Page images
PDF
EPUB

Mountain and Antietam. When General Ord was transferred to the West, he was placed in command of his brigade, led them gallantly into action at Fredericksburg, and there died upon the field of honor.

A similar fate befell General George D. Bayard, the gallant cavalry officer who had obtained and merited the epithet of the Murat of Burnside's army. This officer was a native of New York, and entered West Point in 1852. He graduated in 1856, and was immediatdly after appointed second lieutenant in the first United States cavalry. In August, 1861, he was promoted to a captaincy, and took command of the first Pennsylvania cavalry, attached to General McCall's Reserves. He took part with that brave corps in all the battles in which they served in the Peninsula and in Maryland. He was raised to the rank of brigadier general in June, 1862. He had distinguished himself by his bold and dashing charges upon the foe in many a desperate engagement. He was extremely chivalrous and gallant in his deportment as an officer, and seemed destined by nature for no other sphere than that of a soldier. It was his pride and glory to command a formidable body of horse; and though only twenty-eight years of age at the period of his death, he had already acquired renown as one of the most brilliant, skilful and daring cavalry officers in the armies of the Union. He died as he had livedbravely, grandly, nobly, and like his great prototype of immortal memory, "without fear and without reproach."

The losses suffered by the Federal forces engaged at Fredericksburg were very heavy. They were eleven hundred and twenty-eight killed, nine thousand one hundred and five wounded, two thousand and seventyeight prisoners. The loss of the Confederates in killed and wounded was about three thousand five hundred. This disproportion resulted from the superior advantages of position and protection which the latter enjoyed, and from the vast number of their guns.

No fighting of importance occurred on Sunday, the 14th of December. The combatants on both sides were nearly exhausted, and both were engaged in the humane work of burying the dead and removing the wounded. During the 15th some skirmishing took place between small and detached bodies. It was expected by both armies that on that day the general assault would be renewed. But a council of war having been convened by General Burnside, the conclusion was arrived at that a further attempt to carry the works of the enemy would only involve an enormous sacrifice of life without any probability of success. General Burnside therefore determined to withdraw his forces across the Rappahannock to their first position. This purpose was accomplished with great skill, and with perfect success, during the night of the 15th of December. Neither men, artillery, nor baggage were lost during the operation, nor were the enemy aware of what was transpiring until the transportation was completed. The reason assigned for this step by General

[ocr errors]

EVENTS AFTER THE BATTLE OF FREDERICKSBURG.

401

Burnside, in a public despatch upon the subject, was the fact that it had become a military necessity either to renew the attack or to retire; and because a repulse would have been extremely disastrous to the Federal cause under existing circumstances.

It would be difficult to describe the intensity of that disappointment. which filled the public mind upon the receipt of the intelligence of this defeat. It was regarded as the greatest misfortune and disgrace which had yet befallen the Federal arms since the commencement of the war. The chief blame, in the popular mind, rested upon the commander-inchief, who it was affirmed should not have undertaken to carry by assault a series of works which had been rendered impregnable to any attack by the energy and skill of the Confederate generals during the long interval which had been allowed them by the delay of the pontoon trains. The Republican members of the Federal Senate, then in session, especially the more radical portion of them, conceived the idea that a change should be made in the Cabinet, and in the policy which governed the conduct of the war, before such disasters would be avoided in future, and victory be won by the arms of the Union. These Senators held several private meetings, compared their views together, and at length appointed a committee to wait on the President, in order to demand the removal of Mr. Seward, the Secretary of State, and the reconstruction of the Cabinet. Before this committee could perform their functions Mr. Seward received information of their purpose, and instantly sent in his resignation to the President, together with that of his son, the assistant secretary. This action of the Republican Senators resulted from the fact that Mr. Seward was regarded by them as the master-spirit, whose influence was paramount in the Cabinet, and who directed its whole policy and movements with resistless potency. In the end, however, the proposed alterations were not effected. Mr. Lincoln, after some days of deliberation, declined to accept the tendered resignations, or to make any change in his Cabinet officers. At a still later period General Burnside publicly assumed the responsibility for making the attack upon the enemy at Fredericksburg, and affirmed that all the blame and the consequent odium, if any such there were, appertained to him alone. This declaration was very honest and ingenuous on his part, but from the testimony afterward given before the Committee on the Conduct of the War it appeared that the delay in the forwarding of the pontoon trains, which was the real cause of the disastrous character of the battle, was the fault of other parties, and that General Burnside was not in any respect blameworthy for that delay. On other fields, since that time, General Burnside has nobly redeemed his reputation from any charges of unskilful generalship, and his prompt assumption of the blame on this occasion, when most men would have shrunk from it, was in unison with the generosity and manliness of his character, and won him more friends than his misfortunes had lost.

