$Unique_ID{USH00206} $Pretitle{14} $Title{Our Country: Volume 6 Chapter CXXVII} $Subtitle{} $Author{Lossing, Benson J., LL.D.} $Affiliation{} $Subject{general army tennessee confederates chattanooga national thousand bragg battle mountain} $Volume{Vol. 6} $Date{1905} $Log{} Book: Our Country: Volume 6 Author: Lossing, Benson J., LL.D. Volume: Vol. 6 Date: 1905 Chapter CXXVII Partisan Opposition to the Government - Knights of the Golden Circle - The Draft - Riots in New York - Colored Troops in New York - Morgan's Great Raid - Meade and Lee in Virginia - Operations of the Two Armies in Virginia - Raid in Western Virginia - Rosecrans and Bragg in Tennessee - Streight's Great Raid - Bragg Driven to and from Chattanooga - Burnside in East Tennessee - Battle of Chickamauga - The Army at Chatanooga - Division in Mississippi - Battle at Wauhatchie - The Mule Charge - Events in East Tennessee - Battle on Lookout Mountain and on Missionary Ridge - Operations Against Charleston - Robert Small - Death of General Mitchell. WHILE the loyal people were rejoicing because of the great deliverance at Gettysburg, and the Government was preparing for a final and decisive struggle with its foes, leading politicians of the Peace-Faction, evidently in affiliation with members of the disloyal organization known as Knights of the Golden Circle, were using every means in their power to defeat the patriotic purposes of the National Administration, and to stir up the people of the free-labor States to engage in a counter-revolution. The association called Knights of the Golden Circle was organized, it is said, as early as 1835, by some of the leaders who were engaged in the nullification movements in South Carolina two or three years before. Its chief objects were the separation of the Union politically, at the line between the free-labor and slave-labor States; the seizure of some of the richest portions of Mexico and the Island of Cuba, and the establishment of an empire whose corner-stone should be Slavery. The bounds of that empire were within a circle, the centre of which was at Havana, in Cuba, with a radius of sixteen degrees of latitude and longitude, reaching northward to the Pennsylvania border and southward to the Isthmus of Darien and even beyond. It would include the West India Islands and those of the Caribbean Sea, with a large part of Eastern Mexico and the whole of Central America. The limits of this empire the projectors called "The Golden Circle," and the members of the association, "Knights of the Golden Circle," who formed the soul of all the "fillibustering" operations before the breaking out of the Civil War, from 1850 to 1857. When these failed, their energies were put forth for the destruction of the Union. "Castles" or "lodges," with a secret ritual, were formed in various Southern States, and their membership included many active politicians north of the Ohio River, in 1863. These disloyal men in the northern States, countenanced by the unpatriotic Peace-Faction, became very vehement in their opposition to the Government when, in the summer of 1863, a draft or conscription to fill up the ranks of the army which had been authorized by Congress, was put into operation by the President. This act, the suspension of the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus, the arrest of seditious men, and other measures which the Government deemed necessary for the maintenance of the National authority, were denounced by the leaders of the party opposed to Mr. Lincoln's administration, as unconstitutional and outrageous. Instigated by raving political leaders, inflammatory speeches, and the daily utterances of the press that was in sympathy with the opponents of the draft, a mob, composed largely of the lower class of the Irish population in the city of New York, entered upon a fearful riot there early in July. It prevailed for almost three days. The immediate pretext for the disturbance was the alleged oppression of the draft. The riot was begun by destroying the telegraph wires extending out of the city. Then the rioters paraded some of the streets and forced citizens to join them and after first uttering cries against the draft, they yelled, "Down with the Abolitionists! down with the nigger! Hurrah for Jeff Davis! The special objects of their wrath were the innocent colored people and their friends. Arson and plunder, maiming and murder, were their business and recreation, Men and women were clubbed to death in the streets, hung on lamp-posts or butchered in their houses. The infuriated rioters laid in ashes an asylum for colored orphan children; and the terrified inmates, who fled in every direction, were pursued, and some of the poor children were cruelly beaten and maimed. The colored people