties of the office I found the State destitute of
all military supplies and without arms. Investigation showed that
a mercantile firm in New Orleans had offered, immediately after the
act of secession, to furnish arms from England or Belgium, but it was
declined.
Weeks after, the Governor sent an agent to Europe to purchase arms,
but it was too late to get any in England; but in Belgium he obtained
some muskets, and shipped them on a vessel that reached the mouth of
the Mississippi river just as the blockading ships arrived there.
Discovering the blockade, the vessel bore away for Havana, and
stored the arms there. From Havana they were afterwards brought over
and landed in small quantities. I built a powder house, and asked
permission to go to St. Louis and purchase powder, and it was refused
on the ground or belief that I would be arrested there, and that he,
the Governor, would have to arrest a person as a hostage in my place.
Afterwards I wrote to a friend in St. Louis, and obtained two hundred
kegs (I think that was the number) of powder and fifty-four sets of
artillery harness, and this was done after the town of Cairo, Ill., was
garrisoned by Gen. Grant.
I purchased _every_ yard of flannel that could be obtained in New
Orleans, Natchez, Vicksburg, and other towns for artillery cartridges,
and all the paper suitable for making cartridges for small arms, even
including wall paper, and could not get enough. I was offered by a
person whom I knew in Philadelphia a machine for molding lead balls
with die for all caliber of small arms (made for the Governor General
of Cuba) for a moderate sum, but the Governor disapproved of getting
it. Then I made arrangements to have one thousand large Colt's pistols
with holsters, etc., sent me from Philadelphia. Twenty thousand
dollars in the treasury was placed to the order of the express agent
in Jackson, payable to him on delivery of the goods. He succeeded
in getting them as far as Baltimore, and there they were seized or
stopped. This was in April.
When all arrangements were made for putting up ammunition, the
Confederate government could not send me a person that had ever seen a
cartridge made, and I had to teach the women how they were put up. The
same was true of artillery ammunition. The guns were cast in Richmond,
Va., but the carriages were made in Jackson. In making artillery
harness difficulty was experienced in procuring leather, and not one
person could be found in the State that had ever made a leather horse
collar, so dependent were the people of the South for most of the
manufactured articles in common use.
As for arms for the infantry and cavalry, we literally had none fit
for use. The flintlock muskets found in the arsenal at Baton Rouge, I
shipped from time to time to my merchant, Walter Cox, in New Orleans,
who employed a gunsmith to alter them to percussion lock; and caps
for the guns came in small quantities smuggled over the line from
Tennessee. However, as fast as possible the organized companies were
supplied with arms such as we had and very good ammunition, and went to
their homes to await orders.
When the supply of arms was exhausted I was directed by the Army
Board to issue an order for the purchase of shotguns, with which the
Governor was bent on arming the troops. He would "o' nights" come to
my room and tell me long yarns about how his father, or grandfather,
once with a party armed with shotguns loaded with buckshot waylaid
a band of Indians, and killed them all. Elated with this legendary
story, he wanted _his_ army to be supplied with shotguns, so that he
might annihilate the pestiferous Yankees, should they invade _his_
domain. Gens. Alcorn, Dahlgreen, and O'Farrel were to superintend the
collection of these deadly shotguns in their respective departments,
and I was ordered to write out instructions for their guidance. Now,
lest we should be burdened with a lot of worthless arms, they were
informed that it was not expected they would purchase the costly
shotguns at high figures, nor were they to buy guns made of "two-penny
skip iron," nor "sham-dam barrels," cast-iron barrels, etc.
Alas! when these guns began to arrive the god of war never beheld such
a wonderful collection of antique weapons as came in for the Governor.
There were guns with only a vent, to be fired with a live coal, guns
without ramrods, barrels without stocks, stocks without barrels, guns
without cocks, cocks without pans. One gun, I remember, consisted of a
barrel that flared out at the muzzle like a bell nailed on a crooked
cypress rail, without cock, having only a pan and vent, requiring
one man to hold it and another to "touch it off." It was a valuable
collection for an antiquarian, but useless in war. I am particular in
describing this remarkable collection of arms, because I never saw any
of the arms sent South by Secretary J. B. Floyd, and I don't want any
Northern writer to accuse him of having sent these shotguns privately
to aid "rebellion." A _private_ and _confidential report_ of all the
arms found in the various arsenals, and all arms in the possession of
the Confederate States, was sent me by the Chief of Ordnance of the
Confederate government. It showed a beggarly array of trash not unlike
Pettus's collection turned over for me to issue to his troops, to
ambush the Yankees should they invade his territory.
I must here, as a contribution to war history, say a few words about
the Governor's _grand strategy_. Several companies of Mississippi
troops crossed out of his State, and went to the front in Tennessee,
and were received by the Confederate army then with Gen. G. J. Pillow
to hold the enemy in check. For some offense a few of them were put
in the guardhouse. They made their escape, and came to Jackson. The
Governor, Wiley P. Harris, and myself were in his office, when two
long-haired men came in, and asked for his excellency. "I am the
Governor," was the reply. They told him how they had been put in the
guardhouse, etc., and his reply was: "Go back to your company, and
tell Gen. Pillow that, notwithstanding you have been mustered into the
Confederate service, you are by fiction of law supposed to be in the
State of Mississippi, and still in my command, and not subject to his
orders," etc.
On another occasion Capt. Manlove had organized a company, and by
purchase or otherwise had armed it with the Mississippi rifles. When
the Governor learned that they contemplated going to Richmond, he
told me to issue an order requiring them to turn in their arms. Capt.
Manlove came over to see me about it. He was informed that it was
an order of the Governor, and would have to be obeyed. After dinner
he asked me privately what I would do if I were in his place. I told
him I could not advise him, yet he could go home at once, muster his
company, get on the night train, and in the morning be beyond his
jurisdiction. He did this; but when the Governor learned that they had
passed through the city during the night, he telegraphed Gen. Charles
Clark, at Iuka, to stop the company and disarm them, which he refused
to do. Capt. Sweet had an artillery company in Vicksburg with four
guns, horses, and ammunition, complete for the field. He came over to
see me lest his guns be taken, and in a few days after he was reported
to be in Tennessee in front of the enemy. And so very properly the
army of Mississippi became less and less, by the troops themselves
going quietly to the front or by his sending or loaning troops for
Pensacola and Tennessee, etc. I have no desire to make any reflections
on the Governor, except to point out how his war policy would have
been ruinous to the Confederate cause, had he been permitted to invite
the enemy to invade the "sacred soil of Mississippi" to gratify his
desire to ambush them and kill them with shotguns. This opportunity was
afforded him in 1863.
By the latter part of August most of the Mississippi troops were in the
Confederate army, and I had worked up and issued all the war material
that could be obtained, and was comparatively idle.
In October I made a visit home in Greenville, and one night the
servant came in with the mail. I opened the letters and read them,
but among them was a yellow envelope from Greenville that I did
not open, supposing it to be a bill, and turned my attention to the
papers. When mother and sister rose to retire, I opened this envelope,
and behold! it was a dispatch from the President, saying: "Will you
accept an appointment of brigadier general? Answer." And the question
then was, what should I do? Should I raise a company of cavalry or
accept this appointment? They advised me to accept. Ten days after, I
telegraphed the President accepting the appointment. During that time
I was in Jackson closing my ordnance accounts. Why I did not accept
the appointment at once I cannot understand now, unless it was so
unexpected that I took time to reflect the matter over. The date of
the appointment was October 23, 1861. I had been appointed a major of
artillery in the _regular_ army of the Confederacy April 2, 1861.
CHAPTER XI.
Leave for Richmond--Ordered to Evansport, Va., to Blockade
the Potomac--Worthless Ammunition--Forces on the Maryland
Shore--Constant Firing All Winter--Orders to Fall Back to
Fredericksburg--"Come to Richmond Immediately"--Orders from
Gen. Lee--New Berne Falls--Relieve Branch at Kinston--Ordered
to Wilmington--Build Defenses--Fort Fisher Constructed--Col.
William Lamb in Command--Running the Blockade--Whitworth
Guns--July 17, 1862, Placed in Command of the Department
of North Carolina and Southern Virginia--Defend a Line
from the Appomattox to Cape Fear--July 31, Shell Gen.
McClellan's Army--Constructed Defenses of Petersburg--Battle
of Fredericksburg--Pelham--President Calls for Me--Gen.
Lee's Considerate Conduct--Gen. Foster at Tarboro, N. C.--He
Interviews an Old Darky--Railroad Bridge at Goldsboro,
N. C., Burned--Weak Defense Made--How I Got Supplies
from Suffolk--Mrs. Johnston and Gen. Viele--Was Fannie
Cooper a Spy?--Martial Law--Sidney Lanier--Flag of Truce
Boats--Exchange of Prisoners.
In obedience to orders received, I went to Richmond in November.
I called on the President, and then reported to the War Department
for duty. Secretary Benjamin told me that he would put me on duty
at Norfolk; but for some reason, when the order came, I was directed
to relieve Gen. Trimble and take command of the troops at Evansport
and the batteries there, and blockade the Potomac river to prevent
communications with Washington City by water.
[Illustration: JEFFERSON DAVIS.]
An earthwork at the mouth of the Quantico had been constructed, and
contained nine or ten nine-inch Dahlgren guns. To these I added five
or six heavy guns. These latter guns were far apart, and mounted
in circular pits sunk in the earth. Thus isolated, they commanded
the river afar, both up and down, and no concentrated fire could be
made on them all at the same time. One was a large English Armstrong
rifled gun. The infantry force was composed of the regiments of Cols.
Brockinbrough, Virginia; J. J. Pettigrew, North Carolina; W. B. Bate,
Tennessee; Col. J. J. Judge, Alabama; Col. Thomas, Georgia; Walker,
Arkansas; Fagan, Arkansas; Bronough's battalion, Arkansas; Col. Snowden
Andrews's battery of field artillery, Maryland; and Capt. Swann's
company of cavalry. Capt. Chatard, Capt. McCorkle, Lieuts. Simms and
Wood, C. S. navy, were given command of some of the land batteries and
the steamer Page. On the Maryland shore opposite us were the brigades
of Gens. Hooker and Sickles, and some water batteries of Parrott guns:
and above several ships of war were blockaded, and below such ships of
war as came up from time to time. With this force the river was closed
to navigation; and as Lord Lyons, the British minister, remarked in one
of his dispatches, "Washington is the only city in the United States
that is really blockaded."
The ammunition found in the magazine for the large guns was very
indifferent. The powder was a mixture of blasting with rifle powder.
Sometimes the Armstrong gun, at the same elevation, would not throw
a shell more than halfway across the river; then again far over the
river.
During the whole winter, notwithstanding a great deal of shelling from
the steamers below us and the opposite batteries, nothing of importance
occurred. It was only the thunder of big guns.
I think it was on the 5th of March that I received, confidentially,
verbal orders to remove all stores to Fredericksburg, and to be
prepared to fall back on the 8th inst. All property was removed except
the heavy guns. Some of them were thrown into the Potomac, and the
remainder spiked and the carriages destroyed. On the 8th the troops in
my command were on the road to Fredericksburg. On the night of the 13th
a telegram was handed me, saying: "Come to Richmond immediately." I
reached that city early next day. Calling on the President, he told me
that I must go at once to New Berne, N. C., and relieve Gen. L. O. B.
Branch, take command of the forces there, and call at Gen. R. E. Lee's
office for instructions. I found Gen. Lee at his home, and he said: "I
want you to go to New Berne, and drive Burnside away from there when
he attacks the place. When can you go?" I said by the first train,
requesting him to have my staff and horses sent me as soon as possible.
The train was to leave in the afternoon. Next came a message from the
President, telling me that he wished me to call at once. I did so, and
he then informed me that he had just received a dispatch that New Berne
had fallen, but that I must go down and assume command.
I found Gen. Branch at Kinston. He received me very cordially, and
offered to aid me. I disliked to hand him the orders, because they
were written before they knew the battle had been fought. I made an
inspection of the troops, and found them cheerful and seemingly not
at all discouraged by their defeat. This was on the 17th. On the 20th
I received a dispatch ordering me to Wilmington, as there was some
apprehension of that place being attacked, and I went there without
delay. Gen. Joseph R. Anderson succeeded to the command at Kinston.
On arriving at Wilmington, the first duty was the immediate examination
of the defenses at the mouth of the Cape Fear river. Fort Caswell was
in fair condition for defense, and any vessels passing it would meet
river obstructions while under short range of the guns. Fort Fisher was
a small unfinished work, consisting of a casemate battery _fronting
the ocean_, and a line of works, nearly at right angles with this,
that ran back inland. This latter line constituted the land seaside
defense, while the guns also commanded the channel and the entrance
thereto. This face I continued inland to the edge of the marsh, making
it perhaps a third of a mile in length. From my assuming command in
March until I was ordered to Petersburg in July I gave this fort much
care, and kept a large force at work. Commencing at the right of the
casemate battery, I caused a line of revetment to be put up, extending
parallel with the ocean, a distance of perhaps half a mile; knowing the
winds would blow the sands up and make a glacis in front; and so the
windstorms blew thousands of tons of sand, forming a smooth slope to
the seashore. From this front we constructed a line back to the marsh,
and thence up to the line running back from the casemate. It was an
enormous work, and its garrison should not have been less than three
thousand men. Outside the sea front, near the ocean, I sunk a pit, as
deep as admissible, and mounted the largest of the Tredegar guns, that
swept the horizon in every direction.
Maj. Kendrick was in command of Fort Fisher for some time. I believe
it was at his own request that he was relieved, and I put Col. William
Lamb in command in his place, and he remained there until it was
captured, January 15, 1865. I mention this because it is a part of the
history of the fort.
There were many incidents connected with Fort Fisher whilst in my
command at Wilmington. I had constructed a telegraph from Wilmington
to Fort Fisher. One morning early I received a telegram stating that
a "blockade steamer" had been run ashore near the fort, designedly,
because she was fired on by the blockading ships and had much powder on
board, and that a messenger had reached the fort, asking the commander
to sink his steamer to _save the powder_, and asking me for orders.
However, before he got my reply to "not fire a shot at the steamer," a
shot was fired at her from Fort Fisher, and, striking below the water
line, she gradually filled. All the shells of the enemy fell short. We
took charge of the abandoned steamer, and sent two lines from her to
the shore, and with the labor of two hundred men removed all the cargo
to the depth of six feet in the water. The brandy, whisky, ale, powder,
medicines, and above all six Whitworth field guns, were landed. Two
of these guns were kept at Fort Fisher. As their range was about six
miles, I instructed Col. Lamb to select good men for them, and practice
with them inland, so as not to let the enemy know the range. When this
was done, one bright day when all was quiet, and the lazy blockaders
were lying at anchor about three miles off the fort, these two guns
opened on them, creating a lively scene. Black smoke began to stream
up from the smokestacks of the steamers; sails were thrown to the wind
from the ships in all haste, and the squadron went seaward. When they
returned, they anchored out of range, and from this time on I requested
all blockade runners (steamers) on arriving to make the mouth of the
channel at dawn and run in by daylight out of reach of the enemy's
guns.
Soon after this another steamer came in from Nassau, and Capt.
McCorkle, of the navy, and I got into a yawl with two sailors and
went out to meet her. We found a young "my lord" from England, who
had run the blockade to carry a "free lance" and have some "fun"
with the Yankees. He had been pent up on shipboard and was full of
life, and asked us to take him ashore in our boat. When we shoved
off, he insisted on taking one of the oars for mere relief to the
exuberance of life. We had almost three miles to row, and McCorkle,
as boatswain, managed the rudder so as to give him an opportunity to
display his strength. When he began to weaken, McCorkle would cry out,
"Give way, my lord," to encourage him. When we reached camp, he was
not so restless; but he was a jolly good fellow, and I hope he had an
opportunity given him to gratify his inclination to fight.
My volunteer aid, Baker, was given a month's leave. He obtained a small
boat and loaded her with nine bales of cotton, and, with only a small
boy to tend the jib sail, put out for Nassau, reached port safely, and
sold the boat and cargo. He returned on a vessel that ran the blockade
at Charleston, and brought me a "pith" India hat, gloves, kid gaiter
shoes, and other acceptable articles. With him on the steamer came
a distinguished officer, carrying a saber as large as the sword of
Wallace, who was "spoiling" for a fight, as he expressed it at a dinner
given him by some of the officers in Charleston. He was a genuine, good
soldier, entered our service, and often distinguished himself while
chief of staff for Gen. J. E. B. Stuart.
I was kept very busy during my stay in Wilmington in constructing
defensive works. I _fortified the city of Wilmington_; put up, or
mounted, isolated guns on the bluff banks of the river, and otherwise
defended the city from the approach from seaward.
And now were "fought the fights" around Richmond, and I was down here
digging dirt without much honor or renown, and when they terminated an
order came, July 17, placing me in command of the Department of North
Carolina and Southern Virginia. Gen. W. H. C. Whiting was given the
command of the defenses of Wilmington, and I was requested to name
certain counties around the city to give him a separate command. He
continued there until Fort Fisher was captured, as stated, on January
15, 1865. Although it was subjected to a terrific bombardment, the
report shows that out of forty-seven heavy mounted guns twenty-five of
them and their carriages were serviceable when captured. How difficult
it is to destroy sand forts!
Fort Sumter, with its walls crumbled into dust by four years of
bombardment, never was captured, and its defense stands _alone_,
unparalleled in the history of the world, and before which all others
pale. See Jollification Order, Vol. L., No. 106, page 1143, "War
Records," when information was sent to the United States troops that
the Confederates had left the fort.
Occasionally some war steamers would come near enough to throw shells
into Fort Fisher, but they did very little damage.
The main annoyance was the reports given out that every large naval
expedition was designed for Wilmington. On one of these occasions a
company of volunteers, mainly _lawyers and the like_, most elegant men,
arrived in Wilmington from Fayetteville and tendered their services
to defend Fort Fisher. Although I had learned the destination of the
fleet was not the Cape Fear river, I accepted their services, sent
them to Fort Fisher, and put them to work with wheelbarrows and shovels
to build ramparts. It went hard with them at first, but after a while
they considered it as being a rather good offer too prolonged. Their
complexions were soon tanned, their hands blistered. They, however,
made the time pass away merrily, worked hard, slept well, improved in
health, and when their time expired Capt. Devereux and his companions
thanked me for the opportunity given them to fight for the cause, and
making the fort impregnable, as they expressed it. They enjoyed working
because they were men of character.
The battles around Richmond had been fought, and Gen. McClellan driven
to seek shelter at Harrison's Landing, on the James river, under cover
of the heavy guns of the navy. Gen. R. E. Lee's army rested around
Richmond. My line of defense commenced on the James near Drewry's
Bluff, thence down the James, down the Blackwater, thence on to the
mouth of the Cape Fear river, over three hundred miles in length, with
the enemy at intervals along the front at Norfolk, Suffolk, Washington,
Plymouth, New Berne, and other places, constantly threatening and
making raids. It was imposing on me unceasing labor and a grave
responsibility; and I will here remark, once for all, that during
my command of this department, although Smith, Hill, and Longstreet
were temporarily in command, at intervals, they did not remain in the
department any length of time, or interfere with the defense.
Sometime toward the last of July Gen. D. H. Hill, who had no command,
came over from Richmond, and as no defensive works had been constructed
for Petersburg, the matter was mentioned, and it resulted in our riding
out and selecting a point on the Appomattox river to start from; and
we determined on the line to the City Point railroad, thence on by the
farms of Hare, Friends, and Dunns. And as I may not refer to it again,
I will state I went to work with my troops, and, staking out the line,
_constructed the entire works around the city_, crossing the Jerusalem
pike and on to the lead works on the P. and W. railroad. It took one
year to build this line, and it served a good purpose in the end, and
gave one year of life to the Confederacy.
On the evening of July 28 Gen. Hill handed me a letter from Gen. Lee
stating that he would send over to Petersburg the next day Gen. W. D.
Pendleton, his chief of artillery, with six batteries. To these other
batteries could be added as desired, the whole to go down to Coggins's
Point, on the James, and attack, at night, the shipping and camp of
the Federal army at Harrison's Landing, on the opposite shore; and
that I should command the expedition, etc. Accordingly I increased the
number of guns to seventy-five, and designated Gen. Daniel's brigade as
the escort. We started on the morning of the 30th, intending to make
the attack that night. The forces were halted in the woods. I then
rode down with Gen. Pendleton to the dwelling of Mr. Ruffin, on the
river, to reconnoiter the grounds and select positions for the guns. At
Ruffin's I took off my coat, put on a straw hat, hoisted an umbrella,
and in the seeming garb of a farmer examined the shore, rode down to
the river and watered my horse near a war steamer. After going down a
half mile I returned. It was then growing late, and we started back.
To my astonishment, in the darkness, I met the artillery moving toward
the river. As not one captain had any idea of the ground, every gun
was ordered back, and such trouble to encamp, by reason of the intense
darkness, seldom occurs. Gen. Hill, who was in camp, said we would "be
_discovered next day_," and he returned to Petersburg. The next morning
the captains of the batteries were instructed to go through the clover
fields to the river bank and select positions for their guns. This was
done without attracting the notice of the enemy, or the hundreds of
vessels in the stream.
As the day closed a drizzling mist made the darkness _thick_. Like the
interior of the Mammoth Cave, it could be felt, but not seen. However
forty-five guns were put in position, exclusive of the two long Parrott
guns captured at Manassas. Amidst such darkness what a beautiful sight
was before us! Ten thousand lights from the shipping and the camp shone
the brighter from some reflection of the darkness that should have
obscured them. At midnight the battery on the right was to open fire,
to be followed in quick succession along the line, and in a minute
it was a continuous fire. Soon the lights were all extinguished, save
one or two on some lone craft in the river. When the firing commenced
all the monitors and other war vessels moved up the river to meet the
_ironclad_ built in Richmond that was reported to be ready to come down
the river, and so we were not subjected to any fire except from one
gunboat, and from some Whitworth guns that sent bolts, whistling like
birds, high over our heads. As the day dawned the guns were withdrawn
and we returned to Petersburg. The report of Gen. Pendleton and my own
can be found in the war records. There were no casualties on our side.
It was real amusement.
Officers of the Union army, years after, gave me accounts of the
wild confusion in their camps. Unexpected as a midnight earthquake
it burst upon the slumbering army. Horses and mules broke loose and
ran affrighted over the grounds, stumbling over tent cords. Captains
shouted everywhere for men to fall in line. The blue was here and
there mingled with midnight summer's sleeping uniforms of white
indescribables, airy and cool, that were seen only by the light of
bursting shells. Gen. Alfred Pleasanton told me he could find nothing
in his tent to put on, except now and then by the light of the shells,
and my good friend, Gen. Rufus Ingalls, in the first letter he wrote me
after the surrender, said: "You don't know, dear Sam, how near you came
killing me that night, which, had it happened, would have been a great
sorrow to you." I was informed that a war correspondent wrote a letter
severely criticising Gen. McClellan's inability with eighty thousand
men to offer any resistance to this attack, that was successfully used,
with other charges, by his enemies to have him relieved from command of
the Army of the Potomac. McClellan, perhaps mortified that his position
was shelled without being able to make any defense, treated the matter
very lightly in his reports. He had not taken the precaution to place
any guns on the river bank, and the intense darkness prevented moving
artillery through his camp. Besides, he could not use guns, as the
ships and vessels of every kind lined the river shore and were in the
way.
Gen. Lee directed me to have my scouts watch McClellan's movements
closely, especially movements of the shipping down the James. In time
I reported the departure of the transports, and the crossing of the
Chickahominy with the infantry. Soon after followed the battles of
Cedar Run, August 9; the second Manassas, September 2, where Pope met
his reward; then Fredericksburg, December 13, where the vain Burnside
was defeated.
There is an incident connected with this last battle that I will
here relate, although it has been published in a magazine called the
_Confederate Veteran_. The Federal army had crossed the Rappahannock
river and formed in line of battle to attack the Confederate army
on the heights beyond. Maj. Pelham commanded a battery belonging to
Stuart's cavalry, away on our right flank, in age a youth, in character
a hero. When the Federal line commenced to advance, in full view of
friends and foe, in the silence that often precedes a great battle,
Pelham, with a piece of artillery, dashed forward between the two
armies, halted, a puff of smoke, a shell burst over the Federal line,
and in a moment the fire of twenty batteries centered on that lone gun;
and there, amidst shrieking shot and bursting shell, flame and smoke,
that detachment of Frenchmen worked their gun and stayed the battle
near an hour, all the while singing the "Marseillais," which was now
and then heard for a moment, borne by the fitful breeze, in the break
of an almost continuous roar of artillery. France and glory evermore
abides in the hearts of Frenchmen. Macaulay, in his lays of ancient
Rome, tells in song the story of Horatius and his two friends defending
the bridge over old Tiber against the hosts of Lars Porsena, and here
is a deed of modern date that rivals that of old, and some day it will
be a theme of inspiration for a poet. A boy, one gun, eight Frenchmen
holding in check so long eighty thousand men!
Sometime in November, I think it was, I received a dispatch from the
President to come over to Richmond. On calling at the President's
house I found Gen. Lee there. The General asked me what was the least
number of troops I would require, for a short time, to hold my line.
Reflecting awhile, I said about six thousand. His reply was: "That is
reasonable. When you return order all above that number to report to
me." Now I write this as an illustration of the delicate consideration
Gen. Lee had for the officers under him. He could have ordered from
the department such troops as he desired, without seeing me, but he was
ever a gentleman, and considerate to every one.
I have not the date, my papers having been turned over to my successor,
but it was during the winter of 1862-63 that Gen. Foster made a raid
from New Berne up to near Tarboro, N. C., and as soon as I could
ascertain his designs and objective point I began to concentrate troops
to meet him. I assembled about eight thousand troops at Tarboro. Foster
was at a village about twelve miles distant. During the afternoon he
marched on one road toward Tarboro, and I moved on another to meet
him, and on the road that he was reported to be on. When night came we
were near each other on different roads, and preparations were made for
battle. In the morning Foster was far away on his road to New Berne. It
was cold, and snow covered the ground, and pursuit was useless except
by cavalry. There was brought to me an old negro slave who was with
Foster during that night, and the following was his story:
Well, master, I will tell you how it was. You see I was going
from Tarboro out on that road unbeknownst that the Yankees
was there. Well, for sure, some of dem Yankees on horseback
cried, "Stop dar," and asked me, "Where you live, and where
you goin'?" I told how it was, and they said, "Come along,
old man," and they took me to the ginneral. He was in a house
sitting on a sofa, and he says to me, "Are you from Tarboro?"
and I said, "Yes, master;" and then he says, "Take a seat
here." So I sot down just this way. He was on this side of
me, and I was, as it might be, on tother side of him. He
looked kind to me, and says to me: "You know we are friends
of the colored people, and so you must tell me de truth."
Then he says: "Mose [for I had done told him my name], Mose,
are there many soldiers in Tarboro?" I told him there was in
de morning more men than I had ever seen in my life, and I
tells him where they went to. Then he asks me: "Mose, have
they much cabalry?" "Cabalry? what you mean by dat?" "Have
they many men on horses?" And I says: "Bless your soul,
master, I neber have seen as many blackbirds in de cornfields
as dey have horses thar; everywhere you go you see dem men on
horses." "Have they many guns?" "Sure, ebery man hab a gun."
"You don't understand me, Mose," says he; "have they many
cannon on wheels?" Then I ups and tells how when dem cannon
went out of town I sot on de ground on my knees in a joint
of fence in a cornfield on tother side de road and looks
through de rails and counts them, and dar war, for sure,
just sixty-four of dem. Next he asked me what ginnerals were
there, and I told him I ain't particlarly 'quainted with dem,
but that I had heard tell of Ginneral Martin there, who had
but one arm. Then, after thinking for some time, he called a
man and told him to take care of me and not let me get away.
Soon they beat de drums and blowed de horns, and they all got
ready and was going back, and in the big crowd I slips out,
and, bless the Lord, I am home here with de ole woman and
children.
Whether Foster was influenced by the information he got from old Mose,
I know not, but such was the old negro's story as he related it to me
the next day, as I remember it.
I am quite sure vandalism (especially stealing) commenced in New
Berne, for the pianos and furniture shipped from there decorate to-day
many a Northern home. At Hamilton most of the dwellings had been
entered, mirrors broken, furniture smashed, doors torn from their
hinges, and especially were the feather beds emptied in the streets,
spokes of carriage wheels broken, and cows shot in the fields by the
roadside, etc. It was a pitiful sight to see the women and children
in their destitute condition. Alas! toward the end it was an everyday
occurrence, and the main object of small expeditions was to steal
private property.
Pretty early in December a lady correspondent, outside of New Berne,
informed me that it was reported that the troops in the town were to
move out and attack Wilmington, or destroy the railroad to that place.
I kept Gen. G. W. Smith, in Richmond, whose command embraced the State
of North Carolina, advised of the information received, and he went
through Petersburg, stopping to see me, and then went on to Goldsboro,
N. C., to await developments.
My diary says:
Left Petersburg December 15, in the evening train for Weldon.
From there ordered the horses and equipments by land road to
Goldsboro. Also, by command of Gen. G. W. Smith, I ordered
Col. Martin's regiment to Goldsboro. I left in Petersburg,
awaiting transportation, the Mississippi regiments and some
of Daniel's Brigade and Bradford's Artillery. Leaving Weldon,
I proceeded to Goldsboro, and arrived there at 7:30 A.M. on
the 16th, and took the train to Kinston. Reached Mosely Hall
about 10 A.M. Found Gen. Evans there. At this time there
was heard heavy firing at the Whitehall bridge over the
Neuse river. The firing increasing rapidly, I sent to Gen.
Robertson Col. Burguin's regiment, and Gen. Pettigrew to
take command if it should prove to be a determined attempt
to cross the river, which I doubted. This regiment did not
reach there in time to render any material assistance. The
troops engaged were Leventhorpe's Eleventh North Carolina, a
part of Feribee's and Evans's Brigades, Jordan's Thirty-First
North Carolina, and two pieces of artillery. A battery I sent
did not reach there until the fight was over. In this affair
we lost about thirty killed and wounded. We had about five
hundred men engaged, and the enemy four regiments and fifteen
pieces of artillery, and their loss, from inferior position,
must have been about one hundred.
Being satisfied that the attempt to cross or to put down a
pontoon bridge was frustrated, if seriously contemplated,
and that the objective point was Goldsboro and the railroad
bridge there, I ordered Col. Rodgers up from Kinston, who
had been there all day in possession of the town, and sent
him and Evans's Brigade forward to Goldsboro in haste, and
informed Gen. Smith that the enemy was moving up the river;
and made every effort to get our force to Goldsboro. Gen.
Pettigrew moved with Burguin's and Leventhorpe's regiments
for that point, leaving a strong force and two guns at
Whitehall. The train that took Rodgers did not return until
about 4 A.M., and left soon after with troops. Seeing them
off, I started on horseback with staff and rode to Goldsboro,
and reached there at 9 A.M. and reported to Gen. Smith.
The guard that was left at Mosely Hall was directed to take
an account of the cotton burned there, and to save the rope
and bagging.
When I reached the depot near Bear Creek I there found
Burguin's regiment and a down train. It brought me an order
from Gen. Smith to leave Gen. Robertson in command of the
troops at Whitehall and Spring Bank bridges to hold them.
Gen. Martin was left in command at Mosely Hall. I have since
learned that the enemy left eighty men unburied at Whitehall.
They removed the wounded. Seventy stand of arms were
collected. During this time Gen. Clingman, with his brigade,
was on the right bank of the river.
When Col. Rodgers was ordered from Kinston I directed that
the command of Wallace should proceed direct to Goldsboro
from Greenville, and not stop at Kinston to support Col.
Rodgers, as he had been ordered away.
In consequence of the movements made, as has been stated,
the condition of matters on the morning of the 17th,
was as follows: Clingman was over the river on the right
bank with his brigade (Cantrell's, Shaw's, and Marshall's
regiments) and some artillery; Evans, with his brigade and
the Mississippi troops, in the town; Rodgers, near by; and
Burguin, _en route_, near at hand. When I reached the town
and reported to Gen. Smith he told me he had ordered, early
in the morning, Gens. Evans and Clingman to make an armed
reconnoissance on the other side of the river. For some
reason, not known to me, it never moved or got off until the
enemy attacked the bridge.
About 2:30 P.M. I was informed that the enemy was advancing
on the Goldsboro bridge (the railroad bridge over the Neuse),
and the cannon were heard in the distance. Pettigrew started
to join Clingman on the other side of the river. Smith sent
for me to come to his office. I remained with him about an
hour, urging forward troops. Gen. Smith then went to the
hotel, for his sword, coat, etc. When he returned I picked
up my saber and said: "If you have no particular use for
me here, I shall go down to the field." To this he replied:
"Very well."
Riding down I overtook the Hon. W. Dortch, Confederate States
Senator, and Gov. Z. Vance. They wished to show me some fords
in the river. I found Pettigrew examining them also. I then
galloped on for the field, and found Gen. Smith there. He
had passed by while we were locating the fords. On arriving
on the field I found most of our troops in the edge of the
woods. I moved them across the field to the railroad, which
afforded some protection. The enemy were drawn up in line
on some rising ground somewhat obliquely to the railroad.
Their right was about seven hundred yards distant, and
the left four hundred. There was really but little firing
except artillery, and that was at the one gun we brought
on the field. Evans, on our left, ordered a charge over the
open field toward a battery. The regiment making the charge
suffered considerably from canister shot, and as soon as
possible I recalled it. It soon became dark, both lines
maintaining their positions. Smith now came over to the left,
and called Evans, Pettigrew, and me, with Stevens, engineer,
to consult or counsel with him on the question of remaining
or withdrawing. All but Evans favored crossing back to camp.
The diary is too full of detail to quote. We recrossed because
the weather was intensely cold, and the troops had no blankets or
provisions, and would be unfit for service if they remained there. Next
morning Foster was on his return to New Berne. Had Smith seen to it
that Evans had crossed over, and with Clingman's Brigade and his own
moved as directed, the bridge could not have been burned, as it was, by
a party of six men. Reports said Foster had eighteen thousand men and
eighteen pieces of artillery; we had nine thousand, with nearly twenty
pieces of artillery. The whole matter was probably a demonstration
in favor of Burnside at Fredericksburg. Our troops were not properly
handled at Goldsboro.
From Goldsboro I returned to Petersburg on the 24th. On January
5, 1863, I left Petersburg for Weldon on account of information of
an apprehended attack on Wilmington. The next day Gen. G. W. Smith
arrived, and then went on to Goldsboro. On the 16th I joined Gen. Smith
at Goldsboro. Owing to information received on the 20th, I ordered
Cook's Brigade to near South Washington, Ransom's to Kenonsville,
and Pettigrew's intermediate, to support either. In the evening Smith
went to Wilmington. On the 27th I received information that Gen. Smith
had been ordered to Richmond, and a dispatch came for me from the War
Department to repair to Goldsboro and assume command of all the troops.
On the 3d of February I received orders to send reinforcements to
Wilmington. I sent Evans's Brigade there. Orders also came to convene
a court of inquiry on Gen. Evans. On the 8th forces were sent from
Wilmington to Charleston, and on the 18th I examined the works around
the city of Wilmington that I had constructed a year ago, and the next
day visited the forts, Fisher, Caswell, etc. I returned to Petersburg
on the 23d. Gen. D. H. Hill, having no troops, was put in command
of those in North Carolina, leaving me Southern Virginia. I found in
Petersburg Lieut. Gen. Longstreet.
In the summer of 1862 an estimable clergyman came to me and spoke of an
opportunity of obtaining some supplies for the troops from Norfolk. I
believed it feasible, and referred him to my chief quartermaster, Maj.
J. B. Moray. It speedily was put into operation, and the plan was very
simple. An Englishman, living some miles from Suffolk, having charge
of or owning an estate on which he lived, had permission to pass the
lines at will, and had a permit to purchase supplies for his place.
Under this permit he procured for the reverend gentleman large supplies
of sugar, coffee, clothes, shoes, medicines, surgical instruments,
saddler's tools, bacon, etc. One day at Weldon, or Halifax, a trunk was
sent to headquarters through this channel containing some coffee and
the most costly pair of boots I have ever worn. The foot was calfskin
and the tops of morocco, and came above the knee. They were worn long
after the war ended. Who sent them I do not know. The only trouble I
gave to this matter of obtaining supplies was to place a respectable
and permanent guard that could be trusted, to let the boats land with
the supplies.[22] When I went to Petersburg the ladies were somewhat
"slipshod," for no ladies' shoes, toothbrushes, pins, needles, or
materials for dresses were for sale. Through respectable men "running
the blockade," I had the town supplied. All that I required of these
men was that they should bring a few necessary articles for the
government, then as much as they wished for sale, but the invoice must
be submitted to the quartermaster to see if there were any other things
useful for the army.
There was a large, tall woman named Johnston by whom hundreds of
letters, with money in them, were sent by soldiers to their families in
that part of Virginia, and in return she brought letters to Confederate
soldiers. I detailed an intelligent man to read all letters going out
and returning by the blockade runners; all letters, too, going _north_
by, or received from, the flag of truce boats were examined before
being delivered to the persons addressed. Only a few of these letters
were referred to me. I never doubted Mrs. Johnston's integrity, but
some of my staff endeavored to have me believe she was a spy on both
sides. She always told me the truth about the enemy, for I could see it
corroborated by the testimony of others. One time she was gone about
six weeks, then returned and said Gen. Vielè had put a guard over her
house in Norfolk and kept her a prisoner. When some years afterwards
I met Gen. Vielè in New York he told me he could do nothing with her,
she defied him, and he kept her at home that while. She gave him no
truthful information, but was faithful in her reports to us.
There was a girl living in Norfolk that wanted to cross the lines and
go to Richmond. Three prominent citizens, separately, informed me that
she was a spy. Gen. J. J. Pettigrew, on the Blackwater, received like
information, and asked me for instructions. I wrote: "Let her come, but
send an officer to watch her." She arrived by train, in company with
a "roach-backed" looking woman with a child in her arms, and went to
the hotel. I directed the city marshal to arrest her if she attempt to
leave for Richmond, and he arrested her at the Richmond depot the next
morning and brought her to me. She swore she was a true woman to the
Confederacy, that she had a brother in the service. I asked her how she
left Suffolk. She declared she passed the Federal lines with the woman
now with her, who had a pass for two persons, that she brought the
woman and child along with her lest the woman should be imprisoned for
aiding her over the line of pickets, etc. Then I read to her several
letters informing me "Fannie Cooper left this morning in a carriage
with a Yankee officer to go to Richmond." She denied it all. I told her
she would have to go to Salisbury a prisoner until I could inquire into
her case further. She begged not to be imprisoned there, so I sent her
back to Gen. Pettigrew, commanding on the Blackwater, to have her sent
back to her home. Now, during the siege of Suffolk, many persons told
me that "she did go out of Suffolk in the carriage with an officer,"
etc. In 1866 she wrote me a letter declaring all I heard about her was
false, and wishing me all sorts of bad things. All in all it would have
been an interesting case for Sherlock Holmes.
Petersburg was under martial law, and to keep the city in peace and
order was no small task. Men who were regarded respectable would sell
liquor to the soldiers. To fine the offenders was useless. To end
it, the suggestion was made that a court-martial should condemn the
next offender to have his head shaved and wear a "barrel shirt," and
be marched through the city two hours every day for ten days. That
ended selling whisky. How would a dude look with his head shaved and
protruding through a hole in the head of a barrel? Would the sun affect
_his_ intellect? The doctors reported that no ordinary person could
endure it, so I remitted a part of the sentence.
One day the provost marshal arrested a blockade runner for not obeying
his instructions. His goods were placed in a rented store, and J. A.
Shingleur, of Columbus, Ga., and Sidney Lanier, of my signal corps,
were detailed to sell them. The money was deposited in bank to my
order. After the war was ended I gave the owner the funds. I have often
wondered if that quiet, gentle soldier-poet remembered his experience
as a merchant in Petersburg? Often he and a friend would come to my
quarters and pass the evening with us, where the "alarums of war" were
lost in the soft notes of their flutes, for Lanier was an excellent
musician. I believe his cantata was sung at the opening of the World's
Exposition held in Philadelphia in 1876.
Another duty was the exchange of prisoners on arrival at City Point
of the flag of truce steamer. Our men were sent out to a camp I had,
and thence to their commands. I never went to the flag of truce boat
in all this while but once, and then I did not go aboard of her. I
dismounted and took a seat on a box. All was quiet. The staging from
the main deck rested on the wharf. On this deck, by the staging, were
posted two soldiers with arms aground. On the upper deck were three or
four United States soldiers. Their clothing was clean, neat, and new,
and they wore unsoiled white cotton gloves. The wharf was guarded by a
lone Confederate soldier. On his head was a straw hat, his raiment was
butternut in color, his shoes were low-quartered, his hair and beard
long. In countenance he was dignified, and his eye bright. To protect
himself from the cold north wind, a brown blanket was tied, or pinned,
in front around his neck, and as he turned to the north, pacing to and
fro in front of the stage, his blanket would swing now east, now west,
and on returning wrap him in its folds. He heeded not the neat clad
enemy on the steamer, but walked his post with the conscious conviction
that he was their peer in every walk of life. None of the soldiers
leaning over the railing and looking down on him were commenting on his
garb, or laughing at him. Battle had taught them to respect him. Still
the contrast in clothing and comfort was marked.
CHAPTER XII.
Telegram from Secretary of War--Go to Richmond--Declined
Going to Vicksburg--Gen. Longstreet--He Starts for
Suffolk--Suffolk--Capture of a Fort and Garrison--No
Report Made of the Capture--Statement of Lieut. George
Reese--Longstreet Ordered to Join Lee--Dispatches--Battle
of Chancellorsville--Withdraw from Suffolk--An Impertinent
Note--Court of Inquiry Asked for and Refused--Possible
Result Had Longstreet Obeyed Orders--_Ten_ Dispatches to
Longstreet--Orders to Report to Gen. Johnston.
On March 1, 1863, I received a telegram from the Secretary of War
stating that he wished to see me in regard to a change of service.
The day following I called at the office of the Secretary, Hon. J.
A. Seddon, and he expressed a desire that I would go to the city of
Vicksburg to assist in the defense of that place. I did not give my
assent, preferring to consider the matter. On the 3d I rode around the
line of defensive works that I had constructed around Petersburg with
Gen. Longstreet, and did not get back until 3 P.M.
I have already stated that on my return from Wilmington on the 23d
of February, 1863, I found Gen. Longstreet in Petersburg in command
of the divisions of Gens. Hood and Pickett. The main object of his
coming was to provision his troops and forage his animals (until active
service commenced requiring him to join Gen. Lee or otherwise) from
the supplies in the adjoining counties of Virginia and the counties
of North Carolina in the northeastern portion of the State, and be in
readiness to join Gen. Lee promptly, which he said was arranged before
he left Fredericksburg. (See Longstreet's "Memoirs," page 329.)
That the trains might move in safety, it was necessary to confine the
Federal forces in the works around Suffolk and Norfolk. Accordingly
about the middle of April Longstreet moved with his two divisions and
one of mine on Suffolk. The approach of our troops was not discovered
until the advance was in open view of the defenses around the city.
Their pickets were quietly captured, and the lookout sentinel in an
observatory on a platform in the top of a large pine tree in front of
the city might have been captured also had it not been for the desire
of one of the Confederates to take a shot at him while he was in the
top, before any one had been sent near the base of the pine. The man
came down as lively as a squirrel, and the alarm was given.
The circumvallation of the city, in part, was made by Pickett's
division on the right, mine in the center, and Hood's on the left, and
thus the siege of Suffolk began.
When Gen. Longstreet had been in Petersburg some time, he said to
me one day that he purposed to attack Suffolk after his preparations
were made, and to take the trains and send them down into the seaboard
counties for provisions.
The next thing I knew, April 9, he put his command in motion, and
took from me a division and a number of batteries, and was on his
way to Suffolk without informing me in any way of his designs, or of
his wishes.[23] The next day I put a staff officer in charge of the
department headquarters, and with my other staff officers rode to
Suffolk and took command of my own troops there that had been removed
without sending the order through my office as courtesy required. No
doubt the object of such proceedings was to give the command of a
division to Gen. M. Jenkins, a worthy and gallant officer, who had
distinguished himself in the seven days' fight around Richmond. On
the morning of the 13th I took command of my own troops, the brigades
of Pettigrew, Jenkins, and Davis, and my batteries. I found Gen.
Longstreet down near the front, where there was considerable artillery
firing and skirmishing on the advanced line. Longstreet asked me to
accept the command of all the artillery, which I refused to do. I told
him I did not intend to give up the command of my division to any one,
but that I was willing to give all the assistance I could, personally
and through the chief of my artillery, to place in position guns to
prevent gunboats going up and down the river; and, although my diary
does not mention it, all the artillery was ordered to report to me. I
assigned all the batteries belonging to them to the _command of the
respective divisions_, and thus it was scattered along the line for
several miles, leaving me some spare batteries and a few siege guns in
charge of my chief of artillery. But I will copy from my diary:
Tuesday, 14th. Heavy skirmishing; rode to Pickett's Division
and to the extreme right of the line, and met Gen. Armstead
there.
Wednesday, 15th. Started down the river with some artillery
to endeavor to destroy the gunboats; found but one in the
river, and it was too far below. After getting guns in
position withdrew them. Day very rainy.
Thursday, 16th. Rode down the river and examined it for
positions for defense; met Longstreet at Mr. Riddick's place;
then went to Mr. Le Compte's house. We were invited to stay
for dinner, but before it was ready a gunboat opened fire on
the house while we were resting in the yard behind it and
while the family were in it. After the second shot, which
went through it, we rode out into the field by the side of
the house in open sight. They did not fire at us (myself and
four of my staff), but all the while continued the attack
on the dwelling, and over the heads of the little children,
who were on the lawn in front waving white handkerchiefs.
The dwelling was built of brick, and was riddled with large
holes. The wonder to me was how the children escaped. As
we were leaving the field and the doctor had his hands
on the latch of the gate to open it, it was opened by a
three-hundred-pound shell striking the post that the gate was
hung to, demolishing it.
17th. Last night I gave my consent that two guns from
Stribbling's battery be put in an old work that was to
be garrisoned by two companies of Gen. Law's Brigade, and
some guns from Martin's battery were put in another work.
A gunboat came up and opened fire on the fort where the two
Alabama companies were, without damage.
18th. Passed all day down the river. Got the two thirty-two
pounders in position, ready to open to-morrow.
19th. This forenoon the gunboats came up, and the thirty-two
pounder fired on them and drove them back. They were also
attacked by some sharpshooters.
Just before sunset the gunboats and several batteries of
artillery opened a very severe cross fire on the _fort_
and over the plain in the rear of the fort, where the two
guns from Stribbling's battery had been placed to aid the
garrison. Pending this attack the enemy landed a strong
infantry force, under cover of some timber, on our side
of the river, carried the place by a sudden assault, and
captured the _garrison_, consisting of Companies A and B,
Forty-Fourth Alabama Regiment, and a squad of artillerymen.
I heard the distant firing about sunset, and at 9 P.M. I
heard in camp that one of the forts in Hood's command had
been captured. I went over to Longstreet's headquarters,
and he asked me to go down and take command. On arrival I
found on the ground there Gens. Hood and Law with Robertson's
Brigade and Connelly's Fifty-Fifth North Carolina Regiment,
and took command as I was ordered. The Fifty-Fifth North
Carolina Regiment was advanced, but it was driven back in
the darkness by the cross fire of the gunboats and the enemy
in the captured works. It was so plain to any one who had a
knowledge of the art of war that the enemy would not hold
an isolated work on our side of the river, that I was not
inclined to make an assault which would have sacrificed
so many lives uselessly. Yet such was the order given by
Longstreet.
20th. Remained in position till morning, when Longstreet
arrived. Both Gens. Hood and Law strenuously insisted that no
attack should be made to capture the works while the troops
would be subjected to the severe cross fire over the neck
of land from the enemy's fleet of vessels and the troops in
the redoubt and artillery opposite on the other side of the
river.
At 1 P.M. I turned the command over to Hood, or rather left
him in command of his own troops, advising him to wait and
let the enemy abandon the place, which they did. Soon after
this Capt. Cussons, commander of Law's scouts, with a few men
and a loud "yell," ran in the enemy's pickets, and entered
the works with them. They went on out, and left Cussons to
hold the empty fort.
22d. If that redoubt, which gave support to our left flank
(that otherwise would have been "in air"), was worth a great
sacrifice of life to recapture it, as ordered by Longstreet,
then certainly it was in accord with the science of war to
place two guns on the works to strengthen and protect the
left flank of his army.[24]
I am tired of _volunteering_ against gunboats any more, and
declined having anything to do with the line defended by Gen.
Hood because of a communication received from the general
commanding saying I was "in charge of the river defenses."
To have charge of the river defenses involves more or less
the command of all the army. I really had officially nothing
to do with the river defenses, only I _voluntarily placed_
two large siege guns in position to be used in attacking any
boats passing up or down the river. Connally's Regiment was
a support for these two guns.
23d. Confined myself to the immediate command of my division,
and took no more interest in Hood's line, and ordered
Connally's Regiment to join his brigade.
24th and 25th. There was some skirmishing.
26th. Rode down with Gen. Longstreet to the Whitemarsh road.
Gone all day. The line there is commanded by Gen. Armstead.
And now come the Richmond papers proclaiming: "From
Suffolk--Gen. French lost Stribbling's battery." Mark you,
no mention of the capture of the _fort_; no mention of the
capture of the _two companies_ that garrisoned it. It would
not do to have it reported that the Yankees crossed the
Nansemond yesterday and captured a fort on our side of the
river by assault. The garrison, composed of two companies of
the Forty-Fourth Alabama Regiment of Law's Brigade, Hood's
Division, were taken prisoners and the two guns were lost.
But it will not do to let this be known. No, no; write it
down thus: "Yesterday Gen. French lost Stribbling's battery."
The world is too busy to inquire, and the world will believe
it. The truth is, I was never in the fort, _never saw it_.
I had no authority over the garrison, and I was in no way
responsible for the loss of the redoubt, the garrison, or
guns.
The most remarkable feature of this little affair is the persistency
with which headquarters proclaimed that "French lost Stribling's
battery," and were silent about the infantry garrison captured, etc. I
will give two letters here from the War Records:
HEADQUARTERS NEAR SUFFOLK, April 21, 1863.
Maj. Gen. D. H. Hill, Goldsboro.
Gen. Longstreet is closely engaged to-night, and he has
asked me to write you briefly the particulars of the affair
of Sunday night which resulted in the capture by the enemy
of Stribbling's battery. Several batteries had been planted
on the Nansemond to hold the river against the passage
of gunboats and transports. Stribbling's occupied an old
uninclosed work on Hill's Point, a tongue of land a little
above the confluence of Western Branch and Nansemond. About
dark on the evening of the 19th the enemy opened a severe
fire from his field batteries planted opposite, and his
gunboats above and below the fort, entirely sweeping with
a cross fire the plain in the rear of the work. Under cover
of this fire and darkness they landed a force, not more than
one hundred and fifty strong, a very little distance from the
fort, rushed upon its rear, and surprised and captured its
garrison.
The artillery on the river was directly under the management
of Maj. Gen. French. There were five guns, fifty-five
artillerists, and seventy infantry (sharpshooters) in the
fort, which all fell into the hands of the enemy.
The affair is regarded as a most remarkable and discreditable
instance of an entire absence of vigilance. A regiment
(Fifty-Fifth North Carolina and seven hundred strong) which
Gen. Longstreet had particularly ordered to the vicinity for
the protection of the battery was not posted in supporting
distance. No official report of the affair has yet been
received from Gen. French. The captured guns were carried
across the river. It is some consolation that _only_ the guns
and ammunition chests were lost. The horses and ammunition
carriages, being considerably in the rear of the battery,
were saved. We are otherwise quite comfortable here. The
quartermasters and commissaries are actively engaged in
getting out supplies.
I am, General, very respectfully your obedient servant,
G. M. SORREL, _Assistant Adjutant General_.[25]
This letter comes from the headquarters of Gen. Longstreet, and should
be a careful account; whereas it contains errors in stating occurrences
well known at the time it was written. I will point out some of the
errors:
1. Only a small part of Stribbling's battery was captured by the enemy.
2. Stribbling's battery was not in the redoubt, as stated, in numbers.
3. The estimate that the enemy's force was not over one hundred and
fifty differs very much from that of Lieut. George Reese, who was an
officer of one of the companies forming the garrison that was captured,
who writes it was near one thousand.
4. "The artillery on the river was directly under the command of Maj.
Gen. French" is an error, as I declined it the day of my arrival, only
I voluntarily offered to assist in checking the gunboats passing up or
down the river.
5. It states that "there were _five guns_, fifty-five artillerists, and
seventy infantry captured by the enemy;" whereas it was known to the
entire army by the 21st, the date of this letter, that only _two guns
and about eighteen artillerists_ were lost when the redoubt fell by
the capture of the garrison. No horses, caissons, harness, forge, etc.,
were in the fort. They were in camp.
6. Gen. Longstreet did not particularly order the Fifty-Fifth North
Carolina Regiment to that vicinity for the protection of the battery.
It was one of the regiments of my command, and I sent it down to
support two thirty-two-pounders that Col. Cunningham had mounted at a
place we had selected farther down the river. The "protection" to the
two guns at the fort _was the garrison Hood sent to the fort_ and such
other as he directed. The better explanation is, the guns were asked of
me to aid the garrison.
7. The statement that "no official report of the affair has yet been
received from Gen. French" is misleading, and a report from me would
have been supererogatory. The report of that "affair" was strictly a
matter between the general commanding and Gen. Hood, who commanded the
division and placed the garrison in the fort to protect his extreme
left, then "in air."
8. When headquarters announced that "it was some little consolation
that only five guns and ammunition chests were lost," it may have been
joyous that _only_ the garrison was lost instead of the whole of Hood's
Division, of which it formed a part.
9. I must give Gen. Longstreet's adjutant general the manliness to
be the only officer in Longstreet's Corps who has, in any manner or
form, put on record the fact, directly or indirectly, that there was
a garrison placed in that redoubt by order of Longstreet, or Hood, or
both, and it was captured by the enemy, and with the garrison went the
two guns. To the world has the publication gone that Gen. French lost
Stribbling's battery.
10. If it be creditable for headquarters to publish that "this affair
is regarded as a most remarkable and discreditable instance of an
entire _absence_ of vigilance" on my part, then I claim it is proper
for me to remark that this effusion from the head of this army may be
also "regarded as a most remarkable and discreditable instance of an
entire _absence_ of correctness in stating that affair."
There was no doubt a want of vigilance; and if Gen. Longstreet had
desired, he could have learned whether the commander of the garrison
put out pickets or not. He could have ascertained _what orders_ were
given the commander by his colonel, or Gen. Law, or by Gen. Hood, and
fixed the responsibility where it belonged. Who put the garrison there,
and what instructions were given the commander? embraces the question.
He says he "particularly ordered Col. Connally's regiment there himself
for the protection of this battery," which is an error.
Like the ghost of Banquo, Stribbling's battery rises up again at
headquarters and will not out.
HEADQUARTERS NEAR SUFFOLK, April 20, 1863, 7 P.M.
Brig. Gen. H. L. Benning, Commanding Brigade.
Your communication of 3 A.M. to-day has been received.... The
cannonade that you heard last night arose from a successful
effort of the enemy to capture one of our batteries on the
river. Under cover of darkness and the fire of his gunboats
and land batteries he landed a force near Hill's Point, and
_took possession of Stribbling's battery by a surprise_.
I am, General, very respectfully your obedient servant.
G. M. SORREL, _Assistant Adjutant General_.[26]
I now will continue my diary:
27th, 28th, and 29th. Passed most of the day examining the
line between my right and Gen. Garnett. Reported to Gen.
Longstreet. Spoke's Run is no barrier to infantry. To-day,
the 29th, orders came for _Gen. Longstreet to join Gen. Lee
immediately_. He sent for me and told me he was ordered to
join Gen. Lee with his _two divisions_; but that he could not
go, as his wagons sent for supplies had not returned. I made
no reply, but thought it strange, considering all the company
wagons, etc., he required to move were in the camp.
30th. "Waiting for the wagons" is still the song. Terrible
thunderstorm. Lightning injured a number of men.
Friday, May 1. This afternoon about 4 P.M. the enemy was
found in line of battle. One regiment, said to have been
the Fifty-Ninth New York, advanced on my picket lines and
were handsomely repulsed by Col. Connally's regiment. In
supporting his men in the pits he lost ten men. The enemy
shelled the plain furiously for an hour and a half in my
front. Courier came and said they were advancing on the
Fifty-Fifth and fighting like h--l. I rode over to Jenkins,
and we galloped to the front. Ordered Connally to send
support to his pickets, and it was done valiantly. The
enemy lost over forty men. By sunset all was quiet. This
was a demonstration in favor of Hooker, who was now at
Chancellorsville.
May 2. All was quiet last night, more so than usual, and now
up to 6 P.M. all is still save an occasional gun and a little
picket-firing, and this continued during the night. Received
to-day general instructions to withdraw to the Blackwater.
May 3. This morning sent to the rear all spare articles,
baggage, etc. At 11 A.M. Gen. Longstreet started for
Franklin, and left me in command of the army to withdraw it.
Heavy firing down the river, and the enemy is shelling the
railroad crossing. Captured men report Gen. Dix in command
in Suffolk. Some Yankees came over the river with sugar and
coffee to trade.
The skirmishing on the left was very heavy, and I sent down
one regiment to support Gen. Anderson, and moved Davis's
Brigade to the left about a mile. I am now informed that Gen.
Longstreet did not go at 11 A.M. as he expected to do. At
sunset the firing on the left still continued, and the order
to withdraw was countermanded. About 7 P.M. I received orders
from Maj. Latrobe to withdraw in half an hour. I then ordered
up the supports from the railroad, and directed the men in
the advanced rifle pits to be withdrawn at 11:20. At 10 the
column was in motion, and we marched steadily the distance
of six miles.... Arriving at the junction of the South Quay
and Summerton roads, I learned that all Maj. Mitchell's
trains had crossed the Blackwater, and Pickett's wagons were
now passing on to the river to cross. Being thus advised,
the division was halted, and I rode on to look for a good
position to form line of battle to defend the crossing in
case the enemy should pursue. I found an admirable position,
and disposed my forces accordingly. Pickett's Division came
up, and I left Col. Bratten, with two regiments and a battery
of artillery, _to remain with the cavalry_ to guard the
_South Quay road_. This was on the morning of the 4th.
4th. In the afternoon received orders to cross over the
river, and that when all were over to ride up to see him
(Longstreet). The orders of the General left me but two
brigades for the defense of the line from the James river to
the Chowan river.
5th. Started this morning for Ivor; posted Davis at the
Blackwater bridge.... Rode on to Zuni. I found Longstreet
was in Petersburg, and, as there were two trains ready to
leave, I determined to ride up and ascertain why he wished
to see me, and try and get a third brigade. I sent Feribee's
regiment down to the Isle of Wight to find out where the
enemy was. I left Zuni at 2 P.M., and reached Petersburg at
3:50 P.M. I called on Longstreet as directed. I could not
induce him to leave me the third brigade.... I then asked of
him permission to remain in Petersburg until the morning,
which he granted. Soon after a communication was handed me
in which the general commanding "expressed surprise that
I was in the city, and asked me to explain what induced me
to abandon my command." I had a locomotive waiting to take
me back to Zuni, or Franklin, as occasioned required; but
considering the General told me I could remain, and by reason
of this artful note, I determined not to leave anyhow under
such an imputation. He may have lost his temper at Lee's
victory at Chancellorsville without him.
6th. Wrote this morning to the President and asked for a
court of inquiry.
Now, while on this subject, I will state that the request was not
granted. Gen. J. R. Davis informed me that the President said to him
my course needed no vindication, and Gen. Davis knew all the facts,
and I presume he stated them to the President. I wanted the court to
investigate the cause of the surprise and capture of the garrison and
Stribbling's two guns, and other matters named in my application for
the court, if it were granted.
I will explain, although it is a trifling matter, why I went to
Petersburg. First, Longstreet wrote me to call and _see_ him as soon
as my command crossed the Blackwater, but he left before I passed
over. Next, when I got to Zuni I had posted my troops all in their old
positions on the line of the Blackwater as they were before Longstreet
moved them to Suffolk; no Longstreet was at Zuni.
Secondly, Petersburg was my headquarters, and from there I could
communicate with Zuni and Franklin, on the Blackwater, by telegraph and
railroad, and be in either place in a short time.
Thirdly, Longstreet left Franklin without turning the command of his
two divisions over to me, and I presumed he was pressing forward with
his command to the aid of Gen. Lee at Chancellorsville, who had called
him to his assistance on the 27th of April, and so often afterwards.
Continuing, my diary says:
Busy the balance of the day in my office with official
business. I did not leave the city until 9 P.M., when I
took the cars for Franklin. I arrived there after 11 P.M.
Found all quiet. Whilst I was in Petersburg Gen. Hood was
impressing horses for cavalry service. Carriages, wagons,
carts, etc., from which the horses were unhitched, were left
in the streets.
8th. Changed headquarters to-day to Ivor....
9th. Arrived at Ivor at 10 A.M. Gen. J. R. Davis left to-day
on leave.
13th. Went to Petersburg and remained there all day
following.
15th. Started for Richmond. Saw Gens. Lee, Elzy, Cooper,
Ransom, Ewell, and others. Dined with the Hon. Judge James
Perkins. In the evening I went to the President's. I found
him ill and suffering with a cough. I took tea with them....
16th. Saw the Secretary of War this morning. Spoke to him
about leave of absence. Said it could not be granted....
23d. Went to the Blackwater bridge, where Jenkins's Brigade
was. For exercise to the troops crossed over the river to
feel the enemy, in force, on the other side. I took about
three thousand men and four batteries of artillery. Col.
Green, with two Mississippi regiments, advanced and drove
in their pickets, and captured some property. Could not draw
them out to attack us. After dark withdrew.
Wednesday, 27th. Went to Petersburg, intending to go to Fort
Powhatan. Found there a dispatch informing me that I would be
ordered on the day following to report to Gen. J. E. Johnston
in Mississippi.
29th. No orders having been received, I went to Richmond to
see about taking staff officers with me. Gen. Cooper could
allow me only my aids. Finally the Secretary of War gave me
permission to take my adjutant general, assistant adjutant
general, quartermaster, and orderly. The Secretary of War
told me that Gen. Joseph E. Johnston had applied for an
officer of the rank of major general, and as they knew I was
acquainted with the country, he had ordered me, etc.
