Just at this time General Buckner was gaining this, the extreme right of the line of intrenchments, with Hanson's regiment, which had left it in the morning for the sortie. Hanson pushed his men forward, but the works were occupied. The Thirtieth Tennessee, which had been holding that portion of the works during the day, fell back to another ridge or spur, between the captured work and the main fort. Lauman's brigade pushed on to assault that position. Hanson's regiment, the Third, Eighteenth, and Forty-first Tennessee and Fourteenth Mississippi, came to the aid of the Thirtieth; portions of Porter's and Graves' batteries were brought up. The Forty-ninth and Fiftieth Tennessee, the garrison of the fort, hastened out in support. General Smith sent for Cook's brigade and artillery. Lieutenant-Colonel McPherson sent up two ten-pound Parrott guns. Buckner held the inner ridge, to which his men had retired, and intrenched it in the night. Smith held the works he had gained, an elevation as high as any within the line. His battery established there, enfiladed part of the line still held, and took in reverse nearly the whole of the intrenchments. In the charge, the column, including Birge's sharpshooters, but excluding the Fifty-second Indiana, lost 61 killed and 321 wounded; of these, the Second Iowa lost 41 killed and 157 wounded. General Smith, though sixty years old, spent the night without shelter, on the captured ridge.

General Grant, having set in motion C.F. Smith's attack, rode to the right and ordered the troops there to take the offensive and regain the ground that had been lost. General Lewis Wallace moved with a brigade commanded by Colonel Morgan L. Smith, and made of the Eighth Missouri and Eleventh Indiana, in advance. These two regiments belonged to Smith's division, and marched from Fort Henry to Donelson with Wallace. Colonel M.L. Smith, in his report, calls this command the Fifth Brigade, Third Division. The regimental commanders in their reports style it, Fifth Brigade, General C.F. Smith's division. Following was Cruft's brigade. General Wallace says, in his report: "As a support, two Ohio regiments, under Colonel Ross, were moved up and well advanced on the left flank of the assailing force, but held in reserve." Colonel Ross, of the Seventeenth Illinois, arriving at the front that morning and reporting for duty, was at once assigned to the command of the brigade composed of the Seventeenth and Forty-ninth Illinois, and, as ordered by General McClernand, moved with General Wallace in support and reserve, till recalled about dark by McClernand. An Ohio regiment, the Twentieth, Colonel Whittlesey, did go out in support and reserve, but it was not under Colonel Ross, and it remained close to the enemy's works all night.

The column approached the ridge held by Drake's brigade and the Twentieth Mississippi. M.L. Smith's brigade came in front, where the slope was bare; Cruft had to push up through bushes. General Wallace speaks with admiration of the advance by Smith. He advanced his line and ordered it to lie down, and to continue firing while lying down. As soon as the fire of the enemy on the summit slackened, the regiments rose, dashed up the hill, and lay down again before the fire from the hill-top could be made effective. In a short time, with rapid bounds, the summit was gained. Cruft's brigade pushed up through the bushes. Drake fell back within the intrenchments. Wallace stationed his picket-line close to the enemy's works. The retiring Confederate force took with them six captured pieces of artillery, several thousand small arms, and between two and three hundred prisoners; but returned to their trenches weary, disappointed, disheartened.

In the night General Floyd and General Buckner met with General Pillow and his staff, at General Pillow's headquarters, to consider the situation. After some recrimination between Pillow and Buckner whether the intention and plan had been to commence the retreat directly from the battlefield, or first to cut a way out and then return to the works, equip for a march and retreat by night, it was agreed to evacuate that night and march out by the ground which had been gained. Pillow ordered the chief quartermaster and the chief commissary to burn the stores at half-past five in the morning. Precaution was taken, however, before actually preparing for the movement, to send out scouts to see if the way were still clear. The scouts returned with report that the National forces had reoccupied the ground. This being doubted, other scouts were sent out, who brought the same report in more positive terms. Pillow proposed to cut a way out. Buckner said that was now impossible, and Floyd acquiesced. Pillow at last assented to this, but proposed to hold the fort at least one day longer and take the chances of getting out. Buckner said that was impossible; a lodgement had been made in the key of his position; assault would certainly follow as soon as it was light, and he could not withstand it. It was remarked that no alternative was left but to surrender. General Floyd said he would never surrender—he would die first. Pillow said substantially the same. Buckner said, if he were in command, he would surrender and share the fate of the garrison. Floyd inquired of Buckner, "If the command should devolve on you, would you permit me to take out my brigade?" To which Buckner replied, "Yes, if you leave before the terms of capitulation are agreed on." Forrest asked, "Gentlemen, have I leave to cut my way out?" Pillow answered, "Yes, sir, cut your way out," and asked, "Is there anything wrong in my leaving?" Floyd replied, "Every person must judge for himself of that?" Whereupon General Pillow said, "Then I shall leave this place." General Floyd turned to General Pillow and told him, "General Pillow, I turn the command over, sir." General Pillow said, "And I pass it." General Buckner said, "And I assume it," and countermanded the order for the destruction of the commissary and quartermaster stores, and ordered white flags to be prepared and a bugler to report to him.

At eleven o'clock that night Floyd telegraphed to General A.S. Johnston a glorious victory. Four hours later, at the close of the council or conference, he telegraphed: "We are completely invested by an army many times our numbers. I regret to say the unanimous opinion of the officers seems to be that we cannot maintain ourselves against these forces."

Colonel Forrest reported that upon examination he found that deep mud and water made an escape by land, between the investing force and the river, impracticable for infantry. Forrest marched out with all the cavalry but Gantt's Tennessee battalion and two companies of Helm's Kentucky cavalry, taking with him the horses of Porter's battery and about two hundred men of various commands. There was not a steamboat at the landing; General Floyd had sent all up the river with wounded and prisoners. Not a skiff or yawl could be found. A little flatboat or scow was got by some means from the other side of the river, and on this General Pillow crossed the river with his staff and Colonel Gilmer. Two steamboats returned at daybreak, one of them bringing "about four hundred raw troops." The four hundred raw troops were dumped on shore, and Floyd took possession of the boats. Floyd's brigade, consisting of four Virginia regiments and the Twentieth Mississippi, had been divided during the siege. The four Virginia regiments were organized into two brigades, and the Twentieth Mississippi attached to another command. Two Virginia regiments were ferried across the river, and the Twentieth Mississippi, understanding that they were to be taken on board with Floyd, stood on guard and kept off the growing crowd of clamorous soldiers while the other two Virginia regiments embarked. The rope was cut and Floyd steamed up the river, leaving the Twentieth Mississippi and his aide-de-camp, Lieutenant Breckenridge Drake, behind. It was said afterward that word was received from General Buckner that the boat must leave at once, or it would not be allowed to leave.

Soon after daybreak, Sunday the 16th, the men of Lauman's brigade heard the notes of a bugle advancing from the fort. It announced an officer, who bore to General Grant a letter from General Buckner, proposing the appointment of commissioners to agree upon terms of capitulation, and also proposing an armistice until noon. General Grant replied, acknowledging the receipt of the letter, and adding: "No terms except an unconditional and immediate surrender can be accepted. I propose to move immediately upon your works." Buckner replied: "The distribution of the forces under my command, incident to an unexpected change of commanders, and the overwhelming force under your command, compel me, notwithstanding the brilliant success of the Confederate arms yesterday, to accept the ungenerous and unchivalrous terms which you propose." White flags were displayed along the works; the National troops marched in, and General Grant at once made the following order: "All prisoners taken at the surrender of Fort Donelson will be collected as rapidly as practicable near the village of Dover, under their respective company and regimental commanders, or in such manner as may be deemed best by Brigadier-General S.B. Buckner, and will receive two days' rations preparatory to embarking for Cairo. Prisoners are to be allowed their clothing, blankets, and such private property as may be carried about the person, and commissioned officers will be allowed their side-arms."

There is disagreement as to the number of guns captured. There were thirteen in the water-batteries and eight in the fort. Besides, there were eight artillery companies, whose field-pieces were disposed in nine positions along the line of intrenchments. Six of these companies were those of Maney, Porter, Graves, Green, Guy, Jackson. The other two are called Ross and Murray in the account in the Nashville Patriot, and called Parker and French on the pen-sketch of the works showing the position of the light batteries, found among the Confederate records. The number of pieces in these batteries is not given. Badeau gives the number of guns surrendered at sixty-five, and no reason is seen why that is not correct.

There is no means of determining with any precision the number of the garrison. General Grant, on the day of the surrender, reported the number of prisoners taken as twelve to fifteen thousand. Badeau says the number captured was 14,623; and that rations were issued at Cairo to that number of prisoners taken at Fort Donelson. According to a report or estimate made by Major Johnson, of the first Mississippi, and found among his papers in Mississippi in 1864, the number "engaged" was 15,246, and the number surrendered 11,738. General Floyd gives no estimate. General Pillow, in his brief to the Secretary of War of the Confederacy, defending himself from charges, gives thirteen thousand as about the number engaged in the defence; while General Buckner, in a report made after he was exchanged, says the aggregate of the army within the works was never greater than twelve thousand. An estimate published in the Nashville Patriot soon after the surrender makes the number engaged 13,829.