throughout he city were hunted and treated as if they were noxious wild beasts, and many fled to the country. Finally the police, aided by troops, suppressed the insurrection in the city, but not until several hundred human lives had been lost, and property to the amount of at least $2,000,000 was destroyed. This riot seems to have been only an irregular manifestation of an organized outbreak in New York city simultaneously with a similar insurrection projected in some of the western cities. But the draft went on in spite of all opposition; and the Knights of the Golden Circle and the Peace. Faction were discomfited. The turn of affairs at Gettysburg made them more circumspect. They hesitated; and finally they postponed indefinitely an attempt to execute their scheme. And six months after the terrible "three days of July" - 13th, 14th and 15th in the city of New York, when no colored person's life was considered safe there, a regiment of negro soldiers, raised and equipped by the Loyal League of that city, marched down Broadway - its great thoroughfare - for the field of battle, escorted by many of the leading citizens of the metropolis, and cheered by thousands who covered the sidewalks and filled windows and balconies. At about that time, the notorious guerrilla chief, John Morgan, made a famous raid through Kentucky, Southern Indiana and Ohio, entering Indiana from Kentucky, below Louisville, on the 8th of July, with about four thousand mounted men. This raid was intended as a signal for the uprising of the disloyal men in those States in favor of the Confederates. The lesson taught at Gettysburg was heeded, and they were quiet. But there was a marvelous uprising of sixty thousand loyal yeomen of Indiana and Ohio to capture or expel the invaders. Morgan went swiftly through the country, from village to village, plundering, destroying, and levying contributions. He first encountered stout resistance from Indiana militia, and was soon closely pursued by those of Ohio. Finally this bold raider was hemmed in and made a prisoner, with many of his followers, in southeastern Ohio, late in July, and the remainder were killed or dispersed. Three days after General Lee escaped into Virginia, General Meade crossed the Potomac to follow his flying antagonist. The Nationals marched rapidly along the eastern base of the Blue Ridge, while the Confederates as rapidly went up the Shenandoah Valley, after trying to check Meade by threatening to re-enter Maryland. Failing in this, Lee hastened to avert the danger that menaced his front and flank. During that exciting race, several skirmishes occurred in the mountain passes; when Lee, by a quick and skillful movement while Meade was detained at Manassas Gap by a heavy skirmish, darted through Chester Gap, and crossing the Rappahannock, took a position between that stream and the Rapid Anna. Meade advanced cautiously, and at the middle of September, he crossed the Rappahannock and drove Lee beyond the Rapid Anne', when the latter took a strongly defensive position. Meanwhile the National cavalry under Buford and Kilpatrick had been active between the two rivers, and had frequent skirmishes with Stuart's mounted troops. Lee now attempted to turn the right flank of the Army of the Potomac to gain its rear and march rapidly on Washington. He had moved some distance for this purpose before Meade discovered his peril. Then a third race for the National Capital by the two armies over nearly the same course occurred. The Army of the Potomac won it, reaching Centreville Heights on the 15th of October. It was a race marked by the most stirring incidents, for there was much scouting and skirmishing on the way. At Jeffersonton, the National cavalry under General Gregg were routed; and at Auburn, the seat of John Minor Botts, a prominent Virginia statesman, Stuart, with two thousand Confederate cavalry, came very near being captured. From that point to Bristow's Station the race was sharp, for Centreville Heights was the goal. At Bristow's, a severe engagement occurred between the corps of Generals Warren and Hill. The latter was joined by that of Ewell; but before they could fall upon Warren, he withdrew in the night (October 14) and joined Meade at Centreville on the morning of the 15th. The race was ended at Bristow's Station. Lee was beaten, and fell back to the Rappahannock, destroying the railway behind him. Meade repaired the road, and following Lee slowly, attacked him at Rappahannock Station early in November. A very sharp battle ensued. It was fought by detachments of the Fifth and Sixth corps, under General Sedgwick; and it was ended by a gallant charge on a redoubt and rifle-trenches. These were carried in the face of a tempest of grape-shot and minie