As I had once been called on to submit a plan for the defense of the
Mississippi river, and complied with the request, it might have had
some influence on the action of the Secretary. Besides, I had once
declined duty at Vicksburg. (See letters from the President to Gen.
Lee, War Records, page 716, Vol. LI., No. 108 Serial, suggesting that
I be sent to Mississippi.)
Before I take leave of the arduous duties I had been performing,
of defending a line three hundred miles in length, of exchange of
prisoners, examining correspondence, obtaining supplies, etc., I will
refer to some matters again relating to the siege of Suffolk, about
which I made no report. I have alluded to Gen. Longstreet taking my
troops without consulting me, and his movements on to Suffolk, and
his attempts to have Gen. Jenkins keep the command of them. I am quite
sure it was Hood's chief of artillery who asked my artillery officer
for guns to place in the works on the Nansemond river, and to which I
gave my consent. It was not Gen. Law, because he protested when ordered
to garrison the fort. But this matters not. The garrison and the guns
formed a part of Hood's command, and yet (I am told) both Pollard
and a clerk in the Rebel War Office state in their books that I lost
"Stribbling's battery;" and yet, most erroneous of all, Longstreet
in _his book_ states "that a battery was put on a _neck of land_ and
captured by the enemy." He fails to state that the _fort and garrison
therein_ were captured, which of course includes the arms and the guns.
The great events of war often hinge on some small matter not obvious to
an ordinary commander, but which, at a glance, would be visible to the
eye of the great captain, and provided for in his plans for a victory.
The commander of a remote supporting corps is presumed, when alone, to
be able to consider carefully everything that might occur to prevent
an immediate compliance with any expected order, especially that of a
prompt and rapid movement to the aid of his chief, the moment the call
is made; and _Longstreet awaited that call_.
Now from Suffolk to Zuni messages were passed rapidly by the best of
signal men. Thence by telegraph to Petersburg, Richmond, and on to Gen.
Lee. On the 21st of April Gen. Lee reported the enemy was at Kelly's
Ford; that Hooker was putting his army in motion; the 28th they crossed
the Rappahannock; the 29th they crossed the Rapidan, and skirmishing
commenced near Chancellorsville. On the 30th the armies were face to
face.
[Illustration: ROBERT E. LEE.]
From this it will be seen that Gen. Lee sounded the notes of warning to
Longstreet as early as the _21st of April_, and Norris on the 21st (as
chief signal officer) informed him Hooker was moving with one hundred
and fifty thousand men, nine days before he crossed the Rappahannock
near Chancellorsville and was confronted by Lee. As soon as the plans
or intentions of the enemy were further divined, Lee took measures
to concentrate his forces. To Gen. Longstreet, with his army corps at
Suffolk, he sent urgent dispatches, ten of which I copy from the War
Department Records (Vol. 25, Part 2) as follows:
NO. 1. PAGE 763.
_Gen. Cooper to Gen. Lee._
RICHMOND, May 1, 1863.
Gen. R. E. Lee, Fredericksburg, Va.
Orders were sent on Wednesday (the 29th of April) to Gen.
Longstreet to move forward his command to reënforce you.
He replied he would do so immediately, but expected to be
a little delayed in gathering up his transportation train
to prevent its falling into the hands of the enemy, then in
sight.
S. COOPER, _Adjutant and Inspector General_.
NO. 2. PAGE 752.
_R. E. LEE TO THE PRESIDENT._
HEADQUARTERS, ARMY OF NORTHERN VIRGINIA, _April 27, 1863_.
His Excellency, Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederate
States.
_Mr. President_: I have written to Gen. Longstreet to
expedite, as much as possible, his operations in North
Carolina, as I may be obliged to call him back at any
moment....
R. E. LEE, _General_.
NO. 3. PAGE 757.
_GEN. S. COOPER TO GEN. D. H. HILL._
RICHMOND, VA., April 29, 1863.
Maj. Gen. D. H. Hill, Commanding, Goldsboro, N. C.
_General_: The following telegram has just been received from
Gen. Lee:
The enemy is crossing below Deep Run, about the same place as
before.... Where his main efforts will be made I cannot say.
Troops not wanted south of James river had better be moved in
this direction, and all other necessary preparations made.
This renders it important that such forces as you deem
judicious should be concentrated at Richmond, to be in
supporting distance. Gen. Lee may telegraph you.... _A like
dispatch has been sent to Lieut. Gen. Longstreet._
I am, General, very respectfully, your obedient servant,
S. COOPER, _Adjutant and Inspector General_.
NO. 4. PAGE 757.
_GEN. COOPER TO GEN. LONGSTREET._
Gen. Longstreet.
The following dispatch has just been received from Gen. Lee;
FREDERICKSBURG, VA., April 29, 1863.
The enemy is in large force on the north bank of the
Rappahannock opposite the railroad at Hamilton's crossing.
He is crossing troops below the point at which he crossed in
December.... I hear of no other point at which he is crossing
except below Kelly's Ford, where Gen. Howard has crossed
with his division, said to be fourteen thousand, six pieces
of artillery, and some cavalry.... All available troops had
better be sent forward as rapidly as possible.
S. COOPER, _Adjutant and Inspector General_.
NO. 5. PAGE 758.
_GEN. COOPER TO GEN. LONGSTREET._
ADJUTANT AND INSPECTOR GENERAL'S OFFICE,}
RICHMOND, VA., April 29, 1863. }
Lieut. Gen Longstreet.
The following telegram just received since the one already
communicated to you:
If any troops can be sent by rail to Gordonsville,
under a good officer, I recommend it. Longstreet's
Division, if available, _had better come to me_;
and the troops for Gordonsville and the protection
of the railroad, from Richmond and North Carolina
if practicable. Gen. Howard, of the enemy's forces
making toward Gordonsville....
The Secretary, in view of the above, _directs the return
of your command_, or at least such portions of it as can be
spared without serious risk; also any surplus force that can
be spared from D. H. Hill.... These movements are required to
be made with the _utmost dispatch_.
S. COOPER, _Adjutant and Inspector General_.
NO. 6. PAGE 758.
_SECRETARY SEDDON TO GEN. COOPER._
WAR DEPARTMENT, C. S. A., April 29, 1863.
Gen. Cooper.
_Dear General_: Gen. Lee telegraphs that all available force
at our command be sent at once by rail or otherwise toward
Gordonsville.... Telegraph French at Petersburg to send all
available force at his command....
J. A. SEDDON, _Secretary of War_.
NO. 7. PAGE 758.
_SECRETARY OF WAR TO GEN. COOPER._
WAR OFFICE, RICHMOND, April 29, 1863.
Gen. Cooper.
Gen. Lee, by another telegram just sent the President, says:
"... Longstreet's Division, if available, had better come to
me...."
J. A. SEDDON, _Secretary_.
NO. 8. PAGE 760.
_GEN. COOPER TO GEN. LONGSTREET._
RICHMOND, VA., April 30, 1863.
Lieut. Gen. James Longstreet, Suffolk, Va.
Move without delay your command to this place, to effect a
junction with Gen. Lee.
S. COOPER, _Adjutant and Inspector General_.
NO. 9. PAGE 761.
_GEN. LEE. TO PRESIDENT DAVIS._
FREDERICKSBURG, April 30, 1863.
His Excellency, President Davis.
... Enemy was still crossing the Rappahannock at 5 P.M.
yesterday.... Object evidently to turn my left.... If I had
Longstreet's Division, I would feel safe.
R. E. LEE, _General_.
NO. 10. PAGE 765.
_GEN. LONGSTREET TO GEN. COOPER._
SUFFOLK, VA., May 2, 1863.
Gen. Cooper.
I cannot move unless the entire force is moved; and it
would then take several days to reach Fredericksburg. I will
endeavor to move as soon as possible.
JAMES LONGSTREET, _Lieutenant General Commanding_.
"Responsibility cannot exist without a name," or an object.
Perhaps Longstreet delayed to execute these orders for the reason he
states (page 329), that there was a "plan of battle projected"--that
is, "to _stand behind our intrenched lines and await the return of my
troops from Suffolk_." "And my impression is that Gen. Lee, standing
under his trenches, would have been stronger against Hooker than he was
in December against Burnside, and he would have _grown stronger every
hour of delay_." "By the time the divisions of Pickett and Hood could
have joined Gen. Lee, Hooker would have found that he must march to
attack or make a retreat without battle. It _seems_ probable that under
_the original plan_ the battle would have _given fruits worthy_ of a
general engagement."
Longstreet's first dispatch _disclosed his intentions to Lee_, and Lee
wisely decided not to wait ten or twelve days for Longstreet to join
him. Moreover, it is not probable that Lee thought Hooker would be so
knightly as to await the arrival of the Suffolk troops before giving
battle. Longstreet does not deal even in the conjectural, for it is not
based on any evidence; he merely guesses.
But it is better to deal with the possible.
Two brigades could have been withdrawn from before Suffolk on the night
of the 27th of April and sent to join Gen. Lee, then the main force on
the night of the 28th. There is no doubt about this. In this event the
enemy could have passed the 29th in discovering our intentions. Rather
than crossing the Nansemond river and giving us battle, they would have
awaited orders, and probably been sent to Fredericksburg to aid Hooker;
but this is not important.
On the 28th he could have ordered Gen. D. H. Hill, then at Goldsboro,
to have protected the train, called on Whiting at Wilmington for
aid, while I had a division at Franklin on the Blackwater, and forces
elsewhere which would no doubt have saved the train from the enemy.
His first dispatch is very misleading, and does not convey the idea
that he would sit down and wait six days for the wagons before he
withdrew. While this was going on at Suffolk, the heroic "Stonewall"
Jackson was marching to the right and rear of Hooker's army, and when
it was announced to him that the enemy _was_ capturing _his_ wagon
train, without checking the walk of his horse he said: "Do not let
them capture any ammunition wagons." What value were his baggage wagons
compared to the loss of even a few minutes in accomplishing the great
object of his movement, on which victory depended. To his master mind
before him was the enemy, the impending battle, the victory, and the
reward due to genius of battle, with all the spoils of war strewn in
the conqueror's path. And it was so. And thus it was that Longstreet,
by not effecting a junction with Lee, "put the _cause_ upon the hazard
of a _die_, crippling it in resources and future progress." (See
Longstreet, p. 330.)
Mark Antony, in his speech over the dead Cæsar, said: "Power in most
men has brought their faults to light. Power in Cæsar brought into
prominence his excellencies."
So power given Lee made known to the world the nobility of his
character and greatness as a commander; while in others it disclosed
a spirit of envy and a desire for detraction; and in all some
peculiarities. Lee was not conscious of his strength, because his
greatness of soul was derived from his goodness of heart, and it rested
upon him with the ease and grace of a garment. His generosity induced
him to overlook the frailty incident to humanity, and to forgive even
disobedience in his lieutenants. He remembered what Job said about
a book, and wrote none. He envied no one. He left no writings extant
naming an enemy, and his harshest remark in reference to an officer of
high rank was, in effect, that he was "slow to move."
The official reports show that Hooker had 161,491 men and 400 guns.
Lee's forces numbered 58,100 men, with 170 guns. This was known to
Lee's lieutenants.
The publication of the Official Record by Congress discloses the fact
that Mr. Seddon induced Gen. Lee to send Gen. Longstreet with Hood's
and Pickett's Divisions to cover Richmond, which he thought menaced
from Fortress Monroe and Suffolk. Lee thought Pickett's Division
sufficient. (Official Record, Vol. 22, p. 623.)
I had the name and reported strength of every regiment in both Suffolk
and Norfolk, obtained from blockade runners and verified by prisoners.
Suffolk had no strategic value to the enemy of any import, and none
to us. In 1862 I designed the taking of Suffolk, and on an appointed
day assembled some eight or nine thousand troops at Franklin, on
the Blackwater. The only officers who had any knowledge of this were
Gens. G. W. Smith, in Richmond, and J. J. Pettigrew. It was stopped,
the morning the troops assembled, by Gen. G. W. Smith on strategic
grounds and it not being a depot of supplies; and he was right. And
when Secretary Seddon, against Lee's advice, joined with Longstreet in
moving on Suffolk so late in the spring, he or Longstreet committed an
error, the consequence of which was Lee had to fight Hooker with the
force just stated, without the aid of his lieutenant general. Who was
it, then, that put the "Confederacy on the hazard of a die?"
Hooker would never have embarked his great army on the Potomac at
Aquia, and carried them back where they had once been under Gen.
McClellan, and Richmond was not in danger, and Longstreet's expedition
to Suffolk not in accordance with grand strategy; and but for Lee's
audacity, and Stonewall Jackson's swift movements and vigorous blows at
Chancellorsville, the Confederacy would have been there shattered into
fragments, and all by one false movement to Suffolk.
"Fortune loves a daring suitor."
Lee threw down the iron glove, and the daring suitor won! It was
the most remarkable victory of the war, but by the absence of those
divisions, and the death of Stonewall Jackson, the large fruits of the
victory were lost.
CHAPTER XIII.
Leave Petersburg for Jackson, Miss.--Visit Home--My
Division Composed of the Brigades of Gens. Maxey, Evans,
and McNair--Extraordinary Correspondence between Gen.
Johnston and President Davis--Movements to Attack Grant at
Vicksburg--Fall of Vicksburg--Retreat to Jackson--Siege of
Jackson--Visit Home--Negro Troops Surround the House--Narrow
Escape--Vandalism--Johnston Takes Command of the Army of
Tennessee--Polk in Command of Army of Mississippi--A Court of
Inquiry That Was Not Held--My Division at Meridian--President
Davis--Jackson Burned--Sherman's Advance on Meridian--Ordered
to Mobile--Polk Crossing Tombigbee River--He Is
Slow to Move--Go to Demopolis--Mr. Fournier--Sent to
Lauderdale--Tuscaloosa--Montevallo--Reach Rome--Fight at
Rome--Join Gen. Johnston at Cassville.
On Wednesday, June 3, 1863, I started in accordance with orders from
Petersburg to report to Gen. J. E. Johnston in Mississippi. I arrived
in Jackson on the 10th. Next day reported for duty; but as I had not
been home since I joined the army, and the service was not pressing,
got permission to visit my family. I went by stage to Yazoo City,
and by chance met my neighbor, F. A. Metcalf, there, and together we
crossed the Yazoo bottoms. Riding horseback, sixty-five miles the
last day, I reached my home on Deer Creek at 11 P.M., and found my
mother, sister, and little daughter, aged nearly eight years, all
well. I remained at home Monday, the 15th, and started back on the
16th. Before I reached home Mr. Bowie, my agent, had gone to Georgia
with seventy-eight of my negro servants, leaving twenty-five here to
cultivate a corn crop. I joined my division, composed of the brigades
of Gens. Maxey, McNair, and Evans, on the 24th, encamped at Mrs.
Carraway's, in Madison County, near Livingston; put Gen. Evans in
arrest by order of Gen. Johnston. I was in camp the 25th and the two
days following.
[Illustration: JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON.]
Before proceeding any further in reference to military matters in
Mississippi, I will give some rich correspondence that took place
between Gen. Johnston and President Davis and which I knew nothing
about until months after it occurred. Here it is. (See page 195, War
Records, Serial 36.)
CANTON, MISS., June 9, 1863.}
Via Montgomery, June 10. }
His Excellency, President Davis.
It has been suggested to me that the troops in this
department are very hostile to officers of Northern birth,
and that on that account Maj. Gen. French's arrival will
weaken instead of strengthening us. I beg you to consider
that _all_ the general officers of Northern birth are on duty
in this department. There is now a want of major generals
(discipline). It is important to avoid any cause of further
discontent.
J. E. JOHNSTON.
_THE ANSWER._
RICHMOND, VA., June 11, 1863.
Gen. J. E. Johnston.
Your dispatch received. Those who suggest that the arrival
of Gen. French will produce discontent among the troops
because of his Northern birth are not probably aware that
he is a citizen of Mississippi, was a wealthy planter until
the Yankees robbed him; and, before the Confederate States
had an army, was the chief of ordnance and artillery in the
force Mississippi raised to maintain her right of secession.
As soon as Mississippi could spare him he was appointed a
brigadier general in the Provisional Army of the Confederate
States, and has frequently been before the enemy where he was
the senior officer. If malignity should undermine him, as it
had another, you are authorized to notify him of the fact and
to relieve him, communicating it to me by telegram.
Surprised by your remark as to the general officers of
Northern birth, I turned to the register, and find that
a large majority of the number are elsewhere than in the
Department of Mississippi and eastern Louisiana.
JEFFERSON DAVIS.
Men of Northern birth who held high rank in the Confederacy: Samuel
Cooper, general, New Jersey; Josiah Gorgas, chief of ordnance,
Pennsylvania; John C. Pemberton, general, Pennsylvania; Charles
Clark, general and Governor of Mississippi, Ohio; Daniel Ruggles,
general, Massachusetts; Walter H. Stevens, general, New York; Julius
A. DeLagnel, New Jersey; John R. Cooke, general, Missouri; R. S.
Ripley, general, Ohio; Hoffman Stevens, general, Connecticut; Samuel G.
French, general, New Jersey; Bushrod R. Johnson, general, Ohio; James
L. Alcorn, general, Illinois (was Governor and United States Senator);
Danville Leadbetter, general, Maine; Archibald Gracie, general, New
York; William McComb, general, Pennsylvania; Otho French Strahl,
general, Ohio; Daniel M. Frost, general, New York; Albert G. Blanchard,
general, Massachusetts; Johnson K. Duncan, general, Pennsylvania;
Albert Pike, general, Massachusetts; Daniel H. Reynolds, general, Ohio;
Edward Aylesworth Perry, general, Massachusetts; Francis A. Shoup,
general, Indiana; Martin L. Smith, general, New York; Franklin Gardner,
general, New York.
A brief sketch of these men was published in the _Atlanta Constitution_
by Prof. J. T. Derry. The number is twenty-six, and twelve of them
were educated at West Point. They believed in the right of States to
secede, and, owing allegiance to the States where they lived or wished
to reside, they cast their lot with the South.
July 1, 1863. Moved to some springs on the Vernon and
Brownsville road.
2d. Moved at 4 A.M.; marched through Brownsville. I slept
under a tree last night, but have an abandoned house
to-night.
3d. Rode over to meet Gen. Johnston. There were present Gens.
Loring, W. H. T. Walker, Jackson, and myself. If there be any
one thing in this part of the country more difficult than all
others, it is to find a person who knows the roads ten miles
from his home. _Nine_ hours were spent in vainly attempting
to get accurate information from the citizens respecting the
roads and streams. But little could be learned of the country
on either side of the Big Black that was satisfactory,
because it was so contradictory.
July 4. Anniversary of a declaration that was read
eighty-seven years ago, and which awakened a benighted
world to the fact that man was born with certain inalienable
rights. All was still in the direction of Vicksburg. What
does it portend? No firing there yet, and it is 12 M. But
there is always something to mar one's pleasure or disturb
his rest, for now came the news that the enemy had crossed
Messenger's Ferry, on the Big Black....
5th. Remained in camp. Some skirmishing on the Big Black.
The order of Gen. Johnston to cross the Big Black and attack
Grant's new line _was issued_. I soon after received news of
the surrender of Vicksburg, and it was determined to fall
back toward Jackson. The enemy's camp fires extend about
three miles on the other side of the stream....
6th. My division in advance. Moved by Queen's Hill Church to
some ponds near Clinton. The day was very hot and the dust
simply awful. I took breakfast with J. E. Davis, brother of
the President....
8th. We reached Jackson yesterday at 2 P.M. Enemy at Clinton.
I rode around with Gen. Johnston to examine the line. It is
miserably located and not half completed.
9th. This morning I was awakened at 2 A.M. to take my
division to the trenches.
10th. All day there has been heavy fighting. In front of Gen.
Evans the enemy has got so near that they render it difficult
to man the guns....
11th. The order of the divisions of the army that encircle
Jackson, from the river above the city to the river below, is
as follows, beginning on the right: Loring, Walker, French,
and Breckinridge. Fighting commenced early this morning,
and the firing was rapid all along the line. About 11 A.M.
we drove the enemy from their lines and burned a number of
houses that they occupied.
From now on to the 16th the usual occurrences of cannonading,
dismounting pieces, fighting all the time, continued. Cotton bales
were set on fire that were used for breastworks, flags of truce to bury
the dead passed, shells are falling all over the town. The Governor of
the State, Pettus, is in the city about the capitol. He goes over the
river at night to prevent being captured. He believes the main object
of the expedition is to capture _him_. Well, he has his early wishes
gratified. The Yankees have set their feet on the sacred soil of his
domain! Where are his double-barrel shotguns to ambuscade the Yankees?
16th. Met at Gen. Johnston's to consider the order of
evacuating the town. At 10 P.M. troops were withdrawn from
the trenches, and at 1 A.M. the advanced skirmishers. We
reached Brandon at 8 A.M. Two of Evans's men were left,
accidentally, on the skirmish line with some amateur
soldiers, and in the morning when they awoke they found
themselves alone. The enemy did not discover our departure
until late.
While in camp near Brandon I was taken sick with remittent fever, and
was granted a leave of absence and left for Columbus, Ga., and made
my home with Judge G. E. Thomas. When my leave was out I received a
dispatch from Gen. J. E. Johnston to remain in Columbus, as I would be
required as a witness for him before a Court of Inquiry to be held in
Atlanta.
I remained in Columbus and at the Warm Springs most of the month of
September, and then went to Enterprise, Miss.
October 19. Received a dispatch to move to Meridian, prepared
to take the field. Found the President at the hotel, and had
an interview with him alone.
November 7. Moved my command to Meridian.
14th. Started to make a visit to my family at my home in
Washington County. I took with me Lieut. James R. Yerger, one
of my aids, and Levi, one of my servants.
16th. We left Canton with two cavalrymen as a guard; crossed
the Yazoo at Yazoo City. About sunset we reached Col. Fall's
plantation, on Deer Creek. The enemy had passed there the
day previous. Crossing the creek at Judge Ruck's plantation
(Judge Ruck is my aid's grandfather), we met an old negro
man leading a pony over the bridge. Lieut. Yerger knew the
old man, and asked what he was doing with the pony. He said
the Yankees were on the creek about three miles below my
house, and he was saving his pony. In the dark we were not
recognized by the old servant. But for meeting this old
servant we should have ridden into the camp of the Yankees.
After a while we recrossed the creek and rode on up to
Eleck Yerger's, called him up, and slept in his parlor.
He confirmed the negro's statement about the Yankees being
on the other side of the creek. I got a cup of coffee, or
something else (think it was the latter), and rode on up the
creek till we got opposite my house.
It is the 19th of November. Indian summer: the sky hazy,
and a drowsy sleepiness rested over the landscape. Seeing a
crow resting himself on the front gatepost, I dismounted and
crossed to my home. I found mother, sister, and my little
Tillie all well. They were surprised and delighted to see
us, and then they were frightened also. They said the Yankees
were a mile or two above us, and two miles below us.
20th. I put a faithful male slave on the upper gallery to
watch the roads, and especially to report if any dust was
raised on the road, and then I was content for the day.
However I thought the "Yanks" were too near, and that my
being at home would be made known, so I ordered the horses
to be at the door at 5 P.M. to ride down the creek to a
neighbor's ten miles below, and the family to come down
next day to where I was going. I was implored not to go,
but I resisted entreaties. We rode across the plantation
to Metcalf's house. My servant knocked at the door and
received no response. Mrs. Metcalf came out by a side door
and exclaimed: "Gen. French, you must not cross the creek.
Look at the camp fires of the Yankees just in front of you!"
I asked for Mr. Metcalf, and was told he had fled to the
woods. His agent was on the fence watching for the "Yanks."
It was now quite dark. Notwithstanding all this advice, we
forded the creek and I went forward to reconnoiter. I found
no pickets, so, it being late, we went into the woods and
rested for the night.
21st. We mounted our horses and rode out to reconnoiter. We
met Mr. Metcalf. I learned that two white Yankee officers
and a company of colored soldiers surrounded my house about
ten minutes after we left it. So as we were crossing the
field east, this company was in the field coming up from
the south. The negroes surrounded the dwelling, and the
officers entered to capture me. They were told I had left.
This did not satisfy them. My sister took a light and went
with one officer and let him search all the rooms and closets
upstairs. Then she told him where the steps were and insisted
that he should go up into the cockloft to be sure that I was
not there. He declined, saying it was an unpleasant duty he
was sent to perform, and apologized for the trouble he had
given the family. When my sister returned to the sitting room
the other officer had my United States army uniform coat in
his hand. He told her it was a contraband article, and as
such he would take it, She replied: "I know you are going to
steal it, and to relieve your conscience from remorse I will
give you the coat. It is my brother's, but he would scorn
to wear it with those badges on it." He declined to accept
it, but as a contraband article he would take it. She then
asked him if contraband articles were the property of the
individual, and he answered: "I shall make a report of my
visit to the commanding officer." During these proceedings
the "First Colored Native Mississippi Cavalry" stole two
mules and a horse, all we had on the place. And I will here
remark that my dear friend (classmate and roommate at West
Point), Gen. Fred Steele, had in the spring carried off
thirty-five fine mules for the benefit of the United States.
He sincerely apologized to my mother for this act, but it was
an order of Gen. Grant's that he had to execute. But more of
this anon.
November 22. This is my birthday. After I learned that the
blacks came so near capturing me I determined to let mother
know that I was not captured, so I went back home and took
breakfast with them. Bidding them good-by, I tried to console
them, but it was with a bitter heart that I left them alone
without a horse to send a servant in case of any necessity.
During the night we saw a fire down the creek, and when I got
back to where I left my aid I learned that the enemy set fire
to Judge Shall Yerger's house while the family were asleep,
and they barely escaped alive. The Yankees, colored ones,
being mainly on the right bank, we traveled down the left,
in the rear of the plantations, to Bogue Phalia. Away out in
this wilderness of woods, at Dr. Harper's, we were treated
to a bottle of champagne. We drank it on the banks of that
meandering stream out of tin cups: it was good all the same.
We went on to Mr. Heathman's, on Indian Bayou, to stay all
night. My two guards, innocently going up Deer Creek, rode
into a camp of negro troops and were fired at in the dark,
and fled to this place. As we rode up to the house the two
soldiers came out with their carbines, but Mr. Heathman (a
feather bed ranger) jumped out the window and hid back in
the rear, and no calling induced him to come back. About
twelve o'clock at night he came up, peeped in the window,
saw we were not Yankees, and came in. But his supper had
vanished....
25th. I arrived at Jackson, or where Jackson once was, and
found it in ruins, it having been burned down by "childlike
and bland" Sherman. Now I first heard of the defeat of Bragg
at Missionary Ridge yesterday, November 25, and felt very
gloomy.
December 6. I received orders to move the brigades of Ector
and McNair to Brandon with the batteries. Capt. C. D. Myers
left to-night. He is a gentleman and a good officer. His home
is in Wilmington, N. C.
13th. Gen. Johnston arrived yesterday. Gen. J. R. Lidell
remained in camp with me Friday and Saturday.
14th. Capt. J. M. Baldwin left this morning for Columbus,
Ga., taking with him my servant, John Sharp. He is not in
the service now, and goes there as my agent to care for my
servants taken out there.
17th to 22d. Gen. Johnston ordered to the command of the Army
of Tennessee. Lieut. Gen. Polk in command of this department
now. Tomorrow Gen. Johnston will leave for the Army of
Tennessee, much to my regret.
December 24. This morning Gen. Polk sent for me and told
me that he would start for Enterprise at once, and we rode
down to the depot together. The cars had left, and he took
a locomotive and started after the train. During the ride he
said he wished me to go to Jackson and put the railroad and
the bridges in repair. In the afternoon we drove to Jackson.
At Mrs. Ruck's we had tableau and charades. Women are never
suppressed, always cheerful. How many of the Yerger families
were there? There are five brothers, all lawyers, and good
ones.
26th. Returned to Brandon. Nothing of note occurred between
the 26th and 30th.
Judge Shall Yerger was a neighbor of mine on Deer Creek, near
Greenville, Miss. He was an eminent jurist and able judge. He
maintained almost absolute silence in his court. Except those engaged
in a case, no one was permitted to talk above a whisper. He was fond of
telling anecdotes to good and appreciative listeners. His aversion to
the use of liquor was marked, and he condemned playing cards for money.
Now it happened in some way that the grand jury of Washington County
had indicted his nephew, who was sheriff of the county, Dr. Finley,
and some others for playing cards for money. At the meeting of the
court, when the nephew's case was called he pleaded guilty, and, after
some good advice, the judge imposed on him a fine of fifty dollars.
When Dr. Finley's case was before the court his attorney declared the
witness was revealing the secrets of the bedchamber. Yet he was found
guilty on two indictments. The Judge sat in a rocking-chair, and before
he pronounced sentence he occupied about ten minutes in delivering
a homily on the impropriety of an accomplished gentleman, who by his
profession had the entrée to all the best families, who should, while
perhaps the shadow of death was hovering over his patient, be so
indifferent as to play cards and distress the family, ... ending in
fining the Doctor fifty dollars in each case in the most imperturbable
manner, and saying the Doctor would stand committed until the fine was
paid. To this the Doctor observed: "May it please your honor, you know
that we all keep our funds in New Orleans, and I can only pay by a
draft." He was informed that was a matter between him and the officers
of the court. So he finally sat down, and as the Judge was indebted
to Finley for professional services, he drew the check on _him_, and
handed it to the sheriff, who gave it to the clerk, who in turn passed
it to the Judge. He glanced over it, all the while rocking gently, and
without a change of countenance handed it back to the clerk with the
quiet remark: "_The court remits the fine imposed on Dr. Finley._"
On landing in Vicksburg one day, and when walking to the hotel, he
was met by a man to whom he owed a small bill, who, after the usual
salutations of the day, said to the Judge: "I have some debts to pay,
and I wish you would hand me the small amount you owe me." "Sir," said
the Judge, "have you the audacity to ask me to pay my debts while
your own are unpaid? Go and pay your debts first, then you can with
propriety ask me to pay mine," and left him to analyze the sophistry of
his advice.
When Gen. Frederick Steele was sent to Deer Creek by Gen. Grant to
destroy all mills that could supply the garrison in Vicksburg with
flour, and bring away the live stock, he reached Judge Shall Yerger's
about noon, and he and his staff were invited to dine with them. Steele
gave positive orders only to break the machinery of the grain mill, and
to burn nothing. While they were at dinner a servant woman rushed into
the dining room and exclaimed: "O missus, the ginhouse is on fire."
Mrs. Yerger rose from her seat in great excitement, but the Judge said
in the most quiet manner: "Sit down, my dear, sit down; Gen. Steele's
troops are doing this complimentary to us for the hospitality shown
him." Gen. Steele left the table, and in every way tried to discover
who set the building on fire, and failed. Steele was a gentleman
always.
31st. This morning it was springlike, but after a while
far distant thunder was heard. Nearer and nearer it came,
until at last the storm burst on us in all its fury. The
rain was violent, accompanied with hailstones as large as
hen's eggs. Next, the wind veered around to the northwest,
and it became very cold and snow fell. After dark two men
brought to the office a benevolent man from Connecticut, a
prisoner, and some papers that were found on his person. From
these I discovered that he was cultivating some plantations
in cotton on the banks of the Mississippi, near Red River.
That he had permits from the Freedmen's Bureau to visit his
plantation between certain gunboat stations at will, etc. He
was, he argued, doing the work of a Christian in cultivating
abandoned lands, bringing wealth out of the earth, giving
employment to the idle, in making the slaves work, etc.
I asked him whose place he was on, or made his home. He
told me. I inquired if the owner was on the plantation. He
replied in the affirmative. To another question he said that
he occupied the dwelling and the proprietor the overseer's
house, and then gave the details of working the crop and
dividing the same. I did not agree with him, and told the
guard, who had heard all, to put him in the guardhouse in
the town. They wished to carry him to camp. I would not
permit it. Next day I sent him to Gen. Polk. He was no doubt
a charitable man, for he had left his New England home, and
was kindly cultivating these plantations to prevent them from
growing up in weeds and briers, but there were some _facts_
that upset his _theory_ of philanthropy.
January 1, 1864. It is very cold, and the ground is frozen
hard. I dined at Mr. Proctor's. Among the guests were Drs.
Langley and Thornton, Capt. Smith, and Mr. Whitfield....
7th. Received orders to move my command to Meridian. For want
of transportation, troops were not sent until the 9th. On
the 10th, when I left Brandon, people were sliding, and some
skating, on the pond near the depot. Ice two inches thick.
During the remainder of January there is nothing in my diary
worth recording here.
February 1. This morning I was directed to hold my division
in readiness to move to Jackson. On the evening of the 2d
I was sent for by Gen. Polk and told to move as soon as
possible. I reached Jackson at 5 P.M. on the 4th. I found
Gen. S. D. Lee about sixteen miles in front of Jackson
skirmishing with the enemy, who were advancing on Jackson
under Sherman. Telegraphed Gen. Polk that the enemy, 25,000
strong, was advancing, and their destination, _Meridian_.
Also wrote him to the same effect. I had now in Jackson
only 2,200 men, and I had no artillery horses, no wagons, no
ambulances.
5th. In constant communication with Gen. S. D. Lee and Gen.
Loring. I informed the latter that the enemy would be in
Jackson before he could get here. So Loring went to Madison
Station, and said he would cross the Pearl river at Culley's
Ferry. All stores were now sent to Meridian, and stores from
Brandon were ordered to be sent early. The enemy pressed Lee
hard. By every telegram Lee said he wished to swing to the
left and not cross the river, and remain west of the Pearl.
I telegraphed Gen. Forrest the strength and position of the
enemy. In the evening I received a dispatch from Polk to
continue labor on the railroad. Indiscreet order to execute
to-day, and I will postpone it. At 4 P.M. I crossed the river
and started the troops for Brandon, hastened the loading of
the trains, and then myself and staff returned to the city. I
found the Federal troops in possession of the western part of
the town, so we turned round and had a race with their troops
for the bridge (a pontoon bridge) and ordered it taken up. As
the end was being cut loose one of Gen. Lee's staff officers
(his doctor) sprung his horse on the bridge and cried out
that Lee's force was in the city and would have to cross
here. Replaced it. At this moment the enemy lined the high
bank and opened fire on us. We soon threw some of the plank
into the river and knocked the bottoms out of the boats. Lee
got out of the city by the Canton road. Under fire of their
batteries, in the dark, the infantry marched for Brandon.
Maj. Storrs, my chief of artillery, a most gallant man, was
left behind to get his horses out of the cars and bring on
the guns, which he did under fire of the enemy. I left a
squadron of cavalry to watch the enemy at the crossing. Next
day I moved on toward Barrett's mills.
On my arrival in Jackson I telegraphed Lee that I would join
him, and also sent to him my aid, Yerger, with the message
that I would join him and risk a battle if he advised it.
He thought it not proper to do so considering Loring had
declined to give battle. On the 7th, moved on and encamped
near Morton. I found Loring here with his division.
8th. This morning Loring placed the whole force present at
my command to face about, form line of battle, and give the
enemy a fight. I formed this line two miles from town. Some
skirmishing ensued. We held a good position and the troops
were in fine spirits, but the enemy would not attack us. At
a council held it was deemed best to continue to fall back
and await the arrival of Baldwin's Brigade and Lee with
his cavalry, so we marched all night to Hillsboro. All this
time the enemy spread the report that they were en route for
Mobile.
9th. Gen. Polk arrived this morning. He had been at Mobile,
caught the contagion, and ordered me at once to Newton
Station with the brigades of Quarles, McNair, Ector, and
Cockrell, there to take trains and proceed to Mobile, take
command, and defend the city, as I outranked Gen. Maury.
After a tedious march all night we reached the station,
thirty miles distant, by daybreak. Here I found trains enough
for the brigades of Quarles and McNair. These two brigades,
after arriving at Meridian, were carried to Mobile. About
noon Polk arrived and told me to remain, as Gen. Maury was
sent there by the War Department. Loring marched by dirt
road.
11th. This afternoon the brigades of Ector and Cockrell, and
the remaining batteries left for Meridian, where we arrived
before dark. These two brigades were detained, and did not go
to Mobile.
14th. At 7 P.M. started for Alamucha, and after a tedious
march encamped beyond the town. Next day marched to Gaston.
16th. Started early this morning, my division in advance.
Gen. Polk's headquarter wagons and _cows_ took the road to
Moscow, and we to Lewis's Ferry. Reached there at 11 A.M.
Found the engineers there with three steamers and three
(decked) scows, with which to make a pontoon bridge over
the Tombigbee. It was apparent that they would not span the
river. The steamer Admiral came down and "rounded to," and
then started down the river at full speed. She was necessary
for the bridge, so I sent the steamer Clipper after her, with
Lieut. Freeman and a guard on board, to capture her. She was
overtaken six miles below and brought back.
It was now 12 M., and nothing had been done to bridge the
river. My advanced train had reached the river at 2 P.M. the
day previous, and were crossing the wagons on scows, and by
dusk had eighty on the other side. At 1:30 P.M., Gen. Polk
arrived, and in his presence I remarked to the engineer
officer that "it was time to go to work," when the General in
an abrupt manner said: "If Gen. French pleases, I have given
my orders." Be that as it may, nothing had been done by his
orders to get the army over, and there would have been no
bridge had I not caught the steamer Admiral. When at last the
bridge was finished, all my division train had been ferried
over save six wagons, and it was about 2 A.M. before it was
all over. Then Loring's Division had to cross.
Gen. Polk had been an Episcopal bishop, and enjoyed the best the land
afforded. The matin songs of the birds disturbed not his morning
repose. The glorious sun rose too early for him to see it from the
mountain top. It showed its face there at an unseemly hour. But when
the "drowsy morn" was passed, and the milkmaid had drawn tribute from
the cows, and the coffee-pot was steaming on the hearth, and the light
rolls were hot by the fire, and the plump, fine capon, with sides
well lined with fat, was broiling on the coals, sending a savory odor
through the apartments, the Bishop would arise, his face radiant with
joy. He was a valiant trencherman, but when the repast was over he
threw aside the surplice. The priest became a warrior when he girded on
his saber, and sallied forth a paladin in the strife.
During all the long retreat from Jackson to this place we
have done but little fighting with the infantry. It has
nearly all been done by the cavalry and artillery.
18th. Moved to Demopolis and encamped there. It is very cold
and snow is falling. Mr. Fournier gave me rooms at his house.
He came to Demopolis with Gen. Le Febre, who came to the
United States after the abdication of Napoleon. I received
letters from home.
21st. Went to Judge Dixon's, a neighbor of mine, and we
attended divine service at the Episcopal Church. The Rt. Rev.
Bishop Wilmer preached an eloquent sermon. The congregation
is under the charge of Mr. Beckwith, who formerly resided
on Deer Creek and was acquainted with my family. [He was
afterwards Bishop of Georgia.]
26th. Left on a ten days' leave of absence to visit Columbus,
Ga. On the cars were Gens. Hardee, Loring, Withers,
and Walthall. On arrival in Columbus I went to Gen. A.
Abercrombie's in Russell County, Ala.; remained there till
Monday morning, and arrived in Demopolis on the 11th of
March; remained in camp there until the 31st, when I started
for Lauderdale with my division. In Demopolis I met many
agreeable families. Among them were Mr. Lyons, Fournier,
Glovers, Thornton, Lightfoot, Inges, Sheadwicks, and others.
I remained at Lauderdale, Miss., until the 20th of April,
when I received orders to move to Tuscaloosa. _En route_ I
passed through Gainesville, and entered Tuscaloosa on the
26th. I reviewed the troops one morning for Gen. Hodge,
and the same day I reviewed the cadets at the University of
Alabama. Among the pleasant people I met in Tuscaloosa were
W. S. and C. M. Foster, Misses Annie Fiquet, Belle Woodruff,
Cassady, Edden, Searcy, and others. I called to see J. E.
Davis, brother of the President.
_On the 4th of May Gen. Polk was ordered_ by Adj. Gen.
Cooper, also by Gen. Johnston, to move Gen. Loring and all
available force to Rome. A consequence of these orders was
that I, being at Tuscaloosa, Ala., received from Polk, at
Demopolis, at 9 A.M. on the 5th, orders to halt Sears's
brigade, then near Selma, and send it to Montevallo, a
station on the railroad to Rome, and concentrate my division
at Montevallo.
[Illustration: LEONIDAS POLK.]
At the time this order was received Cockrell's Brigade was partly away
up in North Alabama in the counties of Marion, Walker, etc., by order
of Gen. Polk. Ector's Brigade was with me in Tuscaloosa, and Sears's
north of Selma. Immediately orders were given to concentrate, as may be
found in "War Records," Vol. 38, Part IV., and in this volume will be
found many orders and letters pertaining to this movement.
Gen. Sears's Brigade, on May 5, was nearer Rome than Loring at
Demopolis, and was at Montevallo on the 9th when Gen. Polk arrived
there, and _could have been sent with him to Resaca_ had transportation
been provided. My diary records these vexatious delays, and that the
superintendent of the railroad received no orders to move my division
until Tuesday, the 10th, and that he was to have the cars there on
Thursday, the 12th. Polk's administrative ability was not largely
developed so as to anticipate the plainest necessity for coming events
if he were accountable for these delays and others.
May 7. We left Tuscaloosa for Montevallo. I found there the
brigade of Mississippians, commanded by Gen. Sears, that
is to form a part of my division. _On the 9th Gen. Polk
arrived._ He directed that five days' rations be cooked at
once, and that Sears's Brigade should leave that afternoon
for Blue Mountain by railroad. How easy it is to talk about
such things! There was no meal at the commissary's and no
cars for the troops.
10th. No trains yet; raining hard; Ector's Brigade arrived.
Sent all the artillery horses by wagon road.
11th. Rain, rain, and thunder, and no trains yet for the
troops. I wonder if there is a commander of this department.
12th. No trains yet. I resolved to march the troops, but met
Col. Sevier, of Polk's staff, and he assures me that he will
have transportation. Some of my men got on a passing train.
I am informed that no grain was sent up last night for the
artillery horses. Can it be that Gen. Polk knows nothing
about these matters?
13th. To-day I got the remainder of Sears's Brigade off;
and through the night, Ector's troops. Cockrell arrived with
his brigade. I had sent him, by order of Gen. Polk, north of
Tuscaloosa on an important expedition.
Struck tents and left for Blue Mountain. Sears was thirty-six
hours on a train. Such delays were distressing.
Rode this morning, the 16th, into Rome. Yesterday the enemy's
cavalry was within two miles of the city. Gen. Sears arrived,
and at 10 P.M. his brigade was sent on the cars to Kingston.
17th. Sent two batteries by dirt road, also by trains, to
Kingston. About 1 P.M. to-day, as I was putting Ector's
Brigade on the cars for Kingston, I was informed by Brigadier
Davidson that the enemy was within two miles of the town, on
the right bank of the Oostanoula river, and that he had but
one hundred and fifty men (mounted) to check them.
That you may the better comprehend the situation of troops, Federal
and Confederate, I will state that on the 13th Gen. Johnston, on
his retreat from Dalton, had reached Resaca, a town on the right
bank of the Oostanoula, and was there attacked by Gen. Sherman on
the 14th and 15th. On the 15th Sherman's army began crossing the
river, and our troops also. On the 16th both armies were south of the
river, Johnston's force falling back on Kingston and the Federals in
pursuit. Polk, with Loring's Division, was with Johnston at Resaca,
and two brigades of mine would have been there only for the want of
transportation at Montevallo as stated.
So when I found the enemy at Rome, no alternative presented itself
but to put Ector in the trenches over the Oostanoula, and hold the
town until Cockrell arrived, who was, in the morning, thirty-two miles
distant. A strong line of skirmishers was advanced, which was soon
engaged with the enemy. During the afternoon Gen. J. T. Morgan arrived
and said that his command was en route to Rome from Adairsville, and
that he and Gen. Furgerson were both hard pressed by the enemy. At
4 P.M. Gen. Ross (cavalry) arrived with two regiments. The men were
dismounted and placed on the hills. Davidson, with a few cavalry,
moved on the enemy's right. Then, at 6 P.M., Ross, with his men,
charged their line of skirmishers and drove them back to the main line.
Hoskins, with two guns and all the fragments of dismounted men and the
like, was placed on the hills north of the town on the left bank of the
river to at least intimidate the Federals. In this fight I did not lose
over one hundred men, and they were mainly from Ross's Brigade.
During all this day constant communications passed between me and Gens.
Polk and Johnston urging me not to fail to join the retreating army.
Cockrell's Brigade arrived at dusk, having marched thirty-two miles,
and were at once furnished cars and started for Kingston at 10 P.M.
Ector's Brigade reached Kingston at 7:30 A.M. Before we left Rome I
had all the horses, stores, sick, and wounded removed. When we reached
Kingston, on the 18th, I found Gen. Johnston moving, with his army, to
Cassville, and I marched my division there also, and joined Gen. Polk
and encamped near headquarters.
It was an error to not have had Polk's Corps concentrated and well in
hand to unite with Johnston to oppose Sherman's advance from Dalton,
considering the month of May was passing and the time for active
movements had arrived. As it was, they were widely separated. On the
4th of May Gen. Polk was ordered to concentrate his command at Rome.
From causes noted in my diary the last brigade did not reach there
until the 17th.
With Gen. W. T. Sherman, above Dalton, Ga., in command of a hundred
thousand men, it behooved either the War Department at Richmond, or
Gen. J. E. Johnston, in command of the Army of Tennessee, to have
concentrated the Army of Mississippi under the command of Gen. Polk,
and held it ready to join the Army of Tennessee; whereas it was widely
separated. April 26, I was in Tuscaloosa, Ala., and ordered by Gen.
Polk to send a brigade north to the counties as stated. The consequence
of all this was only one division of the Army of Mississippi reached
Johnston before the battle of Resaca was fought, on May 13-15.
CHAPTER XIV.
Cassville--The Line of Battle--Hood's Line Not
Enfiladed--History of that Conference--Two Lieutenant
Generals Invite Their Commander to a Council of War--Johnston
Obliged to Fall Back--We Cross the Etowah River--Dallas--New
Hope Church--Constant Fighting--Rain, Rain--Death of Lieut.
Gen. Polk--Battle of the Latimer House--My Division Occupies
Little and Big Kennesaw Mountains--The Battle--Incidents of
the Battle--Confederates Save Wounded Union Soldiers from
Burning--Kennesaw During Night Bombardment--Col. Martin's
Noble Conduct--The Irony of Fate--Maj. Poten and French
Soldier.
It will be seen that of those troops under Hood that were maneuvering
to attack the enemy advancing on our right, I was the last to leave
the position east of Cassville, for the whole line of battle was formed
before I fell back, and I would have been in reserve entirely had Hood,
as he should have done, extended his line to the left until it touched
Canty's Division.
May 19, 1864. This morning the army was formed in line of
battle. At first I was on the extreme right, but soon after,
by change of dispositions, I occupied the line from the
hills, on Loring's right, across the valley to the top of
the first hill on my right. Hood's Corps was on my right,
maneuvering to attack the enemy, but from some cause no
fight was made. After this line was formed Cockrell, who
was in reserve, was placed on a range of hills _south_ of
Cassville, and behind the town. _At 4 P.M._, I was ordered
to fall back and form _behind_ the division of Gen. Canty and
Cockrell's Brigade, which I did. But as there was an interval
between Hood's line and Canty without troops, I placed there
in position Hoskin's Battery and half of Ector's Brigade.
This left me Sears's Brigade and half of Ector's Brigade in
reserve. Then came an order adding to my command the division
of Canty, which was directly in front of me. Cockrell, on
Canty's left, was put, for the occasion, under the orders of
Loring.
About 5 P.M. our pickets from the extreme front were driven
in toward the second line by the enemy's cavalry. Hoskin's
Battery opened on the cavalry and checked them. About 5:30
P.M. the Federals, having placed some batteries in position
on a ridge in front of Hood's right, opened fire on our
line, and the shells from their extreme left (in _front_ of
Hood's right) enfiladed Hoskin's gun and the line that for a
little while curved out to the battery. Hood's line was not
a prolongation of Polk's line, because it _fell back_ at the
point of junction about twenty-five degrees. [See map in the
"War Records."]
After dark, as I was returning from dinner, I met Gen. Hood,
who asked me to ride over with him to see Gen. Johnston at
Gen. Polk's headquarters, and take supper.
[Illustration:
CONFEDERATE ARMIES of MISSISSIPPI & TENNESSEE
May 19th 1864,
under Command of General
J. E. JOHNSTON.
Army Tenn: Genl. Johnston.
Miss: Lt. Genl. Polk.]
When supper was over Hood and Polk asked Johnston to a conference
that they had previously arranged, and Johnston asked me to go with
him. At the conference, at this time, Hardee _was not_ present. Hood
commenced by declaring that his line and Polk's line were so enfiladed
by the Federal artillery that they could not be held. Polk was not so
strenuous. Johnston insisted on fighting, and my diary says:
At 9 P.M. it was, I am sure, determined to fight at
Cassville, and, after remaining at the conference sometime
longer, I hastened to camp to entrench. Soon after it was
intimated to me by an officer riding along past me that we
would fall back, owing to the enemy moving so far on our
left.
20th. At midnight we commenced to leave our position.
Skirmishers were left, and a few men in the trenches were
given axes to fell trees to deceive the enemy and drown the
noise made in withdrawing the artillery.
I am obliged, before I proceed any further, to make a digression here
in reference to the proceedings of this conference by reason of what
has been published about it.
Johnston, in his "Narrative," gives his version of what occurred,
and so far as what took place it is mainly correct. Hood, in his
"Advance and Retreat," makes an incorrect statement of the condition
of his line, and, whilst I was there, made no reference to being in
a good position for acting on the aggressive and making an attack.
His memory is defective, because in a letter of his, written to me
ten years after, he had entirely forgotten that I was present at the
conference. Then again, in October, 1894, there appeared in the New
Orleans _Picayune_ an anonymous article that endeavored to transfer
Polk's concurrence with Hood to not fight on to my shoulders. It was
so entirely erroneous--nay, purely imaginative--that it required me to
notice it for the benefit of my children, and it can be found in the
_Southern Historical Magazine_, Vol. XXII., pages 1 to 9, published in
Richmond, Va., January-December, 1894.
I regret that this fabulous _Picayune_ article, emanating in New
Orleans, was ever written on account of Gen. Polk. It made him appear
to be a weak man.
[Illustration:
NEW HOPE CHURCH, GA
1864
CHIEF ENGINEER'S OFFICE.
W. J. NORRIS chief Eng:]
21st. Yesterday we crossed the Etowah river and encamped
at an iron furnace in charge of Gen. G. W. Smith, who had
resigned from the army. Remained in camp all day. There
was some firing in the evening on the river below where
we crossed. I received orders to be ready to move in any
direction.
23d. Left Allatoona to-day at noon and marched until dusk,
then encamped for the night.
24th. Started at 4 A.M. and marched westerly toward Dallas.
Encamped in line of battle. Heard guns in the direction of
Dallas.
25th. This morning I moved still farther toward Dallas.
Enemy reported on the road from Rome, striking for, or below,
Atlanta. In the evening I rode along our front. I met Gen.
Johnston while riding toward New Hope Church. The enemy made
an attack on Gen. Hood's front. I returned immediately to
hasten up my command, and arrived about dark in the midst of
a thunderstorm. After placing troop in position during the
night, I slept by the roadside under shelter of a fence.
26th. Assumed line of battle and passed the day in
intrenching. Cheatham is on my right and Canty on my left.
During the night Cheatham moved to the left, and on the 27th
I extended in that direction. In the afternoon there was
an attack on Gen. Hood, which he repulsed. At midnight I
received orders to move my division to the right to relieve
the division of Gen. Stevenson, which was not completed until
4 A.M. I found the line a miserable one, and the enemy's
sharpshooters within twenty yards of the lines. I relieved
his skirmishers and his division left. The Yankees called
this place "hell hole," because, among other things, we
shot twenty-one of their men, one after the other, in one
rifle pit. Soon after sunrise the Federals opened fire with
infantry and artillery, and during the day it increased,
and once I thought we had to repulse a charge on the line.
A great many shells have passed overhead and some through
the top of a little apple tree at the foot of which we are
sitting. They come without invitation. During the night
there was such firing that I got up to ascertain if they were
driving Loring's picket line in, on my right over the valley.
I will remember New Hope Church.
29th. Firing not so heavy to-day as yesterday. I rode over
to Gen. Polk's at 5 A.M. Yesterday there was an attack on
the left made by Gen. Bate, and on the right by Gen. Wheeler.
My line is a hard one to defend. In the evening after dark I
was sent for by Gen. Polk, and found him at Gen. Johnston's.
While there the enemy made an attack on Canty and my left.
The firing was severe. During the night there was continuous
firing on the left, and after midnight heavy artillery
firing. Owing to the condition of the atmosphere, the roar
of the guns was increased, and the sound of bursting shells
overhead was like near by thunder, while the glare makes
night hideous, consequently I got no sleep. This is getting
to be interesting now, but the play is too long, it takes all
night.
30th. Col. Riley, a most gallant officer, is killed. There
is trouble again on Canty's line. Some people are always
in trouble. After dinner I went to Gen. Johnston's, and he
sent me to examine Canty's line. There is not much firing
to-night. The enemy's line is close to ours in front of
Canty. We want engineers. [Next day nothing to relate.]
June 1. I wrote to headquarters for tubes for Enfield rifles.
This morning there is an artillery duel going on between
one of our batteries and those of the enemy. Enormous trees
are falling from the shot. I formed an engineer company,
and put Capt. Venet in command of it. I examined the whole
line. Canty withdrew his line last night, leaving mine to he
maintained, now quite six hundred yards in advance, connected
only by their cross line.
2d. Gen. Ector was wounded this afternoon. An awful
thunderstorm came up, the peals of thunder were frightful,
and the Yankee tried to drown it with mimic artillery, as
if one at a time was not divertisement enough. Some people
can't be satisfied. The ditch is filled up to some depth with
water. Over this I sleep on one board with my face turned
up to the glare of the shells that shine through the closed
eyelids.
3d. Firing as usual, and the enemy moving to our right.
Another heavy thunderstorm is in progress. The roar of
artillery shakes the rain out of the clouds. We drove in the
enemy's skirmish line. One consolation the staff says we have
is that no one comes to see us; the ride is not interesting.
We see no one, and get no orders. That there is good in
everything, including shells, is their doctrine. This battle
has now lasted ten days.
4th. Rain again this morning. It was a disagreeable night in
the trenches. There is firing in front. I have good news from
Virginia. At 4 P.M. I received orders to withdraw our lines.
It is raining to-night. This, with previous rains, rendered
the roads as bad as they can well be, and the night was very
dark. Mud, mud everywhere, and the soldiers sink over their
shoe tops at every step. It took seven hours to move six
miles. At 7 A.M. on the morning of the 5th we were in line of
battle on Lost Mountain.
6th. I obtained a good night's rest. This morning I had to
change the line of battle. The view from this lone mountain
top is beautiful. It is about nine miles east of Marietta.
It swells from the plain solitary and lone to the height of
six hundred feet, affording a fine bird's-eye view of the
surrounding country. To the north the encampments of the
enemy are spread out below, and from hundreds of campfires
the blue smoke rises to float away as gently as though all
were peaceful. Beneath this silver cloud that hangs around
the mountain, there is an angry brow; the demons of war are
there.
7th. I slept in camp in the rear of the mountain, and for
once all is quietness. At 10 A.M. I was ordered to the
extreme right, and to the left at 1 P.M. All the information
I can deduce from a single equation, to which I have reduced
_five orders_ received verbally from Polk's staff, is: X
equal to a line to be formed in a dense wood 73 degrees
northeast. I found Loring plunging about in quest of some
center that is movable, and as invisible as the North Pole.
As I could not determine the value of X at dark, I concluded
to sleep the matter over on the ground where I am.
8th. This morning Maj. Prestman, engineer, examined the
ground for my line. It is a weak, faulty, miserable line. The
engineer took all my tools yesterday, so to-day I am unable
to construct any works. I have reported the matter to Gen.
Polk, but he is so much engrossed with fine-spun theories
that he fails to attend to things requiring prompt attention.
Well! just think of it! This staff of mine, unreasonable
fellows, wish they were back in the trenches again, where,
for about eight days, they were not troubled with orders.
Judge Wright came to see me. I have a high regard for him,
and have seen him several times lately. He is from Tennessee.
9th. Everything was quiet last night, and I heard no guns
until 3 P.M. My division was ordered to follow Loring's
toward the railroad. Contradictory orders again from Gen.
Polk's staff. I got into position at dark, and was called up
at 2 A.M. to change again by moving Ector's Brigade to the
right.
10th. Some skirmishing and artillery firing this morning.
At 1 P.M. a violent thunderstorm came up, and the rain
fell until dark. I believe it has rained now nine days in
succession. The enemy is reported advancing to-day, and the
firing shows it. In the evening I rode on the picket line
with Gen. Ector. Firing continued until dark.
11th. Rain.
12th. Rain once more, and everything is drenched. Enemy
firing with artillery from my front toward Kennesaw Mountain.
13th. Terrible rain last night and all day to-day till noon.
Eleven days' rain! If it keeps on, there will be a story told
like unto that in the Bible, only it will read,
It rained forty days and it rained forty nights,
And the ark it rested on the Kennesaw heights;
For to that place we are floating, it seems to me.
14th. This morning, by written orders (I am glad they have
found paper to write on), Loring went to the right, Canty
from the left to the center, and I extended to the right. No
rain! Telegram of Forrest's victory. During the morning I
rode over to Gen. Polk's quarters and asked him (when Gen.
Johnston rode with him to our left) to come down my line.
He said probably he would do so. Alas! "man proposes, God
disposes." I heard at 12 M. that he had been killed. I sent
an officer to his headquarters, and he returned saying that
the report was true. I then went immediately to his camp and
found that his remains had been sent to Marietta. I was very
much shocked at his untimely fate. A universal sadness seemed
to rest on the countenance of every one. He had accompanied
Johnston to the left and gone on Pine Mountain, and while
in front of our lines the party was fired on by one of
the enemy's batteries, and the third shot fired struck the
General on the left side and killed him instantly. Thus died
a gentleman and a high Church dignitary. As a soldier he was
more theoretical than practical.
I was ordered last night to be in readiness for an advance of
the enemy at 3 A.M. He came not.
15th. All quiet at sunrise. Soon after desultory firing
commenced along the line and continued until 3 P.M., when it
became quite heavy. Featherston had his skirmishers driven
in to their ranks. At 9 P.M. my skirmish line was attacked
unsuccessfully.
16th. Early this morning the enemy opened on my front with
a battery, and at 10 A.M. they shelled the picket line and
skirmish line very severely. At 3 P.M. they again shelled my
line for an hour without serious damage. Cockrell is held in
reserve for Gen. Hardee, and thus I am constantly holding a
reserve for some one else; never yet has a brigade been held
for me, and never, not once, have I asked for assistance.
17th. The now monotonous artillery awakened us this morning
to reveille _before_ we had made any parched ---- for coffee,
the unfeeling hirelings of _toute du monde_! Last night all
the troops on my left swung back and took a new line that
placed me in command of a salient with an angle of about
eighty-five degrees, liable to be enfiladed and taken in
reverse.
18th. Early this morning both pickets and skirmishers on
my left (Walker's Division) gave way and let the Federals
in behind Cockrell's skirmishers, and thus the enemy gained
possession of the Latimar House in my front. Ector's Brigade
skirmishers also came in. The way being clear, the enemy soon
advanced in line of battle, and with many guns enfiladed my
line all day. This constant firing never ceased, but I could
not induce them to come out and make an assault on my front
with infantry, and ere night came my loss was 215 men. Capt.
Guibor's Battery has lost more men (13) to-day than it did
during the entire siege of Vicksburg. Men became in time so
familiar with danger and death that, Gallio-like, they "care
for none of those things." Toward evening I was ordered to
withdraw from this line and occupy Kennesaw Mountain. This
was done during the night.
19th. Early this morning the enemy followed us, and soon the
skirmishing commenced, and by noon the artillery fire was
severe. It ranged up the slope and over the mountain with
great fury, and wounded Gen. Cockrell, and thirty-five of his
men were _hors du combat_.
The position of our army to-day is: Hood is on our right
covering Marietta or the northwest. From his left Polk's
Corps (now Loring's) extends over both Big and Little
Kennesaw Mountains, with the left on the road from Gilgal
Church to Marietta. From this road Hardee extends the line
nearly south, covering Marietta on the west. The left of my
division was established on the Marietta road; thence it ran
up the spur, or incline, of the mountain called Little or
West Kennesaw, and thence to the top of the same; thence on
up to the _top of Big Kennesaw_, where it connected with Gen.
Walthall's troops. Featherston was on the right of Walthall
and joined Gen. Hood. Walker, of Hardee's Corps, was on my
left. Then in order. Bate, Cleburne, and Cheatham came.
Kennesaw Mountain is about four miles northwest of Marietta,
It is over two and a half miles in length, and rises abruptly
from the plain, solitary and alone, to the height of perhaps
seven hundred feet. Its northwestern side is rocky and
abrupt. On the northerly and southerly extremities it can
be gained on horseback. Little Kennesaw, being bald and
destitute of timber, affords a commanding view of all the
surrounding country as far as the eye can reach, except where
the view is hidden by the higher peak. The view from this
elevation embraces Lost Mountain, Pine Mountain, and all
the beautiful cultivated plain, dotted here and there with
farmhouses, extending to the Allatoona Mountains, a spur of
the Great Smoky Mountains of North Carolina.
20th. Busy this morning in establishing batteries to command
the road, and others on the line extending up the mountain
and on the top of Little Kennesaw. I changed the line of
infantry lower down the side of the mountain fronting the
enemy, so as to command the ascent down as far as possible.
Lost ten horses and a few men killed and wounded to-day.
21st. I went to the top of the mountain this morning, and
while there witnessed an artillery duel between the batteries
on Hardee's lines and those of the enemy in front of it.
Rather interesting to look down upon, and more exciting than
a grand display of fireworks.
