“As General McClellan, mounted upon a fine horse, attended by a retinue of fine-looking military men, riding rapidly through the ranks, gracefully recognized and bid a farewell to the army, the cries and demonstrations of the men were beyond bounds—wild, impassioned, and unrestrained. Disregarding all military forms they rushed from their ranks and thronged around him with the bitterest complaints against those who had removed from command their beloved leader.”
On the next day, the 10th, he withdrew, taking the railroad cars at Warrenton. On reaching Warrenton Junction a salute was fired. The troops, which had been drawn up in line, afterward broke ranks, when the soldiers crowded around him and many eagerly called for a few parting words. He said in response, while on the platform of the railroad depot, “I wish you to stand by General Burnside as you have stood by me, and all will be well. Good-bye.” To this there was a spontaneous and enthusiastic response.
The troops were also drawn up in line at Bristow’s Station and Manassas Junction, where salutes were fired and he was complimented with enthusiastic cheers. On reaching Washington he proceeded immediately to the depot, and passed on to Philadelphia and Trenton, where he arrived early on the 12th.
What was now the military aspect? The movement of General McClellan’s army, after crossing the Potomac, was towards Gordonsville. This made a movement on the part of the Confederate general Lee necessary in order to prevent the Federal army from getting between him and Richmond. For this purpose he attempted to move from Winchester through the gaps of the Blue Ridge to Culpeper. The larger part of his force had passed through, when the gaps were taken and held by General McClellan. At the same time General Sigel had advanced from Washington, and lay near the Blue Ridge, covering at once Washington, observing the gaps to the Rappahannock, and protecting the railroad communication to that river. The bridge at Rappahannock Station had already been seized by the cavalry, under General Bayard. The available force of General McClellan was about one hundred and twenty thousand men; that of General Lee consisted of about sixty thousand able men at Culpepper and Gordonsville, and thirty thousand in the Shenandoah Valley, near Strasburg. The distance from Warrenton to Gordonsville is about fifty miles, and from Warrenton to the Rapidan, thirty-five miles; from Strasburg to Gordonsville, by Staunton and Charlottesville, one hundred and thirty-five miles; and by the only other practicable route, one northwest of Gordonsville, and perpendicular to General McClellan’s line of advance, about one hundred miles. In his position it was necessary for General Lee to defend the line of the Rapidan, or endeavor to effect a junction with the force in the Shenandoah Valley, under General Jackson, or fall back upon Richmond, in a country without a line of defence, with General McClellan close upon him, leaving General Jackson to shift for himself. The defence of the Rapidan was impracticable from the course of the river from the Alexandria railroad to the Blue Ridge. The efforts to join General Jackson would have uncovered Richmond, and the attempt to fall back on Richmond would have at least hazarded the demoralization of his army, and enabled General McClellan to turn the defensible parts of the Rappahannock, and the line of the North Anna. The appointment of General Burnside was followed by the organization of a portion of the army into divisions, and a movement to concentrate it at Fredericksburg.
OPERATIONS IN KENTUCKY.
June to September, 1862.
Never in the history of the world has there been a war of such magnitude as that waged by the loyal Unionists against the Southern insurgents in the American Republic, and never have the divisions of military forces stretched over so wide a field of operations. While the Army of the Potomac was fighting in Virginia, the struggle of loyalty and treason was going on in Kentucky. The masses of the people there were in favor of the Union; but their feeling was so cold, and had been operated on so strongly by Secession-sympathizing slaveholders, that as a body, they desired to remain simply neutral. The Governor of Kentucky, Beriah Magoffin, adopted a position of strict neutrality, and in accordance with this unpatriotic spirit, the slaveholding Senate of the State passed a decree that the State “will not sever her relations with the National Government, nor take up arms for either belligerent party.” At the same time, while refusing to lend the National cause any assistance, the slaveholding aristocracy of Kentucky entreated the people of the loyal North to yield to the rebels and win them back by amending the Constitution, in such a way as to make it a bulwark of negro slavery. But all this manœuvering was finally terminated, and the men of Kentucky were driven either to the protection of the national flag, or to the camps of the rebels. The battles before Richmond, Virginia, having paved the way for a general rebel advance, the enemy resolved on an effort to transfer the field of battle to northern soil; and it was in pursuance of this plan that General Lee had invaded Pennsylvania; but having been signally repulsed, he had, as we have seen, been obliged to abandon the attempt.
Early in June guerrilla operations became troublesome in some of the lower counties of Kentucky. At Madisonville, in Hopkins county, a descent was made by a small body of them at night. The county clerk’s office was broken open and the records of the court carried off or destroyed. In other places horses and other property were taken. Their own friends, equally with Union citizens, were robbed. In Jessamine, Mercer, Boyle, and Garrard counties bridges over the streams were burned. On the 5th of July Lebanon was taken. It is at the termination of the Lebanon branch of the Louisville and Nashville road. About the same time Murfreesboro’, in Tennessee, was captured by a strong guerrilla force under Colonel Forrest. Vigorous opposition was, however, made by the small body of Federal troops stationed there. The Ninth Michigan regiment, however, was captured entirely by surprise, with Brigadier-Generals Duffield and Crittenden, of Indiana.
At about this time the rebel Generals Bragg, Smith, Kirby and Van Dorn, had combined to invade Kentucky, their object being to capture Louisville, and then push forward and take possession of Cincinnati. It was the prosecution of this movement that led to the battles of Richmond, Tazewell, Mumfordsville, Perryville, Iuka, and Corinth. In name, as we have seen, the State of Kentucky was still attached to the Union. She had contributed her full quota to the national army, and her whole territory was unoccupied by Confederate forces; but the State was full of guerrilla bands, which, under cover of serving the rebels, plundered in all directions, on their own account. The chief of these guerrilla marauders, John Morgan, with his gang, took possession of the town of Lebanon, on the 12th of July, 1862. His troops continually increased till at last with a large force he advanced upon Cynthiana, which he attacked on the 18th. There a home guard of three hundred and forty men, entirely undisciplined, made a desperate resistance, and were not overpowered till they had slaughtered many of the rebel invaders. This little band of patriots was commanded by Colonel J. J. Landrum, whose coolness and bravery deserves every commendation.
A series of guerrilla attacks now succeeded each other, giving indications of hostile movements of a more serious character.
About the middle of August, it was reported that Frankfort, the State capital, was in danger from the approach of Morgan, and that the rebel General E. Kirby Smith was advancing with a well organized force, into Kentucky, from Knoxville, Tennessee.