CHAPTER V. BANKS IN COMMAND.
When the campaigns of 1862 were drawing to an end, the government changed all the commanders and turned to the consideration of new plans. With President Lincoln, as we have seen, the opening of the Mississippi had long been a favored scheme. His early experience had rendered him familiar with the waters, the shores, and the vast traffic of the great river, and had brought home to him the common interests and the mutual dependence of the farmers, the traders, the miners, and the manufacturers of the States bordering upon the upper Mississippi and the Ohio on the one hand, and of the merchants and planters of the Gulf on the other. Thus he was fully prepared to enter warmly into the idea that had taken possession of the minds and hearts of the people of the Northwest. From a vague longing this idea had now grown into a deep and settled sentiment. Indeed in all the West the opening of the Mississippi played a part that can only be realized by comparing it with the prevailing sentiment of the East, so early, so long, so loudly expressed in the cry, "On to Richmond!"
That the President should have been in complete accord with the popular impulse is hardly to be wondered at by any one that has followed, with the least attention, the details of his remarkable career. Moreover, the popular impulse was right. Wars take their character from the causes that produce them and the people or the nations by whom they are waged. This was not a contest upon some petty question involving the fate of a ministry, a dynasty, or even a monarchy, to be fought out between regular armies upon well-known plans at the convergence of the roads between two opposing capitals. The struggle was virtually one between two peoples hitherto united as one,—between the people of the North, who had taken up arms for the maintenance and the restoration of the Union, and the people of the South, who had taken up arms to destroy the Union. Of such an issue there could be no compromise; to such a contest there could be no end short of exhaustion. For four long years it was destined to go on, and at times to rage with a fury almost unexampled along lines whose length was measured by the thousand miles and over a battle-ground nearly as large as the continent of Europe. Looked at merely from the standpoint of strategy, and discarding all considerations not directly concerning the movements of armies, true policy might, perhaps, have dictated the concentration of all available resources in men and material upon the great central lines of operations, roughly indicated by the mention of Chattanooga and Atlanta,—the road eventually followed by Sherman in his triumphant march to the sea. Apart, however, from considerations strictly tactical, the importance of cutting off the trans-Mississippi region as a source of supply for the main Confederate armies was obvious; while from the governments of Europe, of England and France above all, the pressure was great for cotton, partly, indeed, as a pretext for interfering in our domestic struggle to their own advantage, but largely, also, to enable those governments to quiet the cry of the starving millions of their people.
Instructed, as well as warned, by the events of the previous summer, the President now resolved on a combined attempt by two strong columns. On the 21st of October he sent Major-General John A. McClernand to Indiana, Illinois, and Iowa, with confidential orders, authorizing him to raise troops for an expedition, under his command, to move against Vicksburg from Cairo or Memphis as a place of rendezvous, and "to clear the Mississippi River and open navigation to New Orleans." Perhaps because of the confidence still felt in Grant by the President himself, although within narrowing limits, Grant was not to share the fate of McClellan, of Buell, and of so many others. The secret orders were not made known to him, yet it was settled that he was to retain the command of his department, while the principal active operations of the army within its limits were to be conducted by another. Even for this consideration it is rather more than likely he was indebted in a great degree to the exceptional advantage he enjoyed in having at all times at the seat of government, in the person of Washburne, a strong and devoted party of one, upon whose assistance the government daily found it convenient to lean.
A few days later, on the 31st of October, Major-General Nathaniel P. Banks was sent to New York and Boston, with similar orders, to collect in New England and New York a force for the co-operating column from New Orleans. On the 8th of November this was followed by the formal order of the President assigning Banks to the command of the Department of the Gulf, including the State of Texas.
This assignment was wholly unexpected by Banks. It was, indeed, unsought and unsolicited, and the first offer, from the President himself, came as a surprise. At the close of Pope's campaign, when the reorganized Army of the Potomac, once more under McClellan, was in march to meet Lee in Maryland, Banks had been forced, by injuries received at Cedar Mountain, to give up the command of the Twelfth Army Corps to the senior division commander, Brigadier-General A. S. Williams. As soon as this was reported at headquarters, McClellan created a new organization under the name of the "Defences of Washington," and placed Banks in command.
