xt7tx921cw05 https://exploreuk.uky.edu/dips/xt7tx921cw05/data/mets.xml Wood, C. J. 1880  books b92e467w8718802009 English N/A : N/A Contact the Special Collections Research Center for information regarding rights and use of this collection. Morgan s Ohio Raid, 1863. United States --History --Civil War, 1861-1865 --Biography. Reminiscences of the war. Biography and personal sketches of all the commanding officiers of the Union Army. Narrative of the Morgan raid in Indiana and Ohio. Fall of Richmond and the surrender of Gen l Lee. Flight of Jeff. Davis. text Reminiscences of the war. Biography and personal sketches of all the commanding officiers of the Union Army. Narrative of the Morgan raid in Indiana and Ohio. Fall of Richmond and the surrender of Gen l Lee. Flight of Jeff. Davis. 1880 2009 true xt7tx921cw05 section xt7tx921cw05 
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   REMINISCENCES OF THE WAR.,

BIOGRAPHY

AND

Personal Sketches of all the Commanding Officers of the Union Army.

itarbatiyb

MORGAN RAID

in Indiana and Ohio; Pursuit, Capture, Imprisonment and Escape of Morgan from the Ohio Penitentiary; his last Fight, and Tragic Death of the Renowned Cavalier.

FALL OF RICHMOND

AND

Surrender of Oen'l Lee.

FLIGHT OFJEFF. DAVIS

from the Rebel Capital; Pursuit and Final Capture of the Rebel Chief in the Jungles of a Dismal Swamp in Southeastern Georgia.

CAPTUEE,

Court Martial, Conviction and Hanging of Col. Orton and Major Dunbar, two Rebel Spies, at Franklin, Tenn., in 1863.

o. cr. wood, nvc. id.,

' . ....   Surgeon U. S. A. 
    
   PREFACE.

Connected with the Army of the Potomac as Surgeon, I saw, personally, all its great leaders, obtained their biography over their own signatures, and was witness of many of their deeds of daring and renown. Three years' constant travel among the Union Armies in the South and West, as Sanitary-Agent, furnished a field of observation seldom equaled. Rapidly the tide of events bears us away from the scenes of the war, and soon many noble deeds and noble men will be forgotten and buried among the dim relics of the past.

To preserve the history of these eventful days, as gathered from original sources and personal observation, I submit these life-sketches of Union commanders, in the hope that the present generation will not cease to remember the devoted line of heroes that saved the Nation, but transmit the story of their achievements to a future and loyal posterity.

(iii) 
   CONTENTS.

Preface, .

Contents,

Introduction,

page,

    3 4

. 6

Biography and Personal Sketches of all the Commanding Officers of the Union Army,.....

Maj.-Gen'l Robert Anderson, . 154 Maj.-Gen'l Nathaniel P. Banks, 146 Brev. Maj.-Gen'l G. Barlow, . 205 Brev. Maj.-Gen'l H.W. Benham, 232 Maj.-Gen'l Frank P. Blair, . 135 Maj.-Gen'l Don Carlos Buell, . 115 Maj.-Gen'l Ambrose E. Burnside, 96 Maj.-Gen'l Benjamin F. Butlerp 135 Brig.-Gen'l Samuel P. Carter, . 233 Brev. Maj-Gen'l J. A. Chamberlain, .... 243 Brig.-Gen'l Michael Corcoran, 251 Brev. Maj.-Gen'l John M. Corse, 209 Maj.-Gen'l Jacob D. Cox, . 205 Brev. Maj.-Gen'l G. A. Custer, 212 Maj.-Gen'l Jefferson C. Davis, 153 Maj.-Gen'l John A. Dix, . 101 Maj.-Gen'l George M. Dodge, 157 Brev. Maj.-Gen'l T. W. Egan, 246 Col. Elmer E. Ellsworth, . 252 Brev. Maj.-Gen'l W. H. Emory, 229 Brig.-Gen'l R. F. Foster, . 250 Maj.-Gen'l Wm. B. Franklin, . 95 Brig.-Gen'l James B. Fry, Provost Marsh.-Gen'l U. S. Army, 231 Maj.-Gen'l James A. Garfield, 226 Brev. Maj.-Gen'l J. W. Geary, 216 Maj.-Gen'l George W. Getty, . 217

215 7

225 148

127 224 187

251

238

Maj.-Gen'l Quincy A. Gilmore, Lieut.-Gen'l Ulysses S. Grant, . Brig.-Gen'l P. A. Hackleman, Maj.-Gen'l Henry W. Halleck, Maj.-Gen'l Winfield Scott Hancock, .... Brig.-Gen'l Ben Harrison, Maj.-Gen'l R. B. Hayes, . Brev. Maj.-Gen'l S. P. Heint-zleman,   . ' . .

