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BURNSIDE SUPERSEDED.

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discontent in the army." He was competent to issue the order on his own responsibility; but, in compliance with judicious advice, he submitted it to the President. Mr. Lincoln was perplexed. He appreciated the patriotism and soldierly qualities of Burnside, yet he could not consent to the suspension or dismissal of the officers named, even had there been greater personal provocation. He talked with Burnside as a friend and brother, and it was finally arranged that the General should be relieved of the command of the Army of the Potomac, and await orders for further service. This was done, and Major-General Hooker succeeded him in the command. arrangement made at that time, whereby the country might be best served, was highly creditable to the President and to General Burnside.

The

Here we will leave the Army of the Potomac in winter quarters on the Rappahannock, and consider the stirring events in the great Valley of the Mississippi since the siege of Corinth, and the capture of New Orleans and Memphis.

1 In that order Generals Hooker, Brooks, and Newton were named for ignominious dismissal from the service, and Generals Franklin, W. F. Smith, Cochran, and Ferrero, and Lieutenant-Colonel J. H. Taylor, were to be relieved from duty in the Army of the Potomac. Generals Franklin and Smith, without the knowledge of Burnside, wrote a joint letter to the President on the 21st of December, expressing their belief that Burnside's plan of campaign could not succeed, and substantially recommending that of McClellan, by the James River and the country on its borders. The President replied that they were simply suggesting a plan fraught with "the old difficulty," and he appeared to be astonished, as Franklin had distinctly advised bringing the army away from the Peninsula.

2 January 26, 1863. By the order relieving Burnside from the command, Franklin was also relieved. So also was General Sumner, at his own request. He soon afterward died, at Syracuse, New York.

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CONDITION OF KENTUCKY.

CHAPTER XIX.

EVENTS IN KENTUCKY AND NORTHERN MISSISSIPPI

E left the Lower Mississippi, from its mouth to New Orleans, in possession of the forces under General Butler and Commodore Farragut, at the beginning of the summer of 1862;' and at the same time that river was held by the National forces from Memphis to St. Louis. General Thomas was at the head of a large force holding Southwestern Tennessee, and Generals Buell and Mitchel were on the borders of East Tennessee, where the Confederates were disputing the passage of National troops farther southward and eastward than the line of the Tennessee River. Beauregard's army was at Tupelo and vicinity, under General Bragg. Halleck had just been called to Washington to be General-in-Chief, and Mitchel was soon afterward transferred to the command of the Department of the South, with his head-quar ters at Hilton Head.

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Although the great armies of the Confederates had been driven from Kentucky and Tennessee, the absence of any considerable Union force excepting on the southern borders of the latter State, permitted a most distressing guerrilla warfare to be carried on within the borders of those commonwealths by mounted bands, who hung upon the rear and flanks of the National forces, or roamed at will over the country, plundering the Union inhabitants. The most famous of these guerrilla leaders was John H. Morgan, already mentioned. He professed to be a leader of cavalry attached to the Confederate army, and so he was, but such license was given to him by the Confederate authorities, that he was as frequently a commissioned free-booter in practice as a leader of horsemen in legitimate warfare.

Morgan's first exploit of much consequence having the semblance of regularity was his invasion of Kentucky with about twelve hundred followers, under the conviction that large numbers of the young men of his native State would flock to his standard, and he might become the liberator of the commonwealth from the "hireling legions of Lincoln." He left Knoxville, in East Tennessee, on the 4th of July, crossed the Cumberland Mountains, and entered Kentucky on its southeastern border.

On the 9th of July, Morgan, assisted by Colonel Hunt, routed a detachment of Pennsylvania cavalry under Major Jordan, at Tompkinsville, in Monroe County, when the commander and nineteen others were made prisoners, and ten were killed or wounded. The assailants lost ten killed, inclu1 See the latter part of chapter XIII. 4. Se page 264.

See page 296.

See page 294.

MORGAN AND HIS GUERRILLAS.

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ding Colonel Hunt. On the following day Morgan issued a characteristic proclamation to the citizens of Kentucky, declaring that he and his followers (who from the beginning to the end were mere guerrillas, in the fullest sense of that term) appeared as their liberators, and saying:-"Every where the cowardly foes have fled from my avenging arm. My brave army," he continued, "is stigmatized as a band

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of guerrillas and marauders. Believe it not. I point with pride to their deeds as a refutation of this foul assertion." He declared that the Confederate armies were rapidly advancing to their protection, and said:-"Greet them with the willing hands of fifty thousand of Kentucky's bravest sons. Their advance is already with you." Morgan's men, at that time, really formed the advance of the Confederate hosts, whose business was to terrify the Unionists of Kentucky, recruit from the ranks of the secessionists, and prepare the way for a formidable invasion by Bragg.

JOHN H. MORGAN.

a July, 1862.

Morgan's force was soon increased by several hundred recruits from the young men of Kentucky, and he roamed about the heart of the State, plundering and destroying with very little molestation. On the 12th he attacked and defeated Unionists under Lieutenant-Colonel Johnston at Lebanon, Kentucky, the termination of the Lebanon branch of the Louisville and Nashville railway. He captured the place, and made the commander and twenty-six soldiers and Home Guards prisoners. His raid was so rapid and formidable that it produced intense excitement throughout the State. General Boyle, who was in command at Louisville, issued a proclamation' ordering every able-bodied man to "take arms, and aid in repelling the marauders;" and directed him, if he did not, to remain in his house forty-eight hours under the penalty of being shot if found out of it.

July 3.

e July 17.

Morgan pressed on toward the Ohio. On the 14th he destroyed the long railway bridge between Cynthiana and Paris, and the next day he laid waste a portion of the track of the Lexington and Louisville railway, and the telegraph along its border. Two days afterward' he led his entire force' against three hundred and fifty Home Guards at Cynthiana, on the Covington and Cincinnati railway, under Lieutenant-Colonel Landrum. These maintained a severe fight with the guerrillas, but were overpowered and dispersed after losing thirteen killed and thirty-four wounded, and inflicting a loss on the assailants of twenty-four killed and seventy-eight wounded.

Cincinnati was now not far distant, and Morgan cast longing eyes toward its treasures of every kind. His approach had inspired it and its

1 Morgan's force was now about 2.200 in number, and was composed of three regiments, comprising Kentuckians, Tennesseeans, Georgians, Mississippians, Texans, and South Carolinians.

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