CHAP. XXI.

NEGRO TROOPS.

1653

never armed them. It might have been a fatal experiment. They were organized under white leaders, and were "armed and equipped" with axes, shovels, spades, pick-axes, and blankets.

The natural docility of the negro made him an excellent man to discipline for a soldier; and his faithfulness and courage were never surpassed, in strength and endurance, by the white man's faithfulness and courage. Their conduct throughout the war was most remarkable. Their numbers, in some of the revolted States, were nearly equal to those of the white people; and in the absence of the men of the latter race, in the army, the whole region which they occupied was absolutely at their mercy. There were, at first, apprehensions that the negroes, perceiving their opportunity and advantage, would rise in insurrection and assert their right to freedom. On the contrary, they worked faithfully and patiently for their masters, on the plantations, and there is no record of an attempt, by individuals or in numbers, of that vast servile population, to gain their liberty. Not a woman or child was injured by their slaves; on the contrary, they were the trusted protectors from violence, of the wives and children of the Confederate soldiers. They had faith that God would, in his own good time, deliver them from bondage; and in that faith they patiently waited and suffered. Because of their faithfulness and forbearance, when they might have filled the land with horror, the colored population of the South deserve the everlasting gratitude and good-will of the white people there, whose families they protected and by their labor supplied with food and clothing during the terrible Civil War. History furnishes no parallel to the noble conduct of the negroes toward those who were making war for the purpose of perpetuating the slavery of their race.

CHAPTER XXII.

ANOTHER INVASION OF MISSOURI AND ITS RESULTS-MORGAN IN EAST TENNESSEE - CAVALRY OPERATIONS AGAINST RICHMOND-CAMPAIGN OF THE ARMY OF THE POTOMAC BEGUN-BATTLES IN THE WILDERNESS AND NEAR SPOTTSYLVANIA COURT-HOUSE- SHERIDAN'S RAIDOPERATIONS BETWEEN PETERSBURG AND RICHMOND-KAUTZ'S RAID-STRUGGLES OF GRANT AND LEE BATTLE AT COOL ARBOR THE NATIONALS CROSS THE JAMES AND INVEST PETERSBURG- CONFEDERATE INVASION OF MARYLAND SALVATION OF WASHINGTON-A PLUNDERING RAID TO CHAMBERSBURG SHERIDAN IN THE SHENANDOAH VALLEY - HIS BRILLIANT CAMPAIGN-RICHMOND THREATENED-SIEGE OF PETERSBURG-CAPTURE OF FORT HARRISON-MEDAL TO COLORED TROOPS-LOSSES-SHERMAN'S CAMPAIGN IN GEORGIA.

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HE Confederates were emboldened by the failure of the Red River expedition and the expulsion of Steele from the region below the Arkansas River; and raiding bands awed the Unionists into silence and inactivity. This state of things gave Price an opportunity early in the autumn to invade Missouri again, this time chiefly with a political object in view. Secret societies, in sympathy with the Knights of the Golden Circle, had been formed in Missouri and neighboring Southern States, whose object was to give aid to the Confederate cause and assist in the election of General McClellan (who had been nominated by the Democratic party) to the office of President of the United States. Price had been promised twenty thousand recruits, if he should enter Missouri with a respectable military force. He and General Shelby went over the Missouri border late in September (1864), with twenty thousand followers, and pushed on to Pilot Knob, half-way to St. Louis. But the promised recruits did not appear. The vigilant Rosecrans, in command of the Department of the Missouri, had discovered the plans of the disloyalists, and by some arrests had so frightened them that they prudently remained in concealment. Price was sorely disappointed; and he soon perceived that a web of great peril was gathering around him. At Pilot Knob, General Ewing, with a brigade of National troops, struck him an astounding blow. Soon afterward, these, with other troops under Generals A. J. Smith and Mower, sent Price flying westward toward Kansas, closely pursued. The exciting chase was enlivened by severe skirmishes; and late in November, Price was a fugitive in western Arkansas, with a broken and dispirited army. This was the last invasion of Missouri.

CHAP XXII.

FATE OF A GUERRILLA CHIEF.

1655

When Longstreet retired from Knoxville, he lingered awhile between there and the Virginia border; but he finally went to the aid of Lee's menaced army. Morgan, the guerrilla chief, remained in East Tennessee until the close of the following May (1864), when he went over the mountains and raided through the richest portions of Kentucky. General Bur bridge went after him, and soon drove him and his shattered columns back into East Tennessee. He was surprised at Greenville, where he was shot

dead in a vineyard while attempting to escape. Soon afterward the region between Knoxville and the Virginia line became the theatre of some stirring minor events while General Breckenridge was in command of the Confederates there.

Let us now resume the consideration of the military movements against Richmond and Atlanta.