For some time after this Banks was unable to leave his room; yet, within forty-eight hours, a mob of thirty thousand wounded men and convalescents, who knew not where to go, and of stragglers, who meant not to go where they were wanted, was cleared out of the streets of Washington, and pandemonium was at an end. Order was rather created than restored, since none had existed in any direction. The Fifth Corps was sent to join the army in the field; within a fortnight, a full army corps of able-bodied stragglers followed; the fortifications were completed; ample garrisons of instructed artillerists were provided. These became "the Heavies" of Grant's campaigns. Almost another full army corps was organized from the new regiments. Finally the whole force of the defences, about equal in numbers to Lee's army, was so disposed that Washington was absolutely secure. The dispositions for the defence of the capital and the daily operations of the command were clearly and constantly made known to the President and Secretary of War as well as to the General-in-chief. Thus it was that, less than two months later, in the closing days of October, President Lincoln sent for Banks and said: "You have let me sleep in peace for the first time since I came here. I want you to go to Louisiana and do the same thing there."
On the 9th of November Halleck communicated to Banks the orders of the President to proceed immediately to New Orleans with the troops from Baltimore and elsewhere, under Emory, already assembling in transports at Fort Monroe. An additional force of ten thousand men, he was told, would be sent to him from Boston and New York as soon as possible. Though this order was never formally revoked or modified, yet in fact it was from the first a dead letter, and Banks, who received it in New York, remained there to complete the organization and to look after the collection and transport of the additional force mentioned in Halleck's instructions. Including the eight regiments of Emory, but not counting four regiments of infantry and five battalions of cavalry diverted to other fields, the reinforcements for the Department of the Gulf finally included thirty-nine regiments of infantry, six batteries of artillery, and one battalion of cavalry. Of the infantry twenty-one regiments were composed of officers and men enlisted to serve for nine months. Even of this brief period many weeks had, in some cases, already elapsed. To command the brigades and divisions, when organized, Major-General Christopher C. Auger, and Brigadier-Generals Cuvier Grover, William Dwight, George L. Andrews, and James Bowen were ordered to report to Banks.
The work of chartering the immense fleet required to transport this force, with its material of all kinds, was confided by the government to Cornelius Vanderbilt, possibly in recognition of his recent princely gift to the nation of the finest steamship of his fleet, bearing his own name. This service Vanderbilt performed with his usual vigor, "laying hands," as he said, "upon every thing that could float or steam," including, it must be added, more than one vessel to which it would have been rash to ascribe either of these qualities.
Before the embarkation each vessel was carefully inspected by a board of officers, usually composed of the inspector-general or an officer of his department, an experienced quartermaster, and an officer of rank and intelligence, who was himself to sail on the vessel. This last was a new, but, as soon appeared, a very necessary precaution. When every thing was nearly ready the embarkation began at New York, and as each vessel was loaded she was sent to sea with sealed orders directing her master and the commanding officer of the troops to make the best of their way to Ship Island, and there await the further instructions of the general commanding. Ship Island was chosen for the place of meeting because of the great draught of water of some of the vessels. At the same time Emory's force, embarking at Hampton Roads, set out under convoy of the man-of-war Augusta, Commander E. G. Parrott, for the same destination with similar orders.
For three months the Florida had lain at anchor in the harbor at Mobile, only waiting for a good opportunity to enter upon her historic career of destruction. Since the 20th of August the Alabama was known to have been scourging our commerce in the North Atlantic from the Azores to the Antilles. On the 5th of December she took a prize off the northern coast of San Domingo. Relying on the information with which he was freely furnished, Semmes expected to find the expedition off Galveston about the middle of January. In the dead of night, "after the midwatch was set and all was quiet," he meant, in the words of his executive officer,(1) slowly to approach the transports, "steam among them with both batteries in action, pouring in a continuous discharge of shell, and sink them as we went." Fortunately Semmes's information, though profuse and precise, was not quite accurate, for it brought him off Galveston on the 13th of January: the wrong port, a month too late. What might have happened is shown by the ease with which he then destroyed the Hatteras.
To guard against these dangers, it had been the wish of the government, and was a part of the original plan, that the transports sailing from New York should be formed in a single fleet and proceed, under strong convoy, to its destination. However, it soon became evident that as the rate of sailing of a fleet is governed by that of its slowest ship, the expedition, thus organized, would be forced to crawl along the coast at a speed hardly greater than five miles an hour. This would not only have exposed three ships out of five, and five regiments out of six, for at least twice the necessary time to the perils of the sea, increased by having to follow an inshore track at this inclement season; it would not only have introduced chances of detention and risks of collision and of separation, but the peril from the Alabama would have been augmented in far greater degree than the security afforded by any naval force the government could just then spare. Therefore, the slow ships were loaded and sent off first and the faster ones kept back to the last; then, each making the best of its way to Ship Island, nearly all came in together. Thus, when the North Star, bearing the flag of the commanding general and sailing from New York on the 4th of December, arrived in the early morning of the 13th at Ship Island, nearly the whole fleet lay at anchor or in the offing; and as soon as a hasty inspection could be completed and fresh orders given, the expedition got under way for New Orleans. The larger vessels, however, like the Atlantic, Baltic, and Ericsson being unable to cross the bar, lay at anchor at Ship Island until they could be lightened.
