From Fort Henry to Corinth

by M. F. Force

A division belonging to General Pope's command in Missouri went with General Curtis to Pea Ridge and Arkansas. A considerable portion of what was left was sent up the Tennessee and Cumberland to General Grant. On February 14, 1862, General Pope was summoned to St. Louis by General Halleck, and on the 18th General Halleck pointed out to him the situation at New Madrid and Island No. Ten, and directed him to organize and command a force for their reduction. On the 19th Pope left for Cairo to defend it from an attack then apprehended from Columbus. This apprehension being found to be groundless, he proceeded by steamboat, with a guard of 140 men, thirty miles up the river, and began at once to organize his expedition.

Major-General Polk, commanding at Columbus, having received instructions from the Confederate War Department, through General Beauregard, to evacuate Columbus and select a defensive position below, adopted that embracing Madrid Bend on the Tennessee shore, New Madrid on the Missouri shore, and Island No. Ten between them. The bluffs on the Missouri shore terminate abruptly at Commerce. Thence to Helena, Arkansas, the west bank of the Mississippi is everywhere low and flat, and in many places on the river, and to much greater extent a few miles back from the river, is a swamp. From Columbus to Fort Pillow, the Tennessee shore is of the same character. The river flowing almost due south for some miles to Madrid Bend, curves there to the west of north to New Madrid, and there making another bend, sweeps to the southeast and then nearly east, till, reaching Tiptonville, a point nearly due south of Madrid Bend, it turns again to the south. Island No. Ten begins at Madrid Bend and looks up the straight stretch of the river. From Island No. Eight, about four miles above Island No. Ten, the distance across the land to New Madrid is six miles, while by river it is fifteen. The distance overland from Island No. Ten to Tiptonville is five miles, while by water it is twenty-seven. Commencing at Hickman, between Madrid Bend and Columbus, a great swamp, which for a part of its extent is a sheet of water called Reelfoot Lake, extends along the left bank of the Mississippi, and discharges its waters into the Mississippi forty miles below Tiptonville, leaving between it and the river the peninsula which lies immediately below Island No. Ten, and opposite New Madrid. Immediately below Tiptonville the swamp for many miles extends entirely to the river. The peninsula is, therefore, substantially an island, having the Mississippi on three sides, and Reelfoot Lake, with its enveloping swamp, on the other. A good road led from the Tennessee shore, opposite Island No. Ten, along the west border of the swamp and the lake to Tiptonville. The only means of supply, therefore, for the forces on Island No. Ten and this peninsula, were by the river. If the river were blockaded at New Madrid, supplies must be landed at Tiptonville and conveyed across the neck of the peninsula by the road. From this peninsula there was no communication with the interior except by a small flatboat which plied across Reelfoot Lake, more than a mile across, by a channel cut through the cypress-trees which cover the lake. Supplies and reinforcements could not, therefore, be brought to any considerable extent by the land side; nor could escape, except by small parties, be made in that direction. A mile below Tiptonville begin the great swamps on both sides of the Mississippi. If batteries could be planted on the lowest dry ground, opposite and below Tiptonville, so as to command the river and effectually intercept navigation, the garrison of Island No. Ten and its supports would be cut off from reinforcements and from escape.

General Polk began the evacuation of Columbus on February 25th. One hundred and forty pieces of artillery were mounted in the works. All these, except two thirty-two pounders and several carronades, which were spiked and left, were taken to Island No. Ten and the works in connection with it. Brigadier-General McCown with his division went down the river to Island No. Ten, on February 27th, and General Stewart, with a brigade, followed to New Madrid on March 1st. The rest of the infantry marched under General Cheatham, by land, March 1st to Union City. Next day General Polk, having sent off the bulk of the great stores accumulated at this place, destroyed the remainder and moved away with his staff and the cavalry. The force that went from Columbus to Island No. Ten included General Trudeau's command of ten companies of heavy artillery and the Southern Guards who acted as heavy artillery. The light batteries were brigaded with the infantry.