22d. The constant rains have ceased, the sky is clear, and
the sun, so long hid, now shines out brightly. Skirmishing (I
am tired of that word) on my line last night. I rode to the
top of the mountain quite early, to where I had placed nine
guns in position. During the night the enemy had moved a camp
close to the base of the mountain. It was the headquarters
of some general officers. Tent walls were raised, officers
sitting around on camp stools, orderlies coming and going,
wagons parked, soldiers idling about or resting in the shade
of the trees, and from the cook fires arose the odors of
breakfast, and all this at our very feet. It was tantalizing,
that breakfast, not to be tolerated. So I directed the powder
in a number of cartridges for the guns to be reduced, so as
to drop the shells into the camp below us. I left them in
their fancied security--for no doubt they believed that we
could not place artillery on the height above them, and they
were not visible to our infantry on the mountain side by
reason of the timber. How comfortable they appeared, resting
in the shade and smoking! At length the gunners, impatient
of delay, were permitted to open fire on them. Thunder from
the clear, blue sky could not have surprised them more. They
sprang to their feet, and stood not on the order of their
going, but left quickly, every man for himself, and soon
"their tents were all silent, their banners alone," like
Sennacherib's of old, and there was a deserted camp all this
day.
The enemy appeared this morning to be moving permanently to
our left, and the firing in the afternoon extended farther
in that direction, Toward dark I opened fire on the enemy's
batteries; also again at 11 P.M.
23d. Yesterday Gen. Cockrell had fourteen men wounded. During
the night the enemy removed their tents, wagons, etc., from
their abandoned encampment that was shelled yesterday, and
the place looks desolate. At 10 A.M., when all was quiet on
the mountain, the enemy commenced a rapid fire from guns put
in position during the night, and concentrated it on our guns
on the point of the mountain. Yesterday we had it all our own
way; to-day they are repaying us, and the cannonade is "fast
and furious." Last night there was fighting on our left, but
so different are the reports received that I cannot get at
the truth.
24th. There has been but little fighting during the day.
25th. The everlasting "pop," "pop" on the skirmish line is
all that breaks the stillness of the morning. I went early
to the left of my line, but could not ride in the rear of
Hoskin's Battery on account of the trees and limbs felled by
the shells. From the top of the mountain the vast panorama
is ever changing. There are now large trains to the left of
Lost Mountain and at Big Shanty, and the wagons are moving to
and fro everywhere. Encampments of hospitals, quartermasters,
commissaries, cavalry, and infantry whiten the plain here
and there as far as the eye can reach. Look at our side of
the long line of battle! It is narrow, poor, and quiet, save
at the front where the men are, and contrasts, with here
and there some spots of canvas amidst the green foliage,
strangely with that of the enemy.
The usual extension is going on. Troops of the enemy are
moving to the left, our left, to outflank us, and we lengthen
out correspondingly; and now the blue smoke of the musket
discloses the line by day trending away, far away south
toward the Chattahoochee, and by night it is marked, at
times, by the red glow of the artillery amidst the sparklike
flashes of small arms that look in the distance like
innumerable fireflies.
At 10 A.M. I opened fire on the enemy from the guns on
Kennesaw. The enemy replied furiously, and for an hour the
firing was incessant. I received an order to hold Ector's
Brigade in reserve. In the afternoon there was considerable
firing, and all the chests of one of my caissons were blown
up by shell from the enemy, and by the explosion of a shell
in one of the chests a gunner was killed. They have now about
forty guns in front of me, and when they concentrate their
fire on the mountain at any one point it is pretty severe,
but, owing to our great height, nearly harmless. Thousands
of their Parrott shells pass high over the mountain, and,
exploding at a great elevation, the after part of the shell
is arrested in its flight and, falling perpendicularly, comes
down into camp, and they have injured our tents. Last night
I heard a peculiar "thud" on my tent and a rattle of tin pans
by the side of my cot, and this morning my negro boy cook put
his head into my tent with the pans in his hands and said:
"See here, master Sam, them 'fernal Yanks done shot my pans
last night. What am I going to do 'bout it?" A rifle ball,
coming over the mountain, had fallen from a great height and
perforated the pans and penetrated deep into the earth.
26th. This is Sunday, and all is comparatively quiet on the
lines up to this 4 P.M., except one artillery duel, but now
cannon are heard on our extreme left.
27th. This morning there appeared great activity among the
Federal staff officers and generals all along my front and up
and down the lines. The better to observe what it portended
I and my staff seated ourselves on the brow of the mountain,
sheltered by a large rock that rested _between_ our guns and
those of the enemy, while my infantry line was farther in
front, but low down the mountain sides.
Artillery-firing was common at all times on the line, but
now it swelled in volume and extended down to the extreme
left, and then from fifty guns burst out simultaneously in my
front, while battery after battery, following on the right,
disclosed a general attack on our entire line. Presently, and
as if by magic, there sprang from the earth a host of men,
and in one long, waving line of blue the infantry advanced
and the battle of Kennesaw Mountain began.
I could see no infantry of the enemy on my immediate front,
owing to the woods at the base of the mountain, and therefore
directed the guns from their elevated position to enfilade
the blue line advancing, on Walker's front, in full view. In
a short time this flank fire down their line drove them back,
and Walker was relieved from the attack.
We sat there perhaps an hour enjoying a bird's-eye view of
one of the most magnificent sights ever allotted to man,
to look down upon a hundred and fifty thousand men arrayed
in the strife of battle below. 'Twere worth ten years of
peaceful life, one glance at their array!
Better an hour on this mountain top
Than an age on a peaceful plain.
As the infantry closed in, the blue smoke of the musket
marked out the line of battle, while over it rose in
cumulilike clouds the white smoke of the artillery. So many
were the guns concentrated to silence those three guns of
ours on the mountain brow behind us, and so incessant was the
roar of cannon and explosion of shells passing over our heads
or crashing on the rocks around us, that naught else could
be heard; and so, with a roar as constant as Niagara and as
sharp as the crash of thunder with lightning yet in the eye,
we sat in silence watching the changing scenes of this great
panorama.
Through the rifts of smoke, or as it was wafted aside by
the wind, we could see the assault made on Cheatham. There
the struggle was hard, and there it lasted longest. From
the fact that I had seen no infantry in my front, and heard
no musketry near, I thought I was exempted from the general
infantry attack. I was therefore surprised and awakened from
my dream when a courier came to me, about 9 o'clock, and said
that Gen. Cockrell wanted assistance, that his line had been
attacked in force. Gen. Ector was at once directed to send
two regiments to report to him. Soon after a second courier
came and reported an assault made on the left of my line.
I went immediately with the remainder of Ector's Brigade
to Cockrell's assistance, but on reaching him I found the
Federal assault had been repulsed. The assaulting column had
struck Cockrell's works near the center, recoiled under the
fire, swung around into a steep valley where, exposed to the
fire of the Missourians in the front and right and of Sears's
Mississippians on their left, it seemed to melt away, or sink
to the earth, to rise no more.
The assault on my line repulsed, I returned to the mountain
top. The intensity of the fire had slackened, and no movement
of troops was visible, and, although the din of arms yet
resounded far and near, the battle was virtually ended.
From prisoners, and from papers and diaries found in their
possession, I learned that my line, from its position, had
been selected for assault by Gen. McPherson, as that of
Cheatham's and Cleburn's had by Gen. Thomas.
[Illustration: BATTLE OF KENNESAW MOUNTAIN, JUNE 27, 1864.]
[Illustration: BATTLE OF KENNESAW MOUNTAIN--DEFEAT OF M'PHERSON'S
ASSAULT.]
Gen. McPherson was a distinguished officer, and it would be a
reflection on his judgment and skill as a general to infer that he did
not, under the eye of his commander, with ample men and means, make
what he deemed adequate preparations for its accomplishment; but owing
to the ground and the determined resistance encountered, his men by
intuitive perception, awakened by action, realized that the contest
was hopeless, and, where persistence was only death, very properly
abandoned the field.
Gen. Cheatham's loss was 195; mine (French's), 186; all other
Confederate losses, 141. Being a total of 552. What the Federal
loss was I do not know, but it was estimated at from _five to eight
thousand_.
The following orders of Gen. Sherman will explain the attack clearly;
and the telegrams the result of the battle.
HEADQUARTERS MILITARY DIVISION OF THE MISSISSIPPI, }
IN THE FIELD NEAR KENNESAW MOUNTAIN, June 24, 1864. }
The army commanders will make full reconnoissances and
preparations to attack the enemy in force on the 27th inst.,
at 8 A.M. precisely.
The commanding general will be on Signal Hill, and will have
telegraphic communication with all the army commanders.
1. Maj. Gen. Thomas will assault the enemy at any front
near his center, to be selected by himself, and will make
any changes in his troops necessary, by night, so as not to
attract the attention of the enemy.
2. Maj. Gen. McPherson will feign, by a movement of his
cavalry and one division of his infantry, on his extreme
left, approaching Marietta from the north, and using
artillery freely, but will make his _real attack_ at a point
south and west of Kennesaw.
3. Maj. Gen. Schofield will feel to his extreme right and
threaten that flank of the enemy, etc.
4. Each attacking column will endeavor to break a single
point of the enemy's line and make a secure lodgment beyond,
and be prepared for following it up toward Marietta and the
railroad in case of success.
By order of Maj. Gen. W. T. Sherman.
L. M. DAYTON,
_Aid de Camp_.
HEADQUARTERS MILITARY DIVISION OF THE MISSISSIPPI, }
IN THE FIELD, June 27, 1864, 11:45 A.M. }
_Gen. Schofield_: Neither McPherson nor Thomas has succeeded
in breaking through, but each has made substantial progress
at some cost. Push your operations on the flank and keep me
advised.
W. T. SHERMAN,
_Major General Commanding_.
HEADQUARTERS MILITARY DIVISION OF THE MISSISSIPPI, }
IN THE FIELD NEAR KENNESAW, June 27, 1864, 11:45 A.M. }
_Gen. Thomas_: McPherson's column marched near the top of
the hill, through very tangled brush, but _was repulsed_. It
is found impossible to deploy, but they hold their ground.
I wish you to study well the positions, and if possible to
break through the lines to do it. It is easier now than it
will be hereafter. I hear Leggitt's guns well behind the
mountain.
W. T. SHERMAN, _Major General Commanding_.
As nothing decisive was obtained by Sherman's attack, the fire
slackened, except on the skirmish line. After dark the enemy withdrew
to their main trenches, the roar of guns died gradually away, and the
morning of the 28th dawned on both armies in their former positions.
The battle of Kennesaw, then, was a display of force and an attack on
the entire length of our line by artillery and infantry, under cover of
which two grand attacks were made by assaulting columns, the one on my
line and the other on Cheatham's.
28th. After the battle of yesterday there is less activity in
front, and the enemy move about in a subdued manner and less
lordly style, and yet they resent defeat by a cannonade this
afternoon.
29th. Everything is quiet this morning, and so continued till
5:30 P.M., when they opened on our guns on Kennesaw with a
new battery to aid the previous ones. Perhaps they design
attacking my line again. A great number of shells fell in
camp, or rather they were fragments of shells bursting high
over the mountain. At dusk cannonading burst out again.
30th. Rather quiet this morning. At 2:30 A.M. last night we
were all aroused by a severe rattle of musketry on the left.
We got up and saddled our horses, but after about twenty
minutes the firing ceased and all was quiet till morning. It
appears that this night attack was caused by a false alarm.
This morning I rode to Marietta, it being the first time I
have left my line. This afternoon I went to the batteries
on the mountain with Gen. Mackell, and then again with Gen.
Stevens. There has been but little firing to-day.
July 1. After lying down last night I was aroused by some
shells passing overhead, and then again by some sharp
musketry on my left. The awful lies found in the newspapers,
manufactured by correspondents, lauding certain generals and
magnifying their victories, should ruin them.
This afternoon the enemy turned fifty-two pieces of artillery
on the three guns I have on the west brow of Little
Kennesaw, and continued the fire until long after dark.
Seldom in war have there been instances where so many guns
have been trained on a single spot. But it was only in the
darkness of the night that the magnificence of the scene
was displayed--grand beyond imagination, beautiful beyond
description. Kennesaw, usually invisible from a distance
at night, now resembles Vesuvius in the beginning of an
eruption. The innumerable curling rings of smoke from the
incessant bursting of shells over the mountain top, added to
the volumes belching forth from our guns, wreathed Kennesaw
in a golden thunder-cloud in the still sky, from which came
incessant flashes of iridescent light from shells, like
bursting stars. The canopy of clouds rolling around the peak
looked softer than the downy cotton, but ever changing in
color. One moment they were as crimson as the evening clouds
painted by the rays of the summer setting sun, and the next,
brighter than if lit by the lightning's flash, or bursting
meteors. However brilliant and varied and beautiful to the
sight, it was not one of pure delight, because it was not a
grand display in the clouds for amusement, and when it died
away, when silence came, and night threw her dark mantle over
the scene, there was no feeling of joy, only one of relief
from the excitement of hope and fear ever incident to the
wager of battle.
The good people of Marietta, who often watched from house tops these
scenes of excitement, will never forget them.
It was during this battle that one of the noblest deeds of humanity
was performed the world has ever witnessed. We have the Bible account
of the man who, "going from Jerusalem to Jericho, fell among thieves,"
and the good Samaritan who "had compassion on him and bound up his
wounds;" we have Sir Philip Sidney, and the generous conduct of a
French cuirassier at Waterloo who, seeing Maj. Poten, of the King's
German Legion, had lost his right arm, when about to cut him down,
dropped the point of his sword to the salute and rode away. The French
soldier was happily discovered, and received the cross of the Legion
of Honor. But here _we_ have "Col. W. H. Martin, of the First Arkansas
Regiment, of Cleburne's Division, who, seeing the woods in front of him
on fire burning the wounded Federals, tied a handkerchief to a ramrod
and amidst the danger of battle mounted the parapet and shouted to
the enemy: 'Come and remove your wounded; they are burning to death;
we won't fire a gun till you get them away. Be quick!' And with his
own men he leaped over our works and helped to remove them. When this
work of humanity was ended a noble Federal major was so impressed by
such magnanimity that he pulled from his belt a brace of fine pistols
and presented them to Col. Martin with the remark: 'Accept them
with my appreciation of the nobility of this deed. It deserves to be
perpetuated to the deathless honor of every one of you concerned in it;
and should you fight a thousand other battles, and win a thousand other
victories, you will never win another so noble as this.' Alas! alas!
The noble Col. Martin lived to return to his home. His lovely wife
died, leaving an only child. Broken-hearted, he sailed to Honduras, as
he said, to make a fortune for his little girl, and there, one day when
sailing in a small boat on the ---- river, with only a boy to help him,
the boom struck him on the head, knocking him overboard, where he was
drowned. Such is the irony of fate."[27]
CHAPTER XV.
Our Army Falls Back from Kennesaw--Confederate "Rebel
Yell"--Occupy Works on the Chattahoochee River--A. P.
Stewart Appointed Lieutenant General--Assumes Command of
the Army of Mississippi--Texas Brigade Fight to Obtain
Tools--We Cross the Chattahoochee--Arrival of Gen. B.
Bragg--Gen. Johnston Relieved--President Davis's Remark
about Relieving Johnston from Command--Johnston's Policy
versus Hood's--Battle of Peachtree Creek--We Occupy
Atlanta--Battle of Atlanta--S. D. Lee Assigned to Command of
Hood's Corps--Gen. Ector Wounded--Capt. Ward Killed--Battle
of July 28, 1864--I Apply to Be Relieved from Serving with
Hood--Gen. M. Jeff Thompson--Condition of the Camps of
United States Troops--Evidence of the Terrible Fire of Small
Arms--Evacuation of Atlanta--Jonesboro and Lovejoy's Station.
I left Kennesaw with regret. From its slopes we repelled the assaults
of the enemy, and from its top, where I loved to sit and witness the
almost daily conflicts, and hear the "Rebel yell" from away down the
throat, and the Federal cheer from the lips. The "Rebel yell" was
born amidst the roar of cannon, the flash of the musket, the deadly
conflict, comrades falling, and death in front--then, when rushing
forward, that unearthly yell rose from a thousand Confederate throats,
loud, above "the thunder of the captains and the shoutings," and
with the force of a tornado they swept on over the field to death or
victory. O how the heart throbs and the eye glares! As that yell is the
offspring of the tempest of the battle and death, it cannot be heard
in peace, no, never, never! The Federal cheer lives on, and is heard
daily in the land. That Confederate yell was never, as far as I know,
made when standing still. It was really an inspiration arising from
facing danger and death which, as brave men, they resolved to meet. Ye
children of peace can never hear it; wherefore I write of a sound that
was produced by environment ye will never have. It died with the cause
that produced it. The yell produced _awe_; the cheer indicated _joy_.
July 2. Not content with the waste of ammunition last
evening, the enemy commenced again at 4:15 this morning--the
heathens--and kept it up until 6 A.M. from every battery,
and from some guns until 11 A.M. I went up the mountain early
in the morning. The fire was not confined to my guns on the
mountain, but extended some distance down the line. All this
was intended, no doubt, to hold Johnston's main force on his
own right while they moved to our left, flanking as usual.
At 1 P.M. I received orders to withdraw my division to-night,
and did so at 10 P.M.
3d. The regiments left in the trenches and the skirmishers
did not leave until 3 A.M. Owing to detention of the trains,
etc., we did not reach our new position until after daylight.
I went to work intrenching our line--and it is a bad one.
Soon in the morning the enemy drove in our cavalry, and by
noon had out his skirmishers and artillery to the front. It
is wonderful how well our soldiers understand this falling
back. Never before did an army constantly fight and fall
back for seven weeks without demoralization, and it plainly
establishes the intelligence and individuality of the men.
4th. The shelling this morning was very severe. This caused
the Mississippi Brigade to seek protection in this way: They
used the shingles from a house for spades, and bayonets for
picks, and thus in a few minutes the men were in a shallow
ditch. My men in rifle pits were shelled out and driven in.
We were ordered to fall back to-night, which was done with
much difficulty.
5th. At 3 A.M. we were on the retreat, and it was well
executed by the troops, and we came into Vining Station ahead
of the other divisions. Some sharpshooters with Whitworth
rifles and a lieutenant of Hoskin's Battery were left in
camp asleep, and they barely escaped capture. We were now on
the right bank of the Chattahoochee river. The right of my
line was a small redoubt east of the railroad (Western and
Atlantic), thence it crossed it, thence across the Marietta
dirt road, etc. At 10 A.M. the enemy swept the whole plain
with shells down to the river. I established headquarters
with Gen. Walthall in an old log house by the roadside.
6th. The enemy is quiet this morning. Yesterday the impolite
followers of Sherman came near spoiling our dinner as we sat
on the ground eating, by sending a twenty-pound Parrott shell
near enough to throw the sand about and over it.
7th. This morning I rode along the lines with Gens. Loring
and Shoup. Gen. A. P. Stewart, having been promoted to
a lieutenant general, assumed command of the Army of
Mississippi. After the death of Gen. Polk I unhesitatingly
said that Gen. Stewart would be promoted. I rode along the
whole of his command with him.
8th. The enemy keep up a sharp fire on our skirmish line at
night. They evidently are apprehensive that we will cross the
river at night, for during the day they are quiet.
As we have no tools for throwing up breastworks, Gen. Ector
came to me for permission to move a regiment to his front in
the woods, from where he had swung back, so as to attack the
enemy when they came out to establish a picket line. This
he did successfully, and returned with good picks, spades,
and steel axes (ours were cast iron) that will cut wood.
Shingleur, Robinson, and Yerger, aids, are all sick.
9th. About 9 A.M. the enemy attacked the line of skirmishers
in front of Sears's Brigade with force and drove them from
their pits. Col. Barry advanced the Thirty-Sixth Mississippi
Regiment, under command of Maj. Parton, and forced them back,
captured their line, and drove them nearly to their main
works, and reëstablished ours. Prisoners were captured from
five different regiments. Our loss was fifty-two men in all.
After this they shelled my line for hours. About 2 P.M. the
enemy commenced a slow cannonade on my front, and continued
it till dark. The twenty-pound Parrotts passed over our
quarters constantly and exploded in the road.
This P.M. I was sent for by Gen. Stewart, and received orders
to withdraw my command across the river by the railroad
bridge. After all were crossed both the railroad and dirt
road bridges were burned. We moved on toward Paces' Ferry,
and bivouacked by the wayside.
10th. The morning has been quiet, and the wearied troops
have rested. This retrograde movement was caused by the
enemy crossing the river above, near Roswell. The works
of Gen. Shoup, with its stockades, did not give Johnston
spare troops enough to prevent this movement of the enemy.
Thus we are constantly outflanked by a superior force not
disposed to attack us behind any kind of works. At 4 P.M.
it commenced raining, and then artillery firing began at the
railroad crossing and farther down the river. Now for nearly
two months we have had daily firing, save only one day when
on Lost Mountain. Gen. Ector was left to guard the railroad
crossing and the river, above and below. This was on the
11th.
12th and 13th. The camp is filled with rumors. The enemy
is reported to have crossed the river and then gone back.
I rode to Stewart's headquarters, and thence to Atlanta. I
saw Capt. Maupin in the hospital. Poor fellow; he was shot,
at the Latimar House, through the breast. I went to see Gen.
Johnston, and found Gen. Braxton Bragg there. He comes from
Richmond. What is his mission? Who knows? Is Sherman on this
side of the river? Has Grant's failures in Virginia, and
Early's invasion of Pennsylvania, affected movements down
here? A few days will determine. O for brighter days for the
Confederacy! I have been obliged to order the guards to fire
on the cavalry when they go in the river to bathe with the
Federal cavalry. Federals never venture in unless our men
are bathing. Our men are not seeking fords; they are. This is
what they are looking for.
14th, 15th, 16th. We remained in bivouac, and nothing unusual
occurred. We are still anxious to learn more about Early in
Maryland. There is the usual amount of firing on our front.
Sunday, 17th. The enemy commenced a more rapid and continued
fire from their batteries near the railroad bridge, where
I have pickets. This, as usual, presages some movement. And
here it is: "Hold your command ready for a movement." It does
seem strange that we cannot have one quiet Sabbath. Sherman
has no regard for the Fourth Commandment. I wish a Bible
society would send him a prayer book, instead of shipping
them all to the more remote heathen; but it would be the
same in either case. The one is wicked by nature; the other,
I fear, is becoming so from habit. Perhaps "Tecumseh" has
something to do with it. There is much in a name.
18th. I moved into a position where my left rested on the
Marietta road, and commenced intrenching at night. Gen.
Johnston was relieved on yesterday from the command of this
army, and Gen. J. B. Hood assumed command by orders from
Richmond. Early this morning I rode down to army headquarters
and bade Johnston good-by.
And here I will state the conversation that occurred between Hood
and me. I told him that I was sorry Johnston had been relieved; that
I had often, when in Mississippi, talked with him concerning the
manner of conducting the war; but "now that you are in command, I
assure you I will serve under you as faithfully and cheerfully as with
him." Although he took my hand and thanked me, I was ever afterwards
impressed with the belief that he never forgave me for what I said.
[Illustration: A. P. STEWART.]
Now, since I have alluded to it, I will state that in our conversation
I agreed with Johnston that our success mainly depended on breaking the
enemy down financially, by procrastinating the war; that to do this the
strength of the army in the East and in the West should be maintained;
that the armies upheld the government, and a great defeat would be
disastrous.
It was because we could obtain no more recruits that Grant refused to
exchange prisoners and receive the Andersonville prisoners and return a
like number to increase the ranks of Lee's army. Here is Grant's letter
on exchange of prisoners:
CITY POINT, August 18, 1864.
To Gen. Butler.
On the subject of exchange, however, I differ from Gen.
Hitchcock. It is hard on our men held in Southern prisons
not to exchange them, but it is humanity to those left in
the ranks to fight our battles. Every man released, on parole
or otherwise, becomes an active soldier against us at once,
either directly or indirectly.
If we commence a system of exchange, which liberates all
prisoners taken, we will have to fight on until the whole
South is exterminated. If we hold those caught, they amount
to no more than dead men. At this particular time to release
Rebel prisoners North would insure Sherman's defeat, and
would compromise our safety here.
As Gen. Grant discusses the humanity of his acts, I will compare
it with what other distinguished men have written on the subject of
exchange of prisoners.
Carthage, dispirited by her losses, wished for peace. For this purpose
ambassadors were dispatched to Rome. Regulus (a prisoner in Carthage)
was sent with the ambassadors to further the exchange, bound by an oath
to return to Carthage in case of a failure to make peace or exchange
of prisoners. He dissuaded his countrymen from agreeing to either
proposition, and, bound by his oath, returned to Carthage, where he
well knew torture and death awaited him.
Cicero applauds Regulus in both particulars in returning to Carthage.
Sir Walter Raleigh commends Regulus in maintaining the obligation of
his oath, but in dissuading the Senate not to agree to exchange of
prisoners he condemns his inhumanity, which no good reasons of state
could justify.
However, be this as it may, one thing is certain, and that is that the
inhumanity, if there were any, was assumed by the act of the United
States (the North) in refusing to mitigate their sufferings on both
sides by not exchanging prisoners, and it releases the South from the
charge of all suffering incident, always, to prison life.[28]
O! had the gifted Senator from Georgia, Benjamin H. Hill, known of
the existence of this letter defining the policy of the North in the
treatment of prisoners of war, he would have vanquished his antagonist,
Hon. J. G. Blaine, and silenced the jingoes and stopped the waving of
the bloody shirt to fire the Northern heart against the South.
In a private conversation with President Davis he told me that so great
was the pressure made on him by deputations, committees, individuals,
officials, and the press demanding to know if Atlanta and the State
of Georgia were to be given up without a battle for its preservation,
that he was reluctantly obliged to relieve Gen. Johnston to satisfy the
clamorous demands made for a halt and a battle in defense of the State
while the army was in the mountainous region, and so he yielded to the
cry of the people.
20th. This morning it was resolved to attack the three corps
of the enemy that were on the Peachtree creek and separated
from the corps that were near Decatur. Sears's Brigade being
on duty on the river and creek, I moved with the brigades
of Cockrell and Ector to the right and formed line of battle
in front of the Ragdale House. This position was the extreme
left of the army.
The plan of battle was a good one. Hardee was to gain the
enemy's rear, swing to the left, taking their line in flank,
while we attacked the line in front in echelon of brigades
as the battle swept down the creek. Walthall was on my
right, and I was to keep within about three hundred yards of
him. In advancing I came to an open field in front of the
enemy. Their line was fortified, with two field batteries
in position that kept up a continuous fire on my line. Gen.
Loring's troops broke through the enemy's line of works.
Reynolds and Featherston had to abandon the captured line
by reason of the flank fire on them. The failure of Hardee
deranged the plan of battle. After dark we withdrew.
22d. I had a slight skirmish with the enemy yesterday. We got
twenty-four of them. Last night the army occupied Atlanta. My
division formed the extreme left of the army. My headquarters
are at Mr. Jennings's house, and the line crosses the road
to Turner's Ferry and runs toward the Western and Atlantic
railroad. Preparations are being made to attack the enemy's
left wing over toward Decatur. Noon has passed, and there has
been no infantry-firing yet, only the booming of artillery;
but about 4 P.M. the volleys of musketry fell on the ear,
died away, and then burst out anew, and did not cease until
dark, when they receded in the distance, indicating the
advance of our troops. The fruits of the victory are reported
to be twenty-four pieces of artillery and three thousand one
hundred prisoners. With it comes sad regrets for the death of
Gen. W. A. T. Walker on our side, and Gen. McPherson, United
States army, on their side.
27th. Nothing has occurred, save the usual siege firing,
since the 22d. This morning when I was at Ward's Battery
there was some artillery-firing, and a shell exploded
overhead, striking Gen. Ector above the knee, requiring
amputation, and Capt. Ward, mortally wounding him. I sent
them to my quarters and thence to our hospital. Ward was an
accomplished gentleman and a brave soldier. I wrote to Mrs.
Ward, trying to console her in her bereavement. Gen. Ector in
due time was walking by the aid of crutches. Gen. S. D. Lee
to-day was assigned to the command of Hood's Corps.
28th. I rode to Gen. Stewart's and heard that the enemy was
moving to our left. I then went to Hood's. Knowing that four
divisions had been moved to my left, I felt assured that a
battle was pending. S. D. Lee was in command. About 1 P.M.
it began, and continued four hours. By request of Walthall
I sent them Guibor's guns and Ector's Brigade. The attack
was a failure because it was fought by weak detailed attacks
instead of a consolidated force. Gen. Stewart was struck by
a partly spent ball in the forehead, and Loring was wounded.
As soon as I learned the position of the enemy I opened fire
on them from my rifled thirty-two pounders and continued the
fire slowly all night.
29th. All is quiet this morning. I rode to corps
headquarters, and found that both Stewart and Loring had
left, which made me commander of the corps, but to my
surprise I found that Hood had placed Cheatham in command.
I wrote to Hood in regard to the matter. Hood's act was in
keeping with the intriguing so ruinous to this army, and I
asked to be relieved from serving in it any longer.
31st. Nothing unusual happened yesterday. To-day is Sunday,
and it dawned as though peace had spread her white wings
over the land, for not a gun has yet been heard, and so it
continued most of the day. Divine service was held in the
brigades, and in the pond in front of my quarters a baptism
took place.
August 1. My command was extended to cover Walthall's
original front. I made a call on Gens. G. W. Smith and R.
Toombs, and wrote to Richmond. This P.M. the enemy commenced
artillery fire on the redoubt in front of my house. One shell
killed a mule in the yard, another broke my wagon tongue,
while a third knocked the pipe from Hedrick's (my orderly)
mouth, etc. My application to be relieved from duty was
returned disapproved, and I was informed that I would not be
relieved. So on August 2 I wrote to the Adjutant General to
be relieved from command in or serving with this army.
2d, 3d, 4th, 5th. [To transcribe my diary for these days
would only be a reiteration of daily siege attacks.]
6th. I made a demonstration on the enemy this morning in
his works in my front to aid Lee on our left. I moved my
left over a mile to the front and attacked the enemy on his
skirmish line and then their main line, but it was done
at the expense of Lieut. Motherhead killed, Maj. Redwine
wounded, and forty-three men killed and wounded. I was
directed to make this demonstration; ordinarily they do but
little good against old soldiers, because they know so well
that they would not be attacked behind their works seriously
unless by massed troops. Neither will they attack ours. In
the afternoon they shelled my line complimentary to my attack
in the morning. How polite they are in returning attentions!
Bad news received from Mobile. It is reported that the United
States fleet has passed Fort Morgan and is now in the bay.
8th, 9th. I gave my large map of the Yazoo Valley to Gen. M.
L. Smith, who sent it to Macon to be copied, one copy for the
commander of the Department of Mississippi, and the other for
the War Department. I rode along the lines with Gen. Sears,
who has returned. Cockrell also got back yesterday. While I
was at Col. Young's the enemy commenced shelling, and it has
continued ever since, full seven hours. So far it has done
but little damage. Very many shells have fallen close by,
and exploded over the house, and it has become anything but
a pleasant residence, and at night disturbs pleasant dreams.
I sent a letter to the President on the matter of Gen. Hood's
conduct in the assignment of Cheatham to Stewart's Corps
during his absence.
10th and 11th. I rode out to our hospital this morning. The
enemy seems disposed to get possession of my vidette line,
which I have maintained up to this time. When the siege began
I sent for my principal officers and told them all that I did
not intend my camp should be rendered unpleasant from rifle
balls, that the vidette line away in front must be held; that
the picket line five hundred yards in front should be strong,
and on it the fighting should be to the last extremity. The
result of this course has been that my men are entirely free
from annoyance, except from some artillery fire, and that is
foolishly directed at our redoubts. I use artillery on their
infantry camps and lines so as to destroy their rest both
day and night. See the difference! While we sleep in safety,
in some parts of the lines around the city no one can move
without drawing the fire of the Yankees on themselves, so
near are the lines together.
12th to 17th. [The diary is too full of detail to record
here, so I will merely remark that the everlasting fire
continues on my picket line, and their guns shell my
redoubts.]
17th. Gen. Stewart came to my quarters early this morning,
at 6 A.M., and we went along the line. We returned and had
breakfast. Then the artillery, as usual, began at the redoubt
in front of the house. As the shells crossed the road on
both sides of the house, it was dangerous to leave, and he
remained an hour or more.
In the evening I was sitting on the fence enjoying my pipe
while watching the explosion of the shells, when who should
ride up but Gen. M. Jeff. Thompson, and he was invited to
our quarters. I could not keep from laughing. I have an
illustrated copy of the illustrious Don Quixote, and here was
a duplicate picture, or rather here before me was the Don
himself, in form and features, and if Sancho had seen Jeff
he would have called him "Master." He passed the night with
us, entertaining us with his adventures in the West. In the
morning he went to see his Missouri friends.
18th. The Yankees must be angry. Because my batteries dared
to wake them up with a few shells they raised--well--(I
begin it with a "w") and never ceased until 2 P.M., and they
threw not less than two thousand shot at us, and accomplished
nothing, only one shell went by accident through our house.
19th, 20th, 21st, 22d. These days witnessed the usual
expenditure of ammunition. On the 21st Lieut. Col. McDowell
was killed in the rear of our second skirmish line. What
an excellent man and gallant officer gave his life for the
Confederacy! Peace to him and his friends!
23d. Firing as usual.
24th. The enemy fired hot shot on the city all last night,
and to-day they set on fire some cotton, and burned a few
houses.
25th. I wrote to Judge Ould. Firing as usual.
26th. This morning at daylight I was informed that the enemy
had abandoned their works on my right and front nearly to
my left. I found everything in their works horribly filthy,
and alive with "dog" flies to such an extent that our horses
could not be managed. The clothing, new and old, was covered
with vermin. My servant boys carried some jackets home that
had to be buried. Their line of works was very strong. I
found the brick furnace where they made "shot red hot" to
fire day and night at intervals to burn the city. At first
little "niggers" got their fingers burned picking them up to
sell to the ordnance department. Again on my skirmish line
this evening was another good officer killed. Lieut. Col.
Samuels fell from a rifle ball. From Decatur all the way
around to the Turner's Ferry road the enemy has moved to our
left.... There are no flies or vermin in our camp--strange
but true.
27th. I made a reconnoissance with two brigades and artillery
to Turner's Ferry over the Chattahoochee river. We had a
fight there and captured some prisoners. They told me that
the place, as I could see, was strongly fortified; that the
Twentieth Corps (Hooker's) occupied the work; that Hooker had
gone and Slocum was in command. I think they told me this,
although not named in my diary. We slept in peace.
28th. I rode through the city. To give you an idea of the
terrible musketry fire, in an open field between their picket
line and mine one brigade picked up about five thousand
pounds of lead balls that had been fired on the lines. The
ground was literally covered with them--oxidized white like
hailstones. Trees three and four inches in diameter in front
of my line were cut down by balls. The lead was sold to the
ordnance officers, and the weight was thus known.
29th. 30th. Our troops are moving to the left. Six of our men
crossed the river and captured nine men and two wagons.
31st. Featherston and Walthall have been withdrawn from the
city. My division and some State troops under the charge of
Gen. G. W. Smith alone are in the city to-day. Some cavalry
scouts followed my scouts nearly into the city. Firing is
heard on our left. The railroad to Macon was cut to-day. This
is unpleasant news.
September 1. This morning the news is that Hardee had failed
to dislodge Sherman from his position. Everything indicates
that Atlanta is to be abandoned, and before noon the order
came. I became the rear guard. There is confusion in the
city, and some of the soldiers in the town are drunk. Common
sense is wanted. The five heavy guns that I had ordered to be
spiked by the rear guard at 11 P.M. were burned by order of
the chief of ordnance at 5 P.M., a proclamation to the enemy
in my front that we were evacuating the place. As soon as
I started to leave the works some of Hood's officers fired
the ordnance trains. This should have been done the last of
all, when the rear guard or pickets were withdrawn. Who would
extinguish an ordnance train of bursting shells? So lighted
by the glare of fires, flashes of powder, and bursting
shells, I slowly left Atlanta, and at daylight on the morning
of the 2d we were not five miles out of the city. I started
soon after for Lovejoy's Station.
3d. Featherston took the advance. Last evening artillery
was heard at Lovejoy's Station. Hardee was holding in check
all of Sherman's army except the Twentieth Corps, and we are
marching to his assistance. I passed S. D. Lee's Corps on the
road. It was yesterday at Rough and Ready. This is attacking
_in detail_ as usual. On arrival my division was ordered to
relieve Gen. Brown's. After dark I was ordered to move to my
left and Gen. Guist to his right to exchange positions. This
was a deliberately planned _trick_ of Hardee's to put me in
one side of a salient angle that was subject to a reverse
fire of artillery from the enemy.
4th. This morning cannonading was not so rapid.
5th. Last night I made a change of position. Firing as usual.
While I was on the line Capt. Kennedy (Mrs. Bowen's brother)
and four others were killed and five wounded. During the day
I lost forty men.
6th. It was now discovered that the enemy were falling back
to take possession of Atlanta, now abandoned. Gave Cockrell
permission to pursue them, and he skirmished with their rear
guard and killed many of them and returned with over twenty
prisoners.
7th, 8th, and 9th. [Diary records no important events.]
10th. A communication from Sherman to Hood was received
stating that the citizens of Atlanta must leave. Those who so
elect will be sent to the North. The remainder will be sent
South. The work is to commence on Monday. There are about
eighteen thousand people in the city. I am told that he also
offers to exchange prisoners, provided he should receive only
men who have yet two years to serve in the United States
army. Prisoners who have served out the period of their
enlistment, or have only a short time to serve, will not be
received. Gen. Loring returned to-day.
CHAPTER XVI.
_THE BATTLE OF ALLATOONA._
From Lovejoy's to Lost Mountain--Big
Shanty--Acworth--Destroying Railroad--In the Rear of
Sherman--Situation of the Two Armies--Orders to Destroy
the Etowah River Bridge--To Fill Up the Railroad
Cut at Allatoona--Hood Not Aware that Allatoona Was
Fortified and Garrisoned--March to Allatoona--Summons to
Surrender--No Answer--Gen. Corse's Report Erroneous--The
Fortifications--Strength of Forces--Equalization of
Forces--Some Federal Dispatches--The Battle--Corse's
Account--Col. Ludlow's Description--Desperate Fighting--The
Main Line Captured--Enemy Driven into an Interior
Fort--Dispatches from Gen. Armstrong Respecting Movements
of the Enemy at Big Shanty--Withdraw to Avoid Being
Surrounded by Converging Forces--Corse's Dispatch to
Sherman--Provisions--Confederates Three Days and Nights
without Rest or Sleep--Pass by the Enemy--Evangelist P. P.
Bliss Writes the (Gospel) Hymn, "Hold the Fort"--Hood and
His Erroneous Publications in His Book--His Admiration for
Corse--My Admiration for the Confederates--The Soldier's
Grave--The Lone Grave--Lieut. Gen. A. P. Stewart's Note in
Regard to This Account of the Battle.
September 29. This morning Loring's, Walthall's, and my
divisions moved on the Pumpkinton road and _crossed the
Chattahoochee river_ and encamped beyond Villa Rica. The
following day we marched to near Brownsville Post Office.
Saturday, October 1. I remained in camp. At 10 A.M. all the
division commanders were invited to Gen. Hood's headquarters,
and the object of the move was discussed. I found in the room
on my arrival Gens. Stewart, S. D. Lee, Loring, Walthall,
Stevenson, and Clayton. As soon as I entered the room Hood
said to me: "Gen. French, what do you think Gen. Sherman
will do now?" I replied: "I suppose he will turn southwest
and move on to Mobile; or he may go to Augusta to destroy
our powder mills, and then make for Charleston or Savannah."
"In that event do you believe he can sustain his troops on
the march if our cavalry lay waste the country before him?"
I answered: "He will find all he wants as he moves on." To
this Hood replied: "Well, I have nothing to do with that,
as the President has promised to attend to that matter."
Every officer present disagreed with me save Gen. S. D. Lee.
He thought all would have difficulty to subsist except the
cavalry.
[Illustration: ATLANTA CAMPAIGN
FROM ETOWAH RIVER TO ATLANTA.]
On the subject of destroying Sherman's communications my diary says:
I was in favor of an immediate move on the railroad above
Kennesaw with the _whole army_, and expressed my regrets at
the delay.
I received orders to move to-morrow. We were requested to
inform the brigade commanders of the object of moving in
the rear of Sherman's army, and they were to inform the
regimental and company officers.
2d. I left camp and marched to Moon's, and this brought us to
the same ground we occupied on the 24th of May.
3d. When Sherman discovered that Hood had crossed the
Chattahoochee and was marching to obtain possession of his
line of communication, he immediately adopted measures to
defeat Hood's plans and give him battle.
The general situation of the two armies to-day is: Sherman's
main body of troops is at Atlanta, with garrisons at the
Chattahoochee, Vining's, Marietta, Kennesaw, Big Shanty,
Moon's, Acworth, Allatoona Creek, Allatoona fortifications
garrisoned by just about one thousand men, Gen. Elliott,
chief of cavalry, with his command at Kennesaw, Gen. J. E.
Smith, with his division, at Cartersville, Gen. J. M. Corse
at Rome with a division, and the garrisons at important
places on up to Chattanooga, as disclosed by the movements
of troops, dispatches sent directing their movements, and
subsequent information.
Hood's army marched to Lost Mountain, where he remained with
two corps, while Stewart's Corps went thence in the rear
of the enemy's line of fortifications to Big Shanty. Gen.
Featherston captured some forty prisoners at Big Shanty, and
commenced destroying the railroad. Loring, sent to Acworth
(near Allatoona), captured about two hundred prisoners, and
Walthall took seventy prisoners at Moon Station. All night
every one was hard at work destroying the railroad, and the
next day by noon we had about eight miles of the track taken
up and the rails twisted.
4th. At noon, when filling up the railroad cuts at Big
Shanty, I received orders to fill up the deep cut of the
railroad at Allatoona, and then, if possible, destroy the
railroad bridge over the Etowah river. About this time some
one living near by told us that the enemy had fortifications
at Allatoona, well garrisoned and commissary stores there.
Under these peculiar orders (which will be given in full
hereafter in my report) I left Big Shanty with my division at
3 P.M. for Acworth and thence to Allatoona, while Loring and
Walthall were ordered in the direction of New Hope Church.
I was now entering the zone of active movements of the
Federals, and away from all support, and all support from me,
and the enemy converging on Allatoona from all directions. I
reached Acworth about dark, and was detained there till 11
P.M., awaiting rations and getting some one for a guide. I
saw camp fires of the enemy east of the railroad and north
of Kennesaw, and night signals from Allatoona to Kennesaw.
From two young ladies, who to-day had visited Allatoona, I
obtained the name of the commander there, and the probable
strength of the enemy in the several works. I also succeeded,
through some of the citizens, in getting a boy for a guide.
I moved from Acworth about 11 P.M., and on arriving at
Allatoona Creek I left there the Fourth Mississippi Regiment
and one piece of artillery, with instructions to burn the
bridge and capture the garrison of one hundred men in the
blockhouse. When at Acworth I sent fifteen men from a Capt.
Taylor's company of cavalry, Pinson's Regiment, to strike
the railroad near the Etowah river and tear up the track
to prevent reënforcements from reaching Allatoona. I moved
on then from the creek, and arrived before Allatoona about
3 A.M. All was darkness; nothing could be seen except
occasional lights flitting about the place. I put the
artillery, eleven guns, in position, or rather left them
in what the guide said was a good place, and also left two
regiments of Ector's Brigade under Col. Andrews as a support
to them. With the guide directing, I moved the division to
gain the flank and rear of the line of works. There were
five detached works on the high ridge through which the
Western and Atlantic railroad runs. No road leads to this
ridge except the Cartersville road, that ascends the ridge
by a winding ascent, and enters the works, passing within a
few feet of the main redoubt, under its guns, and then runs
on the crest of the ridge for two hundred and fifty yards
to where it passes out through the fortifications. So the
guide directed us through the dark _woods_ and up the steep,
rugged, rocky _hills_, and down into deep _valleys_ until we
were lost, and the guide acknowledged that he could not find
the way. This determined me to stop and rest till daylight.
The pickets had been driven in, and now and then shots were
exchanged. Starting again at dawn, I reached the high ridge
on which the redoubts were at 7:30 A.M. with the leading
brigade. I halted Cockrell's and Ector's Brigades on the
ridge, and sent Gen. Sears to gain the rear of the works. The
artillery opened fire on the forts (one on either side of the
railroad) about 7 A.M., and when we gained the ridge appeared
to keep the enemy quiet.
These dispositions being made, about 8 A.M. I summoned
the commander to surrender the place. I then supposed
the garrison consisted of only about nine hundred men, as
reported to me at Acworth. Maj. D. W. Sanders was instructed
to allow about twenty minutes for the officer to whom he
delivered the message to go and return with the reply. After
waiting longer than the specified time, he returned without
an answer. Believing Sears was now well around on the north
side, and having waited to hear his attack so long, I put
Cockrell's Brigade in motion, supported by Ector's Brigade
(of four regiments), to make the attack, as it was now 10:20
A.M.
The three companies of the Ninety-Third Illinois that were
in the two extreme west redoubts abandoned them without
making much resistance, and fell back to a very strong line
of defense protected by all the entanglements of modern
warfare. Through the center of this work ran the Cartersville
road. This part of the defensive work was occupied by the
Thirty-Ninth Iowa, Seventh Illinois, and seven companies
of the Ninety-Third Illinois, making, in officers and men,
a total of just about nine hundred. Against this force,
placed in carefully constructed works, I could send only the
Missouri brigade and four regiments of the Texas brigade, in
all one thousand three hundred and fifty. I had been informed
by Gen. Armstrong that the enemy's cavalry was moving up
east of the railroad. Then again I received from him a second
dispatch informing me that the Federal infantry was passing
through Big Shanty and moving up the railroad. This dispatch
was dated 9 A.M. Knowing that this column could reach the
junction of the Sandtown and Dallas roads before I could, I
determined to withdraw, trusting to arrive there first.
[Illustration: F. M. COCKRELL.]
But as all these matters are more fully referred to in my report, I
will here quit, for the present, further extracts from my diary, and
give the report.
[Illustration: CAPTURE OF BLOCKHOUSE, ALLATOONA CREEK,
OCTOBER 5, 1864.]
In Volume 39, Series 1, page 814, will be found in the "War Records"
the following report:
HEADQUARTERS FRENCH'S DIVISION, }
TUSCUMBIA, ALA., November 5, 1864.}
_General_: Sometime since I had the honor to submit to you a
brief preliminary report of the battle of Allatoona. As the
report of the brigade commanders are now in, I have the honor
to forward one embracing some of the details of the battle.
About noon on the 4th of October, when at Big Shanty, the
following order was handed me by Lieut. Gen. Stewart, it
being a copy of one to him:
HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF TENNESSEE, October 4, 1864, 7:30 A.M.
Lieut. Gen. A. P. Stewart, Commanding Corps.
_General_: Gen. Hood directs that later in the evening you
move Stevenson back to Davis's Cross Roads, and that you
bring two of your divisions back to Adams's and between
Adams's and Davis's Cross Roads, placing them in such a
way as to cover the position at Adams's now occupied by
Stevenson, and that your third division (say French) shall
move up the railroad and fill up the deep cut at Allatoona
with logs, brush, rails, dirt, etc. To-morrow morning at
daylight he desires Stevenson to be moved to Lieut. Gen.
Lee's actual left, that two of your divisions at that time at
Adams's shall draw back, with your left in the neighborhood
of Davis's Cross Roads, and your right in the neighborhood
of Lost Mountain, and the division that will have gone to
Allatoona to march thence to New Hope Church and on the
position occupied by your other troops--that is, that the
division shall rejoin your command by making this march out
from the railroad and via New Hope. Gen. Hood thinks that
it is probable that the guard at the railroad bridge on
Etowah is small, and when French goes to Allatoona, if he
can get such information as would justify him, if possible
move to that bridge and destroy it. Gen. Hood considers its
destruction would be a great advantage to the army and the
country. Should he be able to destroy the bridge, in coming
out he could move, as has been heretofore indicated, via New
Hope.
Yours respectfully,
A. P. MASON,
_Assistant Adjutant General_.
Soon after an order, of which the following is a copy, was
sent me:
HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF TENNESSEE, }
OFFICE OF THE CHIEF OF STAFF, October 4, 1864, 11:30 A.M. }
Lieut. Gen. Stewart, Commanding.
_General_: Gen. Hood directs me to say that it is of the
greatest importance to destroy the Etowah railroad bridge, if
such a thing is possible. From the best information we have
now he thinks the enemy cannot disturb us before _to-morrow_,
and by _that time_ your main body will be near the remainder
of our army. He suggests that if it be considered practicable
to destroy the bridge when the division goes there and the
artillery is placed in position the commanding officer shall
call for volunteers to go to the bridge with lightwood and
other combustible material that can be obtained, and set fire
to it.
Yours respectfully,
A. P. MASON,
_Major and Assistant Adjutant General_.
Gen. Stewart's Corps had struck the railroad at Big Shanty
on the evening of the 3d, and all three of his divisions
had worked all night destroying the railroad from near
Kennesaw up to Acworth Station. As we had been informed at
Big Shanty that the Allatoona pass or cut was fortified, and
that the enemy had a garrison there of three regiments, and
had accumulated a considerable amount of provisions, it was
considered a matter of importance that the place should be
captured, and after the orders were handed me, at my request,
Gen. Stewart sent me (with Maj. Myrick) four additional
pieces of artillery. _It would appear, however, from these
orders that the general in chief was not aware that the pass
was fortified and garrisoned that I was sent to have filled
up._ Under these orders I left Big Shanty about 3:30 P.M.,
and marched to Acworth, a distance of six miles, arriving
there before sunset. There I was detained, awaiting the
arrival of rations and cooking them, until 11 P.M.
As I knew nothing of the roads, the enemy's works or
position, it was important to procure a guide, and at last a
young man, or rather boy, was found who knew the roads, and
had seen the position of the fortifications at Allatoona,
he being a member of a cavalry company. At Acworth Capt.
Taylor, of Pinson's Regiment of cavalry, with twenty-five
men, reported to me for duty. He was immediately directed
to send fifteen men under a trusty officer to strike the
railroad as near the Etowah railroad bridge as possible, and
take up the rails and hide or destroy them, to prevent trains
from reaching Allatoona with reënforcements, as well as to
prevent any trains that might be there from escaping. From an
eminence near Acworth the enemy could be seen communicating
messages by their night signals from Allatoona with the
station on Kennesaw; and to the east of us were the fires of
a large encampment of the Federals and apparently opposite
Moon's Station. Citizens residing here informed me that
there was a blockhouse with a garrison of about one hundred
men at the Allatoona bridge; that at Allatoona there were
two small redoubts with outworks, defended with four pieces
of artillery and garrisoned with three and a half regiments
of infantry. About 11 P.M. the march was resumed. The night
was very dark, and the roads bad. After crossing Allatoona
creek, Col. Adaire, with his Fourth Regiment, Mississippi
Volunteers, and one piece of artillery, was left near the
blockhouse with instructions to surround it, capture the
garrison, and destroy the bridge over the creek. Continuing
the march, the division arrived before Allatoona about 3
A.M. Nothing could be seen but one or two twinkling lights
on the opposite heights, and nothing was heard except the
occasional interchange of shots between our advanced guards
and the pickets of the garrison in the valley below. All
was darkness. I had no knowledge of the place, and it was
important to attack at the break of day. Taking the guide
and lights, I placed the artillery in position on the hills
south and east of the railroad, and the Thirty-Ninth North
Carolina Regiment, under Col. Coleman, and the Thirty-Second
Texas were left as a supporting force, both under command
of Col. J. A. Andrews, commanding the latter regiment. This
being done, I proceeded with the guide to gain the heights,
or ridge, crowned by the works of the enemy. Without roads
or paths the head of the line reached the railroad, crossed
it, and began ascending and descending the high, steep, and
densely timbered spurs of the mountains, and after about an
hour's march it was found that we were directly in front of
the works, and not on the main ridge. The guide made a second
effort to gain the ridge, and failed, so dark was it in the
woods. I therefore determined to rest where we were and await
daylight. With the dawn the march was resumed, and finally,
by 7:30 A.M., the head of the column was on the ridge about
six hundred yards west of the main fortifications, and
between those he occupied an abandoned redoubt on our left.
Here the fortifications, for the first time, were seen, and
instead of two redoubts there were disclosed to us three
redoubts on the west of the railroad cut, and a star fort on
the east with outer works and approaches defended to a great
distance by abatis, and nearer the works by stockades and
other obstructions. The railroad emerges from the Allatoona
Mountain by crossing this ridge through a cut sixty-five feet
deep. Dispositions for the assault were now made by sending
Gen. Sears's Brigade to the north side or rear of the works,
Gen. F. M. Cockrell's (Missouri) Brigade to rest with its
center on the ridge, while Gen. W. H. Young, with the four
Texas regiments, was found in the rear of Gen. Cockrell.
Maj. Myrick had opened on the works with his artillery, and
was ordered to continue his fire until the attacking force
should interfere, or until he heard the volleys of musketry.
Gen. Sears was to commence the assault on the rear, and when
musketry was heard Gen. Cockrell was to move down the ridge,
supported by Gen. Young, and carry the works by (as it were)
a flank attack. So rugged and abrupt were the hills that the
troops could not be gotten into position until about 9 A.M.,
when I sent a summons to surrender. The flag was met by a
Federal staff officer, and he was allowed seventeen minutes
to return an answer. The time expired without any answer
being received, whereupon Maj. D. W. Sanders, impatient
at the delay, broke off the interview and returned. No
reply being sent me, the order was given for the assault
by directing the advance of Cockrell's Brigade. Emerging
from the woods and passing over a long distance of abatis
formed of felled timber, and under a severe fire of musketry
and artillery, nobly did it press forward, followed by the
gallant Texans. The enemy's outer line and one redoubt soon
fell. Resting to gather strength and survey the work before
them, again they rushed forward in column, and in a murderous
hand-to-hand conflict that left the ditches filled with the
dead they became masters of the second redoubt.
The third and main redoubt, now filled by those driven from
the captured works on the west side of the railroad, was
further crowded by those that were coming out of the fort
on the east side of the road, from the attack of Gen. Sears.
They had to cross the deep cut, through which our artillery
poured a steady and deadly fire. The Federal forces were now
confined to one redoubt, and we occupied the ditch and almost
entirely silenced their fire, and were preparing for the
final attack.
Pending the progress of these events I had received a note
from Gen. F. C. Armstrong, dated 7 A.M., asking me at what
time I would move toward New Hope, and informing me also that
the enemy had moved up east of the railroad above Kennesaw
and encamped there last night. I had observed this movement
when at Acworth, but at 12 M. I received another dispatch
from him, written at 9 A.M., saying: "My scouts report the
enemy's infantry advancing up the railroad. They are now
entering Big Shanty. They have a cavalry force east of the
railroad."
On the receipt of this second note from Gen. Armstrong I
took my guide aside and particularly asked him if, after the
capture of the place, I could move to New Hope Church by any
other route than the one by the blockhouse at Allatoona creek
and thence by the Sandtown road to the Acworth and Dallas
road, and he said I could not. Here, then, was Gen. Sherman's
whole army close behind me, and the advance of his infantry
moving on Acworth, which changed the whole condition of
affairs. Ammunition had to be carried from the wagons, a mile
distant at the base of the hills, by men, and I was satisfied
that it would take two hours to get it up and distribute
it under fire before the final assault. I had learned from
prisoners that before daylight the place had been reënforced
by a brigade under Gen. Corse. I knew the enemy was at
Big Shanty at 9 A.M. By noon he could reach Acworth and be
within two miles of the road on which I was to reach New Hope
Church. I knew Gen. Stewart had been ordered to near Lost
Mountain. My men had marched all day on the 3d; worked all
the night of the 3d destroying the railroad; that they had
worked and marched all day on the 4th; marched to Allatoona
on the night of the 4th; had fought up to the afternoon of
the 5th; and could they pass the entire third day and night
without rest or sleep if we remained to assault the remaining
works? I did not doubt that the enemy would endeavor to get
in my rear to intercept my return.
He was, in the morning, but three hours distant, and had
been signaled to repeatedly during the battle. Under these
circumstances I determined to withdraw, however depressing
the idea of not capturing the place after so many had fallen,
and when in all probability we could force a surrender before
night. Yet, however desirous I was of remaining before the
last work and forcing a capitulation, or of carrying this
interior work by assault, I deemed it of more importance
not to permit the enemy to cut my division off from the
army. After deliberately surveying matters as they presented
themselves to me, I sent to Gen. Sears to withdraw his men
at once, moving by the route he went in, and directed Gen.
Cockrell to commence withdrawing at 1:30 P.M.
Before the action commenced it was foreseen that it would
be impossible to carry any wounded, on litters, to the road
where the ambulances were placed, owing to the steepness
of the hills, the ravines, and the dense woods. Accordingly
the wounded were brought to the springs near the ridge. All
who could be moved without the use of litters were taken to
the ambulances. The others were left in charge of surgeons
detailed to remain with them.
The troops re-formed on the original ground, west of the
works, and marched to the south side near the artillery,
and at 3:30 P.M. commenced the move toward New Hope. After
the troops left I rode on down to Col. Andrews's position in
front of the works and directed him to remain until 5 P.M.,
and then withdraw and move on in our rear.
Before I commenced to withdraw the infantry from the captured
works (but after the guide said I would have to return by
the way I came) I sent orders to Maj. Myrick to send two
batteries and caissons to a point beyond the blockhouse
on the Sandtown road, to act in concert with the troops
left there. Having been informed by Col. Andrews that the
blockhouse at the Allatoona bridge had not been captured, I
directed Capt. Kolb, with his battery that had remained with
Col. Andrews, to move on and report to Gen. Cockrell for the
purpose of taking the blockhouse.
Shortly after 4 P.M., and when not a person could be seen in
or around the forts, I left the command of Col. Andrews and
overtook the division near the blockhouse. Col. Adaire had
burned the railroad bridge over Allatoona creek (over two
hundred feet long), and also the duplicate of the bridge,
which had been already framed to replace the old structure.
Under the increased artillery fire the garrison of the
blockhouse surrendered.
We captured two hundred and five prisoners, one United
States flag, and the colors of the Ninety-Third Regiment
of Illinois, a number of horses, arms, etc., and killed and
wounded seven hundred and fifty of the enemy, being, with the
garrison of the blockhouse, over one thousand.
History will record the battle of Allatoona one of the most
sanguinary of the war; and when it is remembered that the
enemy fought from within their strong redoubts the desperate
deeds of daring performed by our troops in overcoming so many
of the foe will win a meed of praise for their heroic valor.
The artillery opened about 7 A.M., and, except when the flag
of truce was sent in, continued until 2 P.M.
The attack, commencing about 10 A.M., continued unremittingly
until 1:30 P.M., and the rattle of musketry did not cease
entirely until 3 P.M., when it died away, and a silence
like the pall of death rested over the scene, contrasting
strangely with the previous din of battle.
I cannot do justice to the gallantry of the troops. No one
faltered in his duty, and all withdrew from the place with
the regret that Gen. Sherman's movements--closing up behind
us--forbade our remaining longer to force a surrender of the
last work.
After leaving out the three regiments that formed no part of
the assaulting force, I had but little over two thousand men.
My entire loss in killed, wounded, and missing was 799,
as follows: Cockrell's Brigade: Killed, 42; wounded, 182;
missing, 22. Sears's Brigade: Killed, 37; wounded, 114;
missing, 200. Ector's Brigade: Killed, 43; wounded, 147;
missing, 11. Staff: Captured, 1. Total: Killed, 122; wounded,
443; missing, 233; captured, 1. Grand total, 799.
Among the killed from Sears's Brigade is Col. W. H. Clark,
Forty-Sixth Mississippi. He fell in the advance, near the
enemy's works, with the battle flag in his hands. He was an
excellent and a gallant officer. Also, were killed Capt. B.
Davidson and Lieuts. G. C. Edwards, J. R. Henry, and J. D.
Davis. Col. W. S. Barry, Thirty-Fifth Mississippi, and Maj.
Partin, Thirty-Sixth Mississippi, were wounded, together with
Capts. R. G. Yates and A. J. Farmer and Lieuts. J. N. McCoy,
G. H. Bannerman, J. M. Chadwick, J. Copewood, R. E. Jones,
E. W. Brown, G. H. Moore, and Ensigns G. W. Cannon and A.
Scarborough.
Texas will mourn for the death of some of her bravest and
best men. Capt. Somerville, Thirty-Second Texas, was killed
after vainly endeavoring to enter the last work, where his
conspicuous gallantry had carried him and his little band.
Capts. Gibson, Tenth Texas, Bates, Ninth Texas, Lieuts.
Alexander, Twenty-Ninth North Carolina, and Dixon E. Wetzel,
Ninth Texas, were killed while gallantly leading their men.
Brig. Gen. W. H. Young, commanding the Texas Brigade, was
wounded. Most gallantly he bore his part in the action.
Col. Camp, Fourteenth Texas, one of the best officers in the
service, was seriously wounded. Also Majs. McReynolds, Ninth
Texas, and Purdy, Fourteenth Texas. Of the captains wounded
were Wright, Lyles, Russell, Vannoy, and Ridley, and Lieuts.
Tunnell, Haynes, Gibbons, Agee, Morris, O'Brien, Irwin,
Reeves, and Robertson.
In the Missouri Brigade were killed or mortally wounded Majs.
W. F. Carter and O. A. Waddell, Capts. A. J. Byrne, A. C.
Patton, John S. Holland, Lieuts. Thomas S. Shelly, Joel F.
Yancey, G. R. Elliott. R. J. Lamb, G. T. Duvall, and W. H.
Dunnica, and Ensign H. W. De Jarnette--men who had behaved
well and nobly during the whole campaign.
Among the wounded are Maj. R. J. Williams, Capts. Thompson
Alvord, G. McChristian, G. W. Covell, and A. F. Burns,
Lieuts. Joseph Boyce, Silas H. F. Hornback, J. L. Mitchell,
A. H. Todd, and H. Y. Anderson, and Ensign William A. Byrd.
I have named the killed and wounded officers in this report.
The names of the private soldiers who fell or were wounded
will also be filed with this as soon as they are received.
It is due to the dead, it is just to the living, that they
who have no hopes of being heralded by fame, and who have
but little incentive except the love of country and the
consciousness of a just cause to impel them to deeds of
daring, and who have shed their blood for a just cause,
should have this little tribute paid them by me, whose joy it
was to be with them.