Maj.-Gen'l E. A. Hitchcock, . Brig.-Gen'l Edward H. Hobson, 159 Maj.-Gen'l Joseph Hooker, . 89 Maj.-Gen'l Oliver Otis Howard, 85 Maj.-Gen'l David Hunter, . 150 Brev. Maj.-Gen'l Rufus Ingalls, 221 Brev. Maj.-Gen'l A. V. Kautz, 223 Maj.-Gen'l Phil. Kearney, . 124 Maj.-Gen'l Judson Kilpatrick, . 218 Brig.-Gen'l Frederic W. Lander, 201 Brev. Maj.-Gen'l M. D.Leggett, 235 Maj.-Gen'l John A. Logan, . 129 Brig.-Gen'l J. K. F. Mansfield, 169 Brig.-Gen'l George B. McCall, Maj.-Gen'l Geo. B. McClellan, Brev. Maj.-Gen'l J. A. McCler-nand, .... Brig.-Gen'l Robt. L. McCook,

249 81

Brev. Maj.-Gen'l A. C. Gillcm,  247 | Maj.-Gen'l Irvin McDowell,

Civ)

249 176 112 
   contents.

V

page.

Brev. Maj.-Gen'l J.W. McMillen, 239

Maj.-Gen'l Jas. B. McPherson, m

Maj.-Gen'l George G. Meade, . 106

Maj.-Gen'l M. C. Meigs, .      . 174

Brig.-Gen'I Solomon Meredith, 237

Maj.-Gen'l Ormsby M.-Mitchel, 227

Brig.-Gen'I George W. Morgan, 193

Maj.-Gen'l Gersham Mott,      . 199

Brig.-Gen'I William Nelson,   . 202

Maj.-Gen'l Edward O. C. Ord, 125

Maj.-Gen'l John M. Palmer,   . 250

Maj.-Gen'l John Pope,    .      . 83

Maj.-Gen'l Fitzjohn Porter,    . 126

Maj.-Gen'l B. D. Prichard,     . 235

Brig.-Gen'I John Ramsey,      . 240

Maj.-Gen'l John F. Reynolds, . 122 Maj.-Gen'l Win. Stark Rosecrans, 116

Maj.-Gen'l Lovel H. Rosseau, . 122

Maj.-Gen'l Robert Schenck,   . 245

Maj.-Gen'l John M. Schofield, 133

Maj.-Gen'l Carl Schurz, .      . 200

Raid of John Morgan in the Free States,

page.

Maj.-Gen'l John Sedgwick, 53-B Brig.-Gen'I J. M. Shackleford, 160 Maj.-Gen'l Philip Henry Sheridan,     .69 Maj.-Gen'l Wm.Tecumseh Sherman, .... 50 Brig.-Gen'I T. W. Sherman, . 251 Maj.-Gen'l Franz Sigel, . . 161 Maj.-Gen'l William F. Smith, . 173 Brev. Maj.-Gen'l Giles A. Smith, 172 Maj.-Gen'l George Stoneman, . 170 Maj.-Gen'l Edwin V. Sumner, 163 Maj.-Gen'l Alfred H. Terry, . 164 Maj.-Gen'l George H. Thomas, 39 Maj.-Gen'l Goveneur Warren, 53-A Brig.-Gen'I Louis D. Watkins, . 178 Maj.-Gen'l Watson Webb, . 242 Maj.-Gen'l James II. Willson, . 18S Maj.-Gen'l Thomas J. Wood, . 240 Maj.-Gen'l Horatio G. Wright, 192

254

Flight of Jeff. Davis from the Rebel Capital,        .      . 270 
   INTRODUCTION.

In offering a personal sketch of the brave men that periled their lives on the Nation's battle-fields, I have not been unmindful, that, as a people, we are in everything profuse. Many a single one among these heroic men would furnish material for an entire volume.

To condense history and furnish only what will interest and contain matter of intrinsic value, has been my leading thought. My object has been to write history and allow the people to make the comments. I submit the facts and the reader can make his own interpretation.

