Longstreet received a request from Jackson for reinforcements, and about the same time an order from General Lee to the same effect. Longstreet quickly ordered out three batteries. Lieutenant Chapman’s Dixie Battery of four guns was the first to report, and was placed in position to rake the Federal ranks. In a moment a heavy fire of shot and shell was poured into the thick columns of the Federals, and in ten minutes their stubborn masses began to waver. For a moment there was chaos; then there was order, and they reformed to renew the attack. Meanwhile, Longstreet’s other eight pieces had begun deadly work. The Federal ranks broke again and again, only to be reformed with dogged determination.
A third time the Longstreet batteries tore the Federals to pieces, and as they fell back under this terrible fire Longstreet’s troops leaped forward with the famous rebel yell. They pressed onward until, at ten o’clock at night, they had the field. Pope was across Bull Run and the victorious Confederates lay down to sleep on the battle-ground, while around them thousands of friend and foe slept the last sleep together.
The next morning the Federals were in a strong position at Centerville. Longstreet sent a brigade across Bull Run under General Pryor to occupy a point near Centerville. General Lee ordered Jackson to cross Bull Run near Sudley’s and turn the position of the Federals occupying Centerville. On the next day (September 1) Longstreet followed, but the Federals discovered the move, abandoned Centerville, and started towards Washington. On that evening a part of the Federal force at Ox Hill encountered Jackson and gave him a sharp fight. Longstreet went to Jackson’s rescue.
With the coming darkness it was difficult to distinguish between the scattered ranks of the opposing armies. General Philip Kearny, a magnificent Federal officer, rode hastily up looking for the broken lines of his command. At first he did not know that he was in the Confederate line, and the Confederates did not notice that he was a Federal. He began quietly to inquire about some command, and was soon recognized. He was called upon to surrender, but instead of doing so he wheeled his horse, pressed spurs to his sides, lay flat on the animal’s neck, and dashed away like the wind. A dozen shots rang out, and in less time than it takes to tell the story the heroic Kearny fell dead. He had been in the army all his life; the Confederate generals who had formerly been in the Union army knew him; Longstreet loved him well; General A. P. Hill, who was standing by, said, sorrowfully, “Poor Kearny! he deserved a better death than this.” The next day his body was sent over the lines with a flag of truce and a note from General Lee referring tenderly to the manner in which he had met his death. The Federal forces which had been fighting the Ox Hill battle proved to be the rear guard covering the retreat of the Federals into Washington.
General Longstreet always thought that the division of the Confederate army after they moved into Maryland proved their downfall. This, however, is not a part of my story.
At this time General Pope had been relieved and General McClellan restored to the command of the Union army. With ninety thousand troops, he marched towards Antietam to avenge the second Manassas.
General D. H. Hill was at South Mountain with five thousand men; Longstreet’s First Corps was at Hagerstown, thirteen miles farther on; General Lee was with him, and on the night of the 13th of September, 1862, information was received that McClellan was at the foot of South Mountain with his great army. It was decided to withdraw the forces of Longstreet and Hill from their respective positions and unite at Sharpsburg, which afforded a strong defensive position. On the afternoon of the 15th of September the commands of Longstreet and Hill crossed the Antietam Creek and took position in front of Sharpsburg, Longstreet on the right and Hill on the left. They soon found their weak point was on the left at the famous Dunkard Church. Hood, with two brigades, was put to guard that point. That night, after the fall of Harper’s Ferry, General Lee ordered Stonewall Jackson to come to Sharpsburg as quickly as possible.
On the forenoon of the 15th the blue uniforms of the Federals appeared among the trees that crowned the heights on the eastern bank of the Antietam. Their numbers increased in proportions distressing to their opponents, who were shattered by repeated battles, tired by long marches, and fed most meagrely. On the 16th Jackson arrived and took position on Longstreet’s left. Before night the Federals attacked, but were driven back. Hood was ordered to replenish his ammunition during the night and resume his position on Longstreet’s right in the morning. General Jackson’s forces were extended to the left, and reached well back towards the Potomac, where most of the Confederate cavalry was. General Robert Toombs was placed as guard on the bridge at Longstreet’s right.
On the Federal side General Hooker, who had been driven back in the afternoon, was reinforced by the corps of Sumner and Mansfield; Sykes’s division was also drawn into position for battle; Burnside was over against Longstreet’s right threatening the passage of the Antietam. On the morning of the 17th the Federals were in good position and in good condition. Back of McClellan’s line was a high ridge, upon which he had a signal-station overlooking every point of the field. D. R. Jones’s brigades of Longstreet’s command deployed on the right of the Sharpsburg pike, while Hood’s brigades awaited orders; D. H. Hill was on the left towards the Hagerstown-Sharpsburg pike; Jackson extended out from Hill’s left towards the Potomac.
