Page images
PDF
EPUB

310

SIGEL'S PURSUIT.

Over fallen trees which had been leveled by a hurricane, cavalry and infantry struggled frantically together, while shot and shell struck and burst in their midst. Down the slopes, over the fields they rushed, spurred on by Sigel's artillery, which strewed the ground with dead and wounded. The wooded and broken country rendered pursuit by cavalry impossible, or a large portion of the army would have been captured. Sigel however kept up the chase for twelve miles, and the next morning marched his exhausted but victorious troops back to camp. The routed army divided into two portions, and felling trees along the road behind them, succeeded in effecting its escape. The battle field, especially where Sigel's artillery had played, presented a ghastly spectacle. Amid dismounted cannon, broken carriages, shattered trees, and along the furrowed up earth, the dead and wounded, mangled by shot and shell, lay thick as autumnal leaves. To add to the horrors of the scene, the woods, which had been set on fire by the shells, now began to blaze up in various directions. Our exhausted troops made every exertion to rescue the bodies of friends and foes alike from the devouring flames, and nearly all were removed to a place of safety. A few however, who had fallen in secluded places, or crawled off to thickets, were overtaken by the fire, and their charred and blackened corpses were afterward found lying amid the ashes and cinders of the forest. The rebels had Indian allies in the fight, who in accordance with their savage custom, scalped those of our dead they were able to reach. This afterward drew forth a stern remonstrance from Curtis, when Van Dorn, under a flag of truce, requested permission to bury his dead.

Our loss in killed and wounded was full a thousand menthat of the enemy could only be conjectured-among them were the two rebel Generals, McCulloch and McIntosh. It was a nobly fought battle. The Iowa, Missouri and Indiana

JOHNSON GOVERNOR OF TENNESSEE.

311

regiments covered themselves with glory, while the Germans had again proved themselves worthy of their heroic leader. Two of the regiments, while under fire, actually struck up a national song, and its loud chorus rang over the field making strange harmony with the stern roar of the artillery.

This victory settled the fate of Missouri. Price had struggled desperately to save the state to the southern confederacy, but failed at last.

It was evident that the rebel forces would not venture to give Curtis battle again, and he quietly went into camp among the hills and woods of Arkansas, while other acts in the great tragedy were being enacted on the Mississippi and Atlantic coast.

Andrew Johnson, former governor of Tennessee, had been appointed provisional governor of the state, and entered on his duties, while the great army of the west was slowly moving southward in rear of the enemy. The latter immediately began to concentrate his forces preparatory to a great decisive battle. A. Sidney Johnston effected a junction with Beauregard, who commanded at Memphis, while Bragg was ordered up from Mobile, with nearly the whole army that had been stationed in its vicinity. From every part of the south-west, troops were hurried forward to resist the advance of the “northern hordes," and in a short time a mighty army was assembled at Corinth. Towards this point, our various divisions began slowly to move, and all eyes were turned thither in expectation of a battle that should settle the fate of the valley of the Mississippi.

FOOTE MOVES AGAINST ISLAND NUMBER TEN.

In the mean time, Foote, having got his gun boats ready, moved down towards island number ten. Ten gun boats, twelve mortar boats, and a large fleet of transports filled the

[ocr errors]

312

MORTAR PRACTICE.

river as far as the eye could reach, and it was believed that nothing could long stop their victorious progress towards New Orleans. Each of the mortar boats carried a mortar weighing seventeen thousand one hundred and eighty pounds, and throwing a shell weighing, before loaded, two hundred and fifteen pounds. Impelled by a charge of twenty-three pounds of powder, this ponderous missile would reach a distance of over two miles.

These were finally got into position along the banks on the fifteenth, and opened fire on the enemy's works. They were of the most formidable character, consisting of batteries both on the island and bluffs on the main shore, in which guns of the heaviest caliber were mounted.