Some progress had been made in throwing up batteries on the island and at the bend. Sappers and miners were at once set to work, aided by the companies of heavy artillery and details from the infantry. By March 12th, four batteries, scarcely above the water-level, were completed on the island and armed with twenty-three guns, and five batteries on the main-land, armed with twenty-four guns. Battery No. 1, on the main-land, called the Redan, armed with six guns, was three thousand yards in an air-line above the point of the island. A line of infantry intrenchments, en crémaillère, extended from the Redan to the water of a bayou which connects with Reelfoot Lake. A floating battery, anchored near the lower end of the island, added ten guns to its defence. Later, a fifth battery was erected on the island, and the number of guns in battery on the island and on the main-land, at the bend, was increased to fifty-four, exclusive of the floating battery. On the Missouri shore a bastioned redoubt, called Fort Thompson, with fourteen guns, stood below the town, and an earthwork with seven guns, called Fort Bankhead, just above the town. Infantry intrenchments extended these forts, and a field-battery of six pieces was added to the armament of the upper fort. Commodore Hollins, of the Confederate navy, aided the land-forces with eight gunboats. General McCown, making an inspecting visit to the position on February 25th, found there Colonel Gantt, of Arkansas, with the Eleventh and Twelfth Arkansas, and two artillery companies, acting as garrison to Fort Thompson, and at once, before returning to Columbus, ordered Colonel L.M. Walker, with two regiments from Fort Pillow, to guard the defences just above New Madrid.

General Pope having landed at Commerce with 140 men, regiments and batteries rapidly arrived from Cairo, St. Louis, and Cincinnati. With the assistance of able and experienced officers, Generals Schuyler Hamilton, Stanley, Palmer, and Granger, the troops were brigaded, divisions formed, and the command organized. Colonel Plummer being promoted to brigadier-general after the arrival before New Madrid, the organization was modified. As finally organized, it comprised five small infantry divisions. First, commanded by General D.S. Stanley, comprising First Brigade, Colonel John Groesbeck, Twenty-seventh and Thirty-ninth Ohio; and Second Brigade, Colonel J.L.K. Smith, Forty-third and Sixty-third Ohio. Second Division, General Schuyler Hamilton, comprising First Brigade, Colonel W.H. Worthington, Fifth Iowa and Fifty-ninth Indiana; and Second Brigade, Colonel N. Perczell, Twenty-sixth Missouri Infantry and Sands' Eleventh Ohio Battery. Third Division, General J.N. Palmer, comprising First Brigade, Colonel J.R. Slack, Thirty-fourth and Forty-seventh Indiana; and Second Brigade, Colonel G.N. Fitch, Forty-third and Forty-sixth Indiana Infantry, Seventh Illinois Cavalry, and Company G, First Missouri Light Artillery. Fourth Division, comprising First Brigade, Colonel J.D. Morgan, Tenth and Sixteenth Illinois; and Second Brigade, Colonel G.W. Cumming, Twenty-sixth and Fifty-first Illinois, First Illinois Cavalry, and a battalion of Yate's sharpshooters. Fifth Division, General J.B. Plummer, comprising First Brigade, Colonel John Bryner, Forty-seventh Illinois and Eighth Wisconsin; and Second Brigade, Colonel J.M. Loomis, Twenty-second Illinois, Eleventh Missouri Infantry, and Company M, First Missouri Light Artillery. Besides these was a cavalry division, commanded by General Gordon Granger, comprising the Second and Third Michigan Cavalry; also an artillery division, commanded by Major W.L. Lothrop, comprising the following batteries: Second Iowa, Third Michigan, Company F, Second United States Artillery, Houghtaling's Ottawa Light Artillery, Fifth, Sixth, and Seventh Batteries of the First Wisconsin Artillery, and De Golyer's battery, afterward Company H, of the First Michigan Artillery. In addition to these was a command under Colonel J.W. Bissel, called the Engineer's Regiment of the West, comprising the Fifteenth Wisconsin and Twenty-second Missouri Infantry, the Second Iowa Cavalry, a company of the Fourth United States Cavalry, a company of the First United States Infantry, and battalion of the Second Illinois Cavalry. The army commander, the division commanders, and other officers, nearly a dozen in all, were graduates of West Point. The men of this army had, therefore, better opportunity than most others to learn quickly something of the business of military life, and acquire habits of military discipline.

