504

1865.

STONEMAN'S GREAT RAID.

movements. Before Stoneman was ready to move, Sherman had marched so far and so triumphantly that the aid of the former was not needed, and he was ordered to march eastward and destroy the Virginia and Tennessee railroad, as far toward Lynchburg as possible. He concentrated the cavalry brigades of Colonels Palmer, Miller, and Brown, of Gillem's division, about six thousand strong, at Mossy Creek; on the 20th of March. He moved eastward to Bull's Gap, where he divided his forces, sending Miller toward Bristol, to make a feint, and moving with the rest of March 28, his command to Jonesboro', when he crossed over Stone Mountain into North Carolina, to Boone. There, after a sharp skirmish, he captured two hundred Home Guards. Thence he moved through mountain gaps to Wilkesboro', where the advance skirmished' and captured prisoners and stores. Continuing his march, he crossed the Yadkin River at Jonesville, and, turning northward, went on to Cranberry Plain, in Carroll County, Virginia. From that point he sent Colonel Miller to Wytheville, to destroy the railway in that vicinity, and with the main force he moved eastward to Jacksonville, skir mishing with Confederates at the crossing of Big Red Island Creek. Jacksonville, Major Wagner advanced on Salem, and sweeping along the railway eastward, destroyed it from New River Bridge to within four miles of Lynchburg. At the same time Stoneman, with the main body, advanced on · Christiansburg, and, sending troops east and west, destroyed the railway for about ninety miles,' and then returned to Jacksonville.

March 29.

April 2.

Having performed his prescribed duty, General Stoneman turned his face southward, and, on the 9th of April, struck the North Carolina railroad between Danville and Greensboro'. At Germantown several hundred negroes, who had joined the column, were sent back into East Tennessee. At the same time Colonel Palmer was sent to destroy the railroad between Salisbury and Greensboro', and the factories at Salem, in North Carolina; while the main column moved on Salisbury, forcing the Yadkin at Huntsville," and skirmishing near there. Palmer performed his duty well, and near Deep River Bridge, he captured a South Carolina regiment of four hundred men.

✔ April 11.

Salisbury was a prisoner-depot, and a considerable Confederate force was stationed there, under General W. M. Gardiner. They were about three thousand strong. They were found at Grant's Creek, ten miles east of Salisbury, early on the 12th, with eighteen guns, under the direction 'April. of Pemberton, Grant's opponent at Vicksburg, now reduced from a lieutenant-general to a colonel. This force was gallantly charged by the brigades of General A. C. Gillem and Colonel Brown, of the Eleventh Michigan Cavalry, and instantly routed. Its guns were all captured, and over twelve hundred of its men were made prisoners. The spoils, besides the cannon, were three thousand small-arms, and a vast quantity of stores of every kind. Those of the Confederates who fled were chased several miles. In Salisbury were found a vast collection of ammunition, provision, clothing,

1 Major E. C. Moderwell, of Palmer's brigade (from whom the author received a very interesting account of this raid), after describing the manner of destroying railroad tracks, similar to that mentioned in note 2, page 392 says, “A regiment of men could destroy from three to five miles an hour."

MODERWELL'S EXPEDITION.

505

and medicine, with ten thousand small-arms, four cotton factories, and seven thousand bales.of cotton. These were all destroyed, with the railway tracks in each direction from Salisbury. The Union prisoners had been removed. The prison-pens where they had suffered were destroyed.

On the 17th of April, Stoneman started, with a part of his command, for East Tennessee, taking with him the prisoners, captured artillery, and thousands of negroes. On the following day, General Palmer, whose command was at Lincolnton, sent Major E. C. Moderwell, with two hundred and fifty men of the Twelfth Ohio Cavalry, to destroy the bridge of the Charlotte and South Carolina

railroad, over the Catawba River. At that time, Jefferson Davis, having fled from Richmond, was at Charlotte with a very considerable force; and the mounted men of Vaughn and Duke, who had come down from the borders of Virginia, were on the Catawba. On that account it was necessary to

move with great

April, 1865.