For the noble dead the army mourns, a nation mourns. For
the living, honor and respect will await them wherever they
shall be known, as faithful soldiers, who, for their dearest
rights, have so often gone through the fires of battle
and the baptism of blood. It would perhaps be an invidious
distinction to name individual officers or men for marked or
special services or distinguished gallantry where all behaved
so well, for earth never yielded to the tread of nobler
soldiers.
I am indebted to Gens. Cockrell, Sears, and Young for
bravery, skill, and unflinching firmness.
To Col. Earp, on whom the command of the gallant Texans
devolved, and to Col. Andrews, who commanded on the south
side, and Maj. Myrick, commanding the artillery, I return
thanks for services. Maj. D. W. Sanders, assistant adjutant
general, Lieut. Wiley Abercrombie, aid, Capt. W. H. Cain,
volunteer aid, Capt. Porter and Lieut. Mosby, engineers,
were zealous in the performance of their duties, and E. T.
Freeman, assistant inspector general, was conspicuous for his
gallant conduct. I commend the last-named to the government
for promotion.
Col. E. Gates, First and Third Missouri, Maj. E. H. Hampton,
Twenty-Ninth North Carolina, and W. J. Sparks, Tenth Texas,
and Lieut. Cahal, of Gen. Stewart's staff, are named for
gallant services.
Lieut. M. W. Armstrong, Tenth Texas, seized the United States
standard from the Federals, and after a struggle brought it
and the bearer of it off in triumph.
In the inclosed reports of brigade commanders will be found
the names of many officers and soldiers that I know are
entitled to commendation and all marks of distinction that
the government can award.
The cavalry officer who was sent to cut the railroad (early
in the afternoon of the 4th) and failed to perform that duty
is, in my opinion, much to blame. Had he taken up the rails
(and there was nothing to prevent it), reënforcements could
not have been thrown in the works, and the result would have
been different. After events showed that a cavalry force and
_Corse's other brigade arrived just three hours after we left
Allatoona_, and reënforced the garrison in the fort.
Very respectfully submitted.
S. G. FRENCH,
_Major General Commanding_.
[Illustration: MAJ. D. W. SANDERS.]
You have now my official report of the battle of Allatoona as it was
written soon after the event, and I will say here that, had I known
it would have been so incorrectly reported by Gen. Corse, it would
have embraced much matter of detail elucidating what occurred. I shall
now proceed to copy some part of Gen. Corse's report, after which its
errors will be pointed out as substantiated by facts not then known,
and some that were not regarded. So, with my report, unintentional
errors have been made known, as shown by subsequent information.
GEN. CORSE'S REPORT.
... I directed Col. Rowett to hold the spur on which the
Thirty-Ninth Iowa and the Seventh Illinois were formed, ...
and taking two companies of the Ninety-Third Illinois down
a spur parallel with the railroad and along the bank of the
cut, so disposed them as to hold the north side as long as
possible. Three companies of the Ninety-Third, which had been
driven from the west end of the ridge, were distributed in
the ditch south of the redoubt, with instructions to keep
the town well covered by their fire, and to watch the depot
where the rations were stored. The remaining battalion of the
Ninety-Third, under Maj. Fisher, lay between the redoubt and
Rowett's line, ready to reënforce wherever most needed.
I had barely issued the orders when the storm broke in all
its fury on the Thirty-Ninth Iowa and the Seventh Illinois.
Young's Brigade of Texans had gained the west end of the
ridge, and moved with great impetuosity along its crest
till they struck Rowett's command, when they received a
severe check, but, undaunted, came again and again. Rowett,
reënforced by the gallant Redfield, encouraged me to hope
that we were safe here, when I observed Gen. Sears's Brigade
moving from the north, its left extending across the railroad
(opposite Tourtellotte). I rushed to the two companies of the
Ninety-Third Illinois, which were on the brink of the crest
running north from the redoubt, they having been reënforced
by the retreating pickets, and urged them to hold on to the
spur; but it was of no avail; the enemy's line of battle
swept us back like so much chaff, and struck the Thirty-Ninth
Iowa in flank, threatening to ingulf our little band without
further ado. Fortunately for us, Col. Tourtellotte's fire
caught Sears in flank, and broke him so badly as to enable me
to get a staff officer over the cut with orders to bring the
Fiftieth Illinois over to reënforce Rowett, who had lost very
heavily. However, before the regiment sent for could arrive,
Sears and Young both rallied, and made their assaults in
front and on the flank with so much vigor and in such force
as to break Rowett's line, and had not the Thirty-Ninth Iowa
fought with the desperation it did, I never should have been
able to get a man back inside the redoubt; as it was, their
hand-to-hand conflict broke the enemy to that extent that
he must stop and re-form before undertaking the assault on
the _fort_. Under cover of the blows they gave the enemy the
Seventh and Ninety-Third Illinois, and what remained of the
Thirty-Ninth Iowa, fell back into the _fort_.
The fighting up to this time, about 11 A.M., was of the
most extraordinary character. Attacked from the north, from
the west, and from the south, these three regiments (the
Thirty-Ninth Iowa and the Seventh and Ninety-Third Illinois)
held Young's and a portion of Sears's and Cockrell's Brigades
at bay for nearly two hours and a half. The gallant Col.
Redfield, of the Thirty-Ninth Iowa, fell shot in four places,
and the extraordinary valor of the men and officers of this
regiment and the Seventh Illinois saved to us Allatoona.
So completely disorganized were the enemy that no regular
assault could be made on the fort till I had the trenches
all filled and the parapets lined with men. The Twelfth and
Fiftieth Illinois, arriving from the east hill, enabled us to
occupy every foot of trench, and keep up a line of fire that,
as long as our ammunition lasted, would render our little
fort impregnable. The broken pieces of the enemy enabled them
to fill every hollow, and take every advantage of the rough
ground surrounding the fort, filling every hole and trench,
seeking shelter behind every stump and log that lay within
musket range of the fort. We received their fire from the
north, south, and west of the redoubt, completely enfilading
our ditches and rendering it almost impracticable for a man
to expose his person above the parapet. An effort was made
to carry our works by assault; but the battery (Twelfth
Missouri) was so ably manned, and so gallantly fought, as to
render it impossible for a column to live within a hundred
yards of the work. Officers labored constantly to stimulate
the men to expose themselves above the parapet, and nobly set
them the example.
The enemy kept a constant and intense fire, gradually closing
around us, and rapidly filling our little fort with the dead
and dying. About 1 P.M. I was wounded by a rifle ball that
rendered me insensible for some thirty or forty minutes, but
managed to rally on hearing some persons cry "Cease firing!"
which conveyed to me the impression that they were trying to
surrender the fort.
Again I urged my staff, the few officers unhurt, and the men
around me to renewed exertions, _assuring them that Sherman
would soon be here with reënforcements_. The gallant fellows
struggled to keep their heads above the ditch and parapets in
the face of the murderous fire of the enemy now concentrated
upon us. The artillery was silent, and a brave fellow, whose
name I regret having forgotten, volunteered to cross the
railway cut, which was under fire of the enemy, and go to
the _fort_ on the east hill to procure ammunition. Having
executed his mission successfully, he returned in a short
time with an arm load of canister and case shot. About 2:30
P.M. the enemy were observed massing a force behind a small
house and the ridge on which the house was located, distant
northwest from the fort about one hundred and fifty yards.
The dead and wounded were moved aside so as to enable us
to move a piece of artillery to an embrasure commanding the
house and ridge. A few shots from the gun threw the enemy's
column into great confusion, which, being observed by our
men, caused them to rush to the parapet and open such a fire
that it was impossible for the enemy to rally. From this time
until near 4 P.M. we had the advantage of the enemy, and
maintained it with such success that they were driven from
every position, and finally fled in great confusion, leaving
their dead and wounded, and our little garrison in possession
of the field. [See War Records.]
The above extracts _from Gen. Corse's report_ are taken from an address
made by Col. William Ludlow, United States army, to the Michigan
Commandery, at Detroit, April 2, 1891, and I desire it to be borne in
mind that he is a graduate of the Military Academy and was with Gen.
Corse at Allatoona during the battle, for I shall have cause to refer
to his address after a while.
There have been so many erroneous accounts given to the public of this
battle, impugning of motives, _guessing_ at the controlling objects
that influence action, falsifying of numbers, glorifying dispatches,
and complimentary orders, that won the admiration even of a Confederate
lieutenant general, that I purpose, as well as I am able, to give an
impartial account of it.
To do justice to the troops engaged on either side in the conflict, it
will be necessary: 1. To have a knowledge of the ground or topography
of the field of action. 2. The strength of the fortifications, and
the time and labor bestowed on them. 3. The strength of the respective
forces. 4. The ratio of inequality between men in strong fortifications
and men attacking from without, immediately on arrival. 5. The
inspiring inducement to the garrison _not to surrender_ when relief is
at hand; and the advantage to be gained, if successful, compared with
the risk of remaining after ascertaining that the enemy was converging
on the place from every point.
1. If an examination of this topographical map be made in connection
with the photographic views of the railroad cut, the star fort, and
the view from the sally port, it will give you an idea of the rough
mountain spurs over which we had to pass.
2. These forts and redoubts were built by a distinguished engineer
in the United States army, and, with their mutual defensive relation
the one to the other, form a remarkably strong line of fortifications
on every side. Sherman wrote to Gen. Blair, June 1, 1864, "Order the
brigade left at Allatoona to be provided with tools, and to intrench
both ends of the pass very strong," and frequently he speaks of
Allatoona as a "natural fortress," etc.
Beginning at the east, we have a fort about fifty feet in diameter in
the interior (marked "T" on the map), near three hundred yards east of
the railroad, with a deep ditch around it. Walls twelve feet thick, and
having embrasures for artillery, for which it was mainly designed. This
fort was connected with a line of heavy intrenchments extending to the
railroad cut, and along the cut to defend the star fort "C" by a flank
fire, and also the redoubt "R." Again, there are intrenchments on the
east side of the railroad near the depot that sweep with a flank fire
the south front of the star fort "C," the Cartersville road, depot,
etc. There was also protection given by inundating the country north by
a dam across the creek.
Crossing the railroad to the west, on the summit of the ridge and on
the verge of the deep cut, you will find the star fort "C" surrounded
by a wide ditch six feet deep. The interior is seventy-five feet in
diameter, and has eight embrasures for large guns. It dominates,
from its elevation, all the surrounding country, and commands the
approach in every direction, completely sweeping the ridge both east
and west, protecting the redoubt "R" from any force attacking it. The
Cartersville _road_ passes under the muzzle of its guns, and then runs
west on the ridge, through redoubt "R."
[Illustration: FORTIFICATIONS--ALLATOONA, GA.]
The two forts, "T" and "C," are interior isolated _works for
artillery_, and the fire from each swept all the other works both
inside and externally. Both were surrounded by ditches six feet deep,
making their parapets about _twelve feet_ high. Consequently they
could not be taken by assault without _scaling ladders_, or otherwise,
usual in sieges, unless by the sally port. In fact these two inside
forts could be used as citadels, or a place of _refuge_ when the
long exterior lines of defense were captured. And this was the case
with fort "C" in the battle of Allatoona. The whole formed a mountain
fortress.
The Federals call the intrenchments at "R" "rifle pits," to which they
bear about as much relation, in regard to strength, as a battleship
does to a dispatch boat. Commencing about one hundred and twenty-five
yards west of the fort "C," and on the south side of the Cartersville
road, are two lines of intrenchments running nearly parallel with that
road. These two, or double, lines of defense converge and meet below
the crest of the ridge, then, turning north, cross the road (with
angles for flanking fire) and continue north down the slope. From this
north line an intrenchment runs due east toward the main fort. The
parapet is revetted with timber, and the interior ditch is very wide.
On the parapet are large chestnut _head logs_ to protect the persons of
the soldiers. In front were immense entanglements of abatis, stockades,
stakes, etc., to check any assault on the works. So well was the work
done that in 1890, when I was there, time had not defaced them, and the
revetments and "head logs" are today as round as when placed there.
I am the more particular about this redoubt because here happened,
perhaps, the bloodiest tragedy in the history of the war.
3. _The strength of the respective forces._
Col. Tourtellotte's command was composed of the Ninety-Third Illinois,
officers and men, 294; the Eighteenth Wisconsin, guns, 150; Fourth
Minnesota, guns, 450; the Fifth Ohio Cavalry, men, 16; giving an
apparent total of 910. To this must yet be added the force for the six
pieces of artillery, not less than 60. If we add the company officers
not enumerated, it will be found that Tourtellotte had about 1,000
officers and men. The above numbers are official.
Corse's official statement is that he brought with him to Allatoona
the Thirty-Ninth Iowa, 280 men; Seventh Illinois, 267 men; Fiftieth
Illinois, 267 men; Fifty-Seventh Illinois, 61 men; Twelfth Illinois,
155 men; or 1,030 _men_. To this must be added (say) 107 regimental
and company officers, making the force that he brought with him 1,137
officers and men. So with Tourtellotte's troops the aggregate is
2,137 instead of 1,944 as reported by him, which excluded himself and
officers.
As regards the strength of my division at Allatoona, the War Records
show that on September 20, at inspection, I had present for duty 331
officers and 2,945 men. Total, 3,276.
Cockrell's Brigade was composed of eight small regiments consolidated
into four, Ector's Brigade of six regiments, and Sears's Brigade of six
regiments, and two batteries, 8 guns.
To this force add one four-gun battery sent with me, and deduct one gun
and one regiment left at Allatoona creek bridge, and my entire force
present was _3,197_.
And thus officially we have Federals, 2,132; Confederates, as above.
4. _Equalization of forces._
The ratio of inequality between a force _within ordinary_ intrenchments
in line of battle and the attacking force _without_ is well known.
Gen. Cox in his "Atlanta Campaign," page 129, says: "One man in the
trench is equal to five in front." Gen. O. O. Howard, in reference to
the battle of Kennesaw Mountain, says: "My experience is that a line of
works thoroughly constructed, with the front well covered with abatis
and other entanglements, well manned with infantry, whether with our
own or that of the enemy, _cannot be carried by direct assault_."
Gen. R. S. Granger informs Gen. G. H. Thomas that the fort at Athens,
manned by 700 men, can hold out an enemy 10,000 strong. (War Records,
V. 39, Part 3, page 519.) Vicksburg, Jackson, Cold Harbor, Kennesaw,
Petersburg, Atlanta, Knoxville, and other lines repelled the assaults.
Now Allatoona was, without doubt, thrice as strong as these, and the
attacking force was only _one and a half to one inside_. Then, too, we
should consider that the works on the _hills_ were almost inaccessible.
Battery Wagner, a sand fort on a level plain on Morris Island,
Charleston, S. C., was garrisoned by only 740 men, who successfully
defended it _fifty-eight days and nights_ against the assaults and
continuous fire of 11,500 men, with forty-seven cannon, aided by
ships--the Ironsides, eight monitors, and five gunboats. And Fort
Sumter never was taken by assault. It was quietly abandoned February
18, 1865.
On Sunday, April 16, 1865, seven days after the surrender at
Appomattox, a small redoubt or fort, of weak construction, garrisoned
by an unorganized force hastily collected, at West Point, Ga., near
Atlanta, consisting of 64 men under Gen. Tyler and Col. J. H. Fannan,
held the fort all day against 3,750 men of Gen. J. M. Wilson's command,
and surrendered only for want of ammunition and loss of men. Col. O. H.
LaGrange, of Wisconsin, commanded the Federals. Ratio, 1 to 62.
5. The _inspiring hopes_ given the garrison will be discovered in the
following dispatches informing them aid was at hand, begging them to
hold out until reënforcements arrived. In these dispatches bear in
mind that Gen. Stanley was in temporary command of the Army of the
Cumberland, and Gen. Elliott was the commander in chief of Sherman's
cavalry. I give only a few of the many dispatches in the War Records.
NO. 1. VOLUME 39, PART 3, PAGE 53.
_SHERMAN TO COMMANDING OFFICER AT ALLATOONA._
October 3, 1864.
Hood might slip up to Acworth and Allatoona. I want the
utmost vigilance there. If he goes to Allatoona, I want him
only delayed long enough for me to reach his rear.... If he
moves up to Allatoona, I will surely come in force.
NO. 2. VOLUME 39, PAGE 65.
_SHERMAN TO STANLEY._
IN THE FIELD, October 4, 1864.
I heard from Gen. Elliott to-night. He was on the Sandtown
and Allatoona road.... I will be up to-day and move to
Kennesaw.
NO. 3. VOLUME 39, PAGE 66.
_SHERMAN TO STANLEY._
October 4, 1864. Received 10 A.M.
Yes, move to Little Kennesaw and west of it. Tell Elliott
in my name to interpose with his whole force between Dallas
and Allatoona, and strike for any force in the direction of
Acworth.
NO. 4. VOLUME 39, PAGE 71.
_SHERMAN TO ELLIOTT._
October 4, 1864, 11 P.M.
Don't risk the safety of your cavalry until I get up with my
whole force, but make bold reconnoissances in connection with
Gen. Stanley. My chief object is to prevent the enemy from
making an attack on Allatoona to-morrow.
NO. 5. VOLUME 39, PAGE 71.
_SHERMAN TO COMMANDING OFFICERS AT ALLATOONA, KINGSTON, AND ROME._
October 4, 1864.
The enemy is moving on Allatoona, thence to Rome.
NO. 6. VOLUME 39, PAGE 52.
_SHERMAN TO GEN. VANDEVER._
October 3, 1864.
Sherman wants the force at Big Shanty cleaned out, and wants
it done to-night if possible.
NO. 7. VOLUME 39, PAGE 75.
_CORSE TO GEN. J. E. SMITH._
ROME, October 4, 1864.
I will move my entire command to Cartersville and unite with
Gen. Raum in attacking the enemy from Allatoona direct.
NO. 8. VOLUME 39, PAGE 75.
_CORSE TO RAUM._
ROME, October 4, 1864.
I am expecting a train every moment; as soon as I can get
ready I will move 3,000 to 4,000 men.
NO. 9. VOLUME 39, PAGE 77.
_VANDEVER TO SHERMAN._
NEAR KENNESAW, October 4, 1864.
Elliott is between Big Shanty and Kennesaw on our left. I am
skirmishing with the enemy now.
NO. 10. VOLUME 39, PAGE 77.
_VANDEVER TO SHERMAN._
NEAR KENNESAW, October 4, 1864.
Gen. Elliott has all his force near the west base of the
mountain. Gens. Kilpatrick and Garrard are both with him, so
couriers report.
NO. 11. VOLUME 39, PAGE 78.
_VANDEVER TO COMMANDING OFFICER AT ALLATOONA._
KENNESAW MOUNTAIN, October 4, 1864, 2 P.M.
Sherman is moving in force. Hold out.
NO. 12. VOLUME 39, PAGE 78.
_VANDEVER TO COMMANDING OFFICER AT ALLATOONA._
NEAR KENNESAW MOUNTAIN, October 4, 6:39 P.M.
Gen. Sherman says hold fast, we are coming.
NO. 13. VOLUME 39, PAGE 88.
_SIGNAL OFFICER AT ALLATOONA TO SIGNAL OFFICER AT KENNESAW._
ALLATOONA, October 5, 1864.
Gen. Corse is here with one brigade. Where is Sherman?
NO. 14. VOLUME 39, PAGE 89.
_SHERMAN TO STANLEY._
KENNESAW MOUNTAIN, October 5, 1864, 11:15 A.M.
No news by signal from Allatoona. Heavy firing, indicating an
assault and repulse. Occasional shots now, but too smoky to
see signals. Can see the field about Lost Mountain. No large
force of Rebels there. Can see Kilpatrick's cavalry massed in
a big field this side, but no skirmishing.
NO. 15. VOLUME 39, PAGE 89.
_SHERMAN TO STANLEY._
KENNESAW MOUNTAIN, October 5, 1864. Received 2:30 P.M.
Throw forward pickets on the Sandtown road. Take strong
position and hold it.
NO. 16. VOLUME 39, PAGE 90.
_STANLEY TO SHERMAN._
PINE TOP, October 5, 1864, 3:10 P.M.
I am on Pine Top.... I saw our cavalry about two miles in
advance of Kemp's Mills.
NO. 17. VOLUME 39, PAGE 90.
_SHERMAN TO STANLEY._
IN THE FIELD, October 5, 1864.
I want to control the Sandtown road back to Allatoona.[29]
NO. 18. VOLUME 39, PAGE 91.
_SHERMAN TO ELLIOTT._
IN THE FIELD, October 5, 1864.
Dispatch Garrard to-night to Allatoona, making a circuit to
the right, and to learn if possible the state of affairs
there.... The day was so hazy that we could get but _few_
messages. Corse is there with his division.
NO. 19. VOLUME 39, PAGE 92.
_SHERMAN TO ELLIOTT._
IN THE FIELD, October 5, 1864.
I have heard from Allatoona. All right. Corse is there, but
wounded. You need not send Garrard's cavalry, but send a
squadron.
NO. 20. VOLUME 39, PAGE 92.
_SHERMAN TO ELLIOTT._
IN THE FIELD, October 5, 1864.
I have been up on Kennesaw all day watching the attack. Since
it ceased I have a signal, O. K. Corse wounded.... I want to
establish communication with Allatoona.
NO. 21. VOLUME 39, PAGE 96.
_TOURTELLOTTE TO SHERMAN._
ALLATOONA, GA., October 5, 1864.
_Gen. Sherman_: Corse is here.
NO. 22. VOLUME 39. PAGE 96.
_TO COMMANDING OFFICER, ALLATOONA._
KENNESAW MOUNTAIN, October 5, 1864.
Near you.
NO. 23. VOLUME 39, PAGE 96.
_SIGNAL DISPATCHES FROM AND TO KENNESAW MOUNTAIN._
At 8 A.M. I called Allatoona for two hours and a half. I
asked for news, and at 10:30 A.M. received the following
message: "We hold out. Gen. Corse here."
Adams, _Signal Officer_.
At 4 P.M. I again called Allatoona, and at 4:15 got the
following: "We still hold out. Gen. Corse is wounded."
NO. 24. VOLUME 39, PAGE 97.
KENNESAW MOUNTAIN, October 5, 1864.
Tell Allatoona to hold on. Gen. Sherman says he is working
hard for you.
NO. 25. VOLUME 39, PAGE 97.
_GEN. G. B. RAUM TO GEN. J. E. SMITH._
CARTERSVILLE, GA., October 5, 1864.
We have won a great victory at Allatoona to-day. _I am just
from there._ Gen. Corse is slightly wounded in the cheek;
Col. Tourtellotte slightly in the left thigh.
NO. 26. VOLUME 39, PAGES 111, 112.
_LIEUT. W. H. SHERFY, CHIEF SIGNAL OFFICER, KENNESAW, REPORTS._
October 4, 1864.
I called Allatoona and sent the messages received last night.
I saw the enemy hard at work destroying the railroad on both
sides of Big Shanty.... At 5 P.M. the enemy began to move off
on the Acworth road, and at _6 P.M. our army moved into camp
at the foot of Little Kennesaw Mountain_.
October 5.
To-day the battle of Allatoona was fought. I could see the
smoke of guns and shells. Gen. Sherman was with me all day
sending and receiving messages.
Having now given you some knowledge of the ground, the strength of
the fortifications, the numbers engaged on either side, the ratio of
inequality between troops inside and those outside ordinary works,
and the many inspiring hopes sent to the garrison to hold out, you can
better comprehend.
THE BATTLE.
The day dawned beautiful and bright, and as the sun rose higher and
higher in the mellow autumnal sky, and lit up the forest-clad heights,
it turned into a quiet Indian summer day of hazy, drowsy appearance
inducive of rest. All nature seemed at variance with the active
preparations being made for the impending conflict of arms.
Gen. Corse had placed in redoubt "R" the Seventh Illinois, the
Thirty-Ninth Iowa, and the Ninety-Third Illinois. He had some companies
in advance of "R," and the remainder in reserve in the rear of "R."
These three regiments for the defense of this redoubt (called rifle
pits) numbered nine hundred and four officers and men.
Tourtellotte, in fort "T" and the intrenchments, had for the defense
east of the railroad the Fourth Minnesota, Eighteenth Wisconsin,
and the Fiftieth and Twelfth Illinois Regiments. Soon, however, the
Fiftieth and Twelfth Illinois were ordered over by Corse to the west
side of the railroad.
I made the following disposition of my division of infantry present on
the ridge. Sears's Brigade was ordered to the north side of the ridge
and _east_ of the railroad. Cockrell's Brigade and the four regiments
of Ector's Brigade were on the ridge west of the enemy's works.
About 9 A.M. the artillery ceased firing, and, under a flag of truce, I
sent a summons to the commander of the garrison to surrender, supposing
the forces were small or to be the same as reported to me when I was
in Acworth. The summons was carried by Maj. D. W. Sanders, Adjutant
General. He waited about twenty minutes for a reply; receiving none,
he returned. I had no idea that the garrison had been reënforced by the
arrival of Gen. Corse with one of his brigades.
It was now near 10 A.M. when, impatient at the delay of Sears not
getting in position, I ordered Cockrell to make the attack on the
redoubt "R" with his brigade of nine hundred and fifty strong,
supported by four regiments of Ector's Texas Brigade of about four
hundred men. The ridge was so narrow that when deployed the wings were
in the woods on the steep sides of a rocky ridge. As Cockrell neared
the line he was subjected to the fire of the artillery from the two
forts "T" and "C," and the musketry from "R," and the troops in the
intrenchments on the east side of the railroad, near the deep cut,
that swept his approach on every side. Arriving near the redoubt, the
troops were stopped by the formidable abatis and other entanglements.
There for an hour, under this searching fire, they worked to make a
way through the abatis. When passages had been made they rushed to the
assault, and, after a terrible hand-to-hand conflict, the redoubt was
carried, and the survivors fled to fort "C," followed by our men, and
in a few minutes every Union soldier west of the railroad, including
the Fiftieth and Twelfth Illinois, sought refuge in fort "C" and the
ditch surrounding it, crowding them beyond measure.
[Illustration: BATTLE OF ALLATOONA.
In this picture the timber is omitted in order to show the ridge on
which the fortress was constructed. All the troops visible are
supposed to be Confederates.]
Thus did 1,350 Confederates carry the redoubt defended by 904 brave
Union veterans, although subjected all this time to the fire of forts
"T" and "C," and other flanking works. But I will let Gen. Corse tell
the story himself, as found on pages 761-766, Volume 39, War Records,
only I will correct the errors in names and figures in some instances:
I had hardly issued these incipient orders when the storm
broke in all its fury on the Thirty-Ninth Iowa and Seventh
Illinois. Young's [Cockrell's] Brigade of Texans, 1,900
strong, had gained the west end of the ridge, and moved with
great impetuosity along its crest till they struck Rowett's
command, where they received a severe check, but, undaunted,
they came again and again. Rowett, _reënforced by the
Ninety-Third Illinois_, and aided by the gallant Redfield,
encouraged me to hope we were all safe here, when I observed
a brigade of the enemy under command of Gen. Sears moving
from the north, its left extending across the railroad. I
rushed to the two companies of the Ninety-Third Illinois,
which were on the brink of the cut running north from the
redoubt [fort "C"] and parallel with the railroad, they
having been reënforced by the retreating pickets, and urged
them to hold on to the spur, but it was of no avail. The
enemy's line of battle swept us back like so much chaff, and
struck the Thirty-Ninth Iowa in flank, threatening to ingulf
our little band without further ado. Fortunately for us,
Col. Tourtellotte's fire caught Sears in the flank and broke
him so badly as to enable me to get a staff officer over
the cut with orders to bring the Fiftieth Illinois over to
reënforce Rowett, who had lost very heavily. However, before
the regiment sent for could arrive, Sears and Young [Cockrell
and Young] both rallied and made their assaults in front
and on the flank with so much vigor and in such force as to
break Rowett's line, and had not the Thirty-Ninth Iowa fought
with the desperation it did I never would have been able to
have brought a man back into the redoubt [fort "C"]. As it
was, their hand-to-hand struggle and stubborn stand broke
the enemy to that extent that he must stop to re-form before
undertaking the assault on the fort. Under cover of the blow
they gave the enemy the Seventh and Ninety-Third Illinois
and what remained of the Thirty-Ninth Iowa fell back into
the fort. The fighting up to this time--about 11 A.M.--was
of a most extraordinary character. Attacked from the north,
from the west, and from the south, these three regiments,
Thirty-Ninth Iowa, Seventh Illinois, and Ninety-Third
Illinois infantry, held Young's and a portion of Sears's and
Cockrell's [should be Cockrell's and Young's] Brigades at bay
for nearly two hours and a half. [We were delayed about an
hour, and that by the entanglements that prevented us from
reaching the parapet; besides, we were under fire from guns
everywhere.] The gallant Col. Redfield, of the Thirty-Ninth
Iowa, fell, shot in four places, and the extraordinary valor
of the men and officers of this regiment and the Seventh
Illinois saved to us Allatoona.
The capture of the redoubt by Cockrell and Young under the fire of six
pieces of artillery, two in fort "C" and one in a battery in advance
of the fort, three in fort "T," and musketry fire from every place,
besides the 904 men in the redoubt, ends the first act of the tragedy.
It is proper here to give a description of this scene by quoting from
an address made by Col. William Ludlow, Corps of Engineers, United
States Army, who was with Gen. Corse during the battle, to the Michigan
Commandery, Loyal Legion, at Detroit, April 2, 1891. In referring to
the capture of redoubt "R," he said:
But the appalling center of the tragedy was the pit in which
lay the heroes of the Thirty-Ninth Iowa and the Seventh
Illinois. Such a sight probably was never presented to the
eye of heaven. There is no language to describe it. With
all the glad reaction of feeling after the prolonged strain
of that mortal day, and the exultant surge of victory that
swelled our hearts, it was difficult to stand on the verge
of that open grave without a rush of tears to the eye and a
spasm of pity clutching at the throat. The trench was crowded
with the dead, blue and homespun. "Yank" and "Johnny,"
inextricably mingled in the last ditch. Our heroes, ordered
to hold the place to the last, with supreme fidelity, had
died at their posts. As the Rebel line ran over them they
struck up with their bayonets as the foe struck down, and,
rolling together in the embrace of death, we found them, in
some cases, mutually transfixed. The theme cannot be dwelt
upon.
I will now go on with Corse's report, and let him tell his story of the
battle in his own way.
So completely disorganized were the enemy that no regular
assault could be made on the fort until I had the trenches
all filled and the parapets lined with men. The Twelfth
Illinois and the Fiftieth Illinois, arriving from the east
hill, enabled us to occupy every foot of trench, and keep
up a line of fire that as long as our ammunition lasted
would render our little fort impregnable. The broken forces
of the enemy enabled them to fill every hollow and take
every advantage of the rough ground surrounding the fort,
filling every hole and trench, seeking shelter behind every
stump and log that lay within musket range of the fort. We
received fire from the north, south, and west face of the
fort, completely enfilading our ditches, and rendering it
almost impracticable for a man to expose his person above the
parapet. An effort was made to carry our works by assault
[This is an error. We had no scaling ladders, besides the
ditch was _solid full_ of Corse's men who found shelter
there], but the battery, Twelfth Wisconsin, was so ably
managed and so gallantly fought as to render it impossible
for a column to live within one hundred yards of the works.
Officers labored constantly to stimulate the men to exertion,
and almost all that were killed or wounded in the fort met
this fate while trying to get the men to expose themselves
above the parapet, and nobly setting them the example.
The enemy kept up a constant and intense fire, gradually
closing around us, and rapidly filling our little fort with
the dead and the dying. About 1 P.M. I was wounded by a rifle
ball, which rendered me insensible for some thirty or forty
minutes, but managed to rally on hearing some persons cry,
"_Cease firing_," which conveyed to me the impression that
they were trying to surrender the fort. Again I urged my
staff, the few officers left unhurt, and the men around me to
renewed exertions, assuring them that _Sherman would soon be
here with reënforcements_. The gallant fellows struggled hard
to keep their heads above the ditch and parapet in the face
of the murderous fire of the enemy now concentrated upon us.
Here we have the astonishing official statement that his men would
not expose themselves enough to fire over the parapet or out of the
ditch, and that most of the officers lost their lives in "nobly setting
them the example;" and this is also established by Col. Ludlow in his
address, where he says:
Rowett's order to "_cease firing_" had, of course, nothing
to do with the cry of "_surrender_." It is true that there
were men in the fort ready to surrender or to do anything
else in order to get out of it alive. Happily these were
few, and most of them lay prone, close under the parapet,
_playing dead_, with the combatants and wounded standing
and sitting upon them. If I mistake not, _Corse himself_,
at least for a time, _was holding down one of these living
corpses_, who preferred to endure all the pain and discomfort
of his position rather than get up and face the deadly music
that filled the air with leaden notes.... It was absolutely
necessary to keep room for the fighting force along the
parapet, so the wounded were drawn back, and in some cases
shot over and over again. The dead were disposed of in the
same way, except that as the ground became covered with them
they were let lie as they fell, and were stood or sat upon by
the fighters.... The slaughter had been frightful.
One of our guns was disabled from the jamming of a shot, and
we were out of ammunition for the other two.... I recall
distinctly the fact that a regimental flagstaff on the
parapet, which had been _several times_ shot away, fell again
at a critical moment toward the end of the action. There
was a mad yell from our friends outside, and a few cries of
"surrender" among our own people, but a brave fellow leaped
to the summit of the parapet, where it did not seem possible
to live for a single second, grasped the flagstaff, waved
it, drove the stump into the parapet, and dropped back again
unhurt. His action restored confidence; a great Yankee cheer
drowned the tumult, and no cry of "surrender" was afterwards
heard.
[Illustration: SIGNAL TREE, ALLATOONA, OCT. 5, 1864.]
Here now is presented the testimony of Corse himself, and of Col.
Ludlow, that the men would not expose themselves, and that they cried
"cease firing," and "surrender." I know, as do hundreds of others
now living, that the fire of the fort was silenced, because our men
were close up; and if any one inside the fort or in the ditch exposed
his head, instantly it became the target for several Confederates.
Confederates moved about with impunity, and I called the attention of
my staff to Johnson (Cockrell's flag bearer) riding up to the north
side of the fort, sitting quietly on his horse, and listening to what
was going on in the fort. In a recent letter from him he writes to J.
M. Brown, of Atlanta: "I remember riding up very close to the fort.
The distance was short, as I was close enough to tell what the Federals
were doing in there." After 12 M. the Confederates merely watched for
any person exposing his head above the parapet, and so I am sure that
the fire described was not so severe as related by Gen. Corse, but it
was very fatal.
Gen. Corse goes on with his report, and writes that about 2:30 P.M.
the enemy massed a force (behind a small house) which he threw into
great confusion, and that "from this time on until 4 P.M. we had the
advantage of the enemy, and maintained it with such success that they
were driven from every position, and finally fled in great confusion,
leaving their dead and wounded, and our little garrison in possession
of the field."
It is hardly possible to crowd into a short paragraph more errors than
are found in the four lines above, and most of them he well knew to be
false. It is true, no doubt, that he was not aware of the information
sent me that induced me to withdraw my troops. That dispatch was
received at 12:15 P.M. The Cartersville road, running north, passes
within a few yards of fort "C," and then continues some two hundred and
fifty yards on through the captured works. It was open to my infantry,
but was there not life enough in the two forts, "C" and "T," to shoot
down some of the horses and mules passing by within short pistol shot
if I attempted to move the artillery, baggage wagons, and ambulances
and block the road if I decided to move _north_ to avoid Sherman's
troops marching from the south to the relief of Allatoona?
So I resolved to obtain possession of the Acworth and Dallas road
before it was occupied in force by the Federals, trusting to their slow
and cautious movements. To this end, I first ordered all the artillery
except one battery to start at once to the Allatoona Creek bridge to
join the Mississippi regiment left there, and hold that position. Next,
Sears was directed to withdraw immediately from the north side in front
of fort "T," and Cockrell to commence at 1:30 P.M.; and, owing to the
rough hillsides, _to come out in squads, or individually_. Although
Sears began the movement over an hour before Cockrell and Young did,
the latter were all collected on the ridge first, and sat there under
the shade of the trees, within sight and easy rifle range of fort "C,"
until about 3 P.M., waiting for Sears, who had to go around the pond
made by the Yankees damming up Allatoona Creek. During all this time
but few shots were fired by the enemy. One, however, was fired at us,
and it killed a man who had appropriated a fine pair of cavalry boots
from the stores, and he fell dead at my feet where we were sitting. In
the meantime I went among the wounded men who could not walk over the
rocky hills to our ambulances, and explained to them why they would
have to be left, and that surgeons had been detailed to remain with
them. They gave me thanks without complaint.
After I showed Gens. Cockrell and Young the dispatches I had received,
and informed them of my intention not to remain and make an assault on
fort "C," lest reënforcements for the garrison should arrive before we
could leave the place, they demurred, and said their men were mad, and
wanted to remain and capture the place. Col. Gates, of the Missouri
Brigade, declared that he would capture fort "C" in twenty minutes
after the arrival and distribution of our ammunition, by way of the
sally port. He asserted that they were so crowded inside that but few
men could fire.
I adhered to my decision to withdraw, because the men had already
been three days and two nights without rest or sleep, and that they
could not pass a third night without sleep, and risk having to fight
reënforcements momentarily expected; and the subsequent arrival
of troops from Cartersville at 8 P.M. proved the correctness of my
judgment; also Martin's Brigade reached Allatoona next morning.
About 3 P.M. the last of Sears's men arrived on the ridge near the
fort where we rested awaiting them, and we then left the ridge and
moved to the Cartersville road, where the wagons were left. Cockrell
was now ordered to proceed with the infantry force to the Allatoona
Creek bridge, and join the Mississippi regiment and artillery already
there on the Dallas road. I rode down to the battery still in position
on Moore's Hill to give instructions, and remained there sometime, not
a little astonished at the scene presented to my view. The declining
sun, seen through the calm, hazy atmosphere, shone red, like the
rising of the full-orbed moon, on the fortifications before us. All
was silent now where the battle raged so long, and the mellow light
gleamed so gently down on the wounded and the dead that I remarked
to the officers and men around me: "Silence, like the pall of death,
rests over Allatoona; it is as lifeless as a graveyard at midnight." I
even went up an inclined tree and used my glasses in vain to discover
a human being. And so Corse's statement that we "were driven from
every position, and finally fled in great confusion," leaps over the
bombastic and loses its force in ridiculous excess of inaccuracy.
Corse, in his report, says that he brought with him 165,000 rounds
of ammunition, and Ludlow states that "it was all expended except two
hundred and fifty rounds." All the artillery ammunition Corse had in
fort "C" was expended, and he got a man to go after some from fort "T,"
and he returned safely with an armful. See his report.
I will pause here awhile, that you may make a survey of the field of
battle at 1:30 P.M.
For over two hours there had been pent up in fort "C," inside and in
the ditch outside, the Thirty-Ninth Iowa, the Seventh Illinois, the
Fiftieth Illinois, the Ninety-Third Illinois, the Twelfth Illinois, two
companies of the Fifty-Seventh Illinois, and their artillery, 1,453 in
number, less the killed, badly wounded, and prisoners resulting from
their defense of the redoubt "R."
The fort, built for artillery mainly, had but seventy-seven yards of
parapet, which made it so dangerous for any one to expose his head
above the parapet that their men would not fire voluntarily, "and
most of their officers were killed or wounded in setting the men an
example;" and they passed the word to "cease firing." They cried
"surrender." Some "played dead," and the combatants stood on the
"living corpses." Others sat down on them. Even Corse himself used
one for a seat after he was wounded (Ludlow). They were out of water.
Their ammunition was nearly all expended. Their firing had slackened to
a musket shot at intervals. They let us withdraw without molestation,
and we sat in the shade of the trees in full view of the fort, within
musket range, from 1:30 P.M. until 3 P.M. awaiting Sears. They saw
us all leave the ridge at the last named hour. At 4 P.M. Corse sent
dispatch No. 23: "We still hold out." So they were in the fort then,
and did not come out until the Confederates were all out of sight. The
officers tried to keep up the spirits of their men by assuring them
that "Sherman will soon come" (Corse's report). The hope of speedy
relief prevented utter despondency, and they waited and waited, hoped
and hoped for the fulfillment of the encouraging promises implied in
the dispatches sent them by Sherman, as: "Hold fast, we are coming;"
"Sherman moving in force, hold out;" "Sherman working hard for you;"
"Near you." With his troops in this condition, and in the face of all
these facts, Corse officially publishes to his commander and to the
world, in a vainglorious manner, that the Confederates "were driven
from every position, and finally fled in great confusion, leaving
their dead and wounded, and our little garrison in possession of
the field!!!" It is a beautiful description of an event that never
happened.
It must have been pretty soon after we left Allatoona that Gen. Green
B. Raum, commanding a division of cavalry that was hovering around
_between_ the Etowah bridge and the Allatoona, arrived and made a
social call on Corse, and sympathized with him in his afflictions; but
he must have left at an early hour, for he went to Cartersville that
evening and sent a dispatch, which will be found, No. 25, dated October
5.
[Illustration: BATTLE OF ALLATOONA--CAPTURE OF REDOUBT "R."]
Soon Sherman was informed that the Confederates had retreated, and had
taken the road to Dallas. So _he checked his troops that were marching
on Allatoona_. However, Corse's train, expected _every hour during
the battle_, returned to Allatoona at 8 P.M. with the remainder of
_Rowett's Brigade_. Some cavalry also arrived, and the next morning
came _Martin's Brigade_. With him the condition of affairs was very
much changed now.
During this time the weary Confederates, after capturing the blockhouse
with a garrison of one hundred and ten men at Allatoona Creek bridge,
marched on till midnight of the 5th, and the next morning were at
New Hope Church, far away from Allatoona. Corse was now resting in
the bosom of his friends, who no doubt congratulated him on his happy
deliverance from the distress of the day previous; and as there were
no Confederates near to distress him any more, he wrote Sherman, AT 2
P.M. ON THE 6TH, his (so-called) famous dispatch, which for CHEEK is
unequaled:
I am short a cheek bone and an ear, but can whip all h-ll
yet!!
Now the adverb "yet" in this case implies conditions unchanged. But, as
they were then entirely changed, he was not justified in sending such
a dispatch. It is a vainglorious, self-laudatory dispatch, no doubt
sent to divert attention from the real condition in which his command
had been placed; or it may be that the joy he felt the day after the
battle, on being reënforced and rescued from the "slaughter pen" (in
which he was pent up), by Sherman's movements to save him, caused him
to write it; if so, it is not excusable. If, however, intoxicated
at the mess table by the congratulations of friends and the usual
accompaniments required for his condition, he was inspired to send that
dispatch (as a postprandial speech is made), to mean nothing, then he
may be forgiven.
But the unbought grace of life, the trained veracity, the chivalrous
respect for foemen his equal in valor, whose daring he had witnessed,
whose prowess he had felt, and from whose presence he so longed to
be delivered, should have restrained him, at a much later date, from
writing in his official report the fabricated story of how he "drove
the Confederates from every position until finally they fled in great
confusion," because he well knew this statement was not true.
In connection with Gen. Corse's visit with Joseph M. Brown to the
battle ground at Allatoona, I have a letter from Mr. Brown giving me
other information of what was said during his visit to Atlanta. As a
guest of Senator Brown this conversation grew frank and friendly.
ATLANTA, GA., August 31, 1900.
Gen. S. G. French, Pensacola, Fla.
_My Dear General_: Answering your inquiry as to Mr. De
Thulstrup's picture of the battle of Allatoona, I will
state that in 1886 Gen. John M. Corse came to Georgia with
the above well-known battle artist. I went with them to
Allatoona, where we spent almost a day going over the various
points of the ridge on both sides of the railroad, where
there were fortifications.
Returning to Atlanta, these two gentlemen were my guests at
my father's home. That night, after some social conversation,
Gen. Corse and Mr. De Thulstrup went upstairs to their
sleeping apartments. Within probably an hour afterwards I
also went up to my sleeping room. The hall door leading from
my room to Gen. Corse's being open, I was unintentionally
made a hearer of conversation going on. Gen. Corse was
quite animated in giving instructions to the artist as to
how to draw the picture. I very distinctly heard him use
the following expression: "_Be sure_ you have the Rebels
running." He repeated this in very positive tones.
Any one looking at the picture will see that the artist
faithfully complied with the General's instructions.
Very truly yours.
JOSEPH M. BROWN.
When J. M. Brown told Corse that French never received his reply to
his summons to surrender, he answered: "This is the first information
I have to that effect, that my answer never reached him." Then Corse
told him he was in great haste in examining the lines and disposing
of his troops. "When one of his staff officers hailed me with advice
that he had a note from the enemy's commander, which he supposed was
a summons to surrender, ... I took the note and read it; it made me
mad, because, from what I could _see_ of his forces, and what I knew
of mine, I believed that I had about as big a force as he had, hence
considered the summons a superfluous piece of bravado. I sat down on a
log, and, pulling my notebook out of my pocket, wrote the reply across
the face of one of its pages, which I tore out and handed to my staff
officer with instructions to take it to the bearer of the summons....
I never knew whether my answer reached French or not."
There is something in this statement which must be regarded as very
remarkable, for in the ordinary affairs of life, if even a servant be
sent to deliver a letter, and does not find the person to whom he was
to deliver it, would he throw it away and never mention it, or would
he return with it and report that he did not find the man to whom
he was to hand it? And does not common sense tell us that on such a
momentous matter as this, involving the lives of hundreds of men, his
staff officer would have reported that the flag of truce could not be
found, and have returned the dispatch given him? And, furthermore, can
any person of intelligence believe that Gen. Corse and the said staff
officer did not speak about this pretentious answer to the summons at
any time, which is published to the world in facsimile, of which Julius
E. Brown, of Atlanta, has one copy. If he published the "facsimile" of
the dispatch sent me, where did he get it? It seems to me the General
"doth protest too much." And further he says: "Being in great pain from
my wound, I took the train the night of the 5th for Rome." If this be
true, how could he have issued his "famous" dispatch from Allatoona on
the afternoon of the 6th, for it gives the place, date, and the hour?
I am inclined to the belief that he did not leave Allatoona until after
the 6th, or on the second day after the fight.
I would not detract anything from the well-earned reputation of Gen.
Corse--and more especially so, as he is not living--yet it is a duty
incumbent on me, a duty I owe to my children, and particularly to the
noble Confederate soldiers who were with me, to protect them against
the statement of being "driven away" by the garrison. The demands of
impartial history require of me--an actor therein, a living witness--to
transcribe from my diary the facts as there recorded at the time, so
that the world may know to what extent the many reported incidents of
the battle have truth for their foundation as we now find them related
in nursery tales to children, taught in schools, narrated in story, and
sung in the gospel hymn of "Hold the Fort" wherever the cross is seen
and Christianity prevails.
But in the current literature of the North derived from the exaggerated
bulletins daily sent from the seat of war there is a wonderful
admixture of truth and error, and I am trying to separate them so
far as they are found in the ordinary versions of this battle, and
emphatically to declare that the Confederate troops were _not_ repulsed
as stated in the light publications of the day, or as written in
Corse's report.
If any further testimony be desired, I would refer you to the following
letter from a publication made by Joseph M. Brown, son of the late
Senator Joseph E. Brown, of Georgia.
ALLATOONA, GA., November 10, 1890.
Mr. Joseph M. Brown.
_Dear Sir_: In reply to the inquiries contained in your
letter of October 31, I will state that, with my brother, I
was in Allatoona on the night of October 4, 1864, when the
place was surrounded by Confederates under Gen. French.
Early the next morning, for safety, we went into the fort
on the west side of the railroad, and were there during the
battle that day. Gen. Corse commanded on the west side of
the railroad, and was in the fort all the latter part of the
fight. The Federals fought desperately, and after they lost
fort "R"[30] across the Cartersville road they were very
much disheartened. They could get no water without exposing
themselves to a deadly fire; and it was very much needed,
especially for the wounded.
During the latter part of the engagement I frequently heard
it said they were nearly out of ammunition. They were on
the point of giving up the fight several times. The command
"Cease firing" was given by somebody and passed around the
fort, but then some of the officers rallied the men a little.
If the attack had been kept up a little while longer, the
fort would have certainly been taken; but to the surprise
of the Federals, their enemy's fire slackened and the
Confederates retired from the front of the fort. The Federals
at this time were at a loss to understand this movement, when
they themselves were nearly ready to surrender. They seemed
momentarily to expect a renewal of the attack from some
other quarter. They remained quietly in the fort for nearly
or quite three-quarters of an hour after the Confederates
retired. But when they found that the Confederates would not
renew the fighting there was a great rally in the fort. Then
there was some desultory firing at the Confederates on the
south of the fort near the depot and station. The Federals
did not sally out of the fort until the Confederates were
gone entirely out of sight.
W. M. DENTON.
As regards the arms captured by Corse, I will simple remark they were
inferior muskets exchanged on the field for Springfield rifles, and
Henry repeating rifles (16 shooters), one of which I turned over, by
my Aid Yerger, to the United States Ordnance officer at the close of
the war. Had Corse gone to the blockhouse at Allatoona creek, he would
have captured there eighty-five muskets (thrown away) in the road, in
exchange for those we captured there, which would have augmented his
list of arms captured.
PROVISIONS.
There were about one million rations of bread at Allatoona, and two
million seven hundred thousand in Atlanta, and _not_ two million seven
hundred thousand in Allatoona as stated by Col. Ludlow. (Sherman's
letter to Corse, page 134, Vol. 39.) The rations in Allatoona in no way
affected the "march to the sea." They were ordered to Rome on the 11th,
for use above. (See page 207.)
"I propose breaking up the railroad from Chattanooga and striking out
with wagons.... Until we can _depopulate_ Georgia it is useless to
occupy it.... The utter destruction of the _roads, houses, and people_
cripple their resources.... I can make Georgia _howl_.... I have eight
thousand cattle and three million rations of bread." (Page 162, Vol.
39.)
The destruction of the stores at Allatoona, had it been done, would not
have interfered with the "march to the sea."
The stores in Allatoona were in our possession, and they were not set
on fire by our men because they wanted some themselves, and much was
appropriated. But I had no knowledge of there being a large depot there
until I withdrew Cockrell and Young; and while waiting for Sears I
heard the men speak about them. On obtaining this information a party
of men were sent there to burn them. It is a singular fact that only
three matches could be found, and Gen. Cockrell had them, and when the
party reached the stores the matches failed to ignite.
Gen. Sherman left Atlanta November 15, 1864, and arrived at Savannah
on the 10th of December. He writes that he had sixty-five thousand men.
To supply these men the twenty-seven days they were on the march would
require one million seven hundred and fifty-five thousand rations. They
averaged eight miles per day--for the distance is about two hundred and
twenty miles. I have related to you how I made a march (with a large
wagon train, through a desolate country, heavily laden) of ninety-six
miles in fifty-two hours; and this without water.
This much vaunted "march to the sea" was a pleasure excursion, through
a well-cultivated country, and is a mere bagatelle compared with that
made by the Mormons from Illinois to Utah, or the many expeditions
made overland to California during the gold excitement. The distance
to California is ten times greater than the distance from Atlanta to
Savannah.
Sherman boastfully writes that he "destroyed two hundred and sixty-five
miles of railroad, carried off ten thousand mules, and countless
slaves; that he did damage to the amount of $100,000,000. Of this,
his army got $20,000,000, and the $80,000,000 was waste," as they went
"looting" through Georgia.
But not content with this, when "this cruel war was over," he presented
the delectable spectacle of "how we went thieving through Georgia"
at the grand review of _his_ army in Washington, by mounting his
bummers on mules laden with chickens, ducks, geese, lambs, pigs,
and other farm productions, unblushingly displayed, to cover up the
concealed money, jewelry, and plate taken from the helpless women--to
delight the President, to edify the loyal people, to gratify the
hatred of the populace to the South, to popularize the thirst for
plundering made by his troops, to be an object lesson to the present
generation, to instill a broader view of moral right, to heighten
modest sensibilities, to refine the delicate tastes of young ladies, to
humiliate a conquered people; or wherefore was this unwise "Punch and
Judy" show given?
During the revolutionary war, when the British fleet ascended the
Potomac river, one ship sailed up to Mount Vernon--the residence of the
arch rebel, Washington--and made a requisition for provisions which his
agent filled. The English commander must have been a gentleman because
he did not burn the dwelling, insult the family, nor commit robbery!!!
Gen. Bradley T. Johnston, in his life of Gen. J. E. Johnston, quotes
that, "Abubekr in the year 634 gave his chiefs of the army of Syria
orders as follows: 'Remember that you are always in the presence of
God, on the verge of death, in the assurance of judgment and the hope
of paradise. Avoid injustice and oppression.... When you fight the
battles of the Lord acquit yourselves like men, without turning your
backs; but let not your victory be stained with the blood of women or
children. _Destroy_ no _palm tree_, nor burn any _fields_ of _corn_.
Cut down no _fruit trees_, nor do any _mischief to cattle_, only
such as you _kill to eat_. When you make any covenant or article,
stand to it and be as good as your word. As you go on, you will find
some religious persons who live retired in monasteries, and purpose
themselves to serve God in that way. Let them alone, and neither kill
them nor destroy their _monasteries_.'
"Judged by the laws given Moses on Sinai, or the teachings of Him
who stilled the waves on Galilee, or the Koran, the principles of
morality, or feelings of humanity; were not the gates of Paradise open
to Abubekr?
"Owing to the barbarities that were practiced by the English soldiers
and sailors, and the refusal to exchange prisoners, Capt. John Paul
Jones, when in command of the Continental ship, Ranger, on April 23,
1778, landed on the Isle of St. Mary, Scotland, with a small force
and surrounded the house of the Earl of Shetland, to carry the earl
away, and have him detained until through his means a general and
fair exchange of prisoners, in Europe as well as in America, could be
effected.
"The earl was not at home, and Jones permitted his men to take
silverware from the castle as fair plunder and a just revenge for the
acts of British sailors in America, who had not only looted the homes
of the rich, but had driven off _one_ cow and _one_ pig of the laborer.
"The silver taken was of the real value of £500 pounds, but when sold
for the benefit of the crew, Jones bought it and returned it (at his
own expense) at a cost of £1,000 pounds, all told, to the noble lord."
(Spear's "History of Our Navy," pages 142-148, Vol. I.)
Was not England fighting the colonies then in rebellion?
It is not I who charge Sherman with destroying cornfields, cutting
down fruit trees, or "driving off _one_ cow and _one_ pig;" he himself
boasts of having done it. If he did take the "_one_ cow and the _one_
pig," he kindly left the poor women their tears and their memory.
SHERMAN.
The dispatches numbered 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 9, 10, 11, 12, 15, 17, 18, 19,
20, 23, and 26, which I have given, will show Gen. Sherman's untiring
efforts to save Allatoona, and to prevent my division from joining
Hood. No. 26 shows that on the 4th his force went into camp at the
foot of Little Kennesaw. Nos. 15 and 16 show that Stanley, with a
part of the army of the Cumberland, was on Pine Mountain at 2:10
P.M. on the 5th. At that hour we were sitting under the shade of the
trees at Allatoona, waiting for Sears's men, and on the ridge by the
fortifications.
My diary, written on the spot, says we left with the wagons at 4:30
P.M. Next, we were detained an hour in capturing the blockhouse at the
creek. If Stanley had moved promptly, he could have occupied the Dallas
road, moving northwest, at some point many hours in advance of me.
No. 17 informs Stanley: "I want to control the Sandtown road back to
Allatoona." That is the road I marched over from the blockhouse to New
Hope Church _on the 5th, and morning of the 6th_.
Sherman's cavalry was ordered several times to hold that road. They
were two miles in advance of Kemp's Mill at 3:10 P.M. on the 5th (see
No. 16), and not four miles from the road. We were then at Allatoona.
In Sherman's "Memoirs," Vol. II., page 147, you will find these words:
"From Kennesaw I ordered the Twenty-Third Corps to march due west on
the Burnt Hickory road, and to burn houses or piles of brush as it
progressed to indicate the head of column, hoping to interpose this
corps between Hood's main army at Dallas and the detachment _then_
assailing Allatoona."
The _rest_ of the army was directed straight to Allatoona, eighteen
miles distant.
By the map, Allatoona (in a direct line) is thirteen miles from
Kennesaw, ten miles from Pine Mountain, twelve miles from New Hope
Church, eight miles from Big Shanty, eleven miles from Lost Mountain;
and from Pine Mountain, where Gen. Stanley was on the 5th with part
of the army of the Cumberland, to the road over which I passed on the
6th, _it is only five miles_. Also the cavalry that was at Kemp's Mill
at 3:10 P.M. on the 5th was within five miles of the residence of _Dr.
Smith, where I encamped on the night of the 5th_.
For these facts, read again the Federal dispatches that I have given.
It is therefore manifest that only by tardy and cautious movements,
or no movements, as Sherman ordered, arising from Hood's fighting
qualities, they failed to place a powerful force across our road before
I left the bridge across Allatoona creek or at any time on the 6th, the
day following.
Sherman at first, or "for a time, attributed this result" (my
withdrawing my troops) "to the effect of Gen. Cox's march" (see page
147, Vol. II., of his "Memoirs"), which, in truth, was mainly the
cause; but he generously gave--however erroneously--all the credit
to his lieutenant, with whom he was well pleased for "holding on" and
"holding out" through faith in "his promises to come to his relief,"
and then complimented him in a general order that Corse must have felt
as being a little ironical, save only as relates to "holding out" with
a _faith_ in Sherman which can be found in St. Paul's Epistle to the
Hebrews, where he writes that "faith is the substance of things hoped
for, the evidence of things not seen."
Sherman's signal dispatches to Corse before and during the battle to
"hold the fort," intended only for their encouragement, has now become
a world-wide inspiration in the form of a gospel song written by the
evangelist P. P. Bliss.
Mr. Joseph M. Brown writes that "the circumstances of the messages and
the battle being narrated to the evangelist, he caught from them the
idea for the stirring words:
Ho! my comrades, see the signal
Waving in the sky!
Reënforcements now appearing,
Victory is nigh.
_Chorus._--Hold the fort, for I am coming!
Jesus signals still;
Wave the answer back to heaven:
"By thy grace we will!"
"He wrote this song on the night that he first heard the story, and
sung it in the Tabernacle in Chicago next day. It was caught up by
the voices of thousands, and from that day to this has been a standard
gospel lyric."
_HOOD._
On the afternoon of October 4, 1864, when I was at Big Shanty, on the
railroad near Kennesaw, Gen. A. P. Stewart, my corps commander, handed
to me two orders from Gen. Hood. The first one is dated October 4, 7:30
A.M., and the second at 11:30 A.M. These two orders may be found in my
official report of the battle of Allatoona on a preceding page.
The purport of these two orders is: that I will take my division to
Allatoona and fill up the deep cut there (a photograph of a _part_ of
this cut is here given), and then go on to the Etowah river bridge and
burn it, if possible; and thence march to New Hope Church by taking
roads running south to New Hope Church, and join my corps there; the
destruction of the bridge being the more important duty; and I was
expected to join the army on the 6th.
[Illustration: RAILROAD CUT, ALLATOONA. FORT "C" ON THE LEFT, FORT "T"
ON THE RIGHT.]
If this cut be critically examined, it will be perceived that the
order to "fill it up" in an hour or so, and then go on to the bridge,
does not evince a profound knowledge of engineering. A little boy
builds sand forts and castles on the seashore with wooden paddles, and
believes he is a Vauban or an Inigo Jones.[31] He knew we had but a
few spades, and directed Gen. Stewart to borrow for me tools from Gen.
Armstrong; and he had none.
In 1880, sixteen years after he wrote those orders, Gen. Hood published
a work called "Advance and Retreat," in which the following words are
written (page 257):
"I had received information--and Gen. Shoupe records the same in his
diary--that the enemy had in store, at Allatoona, large supplies which
were _guarded_ by two or three regiments. As one of the main objects
of _the campaign_ was to deprive the enemy of provisions, Maj. Gen.
French was ordered to move with his division, to capture the garrison,
if practicable, and _gain possession_ of the _supplies_. Accordingly
on the 5th, at 10 A.M., after a refusal to surrender, he attacked the
Federal forces at Allatoona, and succeeded in capturing a portion
of the works; at that juncture he received intelligence that large
reënforcements were advancing in support of the enemy, and, fearing
he would be cut off from the main body of the army, he retired and
abandoned the attempt. Maj. L. Perot, adjutant of Ector's Brigade,
had informed me by letter that our troops were in possession of these
stores during several hours, and could easily have destroyed them. If
this assertion be correct, I presume Maj. Gen. French forbade their
destruction, in the conviction of his ability to successfully remove
them for the use of the Confederate army."
Now, if any intelligent person will carefully scrutinize the orders
given me, and then ponder over what Hood published, he can arrive at
no other conclusion than that the account published is erroneous. They
cannot both be true!
And further, when I made my official report I copied my orders that
he gave me, and I stated in my report: "It would appear, however, from
these orders, that the general in chief was not aware that the pass was
fortified and garrisoned that I was sent to have filled up."
This report was, by Gen. Stewart, delivered to Gen. Hood, and by him
forwarded to the War Department in Richmond; thence it went to the War
Department in Washington. And although I therein state that Hood had
no knowledge of the place being garrisoned, or fortified, he forwarded
it without comment. He could not do otherwise. There were the originals
copied in his own order book.
"Gain possession of the supplies!" under all the environments, is only
a vague expression of a glittering generality and signifies nothing
particular, and is a mere platitude and nothing more. What was I to do
with them? Bring them away? remove them without a wagon, when about six
hundred were required!
But let us suppose that Hood actually did know that Allatoona was
fortified, garrisoned, and a depot for army rations. If so, then he
should have imparted to either Gen. Stewart or me that information.
Again: Gen. Hood having declared that the main object of the campaign
was "to deprive the enemy of provisions," here was the desired
opportunity; nay, more--to appropriate them to his own use. He wrote
the first order to me at 7:30 A.M. on the 4th. At that time I was at
Big Shanty, Walthall at Moon's, and Loring at Acworth, only two hours'
(daylight) march from Allatoona!
Now I ask in the name of common sense, Can it be possible that, with
Gen. Stewart's army corps so near those much needed army supplies, he
should order Gen. Stewart's Corps to remain there close by them "till
late in the evening," and then march him away and order me, the most
distant, to go there and "take possession of them?"
Had he known what he says he did, undoubtedly he would have ordered,
at daylight on the 4th, every available wagon to Acworth, and (instead
of the utterly impractical one of putting a mountain in a deep cut)
ordered Gen. Stewart with his three divisions to Allatoona in all
haste. Loring could have reached Allatoona by _11 a.m. on the 4th_,
and the others soon after. The battle would have been fought on the
4th, and before the arrival of Corse at midnight. No! for the want of
information, this was not to be.
