M. F. Force

“ Elliot, with his cavalry, struck the railroad at Booneville before daylight of the 30th, destroyed there a locomotive, twenty-five box-cars loaded with ordnance, ammunition, and quartermaster stores, one or two platform-cars with field-pieces, a depot building filled with ordnance stores, tore up the track and destroyed two culverts, and returned to Farmington, having prevented the further use of that railway for the purposes of evacuation.
General Pope, hearing the engines whistling and men cheering after midnight, understood it as Beauregard intended—to show the arrival of reinforcements. ”

“ 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 contest that ensued is described in Colonel Smith's report: "The enemy soon yielded, when a running fight commenced, which extended about a mile to our front, where we captured a battery and shot the horses and many of the cannoneers. Owing to the obstructed nature of the ground, the enthusiastic courage of the majority of our men, the laggard discharge of their duty by many, and the disgraceful cowardice of some, our line had been transformed into a column of attack, representing the various grades of courage, from reckless daring to ignominious fear. ”

“ 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. ”

“ The Illinois regiments fell back slowly, halting at intervals to turn and fire, and were not pursued. One of those Parthian shots struck General Johnston, cut an artery, and, no surgeon being at hand, he bled to death in a few minutes. His body was carried at once by his staff back to Corinth. General Beauregard, at his station at Shiloh Church, was notified of the death, and assumed command. Albert Sydney Johnston was a man of pure life, and, like McPherson, full of the traits that call out genuine and devoted friendships. He was esteemed by many the ablest general in the Confederate service. ”

“ Saturday, Sherman wrote to Grant: "All is quiet along my lines now. We are in the act of exchanging cavalry, according to your orders. The enemy has cavalry in our front, and I think there are two regiments of infantry and one battery of artillery about six miles out. I will send you in ten prisoners of war, and a report of last night's affair, in a few minutes.
"Your note is just received. I have no doubt that nothing will occur to-day, more than some picket-firing. The enemy is saucy, but got the worst of it yesterday, and will not press our pickets far. ”

“ The four regiments started again, forced their way still farther up the abattis, and were again repelled. Undaunted, they rushed up the hill-side the third time. Part of the command pierced through the abattis and reached the rifle-pits. The summit of the rifle-pits was a blaze of musketry. Maney's guns hurled shrapnel into their faces. To Morrison's right and to Haynie's left, the long line of rifle-pits was a line of musketry, and from projecting points the batteries sent their fire. Morrison was wounded. His men could not climb over the intrenchment. ”

“ Popular excitement always demands a victim, and the outcry was almost universal that Johnston should be relieved from command. But, to a deputation that went to Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederacy, with this request, he replied: "I know Johnston well. If he is not a general, we had better give up the war, for we have no general." Johnston found the Tennessee, running from Alabama and Mississippi up to the Ohio, in the possession of the National fleets and armies. ”

“ Squads would leave the ranks, run up to a fence, fire, and fall back to place; but the regiment would not advance. General Breckenridge, foiled and irritated, rode to General Johnston and complained he had a Tennessee regiment that would not fight. Governor Harris, of Tennessee, who was with Johnston, remonstrated, and riding to the Forty-fifth, appealed to it, but in vain. General Johnston moved to the front of the brigade, now standing in line, rode slowly along the front, promised to lead them himself, and appealed to them to follow. ”

“ Armed predatory parties, rebel and national, calling themselves squadrons, battalions, regiments, springing up as if from the ground, whirled into conflict and vanished. When a band of men without uniform, wearing their ordinary dress and carrying their own arms, dispersed over the country, the separate members could not be distinguished from other farmers or villagers; and a train, being merely a collection of country wagons, if scattered among the stables and barn-yards of the adjoining territory, wholly disappeared. ”