The battle opened heavily with attacks by Hooker, Mansfield, and Sumner against Longstreet’s left centre, which consisted of Jackson’s right and D. H. Hill’s left. So persistent were the attacks that Longstreet sent Hood to support the Confederate centre. The Confederates were forced back somewhat; McClellan’s forces continued the attacks; the line swayed forward and back like a rope exposed to rushing currents; a weak point would be driven back and then the Confederate fragments would be collected and the lost ground recovered; the battle ebbed and flowed with fearful slaughter on both sides. The Federals came forward with wonderful courage, and the Confederates heroically held their ground, while they were mown down like grass.
How Lee’s ragged army withstood McClellan’s troops no one will ever be able to tell. Hood’s ammunition gave out; he retired for a fresh supply; the Federals continued to come up in great masses. At one point, under the crest of a hill occupying a position that from four to six brigades should have held, there were only the stranded troops of Cooke’s regiment of North Carolina Infantry, who were without a cartridge. As Longstreet rode along the line of his staff, he saw two pieces of Washington Artillery (Miller’s battery), but there were not enough men to handle them. The gunners had all been killed or wounded—and this was the Confederate centre. Longstreet held the horses of his staff-officers, put them to man the guns, and calmly surveyed the situation. He saw that if the Federals broke through the line at that point the Confederate army would be cut in two and probably destroyed. Cooke sent him word that his ammunition was entirely out. Longstreet replied that he must hold his position as long as he had a man left. Cooke responded that he would show his colors as long as there was left a man alive to hold them up. The two guns were rapidly loaded with canister by the staff-officers, and they rattled leaden hail into the Federals as they came up over the crest of the hill. That little battery, with superhuman energy, had to hold thousands of Federals at bay, or the whole battle would be lost.
The Confederates sought to make the Federals believe that many batteries were before them. As they came up, they would see the colors of Cooke’s North Carolina regiment waving as placidly as if the whole of Lee’s army were back of them, while a shower of canister came from the two lonely guns. General Chilton, General Lee’s chief of staff, made his way to Longstreet and asked, “Where are the troops you are holding your line with?” Longstreet pointed to his two pieces and to Cooke’s regiment, and replied, “There they are; but that regiment hasn’t a cartridge.” Chilton, dumb with astonishment, rode back to tell the story to General Lee. Then an enfilade fire from General D. H. Hill’s line ploughed the ground across the Federal front and kept them back; meanwhile, R. H. Anderson and General Hood came to the support of this fearfully pushed Confederate centre. In a little while another Federal assault was made against D. H. Hill and extending far to the Confederate left, where McLaws and Walker were supporting Jackson. In this fearful combat the lines swung back and forth, the Federals attacking with invincible motion and the Confederates holding their positions with irresistible force.
Meanwhile, General Lee was over towards the right, where Burnside was making the attack. General Toombs, assigned as guard at that point, had only four hundred weary and footsore soldiers to meet the Federal Ninth Corps, which pressed the brave little band slowly back. The delay that Toombs caused, however, saved that part of the battle, for at the last moment A. P. Hill came in to reinforce him and D. H. Hill discovered a place for a battery and lost no time in opening it. Thus the Confederates drove the Federals back, and when night settled down the army of Lee was still in possession of the field. But it was a victory that was not a victory, for thousands of Confederates were dead on the field and gallant commands had been torn into fragments. Nearly one-fourth of the troops who went into the battle were killed or wounded. This day has been well called the bloodiest day of the Civil War.
General Longstreet was fond of telling how during the battle he and General Lee were riding along his line and D. H. Hill’s when they started up a hill to make a reconnoissance. Lee and Longstreet dismounted, but Hill remained on his horse. General Longstreet said to Hill, “If you insist on riding up there and drawing the fire, give us time to get out of the line of the fire when they open up anew.” While they were all standing there viewing with their glasses the Federal movements, Longstreet noticed a puff of white smoke from a Federal cannon. He called to Hill, “That shot is for you.” The gunner was a mile away, but the cannon-shot took off the front legs of Hill’s horse. The horse’s head was so low and his croup so high that Hill was in a very ludicrous position. With one foot in the stirrup he made several efforts to get the other leg over the croup, but failed. Lee and Longstreet yelled at him to dismount from the other end of the horse, and so he got down. He had a third horse shot under him before the close of the battle. General Longstreet said that that shot at Hill was the second best shot he ever saw. The best was at Yorktown, where a Federal officer came out in front of the Confederate line, sat down to a little platting table, and began to make a map. A Confederate officer carefully sighted a cannon, touched it off, and dropped a shell into the lap of the man at the little table a mile or more away.