Major Brown's estimate was evidently the most deliberate and careful, yet it is not free from error. It is not accurate in the number of casualties. The regimental reports made after the surrender are not numerous, but they present some means of testing Major Brown's estimate. According to that estimate, the Eighth Kentucky lost 19 killed and 41 wounded; according to the official report of Colonel Simonton, commanding the brigade, the loss of the Eighth Kentucky was 27 killed and 72 wounded. According to Major Brown's estimate, two of the Virginia regiments lost none killed or wounded, and the aggregate of the loss of the four regiments was 13 killed and 113 wounded; according to the brigade reports, every regiment lost both killed and wounded, the aggregate being 41 killed and 166 wounded. Major Brown's estimate omits the Kentucky cavalry battalion of three companies. It names also only seven artillery companies, while the Nashville Patriot's account and the memorandum on the manuscript plan of the intrenchments name eight. This estimate is also incomplete. It gives only the number engaged belonging to regiments and companies, and thereby excludes brigade and division commanders, and their staff and enlisted men at their headquarters; it also excludes the "four hundred raw troops" (the reports give them no other designation) who arrived too late to be engaged, but in time to be surrendered; and the estimate being only of those engaged, excludes sick, special duty men, and all except the muskets and sabres present for duty in the works. Such an estimate of "effective" or "engaged" is no basis for a statement of the number surrendered. The morning report of Colonel Bailey's regiment, the Forty-ninth Tennessee, for January 14th, was 680 effectives out of an aggregate of 777. His last morning report before the surrender was 393 effectives out of an aggregate of 773. Major Brown's estimate gives this regiment 372 engaged. Colonel Bailey's morning report of those present with him on the way from Donelson to Cairo, which included none from hospitals, was, officers and men, 490.

There is no report of trustworthy accuracy, giving either the aggregate or the effective strength. Ten thousand five hundred prisoners were put into the charge of Colonel Whittlesey, of the Twentieth Ohio; of which number he sent north, guarded by his own regiment, about six thousand three hundred; another, but much smaller body, was put into the hands of Colonel Sweeney. Besides these, were the wounded and sick in hospital, in camp, and some left on the field. Colonel Whittlesey, at the time, estimated the entire number taken charge of, including sick and wounded, at 13,000. General Floyd said that the boats which carried across and up the river his four Virginia regiments, took at the same time about as many other troops; and he says he took up the river with him 986, officers and men, of the four Virginia regiments. Pillow reported, on March 14th, that several thousand infantry had got out in one way or other, many of whom were at that time with him at Decatur, Ala., and the rest under orders to rendezvous there. They continued slipping out after the surrender. General B.R. Johnson, on the Tuesday after the surrender, not having reported or been enrolled as a prisoner, walked with a fellow-officer out of the intrenchments at mid-day, and, not being challenged, continued beyond the National camps and escaped. The accounts of the escape by boat with Floyd, on horse with Forrest, and by parties slipping out by day and by night through the forest and undergrowth and the devious ravines, fairly show that 5,000 must have escaped. There was scarcely a regiment or battery, if, indeed, there was a single regiment or battery, from which some did not escape. Eleven hundred and thirty-four wounded were sent up the river by boat the evening before the surrender, and General Pillow estimated the killed at over four hundred and fifty. This accounts for an aggregate of over nineteen thousand five hundred, sufficiently near the estimate of nineteen thousand six hundred—the number in the place during the siege, and the additional four hundred, who arrived only in time to be surrendered.

General Floyd surmised the killed and wounded to be fifteen hundred. Pillow estimated them at two thousand. The National loss was, in McClernand's division, 1,445 killed and wounded, and 74 missing; in C.F. Smith's division, 306 killed, 1,045 wounded, and 167 missing; and in Lewis Wallace's division, 39 killed, 248 wounded, and 5 missing—making an aggregate of 3,329 killed, wounded, and missing. General Grant sat down before the place Wednesday the 12th, at noon, with 15,000 men, and with that number closed in upon the works and made vigorous assaults next day. Reinforcements began to arrive at the landing Thursday evening, and when the place surrendered his army had grown by reinforcements to twenty-seven thousand. Grant had no artillery but the eight field-batteries which he brought over from Fort Henry to Donelson. These were not fixed in position and protected by earthworks, but were moved from place to place and used as batteries in the field.

The defensive line from Columbus to Bowling Green, broken by the capture of Fort Henry, was now shattered. General A.S. Johnston evacuated Bowling Green on February 14th, and on the 17th and 18th moved with the main body of his troops from Nashville to Murfreesboro. The rear-guard left Nashville on the night of the 23d, and the advance of Buell's army appeared next morning on the opposite bank of the river. Columbus was evacuated shortly after. The National authority was re-established over the whole of Kentucky, the State of Tennessee was opened to the advance of both army and fleet, and the Mississippi was cleared down to Island Number Ten.

General Halleck telegraphed on February 17th, the day after the surrender, to General McClellan: "Make Buell, Grant, and Pope major-generals of volunteers, and give me command in the West. I ask this in return for Donelson and Henry." Next day, the 18th, he telegraphed to General Hunter, commanding the Department of Kansas, thanking him for his aid in sending troops; and to Grant, ordering him not to let the gunboats go up higher than Clarksville, whence they must return to Cairo immediately upon the destruction of the bridge and railroad. On the 19th he telegraphed to Washington: "Smith, by his coolness and bravery at Fort Donelson, when the battle was against us, turned the tide and carried the enemy's outworks. Make him a major-general. You cannot get a better one. Honor him for this victory, and the whole country will applaud." On the 20th he telegraphed to McClellan, "I must have command of the armies in the West. Hesitation and delay are losing us the golden opportunity." Upon the receipt in Washington of the news of the surrender of Fort Donelson, the President at once appointed Grant major-general, and the Senate immediately confirmed the appointment. Buell and Pope shortly after received the same promotion. Later, in March, C.F. Smith, McClernand, and Lewis Wallace were confirmed to the same rank. On March 11th, General Halleck was assigned to the command of the Department of the Mississippi, embracing all the troops west of a line drawn north and south indefinitely through Knoxville, Tenn., and east of the western boundary of Arkansas and Missouri. On February 15th, Grant had been assigned to the command of the Military District of Tennessee, the limits of which were not defined, and General W.T. Sherman succeeded to the command of the District of Cairo.



CHAPTER IV.

NEW MADRID AND ISLAND NUMBER TEN.

A division belonging to General Pope's command in Missouri went with General Curtis to Pea Ridge and Arkansas. A considerable portion of what was left was sent up the Tennessee and Cumberland to General Grant. On February 14, 1862, General Pope was summoned to St. Louis by General Halleck, and on the 18th General Halleck pointed out to him the situation at New Madrid and Island No. Ten, and directed him to organize and command a force for their reduction. On the 19th Pope left for Cairo to defend it from an attack then apprehended from Columbus. This apprehension being found to be groundless, he proceeded by steamboat, with a guard of 140 men, thirty miles up the river, and began at once to organize his expedition.

Major-General Polk, commanding at Columbus, having received instructions from the Confederate War Department, through General Beauregard, to evacuate Columbus and select a defensive position below, adopted that embracing Madrid Bend on the Tennessee shore, New Madrid on the Missouri shore, and Island No. Ten between them. The bluffs on the Missouri shore terminate abruptly at Commerce. Thence to Helena, Arkansas, the west bank of the Mississippi is everywhere low and flat, and in many places on the river, and to much greater extent a few miles back from the river, is a swamp. From Columbus to Fort Pillow, the Tennessee shore is of the same character. The river flowing almost due south for some miles to Madrid Bend, curves there to the west of north to New Madrid, and there making another bend, sweeps to the southeast and then nearly east, till, reaching Tiptonville, a point nearly due south of Madrid Bend, it turns again to the south. Island No. Ten begins at Madrid Bend and looks up the straight stretch of the river. From Island No. Eight, about four miles above Island No. Ten, the distance across the land to New Madrid is six miles, while by river it is fifteen. The distance overland from Island No. Ten to Tiptonville is five miles, while by water it is twenty-seven. Commencing at Hickman, between Madrid Bend and Columbus, a great swamp, which for a part of its extent is a sheet of water called Reelfoot Lake, extends along the left bank of the Mississippi, and discharges its waters into the Mississippi forty miles below Tiptonville, leaving between it and the river the peninsula which lies immediately below Island No. Ten, and opposite New Madrid. Immediately below Tiptonville the swamp for many miles extends entirely to the river. The peninsula is, therefore, substantially an island, having the Mississippi on three sides, and Reelfoot Lake, with its enveloping swamp, on the other. A good road led from the Tennessee shore, opposite Island No. Ten, along the west border of the swamp and the lake to Tiptonville. The only means of supply, therefore, for the forces on Island No. Ten and this peninsula, were by the river. If the river were blockaded at New Madrid, supplies must be landed at Tiptonville and conveyed across the neck of the peninsula by the road. From this peninsula there was no communication with the interior except by a small flatboat which plied across Reelfoot Lake, more than a mile across, by a channel cut through the cypress-trees which cover the lake. Supplies and reinforcements could not, therefore, be brought to any considerable extent by the land side; nor could escape, except by small parties, be made in that direction. A mile below Tiptonville begin the great swamps on both sides of the Mississippi. If batteries could be planted on the lowest dry ground, opposite and below Tiptonville, so as to command the river and effectually intercept navigation, the garrison of Island No. Ten and its supports would be cut off from reinforcements and from escape.

