Pictorial history of the war for the Union, volume 2 (of 2)

by Ann S. Stephens

The rebel looked sharply around, and seeing no chance of escape passed his sabre-blade into his right hand and holding it out said, “Very well, sir, I surrender.”

At Battery D the enemy lost almost as heavily as at Battery C. Nearly two hundred and fifty men were killed and wounded; and between three and four hundred were taken prisoners, with arms, officers, and colors. This fight raged with almost unparalleled fury for six hours; but it was still comparatively early in the day when it was at an end. At half past ten A. M. the firing had quite ceased, and the enemy had completely retired. The white flag was at the same moment hoisted at Vicksburg. The total loss in killed, wounded, and missing to the National troops in this engagement was two hundred and thirty, while that of the enemy was not less than two thousand.

MORGAN’S RAID IN INDIANA, KENTUCKY, AND OHIO.
July 3 to July 26, 1863.

While the advance of Lee into Pennsylvania was agitating the whole north, the rebels were making good use of their time elsewhere. A raid by a guerrilla band under their chieftain, John Morgan, was made into the three States of Indiana, Kentucky, and Ohio. He designed to sweep everything before him, and by attracting public attention to himself, give the rebel General Lee more opportunity to carry out his plans for the invasion of the North. His first attempt was to break off the railroad communications by which reinforcements could be sent to the defence of Louisville; having done this, General Buckner, from Tennessee, with the whole rebel force under his command, was to dash into Kentucky, capture Louisville, and in cooperation with Morgan, make an attack upon Cincinnati.

But General Buckner was prevented from participating in this movement. General Rosecrans’s advance upon the army of General Bragg, which took place about this time, made it necessary that the rebel Buckner should remain where he was. At this time Morgan, with a force of four thousand men, was in Tennessee; he had made a feint of attacking the town of Tompkinsville, the capital of Monroe county, in the State of Kentucky. Brigadier-General Hobson was ordered to Tompkinsville on the 20th of June. General Morgan immediately crossed the Cumberland river, made a rapid advance on Columbia, where a brilliant defence was made against them by a small force under Captain Carter, consisting of only one hundred and fifty men of Colonel Wolford’s regiment. They were, however, forced to retire before the guerrilla general, having first lost their brave commander. On July 4th, Morgan attacked Colonel Moore with two or three hundred men, at Green river bridge. There a fierce resistance was made to the rebel advance; but it was ineffectual, and Morgan marched onward to Lebanon, which he reached the next day. His demand for the surrender of the city was refused by the Union commander, Colonel Hanson, and the attack which was immediately made upon it was gallantly repelled for seven hours. At the end of that time Colonel Hanson, to save his men from utter destruction, was compelled to surrender. Many of the public buildings, and the whole northern part of the town was burnt by the guerrillas; and the men who had surrendered were forced to march with the rebels to Springfield, keeping pace with the cavalry, and in such haste that the march was performed by the wearied Union men in one hour and a half, the distance being ten miles. From Springfield, the rebels marched to Shepherdsville, and then to Bardstown. On the 7th they reached Brandenburg, on the Ohio river, where they seized a steamer which had stopped to take in passengers; having appropriated everything of value to them which the vessel contained, it was run out into the river, and anchored. A short time after, another vessel was decoyed into their possession by hoisting signals of distress on board the McCombs, the vessel which had already been taken. The Alice Dean, the second vessel, went alongside the McCombs, without any suspicion, and was immediately boarded and seized. On the following day, Morgan’s entire force, which consisted of more than four thousand, eleven regiments, and ten pieces of artillery, including two howitzers, were taken across the river. The rebels then gave up the steamer McCombs, but burned the Alice Dean, and also the bridge at Brandenburg. By this time the pursuit of the victorious guerrilla band had begun, but the march was very slow. On the night of July 7th, the whole Union force in pursuit, which consisted of troops under General Hobson, artillery and cavalry under Brigadier-General Shackelford, Colonel Wolford and his brigade, all under command of General Hobson (who had received orders to that effect from General Burnside), had reached a point within nine miles of Brandenburg; and on the next day they reached the river just as the last boat had crossed with the enemy. The rebels, still marching onwards, reached Corrydon in Indiana, on the 8th, where considerable resistance was made to them by the inhabitants. From Corrydon Morgan marched his men to Salem, where they took prisoners a force of three hundred and fifty men who had fallen back before the rebels from Palmyra; subsequently these prisoners were paroled. At Salem, the depot of the Louisville and Chicago railroad was burned, and General Morgan had issued orders to burn all the mills and factories in the town, but these were spared from destruction on the payment of one thousand dollars for each of them. Much other damage was done in breaking, destroying and burning; and every good horse in the town was taken out, and appropriated to the use of the guerrilla invaders.

