From Fort Henry to Corinth Part 3

The defensive line from Columbus to Bowling Green, broken by the capture of Fort Henry, was now shattered. General A.S. Johnston evacuated Bowling Green on February 14th, and on the 17th and 18th moved with the main body of his troops from Nashville to Murfreesboro. The rear-guard left Nashville on the night of the 23d, and the advance of Buell's army appeared next morning on the opposite bank of the river. Columbus was evacuated shortly after. The National authority was re-established over the whole of Kentucky, the State of Tennessee was opened to the advance of both army and fleet, and the Mississippi was cleared down to Island Number Ten.

General Halleck telegraphed on February 17th, the day after the surrender, to General McClellan: "Make Buell, Grant, and Pope major-generals of volunteers, and give me command in the West. I ask this in return for Donelson and Henry." Next day, the 18th, he telegraphed to General Hunter, commanding the Department of Kansas, thanking him for his aid in sending troops; and to Grant, ordering him not to let the gunboats go up higher than Clarksville, whence they must return to Cairo immediately upon the destruction of the bridge and railroad. On the 19th he telegraphed to Was.h.i.+ngton: "Smith, by his coolness and bravery at Fort Donelson, when the battle was against us, turned the tide and carried the enemy's outworks. Make him a major-general. You cannot get a better one. Honor him for this victory, and the whole country will applaud." On the 20th he telegraphed to McClellan, "I must have command of the armies in the West. Hesitation and delay are losing us the golden opportunity." Upon the receipt in Was.h.i.+ngton of the news of the surrender of Fort Donelson, the President at once appointed Grant major-general, and the Senate immediately confirmed the appointment. Buell and Pope shortly after received the same promotion. Later, in March, C.F. Smith, McClernand, and Lewis Wallace were confirmed to the same rank. On March 11th, General Halleck was a.s.signed to the command of the Department of the Mississippi, embracing all the troops west of a line drawn north and south indefinitely through Knoxville, Tenn., and east of the western boundary of Arkansas and Missouri. On February 15th, Grant had been a.s.signed to the command of the Military District of Tennessee, the limits of which were not defined, and General W.T. Sherman succeeded to the command of the District of Cairo.

CHAPTER IV.

NEW MADRID AND ISLAND NUMBER TEN.

A division belonging to General Pope's command in Missouri went with General Curtis to Pea Ridge and Arkansas. A considerable portion of what was left was sent up the Tennessee and c.u.mberland to General Grant. On February 14, 1862, General Pope was summoned to St. Louis by General Halleck, and on the 18th General Halleck pointed out to him the situation at New Madrid and Island No. Ten, and directed him to organize and command a force for their reduction. On the 19th Pope left for Cairo to defend it from an attack then apprehended from Columbus. This apprehension being found to be groundless, he proceeded by steamboat, with a guard of 140 men, thirty miles up the river, and began at once to organize his expedition.

Major-General Polk, commanding at Columbus, having received instructions from the Confederate War Department, through General Beauregard, to evacuate Columbus and select a defensive position below, adopted that embracing Madrid Bend on the Tennessee sh.o.r.e, New Madrid on the Missouri sh.o.r.e, and Island No. Ten between them. The bluffs on the Missouri sh.o.r.e terminate abruptly at Commerce. Thence to Helena, Arkansas, the west bank of the Mississippi is everywhere low and flat, and in many places on the river, and to much greater extent a few miles back from the river, is a swamp. From Columbus to Fort Pillow, the Tennessee sh.o.r.e is of the same character. The river flowing almost due south for some miles to Madrid Bend, curves there to the west of north to New Madrid, and there making another bend, sweeps to the southeast and then nearly east, till, reaching Tiptonville, a point nearly due south of Madrid Bend, it turns again to the south. Island No. Ten begins at Madrid Bend and looks up the straight stretch of the river. From Island No. Eight, about four miles above Island No. Ten, the distance across the land to New Madrid is six miles, while by river it is fifteen. The distance overland from Island No. Ten to Tiptonville is five miles, while by water it is twenty-seven. Commencing at Hickman, between Madrid Bend and Columbus, a great swamp, which for a part of its extent is a sheet of water called Reelfoot Lake, extends along the left bank of the Mississippi, and discharges its waters into the Mississippi forty miles below Tiptonville, leaving between it and the river the peninsula which lies immediately below Island No. Ten, and opposite New Madrid. Immediately below Tiptonville the swamp for many miles extends entirely to the river. The peninsula is, therefore, substantially an island, having the Mississippi on three sides, and Reelfoot Lake, with its enveloping swamp, on the other. A good road led from the Tennessee sh.o.r.e, opposite Island No. Ten, along the west border of the swamp and the lake to Tiptonville. The only means of supply, therefore, for the forces on Island No. Ten and this peninsula, were by the river. If the river were blockaded at New Madrid, supplies must be landed at Tiptonville and conveyed across the neck of the peninsula by the road. From this peninsula there was no communication with the interior except by a small flatboat which plied across Reelfoot Lake, more than a mile across, by a channel cut through the cypress-trees which cover the lake. Supplies and reinforcements could not, therefore, be brought to any considerable extent by the land side; nor could escape, except by small parties, be made in that direction. A mile below Tiptonville begin the great swamps on both sides of the Mississippi. If batteries could be planted on the lowest dry ground, opposite and below Tiptonville, so as to command the river and effectually intercept navigation, the garrison of Island No.