General Polk began the evacuation of Columbus on February 25th. One hundred and forty pieces of artillery were mounted in the works. All these, except two thirty-two pounders and several carronades, which were spiked and left, were taken to Island No. Ten and the works in connection with it. Brigadier-General McCown with his division went down the river to Island No. Ten, on February 27th, and General Stewart, with a brigade, followed to New Madrid on March 1st. The rest of the infantry marched under General Cheatham, by land, March 1st to Union City. Next day General Polk, having sent off the bulk of the great stores accumulated at this place, destroyed the remainder and moved away with his staff and the cavalry. The force that went from Columbus to Island No. Ten included General Trudeau's command of ten companies of heavy artillery and the Southern Guards who acted as heavy artillery. The light batteries were brigaded with the infantry.

Some progress had been made in throwing up batteries on the island and at the bend. Sappers and miners were at once set to work, aided by the companies of heavy artillery and details from the infantry. By March 12th, four batteries, scarcely above the water-level, were completed on the island and armed with twenty-three guns, and five batteries on the main-land, armed with twenty-four guns. Battery No. 1, on the main-land, called the Redan, armed with six guns, was three thousand yards in an air-line above the point of the island. A line of infantry intrenchments, en cremaillere, extended from the Redan to the water of a bayou which connects with Reelfoot Lake. A floating battery, anchored near the lower end of the island, added ten guns to its defence. Later, a fifth battery was erected on the island, and the number of guns in battery on the island and on the main-land, at the bend, was increased to fifty-four, exclusive of the floating battery. On the Missouri shore a bastioned redoubt, called Fort Thompson, with fourteen guns, stood below the town, and an earthwork with seven guns, called Fort Bankhead, just above the town. Infantry intrenchments extended these forts, and a field-battery of six pieces was added to the armament of the upper fort. Commodore Hollins, of the Confederate navy, aided the land-forces with eight gunboats. General McCown, making an inspecting visit to the position on February 25th, found there Colonel Gantt, of Arkansas, with the Eleventh and Twelfth Arkansas, and two artillery companies, acting as garrison to Fort Thompson, and at once, before returning to Columbus, ordered Colonel L.M. Walker, with two regiments from Fort Pillow, to guard the defences just above New Madrid.

General Pope having landed at Commerce with 140 men, regiments and batteries rapidly arrived from Cairo, St. Louis, and Cincinnati. With the assistance of able and experienced officers, Generals Schuyler Hamilton, Stanley, Palmer, and Granger, the troops were brigaded, divisions formed, and the command organized. Colonel Plummer being promoted to brigadier-general after the arrival before New Madrid, the organization was modified. As finally organized, it comprised five small infantry divisions. First, commanded by General D.S. Stanley, comprising First Brigade, Colonel John Groesbeck, Twenty-seventh and Thirty-ninth Ohio; and Second Brigade, Colonel J.L.K. Smith, Forty-third and Sixty-third Ohio. Second Division, General Schuyler Hamilton, comprising First Brigade, Colonel W.H. Worthington, Fifth Iowa and Fifty-ninth Indiana; and Second Brigade, Colonel N. Perczell, Twenty-sixth Missouri Infantry and Sands' Eleventh Ohio Battery. Third Division, General J.N. Palmer, comprising First Brigade, Colonel J.R. Slack, Thirty-fourth and Forty-seventh Indiana; and Second Brigade, Colonel G.N. Fitch, Forty-third and Forty-sixth Indiana Infantry, Seventh Illinois Cavalry, and Company G, First Missouri Light Artillery. Fourth Division, comprising First Brigade, Colonel J.D. Morgan, Tenth and Sixteenth Illinois; and Second Brigade, Colonel G.W. Cumming, Twenty-sixth and Fifty-first Illinois, First Illinois Cavalry, and a battalion of Yate's sharpshooters. Fifth Division, General J.B. Plummer, comprising First Brigade, Colonel John Bryner, Forty-seventh Illinois and Eighth Wisconsin; and Second Brigade, Colonel J.M. Loomis, Twenty-second Illinois, Eleventh Missouri Infantry, and Company M, First Missouri Light Artillery. Besides these was a cavalry division, commanded by General Gordon Granger, comprising the Second and Third Michigan Cavalry; also an artillery division, commanded by Major W.L. Lothrop, comprising the following batteries: Second Iowa, Third Michigan, Company F, Second United States Artillery, Houghtaling's Ottawa Light Artillery, Fifth, Sixth, and Seventh Batteries of the First Wisconsin Artillery, and De Golyer's battery, afterward Company H, of the First Michigan Artillery. In addition to these was a command under Colonel J.W. Bissel, called the Engineer's Regiment of the West, comprising the Fifteenth Wisconsin and Twenty-second Missouri Infantry, the Second Iowa Cavalry, a company of the Fourth United States Cavalry, a company of the First United States Infantry, and battalion of the Second Illinois Cavalry. The army commander, the division commanders, and other officers, nearly a dozen in all, were graduates of West Point. The men of this army had, therefore, better opportunity than most others to learn quickly something of the business of military life, and acquire habits of military discipline.

The road from Commerce to New Madrid was, for the most part, a dilapidated corduroy, tumbling about a broken causeway through a swamp. M. Jeff. Thompson, "Brigadier-General of the Missouri State Guard," designed to hold a "very important session of the Missouri Legislature," at New Madrid, on March 3d—a session which was to last, however, but one day. When General Pope moved out from Commerce, on February 28th, Schuyler Hamilton in front, Thompson undertook to oppose the advance with a detachment of his irregular command and three light pieces of rifled artillery. The Seventh Illinois Cavalry charged, captured the three guns, took two officers and several enlisted men prisoners, and chased Thompson and the rest of his band sixteen miles, almost to the outskirts of New Madrid. Dragging through the mud by short marches, Hamilton's division reached New Madrid on the morning of March 3d. Deploying, with the Twenty-seventh and Thirty-ninth Ohio in front as skirmishers, Hamilton marched upon the town, pushed the enemy's pickets back into the intrenchments, developed the line of intrenchment, drew the fire of its armament—twenty-four, thirty-two, and sixty-four pounders and field-pieces. The gunboats of Commodore Hollins' fleet took part in the engagement. The water in the river was so high that it lifted the guns on the boats above the banks. The reconnoissance developed the fact that the intrenchments could be carried by assault, but could not be held so long as the gunboats could lay the muzzles of their heavy guns upon the river-bank and sweep the whole interior.

The reconnoissance made by General Hamilton showed the necessity of having siege-guns. The troops were put into camp about two miles back from the river; urgent request was sent to Cairo for heavy artillery, and parties were pushed forward every day to harass the garrison and keep them occupied. Colonel Plummer (soon after brigadier-general and commanding a division of his own) was detached from Hamilton's division and sent with the Eleventh Missouri, Twenty-sixth and Forty-seventh Illinois Infantry, four guns of the First Missouri Light Artillery, and one company of engineer troops, together with two companies of cavalry, to act as outpost toward the interior—to Point Pleasant. The object was to attempt by field-pieces to stop the passage of transport steamboats up and down the river. Colonel Plummer, leaving camp at noon, March 5th, proceeding by a circuitous road to avoid passing along the river-bank, halted for the night in bivouac, without fires, within three or four miles of the town. A gunboat prevented his cavalry and artillery from occupying the town next day, but was driven away by the fire of the infantry. The infantry and engineers prosecuted the work of digging rifle-pits, and in the night places were sunk for the field-pieces by excavating near the edge of the bank. By morning of March 7th the four guns were in position, planted apart, with lines of rifle-pits connecting them. When discovered, the gunboats immediately began a furious assault. Plummer's artillery wasted no ammunition in useless fire upon the iron-plated boats, and his guns were so shielded by their position in sunken batteries, back from the edge of the bank, that the fire of the gunboats passed harmless overhead. The deliberate fire of sharpshooters from the rifle-pits, however, searching every opened porthole, pilot-house, and every exposed point, was so annoying that the fleet withdrew. Every day the gunboats opened upon the position, either in stationary attack or while passing up and down the river. But, to avoid the harassing fire from the rifle-pits, they kept, after the first few attacks, near the opposite shore of the river. The steamboats used as transports did not venture to pass up or down the river in face of Plummer's batteries, and the enemy was restricted to the landing at Tiptonville and boats below for all communication.