After the battle closed, parties from both sides, by mutual consent, went in search of fallen comrades.
After riding along the lines, giving instructions for the night and morning, General Longstreet rode for general head-quarters to make report, but was delayed somewhat, finding wounded men hidden away under stone walls and in fence-corners, not yet looked after, and afterwards in assisting a family whose home had been fired by a shell, so that all the other officers had arrived, made their reports, and were lounging about on the sod when General Longstreet rode up. General Lee walked up as he dismounted, threw his hands upon his shoulders, and hailed him with, “Here is my old war-horse at last!”
When General Lee learned that General McClellan had been succeeded by General Burnside, he expressed regret at having to part with McClellan, because, he said, “We always understood each other so well. I fear they may continue to make these changes till they find some one whom I don’t understand.”
The Federal army was encamped around Warrenton, Virginia, and was divided into three grand divisions, under Generals Sumner, Hooker, and Franklin. Lee’s army was on the opposite side of the Rappahannock River, divided into two corps, the First commanded by General Longstreet and the Second by General Thomas J. (Stonewall) Jackson. At that time the Confederate army extended from Culpeper Court-House, where the First Corps was stationed, across the Blue Ridge, down the Valley of Virginia, to Winchester, where Jackson was encamped with the Second Corps. Information was received about the 19th of November that Sumner with his grand division of more than thirty thousand men was moving towards Fredericksburg. Two of General Longstreet’s divisions were ordered down to meet him. After a forced march they arrived on the hills around Fredericksburg about three o’clock on the afternoon of the 21st (November, 1862). Sumner had already arrived, and was encamped on Stafford Heights overlooking the town from the Federal side.
About the 26th it became evident that Fredericksburg would be the scene of a battle, and Longstreet advised the people who were still in town to leave. A previous threat from the Federal forces that they might have to shell the town had already forced many to leave. Distressed women, little children, aged and helpless men, many of them destitute and with nowhere to go, trudged away as best they could. Soon the remainder of Longstreet’s corps came up from Culpeper Court-House, and it was then known that all the Army of the Potomac was in motion for the prospective scene of battle, when Jackson was drawn down from the Blue Ridge. In a short time the Army of Northern Virginia was face to face with the Army of the Potomac. On the Confederate side nearest the Rappahannock was Taylor’s Hill, and South of it Marye’s Hill; next, Telegraph Hill, the highest Confederate elevation, afterwards known as Lee’s Hill, because General Lee was there during the battle. Longstreet’s head-quarters in the field were there. Next was a declination through which Deep Run Creek passed on to the Rappahannock, and next was Hamilton’s Crossing, upon which Stonewall Jackson massed thirty thousand men. Upon these hills the Confederates prepared to receive Burnside whenever he might choose to cross the Rappahannock.
The Federals occupied the noted Stafford Heights beyond the river, and here they carefully matured their plans of advance and attack. General Hunt, chief of artillery, skilfully posted one hundred and forty-seven guns to cover the bottoms upon which the infantry was to form for the attack, and at the same time play upon the Confederate batteries. Franklin and Hooker had joined Sumner, and the Federal army were one hundred and sixteen thousand strong. The Federals had been seen along the banks of the river investigating the best places to cross. President Lincoln had been down with General Halleck, who had suggested that a crossing be made at Hoop-Pole Ferry, about twenty-eight or thirty miles below Fredericksburg. The Confederates discovered this movement, and it was then abandoned. There were sixty-five thousand Confederates well located upon the various hills on the other side of the river. Anderson, McLaws, Ransom, Hood, A. P. and D. H. Hill, Longstreet, Stonewall Jackson, and the great Robert E. Lee himself were all there.