Ten and its supports would be cut off from reinforcements and from escape.

General Polk began the evacuation of Columbus on February 25th. One hundred and forty pieces of artillery were mounted in the works. All these, except two thirty-two pounders and several carronades, which were spiked and left, were taken to Island No. Ten and the works in connection with it. Brigadier-General McCown with his division went down the river to Island No. Ten, on February 27th, and General Stewart, with a brigade, followed to New Madrid on March 1st. The rest of the infantry marched under General Cheatham, by land, March 1st to Union City. Next day General Polk, having sent off the bulk of the great stores acc.u.mulated at this place, destroyed the remainder and moved away with his staff and the cavalry. The force that went from Columbus to Island No. Ten included General Trudeau's command of ten companies of heavy artillery and the Southern Guards who acted as heavy artillery. The light batteries were brigaded with the infantry.

Some progress had been made in throwing up batteries on the island and at the bend. Sappers and miners were at once set to work, aided by the companies of heavy artillery and details from the infantry. By March 12th, four batteries, scarcely above the water-level, were completed on the island and armed with twenty-three guns, and five batteries on the main-land, armed with twenty-four guns. Battery No. 1, on the main-land, called the Redan, armed with six guns, was three thousand yards in an air-line above the point of the island. A line of infantry intrenchments, _en cremaillere_, extended from the Redan to the water of a bayou which connects with Reelfoot Lake. A floating battery, anch.o.r.ed near the lower end of the island, added ten guns to its defence. Later, a fifth battery was erected on the island, and the number of guns in battery on the island and on the main-land, at the bend, was increased to fifty-four, exclusive of the floating battery. On the Missouri sh.o.r.e a bastioned redoubt, called Fort Thompson, with fourteen guns, stood below the town, and an earthwork with seven guns, called Fort Bankhead, just above the town. Infantry intrenchments extended these forts, and a field-battery of six pieces was added to the armament of the upper fort.

Commodore Hollins, of the Confederate navy, aided the land-forces with eight gunboats. General McCown, making an inspecting visit to the position on February 25th, found there Colonel Gantt, of Arkansas, with the Eleventh and Twelfth Arkansas, and two artillery companies, acting as garrison to Fort Thompson, and at once, before returning to Columbus, ordered Colonel L.M. Walker, with two regiments from Fort Pillow, to guard the defences just above New Madrid.

General Pope having landed at Commerce with 140 men, regiments and batteries rapidly arrived from Cairo, St. Louis, and Cincinnati. With the a.s.sistance of able and experienced officers, Generals Schuyler Hamilton, Stanley, Palmer, and Granger, the troops were brigaded, divisions formed, and the command organized. Colonel Plummer being promoted to brigadier-general after the arrival before New Madrid, the organization was modified. As finally organized, it comprised five small infantry divisions. First, commanded by General D.S. Stanley, comprising First Brigade, Colonel John Groesbeck, Twenty-seventh and Thirty-ninth Ohio; and Second Brigade, Colonel J.L.K. Smith, Forty-third and Sixty-third Ohio. Second Division, General Schuyler Hamilton, comprising First Brigade, Colonel W.H. Worthington, Fifth Iowa and Fifty-ninth Indiana; and Second Brigade, Colonel N. Perczell, Twenty-sixth Missouri Infantry and Sands' Eleventh Ohio Battery. Third Division, General J.N. Palmer, comprising First Brigade, Colonel J.R.

Slack, Thirty-fourth and Forty-seventh Indiana; and Second Brigade, Colonel G.N. Fitch, Forty-third and Forty-sixth Indiana Infantry, Seventh Illinois Cavalry, and Company G, First Missouri Light Artillery.

