Learning that a Confederate cavalry force was foraging, plundering, and conscripting, near Bradyville, twelve miles from Murfreesboro', General Stanley set out (March 1st) with sixteen hundred men in search of it. He found it strongly posted near the village, and at once attacked and drove it through the town. The Confederates took up a new position half a mile distant, where a ledge of rocks gave them good shelter. Stanley then sent a squadron around their left flank, and another to their right, while he made a show of attacking in front. The Confederates stood their ground until they found themselves subjected to two enfilading fires, when they at once gave way, and Stanley's men rode in among them and used their sabres and pistols. They were pursued three miles and completely disorganized. About thirty of them were disabled, and a hundred taken prisoners.
Three days later a similar expedition, under Col. John Coburn, set out from Franklin in search of a similar party of Confederates. They found them near Thompson's Station, and were attacked by riflemen hidden behind a stone wall near the depot. A few minutes later two batteries opened upon them, and the enemy advanced in line of battle. Coburn's infantry stood their ground bravely, but his artillery was badly managed, and his cavalry retired instead of advancing. When his ammunition failed, at the end of three hours, Coburn was obliged to surrender with such of his forces as had not escaped. He lost four hundred men, killed or wounded, and about twelve hundred captured. About six hundred of the Confederates were disabled.
Still another of these expeditions left Murfreesboro', March 18, in search of marauding bands of Confederates. It was commanded by Col. A. S. Hall. At Statesville he encountered and quickly defeated a small body of Confederate cavalry. At Auburn he discovered that a Confederate force, superior to his own, was moving up to attack him, whereupon he drew back to Vaught's Hill, near Milton, and formed his line. One of his two guns began the fight by throwing shells over the little village and into the advance guard of the enemy. The Confederates, consisting of eleven regiments, commanded by Generals Wheeler and Morgan, promptly attacked along the whole line. Hall's guns were advantageously placed, and raked the lines of the enemy as they advanced, while his infantry were very skilfully managed, and held their ground against determined attacks on both flanks. A detachment of cavalry which had passed around the right flank, and was attempting to get into the rear, was met by such a deadly fire that it immediately withdrew in confusion. The Confederates, enraged at the execution of one of Hall's guns, concentrated a large force and made a desperate rush for its capture. Hall's men allowed them to come within forty yards, and then opened upon them with a fire of musketry so destructive that they soon broke and fled in confusion. The assailants now drew off and contented themselves with cannonading at a distance, which was kept up until one of Hall's skilfully managed guns sent a shot which dismounted one of theirs, and then they withdrew altogether. The Confederate loss in this action was about four hundred, killed or wounded; the National loss was about forty.
Again, in April, General Stanley set out with a brigade of infantry and two thousand cavalry to attack Morgan's and Wharton's Confederate force at Snow Hill. After some preliminary skirmishes and desultory fighting two regiments of Stanley's cavalry succeeded in getting into the rear of the enemy, when they broke and fled, losing more than a hundred men disabled or captured.
The Confederate General Van Dorn, who had been for some time threatening to attack the garrison of Franklin, commanded by Gen. Gordon Granger, appeared before the town on the 10th of April, with a heavy force, and drove in the outposts. He then formed a strong skirmish line, and behind this a line of battle ready for an immediate charge. Granger's advance troops, consisting of the Fortieth Ohio Regiment, commanded by Capt. Charles G. Matchett, were quickly placed in a critical position, having both flanks menaced at the same time that the enemy was advancing in front. Captain Matchett gave the order to fall back at a double quick, and was, as he expected to be, followed closely by the enemy's mounted skirmishers. Suddenly he halted his regiment, faced them about, and gave the pursuers a volley that drove them back from their main line, when he continued his retreat. This manoeuvre was repeated several times in admirable style, the front company each time retiring on the double quick to the rear of the other companies, when they faced about and delivered their fire. In this manner they reached the town, took advantage of the houses and other defences, and checked any further pursuit. The Confederates now opened fire with their batteries, which was replied to by the siege guns in the fortifications, and by field batteries, which drove them off. Meanwhile, a force under General Stanley had moved out and struck the flank of the Confederates, capturing six guns and two hundred prisoners. The National loss was about one hundred men; the Confederate loss is unknown.
On the 7th of September a Confederate force of four regiments, which had fortified Cumberland Gap and occupied it nearly a year, surrendered to a National force under General Shackleford without firing a gun.
