A couple of National officers in Baltimore adopted a course, under similar provocation, which operated very happily. They were quietly walking the pavement, when they were met by a woman, elegantly dressed, who grossly insulted them, as she passed. They turned and followed her, at a little distance, and unnoticed, to her residence. It was a mansion of such dimensions as to indicate opulence in the proprietor. Ringing at the door, they inquired for the master of the house. As he entered, a pompous, self-important man, one of the officers rose and said to him, very blandly, "We are sorry to intrude upon you, sir. But we have been grossly insulted by a female member of your family. As we cannot submit to insults unavenged, and as we cannot avenge ourselves upon a woman, we are under the necessity of holding you responsible. Here is my card. Will you do me the favor to select a friend, who, with my friend, will make arrangements for our meeting. You, of course, have the choice of weapons; swords, pistols, rifles, or whatever you please.' The proud man was terror-stricken. He went out to see his wife. She was equally terrified. After a time they both came in together, and the feminine rebel made a very humble apology. She was afterwards a marked woman, and her demeanor was so wonderfully improved by the incident, that she was never known to cast even a disrespectful look upon a National officer again. Nashville was the residence of James K. Polk, formerly President of the United States, and one of the very few who have acquired wealth while in the presidential chair. His honored widow resided in a beautiful mansion, embellished with tasteful surroundings-the grounds richly decorated with cedars and magnolias. In one corner, beneath a costly tomb, slumbered the remains of him who was once the chief of this great Republic. Gen. Grant and his staff called to pay their respects to the widow, whose position demanded this attention. They were received with all that elegant politeness which had formerly graced the White House. But their reception was polite only, not patriotic. The polished coldness of the interview, indicated but too plainly in what direction the sympathies of the widow flowed. She expressed the hope that the tomb of her husband would protect her household from insult, and her property from pillage; further than this, she expected nothing and desired nothing from the United States. And yet these United States had raised her husband to rank and honor, and had conferred upon her that ample fortune which cheered her declining days. In the capture of Donelson, the fleet, though finally disabled, lent very efficient aid. Still the army is entitled to the highest praise for this wonderful achievement. But for such heroism, on the part of the patriotic troops, as has seldom been witnessed on the field of battle, these massive works, behind which were stationed eighteen thousand determined men, never could have been taken.* * The Hon. J. W. Grimes, in his speech in the United States' Senate, March 13, 1862, introduces a letter from an intelligent gentleman in the West, containing the following words: "When Fort Henry surrendered, the gate was opened by which rebellion will be utterly and finally crusted. The battles of Fort Henry and Fort Donelson were but a part of the siege of Columbus. These posts were, in fact, outworks of that great Mississippi fortress, which outworks being taken, the fortress itself became untenable. This was manifest to every mind, of any military sagacity. Commodore Foote, of course, perceived it, and was anxious to move immediately upon Columbus. He was exceedingly unwilling, by delay, to give the rebels opportunity to escape, with all their resources of war, from that stronghold. He expressed his most confident assurance that, with his gunand mortar-boats, he could shell them into a speedy surrender. But again, for reasons which are not divulged, and which no ordinary sagacity can divine, he was compelled to give way to the counsels of military commanders.* On the 27th all the gun-boats and mortar-boats on the Cumberland River, were ordered to rendezvous immediately at Cairo. At two o'clock in the morning of Tuesday, March 4, Admiral Foote took a fleet of six gun-boats and four mortar-boats, with four thousand men in transports, and, in the gloom of the undawned morning, steamed down the river for a reconnoissance, in force, of Columbus, which the rebels called the Gibral tar of America. Two hours down the rapid current brought them to Lucas Bend, three miles above Columbus. It was now broad day, the morning was clear and cold, and the bluffs of Columbus stood out, clearly defined, against the morning sky. As soon as all the boats had arrived, preparations were made for a desperate action. The guns were loaded, and the gunners stationed at their posts. Magazine stewards, shell boys, powder boys, all were ready for their appropriate work. Every article was removed which could interfere with efficient action. The four mortar-boats were towed to the right bank of the Missouri, and made fast to some trees near Belmont Point, from which spot they could throw their terrific shells into