bullets, when the Nationals swept down to a pontoon bridge, cut off the retreat of the Confederates from the abandoned works, made over sixteen hundred of them prisoners, and drove Lee's army toward Culpepper Court-House. There the latter had proposed to go into winter-quarters; hut this disaster alarmed him, and he sought safety from his pursuer behind the Rapid Anne. His force was then fifty thousand strong, and Meade's numbered seventy thousand. With these the latter crossed the Rappahannock and lay quietly between the two rivers until late in November, while Lee occupied a line of strong defenses along Mine Run. Feeling strong enough for the enterprise, Meade proceeded, on the 26th of November, to attempt a dislodgment of his antagonist. He crossed the Rapid Anna on that day, and pushed on in the direction of his foe, General Warren, in the advance, opened a battle; but Meade soon perceived that the Confederates were too strongly intrenched and weighty in numbers to give him hopes of success, and he withdrew. The Army of the Potomac went into winter-quarters on the north side of the Rapid Anne and so was ended the campaign of that army for the year 1863. There had been comparative quiet in Western Virginia since the autumn of 1861 but in the summer and fall of 1863, that quiet was broken by an extensive raid over that region by National cavalry led by General W. W. Averill, who, before the close of the year, nearly purged West Virginia of armed Confederates, and seriously interrupted railway communication between the army of Lee in Virginia and Bragg in Tennessee. We left the last-named officer and Rosecrans confronting each other in Tennessee, after the battle of Murfreesboro Bragg below the Duck River and Rosecrans at the scene of the battle. The two armies held that relative position from January to June, 1863 while the cavalry forces of each were active in minor operations. Confederate cavalry, four thousand strong, led by Generals Wharton and Forrest, attempted to capture Fort Donelson early in February, but failed. A little later General Van Dorn, with a considerable force of cavalry, was near Franklin, below Nashville, threatening Rosecrans's supplies at the latter place. In March, General Sheridan drove Van Dorn south of the Duck River; and in the same month Morgan was operating with considerable effect eastward of Murfreesboro. Van Dorn reappeared near Franklin, early in April, with about nine thousand Confederates; and on the 10th he attacked the Nationals there, who were commanded by General Gordon Granger. Van Dorn intended, if he won, to push on and seize Nashville; but he was repulsed, and retired to Spring Hill with a loss of about three hundred men. In the meantime Rosecrans had sent out expeditions in various ways, the most remarkable of which was led by Colonel A. D. Streight, who left Nashville in steamers, debarked his troops at Fort Donelson, marched over to the Tennessee River, and moved up that stream to the borders of Mississippi and Alabama, getting horses by the way for the purpose of mounting his men. The latter service was nearly completed at Tuscumbia; and from that point Streight, with his troopers, swept in a curve bending eastward, through Alabama into Georgia, in the rear of Bragg's army. Their chief objects were Rome, where the Confederates had extensive iron-works, and Atlanta, the centre of an important system of railroads. They were pursued by the cavalry of Forrest and Roddy, and these parties skirmished and raced until Streight was within a few miles of Rome, when his exhausted horses and his ammunition failed him. Many of the poor beasts died; and when, on the 3rd of May (1863), the raiders were struck by their pursuers, the former were compelled to surrender. The captives were sent to Richmond and confined in the loathsome Libby Prison, from which Streight and one hundred of his officers escaped by burrowing under the foundations of that edifice. The Army of the Cumberland, in three divisions, commanded respectively by Generals Thomas, McCook and Crittenden, began its march from Murfreesboro to Chattanooga, in northern Georgia, late in June. Bragg was then strongly intrenched on the line of the Duck River, but was pushed back to Tullahoma; and when he saw Rosecrans seize the mountain passes on his front, and seriously menace his flank, he turned and fled without giving a blow, his antagonist pressing hard upon his rear. Having the advantage of railway communication, the retreating army very easily kept ahead of their pursuers, and passing rapidly over the Cumberland Mountains toward the Tennessee River, they crossed that stream at Bridgeport, destroying the bridge behind them, and made a rapid march to Chattanooga. The expulsion of Bragg's army from