The Greater Republic Part 37

EVACUATION OF CORINTH.

The withdrawal of Beauregard to Corinth made that point valuable to the Unionists, because of the large number of railroads which centre there.

It was strongly fortified, and no one expected its capture without a severe battle. General Halleck, who was high in favor with the government, a.s.sumed command of the Union armies and began an advance upon Corinth. He moved slowly and with great caution, and did not reach the front of the place until the close of May. While making preparations to attack, Beauregard withdrew and retired still further southward. No further Union advance was made for some time. The important result accomplished was in opening up the Mississippi from Cairo to Memphis and extending the Union line so that it pa.s.sed along the southern boundary of Tennessee.

Beauregard resembled McClellan in many respects. He was excessively cautious and disposed to dig trenches and throw up fortifications rather than fight. Jefferson Davis always had a warm regard for General Braxton Bragg, whom he now put in the place of Beauregard. By the opening of September, Bragg had an army of 60,000 men. Kirby Smith's corps was at Knoxville and Hardee and Polk were with Bragg at Chattanooga.

They were ordered to march through Kentucky to Louisville, threatening Cincinnati on the way. Kirby Smith's approach threw that city into a panic, but he turned off and joined Bragg at Frankfort.

A RACE FOR LOUISVILLE.

By this time the danger of Louisville was apparent, and Buell, who was near Nashville, hastened to the defense of the more important city.

Bragg ran a race with him, but the burning of a bridge, spanning the river at Bardstown, stopped him just long enough to allow Buell to reach Louisville first. This was accomplished on the 25th of September, and Buell's army was increased to 100,000 men.

BATTLE OF PERRYVILLE.

Disappointed in securing the main prize, Bragg marched to Frankfort, where he installed a provisional governor of Kentucky and issued a high-sounding proclamation, to which few paid attention. Bragg had entered one of the richest sections of the State, and he secured an enormous amount of supplies in the shape of cattle, mules, bacon, and cloth. His presence in the State was intolerable to the Union forces, and Buell, finding a strong army under his command, set out to attack him. Bragg started to retreat through the c.u.mberland Mountains on the 1st of October, with Buell in pursuit. A severe but indecisive battle was fought at Perryville, and the Confederates succeeded in carrying away their immense booty to Chattanooga, while the Union army took position at Nashville.

The government was dissatisfied with the sluggishness of Buell and replaced him with General William S. Rosecrans. He posted a part of his army at Nashville and the remainder along the line of the c.u.mberland River. Advancing against Bragg, he faced him in front of Murfreesboro', some forty miles from Nashville. On the 30th of December brisk firing took place between the armies, and when they encamped for the night their fires were in plain sight of each other.

BATTLE OF MURFREESBORO' OR STONE RIVER.

The opposing forces were on both sides of Stone River (this battle is generally referred to in the South by that name), a short distance to the northwest of Murfreesboro'. By a curious coincidence, each of the respective commanders formed the same plan of attack, it being to ma.s.s his forces on the left and crush his enemy's right wing. A terrific engagement lasted all day, and night closed without any decisive advantage to either side, though the Confederates had succeeded in driving back the Union right upon the left and occupying a considerable portion of the field formerly held by the Federals.

The exhaustion of the armies prevented anything more than skirmishing on New Year's day, 1863, but on the afternoon of January 2d the furious battle was renewed. Rosecrans ordered an advance of the whole line, and the Confederate right wing was broken and the flank so endangered that Bragg was compelled to withdraw his entire army. The only way for him to retain Tennessee was to abandon Murfreesboro'. Accordingly, he retreated to a point beyond Duck River, about fifty miles south of Murfreesboro', which was occupied by the Federals, January 5, 1863.

Other important events took place in the West. General Sterling Price wintered in Springfield, Missouri, in the southern part of the State, and gained a good many recruits and a large amount of needed supplies.

He was attacked by Sigel and Curtis on the 12th of February, and continued his retreat to the Boston Mountains, where he was reinforced by McCulloch, Van Dorn, and Albert Pike, and felt himself strong enough to turn about and attack Curtis, who was in the neighborhood of Pea Ridge.

BATTLE OF PEA RIDGE.

The Union right was commanded by General Sigel, the left by General Carr, and the centre by General Jefferson C. Davis. Sigel was surprised and came very near being cut off, but he was master of the art of retreating rather than of advancing, and he extricated his Germans with astonishing skill and joined the main army. General Curtis changed his front, and in the attack his right wing was driven back, obliging him that night to take a new position a mile to the rear. The fighting next day was at first in favor of the Confederates, and for a time the Union army was in a critical position; but with great bravery and skill the enemy's left was turned, the centre broken, and their forces driven in disorder from the field.

