27: Chapter XXVII.
<< 26: Chapter XXVI. || 28: Chapter XXVIII. >>
My position at Corinth, with a nominal command and yet no
command, became so unbearable that I asked permission of Halleck
to remove my headquarters to Memphis. I had repeatedly asked,
between the fall of Donelson and the evacuation of Corinth, to
be relieved from duty under Halleck; but all my applications
were refused until the occupation of the town. I then obtained
permission to leave the department, but General Sherman happened
to call on me as I was about starting and urged me so strongly
not to think of going, that I concluded to remain. My
application to be permitted to remove my headquarters to Memphis
was, however, approved, and on the 21st of June I started for
that point with my staff and a cavalry escort of only a part of
one company. There was a detachment of two or three companies
going some twenty-five miles west to be stationed as a guard to
the railroad. I went under cover of this escort to the end of
their march, and the next morning proceeded to La Grange with no
convoy but the few cavalry men I had with me.
From La Grange to Memphis the distance is forty-seven miles.
There were no troops stationed between these two points, except
a small force guarding a working party which was engaged in
repairing the railroad. Not knowing where this party would be
found I halted at La Grange. General Hurlbut was in command
there at the time and had his headquarters tents pitched on the
lawn of a very commodious country house. The proprietor was at
home and, learning of my arrival, he invited General Hurlbut and
me to dine with him. I accepted the invitation and spent a very
pleasant afternoon with my host, who was a thorough Southern
gentleman fully convinced of the justice of secession. After
dinner, seated in the capacious porch, he entertained me with a
recital of the services he was rendering the cause. He was too
old to be in the ranks himself—he must have been quite seventy
then—but his means enabled him to be useful in other ways. In
ordinary times the homestead where he was now living produced
the bread and meat to supply the slaves on his main plantation,
in the low-lands of Mississippi. Now he raised food and forage
on both places, and thought he would have that year a surplus
sufficient to feed three hundred families of poor men who had
gone into the war and left their families dependent upon the
"patriotism" of those better off. The crops around me looked
fine, and I had at the moment an idea that about the time they
were ready to be gathered the "Yankee" troops would be in the
neighborhood and harvest them for the benefit of those engaged
in the suppression of the rebellion instead of its support. I
felt, however, the greatest respect for the candor of my host
and for his zeal in a cause he thoroughly believed in, though
our views were as wide apart as it is possible to conceive.
The 23d of June, 1862, on the road from La Grange to Memphis was
very warm, even for that latitude and season. With my staff and
small escort I started at an early hour, and before noon we
arrived within twenty miles of Memphis. At this point I saw a
very comfortable-looking white-haired gentleman seated at the
front of his house, a little distance from the road. I let my
staff and escort ride ahead while I halted and, for an excuse,
asked for a glass of water. I was invited at once to dismount
and come in. I found my host very genial and communicative, and
staid longer than I had intended, until the lady of the house
announced dinner and asked me to join them. The host, however,
was not pressing, so that I declined the invitation and,
mounting my horse, rode on.
About a mile west from where I had been stopping a road comes up
from the southeast, joining that from La Grange to Memphis. A
mile west of this junction I found my staff and escort halted
and enjoying the shade of forest trees on the lawn of a house
located several hundred feet back from the road, their horses
hitched to the fence along the line of the road. I, too,
stopped and we remained there until the cool of the afternoon,
and then rode into Memphis.
The gentleman with whom I had stopped twenty miles from Memphis
was a Mr. De Loche, a man loyal to the Union. He had not
pressed me to tarry longer with him because in the early part of
my visit a neighbor, a Dr. Smith, had called and, on being
presented to me, backed off the porch as if something had hit
him. Mr. De Loche knew that the rebel General Jackson was in
that neighborhood with a detachment of cavalry. His neighbor
was as earnest in the southern cause as was Mr. De Loche in that
of the Union. The exact location of Jackson was entirely unknown
to Mr. De Loche; but he was sure that his neighbor would know it
and would give information of my presence, and this made my stay
unpleasant to him after the call of Dr. Smith.