caution. At Dallas, Moderwell had a skirmish with these cavalry leaders, but evaded a battle with them; and at daybreak on the 19th," the Union force arrived at the doomed bridge, where they captured the picket and surprised the guard, The bridge, delineated in the engraving, was a splendid structure, eleven hundred and fifty feet in length, and fifty feet above the water. Moderwell's men set it on fire at one end, and in thirty minutes it was completely destroyed. After skirmishing with Ferguson's Confederate cavalry (which came up on the north side of the bridge) for two hours, the raiders turned back, and, by marching all night, rejoined the brigade at Dallas, with three hundred and twenty-five prisoners, two hundred horses, and two pieces of artillery. This was one of the most gallant little exploits of the war.

During the raid just recorded, the National cavalry captured six thousand prisoners, twenty-five pieces of artillery taken in action, and twenty-one abandoned by the foe, and a large number of small-arms; and they destroyed an immense amount of public property.

1 The writer is indebted to Major Moderwell for the above picture of the bridge.

506

PREPARATIONS TO ATTACK MOBILE.

CHAPTER XIX.

THE REPOSSESSION OF ALABAMA BY THE GOVERNMENT.

Aug., 1864.

HE repossession of Alabama was an important part of General Grant's comprehensive plan of campaign for the winter and spring of 1865. The capture of the forts at the entrance to Mobile Bay was a necessary preliminary movement.. Had Farragut then known how weakly Mobile was defended, he and Granger might easily have captured it. They closed the port, and its value to the Confederates as a commercial depot, or as a gate of communication with the outer world, was thereby effectually destroyed.

For several months after the harbor of Mobile was sealed, there was comparative quiet in that region. The grand movements in Georgia and in Middle Tennessee occupied the attention of all. At length, when Sherman had finished his triumphal march through Georgia, to the sea-board, and Thomas had decimated Hood's army in Middle Tennessee, Grant and the Government determined to take active measures for the repossession of Alabama, by a movement against Mobile, aided by other operations in the inte rior. The conduct of the expedition against Mobile was assigned to General E. R. S. Canby, then commanding the West Mississippi Army, with headquarters at New Orleans; and the co-operating movement was intrusted to General J. H. Wilson, the eminent cavalry leader, under the direction of General Thomas.

Mobile, at the beginning of 1865, was thoroughly fortified by three continuous lines of earth-works around the entire city. The first was constructed by Captain C. T. Lieurner, in 1862, at an average distance of three miles out from the business streets, and comprised fifteen redoubts. In 1863, after the fall of Vicksburg, when an attack upon Mobile was expected, General D. Leadbetter constructed a second line of works, which passed through the suburbs of the city, comprising sixteen inclosed and strong redoubts. It was then estimated that a garrison of ten thousand effective men might, with these fortifications, defend Mobile against a besieging army of forty thousand men. In 1864, a third line of earth-works was constructed by Lieutenant

1 At that time there were no troops in or immediately about the city. The artillery, also, had been called away to oppose A. J. Smith's troops, then approaching from Memphis (see page 248), and then they were sent to West Point, in Georgia, for the support of General Hood, where they erected a strong work, commanding the railway and the Chattahochee River. But a large re-enforcement of Granger's command would have been necessary to have enabled the National forces to hold the post.

2 See page 174, volume I., and page 38, volume II.

FORTIFICATIONS AROUND MOBILE.

507

Colonel V. Sheliha, about half-way between the other two, and included nineteen heavy bastioned forts and eight redoubts, making, in all the fortifi cations around the

city, fifty-eight forts

and redoubts, with connecting

breast

works. The parapets of the forts were from fifteen to twenty feet in thickness, and the ditches, through

which the tide-water of the harbor flowed, were about twenty feet in depth and thirty in width. Besides these land defenses of Mobile, there were several well-armed batteries along the shore below the city, and in the harbor commanding the channels of approach to the town, besides several which

guarded the entrances to the rivers that flow into the head of Mobile Bay. General J. E. Johnston said Mobile was the best fortified place in the Confederacy. It

was garrisoned by about fifteen thousand men, including the troops on the east side of the bay, and a thousand negro laborers, subject to the command of the engi neers. These were under the direct command of General D. H. Maury. General Dick Taylor was then in charge of

the Department

1 This shows the position of the defenses near the city, on land and in the harbor. The position of the more remote defenses, on the east side of the bay, are indicated on a subsequent page.