On the morning of the 11th of December, 1862, an hour or so before daybreak, the slumbering Confederates were awakened by a cannon thundering on the heights of Marye’s Hill. It was recognized as the signal of the Washington Artillery, and it told that the Federal troops were preparing to cross the Rappahannock and give battle. The Federals came down to the river and began to build their bridges, when Barksdale and his heroic Mississippians opened fire, which forced them to retire. The Federals then turned their whole artillery force on Fredericksburg, demolishing the houses with a cyclone of fire. The only offence of the little town was that it was situated where the battle raged. The little band of Mississippians kept up their work, and like so many angry hornets stung the whole Army of the Potomac into frenzy. Longstreet ordered Barksdale to withdraw, and the Federals then constructed their pontoons without molestation, and the next day Sumner’s grand division passed over into Fredericksburg; General Franklin’s grand division passed over on pontoon bridges lower down and massed on the level bottoms opposite Hamilton’s Crossing, in front of Stonewall Jackson’s corps. Opposite Fredericksburg the formation along the river bank was such that the Federals were concealed in their approaches, and they thereby succeeded in getting over and concealing the grand division of Sumner and a part of Hooker’s grand division in Fredericksburg, and so disposing of Franklin in the open plain below as to give out the impression that the great force was there to oppose Jackson.
Before daylight of the eventful 13th Longstreet rode to the right of his line, held by Hood’s division, which was in hearing of the Federals who were marching their troops to the attack on Jackson. Longstreet ordered Hood, in case Jackson’s line should be broken, to wheel around to his right and strike in on the attacking bodies, while he ordered Pickett with his division to join in the flank movement. He told them at the same time that he himself would be attacked near his left centre, that he would be personally at that point, and that his position was so well defended that he would not need their troops. He returned to Lee’s Hill soon after sunrise.
There was a thick fog that morning, and the preparations of the Federals were concealed thereby. The Confederates grimly awaited the onslaught. About ten o’clock the sun burst through the fog and revealed the mighty panorama in the valley below. Franklin’s forty thousand men, reinforced by two divisions of Hooker’s grand division, were in front of Jackson’s thirty thousand. The flags of the Federals fluttered gayly, their polished arms shone brightly, and the beautiful uniforms of the buoyant troops gave a holiday air to the scene. A splendid array it was. Awaiting their approach was Jackson’s ragged infantry, and beyond was Stuart’s battered cavalry. The majority of the Federal troops were in Fredericksburg almost in reach of the Confederate guns. There was some lively firing between a part of Franklin’s command and a part of Stuart’s Horse Artillery under Major John Pelham. Franklin advanced rapidly towards Jackson; silently Jackson awaited his approach until within good range, and then opened with a terrific fire, which threw the Federals into some confusion. The Federals again massed and advanced, and pressed through a gap in Jackson’s line. Then they came upon Gregg’s brigade, and a severe encounter ensued in which Gregg was mortally wounded. The concentration of the divisions of Taliaferro and Early against this attack drove the Federals back.
On the Confederate side near the town was a stone wall, shoulder high. Behind this stone wall Longstreet had placed General T. R. R. Cobb’s brigade and a portion of the brigade of General Kershaw,—about two thousand five hundred men in all. To reach Longstreet’s weakest point the Federals had to pass directly over this wall.
Just before noon Longstreet sent orders to all his batteries to open fire as a diversion in favor of Jackson. This fire began at once to develop work for Longstreet. The Federal troops swarmed out of Fredericksburg and came in double-quick towards Cobb’s wall. From the moment of their appearance fearful carnage began. The Confederate artillery from the front, right, and left tore through their ranks, but the Federals pressed forward with almost invincible determination. Thus they marched upon the stone fence behind which Cobb’s brigade was quietly waiting. When the Federals came within its reach they were swept from the field like chaff before the wind. A vast number went pell-mell into an old railroad cut to escape fire from the right and front. A battery on Lee’s Hill saw this, and turned its fire into the entire length of the cut, and wrought frightful destruction. Though thus repulsed and scattered in its first attempt to drive the Confederates from Marye’s Hill, the determined Federal army quickly formed again and filed out of Fredericksburg to another charge. Again they were forced to retire before the well-directed guns of Cobb’s brigade and the fire of the artillery on the heights.
Still again they formed and advanced, and again they were driven off. By this time they had difficulty in walking over the dead bodies of their comrades. So persistent were they in their continuing advances that General Lee, who at the time was with Longstreet on Lee’s Hill, became uneasy and said that he feared the Federals would break through his line. To this Longstreet replied, “General, if you put every man now on the other side of the Potomac on that field to approach me over the same line, and give me plenty of ammunition, I will kill them all before they reach my line. Look to your right; you are in some danger there, but not on my line.” As a precaution, General Kershaw was ordered with the remainder of his brigade down to the stone wall to carry ammunition to Cobb and to reinforce him if necessary. Kershaw arrived just in time to succeed Cobb, who was falling from a Federal bullet, to die in a few minutes from loss of blood. A fifth time the Federals formed, charged, and were repulsed, and likewise a sixth time, when they were again driven back, and night came to end the dreadful carnage. The Federals then withdrew, leaving the field literally piled up with the bodies of their dead. The Confederate musketry alone killed and wounded at least five thousand, while the artillery brought the number of those killed and wounded at the foot of Marye’s Hill to over seven thousand.