Truly grand as was the spectacle afforded by the black hulls and white sails of this great concourse of ships at anchor, in the broad roadstead, yet a grander sight still was reserved for the next day, a lovely Sunday, as all these steamers in line ahead, the North Star leading, flags flying, bands playing, the decks blue with the soldiers of the Union, majestically made their way up the Mississippi. Most of those on board looked for the first time, with mingled emotions, over the pleasant lowlands of Louisiana, and all were amused at the mad antics of the pageant-loving negroes, crowding and capering on the levee as plantation after plantation was passed. So closely had the secret been kept that, until the transports got under way from Ship Island for the purpose, probably not more than three or four officers, if so many, of all the force really knew its destination. Nor was it until the two generals met at New Orleans that Butler learned that Banks was to relieve him.
On the 15th of December Banks took the command of the Department of the Gulf, although the formal orders were not issued until the 17th. The officers of the department, as well as of the personal staff of General Butler, were relieved from duty and permitted to accompany him to the North. The new staff of the department included Lieutenant-Colonel Richard B. Irwin, Assistant Adjutant-General; Lieutenant-Colonel William S. Abert, Assistant Inspector-General; Major G. Norman Lieber, Judge-Advocate; Colonel Samuel B. Holabird, Chief Quartermaster; Colonel Edward G. Beckwith, Chief Commissary of Subsistence; Surgeon Richard H. Alexander, Medical Director; Major David C. Houston, Chief Engineer; Captain Henry L. Abbot, Chief of Topographical Engineers; First-Lieutenant Richard M. Hill, Chief of Ordnance; Captain Richard Arnold, Chief of Artillery; Captain William W. Rowley, Chief Signal Officer.
Banks's orders from the government were to go up the Mississippi and open the river, in co-operation with McClernand's expedition against Vicksburg. "As the ranking general of the Southwest," Halleck's orders proceeded, "you are authorized to assume control of any military forces from the upper Mississippi which may come within your command. The line of the division between your department and that of Major-General Grant is, therefore, left undecided for the present, and you will exercise superior authority as far north as you may ascend the river. The President regards the opening of the Mississippi river as the first and most important of all our military and naval operations, and it is hoped that you will not lose a moment in accomplishing it."
Immediately on assuming command Banks ordered Grover to take all the troops that were in condition for service at once to Baton Rouge, under the protection of the fleet, and there disembark and go into camp. Augur was specially charged with the arrangements for the despatch of the troops from New Orleans. Before starting they were carefully inspected, and all that were found to be affected with disease of a contagious or infectious character were sent ashore and isolated.
On the morning of the 16th the advance of Grover's expedition got under way, under convoy of a detachment of Farragut's fleet, led by Alden in the Richmond. Grover took with him about 4,500 men, but when all were assembled at Baton Rouge there were twelve regiments, three batteries, and two troops of cavalry. The Confederates, who were in very small force, promptly evacuated Baton Rouge, and Grover landed and occupied the place on the 17th of December. After sending off the last of the troops, Augur went up and took command. The lines constructed by Paine in August were occupied and strengthened, and all arrangements promptly made for the defence in view of an attack, such as might not unnaturally be looked for from Port Hudson, whose garrison then numbered more than 12,000 effectives. The two places are but a long day's march apart. Since the occupation in August, the Confederate forces at Port Hudson had been commanded by Brigadier-General William N. R. Beall. On the 28th of December, however, he was relieved by Major-General Frank Gardner, who retained the command thenceforward until the end. While the war lasted, Baton Rouge continued to be held by the Union forces without opposition or even serious menace.