Faithful to this conviction, I have taxed my readers with only a brief sketch of each of our Union Generals, believing that a rapid review of their lives would be more acceptable than weary volumes of history, made out of conflicting statements and doubtful authority.

A condensed history of the war, all its great battles, its heroes, incidents and thrilling episodes.

(vi) 
   ^en\ii\i^6ei\6e^ of tl\e Wctf.

LIEUT.-GENERAL ULYSSES S. GRANT

Born at Point Pleasant, a small village on the west bank of the Ohio River, in Clermont County, Ohio, April 27, 1822. Educated at West Point, where he graduated twenty-first in the class of 1843. Entered military services as brevet Second Lieutenant in the Fourth Regiment United States Infantry, and joined his regiment at Jefferson Barracks, at St. Louis, Mo. Was promoted Second Lieutenant in 1844, to First Lieutenant in 1847, to Captain in 1853. Colonel of the Twenty-first Illinois Volunteers, June, 1861; Brigadier-General of Volunteers, August 9, 1861; to Major-General, February 16, 1862; and to Lieu-tenant-General, March 2, 1864.

In early life, Grant was an active, quiet, dutiful boy; while at West Point, he behaved handsomely, studied incessantly, and won the respect of all with whom he associated. At this time he exhibited no indications of brilliancy, but clear intimations of a mind eminently adapted to the practical affairs of life. On entering military service as a cadet, there happened to be no vacancy in his regiment, and the young Lieutenant and future Lieutenant-General, was ordered to duty as a private soldier.

Without hesitation, he cheerfully and patiently performed

(7) :....... 
   8

reminiscences of the war.

all the duties assigned him in that capacity, going on fatigue, standing sentinel, etc. He seemed thus early to recognize the value of the old maxim as good in military, as in any other department of life, that

"Honor and shame from no condition rise: Act well your part, there all the honor lies."

This simple incident of serving as a private soldier, throws around Grant's early history an idea of the dutiful and subordinate, which all young men should remember, and had a marked influence in the formation of the future character of the renowned chieftain. In 1844, the Fourth Infantry was sent from St. Louis to the Red River in Louisiana, in the frontier service against the Indians. In 1845, it followed General Zachary Taylor to Texas, forming a part of the army of observation. When the veteran Taylor met the Mexicans in battle at Palo-Alto and Resaca de la Palma, Lieutenant Grant was an active participant.

At the fierce assault on7 and final capture of, Monterey, he distinguished himself for efficiency as an officer and daring as a   oldier. He afterward joined General Scott, and took part .in the bombardment and capture of Vera Cruz, accompanying the army of invasion, then advancing upon the City of Mexico. At the battles of Molino del Rey and Chapultepec, where the Mexicans were driven, by a storming party, from strong forts and convents of great antiquity, Lieutenant Grant displayed talents of very high promise.

The works were built of solid, massive stone, and possessed immense strength. For gallantry on this occasion, he won promotion on the spot, in addition to the unqualified approbation and highest commendations of superior officers.

At the close of the war with Mexico, Captain Grant was assigned to what is by common consent regarded as the soldier's most hated work   garrison duty.   He was first 
   lieut.-general ulysses s. grant.

9

stationed at Detroit, Michigan; afterward, at New York.

In 1851 his regiment was ordered to Fort Dallas, in Oregon Territory, to counteract hostile demonstrations of the predatory tribes of Indians.

The country was at peace, and no immediate prospect of a war. For want of a wider field for active business, Grant resigned his commission, and quit the army in 1854. Returning to civil life, he settled as a farmer near St. Louis. A few years' experience convinced him that farming did not suit him. He then removed to the city of St. Louis, and entered into the mercantile business. From St. Louis he moved to Illinois, where he passed the time with his family in a quiet and retired life.

The beginning of the Rebellion in the spring of 1861 found him engaged in the leather business at Galena, Illinois.

Without waiting for a formal declaration of war, or to see what course events were likely to take, he at once dissolved his business connections, raised the national standard in his own town, enlisted a company of volunteers, and started for the capital of the State.

On reaching Springfield, the place of rendezvous, Captain Grant was recommended for a command in the field.