The campaign of the Army of the Potomac under General Meade, against the Army of Northern Virginia led by General Lee, in the spring of 1864, was preceded by some movements for the capture of Richmond and the

liberation of Union soldiers confined in Libby Prison, and on Belle Isle in the James River at that city. Treachery defeated the purpose for which, in February, General B. F. Butler, in command of the Department of Virginia and North Carolina, sent fifteen hundred troops, foot and horse, under General Wistar, against Richmond. General Kilpatrick, with five thousand of his cavalry, came from the Army of the Potomac to co-operate with him. They swept within the outer lines of the defences of Richmond, on the first of March; and Colonel Dahlgren, son of the admiral of that name, with another portion of that cavalry, was repulsed the next day, and was killed. A few days later, General Custer, with his horsemen, threatened Lee's communications in the direction of the Shenandoah Valley. The movements of Wistar were made fruitless, owing to a deserter, who gave the Confederates warning of it, and they were prepared to meet it.

The grand movement of the Army of the Potomac began in May. When it crossed the Rapid Anné and tried to go swiftly by Lee's flank under cover of the dense woods of the Wilderness, and plant itself between the Confederate army and Richmond, the vigilant Lee discovered the movement and boldly attacked the Nationals. The two armies numbered, in the aggregate, about two hundred thousand men; and that mighty host fought desperately for almost two days (May 5th and 6th) on one of the most remarkable battle-fields ever known. The ground was covered with a thick growth of pines, cedars, and shrub-oaks, with tangled underbrush and vines, wherein regular military movements were impossible. Cavalry could not contend; and no single vision could discern a thousand men at one time. In that mysterious land the brave General Wadsworth of the Genesee Valley was killed, and the slaughter of troops was fearful. Both armies were badly shattered; and there was no victory for either. The Confederates withdrew to their intrenchments; and the Nationals, led by General Warren, hastened to the open country near Spottsylvania Court-House.

Lieutenant-General Grant was the guiding-spirit in the National army. He was determined to flank Lee; but when his troops emerged from the Wilderness, he found the Confederates in heavy force and rapidly gathering athwart his path. Arrangements were immediately made for another battle, during which the gallant General Sedgwick, leader of the Sixth corps, was killed by a Confederate sharp-shooter. Both armies were cautious in their movements; and finally, on the morning of the 10th (May, 1864), when all was in readiness, a furious conflict began and raged all day with dreadful losses on each side. On the following morning, General Grant sent to the President the famous despatch, in which he said: “I propose to fight it out on this line, if it takes all summer."

CHAP. XXII.

SHARP BATTLES IN VIRGINIA.

1657

On the 12th, another sanguinary battle was opened. General Hancock, after the most gallant struggle, broke through the Confederate line and gained a great advantage; but the fierce conflict continued until twilight, and did not entirely cease until midnight, when Lee suddenly withdrew behind a second line of intrenchments, and appeared as strong as ever Yet Grant, stubborn and bold, was not disheartened. He sent cheering despatches to the government; and pressing forward, fought another desperate battle on the Ny, not far from Spottsylvania Court-House. Lee was repulsed. Grant's flanking movement was temporarily checked, but he speedily resumed it. The losses on both sides, during about a fortnight, had been fearful. That of the Army of the Potomac was about forty thousand men, killed, wounded, and prisoners; and that of the Army of Northern Virginia was about thirty thousand.

In the meantime, General Sheridan had been raiding in Lee's rear with a greater part of the National cavalry. Like Kilpatrick, he swept down into the Confederate outworks at Richmond, but with more successful results, for he destroyed the railway communication between Lee's army and that city. At the same time there was a co-operating force in the Shenandoah Valley, first under General Sigel and then under General Hunter; but they did not accomplish much of importance besides destroying a vast amount of property. There was another co-operating force below Richmond, commanded by General Butler. He had been joined by Gill. more's troops, which had been ordered up from Charleston; and with about twenty-five thousand men he went up the James River in armed transports, seized City Point at the mouth of the Appomattox River, and took possession of the Peninsula of Bermuda Hundred. He cast up a line of intrenchments across it from the Appomattox to the James, and destroyed the railway between Petersburg and Richmond, so cutting off direct communication between the Confederate capital and the South. At the same time, General A. V. Kautz went up from Suffolk with three thousand cavalry, to destroy the railways south and west from Petersburg; but before he struck them, Beauregard, who had been called from Charleston, had filled that city with defenders. The withdrawal of Gillmore's troops relieved Charleston of immediate danger; and when Butler went up the James, Beauregard was summoned to Richmond. At Petersburg he received hourly reinforcements, and some of them he massed in front of Butler's forces, along the line of the railway. Finally, on the morning of the 16th of May, while a dense fog brooded over the country, he attempted to turn Butler's right flank. A sharp conflict ensued, in which the Nationals had about four thousand men engaged, and the Confederates about three thousand. It ended by the