“ Beyond the open land—stretching southward from Russell's—and intervening woods was other open land, and still beyond, a rising ground, with a high wooded ridge behind it. On this rising ground was a loop-holed, double loghouse, having complete command of the open ground north of it. A force stationed here exceedingly annoyed Sherman's pickets. On the morning of the 27th he moved with his division and batteries, supported by Veatch's brigade, from Hurlbut, and John A. Logan's brigade, from McClernand, quietly and unseen through the timber as near as practicable. ”

“ McClernand, Sherman, and Wallace all speak with admiration of the splendid fighting of McCook's division. Ammunition was becoming exhausted. Buckland withdrew his regiments to fill their boxes. Stuart's brigade, now commanded by Colonel Kilby Smith, plunged forward to make up with renewed vigor for diminished numbers. Wallace's left flank was exposed. The Eleventh Indiana, changing front, faced the danger on its flank. The First Nebraska having used its last cartridge, the Seventy-sixth Ohio leaped to its place. ”

“ Buell formed Nelson's division about two hundred yards in front of the reserve artillery, with his left near the river, facing south. Crittenden, when he arrived, was placed in rear of Nelson, half a mile from the landing, where his command stood at arms all night. At eleven o'clock a heavy rain began to pour. All the National troops and most of the Confederate lay on the ground without shelter. The gunboats every fifteen minutes through the night fired a shell over the woods, to explode far inland and banish sleep. ”

“ 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 [Pg 95] 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. ”

“ Seasoned troops from Missouri, and regiments from the depots in Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio—so freshly formed that they had hardly changed their civil garb for soldier's uniform before they were hurried to the front to take their first military lessons in the school of bivouac and battle—were alike gathered up. General Halleck telegraphed Grant to use every effort to transform Fort Henry into a work strong on its landward side, and by all means to destroy the railroad bridge across the Cumberland at Clarksville, above Fort Donelson. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Wood's brigade, charging on Rousseau, was knocked to pieces and retired to the rear, where General Wood with the aid of cavalry gathered up 1,500 stragglers into an ineffective reserve. McCook pushed his line forward to Sherman's camp. The lines were pressed closer and the fire was hotter than ever. General Grant called two regiments, and in person led them in a charge in McCook's front, and broke the enemy's line. Endurance has its limits. ”

“ A combat made up of numberless separate encounters of detached portions of broken lines, continually shifting position and changing direction in the forest and across ravines, filling an entire day, is almost incapable of a connected narrative. As the first shock of the meeting lines of battle was near the right of the National line, an intelligible account may be given by describing the action of the divisions of Grant's army separately, beginning with the right, or Sherman's. ”

“ Buckland and Hildebrand anxiously visited their picket-lines and observed the parties of hostile cavalry hovering in the woods beyond. Some of the men on picket claimed they had seen infantry. Captain Mason of the Seventy-seventh Ohio, on picket, observed at daylight, Saturday morning, numbers of rabbits and squirrels scudding from the woods to and across his picket-line. General Sherman was advised, but he had no cavalry to send out; the Fifth had gone, and the Fourth not yet reported. He enjoined Buckland and Hildebrand to be vigilant, strengthen their pickets, and be prepared for attack. ”

“ General Grant, at his interview on the flag-ship, was advised of the serious injury to the fleet, and informed that Commodore Foote, leaving his two ironclads least injured to protect the transports at the landing, would proceed to Cairo with the other two, repair them, hasten the completion of the Benton and mortar-boats, and return to the prosecution of the siege. General Grant, upon this, made up his mind to intrench, and with reinforcements complete the investment of the enemy's works. ”

“ 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. ”

“ The woods, for miles, are full of stragglers from the enemy, who are coming in in squads. Not less than ten thousand men are thus scattered about, who will come in within a day or two." General Halleck despatched to the War Department "General Pope, with 40,000 men, is thirty miles south of Corinth, pushing the enemy hard. He already reports 10,000 prisoners and deserters from the enemy, and 15,000 stand of arms captured." This despatch of General Halleck's made a great sensation. The expectation that the stragglers would come into the National camp was disappointed ”