An attempt to occupy Galveston was less fortunate. This movement was ordered by Banks a few days after his arrival at New Orleans, apparently under the pressure of continued importunity from Andrew J. Hamilton, and in furtherance of the policy that had led the government to send him with the expedition, nominally as a brigadier-general, but under a special commission from the President that named him as military governor of Texas. On the 21st of December, three companies, D, G, and I, of the 42d Massachusetts, under Colonel Isaac S. Burrell, were sent from New Orleans without disembarking from the little Saxon, on which they had made the journey from New York. With them went Holcomb's 2d Vermont battery, leaving their horses to follow ten days later on the Cambria, with the horses and men of troops A and B of the Texas cavalry. Protected by the flotilla under Commander W. B. Renshaw, comprising his own vessel, the Westfield, the gunboats Harriet Lane, Commander J. M. Wainwright; Clifton, Commander Richard L. Law; Owasco, Lieutenant Henry Wilson; and Sachem, Acting-Master Amos Johnson; and the schooner Corypheus, Acting-Master Spears, Burrell landed unopposed at Kuhn's Wharf on the 24th, and took nominal possession of the town in accordance with his instructions. These were indeed rather vague, as befitted the shadowy nature of the objects to be accomplished. "The situation of the people of Galveston," wrote General Banks, "makes it expedient to send a small force there for the purpose of their protection, and also to afford such facilities as may be possible for recruiting soldiers for the military service of the United States." Burrell was cautioned not to involve himself in such difficulty as to endanger the safety of his command, and it was rather broadly hinted that he was not to take orders from General Hamilton. In reality, Burrell's small force occupied only the long wharf, protected by barricades at the shore end, and seaward by the thirty-two guns of the fleet, lying at anchor within 300 yards.
Magruder, who had been barely a month in command of the Confederate forces in Texas, had given his first attention to the defenceless condition of the coast, menaced as it was by the blockading fleet, and thus it happened that Burrell's three companies, performing their maiden service on picket between wind and water, found themselves confronted by the two brigades of Scurry and Sibley, Cook's regiment of heavy artillery, and Wilson's light battery, with twenty-eight guns, and two armed steamboats, having their vulnerable parts protected by cotton bales.
Long before dawn on the 1st of January, 1863, under cover of a heavy artillery fire, the position of the 42d Massachusetts was assaulted by two storming parties of 300 and 500 men respectively, led by Colonels Green, Bagby, and Cook, the remainder of the troops being formed under Scurry in support. A brisk fight followed, but the defenders had the concentrated fire of the fleet to protect them; the scaling ladders proved too short to reach the wharf, and as day began to break, the baffled assailants were about to draw off, when, suddenly, the Confederate gunboats appeared on the scene and in a few moments turned the defeat into a signal victory. The Neptune was disabled and sunk by the Harriet Lane, the Harriet Lane was boarded and captured by the Bayou City, the Westfield ran aground and was blown up by her gallant commander, and soon the white flag floated from the masts of all the Union fleet. Wainwright and Wilson had been killed; Renshaw, with his executive officer, Zimmermann, and his chief engineer, Green, had perished with the ship. The survivors were given three hours to consider terms.
When Burrell saw the flag of truce from the fleet, he too showed the white flag and surrendered to the commander of the Confederate troops. The Confederates ceased firing on him as soon as they perceived his signal, but the navy, observing that the fire on shore went on for some time, notwithstanding the naval truce, thought it had been violated; accordingly the Clifton, Owasco, Sachem, and Corypheus put out to sea, preceded by the army transport steamers Saxon and Mary A. Boardman. On the latter vessel were the military governor of Texas, with his staff, and the men and guns of Holcomb's battery.
The Confederates lost 26 killed and 117 wounded; the Union troops 5 killed and 15 wounded, and all the survivors (probably about 250 in number) were made prisoners save the adjutant, Lieutenant Charles A. Davis, who had been sent off to communicate with the fleet. The navy lost 29 killed, 31 wounded, and 92 captured. So ended this inauspicious New Year's day.
The transports made the best of their way to New Orleans with the news. The Cambria, with the Texas cavalry and the horses of the 2d Vermont battery, arrived in the offing on the evening of the 2d of January. For two days a strong wind and high sea rendered fruitless all efforts to communicate with the shore; then learning the truth, the troops at once returned to New Orleans.
Orders had been left with the guard ship at Pilot Town to send the transport steamers, Charles Osgood and Shetucket, with the remainder of the 42d, directly to Galveston. It was now necessary to change these orders, and to do it promptly. The bad news reached headquarters early in the afternoon of the 3d January: "Stop every thing going to Galveston," was at once telegraphed to the Pass.
(1) "Cruise and Combats of the Alabama," by her Executive Officer, John Mackintosh Kell.—"Century War Book," vol. iv., p. 603.