On the 28th of November, a severe battle was fought near Boonesborough, or Cane Hill, in Arkansas, between the Federal troops, commanded by General Blunt, and the Rebels, led by Generals Marmaduke and Shelby. The former consisted of three brigades, with four batteries and six mountain howitzers. The latter numbered eight thousand men. The purpose of General Blunt was to attack and expel the enemy from the position which they had taken in that vicinity, which contained the richest grain-growing region in Arkansas; for if they were driven thence they would suffer from famine more severely than from a defeat in the field. The army advanced as rapidly as possible over the mountain roads, and at length reached the pickets of the enemy. Some of these were captured; the rest were driven in. An attack upon the foe was commenced as soon as their main body was reached. The Federals began the assault from a hill which overlooked the town of Boonesborough and the camp of the enemy. The artillery commenced the action. The Rebels responded with spirit, but as soon as a charge was made with the bayonet by the first brigade, led by Colonel Ware, they broke and fled. The Federals pursued them with deafening shouts. A running fight then followed, from one hill to another, through one ravine after another, the Rebels making a brief stand from time to time, and then breaking away again in disorder. Thus the pursuit had continued from ten o'clock in the morning until night. It was kept up over an area of mountainous country ten miles in extent. At last, when night came, it found the enemy inclosed in a wild deep mountain-gorge, in which they could not be attacked with much success in the darkness. The Federal troops then suspended their labors. Finding himself destined to inevitable defeat if the battle was renewed, the Rebel General Marmaduke sent a flag of truce asking per mission to remove his dead and wounded, and under cover of this escaped with his demoralized forces to Van Buren, where a considerable force of Rebels from other portions of the State were concentrating under General Hiudman.

The Rebels were greatly chagrined at this defeat, and resolved to avenge it, destroy Blunt's little force, and obtain possession of the wheat region of northwestern Arkansas. For this purpose Hindman commenced moving forward with his army of about thirty thousand men, on the 2d of December, toward Crane Hill. General Blunt was promptly informed concerning his movements, and telegraphed at once to General Herron, then at Wilson's creek, Missouri, one hundred and ten miles distant, to come to his aid by forced marches. Herron received his despatch on the morning of the 3d of December, and in three hours was on the road with his advance column, the others following immediately. The whole distance was accomplished in three days, and Herron's force, consisting of about seven thousand men, encountered the enemy in a long valley, run. ning from west to east, called Prairie Grove, about ten miles above Cane

FEDERAL VICTORY AT CANE HILL, ARKANSAS.