On the 6th, General Pope telegraphed that Colonel Plummer had not yet been able to effect his lodgement at Point Pleasant, but that the sharpshooters were trying to drive the artillerymen of the gunboats from their pieces. Next day, the 7th, General Halleck telegraphed to Pope: "After securing the roads so as to prevent the enemy's advance north, you will withdraw your remaining forces to Sikeston, and thence to Bird's Point or Commerce for embarkation. They will proceed up the Tennessee to reinforce General C. F. Smith. Good luck." On the same day, the 7th, General Pope reported by telegraph Plummer's success in establishing himself, and nothing more was heard about abandoning the expedition.

General Pope had asked for rifled thirty-twos. General Cullum, Halleck's chief of staff, who was stationed at Cairo and had immediate charge and supervision of sending reinforcements and supplies to the armies in Halleck's department, not finding rifled thirty-twos, obtained three twenty-four-pounders and one eight-inch howitzer. Colonel Bissell, of the engineer regiment, who was in Cairo waiting for them, received these four pieces on March 11th. They were shipped across the river to Bird's Point, and sent by rail to Sikeston. At Sikeston a detachment from the company of regular artillery, with horses, as well as the regiment of engineers, were waiting. The pieces were quickly unshipped and mounted on carriages. The engineers had such success in repairing the road, and the artillery in conducting the pieces, that all arrived in good order about sunset of the 12th.

Major Lathrop, commanding the artillery, had, on the 11th, reconnoitered the ground and selected a position about eight hundred yards in front of Fort Thompson, for batteries to contain the siege-guns. On Colonel Bissell's arrival, he went again to the front and pointed out the position selected. About dusk, two companies of the Thirty-ninth Ohio, deployed as skirmishers, drove back the enemy's pickets toward the works. At nine o'clock P.M., Colonel Bissell and Major Lathrop arrived on the ground with Colonel Morgan, who had with him the Tenth and six companies of the Sixteenth Illinois. The Tenth Illinois, advancing in open order, pushed the enemy's pickets still farther back and close to their works. The six companies of the Sixteenth followed with picks and spades. Two companies of the Tenth, deployed as skirmishers, were pushed forward, covering the front and flanks of the party, with orders not to fire even if fired upon. The remaining eight companies of the Tenth Illinois joined the Sixteenth as a working party. The lines of two batteries for two guns each, and lines of infantry intrenchments, had now been traced. The fourteen companies worked with such zeal that the works were completed by three o'clock A.M. Captain Mower, of the First United States Infantry, who, with Companies A and H of his regiment, had been put in command of the siege-artillery, put the four pieces in position; Colonel Morgan, recalling his pickets, posted his command in the trenches. General Stanley moved out with his division in support, and, at daylight, Mower opened fire upon Fort Thompson.

The force in Forts Thompson and Bankhead numbered about three thousand effectives, according to General A.P. Stewart, who had general command of both; thirty-five hundred, according to General Gantt, who commanded at Fort Thompson, and had been promoted after being assigned to the command. The fire from Captain Mower's guns was the first notice General Gantt or his men had of the erection of the batteries. Fort Thompson replied with all its guns. Fort Bankhead joined with its heavy ordnance and field-battery. Commodore Hollins brought his fleet close in shore and aided the bombardment. Captain Mower, by direction of General Pope, paid little heed to the forts, but directed most of his fire to the boats. The forts on either side were little injured. One twenty-four pounder in Mower's battery, and one thirty-two in Fort Thompson, were disabled. The gunboats were struck, but not seriously injured.

In the evening, General McCown visited Commodore Hollins on his flag-ship, and, after a conference, sent for General Stewart. Commodore Hollins stated that he had been positively assured that heavy artillery could not be brought over the wet and swampy country, and he was not prepared to encounter it. General McCown said it was evident to him that Pope intended, by regular approaches, to cut off Fort Thompson. He told A.P. Stewart that reinforcements could not be expected within ten days. Stewart said he could not hold out three days. All agreed, then, that the forts must be evacuated, and immediately.

About ten o'clock P.M. a gunboat and two transports reported to Colonel Walker at Fort Bankhead, and General Stewart proceeded with two gunboats to Fort Thompson.

According to Colonel Walker's report, the evacuation and embarkation at his post was orderly, though impeded by a heavy rain-storm, and restricted by the very insufficient transportation afforded by the boats. He was unable to carry off any of the heavy guns, but succeeded in shipping the guns of Bankhead's field-battery, leaving their limbers and caissons behind. General Gantt's report represents a like state of affairs at Fort Thompson. But, according to General Stewart's report, his directions were imperfectly carried out. One twenty-four pounder was pulled off its platform into the swamp in its rear, where it sank so deep in the mud that it was impossible to move it. No attempt was made to remove more. The storm began at eleven o'clock. "The rain was unusually violent, and the night became so dark that it was difficult to see, except by the flashes of lightning. The men became sullen and indifferent—indisposed to work. I spent some time in collecting together such of them as were idle and urged them to carry off the boxes of ammunition from the magazine, and pass them aboard the boat. At length I learned from Captain Stewart that all the guns had been spiked, that rat-tail files had been sent up for the purpose from one of the gunboats, with orders to spike the guns. I replied that no such orders had been given by me, that the spiking of the guns should have been the last thing done." "Soon after this an artillery officer informed me that Gantt's regiment was going aboard the boats, that Captain Carter was hurrying them, telling them he intended to save his boats, and would leave them to shift for themselves if the enemy fired." "I directed the artillery officers, before the boats left, to make an effort to get their tents on board. They subsequently reported that they could not get many of the men together in the darkness and rain, nor induce the few whom they did collect to do anything at it." General Stewart ordered the pickets who had been sent out to cover the movement to be recalled, and the tents and quarters to be searched. Thirteen men, however, were left. One of the gunboats took in tow a wharf-boat at the landing, which was used as a hospital and contained several hundred sick. Between three and four o'clock in the morning the boats pulled out and left.

Morgan's brigade, after constructing the works in the night of the 12th, remained in the trenches till relieved early in the morning of the 14th. At two o'clock A.M. of the 14th, General Hamilton advanced with his division to relieve General Stanley in support, and with Slack's brigade of Palmer's division to relieve Morgan's brigade in the trenches. "The darkness was palpable, the rain poured down in torrents, the men were obliged to wade through pools knee-deep. Silence having been strictly enjoined, the division, hoping to have the honor of leading in the assault on the enemy's works, moved steadily forward with cheerful alacrity; those assigned to that duty taking post in the rifle-pits half full of water, without a murmur." A heavy fog obscured the dawn. About six o'clock two deserters reported that the fort had been hastily abandoned in the night, after a portion of the guns had been spiked. Captain Mower and Lieutenant Fletcher, commanding the two companies in charge of the siege-guns, were dispatched into the fort to hoist the American flag. Two field-batteries, besides the heavy artillery, great quantities of ammunition for small arms as well as for the artillery, tents, stores of all sorts, the wagons, horses, and mules of the troops at Fort Thompson, were found. The wagons and animals at Fort Bankhead had been sent across the river a few days before. General Beauregard, whose command included these defences, ordered an inquiry into the facts of the evacuation of New Madrid. The inspecting officer reported substantially in accordance with the report of General A.P. Stewart.

Immediately the evacuation was confirmed, Hamilton's division was moved into the works and their guns were turned toward the river. Without delay, batteries were at night sunk at points along the river just back of the river-bank, and the captured siege-guns, hauled laboriously by hand down the the strip of more solid ground between the river and swamp, were placed in position in them. The lowest battery was below Point Pleasant, and opposite and a little below Tiptonville. This extended General Pope's line seventeen miles along the river. The lowest battery commanded the lowest solid ground on the Tennessee shore—all below was swamp. This battery, if maintained, cut off the enemy alike from retreat, and from reinforcements and supplies. When the morning of the 15th disclosed the muzzles of the heavy guns peering over the river-bank as over a parapet, five gunboats moved up within three hundred yards, and with furious cannonade strove to destroy them. In an hour and a half one gunboat was sunk, others damaged, gunners on them shot from the rifle-pits on shore, and the fleet retired.

On March 15th, Commodore Foote moved with his fleet of gunboats and mortar-boats to the neighborhood of Island No. 10, and next day engaged the batteries on the island and the main-land, at long range, to ascertain their position and armament. Next day five gunboats and four mortar-boats moved down to within two thousand yards of the upper battery or redan, and opened fire. The batteries on main-land and island replied. One hundred pieces of heavy ordnance rent the quivering air with their thunder. The rampart of the redan had been constructed twenty-four feet thick, but the high water beating against it had washed it, and, by percolation, softened it. The heavy shot from the gunboats passed though it. Thirteen-inch shells exploding in the ground made caverns in the soil. Water stood on the ground within, and the artillerists waded in mud and water. The conflict lasted till evening. The staff of the signal-flag used in the redan was shattered by a shot; but the officer, Lieutenant Jones, picking up the flag, and using his arm as a staff, continued signalling. The rampart of the redan was torn and ridged, and one sixty-four gun was dismounted and another injured, an officer killed, and seven enlisted men wounded. On the island a one hundred and twenty-eight pound gun burst. In the fleet a gun burst on the Pittsburg, killing and wounding fourteen men.

