My Days and Nights on the Battle-Field Part 17

Cannon placed on the summit have long range. A great deal of labor was expended to make it an impregnable place. There were batteries close down to the water under the hill, with heavy guns. A gallery was cut along the side of the bluff, a winding, zigzag pa.s.sage, which, with many crooks and turns, led to the top of the hill. They had numerous guns in position on the top, to send shot and sh.e.l.l down upon Commodore Foote, should he attempt to descend the river. They built a long line of earthworks to protect the rear, intrenchments and stockades,--which are strong posts set in the ground, making a close fence, with holes here and there through which the riflemen and sharpshooters could fire.

They cut down the trees and made _abatis_. There were several lines of defence. They stretched a great iron chain across the river, supporting it by barges which were anch.o.r.ed in the stream. They gave out word that the river was effectually closed against commerce till the independence of the Confederacy was recognized.

[Ill.u.s.tration: A REBEL TORPEDO.]

When the war commenced, there was a man named Maury, a lieutenant in the United States service, and who was connected with the National Observatory in Washington. He was thought to be a scientific, practical man. He had been educated by the government, had received great pay, and was in a high position; but he forgot all that, and joined the Rebels.

He imitated General Floyd, and stole public property, carrying off from the National Observatory valuable scientific papers which did not belong to him. He was employed by the Rebel government to construct torpedoes and infernal machines for blowing up Commodore Foote's gunboats. He had several thousand made,--some for the land, which were planted around Columbus in rear of the town, and which were connected with a galvanic battery by a telegraph wire, to be exploded at the right moment, by which he hoped to destroy thousands of the Union troops. He sunk several hundred in the river opposite Columbus. They were oblong cylinders of wrought iron, four or five feet in length; inside were two or three hundred pounds of powder. Two small anchors held the cylinder in its proper place. It was air tight, and therefore floated in the water. At the upper end there was a projecting iron rod, which was connected with a percussion gun-lock. If anything struck the rod with much force, it would trip the lock, and explode the powder. At least, Mr. Maury thought so. The above engraving will show the construction of the torpedoes, and how they were placed in the water. The letter A represents the iron rod reaching up almost to the surface of the water. At B it is connected with the lock, which is inside the cylinder, and not represented. C represents the powder. The arrows show the direction of the current.

One day he tried an experiment. He sunk a torpedo, and let loose a flat-boat, which came down with the current and struck the iron rod. The powder exploded and sent the flat high into the air. Thousands of Rebel soldiers stood on the bluffs and saw it. They hurrahed and swung their hats. Mr. Maury was so well pleased that the river was planted with them, above, in front, and below the town. He thought that Commodore Foote and all his gunboats would be blown out of the water if they attempted to descend the stream.

But the workmanship was rude. The parts were not put together with much skill. Mr. Maury showed that his science was not practical. He forgot that the river was constantly rising and falling, that sometimes the water would be so high the gunboats could glide over the iron rods with several feet between, he forgot that the powder would gather moisture and the locks become rusty.

It was discovered, after a while, that the torpedoes leaked, that the powder became damp, and changed to an inky ma.s.s, and that the hundreds of thousands of dollars which Mr. Maury had spent was all wasted. Then they who had supposed him to be a scientific man said he was a humbug.

The taking of Fort Donelson compelled the Rebels to evacuate Columbus,--the Gibraltar of the Mississippi, as they called it,--and all the work which had been done was of no benefit. Nashville was evacuated on the 27th of February. On the 4th of March Commodore Foote, having seen signs that the Rebels were leaving Columbus, went down the river, with six gunboats, accompanied by several transports, with troops, under General Sherman, to see about it. The Cincinnati, having been repaired, was the flag-ship. Commodore Foote requested me to accompany him, if I desired to.

"Perhaps we shall have hot work," he said, as I stepped on board in the evening of the 3d.

"We shall move at four o'clock," said Captain Stemble, commanding the ship, "and shall be at Columbus at daybreak."

It was a new and strange experience, that first night on a gunboat, with some probability that at daybreak I might be under a hot fire from a hundred Rebel guns. By the dim light of the lamp I could see the great gun within six feet of me, and shining cutla.s.ses and gleaming muskets.

Looking out of the ward-room, I could see the men in their hammocks asleep, like orioles in their hanging nests. The sentinels paced the deck above, and all was silent but the sound of the great wheel of the steamer turning lazily in the stream, and the gurgling of the water around the bow.

"We are approaching Columbus," said an officer. It was still some time to sunrise, but the men were all astir. Their hammocks were packed away.

They were clearing the decks for action, running out the guns, bringing up shot and sh.e.l.l, tugging and pulling at the ropes. Going on deck, I could see in the dim light the outline of the bluff at Columbus. Far up stream were dark clouds of smoke from the other steamers.

Commodore Foote was on the upper deck, walking with crutches, still lame from the wound received at Donelson.

"I always feel an exhilaration of spirits before going into a fight. I don't like to see men killed; but when I have a duty to perform for my country, like this, all of my energies are engaged," said the Commodore.

Right opposite, on the Missouri sh.o.r.e, was the Belmont battle-ground, where General Grant fought his first battle, and where the gunboats saved the army.

There was a house riddled with cannon-shot; there was a hole in the roof as big as a bushel-basket, where the sh.e.l.l went in, and in the gable an opening large enough for the pa.s.sage of a cart and oxen, where it came out. It exploded, and tore the end of the building to pieces.