Tennessee alarmed and disheartened the Confederates, and they felt that everything depended on their holding Chattanooga, the key to East Tennessee and northern Georgia. Toward that point the Army of the Cumberland moved slowly; and late in August it had crossed the mountains, and was stretched along the Tennessee River from above Chattanooga, many a league westward. On the 21st of August, National artillery placed on the eminence opposite Chattanooga, awakened the mountain echoes with their thunder, and sent screaming shells over the Confederate camp. Bragg was startled by a sense of immediate danger; and when, soon afterward, Generals Thomas and McCook crossed the Tennessee, with their corps, and took possession of the passes of Lookout Mountain on Bragg's flank, and Crittenden took post at Wauhatchie, in Lookout Valley, nearer the river, the Confederates abandoned Chattanooga, passed through the gaps of Missionary Ridge and encamped on the Chickamauga Creek near Lafayette, in northern Georgia, there to meet expected National forces when pressing through the gaps of Lookout Mountain and threatening their communications with Dalton and Resaca. From the lofty summit of Lookout Mountain, Crittenden had observed the retreat of Bragg from the Tennessee River, and he immediately led his forces into the Chattanooga Valley and encamped at Ross's Gap in Missionary Ridge, within three miles of the town. General Burnside was then in command of the Army of the Ohio, and had been ordered to co-operate with Rosecrans. With twenty thousand men he climbed over the Cumberland Mountains into the magnificent Valley of East Tennessee, his baggage and stores carried, in many places, on the backs of pack-mules. On his entering the Valley, twenty thousand Confederates in East Tennessee, commanded by General Buckner, fled to Georgia and joined Bragg, when Burnside took a position near the Tennessee River, so as to have easy communication with Rosecrans at Chattanooga. The latter, meanwhile, erroneously supposing Bragg had begun a retreat toward Rome, had pushed through the mountain passes, when he was surprised to find that general, instead of retreating, concentrating his forces to attack the attenuated line of the Nationals, the extremities of which were fifty miles apart. Rosecrans proceeded at once to concentrate his own forces and very soon the two armies were confronting each other in battle array, on each side of Chickamauga Creek, in the vicinity of Crawfish Spring, each line extending toward the slopes of Missionary Ridge. General Thomas, who was on the extreme left of the National line, opened the battle on the morning of the 19th of September. It raged with great fierceness until dark, when the Nationals seemed to have the advantage. That night General Longstreet, whom Lee had sent from Virginia to assist Bragg, arrived with fresh troops which swelled the Confederate army to seventy thousand men, and gave to it a far better soldier than the chief leader. Rosecrans's army did not then exceed, in number, fifty-five thousand men. On the morning of the 20th the contest was renewed after a thick fog had risen from the earth. There was a fearful struggle. A furious charge upon the National right had shattered it into fragments, and these fled in disorder toward Chattanooga. This tide carried with it the troops led by Rosecrans, Crittenden and McCook; and the commanding-general, unable to join Thomas, and believing the whole army would speedily be hurrying pell-mell toward Chattanooga, hastened to that place to provide for rallying them there. Generals Sheridan and J. C. Davis rallied a part of these troops, and Thomas stood firm, frustrating every effort to turn his flank. Forty-eight hours after the battle the army, which had been withdrawn to Chattanooga, was strongly intrenched there. Victory crowned the Confederates in the battle of Chickamauga, but at the fearful cost of about twenty-one thousand men killed, wounded, and made prisoners. The Nationals lost about nineteen thousand men. During the contest a little volunteer soldier named John Clem, then about twelve years of age, performed a deed of daring. He had been in the thickest of the fight when, separated from his companions, he was seen running with a musket in his hand by a mounted Confederate colonel, who called out, "Stop! you little Yankee devil!" The boy halted, with his musket to an order, when the colonel rode up to make him a prisoner. Young Clem, with swift motion, brought up his gun and shot the colonel dead. The boy escaped; and for this achievement he was made a sergeant, put on duty at the headquarters of the Army of the Cumberland, and placed on the roll of honor by General Rosecrans. He grew to manhood, married, and held a position in one