I have stated that a detachment of troops was engaged in
guarding workmen who were repairing the railroad east of
Memphis. On the day I entered Memphis, Jackson captured a small
herd of beef cattle which had been sent east for the troops so
engaged. The drovers were not enlisted men and he released
them. A day or two after one of these drovers came to my
headquarters and, relating the circumstances of his capture,
said Jackson was very much disappointed that he had not captured
me; that he was six or seven miles south of the Memphis and
Charleston railroad when he learned that I was stopping at the
house of Mr. De Loche, and had ridden with his command to the
junction of the road he was on with that from La Grange and
Memphis, where he learned that I had passed three-quarters of an
hour before. He thought it would be useless to pursue with jaded
horses a well-mounted party with so much of a start. Had he gone
three-quarters of a mile farther he would have found me with my
party quietly resting under the shade of trees and without even
arms in our hands with which to defend ourselves.
General Jackson of course did not communicate his disappointment
at not capturing me to a prisoner, a young drover; but from the
talk among the soldiers the facts related were learned. A day
or two later Mr. De Loche called on me in Memphis to apologize
for his apparent incivility in not insisting on my staying for
dinner. He said that his wife accused him of marked
discourtesy, but that, after the call of his neighbor, he had
felt restless until I got away. I never met General Jackson
before the war, nor during it, but have met him since at his
very comfortable summer home at Manitou Springs, Colorado. I
reminded him of the above incident, and this drew from him the
response that he was thankful now he had not captured me. I
certainly was very thankful too.
My occupation of Memphis as district headquarters did not last
long. The period, however, was marked by a few incidents which
were novel to me. Up to that time I had not occupied any place
in the South where the citizens were at home in any great
numbers. Dover was within the fortifications at Fort Donelson,
and, as far as I remember, every citizen was gone. There were
no people living at Pittsburg landing, and but very few at
Corinth. Memphis, however, was a populous city, and there were
many of the citizens remaining there who were not only
thoroughly impressed with the justice of their cause, but who
thought that even the "Yankee soldiery" must entertain the same
views if they could only be induced to make an honest
confession. It took hours of my time every day to listen to
complaints and requests. The latter were generally reasonable,
and if so they were granted; but the complaints were not always,
or even often, well founded. Two instances will mark the general
character. First: the officer who commanded at Memphis
immediately after the city fell into the hands of the National
troops had ordered one of the churches of the city to be opened
to the soldiers. Army chaplains were authorized to occupy the
pulpit. Second: at the beginning of the war the Confederate
Congress had passed a law confiscating all property of "alien
enemies" at the South, including the debts of Southerners to
Northern men. In consequence of this law, when Memphis was
occupied the provost-marshal had forcibly collected all the
evidences he could obtain of such debts.
Almost the first complaints made to me were these two
outrages. The gentleman who made the complaints informed me
first of his own high standing as a lawyer, a citizen and a
Christian. He was a deacon in the church which had been defiled
by the occupation of Union troops, and by a Union chaplain
filling the pulpit. He did not use the word "defile," but he
expressed the idea very clearly. He asked that the church be
restored to the former congregation. I told him that no order
had been issued prohibiting the congregation attending the
church. He said of course the congregation could not hear a
Northern clergyman who differed so radically with them on
questions of government. I told him the troops would continue
to occupy that church for the present, and that they would not
be called upon to hear disloyal sentiments proclaimed from the
pulpit. This closed the argument on the first point.
Then came the second. The complainant said that he wanted the
papers restored to him which had been surrendered to the
provost-marshal under protest; he was a lawyer, and before the
establishment of the "Confederate States Government" had been
the attorney for a number of large business houses at the North;
that "his government" had confiscated all debts due "alien
enemies," and appointed commissioners, or officers, to collect
such debts and pay them over to the "government": but in his
case, owing to his high standing, he had been permitted to hold
these claims for collection, the responsible officials knowing
that he would account to the "government" for every dollar
received. He said that his "government," when it came in
possession of all its territory, would hold him personally
responsible for the claims he had surrendered to the provost-
marshal. His impudence was so sublime that I was rather amused
than indignant. I told him, however, that if he would remain in
Memphis I did not believe the Confederate government would ever
molest him. He left, no doubt, as much amazed at my assurance
as I was at the brazenness of his request.