The fleet and batteries exchanged fire with greater or less severity every day. On the 21st, another large gun, called the Belmont, burst on the island. In the course of these engagements the redan was finally knocked to pieces and ceased to reply; and, on April 1st, an expedition from the fleet landed, drove off a detachment of the First Alabama which was guarding it, and spiked its guns. The work of erecting new batteries and mounting guns, as well as repairing damages, was continued as long as the island was occupied.

On the night of March 17th, General McCown left for Fort Pillow with the Eleventh, Twelfth, and Colonel Kennedy's Louisiana, Fourth, Fifth, and Thirty-first Tennessee, Bankhead's and six guns of Captain R.C. Stewart's batteries, and Neely's and Haywood's cavalry, leaving at Madrid Bend the First Alabama, Eleventh and Twelfth Arkansas, and Terry's Arkansas Battalion, three Tennessee regiments, commanded respectively by Colonels Brown, Clark, and Henderson, Colonel Baker's regiment of twelve companies called the Tennessee, Alabama, and Mississippi regiment, five guns of Captain Stewart's field-battery, and Captain Hudson's and Captain Wheeler's cavalry. Besides these were the companies of heavy artillery, and what other troops, on the island and below, the reports do not show. Most, if not all of the troops taken to Fort Pillow by General McCown, proceeded to Corinth and joined the force which General A. S. Johnston was gathering there. General McCown on his return arrived below Tiptonville on March 20th, and established his headquarters at Madrid Bend next day.

General Pope had now established his army and batteries on the right bank of the river, so as to prevent the escape of the enemy until the river should fall. To capture them he must cross the river. General Halleck telegraphed to him on March 16th to construct a road, if possible, through the swamp above the bayou, which comes into the river just above New Madrid, to a point on the Missouri shore opposite Island No. Ten, and transfer thither enough of his force to erect batteries and aid the fleet in the bombardment of the island. Pope despatched Colonel Bissell to examine the country with this view, directing him at the same time, if he found it impracticable to build the road, to ascertain if it were possible to dig a canal across the peninsula, from some point above the island to New Madrid. The idea of the canal was suggested to General Pope by General Schuyler Hamilton, an officer whose gentle refinement veiled his absolute resolution and endurance till they were called into practice by danger and privation.

Colonel Bissell found no place where a road could be constructed; but, by following up the bayou (called John's Bayou in the Confederate reports, called Wilson's Bayou on the map made by the United States engineers) which comes into the river immediately above New Madrid, he traced it into the swamp and found that, in connection with depressions and sloughs, a continuous, though tortuous water-way could be gained at that high stage of water, from a point in the river between Islands Eight and Nine and the river at New Madrid. The length of this channel was twelve miles. Part of it had to be excavated to get sufficient depth; for six miles it passed through a thick forest of large trees.

General Pope immediately sent to Cairo for four light-draught steamers, and tools, implements, and supplies needed to cut a navigable way. Colonel Bissell was at once ordered to set his entire command at work, and to call upon the land force on the fleet for aid if needed. For six miles Bissell had to cut through the forest a channel fifty feet wide and four and a half feet deep. Sawing through the trunks of large trees four and a half feet under the surface of the cold water was a work of extreme toil and great exposure. The trees when felled had to be disentangled, cut up, and thrust among the standing trees. Overhanging boughs of trees, growing outside the channel, had to be lopped off. Shallow places were excavated. The whole had to be done from the decks of the little working-boats, or by men standing in the water. The men were urged to incessant labor; yet they toiled with such ardor that urging was not needed. General Halleck telegraphed to Pope, Friday, March 21st, that he would not hamper him with any minute instructions, but would leave him to accomplish the object according to his own judgment, and added: "Buell will be with Grant and Smith by Monday." In nineteen days, April 4th, the way was open and clear; and on the 5th, steamers and barges were brought through near to the lower mouth, but not near enough to be in view from the river.

The Confederate officers on the island were aware of the attempt to secure this cut-off across the peninsula. Captain Gray, engineer, in a report or memorandum, dated March 29th, spoke of "the canal being cut by the enemy," and of heavy guns planted to be used against any boat that might issue from the bayou, as well as batteries erected along the shore, from about a mile and a half below New Madrid down to Tiptonville. But General McCown, when turning over the command to General W.W. Mackall, who relieved him on March 31st, said to him that the National troops were endeavoring to cut a canal across the peninsula, but they would fail, and that Mackall would find the position safe until the river fell, but no longer.

The task which General Pope had proposed to himself—to cross a wide, deep, rapid river, in the face of an enemy holding the farther shore in force, was sufficiently arduous at first. Now that Captain Gray's industry had lined the river-shore with batteries armed with twenty-four, thirty-two, and sixty-four pound guns, and eight-inch howitzers and columbiads, sufficient to blow out of the water any unarmed steamer that should venture to cross, the task was impracticable with his present resources. He applied to Commodore Foote, and urgently repeated the application, for two gunboats, or even one, to be sent down the river some dark night to engage these batteries below New Madrid. But the Commodore was not willing to risk his boats in a voyage along the front of miles of batteries, and declined. On March 28th Halleck telegraphed: "I have telegraphed to Commodore Foote to give you all the aid in his power. You have a difficult problem to solve. I will not embarrass you with instructions. I leave you to act as your judgment may deem best."

Pope set to work to make floating-batteries, to be manned by his troops. Each battery consisted of three heavy barges, lashed together and bolted with iron. The middle barge was bulkheaded all around, so as to have four feet of thickness of solid timber at both the ends and the sides. Three heavy guns were mounted on it and protected by traverses of sand-bags. It also carried eighty sharpshooters. The barges outside of it had a first layer, in the bottom, of empty water-tight barrels, securely lashed, then layers of dry cotton-wood rails and cotton-bales packed close. These were floored over at the top to keep everything in place, so that a shot penetrating the outer barges would have to pass through twenty feet of rails and cotton before reaching the middle one, which carried the men and guns. The outer barges, thus bulkheaded with water-tight barrels and buoyant cotton-bales, could not sink. These barges, when all was ready, were to be towed by steamers to a point directly opposite New Madrid. This could be done safely, as the shore at the point and for a mile and a half below was swamp, and the nearest battery was necessarily below the swamp. When near the opposite shore the floating-batteries were to be cut loose from the steamers and allowed to float down-stream to the point selected for the landing of the troops. As soon as they arrived within short range they were to drop anchor and open fire.

Meanwhile Commander Henry Walke had volunteered to take his boat, the Carondelet; and, on March 30th, Flag-officer Foote gave him permission to make the attempt on the first dark night. The morning of April 4th was a busy time on the Carondelet. The deck was covered with heavy planks, surplus chains were coiled over the most vulnerable parts of the boat, an eleven-inch hawser was wound around the pilot-house as high as the windows; barriers of cordwood were built about the boilers. After sunset, the atmosphere became hazy and the sky overcast. Guns were run back, ports closed, and the sailors armed to resist boarders. Directions were given to sink the boat if it became liable to fall into the enemy's hands. At dusk, twenty sharpshooters from the Forty-second Illinois came aboard to be ready to aid the crew in resisting boarders. After dark, a coal-barge laden with baled hay was fastened to the port side of the boat.

At ten o'clock the moon had gone down and a storm was gathering. The Carondelet cast loose and steamed slowly down the river. The machinery was adjusted so as to permit the steam to escape through the wheel-house, and avoid the noise of puffing through the pipes. The boat glided noiseless and invisible through the darkness. Scarcely had it advanced half a mile when the soot in the chimneys caught fire, a blaze shot up five feet above the smoke-stack. The flue-caps were opened, the blaze subsided, and all was yet silent along the shore. The soot in the smoke-stacks not being moistened by the steam, which was now escaping through the wheel-house, became very inflammable. Just as the Carondelet was passing by the upper battery—the redan—the treacherous flame again leaped from the chimneys, revealing and proclaiming the mission of the boat. Sentries on the parapets on shore fired, guards turned out, rockets darted skyward; the heavy guns opened fire; and the brooding storm broke forth, the lightning and thunder above drowning the flashes and war below. The lightning revealed the position of the gunboat, but it also disclosed the outline of the shore, enabling the pilots to steer with certainty. The boat was pushed near to the Tennessee shore and to the island, and put to its greatest speed. Impeded by the barge in tow, its greatest speed was slow progress, and for half an hour the gunners in the batteries watched the black night to see the hurrying Carondelet shot for an instant out of the darkness at every lightning flash. Beyond the batteries lay the floating battery, carrying nine guns, which had been driven from its moorings the day before by the heavy fire of the fleet. A light on the floating battery marked its position. A few shots left it, but it evinced no eagerness to join in conflict. The Carondelet, unharmed, untouched, fired the agreed signal, and fleet and army knew at midnight the passage was a success.