And so I went all alone into the land occupied by the enemy, and Gen.
Hood moved farther and farther away, leaving me isolated beyond all
support or assistance.
Gen. Hood could not have had a good knowledge of the topography of the
country, because when my dispatch to Stewart--that I would withdraw
from Allatoona to avoid being shut up in a _cul de sac_--was received
Hood tells Stewart that he does not understand "how Gen. French could
be cut off, as he should have moved directly away from the railroad
to the west." (Page 791, War Records, Vol. 39.) I am quite sure Gen.
Armstrong, when (at 9 A.M.) he sent me his dispatch, also sent a
copy of it to Gen. Stewart or Hood, because Hood at 1:15 P.M. tells
Armstrong he "must prevent my being surprised, and enable me to get out
safely."
I will state here again that it was about noon on the 4th, when some
citizens, living on the line of the railroad above, remarked that
we "could not tear up the track to Allatoona, because that place
was fortified and garrisoned, and that it was a depot for supplies."
Therefore it was that Gen. Stewart and myself, in discussing the order,
were convinced that Hood did not know the condition of affairs at
Allatoona, and at my request he gave me some additional artillery; and
so there is ample evidence that Hood had no knowledge that the enemy
occupied the Allatoona Pass.
Gen. Hood was indeed a brave man, if not a courageous one, and he
couched his lance at the enemy wherever he met him, whether in the
guise of a windmill or the helmet of Mambrino; but at last, in after
days, he went over to the enemy, for on page 257 of his volume he
writes: "Gen. Corse won my admiration by his gallant resistance, and
not without reason the Federal commander complimented this officer,
through a general order, for his handsome conduct in the defense of
Allatoona!"
It is a pertinent question to ask from what source Gen. Hood derived
his information. If he had read Gen. Corse's report, he would have
discovered that his men would not expose themselves enough to fire
over the parapet, and that they merely "held out" for the hourly
promised assistance, etc., as I have narrated. Is it pleasing to learn
from his pen his rapturous love for the Federals and contempt for the
Confederates and his standard of admiration? Mine is different; and I
am free to state that it was the Confederates with whom I was present,
who by their death,
"by their painful service,
The extreme danger, and the drops of blood
Shed,"
by their gallantry and perseverance won my admiration. And this is no
reflection on the enemy they met. Hood's want of admiration for the
soldiers he commanded in 1864 and 1865 is the highest meed to their
intelligence.
Perhaps it was natural, in after years, that Gen. Hood should select
some Federal officer on whom to bestow his admiration, and when they
passed in review before him Gen. Corse was awarded this honor. I trow
he must have forgotten Col. Clark R. Weaver, U. S. A.
Seven days after Allatoona, Gen. Hood with his entire army was at
Resaca. It was garrisoned by about five hundred men commanded by Col.
Weaver. Hood summoned Weaver to surrender in unmistakable terms, ending
as follows:
If the place is carried by assault, no prisoners will be
taken.
Most respectfully, your obedient servant,
J. B. HOOD, _General_.
To this Col. Weaver replied:
In my opinion I can hold this post. If you want it, come and
take it.
CLARK R. WEAVER, _Com'd'g Officer_.
(See Sherman's "Memoirs," Vol. II., page 155.)
Nevertheless, on page 257, "Advance and Retreat," Hood writes, "Gen.
Corse won my admiration by his gallant resistance," etc., and further
on--page 326 of his book--he writes, "The information I received
that the enemy was moving to cut me off proved to be false," which
is refuted by the arrival of reënforcements as I have stated, and
Sherman's dispatches that I have given.
It is singular that so many laudatory statements should have been made
by Gen. J. M. Corse and admirers about the battle of Allatoona, which
were not necessary to sustain his character as a soldier.
I have before me a book of nearly five hundred pages, written by F.
Y. Hedley, adjutant of the Thirty-Second Illinois Regiment, which
is entitled "Pen Pictures of Everyday Life in Gen. Sherman's Army,
from Atlanta to the Close of the War." This includes the battle of
Allatoona, and as he makes the story to be palatable to the tastes
of those who enjoy the marvelous, at the expense of the Confederate
soldiers and myself, I feel obliged to expose more of the legerdemain
used to deceive the public by juggling tricks.
I will state that on page 219 there is a facsimile of my summons to
the commanding officer of the garrison to surrender. It was sent, as I
have stated, because it was then supposed that the garrison was small
in numbers. It reads:
AROUND ALLATOONA, October 5, 8:15 A.M., 1864.
Commanding Officer U. S. Forces, Allatoona:
_Sir_: I have placed the forces under my command in such
positions that you are surrounded; and to avoid a needless
effusion of blood, I call on you to surrender your forces at
once, and unconditionally. Five minutes will be allowed you
to decide. Should you accede to this, you will be treated in
the most honorable manner as prisoners of war.
I have the honor to be very respectfully yours,
S. G. FRENCH,
_Major General Commanding Forces C. S._
On the same leaf is a facsimile of Gen. Corse's reply to my note, and
it reads:
HEADQUARTERS FOURTH DIVISION, }
FIFTEENTH ARMY CORPS, 8:30 A.M., October 5, 1864. }
Maj. Gen. G. S. French, C. S. A.:
Your communication demanding surrender of my command I
acknowledge receipt of, and respectfully reply that we are
prepared for the "needless effusion of blood" whenever it is
agreeable to you.
I am very respectfully, your obedient servant,
JOHN M. CORSE,
_Major General Commanding Forces U. S._
Let us investigate this matter.
The facsimile of my letter is true, no doubt about that; but we have
also the facsimile of the reply made by Corse which was sent me, and
by me never received; and in the face of that Corse "declared he never
knew that I did not receive it, or that it was not delivered to Maj.
Sanders, the bearer of the flag of truce," until so informed by Joseph
M. Brown, whose guest he was when he came to Atlanta with the artist De
Thulstrup to have the battle painted; and he further told him: "I took
the note (French's) and read it. It made me mad, because from what I
could see of his forces, and what I knew of mine, I believed that I had
about as big a force as he; hence considered the summons a superfluous
piece of bravado. I sat down on a log, and pulling my notebook out of
my pocket, wrote the reply across the face of one of the pages, which
I tore out and handed to my staff officer with instructions to take it
back to the bearer of the summons."
Not finding Maj. Sanders, of course he returned in a few minutes and
gave Corse the note.
Next William Ludlow (now a general in the United States army), in his
address to the Michigan Commandery, Loyal Legion, at Detroit, on April
2, 1891 (page 20), says: "Corse did reply; he wrote his answer on the
top of a neighboring stump."
Then Hedley (page 223) says of Corse: "His every pound of flesh
and blood was that of a hero: his eye flashed as if lighted with a
Promethean spark; and his chest swelled with angry defiance to the
hideous threat implied in the summons to surrender! 'Capt. Flint,' said
he, 'answer this!' so Capt. Flint seated himself upon a tree stump and
wrote the reply."
I care not who wrote the reply to my note; I only desire to know who
kept it concealed for over twenty years, and then produced it, and,
together with mine, authoritatively gave them to Hedley to photograph
and publish side by side.
If Corse had it hid away, or knew where it was, then he must have been
mistaken when he declared to Joseph M. Brown that he never knew that
I had not received it. Besides, that I received no reply was reported
officially and well known.
As regards the "hideous threat implied" in my note, it has been left to
the hero of Allatoona to discover it for the first time, although the
like and similar expressions have been used by many commanders in the
years long past, and escaped the critical acumen of those to whom they
were sent to find an implied threat therein.
No one except Ludlow, so far as I am aware, has ever published that
Maj. Sanders was fired on by Corse's soldiers when approaching under a
flag of truce. I made it known on an inclosure in my official report.
Adjutant Hedley says "the heroic _defense_ of Allatoona is almost as
famous as the 'charge of the Light Brigade,' and far more momentous in
its results."
There was nothing momentous pending on it. It was Hood's ignorance of
the enemy's position that caused the battle; it should never have been
made. We had nothing to gain; we would not remain there, nor had I any
means to carry stores away with me. It is well known what Hood ordered
us to do: "fill up the Allatoona cut, and burn the bridge over the
Etowah river," and join him on the 6th.
I here repeat that the one million rations of bread in Allatoona were
not a factor in Sherman's march to Savannah. He refused to repair the
railroad we had destroyed, and sent the rations north of the Etowah.
Subsequently, however, he did put the road in condition so as to send
the sick and wounded, etc., north from Atlanta. The war records show he
had in Atlanta 3,000,000 rations and eight thousand beeves. For 65,000
men eighteen days were required 1,170,000 rations. On the march the
most difficult problem Sherman had to solve was _what to do with his
superabundant rations_.
Let us examine Hedley on this question. He writes, first: The regular
commissaries and quartermasters foraged for the regular commands off
the country; but "under the color of the _license_ given by Sherman's
orders _every_ regiment in the army sent out an independent foraging
party, whose duty it was to see that its particular command was
furnished with all the DELICACIES the country afforded. These men
were the most venturesome in the army;" they "took great risks and
experienced startling adventures.... If the negroes told the bummers
stories of cruelty they had suffered, or hostility to the Union, etc.,
the injury was avenged by the torch." So on the twaddle of negroes
these bummers, acting as judges, without appeal, executed their own
sentences.
The rehearsal of these scenes afforded amusement in Washington,
and "Marching through Georgia" is still a favorite hymn to the
sanctimonious people who delight in cruelty to innocent women and
little children.
"The bummer was a wily diplomat and learned all that was to be known
of the neighbor farther down the road whom he expected to raid the next
day.... The bummer drew a line between the rich and the poor."
Speaking of one bummer, as an example of others, he writes: "About
midnight his voice was heard arousing the camp; he had six animals,
horses and mules, strung together with a motley improvised harness
made of odds and ends.... He bestrode one of the wheelers, and swayed
in the saddle from the effects of apple-jack; his wagon was an immense
box of the Tennessee pattern, high at each end, low in the middle,
similar to an old Dutch galiot, loaded to the guards with the choicest
of wines and liquors; and by chance there was in the cargo a box of
glass goblets.... Samples of the wines were sent to corps headquarters,
pronounced excellent, with the intimation that a further supply would
be acceptable, etc.," and so on the chapter reads to the end.
The bummers generally obliged the negroes to improvise teams, and in
wagons brought their stealings into camp. "They ranged over a section
between sixty to eighty miles in breadth." (Page 272.) The writer
pursues a middle line: he tells us nothing about the distress of the
thousands of women and children left homeless by these cruel wretches,
nor does he see any of watches, plate, and jewelry stolen; and now
here we are, in the last years of the century, told by the "Grand Army
of the Republic" that we must not tell any of these matters to our
children in our school histories.
I am now about to close my account of this battle and the false
statements regarding it. I have written it because of Gen. Corse's
willfully making an erroneous statement toward the close of his report
about driving the division away, and because of his (so-called) famous
dispatch, the gospel hymn, and the shouts of victory, congratulatory
orders and admiration parties; because of Hood's statement about orders
given me--all of which have thrown a glamour over the conflict, making
things seem to be what they were not.
I have endeavored to dispel the illusion, remove the glamour, uncover
the hidden truth to him who will seek it.
The "holding on" power of the Federal soldier in this battle was
remarkable, and his faith commendable. From 11 A.M. to near the close
of day they were pent up inside and around in the ditch of a small fort
in such numbers that they lay on one another, sat on each other, stood
on others dead or alive, praying for relief. There they stayed till, in
the silence of the gloaming, they ventured out and "had the advantage
of the enemy and maintained it"--without opposition, for the enemy had
long been gone away!
In what I have written respecting this battle I have made no charge
against the Union soldier of the want of courage or the desire to
surrender.
It is they who furnish the evidence of their distress, refusal
to man the parapets, and desire to surrender under the long delay
and disappointments of the so-often-promised aid. Amidst all their
environments, let none condemn them without cause.
[Illustration: JOSEPH M. BROWN.]
THE SOLDIERS' GRAVE.
BY JOSEPH M. BROWN.
[In Allatoona Pass, by the Western and Atlantic railroad, is the
grave of an unknown soldier who fell in the battle there October
5, 1864.]
In the railroad cut there's a lonely grave
Which the trackmen hold sacred to care;
They have piled round it stones, and for it they save
Every flower, when their task calls them there.
Away from the home of his love,
Away from his sweetheart or wife,
Away from his mother, whose prayers went above,
He gave for his country his life.
We know not if, wearing the blue, he came
'Neath the "bright, starry banner" arrayed,
And, dying, that it o'er the mountains of fame
Might forever in triumph wave prayed;
Or we know not if, 'neath the "bonnie blue flag,"
He rushed forth, his country's defender,
Valiant, smote those who her cause down would drag.
And only to death did surrender.
That God only knows; and so in his hand
Let the secret unfathomed e'er rest;
But this we know, that he died for his land,
And the banner he thought was the best.
Heav'n pity the dear ones who prayed his return,
Heav'n bless them, and shield them from woes,
Heav'n grant o'er his grave to melt anger stern,
And make brothers of those who were foes!
THE LONE GRAVE.
BY PAUL DRESSER.
["The Lone Grave" is situated on the Western and Atlantic
railroad between Chattanooga, Tenn., and Atlanta, Ga. A plain
board marked the resting place of a soldier. Name "unknown."
None could tell whether he had been a Federal or Confederate.
The section hands, when laying the track, discovered the
grave, sodded it over beautifully, and placed a headstone
over it bearing the above inscription. The traveler's
attention is always called to this spot, and the trains
"slow up" in order to give all an opportunity to see it. Let
this be an olive branch to the North and South to be again a
united people.--AUTHOR.]
A story I am going to tell of a grave
In the South where a brave soldier fell.
For his cause he now sleeps by the side of a
track--
What his colors none able to tell.
A plain, simple board, rudely carved, that was all
That was left to remind one of that sacred spot.
The words, as we traced them, were simple enough;
"A soldier sleeps here; O! forget me not."
_Chorus._--The lone grave is there by the side of the track;
It contains a wanderer who never came back;
And when he appears on the great judgment day,
Our Father'll not ask: "Was your suit blue or
gray?"
There's a mother that sits by a fireside to-night.
She is thinking of days long gone by;
And she pictures "a loved one who went to the war,
But returned not," she says with a sigh.
If the mother could know that her boy calmly
sleeps,
Undisturbed by the march or the progress of
time,
What feelings would haunt her, what thoughts would
she have,
Sobs, tears, and heartaches, what sadness
sublime!
Joseph M. Brown, who was for many years engaged in collecting facts
relating to this battle, and which he privately published some years
ago, states that the remains of Col. W. H. Clark, of Mississippi, rest
in this grave. He fell, with the colors of his regiment in his hands,
leading his men in the attack. That is an error.
[Illustration: THE LONE GRAVE.]
These now deserved tributes to a brave soldier were made "To an Unknown
Hero." For it is not known whether he was in the United States or
Confederate service. As the last resting place of a man who gave his
life for his country, it was regarded a sacred spot, and it is hoped it
will always be reverently cared for out of respect to the dead. It is
an honored grave. Millions of travelers pass by and do it reverence.
And now, in conclusion, I have shown:
1. That the remarkable orders I received from Gen. Hood were given
before he had any knowledge of there being a garrison at Allatoona; and
that his later statements may be erroneous.
2. That I was not aware that the garrison in the fortress had been
reënforced (two hours before my arrival) by Gen. Corse and troops, when
I summoned the commander to surrender; and that I never received any
reply to my summons.
3. That when the outer line of the fortress was gained, and Gen.
Corse with all his troops west of the railroad were driven into the
"slaughter pen," the battle was lost to him; his troops would not face
their assailants; would have surrendered, only their officers implored
them to "hold out" longer, as relief was momentarily expected to end
"the prolonged strain of that mortal day."
4. That when I received the dispatch from Gen. Armstrong informing me
that the advance infantry of Sherman's army from Atlanta had passed
Gen. Hood at Lost Mountain, and were at Big Shanty, I deemed it best to
forego the gratification of a complete victory for myself and troops,
which, if won, must still result in further fight (by my exhausted
troops) with the reënforcements hourly expected. And so I would not
yield to the importunity of both officers and men, who were mad, and
wanted, also, to "hold on" until they captured the entire works. I
weighed their promises to capture the last work when ammunition was
obtained with the after probable consequences, and pointed them out,
and adhered to my decision; deeming it best for the "Confederate cause"
not to lose more men for the mere eclat of a victory of doubtful
compensating utility. We could not remain an hour if the place were
taken.
5. Considering the number of urgent dispatches that Sherman sent to
his general officers to take possession of the road over which I passed
(on the 5th and 6th) on my way to New Hope Church, it is left for them
to account for permitting the Confederates to pass by them without any
serious skirmishing, because dispatch No. 15, received by Gen. Stanley
at 2:30 P.M. on the 5th (when I was at Allatoona), gave him seventeen
hours to occupy and hold the Sand Town road, as ordered, before I moved
over it to join Hood at New Hope Church.
Lastly. Gen Corse's "famous" dispatch, originally, "I can lick all
h--l yet," has not the merit of the excitement or inspiration of
the battlefield. It loses its significance entirely for the want of
applicability. He had "whipped" no one; his command was now doubled
in numbers; no enemy was within twenty miles of him; an entire day
(lacking an hour) had passed since the last shot was fired, when he
deliberately and thoughtfully prepared that dispatch, perhaps to divert
attention from the real, actual occurrences of the battle the day
previous and tickle the public ear.
The testimony of hundreds of witnesses now living has been _recorded_
to substantiate what I have written. For the Union soldier in this
battle I have tried to
nothing extenuate.
Nor set down aught in malice,
and in after years, I trust, to the noble Confederates who fought this
battle the impartial historian will
Give them the honors they won in the strife,
Give them the laurels they lost with their life.
CHICKAMAUGA, GA., April 12, 1897.
Gen. S. G. French, Pensacola, Fla.
_My Dear General_: The manuscript history of the battle
of Allatoona which you recently sent me has been read over
twice, very carefully. It was exceedingly interesting to me,
and must be correct in every particular. Those facts and
circumstances which fell within my personal knowledge are
stated correctly, according to my recollections; and your
unswerving fidelity to the truth and careful attention to
details are well remembered. Moreover, the account given of
the conduct of your troops is just what every one who knew
them, as I did, would expect of Cockrell's Missourians, of
Young's (Ector's) Texans, of Sears's Mississippians, and of
Coleman's North Carolinians. Do you not owe it to these men
as well as to yourself and the truth of history to publish
this account of that battle? I hope you will do so, and would
suggest, in the event you do, that the route taken by Sears
to reach the north side and rear of the Federal position,
and the positions of your three brigades, be indicated on the
topographical map (page 339).
Very sincerely yours,
ALEX P. STEWART.
CHAPTER XVII.
Return from Allatoona--Hood's Deportment--Cross the Coosa
River--Devastation around Rome--Rome Burned--Garrison of
Resaca Refuses to Surrender--Capture of the Seventeenth
Iowa Regiment at Tilton--Dalton Taken--Dug Gap--Dinner
of Roasting Ears--Supper--Captured Officers are Jolly
Good Fellows--Gadsden--Encampment at Mrs. Sansom's--Her
Daughter a Guide for Gen. Forrest when He Captured
Gen. Streight--Cross the Black Warrior River and Sand
Mountains--Decatur--Some Fighting at Decatur--Gen.
Beauregard with Hood--Beautiful Valley of the Tennessee
made Desolate by War--Tuscumbia--Dreary March to Columbia,
Rain and Snow--Stewart's and Cheatham's Corps Cross Duck
River _en Route_ to Spring Hill--Hood Slept--Schofield
Passed By--Pursue Schofield to Franklin--Battle of
Franklin--Incidents--Remarkable Order for a Second Assault
at Night--Losses in My Two Brigades--Exchange of Prisoners
Stopped.
The battle of Allatoona having been fought as I have described it, the
blockhouse at Allatoona creek with a garrison of 110 men captured, we
marched on toward New Hope Church, and near midnight encamped at the
residence of Dr. Smith, in the midst of an awful rainstorm, and within
three miles of Federal forces.
October 6, 1864. The rain is still falling in torrents, and
it continued until we reached New Hope Church and joined
the other two divisions. When I called at headquarters, Hood
reminded me of a disheartened man. His countenance was sad
and his voice doleful. He received me with a melancholy air,
and asked no questions; did _not refer to the battle_, "told
me where my corps was, and said he would leave next day." He
seemed much depressed in spirits. Perhaps he experienced a
feeling of remorse that his want of information had induced
him to send me to burn the Etowah bridge, stopping an hour or
two _en route_ at the Allatoona cut, "fill it up and obtain
information." Encamped on Pumpkinvine creek.
7th. Marched early this morning to Van Wirt, by a road
leading along a high ridge. Was invited to the house of Dr.
Pearce for the night.
8th. Started at dawn and marched to Cedartown, and encamped
near there.
9th. Remained in camp till 12 P.M. Left the sick and
lame-footed men with the baggage wagons to move on to J,
and took up the line of march from ... toward Rome. Struck
the road over which we marched May 17, last. Encamped at
Cunningham's, on the road from Cave Springs to Rome. Gen.
Beauregard arrived at Cave Springs; he was heartily cheered
by Cheatham's Corps.
10th. Moved by a wood road to near a ferry over the Coosa
river. Arrived there at noon, but could not cross on the
pontoon until the corps of Hardee had passed over. When
my division was across we marched about three miles to
Robinson's, at the gorge of the Texas Valley road. All over
the country within a radius of ten or twelve miles of Rome
the citizens have been robbed by the enemy of everything.
Bureaus broken, women's clothing torn to pieces, children
left in rags, mirrors broken, books torn, feather beds
emptied in the road, stock driven off; and no effort left
untried to distress the families.
On the 8th of this month Gen. John M. Corse, from
Cartersville, near here, wrote Gen. Sherman that he could not
_now burn_ or abandon Rome because there were one thousand
four hundred sick there. (War Records, page 150, Vol. 39,
Part III.) I mention this to show that it was saved for a
while but afterwards destroyed.
11th. This morning we crossed into Texas Valley, and marched
to Amuch post office, where we encamped.
12th. Started this morning at 4 A.M., and after a tedious
march all day struck the railroad one mile above Resaca.
Gen. S. D. Lee took a position in front of the works at
Resaca. It was garrisoned by five hundred men. Hood summoned
the garrison to surrender. It refused to do so. Here Hood
showed his good sense not to make the attack even with twenty
thousand men. We did not want the place nor the garrison,
and had no men to spare or lose in a useless fight. Allatoona
was a warning to him. Stewart's Corps moved up the railroad
about three and a half miles, and captured a blockhouse and
a construction camp, and burned an immense amount of lumber.
There was one company captured in the blockhouse, which,
however, was a temporary structure of hewn timber. Worked all
night destroying railroad.
13th. Moved my division up the railroad, and surrounded a
very large and strong blockhouse at Tilton. It was garrisoned
by the Seventeenth Iowa Regiment, commanded by Col. Archer.
He refused to surrender. As it was, from its oaken walls,
impregnable to field artillery, it resisted a long time.
Gen. Stewart, hearing the firing, came on the field and also
called on the commander to surrender. Again he declined.
I had placed a field battery in position, and directing
shells to be fired at the narrow loopholes, we succeeded
in driving shells through them, which, exploding inside,
filled the structure with a dense, suffocating smoke, and
soon the white flag was waved. Seventy shells were fired.
The garrison consisted of three hundred and fifty men.
Col. Archer, not being well, was paroled. The plundering of
the stores, especially the sutler's, was the work of a few
minutes, and our hungry men obtained some articles not found
in the Confederate commissary department. The sutler came
to me with his books and begged me to keep them for him,
as he had no other evidence of what was due him from the
regiment. I introduced him to my quartermaster, and asked him
to keep them for the sutler. To add to the quick confusion,
Loring's division was passing by at the time and tried to
obtain some of the sutler's stores. Burned everything but
the transportation, arms, stores, etc., and then moved on to
Dalton. I had now four hundred and fifty prisoners. Dalton
was captured by Cheatham. It was garrisoned by negro troops.
14th. My division became the rear guard. We crossed the
mountain at Dug Gap and encamped near Villanow. When I
crossed the mountain ridge I found a large field of corn
by the roadside. The roasting ears were fine. I halted the
division; called the brigade commanders, and gave them half
an hour to get dinner out of the cornfield. Wonderfully quick
were the fires made, and the corn roasted and fried. The
prisoners and men dined indiscriminately. The Yankees made
themselves useful, and knew how to rob a cornfield. Encamped
in an orchard, and had some cows driven up and shot for
supper and breakfast in the morning.
15th. Cheatham in advance. Loring, Walthall, and I were
in the rear. During the march most of the field and staff
officers of the Seventeenth Iowa walked along with me. They
were jolly, good fellows, and laughed heartily at their
dinner of green corn, and warm cow beef for supper and
breakfast, and one of them presented me with a silk sash. He
insisted on my accepting it. He told me "that much stress was
placed on starving us out, but from the experience they had
in the past two days they did not think we could be starved
out at all, and that they would write home and tell their
friends that the starvation game was played out." They made
no complaint, for they messed with our men.
16th. Left Treadway's Gap this morning. Gen. Sears's Brigade
and Kolb's battery remained to defend the Gap. I moved on
through Summerville and encamped at Rhinehart's. Ordered
to move to Lafayette at 2 A.M. Pigeon Mountain looms up in
sight, and the scenery is beautiful.
17th. Started to Lafayette, as ordered, but returned and went
to the junction of the road from Lafayette and Rome with
the Alpine road. Here Sears's Brigade joined the division.
Encamped at Mr. Mosteller's.
18th. Took the road at 5:30 P.M., passing through
Gaylesville, and encamped four miles beyond the town. There
are some good farms on the Chattooga river, which is here
about twenty-five yards wide, with rocky bottom.
19th. Started at 6 A.M., intending to go to Blue Pond, but
left the road and marched across to the Rome and Gadsden
road, thence to Gadsden. Crossed Little River. Encamped near
the Jacksonville and Gadsden roads. Cheatham's Corps near by.
I hear various rumors in regard to Sherman's movements. The
main question is, has he transportation with him to enable
his command to move far away from the railroad? I am sure
he will find all he wants in the country as he proceeds. I
_think_ we do not leave much in the way of rations behind us.
Received letters from home to-night.
20th. Marched about two miles beyond Gadsden and encamped at
Mrs. Sansom's. Her daughter, Miss Emma, was at home. When
Federal Gen. Streight with two thousand men from Rome was
captured by Gen. Forrest, he was under many obligations to
Miss Sansom, who during the fight mounted Forrest's horse,
sat behind him, and piloted him across Black Creek, which
contributed much to enable him to capture the enemy. Out of
compliment to Miss Sansom, I got Gen. Cockrell's band to play
for her and her mother. While we were honoring Miss Sansom,
a hungry soldier was skinning one of the Madam's hogs, and,
_apropos_, I had the skin secured to the soldier's back,
and thus he was marched about camp, a warning to others not
to plunder. There is a waterfall on Black Creek, near here,
reported to be one hundred feet high.
The Legislature of Alabama has granted to Miss Sansom a section
of land. If she had betrayed Forrest, she might perhaps now be in
receipt of a pension from the United States treasury, because the
pension roll is a Roll of Honor, and so comprehensive that it embraces
deserters from our army who enlisted in theirs. I have not inquired
if substitutes receive pensions, but it is fair to presume they do.
Were they not patriots? What is a patriot? What is patriotism? Dr. Sam
Johnson, the great lexicographer, declared it to be "the last refuge of
a consummate scoundrel."
21st. Remained in camp. Next day marched nineteen miles.
Crossed the Black Warrior river, and crossed over Sand
Mountain. On the 25th we passed the dividing ridge between
the waters of the Tennessee and Coosa rivers. Heard artillery
firing all the morning, apparently at Decatur. This sounds
natural, as I have heard big guns almost daily for three
years. It must have been inspiriting, for we marched
twenty miles to-day. I am to-night within seven miles of
Summerville, and six miles in advance of Walthall.
25th. I had to wait until noon for Walthall to pass on in
advance, consequently I marched only four miles. Rain is
falling fast. It rained all day on the 26th. In the afternoon
reached Decatur. Loring's division took position near the
defensive works and commenced firing with his batteries on
a fort in front. Went into bivouac in columns of brigades
within easy cannon range of the guns of the enemy. At dusk
sent Ector's Brigade to the Danville road to guard it until
Cheatham's Corps arrived by that road. And still it rains.
27th. Here we all are in front of Decatur. Will Hood attack
the defensive works of the town? I can see nothing to be
gained by it to compensate for the loss of men. We do not
want the position. This afternoon I received orders to move
over west of the Danville road. Reached the position at
sunset. Relieved Gen. Guist, and went into line not far in
front of Mr. Garth's residence. Rode down to the skirmish
line; found Gen. Brown there. I relieved his men on the
line with three of my regiments, and drove in the Federal
skirmishers. There was firing all round, but most on Loring's
line. I believe some negro troops made an attack on him. Gen.
Beauregard is at the residence of Mr. Garth.
28th. Remained in camp. Cheatham's pickets formed a line in
front of my division pickets and Gen. Brown's also during
the night. Had to send Cockrell's Brigade to report to Gen.
Loring, who generally magnifies the forces of the enemy.
Received orders to move my command to Courtland in the
morning. The nights are cold and the frosts very heavy.
29th. Started this morning by the railroad, but _not_ in the
cars. The line of the railroad crosses from the right to
the left bank of the Tennessee river at Decatur, and I am
marching down the left bank. The country is beautiful, and
the soil rich; but what a desolation everywhere! The dreamy
silence, the absence of life, the smoky atmosphere, the
abandoned dwellings, the uncultivated fields, the destruction
of fences--everything, everywhere mark the ravages of war
that has changed this once beautiful valley of the Tennessee
into a desert in all save the rich soil. Here the tide of
war has ebbed and flowed; and far and wide have the raiding
parties roamed until almost every means of subsistence has
been consumed or destroyed. The only signs of life are here
and there a rabbit startled from ambush, and now and then
a solitary crow perched on a dead limb of a tree. Made my
camp on a farm belonging to Mr. Swoope, but now occupied by
Mr. Watkins. Cheatham's Corps and some cavalry were left at
Decatur.
The Federal forces in Decatur were commanded by Gen. R. S. Granger,
an old friend of mine, and he was brevetted for his gallant defense
of the town. Dear me! I did not think there was a skirmish there, and
no effort was made to take the place, although the forces were, in
strength, less than those at Allatoona. Gen. Granger told me, when I
met him after the war, what his numbers were.
30th. Left Courtland this morning, moving along the track
of the railroad toward Tuscumbia. Stopped at Col. Saunders's
for dinner. They have a beautiful and costly residence. There
were present for dinner Mrs. and Miss Saunders, Miss Sherod,
Gen. Cheatham, Col. Shotwell, Col. Brown. Mr. Foster, and
others. Encamped at Leighton, near the house of Dr. Kompy.
Took tea with the family.
31st. Arrived at Tuscumbia. Encamped on the creek. Stopped at
Mrs. Chadwick's. Gen. S. D. Lee had crossed the two divisions
of his corps over the Tennessee river. I was surprised at
this because of the width of the river, and the apprehension
of the pontoons giving way or being broken. The day is bright
and beautiful. Rode up to see the spring. The volume of water
gushing out of rocks, from far below, is sufficient to form
a large creek. The town is old, and now dilapidated. Most of
the dwellings from Leighton to this place have been burned by
the enemy.
The houses of absentees were always destroyed in that way, it being a
crime to leave home.
November 1. Busy arranging transportation. I am told that
the pontoons do not reach to the other shore. From to-day to
the 13th we remained in Tuscumbia because of the heavy rains
that delayed the arrival of supplies. During this period the
Yankees made two attempts to cut the ropes of the pontoons;
once they went down the wrong channel; next day they cut
the rope, but their boat upset and they were captured.
Rumor reports that Sherman, with a large force, is between
Chattanooga and Atlanta. I remained at or near Tuscumbia
until the 20th, when I prepared to cross the river. For three
weeks it has rained almost continuously, making the roads
very bad. I remonstrated with Gen. Hood, at a meeting of his
officers, against taking so many pieces of artillery with the
army unless we had a _full_ supply of horses for the guns.
But he insisted that, once in Tennessee, men would join us,
horses could be obtained, and the men be supplied with shoes
and clothing.
20th. I passed over the Tennessee river by the pontoon bridge
_en route_ to Nashville. To-day we learned that Sherman's
advance had reached Griffin on the 16th. Here are two armies
that have been fighting each other from about the first of
May to the first of November, six months--parted--the one
heading for the Atlantic ocean, two hundred and ten miles
from Atlanta, and the other marching from Tuscumbia, Ala.,
for Nashville, Tenn., one hundred and fifteen miles distant.
The one is a strategic move against the army of R. E. Lee, in
Virginia, and the other appears a military error, because it
must meet accumulative forces as it advances into the enemy's
zone. Winter is near and the army not clothed.
21st. Having crossed the river yesterday, and moved out on
the Lawrenceburg road five miles, we started this morning
through mud from four to twenty inches deep, and through
snow that the keen wind blew in our faces. In the afternoon
we encamped by the roadside, near a deserted habitation. The
weather is bitterly cold, and the snow falling. Sleeping on
the ground covered with snow.
22d. Resumed the march. Roads miserable. Encamped seven
miles beyond Priwit's Mills. Lee's Corps is on our left and
Cheatham's on the right. Stewart's is the central column.
Snowed some to-day, and the ground was frozen so hard that it
bore the wagons. Artillery delayed everything, and some of it
did not reach camp until daylight, just as I told Gen. Hood
it would be; in fact, men had to haul their guns over bad
places. In the conference, I told Hood he would take the guns
to Nashville only to turn some of them over to the enemy for
want of horses. This is my birthday. What a delightful time
I have had!
23d. This morning I was ordered to remain in camp and await
the arrival of the supply train. Artillery went on under
charge of Col. Williams. Bushwhackers reported on the road.
Continued the march to Mt. Pleasant. Remained all night
with Mr. Granbury. The roads still in very bad condition.
Started on the morrow amidst the rain and mud. Passed through
a beautiful country. Passed the home of Gen. G. J. Pillow.
Reached Columbia. Encircled the town with troops, and some
skirmishing ensued. The enemy left the place last night, and
early this morning we entered the town. Gen. Schofield with
his army is now on the north side of Duck river, offering a
strong resistance to our crossing. I was invited to the house
of Mr. Mathews. In the afternoon I moved my division up the
river to cross it: but as the bridge was not ready, I turned
back.
29th. This morning Cheatham's Corps, Johnston's Division, and
Stewart's Corps, and one battery of artillery (the cavalry in
advance) moved up the river to near Hewey's ferry and crossed
it on a pontoon bridge; Gen. S. D. Lee, with the remainder of
the army, remained in Columbia, making a strong demonstration
to hold the enemy there.
This was a strategic movement of Hood's to gain the Franklin pike in
rear of the enemy. We marched rapidly for Spring Hill by a country
road. Hearing the cannonading all the time at Columbia, we were
encouraged and hopeful of reaching Spring Hill before the enemy did.
Schofield, no doubt, was informed that we were crossing, and, having
a shorter and better road to travel, got Gen. Stanley with a division
and much artillery at Spring Hill and in position before Hood arrived
there at the head of Cheatham's Corps. Perhaps, apprehensive that the
enemy might move on the Murfreesboro road, he halted Stewart's Corps
and Johnston's Division at Rutherford creek, some four miles from the
pike. Our corps was kept here until dark, when it was ordered to move
on toward the pike.
When Hood arrived in view of the pike and saw the road filled with
United States wagons in hasty retreat to Franklin, what orders he gave
Cheatham I know not, for _his_ version differs from what Hood says
were given _him_. But Hood was on the ground present, and that settles
the question. The sun went down, darkness came, and later we went into
bivouac. The head of our army reached the pike about 3 P.M. and we were
halted. As but little musketry was heard, officers naturally asked:
"What did we come here for?" There was a house near by my headquarters,
and about 9 P.M. I walked over to it. In the drawing room I found
Gen. James R. Chalmers and other cavalry officers. Chalmers said they
were short or out of ammunition. On inquiry as to the cartridges they
used, Maj. Storrs, my ordnance officer, said he could supply them
with ammunition, and I ordered him to issue them cartridges at once.
Occasionally we heard some picket firing toward the north. It was Gen.
Ross's men on the road to Franklin. Cheatham's Corps went into bivouac
near the pike, and so in comparative silence the long night wore away.
Hood slept. The head and the eyes and ears of the army, all dead from
sleeping. Ye gods! will no geese give them warning as they did in
ancient Rome?
30th. We were up before the morning star. My division was
ordered to take the advance to Franklin in _pursuit_ of
Schofield, for now every one knew he passed by us while we
were dreaming. Artillery and wagons, infantry and horse, all
gone on to Franklin! When I reached the pike I met Gen. Hood,
and he exclaimed; "Well, Gen. French, we have missed the
great opportunity of the war!" "Yes," I replied, "I am told
the Yankees passed along all night and lit their pipes at our
camp fires." Of course my answer was a _little_ figurative,
but some soldiers heard it, and, taking it literally, it soon
spread through the ranks.
The idea of a commanding general reaching his objective point, that
required prompt and immediate action and skillful tactics, to turn
away and go to bed surpasses the understanding. The truth is, Hood had
been outgeneraled, and Stanley with the Federal troops got to Spring
Hill before Hood did. What information Hood received of the enemy,
when he reached the pike, if any, no one will ever know. Why did he
not in person form his line of battle and attack the enemy at Spring
Hill? Although we yielded the right of way, the enemy must have been
a little nervous, because the slight firing done by Ross's men caused
the enemy to abandon about thirty wagons, and I could not but observe
what a number of _desks_ containing official vouchers had been _thrown_
from the wagons by the roadside. Had there been a cavalry force with
artillery north of Spring Hill and near the pike to have shelled the
road, there would no doubt have been a stampede and a wreck of wagons.
My division overtook the enemy near Franklin, drawn up on a range of
hills about two miles from the town, and when I began to deploy my
troops, to advance a line on their flank and rear, they fell back to
the town.
[Illustration: BATTLE OF FRANKLIN.]
I rode with some members of my staff to the top of a high wooded hill,
from which I could look down on the surrounding country. Before me were
the town, the green plains around it; the line of defensive works,
the forts and parks of artillery on the heights across the river,
long lines of blue-clad infantry strengthening their lines, and trains
moving over the river. While I sat at the root of a giant tree a long
time surveying the scene before me, I called to mind that _never_
yet had any one seen the Confederates assigned to me driven from any
position, much less from defensive works, by assault, and I inferred
that it would require a great sacrifice of life to drive the veteran
Federals from their lines, and thought if Hood could only ride up here
and look calmly down on the battle array before him he would not try
to take the town by assault. But the offspring of Hood's conception
at Columbia came stillborn at Spring Hill, caused by an oversleep.
Chagrin at this mishap and awakened at the consequences, without duly
considering the whole field of war and deducing therefrom what was best
for the _cause_, he impatiently formed line with the two corps with him
and prepared to assault the town. Perhaps he forgot to call to mind
the well-acknowledged fact that _one_ man behind an intrenched line
is equal to _five_ in front. Now Schofield had at Franklin, by report
in the War Records, 25,420 men, exclusive of cavalry; and Hood had
21,874 men, exclusive of a part of Lee's Corps, the cavalry and Ector's
Brigade detached. So any one can compute what Hood's strength, or
numbers, should be to make a fair fight. Therefore, it is probable that
Hood, by disappointment at Spring Hill, inconsiderately, and without
careful reconnoissance, determined immediately to attack the fortified
city with 21,874 men, without any artillery, except two guns brought
with him.
The sketch of the field of Franklin will show that the Harpeth river in
its meandering covers three of the four sides of the town. The line of
intrenchments extended from the Nashville and Decatur railroad around
the southern and western parts of the town to the Harpeth river, with
an advanced line extending to some distance on either side of the
Columbia pike. Also I saw rifle pits inside the works from which a fire
was opened on our troops after they scaled the main line.
THE BATTLE.
My division, as I have told you, was the van of the army, and as we
neared Franklin it left the pike, turning to the right or east, and
halted near the river. Here Gen. Stewart formed his corps in order
of battle by placing Loring on the right, Walthall in the center, and
French on the left. This brought me nearest to the Columbia pike, as
will be shown. Cheatham's Corps was formed with his right resting on
or near the pike, which brought Cleburne's right a half mile distant on
my left. We were thus formed, as it were, in a circle like the fellies
of a wheel; and each division marching to one common center caused them
to overlap before reaching the enemy, because the circle became smaller
and smaller. My division consisted of only two brigades, Cockrell's and
Sears's. Ector's Brigade was on detached duty. Stewart's Corps, being
in advance, was first formed, and we rested. The sun was sinking in
the west, the day was drawing to its close, the tumult and excitement
had ceased. The winds were in their caves, the silence that precedes
the storm was _felt_; the calm before the earthquake which by some
_law_ of nature forewarns fowls to seek the fields, birds to fly away,
and cattle to run to the hills, although withheld from man, seemed to
presage an impending calamity, as painful in suspense as the disclosure
of any reality. From this feeling of anxiety, sometimes incident to men
when held in readiness to engage in a great battle, there came relief
by a signal. And what a change! Twenty thousand gallant Confederates at
the word of command moved proudly over the open plain to the attack.
It was a glorious and imposing sight, and one so seldom witnessed, as
all were in full view. Soon my division came under the artillery fire
of both the guns in front and those in position in the forts across the
river, undaunted by the crash of shells, all moved gallantly on and
met the fire of the enemy in the outer line of defense. It was only
the work of a few minutes to crush the outer line, and when it broke
and tried to gain the main works they were so closely followed by our
men that friends and foe, pursuer and pursued, in one mass, rushed over
the parapet into the town. During this time the fire from the enemy on
this part of the line ceased so as to admit their own troops. But the
Confederates now inside were confronted with a reserve force and either
killed or captured.
As our division overlapped, immediately another line made the assault,
and again the smoke cloud of battle so obscured the plain that I could
see only beneath the cloud an incessant sheet of flame rolling on the
ground, in which the combatants flitted about like the pictures of
demons in Tophet. The shock was too violent to last. Its force was soon
spent. The fire slackened, and as the smoke was wafted away in broken
clouds, the sight was appalling! What a ghastly scene was in front of
the ginhouse! The dead and wounded were visible for a moment, only to
be again enveloped in the cloud of battle beneath which the Angel of
Death garnered his harvest. "On! on! forward! forward!" was the cry.
It was death to stop, and safety was in a measure found in the ditch
beneath the fire from the parapet. There thousands remained all night;
others were repulsed and driven back. My division was re-formed beyond
the range of musketry, but exposed to artillery in front and from the
fort across the river.
Gen. Sears's men, those that were repulsed, fell back with some order,
but Cockrell's Brigade had nearly all disappeared. Now and then a few
came out. Cockrell was wounded. Col. E. Gates came out riding with his
bridle reins in his mouth, being wounded in both hands. I was on foot.
My horse, during the continued shelling at Kennesaw Mountain, took a
dislike to shells, and manifested it on this occasion by using only his
hind feet when walking. I had to give him to the orderly to lead.
Gen. Walthall came out at the time we did. He rode up to me, and as I
put my hand on his horse's shoulder to talk with him, the animal reared
up, plunged violently forward, and fell dead, throwing the General far
over his head. The horse had been shot and that was the death struggle.
We fell back, and bivouacked just out of range of fire. It was now
growing dark; but still the battle raged furiously at intervals till
near midnight, especially on the west side of the pike, mainly between
our troops in the ditch, and on the captured parapet, with the enemy
on inside lines; and the bright glare of musketry with the flashes of
artillery lit up the surroundings with seemingly fitful volcanic fires,
presenting a night scene frightfully wild and weird.
Gen. S. D. Lee's Corps and the artillery had arrived, and after dark
orders were given by Gen. Hood that after midnight or near dawn one
hundred rounds would be fired by every piece of artillery, and then
the troops _would assault the works again_ over the same ground. Festus
assigned a reason for St. Paul's madness, but no one attributed Hood's
madness to that cause when _this_ order was given.[32] However, when no
reply was made to our guns it was discovered that Schofield had, with
the main body of his army, abandoned Franklin and was on his way to
Nashville.
It was a terrible battle. One of my brigades, Cockrell's, made the
assault with 696 officers and men, and when it was over he had 277 men
in his brigade. His loss was, killed, 19 officers and 79 men; wounded,
31 officers and 198 men; missing, 13 officers and 79 men; total, 419,
which was over sixty per cent. The missing were captured inside the
works, as stated by some who escaped. Sears's Brigade met with less
loss, because it stopped a few minutes in the exterior line before
moving to the main line. There were twelve general officers killed and
wounded and one taken prisoner.[33]
Hood's official report puts our loss at 4,500. I believe that this
grand charge of 21,800 men, for a mile or more over an open plain, all
in full view, was grander than any charge at Gettysburg.
After the fall of Vicksburg, and the battle of Gettysburg had been
fought, and enlistments in the Confederate service had practically
ceased, and the exchange of prisoners stopped, as I have stated, it
certainly behooved the government and the generals in command of
the armies in the East and in the West to husband their _men_ and
resources. I know this was the opinion of Gen. J. E. Johnston, and
it was perhaps, in a measure, attributable to this that Gen. Hood
superseded him in command of the army then at Atlanta, for he had
the reputation of being a "fighter," and when put in command had to
sustain that reputation. Gen. Grant was intrusted with the exchange of
prisoners and (to take the ignominy off the government) discontinued
the exchange,[34] and thus all increase of our fighting force ceased.
Therefore the men in the army had become _the Confederacy_, and to them
the power was virtually transmitted, and the commanders of armies held
the destiny of the nation in their hands. No dictator appeared! Wisdom
called for the Fabian policy; heedless of her voice, the _third_ day
after being in command he fought the battle of Peach Tree Creek. Two
days after this (on the 22d) he fought the battle of Atlanta; and on
the 28th, a third battle, without a victory, and all the time the siege
of the city continued. The men he lost diminished his power. The loss
to the enemy was nothing. Men cost nothing, and they could get all
they wanted. Next came Jonesboro, and then Allatoona, both reducing
his strength. And now came the battle of Franklin, where he lost about
5,000 more men. Why were the lines of the enemy assaulted at Franklin?
Was it a strategical point? No. Were there in the town magazines or
army stores? No. Was there anything of such value as to justify 21,874
men assaulting a town defended by 25,420 veteran troops? No! Schofield
was crossing his teams as rapidly as possible to join Gen. Thomas at
Nashville.
I was asked by Gen. T. J. Wood, U. S. A. (in 1865), who was at
Franklin: "Why did you fight us at Franklin, when we were getting away
from there as fast as we could?" He said: "The order directing the
operation of withdrawing the troops had been issued, and the officers
were assembled in Schofield's office, when, to our astonishment, a
cannon shot was heard, and, looking out, we saw your troops advancing.
That order for evacuating the place was not changed. Our apprehension
was that you would cross the river and outflank us, as you did at
Spring Hill."
I thought when we arrived at Franklin that Hood, who had declined to
attack a garrison of 500 men at Resaca with his whole army present,
and did not risk an attack on the works at Decatur when garrisoned by
2,000 men, would surely not assault the town garrisoned by an army of
25,000 men, with the two army corps and one division he had with him
numbering only 21,800 men. Why he gave battle when so little could be
gained, except some eclat, I cannot tell. I only know that he said to
Gen. A. P. Stewart that "captured dispatches told him the time had come
to fight."
An army belongs to the nation that made it, and not to the general
commanding it. Therefore he has no right to sacrifice it.[35]
Mrs. S. P. Lee states (on page 493) that "orders were given to carry
the inner fortifications at daylight."
The Rev. Thomas B. Markham, chaplain to Featherstone's Brigade, writes:
"Our artillery was moved to within point-blank range of the enemy's
works, ... to open fire on them at earliest daybreak, after which
a general assault was to be made by the infantry," etc. (Page 272,
_Confederate Veteran_, June Number, 1899.)
NOTE.
It has been a source of much regret to me that I was unable
to write an official report of the battle of Franklin
immediately after it occurred; but on account of the
condition of my eyes it was put off from time to time, and
now I wonder why I did not have my adjutant general do it
for me. But so it was, under the sorrow for lost friends
and comrades, and the immediate pursuit of the enemy to
Nashville, it was neglected. Besides, as is usual, no report
was called for by the commander of the army; and so with
many it has become only a memory of a great and uncalled-for
disaster to the Confederate cause--a battle fought against
great odds, without any compensating value if successful.
CHAPTER XVIII.
March to Nashville--Cold Weather--Partial Investment of
the City--Leave of Absence--Turn the Command Over to
Brig. Gen. C. W. Sears--Battle of Nashville--Hood Not
Physically Able for the Duties of a Commander in Want
of All Supplies--Marshal Saxe--Mulai Malek--Going to
Nashville a Failure; Could Not Be Otherwise--Leave for
Columbus, Ga.--Marriage to Mary Fontaine Abercrombie--Go
to Meriwether County to Avoid Wilson's Raid--Robbing in
Columbus--Adventures of My Orderly--Yankees Raid the
Houses--Gen. A. Had No Pies--Gens. Lee and Johnston
Surrender--Terms Thereof--War with the Musket Ends.
December 2, 1864, Hood in his impetuosity rushed in pursuit of
Schofield's army, that was securely at rest behind the fortifications
at Nashville, where he formed a junction with the troops there under
Gen. G. H. Thomas. Hood formed his line close as he could in front of
their works. My division was on the left of the Granny White turnpike,
and ran north of the dwelling of E. Montgomery, who was a cotton
planter and neighbor of mine in Mississippi. Owing to the condition of
my eyes, I could write no more in my diary. The weather was cold, the
ground frozen, and covered with snow.
I remained there suffering with my eyes until the 13th, when I was
granted a leave of absence, and I turned the command over to Gen. C. W.
Sears. I remained there the 14th, intending to leave the next day, but,
observing a movement of the enemy's troops on the 15th, remained there
to ascertain his intentions. Instead of a demonstration, it proved to
be a real attack. I remained on the field all day, and by night our
left was forced back parallel to the Granny White pike. By noon on the
16th it was plain that the battle was lost, and in the afternoon I was
advised to leave to avoid confusion of the retreat. So, with my two
aids, we started for the Tennessee river, and crossed it at Tuscumbia.
The horses were given the servants to ride to Columbus, Ga., and we
left by train for the same city.
The history of the Army of Tennessee from this time to its surrender on
April 25, 1865, by Gen. J. E. Johnston in North Carolina may be found
in the War Records. Johnston was placed in command of this army again
at the request of the Confederate Congress by a joint resolution that
was passed.
As I shall here probably take my leave of Gen. Hood, I desire to say
that, had he not made erroneous statements in his reports and in his
book, and perverted facts, and cast reflections on me and the men I
had the honor to command at Allatoona, I would have kept silent, and
this biography would never have been written; but he and Gen. Corse
have obliged me to vindicate the truth of history for my children and
myself, and the Confederate soldiers that I had the honor to command.
Gen. Hood was a noble commander of a division, for he was indeed
a brave man; but as the commander of an army, circumstanced as the
Confederate States were, he was too impulsive. As well try to catch
all the fish in the ocean as to kill all the men that the United States
could obtain, or recruit, from the nations of the earth, including our
slaves, for the bounty offered. Constant conflicts entailed losses on
both sides, and we had no men to sacrifice. The misfortune in part was
that he had condemned Johnston's policy, and obeyed him reluctantly,
and felt bound when he superseded him to carry on an aggressive war,
and in doing so wrecked the Army of Tennessee.
The influence of personal valor in an officer on his men is generally
limited to a small body of troops that witness it; whereas, victory for
an army depends on the _skill_ and the _art_ with which the impulsive
force of the masses is united on the field of battle, quickly to
accomplish an object and destroy the plans of the enemy. By the art
of skillful maneuvering an army may be obliged to abandon an advanced
position without being driven out at the expense of life. Hood was a
fighter; but he was not able by reason of his wounds to undergo the
labor devolving on a commander constantly marching and fighting, often
without supplies.
It is true that Marshal Saxe, carried on a litter, won the battle of
Fontenoy; that Mulai Malek, Emperor of Morocco, in a dying condition,
planned his last battle, and was carried on a litter through the ranks
to animate the men. With anguish of mind he saw some of his troops
giving way. In his last agonies he collected strength of life enough
to throw himself from the litter, and rallied them, and led them to
the charge. Exhausted, he fell on the field. When placed again on
the litter, he laid his finger on his mouth to enjoin secrecy on his
officers, and in a moment expired; but he won the victory. These,
and others I remember, are exceptions, but it is not safe to make
exceptions the rule.[36]
Hood's physical condition should have been considered by the
authorities before he was placed in command, and the question asked:
"Has he ever been thrown on his own resources to _provide for_ and
_direct_ an independent command?" To command a corps is a small matter
compared with directing a campaign (against a superior force) often
without supplies. I have no desire to criticise Hood's movements, and
will only remark that I am not able to see why he interrupted Gen.
Schofield from leaving Franklin when he was getting away as fast as
he could. That interference cost us the loss of nearly 5,000 men, the
flower of the army, without any compensating object in view or result
likely to be obtained under the environments.
Then came Nashville. We went there for recruits and army supplies.
The presence of our poor, worn-out, and badly clothed troops that had
survived the late battles of Peach Tree Creek of July 22 and 28 outside
of Atlanta, and the siege of that city, Jonesboro, Allatoona, Franklin
and many smaller conflicts consolidated the stream of reënforcements
sent to Thomas at Nashville until it became a formidable army.
As a river on its course when stopped by a dam must overflow the
obstruction or sweep it away, so Thomas's army was gathering force
to overwhelm ours, which received no additional strength, but on the
contrary lost some at Murfreesboro. On the walls of Hood's tent were
now written: "_An army that can obtain no recruits must eventually
surrender._" And that he could not interpret. Then the tempest came!
And the best reason I can give that the remnant of the grand Army of
Tennessee so successfully crossed the Tennessee river is that Gen.
Thomas always rode his horse at a walk. This is no reflection on the
defense of our rear guard.
I remained in Columbus, Ga., and on the 12th of January, 1865, married
Miss Mary F. Abercrombie, daughter of Gen. Anderson Abercrombie, a
planter in Russell County, Ala.[37]
Sherman had now captured Savannah, and was marching to join Grant.
Then came the surrender of Gen. Lee. And now Gen. J. H. Wilson was
nearing Columbus. To escape his thieving crowd, I started on Saturday,
April 15, in a carriage with my wife to take her to Mrs. Campbell's,
in Meriwether County, Ga., some twenty-five miles above Columbus. We
remained that night in town with Judge G. E. Thomas, and started next
morning. Gen. Howell Cobb was in command of the troops in Columbus,
and he asked me to remain and take the command of the forces. This I
declined, but I promised to return Monday morning and aid him. About
10 A.M. we heard cannon at Columbus, and knew that Wilson had attacked
the town. The next morning at the dawn of day fugitives from Columbus
were passing by, and told us that the town was in possession of the
Federals. So I did not go to join Gen. Cobb. However, being anxious to
know the condition of affairs, I asked my orderly, Hedrick, if he would
next morning ride down in the direction of the city, and ascertain the
condition of affairs, and he said: "Yes, General."
Now it chanced, soon after he started, that Hedrick met a Confederate
soldier who told him that the Yankees had taken the fort at West
Point, Ga., and gave him the name of the Federal officer who commanded
the expedition, and Hedrick's sagacity applied the information to
the accomplishment of his purposes. Riding on, just below the town
of Hamilton, he suddenly encountered a regiment of Federal cavalry.
Without hesitation he rode up to the leading officer, and inquired
for Gen. Wilson, saying he was a messenger from the Federal commanding
officer at West Point, sent to meet Gen. Wilson.[38] He was directed to
go on to Columbus. About a mile farther on two cavalrymen in a skirt
of wood cried out "Halt," and said: "You are a prisoner." He told
them the story of his having been sent to find Gen. Wilson. They were
doubtful, and one said: "If you please, none of your blarney to us,
for we are from Ould Ireland itself, and you are a Johnnie Rebel, and
are after daceiven' us, you are. Look at the stripe on your jacket."
Hedrick explained that he could not ride through the country with
his United States uniform on, and that his clothing was taken from a
prisoner, etc. "Mike," said one of them, "of course he could not wear
his own coat, and I am sure he is a gentleman; and did not the colonel
himself let him pass?" So Pat agreed with Mike, and Hedrick rode on.
Next, after crossing a stream, he came to a dwelling by the roadside:
the owner was sitting on the fence by the front gate, watching for more
Yankees to pass by, when Hedrick rode up to him and asked if he could
have dinner. The farmer inquired who he was; and he varied the story of
being a messenger to suit the occasion, by saying he was a Yankee, and
as so many Yankees had just passed, he invited him into his house. His
daughters hastily prepared a dinner. Hedrick was gracious, told them to
come down to Columbus--send down chickens and butter, and get coffee,
sugar, and nice dresses--and with thanks departed. About a mile farther
on he was stopped by a number of men armed with shotguns (in quest
of stragglers), farmers in the neighborhood, who also inquired who he
was and where he was going. He said that he was my orderly, "sent to
Columbus in quest of information." They did not believe him until one
of the party, who was a lieutenant in the Confederate army, asked him,
"How long have you been with Gen. French? were you with him at Suffolk?
where did he have his headquarters?" etc., to all of which he gave true
answers. The lieutenant, who had been at Suffolk, said, "Gentlemen,
he is all right, I know, for I was there;" and so Hedrick journeyed
on. Near Columbus he encountered the videttes, rode up, and asked that
one of them should be sent with him to Gen. Wilson's headquarters.
The corporal refused, telling him, however, where he would find the
commanding officer. It was dark when he entered the city. He rode to
Judge Thomas's, remained there all night, and saw Gen. Wilson leave
the town next morning riding in the carriage taken from J. C. Cook.
After the troops left the city for Macon, Hedrick rode back to Mrs.
Campbell's and related to me his adventures.
Two days after we started for Columbus, and below Hamilton, we found
that lieutenant and a squad of men still guarding the road. He asked
me if I had sent my orderly to Columbus. On my answering that I did
send him, the maddest man in the crowd was the one who, when he sat
on the fence, had bidden his daughters to give the Yankee a dinner.
He swore he "would shoot Hedrick for deceiving him;" and while I was
remonstrating with him Hedrick, who was behind, rode over the hill and
was recognized by the irate man, who exclaimed: "Yonder the rascal
comes." He was warned by his party to be quiet. Hedrick passed us,
raising his cap to the crowd, bowed smilingly, and passed on. Poor
Hedrick, without occasion, and for mere adventure, ran the risk of
being captured as a spy in Columbus.
When we were at Mrs. Campbell's the Federal cavalry several times
was near by and kept the ladies alarmed, and as for myself I was not
inclined to be captured and carried off, if it could be avoided. Our
horses were kept saddled to leave, and several times word was sent us
that raiding parties were on the road. Tired of these alarms, we were
at dinner, when some one rode by and said: "The Yankees are coming."
One of the ladies went to the front door, and came back screaming.
I went to the gate, and like a whirlwind came a cloud of dust, and
beneath it I thought I saw the feet of cavalry horses; but in half a
minute, at full run, passed by about forty loose mules driven by negro
men at their heels wildly shouting. For three days Hedrick and the
servants were camped out in the woods lest our horses should be stolen
at night. It was so demoralizing that I returned to Columbus, where
there was a Federal garrison, passed through the town, and returned to
Gen. Abercrombie's.
While we were gone--as I anticipated--nine of Wilson's bummers quietly
surrounded the dwelling of Gen. Abercrombie (near Columbus), and
entered the grounds from different directions. The General was sitting
in a chair on the front gallery by the door, and the first intimation
he had that the thieves were at work was a hand from behind him
passed, snakelike, over his shoulder and down to his vest pocket to
get his watch; fortunately, he had placed it where it was safe. In a
few minutes those in the house went _through_ every wardrobe, bureau,
closet, etc. They took all the silverware and jewelry. While this was
being done the two guards in the rear entered the large out kitchen,
where "old Aunty Minty," the negro cook, had presided for fifty years,
and screamed out: "Get us something for dinner, quick." The good old
soul was scared half out of her wits, and raised her hands, pleading
for mercy. "Get some ham and eggs for us quick, quick, you old dunce."
The stove was hot, and she cooked some with the turn of a hand. In a
minute the platter was empty, and they demanded of her to "bring on
the _pies_." She called on all the saints to witness that she had no
_pies_; the rascals swore they "never saw a house as big as that was
that did not have _pies_ in it." However, the pie question was settled
by the captain of the band shouting "Come on," and they mounted their
horses with their plunder, and left for other fields. Then "Aunty" came
into the house and told her mistress: "Them is the meanest people I
ever did see."
When my overseer left the plantation with the negroes for Columbus, he
packed up my Brussels linen and best China, and took them with him, and
left them at Judge Thomas's house. The evening Columbus was taken, Mrs.
Thomas was sitting by a parlor window, and seeing some men in the yard,
she asked, "Who are you there?" and the reply was, "Yanks; you did
not expect us so soon, did you?" They _went through_ everything in the
house in a jiffy. Judge Thomas with them. By his engaging manners he
got them by the baggage room, and saved things there. But they carried
my chest of crockery out of the basement, thinking they had a prize;
but when they found only China they commenced breaking it, but desisted
at Mrs. Thomas's request. These men became experts from long practice,
and generally knew where to look for hidden treasures. "As the hart
panteth after the water brooks," so the hearts of these hirelings
panted for plunder.
When the Yankees first went to my plantation, in five minutes a
company of about thirty men marched into the garden, formed line, fixed
bayonets, and, marching abreast, probed the ground until they struck
a box that was buried there containing silver tableware. But in this
case I am sure "old Aaron," a house servant who buried it for mother,
betrayed her confidence in him and told the Yanks where it was. These
are small matters, but I mention them to show how the men, by the
connivance of officers, if not by participation, became an army of
thieves generally.
In a day or two authenticated information was received that both Lee's
and Johnston's armies had been surrendered on terms of agreement, and
as I was included in the latter army, I went to Columbus and obtained
my parole. The terms of the surrender were that we were not to be
molested by the _United States authorities_ so long as we obeyed the
laws which were in force previous to January, 1861, where we resided.
