The order for advance was not sent; and the tired soldiers bivouacked within sight of Murfreesboro’. It was evident that the battle was over, and the morning would prove the enemy completely defeated.
On Saturday it rained; and General Rosecrans determined to keep his powder dry. Knowing that success was certain, he permitted nothing to be done except shelling the enemy, and this was kept up during the day. About two o’clock, at night, the rebel redoubt in front of Rousseau gave considerable trouble by opening an artillery fire. General Rousseau sent to General Rosecrans for permission to take the works, and having received it, he detailed the Third Ohio and Eighty-eighth Indiana for the duty. In the face of a heavy fire they advanced and took the works at the point of the bayonet. They also captured fifty prisoners.
During the night came reports that the rebels were already evacuating Murfreesboro’; and although the intelligence was scarcely credited at first, morning proved its correctness, for the enemy was gone! It now, only remained to take possession of Murfreesboro’, and at eleven o’clock on Sunday morning, General Rosecrans entered the village, with the main army.
NORTH CAROLINA AT THE CLOSE OF 1862.
Notwithstanding the brilliant victories by the army and navy of the Union in the early part of this year over the Confederate forces in North Carolina, but little, if any impression had been made on the stern spirit of opposition and defiance which was here as everywhere else manifested by the leaders of the rebellion.
The brave and indomitable army led by Burnside, and the no less valiant and victorious naval forces under Commodore Goldsborough, had unitedly subdued and captured all the defensible positions on the coast; and the capture of Roanoke Island and the Confederate navy in those waters, had opened the Albemarle sound and its tributaries to the unmolested passage of the Federal fleet, and placed Newbern, Edenton, Winton, Beaufort, Elizabeth city, and many other towns in possession of the Union forces.
The magnitude of the operations on the Peninsula of Virginia, at a later period of the year, overshadowed these earlier movements, which were only designed as supplementary by the Federal government. The military operations for the remainder of the year were not therefore of a character demanding an extended notice in this history.
Colonel Vance was elected Governor of the State in August by a large majority; and in his message in November, urged a vigorous prosecution of the war. In this he was seconded by the Legislature, who by resolution declared the separation of the State from the Federal Union as final, and pledged all the power and resources of the commonwealth to maintain the Confederate government.
As an important part of the State had now come under Federal control by conquest, the authorities at Washington determined to appoint a Provisional or military Governor, as had previously been done in Tennessee by the appointment of Andrew Johnson.
Edward Stanley, formerly a distinguished citizen of North Carolina, was tendered that office by President Lincoln, and accepted the trust. He arrived at Newbern on the 26th of May, and entered upon his duties. On the 17th of June he made an address to the people of Washington, N. C., which citizens from all parts of the State were permitted to pass through the Federal lines to attend. Men were present from seventeen counties to hear him; but the result showed that so long as the Confederate Government retained its organization and power, the citizens were powerless, and dare not oppose it.