During the night a Federal strayed beyond his line, was taken up by Longstreet’s troops, and on his person was found a memorandum of General Burnside’s arrangements and an order for the renewal of the battle next day. Upon receiving this information General Lee gave immediate orders for a line of rifle-pits on the top of Marye’s Hill for General Ransom, who had been held somewhat in reserve, and for other guns to be placed on Taylor’s Hill. The Confederates were up before daylight on the morrow, anxious to receive General Burnside again. The Federal troops, however, had left the field. It was at first thought that the memorandum was intended as a ruse of war, but it was afterwards learned that General Burnside expected to resume attack, but gave it up when he became fully aware of the fate of his soldiers at the foot of Marye’s Hill.
This battle marked the only great Confederate victory won in the West, and was one of the bloodiest battles of the war. Indeed, the contest for the bloodiest day in this great war is, I believe, between Antietam and Chickamauga. Official reports show that on both sides the casualties embrace the enormous proportion of thirty-three per cent. of the troops actually engaged. On the Union side there were over a score of regiments in which the losses in this single fight exceeded 49.4 per cent. The “Charge of the Light Brigade at Balaklava,” immortalized by Tennyson, did not suffer by ten per cent. as much as did thirty of the Union regiments at Chickamauga; and a number of Confederate regiments suffered even more than their Federal opponents.
Longstreet’s command in less than two hours lost nearly forty-four per cent. of its strength. Of the troops that received their splendid assaults, Steedman’s and Brannan’s commands lost respectively forty-nine and thirty-eight per cent. in less than four hours. The loss of single regiments showed a much heavier percentage. For instance, the Tenth Tennessee Regiment lost sixty-eight per cent.; the Fifth Georgia, 61.1; the Second Tennessee, 60.2; the Sixteenth Alabama, 58.6; a great number of them more than fifty per cent.
The total Confederate losses were about 18,000 men; the total Federal losses, about 17,000. Viewed from the stand-point of both sides, Chickamauga was the fifth greatest battle of the war, being exceeded only by Gettysburg, Spottsylvania, the Wilderness, and Chancellorsville. But each of these battles were of a much longer time. The total Confederates engaged in the battle were 59,242; the total Federals, 60,867. The battle was fought on the 20th of September, 1863.
The movements of both sides were too complex to be followed here. During a very hot part of the battle, General Hood, on the Confederate side, was fearfully wounded; General Benning, of his “Rock Brigade,” lost his own horse, and thought that General Hood was killed and that everything was gone to smash. He cut a horse loose from a captured gun, grabbed a rope trace as a riding whip, mounted, and rode to meet General Longstreet and report. He had lost his hat in the mêlée, and everything was in terrible shape. He reported,—
“General Hood killed, my horse killed, my brigade torn to pieces, and I haven’t a single man left.”
General Longstreet smiled, and quietly asked him if he did not think he could find one man. Quieted by the tone of the question, he began to look for his men, found quite a number of them, and quickly joined the fighting forces at the front, where he discovered that the Confederates had carried the first line, that Johnson’s division was in the breach and pushing on, with Hindman spreading battle to the enemy’s limits, Stuart’s division holding bravely on, and the brigades of Kershaw and Humphreys coming along to help restore the battle to good organization.
About one o’clock in the day lunch was ordered spread for a number of the officers. General Longstreet meanwhile rode with General Buckner and the staffs to view the changed conditions of the battle. He could see but little of the enemy’s line, and only knew it by the occasional exchange of fire between the skirmishers. Suddenly the party discovered that they had passed the Confederate line and were within the fire of the Federal sharp-shooters, who were concealed behind the trees and under the brush. They came back in more than double-quick. General Longstreet ordered General Buckner to establish a twelve-gun battery on the right and enfilade the Federal works. Then he rode away to enjoy a sumptuous spread of Nassau bacon and Georgia sweet potatoes. They were not accustomed to potatoes of any kind in Virginia, and the Georgia variety was a peculiar luxury. While the lunch was in its first stages a fragment of shell came tearing through the woods, passed through a book in the hands of a courier who sat his horse hard by reading, and struck down the chief of ordnance, Colonel T. P. Manning. Friends sprang forward to look for the wound and give relief. Manning had just taken an unusually large bite of sweet potato, and was about suffocating thereby. He was supposed to be gasping for his last breath when General Longstreet suggested that he be relieved of the potato and given a chance to breathe. This done, he soon revived, and was ready to be taken to the hospital, and in a few days he was again ready for either a Federal shell or a Georgia potato.