Fourth Division, comprising First Brigade, Colonel J.D. Morgan, Tenth and Sixteenth Illinois; and Second Brigade, Colonel G.W. c.u.mming, Twenty-sixth and Fifty-first Illinois, First Illinois Cavalry, and a battalion of Yate's sharpshooters. Fifth Division, General J.B. Plummer, comprising First Brigade, Colonel John Bryner, Forty-seventh Illinois and Eighth Wisconsin; and Second Brigade, Colonel J.M. Loomis, Twenty-second Illinois, Eleventh Missouri Infantry, and Company M, First Missouri Light Artillery. Besides these was a cavalry division, commanded by General Gordon Granger, comprising the Second and Third Michigan Cavalry; also an artillery division, commanded by Major W.L.

Lothrop, comprising the following batteries: Second Iowa, Third Michigan, Company F, Second United States Artillery, Houghtaling's Ottawa Light Artillery, Fifth, Sixth, and Seventh Batteries of the First Wisconsin Artillery, and De Golyer's battery, afterward Company H, of the First Michigan Artillery. In addition to these was a command under Colonel J.W. Bissel, called the Engineer's Regiment of the West, comprising the Fifteenth Wisconsin and Twenty-second Missouri Infantry, the Second Iowa Cavalry, a company of the Fourth United States Cavalry, a company of the First United States Infantry, and battalion of the Second Illinois Cavalry. The army commander, the division commanders, and other officers, nearly a dozen in all, were graduates of West Point.

The men of this army had, therefore, better opportunity than most others to learn quickly something of the business of military life, and acquire habits of military discipline.

The road from Commerce to New Madrid was, for the most part, a dilapidated corduroy, tumbling about a broken causeway through a swamp.

M. Jeff. Thompson, "Brigadier-General of the Missouri State Guard,"

designed to hold a "very important session of the Missouri Legislature,"

at New Madrid, on March 3d--a session which was to last, however, but one day. When General Pope moved out from Commerce, on February 28th, Schuyler Hamilton in front, Thompson undertook to oppose the advance with a detachment of his irregular command and three light pieces of rifled artillery. The Seventh Illinois Cavalry charged, captured the three guns, took two officers and several enlisted men prisoners, and chased Thompson and the rest of his band sixteen miles, almost to the outskirts of New Madrid. 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 reconnoissance developed the fact that the intrenchments could be carried by a.s.sault, but could not be held so long as the gunboats could lay the muzzles of their heavy guns upon the river-bank and sweep the whole interior.

The reconnoissance made by General Hamilton showed the necessity of having siege-guns. The troops were put into camp about two miles back from the river; urgent request was sent to Cairo for heavy artillery, and parties were pushed forward every day to hara.s.s the garrison and keep them occupied. Colonel Plummer (soon after brigadier-general and commanding a division of his own) was detached from Hamilton's division and sent with the Eleventh Missouri, Twenty-sixth and Forty-seventh Illinois Infantry, four guns of the First Missouri Light Artillery, and one company of engineer troops, together with two companies of cavalry, to act as outpost toward the interior--to Point Pleasant. The object was to attempt by field-pieces to stop the pa.s.sage of transport steamboats up and down the river. Colonel Plummer, leaving camp at noon, March 5th, proceeding by a circuitous road to avoid pa.s.sing along the river-bank, halted for the night in bivouac, without fires, within three or four miles of the town. A gunboat prevented his cavalry and artillery from occupying the town next day, but was driven away by the fire of the infantry. The infantry and engineers prosecuted the work of digging rifle-pits, and in the night places were sunk for the field-pieces by excavating near the edge of the bank. By morning of March 7th the four guns were in position, planted apart, with lines of rifle-pits connecting them. When discovered, the gunboats immediately began a furious a.s.sault. Plummer's artillery wasted no ammunition in useless fire upon the iron-plated boats, and his guns were so s.h.i.+elded by their position in sunken batteries, back from the edge of the bank, that the fire of the gunboats pa.s.sed harmless overhead. The deliberate fire of sharpshooters from the rifle-pits, however, searching every opened porthole, pilot-house, and every exposed point, was so annoying that the fleet withdrew. Every day the gunboats opened upon the position, either in stationary attack or while pa.s.sing up and down the river. But, to avoid the hara.s.sing fire from the rifle-pits, they kept, after the first few attacks, near the opposite sh.o.r.e of the river. The steamboats used as transports did not venture to pa.s.s up or down the river in face of Plummer's batteries, and the enemy was restricted to the landing at Tiptonville and boats below for all communication.

[Ill.u.s.tration: New Madrid and Island Number Ten.]