On the morning of the sixth, Commander Walke, taking on board General Granger, Colonel Smith, of the Forty-third Ohio, and Captain L.H. Marshall, of General Pope's staff, steamed down the river under a heavy fire from the batteries that lined the Tennessee shore, ascertained the position of the batteries, and, on the return silenced the batteries opposite Point Pleasant. Captain Marshall landed with a party and spiked the guns. In the night of the 6th, Commodore Foote, in compliance with General Pope's earnest request, sent the gunboat Pittsburg down to New Madrid, where it arrived, like the Carondelet, untouched.

At the break of day of the 7th, in a heavy rain, Captain Williams, of the First United States Infantry, opened with his thirty-two pounders upon the batteries opposite him at Watson's Landing, where General Pope proposed to land his troops. Commander Walke, with the two gunboats, silenced the batteries along the shore. Three sixty-four pound guns, standing half a mile apart, were spiked. A battery of two sixty-four pound howitzers and one sixty-four pound gun maintained a contest till two of the pieces were dismounted and the other disabled. The four steamers came out of the bayou and took on board Paine's division. At noon, Commander Walke signalled that all the batteries to Watson's Landing were silenced and the way was clear. A spy in the employment of General Pope, who had been taken from the Tennessee shore by Commander Walke and forwarded by him to General Pope, brought the news that the forces about Madrid Bend were in full retreat to Tiptonville. Paine's division, sailing by just at that time, was signalled to stop, and the news was communicated, with orders to land and push in pursuit to Tiptonville with all dispatch. Colonel Morgan's brigade moved in advance, followed by Colonel Cumming's brigade and Houghtaling's battery. Abandoned camps and artillery were passed; prisoners were gathered up. A detachment of cavalry fled as the column came in sight. About nine miles from the landing, General Mackall was found well posted, with infantry, artillery, and cavalry. The leading regiment deployed in line, and General Mackall retired. Twice again he halted in line as if to make a stand, and retreated as the National troops approached. At night Morgan's brigade halted at Tiptonville, and found shelter from the rain in an abandoned camp. The pickets of the brigade gathered in 359 prisoners in the night. Cumming's brigade, being ordered to explore the road coming from the north into the one over which they were moving, came upon the river shore opposite the island, and learned from a few prisoners taken there that but few troops were left on the island. Finding no boats or other means of getting over to the island, Cumming returned to the south, and marched till he came near the camp-fires of the enemy, and then went into bivouac and advised General Paine of his position. General Mackall found himself hemmed in to the south and east by swamp, and to the north and west by Paine's division. Two hours after midnight his adjutant-general took to General Paine General Mackall's unconditional surrender.

Stanley's division followed Paine's, and was followed by Hamilton's. These were overtaken by night and went into bivouac about half way between the crossing and Tiptonville, and learned of the surrender next morning while on the way to join Paine. Colonel Elliott, of the Second Iowa Cavalry, sent with two of his companies by General Pope at dawn of the 8th from Watson's up the river-bank, captured two hundred prisoners, deck-hands and laborers as well as soldiers, the wharf-boat and steamers, great quantities of ordnance and other stores, and standing camps. Turning these over to Colonel Buford, who commanded the land forces on the fleet, and who came over to shore from the island on a steamer, he joined the forces at Tiptonville.

Lieutenant-Colonel Cook, commanding the Twelfth Arkansas, was appointed commandant of the island by General Mackall on the morning of the 7th. Lieutenant-Colonel Cook received, simultaneously with the order, information of Mackall's retreat, and General Pope's landing and pursuit. In the evening he abandoned the island with his regiment, and turned over the command of the island to Captain Humes, of the artillery. Before daylight of the 8th, Commodore Foote was visited by two officers from the island, who tendered a surrender of it and all on it. A gunboat was sent to ascertain the state of affairs. Having learned three hours later of the crossing of the river by Pope, the flight of General Mackall, and the evacuation of the shore-batteries, he sent Colonel Buford, with a force of two gunboats, to receive possession of the island. Seventeen officers and three hundred and sixty-eight privates surrendered to him, besides the two hundred sick and employees turned over to him by Colonel Elliott. Lieutenant-Colonel Cook found his way through the swamp, on the night of the 7th, to the ferry across Reelfoot Lake. In the course of the night he was joined by about four hundred fugitives, mostly belonging to his own regiment, many of them just from the hospital. Hungry, and cold, and drenched with rain, they stood in the water waiting till they could be carried over the lake, through the cypress trees, in two small flatboats and on some extemporized rafts. It was noon of the 9th before the forlorn band were all over, and, without knapsacks or blankets, many without arms, began their weary march for Memphis.

All the troops but Cumming's brigade returned to their camps on the Missouri shore on the 8th. Colonel Cumming, having charge of the prisoners, returned on the evening of the 9th. General Pope, in his final detailed report giving the result of all the operations, states: "Three generals, two hundred and seventy-three field and company officers, six thousand seven hundred privates, one hundred and twenty-three pieces of heavy artillery, thirty-five pieces of field artillery, all of the very best character and of the latest patterns, seven thousand stand of small arms, tents for twelve thousand men, several wharf-boat loads of provisions, an immense quantity of ammunition of all kinds, many hundred horses and mules, with wagons and harness, etc., are among the spoils." The capture embraced, besides, six steamboats—two of them sunk—the gunboat Grampus, carrying two guns, sunk; and the floating battery, carrying nine guns, which the crew had ineffectually attempted to scuttle before abandoning it. Two of the generals captured were brigadier-generals, Mackall and Gantt; the third was perhaps L.M. Walker. When Major-General McCown was relieved on March 31st by Mackall, McCown and Brigadier-General Trudeau left. Brigadier-General A.P. Stewart had left previously and reported for duty at Corinth. Colonels Walker and Gantt were promoted brigadier-generals after the siege began. General Walker appears, from his report of April 9th, dated St. Francis County, Arkansas, to have left on account of ill-health some time before the surrender. The prisoners embraced, including those on the island surrendered to the navy, seven regiments and one battalion of infantry, one of the regiments having twelve companies—eleven companies of heavy and one of light artillery, two companies of cavalry, the officers and crews of the floating battery and the steamboats, and laborers and employees.

The Mississippi was now open to Fort Pillow. General Halleck telegraphed to General Pope: "I congratulate you and your command on your splendid achievement. It exceeds in boldness and brilliancy all other operations of the war. It will be memorable in military history, and will be admired by future generations." On April 12th, General Pope and his entire command embarked on transports and steamed down the river, in company with the gunboat fleet. The force arrived in front of Fort Pillow on the 14th. In a few days, before reconnoitring was completed, Pope was ordered to report with his whole command, except two regiments to be left with the gunboats, to General Halleck at Pittsburg Landing.



CHAPTER V.

THE GATHERING OF THE FORCES.

After the surrender of Fort Donelson, the force confronting Halleck was the command of General Beauregard, stationed at Columbus, Island Number Ten, at Forts Pillow and Randolph, at Memphis, and at convenient points on the railroads in Mississippi. The next objective point that presented itself was Memphis, and, as preliminary, the fortified points on the river above it. But Memphis had large railway connections. The direct road to Nashville was cut at its crossing over the Tennessee River, but at Humboldt it intersected the Mobile and Ohio, which joined Columbus with Mobile. The Memphis and Charleston, running nearly due east to Chattanooga, also intersected the Mobile and Ohio at Corinth. The Mississippi and Tennessee, in connection with the New Orleans, Jackson and Great Northern, gave a route nearly due south to New Orleans, and this intersected at Jackson, Mississippi, another road running east, and which needed only a connecting link between Selma and Montgomery, Alabama, to make it also a through route to the Atlantic States. To destroy the junction at Humboldt would cut off railway connection with Columbus. To destroy the junction at Corinth would cut off connection with the east. A little eastwardly of Corinth, near Eastport, was a considerable railroad bridge over Bear Creek. General Halleck's first step, therefore, was to break these railway connections, and as General A.S. Johnston was falling back southwardly, it became doubly important to sever these connections for the purpose of preventing a conjunction of the forces under Johnston and Beauregard. Lieutenant-Commander Phelps had gone up to Florence, at the foot of Muscle Shoals, immediately after the surrender of Fort Henry, without difficulty. An expedition up the Tennessee, to send out strong, light parties, suggested itself as the natural means of accomplishing the first step. General Halleck proposed to accomplish this by his lieutenants before taking the field in person.

Halleck was sedate, deliberate, cautious. He had written a book on strategy and logistics, and his attention appeared sometimes to be distracted from the actual conditions under which the present military operations were to be conducted by his retrospective reference to the rules which he had announced. Grant, under his extremely quiet demeanor, was full of restless activity. His purpose seemed to be to strike and overcome the enemy without waiting; to use whatever seemed the best means at hand; ready at all times to change for better means if they could be found; but never to cease striking. Halleck was worried by being jogged to new enterprises, but heartily supported them when once begun. C.F. Smith had a brusque manner, but a warm heart. He was direct and honest as a child. He seemed impetuous, but his outburst was a rush of controlled power. He was a thorough soldier, an enthusiast in his profession, the soul of honor, the type of discipline. His commanding officer was to him embodied law; it would have been impossible for him to conceive that his duty and subordination could in any way be affected by the fact that his pupil in the Military Academy had become his commander.