The vicissitudes of the battle were many and varied, but finally the Federal forces quit the field and the different wings of the Confederate army came together and greeted each other with loud huzzas. The Army of the Tennessee was ready to celebrate its first grand victory, in spite of the great losses sustained. The twilight dews hung heavy over the trees, as if to hush the voice of victory in the presence of death, but nevertheless, the two lines, which neared as they advanced, united their shouts in increasing volume, not as the cannon’s violent noise, but as one great burst of harmony that seemed almost to lift from their rooted depths the great forest trees. Before greetings and congratulations upon the success had passed it was night, and the mild beams of the quartering moon were more suggestive of Venus than of Mars, as Longstreet rested in the white light of the one great triumph of Confederate arms in the West.
About the 1st of November, 1863, it was determined at Confederate head-quarters that Longstreet should be ordered into East Tennessee against General Burnside’s army.
On the 22d of October General Grant joined the army, and it was known that General Sherman was marching to join him.
On the 20th of October General Burnside reported by letter to General Grant an army of twenty-two thousand three hundred men, with ninety-odd guns, but his returns for November gave a force of twenty-five thousand two hundred and ninety, and over one hundred guns. Eight thousand of his men were on service north of Knoxville and about Cumberland Gap.
To march, capture, and disperse this formidable force, fortified at points, Longstreet had about fifteen thousand men, after deducting camp guards and foraging parties. Marching and fighting had been his almost daily occupation from the middle of January, 1863, when he left Fredericksburg to move down to Suffolk, Virginia, until the 16th of December, when he found bleak winter again breaking upon him, away from friends, and dependent upon his own efforts for food and clothing for his ragged and hungry Confederates.
It is not in the purview of this paper to more than briefly refer to Longstreet’s work in East Tennessee in the bitter winter of 1863–64. He has said that Washington’s men at Valley Forge did not suffer more than his command on the hard campaigns of that severe winter. Much of the time half-clad and shoeless, the snow-covered ground bore the bloody imprint of their naked feet. They were compelled to dig holes in the frozen ground, which were thawed out by fires to furnish their usual couch. They had nothing to eat but parched corn. But the brave fellows never lost heart. They undertook to make a joke of their dire straits. As General Longstreet rode out among them, they would call cheerily to know if they might not have a little fodder to eat with their corn.
It is now generally conceded that no more valorous service was rendered the Confederate cause during the four years’ fighting than Longstreet’s work in East Tennessee, cut off from supplies, improperly supported by his government, and sent with an inadequate force to attack Burnside in his stronghold.
Mrs. Grant, a few years before her death, in discussing the events of those campaigns, said to me that General Grant had come to Nashville to spend Christmas with her. She had scarcely given him greeting when a hurried message came from Knoxville,—“Longstreet is coming!” He was much perturbed at having to forego his Christmas with his family and return immediately to his works about Knoxville. In parting she said to him, “Now, Ulysses, you know that you are not going to hurt Longstreet.” Grant quickly replied, “I will if I can get him; he is in bad company.”
To “get” Longstreet or to drive him out of Tennessee came to be the chief concern of Grant and his government. General Halleck was much concerned about the Confederate army in East Tennessee, the only strategic field then held by Southern troops. It was inconveniently near Kentucky and the Ohio River. President Lincoln and his War Secretary added their anxiety to Halleck’s on account of its politico-strategic bearing. General Halleck urged his views upon General Grant, and despatched General Foster that it was of first importance to “drive Longstreet out of Tennessee and keep him out.” General Grant ordered: “Drive Longstreet to the farthest point east that you can.” It was easier to issue that order than to execute it. And Grant reported to the authorities:
“If Longstreet is not driven out of the valley entirely, and the road destroyed east of Abingdon, I do not think it unlikely that the last great battle of the war will be fought in East Tennessee. Reports of deserters and citizens show the army of Bragg to be too much demoralized and reduced by desertions to do anything this winter. I will get everything in order here in a few days and go to Nashville and Louisville, and, if there is still a chance of doing anything against Longstreet, to the scene of operations there. I am deeply interested in moving the enemy beyond Saltville this winter, so as to be able to select my own campaign in the spring, instead of having the enemy dictate it to me.”
About the middle of December orders were given the Confederate army, which was on the west bank of the Holston River, to cross and march for the railroad, only a few miles away.