of the departments of Government in Washington. For a time the vanquished army suffered much at Chattanooga, for communication with their supplies by the Tennessee was cut off, the Confederates occupying Lookout Mountain and commanding that stream. Bragg hoped to starve his foes into submission. He strove to deprive them of all supplies, and severe struggles between detachments of the two armies were the consequences. Bragg failed. The National Government had determined to hold Chattanooga, and orders were given for the consolidation of the armies of the Cumberland and Tennessee, constituting the military division of the Mississippi, with General Grant as commander-in-chief. He had secured the free navigation of the Mississippi River, after the fall of Vicksburg and Port Hudson, by driving the Confederates, under Johnston, from the vicinity and strongly fortifying the first-named place; and when he took command of the new division, General Sherman was made the leader of the Army of the Tennessee, and General Thomas was placed in command of the Army of the Cumberland, Rosecrans having been ordered to St. Louis. When Grant arrived at Chattanooga, he ordered Hooker, who was at Bridgeport, to advance to Lookout Valley, menace Bragg's flank, and protect the passage of supplies up the Tennessee to within a short distance from the famishing armies. This was promptly done. Hooker's main force took post at Wauhatchie, where he was attacked before daylight on the morning of the 29th of October. After a battle for three hours in the darkness, the Confederates were beaten and driven away. An amusing incident of this struggle occurred. When it began, about two hundred mules, frightened by the noise, broke from their tethers and dashed into the ranks of Wade Hampton's legion, and produced a great panic. The Confederates supposed it to be a charge of Hooker's cavalry, and fell back, at first, in great confusion. The incident was a theme for a mock-heroic poem of six stanzas in imitation of Tennyson's "Charge of the Light Brigade," two verses of which were as follows: "Forward, the mule brigade - Was there a mule dismay'd? Not when their long ears felt All their ropes sundered. Theirs not to make reply - Theirs not to reason why - Theirs but to make them fly - On to the Georgia troops Broke the two hundred. Mules to the right of them - Mules to the left of them - Mules all behind them - Paw'd, neigh'd, and thundered; Breaking their own confines - Breaking through Longstreet's lines - Testing chivalric spines, Into the Georgia troops Storm'd the two hundred." After this battle, the Tennessee was free for vessels with supplies for the National troops, and the two armies lay confronting each other, only about three miles apart. Meanwhile there had been stirring events in the Valley of East Tennessee, where Burnside was trying to expel the Confederates. In these efforts he had spread his army considerably. Perceiving this, Bragg sent Longstreet to the Valley with a strong force to seize Knoxville and drive out the Nationals. He advanced swiftly and secretly and on the 20th of October he struck a startling blow at Burnside's outposts at Philadelphia. In obedience to a command from Grant, the latter concentrated his forces (Ninth Army Corps), fell back to Knoxville, and there intrenched. Longstreet pressed forward, and after some fighting by the way, he began a regular siege of Knoxville at the middle of November. He continued it to the close of the month, when Generals Granger and Sherman were sent to the relief of Burnside, and caused the swift flight of Longstreet toward Virginia. By this blunder, Bragg had lost the support of this superior commander. Hostilities had again occurred near Chattanooga. General Sherman arrived there, with his army, from the West. So strengthened, Grant determined to attack Bragg in the absence of Longstreet. On the 23rd of November, General Thomas seized a commanding eminence in front of Missionary Ridge, called Orchard Knob, and fortified it; and Hooker was ordered to attack Bragg's left, on Lookout Mountain, the next morning, to divert attention from the movements of Sherman, who was to cross the Tennessee, above Chattanooga, and fall upon Bragg's right, on the Ridge. Hooker moved with vigor, fighting his way up the rugged wooded steeps of Lookout Mountain with musket, rifle and cannon, driving the Confederates before him. During the heaviest of the struggle the mountain was hooded in vapor that arose from the Tennessee and hid the combatants from the view of the anxious spectators at Chattanooga. They could hear the thunders of the artillery, but the warriors were invisible. It was literally a battle in the clouds. Finally the Confederates were driven to the summit: and that