On the 6th, General Pope telegraphed that Colonel Plummer had not yet been able to effect his lodgement at Point Pleasant, but that the sharpshooters were trying to drive the artillerymen of the gunboats from their pieces. Next day, the 7th, General Halleck telegraphed to Pope: "After securing the roads so as to prevent the enemy's advance north, you will withdraw your remaining forces to Sikeston, and thence to Bird's Point or Commerce for embarkation. They will proceed up the Tennessee to reinforce General C. F. Smith. Good luck." On the same day, the 7th, General Pope reported by telegraph Plummer's success in establis.h.i.+ng himself, and nothing more was heard about abandoning the expedition.

General Pope had asked for rifled thirty-twos. General Cullum, Halleck's chief of staff, who was stationed at Cairo and had immediate charge and supervision of sending reinforcements and supplies to the armies in Halleck's department, not finding rifled thirty-twos, obtained three twenty-four-pounders and one eight-inch howitzer. Colonel Bissell, of the engineer regiment, who was in Cairo waiting for them, received these four pieces on March 11th. They were s.h.i.+pped across the river to Bird's Point, and sent by rail to Sikeston. At Sikeston a detachment from the company of regular artillery, with horses, as well as the regiment of engineers, were waiting. The pieces were quickly uns.h.i.+pped and mounted on carriages. The engineers had such success in repairing the road, and the artillery in conducting the pieces, that all arrived in good order about sunset of the 12th.

Major Lathrop, commanding the artillery, had, on the 11th, reconnoitered the ground and selected a position about eight hundred yards in front of Fort Thompson, for batteries to contain the siege-guns. On Colonel Bissell's arrival, he went again to the front and pointed out the position selected. About dusk, two companies of the Thirty-ninth Ohio, deployed as skirmishers, drove back the enemy's pickets toward the works. At nine o'clock P.M., Colonel Bissell and Major Lathrop arrived on the ground with Colonel Morgan, who had with him the Tenth and six companies of the Sixteenth Illinois. The Tenth Illinois, advancing in open order, pushed the enemy's pickets still farther back and close to their works. The six companies of the Sixteenth followed with picks and spades. Two companies of the Tenth, deployed as skirmishers, were pushed forward, covering the front and flanks of the party, with orders not to fire even if fired upon. The remaining eight companies of the Tenth Illinois joined the Sixteenth as a working party. The lines of two batteries for two guns each, and lines of infantry intrenchments, had now been traced. The fourteen companies worked with such zeal that the works were completed by three o'clock A.M. Captain Mower, of the First United States Infantry, who, with Companies A and H of his regiment, had been put in command of the siege-artillery, put the four pieces in position; Colonel Morgan, recalling his pickets, posted his command in the trenches. General Stanley moved out with his division in support, and, at daylight, Mower opened fire upon Fort Thompson.

The force in Forts Thompson and Bankhead numbered about three thousand effectives, according to General A.P. Stewart, who had general command of both; thirty-five hundred, according to General Gantt, who commanded at Fort Thompson, and had been promoted after being a.s.signed to the command. The fire from Captain Mower's guns was the first notice General Gantt or his men had of the erection of the batteries. Fort Thompson replied with all its guns. Fort Bankhead joined with its heavy ordnance and field-battery. Commodore Hollins brought his fleet close in sh.o.r.e and aided the bombardment. Captain Mower, by direction of General Pope, paid little heed to the forts, but directed most of his fire to the boats. The forts on either side were little injured. One twenty-four pounder in Mower's battery, and one thirty-two in Fort Thompson, were disabled. The gunboats were struck, but not seriously injured.

In the evening, General McCown visited Commodore Hollins on his flag-s.h.i.+p, and, after a conference, sent for General Stewart. Commodore Hollins stated that he had been positively a.s.sured that heavy artillery could not be brought over the wet and swampy country, and he was not prepared to encounter it. General McCown said it was evident to him that Pope intended, by regular approaches, to cut off Fort Thompson. He told A.P. Stewart that reinforcements could not be expected within ten days.

Stewart said he could not hold out three days. All agreed, then, that the forts must be evacuated, and immediately.

About ten o'clock P.M. a gunboat and two transports reported to Colonel Walker at Fort Bankhead, and General Stewart proceeded with two gunboats to Fort Thompson.