The fire of the mortar boats was found to be less effective than had been anticipated. The several batteries were small objects to hit two miles off, by shells thrown at an angle of forty-five degrees. Had it been a large enclosed fortification, filled with troops, on which the fire was concentrated, the destruction would have been terrible; but here, an exactness was required, that it was impossible to attain. The slightest puff of wind, acting on a shell in so long a flight, would frustrate the nicest mathematical calculation. It was soon evident, that if they alone were to be relied on, the enemy would be able to maintain his position for an indefi-nite length of time. The gun boats might have succeeded in demolishing the works, but Foote thought it too hazardous to engage the batteries down stream on the rapid current of the Mississippi; for the slightest accident to their machinery would leave them to drift directly under the enemy's guns, where they would be quickly sunk.

The bombardment however, went on day after day, while other means of reducing the place were carefully canvassed. Thus for weeks it was almost a continuous thunder peal along the shores of the Mississippi. When the gunners fired off

POPE AT NEW MADRID.

313

those monstrous mortars they had to take shelter behind the timber work that enclosed them, so heavy was the concussion.

POPE'S VICTORY AT NEW MADRID.

In the mean time General Pope, in command of a division in Missouri had moved down from Commerce, by order of General Halleck, to Point Pleasant near New Madrid, a few miles below the island, where he found a large force of the enemy intrenched. Not having any heavy guns, he sent to St. Louis for them. These he transported over roads almost impassable, and working with an energy and resolution that mocked at difficulties, at length got them mounted, when he opened on the enemy. Finding the fire becoming too hot, they decamped in the night in such haste, that they left all the baggage of the officers and knapsacks of the men behind, and their dead unburied, and took refuge on the Kentucky shore. Our loss was about fifty killed and wounded. Pope then planted his batteries on the shore, shutting the rebel fleet up between him and the island, and cutting off communication from below by water. Beyond this, however, he was powerless to do any thing to aid Foote. Without a single transport or gun boat, and no way of obtaining them, he was confined to the task of simply holding his position. It was a terrible trial to an energetic, active commander like him, to sit idly there on the banks of the river, listening day after day and week after week, to the heavy cannonading above him, and think how easily with a few boats he could cross over to the. Kentucky shore and end this long struggle.

19

CHAPTER XXIV.

MARCH, 1862.

CAPTURE OF NEWBERN BY BURNSIDE-THE MARCH-THE ATTACK-THE VICTORY-ACTION OF THE FLEET-FEELING OF THE PEOPLE-BURNSIDE'S DISPATCH-THE PRESIDENT ASSUMES ACTIVE COMMAND OF THE ARMY AND ORDERS A GENERAL ADVANCE-AN IMPORTANT EPOCH IN THE HISTORY OF THE WAR-FREMONT IN COMMAND OF THE MOUNTAIN DEPARTMENT-MANASSAS EVACUATED-CHAGRIN OF THE PEOPLE-JACKSON BEYOND THE BLUE RIDGEPURSUED BY BANKS-TRAP SET FOR HIM BY SHIELDS-BATTLE OF WINCHESTER-POUND GAP IN EAST TENNESSEE TAKEN BY GARFIELD-THE NASHVILLE ESCAPES FROM BEAUFORT-THE PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE CONCERNING EMANCIPATION IN THE STATES.

WH

HILE the daily reports from Island Number Ten were the same dull record of a bombardment without results, news from Burnside's expedition electrified the nation. Rumors were current that this gallant officer was moving on Norfolk, and great fears were entertained by many that the rebel army in front of McClellan, would suddenly fall below Richmond, and crush him before he could receive reinforcements, or reach the protection of his gun boats. But the uncertainty that had prevailed respecting his movements, was suddenly dispelled by the news that he had captured the city of Newbern.

CAPTURE OF NEWBERN, NORTH CAROLINA.

A combined attack on the place, by land and water, having been resolved upon, the expedition, with the gun boats in advance, followed by the vast concourse of transports, set sail from Roanoke island, on the twelfth, and slowly moved in the direction of Newbern. Reaching the mouth of the Neuse on which the city is situated, the fleet ascended the

« PreviousContinue »