The Governor of Illinois at that time had not enjoyed very extensive military experience, and was slow to discern the qualities of promise in military character. He was not favorably impressed with Captain Grant's personal appearance, and declined promoting the Captain, as proposed. The Governor declined on grounds that, at the end of the war, would be looked upon as hardly justifiable on all occasions. He conceived a military commander to be a man of rare proportions, tall, to command a full view of the field, and strong as a giant, to grapple successfully with an enemy. Unfortunately, Captain Grant was not thus imposing.   He was dressed remarkably plain, even 
   IO

REMINISCENCES OF THE WAR.

for a captain of the line, was entirely unassuming, and, worse than all, was short in stature. Soon, however, finding Captain Grant a business man, and acquainted with the details of military affairs, the Governor consented to place him on his personal staff, to discharge the duties of Adjutant-General of the State.

The business of raising troops went on lively under Captain Grant's supervision, until twenty regiments were organized. When the twenty-first was full, it was reported to the Governor as being unmanageable and insubordinate. It was rendezvoused at Mattoon, and no man could be found who could control it. , In the multitude of the Governor's troubles, he called Captain Grant, and asked if he thought he could manage these turbulent Suckers. Grant answered in the affirmative, with his usual modesty, and was at once appointed to the" command of the Twenty-first Regiment of Illinois Volunteers. Many doubts were expressed about the success of the reserved captain in govern, ing a regiment of raw, wild and insubordinate troops. Some doubted the propriety of the appointment, and insisted that a man should have been sought (to undertake such a task) of iron will, known to be stern, implacable and rigorous in all the elements of military discipline. Colonel Grant repaired to the place of rendezvous, and formally assumed command without any demonstration of authority. The first thing he did, after taking command of the regiment, was to order its removal to another town for encampment and drill. By judicious management and efficient drilling, the Twenty-first was, in a short time, one of the best disciplined regiments in the State.

In the meantime, Quincy, Illinois, on the Mississippi River, and in the western part of the State, was threatened by the Rebels. Immediate efforts were made to ship troops to its defense, but it was found impossible to obtain transportation.   Colonel Grant notified the Governor that, 
   lieut.-general ulysses s. grant.

i i

if the Twenty-first Regiment were ordered to Ouincy, they could furnish their own transportation. The order was at once made, and while other regiments in different portions of the State were waiting for railroad transportation, the Twenty-first reached the point of danger on foot.

Colonel Grant was now commissioned Brigadier-General of Volunteers, and ordered to Southern Missouri for the purpose of expelling the Rebel General, Jeff. Thompson, from that part of the country. After a brief campaign in this service, General Grant was transferred to the command of the district of Cairo, Illinois, at that time regarded as one of our most important and most exposed positions.

Kentucky had adopted a species of neutrality, and her authorities insisted that troops of neither of the contending parties should cross or occupy her territory for hostile purposes. The Confederates, knowing full well the treasonable design of this doubtful policy, promptly marched troops to, and occupied, Columbus, on the Mississippi, and Bowling Green, on Barron River, in Kentucky. General Grant soon detected this treason in disguise that Kentucky was attempting to palm off on the country for a cowardly neutrality. Despising its cowardice and hating its hypocrisy, he disregarded its demonstrations and threats by speedily sending a force to take possession of Paducah, at the mouth of the Tennessee River. As soon as this was accomplished, he seized and fortified Smithland, another town in Kentucky, at the mouth of the Cumberland "River.

As this bogus neutrality of Kentucky had already been violated by the enemy, the authorities had no just grounds of complaint when Union troops were thus sent to occupy so much of her territory as was necessary for defensive purposes.

Holding Columbus, on the east side, the Rebels took possession of Belmont, Missouri, on the west bank of the Mississippi   River, and nearly opposite  to  the former 
   i 2

reminiscences of the war.

place. In possession of these two commanding positions, they could effectually command the Mississippi River, and hold absolute control over its navigation.

To prevent this, General Grant took two brigades and attacked the enemy at Belmont, on the 7th of November, 1861. A severe battle ensued, in which the Union forces drove the enemy, captured four hundred prisoners, all the Rebel fortifications, camps and camp equipage, together with a large quantity of supplies.

Columbus was at this time garrisoned by a heavy force of the enemy, and the National troops were unable to take it by direct assault. Military men on both sides agreed that it was the key to Kentucky, and that the party holding Columbus could hold possession of the State. To meet this emergency and capture the place, General Grant began to display a talent for strategy, for which he has since become eminently distinguished in the progress of the war. The enemy had now obtained almost unlimited control of the Mississippi River; had erected Fort, Henry on the Tennessee, and Fort Donelson on the Cumberland, both strong defensive works, commanding the entire State of Tennessee.