According to Colonel Walker's report, the evacuation and embarkation at his post was orderly, though impeded by a heavy rain-storm, and restricted by the very insufficient transportation afforded by the boats. He was unable to carry off any of the heavy guns, but succeeded in s.h.i.+pping the guns of Bankhead's field-battery, leaving their limbers and caissons behind. General Gantt's report represents a like state of affairs at Fort Thompson. But, according to General Stewart's report, his directions were imperfectly carried out. One twenty-four pounder was pulled off its platform into the swamp in its rear, where it sank so deep in the mud that it was impossible to move it. No attempt was made to remove more. The storm began at eleven o'clock. "The rain was unusually violent, and the night became so dark that it was difficult to see, except by the flashes of lightning. The men became sullen and indifferent--indisposed to work. I spent some time in collecting together such of them as were idle and urged them to carry off the boxes of ammunition from the magazine, and pa.s.s them aboard the boat. At length I learned from Captain Stewart that all the guns had been spiked, that rat-tail files had been sent up for the purpose from one of the gunboats, with orders to spike the guns. I replied that no such orders had been given by me, that the spiking of the guns should have been the last thing done." "Soon after this an artillery officer informed me that Gantt's regiment was going aboard the boats, that Captain Carter was hurrying them, telling them he intended to save his boats, and would leave them to s.h.i.+ft for themselves if the enemy fired." "I directed the artillery officers, before the boats left, to make an effort to get their tents on board. They subsequently reported that they could not get many of the men together in the darkness and rain, nor induce the few whom they did collect to do anything at it." General Stewart ordered the pickets who had been sent out to cover the movement to be recalled, and the tents and quarters to be searched. Thirteen men, however, were left. One of the gunboats took in tow a wharf-boat at the landing, which was used as a hospital and contained several hundred sick. Between three and four o'clock in the morning the boats pulled out and left.

Morgan's brigade, after constructing the works in the night of the 12th, remained in the trenches till relieved early in the morning of the 14th.

At two o'clock A.M. of the 14th, General Hamilton advanced with his division to relieve General Stanley in support, and with Slack's brigade of Palmer's division to relieve Morgan's brigade in the trenches. "The darkness was palpable, the rain poured down in torrents, the men were obliged to wade through pools knee-deep. Silence having been strictly enjoined, the division, hoping to have the honor of leading in the a.s.sault on the enemy's works, moved steadily forward with cheerful alacrity; those a.s.signed to that duty taking post in the rifle-pits half full of water, without a murmur." A heavy fog obscured the dawn. About six o'clock two deserters reported that the fort had been hastily abandoned in the night, after a portion of the guns had been spiked.

Captain Mower and Lieutenant Fletcher, commanding the two companies in charge of the siege-guns, were dispatched into the fort to hoist the American flag. Two field-batteries, besides the heavy artillery, great quant.i.ties of ammunition for small arms as well as for the artillery, tents, stores of all sorts, the wagons, horses, and mules of the troops at Fort Thompson, were found. The wagons and animals at Fort Bankhead had been sent across the river a few days before. General Beauregard, whose command included these defences, ordered an inquiry into the facts of the evacuation of New Madrid. The inspecting officer reported substantially in accordance with the report of General A.P. Stewart.

Immediately the evacuation was confirmed, Hamilton's division was moved into the works and their guns were turned toward the river. Without delay, batteries were at night sunk at points along the river just back of the river-bank, and the captured siege-guns, hauled laboriously by hand down the the strip of more solid ground between the river and swamp, were placed in position in them. The lowest battery was below Point Pleasant, and opposite and a little below Tiptonville. This extended General Pope's line seventeen miles along the river. The lowest battery commanded the lowest solid ground on the Tennessee sh.o.r.e--all below was swamp. This battery, if maintained, cut off the enemy alike from retreat, and from reinforcements and supplies. When the morning of the 15th disclosed the muzzles of the heavy guns peering over the river-bank as over a parapet, five gunboats moved up within three hundred yards, and with furious cannonade strove to destroy them. In an hour and a half one gunboat was sunk, others damaged, gunners on them shot from the rifle-pits on sh.o.r.e, and the fleet retired.

On March 15th, Commodore Foote moved with his fleet of gunboats and mortar-boats to the neighborhood of Island No. 10, and next day engaged the batteries on the island and the main-land, at long range, to ascertain their position and armament. Next day five gunboats and four mortar-boats moved down to within two thousand yards of the upper battery or redan, and opened fire. The batteries on main-land and island replied. One hundred pieces of heavy ordnance rent the quivering air with their thunder. The rampart of the redan had been constructed twenty-four feet thick, but the high water beating against it had washed it, and, by percolation, softened it. The heavy shot from the gunboats pa.s.sed though it. Thirteen-inch sh.e.l.ls exploding in the ground made caverns in the soil. Water stood on the ground within, and the artillerists waded in mud and water. The conflict lasted till evening.

The staff of the signal-flag used in the redan was shattered by a shot; but the officer, Lieutenant Jones, picking up the flag, and using his arm as a staff, continued signalling. The rampart of the redan was torn and ridged, and one sixty-four gun was dismounted and another injured, an officer killed, and seven enlisted men wounded. On the island a one hundred and twenty-eight pound gun burst. In the fleet a gun burst on the Pittsburg, killing and wounding fourteen men.

