CHAPTER XIII.
THE KIND OF REINFORCEMENTS WE HAD TO DEFEND THE CITY.
THIS is an exact portrait of General Jubal A. Early, who was sent to capture Washington, but arrived a little too late.
There was great excitement in the city during Sunday, the 10th of July, and strange stories were set afloat concerning the arrival of General Early, and his rebel army. There was also great excitement in and around the forts north of the city. The hundred-day men did not feel themselves safe in the forts, and those outside were making a desperate effort to keep their courage up.
We had heroes enough in the city, but the great question was, how we were to get them organized, provisioned, armed, and sent to the front in time to be of service. The District militia, which we have all heard so much of and seen so little, was not enrolled, and, of course, could not be made available. It was said there would be some desperate fighting done if the Treasury Guard only got to the front. This valuable body of distinguished heroes was composed of nice young men, who wore fine linen and patent leather boots, and in appearance were unexceptionable.
It was a trying time for the nation, my son, and the young men of this Treasury Guard felt that they had a duty to perform in defending the capital, and must perform it with courage. There was one little drawback, however, to their conduct as soldiers; and that was, that each man wanted to go to the front encumbered with a carpet bag, filled with sandwiches and clean shirts. Aside from this, let me say, the guard was got in order for marching, and their gallant commander, Colonel Floyd A. Willett, made a speech, in which he declared there was not a chicken-hearted man in his ranks. And when it marched for the front, which it did with drums beating, its gallant colonel at its head, and Corporal Spinner, of Company B, bringing up the rear, there was many a tear shed and handkerchief waved by the pretty female clerks of the Department. Many of these damsels had more than a friendly interest in these young heroes, who they averred would never come back, but whiten the battle-field with their bones.
As the War Department has not yet condescended to give us a report in detail of the defense of Washington, I cannot inform you, my son, of the heroic part performed by this distinguished body of nice young men. There was a rumor that they returned to the city, after the siege, in a very hungry condition; but had been so saving of their powder and lead as not to waste a single round.
Now, our quartermaster-general was not to be beaten by any of them when there was a chance for glory. Seeing the Treasury Guard march off with so much courage and determination, the general mounted his war horse, and assembled a whole brigade of his employees, as gallant fellows as ever took the field, notwithstanding little could be said of their discipline or soldierly appearance. This gallant brigade was called the Bushwhackers, in contradistinction to the Beef-eaters of the War Department. There was no mistaking this brigade, for it was armed with muskets and bill-hooks. As it moved off for the front, as it did with no very regular step, there was a sight seldom seen. How else could it be, with our gallant quartermaster-general at its head, and General Rucker bringing up the rear! After a rapid march of four miles, the brigade reached the front; and as no enemy was in sight, and there was no use for their powder, the men went energetically to work, and did good service in clearing away the bushes in front of the forts, so that our gallant defenders could have an unobstructed view of the rebels as soon as they made their appearance. This was a very happy thought; one for which the quartermaster-general deserved the brevet he afterwards got.
You will see by this, my son, that we were fast getting our gallant defenders to the front. And now all that was needed to afford them an opportunity to show themselves heroes was General Early and his army of rebels.
I must also inform you that Provost-Marshal Todd, Captain and A. D. C., had got a company of his men to the front, lying in ambush for the rebels.
There was still another, and equally important force to be added to our defenders. This was a brigade of what was called Ancient Mariners, got together by that solid old salt, Admiral Goldsborough. The admiral was brim-full of pluck, and his name had become famous for not fighting the rebels afloat. Here was an opportunity to give them a broadside or two ashore, and the admiral was not the man to let it slip through his fingers. Indeed, he sounded his war trumpet as quick as any of them, and when he had piped his Ancient Mariners to arms, he told them that God and their country demanded them to do their duty.
"Aye, aye!" responded the Ancient Mariners; "we will do it, we will."
When the gallant admiral had got his "Ancient Mariners" ready to march, armed with cutlass and various other well-known weapons, he placed himself at their head and moved out to meet the enemy. His manner of doing this, however, was somewhat novel, and deserves to be described here. You must know, my son, that the admiral was of a very rotund figure, and, although well enough at home on the quarter-deck, was not accustomed to the saddle. His weight was, indeed, such as to preclude the idea of his being a skilled horseman. It was, therefore, necessary that he go to the field in some more comfortable as well as becoming manner. Thereupon a carriage and four was provided, and in this stately manner the gallant admiral proceeded to the front, at the head of his strange command. I may add also, my son, that the movement of this force afforded no little amusement to the numerous urchins that followed it. On reaching the front, it took up a strong position, and made ready to give the enemy a broadside whenever he made his appearance. Some mischievous person reported that it was the intention of these "Ancient Mariners" to support the cavalry, in the event of its being attacked. Having brought them to the front, however, we must leave them there, the quartermaster with his spy-glass keeping a sharp look out for any stray craft that might appear in the offing.