The transfer of the army to the east bank of the river was executed by diligent work and the use of such flatboats and other means of crossing as could be collected and constructed. They were over by the 20th, and before Christmas were in camps along the railroad near Morristown. Blankets and clothes were scarce, shoes more so. But to the hungry Confederates the beautiful country in which they found themselves seemed a land of milk and honey. The French Broad River and the Holston are confluent at Knoxville. The country between and beyond them contains as fine farming-lands and has as delightful climate as can be found. Stock and grain were on all farms. Wheat and oats had been thoughtfully hidden away by the Federals, but the fields were full of maize, still standing. The country around the French Broad had hardly been touched by the foragers. The Confederate wagons immediately on entering the fields were loaded to overflowing. Pumpkins were on the ground in places like apples under a tree. Cattle, sheep, and swine, poultry, vegetables, maple sugar, and honey were all abundant for immediate wants of the troops.
When the Federals found that the Confederates had moved to the east bank, their cavalry followed to that side. They were almost as much in want of the beautiful foraging lands as the Confederates, but there was little left for them. With the plenitude of provisions for the time, and many things which seemed luxuries, the Confederates were not altogether happy. Tattered garments, blankets, and shoes (the latter going, many gone) opened ways, on all sides, for piercing winter blasts. There were some hand-looms in the country, from which there was occasionally picked up a piece of cloth, and here and there other comforts were received, some from kind and some from unwilling hands, which nevertheless could spare them. For shoes the men were compelled to resort to the raw hides of beef cattle as temporary protection from the frozen ground. Then soldiers were discovered who could tan the hides of beeves, some who could make shoes, some who could make shoe-pegs, some who could make shoe-lasts; so it came about, through the varied industries of Longstreet’s men, that the hides passed rapidly from the beeves to the feet of the soldiers. Thus the soldier’s life was made, for a time, passably pleasant in the infantry and artillery. Meanwhile, the Confederate cavalry were looking at the Federals, and the Federals were looking at them, both frequently burning powder between their lines.
General Sturgis had been assigned to the cavalry of the other side, to relieve General Shackelford, and he seemed to think that the dead of winter was the time for cavalry work; and the Confederate General Martin’s orders were to have the enemy under his eye at all hours. Both were vigilant, active, and persevering.
About December 20 a raid was made by General Averill from West Virginia upon a supply depot of General Sam Jones’s department, at Salem, which was partially successful, when General Grant, under the impression that the stores were for East Tennessee, wired General Foster, “This will give you great advantage.” And General Foster despatched General Parke, commanding his troops in the field, December 26, “Longstreet will feel a little timid now, and will bear a little pushing.”
General Grant made a visit to Knoxville about New Year’s, and remained until the 7th. He found General Foster in the condition of the Confederates,—not properly supplied with clothing, especially in want of shoes. So he authorized a wait for clothing, then in transit and looked for in a week; and that little delay was a great lift for the Confederates.
Before leaving General Foster, General Grant ordered him, on receipt of clothing, to advance and “drive Longstreet at least beyond Bull’s Gap and Red Bridge.” And to prepare for that advance, he ordered the Ninth and Twenty-third Corps to Mossy Creek, the Fourth Corps to Strawberry Plains, and the cavalry to Dandridge.
The Union army—equipped—marched on the 14th and 15th of January. The bitter freeze of two weeks had made the rough angles of mud as firm and sharp as so many freshly quarried rocks, and the bare feet of the Confederates on this march left bloody marks along the roads.
General Sturgis rode in advance of the army, and occupied Dandridge by Elliott’s, Wolford’s, and Garrard’s divisions of cavalry and Mott’s brigade of infantry. The Fourth and Twenty-ninth Corps followed the cavalry, leaving the Ninth Corps to guard at Strawberry Plains.
General Martin gave prompt notice that the march was at Dandridge and in full force. Dandridge is on the right bank of the French Broad River, about thirty miles from Knoxville. Its topographical features are bold and inviting of military work. Its other striking characteristic was the interesting character of its citizens. The Confederates—a unit in heart and spirit—were prepared to do their share towards making an effective battle, and the plans were so laid.
At the time ordered for his advance General Foster was suffering from an old wound, and General Parke became commander of the troops in the field. The latter delayed at Strawberry Plains in arranging that part of his command, and General Sheridan, marching with the advance, became commander, until superseded by the corps commander, General Gordon Granger.