The fleet and batteries exchanged fire with greater or less severity every day. On the 21st, another large gun, called the Belmont, burst on the island. In the course of these engagements the redan was finally knocked to pieces and ceased to reply; and, on April 1st, an expedition from the fleet landed, drove off a detachment of the First Alabama which was guarding it, and spiked its guns. The work of erecting new batteries and mounting guns, as well as repairing damages, was continued as long as the island was occupied.

On the night of March 17th, General McCown left for Fort Pillow with the Eleventh, Twelfth, and Colonel Kennedy's Louisiana, Fourth, Fifth, and Thirty-first Tennessee, Bankhead's and six guns of Captain R.C.

Stewart's batteries, and Neely's and Haywood's cavalry, leaving at Madrid Bend the First Alabama, Eleventh and Twelfth Arkansas, and Terry's Arkansas Battalion, three Tennessee regiments, commanded respectively by Colonels Brown, Clark, and Henderson, Colonel Baker's regiment of twelve companies called the Tennessee, Alabama, and Mississippi regiment, five guns of Captain Stewart's field-battery, and Captain Hudson's and Captain Wheeler's cavalry. Besides these were the companies of heavy artillery, and what other troops, on the island and below, the reports do not show. Most, if not all of the troops taken to Fort Pillow by General McCown, proceeded to Corinth and joined the force which General A. S. Johnston was gathering there. General McCown on his return arrived below Tiptonville on March 20th, and established his headquarters at Madrid Bend next day.

General Pope had now established his army and batteries on the right bank of the river, so as to prevent the escape of the enemy until the river should fall. To capture them he must cross the river. General Halleck telegraphed to him on March 16th to construct a road, if possible, through the swamp above the bayou, which comes into the river just above New Madrid, to a point on the Missouri sh.o.r.e opposite Island No. Ten, and transfer thither enough of his force to erect batteries and aid the fleet in the bombardment of the island. Pope despatched Colonel Bissell to examine the country with this view, directing him at the same time, if he found it impracticable to build the road, to ascertain if it were possible to dig a ca.n.a.l across the peninsula, from some point above the island to New Madrid. The idea of the ca.n.a.l was suggested to General Pope by General Schuyler Hamilton, an officer whose gentle refinement veiled his absolute resolution and endurance till they were called into practice by danger and privation.

Colonel Bissell found no place where a road could be constructed; but, by following up the bayou (called John's Bayou in the Confederate reports, called Wilson's Bayou on the map made by the United States engineers) which comes into the river immediately above New Madrid, he traced it into the swamp and found that, in connection with depressions and sloughs, a continuous, though tortuous water-way could be gained at that high stage of water, from a point in the river between Islands Eight and Nine and the river at New Madrid. The length of this channel was twelve miles. Part of it had to be excavated to get sufficient depth; for six miles it pa.s.sed through a thick forest of large trees.

General Pope immediately sent to Cairo for four light-draught steamers, and tools, implements, and supplies needed to cut a navigable way.

Colonel Bissell was at once ordered to set his entire command at work, and to call upon the land force on the fleet for aid if needed. For six miles Bissell had to cut through the forest a channel fifty feet wide and four and a half feet deep. Sawing through the trunks of large trees four and a half feet under the surface of the cold water was a work of extreme toil and great exposure. The trees when felled had to be disentangled, cut up, and thrust among the standing trees. Overhanging boughs of trees, growing outside the channel, had to be lopped off.

Shallow places were excavated. The whole had to be done from the decks of the little working-boats, or by men standing in the water. The men were urged to incessant labor; yet they toiled with such ardor that urging was not needed. General Halleck telegraphed to Pope, Friday, March 21st, that he would not hamper him with any minute instructions, but would leave him to accomplish the object according to his own judgment, and added: "Buell will be with Grant and Smith by Monday." In nineteen days, April 4th, the way was open and clear; and on the 5th, steamers and barges were brought through near to the lower mouth, but not near enough to be in view from the river.

The Confederate officers on the island were aware of the attempt to secure this cut-off across the peninsula. Captain Gray, engineer, in a report or memorandum, dated March 29th, spoke of "the ca.n.a.l being cut by the enemy," and of heavy guns planted to be used against any boat that might issue from the bayou, as well as batteries erected along the sh.o.r.e, from about a mile and a half below New Madrid down to Tiptonville. But General McCown, when turning over the command to General W.W. Mackall, who relieved him on March 31st, said to him that the National troops were endeavoring to cut a ca.n.a.l across the peninsula, but they would fail, and that Mackall would find the position safe until the river fell, but no longer.

