being placed in command. It was ❘ captured several staff and other offi 25 fully equipped at Salisbury, 50 miles east of Memphis, advancing thence, skirmishing incessantly with Forrest's cavalry, to Tupelo, where the Rebel chief had concentrated his command, estimated by our officers at 14,000, and where he had decided to fight. Thrice his infantry assaulted" our lines, and were each time repulsed with heavy loss; being finally driven from the field, leaving on it as many of his men killed or desperately wounded as the whole number of our killed, wounded, and missing. Gen. Smith made no farther advance; but there was a sharp, indecisive cavalry skirmish next day at Old Town creek; after which our army was withdrawn to the vicinity of Memphis; whence Smith once more advanced," with 10,000 men, by Holly Springs to the Tallahatchie; but found no enemy to fight, save a very small body of cavalry. Forrest's main body had been drawn off for service elsewhere. Smith remained in this region several days, and then returned to Memphis; whence he was soon called to the aid of Rosecrans in Missouri, as has already been stated. But while Smith was vainly hunting for Forrest in Mississippi, that chieftain reported himself in person at Memphis. Taking 3,000 of his best-mounted men, Forrest flanked 25 July 7. 26 July 14. 27 Aug. 4. 28 Aug. 17. cers, with soldiers enough to make a total of 300. Yet he failed to carry Irving prison, where the Rebel captives were in durance, made no attempt on the fort, and was driven out or ran out of the city after a stay of two hours, in which he had done considerable damage and appropriated some plunder. He lost some 200 men here and at Lane's, outside; where a smart skirmish occurred on his retreat, and Cols. Starr and Kendrick on our side were wounded. On the whole, the raid can hardly be deemed a success, and can not have realized the enemy's expectations, unless they were very moderate. As Hurlbut had at least 6,000 men in or about the city, it was not practicable to do more; and Forrest left not a moment too soon. He made his way back to Mississippi unharmed. In East Tennessee, Gen. Longstreet's withdrawal into Virginia, after his failure at Knoxville, was at first closely pursued by our cavalry under Shackleford, on whom he turned at Bean's station, near Morristown, and a spirited fight ensued, with no decided result; but Shackleford does not appear to have hurried Longstreet thereafter. Wheeler, with 1,200 mounted men, struck a supply train from Chattanooga to Knoxville, guarded by Col. Siebert, near Charlestown, on the Hiwassee, and had easily captured it-Siebert having but 100 menwhen Col. Long, 4th Ohio cavalry, came to his aid with 150 more cavalry and Col. Laibold's 2d Missouri infantry; wherewith he quickly retook the train, and hurled the 29 Aug. 18. 20 Aug. 2.1. 31 Dec. 14, 1863. Dec. 28. 33 MORGAN'S LAST RAID INTO KENTUCKY. raiders back on the road to Georgia, with a loss of 41 killed or wounded and 123 prisoners. We lost but 16. Gen. S. D. Sturgis, commanding our advance east of Knoxville, had a fight at Mossy creek, near Newmarket, with a Rebel force reported by him at 6,000, led by Martin Armstrong and John Morgan; wherein the Rebels were worsted. Our loss was 18 killed, 82 wounded. Sturgis reports the enemy's at 250 to 400; saying that he buried 22 of their dead and took 44 prisoners. Our advance eastward from Knoxville, having occupied ** Dandridge, was attacked there next day, and more determinedly at 3 M. the day after; holding the town till after dark, when our men fell back to Strawberry Plains. Gen. Vance, with 500 mounted | men and 2 guns, crossed Smoky mountain from North Carolina into East Tennessee, making for Seviersville; near which place he, with 175 picked men, charged and captured a train of 17 Union wagons, making 26 prisoners. Attempting to return, however, he was surrounded 35 on Cosby creek by the 4th Illinois cavalry, Maj. Davidson, who routed and captured him, with 100 of his men. Sturgis had several further collisions" with the Rebel cavalry under Martin and Morgan, wherein he claimed the advantage, with a superior loss inflicted on the enemy; but, as he began them near Dandridge and Newmarket, and left off at Maryville -some 30 miles farther back-it is not safe to credit his estimates of the respective losses. He claims to have taken 150 prisoners in a cavalry fight near Seviersville; another account 34 Jan. 15, 1864. 