The Confederate plans were laid before the army was all up. Their skirmish line was made stronger, and relieved the cavalry of their dismounted service. A narrow, unused road, practicable for artillery, was found that opened a way for the Confederates to reach the enemy’s rearward line of march. Sharp-shooters were organized and ordered forward by it, to be followed by our infantry columns. It was thought better to move the infantry alone, as the ringing of the iron axles of the guns might give notice of the Confederate purpose; the artillery to be called as the Confederate sharp-shooters approached the junction of the roads. The head of the turning force encountered a picket-guard, some of whom escaped without firing. General Granger decided to retire, and was in time to leave the crossroads behind him, his rear guard passing the point of intersection before the Confederate advance party reached it about midnight.
The weather moderated before night, and after dark a mild, gentle rain began to fall.
When Longstreet rode into Dandridge in the gray of the morning the ground was thawing and hardly firm enough to bear the weight of his horse. When the cavalry came at sunrise the last crust of ice had melted, letting the animals down to their fetlocks in heavy limestone soil. The mud and want of a bridge to cross the Holston made pursuit by the heavy Confederate columns useless. The cavalry was ordered on, and the troops at Morristown, on the Strawberry Plains road, were ordered to try that route, but the latter proved to be too heavy for progress with artillery.
While General Longstreet rode through the streets of Dandridge, giving directions for such pursuit of the fleeing Federals as could be made, a lady came out upon the sidewalk and invited him into her parlors. When the orders for pursuit were completed, he dismounted, and with some members of his staff walked in. After the compliments of the season were passed, the Confederates were asked to be seated, and the lady told, with evident great enjoyment, of General Granger during the night before. She had never heard a person swear about another as General Granger did about General Longstreet. Some of the officers proposed to stop and make a battle, but General Granger swore, and said, “It’s no use to stop and fight Longstreet. You can’t whip him. It don’t make any difference whether he has one man or a hundred thousand.” Presently she brought out a flask that General Granger had forgotten, and presented it to General Longstreet. It had about two horizontal fingers left in it. Though not left with compliments, it was accepted. Although the weather had moderated, it was very wet and nasty, and as General Longstreet had taken his coffee at three o’clock, it was resolved to call it noon and divide the spoils. Colonel Fairfax, who knew how to enjoy good things, thought the occasion called for a sentiment, and offered, “General Granger—may his shadow never grow less.”
The cavalry found the road and its side-ways so cut up that the pursuit was reduced to a labored walk. The previous hard service and exposure had so reduced the animals that they were not in trim for real effective cavalry service. They found some crippled battery forges and a little of other plunder, but the enemy passed the Holston and broke his bridges behind him, and Longstreet’s men returned to their huts and winter homes.
To seek some of the fruits of his advantage at Dandridge, the roads being a little firmer, General Longstreet ordered his leading division, under General Jenkins, on the 21st, to proceed to march towards Strawberry Plains, and the Richmond authorities were asked to send a pontoon bridge, tools of construction, and to hurry forward such shoes as they could send.
On the 24th, as the official records show, General Grant sent word to General Halleck of Longstreet’s return towards Knoxville; that he had ordered General Foster to give battle, if necessary, and that he would send General Thomas with additional troops to insure that Longstreet would be driven from the State. He also directed General Thomas to go in person and take command, and said, “I want Longstreet routed and pursued beyond the limits of Tennessee.” And he ordered General Foster to put his cavalry on a raid from Cumberland Gap to cut in upon Longstreet’s rear.
On the 6th of February General Grant reported from Nashville,—
“Major-General H. W. Halleck,
“General-in-Chief:
“I am making every effort to get supplies from Knoxville for the support of a large force—large enough to drive Longstreet out.
“U. S. Grant,
“Major-General Commanding.”
“Major-General Thomas:
“Reports of scouts make it evident that Joe Johnston has removed most of his force from our front, two divisions going to Longstreet. Longstreet has been reinforced by troops from the east. This makes it evident the enemy intends to secure East Tennessee if they can, and I intend to drive them out or get whipped this month. For this purpose you will have to detach at least ten thousand men besides Stanley’s division (more will be better). I can partly relieve the vacuum at Chattanooga by troops from Logan’s command. It will not be necessary to take artillery or wagons to Knoxville, but all the serviceable artillery horses should be taken to use on artillery there. Six mules to each two hundred men should be taken, if you have them to spare. Let me know how soon you can start.
“Grant,
“Major-General.”
On the 9th Major-General J. M. Schofield arrived at Knoxville, and assumed command of the Army of the Ohio.
General Grant reported on the 11th,—
“Major-General H. W. Halleck,
“General-in-Chief:
“I expect to get off from Chattanooga by Monday next a force to drive Longstreet out of East Tennessee. It has been impossible heretofore to subsist the troops necessary for this work.
“U. S. Grant,
“Major-General.”