On my part, I was sworn "not to bear arms against the United States
of America, or give any information, or do any military duty or act
in hostility to the United States, or inimical to a permanent peace,"
etc., and thus the war _with the musket_ ended.
On reading my parole I discovered what seemed to me a _petty trick_,
for it read "not to be disturbed by the _United States military
authorities_," leaving me at the mercy of the civil authorities to be
indicted. I was informed those were the paroles sent them to be used in
Columbus. It must have been a misprint.
CHAPTER XIX.
Aspect of the Country at Termination of the War--The Returned
Confederate Soldier--Carpetbaggers--Lincoln's Vow--His
Proclamation Concerning Confiscation of Slaves--How the
Slaves Were Legally Liberated--Lincoln Murdered--Johnson
President--His Thirst for Vengeance--"Treason" to Be
Made Odious--Grant Declared That the Paroles Must Not Be
Violated--Cost of a Bill of Dry Goods in Confederate Money
in 1864--Leave Columbus for Greenville, Miss.--Desolate
Home--The Good Israelite--Return to Columbus--I Go with Mrs.
French to Mississippi--Traveling Incognito a Failure--Journey
to New York in 1865--Incidents of My Mother and Child When
They Went North--Home Confiscated--Edward Cooper's Kind
Act--No One Would Touch Mother's Trunks--Copy of a Contract
in 1865, Whereby I Obtained Funds--People under Espionage
at the North--Return to the Plantation--Northern Plan to
Terminate the War.
If a man had ascended one of the lofty peaks of the Southern
Appalachian chain of mountains at the termination of the war, and
been endowed with telescopic powers of vision extending for hundreds
of miles in every direction, he would have beheld the wreck of "the
storm-cradled nation" that fell in defense of the rights that they
possessed under the constitution of 1787-88, which was shaped, and
established, and agreed to, by the States forming the convention. As
far as such vision could extend, that once beautiful country was almost
desolate and silent; the busy hum of industry had ceased, the daily
smoke of burning buildings, the marching of armies, and the dull sound
of distant cannon terminated; railroads had been destroyed, bridges
were burned, many wagon roads were impassable; agriculture had nearly
ceased, draft animals had been taken for war purposes; the flower
of the South, with its pride of ancestors, had "fallen foremost in
the light;" the noble women were almost paralyzed in mind, ready to
doubt the existence of a just God who seemingly had been deaf to their
prayers, and made fatherless their little children; four million slaves
sat idle around their decaying cabins, impressed with the prevailing
idea that freedom meant to do as they pleased, and not work any more;
provisions were scarce, and the whole scene was a picture of war's
desolation and misery.
I can call to mind the delight I experienced when reading that
wonderful description by Burke of the desolation of the Carnatic,
in India, by the butcher Hyder Ali, in years long passed; or with
sorrowful heart the desolation of the Palatinate by the French troops
by order of Louvois, but I am not aware of any Northern pen having
told the story of the destruction of the beautiful Valley of the
Shenandoah[39] in Virginia by Gen. P. H. Sheridan, though it be a theme
as sad as the one immortalized by the genius of Burke.
Hyder Ali left nothing in the Carnatic that drew the breath of life;
Sheridan left nothing in the Valley for a crow to feed on--as stated in
his official report, wherein he writes that "a crow could not cross the
Valley without carrying his provisions with him."
It is true, however, that you can find in some of the Northern
schoolbooks a beautiful poem entitled "Sheridan's Ride," as mythical as
Barbara Frietchie; still there are in the true story some incidents not
unlike those in Burns's "Tam O'Shanter" that kept "Sheridan far away."
And now the surviving Confederate soldier returned to what was once
his happy home. He had faith in the terms of his _parole_, that he
was "not to be molested by the United States authorities as long as he
obeyed the laws of 1861." Inured to hardships incident to a soldier's
life, he was well equipped to become an industrious, peaceful citizen;
he had stormed fortifications, captured batteries, marched up to the
cannon's deadly mouth without tremor, passed days without rest and
nights without sleep, subsisted on parched corn, been frost-bitten by
cold, and burned by the torrid sun. His bare feet had left their prints
in blood on the rocks, and crimsoned the snow on many a wintry march;
he had stopped the marauder in his path, and turned the enemy from
his course; he had tempted the ocean in its wrath, and driven off its
waters the enemy's commercial sails. All that man dares he had done.
And now in adversity, almost naked, with unending toil before him, he
commenced life anew, and went manfully to work with hope for the joy
of peace, little thinking of the degradation, insults, humiliations,
oppressions, robbery, extortions he and his family would be subjected
to during the coming years, caused by revengeful legislation. And now
behold him even greater in peace than in war!
The plunder obtained by the soldiers of the Union army had so whetted
the avaricious spirit of those who had furnished substitutes for
themselves, that they were bent on having their share of the spoils;
and the politicians, anxious to ride into place and power, to that end
resorted to more machinations than Machiavelli ever dreamed of in his
advice to the prince.
By the daily trains came men, generally from the Eastern States, in
every garb, and they walked along the streets in single file in quest
of cheap hotels and boarding houses, and the _insignia_ of their
_order_ was a carpetbag, and their interests and tastes--not their
sympathy--prompted them to associate with the freedmen, considering
themselves just as good and honorable as the "Wards of the Nation."
You must not deem it out of place if I here make mention of some
incidents that occurred pretty early in the war.
In the Bible we read how Jephthah vowed a vow unto the Lord that if he
would deliver the children of Ammon into his hands he would do certain
things. So Lincoln made a solemn vow before God that if Gen. Lee
were driven back from Maryland he would set the _slaves free_. After
"Antietam" he announced his _intention_ of issuing, and on September
22, 1862, he did issue, a proclamation setting free, by _his military
authority_, all the slaves in the rebel States. He still founded his
action on "policy and the Constitution."[40] As the Confederate States
did not return to the Union as required in his September proclamation,
on January 1, 1863, he issued his emancipation proclamation, the slaves
having been confiscated by Act of Congress in 1862.
The act of confiscation and the President's proclamation emancipating
the slaves in the Confederacy could not abolish slavery, because it
existed under the _laws of the States_. It could alter no State law,
still it did affect slavery in this way: it caused slaves to leave
their owners, and to this extent diminished their property and their
wealth, but under the laws they could purchase others.
The great undefined latent power of the Constitution is embodied in
Article I., Section 8: "To provide for the common defense and general
welfare." Under this section almost all the outrages of the war were
committed, restrained only by international rules of war; but these
were ignored under the plea that the war was only a rebellion--quite
a family affair, and would soon be settled. Under this article also is
found the power to tax to any amount "for the common defense and public
welfare."
The confiscation act of Congress was unconstitutional. Ed Burke, in
the Warren Hastings trial, said: "I do not know the method of drawing
up the indictment against a whole people." The Constitution _declares_
that the "trial of all crimes, except in cases of impeachment, shall be
by jury." But this confiscation act punished a "whole people" without
indictment, trial by jury, or conviction.
As the slave owners were called the only _privileged class_ in the
United States, it is pertinent to inquire if this class of people did
not exist in all the States when the Union was formed, and if they of
the North did not sell their claim to a privileged class for a "mess
of pottage" and then howled at the purchasers for being a privileged
class! Who demanded the enlargement of slavery by making it legal to
steal or purchase negroes from Africa until the year 1808, to give
employment to the six hundred slave ships owned in the North--in New
York and New England. We know the town of Newport, R. I.--now the abode
of wealth--in the year 1750 had one hundred and seventy ships engaged
in the slave trade for "the love of money."
A question presents itself here--and it is a pertinent one, for it
commences at the beginning of this whole matter of modern slavery in
this country: Who _first owned_ these slaves, how did they obtain them,
how did they treat them, and to whom did they sell these human beings
for money, and then with the price of blood in their pockets soon began
to howl against the sin of slavery, and thank the God they served that
they were not slaveholders any longer?[41]
It has been said by a Northern writer that "indirectly, and for the
purpose of a more equal distribution of direct taxes, the framers of
the Constitution _tolerated_, while they condemned, slavery, but they
tolerated it because they believed it would soon disappear. They even
refused to allow the charter of their own liberties to be polluted
by the mention of the word 'slave.'" But take heed: did not this
convention give ear to the clamor of the owners of slave ships and
slaves thereon to continue for twenty years longer to increase slavery
and increase their wealth by enslaving free people in Africa?
No, "they could not, consistently with honor or self-respect, transmit
to future ages the evidence that some of them had trampled on the
inalienable rights of others."
"Though slavery was tolerated by being ignored, we should not dishonor
the memory of those who organized that government to suppose that
they did not intend to bestow upon it the power to maintain its own
authority--the right to overthrow or remove slavery or _whatever_ might
prove fatal to its permanence or destroy its usefulness."
To this the answer is yes. But the proper mode of removing it is
the real question. It should not be by making war, laying waste the
country, burning all public buildings and dwelling houses, sinking
ships, blockading ports, killing, wounding, and capturing soldiers,
creating debts, levying taxes, exposing our soldiers to deadly battle
and all the horrors of war--but by removing the evil by compensation
"for the term of service" of the slaves to their owners.
This government is under obligation to compensate, and does compensate,
parents, masters of apprentices, masters of slaves, for service and
labor of those subjects who are enlisted in the army and navy, for the
Constitution recognizes slaves as "persons held to labor or service."
Removal by compensation might have prevented the war.
England compelled the abolition of slavery in her colonies, and she
paid in compensation for services, to the slave owners, the sum of
one hundred million dollars. Out of this, for instance, Cape Colony
obtained fifteen million dollars, which was about four hundred dollars
per slave.
If slavery was believed to be fatal to the permanence of the Union, it
could have been removed by compensation, as in the case of England, and
not by hatred and fanaticism.
View it as we may, the fact exists that the confiscation act, although
unconstitutional, did, in effect, rob the Southern people of about
two thousand million dollars ($2,000,000,000), computing four million
slaves at five hundred dollars each, which is only about half their
value; and this was done as a punishment for secession. In law it was
void; but the property was of such a character that it became useless
to the owners, because it was enticed away. So this act and Lincoln's
proclamation caused the slaves to leave their owners. And so without
a crime, without an indictment, without a trial by jury or conviction,
this property was taken from the owners. It was the largest steal ever
committed by a nation; and, furthermore, they stole from the South
slaves that they had sold the South. Call it by what name you will,
it was robbery. It exceeds in magnitude, in money value, any of the
invasions of India, from Genghis Khan down to the English East India
Company; or the robbery of the proconsuls of Rome; or the wealth
Spain derived from Mexico and Peru by the infamous acts of Cortez and
Pizarro. And, after all, the loss from confiscating the "labor" of
the slaves, great as it is, becomes but one item of loss to which the
Southern people were subjected.
It would perhaps be unjust for me to assign the inducements that
moved Mr. Lincoln to issue this proclamation, considering Congress had
already confiscated them. I do not know if possession of property is,
or is not, necessary before it can be _sold_ by confiscation.[42] If
a slave not in possession of the United States marshal, being in the
interior of the Confederacy, can be confiscated, then also could all
property be confiscated by a paper bulletin posted on the wall. But in
that proclamation there was a sinister object in view, and that was to
array against the Confederate States the sympathies of the Christian
world, by trying to make it appear that we made the war in defense
of, and to perpetuate, slavery. Others there are who think that the
"loyal governors" who met at Altoona, Pa., obtained it by insidious
threats. But, be this as it may, the proclamation, as a legal paper,
was worthless. The slaves were afterwards legally emancipated by the
several States, by the thirteenth amendment to the Constitution, and by
taking the oath prescribed in the President's proclamation, dated May
29, 1865; and all the owners of slaves who were worth twenty thousand
dollars, being disfranchised, had to make oath "not hereafter, at any
time, to acquire any property whatever in slaves, or make use of slave
labor, or make claim for slaves liberated." The numerous oaths and
various proceedings required to set the negro legally free, and make it
binding, remind me of many loyal friends in the North going before some
judicial officer and renewing their oaths of allegiance every new moon,
to make it sure and clear by accumulated recorded evidence.
When Jephthah made his vow there was no power to restrain him
from fulfilling it. Lincoln could not perform his; he was not an
abolitionist from principle, and there is very much evidence that he
was not in favor of emancipation; his proclamation set free (on paper)
only the slaves in a part of the _Confederate States_, leaving slavery
untouched in the _United States_. That is, the Yankees retained slavery
in Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, and Missouri, and part of Louisiana
and the _North_, and tried to abolish it where they could not, and
maintained it where they _could have abolished it_. At this malignant
confiscation of the slaves _only in the Confederacy_, Fanueil Hall went
wild with delight, and Exeter Hall, England, was jubilant.
I have no desire to discuss annexation (reconstruction) here, and
hasten on, only to relate some of my experiences under it, so that you
may know the patience, forbearance, and charity of the Southern people
under persecution. No one possessing knowledge has a right to withhold
it from his fellow-men, if it will be valuable to them; and so I write.
And now came reconstruction (annexation), with all its evils. President
Abraham Lincoln had been foully murdered, and Vice President "Andy"
Johnson reigned in his stead.
It is stated that he disliked the refined and best class of people in
the South; and now, in authority, he thirsted for vengeance against
them. He declared that "treason should be made odious," and would
have arrested Gen. R. E. Lee and other Confederate army officers and
punished them if possible, had not Gen. Grant declared that they could
not be molested without violating the paroles he had given them, and so
prosecution was abandoned and persecution substituted, as will be shown
after a while.
Having surrendered and signed a written agreement, and made oath to the
same, I desired to go to my home in Mississippi, as stipulated in the
parole.
Gen. Grant's declaration that his paroles could not be violated seems
to have been, with him, an after thought, as the following telegram
will show:
WASHINGTON CITY, April 15, 1865, 4 P.M.
Maj. Gen. Ord, Richmond, Va.
Arrest J. A. Campbell, Mayor Mayo, and the members of the
old council of Richmond who have not yet taken the oath of
allegiance, and put them in Libby prison. Hold them guarded
beyond the possibility of escape until further orders.
Also arrest all _paroled officers_ and surgeons until they
can be sent beyond our lines, unless they take the oath of
allegiance. The oath need not be received from any one who
you have not good reasons to believe will observe it, and
from none who are excluded by the President's proclamation,
without authority to do so. Extreme vigor will have to be
observed while assassination remains the order of the day
with the Rebels.
U. S. GRANT, _Lieutenant General_.
Here is Ord's manly answer:
RICHMOND, VA., April 15, 1865.
Gen. U. S. Grant.
Cipher dispatch directing certain parties to be arrested is
received. The two citizens I have seen. They are old, nearly
helpless, and I think incapable of harm. Lee and staff are
in town among the paroled prisoners. Should I arrest them
under the circumstances, I think the rebellion here would be
opened.
_I will risk my life_ that the present paroles will be kept,
and, if you will allow me to do so, trust the people here,
who, I believe, are ignorant of the assassination done
by some insane Brutus with but few accomplices. Campbell
and Hunter pressed me earnestly yesterday to send them to
Washington to see the President. Would they have done so if
guilty? Please answer.
E. O. C. ORD, _Major General_.
HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF THE UNITED STATES, }
WASHINGTON, April 15, 1865, 8 P.M. }
Maj. Gen. Ord, Richmond, Va.
On reflection I will withdraw my dispatch of this date
directing the arrest of Campbell, Mayo, and others, and leave
it in the light of a suggestion, to be executed only so far
as you may judge the good of the service demands.
U. S. GRANT, _Lieutenant General_.
RICHMOND, VA., April 15, 1865, 9:30 P.M.
[Received at 10:20 P.M.]
Lieut. Gen. U. S. Grant.
Second telegram, leaving the subject of arrests in my hands,
is received.
E. O. C. ORD, _Major General_.[43]
It was after this date that Grant, on reflection, turned around and
informed the President that the paroles he gave at Appomattox should
not be broken; that he would defend them. All honor to him for this!
And greater honor to Gen. Ord, who pledged _his life_ for the honor of
the Southern men who were paroled!
The first matter to claim consideration was money. I had in gold a
five-dollar piece and in Confederate notes a few thousand dollars. The
purchasing power of the latter may be ascertained from a bill made by
Miss Abercrombie, now my wife, of which the following is a true copy:
Miss Abercrombie,
To Goodrich & Co.
September 23. ½ yd. Crape $ 20 00
October 7. 1 Hoop Skirt 100 00
" 7. 14 yds. French Merino (Blk.) @ $87.50 1,225 00
" 7. 14 yds. Blk. Rep @ $25 350 00
" 14. 20 Blk. Calico @ $10 200 00
1 Blk. Crape 40 00
---------
Total $1,935 00
Columbus, Ga., October 14, 1864.
As I had no means to purchase tickets over the railroads, I applied
to the Quartermaster, U. S. A., for transportation for myself, two
servants, and two horses, which was furnished me. It was sometime in
May that we started for home via Montgomery, Mobile, and New Orleans.
As I had to call at the headquarters of the commanders in these cities
for passes and permits, I will here remark in regard to my reception by
these my late enemies: Gen. A. J. Smith was crabbed and petulant when
I showed him the order for transportation for the negroes. Gen. Sturgis
was kind and did all that was desirable for our comfort. In New Orleans
Gen. Canby was very polite to us, as he was to every one. He sent me
up the Mississippi river on a chartered steamer. The trip up the river
was pleasant. There were only two other passengers--Father Livingston,
a priest, and a sick boy. Livingston--may God bless him!--had but one
change of linen, and he gave that to the sick boy, who was a stranger
to him, and nursed the lad attentively.
I was forcibly struck with the amount of the most costly second-hand
_furniture_ sent by express to small towns in Illinois and Ohio, put
up in oat sacks.[44] But furniture in New Orleans, you know, like
"Butler's" spoons, belonged to the victors. The captain of the steamer
put me on shore at Argyle Landing, near my home. I mounted my horse,
and the first man I saw was "Tom Shelby" sitting on the fence looking
at some negro men plowing a large field of corn. He hailed me, but
I paid no attention to him. He was a "rampant" war man before the
war began, but he stayed at home. Indeed, every one of my immediate
neighbors--ten in number--were not in the army; and all, except one,
able-bodied men and younger than I was. The Scott boys and Calhoun Hale
and his brother were good and faithful soldiers, living outside the
belt around me.
When I dismounted at my door, God only knows my agony of heart. None to
welcome me, none to greet me!
"Desolate the hearth,
And wild weeds gathering on the wall."
Where were the laurels that were to crown my brow? Willows! Fences
burned, bridges destroyed; the plantation a forest of tall weeds;
horses, mules, cattle, sheep, poultry, provisions, wagons, implements
of every kind--all gone; wealth, servants, comforts--all means of
support for my family gone; all lost save honor. I sat down and
surveyed the desolation around me. Fortunately my house was not
burned, and I had a shelter for my family, should they come here. I
knew the noble women of the South, who for years had labored hard and
cheerfully, trusting in God and the justice of their cause, would not
despond. Lord Byron makes the beautiful daughters of
The tribes of the wandering foot and weary breast
sit down by the rivers of Babylon and weep, but never would they string
a harp for their foe. The beautiful daughters of the South had wept
no bitter tears of repentance, nor sung pæans for their foe; they
had proved themselves equal to adversity in war, and would they not
help build up lost fortunes in peace? So resolve took the place of
despondency, and I returned to Columbus for my family.
Sherman--the fell destroyer--had burned the city of Jackson, Miss.,
and the ruins reminded me of Pompeii. In walking one of the streets I
passed a canvas shanty, from which I was hailed by an Israelite with
"Good morning, General; come in." He had been in the army and knew me;
he had some goods and groceries for sale. When I was leaving, he asked;
"General, can't I do something for you? Here are fifty dollars, just
take them; maybe you can pay me back sometime." I thought the angel
of mercy was looking down on us, and I thought of Portia's address to
Shylock on the quality of mercy. I thanked him kindly, and the day came
when I had the pleasure of repaying the debt. In a few days I arrived
in Columbus, and there I found a letter from my cousin, Clayton French,
of Philadelphia, Pa., containing a check for a thousand dollars. I
had written to him to send me some money, and this was his liberal
response.
The servants I had in Columbus had been nominally "confiscated" and set
free; so they came to me, almost daily, begging me to take them back to
the plantation in Mississippi. As I was not able to do this, I applied
to some "bureau," that had charge of "refugees," for transportation for
these negroes, and to my surprise it was granted. As soon as possible
they were put on the cars and started for the plantation.[45]
On the 17th of September, 1865, Mrs. French and I left Gen.
Abercrombie's for Greenville, Miss., via Montgomery, Mobile, and
New Orleans, on some box cars, furnished with wooden benches for
seats--such was the condition of the railroads at that time.
When we reached home we found most of my old servants there awaiting
our arrival. To feed and clothe about a hundred of these people, and
to plant a crop of cotton in the spring, clothing, provisions, mules,
wagons, farming implements, harness, etc., had to be procured.
To obtain funds to purchase the articles enumerated--to commence
again--I went to Philadelphia and New York (by special permission of
the government) in November.
My clothing was not very tidy; it had seen service; and I concluded
after I left St. Louis to travel through the enemy's country incognito
so as to avoid war talks. I got along very well until I reached
Philadelphia. I had been advised to go to the Lafayette Hotel; and,
too proud to present myself there in my present garb, I entered a
large clothing establishment and arrayed myself in a suit of black
broadcloth, and told the attendant to wrap the old suit up. When I paid
the bill, judge of my astonishment to have him say: "To what hotel,
General, shall I send the package?" "Why do you call me general?" I
asked. "Because I saw your rank and name in full written on the inside
of your vest; that is all right; call and see us again." Next I entered
the hotel, and went to register my name. As the clerk threw the book
around, he exclaimed: "How do you do, Gen. French!" I was surprised;
he replied: "I was in the Confederate army, and knew you in Virginia;
I am employed here because we want Southern patronage." Here was my
incognito discovered twice in one hour. But that is not all. The next
day I took the train from Camden, N. J., for Woodbury, where my mother,
sister, and daughter had been refugeeing since they left Mississippi
until they joined me at the plantation in November, 1865. I knew many
people in the city, and had the honor to have been _hung_ there once
in effigy by its fanatical people in the beginning of the war, for some
reason, or no reason, save they did a foolish thing and repented of it;
and as the "bitter war feeling" raged there yet, like the billows of
the ocean after the storm has passed, I took the last seat in the rear
car as a quiet place. Now it so happened that the seat opposite me was
occupied by a genteel-looking fellow, who evidently had been indulging
too freely in whisky and wanted to make himself companionable. I
answered his questions briefly, but he persisted in talking, desirous
to know who I was. Finally I told him my name was French, at which he
exclaimed, "Are you Gen. French?" in such a loud voice as to draw the
attention of many of the passengers to me; and, rising, he proffered
his hand and said: "Going to your mother's, I reckon; I am a Union
soldier, and when we reach Woodbury I will get my musket and be your
escort." He walked up the street with me to the corner, where we
parted; and his parting words were: "If any one troubles you, send
for me. My name is Paul."[46] Such was my experience in trying to
travel incognito. I gave it up, and, when necessary, fought square
out for Confederate rights. As I went North on business, I avoided all
controversy about the war as far as possible.
I must now make a digression. In the autumn of 1864 my mother,
sister, and child, owing to illness, engaged passage on a steamer at
Greenville, Miss., and started for our summer home in Woodbury, N. J.
On arriving at the Girard House, in Philadelphia, Mr. Edward Cooper, a
relation of mother's, called on her and asked her where she was going,
and she said: "Down home." He then informed her that the property had
been _confiscated_ and _sold_, and that he had bought it, and rented
it. He asked her also about funds, and, finding she had near a thousand
dollars in Confederate money (valueless), under the pretense of
exchange he replaced it with "greenbacks"--a kind act delicately done.
Besides, a few years later he voluntarily deeded the property back to
me. This was in striking contrast with others who bought my personal
property, valuable mainly as _mementos_. It is always pleasant to find
a gentleman. They are seldom found to the manor born,
"Where commerce long prevails."
Mother went down to Woodbury and engaged board there, and returned
to the hotel. Next day when they arrived by train in that town, the
baggage wagon, the express, the porters--no one would take their trunks
to the house; nothing could induce these _loyal_ people to _touch_ the
trunks of a Rebel--unless to confiscate them. And so my mother--an old
woman, alone, in the town in sight of which she was born and where she
lived, among her kindred--had to walk away and leave the baggage. Now,
happily, a man--a Quaker--heard of their _loyal_ proceedings, and went
to my mother and said, "Well, Aunt Rebecca, if no one will bring thy
trunks from the depot for thee, I will do it;" and in his own wagon
this Friend came with the baggage. Gomorrah would have been saved
had it contained ten men like this one. The new dispensation saved
Woodbury. The family lived in exile until autumn, when they went down
to the plantation.
I will refer to the main object of my visit to the North. I made a
visit to New York and failed to obtain funds, returned to Philadelphia,
and there made the best contract I could; and the spirit of liberality
shown by my friend will commend itself to you by the terms of the
contract, which I now have:
PHILADELPHIA, PA., December 9, 1865.
Borrowed of ---- eight thousand dollars ($8,000), payable
within one year from the date of this instrument. In
consideration of this money being furnished me without
interest, I agree to furnish or ship him, at such point as he
may direct, thirty commercial bales of cotton of four hundred
pounds each, of average quality, out of the crop raised by
me on my plantation during the year eighteen hundred and
sixty-six (1866). The cotton thus shipped to be the _sole
property_ of ----.
[Signed]
S. G. FRENCH.
As cotton was selling at, or over, forty cents per pound, the bonus
was (in lieu of legal interest--30 × 400 × 40 = $4,800) at least four
thousand eight hundred dollars, which is only sixty per cent interest.
When in Venice, I visited the Rialto a number of times, and curiosity
prompted me to seek the shop near by where Shylock studied finance
and made that loan to Antonio; and you will remember that when "Tom
Walker sold himself to the devil he agreed to use the money in the
_service_ of the devil by turning _usurer_."[47] My friend obtained
his knowledge of thrift, I know not where. But which of these three was
the most benevolent I will leave you to decide. I only care to observe
that they all knew that "the poor man's necessity was the rich man's
opportunity." With me it was Hobson's choice.
While North I met in New York City and Washington many Federal army
officers, with whom I had been associated in years gone by, and they
were kind, especially Gens. Ingalls, Quinby, Grant, Steele, Wright, and
others. I could not but observe about Philadelphia that people were
distrustful of each other, as though under surveillance. Gen. Robert
P. invited me to come to his house after dark, and evidently, from what
he said, did not wish it known that I had been there. Mr. Bayard, whose
son, Gen. G. D. Bayard, was killed at Fredericksburg, sent me a message
that he would like to meet me, but that it would not be prudent for him
to have me visit him at his home. These and other friends were timid
about their loyalty being challenged if seen with a so-called "Rebel."
To this general timidity so prevalent Clayton French was an exception.
He took me to church, theaters, clubs, and wherever inclination led, in
contempt of the crowd that were afraid their loyalty might not be above
suspicion. Samuel H. French, his brother, forgot his intense prejudice
against the South, for he was one of the best men that ever lived, and
forgave _all_ the "Rebels" except Jeff Davis. In evidence of the purity
of his character he told me just before his death that he had never
been guilty of an act or said anything that he desired to conceal from
his family. There will be no charges against him when the judgment book
is opened.
I arrived in St. Louis on my way home on the 16th of December, and
saw the floe of ice crush the steamers at the landing like eggshells.
The next morning I walked across the river on the ice, and got home on
Christmas day and found the weather balmy and warm. And now I longed
for rest, but the curse of the freedmen's bureau was here, to instruct
even the cooks when to prepare meals and regulate household affairs,
and approve all contracts for labor on the plantation.
In connection with my visit North in 1865 it will not perhaps be out
of place to give here an account of a conversation that related to an
important contemplated movement. Now, whilst I was in Philadelphia, a
friend of mine, and late member of the United States Senate, called to
see me. During a long conversation on matters pertaining to the war, he
asked me "if in 1862 there was any feeling among the Confederate troops
that there would be an armistice, and peace made during the truce by
the fraternization of the opposing forces." I told him that in the
summer of 1862, when I was in Petersburg, Va., there was a vague idea
floating around relating to a peace being near at hand, and, although
it could not be explained, it was felt to be more than a fairy tale,
and yet could be traced to no source. He then informed me that "a few
prominent men in the North desired the war should be stopped, and to
obtain this end, soon after the battle of Antietam, I think it was,
a particular friend and relation of Gen. McClellan's was sent to him
to obtain his views, and ascertain if he would _agree to the proposed
plan_." When the agent had unfolded the plan, McClellan denounced it.
Soon after he was removed, and Burnside put in command of the army,
which looks as if there was something that they could _feel_ in the air
there too.
It is useless to speculate on the results of such a bold undertaking.
The actors of the movement are all dead, and I pause in silence at
the brink of their graves. They wished to end the war, and restore the
Union in that way. Of course McClellan would have been made dictator
for the time. He would not betray his trust.
This incident induces me to remark that war is the most uncertain
of all undertakings of a nation, and, like the tempest, cannot be
controlled, and seldom or never ends as predicted. The North proclaimed
that this "little rebellion" would end in sixty days! It lasted
four years, and ended as no one had foreseen. It had to suppress
rebellions caused by people who entertained Southern opinions in
New York, Chicago, Cincinnati, and other cities; muzzle the press,
prohibit freedom of speech, banish prominent individuals, arrest
men without warrant, and imprison them without charges made known
to them; and violated nearly every resolution and pledge made in the
beginning relating to the South; they cast aside constitutional law,
and substituted martial law, under which the South became a scene of
desolation and starvation.
Much has been said about firing the first gun, "firing on the flag."
The crime rests on them who made it obligatory to fire the first gun.
Northern writers are in error when they state that "firing on the flag"
fired the Northern hearts with unanimity of purpose. On the contrary,
as I have stated, it produced dissension, even to rebellion, until
suppressed by arms and intimidation from suspension of the writ of
_habeas corpus_.
This firing the first gun is made a veritable "humbug." It reminds
me of an occurrence in the grand jury room in Greenville, Miss., in
reconstruction days. A man, whom I will call "A," sent a message to
"B," giving him notice that he intended to kill him on sight should he
meet him. Warned in this way, "B" armed himself with a shotgun. They
met. "A" raised his gun to his shoulder, and aimed at "B." Seeing this,
"B" fired instantly, and killed "A." The grand jury investigated the
matter, and only one member voted to find a true bill against "B," and
he did it on the grounds that "B" should have waited to see if "A" was
really going to kill him.
Now the government of the United States was in the position of "A,"
only it was not honest enough to inform the Confederate States that it
was going to reënforce Fort Sumter; but really made false statements
about it, for it secretly sent eight warships for that very purpose,
which were then at the bar off the harbor of Charleston.
The Confederate government was in the position of "B," and was it to
wait to see what the eight ships of war would do, to see if "A" would
reënforce the garrison, which it pledged itself not to do, or fire to
prevent it? This is all well known now.
My own opinion is that the _first gun_ was fired, at the instigation of
a number of prominent men North, by John Brown at Harper's Ferry, and
for which he was apotheosized and numbered among the saints.
Mr. Lincoln said: "The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the
stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we
must rise with the occasion. Our case is new. We must think anew, and
act anew. We must disenthrall ourselves, and then we shall save the
country." (Joel Parker Lecture at Harvard College.)
These words indicate that the powers of the Constitution were
inadequate to the conduct of the war, and henceforth the war must be
conducted as occasion deemed expedient. In other words, the executive
power must be declared greater than the power that made it, or the
creature greater than the Creator, and with dictatorial methods the
war was conducted. Avaunt, Constitution, avaunt! We are fighting for
the Union, for dominion over the Southern territory again, and so the
Constitution was folded up, etc.
CHAPTER XX.
Freedmen's Bureau--Gen. O. O. Howard,
Commissioner--Platform for Reconstruction--Ironclad
Oath--Natural Rights of Man--Civil Rights--Negroes
Made Citizens--Persecution--Agents of Freedmen's
Bureau--Personal Experience--Negro Justices--Some
Trials--Judge Shackelford--Secret Societies--William A.
Sharkey--Gov. Adelbert Ames--Sheriff Webber--Taxes--Board
of Levee Commissioners Dismissed--Religious
Negroes--Bishop Wilmer--Prayers for the President--Shotgun
Election--Hegira--Carpetbaggers--Indissoluble
Union--Indestructible States--We Were a Conquered
Nation--Reconstruction Only a Definition for Deeds
Done--Strength of Respective Armies.
When I commenced writing the narrative of my observations in early life
and the incidents of service in the United States army and my diary of
the civil war, I did it to preserve for my children the record of these
events, but in volume it has increased more than at first intended; and
as it may perhaps some day be made public, I feel it incumbent on me to
give _my experience_ under the workings of reconstruction as being of
more value than a description by any historian of a later age who would
have no enlightenment by living under its arbitrary rule.
An act creating the Freedmen's Bureau was passed March 3, 1865. The
commissioner was authorized to set apart for the use of loyal refugees
and freedmen abandoned lands, also confiscated lands, and assign forty
acres for three years, etc., to families.
In 1866 a supplementary bill was passed over a veto to extend the act.
"Among other things the bill subjected any white person, who might
be charged with depriving a freedman of civil rights or immunities to
imprisonment or fine or both, without defining the meaning of _civil
rights or immunities_." The jurisdiction of the agents extended to all
contracts, and without a written contract and the agent's approval no
freedman could be employed. No indictment by a grand jury nor a trial
by a jury was necessary. The _ipse dixit_ of an ignorant negro was
cause for fine or imprisonment without appeal.
Gen. O. O. Howard, noted for exuberant piety, was made Commissioner,
and his career, his establishing of the Howard University in Washington
for the higher culture of the negro, the cottages he built for them,
the aid he gave the Church, the land he bought, and the Freedman's Bank
he established, which blew up or burst, can be found in a report of
a congressional committee. Under this bill the annual expenditure was
$11,750,000.
An article published in the _Atlantic Monthly_ for August, 1865,
sounded the keynote for the action of the United States government in
legislation for the "rebels," wherein it is stated: "We are placed
by events in that strange condition in which the _safety_ of the
republican form of government we desire to insure the Southern States
has more safeguards in the INSTINCTS OF THE IGNORANT than in the
INTELLIGENCE OF THE EDUCATED." And furthermore it is declared that
"the highest requirements of abstract justice coincide with the LOWEST
REQUIREMENTS of political prudence, and the LARGEST JUSTICE to the
loyal blacks is the real condition of the WIDEST CLEMENCY to the rebel
whites."
This declaration proclaims that the Southern States would be safer if
their governments were established on the ignorance of the blacks than
on the intelligence of the whites. Could malignity go any farther? On
this degrading plane were the State governments established.
They had called for blood, and got none, save in the case of Wirz,
who was given to the mob as a "sop." As they could not indict a whole
nation, they arrested President Davis, and, discovering no grounds
for conviction, he was released, because a failure to convict would
establish legally the right of secession, and thus prove the North to
be the aggressor. Failing on this line, the human passions and human
prejudices of the people arrayed under the higher law of conscience
swayed them like a mob, and, failing to find any lawful means to spill
blood, sought vengeance in the enacting of partisan laws for plunder of
wealth, and the humiliation of the whites. To this end the Freedmen's
Bureau was created, and President Johnson's proclamation was issued
disfranchising the whites on fourteen different counts: among them
was one that made the possession of twenty thousand dollars' worth of
_property a crime_ that disfranchised the owner. Then came the ironclad
oath, which debarred all persons from taking it "who had ever borne
arms against the United States since they have been citizens thereof,
or who have voluntarily given _aid_, _countenance_, _counsel_, or
_encouragement to persons engaged_ in armed hostility thereto; that
they have never sought, nor accepted, nor attempted to exercise the
functions of any office whatsoever under any authority, or pretended
authority, in hostility to the United States," etc.
All men above twenty-one years of age who could take _this oath_ could
vote, and _no others_. As there were very few white men who could
take this oath, the elections fell, as intended, into the hands of the
negroes, carpetbaggers, and the United States troops on duty South.
The enactment of the fourteenth amendment to the Constitution of the
United States was regarded in the North as a magnanimous exhibition
of philanthropy toward the untutored slaves, and it was so accepted
by nations; but in reality it was an insidious mode of punishing the
Southern people.
The white people who owned the land and paid quite nine-tenths of all
the taxes were now disfranchised, and the amendment was intended as a
punishment by denying them a voice in legislation.
Senator Morton and Thaddeus Stevens, like the Roman augurs, could not
look in each other's face without laughing at the success of their
machinations.
Two years later (in 1870) the fifteenth amendment to the Constitution
was passed. These last three articles placed the Anglo-Saxon people
in the South under the rule of their former slaves! This was the _Sin_
that started the race problem. The freedmen, left to themselves, would
have settled the labor question, and their social position and the race
issue; but for aggrandizement of power and acquisition of wealth he was
dragged into the halls of legislation and flattered into the belief
that also socially he was on an equality with the whites. From this
sprung unmentionable crimes, and daily lynchings followed as a remedy.
What a change! As a slave he was the faithful protector of his mistress
and her family; his children the terror now of unprotected women!
And here I will tell you how the voting was done. The negroes had,
previously, been required to take the oath. At my home a table was
placed on the gallery, and there the registrars were seated. The
negroes were called up; as many as could touch the Bible were asked if
they "had ever held office under the United States or given aid," etc.
Some said "No," some said "Yes," and some were silent. At last they
were told to say "No," and registration papers were given them, with
the charge not to lose them. There I sat, no more a citizen than if I
had been born in China, while my negroes were made eligible to almost
any office in the country.
It is now generally acknowledged that all the negro received was by
the force of environments; and now he has discovered that he has been
grateful to the radical party, and payed them for a debt of love that
had no foundation except in hypocrisy. They were told that they were
now American citizens, endowed with all their moral and civil rights.
"The _natural rights_ of a solitary individual have no connection
whatever with the _moral and civil rights_ of the man who has entered
into association with others." (Huxley.)
The dominant party entertained the belief that the slaves would
politically always belong to the party that "confiscated"[48] them; and
confounding natural rights with civil rights, they forced the Southern
States to pass the fourteenth amendment to the Constitution, which made
them citizens of the United States and the State wherein they reside.
As vultures sail in long lines from their roost (countless in numbers)
to where the carcass is, so came the harpies and political adventurers
to the carcass (the South) to embrace the colored citizens; and,
hand in hand, cheek by jowl, they entered the political arena, and
filled the capitols of the South. Every officer in the State from
governor to coroner was dismissed, and new appointments made. The
Legislatures became bacchanalian feasts to divide the spoils of office
and increase the debts of the States by selling State bonds to the
amount of countless millions. They subsidized everything they could;
in short, they ate up or took possession of all that was left after
the war ceased; and at last departed with stolen wealth, and the
execrations of all the honest people. Negroes were appointed or elected
to such offices as Senator, Governor, members of Congress,[49] and the
judiciary of the States and county officers.
June 13, 1865, William A. Sharkey was appointed provisional governor
of the State of Mississippi, and he ordered an election of delegates to
the convention, and here is the way the members were elected:
On the appointed day the new-made citizens went to the precincts to
vote. When they came home I asked my servant Levi, who had been with
me through the war, how many persons were at the polls, and he said
"about two hundred, that only two white men were there, and they were
inside the house." When asked who he voted for, he replied "he voted
for that thing, you know, called _invention_," and the way they voted
was this: "You remember the paper we had [registration]; I handed it
to two white men inside the room, through a window; they looked at
it, handed it back to me, and said open your hand; I did so, and one
of the men then put a little folded paper in my hand, then took it
out and put it in a box and said, 'Move on.'" This was a Republican
free election, peaceful, quiet, and decisive, based on ignorance.
The complexion of the convention was dark, of course. This ungenerous
revenge taken against a conquered people will ever remain a dark shadow
over the generosity and Christian spirit of the Northern people. It,
however, must be attributed to uncultured minds and want of knowledge
of history. The masses did not know that New England's ablest statesmen
always claimed their right of secession, as the debates in Congress
show. Besides, they were unmindful that opinion at the North was about
equally divided on this question.
When the revolutionary war was ended, and the cry for persecution, and
confiscation of property of the _Tories_ was raised, our Minister to
France, Ben Franklin, put that as a trump card in his pocket to win
against England; and Gens. Alexander Hamilton and Nathanael Greene and
other liberal gentlemen declared it would be "an outrage to punish them
for holding the _same opinion_ that we all held only a few years ago,
before the war commenced." What a contrast between the age of honor and
the age thirsting for gold!
Perhaps in all the wide world never again will be seen such malignant
legislation, and maladministration of law, such trials in the courts,
speeches in legislative halls, preaching by illiterate negroes, mode
of getting religion, idleness of the laborers, immorality taught
by men from the slums of Northern cities, thirst for money, howling
for office, insolence in office, with upheaval of society, creating
constant anxiety of mind as to what a day might bring forth.
Add to these the formation of loyal league societies of negroes, by
politicians swearing them to obedience to orders, bands of brothers and
sisters, composed of blacks under white villains, to burn our towns,
and murder the whites; the Kuklux Klan of the whites for protection,
and other kindred vexations and trials that made the South the home of
the spirits of pandemonium; so one could truly exclaim with Ariel,
"Hell is empty and all the devils are here."[50]
As I have said, they came like vultures to the carcass to devour the
substance of the helpless South, and they were unblushingly successful.
Under the Freedmen's Bureau and the military governors, those who could
not take the ironclad oath were helpless.
The agent of the Freedmen's Bureau in our county (Washington, Miss.)
who came first was desirous to aid the planters and freedmen to
make a crop; and as this required reliable labor, the planters in
the neighborhood agreed to give him cotton to the value of $5,000
if he would visit the plantations, when necessary or convenient, to
encourage the hands to work faithfully, under the contracts that he had
_approved_, and I will most cheerfully say that without this aid and
influence the negroes would have been unprofitable producers.
The agents were changed, and in 1867 an Irishman came, who could handle
the shillalah, drink whisky without the smell of peat, sing the "Irish
Dragoon" or the "Widow Malone," and run the Freedmen's Bureau. And here
is a little of my own experience under it with him.
In renting out the land on shares, among the squads was one squad of
thirteen hands, with two negroes named Miles and Derry as head men.
They had about eighty acres put in cotton. The recorded contract
required them to work under my direction, and I was to furnish means
to raise the crop, and their share was half the cotton. Owing to the
almost constant spring rains, their crop became hopelessly overgrown
with weeds and grass. I vainly tried to induce them to abandon the
lowest part of the land and save about sixty acres; they refused. I
then wrote a note to the agent. He came out late in the evening with
the deputy sheriff and sent for Miles and Derry, heard what they had to
say; then severely reprimanded them; took Miles by the ears and backed
him against the side of the house and pounded his head against the
wall vigorously; then taking Derry by the ears, he pounded his head as
he did Miles's. By this time near a hundred negroes were on the lawn
peeping up over the gallery, which was the arena of the acts.
Then he made a five minutes' talk to the people, giving them some good
advice. He then took Miles and Derry through the same enlivening bout,
ordering them to be at his office the next day at 10 A.M. Again he
spoke to the crowd, telling them how he had "fought, bled, and _died_
that they might be free," etc.
While this was going on, to stop such proceedings, I took the deputy
sheriff, Wilson, into the dining room, put a decanter of whisky on the
sideboard, and told him to get the agent in there, give him a glass to
sober him, and, when he came out, take his arm and go direct for the
horses. Much to my relief, he got him on his horse and they returned to
Greenville. Miles and Derry went to Greenville next day, as ordered.
The former came back much subdued and Derry went to an adjoining
plantation to work. Ridiculous as the performance was, which lasted
over an hour, it had a good effect on the deportment of all the hands
on the place.
The military governor had commissioned a man from the North named
Webber as sheriff of the county. Bolton, an Irishman, Harris, an
educated negro from Ohio, and Horton, a cotton field negro without
education, were appointed justices of the peace in Greenville. I will
very briefly give you an idea of the administration of justice in a few
cases out of many brought before them.
Ed Chamberlain, who had been a negro soldier in the United States
army, occupied a house at the southern gate of the plantation, and
he was instructed to keep the gate shut on account of cattle. Twice
_without cause_ he had told H. N. Hood, a neighboring planter, in an
insolent manner: "Shut the gate after you." On a third occasion he
repeated the remarks, whereupon Hood and a friend with him gave him
a trouncing. They then went to Justice Harris, told him what they had
done, and settled the case by each giving him five dollars. On trial
day Chamberlain went to court, and when the court adjourned he asked
the justice why he did not try his case, and the answer was: "Go home;
I tried your complaint long ago."
Another freedman on the place named Nelson one morning got into a
triangular fight with his wife and a colored girl. They all started
for Greenville to lay their respective grievances before Judge Harris.
However, they met Harris on horseback on the road running through the
plantation, and he accosted them: "Good morning, ladies and gentleman;
where are you going?" They told him that they were going to see him in
Greenville, and all made complaint to him there in the road; whereupon
he fined each the sum of five dollars, and I had to advance the money
or they would have left the plantation. That was summary justice,
and an examination of the books by the grand jury showed that he had
credited the county with the fifteen dollars.
A third case worthy of notice as illustrating the vigilance of the
colored brethren as magistrates is the trial of what may be termed
"State of Mississippi vs. S. G. French." John Dixon, a freedman, about
Christmas stole two bales of cotton from the ginhouse in open daylight,
and being pursued by my manager, threw the bales off his wagon, and
they were recovered. I went to Greenville, and before Bolton, the
justice of the peace, swore out a warrant for the arrest of Dixon. A
number of days passed and he was not arrested. So I sent for Dixon,
and settled _money accounts_ with him, and told him to leave the
plantation.
Some days after this a deputy negro constable was sent to arrest Dixon;
but, meeting one of my hands on the road and making known to him the
purport of his visit, he was told: "Go home, nigger; de ginneral done
gone _settled_ with John long ago, and John have left the place." So
the deputy returned and reported accordingly.
Perhaps it was a week after this that a negro constable came to my
house with a warrant to arrest me issued by the cotton-field justice,
Horton, charging me with having compounded a felony. Who prompted
Horton to issue the warrant I never knew; but, as he employed a
"jack-leg" lawyer to keep his docket and act as legal adviser, he
may have induced Horton to act in the matter. I asked Frank Valliant,
a distinguished lawyer, to take my case and defend me. He said that
he had resolved not to argue any case where a negro presided, for he
disliked to say, "May it please your honor," to an illiterate negro.
However, out of friendship, he said that he would appear for me if I
would pay any fine imposed upon him for contempt of court.
Some two weeks after this the trial day came. Valliant and I went to
the room where Horton dispensed justice, and found him behind a railing
seated at a small table with the Mississippi code in his hand. John
Dixon and "Jack-leg" were there, but no lookers-on. After turning the
code first one end up and then the other several times, he announced:
"Dis court am assembled to hear the case of Gen. French for _composing_
a felony with John Dixon."
Valliant seemed to be swallowing something that was swelling in his
throat, but he rose and went near the table and said: "Will your honor
let me have the papers in this case?"
"What papers you want? I am done hab none."
"Where is the affidavit made against Gen. French?"
"I just told you, Mr. Valliant, I done hab none."
"Well, how could you arrest a person without charge being made?"
"Sir, dis court has been informed dat Gen. French swore John Dixon
stole two bales ob his cotton, which am an offense, and then done
settled and composed it, which am a crime against the law, and an
insult to the majesty ob de State of Mississippi."
Here the "jack-leg" injected a remark to the judge, when Valliant asked
him: "Are you engaged as an attorney in this case?"
He replied: "I am."
"Then I wish to see your license."
At this Horton said: "De gentleman wants to see your license. Go and
get it, sir."
While he was absent in quest of the paper Valliant read the law to
the court, showing his honor that the license must be granted by the
Circuit Court.
When the license was handed to Valliant he read it to the court, and,
it being one granted by the Chancellor, was of no authority. At this
information Horton rose from his seat, and in a loud voice said: "Sir,
you will stand aside. You have imposed on dis court, and am no more a
lawyer in any case in court here."
When this incident was over, and the indignant court had composed
itself, Valliant tried again to satisfy the judge that there was no
case before the court; but he insisted that I had _composed_ a felony,
and that his court was bound to "'vestigate what am a crime in de eye
of de law." Under the argument and showing of my attorney, however,
the judge began to weaken, especially when told that he would be held
responsible for this unwarrantable arrest.
Valliant now whispered to me: "We will have to buy out of this."
"All right," was the reply.
Then my attorney went to the table, and quietly whispered to Horton:
"Will ten dollars settle expenses?"
A ten-dollar bill was handed the judge, and that sum _composed_ the
felony, the feelings of the court, and the offended majesty of the
State.
Valliant was the wit of the Greenville bar, and a true friend. Some
years ago he was called from his field of usefulness and sorrowing
friends to
Sleep the sleep that knows no breaking.
These are not a tithe of my personal experience with the Bureau and the
courts. They were almost daily annoyances to all.
One day I received a note from the agent of the Freedmen's Bureau to
come to his office if convenient. I went as requested; found there one
of my hands, who had no common sense, and was told he complained that I
had not settled with him agreeably to the contract; and when the agent
asked him what complaint he had to make he said that I had paid him
only a _half_, whereas I had promised him a _fourth_, and insisted that
four was more than two.
But I pass from the recital of these petty annoyances to larger
ones. The circuit judge _appointed_ was named S----, and in political
parlance he was a "scallywag." It would seem that, to make his loyalty
apparent, he imposed harsh sentences or punishments on nearly every
white person convicted, and he committed personally some criminal
offenses.
It was, I believe, in the winter of 1876 or 1877 that I was a
member of the grand jury of Washington County. All those who were
summoned--twelve whites and six negroes--answered to their names. The
judge excused one member, and accepted another person, who was sworn
in. The matter of a murder was among other things brought to the notice
of the grand jury. All voted against finding a true bill except two
other members and myself. This same day (Saturday) we were about to
find an indictment against the judge for falsely representing himself
as surety on the bond of the notorious Bolton, who was appointed county
treasurer, the facts in the case being that the judge did not sign his
name to the bond, but told his clerk of the court to sign it for him.
To this the clerk made oath, but excused himself by informing us that
"it is common practice now."
On Sunday Bolton gave a champagne dinner to the judge, and it was there
arranged that the judge should dismiss the grand jury on Monday morning
to prevent indictments being found against _himself and Bolton_. The
excuse offered was that putting a juror on in the place of one excused
was irregular, and their findings would be void, and also we had
failed to find a true bill against a certain man. And so we were all
discharged without retaining _the three_ who voted to find a true bill,
and a new jury was empaneled. That night the negroes called a mass
meeting to condemn these proceedings of the judge; but the meeting was
captured through the influence of two negroes--Gray, the state senator,
and Ross, a negro from Kentucky--and resolutions passed complimenting
the judge. The fine hand of Bolton was seen in this. Some months after,
the judge called on me, and said he wished to say that he discharged
that grand jury because they did not find an indictment against S----,
who had killed a man in an altercation. I replied: "Judge, no person in
Greenville believes that to be true."
The judge was afterwards petitioned by the members of the bar to
resign. The list was headed by the distinguished attorney, William A.
Percy. _Six_ months after this a person appeared in Greenville with
a challenge for Col. Percy. For amusement Percy said: "The judge has
had six months to practice at a target, and I also want a little time
to practice; then I will accommodate him." After worrying the bearer
of the cartel some time he accepted the challenge, the fight to take
place on an island in the Mississippi river. Nothing further was heard
from the challenger, and he died soon after, it is reported, from
mortification.
Before the judge had dismissed the grand jury it had found a number
of indictments against persons who belonged to a secret association
of freedmen, known as the "Band of Brothers and Sisters," bound by
oaths to rob, burn the town, and murder the whites. The day these
disclosures were made the witnesses were shot at in the night, and
claimed protection.
Bolton, who had been an officer in the United States volunteers during
the war, was president of the band; Gray, negro state senator, vice
president; and a scallywag named Brentlinger, from Kentucky, was
treasurer. He was also postmaster, through Bolton's influence. Bolton
spent most of his time in the post office, and induced Brentlinger
to lend him public funds to the amount of about $3,000. An effort was
made to destroy the post office books by setting fire to the office,
but a man fortunately saved the books. Bolton, however, got them from
the office as a package purporting to have come by mail, and destroyed
them.
Then came a United States post office inspector, who discovered the
loss of funds, books, etc., and removed or suspended the postmaster.
Bolton went on Brentlinger's bond, and accompanied him to Jackson,
Miss., where he was tried before Judge Hill. Bolton told Brentlinger
that he had arranged it with the judge. If he would remain silent, and
make no disclosures, he would be acquitted. He was found guilty, and
sent to the penitentiary at Albany, N. Y.
In hope of convicting some of these scoundrels, I wrote to President
Grant for permission to visit the penitentiary and obtain Brentlinger's
testimony, and the attorney-general, Alphonso Taft, to whom the request
was referred, gave permission.
In due time I made the visit to Albany, and with the keeper, Pillsbury,
saw Brentlinger. He wrote out what he knew about the society,
acknowledged that he was treasurer; but from timidity would give but
little testimony of his own knowledge, and made it mostly hearsay
evidence. It corroborated exactly what we learned in the jury room. No
use was made of this testimony, because all who were implicated agreed
to quit the State and never come back. I have this testimony and the
attorney-general's letter.
The military governor appointed one T. L. Webber sheriff of the county.
Without the knowledge of any one, he falsely reported thousands of
acres of plantation lands, and other sections of land, sold for taxes.
This he did for two years. Not a name of any delinquent taxpayer was
ever published, and _no one_ attended any sale. Planters continued
paying their taxes regularly. At last it was discovered that the
reported list of taxable lands did not embrace half the lands on which
taxes were paid. A list was obtained for the grand jury. I found that
six hundred and forty acres out of the heart of my plantation had been
reported sold; Bourge's plantation of two thousand acres, all sold, and
so on; yet we were paying taxes all the same.
_Next year_ I know of but two planters who paid any taxes in the
county. Had Gov. A---- remained, there would not have been any taxes
paid in the State. He wrote to Bolton to know how he was to get any
salary, or any courts could be held, or Legislatures meet, etc., and
was told that the services of all such were not required, etc.
The _auditor_ had been receiving from the sheriff only the money
received from lands _on the tax list_, while he (the sheriff) pocketed
all money paid on lands that he pretended were sold and not taxable--by
"sold" meaning forfeited to the government. To escape perjury, Webber's
_reports_ of taxable lands were not signed by him, but by his brother,
a worthless fellow.
When the people elected a negro sheriff over Webber, he bought the
office of sheriff from him for $1,000 and the negro sheriff (O.
Winslow) appointed him his deputy. Webber, when detected, turned into
the bank $40,000 out of perhaps $150,000 stolen, and went to Florida.
The ablest lawyers said he could not be convicted under the existing
condition of affairs.
Those who would not pay taxes were permitted to redeem their lands by
act of the Legislature, by paying back taxes, the title coming from the
State. The $40,000 was distributed among the owners of the forfeited
lands, and used in part payment of the taxes. O reconstruction, what a
curse thou wast!
Had Ames remained, there would have been presented a singular
revolution--the people of the State peacefully pursuing their
avocations without a government; every function of state government
would have been suspended. When the governor applied to Grant for
troops he was refused. Grant telegraphed that "the public was tired of
the annual autumnal outbreaks in the South."
Another source of annoyance to the planters--nay, it was ruinous--was
the want of reliable labor. Capital could not command labor in the rich
Yazoo bottoms, and it had to be obtained from a distance.
I went to Wytheville, Franklin, and Danville, Va., for labor. In
Danville I made a contract with a man named Wilson to bring me some
thirty hands. About the middle of February he arrived with the negroes.
I paid him $1,040 for transportation and services. One pleasant noon
in May a servant came in and told me a certain negro was leaving the
place; he was the last of the men that Wilson brought, except a Spanish
negro, who was painting my house.
My neighbor Jackson went to Richmond, Va., and obtained some forty
hands; paid their way to Greenville. Their contract made was that they
were to raise a crop of cotton and corn, and out of their share of the
crop they were to repay expenses of transportation, provisions, etc.
Gradually they began to leave him, and went into the employment of
negroes who had rented land. They were hired for two bales of cotton.
By this proceeding they escaped paying transportation.
One day in May the last of Jackson's hands (on Monday) went to the
smokehouse and obtained their rations for the week, and then quit the
plantation. They were arrested for breach of contract and obtaining
supplies under false pretenses, and were tried before the notorious
Judge Bolton. Whilst the trial was going on, Bolton asked my views of
the matter. I told him if they were acquitted every contract recorded
in court would be worthless, and it would damage the planting interest
in the county perhaps two hundred thousand dollars. Nevertheless, he
decided that there was no evidence to prove that the hands had any
intention of leaving _when_ they drew their rations, although they had
a place engaged and left as soon as they got the provisions. For months
I never retired to rest without apprehension that some of my hands
would leave during the night, at the persuasions of visiting spies.
Another trouble was to check the thoughtless extravagance of the
freedmen. If they were largely in debt, when fall came, they would not
gather their cotton, believing it mortgaged to the merchants for all
it would bring, but quit, and pick cotton on some other place, by the
hundred, for cash. Of these things there was no end.
The counties of Bolivar, Washington, and Issaquena composed a levee
district in Mississippi, and had for years protected the lands from
overflow by constructing levees. Funds were obtained by tax on lands
and by sales of bonds. When the war ended, I was elected president of
the board. Gen. Alvan C. Gillem was military governor, and gave me all
the aid he could to rebuild the levees. I negotiated the bonds in New
York City at par, and repaired the levees and saved the plantations
from overflow. When Ames[51] became military governor, he one day
sent a man to Greenville with an order dismissing us, and required
the office to be turned over to the bearer, etc.; and this, too, when
the river was at its highest stage. I went to Jackson to see him. I
demanded the grounds for his action in the matter, and was refused.
At this time the river was out of its banks everywhere, except in our
district. I wrote to President Grant, and he answered: "You should
have telegraphed at once." Gen. Sherman wrote, "Yours is not a public
office, and Ames is wrong, etc., meddling with private corporations,"
or words to that effect.
Whilst in Jackson, the capital of Mississippi, I was offered the
opportunity of seeing the legislators who made our laws, composed
mainly of carpetbaggers and negroes. For this purpose I obtained a seat
by the sidewalk on the main street leading to the capitol.
As the hour to meet had arrived, down this street could be seen the
members approaching. Generally they came two together, arm in arm, a
carpetbagger and a negro in close confab. The whites were clothed in
garments of various makes and colors; the negroes rejoiced in black
clothing, with Prince Albert coats and silk hats and gold-headed canes.
Down the avenue and far away could be seen the white of their eyes,
teeth, shirts, and enormous collars.
The carpetbagger was generally holding on to the arm of his colored
brother, and engaged in conversation; and, judging from the gestures,
they were advocating some benevolent measure for the benefit of the
"wards of the nation," and their own prosperity. One other observation
I made: there were no small feet, and not an arched instep; flap, flap,
came down their flat feet. I had seen enough; I thought the negro had
the more honest face.
Thence I went into the House. Ye gods, what a sight! The floor was
dirty, the many spittoons were all filthy--filled with quids of
tobacco, stumps of cigars, pieces of paper around them were cemented to
the floor by dried tobacco juice; fumes of tobacco filled the house, so
that the air was foul and unpleasant.
The members were seated, black and white side by side, all over the
house, perhaps to guide them in voting; and they lolled on the desks
and chairs. A negro would lay his head on the desk of his white
neighbor, look him in the face, and laugh with great glee at what was
told him; the conversation was so loud and the laughter so boisterous
that the Speaker could not command silence: he pounded with the gavel,
and shouted "Order! order!" till his voice was drowned by the cries of
"Master Speakyar!" from the negroes, while the whites shouted and waved
their arms frantically to catch the Speaker's eye for recognition.
The whole scene was one of confusion not unlike the Gold Exchange, New
York, in days of yore, or the Stock Exchange.
I then went to the Senate chamber. It was cleaner than the House, and
better order was preserved; but what a travesty on intelligence and
decorum, and shame on the government of the United States, North, that
made this not only possible but common, and laughed at it with joyous
hearts; and wherefore? It was an assembly of mostly dishonest white
men influencing the uneducated negro members to enact laws whereby the
State was, by bonded indebtedness, plundered of millions of dollars.
Their reign is ended.
"I myself have seen the ungodly in great power and flourishing like
a green bay tree: I went by again, and lo, he was gone." Adieu! The
royal Bengal tiger, when he once tastes human blood, will depopulate
a village; so the loyal carpetbagger, having tasted Southern plunder,
went home and devised a scheme of trust companies now in operation.
Then came taxation. On this matter I will merely remark that on realty
it was about ten per cent. Government tax on cotton, in the aggregate,
was sixty-seven million dollars. On cotton it was (all told), including
charges by the government, about twenty dollars per bale. There should
now be on file in the Department of Agriculture a letter written by me
to Mr. Isaac Newton, commissioner, telling him that, were it practical,
I would deed to the United States the land planted in cotton, if it
were exempted from taxation one year, which meant--the market value of
the land was twenty dollars per acre; and as one acre would produce a
bale of cotton, and the tax on the bale was twenty dollars, the tax
was equal to the value of the land--that was confiscation. An acre
in cotton, if it produced a bale, was taxed, as I have related; but
if planted in corn or sown in wheat, the produce was free. All these
legal pilferings, vexations, insults, arrogance, and trials to our
families were in silence and poverty submitted to, that our children
might have food and clothing. Our patience in adversity, amidst trials
and sufferings, gives greater evidence of elevation and dignity of
character than did matchless achievements in arms. In the tented
field we found redress for wrongs; in reconstruction years we lived in
expectancy, as the Christians lived in the years of Nero, not knowing
what would befall us next.
The negroes, when set free, became very pious, and gave more time to
their devotions than to the crops. After the Freedmen's Bureau agents
took their departure, nearly all of them "got religion" and wanted
to preach. Their protracted ("distracted" they called them) meetings
continued all night long, for five and six weeks continuously. Men
and women would leave the church (I had one on the plantation) after
sunrise, go to the field direct, and sleep leaning on their hoes. I
found one sleeping on the creek bank, and on asking him what was the
matter, he said: "O, I have got religion in me as big as a yearling
calf." And thus piety impaired industry to an alarming extent, without
improving morality.
Bishop Wilmer (Episcopal), during the war, had omitted the usual prayer
"for the President of the United States and all others in authority,"
and this continued after the surrender. For this offense Maj. Gen.