The quick discernment of Grant readily saw that, if these latter posts were captured, we would not only obtain possession of Tennessee, together with the control of the Cumberland and Tennessee Rivers, but that the stronghold at Columbus would be flanked, and necessarily fall.

Columbus is situated twenty miles below Cairo and Paducah, at the mouth of the Tennessee, forty miles above. It was necessary to induce the Rebels to hold their forces at Columbus while an expedition attempted the capture of the other two forts. A strong reconnoissance was sent down the Mississippi with orders to make a spirited attack by land and water on Columbus. While this ruse was progressing, the main body of General Grant's 
   LIEUT.-GENERAL ULYSSES S. GRANT.

1.3

troops, consisting of ten regiments of infantry and seven gunboats, quietly sailed up the river. The enemy were thus completely deceived, holding their forces for the defense of Columbus, until the Union troops were thundering at the gates of Fort Henry, a hundred miles away. On the 6th of February the fort fell into our hands, after a brief struggle of an hour and a half. As Fort Henry was captured by the gunboats under Commodore Foote before the arrival of the land forces, most of the garrison escaped.

Fort Donelson was only twelve miles distant, but known to be immensely strong and garrisoned by twenty thousand men. As soon as Fort Henry fell, the Rebels waked up to the tactics of the Union commander. Her Rebel General, Pillow, hurried from Columbus, and General Floyd from Clarksville, with reinforcements. Buckner, Floyd and Pillow, three renowned Rebel Generals, now united in making Fort Donelson impregnable. All parts of the works were extended and strengthened; vast amounts of amunition and supplies had been collected.

Every possible preparation was made for the defense of a position of such vital importance to the very life of the Confederacy. To capture it, General Grant marched twenty thousand men from Fort Henry, on the twelfth of February, and encamped at night, in a military crescent, around its frowning battlements. Two days after, the gunboats arrived, bringing ten thousand reinforcements to take part in the coming strife. The attack was begun on the fourteenth; on the fifteenth the enemy sallied in great force, and attempted by almost superhuman efforts to break the Union lines. Three days the contending armies struggled for a prize equally important to both. After a fearful conflict, the Union arms triumphed and the National victory was complete. Fifteen thousand prisoners, one hundred and fifty-six pieces of artillery, and fifteen thousand small arms fell into the hands of the victors. 
   REMINISCENCES OF THE WAR.

General Grant had now won two brilliant victories in rapid succession, which were of incalculable value to the National cause. Columbus on the Mississippi was speedily-evacuated. Tennessee and Cumberland Rivers were reopened to navigation, and Nashville, the capital of Tennessee, was uncovered and soon fell into our hands. All these were among the legitimate fruits of General Grant's victories at Forts Henry and Donelson, giving great prestige to Union arms, and very materially affecting the final result of the war. One incident of the battle of Donelson aptly illustrates the practical turn of mind which has ever rendered General Grant's services so valuable to the country. A prisoner had been captured and brought to the General for examination on the second day of the battle. Among other proceedings in the process of obtaining information from the captured Rebel, General Grant ordered his haversack examined, which was found to be well filled with full rations for several days. He decided at once that the Rebels inside the fortification were defeated and preparing to evacuate. Basing his conclusion on this simple fact, he ordered the picket lines doubled, and every preparation made for an attempt on the part of the enemy to escape. Sure enough, that day witnessed a bold and bloody attempt to break our lines; the succeeding night five thousand of the enemy's force, under Pillow and Floyd, stole away in the darkness, and early the next morning the Rebel works were surrendered. Another incident of the battle here, may be given to illustrate another rare, but not less valuable, trait in General Grant's military life. Early on the morning of the sixteenth of February, after the struggle had raged with unabated fury over forty-eight hours, a modest white rag was seen to hang from a pole on the Rebel works. The story was soon told, but slowly believed in the Union army. The rising sun dispelled the mists and smoke that hung in dark clouds above the scene of mortal strife, and told 
   LIEUT. -GENERAL ULYSSES S. GRANT. I 5

in unmistakable language the story of the enemy's surrender, and of the Union's triumph.

It soon attracted the attention of the whole Union army, as crowds of our soldiers gazed in silence on this token of their success.