In this battle Albert Pike used 2,000 Indian allies. They belonged to the "civilized" tribes, and good service was expected from them; but they were unaccustomed to fighting in the open, could not be disciplined, and in the excitement of the struggle it is alleged they so lost their heads that they scalped about as many of the Confederates as Unionists. At any rate, the experiment was a failure, and thereafter they cut no figure in the war.

INDECISIVE FIGHTING.

The enemy were so badly shaken that they retreated toward the North to reorganize and recruit. Reinforcements from Kansas and Missouri also joined Curtis, who advanced in the direction of Springfield, Missouri, upon learning that Price was making for the same point. Nothing followed, and Curtis returned to Arkansas. He had been at Batesville in that State a few months when he found himself in serious peril. His supplies were nearly exhausted, and it was impossible to renew them in the hostile country by which he was surrounded. An expedition for his relief left Memphis in June, but failed. Supplies from Missouri, however, reached him early in July.

Curtis marched to Jacksonport, and afterward established himself at Helena on the Mississippi. In September he was appointed commander of the department of Missouri, which included that State, Arkansas, and the Indian Territory. There were many minor engagements, and the Unionists succeeded in keeping the Confederates from regaining their former foothold in Missouri and north of Arkansas. It may be said that all the fighting in that section produced not the slightest effect on the war as a whole. The best military leaders of the Confederacy advised President Davis to withdraw all his forces beyond the Mississippi and concentrate them in the East, but he rejected their counsel, and his stubbornness greatly weakened the Confederacy.

Having given an account of military operations in the West, it now remains to tell of the much more important ones that occurred on the coast and in the East, for they were decisive in their nature, and produced a distinct effect upon the progress of the war for the Union.

CONSTRUCTION OF THE MERRIMAC.

It has been stated that early in the war the Norfolk navy yard was burned to prevent its falling into the possession of the Confederates.

Among the vessels sunk was the frigate _Merrimac_, which went down before much injury was done to her. She was a formidable craft of 3,500 tons, 300 feet in length, and had mounted 40 guns. The Confederates succeeded in raising her, and proceeded to work marvelous changes in her structure, by which she was turned into the first real armor-clad ever constructed. She was protected by layers of railroad iron, which sloped like the roof of a house, and was furnished with a prow of cast iron which projected four feet in front. Pivot guns were so fixed as to be used for bow and stern chasers, and the pilot-house was placed forward of the smoke-stack and armored with four inches of iron. She carried ten guns, one at the stern, one at the bow, and eight at the sides, and fired sh.e.l.ls. Her iron armor sloped down at the sides, so that she looked like an enormous mansard-roof moving through the water.

Her commanding officer was Commodore Franklin Buchanan, formerly of the United States navy, while under him were Lieutenant Catesby R. Jones, the executive officer, six other lieutenants, six midshipmen, surgeons, engineers, and subordinate officers, in addition to a crew of 300 men.

She was rechristened the _Virginia_, but will always be remembered as the _Merrimac_.

[Ill.u.s.tration: SECRETARY STANTON'S OPINION ABOUT THE MERRIMAC.

"The whole character of the war will be changed."]

Of necessity this craft, being the pioneer of its kind, had many defects. She could move only very slowly, and her great length of 300 feet and poor steering apparatus required a half-hour for her to make a complete turn, while her draft of 22 feet confined her to the narrow channel of the Roads. Still she could go faster than an ordinary sailing vessel, and her resistless momentum and iron prow enabled her to crush any vessel afloat as if it were an egg-sh.e.l.l.

Great pains were taken by the Confederates to keep secret the particulars of her building; but it was known in Washington that a strange craft was in course of construction at Norfolk, with which it was expected to capture Washington and devastate the leading cities along the Atlantic seaboard. Ericsson, the famous Swedish inventor, was engaged near New York in building a smaller vessel upon the same principle, and he was pressed to make all possible haste in finishing it; for, though the government did not suspect the terrible effectiveness of the _Merrimac_, they meant to take all reasonable precautions against it.

AWFUL WORK OF THE MERRIMAC.

There were lying at Hampton Roads at that time five Union vessels, which, being so close to the dangerous craft, were on the alert day and night for her appearance. About noon on March 8th a column of dark smoke in the direction of the Norfolk navy yard, followed by the forging into sight of the huge hulk, left no doubt that the long-expected _Merrimac_ was coming forth upon her errand of death and destruction. In her company were three gunboats ready to aid her in any way possible. The steam frigate _Minnesota_ and _Roanoke_ and the sailing frigates _Congress_, _c.u.mberland_, and _St. Lawrence_ immediately cleared their decks for action.

