CHAPTER XVI.
The Grand Advance from Memphis—The Enemy prepare to Meet It—General Sherman’s Genius equal to any Emergency—Rapid Marches—The Foe driven from the Path—New Command—The Swollen River—Into Chattanooga—The Tireless Chief and his Gallant Troops push forward to Missionary Ridge.
PEN the map, my reader, and spend a few moments, tracing the long way before the Union troops, and you will understand the greatness of the success of the march from Memphis to Chattanooga, which are three hundred and nine miles apart. The Memphis and Charleston Railway connect them. The Tennessee and Elk Rivers cross the country, many of whose bridges were gone, and the foe lurked along the lines of travel.
But when General Sherman received orders from General Halleck to transport his troops to Athens, Alabama, repairing the railroad and getting his supplies as best he could, he was off with the haste of a prepared and fearless leader, whose heart was in the cause, for whose triumph he fought. But instead of using boats, “his quick eye saw that he could move his trains faster by road under escort.” He therefore did so, and conveyed into the enemy’s country the entire Fourth Division over the iron track.
“Alarmed by this very dangerous move eastward, the enemy quickly assembled at Salem and Tuscumbia, with intent to thwart it and to foil the junction with Rosecrans. At the former point Chalmers collected three thousand cavalry and eight pieces of artillery, and planted himself in our path. Hearing of this, General Sherman, on October 11th, put his whole force in motion toward Corinth, and himself started thither in a special train with a battalion of the Thirteenth Infantry (his own regiment) as escort. On approaching Colliersville, which was defended by a few troops in a stockade, the train was fired upon, and it was discovered that Chalmers was investing the place. Instantly the General ordered his regulars to charge, and under his eye they scattered the rebels in all directions, and reached the stockade. Before General Sherman’s arrival, the little garrison had been sorely pressed in a severe contest. The General soon changed the aspect of affairs, and beat off the superior force. Corinth being reached next night, he sent General Blair to Iuka with the First Division, and pushed troops toward Bear Creek, five miles east of Iuka, as fast as they came up.
“Foreseeing difficulties in crossing the Tennessee, he had written to Admiral Porter at Cairo to watch the river and send up gunboats as soon as the water would permit, and to General Allen at St. Louis to despatch a ferry-boat to Eastport. The requests were promptly fulfilled. It now only remained to work away at the railroad, in accordance with orders, covering his working-parties from the enemy’s attacks. At the same time he despatched Blair with two divisions to drive the enemy from Tuscumbia, where, under Stephen Lee, they were five thousand strong. It was accomplished after a severe fight at Cane Creek; and Tuscumbia was occupied on the 27th of October.”
Pause here, to get a glimpse of the general movements in the programme of war, of which this was no inferior part. General Grant had been put in command of the “Departments of the Ohio, of the Cumberland, and of the Tennessee, constituting the military division of the Mississippi.” In the latter General Sherman was appointed to the command, while General Thomas succeeded General Rosecrans in the department of the Cumberland. October 23d, General Grant, modestly wearing his new laurels, reached Chattanooga. The enemy occupying Lookout Mountain, with their terraces of cannon cut off our troops to get their scanty supplies by the most difficult mountain routes. Wrote a Union soldier of the sad condition of things there:
“I confess I do not see any very brilliant prospects for continuing alive in it all this winter, unless something desperate be done. While the army sits here, hungry, chilly, watching the ‘key to Tennessee,’ the ‘good dog’ Bragg lies over against us, licking his Chickamauga sores without whine or growl. He will not reply to our occasional shots from Star Fort, Fort Crittenden, or the Moccasin Point batteries across the river; has forbidden the exchange of newspapers and the compliments of the day between pickets; has returned surly answers to flag-of-truce messengers; in fact, has cut us dead.
“The mortality among the horses and mules is frightful to contemplate. Their corpses line the road, and taint the air, all along the Bridgeport route. In these days, hereabouts, it is within the scope of the most obtuse to distinguish a quartermaster or a staff officer by a casual glance at the animal he strides. ‘He has the fatness of twenty horses upon his ribs,’ as Squeers remarked of little Wackford; and so he has. God help the others.
“I am assured that this state of things will not last long; that hordes of men are energetically at work improving our communication, and that we soon shall be benefited by the overflowing plenty of the North. The vigor and good spirits of the army all this time are developed in a most astonishing manner.”
Relief was nearer than the writer deemed at the time. General Sherman, at Iuka, reorganized his new command on the very day of the battle at Cane Creek, and sent General Ewing with a division to cross the Tennessee, and hasten with all possible speed to Eastport. A messenger from General Grant on the same day came down the river over the Muscle Shoals, with an order to suspend his work on the railroad, and press forward to Bridgeport. No message ever found a more welcome ear. November 1st, the chieftain led his columns across the Tennessee and on to the branch of the Elk River. But the river was unfordable, and with no leisure to construct a bridge or ferry, he was compelled to take a circuitous route along the stream by the way of Fayetteville, where he mapped out the routes for the different divisions, and hastening to Bridgeport, sent to General Grant, by telegram, the position of his army. November 15th, the unresting commander of admiring and uncomplaining troops reined up his steed at the headquarters of General Grant in Chattanooga, after more than three hundred miles of varied and difficult travel between him and Memphis, where he lay during the early days of October.
The hero of Vicksburg welcomed with delight his peer in the field of war’s most daring exploits. Though worn and weary with their unrivalled, if not hitherto unequalled march, such was his confidence in his brave men, he heard without hesitation the order to bring them across the Tennessee, secure a position at the extremity of Missionary Ridge, and also threatened Lookout Mountain; saying for himself, “I saw enough of the condition of men and animals in Chattanooga to inspire me with renewed energy.”
Away he flies to execute the commands. He does not wait for means of conveyance; he has no false ideas of dignity to interfere with the business in hand. Taking a row-boat, he glides before the strokes of his own strong arms, down the river to Bridgeport. The divisions are soon in order of march. But oh! what roads! Mud—mud—mud! is before the unflinching columns. They toil on, their leader sharing with them the exhausting labor, till three divisions, on the 23d, are sheltered from the observation of the enemy behind the hills, opposite the mouth of the Chickamauga.
Night comes on, and with silent, stealthy steps, a force advanced along the Tennessee, taking prisoners nineteen out of twenty men who were on picket duty. By daylight eight thousand troops were on the banks of the river, ready to cross over and fasten upon Missionary Ridge. Before the sun was above the hill-tops, a pontoon bridge, three hundred and fifty feet long, was commenced, and at 1 p. m. it was done. Proudly the grand cavalcade streamed over the causeway of boats, and advanced toward the desired position. These movements were favored by the concealment—a providential interposition—which “a light, drizzling rain and low-hanging clouds” afforded. Three o’clock found them safely lodged at the terminus of Missionary Ridge. Up the hill the gallant ranks pressed, completely surprising the enemy, who, in his vexation at the humiliating success of the flanking generalship, opened a fruitless fire of artillery and musketry. The “boys” could not allow this, and, dragging their own guns up the acclivity, soon silenced the noisy demonstration of impotent wrath. But beyond and higher was a spur, still more important in the coming trial of strength between the two great armies. Fortifying the ground gained, at midnight the orders passed along the columns to advance at dawn.