Along the shore, below the city, were Batteries Missouri, Mound and Buchanan. Just below the latter, and terminating the middle line of fortifications, was Fort Sidney Johnston. In the harbor were two floating batteries and four stationary ones, named, respectively, Tighlman, Gladden, Canal, and MeIntosh: The channels were obstructed by piles in many rows.

3 This was the appearance of a portion of the inner line of works, in the suburbs of the city, near Dauphin Street, as it appeared when the writer sketched it in April, 1866. The picket fence indicates the line of Dauphin Street.

508

GATHERING TROOPS AT NEW ORLEANS.

The movable forces under Canby's command, had been organized into brigades, called the "Reserve Corps of the Military Division of the West Mississippi," and numbered about ten thousand effective men.

• 1865.

• February.

Early in

January, these were concentrated at Kenner, ten miles above New Orleans, and General F. Steele' was assigned to take command of them. A part of this force was soon afterward sent to Fort Barrancas, in Pensacola Bay, and the remainder followed directly. These, with the addition of seven regiments, and several light batteries, were organized as the Thirteenth Army Corps, comprising three divisions, and General Gordon Granger was assigned to its command. Meanwhile, the Sixteenth Army Corps (General A. J. Smith), which had assisted in driving Hood out of Tennessee, was ordered to join Canby. It was then cantoned at Eastport. Early in February, it went in transports, accompanied by Knipe's division of cavalry, five thousand strong, by the waters of the Tennessee, Ohio, and Mississippi rivers, to New Orleans, where it arrived on the 21st,' after a travel of over thirteen hundred miles in the space of eleven days. There the corps remained awhile, waiting for the perfection of the arrangements for the expedition under Wilson, which was to sweep down from the north, through Alabama, simultaneously with Canby's attack on Mobile. The corps finally moved again, and arrived at Fort Gaines, on Dauphin Island, on the 7th of March, where a siege train was organized, consisting of seven batteries of the First Indiana Artillery, two of the Sixth Michigan, and one of Mack's Eighteenth New York. The cavalry marched overland from New Orleans. At the middle of March, every thing was in readiness for an attack on Mobile, with from twenty-five thousand to thirty thousand troops, composed of the Thirteenth and Sixteenth Corps, Knipe's cavalry division, and a brigade of cavalry, a division of infantry, and another of negro troops, under General Steele, at Barrancas. The West Gulf Squadron, commanded by Rear-Admiral Thatcher, was there, to co-operate.

Mobile was so strongly fortified, that a direct attack upon it on the western side of the bay, was deemed too hazardous, and involved a protracted siege; it was therefore determined to flank the post by a movement of the main army up the eastern shore, and in concert with the navy, seize the fortifications on the islands and main land at the head of the bay, and then approach Mobile by way of Tensas River, or one of the channels above) the city. For this purpose, a point on Fish River, that empties into Bon Secour Bay, north of Mobile Point, was chosen as the place of rendezvous for the troops, and a base of operations, at a distance of not more than twenty miles from Spanish Fort, the heaviest of the fortifications to be attacked.3 That movement was begun on the 17th, when the • March. Thirteenth Corps marched from Fort Morgan, on Mobile Point, and made its way slowly over a swampy region in heavy rains, consuming

See page 252.

2 The Twenty-ninth and Thirty-third Iowa, Fiftieth Indiana, Twenty-seventh, Twenty-eighth and Thirtyfifth Wisconsin, and Seventy-seventh Ohio.

The old Spanish Fort, erected when the Spaniards had possession of Mobile, was a rectangular bastioned work on a bluff commanding Blakely River and its vicinity. The works known as Spanish Fort, erected by the Confederates, extended along the bluff nearly two miles, and included two other works, known, respectively. as Red Fort and Fort Alexis, or Dermett. These works were calculated for 36 guns, and a garrison of 2,500

men.