The task which General Pope had proposed to himself--to cross a wide, deep, rapid river, in the face of an enemy holding the farther sh.o.r.e in force, was sufficiently arduous at first. Now that Captain Gray's industry had lined the river-sh.o.r.e with batteries armed with twenty-four, thirty-two, and sixty-four pound guns, and eight-inch howitzers and columbiads, sufficient to blow out of the water any unarmed steamer that should venture to cross, the task was impracticable with his present resources. He applied to Commodore Foote, and urgently repeated the application, for two gunboats, or even one, to be sent down the river some dark night to engage these batteries below New Madrid.

But the Commodore was not willing to risk his boats in a voyage along the front of miles of batteries, and declined. On March 28th Halleck telegraphed: "I have telegraphed to Commodore Foote to give you all the aid in his power. You have a difficult problem to solve. I will not embarra.s.s you with instructions. I leave you to act as your judgment may deem best."

Pope set to work to make floating-batteries, to be manned by his troops.

Each battery consisted of three heavy barges, lashed together and bolted with iron. The middle barge was bulkheaded all around, so as to have four feet of thickness of solid timber at both the ends and the sides.

Three heavy guns were mounted on it and protected by traverses of sand-bags. It also carried eighty sharpshooters. The barges outside of it had a first layer, in the bottom, of empty water-tight barrels, securely lashed, then layers of dry cotton-wood rails and cotton-bales packed close. These were floored over at the top to keep everything in place, so that a shot penetrating the outer barges would have to pa.s.s through twenty feet of rails and cotton before reaching the middle one, which carried the men and guns. The outer barges, thus bulkheaded with water-tight barrels and buoyant cotton-bales, could not sink. These barges, when all was ready, were to be towed by steamers to a point directly opposite New Madrid. This could be done safely, as the sh.o.r.e at the point and for a mile and a half below was swamp, and the nearest battery was necessarily below the swamp. When near the opposite sh.o.r.e the floating-batteries were to be cut loose from the steamers and allowed to float down-stream to the point selected for the landing of the troops. As soon as they arrived within short range they were to drop anchor and open fire.

Meanwhile Commander Henry Walke had volunteered to take his boat, the Carondelet; and, on March 30th, Flag-officer Foote gave him permission to make the attempt on the first dark night. The morning of April 4th was a busy time on the Carondelet. The deck was covered with heavy planks, surplus chains were coiled over the most vulnerable parts of the boat, an eleven-inch hawser was wound around the pilot-house as high as the windows; barriers of cordwood were built about the boilers. After sunset, the atmosphere became hazy and the sky overcast. Guns were run back, ports closed, and the sailors armed to resist boarders. Directions were given to sink the boat if it became liable to fall into the enemy's hands. At dusk, twenty sharpshooters from the Forty-second Illinois came aboard to be ready to aid the crew in resisting boarders. After dark, a coal-barge laden with baled hay was fastened to the port side of the boat.

At ten o'clock the moon had gone down and a storm was gathering. The Carondelet cast loose and steamed slowly down the river. The machinery was adjusted so as to permit the steam to escape through the wheel-house, and avoid the noise of puffing through the pipes. The boat glided noiseless and invisible through the darkness. Scarcely had it advanced half a mile when the soot in the chimneys caught fire, a blaze shot up five feet above the smoke-stack. The flue-caps were opened, the blaze subsided, and all was yet silent along the sh.o.r.e. The soot in the smoke-stacks not being moistened by the steam, which was now escaping through the wheel-house, became very inflammable. Just as the Carondelet was pa.s.sing by the upper battery--the redan--the treacherous flame again leaped from the chimneys, revealing and proclaiming the mission of the boat. Sentries on the parapets on sh.o.r.e fired, guards turned out, rockets darted skyward; the heavy guns opened fire; and the brooding storm broke forth, the lightning and thunder above drowning the flashes and war below. The lightning revealed the position of the gunboat, but it also disclosed the outline of the sh.o.r.e, enabling the pilots to steer with certainty. The boat was pushed near to the Tennessee sh.o.r.e and to the island, and put to its greatest speed. Impeded by the barge in tow, its greatest speed was slow progress, and for half an hour the gunners in the batteries watched the black night to see the hurrying Carondelet shot for an instant out of the darkness at every lightning flash. Beyond the batteries lay the floating battery, carrying nine guns, which had been driven from its moorings the day before by the heavy fire of the fleet. A light on the floating battery marked its position. A few shots left it, but it evinced no eagerness to join in conflict. The Carondelet, unharmed, untouched, fired the agreed signal, and fleet and army knew at midnight the pa.s.sage was a success.