From Salem they went to Canton, where they took over one hundred horses; at this place General Morgan’s right column entered the town by way of Harristown, and his whole force was joined together, and marched in the direction of Vienna in Scott county, which they reached at two o’clock on the morning of the next day. There much public property was burned; but private property was respected. The force of the guerrilla General was again divided into two columns, one of which was sent off in the direction of Madison, while the other under General Morgan marched in a northerly direction, and reached Old Vernon in Jennings county on the 11th of July. A surrender of the place was demanded by General Morgan; and on the refusal of it, the town was threatened, and half an hour allowed for the women and children to leave the place; but when, at the end of that time, the Union forces went out to meet the rebels they found that they were gone. The Unionists pursued, and many of Morgan’s band were captured. The rebels moved southward, tearing up the tracks of the Madison and Indianapolis railroads on their way, and cutting the telegraph wires. Changing their course to the eastward, they reached Versailles on the 12th; they then divided into several parties, and advanced in various directions. On Sunday night a large body proceeded to Harrison; another party of them reached Harrison on Monday. As they proceeded, on all sides, they helped themselves to the best horses in the towns they passed through, and leaving their own disabled animals behind, continued on their way. On the morning of the 14th they reached Miamiville, having passed through Glendale, Springdale, Camp Monroe, Sharon, Reading, and Montgomery.

At Miamiville a body of guerrillas crossed the Little Miami railroad, and at a point known as Dangerous Crossing they placed some ties and rails across the track near a declivity, so that when the morning train came by the locomotive was thrown from the track, causing the death of the fireman, and seriously injuring the engineer. The rebels then rushed out from the woods in which they had been concealed and took prisoners a number of Union recruits, amounting to two hundred. The prisoners were paroled. Arrangements being now made by the National troops to cut off the progress of the rebels by means of gunboats, General Morgan hastened his movements, until having passed through Williamsburg, Brown county, Sardinia, and Piketown, he reached Jackson on the evening of Thursday, the 16th, where he remained until joined by his whole force. From Jackson he started for the Ohio river.

During all this time the Union forces were in hot pursuit of the rebels, but owing to all the best horses having been seized by Morgan he had necessarily the advantage of his pursuers. So soon as it became evident that Morgan was endeavoring to reach Gallipolis or Pomeroy on the Ohio, the inhabitants began felling trees across the roads, and throwing in his way every obstacle they could to interrupt and delay his progress. Morgan’s men were much harassed in this way, and as in the course of their raid they had lost many of their numbers by exhaustion and by captivity the original force was greatly diminished. On Sunday, the 19th, the main body of Morgan’s guerrillas reached Buffington island, which lies in the Ohio river, close to the Ohio shore, about thirty-five miles above Pomeroy, and was chosen by the rebels as a place of crossing into Virginia on account of the shoals between it and Blannerhasset’s Island, twenty miles above. They had doubtless been well advised of the movements of the Union forces sent from all points, to either head them off or to keep them confined to the only route eastward for them, until they reached the mountainous region and the eastern frontier. The National forces were fully prepared and, indeed, expected a fight with the rebels at this point; and it very shortly became manifest that a severe battle was pending. On the evening of the 16th, General Judah in command of a large Union force, started from Portsmouth, and it was even then expected that an engagement would take place; for trustworthy information had been received at the headquarters of Colonel P. Kinny, commander of the post, during the afternoon, that the rebels were at Miamiville, about eleven miles out, and as it was not the design to either court or bring on an engagement, it being well known that the rebels were scattered over fifty or sixty miles of country, the necessary concentration which they must make was rather humored than otherwise, so that the result might culminate in the complete capture or destruction of the entire force.

General Judah kept as close as possible to the rebels, but between them and the river, when the doing so was practicable, until Morgan reached Jackson. Judah then pushed for Centreville, thinking that the enemy would take that route for the river; but he avoided it, and went through Winchester and Vinton toward Pomeroy, and thence north of that to the scene of action.

So soon as it had been definitely ascertained that Morgan was pushing eastward, the Union gunboats, Moose, Reindeer, Springfield, Naumkeag and Victory, under command of Lieutenant-Commander Le Roy Fitch, were prepared to do service in the coming engagement. These boats had been patroling the river from an accessible point below Ripsey to Portsmouth, but as soon as they were required upon the scene of action the Moose, towed by the Imperial, started up the stream, and was followed at regular distances by the rest of the boats. The Moose made the foot of Buffington Island on Saturday night, and remained until next morning, without changing position, on account of a dense fog.