403

Hill, on the morning of December 7th. General Blunt, during three days which intervened, had been skirmishing with the enemy at points eight, ten, and fifteen miles below Cane Hill, endeavoring to prevent them from passing up the mountain road to the east of Cane Hill, and thus intercepting Herron before he could join him, or pouncing upon his own train, which was at Rhea's Mills, nearly opposite, and to the west of Prairie Grove. On the morning of the 7th he found to his regret that Hindman had succeeded in pushing his main column past his army, and would be likely to attack Herron single-handed. He accordingly pushed northward with all speed with his little force of about five thousand, saw that his trains were transferred to a safe place, and passing through the valley of Prairie Grove, attacked Hindman in the rear, about three o'clock in the afternoon. General Herron's little force had fought with desperate bravery for five hours, and were becoming exhausted in contending against more than four times their numbers; but the sound of Blunt's cannon, and the charges of his men upon the rear of the enemy, infused new vigor into their wearied limbs, and they rushed with energy into the fight, and soon began to drive the enemy before them. At nightfall the Union forces occupied the ground on which the enemy had first formed, and both parties slept on their arms, the Union troops expecting to renew the contest in the morning; but toward daylight General Hindman requested an interview with General Blunt, and kept up a parley for five hours, meanwhile repeating Marmaduke's trick of withdrawing his troops during the flag of truce. The Union loss was about seven hundred, that of the Rebels over fifteen hundred.

CHAPTER XXXVI.

THE EXPEDITION OF GENERAL FOSTER FROM NEWBERN TO KINGSTON AND GOLDSBORO-COMMENCEMENT OF THE MARCH-SKIRMISH AT SOUTHEAST CREEK-ITS RESULTS THE FEDERALS CONTINUE THEIR MARCH TO KINSTON-BATTLE AT THAT PLACE INCIDENTS OF THIS ENGAGEMENT-ITS RESULTS-OPERATIONS OF THE FEDERAL FLEET WHICH ACCOMPANIED THE EXPEDITION-SKIRMISH AT WHITEHALL-BATTLE AT GOLDSBORO--THE RETURN OF THE EXPEDITION-SKIRMISHING WITH THE ENEMY-EXPLOITS OF MAJOR GARRARD AND FITZSIMMONS-ARRIVAL OF THE EXPEDITION AT NEWBERN-ITS RESULTS-FEDERAL LOSSES SKETCH OF GENERAL FOSTER--Capture oF HOLLY SPRINGS-BATTLE OF DAVIS' MILLS IN MISSISSIPPI-HEROISM OF COLONEL MORGAN-DEFEAT AT VAN DORN-POSITION OF AFFAIRS TOWARD THE CLOSE OF THE YEAR 1862-PRESIDENT LINCOLN'S EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION ITS PROVISIONS-FEELINGS WITH WHICH IT WAS REGARDED BY DIFFERENT CLASSES OF THE COMMUNITY-ITS INFLUENCE UPON THE FUTURE EVENTS OF THE WAR.

AT the time that the cause of the Union was receiving a calamitous blow at Fredericksburg, the general gloom was somewhat mitigated by the intel ligence of a successful movement of General J. G. Foster from Newbern into the interior of North Carolina. The expedition organized by that officer started from Newbern on the morning of the 11th of December, 1862. Its object was the capture of Kinston, Whitehall, and Goldsboro, and the severance of some of the railroad lines which connected Richmond with various portions of the Confederate States. Preparations for this undertaking had been progressing with energy for some time. The forces detailed to this service consisted of the ninth New Jersey, which was placed in the extreme advance, the brigade commanded by General Wessel, with those of Generals Peck, Avery, Lee, and Stevenson. The majority of these troops were from Massachusetts. They were accompanied by the third New York artillery, the Belger battery, the first Rhode Island artillery, commanded by Colonel Ledlie, and the third New York cavalry, led by Colonel Mix.

Having left Newbern, the expedition marched up the Trent road about ten miles, where it halted. At three o'clock in the afternoon the pickets of the enemy were first encountered, and three of them were captured. The march had been already rendered difficult from the fact that the road had been obstructed by felled trees and by other impediments. It was necessary that these should be removed before the advance could be continued. This work was accomplished during the ensuing night, and the ninth New Jersey infantry then proceeded until within three miles of Trenton. On Friday morning, the 12th, the march of the main body was resumed. During this day they encountered a body of Rebel cavalry, and an ambush of their infantry. A portion of the third New York cavalry

« PreviousContinue »