One by one the boats came down. The morning brightened. We could see men on the bluff, and a flag flying. Were the Rebels there? We could not make out the flag. We dropped a little nearer. More men came in sight.

"Four companies of cavalry were sent out from Paducah on a reconnoissance day before yesterday. Perhaps the Rebels have all gone, and they are in possession of the place," said General Sherman.

"I will make a reconnoissance with a party of soldiers," he added. He jumped on board his tug, and went off to get his soldiers.

"Captain Phelps, you will please to take my tug and drop down also,"

said Commodore Foote. "If you are willing to run the risk, you are at liberty to accompany Captain Phelps," were his words to me. What is a thing worth that costs nothing?

We drop down the stream slowly and cautiously.

"We are in easy range. If the Rebels are there, they could trouble us,"

says Captain Phelps.

We drop nearer. The flag is still waving. The man holding it swings his hat.

They are not Rebels, but Union cavalry! Away we dash. The other tug, with General Sherman, is close behind.

"A little more steam! Lay her in quick!" says Captain Phelps.

He is not to be beaten. We jump ash.o.r.e, scramble up the bank ahead of all the soldiers, reach the upper works, and fling out the Stars and Stripes to the bright morning sunshine on the abandoned works of the Rebel Gibraltar!

The crews of the boats crowd the upper decks, and send up their joyous shouts. The soldiers farther up stream give their wild hurrahs. Around us are smoking ruins,--burned barracks and storehouses, barrels of flour and bacon simmering in the fire. There are piles of shot and sh.e.l.l. The great chain has broken by its own weight. At the landing are hundreds of Mr. Maury's torpedoes,--old iron now. We wander over the town, along the fortifications, view the strong defences, and wonder that the Rebels gave it up,--defended as it was by one hundred and twenty guns,--without a struggle, but the fall of Fort Donelson compelled them to evacuate the place. They carried off about half of the guns, and tumbled many of those they left behind down the embankment into the river. The force which had fled numbered about sixteen thousand. Five thousand went down the river on steamboats, and the others were sent to Corinth on the cars.

This abandonment of Columbus freed Kentucky of Rebel troops. It had been invaded about six months, and Jeff Davis hoped to secure it as one of the Confederate States, but he was disappointed in his expectations. The majority of the people in that n.o.ble State could not be induced to go out of the Union.

CHAPTER X

OPERATIONS AT NEW MADRID.

There are many islands in the Mississippi, so many that the river pilots have numbered them from Cairo to New Orleans. The first is just below Cairo. No. 10 is about sixty miles below, where the river makes a sharp curve, sweeping round a tongue of land towards the west and northwest, then turning again at New Madrid, making a great bend towards the southeast, as you will see by the map. The island is less than a mile long, and not more than a fourth of a mile wide. It is ten or fifteen feet above high-water mark. The line between Kentucky and Tennessee strikes the river here. The current runs swiftly past the island, and steamboats descending the stream are carried within a stone's throw of the Tennessee sh.o.r.e. The bank on that side of the stream is also about fifteen or twenty feet above high water.

The Rebels, before commencing their works at Columbus, saw that Island No. 10 was a very strong position, and commenced fortifications there.

When they evacuated Columbus, they retired to that place, and remounted the guns which they had brought away on the island and on the Tennessee sh.o.r.e. They thought it was a place which could not be taken. They held New Madrid, eight miles below, on the Missouri side, which was defended by two forts. They held the island and the Tennessee sh.o.r.e. East of their position, on the Tennessee sh.o.r.e, was Reelfoot Lake, a large body of water surrounded by hundreds of acres of impa.s.sable swamp, which extended across to the lower bend, preventing an approach by the Union troops from the interior of the State upon their flank. The garrison at the island, and in the batteries along the sh.o.r.e, had to depend upon steamboats for their supplies.

The distance across the lower promontory from the island to Tiptonville, along the border of Reelfoot Lake, is about five miles, but the distance from the island by the river to Tiptonville is over twenty miles.

On the 22d of February, General Pope, with several thousand men, left the little town of Commerce, which is above Cairo, on the Mississippi, for New Madrid, which is forty miles distant. It was a slow, toilsome march. The mud was very deep, and he could move scarcely five miles a day, but he reached New Madrid on the 3d of March, the day on which we raised the flag on the heights at Columbus.

[Ill.u.s.tration: ISLAND NO. 10.

1 Commodore Foote's fleet.

2 Island No. 10 and Rebel floating-battery.

3 Sh.o.r.e batteries.

4 Rebel boats.

5 2 Forts at New Madrid.]

The Rebels had completed their forts. The one above the town mounted fourteen heavy guns, and the one below it seven. Both were strong works, with bastions and angles, and ditches that could be swept by an enfilading fire. There was a line of intrenchments between the two forts, enclosing the town.

There were five regiments of infantry and several batteries of artillery, commanded by General McCown, at New Madrid. General Mackall was sent up by Beauregard to direct the defence there and at Island No.

10. When he arrived, he issued an address to the soldiers. He said:--

"Soldiers: We are strangers, commander and commanded, each to the other.

Let me tell you who I am. I am a General made by Beauregard,--a General selected by Beauregard and Bragg for this command, when they knew it was in peril.

"They have known me for twenty years; together we stood on the fields of Mexico. Give them your confidence now; give it to me when I have earned it.

"Soldiers: The Mississippi Valley is intrusted to your courage, to your discipline, to your patience; exhibit the coolness and vigilance you have heretofore, and hold it."[23]

[Footnote 23: Rebellion Record.]