The _Minnesota_ and _Roanoke_ moved out to meet the _Merrimac_, but both got aground. In the case of the _Minnesota_ this was due to the treachery of the pilot, who was in the employ of the Confederates. The _c.u.mberland_ swerved so as to bring her broadsides to bear, and opened with her pivot guns, at the distance of a mile. The aim was accurate, but the iron b.a.l.l.s which struck the ma.s.sive hide of the _Merrimac_ bounded off like pebbles skipping over the water. Then the _Congress_ added her broadsides to those of the _c.u.mberland_, but the leviathan shed them all as if they were tiny hailstones, and, slowly advancing in grim silence, finally opened with her guns, quickly killing four marines and five sailors on the _c.u.mberland_. Then followed her resistless broadsides, which played awful havoc with officers and men. Swinging slowly around, the _Merrimac_ next steamed a mile up the James, and, turning again, came back under full speed. Striking the _c.u.mberland_ under the starboard bow, she smashed a hole into her through which a horse might have entered. The ship keeled over until her yardarms were close to the water. The terrific force broke off the prow of the _Merrimac_, but her frightful shots riddled the _c.u.mberland_ and set her on fire. The flames were extinguished, and the _c.u.mberland_ delivered broadside after broadside, only to see the enormous missiles fly off and spin harmlessly hundreds of feet away.

Lieutenant George U. Morris, of the _c.u.mberland_, ran up the red flag meaning "no surrender," and with a heroism never surpa.s.sed maintained the unequal fight, if fight it can be called where there was absolutely no hope for him. Finally the _c.u.mberland_ went down to her cross-trees, in fifty-four feet of water. Lieutenant Morris succeeded in saving himself by swimming, but of the crew of 376, 121 lost their lives.

The _c.u.mberland_ being destroyed, the _Merrimac_ headed for the _Congress_, which had run aground. She replied with her harmless broadsides, but the _Merrimac_ held her completely at her mercy, raking her fore and aft, and killing 100 of the crew, including the commander.

It being evident that not a man could escape, the white flag was run up in token of surrender. The hot firing from the sh.o.r.e preventing Commodore Buchanan from taking possession of the _Congress_, whereupon he fired her with hot shot.

During the fighting, Commodore Buchanan fearlessly exposed himself on the upper deck of the _Merrimac_, and was badly wounded in the thigh by a Union sharpshooter, whereupon the command was a.s.sumed by Lieutenant Jones. By that time it was growing dark and the _Merrimac_ steamed back to Sewall's Point, intending to return the next morning and complete her appalling work of destruction.

CONSTERNATION IN THE NORTH.

The news of what she had done caused consternation throughout the North.

President Lincoln called a special cabinet meeting, at which Secretary Stanton declared, in great excitement, that nothing could prevent the monster from steaming up the Potomac, destroying Washington, and laying the princ.i.p.al northern cities under contribution. The alarm of the bluff secretary was natural, but there was no real ground for it.

THE MONITOR.

The Swedish inventor, John Ericsson, had completed his _Monitor_, which at that hour was steaming southward from New York. Although an ironclad like the _Merrimac_, she was as different as can be conceived in construction. She resembled a raft, the upper portion of which was 172 feet long and the lower 124 feet. The sides of the former were made of oak, twenty-five inches thick, and covered with five-inch iron armor.

The turret was protected by eight-inch plates of wrought iron, increasing in thickness to the port-holes, near which it was eleven inches through. It was nine feet high, with a diameter of twenty-one feet. She drew only ten feet of water, and was armored with two eleven-inch Dahlgren guns, smooth bore, firing solid shot weighing 180 pounds.

The pilot-house was made of nine-inch plates of forged iron, rose four feet above the deck, and would hold three men by crowding. The _Monitor_ was one-fifth the size of the _Merrimac_, and her appearance has been likened to that of a cheese-box on a raft. She was in command of Lieutenant John L. Worden, with Lieutenant S. Dana Green as executive officer. Her crew consisted of sixteen officers and forty-two men, and she left New York on the morning of March 6th, in tow of a tug-boat. The greatest difficulty was encountered in managing her, the men narrowly escaping being smothered by gas, and, had not the weather been unusually favorable, she would have foundered; but providentially she steamed into Hampton Roads, undiscovered by the enemy, and took her position behind the _Minnesota_, ready for the events of the morrow.

[Ill.u.s.tration: JOHN ERICSSON.

The famous constructor of the Monitor.]

The _Merrimac_ was promptly on time the next morning, and was accompanied by two gunboats; but while steaming toward the remaining Union vessels the _Monitor_ darted out from behind the _Minnesota_ and boldly advanced to meet her terrible antagonist. They silently approached each other until within a hundred yards, when the _Monitor_ fired a shot, to which the _Merrimac_ replied. The firing was rapid for a time and then became slower, with the intervening s.p.a.ce varying from fifty yards to four times that distance. A number of the _Merrimac's_ shots struck the _Monitor's_ pilot-house and turret, the crash doing no harm except almost to deafen the men within. Most of the sh.e.l.ls, however, missed or skipped over the low deck of the smaller boat.