George H. Thomas was so distressed that he, by orders, caused the
bishop and the clergy in the diocese to cease from preaching; and
this gave rise to a discussion, which was terminated by the President
denouncing the silly order and revoking it. I have no doubt of Gen.
Thomas's sincerity, for he was prudent and cautious, and _he_ must
have been really convinced that President Johnson, and all others in
authority with him, needed the prayers of the Episcopal clergy to bless
them and replenish their grace.
The Bishop was not as desirous of praying for the President of the
United States as was a young priest after the surrender. He had omitted
praying for President Davis since his capture, and had not decided what
to do when the Sabbath came; but found relief, when asked by a United
States army officer if he had any objection to using the old prayer for
the President of the United States, by answering: "No, none whatever;
for I know of no one who needs our prayers more than he."
The few incidents of my own experience that I have narrated are to
illustrate the condition of the people of the South during the years
of reconstruction (annexation), and for preservation for future ages;
to show the ills, vexations, humiliations, and indignities so unjustly
and designedly imposed upon them as a spiteful punishment for daring
to assert their rights and defend their homes. The fifteenth amendment
to the Constitution has brought forth bitter fruit to the progress of
the freedmen and the peaceful progress of the whole country by offering
the negro a dependent support on politics rather than labor. Their
votes were generally in the market, and their sale at the presidential
nominations for office in the Federal service in the South consolidated
the white people against them when harmony would otherwise have
existed.
The State of Mississippi was saved from utter ruin by what the
North called "the shotgun policy." Seeing nothing but poverty and
wretchedness before us, it was determined to rescue the State from
the hands of the carpetbaggers and negroes by a compromise with the
freedmen. In our county we offered them the offices of congressmen,
the sheriff of the county, clerk of the chancery court, clerk of
the circuit court, and justice of the peace, but not a member of
the Legislature. The educated whites were to redeem the State from
perdition in the halls of legislation.
In the hustings absolute protection by arms was pledged to all freedmen
who voted the Democratic ticket, and to those who voted the radical
ticket, not a hair of their heads should be touched, if order was
maintained by them; but under all circumstances _a free election should
be held, and peace preserved_. Every one knew that a disturbance
imperiled life. The consequence was that a more cheerful, peaceful
election never was held. One party had yellow tickets and the other
white, open in their hands, and the vote could be counted as well
outside as inside at the polls; and furthermore the radical white
carpetbaggers were in an unmistakable manner informed that they would
be held responsible if peace at the polls was not maintained. Thus
was the State redeemed from the hands of the corrupt carpetbaggers
and corrupt _followers_ of the United States army, and all cried:
"Amen!" The joy that followed cannot be realized, and cheerful industry
commenced. The suffering, vexations, and agony of mind of the people
of the South during reconstruction years, unless written by those who
endured them, will no more be known in history than are the cries for
mercy uttered in the chambers of torture in the prisons and baronial
castles of Europe during the Middle Ages. And now for all these
malicious tortures, for the state debts, for the enfranchising of the
negro, and the race problem the harshest condemnation I have known
to be expressed by the party which imposed them on us is: "It was a
blunder!"
In a statesman "_a blunder is a crime_," said Napoleon. So by parity of
reasoning, you can discover in what class you have placed yourselves.
This election is the hegira of misrule and vampirism.
It is difficult to subscribe to the dogma of "an indissoluble union
of indestructible States." It is at variance with the foundation of
all government; "for governments are founded on superior force that
subjects everything to the will of the governor, or it is founded on
a compact, express or tacit.... When founded on force, resistance
is implied.... In a government founded on an express agreement, or
compact, resistance is unlawful while the ruler maintains his part
of the contract. When he violates those rules resistance is legal
and justifiable. Hence in all governments resistance is naturally
inherent." (Lord Woodhouselee.)
In the twelfth century, for instance, there "was in Aragon the Justiza,
an officer elected by the people, who was the supreme interpreter of
the law and protector of the people.... This great officer had likewise
the privilege of receiving in the _name of the people_ the king's oath
of coronation, and during the ceremony he held a naked sword pointed
at the heart of the sovereign, whom he thus addressed: 'We, your
equals, constitute you our sovereign, and we voluntarily engage to
obey your mandates on condition that you protect us in the enjoyment
of our rights; if otherwise, not.'" Here we find reserved rights of the
people, as in our Constitution.
States appear to be destructible. From the Pillars of Hercules, all
around the shores of the Mediterranean Sea--where dwelt the people to
whom God gave laws amidst the thunders of Horeb and others, whence came
language and most of our civilization and religion--are found the ashes
of dead empires.
The Confederate States must have been out of the _Union_, unless we
admit that the English language is not expressive enough to clearly
describe events. To me the act of Congress passed February 17, 1870, to
"admit the State of Mississippi," the proclamations to "come back,"[52]
to "restore the State," etc., are but a few of the proofs that we were
out of the Union; and the declaration of war, the blockade, belligerent
rights show that the Confederate States were independent. We were
"rebels" (so called) designedly to enable the United States to escape
paying Confederate bonds held by foreign powers, and to settle other
international questions with them. We were in the Union or out of the
Union, as the exigency of the occasion required.
And this reminds me of an incident that occurred in the section room
at the United States Military Academy in 1841. Capt. J. A. Thomas was
assistant professor of ethics. The subject: "The Constitution of the
United States." He there said: "Gentlemen, there are latent powers in
this Constitution that will be found to meet every emergency that may
arise." And now, behold, since then! "The higher law," "the _extra_
constitutional measures," "the confiscation of property," "greenbacks
a legal tender," etc., the wealth of the nation made exempt from
taxation by the supreme court, and the trusts, etc. Truly we were a
conquered nation, because the United States had to resort to all the
constitutional requirements of foreign warfare.
In the platform accepted by Mr. Lincoln is this resolution:
"_Resolved_, That we maintain inviolate the rights of the States,
and especially the right of each State to order and control its own
domestic institutions, according to its own judgment exclusively." And
in his inaugural he said: "I have no purpose, directly or indirectly,
to interfere with slavery in any of the slaveholding States of the
Union."
Then Congress passed, February 11, 1861, the following: "_Resolved_,
That neither Congress, nor the people, nor the government of the
nonslaveholding States have the right to legislate upon or interfere
with slavery in any of the slaveholding States of the Union."
These resolutions and promises were brushed aside like reeds in the
path of conquest. Their armies marched on without any check by the act
of _habeas corpus_, as it was suspended by article 2 in the President's
proclamation of September 22, 1862, which reads: "That the writ of
_habeas corpus_ is suspended in regard to all persons arrested, or who
are now or hereafter during the rebellion shall be imprisoned in any
fort, camp, arsenal, military prison, or other place of confinement by
any military authority or by sentence of any court-martial or military
commission."
I remember a story on the Committee of the French Academy appointed to
prepare the "Academy Dictionary." Their definition of a _crab_ was "a
small, red fish which walks backward." "Gentlemen," said Cuvier, "your
definition would be perfect, only for three exceptions: The crab is not
a fish, it is not red, and it does not walk backward."
So, if the _Union was indissoluble_, and the States were
indestructible, how could they be _reconstructed_ and readmitted? It is
as erroneous as the definition of the crab.
It may be said, almost literally, that the administration for the
expansion of war power deposited the Constitution in the State
Department for the use of the supreme court after the war. They
now ordained a despotic policy as being more expedient to run the
government, because it could be changed, like a vane on a house top,
according to the breath of public opinion or the exigency of the
times. To confine their troops to the duty of destroying the regular
Confederate forces, according to the usages of civilized war, had been
tried in vain; but once freed from the restraints of the Constitution
and modern rules of war, the work of desolation commenced to the extent
that a ruthless general reported that a crow would have to carry its
provisions if it crossed the valley he had laid waste. His example was
excelled by others. The truth is that if the North had not disregarded
the Constitution, IT, would have ruined them. It was a government of
opportunism.
As regards reconstruction (so called), I will only observe that a
conquered people are obliged to accept such terms as the conqueror
offers.
In our case the separate or sovereign States that withdrew from the
Union were the parties conquered. The negotiators for peace on the one
part were the Congressional Committee on Reconstruction, and on the
other each one of the sovereign States for itself. The terms offered
the States respectively were embodied in the last three amendments
to the Constitution. As these were accepted they were admitted into
the Union, each a sovereign State. So the thirteenth, fourteenth, and
fifteenth articles of the Constitution, when accepted, became virtually
a treaty of peace between the North and the South, made State by State.
Virginia, Texas, and Mississippi were the last, and they did not accept
the terms offered until 1870, when they were admitted into the Union.
As Minerva sprung from the brain of Jupiter, full grown, robed in the
panoply of war, and took her seat among the gods, so the Confederate
States--born in a day, clothed in all the attributes of government,
complete in every department--took her station among the nations
of the earth. She exacted from the United States the observance of
international law on war and official intercourse. After four years
of the most sanguinary war of modern times she fell, white and pure,
before the mercenary hosts of the nations arrayed against her. She died
for the priceless heritage wrung from tyrants "_that all just powers of
government are derived from the consent of the governed_."
For this inalienable right--a right that has been exercised by almost
every nation on earth, and for which millions and millions of lives
have been sacrificed--the States seceded, and it will never die. It
was implanted by Providence like religion in the hearts of mankind.
It is an invisible power behind a veil that will break through as
certainly as the soul at death lifts the dim veil that hides the life
beyond the grave. It is an occult power pervading the air, and gentle
until developed by oppression, whether by bad government or remorseless
tyranny incident to aggregated wealth or other causes. It was not the
victories of the Confederate armies; it was not because they gave the
world a Lee, a Johnston, a Forrest, and a Stonewall Jackson that won
the admiration of the nations; but because over all these the South was
true to her convictions of right. Their achievements were great, but
their cause was greater; their deeds are immortal, their cause eternal,
and paid for in blood. It will exist till the leaves of the judgment
book unfold.
I must now take my farewell of the good Confederate soldiers with whom
I have had the honor to serve. I know their valor and their worth. Like
the sibylline books, as they diminish in numbers they will increase
in value, and with the last veteran the order will end--then silence!
Their valor will be the common heritage of mankind. Their memory will
be revered by their posterity, and linger in the mind as sweetly as
the fragrance of flowers. Their cause let none gainsay; it is the
birthright of all the ages.
To you, my children, I have related some of my observations, and given
a little of my experience in this wonderful nineteenth century.
In my youth dwellings were lit up with candles; then came gas and
kerosene; now electricity illumes cities and streets, cars and ships.
Steam power was known, but it had not been applied to railroads or
steamships on the ocean, or to many mechanical purposes. How well do I
remember the many journeys I made over the Alleghany Mountains by stage
to Pittsburg, Brownsville, and Wheeling, and how steam power superseded
horse power in ferryboats, treadmills, and sailing vessels on the
ocean!
I have told you how I went with Prof. Morse to receive what may be
deemed the first message of the telegraph; now we send messages around
the world.
In 1862 I saw a telephone established from one house to another,
distant about fifty yards, by two young ladies in Wilmington, N. C.,
to communicate with each other. To-day we talk face to face a thousand
miles.
The discovery of anæsthetics has alleviated the pain of the surgeon's
knife, and with the X ray he looks through the human body, and makes
visible the location and cause of pain, etc.
During this century the map of the world has had many changes by the
Napoleonic wars, the upheaval of 1840 by Garibaldi, Bismarck, Germany,
and France; and all Africa is subjugated. In the Orient--that empire
of occult science and mystery, of magic, fakirs, castes, and barbaric
wealth; six times invaded from the West through the gates of India by
Alexander, Mahmoud, Genghis Khan, Tamerlane, Monguls, and Persians--at
last, in this century, with a population of over 300,000,000, has
passed into the possession of England, and Queen Victoria is Empress of
India! What destiny awaits China, with her 400,000,000 people?
We have witnessed Spain lose possession of all her colonies in South
America, Mexico, and her West Indies possessions and the Philippine
Islands; the slave trade, conceded to New England, ended only in 1808;
imprisonment for debt was in existence when I was young in some of the
States--in short, such has been the progress of liberty during this
closing century that it has turned the world upside down, and to all
oppressors from any cause the spirit of liberty cries:
"By all ye will or whisper,
By all ye leave or do,
The silent sullen people
Shall weigh your God and you."
APPENDIX.
Some Statistics of the War.
Total enlistment in the United States army 2,778,304
Total enlistment in the Confederate States army 600,000
_FIRST._
NUMBER OF FOREIGNERS IN THE UNITED STATES ARMY.
German 176,800
Irish 144,200
British Americans 53,500
English 45,500
Other foreigners 74,900
--------
Total foreigners 494,900
Whites from the South 276,439
Negroes from the South 178,975
--------
Total 455,414
-------
Grand total 950,314
Here you will discover a force 350,414 stronger than the whole
Confederate army, without enlisting _a native-born citizen_ of the
North; also that the South furnished the North _455,414_ men.
_SECOND._
New York troops enlisted 448,850
Pennsylvania troops enlisted 337,936
--------
Total 786,786
Here is an army larger than the Confederate States army.
_THIRD._
Illinois furnished (men) 259,092
Ohio furnished (men) 313,180
Indiana furnished (men) 196,336
--------
Total 768,608
Here we have a second army larger than the Confederate army.
_FOURTH._
The New England States furnished 363,162
The slave States furnished (whites and negroes) 455,414
--------
Total 818,576
Here is a third army larger than the Confederate army, and the fourth
army came from the excess of numbers in the three preceding ones.
But the most remarkable fact is, that there were in the United States
army 950,314 men that should be _called foreigners_, as none belonged
to the North by birth.
In connection with the number of foreigners in the United States army,
I will remark that Gen. Benjamin F. Butler, of Massachusetts, in his
argument before the Tewksbury Almshouse investigating committee,
July 15, 1883, said: "Before you go to throwing ridicule on the
foreign-born, let me tell you that you had better look into the
question of who fought your battles. In the first place, look at
the per cent of what birth the inmates in our soldiers' homes were;
fifty-eight and one-half per cent of the soldiers in these homes are of
_foreign birth_."
Again he said: "Some of us stayed at home and pressed soft cushions
of _skinned paupers_ while these foreigners so much sneered at were
fighting our battles."
In regard to the tanning of the skins of the dead inmates of the
almshouse, Butler quotes from Carlyle (page 354), and goes on to say
that at Meudon the skins of the guillotined were turned into good wash
leather and made into breeches for paupers. So the paupers in France
were dressed in the skins of my lord and lady, "while in Massachusetts
it was our aristocrats that wore slippers made from the breasts of
women paupers." Matters here are reversed--it is my lord and lady who
wear such slippers.
It may be of some interest to quote further from Butler. In contrasting
the expenses of the soldiers' home (one of them) he said it took 278
turkeys for their Thanksgiving dinner, and their last "potpie" required
34 sheep, 15½ barrels of potatoes, and 2 barrels of flour. During the
year they ate 758 head of cattle, 1,659 head of sheep, 3,714 barrels
of flour, 15,744 dozen eggs, 154,932 pounds of butter, 69,289 pounds
of coffee, 57,941 pounds of fish, 7,950 pounds of tea, 10,570 cans of
tomatoes, 16,431 pounds of rice, 110,440 pounds of sugar, 21,325 pounds
of prunes, and other articles too numerous to mention, amounting to the
sum of $204,728, hereby establishing that the inmates of the soldiers'
home were fed cheaper and better than the paupers of the Tewkesbury
almshouse.
I refrain from naming the horrors of this institution in Massachusetts;
but the men who are fond of the horrible depravity of mankind, for
money, can find their taste gratified in Butler's pamphlet, illustrated
by photographs of tanned skins, etc.
Civilization, even among the cultured, is sometimes a diaphanous
garment to hide the infernal. "Nature still makes him; and has an
infernal in her as well as a celestial."
Well might it be said by an English writer that "the men in the North
could, for a moderate sum, engage substitutes to vicariously die for
them, while they sipped their wines at the clubs in safety."
Percentage Killed and Wounded in Late Wars.
Allies in the Crimea 3.2 per cent
Austrians in 1866 2.6 per cent
Germans in the Franco-German war 3.1 per cent
Federals in the Confederate war 4.7 per cent
Confederates in the Confederate war 9.0 per cent
Slave Owners in the Confederate Army.
This question, as far as I am informed, has not been analyzed to
separate it from the concrete mass of men that composed the Confederate
army. This is desirable to establish what influence they had in
deciding the Southern States to secede from the Union, and the solution
of it should give the number of slave owners in the army.
The white population of these States was, in 1860, about 8,300,000.
There were 346,000 whites who owned slaves. These figures represent and
include men of all ages, widows, and minors: also young married women
who owned the servant usually given them.
Now divide 8,300,000 by 346,000, and we have 8,300,000/346,000==24,
which shows that only one person in twenty-four was a slaveholder,
and we know not what number in this twenty-four were women, orphans,
and old men. If allowance be made for the old men, women, and minors,
there would not be over four able-bodied men to the one hundred; hence
in a company of one hundred soldiers four would be slave owners. In a
regiment of one thousand there would be forty, in ten thousand there
would be four hundred, and in the whole Confederate army of six hundred
thousand there would be only twenty-four thousand who represented
slavery. The remainder (600,000-24,000) would be 576,000 who were not
slave owners! This number, however, might be reduced by young men heirs
apparent of slaves.
Henceforth, then, let it be known that the Confederate army was not
an army of slave owners. To the people of the South it was well known
that the slaves were fast becoming the property of the owners of large
estates, and on many sugar and cotton plantations there were from one
to two hundred negroes employed. The tendency was to consolidate labor,
as it was more profitable. Therefore it was that the Confederate army
was mainly composed of men as free from interests in slavery as were
the men living in sight of Bunker Hill. These men were contending for
an object far more dear to them than any arising from slavery. They
had seen the accumulated funds of the United States treasury expended
in making harbors for towns on the great Northern lakes yearly, and in
digging deep-water channels for Eastern cities, and appropriations for
little creeks called rivers; while the harbors of the Southern cities
were neglected. Then, again, the tariff almost invariably discriminated
against the South, even to the extent of nullification, almost thirty
years anterior to the war; then the fugitive slave act was nullified
by Northern State laws; "underground railroad" was a term used to
express how negro slaves were conveyed under cover of the night to
the North when enticed from their owners. They openly published that
the Constitution was a "compact made with the devil;" and the hatred
of the North and the West was so widespread that by a sectional party
vote they elected a President antagonistic to the South. These are
but a few of the acts that caused secession; and yet he who believes
that secession was entertained by more than a mere majority of the
people South is mistaken. Genuine love and an abiding fidelity to the
Constitution were ever found in the South. Her cause for complaint
also was that the people of the North and West, actuated by hatred of
the people South, proclaimed that the higher law of _conscience_ was
superior to the Constitution!
Events came on apace. The Southern people were homogeneous, "to
the manner born." Save only in the commercial cities were there any
foreigners and but few Northerners. North Carolina did not have quite
_one_ per cent foreign; the West had about thirty-five per cent.
(Census Report.)
When coercion of the South was proclaimed, it was the homogeneousness
of her people that solidified both parties at once to a common defense
of their homes, and these five hundred and seventy-six thousand
soldiers, without interest in slavery, for four years fought for the
right of their people to govern themselves in their own way. Their
deeds are now a matter of history that will, by them, be recorded,
contrary to the past rule, that the conquerors always write history.
Appomattox terminated the war only--it was not a court to adjudicate
the _right_ of secession--but its sequence established the fact that
secession was not treason nor rebellion, and that it yet exists,
restrained only by the question of expediency. Wherefore the Union will
be maintained mainly by avoiding sectional and class legislation, and
remembering always that in the halls of legislation the minority have
some rights, and in the minority the _truth_ will generally be found.
The charge, then, that the slaveholders, so few in number, forced
secession, or that the five hundred and seventy-six thousand
nonslaveholders who really constituted the Confederate army were
battling to maintain slavery, is a popular error.
The cry at the North that the South was fighting to maintain slavery
was proclaimed (as I have elsewhere said) to prejudice the Emperor
Napoleon III. and the English Cabinet against forming an alliance
with the Confederate States; but the power of public opinion and the
press were such that they were obliged to remain neutral; for this
constrained neutrality England was _rewarded_ by being forced, when
the war ended, to pay the United States the sum of fifteen million
dollars--the Geneva _award_--for the ships destroyed by Admiral Raphael
Semmes, Confederate States Navy; and France was rewarded by obliging
Napoleon to withdraw his troops from Mexico, and leave poor Maximilian
to his fate--a warning for weak men thirsting for empire.
Prison Deaths and Prisoners.
The number of Confederate prisoners in Northern prisons was 220,000,
and the number of Federal prisoners in prisons South was 270,000.
Death rate in Northern prisons 12 per cent
Death rate in Southern prisons 9 per cent
See the report of Secretary Stanton, made July 9, 1866; also the report
of Surgeon General Barnes, United States Army.
SOME OF THE BRIGADE LOSSES IN PARTICULAR ENGAGEMENTS.
-----------+-------------------------+------------------+--------------
Gettysburg | Garnett's Brigade (Va.) |Pickett's Division| 65.9 per cent
Gettysburg | Perry's " (Fla.)|Anderson's " | 65 " "
Antietam | Wofford's " (Tex.)|Hood's " | 64.1 " "
Franklin | Cockrell's " (Mo.) |French's " | 60.2 " "
Chickamauga| Benning's " (Ga.) |Hood's " | 56.6 " "
-----------+-------------------------+-------------------+-------------
There are thirteen more brigades with losses, varying in numbers,
before the percentage is reduced to forty per cent.
PERCENTAGE OF LOSS IN SOME REGIMENTS IN SINGLE BATTLES.
-----------+--------------------------------+-------------
Gettysburg | Twenty-First North Carolina | 90 per cent
Gettysburg | First Missouri | 82 " "
Gettysburg | Twenty-Sixth North Carolina | 88.5 " "
Antietam | Twentieth Texas | 82.3 " "
Antietam | Twelfth Massachusetts | 67 " "
Antietam | Twenty-First Georgia | 76 " "
Antietam | One Hundred and First New York | 71 " "
-----------+--------------------------------+-------------
And so on. There are over _fifty_ regiments in the _Confederate_ army
before forty per cent is reached. How many there are in the Federal
army I do not know. (From "The Confederate Soldier in the Civil War,"
and other sources.)
The Authority to Tax
is the greatest power a people can give a government, yet it is a
necessary measure, but often dangerous; it can be used to impoverish
a people, or enrich a comparatively few individuals, or to rob one
section of a vast country to build up another. It has caused more
distress than droughts or floods; it has caused more insurrections,
revolutions, and wars than all other acts of man intrusted with
authority. There are many modes of taxation, but the most insidious one
is the quiet robbery by a tariff.
This might be demonstrated by the United States pension laws. The
pensioners (and I am a Mexican war pensioner) receive as a free gift
from the treasury the sum of about one hundred and fifty million
dollars annually. It goes to enrich the people of the States where they
reside.
If there be no pensioners living in any one State, that State
contributes to support the pensioners, but receives nothing in return:
so, if all the pensioners were to become citizens of any _one_ State,
that State would receive in pension money one hundred and fifty million
dollars yearly, or in fifteen years the enormous sum of two billion two
hundred and fifty million dollars derived by taxation of the people in
the other States, less the sum that one State paid and returned to it.
Now, if all the pensioners, from any cause, should migrate to Ohio, or
North Carolina, would the other forty-four States be taxed for (say)
the benefit of the people of the State of North Carolina in the sum
of two billion two hundred and fifty million dollars during the next
fifteen years? No, never.
The presumption is that the Southern States pay, under the revenue
laws, one-third of the revenue collected. If so, then the South pays
the pensioners about fifty million dollars annually, and receives in
return only the small sum paid the few pensioners residing within the
Southern States; and thus one section of the country is taxed, under
the revenue tariff laws, to enrich the other, Q. E. D.
Cost of the War.
The total cost of the war between the States was,
to June 30, 1879 $10,861,929,909
Value of the slaves confiscated and emancipated 3,000,000,000
Destruction of property in the South (estimated) 600,000,000
Naval Power of the United States.
The following enumeration of the vessels in the United States service
will convey some idea of the power of the North:
Seven hundred vessels were employed in blockading our coast and
guarding our rivers.
During the year 1862-63 there were 533 steamers, barges, and coal
boats belonging to the United States on the Mississippi river and its
tributaries; and at the same time the United States Quartermaster's
Department chartered 1,750 steamers and vessels to aid Gen. Grant in
his operations against Vicksburg. In short, there were 2,283 vessels,
exclusive of iron-clad mortar boats, operating to capture Vicksburg.
The actual siege commenced May 18, and ended July 4, 1863, embracing a
period of forty-seven days.
Names, Rank, and Positions of Officers on My Staff.
Abercrombie, Wiley, Lieutenant, Aid-de-Camp.
Anderson, Archer, Major, Aid-de-Camp.
Archer, C., Lieutenant, Ord. Officer.
Baker, J. A., Captain, Aid-de-Camp.
Baldwin, John M., Captain, Acting Ord. Officer.
Cain, W. H., Captain, Commissary.
Danner, Albert, Captain, Quartermaster.
Daves, Graham, Major, A. A. General.
Drane, N. M., Captain, Quartermaster.
Freeman, E. T., Lieutenant, A. A. I. General.
Haile, Calhoun, Lieutenant, Aid-de-Camp.
Harrison, William B., Major, Chief Surgeon.
Morey, John B., Major, Chief Quartermaster.
Myers, C. D., Lieutenant, Aid-de-Camp.
Overton, M., Captain, Ord. Officer.
Reynolds, F. A., Captain, A. A. General.
Robertson, N. H., Lieutenant, Artillery.
Rogers, H. J., Captain, Engineer.
Sanders, D. W., Major, Adj. General.
Shingleur, James A., Lieutenant, Maj. and A. A. G.
Shumaker, S. M., Major, Chief Artillery.
Storrs, George S., Lieutenant, Maj. and Chief Art.
Venet, John B., Captain, Engineer.
Yerger, James R., Lieutenant, Aid-de-Camp.
Thomas, Grigsby E., Sergeant, Ordnance.
Government in Louisiana, 1875-76.
The forces that were developed during the last two years of the war
found a wide field for operation as the Union troops marched through
the South, and induced the troops to plunder, because there was money
in it, and when the war ended this force entered the wide area of
reconstruction, and produced those cursed scenes witnessed all over
the South, because there was money in it, and yet when the States
were admitted into the Union it was natural to suppose that its power
for evil was spent. Not at all; it rallied, and entered the field
of politics; debased by all the license of war, which exempted them
from punishment for all crimes, they sold themselves for a price,
and the _dual_ governments commenced: the one established by the
property owners and respectable people, the other by the carpetbaggers,
scalawags, and negroes. Here were offices by election and by
appointment affording almost unlimited opportunity to plunder. They had
no conscience when they could put money in their pockets.
To illustrate, I will, as briefly as I can, take the State of
Louisiana. In 1875 this State had _two_ rival courts, _two_ opposing
Legislatures. One was the radical carpetbaggers, and the other
conservative. There were _three_ governors; also United States
Senators, black and white, and Gen. P. H. Sheridan was military
director; and over and above all the United States intermeddling in her
affairs. The rival courts were occupied in reversing the decisions of
each other, the Legislatures in passing bills that were not valid for
the want of a quorum, or obtaining the signature of the right governor,
whether of Kellogg, Warmouth, or McEnery (the three governors).
As this threefold government presaged the probability of the radical
party not receiving the electoral vote of the State in the coming
election for President, something had to be done to accomplish it.
Accordingly the President directed the Secretary of War to issue
an order directly and secretly to Gen. P. H. Sheridan, who was in
Chicago, to proceed to New Orleans, and it was suggested that he should
make the journey appear as one undertaken for recreation. So he and
some of his staff, and a party of ladies on pleasure bent, sailed
down the turbulent Mississippi river to New Orleans, and established
headquarters in the St. Charles Hotel.
Sheridan's secret orders, dated December 24, 1874, were sent to
him direct from the Secretary of War, and without the knowledge of
Gen. Sherman, commanding the army, or of Gen. McDowell, commanding
the Department of the South, which embraced Louisiana, with his
headquarters in Louisville, Ky.; but he was advised that he might
stop and make known to Gen. McDowell the object of his mission if he
deemed it proper to do so, but he passed by without seeing McDowell.
On arriving in New Orleans he made the State of Louisiana a part of
his department, and then issued his decree declaring the people of the
state "banditti." This alarmed the President. It was too imperialistic.
Sheridan then suggested that Congress be called on to pass an act in a
few words making the people banditti. The President declined. Then the
chief of the banditti advised the President to issue an order through
the War Department declaring the people banditti, and to leave ALL TO
HIM, and he would quell them without giving him (the President) any
further trouble. In all this there is a thirst for blood and punishment
by military authority. But Grant, sitting on the ragged edge of
imperialism, declined to support his man-of-all-work on the banditti
question. But still undaunted, Sheridan perchance recalled to mind
how Cromwell entered the "Praise God Barebone" house of Parliament,
and, charging the members to be guilty of dishonorable acts, drove
them out of the house by an armed force, locked the door, and put the
key in his pocket; or how Napoleon entered the hall of the council of
live hundred in Paris, and at the point of the bayonet dissolved the
convention--resolved to imitate those great men by taking a company
of the United States army, and thrust the members of the conservative
Legislature into the street. This he did by sending Gen. De Trobirand
to close the legislative hall of a sovereign State in the Union, first
ejecting the members.
However much the North was willing to punish the South, they saw in
this a usurpation of United States authority which, if unrebuked, might
be applied to a "truly loyal" State in the North; and now the Northern
press howled, not because it had been done in Louisiana, but for fear
their Legislatures might be invaded likewise, and they cried: "Have we
also a Cæsar?" And all this was done to secure the vote of Louisiana to
the radical party in the coming presidential election.
Pending these events Sherman and McDowell were inflamed with anger
that such orders should be issued secretly, and not sent through the
proper channel of communication. Such were some of the incidents of
the attempt of Sheridan to punish the people of Louisiana who were "to
the manner born," who owned the land, and paid nine-tenths of all the
taxes, and who intellectually were his equal, and socially and in the
amenities of life his superior in many respects.
[Illustration: JULIUS L. BROWN.]
Time passed on. Election day came, and, had these States been recorded
as the people had voted, the election would have been: For Tilden, 203;
for Hayes, 166. But the election machinery in most of the Southern
States was in Republican hands, and thus by Chandler's orders the
States of Florida, Louisiana, and South Carolina could be counted out;
and if this was done, R. B. Hayes would have 185 and S. J. Tilden 184.
Now "who should count the votes" became the battle ground. For two
months scheme after scheme was proposed and rejected. More than once it
was proposed to throw dice, and raffle off the presidency like "a good,
fat turkey for Christmas," but this leaked out. One proposition after
another again fell through, and at last Hayes won by trickery. Only the
great desire for peace, and the marshaling of troops and concentrating
naval vessels under the orders of President Grant prevented a clash of
arms.
Among the first acts of President Hayes was an order removing the
United States troops from New Orleans and Columbia, S. C., as the
purpose for which they had been kept there had been accomplished.
Those who are fond of reading low villainy can find it written in the
chronicles of Louisiana.
Violation of Paroles.
In connection with the violation of paroles I will incidentally mention
that Gov. Joseph E. Brown, of Georgia--after the surrender of Gen. R.
E. Lee, and when Gen. J. H. Wilson was in Macon on his raid--went to
Macon, and surrendered to Gen. Wilson himself and the militia in his
command, and obtained his parole; thence he returned to Milledgeville.
That same evening Gen. Wilson sent an officer and some troops to the
residence of his excellency, took from him by force the parole that
he had just given him, arrested him, took him to Macon; then sent him
to Washington City, where he was imprisoned with most of the Southern
Governors of the Confederate States. This gave rise to a peculiar
decision on the validity of his and other paroles. See the following
letter from the War Records, Serial No. 104, Page 836:
WASHINGTON, May 19, 1865.
Hon. E. M. Stanton, Secretary of War.
The inclosed makes it appear that Brown, of Georgia,
surrendered the militia of that State and himself as
commander in chief thereof to Gen. Wilson, and was paroled.
If the call for the meeting of the Georgia Legislature was
subsequent to the parole, I suppose there can be no doubt
but that he stands liable to arrest for the violation
of his parole; otherwise, is it not obligatory upon the
government to observe _their_ part of the contract? I would
not advise authorizing him to go back to Georgia now under
any circumstances; but I do not think a paroled officer is
subject to arrest, so long as he observes his parole, without
giving him notice first that he is absolved from further
observance of it.
U. S. GRANT. _Lieutenant General._
The inclosure referred to is probably Wilson to Stanton, May 19, 4:20
P.M. Page 680.
The wording of the parole given the army of Gen. R. E. Lee reads:
The within named, ----, will not be disturbed by the United
States authorities so long as he observes his parole and the
laws in force where he may reside. (From the War Records,
Vol. 46, Part 3, page 853.)
This opinion of Gen. Grant that an officer, who may be in command of
an army or of a body of armed men, after the surrender of his men and
their arms, can, after "_notice_ that he is _absolved_ from further
observance of it," be arrested is a flagrant breach of faith.
Promise of protection is given to a man with arms in his hand, that
if he _will surrender_ them he shall have protection as long as he
observes his parole. Is it just, right, or honorable after he has given
up his arms to notify him that he is released from the _observance_
of the parole, unless you first place him in the same condition he
was before he surrendered his arms or his command? It is a deception
and an outrage. In fact, I am unable to comprehend how a soldier who
surrenders himself, his men, and arms on parole can be released from
and absolved from observance from it from any act or acts committed
prior to its date in order to arrest him. Gov. Brown was denied the
rights given him by his parole, and holding him a prisoner and not
permitting him to go to his home in Georgia seems to be predicated upon
the fear that he might do something in violation of a parole.
The papers showed that the Governor was paroled by Gen. Wilson; then
arrested the same day at his home in Milledgeville, and his parole
taken from him by force. I presume that his parole was taken from him
because some days previous to his surrender he had made a call for the
Legislature to assemble.
Joseph M. Brown, to whom I am indebted for much information that he
obtained from Union soldiers through years of correspondence relative
to the Georgia campaign, is a son of Gov. Joseph E. Brown, and a
gentleman of high literary attainments. His elder brother, Julius L.
Brown, now a distinguished lawyer in Atlanta, refused to leave the
country to be educated in Europe. By a compromise he was sent to a
military school in Athens, Ga. The boys there took up arms, and formed
a company to defend Athens. There Brown's first duty was to guard
some Yankee prisoners. In 1864 he joined Company A in a battalion of
cadets, and rendered good service in defense of Atlanta. Thence his
command went to Milledgeville, where, joining with other State forces
and Wheeler's cavalry, they fought Sherman's advance at every river he
crossed, and otherwise retarded his march to Savannah. His battalion
formed a part of the rear guard of Hardee's army on the retreat from
Savannah. The last order issued by Confederate authority east of the
Mississippi was to this battalion. (War Records, Serial 111, page 420.)
Cassville.
[From "Reminiscences of the War," in the New Orleans _Picayune_.]
The recent appearance of Hughes's "Life of Gen. Joseph E. Johnston,"
and the announcement of the placing in the hands of the printers of a
"Life of Gen. Leonidas Polk," by his son, Dr. William Polk, were the
subject of a conversation recently among a few veterans of the Army of
Tennessee, and some facts were mentioned that are deemed of sufficient
interest to be placed on record through the columns of your valued
paper.
To those who participated in the memorable campaign from Dalton to
Atlanta under Joe Johnston, the failure to give battle at Cassville is
a most fertile source of discussion and regret, and this was the point
of conversation on which the group of talkers lingered the longest.
The enthusiasm that swept through the army when the announcement was
made that it had reached the chosen battlefield possessed anew the
hearts of these veterans; the cheers that went up from each command as
"Old Joe's" ringing battle order was read to the troops reverberated
again in their ears; the embers of their deep emotions of elation
and disgust that so rapidly succeeded each other on that eventful day
burned afresh within them for a while. And naturally the oft-debated
question of the amount of blame attaching to Gen. Johnston's
subordinates for this failure to fight came up as of old, and the
measure of it, if any, appertaining to Gen. Polk was stated as follows
by one of the group, Maj. Douglas West, who, as adjutant general,
attended Gen. Polk on the night of the conference when Johnston felt
compelled to forego the battle and retreat across the Etowah river.
He said that after Polk's Corps had taken the position assigned to it
on the left of Hood's Corps and in the rear of Cassville, Gen. S. G.
French, one of the division generals of the corps, sent a message to
Gen. Polk that his position was enfiladed, and that he could not hold
it.
Gen. Polk thereupon sent his inspector general, Col. Sevier, to
ascertain about it. This officer reported back that in his opinion Gen.
French was warranted in his apprehension.
Gen. Polk requested Col. Sevier to proceed to Gen. Johnston's
headquarters, and place the facts before him, which this officer did.
Gen. Johnston was loath to believe in the impossibility of holding
that part of the line; for, though exposed, it could be made tenable
by building traverses, and retiring the troops some little to the rear.
He instructed Col. Sevier to have Gen. French to build traverses. This
general considered them useless, and persisted in his inability to hold
his position.
Col. Sevier reporting this back to Gen. Polk, in the absence of Capt.
Walter J. Morris, engineer officer of Gen. Polk's Corps (off on some
duty), the General sent Maj. Douglas West to the position of Gen.
French's Division to have his opinion also, and to have him talk over
the situation with this general. When Maj. West reached there, there
was no firing from the enemy, and he could not form an opinion in
that way. However he conversed with Gen. French on the subject, and
returned, reporting Gen. French as highly wrought up about the exposure
of his division. Gen. Polk then sent Maj. West to Gen. Johnston to
state the result of his visit to Gen. French's position, and Gen.
Johnston reiterated his opinion about the feasibility of holding the
position with the use of traverses.
Upon reporting back the remarks of Gen. Johnston, Maj. West found that
Capt. Morris had reached Gen. Polk's headquarters, and the captain in
turn was sent to French's position to make a thorough survey and report
of it. He made a very thorough one, and reported the position as very
exposed for the defensive, but as admirable for the offensive. Gen.
Polk, since the first report from Gen. French, appeared much annoyed
at this unexpected weakness in his line, which, from the pertinacity of
Gen. French, was growing into an obstacle to the impending battle, for
which Gen. Polk shared the enthusiasm and confidence of the troops.
That evening about sunset Gen. Hood rode up to Gen. Polk's headquarters
with Maj. Gen. French, and at his suggestion Gen. Johnston was asked
to meet the three lieutenant generals at Polk's headquarters for the
purpose of consulting that night on the situation.
At the appointed hour Gens. Johnston, Hood, and Polk met at the
latter's headquarters. Gen. Hardee was not present, he not having
been found in time, after diligent search. Gen. Hood arrived at the
rendezvous accompanied by Gen. French, whose division rested upon his
left in the line of battle. Gen. Polk had not asked Gen. French, who
was of his corps, to be present at headquarters for the occasion,
and Gen. Hood's action in bringing him was altogether gratuitous.
Upon arriving with French, Gen. Hood excused his action by stating
that he considered the situation so vital to himself and French that
he had taken the liberty to ask Gen. French to come with him to the
conference. After awaiting Gen. Hardee's arrival for a good while,
Gens. Johnston, Polk, and Hood retired to the rough cabin house where
Polk had established his headquarters, and Gen. French and the staff
officers of the different generals remained outside, beyond earshot.
It was past midnight when the meeting broke up and the generals stepped
out and called their escort and attending staff.
Gen. Polk immediately instructed Maj. West to issue orders to his
division generals to move as soon as guides would be furnished them.
Capt. Morris was ordered to procure these immediately. Gen. Polk
communicated detailed instructions, but appeared deeply absorbed. In
silence everything was carried out, and the corps had taken up the
march and moved some distance before Maj. West was aware that the army
was in retreat. He had been by the General's side or close in the rear
of him from the moment of the termination of the conference, and the
General had not spoken about it. Thus they had ridden a good while. The
Major, respecting the General's silent mood, had not thought proper
to inquire about the destination of the column. An officer of Gen.
Hardee's staff, Capt. Thomas H. Hunt, was the first to inform Maj.
West that the army was retreating because Gen. Polk at the conference
had insisted that he could not hold his position in the line of battle
selected by Johnston. Stung by this statement, Maj. West denied it
emphatically, and as his informant insisted on its correctness, Maj.
West rode up to Gen. Polk, and asked him where the column was marching
to. Gen. Polk said they were retreating to beyond the Etowah river.
Maj. West then told him of the report that had reached him, and asked
him if he was the cause of the abandonment of the intended battle at
Cassville. Gen. Polk asked who had made the statement, and when told
that it was a staff officer of Gen. Hardee, who also added that the
impression prevailed along the column, and Maj. West asking that he be
authorized to deny the report, Gen. Polk was silent for a moment, and
then said to Maj. West: "To-morrow everything will be made as clear as
day."
Gen. Polk never again spoke of this matter to the Major, although with
him day and night during that long and terrible campaign, in which
he lost his life at Pine Mountain on the 14th of July, 1864; but the
impression left upon his staff officers was that the failure to give
battle at Cassville was not due to any representations made by Gen.
Polk, but to the objections made by Lieut. Gen. Hood, the left of whose
line joined French's Division.
Gen. Polk had so little confidence in the representations of the
weakness of the line at the point referred to that he did not go there
in person.
But for Gen. Hood's invitation, Maj. Gen. French would not have been
called to the conference, and consequently when Gen. Hood urged the
untenability of his line, and supported it by bringing one of Polk's
division commanders (French) to confirm him, although Polk's other
division commanders (Loring and Walthall) offered no objection, and in
the absence of Lieut. Gen. Hardee, Gen. Polk could _only_ reply upon
the report of his chief topographical engineer, Capt. Morris, and Maj.
Gen. French, and _sustain_ Lieut. Gen. Hood in his opinion that the
line could not be held after an attack.
Gen. Polk was too noble and patriotic to care for his personal fame,
and made no effort during his life to put himself properly on record
for his connection with the abandonment of the line at Cassville, for
he was always ready to give battle or to take any responsibilities of
his position. He fought for his cause, not for his reputation.
Another of this group of veterans had been of Hardee's Corps on that
occasion. He recounted that his battery had been assigned by "Old Joe"
to an important post on Hardee's line, the angle at which the left
flank deflected back. Vividly he described his position--the knoll
upon which his guns were planted, the open fields around, that gave
promise of great slaughter of the foe when he undertook to carry the
point. This prospect, and the pride arising from the very danger of
their post, stimulated the men in their labors of entrenching, which
was necessary at this end of the line of battle, where there were none
of the natural advantages the troops of Polk and Hood derived from the
hills on which they were posted. But all worked with an energy that
arose to enthusiasm; for confidence in "Old Joe," confidence in the
"Old Reliable," and confidence in themselves inspired the men of this
company as it did those of the whole corps. The redoubt was nearly
completed when about two o'clock in the morning Capt. Sid Hardee, of
Gen. Hardee's staff, rode up and ordered the work to cease and the
battery made ready to move. This officer then stated that the intention
to fight a battle there was abandoned; that Polk and Hood had insisted
that they could not hold their position in the line. He added that Gen.
Hardee had objected to the retreat, and had offered to change positions
with either of the other corps rather than forego giving battle.
In deep disappointment and disgust Hardee's men moved off, blaming Polk
and Hood for compelling the abandonment of a field which seemed to be
pregnant with a glorious victory.
The impressions of that night had remained ineffaceable, and the
unfought battle had been a deep source of regret during the war,
and of deep interest since; so much so since that it had led to a
correspondence between one of the officers of the company and Gen.
Johnston.
ONE OF HARDEE'S CORPS.
REPLY OF GEN. FRENCH TO "REMINISCENCES OF THE WAR."
WINTER PARK, FLA., December 12, 1893.
Editor _Picayune_.
A few days ago a friend sent me a copy of the _Weekly Picayune_ of
October 26 last, containing an article headed "Reminiscences of the
War," that contains a number of errors, which I desire to correct so
far as they relate to me, and I will refer to them in the order they
are related in the paper. I quote:
1."After Polk's Corps had taken the position assigned to it on the left
of Hood's Corps and in the rear of Cassville, Gen. S. G. French, one of
the division generals of the corps, sent a report to Gen. Polk that his
position was enfiladed and that he could not hold it."
Any line can be enfiladed if the enemy be permitted, undisturbed, to
approach near enough and establish batteries on the prolongation of
that line. Therefore before any person can report a line enfiladed,
the guns must be near enough to sweep it with shells. To report that
a point near the center of a long line of battle cannot be held before
the issue is made is mere conjecture, and not justifiable, and I have
no recollection of having made such a report, and deem the writer is in
error in his statement. A man would not cry out, "Help me, Cassius, or
I sink," before entering the water.
2. The next assertion is that Gen. Polk "sent Col. Sevier to ascertain
about it, and this officer reported back that, in his opinion, Gen.
French was warranted in his apprehension. Gen. Polk thereupon requested
Col. Sevier to proceed to Gen. Johnston's headquarters and place the
facts before him, which that officer did. Gen. Johnston was loath to
believe in the impossibility of holding that part of the line, etc.,
... and instructed Col. Sevier to have Gen. French build traverses.
This general considered them useless, and persisted in his inability to
hold the position."
In answer to this, I repeat that I have no recollection of having made
to any human being the remarks here attributed to me. How, in the name
of common sense, could any division officer report, much less persist,
as stated? How would he know but that, if necessary during the battle,
ample support would be sent him? I had one brigade and a half in
reserve at that point of the line. As for traverses, I never heard them
mentioned before, in reference to this line. And now, after your writer
has sent Col. Sevier to me twice, he sends to me Maj. West, and it was
before any firing had taken place, and he (West) could, very properly,
"form no opinion unless he could witness the fire of the enemy's guns."
West returned to Gen. Polk, reporting Gen. French highly wrought up
about the exposure of his division, and Gen. Polk is made to send this
officer likewise to hunt up Gen. Johnston, and after "reporting back
the remarks of Gen. Johnston, Maj. West found that Capt. Morris had
reached Gen. Polk's headquarters," and the Captain in turn "was sent to
French's position to make a thorough survey and report of it." He made
a very thorough one, and reported the position very exposed for the
defensive, but as admirable for the offensive.
I have Capt. Morris's report, but I do not find in it where he reported
the line as admirable for the offensive. I will have occasion to refer
to this report after a while. I merely wish to remark that when we find
Capt. Morris at Col. Polk's headquarters we have something tangible in
regard to time.
3. And the article goes on to state that "Gen. Polk, since the first
report from Gen. French, appeared much annoyed at this unexpected
weakness in his line, which from the pertinacity of Gen. French was
growing into an obstacle to the impending battle, for which Gen. Polk
shared the enthusiasm and confidence of the troops."
Now, contrast this with what the writer says farther on when he tells
us: "Gen. Polk had so little confidence in the representations of the
weakness of his line at the point referred to that he did not go there
in person."
It is not always safe to divine what is passing through a man's
mind from appearances, and, having "little confidence in the
representations," the deduction of "annoyance" may not be correct which
is attributed to Gen. Polk. Now, inasmuch as Gen. Polk was present
(when Gen. F. A. Shoupe "pointed out the fact to Gen. Johnston that his
line would be enfiladed before the troops were posted, and suggested
a change of position) and strongly supported Shoupe's objections,"
he must have been early apprised of the general condition of the
line before he received the alleged report from me, which the writer
explicitly affirms was sustained by Cols. Sevier, West, and Morris;
hence the weakness of his line was not unexpected, and should not "have
grown into an obstacle to the impending battle." Gen. Shoupe's letter
will be found in Hood's book, page 105.
4. In writing about the conference I find the account thus:
"That evening about sunset Gen. Hood arrived at the rendezvous,
accompanied by Gen. French, whose division rested on his left in
line of battle. Gen. Polk had not asked Gen. French--who was of his
corps--to be present for the occasion, and Gen. Hood's action in
bringing him was altogether gratuitous. On arriving with French, Gen.
Hood excused his action by stating that he considered the situation so
vital to himself and French that he had taken the liberty to ask Gen.
French to come with him to the conference."
This shows that Polk and Hood had decided (at a consultation
in advance) to hold a conference before I went with Hood to the
rendezvous, to which they invited Johnston. About my being there,
I have this to say, and the facts are these: The little firing
that had taken place almost ceased awhile before dark; so, taking a
staff officer with me, we went to our wagon to get dinner, and while
returning to my command we met Gen. Hood on his way to Gen. Johnston's.
We halted, and while conversing he told me that his line was enfiladed
by the batteries of the enemy in position, and that he was going to
see Gen. Johnston at Gen. Polk's, and asked me to ride with him to get
supper, etc. His meeting me, therefore, was purely accidental, and this
place where we met was near by Polk's quarters.
So I went with him, socially, without any special object in view. He
said nothing to me about a conference to be held on the situation,
called by him and Gen. Polk.
Soon after supper Gens. Johnston, Polk, and Hood went to Gen. Polk's
office, and Gen. Johnston asked me to go with them.
The matter presented to the meeting was: "Can we win the battle on
the morrow? Can we hold our line?" Hood said he thought not, for if
attacked in the morning he would not be able to hold his line, because
it was enfiladed by the guns of the enemy, now in position, and that
Gen. Polk's line was also enfiladed, and could not be held against a
vigorous attack, or words to that effect.
Gen. Polk confirmed Hood's statement in regard to his line. Gen.
Johnston maintained the contrary. Of course I took no part in the
discussion. When asked, I explained how my line curved, near the end,
to the left, sufficient to be enfiladed by one battery on the extreme
left of the enemy's line. I have no recollection of being asked if I
could hold my part of the line, but had the question been asked me, I
am quite sure it would have been suppositively in the affirmative.
As the whole includes all the parts, so, the discussion being on Polk's
and Hood's lines in their entirety, the parts were embraced therein,
and not specifically referred to, being minor considerations.
Gen. Johnston argued for the maintenance of his plans very firmly. When
a silence occurred in the discussion, I arose and asked permission
to leave, stating that I wished to go to my line and fortify it. On
reaching my division, I set every one to work strengthening the line
and getting ready for the impending battle, that I felt sure would
begin in the morning. While we were thus busily at work, and at about
the hour of 11 P.M., an officer riding along my line stopped and told
me that the work would be useless, and "intimated" (that is the word
written in my diary) "that the army would be withdrawn or fall back
to-night!" Soon after, the order came to move back on the Cartersville
road. The receipt of the order was a surprise to me, notwithstanding
the intimation that had been made to me.
5. Toward the conclusion of the article it reads:
"Gen. Polk had so little confidence in the representations of the
weakness of the line at the point referred to that he did not go there
in person. But for Hood's invitation, Gen. French would not have been
called to the conference, and, consequently, when Gen. Hood urged the
untenability of his line, and supported it by bringing one of Polk's
division commanders--French--to confirm him, Gen. Polk could only rely
upon the report of his chief engineer--Capt. Morris--and Maj. Gen.
French, and _sustain_ Lieut. Gen. Hood in his opinion that the line
could not be held after an attack."
This paragraph is adroitly constructed, and apparently not intended
to be clear. It first accuses Gen. Polk of having little confidence
in the representations of Sevier, West, and French, as alleged to have
been made to him; but when Gen. Hood brings French to the conference,
his testimony is so potent as to make Polk _change his opinions_ and
_sustain_ Hood, who urged the untenability of his (Polk's) line.
This is all wrong. Hood did not take me to the conference. I did not
support or confirm Hood in his representations. I have never said I
could not hold my part of the line, and it would have been presumption
to do so. The commanding general would see that the line at that point
was defended.
This paragraph also represents Gen. Polk as going to the conference
apparently prepared to defend his line; but when he listens to Hood's
arguments he changes his mind and sustains Hood; and thus, with two of
his corps commanders opposed to defending their lines, Johnston deemed
it better to decline the impending battle.
6. On page 110 in Hood's book you will find the beginning of a letter
from Capt. W. J. Morris, Gen. Polk's chief engineer, from which I will
make some quotations, abbreviating them as much as possible. He says he
arrived at Cassville station about 3:30 or 4 P.M., May 19, 1864. Col.
Gale was there to meet him and to tell him that Gen. Polk wanted to see
him as soon as he arrived. He had half a mile to go to Polk's quarters.
He met Gen. Polk at the door. He says it took him about half an hour
to examine a map that Polk placed before him and make notes of the
General's wishes, and fifteen minutes to ride from Polk's headquarters
to the line that was reported to be enfiladed. When he left Polk's
headquarters he thinks Gen. Hood was there. It took him about two
hours to examine the lines, angles, elevations, and positions of the
batteries of the enemy established on their line in front of Hood, and
his opinion and conclusions were:
"(1) That the right of the line of Polk's command could not be held.
(2) That traverses would be of no avail, etc. (3) That it was extremely
hazardous for Gen. Polk to advance his line to make an attack upon the
enemy while the batteries held the positions they then occupied."
"Having made the reconnoissance, he returned to Gen. Polk's
headquarters just after dark. Gen. Polk immediately sent for Gen.
Johnston. Gen. Hood was at Gen. Polk's."
You will thus perceive that the conference to be held was determined on
between Polk and Hood, before Morris made his report to Polk, because
Hood was already there, for I rode with him to the "rendezvous."
7. On the 8th of May, 1874, Gen. Hood wrote me a letter to know what
I knew about the "vexed question" of retiring from Cassville. He had
forgotten that he had met me in the road; that he had invited me to
ride with him to see Gen. Johnston, or that I was at the conference,
and said he "only learned that I was at the conference from Johnston's
narrative," etc.
I answered his letter from New York, where I then was, from
recollection, without reference to my diary. I have both his letter
and my answer. Gen. Hood and I had talked this matter over at length at
the Allegheny Springs, Va., in the summer of 1872, differing, however,
about not remaining at Cassville and the defensive strength of the
lines.
8. Without endeavoring to recall to mind pictures of scenes through the
mist of thirty years in the past, or to revive recollections of words
used in the long, long ago, I will refer to my diary, and what was
written day by day therein.
After we had formed a line of battle east of Cassville, and maneuvered
with Hood with a view to attacking the enemy, our troops began in
the afternoon to fall back to a line of hills south of Cassville.
Cockrell's Brigade, that was in reserve, had been ordered to a hill
there early. The diary says: "I received orders at 4 P.M. to fall back
from the line east of Cassville and form behind the division of Gen.
Canty and Cockrell's Brigade, which I did. As there was an interval
between Hood's line (Hindman) and Canty, I placed there, in position,
Hoskins's Battery and the half of Ector's Brigade. This left Sears's
Brigade and the half of Ector's in reserve, Cockrell being on Canty's
left in line.
"About 5 P.M. our pickets from the extreme front were driven in toward
the second line by the enemy's cavalry. Hoskins's Battery opened on
them and checked the advance. About 5:30 P.M. the enemy got their
batteries in position and opened fire on my line. One battery on my
right enfiladed a part of my line." The diary then refers to my going
to dinner, meeting Gen. Hood and riding with him over to Gen. Polk's,
leaving the conference, believing we would fight, etc.
9. We are now, Mr. Editor, getting beyond the hypothetical, for we have
determined certain facts pretty accurately--viz.:
The hour I received the order to fall back from east of Cassville, the
time our skirmishers were driven in, and when the firing commenced;
also the hour that Capt. Morris arrived.
Capt. Morris declares that he arrived between 3:30 and 4 P.M. If he be
correct, I was at that time with my troops east of Cassville, and it is
certain no report could have been made by me until after the enemy's
artillery commenced firing. Now mark what is declared to have taken
place after the alleged report was said to have been received by Gen.
Polk.
It would take an officer certainly fifteen minutes to ride from Polk's
headquarters to Hoskins's Battery--a mile and a half distant--examine
the lines, the position of the enemy, the effects of the fire, and
discuss the situation; then the same length of time to return to Gen.
Polk and confer with him. Then it would require the same length of
time to go in quest of Gen. Johnston, report to him and explain the
situation of affairs minutely; then to return to Gen. Polk and report
it to him; then to come to my line a second time, and return to Gen.
Polk. These two trips to my line and one to Gen. Johnston would have
occupied one hour and a half. Next Maj. West received instructions to
go and examine the line, and as there was no firing, he could form no
opinion, but only talk with me. Then he went back to Gen. Polk and made
his report; thence he too was ordered to go in quest of Gen. Johnston,
and found him somewhere, reported to him, and returned. This would have
required about one hour. So the line from Polk's to my extreme right
was ridden over six times, examined and discussed, and four times from
Gen. Polk's to where Gen. Johnston was, consuming not less than two
hours and a half. Capt. Morris was not yet at Gen. Polk's quarters when
Maj. West went in quest of Gen. Johnston, but he found he had arrived
when he returned from Gen. Johnston's.
Now, it is plain that, if my alleged report to Gen. Polk put all this
in motion, it must have been received by him at 1:30 P.M., because
we know that it terminated soon after the arrival of Capt. Morris at
Polk's quarters at 4 P.M. Soon after this Capt. Morris was ordered down
to examine the line, which he did, and we have his report.
The question of time may be determined in another way: If I sent
a report to Gen. Polk, it was carried a mile and a half to him by
courier. Next, consider Col. Sevier and Maj. West in the light of one
person. That person must have traveled about thirteen miles, received
seven separate sets of instructions from Gens. Polk and Johnston, made
five carefully matured reports on the situation, and what was said by
me and Gen. Johnston, and made at least two careful examinations of
our line, noted the position of the enemy, watched the firing and noted
the effect of the same, and it could not physically have been performed
under two hours and a half; and yet your published article says that it
was all performed during the interval between receiving my report and
the departure of Morris to make his survey, which was about 4 P.M.
If I made a report, as stated, it was done after the firing commenced,
and hence it must have been dark when Maj. West returned from his
interview with Gen. Johnston.
The conclusion, therefore, must be that from the length of time the
writer's, or relator's, memory has failed to recall events as they were
thirty years ago.
There was only a small part of my line enfiladed, and that was caused
by its curving to the left near the ravine, where Hoskins's Battery
was.
If Hood's line was enfiladed, I did not discover it, and Capt. Morris's
plan, published in the War Records (plate 62), would be faulty, for
the enemy's line is nearly parallel with his. To conclude, I have shown
that if all this passing to and fro of officers took place between me
and Gen. Polk, and between Polk and Johnston, it must have commenced
about 1:30 P.M., to have ended at 4 P.M., which could not be,
for I was then east of Cassville. On the other hand, if a report was
carried to Gen. Polk about my line being enfiladed, it must have been
done after 5:30 P.M.; and this going to and fro, with examinations
and discussions, could not have been accomplished before 8 P.M.,
whereas it is stated to have been done before Capt. Morris left Polk's
headquarters, at 4:30 P.M., either of which is incredible.
Very respectfully,
S. G. FRENCH.
P. S.--The result of the two hours' shelling of my line in casualties
was one officer and nine men wounded--none killed. Horses, three
killed. A small matter to create any apprehension, as described in your
article. The order placing me in command of _Canty's Division_ has no
hour date.
Your readers will perceive that it was not I who influenced Gen. Polk
in this affair. In fact, I was in reserve and had no troops in line
of battle except Cockrell's Brigade--and that was about the center of
the line--until I was ordered to take command of Canty's Division. How
absurd, then, all this rigmarole about my saying I could not hold my
line, and my testimony influencing Gen. Polk.
S. G. F.
From the foregoing papers it is evident that I was left alone east of
the village of Cassville. After Gen. Johnston had placed the troops
of his right wing in position, an order was sent, and received by me
at 4 P.M., directing me to fall back and form my troops in the _rear_
of Cockrell's Brigade and Canty's Division. This put my division in
_reserve_, except Cockrell's Brigade, which was on Canty's left. Thus I
found myself in _reserve_ in rear of the line of battle. This could
not have been done before 4:30 P.M. Now, could I report that I could
not hold my line when I had none, or only one brigade, and that in the
center of a line of battle several miles in length? However, soon an
order was received (without an hour date) for me to take command of
Canty's Division, and to put or leave Cockrell's Brigade in Loring's
Division. I was now in command of two divisions, less one brigade.
On going to the right of Canty's Division, I found a gap, a dry water
gully, and its approaches unoccupied. From necessity I had to take a
part of a brigade (Ector's), so as to connect with Hood's left. Then
Hoskins's Battery was put in position about fifty yards in advance on
an eminence in front of a gap. Soon the enemy's cavalry appeared in
front of the gap, and were dispersed by the fire of Hoskins's guns.
The enemy now began to establish their batteries on the ridge in
front of Hood's line, especially near his right, and soon they opened
fire on Hoskins's Battery. About sunset the fire slackened, when Maj.
Shingleur, of my staff, and I went to our wagon in the rear to get
our dinner. Up to this time I heard never a word about not holding the
line. I knew nothing about horsemen or couriers or aids dashing about
hunting Gens. Johnston and Polk and me on the line, and I never heard
it mentioned until I read it in the newspaper sent to me one month
after it was published, and thirty years after we left Cassville.
It was perhaps 2 P.M. when Gen. Johnston lost all hope that Hood, with
the two corps as his command, would engage the detached forces of the
enemy marching to our right, and crush them before Sherman could aid
them. So no alternative was left him but to form a line of battle on
selected ground, and act on the defensive. What followed after this has
been already sketched.
I am sorry this article, so replete with errors, was ever published
on account of Gen. Polk--a noble, kind-hearted man, ever practicing
the amenities of life--for it makes him appear rather contumacious in
joining Gen. Hood, and making arrangements to invite their commander
to meet them at their "rendezvous" to listen to their complaints,
and almost dictating what should be done after the failure of the
contemplated morning attack. The writer was evidently aware that both
Hood and Polk were almost disobedient in their acts at Cassville.
Thirty years had rolled by, and the incidents were almost forgotten,
when this writer, to smooth the matter over, maladroitly seizes the
fact that I went with Hood to Polk's headquarters, and tries to make
it appear that I had influenced Gen. Polk by representations to change
his opinion, and join Hood in the statement that their lines were
untenable. I never saw Gen. Polk after he left the position east of
Cassville until I met him at his quarters where I went to supper, and
I do not remember ever sending a message or report to him that day.
He says: "Gen. Polk was too noble and patriotic to care for his
personal fame, and made no effort during his life to put himself
properly on record for his connection with the abandonment of the
line at Cassville, for he was always ready to give battle or take any
responsibilities of his position. He fought for his cause, and not for
his reputation."
The writer did not even know that I was present at the council of the
commanders, and heard both Hood and Polk give their opinions on their
side, and Johnston on the other. Therefore, as I differed from both
Hood and Polk, I could not have influenced Gen. Polk to "sustain Gen.