623 says he lost 200 when the Rebels captured Strawberry Plains. It was supposed on our side that this Rebel advance presaged a fresh attempt on Knoxville by Longstreet; but that able General was doubtless masking the movement of the bulk of his forces into Virginia, whither he retired next month. Of course, that ended the pressure on our lines east of Knoxville. Morgan remained in East Tennessee-hiding, as well as he could, the paucity of his numbers-till the 1st of June; when he started on another raid, via Pound gap, into Kentucky; evading Gen. Burbridge, who was in that quarter with a superior force, meditating an advance into southwestern Virginia, in concert with the advance of Crook and Averill up the Kanawha. Morgan had but 2,500 followers, and these not so well mounted as they would have been two years earlier. Still, sending forward small parties to purvey as many good horses as possible, he moved, so swiftly as he might, by Paintville, Hazel Green, Owingsville, Flemingsburg, and Maysville, into and through the richest part of the State; capturing Mount Sterling, Paris, Cynthiana, and Williamstown, burning trains, tearing up railroads, &c., almost without resistance. The most amazing feature of this raid was the capture of Gen. Hobson, with 1,600 well-armed Unionists, by Col. Giltner, one of Morgan's lieutenants, who had 300 only, by crowding him into a bend of the Licking, and then threatening him from the opposite bank so that he was glad to surrender. It is added that the Rebels were nearly out of ammunition. It is 33 Dec. 29. 35 Jan. 15. 36 Jan. 16-28. to be hoped that they paroled their ❘ but, as he left his wounded to the prisoners not to serve again during enemy, it would seem that the real the War, unless on their side. difficulty was a superfluity rather than a scarcity at least of balls. Gen. Burbridge, who had promptly started on Morgan's track, had, by a forced march of 90 miles, struck" him heavily at Mount Sterling; Morgan decamping at the close to continue his career. Part of his force entered Lexington at 2 next morning, burned the railroad dépôt, and left, heading for Frankfort and Georgetown. Part of Cynthiana was burned by another detachment. But, near that place, Burbridge fell on the Rebel raiders while at breakfast; killing and wounding 300 of them, capturing 400, beside 1,000 horses, and liberating some of Hobson's men. Hobson and staff were recaptured soon afterward. Our loss in this conflict was but 150. Morgan fled to south-western Virginia with the wreck of his command, which was no longer a force. He had only gathered a small band, with which he occupied Greenville, East Tennessee, when he was surprised and killed by Gen. Gillem; who, being apprised of his arrival, had made a forced march of 16 miles from Bull's gap to catch him. Burbridge was detained for weeks in Kentucky, reorganizing and remounting his overmarched force; when he resumed the movement which had been arrested by Morgan's raid. He struck directly for the salt-works at Saltville, near Abingdon; where he found himself confronted in strong force by Breckinridge, by whom he was beaten off, with a loss of 350 men, including Col. Mason, 11th Michigan, killed. He drew off during the night after the conflict, alleging a lack of ammunition; Gen. Gillem, still posted near Bull's gap, finding a Rebel force, composed of the brigades of Vaughan and Palmer, in his rear at Morristown, suddenly attacked" and routed them, with a loss on their side of 400 men and 4 guns. Two weeks later, Breckinridge in like manner surprised Gillem by a night attack;" routing him utterly, with the loss of his battery, train, and most of his small arms, which his men threw away to expedite their flight. The darkness was intense, and Burbridge admits a loss of 220 men only. He took refuge in Knoxville, leaving Breckinridge transiently master of the situation. Johnson's island, Lake Erie, near Sandusky, Ohio, having been made a prison-camp, where several thousands of captive Rebels were usually confined, plots were laid by certain of the Rebel agents and refugees in Canada to liberate them. To this end, the unarmed steamboat Philo Parsons, on her ways from Detroit to Sandusky, stopping at Malden, Canada, there took on board 20 passengers, who, at 6 P. M., proclaiming themselves Confederate soldiers, seized the boat, and with her captured the Island Queen; soon scuttling the latter; then standing in for Sandusky, where they expected, in concert with secret allies in that city, to capture the U. S. gunboat Michigan; but their signals were not answered, and they soon put off; running the boat on the Canada shore near Sandwich, and escaping. June 9. 35 June 12. 39 Sept. 3. 40 Oct. 2. 41 Oct. 28. 12 Nov. 13. 12 Sept. 19. SHERMAN PITTED AGAINST JOHNSTON. • 625 XXVIII. SHERMAN'S ATLANTA CAMPAIGN. GEN. WILLIAM T. SHERMAN, at the instance of Lt. Gen. Grant, succeeded him in command of the military division of the Mississippi, embracing the four great departments of the Ohio, the Cumberland, the Tennessee, and the Arkansas. Receiving the order at Memphis,' he repaired at once to Nashville, where he met the Lt.