the fort. Everything was now ready for the attack. Just then a farmer was seen upon the Missouri shore. He was hailed, and he said that the rebels had left Columbus, carrying all their arms and munitions with them, and laying the town in ashes. This was startling and humiliating intelligence, and it could hardly be believed that it was true. The fleet drifted slowly down the stream for half an hour, when, by the aid of a very powerful glass, a large and very singular-looking flag was seen floating over the ramparts. It had manifestly too many stripes for the rebel flag, and it was hardly conceivable that the banner of the Union could as yet be raised there. Under these circumstances of perplexity Admiral Foote refrained from throwing any shells into the works, but sent a couple of tugs to land a detachment of the 27th Illinois, under In a few days Commodore Foote will open the Mississippi, provided he is not hampered by the Government. He has done a great work for his country-a work which, I am sorry to say, has not been properly appreciated. I see it stated in the papers, that the gun-boats did but little service at Donelson. This is a monstrous mistake. They silenced nearly all the enemy's guns; and had not the wheels of one boat, and the tiller ropes of another, been shot away, in fifteen minutes more the batteries would have been flanked, and the entire rebel army exposed to the broadsides of the fleet. He would have mowed them down like grass. As it was he made the work of the army, in the fight of Saturday, much easier than it otherwise would have been." * See Speech of Hou. James W. Grimes, to which we have referred. Col. Beaufort, in the vicinity of the upper batteries, cautiously to explore the ground, under the protection of the gun-boats. As the tugs descended the river, and approached the designated spot for landing, the strange banner was clearly revealed as our National flag, rudely improvised from strips of calico. Never before, writes an eye-witness, was a hill of such magnitude clambered so rapidly as was the great bluff of Columbus to-day by the Illinois volunteers. The rebels had all fled. Not a man, gun, wagon, or ration scarcely, was left behind. In less than five minutes from the time the men landed, they were all in the fort, and a beautiful silk flag was unfurled. The scene around them was one of utter desolation. As the rebels had held the whole command of the river below, they could move at their pleasure. As all Union men had been mercilessly driven from the rebel lines, and as no colored men, by Gen. Halleck's irrational order, were permitted to enter our lines, our troops, though in great force at Cairo, but twenty miles distant, could receive no information whatever respecting the movements of the foe. Thus was our heroic army exposed to the disgrace of having the rebels escape them, without any loss. The foe must have smiled complacently over his achievement. Soon after the same feat, on a still more humiliating scale, was performed at Manassas, and again at Corinth. Posterity will hardly credit such statements. The rebels at Columbus, having made all needful preparations, commenced their leisurely evacuation on the preceding Thursday. Having taken away everything which they wished to remove, and tumbled the heavy guns down over the bluff, into the river, they applied, on Friday, the torch to everything that could be burned. The conflagration raged, with great fury, until Sunday. On Monday afternoon, Col. Hogg, with two hundred and fifty men of the Illinois cavalry, from Paducah, probably judging from the smoke and other appearances, that the place was being evacuated, cautiously approached. Meeting with nothing but silence and solitude, they entered, in amazement, the deserted intrenchments at five o'clock in the afternoon, and hastily constructed and reared the rude banner, which the earliest light of the next morning revealed to the eyes of our descending fleet. At the time of the evacuation, nineteen thousand troops were in the place, under command of Bishop General Polk.* They departed by railroad and by twenty transports. They tore up the railroad behind them for six miles, burning all the bridges. Their destination was Island No. 10, thirty miles below, and New Madrid, forty miles distant. Our troops * Leonidas Polk was born in North Carolina about the year 1805. He was educated at the expense of the United States at the Military Academy at West Point, where he took the oath of allegiance to the National flag, which oath he afterwards so outrageously dishonored. He entered West Point in 1823, and graduated in the artillery in 1827. In six months after graduation, he resigned his commission, and studying for the church, entered the Episcopal ministry, being ordained in 1831. In 1838, he was appointed "Missionary Bishop" of Arkansas and the Indian Territory. In 1841, he was elected to the Episcopal See of Louisiana. Being an earnest proslavery man, he was in warm sympathy with the rebels, and upon the breaking out of the rebellion, he resigned his bishopric, and accepted from Jeff. Davis a commission in the rebel army, as Major-General. Thus far, he has acquired no