On the 11th of July General Halleck received telegraphic orders
appointing him to the command of all the armies, with
headquarters in Washington. His instructions pressed him to
proceed to his new field of duty with as little delay as was
consistent with the safety and interests of his previous
command. I was next in rank, and he telegraphed me the same day
to report at department headquarters at Corinth. I was not
informed by the dispatch that my chief had been ordered to a
different field and did not know whether to move my headquarters
or not. I telegraphed asking if I was to take my staff with me,
and received word in reply: "This place will be your
headquarters. You can judge for yourself." I left Memphis for
my new field without delay, and reached Corinth on the 15th of
the month. General Halleck remained until the 17th of July; but
he was very uncommunicative, and gave me no information as to
what I had been called to Corinth for.
When General Halleck left to assume the duties of
general-in-chief I remained in command of the district of West
Tennessee. Practically I became a department commander, because
no one was assigned to that position over me and I made my
reports direct to the general-in-chief; but I was not assigned
to the position of department commander until the 25th of
October. General Halleck while commanding the Department of the
Mississippi had had control as far east as a line drawn from
Chattanooga north. My district only embraced West Tennessee and
Kentucky west of the Cumberland River. Buell, with the Army of
the Ohio, had, as previously stated, been ordered east towards
Chattanooga, with instructions to repair the Memphis and
Charleston railroad as he advanced. Troops had been sent north
by Halleck along the line of the Mobile and Ohio railroad to put
it in repair as far as Columbus. Other troops were stationed on
the railroad from Jackson, Tennessee, to Grand Junction, and
still others on the road west to Memphis.
The remainder of the magnificent army of 120,000 men which
entered Corinth on the 30th of May had now become so scattered
that I was put entirely on the defensive in a territory whose
population was hostile to the Union. One of the first things I
had to do was to construct fortifications at Corinth better
suited to the garrison that could be spared to man them. The
structures that had been built during the months of May and June
were left as monuments to the skill of the engineer, and others
were constructed in a few days, plainer in design but suited to
the command available to defend them.
I disposed the troops belonging to the district in conformity
with the situation as rapidly as possible. The forces at
Donelson, Clarksville and Nashville, with those at Corinth and
along the railroad eastward, I regarded as sufficient for
protection against any attack from the west. The Mobile and
Ohio railroad was guarded from Rienzi, south of Corinth, to
Columbus; and the Mississippi Central railroad from Jackson,
Tennessee, to Bolivar. Grand Junction and La Grange on the
Memphis railroad were abandoned.
South of the Army of the Tennessee, and confronting it, was Van
Dorn, with a sufficient force to organize a movable army of
thirty-five to forty thousand men, after being reinforced by
Price from Missouri. This movable force could be thrown against
either Corinth, Bolivar or Memphis; and the best that could be
done in such event would be to weaken the points not threatened
in order to reinforce the one that was. Nothing could be gained
on the National side by attacking elsewhere, because the
territory already occupied was as much as the force present
could guard. The most anxious period of the war, to me, was
during the time the Army of the Tennessee was guarding the
territory acquired by the fall of Corinth and Memphis and before
I was sufficiently reinforced to take the offensive. The enemy
also had cavalry operating in our rear, making it necessary to
guard every point of the railroad back to Columbus, on the
security of which we were dependent for all our supplies.
Headquarters were connected by telegraph with all points of the
command except Memphis and the Mississippi below Columbus. With
these points communication was had by the railroad to Columbus,
then down the river by boat. To reinforce Memphis would take
three or four days, and to get an order there for troops to move
elsewhere would have taken at least two days. Memphis therefore
was practically isolated from the balance of the command. But
it was in Sherman's hands. Then too the troops were well
intrenched and the gunboats made a valuable auxiliary.