-General, and accompanied him so far as Cincinnati Grant being then on his way to Washington to direct thenceforth our operations generally, but more especially those in Virginia. The plans of the superior were freely imparted to and discussed with his most trusted subordinate, ere they parted to enter respectively on their memorable campaigns against Richmond and Atlanta. Those campaigns were to be commenced simultaneously on the Rapidan and the Tennessee; and either movement to be pressed so vigorously, persistently, that neither of the Rebel main armies could spare troops to reenforce the other. When Sherman received his final instructions from Grant, it was settled that the campaign should open with May; and Gen. Sherman set forth accordingly from the Winter encampments of 2 3 4 his forces around Chattanooga with an army barely short of 100,000 men of all arms, with 254 guns. It was far superior in every thing but cavalry to that which it confronted; and which, though estimated by Sherman at 55,000 to 60,000, probably numbered hardly more than 50,000. Johnston's army was organized in three corps, led by Hardee, Hood, and Polk. Sherman was from time to time rëenforced, so as nearly to keep his original number good; but, as he advanced into Georgia, the necessity of maintaining his communications seriously reduced his force at the front. The country between Chattanooga and Atlanta is different from, but even more difficult than, that which separates Washington from Richmond. Rugged mountains, deep, narrow ravines, thick, primitive woods, with occasional villages and more frequent clearings, or irregular patches of cultivation, all traversed by mainly narrow, ill-made roads, succeed each other for some 40 miles; then intervenes a like distance of comparatively open, facile country, traversed by two considerable rivers; then another rugged, difficult region of mountains and passes reaches nearly to the Chatta Johnston reported his infantry at 40,900. Sherman estimated his cavalry (under Wheeler) at 10,000. Estimating his artillery at 3,100, his total force would be 54,000. It was occasionally swelled rather than strengthened by drafts of such Georgians not already in the service as passed for militia. The force which Sherman, after passing the Oostenaula, could show at the front, was probably about 70,000 to Johnston's 45,000. hoochee; across which, 8 miles dis- | evacuate his stronghold and fall back tant, lies the new but important city of Atlanta-a focus of several railroads, having some 20,000 inhabitants, and then the seat of extensive manufactories of Confederate supplies. It had been well fortified, early in 1863. Johnston's position at Dalton was covered by an impassable mountain known as Rocky-Face ridge, cloven by the passage of Mill creek called Buzzard's Roost gap. The railroad traverses this pass, but our army could not; it being naturally very strong and now thoroughly fortified. Hence, while Thomas menaced and feebly assailed it in front, McPherson flanked the enemy's left, moving down by Ship's gap, Villanow, and Snake creek gap, to seize either Resaca or some other point well in its rear, while Schofield should press on Johnston's right. In executing these orders, Thomas was compelled to bear more heavily on the Rebel front than was intended: Newton's division of Howard's (4th) corps, and Geary's of Hooker's (20th) corps, assaulting in earnest and even carrying portions of the ridge; whence they were soon repelled with loss. Meantime, McPherson had reached the front of Resaca, scarcely resisted; but he could not carry it, and dared not remain between it and Johnston's main body; so he fell back to a strong position in Snake creek gap, which he could hold for some hours against all gainsayers. Sherman now, leaving Howard's corps and some cavalry to threaten Dalton in front, moved the rest of 7 , rapidly to Resaca; advancing in force against which, Kilpatrick, fighting the enemy's cavalry, was disabled by a shot. Sherman had calculated on seriously damaging Johnston when he thus retreated, but was unable to reach him-Johnston having the only direct, good road, while our flanking advance was made with great difficulty. Howard entered Dalton on the heels of the enemy, and pressed him sharply down to Resaca. 8 Sherman forthwith set on foot a new flanking movement by his right to turn Johnston out of Resaca; which Johnston countered by an attack on Hooker and Schofield, still in his front and on his left; but he was rather worsted in the bloody fight thus brought on : Hooker driving the Rebels from several hills, taking 4 guns and many prisoners. The Rebels retreated across the Oostenaula during the night, and our army entered Resaca in triumph next morning. McPherson crossed on our right at Lay's ferry next day; Gen. Thomas moving directly through Resaca, on the heels of Hardee, who covered the Rebel retreat; while Schofield advanced on our left, over a rough region, by such apologies for roads as he could find or make. Jeff. C. Davis's division of Thomas's army kept down the north-west bank of the Oostenaula to Rome, where he took 8 or 10 great guns, and destroyed mills and founderies of great importance to the enemy; leaving here a garrison. Johnston made a momentary stand against our central advance in a his forces rapidly in the track of strong position covering Adairsville; Schofield, and through Snake creek but, on the approach of our main gap; which compelled Johnston to body, he again retreated, with only * May 15. |