distinction. in possession, immediately signaled the fleet. They rapidly descended the river, and the whole force rushed eagerly into the works, deep chagrin being blended with their rejoicing. The fortifications extended from the Iron Bluffs above, so called, to the Chalk Bluffs below, a distance of four miles. Every prominent bluff around the place was fortified. A massive iron chain, which they had extended across the Mississippi, was left. Many torpedoes were scattered along the shore. The bluff upon which this fort was reared, projecting slightly into the river, faces the north, commanding the stream for four miles. There were three tiers of batteries; the first about fifteen feet above the water, the second, perhaps, fifty feet above this, and the third on the top of the hill. The fortifications were equally strong on every side. The quarters for the troops were clay cabins, six feet square, and sunk three feet into the earth. There were enough of these to accommodate thirty thousand men. There were two subterranean magazines, admirably constructed so as to be accessible from all parts of the fortifications. The fort was supplied with water from the river, by means of a force pump, driven by a steam engine. The little town of Columbus, in the vicinity, was, until war's desolation nearly blotted it out, a hamlet of about a thousand inhabitants, deriving its only importance from the fact that it was the terminus of the Mobile and Ohio Railroad. J Thus fell, without the firing of a gun, the Gibraltar of the West. With Donelson and Henry in possession of the National troops, it was manifest that Columbus, however impregnable in itself, could not be maintained. Our troops could now, unobstructed, march across the country, seize the railroads, and plant their batteries on the Mississippi, below Columbus. Thus the rebels would have been cut off from all their supplies, and starved into surrender. Their only refuge was in precipitate flight. Mere fighting often gains victories. It requires accomplished generalship to avail oneself of the results of victory. Thus far, the National cause has not had much in this line to boast of. Our generals were all inexperienced. Perhaps the future will present more brilliant results. The capture of Forts Henry and Donelson were glorious achievements. But impartial history is constrained to say, that with such soldiers and such victories, Cæsar, Napoleon or Wellington, would have made the traitorous heart of all rebeldom to quake. CHAPTER XXI. GENERAL MITCHEL'S CAMPAIGN. GEN. MITCHEL COMMISSIONED BRIGADIER-GENERAL.-TRANSPARENT CHARACTER OF GEN. THE brilliant campaign of General Ormsby M. Mitchel* through Tennessee, into Alabama, constitutes an epic of the war, which must ever excite admiration. His movement was almost as sudden and luminous, as the paths of the meteors, which he had so often followed through the skies. On the 28th of September, 1861, he was appointed Brigadier-General, and was assigned a command in the army of the West, under Gen. Buell, near Louisville, Kentucky. Here he became a great favorite with his troops, who, well-informed as to his astronomical and scientific reputation, gave him the pet name of "Old Stars." He reached Cincinnati just at the time that it was manifest to all, that Kentucky must throw off her neutrality, and espouse the one side or the other. It became a matter of the utmost moment, that that important State should be saved to the Union; and yet for a time, it was very uncertain to which side the State would gravitate. Gen. Mitchel was just the man for the place, and the hour. He put forth all his extraordinary energies in the organization of troops, and in dispatching them across the river into Kentucky. The attention of the Government was attracted by the sagacity he manifested, and the promptness with which his plans were executed. He had soon quite a force collected on the Kentucky shore, and solicited per * General O. M. Mitchel was born in Union County, Kentucky, Aug. 28, 1810. At twelve years of age, with a good common-school education, he entered a store, as a clerk, in Miami, Ohio. He soon, however, received a cadet's warrant, and in June, 1825, reached West Point, with a knapsack on his back, and twenty-five cents in his pocket. He graduated with distinction in 1829, and was employed Assistant Professor of Mathematics two years. As there was nothing in the army then to interest him, he studied law, and opened an office in Cincinnati. His scientific taste and attainments, drew him from the uncongenial pursuits of the law, to the chair of mathematics, philosophy and astronomy, in the college at Cincinnati. His ability and sleepless energy, rapidly acquired for him distinction, and he was invited to give lectures upon Astronomy in most of the leading cities of the Union. The lectures were attended by crowded audiences, and were received with great enthusiasm. Mainly through his influence an Astronomical Observatory was established at Cincinnati. In 1859, he was appointed director of the Dudley Observatory, at Albany. Upon the breaking out of the rebellion, with all his constitutional enthusiasm, he espoused the cause of his country. |