night they fled down the northern slopes to the Chattanooga Valley, and joined their commander on Missionary Ridge. In the crisp air and the sunlight, the next morning, the Stars and Stripes were seen waving over "Pulpit Rock," on the crest of Lookout Mountain, from which, a few days before, Jefferson Davis had harangued the troops, assuring them that all was well with the Confederacy. Sherman, in the meantime, had crossed the Tennessee River and secured a position on the northern end of Missionary Ridge, on which Bragg had concentrated all his forces, and there the Confederates were attacked on front and flank on the 25th of November. Hooker came down from Lookout Mountain, and entering Ross's Gap, attacked Bragg's left, while Sherman was assailing his right. There was a fearful struggle, beheld with intense interest by General Grant, who stood on Orchard Knob and directed the movements of the National army. At length the centre, under General Thomas, moved up the declivities; and very soon the Confederates were driven from the Ridge, when they fled toward Ringgold, followed by a portion of the National army. At Ringgold, a sharp engagement occurred, when the Confederates retreated to Dalton, the Nationals fell back, and Sherman hastened to the relief of Burnside, as already mentioned. General Grant reported the Union loss, in the series of struggles which ended in victory at Missionary Ridge, at five thousand six hundred and sixteen, in killed, wounded, and missing. The Confederate loss was about three thousand one hundred, killed and wounded, and a little more than six thousand prisoners. Grant had also captured forty pieces of artillery and about seven thousand small arms. In a letter to the victorious general, the President thanked him and his men for their skill and bravery in securing "a lodgment at Chattanooga and Knoxville." Congress voted thanks and a gold medal for Grant, and directed the President of the Republic to cause the latter to be struck, "with suitable emblems, devices, and inscriptions." The general was the recipient of other tokens of regard, of various kinds; and the legislatures of New York and Ohio voted him thanks in the name of the people of those great States. During the first half of 1863, General J. G. Foster was in command of the National troops in North Carolina, with his headquarters at New Berne, from which point he sent out raiding parties to scatter Confederate forces who were gathering here and there to recover lost posts in that State. In these expeditions, many sharp skirmishes took place. The Nationals were generally successful, and confined their antagonists to the interior of the State. Finally, in July (I 863), Foster was called to the command at Fortress Monroe, and left his troops in charge of General Palmer. Meanwhile there had been important occurrences in the vicinity of Charleston, South Carolina, the capture of that city being one objective of the National Government. Attempts had been made the previous year by General David Hunter (commanding the Department of the South) and Admiral Dupont, to seize that city, but failed. Dupont had received important information concerning military affairs at Charleston, from Robert Small, a slave, who was a pilot in the Confederate service. One night, at the middle of May (1862), assisted by some fellow-bondsmen, Small took the Confederate steamer Planter out of Charleston harbor, delivered her to Dupont, gave him valuable information, and entered the service of the Republic. Soon afterward the National land troops took a position on James Island, near Charleston; and at Secessionville, General Benham, with a small force, fought the Confederates at the middle of June, and was defeated. Further attempts to capture Charleston were then suspended. Hunter was succeeded in the command of the department by General O. M. Mitchel, who, as we have observed, was called to Washington from Tennessee, where he chafed under Buell's command. He reached Hilton Head on the 16th of September, and with his usual vigor he devised plans and prepared to execute them for the public good. Hilton Head island was swarming with refugee slaves, and he at once took measures for their relief, laying out a village, causing neat and comfortable log-houses to be built for their residences, and finding employment for them. He was preparing to use his military force with vigor in his department; but before his arrangements were completed, he was smitten by a disease similar to the yellow fever, when he was conveyed to the more healthy locality of Beaufort, where he died on the 30th of October. From that time, until the spring of 1864, very little of importance occurred in the Department of the South, of which Hunter again became the commander.