General Shackleford, undertaking to drive the various bands of Confederates out of East Tennessee, in September, found one near Bristol, fought it, pursued it, and fought it again, until it made a decided stand at Blountville, September 22. Here he opened fire upon them, and the fight lasted from one o'clock till dusk, when the Confederates were defeated, and fled, closely pursued by Colonel Carter's command. They were ultimately dispersed, some of them taking to the mountains, and the others returning to their homes.
The position of General Burnside was peculiar, and probably was more influenced by a feeling of personal regard than that of any other commander on the National side. His enthusiastic loyalty, his bravery, his hearty and manly conduct among his fellow patriots, and his personal modesty were all perfectly evident. His capacity for a large independent command was at least doubtful. Early in the war he had led a successful expedition through many dangers of wind and wave on the coast of North Carolina. Later he had made two notable failures—as a corps commander at Antietam, and as commander of the army at Fredericksburg. But he had never aspired to the chief command, which really was thrust upon him, and he so frankly assumed the responsibility and blame for his errors, that the feeling toward him was much the same as that in the South toward Lee after his disastrous failure at Gettysburg. Although he was not retained in command of the Army of the Potomac, he was, in March, 1863, given command of the Department of the Ohio, and his old corps, the Ninth, was sent to him with the intention of having him go through eastern Kentucky and Tennessee, and relieve the Union people there from the Confederate oppression and outrages that they were suffering. This plan was delayed by the necessity of sending his corps to reinforce Grant at Vicksburg, and Burnside was practically idle through the summer. But late in August, with twenty thousand men, he set out from Richmond, Ky., and moved southward into East Tennessee, where he met with a most enthusiastic reception from the inhabitants. The stars and stripes, which had been hidden away during the presence of Confederate forces, were now waving from nearly every house, and supplies of all kinds were freely brought to his forces. His coming, however, was not the only reason for the withdrawal of the various Confederate bands that had infested that region; these were being united to Bragg's army to strengthen it for his contemplated movement on Chattanooga. Meanwhile, Longstreet, with his corps, had been detached from Lee's army and sent to Bragg's, and had played an important part, as we have seen, in the battle of Chickamauga. Various detachments of Burnside's forces had encountered the enemy, and some of these actions have already been described in this chapter.
The next important movement made by the Confederates was designed to destroy Burnside's force, or drive it out of East Tennessee. That mountainous region, with its sturdily loyal people, lying between the disloyal portions of Virginia and North Carolina on the one hand, and those of Tennessee on the other, was a constant source of discomfort to the Confederate Government, and would evidently be a standing menace to the Confederacy should its independence ever be established. Hence their anxiety to clear it of Union sentiment, by whatever means. About twenty thousand men, under the command of General Longstreet, were detached from Bragg's army and sent out upon this errand. Burnside had scattered his own forces pretty widely, and some of his detachments were obliged to fight the enemy at various points before they were all concentrated again. One of these actions was at the village of Philadelphia, where two thousand men, under Col. F. T. Wolford, were attacked by three times their number of Confederates, and, after a gallant resistance, escaped with the loss of their artillery and wagons, and managed to carry away half a hundred prisoners. Reinforcements coming up, the train was recaptured and the enemy driven in turn. About a hundred men were killed or wounded on each side. Longstreet's general plan and purpose being now evident, Burnside began the concentration of his forces, and, being joined by his Ninth Corps again, had about the same number of men as Longstreet. He chose an advantageous position at Campbell's Station, a dozen miles southwest of Knoxville, and gave battle. He had no difficulty in holding his own against the enemy, although their line was more extended than his, for his artillery was in place while theirs had not yet come up. But when, late in the day, they brought their guns to the front, he was obliged to fall back to another strong position, which he held until his trains were safely under way, and in the night fell back still farther to the defences of Knoxville. In the action at Campbell's Station he had lost about three hundred men; the Confederate loss is unknown. Longstreet followed him slowly, and on the 17th of November sat down before the city. The place was strongly fortified, and although the Confederates by a quick assault carried a position on the right of Burnside's line, they did not materially impair his defences. In this affair Burnside lost about a hundred men, including Brig.-Gen. William P. Sanders killed. Longstreet's men skirmished and bombarded for ten days, at the end of which time, having been reinforced, he determined upon the experiment of a heavy assault. On the 28th of November he hurled three of his best brigades against an unfinished portion of the works on Burnside's left, where Gen. Edward Ferrero was in command. The assault was gallantly delivered, but was quite as gallantly met, and proved a failure, Longstreet losing about eight hundred men, including two colonels killed, while the defenders of the works lost but one hundred. A few days later Grant, having thoroughly defeated Bragg at Chattanooga, sent a force under Sherman to the relief of Knoxville, and Longstreet was obliged to abandon the siege, and returned to Virginia.