The road from Commerce to New Madrid was, for the most part, a dilapidated corduroy, tumbling about a broken causeway through a swamp. M. Jeff. Thompson, "Brigadier-General of the Missouri State Guard," designed to hold a "very important session of the Missouri Legislature," at New Madrid, on March 3d—a session which was to last, however, but one day. When General Pope moved out from Commerce, on February 28th, Schuyler Hamilton in front, Thompson undertook to oppose the advance with a detachment of his irregular command and three light pieces of rifled artillery. The Seventh Illinois Cavalry charged, captured the three guns, took two officers and several enlisted men prisoners, and chased Thompson and the rest of his band sixteen miles, almost to the outskirts of New Madrid. Dragging through the mud by short marches, Hamilton's division reached New Madrid on the morning of March 3d. Deploying, with the Twenty-seventh and Thirty-ninth Ohio in front as skirmishers, Hamilton marched upon the town, pushed the enemy's pickets back into the intrenchments, developed the line of intrenchment, drew the fire of its armament—twenty-four, thirty-two, and sixty-four pounders and field-pieces. The gunboats of Commodore Hollins' fleet took part in the engagement. The water in the river was so high that it lifted the guns on the boats above the banks. The reconnoissance developed the fact that the intrenchments could be carried by assault, but could not be held so long as the gunboats could lay the muzzles of their heavy guns upon the river-bank and sweep the whole interior.

The reconnoissance made by General Hamilton showed the necessity of having siege-guns. The troops were put into camp about two miles back from the river; urgent request was sent to Cairo for heavy artillery, and parties were pushed forward every day to harass the garrison and keep them occupied. Colonel Plummer (soon after brigadier-general and commanding a division of his own) was detached from Hamilton's division and sent with the Eleventh Missouri, Twenty-sixth and Forty-seventh Illinois Infantry, four guns of the First Missouri Light Artillery, and one company of engineer troops, together with two companies of cavalry, to act as outpost toward the interior—to Point Pleasant. The object was to attempt by field-pieces to stop the passage of transport steamboats up and down the river. Colonel Plummer, leaving camp at noon, March 5th, proceeding by a circuitous road to avoid passing along the river-bank, halted for the night in bivouac, without fires, within three or four miles of the town. A gunboat prevented his cavalry and artillery from occupying the town next day, but was driven away by the fire of the infantry. The infantry and engineers prosecuted the work of digging rifle-pits, and in the night places were sunk for the field-pieces by excavating near the edge of the bank. By morning of March 7th the four guns were in position, planted apart, with lines of rifle-pits connecting them. When discovered, the gunboats immediately began a furious assault. Plummer's artillery wasted no ammunition in useless fire upon the iron-plated boats, and his guns were so shielded by their position in sunken batteries, back from the edge of the bank, that the fire of the gunboats passed harmless overhead. The deliberate fire of sharpshooters from the rifle-pits, however, searching every opened porthole, pilot-house, and every exposed point, was so annoying that the fleet withdrew. Every day the gunboats opened upon the position, either in stationary attack or while passing up and down the river. But, to avoid the harassing fire from the rifle-pits, they kept, after the first few attacks, near the opposite shore of the river. The steamboats used as transports did not venture to pass up or down the river in face of Plummer's batteries, and the enemy was restricted to the landing at Tiptonville and boats below for all communication.

New Madrid and Island Number Ten.