A Rebel officer was seen to emerge from the fort, advancing to our lines, bearing a flag of truce. He was received in form and his tale was soon told. Divested of its parade of words and forms, it amounted to the very simple statement that Pillow and Floyd had skulked away in the darkness of the preceding night, and that Buckner, the surviving Rebel commander, desired to surrender. In his own language he requested a cessation of hostilities until twelve o'clock, for the purpose of negotiating a capitulation. General Grant's reply to this fulsome appeal has since became a watchword all over the nation. "Nothing but an unconditional surrender will be considered, and I propose to move immediately on your works." The bearer of the flag returned to the fort; the unconditional surrender was forthcoming. Buckner, in the name of Southern chivalry, complained bitterly (in making the surrender) of General Grant's rudeness in refusing to negotiate, and for insisting on an instant and humiliating surrender. This laconic answer to Buckner's attempt at diplomacy, has so constantly marked General Grant's transactions in war, that for years he has been called "Unconditional Surrender Grant."

Driven from the Mississippi, Cumberland and Tennessee Rivers, the Rebels now concentrated at Corinth, about twenty miles south of the Tennessee, in the State of Mississippi. General Grant's army had moved from the scene of his last great victory, and lay at Pittsburg Landing, on the left bank of the Tennessee River. His forces consisted of the army of the Tennessee, with Lew Wallace's Division at Crump's Landing, six miles distant. The army of the Ohio, under Buell, was en route from Nashville destined to reinforce 
   i6

REMINISCENCES OF THE WAR.

Grant, and only twenty miles away. The enemy had collected from every part of the South and West, under Albert Sidney Johnston, one of their most distinguished and able commanders.

So great was the defection of citizens living in the Rebel States, and so treacherous their conduct, that throughout the war Rebel commanders were uniformly apprised of the exact numbers, location and movements of Union armies.

On this occasion, the enemy, knowing the location of Buell's force, conceived the plan of crushing the Union army before it could be united. In accordance with this design, the Rebels marched from Corinth seventy thousand strong, and made a sudden and unexpected attack on the army of the Tennessee under General Grant, at Shiloh Church, at daylight on the morning of the sixth of April, 1862.

The battle raged with intense fury throughout the day; the tide being most of the time in favor of the enemy. General Grant had only five Divisions, or about thirty thousand men, engaged, under Generals Thomas, Sherman, McCler-nand, Smith and Prentiss. The enemy brought into action on the first day forty-five thousand men under Beauregard, Bragg, Hardee and Polk, all under the immediate command of General A. S. Johnston. Our camps on the left were surprised at early dawn, and many Union soldiers were shot before they were either dressed or out of their tents. During all the fore part of the day, the enemy did not attempt to take any prisoners, but killed and wounded all they could. The fighting was obstinate on both sides. The enemy long held the advantage by superior numbers and massing columns on weak points of the Union lines., It was a terrible day. The tide of blood swayed from side to side, until at times all were alike enveloped in carnage indiscriminate and general. Our lines were driven from one position after another all day at the point of a bayonet, stubbornly contesting every inch of ground as they 
   lieut. -general ulysses s. grant.

fell back before overwhelming numbers. The Tennessee River ran in their rear, and strong fears were entertained of a final defeat in which no means of escape would be possible. Stubborn fighting from daylight until night ended the fierce conflict; our troops succeeded in maintaining a good position on the bank of the river. This ground, to which the National forces had intentionally fallen back, was fully protected by the gun-boats, which rendered invaluable service by shelling the enemy from every position within their reach. Late in the evening General Wallace reached the field with a full division of fresh troops. During the night General Wood arrived with an advance division of Buell's army. The two armies lay on the field ready to renew the dreadful carnage early on the succeeding morning.

The united Union armies took the offensive early the next day and steadily drove the Rebels. Indeed, as soon as the enemy ascertained the fact that a junction had been effected by Grant's and Buell's armies, they could not be induced to stand more than a single bayonet charge, but incontinently broke and abandoned their entire line, falling back into a dense forest in their rear. Their retreat soon became precipitate, and the whole Rebel army fled to Corinth. Thus closed one of the most sanguine struggles of the war. The loss was nearly equal on both sides and very heavy.

The Union army pursued the retreating foe, and speedily invested the remaining Rebel army in very strong fortifications at Corinth, Mississippi. At this time General^Hal-leck arrived and took command of all the National forces by virtue of seniority in commission.