During the two months after the departure of General Halleck
there was much fighting between small bodies of the contending
armies, but these encounters were dwarfed by the magnitude of
the main battles so as to be now almost forgotten except by
those engaged in them. Some of them, however, estimated by the
losses on both sides in killed and wounded, were equal in hard
fighting to most of the battles of the Mexican war which
attracted so much of the attention of the public when they
occurred. About the 23d of July Colonel Ross, commanding at
Bolivar, was threatened by a large force of the enemy so that he
had to be reinforced from Jackson and Corinth. On the 27th there
was skirmishing on the Hatchie River, eight miles from Bolivar.
On the 30th I learned from Colonel P. H. Sheridan, who had been
far to the south, that Bragg in person was at Rome, Georgia,
with his troops moving by rail (by way of Mobile) to Chattanooga
and his wagon train marching overland to join him at Rome. Price
was at this time at Holly Springs, Mississippi, with a large
force, and occupied Grand Junction as an outpost. I proposed to
the general-in-chief to be permitted to drive him away, but was
informed that, while I had to judge for myself, the best use to
make of my troops WAS NOT TO SCATTER THEM, but hold them ready
to reinforce Buell.
The movement of Bragg himself with his wagon trains to
Chattanooga across country, while his troops were transported
over a long round-about road to the same destination, without
need of guards except when in my immediate front, demonstrates
the advantage which troops enjoy while acting in a country where
the people are friendly. Buell was marching through a hostile
region and had to have his communications thoroughly guarded
back to a base of supplies. More men were required the farther
the National troops penetrated into the enemy's country. I,
with an army sufficiently powerful to have destroyed Bragg, was
purely on the defensive and accomplishing no more than to hold a
force far inferior to my own.
On the 2d of August I was ordered from Washington to live upon
the country, on the resources of citizens hostile to the
government, so far as practicable. I was also directed to
"handle rebels within our lines without gloves," to imprison
them, or to expel them from their homes and from our lines. I
do not recollect having arrested and confined a citizen (not a
soldier) during the entire rebellion. I am aware that a great
many were sent to northern prisons, particularly to Joliet,
Illinois, by some of my subordinates with the statement that it
was my order. I had all such released the moment I learned of
their arrest; and finally sent a staff officer north to release
every prisoner who was said to be confined by my order. There
were many citizens at home who deserved punishment because they
were soldiers when an opportunity was afforded to inflict an
injury to the National cause. This class was not of the kind
that were apt to get arrested, and I deemed it better that a few
guilty men should escape than that a great many innocent ones
should suffer.
On the 14th of August I was ordered to send two more divisions
to Buell. They were sent the same day by way of Decatur. On
the 22d Colonel Rodney Mason surrendered Clarksville with six
companies of his regiment.
Colonel Mason was one of the officers who had led their
regiments off the field at almost the first fire of the rebels
at Shiloh. He was by nature and education a gentleman, and was
terribly mortified at his action when the battle was over. He
came to me with tears in his eyes and begged to be allowed to
have another trial. I felt great sympathy for him and sent him,
with his regiment, to garrison Clarksville and Donelson. He
selected Clarksville for his headquarters, no doubt because he
regarded it as the post of danger, it being nearer the enemy.
But when he was summoned to surrender by a band of guerillas,
his constitutional weakness overcame him. He inquired the
number of men the enemy had, and receiving a response indicating
a force greater than his own he said if he could be satisfied of
that fact he would surrender. Arrangements were made for him to
count the guerillas, and having satisfied himself that the enemy
had the greater force he surrendered and informed his
subordinate at Donelson of the fact, advising him to do the
same. The guerillas paroled their prisoners and moved upon
Donelson, but the officer in command at that point marched out
to meet them and drove them away.
Among other embarrassments, at the time of which I now write,
was the fact that the government wanted to get out all the
cotton possible from the South and directed me to give every
facility toward that end. Pay in gold was authorized, and
stations on the Mississippi River and on the railroad in our
possession had to be designated where cotton would be
received. This opened to the enemy not only the means of
converting cotton into money, which had a value all over the
world and which they so much needed, but it afforded them means
of obtaining accurate and intelligent information in regard to
our position and strength. It was also demoralizing to the
troops. Citizens obtaining permits from the treasury department
had to be protected within our lines and given facilities to get
out cotton by which they realized enormous profits. Men who had
enlisted to fight the battles of their country did not like to be
engaged in protecting a traffic which went to the support of an
enemy they had to fight, and the profits of which went to men
who shared none of their dangers.