General Grant, being commander of the Military District of Western Tennessee, with limits undefined, sent General C.F. Smith from Fort Donelson, fifty miles up the river to Clarksville, to take possession of the place and the railway bridge over the river there. General Grant wrote to General Cullum, advising him of this movement and proposing the capture of Nashville, but adding he was ready for any move the General Commanding might direct. On the 24th he wrote to General Cullum, General Halleck's chief of staff, that he had sent four regiments to Clarksville, and would send no more till he heard from General Halleck. Next day he wrote that the head of Buell's column had reached Nashville, and he would go there on the receipt of the next mail, unless it should contain some orders preventing him. He went to Nashville on the 27th, and returned to Fort Donelson next day. In his absence there was, among some of the troops about Fort Donelson, fresh from civil life and restive under the inactivity and restraint of a winter camp, some disorder and insubordination. There was, moreover, some marauding in which officers participated. General Grant, on his return, published orders repressing such practices, arrested the guilty parties and sent the arrested officers to St. Louis to report to General Halleck.

On March 1st General Halleck sent to General Grant, from St. Louis, an order directing the course of immediate operations: "Transports will be sent to you as soon as possible to move your column up the Tennessee River. The main object of this expedition will be to destroy the railroad bridge over Bear Creek, near Eastport, Miss., and also the connections at Corinth, Jackson, and Humboldt. It is thought best that these objects should be attempted in the order named. Strong detachments of cavalry and light artillery, supported by infantry, may, by rapid movements, reach these points from the river without very serious opposition. Avoid any general engagement with strong forces. It will be better to retreat than to risk a general battle. This should be strongly impressed upon the officers sent with the expedition from the river. General C.F. Smith, or some very discreet officer, should be selected for such commands. Having accomplished these objects, or such of them as may be practicable, you will return to Danville and move on Paris.... Competent officers should be left to command the garrisons of Forts Henry and Donelson in your absence...." General Grant received the order on March 2d, and repaired at once to Fort Henry. On the 4th the forces at Fort Donelson marched across to the Tennessee, where they were speedily joined by Sherman's division and other reinforcements coming by boat up the river.

On March 2d General Halleck, having received an anonymous letter reflecting on General Grant, telegraphed to General McClellan, the General-in-Chief, at Washington: "I have had no communication with General Grant for more than a week. He left his command without my authority, and went to Nashville. His army seems to be as much demoralized by the victory of Fort Donelson as was that of the Potomac by the defeat of Bull Run. It is hard to censure a successful general immediately after a victory, but I think he richly deserves it. I can get no reports, no returns, no information of any kind from him. Satisfied with his victory, he sits down and enjoys it without any regard to the future. I am worn out and tired by this neglect and inefficiency. C.F. Smith is almost the only officer equal to the emergency." Next day McClellan answered by telegraph: "The future success of our cause demands that proceedings such as General Grant's should at once be checked. Generals must observe discipline as well as private soldiers. Do not hesitate to arrest him at once if the good of the service requires it, and place C.F. Smith in command. You are at liberty to regard this as a positive order, if it will smooth your way." On the 4th General Halleck telegraphed to Grant: "You will place Major-General C.F. Smith in command of expedition, and remain yourself at Fort Henry. Why do you not obey my orders to report strength and position of your command?" Grant replied next day: "Troops will be sent under command of Major-General Smith, as directed. I had prepared a different plan, intending General Smith to command the forces which should go to Paris and Humboldt, while I would command the expedition upon Eastport, Corinth, and Jackson in person.... I am not aware of ever having disobeyed any order from your headquarters—certainly never intended such a thing. I have reported almost daily the condition of my command, and reported every position occupied...." An interchange of telegrams of substantially the same tenor, General Halleck's gradually losing their asperity, lasted a week longer. On March 10th, the day before the President, by War Order No. 3, relieved General McClellan from the supreme command of the armies, General L. Thomas, Adjutant-General of the Army, wrote to General Halleck: "It has been reported that, soon after the battle of Fort Donelson, Brigadier-General Grant left his command without leave. By direction of the President, the Secretary of War directs you to ascertain and report whether General Grant left his command at any time without proper authority, and if so, for how long; whether he has made to you proper reports and returns of his forces; whether he has committed any acts which were unauthorized or not in accordance with military subordination or propriety, and if so, what?" On the 13th Halleck telegraphed to Grant, who had asked to be relieved if his course was not satisfactory, or until he could be set right: "You cannot be relieved from your command. There is no good reason for it. I am certain that all which the authorities at Washington ask is, that you enforce discipline and punish the disorderly.... Instead of relieving you, I wish you, as soon as your new army is in the field, to assume the immediate command and lead it on to new victories." To this Grant replied next day: "After your letter enclosing copy of an anonymous letter upon which severe censure was based, I felt as though it would be impossible for me to serve longer without a court of inquiry. Your telegram of yesterday, however, places such a different phase upon my position that I will again assume command, and give every effort to the success of our cause. Under the worst circumstances I would do the same." On the 15th General Halleck replied to the Adjutant-General of the Army, fully exonerating General Grant. General C.F. Smith felt keenly the injustice done to Grant, and gladly relinquished command of the expedition when Grant assumed it.

Meanwhile the army with its stores had been gathering on a fleet of boats between Fort Henry and the railroad bridge. To the three divisions of Fort Donelson, First, Second, and Third, commanded by C.F. Smith, McClernand, and Lewis Wallace, were added a fourth, commanded by Brigadier-General S.A. Hurlbut, and a fifth by Brigadier-General W. T. Sherman. While C.F. Smith commanded the expedition, his division was commanded by W.H.L. Wallace, who had been promoted to brigadier-general. The steamer Golden State, with one-half of the Fortieth Illinois, reached Savannah, on the right bank of the river, on March 5th. The Forty-sixth Ohio arrived the next day. Behind these was the fleet of more than eighty steamboats, carrying the five divisions and convoyed by three gunboats, a vast procession extending miles along the winding river, each boat with its pillar of smoke by day, and of fire by night. The fleet began arriving at Savannah on the 11th, and lined both shores of the river. Lewis Wallace's division sent a party to the railroad west of the river, striking it at Purdy, tearing up a portion, but doing no permanent injury, and returned. On the 14th, General Smith sent Sherman's division up the river to strike the railroad near Eastport. Rain fell in torrents, roads melted into mud, and small streams rose with dangerous rapidity. The expedition, arrested by an unfordable torrent, returned just in time to reach the landing by wading through water waist-deep. The boats left in the night of the 15th, and stopped at Pittsburg Landing, on the west bank of the river, about nine miles above Savannah. Hurlbut's division was already on boats at this landing, having been ordered thither by General C.F. Smith on the evening of the 14th.

The first step in the programme laid down in General Halleck's order of March 1st, the destruction of the railroad near Eastport, had failed, and events had now required a material change in the programme. General Buell on March 3d telegraphed to Halleck: "What can I do to aid your operations against Columbus?" Halleck, replying next day that Columbus was evacuated and destroyed, added: "Why not come to the Tennessee and operate with me to cut Johnston's line with Memphis, Randolph, and New Madrid.... Estimated strength of enemy at New Madrid, Randolph and Memphis is fifty thousand. It is of vital importance to separate them from Johnston's army. Come over to Savannah or Florence, and we can do it. We can then operate on Decatur or Memphis, or both, as may appear best." Buell rejoined on the 5th: "The thing I think of vital importance is that you seize and hold the bridge at Florence in force." On the 6th Halleck telegraphed: "News down the Tennessee that Beauregard has twenty thousand men at Corinth, and is rapidly fortifying it. Smith will probably not be strong enough to attack it. It is a great misfortune to lose that point. I shall reinforce Smith as rapidly as possible. If you can send a division by water around into the Tennessee, it would require only a small amount of transportation to do it." To this Buell telegraphed on the 9th, insisting on his suggestions made on the 5th. Halleck dispatched on the 10th: "My forces are moving up the Tennessee River as rapidly as we can obtain transportation. Florence was the point originally designated, but, on account of the enemy's forces at Corinth and Humboldt, it is deemed best to land at Savannah and establish a depot. The transportation will serve as ferries. The selection is left to C.F. Smith, who commands the advance.... You do not say whether we are to expect any reinforcements from Nashville." On the same day Buell telegraphed: "... The establishment of your force on this side of the river, as high up as possible, is evidently judicious.... I can join you almost, if not quite as soon, by water, in better condition and with greater security to your operations and mine. I believe you cannot be too promptly nor too strongly established on the Tennessee. I shall advance in a very few days, as soon as our transportation is ready." On the 11th the President issued War Order No. 3. "Major-General McClellan, having personally taken the field at the head of the Army of the Potomac, until otherwise ordered, he is relieved from the command of the other military departments, he retaining command of the Department of the Potomac.