The siege was pressed with great vigor until the Rebels were compelled to evacuate on the twenty-eighth of May; escaping further south with great loss of war material.

General Johnston, the Rebel commander, had been killed; Generals Breckenridge,  Bowen, Cheatham and Hardee, 
   [8

REMINISCENCES OF THE WAR.

wounded at Pittsburg Landing. General Bragg, in command of the Rebel armies, started at once by a flank movement into Tennessee, for the purpose of drawing the Union army off from further advance into their territory.

In the meantime, General Halleck was called to Washington City to act as Commander-in-Chief, and General Grant again assumed command of the army of the Southwest. The army of the Ohio, under General Buell, was sent in pursuit of Bragg, and resulted in the renowned military foot-race between these two commanders from Battle Creek, Tennessee, to Louisville, Kentucky, in the summer of 1862.

Instead of allowing the Union army to be decoyed from Rebel territory, General Grant inaugurated a movement against Vicksburg, in the very heart of the enemy's country. The Rebels had by this time lost possession of New Orleans and Baton Rouge on the Mississippi below, and Columbus, Island No. 10 and Memphis above Vicksburg. Thus Vicksburg was the last and only hope the enemy possessed of commanding the navigation of the Mississippi River.

It was evident that a struggle must be made of no ordinary sort to hold or capture a position of such vital importance. Already a large Rebel army had been concentrated there. Nature had, in advance of Confederate wants, built at Vicksburg fortifications of wonderful strength. The unrequited labor of the slave, directed by the best skill of engineers educated at West Point at the expense of the Nation, had contributed all that art could add, to constitute a position second only to Gibraltar itself. Sensible, that if Vicksburg were lost, Union gun-boats would police the entire length of the Mississippi, cut the Confederacy in two, and establish a great National thoroughfare for the transportation of war material, the enemy had resolved to hold it at any cost. On the other hand, a restless current of public opinion in the great Northwest demanded a speedy and full 
   lieut.-general ulysses s. grant.

}9

restoration of nature's own established avenue from the States out to the Gulf of Mexico. It was a gigantic work, for the accomplishment of which General Grant began to draw his plans on the military trestle-board.

His first plan was for General Sherman, in command of a strong force acting in conjunction with the gun-boats, to descend the Mississippi River from Memphis, while Grant himself, with the main body of his army, should march by land to the rear of Vicksburg and at a concerted hour attack the place by land and water, both in front and rear. After General Sherman had started, and just on the eve of General Grant's co-operative march, an unfaithful subordinate officer needlessly surrendered a large stock of commissary stores collected at Holly Springs, Miss., on which Grant's army depended for supplies. This unforeseen disaster defeated the plans of the commander, as arranged, and compelled him to resort to new strategy.

Sherman meanwhile, unapprised of this misfortune, pushed on in the execution of his part of the work. On reaching Vicksburg he promptly disembarked his men at the mouth of Yazoo River and proceeded in his usual impetuous manner to assail the place at Haine's Bluff. Unsupported, he was signally defeated, with heavy loss, and compelled to withdraw.

General Grant next concentrated his forces at Milliken's Bend, on the Mississippi, about six miles above Vicksburg. By digging a canal through'a short bend, to divert the waters of the river, he attempted to pass Vicksburg with transports through the neighboring bayous and tributaries. This plan also failed, on account of the adjacent bayous being too shallow to allow large vessels to pass.

One more expedient was left. It occurred at once to the fruitful mind of General Grant to march around Vicksburg, through the swamps on the west, cross the river below, and attack Vicksburg in the rear. 
   t

20 reminiscences of the war.

This movement began on the 29th of March, 1863. It involved the most prodigious labors in building roads through interminable swamps and bridging over miles of water in the bayous which abound in that vicinity.

In conjunction with this movement it was necessary to run past the enemy's works with gun-boats and transports, for the purpose of securing for the army transportation to cross the river below and protect the landing of the troops on the east side of the river.

On two successive dark nights this perilous feat was accomplished. Eighteen transports and four gun-boats successfully ran the enemy's batteries, with the loss of only two transports, which were burned by the terrible fire from Rebel batteries. This was one of the most remarkable achievements of the war. The hostile batteries extended three miles along the towering bluffs above and below Vicksburg. To think of unprotected wooden transports floating past these long lines of frowning battlements was almost i