On the 30th of August Colonel M. D. Leggett, near Bolivar, with
the 20th and 29th Ohio volunteer infantry, was attacked by a
force supposed to be about 4,000 strong. The enemy was driven
away with a loss of more than one hundred men. On the 1st of
September the bridge guard at Medon was attacked by guerillas.
The guard held the position until reinforced, when the enemy
were routed leaving about fifty of their number on the field
dead or wounded, our loss being only two killed and fifteen
wounded. On the same day Colonel Dennis, with a force of less
than 500 infantry and two pieces of artillery, met the cavalry
of the enemy in strong force, a few miles west of Medon, and
drove them away with great loss. Our troops buried 179 of the
enemy's dead, left upon the field. Afterwards it was found that
all the houses in the vicinity of the battlefield were turned
into hospitals for the wounded. Our loss, as reported at the
time, was forty-five killed and wounded. On the 2d of September
I was ordered to send more reinforcements to Buell. Jackson and
Bolivar were yet threatened, but I sent the reinforcements. On
the 4th I received direct orders to send Granger's division also
to Louisville, Kentucky.
General Buell had left Corinth about the 10th of June to march
upon Chattanooga; Bragg, who had superseded Beauregard in
command, sent one division from Tupelo on the 27th of June for
the same place. This gave Buell about seventeen days' start. If
he had not been required to repair the railroad as he advanced,
the march could have been made in eighteen days at the outside,
and Chattanooga must have been reached by the National forces
before the rebels could have possibly got there. The road
between Nashville and Chattanooga could easily have been put in
repair by other troops, so that communication with the North
would have been opened in a short time after the occupation of
the place by the National troops. If Buell had been permitted
to move in the first instance, with the whole of the Army of the
Ohio and that portion of the Army of the Mississippi afterwards
sent to him, he could have thrown four divisions from his own
command along the line of road to repair and guard it.
Granger's division was promptly sent on the 4th of September. I
was at the station at Corinth when the troops reached that point,
and found General P. H. Sheridan with them. I expressed surprise
at seeing him and said that I had not expected him to go. He
showed decided disappointment at the prospect of being
detained. I felt a little nettled at his desire to get away and
did not detain him.
Sheridan was a first lieutenant in the regiment in which I had
served eleven years, the 4th infantry, and stationed on the
Pacific coast when the war broke out. He was promoted to a
captaincy in May, 1861, and before the close of the year managed
in some way, I do not know how, to get East. He went to
Missouri. Halleck had known him as a very successful young
officer in managing campaigns against the Indians on the Pacific
coast, and appointed him acting-quartermaster in south-west
Missouri. There was no difficulty in getting supplies forward
while Sheridan served in that capacity; but he got into
difficulty with his immediate superiors because of his stringent
rules for preventing the use of public transportation for private
purposes. He asked to be relieved from further duty in the
capacity in which he was engaged and his request was granted.
When General Halleck took the field in April, 1862, Sheridan was
assigned to duty on his staff. During the advance on Corinth a
vacancy occurred in the colonelcy of the 2d Michigan cavalry.
Governor Blair, of Michigan, telegraphed General Halleck asking
him to suggest the name of a professional soldier for the
vacancy, saying he would appoint a good man without reference to
his State. Sheridan was named; and was so conspicuously
efficient that when Corinth was reached he was assigned to
command a cavalry brigade in the Army of the Mississippi. He
was in command at Booneville on the 1st of July with two small
regiments, when he was attacked by a force full three times as
numerous as his own. By very skillful manoeuvres and boldness of
attack he completely routed the enemy. For this he was made a
brigadier-general and became a conspicuous figure in the army
about Corinth. On this account I was sorry to see him leaving
me. His departure was probably fortunate, for he rendered
distinguished services in his new field.
Granger and Sheridan reached Louisville before Buell got there,
and on the night of their arrival Sheridan with his command
threw up works around the railroad station for the defense of
troops as they came from the front.
<< 26: Chapter XXVI. || 28: Chapter XXVIII. >>