Hood." Furthermore, in justice to myself and for the truth of history,
I desire to correct the many erroneous statements made in the article
published. Because a line is enfiladed it does not follow that it
cannot be held. During the battle of Atlanta twice I was obliged to
hold enfiladed lines nearly an entire day. Gen. Polk did not examine
his line of battle after my division arrived. It is the duty of a
soldier to obey an order, and not to discuss it, and any soldier who
before a battle commences reports that he cannot hold a position when
a whole army is drawn up should be relieved from command.
JACKSON, MISS., January 15, 1894.
Gen. S. G. French, Winter Park, Fla.
_My Dear General_: I have read carefully your letter of the
8th instant; also the newspaper article, "_Vox Populi_,"
and find your statement in this article perfectly correct.
I was the staff officer who accompanied you to Gen. Polk's
headquarters.... Hood said that he would ride with you
to Polk's headquarters, as he was to meet Gen. Johnston
there.... We rode along leisurely, you and Hood in front,
myself and one or two of Hood's staff in the rear. This was
possibly an hour after dark. Arriving at Gen. Polk's, we
found there, besides Gen. Polk, Gens. Johnston and Hardee.
[This is an error. Neither was there when we arrived.--S. G.
F.]
Of what happened at the consultation room of course I know
nothing. I am sure that you came from the room between 10 and
11 o'clock, followed by Gen. Johnston, who, standing on the
steps, told you when you went back to your command to have
the word passed through your division that we would fight in
the morning, and prepare for it....
About 1 A.M. I was waked up by some one inquiring for Gen.
French's headquarters.... A courier said that he had an
order for you, which we read by making a light. It was the
order for us to move, with instructions to leave a few men at
the _breastworks_ to hammer and make a noise to conceal our
retreat. I am sure this order fell upon us like a bombshell.
If you uttered a word about having a position that you could
not hold, I never heard of it; and if you had thought so, I
am sure that you would have mentioned it to me. On the other
hand, I remember clearly that we discussed the situation, and
both concluded that we held a very strong position, and could
hold it against all odds....
Now all this Cassville affair is as clear to my mind as on
the night that it happened. There is no doubt upon my mind
that Gen. Hood, and he alone, was responsible for our retreat
from Cassville. It is all a mistake about French and all
staff officers being sent beyond earshot.... When we left
Gen. Polk's headquarters you and I went alone. Hood remained.
I hope you will be able to put this matter right, and let the
responsibility rest where it properly belongs.
Very glad to hear from you. With best wishes, etc.
Yours very truly,
J. A. SHINGLEUR.
* * * * *
SAVANNAH, August 8, 1874.
Gen. S. G. French.
_Dear General_: Long absence prevented my receiving and
acknowledging your very clear and satisfactory reply to
my question on the subject of small arms. It is all that I
could desire. I wish only to meet such of Hood's assertions
as impugn the _truth_ of my statements. If he goes on, and I
understand that he intends to do so, I shall avail myself of
your kind offer.
Can you not sometimes take Savannah in your way from
Mississippi to New York, and _vice versâ_? It would be very
pleasant to me to see you in my house, where there is always
ample room for you and cordial welcome.
Yours truly,
J. E. JOHNSTON.
* * * * *
SAVANNAH, June 13, 1874.
Gen. S. G. French.
_Dear General_: You may have observed that Gen. Hood has
renewed his attacks on me in his report of 1865. His last
shot is in the form of a letter signed by poor old Oladowski,
the ordnance officer, in which it is asserted that the army
lost 19,000 small arms in the part of the campaign in which
I commanded. As I have no ordnance returns, I can only
refute this calumny by the testimony of the most prominent
officers, and in that connection beg you to write me (for
publication) about the number of muskets your division lost
in the campaign, if any. Certainly the enemy took none,
for you never failed to hold the ground intrusted to you.
You probably have some idea of the probable losses of arms
by your corps, or if it had any losses. And can you say,
perhaps, if those losses could have been great enough to
correspond with Col. Oladowski's statement? You will oblige
me very much by giving me whatever information you can in
relation to this matter.
Very truly yours,
J. E. JOHNSTON.
Slavery Proclamation and Confiscation Act.
The act of confiscation, and the President's proclamation setting free
the slaves in the Confederacy, could not abolish slavery, because it
existed under the laws of the _States_. It altered no State law, but it
did affect slavery in this way: it caused many slaves to leave their
owners, and thus diminished their property and their wealth, but they
could buy others under the law.
The President has no legislative power; he cannot declare martial law,
for it overthrows the constitution, and his will would become the law;
how can the President, an executive officer, nullify laws and condemn
and punish at his pleasure?
The great latent power in the constitution is, in Art. I., Sec. 8, to
provide for the common defense and general welfare. Under this section
almost all the outrages of the war were committed, restrained only by
international rules of war; but these were utterly ignored under the
plea that this war is only a rebellion, a family affair. Under this
article resides the power to imposes _taxes_ to any amount for the
common defense and public welfare.
The confiscation act of Congress was declared by the United States
Supreme Court to be unconstitutional, and, in truth, it was passed as
a punishment against the "rebels," without an indictment, trial, or
conviction. The constitution declares that the _trial_ of all _crimes_,
except in cases of impeachment, shall be by _jury_.
As the slave owners were called the only _privileged_ class in the
United States, it is pertinent to inquire if they did not exist in all
the States when the Union was formed, and if the North did not sell
their title to be yet a privileged class for a mess of pottage; and
then howled at the purchasers for being a privileged people!
Who demanded the continual enlargement of slavery by making it legal
to steal or purchase negroes from Africa until the year 1808, to give
employment to the six hundred slave ships owned in the North? for the
statement is that toward the close of the slave trade there were about
that number belonging to New England and New York engaged in that pious
enterprise. We know the town of Newport, R. I., had one hundred and
seventy ships employed in this money-making trade in the year 1750,
and undoubtedly the number increased largely in after years, when made
legal; so, on the whole, no doubt six hundred ships were in the trade.
The question here presents itself--and it is a proper one to ask--who
first owned these slaves; how did they obtain them; how did they treat
them; and to whom did they sell these human beings for money; and then,
with the price of blood in their pockets, begin to preach against the
sin of slavery? Ye hypocrites! who thank God "we are not slave owners,
we got rid of them long ago."
It has been said by a Northern writer that "indirectly, and for the
purpose of a more equal distribution of direct taxes, the framers
of the constitution tolerated while they condemned slavery; but they
tolerated it because they believed it would soon disappear. They even
refused to allow the charter of their own liberties to be polluted by
the mention of the word _slave_; but take heed, did not this convention
give way to the clamor of the owners of slave ships to continue for
twenty years the increase of slavery? They could not, consistently with
honor or self-respect, transmit to future ages the evidence that some
of them had trampled upon the inalienable rights of others."
"Though slavery was thus tolerated by being ignored, we should not
dishonor the memory of those who organized the government to suppose
that they did intend to bestow upon it the power to maintain its own
authority, the right to overthrow or remove slavery or whatever might
prove fatal to its permanence or destroy its usefulness."
The answer is: _Yes_, but not by making war and laying waste the
country; burning dwellings, public buildings, towns; sinking shipping,
blockades; capturing, killing, imprisoning innocent people; nor by
creating enormous debts, nor yet by cruel war, but by removing the evil
by _compensation_ "for the _term of service_" of the slaves to their
owners.
The government is under obligation to compensate _parents_, masters
of _apprentices_, masters of _slaves_ for _loss of service_ and labor
of their subjects who are enlisted in the army and navy, for the
constitution recognizes slaves as "persons held to labor or service."
England compelled the abolition of slavery in her colonies, and she
paid in compensation to the slave owners one hundred million dollars.
Out of this, the Cape Colony, in Africa, obtained fifteen million
dollars, which was about four hundred dollars per slave.
If, then, slavery was believed to be fatal to the permanence of the
constitution, it could have been abolished as it was in England, or in
some equitable way without the clash of arms.
Indenture.
This indenture is here presented for no other purpose than to evidence
the mode of manumitting slaves by the Abolition Society in the City of
Brotherly Love about four years after the constitution of the United
States was framed.
From this instrument of writing it appears that "Betty" was set free
(so called) on the 14th of September, 1792, on condition that she
should become a bond servant by contract for seven years. Her signature
to the indenture (original) is made on the left-hand corner, and not
covered by the photograph.
From the wording of her indenture to her master Bordley, it would
appear that verily her second condition was worse than her first,
and her last worse than all; for in her fifty-seventh year she was
to be turned adrift in her old age, possessed of only two suits of
apparel--"one of which is to be new"--to struggle with adversity.
She was now, however, free to play cards and dice, go to alehouses,
taverns, and playhouses, and dance and contract marriage, etc.
[Illustration]
It would be interesting to know how she passed the remaining years of
her life. That is buried in oblivion. Had she remained a slave--"held
to a service of labor," which was her first condition--she would have
had a home for life. To depend on the benevolence of the Northern
people was to be in a worse condition than that of a slave, for the
slave did know that he had a friend and a home for life.
How little is known, even at this day, at the North of the general
relation between the owner and the slave in the latter days of
slavery's existence! and I hope it will not shock the sensibility or
puritanical feelings of ye scribes and Pharisees when I state that
in the family graveyard near Columbus, Ga., where my wife's father
and mother and some of her brothers and sisters rest, there repose
the remains of _their_ Aunt Betty, who nursed all the children of
the family. She was, in name, a slave; in reality, she had all the
privileges of a member of the family, and when she died the children
declared she should sleep beside them in death, as she had lived with
them in life and would rise with them at the resurrection.
I could tell where a slave, after her death, was carried near fifty
miles to sleep in the family graveyard, with her master and mistress,
who had preceded her to the sacred spot where dust returns to dust.
These, and other instances I know, speak of kind feelings, and are
significant of the ties that existed between the master and the slave;
and this intimacy between master and slave, and almost companionship
of children and servant, were more common than any harsh behavior
toward them. A man who abused a slave was held in contempt, and was,
I suppose, shunned by his neighbors. I had no experience with such
men. Once the overseer on our place was going to punish a man for
persisting in annoying another. The alleged offender sent for me, and
I investigated the case. He was charged with being too gallant with
another man's wife, an accusation very prevalent in high society now,
when my lady can get a divorce in the morning and marry her admirer in
the evening, or the husband do so, as the case may be. No punishment
was given the negro in this matter, for the want of evidence; and I
here state that no whipping of a negro ever occurred on the plantation.
The difference between the wage earner and the slave is, the _right to
change residence_. The former, with his family of wife and children,
is too often, for want of means, unable to avail himself of his right,
and is therefore practically on a level in this respect with the
bondsman, and he becomes reduced to the slavery of wages, which in this
age--howling for wealth--becomes a pitiful condition, from which he
seeks relief in strikes, so often in vain. He cannot succeed against
the money power of the great trusts and monopolies, the power of the
State and military interference of the United States forces; so in the
end he is only steeped deeper in poverty. From all this the slave was
free and happy, if his laughter, song, and dance indicate contentment.
I do dislike egotism, and yet to establish the fact that slaves did
possess the power to change masters and homes--and you will admit that
practical experience is better than any theory--I will tell you plainly
what occurred to me touching this matter.
As administrator of an estate where the land and servants had to be
sold, the heads of the families were given notice, months in advance,
that they could visit or otherwise see the owners of the neighboring
plantations and other persons with whom they would like to live, and
induce them to buy the family at the sale: and when the sale was made
I think all had selected homes. In this case, at the sales many were
informed that they would be bid in by the heirs. I never knew a family
to be separated.
I believe it was in the autumn of 1856 I wished to obtain a good cook,
and went to New Orleans. Beard & May, cotton brokers, informed me that
the German Vice Consul was going home, and had the best cook in the
city. I called on Mr. Kock at his office, and he gave me a note to
his wife, stating the object of my calling. Madame sent for the cook,
and she came into the drawing room and was introduced to me, and my
business made known to her. She was a fine-looking woman. She asked me
the usual questions--such as "Biddy" in the intelligence office asks
persons in quest of a cook--about where I lived, number in the family,
if there was a church near by, nearest town, etc. Obtaining the desired
information, she told her mistress she did not wish to leave the city,
and she was directed to retire. Mrs. Kock said she wished the servant
to be satisfied with her new home, etc.
Next Beard & May sent me to a French family. Madame came in, and sent
for the cook she wished to sell. This one varied the questions, she
asked even as to hot dinners on Sundays, and then she said she would
not like to live on a plantation; and so the visit was fruitless.
Then Beard & May told me to question the servants they held for sale,
and there I found a woman about thirty years old, of fine personal
appearance, who was willing to accept a position in the country, and I
bought her.
A few days after, Beard & May called on me and said my cook, Maria,
wanted to see me; so I went to her, and she then told me she wished
I would buy her husband Jim. I expressed my displeasure that she had
not told me she was married before I bought her. However, I bought Jim
to satisfy her, and took them both home with me. Maria was installed
in the kitchen, and proved to be a good cook. Jim had charge of the
horses, etc. At the beginning of summer we went North. Jim was put to
work in the field. He soon ran away, stayed in the woods by day, came
home often at night, and told the overseer that he would come home
when I did. When we returned in the autumn, Jim came to see me and
explained that he had never worked in the field; so he worked again at
the stables and ginhouses. I now learned that Maria and Jim had never
been married. When spring came, I told Jim I would take him back to
New Orleans, and he was willing to go. I left him with Beard & May to
be sold. When we returned in the fall Jim had not been sold. In the
winter I visited New Orleans. The steamer arrived during the night.
In the morning as I was going on shore I saw a number of fine hacks on
the levee awaiting passengers; among them the driver of a fine carriage
cried out: "O Master Sam, here is your carriage; ride with me. Don't
you know Jim? Mighty glad to see you, Master Sam." He drove me to the
St. Charles Hotel. Soon Jim came to see me, and I told him if he did
not find a home for himself before I left the city I would have him
sold to some one out in the country without consulting him. The result
was, Jim got the owner of the livery stable to buy him, and that was
the last I saw of Jim. No one would purchase Jim because he told every
one who wanted him, "If you buy me, I will run away;" and so he hired
himself out for about nine months, at twenty dollars per month, as a
hack driver, which supported himself free of expense to me.
[Illustration]
And now about Maria: In the spring she got in the habit of having fits,
and would foam at the mouth, and the old cook would have to come over.
This continued over two weeks.
One morning I saw my neighbor Courtney riding up to my gate rather
rapidly. He was excited and said: "Capt. French, I want you to buy my
man Parker or sell me Maria." Parker had the main charge of some one
hundred and thirty servants on Courtney's place. As I had no use for
Parker, I would not entertain buying him, and replied that I would sell
him Maria. When he became more composed, he told me that "Parker had
become stupid, thoughtless, and could not remember what was told him,
and when I called him to account he informed me that he was so much in
love with Maria that his mind was all 'up-sot,' but if I would only buy
Maria he would be so happy, and be the best hand on the place if she
were his wife." And so Maria became Parker's wife, and never feigned
having fits any more. Marriage cured them. Her fits were all "put on"
to get a new home at Courtney's.
I was now quite tired and wearied with cooks, but nevertheless, being
in New Orleans, I made another venture. Beard & May said they had a
good cook. She was a woman of about twenty, with a jolly round face,
and said she was a fine cook, and I bought her. Her name was something
like Amanda, as I remember it. She was a willing, good-natured
creature, but so careless that half the dishes were spoiled; so
during the summer I took her to New Orleans and left her with Beard &
May (early in the morning), then drove to the hotel. I had finished
my breakfast and was smoking in the rotunda, when I saw Amanda
approaching, accompanied by a tall, elderly gentleman, to whom I was
introduced, naming him "my new master." He was from one of the parishes
of the State. He asked me some questions about his new servant, and
said he thought her a good cook, and honest, from what she told him.
He apologized for the early call, as he had to leave on the morning
steamboat. Bidding Amanda good-by, I concluded to abide with our old
cook again.
I have briefly sketched these, some of my experiences with slaves,
to establish the fact that bondsmen on the Mississippi did have the
privilege of selecting very often the persons with whom they wished to
live, as well as the place, which is by poverty denied the poor white
men when in the iron grip of the rich corporations, where they are held
by the relentless "slavery of wages."
A man acting for himself and in the interest of his family must have
feelings of humanity for his servants. Their welfare and happiness are
indissolubly linked with his, aside from his accountability for his
acts to his God. Corporations have no souls, and no God to worship
except Mammon. They have no ear for the misfortunes or ills of an
employee, no physician for sickness, no priest for the dying, nor
coffin for the dead. All these the slave has.
Truly the relentless thirst for gold over the road to wealth crushes
to death like a worm the poor laborer beneath its tread. There is no
provision in the charter of a trust company for care of life or soul
of a laborer, and his condition is disguised in the (unknown to him)
glorious privileges of independence, liberty, and freedom. What a
mockery are all these human rights to a family perishing in a hut by
a coal mine for want of clothing and food, with no ministering hand!
And yet all the wealth in the world was obtained from the earth by the
miner and farmer.
God in the beginning proclaimed the relations and the obligations
between master and bond servant in Holy Writ, and he will judge them
by their deeds; but God hath not, nor hath man defined the humanities
inseparable between a trust company and its employee, except by
injunctions and courts and bayonet rule.
Bad as it is, some may be inclined to believe that Betty, under her
indenture, had more privilege and enjoyment than most of the white
laborers in the employment of many monopolies.
In connection with this indenture is presented the picture of the Rev.
Henry Ward Beecher selling slaves on his theatrical pulpit stage in
Plymouth Church, Brooklyn, to raise money, and fire the Northern hearts
against the South.
The audience is large, and their countenances express delight at this
fine scene of buffoonery, which was then considered _one of the "eight
great personal events_ of the _nineteenth century_," and hence worthy
of preservation. When passion shall have subsided, and calm judgment
presides, it will perhaps be regarded as an act of charlatanry unworthy
of so great a man. These great personal events are said to be:
When Jenny Lind sung in Castle Garden.
When Henry Ward Beecher sold slaves in Plymouth pulpit.
When the Prince of Wales was in America.
When Henry Clay bade farewell to the Senate.
When Grant went around the world.
When Lincoln was first inaugurated.
When Kossuth rode up Broadway.
When Mackay struck the great bonanza.
[Illustration]
I regarded Mr. Beecher an orator, and have listened to his discourses
on theology to his congregation with admiration; but his attacks on
slavery were made perhaps with as little knowledge of the condition
of the bondsmen as that distinguished kinswoman of his, Mrs. Harriet
Beecher Stowe, has shown in her ideal novel, "Uncle Tom's Cabin." They
produced a diseased state of public sentiment, and Demos, turned loose,
strained the ties of love and kindred relations that bound the States
by the compact, and precipitated secession and war on the South.
If slavery be considered a wrong, and no doubt it was, then, in justice
to all concerned in its establishment in the United States and to the
condition of the slaves in 1861 and the means resorted to for their
liberation, it becomes a matter of impartial consideration, and when
that day comes, the South will stand before the world vindicated, and
the verdict will be both parties guilty, as will be shown hereafter.
Slavery was only made _possible_ by bringing in ships negroes from
Africa; and that was mainly done by the people of Old England, New
England, and New York City. They were large ship owners. They sent
their vessels for slaves, and obtained them by theft, by capturing them
in the midnight glare of burning villages, or by purchase. _They owned
them all._ They were indeed inhuman slave dealers. They sold some of
them to all the thirteen colonies, and to the several States formed
of them under the constitution, and they continued this slave trade
_legally_ until 1808, and illegally until 1862. (See "American Slave
Trade," by J. R. Spears.)
In Old England the question of slavery was discussed calmly,
with justice and common sense, and they arrived at an equitable
decision--viz., that the government should compensate the owners
for their property rights in persons held to labor or (in language
undisguised) in slaves, and, as I have already stated, $100,000,000 was
appropriated to purchase them and set them free, an act of justice to
the owners.
In this land of freedom the pious people of the North (I speak plainly)
sold their slaves to the planters in the South, and, with the slave
money in their pockets, rejoiced that they were not like the people
South, and as Pilate did (figuratively) they took water and washed
their hands before the people, saying: "We are innocent of the sin of
slavery now!"
Next, from causes already stated, like the crusaders to the Holy Land,
the fanatical crowd came down South, and took the slaves that they once
owned and sold from the purchasers, and forced the States to set them
free without compensation. By this act they took over $3,000,000,000
worth of private property from the owners--the greatest robbery ever
committed on earth.
In the common courts of the country it has been adjudged, I believe,
that the thief is a greater criminal than the receiver of the stolen
property; but when the thieves steal the same property a second time,
what should the sentence of the court be? Of that crime the North
stands convicted.
There is a higher power than any established by man.
"God moves in a mysterious way
His wonders to perform."
In days of old he arraigned nations before his august court, and
they lived or perished at his will. The day is not far distant when
the South, at his command and in his own way, will arise from their
down-trodden condition, to the surprise of their oppressors. Her fields
will blossom as the rose, the busy hum of industry will be heard in the
land, and the commercial sails of the world will ride on the waters of
the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, plying to South America and
the Orient through the canal that will connect the two great oceans.
What position then will the New England States hold in the general
prosperity of the States? Then it will be seen, "Vengeance is mine; I
will repay, saith the Lord." And even now along the Atlantic seaboard
great steamers go North mainly laden with articles made from wood,
lumber, pig iron, cotton goods, fruit, and the great metropolitan
hotels and the people generally depend on the fields and gardens of
the South for their vegetables half the year; and so it goes on in
arithmetical progression of increase.
Leaving out the negroes, the South has a homogeneous population;
the solidarity of the nation will rest on her. In 1861 there was
less than _one_ foreigner to the hundred in the population of North
Carolina, while in the West it ranged from _thirty_ to _sixty_ per
cent. (See census reports.) The cities of Chicago and New York contain
a population which will be found to be a conglomeration of all the
peoples on the face of the earth--with their political ideas, their
morality, their vices, their language, and their religion--and on no
question will they agree unless purchased for a price, as a business
transaction, for money, and "the love of money is the root of all
evil," and the history of Rome will be repeated.
Historians estimate the number of slaves carried from Africa to the
Americas and the West Indies Islands to have been from eight to twelve
millions, out of which number about five hundred thousand died or were
killed at sea, and their bodies were thrown overboard. And now let the
_sin_ of slavery rest on the North or the South, as it will finally
be declared by the consensus of public opinion, when investigation
discloses and proclaims the horrible cruelty of the Northern slave
owners who brought them here, and contrast it with the amelioration
of their condition and their advancement in intelligence and morality
acquired by the teaching of the best men and women in the South. This
opinion will be recorded.
The negro, as sold by his first owner, was a stupid animal speaking
a jabbering lingo; he was now taught and trained in civilization
until he was adjudged by the North, when set free, capable to perform
all the duties pertaining to the high official positions to which
the United States government did appoint him or his brother negroes
elected him. Yes, under the teachings and training of their owners on
the plantations and in the cities, while slaves, they were converted
from fetichism to Christianity, and from cannibalism to gentility
of living, and their beastly nature curbed by moral surroundings
and force of example; and now, to humiliate the Southern people,
who were disfranchised, political plans were arranged to have negro
Senators elected instead of whites, and from Mississippi two negroes
were occupying at different periods seats in the United States Senate
chamber. Their names were Revels and Bruce. The latter I have seen
riding through my plantation. From Senator he became Register of the
Treasury of the United States, a position long held by my friend, Gen.
W. S. Rosecrans, United States army.
Out of the three million soldiers that were in the United States army,
there were not as many discharged soldiers holding office in the South
in 1869 as there were ex-slaves out of the four hundred thousand negro
men eligible to office. This indicates either the soldiers' unfitness
for office, or that the selection of negroes was made to humiliate the
people of the South.
It may be asked: Whence came Christianity among the slaves? Did it
come by nature? No, nature is uniform in her laws, and developed no
Christianity among the negroes in Africa, or elsewhere when left to
themselves; hence it came by teaching, for on Sundays the master and
mistress, nurse and children, in the carriage were always escorted to
church by the young men on horseback, dressed in their clean and best
attire, where all worshiped together in the Lord's house. Also, on many
plantations, clergymen were maintained with ample compensation by two
or three neighboring planters to preach the gospel to their people.
Whence came qualifications for business, unless taught by their owners?
Reading, writing, and arithmetic do not come by birth, and the peasant
and the prince alike have to study to comprehend even "the rule of
three."
It is not pleasant to refer to the want of information among the common
people in the North and West in regard to the real relation of the
bondsmen to their owners, or to the ignorance of the masses of the
nations of Europe on this question. In Europe they had a foretaste
of freedom in 1848; but slavery in the United States was a sealed
letter to them all. For the North there is this excuse: the almost
nonintercourse between the North and the South precluded personal
observation, and they were taught in the schools, in the lecture
room, from the rostrum and the pulpit, by the press in every village,
town, and city all over the land, to believe the fabulous accounts
of the ills of slavery to be true, and that the slave owners were
cruel, illiterate, uncultured, and had "plantation manners," unfit for
association with the immaculate people of the North. The populace of
the North learned nothing from the utter failure of the advent of John
Brown in Virginia, where slaves fled from him with horror and left him
to his deserved fate; on the contrary, he was by the North held up as
a saint who gave his life for freedom's cause.
Far and wide the abolition and free-soil party preached a crusade
against the people of the South to liberate the slaves, and Mr.
Beecher's picture shows to what low means they stooped to awaken
enthusiasm for their cause. It spread to Europe, and when they
commenced the war the illiterate masses there joined in the crusade
against the South, as they did to rescue the holy sepulcher from the
hands of the infidel, on which occasion, Proctor in his "History of
the Crusades" says, "the Welshman forgot his hunting, the Scot his
companionship with vermin, the Dane his carouse, and the Norwegian his
raw fish," in their fanatical desire to reach Jerusalem; and so again
the Welshman, the Scot, the Norwegian, the Dane, the German, and the
rest of Europe came over here to enlist as substitutes in the Federal
army in its crusade against the institution of slavery which was
founded by their ancestors.
Herod the Great, an Idumean, to secure the throne of Jerusalem to the
Idumean line of Jews, murdered his wife, the beautiful Mariamne, and
his two sons by her. They were handsome, had been educated in Rome,
were very accomplished, and beloved by the Jewish people; but as
they were, through their mother, of the Asmonean line of Jews, Herod
condemned them to death to secure the succession as he desired. When
the war between the States ended, the white people of the Confederacy
were in the way of the line of succession of the radical party to
maintain office; so they were disfranchised, and a new race was made
citizens to take their place: they were the late negro slaves, the pets
and "wards of the nation!"
Now, when it was told to Augustus Cæsar that Herod had murdered his
two sons by Mariamne, he said that "it was better to be one of Herod's
_pigs_ than one of his sons;" and so when the white people of the South
were politically murdered, many of their friends said: "It were better
to be a '_ward of the nation_' than a son of the Confederacy." These
cruel proceedings have been condemned by all the civilized nations of
Europe, and will be condemned by the impartial historians of the North
when passions shall have subsided.
The enslaving of the negro race in the colonies--and which was largely
confined to those called Southern, and almost entirely to them after
the ending of the slave trade--placed the white people of the colonies
on a higher and broader plane and released them from the daily struggle
after the "almighty dollar."
The busy minds of the Northern people were constantly more and more
given to trade and traffic, while those of the South turned to the
enjoyment of a home life; freed from restraint and care, they practiced
the amenities of social life, with honor, truth, and charity to all.
Strange as it may appear, a civilization--based on slave labor, that
was tolerant in religion, that encouraged freedom of thought, led their
minds to the contemplation of the rights given man by his Creator
when he breathed the breath of life into his body as he came into
this world--resulted in prompting these men to embody their views on
this question of divine right in the Mecklenburg Declaration, made in
Mecklenburg County, N. C., May 20, 1775, and which was substantially
expressed again, July 4, 1776, in the Declaration of Independence, read
in Philadelphia.
And so it was from the thoughtful minds of these quiet slave owners
came these two proclamations: that man was indued, or born, with
certain "inalienable rights" derived from his Maker--namely, "life,
liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." These were some of the
developments of a _civilization_ based on slavery.
To secure these rights unto themselves, after the Confederation, they
framed the Constitution of the United States, but unfortunately it was
established on a compromise that was left for futurity to interpret;
and disagreement on this matter led to secession as a solution and last
resort.
[Illustration: JOSEPH E. BROWN.]
Passing by the particular events of the war between the States, it
may not be unprofitable to inquire what was the difference in the
developments of the two civilizations that followed the formation and
establishment of the Constitution; the North by itself, free, and the
South with her peculiar institutions. By their fruits ye must judge
them.
There were seventeen Presidents anterior to President Grant, out of
which number eleven were Southern born, and six the product of free
soil, if we include John Adams. In jurisprudence, the South gave us a
Marshall; in the forum they need no mention, as statesmen they have but
few peers; among diplomats, John Laurens, of South Carolina, a member
of Washington's staff, special Minister to France, stands preëminent;
in the darkest hour of our struggle, at the court of Louis XIV., he
saved the colonies and turned the tide of war in our favor.
In the field we have Washington, Lee, Stonewall Jackson, and Forrest.
For an honest opinion of Gen. Lee and his soldiers, see Theodore
Roosevelt's life of T. H. Benton: there he stands _peerless_. Those
who desire to learn more about Col. John Laurens may read the December
number of _McClure's Magazine_ (1899).
Such are some of the fruits of a civilization that has passed away.
When I survey the past, and from it make prophecy of the future,
I am as candid in saying I rejoice that slavery is no more as I
am in condemning the brutal manner in which it was abolished; and
nevertheless I am as sincere in my love of my whole country as I
am imbued with dislike to that class of people who out of hatred
precipitated that war on the Southern people out of envy because
they imagined that the planters were a more favored people than they
themselves were.
A Roman consul was never accorded a triumph for a victory in civil
war, nor were the spoils of war his. But after this civil war, as it
is termed, ended, the emblems of victory have waved in triumph in our
faces, and are carefully preserved instead of being hidden away, and
the universal looting has enriched the soldiers' homes with the spoils
of war. Senator Charles Sumner wanted the captured flags returned.
War is not barbarous, nor is it "hell;" it is just what parties choose
to make it. When confined to the enlisted troops it is seldom cruel.
Hell is an expression adopted to silence argument on the cruel manner
in which the United States government prosecuted the war: when this
subject is mentioned we are silenced by the declaration, O well, "war
is hell any way."
To cover up his own iniquities, Gen. Sherman said: "_War is hell._"
During the war with Mexico I was with Gen. Taylor from Corpus Christi
to Buena Vista, and during that period heard of but one case of
robbery, and that was at Papagallos, on the march to Monterey. There
a soldier stole a chicken. Seeing a crowd of officers in the street, I
rode up to ascertain the cause.
Gen. Taylor had dismounted. There was the offender; he was severely
reprimanded and placed under guard. Turning to the accuser--an old
woman--the General gave her some silver coin in payment for her
chicken. That war was not hell.
When Richard Cœur de Lion was ill in Palestine the Islam commander,
Saladin, "sent him the choicest fruits and refreshment of snow during
the burning heat of summer; and at the siege of Jaffa, Saphadan, the
Mohammedan chief, observing Richard dismounted, sent him two Arabian
horses, on one of which he continued the conflict until nightfall. He
further solicited and obtained from Richard the honor of knighthood for
his son." This was not much like hell.
Again, Richard promulgated, like Gen. W. T. Sherman, regulations for
the government of his troops. "A _thief_ was to have his head shaved,
to be tarred and feathered." Had Sherman issued and enforced an order
like this, the sight of his troops would have frightened all the
inhabitants out of Savannah.
Our Unknown Dead.
EXTRACT FROM AN ADDRESS OF GEN. S. G. FRENCH MADE TO THE U. C. V. CAMP,
NO. 54, ORLANDO, FLA., JUNE 8, 1893.
_Comrades_: The solemn ceremony of Decoration Day has been performed.
The few graves, alike of the Confederate and the Union soldiers that
rest in our cemetery, have been decorated with floral offerings,
and the cause that so few of the Confederate dead sleep where loving
kindred can care for them inclines me to say a few words in regard to
the unknown dead.
From Dalton down to Atlanta, and around that city, there was one
continuous conflict for one hundred days, and not a day passed without
some troops being engaged, and so the dead were left throughout a
hundred miles on either side, resting where they fell.
If we turn to the east again, we find that Gen. Grant crossed
the Rapidan May 4, 1864, and, taking the direct line to Richmond,
immediately the battle of the Wilderness followed, and he announced
that he was going "to fight it out on that line if it took all summer."
A few days after came the battle of Spottsylvania, and June 1 that of
Cold Harbor, where the Federal troops refused to make a second attack.
In these three great and sanguinary battles the commander of the Union
forces did not meet with success, and so on the first day of summer
he left that line and swung around, as McClellan did, to the James
river. After Cold Harbor it seems as if there was no desire for another
general engagement, and the hammering away mode of war commenced on
Lee. On July 18, 1864, President Lincoln called for five hundred
thousand more men, and so the detrition process went on for nine
months, mainly on and near the picket line, being in all nearly eleven
months and a half that Lee confronted Grant's hosts of men, and over
all this extent of country lay the blue and the gray side by side in
death. Devastation, as in the Palatinate, had done its work.
Now when the war ended, the Federal government, with commendable zeal,
very humanely collected most of its dead and had their remains removed
to its beautiful cemeteries, and there keeps green the sod and fresh
the flowers on their graves.
There was no Confederate government to collect and care for the
remains of the Confederate dead. Along the banks of the "Father of
Waters" for more than a thousand miles the inhabitants tread unawares
over the unknown graves of those who battled for the South. Along the
shores of the Potomac, the Rappahannock, and the James wave the golden
harvests on soil enriched by their blood and moldering dust. There
the grapes grow more luscious and the wine is redder. From the capes
of the Chesapeake adown the stormy Atlantic, and trending around the
Gulf, rest thousands of our dead; or go to the heights of Allatoona,
to Lookout's lofty peak, or Kennesaw Mountain's top, and you may seek
in vain where the dead rest. Time, with the relentless force of the
elements, has obliterated all traces of their graves from human eye;
they are known only to Him who can tell where Moses sleeps in "a vale
in the land of Moab." So the forgotten are not forgot, the Hand that
made the thunder's home comes down every spring and paints with bright
colors the little wild flowers that grow over their resting places,
and they are bright on Decoration Day. The rosy morn announces first to
them that the night is gone, and when the day is past and the landscape
veiled with evening's shade, high on the mountain top the last ray of
the setting sun lovingly lingers longest, loath to leave the lonely
place where the bright-eyed children of the Confederacy rest in death.
And wherefore did they die? They fell in defense of their homes, their
families, their country, and those civil rights arising from that
liberty God gave man as a heritage in the beginning. They furnished to
their country much that will be noble in history, wonderful in story,
tender in song, and a large share of that glory which will claim the
admiration of mankind. We can today place no wreaths of immortelles
on their unknown graves, yet we can rest assured that the echoes of
posterity will render their deeds illustrious.
And now, as I look back on the past and recall to mind your trials
and sufferings--which will be forgotten--I am sure the world will not
forget that your valor MERITED A SUCCESS which is better now than to
have achieved it.
FOOTNOTES
[1] A fête given by Maj. André in Philadelphia, May, 1778, in
honor of Sir William Howe.
[2] "Proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the
inhabitants thereof." (Lev. xxv. 10.)
[3] Newspaper cuttings.
[4] August 31, 1898. Raynolds and Auger are now at rest, and
four remain. April, 1899, Gen. J. J. Reynolds has passed over
the river.
[5] It is also reported that the first message over the
line, sent by a young lady, was: "What hath God wrought!" The
Professor did not mention this, and this dispatch was sent
over the ocean cable years later.
[6] In the celebrated Dred-Scott case (see Howard's "Supreme
Court Reports," Vol. XIX., page 404) you will find that
Justice Taney, in describing the _condition_ of the negro
more than a hundred years _before_ the Declaration of
Independence, said: "It is difficult at _this day_ (1856)
to realize the state of public opinion in relation to that
unfortunate race which prevailed in the civilized portions
of the world at the time of the Declaration of Independence,
and when the Constitution of the United States was framed
and adopted.... They had, for more than a century before,
been regarded as a being of an inferior order, and altogether
unfit to associate with the white race, either in social or
political relations; and so far inferior that they had no
rights which the white man was bound to respect; and that the
negro might justly and lawfully be reduced to slavery for his
benefit. He was bought and sold, and treated as an ordinary
article of merchandise and traffic whenever a profit could
be made by it. The opinion was, _at that time_, fixed and
universal in the civilized portions of the white race."
The above is merely a historical fact as regards the status
of the negro about _two hundred years before_ the judge
rendered his decision. And now behold! For political party
purposes; by the abolitionists; from the pulpit; by college
professors; by _all_ who have hated the South, it is to
this day tortured into a _decision_ made by Chief Justice
Roger B. Taney, which is not true. Furthermore, and before
this case was in court, Judge Taney had manumitted his own,
inherited, slaves; and as a lawyer had defended a man in
court for publicly uttering abolition sentiments. In fact he
regarded slavery as an evil, and proclaimed it by deeds. (See
"American Authors' Guild Bulletin" for April, 1898.)
[7] Col. Harney was annoyed by the number of blackbirds that
would feed with the horses, eating the grain; so while the
horses were out grazing I asked an officer for a gun to kill
some of the birds. He handed me a long single-barreled one
with a bore about the size of a half dollar. From the powder
flask I put in two charges of powder and shot. The ground was
covered with birds. I fired and killed none; the charge was
too small. The doctor (I think he was a doctor) said he would
load it for me, so I took another shot. This time I thought
my arm dislocated at the shoulder. I did not count the
number of birds, but the ground was covered with the dead and
wounded. I played indifference while meditating revenge for
a sore shoulder. Going to the top of the observatory, I saw
perhaps a hundred deer grazing close by; so I was taken with
a desire to kill one, and again asked the doctor for his gun.
He proposed loading it for me. I told him I preferred doing
it myself. I put in three charges of powder, or three drams,
and about forty small buckshot, and off I went for a deer.
The herd grazed along before me up the slope of a ridge, and
passed over it. I crawled on hands and knees to the crest,
and such a sight! A number of single deer were within twenty
yards of me. At once I became covetous. Shoot a single deer?
No. I wanted four or five (remembering "all things come to
those who wait"), so presently five or six were nearly in
a line, but more distant; and when I pulled the trigger the
gun said "fush," and the smoke came in my face. As I looked
over the field I was amazed. There were all the deer standing
facing me, their heads high, ears spread out wide, and their
large, soft, mild eyes looking at me imploringly; and not
alarmed. Probably they had never heard a gun (and I am quite
sure they did not hear this one), for the Indians then were
armed only with bows and arrows.
I sat down on the green grass and looked at the deer, and
felt that experience must be a good teacher. But the days
came when I did kill many; but the first one fell dead from
a shot from my pistol.
I make mention of these little events that belong to the
past to show how great is the change made in a few passing
years. Where now is all this game, and where are the Indians?
Alike they have disappeared before the advance of avaricious
civilization. From San Antonio to Corpus Christi and to El
Paso the country was as God made it, unchanged by Indians,
and over the plains and on a thousand hills roamed deer, wild
turkey, partridges, and the waters swarmed with swan, geese,
and ducks unmolested by sportsmen.
[8] The inference is that Gen. Taylor ordered May up on the
receipt of Ridgely's first message.
[9] Gen. John Bankhead Magruder was known in earlier days as
"Prince John." When stationed on the Canadian frontier the
British officers and ours were on good social terms. John was
indeed a princely fellow, and the officers at his mess dined
always in a rich, gay dinner jacket. His servant was Irish
and a jewel, and knew well "Prince John's" foibles. One day
at dinner, to which some English officers were guests, there
was a considerable display of taste, and one of them had the
temerity to ask his host what was the pay of a lieutenant
of artillery, and obtained for an answer: "Well, bless you,
my dear fellow, I do not remember; my servant always gets
it. What is it, Patrick?" And Pat, well knowing the ways of
Magruder, replied: "Your honor must perceive the captain is
a gintleman, and too ginerous to ask me for it."
When the city of Mexico was captured by Gen. Scott "Prince
John" obtained quarters in the bishop's palace. Sending
for the butler, he asked him: "At what hour does the bishop
dine?" Answer: "Four P.M." "How many courses does he have?"
Answer: "Four." "How many bottles of wine does he order?"
Answer: "Two." To impress the butler that he was an officer
of high dignity, he gave orders that he would dine at 8 P.M.
and require eight courses and four bottles of wine, doubling
the courses, etc.
And here is another story I will relate as I heard it:
After the battles around Richmond had been fought Gen. J.
B. Magruder was sent to command the Department of Texas. As
I have formerly related, he was a _bon vivant_ and rejoiced
in the pleasures of the table, and dined with much ceremony.
To keep this up, as far as he could, he would send, like
the popes of Rome, a courier in advance to arrange for his
comfort. On one occasion a staff officer was sent ahead
as usual. Coming to a good residence, he arranged for
comfortable quarters and a sumptuous supper. When the General
arrived and the usual preliminaries were over he was ushered
into the dining hall, and there sat at the table a ragged
"Reb" helping himself to the supper all alone. Magruder,
however, took his seat at the table, and, eying the "Reb"
demolishing the viands, he exclaimed: "Do you, sir, know
with whom you are eating supper?" "Reb" replied: "No, I don't
know, and I don't care a d--mn; before I went into the army
I was very particular as to whom I ate with, but it makes no
difference now; just help yourself, do."
[10] Riding over the battlefield the day after the fight
we came to the camp where the surgeons were attending to
the wounded. A _German_ prisoner was there _standing up_,
holding on to the limb of a tree resting himself, he had
been shot crosswise in the rear, the ball tearing away the
seat of his breeches, that were very bloody. One of our
_Irish_ soldiers was passing by with canteens filled with
water, and the German asked for a drink. Pat surveyed him,
and replied: "Never a drop of wather will ye get from me, ye
bloody hathen. If ye had stayed in your own counthry, where
you belong, ye would now be well and have a sound seat to sit
down on."
[11] It was understood that Santa Anna was to end the war by
making a treaty of peace, but he deceived President Polk.
[12] "Beautiful View."
[13] The Mexican story is: That a Mexican lieutenant in
the first line got mixed up with our troops and feigned a
_parley_ and was carried to Gen. Taylor. This was followed by
his returning to the Mexican line accompanied by two American
officers to have an interview with Santa Anna. Then our line
stopped firing and theirs did not. If this Mexican officer
bore a flag of truce, it would explain why we stopped firing,
and I am quite sure he did.
[14] Senate Document.
[15] Also to San Francisco, Cal., as was then predicted.
[16] Until charged, tried, and convicted of treason is
confiscation legal?
[17] Maj. Electus Backus went to Fort Defiance, among the
Navajoes, and destroyed the influence of their god--the
dancing man--by a piece of jugglery in making a stuffed
figure to represent their god, and by means of wires making
it dance. Peace followed this exhibition by a treaty.
[18] Pronounced canyon.
[19] When I was stationed in Louisville, Ky., in 1850, on one
occasion Thomas F. Marshall, Dr. Matthews (who was with us
in Mexico), and I were at the Galt House. Marshall and the
Doctor became engaged in repartee. The Doctor was a master
of wit. Marshall acknowledged defeat, and invited us to dine
with him next day at the Louisville Hotel, and we accepted
his invitation. When the morrow came the Doctor was a little
reluctant to go, fearing another encounter. However, at the
hour Marshall was on hand. He was an entertaining host, and
among his many anecdotes he related the treatment he once
received from Henry Clay.
Marshall was opposed to Clay in some local political issue,
and the day after the election many people assembled at
the courthouse in Lexington to get the news. Clay was in
the rotunda surrounded by friends when Marshall entered and
approached the crowd. Clay saluted him with: "Good morning,
Mr. Marshall. What is the news from Woodford County?"
Marshall answered, "We traitors have been defeated;" and
instead of extending his hand to "Tom" and saying, "O come
back to the Whig fold!" he waved his long arm and exclaimed,
"May that ever be the fate of all traitors!" Marshall said
the repulse of his proffered friendship astonished him, but
it was Clay's _imperious_ way.
[20] I give this story as related to me by a naval officer.
[21] Told as related to me.
[22] By this arrangement my quartermaster, Maj. J. B.
Moray, obtained bacon, sugar, coffee, blankets, shoes,
cloth, saddlers' tools, medical supplies, etc., in no small
quantities. He also had hay and fodder baled, by sending a
hay press through the north counties of North Carolina to
bale this forage, and obtain grain. On the arrival of Gens.
D. H. Hill and Longstreet it terminated, for Longstreet took
the teams.
The following letter from the Hon. James A. Seddon relates to
this matter:
WAR DEPARTMENT, C. S. A., }
RICHMOND, February 20, 1863. }
Gen. S. G. French, Commanding, Etc.
_General_: I have derived much satisfaction from
your letter of the 12th, and am gratified to
see how fully you have realized and understand
the great needs of our army on the Rappahannock
for supplies of forage and subsistence, and the
difficulty of meeting them. The scarcity in this
State is really great, and without distressing
exactions from the people, and much consequent
suffering, there is no prospect of drawing any
large supplies from them.
Our great reliance must be on the large producing
counties of North Carolina, and, unfortunately, the
richest are in the hands of, or under the control
of, the enemy. Great efforts must be made to draw
all that can forced or tempted from that quarter,
and there can be no better employment of our forces
in North Carolina than in protecting and aiding
such operations. Even illicit dealings with persons
of doubtful position, or mercenary natures, might
be encouraged to the extent of procuring supplies,
particularly of meat. But with the clear views
and convictions you have on this whole subject
it is unnecessary to urge the adoption of special
means. You will, I doubt not, adopt all that can be
made available, and in so doing you will have the
sanction of the department.
Very truly yours,
JAMES A. SEDDON, _Secretary of War_.
[23] This was a violation of military usages that both Gens.
Andrew Jackson and Z. Taylor denounced. Here is an extract
from the order of Gen. Jackson:
HEADQUARTERS DIVISION OF THE SOUTH,}
NASHVILLE, April 22, 1817. }
The commanding general considers it due to the
principles which ought and must exist in an army
to prohibit the obedience of any order emanating
from the _Department of War_ to officers of this
division ... unless coming through him as the
proper organ of communication. The object of this
is to prevent the recurrence, etc.
Here we see Jackson forbidding obedience to any order to
troops or officer in his command unless it was communicated
to him first for his action.
[24] Longstreet reiterates the story of the capture of
the battery in his book, but is silent about the garrison
or the capture of the redoubt. Therefore I will append a
statement handed to me by George Reese, an honored citizen
of Pensacola, Fla. My account is from my diary; his is from
memory. He writes:
"I was a lieutenant in Company A, Forty-Fourth
Alabama Infantry, Law's Brigade, Hood's Division,
Longstreet's Corps, and was with my command at the
investment of Suffolk in 1863. On the 18th day of
April, while in line, Companies A and K received
orders, about 8 P.M.., to move. I think we numbered
fifty men, all told. We were marched about two
miles to the left of Longstreet's army.
We arrived at an old fort, or rather redoubt,
exposed on the land side, but protected by a high
embankment on the river side. In this fort we
found two guns of Stribbling's battery, with their
complement of gunners. This whole force, with the
two guns, was captured on the 19th of April, near
6 P.M. About 1 P.M. the enemy opened a terrific
fire on the fort from a great number of guns massed
on the opposite side of the river and from the
gunboats and infantry. Under cover of this fire
a transport landed about a thousand men behind a
point of land extending into the river just above
the fort, concealed by thick undergrowth. They
were within one hundred yards of the fort when
discovered. It was natural that the infantry should
blame Gen. Longstreet for thus placing so small a
force so far away from support, and loud complaints
were heard from both men and officers. We were
taken to Suffolk the same night and next morning to
Norfolk, and two weeks after exchanged.
GEORGE REESE, _Lieut. Co A, Forty-Fourth Alabama_.
"Pensacola, Fla., March 1897."
[25] See Vol. LI., Part 11. Serial No. 108, War Records, page
692.
[26] From War Records, page 692, Serial No. 108.
[27] Mr. Joseph M. Brown, of Marietta, Ga., has a letter
from Col. Martin's brother, who was aware of his conduct at
the battle of Kennesaw, and relates the circumstances of his
death as above written by Mr. Brown.
[28] See Tytler's "History," and War Office Records.
[29] This is the road to New Hope Church over which we
marched.
[30] It is proper that I should here state that my official
report (page 816, War Records, Vol. 39) contains an error.
When I saw the Fiftieth and Twelfth Illinois leave the east
side of the railroad and join the force on the west side, I
believed that all were on that side, and wrote, "The Federal
forces were now confined to one redoubt (fort 'C'), and we
occupied the ditch." I did not discover this error until
after it was too late to correct it. It must be remembered
that the battle was fought on a mountain ridge, some of the
sides inaccessibly steep, and covered with timber obstructing
the view.
[31] Vauban--A French marshal, the greatest of military
engineers; born 1633. Inigo Jones--An eminent architect; born
in London 1572.
[32] See S. P. Lee's "Brief History of the United States." It
confirms my diary. Also book of Gen. J. D. Cox, United States
army, and War Records, and Maj. Sanders's letter, on page
340. Also letter of Rev. Thomas R. Harkham, page 342.
[33] Gen. John Adams, of Loring's Division, was killed
about two hundred yards east of the ginhouse, and his body
was removed to near the ginhouse by order of Col. Casement,
United States army, who put a guard over it. So after the
battle it was not found where he fell. This led to the belief
that Loring's Division extended to near the ginhouse.
It has been a source of regret to me that I was unable
to write an official report of the battle of Franklin
immediately after it was ended, but on account of the
condition of my eyes it was put off; and now I wonder why I
did not have my chief of staff write it under my dictation,
but so it is: amidst the confusion following the battle it
was neglected. I might add here that it was years before my
eyes were well, though treated by a specialist.
[34] The following is an extract from a letter dated August
18, 1864, written at City Point by Gen. U. S. Grant to Gen.
B. F. Butler, agent of exchange at Fortress Monroe, Va.:
"It is hard on our men held in Southern prisons not to
exchange them, but it is humanity to those left in the
ranks to fight our battles. Every man released on parole
or otherwise becomes an active soldier against us at once,
either directly or indirectly. If we commence a system of
exchange which liberates all prisoners taken, we will have to
fight on until the whole South is exterminated. If we hold
those caught, they amount to no more than dead men. At this
particular time to release all Rebel prisoners North would
insure Sherman's defeat, and would compromise our safety
here." (See War Records, page 606, Series II., Vol. VII.,
Serial No. 120.)
[35] Gen. J. D. Cox, Union army, who commanded most of the
troops engaged in the battle of Franklin, in his volume
published describing this battle (on page 15) states that
_our killed_--1,750--exceeded "Grant's at Shiloh, McClellan's
in the seven days' battle, Burnside's at Fredericksburg,
Rosecrans's at Stone's river or at Chickamauga, Hooker's
at Chancellorsville, and were almost as many as Grant's at
Cold Harbor, and nine less than the British loss at Waterloo
out of 43,000 men." The killed, as I have shown at Buena
Vista, is very great compared with the wounded; more than at
Franklin.
Comparisons often surprise us. An examination of the "United
States Army Dictionary," by C. K. Gardner, Adjutant General
U. S. A., brought down to 1853, shows also that the number
of the killed and wounded in the United States forces during
the war with Great Britain from 1812 to 1815 were; killed,
1,045; wounded, 2,656; total _3,701_. (The Creek Indian war
in Georgia and Alabama omitted.)
Again, the whole number of killed and wounded, from the
firing of the first gun on the banks of the Rio Grande to
Buena Vista, from Vera Cruz to the City of Mexico, thence to
the shore of the Pacific and in California, was only 4,808.
And so the facts of history show that out of the 21,800
Confederate soldiers engaged in the battle of Franklin more
were killed, in a few hours, than during either of the two
preceding wars. In the Confederate war the United States
lost, killed, 99,183, and from disease, 171,806.
The dispatch that Hood captured just before the battle, dated
November 29, 1864, 3.30 A.M., will be found in Gen. Cox's
book (page 25). There is no information in it to justify Hood
in making the assault. Thomas merely "tells Schofield to fall
back from Columbia to Franklin, and that Gen. A. J. Smith's
command had _not_ arrived in Nashville," etc.
MAJ. D. W. SANDERS'S LETTER.
May 6, 1897.
Gen. S. G. French, Pensacola, Fla.
_My Dear General_: In answer to your letter of
the 29th ult., in which you say that in recent
correspondence with Gen. A. P. Stewart he says that
he has no recollection of Gen. Hood's order for
the artillery at Franklin to be put in position,
and to open on the enemy about midnight, and when
it ceased the infantry was to charge the lines
over the same ground that they did in the first
attack. In this letter you also ask me to give my
recollections about this matter, and if I remember
the order.
I remember very distinctly that the order was
given, and you communicated it to me as the
adjutant general of your division upon your return
that night--to wit, November 30, 1864--from Gen. A.
P. Stewart's headquarters. This order I delivered
to the officers in command of two of your brigades;
your third brigade, which was Ector's Brigade,
at that time was on detached service guarding the
trains in the rear of the two corps which charged
the enemy's works November 30, 1864, at Franklin,
Tenn.
The artillery had arrived from Columbia, Tenn.,
and was placed in position to execute this order
of Gen. Hood's. Lieut. Col. Llewellyn Hoxton was
in command of the battalions of artillery. At the
time indicated in the order Col. Hoxton's artillery
opened on Franklin with a heavy cannonade, to
which there was no response, and it was therefore
evident that Schofield had successfully withdrawn
his forces and retreated to Nashville.
In September, 1886, I met Col. Hoxton at the
Episcopalian school, four or five miles from
Alexandria, Va., and had a conversation with him,
and he said to me that I was entirely correct in
my recollection of this particular order, and that
he was in command of the artillery, and in the
execution of his order opened upon Franklin, and no
reply from the enemy satisfied him that Schofield
had retreated, and he ceased firing, and scouts
were sent to the works, which they found abandoned,
and penetrated the village of Franklin to the
crossing of the Harpeth river; and immediately
thereafter a great many soldiers, under the command
of their officers, went through the streets and
alleys of Franklin, and it was thus ascertained to
be a fact that the enemy had retreated.
I remember distinctly the comments of the officers
of your division upon the delivery of Gen. Hood's
order to them, that they would obey promptly and
cheerfully, but that it looked to them as the
highest desperation to undertake to charge the
works under cover of this artillery fire, and
carry them at the point of the bayonet. The fact
that this order was given, and the circumstances
surrounding Hood's troops at that time, are
indelibly impressed upon my memory, and I have
no hesitancy whatever in saying distinctly and
unequivocally that the order was given, and that
it was communicated by me to the commanders of the
brigades of your division.*
Yours sincerely,
D. W. SANDERS.
* The only official report I know of, which in any manner
refers to this order, and this inferentially, is that of Gen.
C. L. Stevenson, in which he says:
"During the night (November 30, 1864) this division was put
in position preparatory to an assault which it was announced
was to be made by the entire army at daybreak." (See War
Records, Battle of Franklin.)
D. W. S.
[36] The battle of Alcazar, called the "Battle of the Three
Kings," fought about three hundred years ago between Mulai,
the emperor of Morocco, on the one side, and his nephew,
king of Fez, on the other, assisted by Don Sebastian, king
of Portugal, under whose standard had flocked the nobility
of Christian Europe. Mulai Malek had 40,000 Moorish cavalry.
Fifteen thousand of the allies were left dead on the field,
and the river Machassan ran red with blood.
[37] Gen. Anderson Abercrombie was adjutant of Maj. Freeman's
battalion of Georgia volunteers, U. S. army, in the war of
1812. Again under the command of Brig. Gen. John Floyd, U. S.
A., and was wounded in the battle with the Creek Indians at
Camp Defiance, Ala., January 27, 1814.
In an engagement on the 14th of July, 1864, between the
Confederate troops under Gen. J. H. Clanton and the Federal
forces under Gen. Rousseau, Miss Abercrombie's brother, Capt.
Robert S. Abercrombie, was mortally wounded. He stood in the
road alone, whence all had fled, save one friend beside him
(Albert Hyer), whose life he had saved in battle, and when
surrounded and _begged_ to surrender refused. To capture
him they shot him, designedly in his leg, and then through
thoughtlessness let him bleed to death, notwithstanding there
was a tourniquet in his pocket, and Mr. Hyer had another. He
was buried under a red oak on Mr. D. Carroll's place on the
Talladega road, Calhoun County, Ala., one and three-quarter
miles from Greensport, within a half mile of Ten Island P.
O., on the beautiful Coosa river. He received from the United
States officers every attention to save his life, except
the all-important one of stopping the flow of blood from the
wound, which was _below_ the knee. The great loss of blood
was not noticed by reason of so much water poured on the
wound. Thus perished a brave man whose life might have been
saved.
[38] The name of the Federal commander, and also that of the
Confederate officer who so nobly defended the fort, have been
given in a previous chapter.
[39] Shen-an-do-ah means the "Bright Daughter of the Stars."
[40] Goldwin Smith.
[41] I commend to you an article published in the September
(year 1900) number of _Scribner's Magazine_, page 303, giving
an account of the treatment of slaves by their owners North;
also an account of the last slave ship captured by the United
States navy (_Century Magazine_ for May, 1894).
[42] The question of confiscating property, especially
slaves, and setting them free will be found in the War
Records, Series 2, Vol. I., Serial No. 114, from page 749 to
page 822. This correspondence, and orders, show that in 1861
and part of 1862 "_confiscation by act of Congress limited
the penalty to property actually employed_ in the service of
the rebellion with the knowledge and _consent_ of its owners,
and instead of emancipating slaves thus employed left their
_status_ to be determined either by the courts of the United
States or by subsequent legislation." (See Holt's opinion
to President Lincoln, page 768, etc.) This was legitimate
war. However, the want of success changed all this, and
the proclamation of May 19, 1862, not being complied with,
the war ceased to be confined to the troops in the field,
and degenerated into one of robbery, plunder, destruction
of private property to reduce the South to subjugation.
To this end slaves were told they were free, and 178,975
were mustered into the United States army, armed, and, thus
encouraged, employed to fight their owners. The South did not
arm a slave to kill white men. There was a marked parallel
between the treatment of the noncombatants of the _South_ and
that of the noncombatants of _Cuba_ by the Spaniards.
[43] See War Records, Vol. XLVI., Series I, pages 762, 763,
Part 3.
[44] Col. Augustus Choate Hamlin, U. S. A., in his "Battle
of Chancellorsville" (Bangor, Me., published by the author),
says (page 27), speaking of Blenker's Division: "The men
justly complained of their treatment, and also of the abuse
bestowed upon them during the march across the Shenandoah
Valley for alleged acts of pillage on the way. From what the
inspector saw he was of the opinion that the stories had been
overestimated, and he has thought since that the Second Corps
put in the breastworks at North Anna more valuables, in the
shape of pianos, scientific apparatus, and choice furniture,
than Blenker's Division stole or destroyed during their
march over the mountains to Northern Virginia. Their booty
and destruction, even as exaggerated, was infinitesimal as
compared to that of the army of the Potomac at the capture of
Fredericksburg."
After Gen. Payne, U. S. A., who was stationed at Paducah,
Ky., had been court-martialed, he was relieved, and among
the papers left behind him was one saying: "Don't send any
more pianos, or plated silver, or pictures: all the kin are
supplied; but you can send bed linen and solid silverware."
[45] When Maj. Wiley Abercrombie, Mrs. French's brother, left
college to join the Confederate army, his father sent Rica,
his carriage driver, to wait on him--Wiley being a youth.
Now Rica had never worked on the plantation; from childhood
he had assisted in taking care of the family horses and
carriages, and in due time became the driver of the family
carriage.
At the battle of Gettysburg Rica was captured and carried
nearly to Philadelphia, Pa. One night, however, he made his
escape, traveled on foot to the Potomac, crossed that river,
and finally reached Richmond, Va. Thence the authorities
gave him transportation to Columbus, Ga. When Wiley became a
member of my staff Rica came with him, and continued with us
till the war ended. He and his wife remained in my family in
Columbus; thence they went with us to Winter Park, Fla.
In 1884 Rica made a visit to Columbus, and on his journey
home, becoming short of money to purchase a ticket from
Jacksonville to Winter Park, he obtained work on a railroad.
While thus employed he was accidentally killed by a tree
felled on him by one of the hands.
Poor Rica! His fate was a sad one. A slave in name, he fled
from freedom given him at Gettysburg, and wandered back to
be a bondsman; and next when freedom was imposed on him by
legislative enactment he spurned it, desiring only a home for
life with the family that had treated him almost as one of
their own children. I had almost similar experience with my
own servants before and after the war.
[46] How noble the conduct of this man who had been in the
army contrasted with the citizens who remained at home crying
for vengeance!
[47] Washington Irving.
[48] The confiscation of the slaves by act of Congress is an
acknowledgment of the just decision made by Chief Justice
Taney in the Dred Scott case, that a slave was chattel, or
personal property.
[49] I know a man North who paid $6,000 to a Congressman
for his son's appointment. This was excluding the South from
positions in the army and navy.
[50] Shakespeare's "Tempest," Act I.
[51] Appointed June 15, 1868.
[52] Lincoln's December proclamation says: "Such States shall
be received again into the Union."
* * * * * *
Transcriber's note:
Inconsistent hyphenation and spelling in the original document have
been preserved.
Obvious typographical errors have been corrected.
The writer used several alternate spellings of proper names.
It is not always clear whether or not these refer to one or several
people or places are referenced. These alternate spellings were left
unchanged:
Chadburne/Chadbourne/Chadbourn
Twigg/Twiggs
Torrejon/Torrajon
Tewksbury/Tewkesbury
Reseca/Resaca
Prevost/Provost
MacIntosh/McIntosh
Lombardini/Lombardeni
Cleburne/Cleburn/Clebur
Carteret/Cartaret
Hoskin/Hoskins
On page 41, Matamoras should possibly be Matamoros.
On page 43, matadore should possibly be matador.
On page 133, Penberton should possibly be Pemberton.
On page 26, "Arburthnot and Ambriester" should possibly be
Arbuthnot and Ambrister".
On page 189, Alamucha should possibly be Almucha.
On page 221, Gen. M. Jeff. Thompson should possibly by Gen. M. Jeff
Thompson.
In several places 12 M. should be either 12 P.M. or A.M.
***
