Colonel G. N. Fitch was appointed Provost-marshal of the city; and the Mayor showed his natural good sense by cooperating with him in every way to maintain peace and good order.
The only loss to the Union fleet, in this fierce naval encounter, was the injury to the Queen of the West, and a wound to her brave commander, Colonel Ellet. This wound, at the time it was received, had not prevented Colonel Ellet from continuing at his duties, and it was hoped that it would prove slight; but it grew more and more serious until it resulted in the death of one of the most brilliant and heroic men—to whom the nation owes the capture of the city of Memphis. Colonel Ellet died at Cairo, on the 21st of June, 1862.
Memphis, of course, became one of the most important Union posts on the Mississippi river.
NEW COMBINATIONS. BATTLE OF CEDAR MOUNTAIN, VA.
August 7, 1862.
On the 23rd of July, 1862, Major-General H. W. Halleck arrived at Washington, whither he had been summoned from the west, to assume the chief command of all the armies of the United States. It was felt by the government that there ought now to be a military head of affairs. McClellan was still on the James river. On assuming command, General Halleck visited General McClellan at Harrison’s Landing, and took counsel with him, as to future movements. But the respective plans of the two generals did not coincide; and, of course, the policy of General Halleck prevailed. McClellan wished for reinforcements, and desired once more to advance against Richmond, by way of the Peninsula. General Halleck, however, ordered him to evacuate the Peninsula, and join his forces to those of the Army of Virginia. The latter had, meantime, been formed, by the consolidation of the forces under Banks, McDowell, and Fremont, its command being intrusted to General Pope. This officer took the field on the 27th of July, being charged to protect the city of Washington, guard the valley of the Shenandoah against further rebel raids, and, by bold advances against Richmond from the north, to distract the attention of the foe from the projected movement of McClellan’s forces, from Harrison’s Landing to Acquia Creek. The Army of Virginia consisted, at this time, of twenty-eight thousand men, and was stationed in the vicinity of Culpepper and Fredericksburg, on the northern bank of the Rapidan river.
It was the 7th of August when General Pope learned that the rebels were crossing the Rapidan, in great force. Those of his troops which had been dispersed for the sake of observation, received orders to rally immediately at Culpepper. Crawford’s brigade of Banks’s corps was, during the forenoon of the next day, dispatched towards Cedar Mountain, in order that it might, so far as possible, retard the movements of the enemy. General Banks, on the evening of the 8th, had arrived from Hazel river; and early on Saturday morning he was sent forward with his corps of seven thousand men to join General Crawford.
The rebels had already, on Thursday, the 7th of August, stationed themselves on an eminence near Culpepper Court House, called Cedar Mountain; having crossed the Rapidan under command of General Stonewall Jackson. General Sigel, by forced marches, was hastening to the support of General Banks.
About five o’clock in the afternoon the rebels assailed General Banks with a destructive fire of both artillery and infantry. General Crawford’s brigade was conspicuous in the battle. It consisted of the Tenth Maine, Twenty-eighth New York, Forty-sixth Pennsylvania, and Fifth Connecticut. The enemy’s batteries were stationed on Cedar Mountain, considerably above the positions occupied by the Union troops. The two forces were about a mile from each other: and the battle was waged by artillery alone. The rebels rapidly increased the number of their batteries, and concentrated a fire of terrible severity upon the Union troops.
At last, at six o’clock, the order was given to charge, and the troops sprang forward, at the full run, with bayonets ready for a desperate charge. Before they had proceeded far the enemy opened a most destructive fire upon them, from his batteries. A wake of the dead and the wounded was left in their track as they pressed heroically forward under the terrific fire of the rebels. But at length retreat became inevitable, and the brave patriots reluctantly retired.
Night terminated a most unequal conflict. General Pope’s official account gave the number of General Banks’ troops at seven thousand; while the rebel accounts stated that the enemy on this occasion were fifteen thousand strong. Both parties claimed the victory; but assuredly it did not belong to the Union troops, though they might well feel satisfied with their own conduct. They had held at bay a force outnumbering their own two to one.