"Ordered further, that the two departments now under the respective commands of Generals Halleck and Hunter, together with so much of that, under General Buell, as lies west of a north and south line indefinitely drawn through Knoxville, Tennessee, be consolidated and designated the Department of the Mississippi; and that, until otherwise ordered, Major-General Halleck have command of said department." Immediately upon the receipt of this order, General Halleck ordered Buell to march his army to Savannah. The forces of the Confederacy were gathering at Corinth; the forces of Halleck and Buell were massing at Savannah. Instead of a hurried dash by a flying column, to tear up a section of railway as ancillary to a real movement elsewhere, the programme now contemplated a struggle by armies for the retention or for the destruction of a strategic point deemed almost vital to the Confederacy.

About the close of February, General Beauregard sent a field-battery, supported by two regiments of infantry, to occupy the river-bluff at Pittsburg Landing, twenty-three miles northwest from Corinth, and nine miles above Savannah. Lieutenant-Commander Gwin, who was stationed at Savannah with two gunboats, the Tyler and the Lexington, proceeded to Pittsburg Landing, on March 1st, and, after a brisk skirmish, silenced the battery and drove it and its supports away. General C.F. Smith, in pursuance of the authority given him by General Halleck, selected this as the point of assembly of the army.

Lick Creek, above the landing, and Snake Creek, below it, empty into the river about three miles apart, the landing being nearer the mouth of Snake Creek. Lick Creek, rising in a swamp, flows eleven miles nearly northeast to the river. Snake Creek flows nearly east to the river. Owl Creek flows nearly parallel to Lick Creek, at a distance from it varying from three to five miles, and empties into Snake Creek something more than a mile from its mouth. The land enclosed between these creeks and the river is a rolling plateau from eighty to a hundred feet above the river-level. The riverfront of this plateau is cut by sundry sloughs and ravines, which were at that time overflowed by back-water. One of these deep ravines, running back at right angles to the river, is immediately above the bluff at the landing. About a mile back from the river, and about a mile above the landing, is a swell in the ground, not marked enough to be called a ridge. From this higher ground extend the head ravines of Oak Creek,[1] a rivulet or brook flowing to the west, passing within a few hundred yards of Shiloh Church, and then turning to the northwest and flowing into Owl Creek. In the reports of Sherman's division this rivulet is treated as the main branch of Owl Creek, and called by that name. From the same rising ground, ravines, wet only after a rain, extend east and southeast to Lick Creek. From the same position extend the head ravines of Brier Creek,[1] a deep ravine with little water, which flows almost due north and empties into Snake Creek a little below the mouth of Owl Creek. The three principal creeks, Lick, Snake, and Owl, flow through swampy valleys, bordered by abrupt bluffs. Oak Creek, from the neighborhood of Shiloh Church to its mouth, flows through a miry bottom bordered by banks of less height. The land was for the most part covered with timber, partly with dense undergrowth; in places were perhaps a dozen open fields containing about eighty acres each. A road, lying far enough back from the river to avoid the sloughs, led from the landing to Hamburg Landing, about six miles above. Another road from the landing crossed Brier Creek and Snake Creek just above their junction, and continued down the river to Crump's Landing. The road to Corinth forked near the landing, one branch of it passing by Shiloh Church, the other keeping nearer to the river, but both reuniting five or six miles out. The position selected thus, gave ample room to camp an army, was absolutely protected on the sides of the river, Snake Creek, and Owl Creek, while from its south face a ridge gave open way to Corinth. The open way to Corinth was also an open way from Corinth to the landing. This accessible front could easily have been turned into a strong defence, by taking advantage of the rolling ground, felling timber, and throwing up slight earthworks. But the army had many things yet to learn, and the use of field fortification was one of them.

[Footnote 1: The names Oak Creek and Brier Creek are obtained from Colonel Charles Whittlesey, who made a study of the field every day for two weeks succeeding the battle.]

In pursuance of General C.F. Smith's instructions to occupy the landing strongly, General Sherman ordered General Hurlbut to disembark his division and encamp it at right angles to the road about a mile out. The Corinth road designated was the one lying nearer to the river. About half a mile beyond the position selected for the camp the road forks, one being the Corinth road running southwest, the other running nearly due west, passed about four hundred yards north of Shiloh Church, crossed Oak Creek and Owl Creek immediately above their junction, and continued to Purdy. General Hurlbut the same day issued a field order in minute detail, and the First and Second Brigades being all of the division at hand, marched to the prescribed point, Burrows' battery being posted at the road; the First Brigade at right angles with the road, with its left at the battery; the Third Brigade at right angles with the road, its right at Burrows' battery, and Mann's battery at its left. The Second Brigade, commanded by Colonel Veatch, subsequently arriving, camped to the rear and partially to the right of the First Brigade, so as almost to interlock with the camp of General C.F. Smith's division.

On the 18th, Sherman's division of four brigades landed, and moved out a few days later to permanent camp. The Second Brigade, sent to watch some fords of Lick Creek, was posted in the fork of a cross-road running to Purdy from the Hamburg road. The Fourth Brigade, commanded by Colonel Buckland, camped with its left near Shiloh Church, and its color-line nearly at right angles with the Corinth road. The First Brigade, commanded by Colonel McDowell, went into camp to the right of Buckland, and was separated from him by a lateral ravine running into Oak Creek; the camp was pitched between the Purdy road and the bluff-banks of Oak Creek. The Third Brigade, commanded by Colonel Hildebrand, was posted to the left of Shiloh Church, its right being near the church. Precision in camping was not exacted, and the left regiment of Colonel Hildebrand's Brigade, the Fifty-third Ohio, in order to enclose a fine spring of water within the brigade, pitched its camp about two hundred yards to the left and front of its next regiment (the Fifty-seventh Ohio), and was separated from the rest of the brigade by this distance and by a stream with swampy borders which emptied into Oak Creek. General Sherman's headquarters were to the rear of Shiloh Church. His batteries, Taylor's and Waterhouse's, together with his cavalry, were camped in rear of the infantry.

General Grant arrived at Savannah on the 17th and assumed command, reported to General Halleck, and on the same day ordered General C.F. Smith's division to Pittsburg Landing. His division, the Second, encamped, not in a line, but in convenient localities on the plateau between Brier Creek and the river. McClernand with the First Division was sent a few days later, and selecting the most level ground, laid out the most regular camp. His front crossed the Corinth road about two-thirds of a mile in rear of Shiloh Church, the road intersecting his line near his left flank; the direction of his line was to the northwest, reaching toward the bluffs of the valley of Snake Creek. General Prentiss reported to General Grant for assignment to duty, and about March 25th, six new regiments, not yet assigned, reported to him and were by him put into two brigades constituting the Sixth Division. These brigades were subsequently increased by regiments assigned to him as late as April 5th and 6th. The Fifth Ohio Battery, Captain Hickenlooper, arriving on April 5th, was assigned to the Sixth Division, and went into camp. Prentiss' camp faced to the south. It is not easy now to identify precisely its position. It appears incidentally, from reports of the battle of April 6th, that a ravine ran along the rear of the right of the division camp, and another ravine in front of the left. The left regiment (the Sixteenth Wisconsin) of the right brigade (Peabody's) lay on the lower or most southern branch of the Corinth road; the left flank of the division was in sight of Stuart's brigade; there was a considerable gap between its right flank and Sherman's division. The divisions were not camped with a view to defence against an apprehended attack; but they did fulfil General Halleck's instructions to General C.F. Smith, to select a depot with a view to the march on to Corinth. Sherman's division lay across one road to Corinth, with McClernand's in its rear; Prentiss' division lay across the other road to Corinth, with Hurlbut in his rear, and C.F. Smith was camped so as to follow either. The divisions did not march to the selected ground and pitch camp in a forenoon; but, partly from the rain and mud, partly want of practice, some of the divisions were several days unloading from the boats, hauling in the great trains then allowed to regiments (twenty-seven wagons and two ambulances to a regiment in some cases,) laying out the ground, and putting up tents. General Sherman, before settling down in his camp, made a reconnoissance out to Monterey, nearly half way to Corinth, and dislodged a detachment of hostile cavalry camped there. Every division and many of the brigades found a separate drill-ground in some neighboring field, and constant drilling was preparing the command for the march to Corinth.

Major-General C.F. Smith received an injury to his leg by jumping into a yawl early in March. This injury, seeming trivial at first, resulted in his death on April 25th. It became so aggravated by the end of March that he was obliged to move from Pittsburg Landing to Savannah, leaving Brigadier-General W.H.L. Wallace in command of his division, and Major-General McClernand, senior officer present, at Pittsburg. General Grant—who went up from Savannah every day to visit the camps, and was requested by General McClernand, by letter on March 27th, to move his headquarters to Pittsburg Landing—was about to transfer his headquarters thither on April 4th, when he received a letter from General Buell saying he would arrive next day at Savannah, and requesting an interview. The transfer of headquarters was accordingly postponed till after the interview.

General L. Wallace's division disembarked at Crump's Landing on the same side of the river with Pittsburg Landing, and a little above Savannah. His First Brigade went into camp near the river; the Second at Stony Lonesome, about two miles out on the road to Purdy; the Third Brigade immediately beyond Adamsville, on the same road. The Third Brigade went into camp on the inner slope of a sharp ridge, and cut down the timber on the exterior slope, to aid the holding of the position in case of an attack in front.