I have been thus minute in describing these forces, in order that you may form a just estimate of what General McDowell McCook had to command.
Sunday passed away, and there was no appearance of General Early and his army. Still the excitement in the city had not abated. Our good President, I must tell you, was out along the lines nearly all day, with the apparent purpose of encouraging the feeble garrisons in the forts.
Early on Monday morning (the 11th of July, 1864), the smoke and dust of the rebel column rose in the distance, and was clearly seen from the defenses. News of this soon spread about, and our cavalry got more and more excited, and went galloping out and then came galloping in at an increased rate of speed.
Then the enemy's long, thin line of skirmishers debouched into the fields, like specter figures in a panorama. Next his artillery was seen moving to the right and left, and apparently taking up positions on the distant hills. These were followed by his hungry troopers, very dirty and forlorn, and looking like shadowy figures just issuing from a desert of dust. The movements of these rebels in the distance gave new features to the face of the siege. General McDowell McCook was seen to ride rapidly over the field, followed by his two orderlies. Generals Meigs and Rucker urged on their Bushwhackers, who went to work with renewed energy clearing up the forest. The "Ancient Mariners" whetted their cutlasses, and continued to exhaust their ordnance, a large stock of which they had brought to the field in the shape of tobacco. And the Treasury Guard stopped eating sandwiches and looked to their ammunition. In fine, our gallant defenders went to getting their courage up in various ways. Our good President (may his memory never die!) took up a position near Fort Stevens, as if to encourage the hundred-day men to stand by their guns and keep their pluck warm.
A little after noon there was a material change in the situation. The enemy's advance skirmishers made their appearance within range of Fort Stevens and began a miscellaneous firing. Then our own cannon opened, and their echoes over the hills first sounded the alarm and awakened the people of the city from their dream of security. There were as yet no really efficient troops to send to defend the point of attack. The people knew that between them and the enemy there were strong and heavily armed forts; and in these they placed their trust. They did not, however, reflect that these forts, without proper garrisons, were only so many inert masses, incapable of resisting for one hour the vigorous assault of an enemy. But it was very different with the military authorities. As the rattle of small arms and the booming of cannon increased during Monday evening and night, they knew that the city was in peril, and their anxiety for its safety increased. They knew that the forts were not properly garrisoned. They knew that communication with the North was cut off, that no reinforcements from that quarter could be relied on. Further, that although reinforcements from General Grant's army had been ordered up from the James River, they had not had time to arrive.
Such was our situation on that memorable Monday night. Yes, my son, such was the feeble condition of the defenses when General Early and his rebel army came in sight of the dome of the Capitol. We all looked confidently for an attack in force on Tuesday morning. Had it been made by a column of ten thousand men, led by a bold and determined commander, capable of infusing his own impulse into their movements, they might, feebly garrisoned as the forts were at that moment (with no support between or behind them), have treated our defenses with contempt, and marched into the city.
Yes, my son, they could have marched almost unmolested between any two of the forts, entered the city, seized the Arsenal, the Capitol, the Treasury, and other public buildings, and enjoyed a bounteous breakfast at the expense of our citizens. And when they had done this, they might have enforced a legitimate surrender of the city, together with the defenses on both sides of the river.
But General Jubal A. Early was not the man for such an enterprise. Washington was at his mercy, but fortunately for us he did not know it, and let the opportunity slip. Even had he known it, I am of opinion that he lacked the nerve to grasp the advantages of the opportunity. On that Tuesday morning, Early was at Silver Springs, enjoying the luxuries of a spacious headquarters, and within sight of the grand old dome of the Capitol. What strange emotions the sight of this dome must have excited in his bosom, what reminiscences of happier days passed under its shadow must have seared his thoughts as they passed in review, he alone can describe. Perhaps it was the contemplation of those happier days that stayed his hand and made him hesitate to grasp the prize at his feet.
No, my son, Jubal A. Early was of too phlegmatic a temperament for such an undertaking. He was slow in every thing but name. And, as I have informed you before, so notoriously cautious and slow was he to act, even when a youth at West Point, that he gained the sobriquet of "The Late Early," by which he is known at this day by his intimate friends.
How sad it is for us, to-day, to contemplate that the safety of Washington, the capital of this great country, should have depended on the temperament of a general. Let the future historian do this subject justice and elaborate it as it deserves. And let him portray, if he can, the consequences of the rebel flag greeting the rays of the rising sun on that morning victoriously from the dome of the Capitol.