BATTLE AT APACHE PASS. 389 was the first fortification of any importance, retaken by our troops, and was hailed as the beginning of the righteous work of repossessing the national strongholds which the rebels had seized at the outset. side had closed his lines, was series. Macon, around which Burnregarded as the next in the In the mean time, cheering news was received from the department of New Mexico. Rumors, coming through rebel channels, had long been in circulation, that Colonel Canby, after his successful defense of fort Craig, had finally been compelled to surrender it with his entire force. But now the war department received a dispatch, stating that a portion of his command under Colonel Hough, had defeated the rebels at Apache pass, killing several hundred and taking ninety-three prisoners, besides destroying fifty-four wagons, laden with provisions and ammunition. The Texans fought with their accustomed desperation, charging our batteries four times, but were repulsed with terrible slaughter. In an ordinary war, this battle would have been a great event, but in the more important movements near at hand, created but little excitement. Colonel Canby, in that remote region, cut off from reinforcements, true to the national flag, was exhibiting the qualities of a great commander, and showing that he was worthy to stand beside the heroes of the west. The loss of one hundred and fifty in this engagement, out of his small command, shows that he had fought a desperate battle. The enemy under Colonel Sibley, inventor of the famous Sibley tent, and formerly a United States officer, was utterly discomfited by this reverse, and he was unable to rally again his scattered, suffering troops. While Burnside was making his preparations before fort Macon, he sent General Reno with a few hundred men and three boat howitzers, to Elizabeth city, to destroy some locks in the canal leading to Norfolk. Landing below the town, 390 EXPEDITION OF RENO. on the nineteenth, he marched forward to the accomplishment of his object. About noon he was attacked by the rebels, composed of a Georgia regiment and a portion of Wise's Legion. After a sharp engagement, the enemy was totally routed with heavy loss. Ours was one hundred and ten killed and wounded. In the evening, General Reno, hearing that the rebels had been heavily reinforced and were advancing to attack him, ordered a retreat. The jaded soldiers were roused from their bivouacs, and commenced their toilsome march back to their boats-making a forced march of forty miles in twentyfour hours. It was a night of great toil and suffering, and the force was in such a condition, that if it had been attacked it could scarcely have escaped total destruction. Fourteen of his wounded were left in the hands of the enemy who consequently claimed a victory. CHAPTER XXX. APRIL, 1862. SIEGE OF FORT MACON-DIFFICULTIES ATTENDING IT THE BOMBARDMENT- SURRENDER-FIGHTING AT EMANCIPATIONISTS BAYONET CHARGE OF THE ELEVENTH MASSACHUSETTS-HALLECK BEFORE N the mean time, Burnside, with his accustomed energy, himself clear of all embarrassments, and be able to perform the mission assigned him in the general campaign, the moment events at Richmond should reach the anticipated crisis. The difficulties attending his operations against it, may be gathered from the following description of the manner in which his heavy siege guns had to be transported from Newbern to near Beaufort and Morehead, cities in the vicinity of the fort. "There being no locomotives on the road between the two places, all the siege materials must be carried by steamer, fifteen miles, to the head of Slocum's Creek, and then hauled one mile to Havelock station. At the latter place they were placed on platform and baggage cars, and by the aid of mules, slowly hauled to Carolina city, which was the head-quarters of General Parke. Here there was a turn out and short track leading to a wharf on the edge of Bogue Sound, where the guns, mortars and ammunition were received on board flat boats and conveyed across the sound to 392 ATTACK ON FORT MACON. Bogue's beach, a distance of a mile and a half. When these heavy guns and other ponderous materiel were on board the flats, the labor of transporting them to the desired place of operations had just commenced. The sound is so shallow, for more than half the distance across, that it can easily be sounded by wading knee deep-a narrow channel, containing only some five or six feet at high water, intervening. Having reached the opposite shore at a point four miles due west from fort Macon, a wide marsh was to be crossed, in which the wheels of artillery carriages sunk to the hubs, and when this obstacle was crossed, a continuous line of sandy knolls was reached, extending to the fort. These sand hills were covered by a stunted growth of brush and briar, in which the wheels sunk to the axle, requiring a great force to move the massive loads." But these difficulties were at length all overcome, and the guns one by one were placed in position. Our skirmishers in the mean time, crept under the sand hills near the fort and annoyed exceedingly the garrison, which in vain endeavored to ascertain what Burnside was about. A man slung in halyards was kept swinging in mid air to detect our movements. but the work steadily progressed to its completion. On Wednesday, the twenty-third, Burnside arrived with two powerful floating batteries, and the fort was summoned to surrender. Colonel White was in command, and as if to give another, among the illustrations of the horrors of civil war, Quarter Master Biggs, a former class mate of his, was sent with the demand. The most honorable terms were offered, and the commander, a noble, high-minded man, had he consulted his own feelings, would doubtless, in the hopelessness of his position, have pulled down his flag. But thinking it looked unsoldierlike to do so without a struggle, he declined. As soon as the flag returned, Burnside signalled the batteries to open fire. This was prevented, however, by THE BOMBARDMENT. 393 the appearance of a white flag from the fort, with a bag of letters, which the commander wished to be forwarded to their destination, evidently the messages which they thought might be the last they should send on earth. Friday morning, the day that the victorious Farragut, with the stars and stripes flying in the breeze, was standing boldly on towards New Orleans, the first gun from Captain Morris' battery, echoed along the beach. As the sullen reverberations died away, the inhabitants of Beaufort and Morehead flocked to the windows and balconies of their houses, to witness the fearful drama, whose closing scenes might leave many of their homes houses of mourning-for friends and relatives and sons and brothers were in the low structure far away, which was to be the target of our destructive batteries. Shot followed shot in quick succession, making the city shake on its sandy foundations, and soon after Flagler swelled the thunder from his battery of ten inch mortars, and in quick succession, followed Lieutenant Prouty's eight inch mortars, to the right and in advance, completing the horrible din. The man swinging from the flag-staff of the fort, quickly descended from his perilous watch, and soon the hitherto silent fort began to belch forth flame. The roar of the ocean as it rolled its waves steadily to the shore, furnished the refrain to this mighty music. The Parrott shells made destructive work, and whenever one smote the solid masonry, a cloud of black dust showed that it shivered whatever it struck. For over three hours shot and shell were rained from the batteries, when at length the floating batteries got into position, and began to pour in an enfilading fire. The garrison, appalled at this concentric fire, fled to their casemates for shelter. For two hours the floating batteries kept up their bom bardment, rendering the fort too hot for flesh and blood to stand, and the rebels finally turned their guns upon them. |