On the morning of the sixth, Commander Walke, taking on board General Granger, Colonel Smith, of the Forty-third Ohio, and Captain L.H.

Marshall, of General Pope's staff, steamed down the river under a heavy fire from the batteries that lined the Tennessee sh.o.r.e, ascertained the position of the batteries, and, on the return silenced the batteries opposite Point Pleasant. Captain Marshall landed with a party and spiked the guns. In the night of the 6th, Commodore Foote, in compliance with General Pope's earnest request, sent the gunboat Pittsburg down to New Madrid, where it arrived, like the Carondelet, untouched.

At the break of day of the 7th, in a heavy rain, Captain Williams, of the First United States Infantry, opened with his thirty-two pounders upon the batteries opposite him at Watson's Landing, where General Pope proposed to land his troops. Commander Walke, with the two gunboats, silenced the batteries along the sh.o.r.e. Three sixty-four pound guns, standing half a mile apart, were spiked. A battery of two sixty-four pound howitzers and one sixty-four pound gun maintained a contest till two of the pieces were dismounted and the other disabled. The four steamers came out of the bayou and took on board Paine's division. At noon, Commander Walke signalled that all the batteries to Watson's Landing were silenced and the way was clear. A spy in the employment of General Pope, who had been taken from the Tennessee sh.o.r.e by Commander Walke and forwarded by him to General Pope, brought the news that the forces about Madrid Bend were in full retreat to Tiptonville. Paine's division, sailing by just at that time, was signalled to stop, and the news was communicated, with orders to land and push in pursuit to Tiptonville with all dispatch. Colonel Morgan's brigade moved in advance, followed by Colonel c.u.mming's brigade and Houghtaling's battery. Abandoned camps and artillery were pa.s.sed; prisoners were gathered up. A detachment of cavalry fled as the column came in sight.

About nine miles from the landing, General Mackall was found well posted, with infantry, artillery, and cavalry. The leading regiment deployed in line, and General Mackall retired. Twice again he halted in line as if to make a stand, and retreated as the National troops approached. At night Morgan's brigade halted at Tiptonville, and found shelter from the rain in an abandoned camp. The pickets of the brigade gathered in 359 prisoners in the night. c.u.mming's brigade, being ordered to explore the road coming from the north into the one over which they were moving, came upon the river sh.o.r.e 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, c.u.mming 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.

Two hours after midnight his adjutant-general took to General Paine General Mackall's unconditional surrender.

Stanley's division followed Paine's, and was followed by Hamilton's.

These were overtaken by night and went into bivouac about half way between the crossing and Tiptonville, and learned of the surrender next morning while on the way to join Paine. Colonel Elliott, of the Second Iowa Cavalry, sent with two of his companies by General Pope at dawn of the 8th from Watson's up the river-bank, captured two hundred prisoners, deck-hands and laborers as well as soldiers, the wharf-boat and steamers, great quant.i.ties of ordnance and other stores, and standing camps. Turning these over to Colonel Buford, who commanded the land forces on the fleet, and who came over to sh.o.r.e from the island on a steamer, he joined the forces at Tiptonville.

Lieutenant-Colonel Cook, commanding the Twelfth Arkansas, was appointed commandant of the island by General Mackall on the morning of the 7th.

Lieutenant-Colonel Cook received, simultaneously with the order, information of Mackall's retreat, and General Pope's landing and pursuit. In the evening he abandoned the island with his regiment, and turned over the command of the island to Captain Humes, of the artillery. Before daylight of the 8th, Commodore Foote was visited by two officers from the island, who tendered a surrender of it and all on it. A gunboat was sent to ascertain the state of affairs. Having learned three hours later of the crossing of the river by Pope, the flight of General Mackall, and the evacuation of the sh.o.r.e-batteries, he sent Colonel Buford, with a force of two gunboats, to receive possession of the island. Seventeen officers and three hundred and sixty-eight privates surrendered to him, besides the two hundred sick and employees turned over to him by Colonel Elliott. Lieutenant-Colonel Cook found his way through the swamp, on the night of the 7th, to the ferry across Reelfoot Lake. In the course of the night he was joined by about four hundred fugitives, mostly belonging to his own regiment, many of them just from the hospital. Hungry, and cold, and drenched with rain, they stood in the water waiting till they could be carried over the lake, through the cypress trees, in two small flatboats and on some extemporized rafts. It was noon of the 9th before the forlorn band were all over, and, without knapsacks or blankets, many without arms, began their weary march for Memphis.