[CHAPTER XIX.]
CHATTANOOGA.
Dark Days in 1863—A Sunburst of Victory—Sherman Leaves Vicksburg—Orders to his Troops—The March to Chattanooga—The Battle above the Clouds—Sherman's Attack on Missionary Ridge—The Victory Complete—Pursuit of the Enemy—A Forced March to Rescue Burnside—Sherman's Report—Views Concerning the Treatment of the Rebels.
Seldom has history recorded a more sudden and startling change in National affairs than that of the United States in the midsummer of 1863. The closing days of June were dark and ominous. Milroy was almost annihilated at Winchester. Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville were still wet with fruitless blood. Rosecrans was helpless in Tennessee. Banks was idle at Port Hudson. Grant had been checked at Vicksburg. Lee, on the other hand, was carrying fire and sword through Pennsylvania, while the Army of the Potomac, wandering no one knew where, seemed given up to experimenting with new leaders. This, at any rate, was the apparent situation, distressing to the faint-hearted patriot, and consoling the sympathizer with the South.
And so the Fourth of July came around, a day that a month before bade fair to be a time of woe rather than of joy. An ex-President of the United States, Franklin Pierce, was the orator of the day at Concord, New Hampshire. "We have had," he said, "overwhelming sorrows, but none like these which come welling up day by day from the great fountain of National disaster; nor have the sorrows brought with them any recompense of National pride or victorious arms." And he bitterly denounced the "fearful, fruitless fatal civil war," and the "harvest of woe," that it was ripening for the Republic. Other orators and statesmen, of even more commanding rank than he, spoke that same day in a similar strain. Yet almost at that very hour, Lee was reeling in disaster back from "a stubborn Meade and a barren field" at Gettysburg, Johnston in Mississippi was in full flight before Sherman's conquering legions, and Grant was raising the Stars and Stripes above the conquered ramparts of Vicksburg, the "Gibraltar of the South." Truly, a grim and mighty transformation scene!
For a time now Sherman lay comparatively quiet on the Big Black River, while other armies in other regions pushed on the game of war. Baffled and routed in Pennsylvania, the Rebels fell back toward Richmond, and then strengthened their forces for another rush upon the centre of the Union line, in Tennessee. There, Rosecrans had made a fair beginning. He had driven the foe from middle Tennessee, and out-flanked Bragg and forced him to abandon Chattanooga to a position south of Lookout Mountain. In Eastern Tennessee, likewise, Burnside had been successful, wresting Knoxville and Cumberland Gap from the enemy. So, all along the line, from the Mississippi to the Potomac, the Rebels had been, when early autumn came, defeated and forced back. They now determined upon another effort, viz., to assail the National forces in Tennessee with all possible energy, and "drive the Yankees across the Ohio."
Reinforcements were accordingly sent to Bragg, from all quarters. Lee sent him Longstreet's corps, or all that remained of it after that fearful charge at Gettysburg; Johnston sent him Loring's Division, and detachments were brought in. To meet this coming storm the Union leaders made full preparation. Burnside moved down toward Loudon. The Army of the Potomac sent Hooker, with Howard's and Slocum's Corps, to Stevenson and Bridgport, Ala.; and every man that could be spared by Hurlbut at Memphis and by Grant and Sherman at Vicksburg, was sent toward Corinth and Tuscumbia, all to concentrate at last at Chattanooga.
That was in the middle of September. On the 23d of that month Grant called Sherman to Vicksburg and bade him hasten up to Memphis with his whole corps, save one division, which should remain under McPherson, to guard the Big Black. Low water caused slow transportation, and it was October 4th when all of Sherman's men reached Memphis. Then orders came from Halleck for them to join Rosecrans. Sherman set out, accordingly, for Corinth on October 11th, and with his escort reached Colliersville at noon in time to aid in defeating Chalmers. He hurried Frank P. Blair with two divisions on to Iuka, and followed in person with the remainder of the corps, reaching Iuka on the 19th. Again he sent Blair forward, and the latter presently defeated S. D. Lee, and entered Tuscumbia on October 27th.
Rosecrans had not been faring well. He had, in fact, been sorely stricken on the field of Chickamauga, and was now at Chattanooga, almost surrounded by triumphant and aggressive foes. The army was starving and the outlook was grave indeed. Secretary Stanton summoned Grant to Louisville, and there personally invested him with the command of the Division of the Mississippi and the three armies of the Ohio, the Cumberland and the Tennessee. Then he, relieving Rosecrans, made Thomas Commander of the Department of the Cumberland, and Sherman of the Tennessee. Sherman was at Iuka, on October 25th, when Grant sent him notice of his appointment, to succeed himself, with orders to remain in the field. Thereupon Sherman gave McPherson full command at Vicksburg, for all Mississippi, and Hurlbut at Memphis for Western Tennessee. Very soon he issued the following remarkable orders, which covered all the territory brought under his charge by his grand promotion:
"All officers in command of corps and fixed military posts will assume the highest military powers allowed by the laws of war and Congress. They must maintain the best possible discipline, and repress all disorder, alarms, and dangers in their reach. Citizens who fail to support the Government have no right to ask favors and protection, but if they actively assist us in vindicating the national authority, all commanders will assist them and their families in every possible way. Officers need not meddle with matters of trade and commerce, which by law devolve on the officer of the Treasury Department; but whenever they discover goods, contraband of war, being conveyed towards the public enemy, they will seize all goods tainted by such transactions, and imprison the parties implicated, but care must be taken to make full records and report such case. When a district is infested by guerrillas, or held by the enemy, horses and mules, wagons, forage, etc., and all means of war, can be freely taken, but must be accounted for as public property. If the people do not want their horses and corn taken, they must organize and repress all guerrillas or hostile bands in their neighborhood.
"It is represented that officers, provost-marshals, and others in the military service, are engaged in business or speculation on their own account, and that they charge fees for permits and passes. All this is a breach of honor and law. Every salaried officer of the military service should devote every hour of his time, every thought of his mind, to his Government, and if he makes one cent profit beyond his pay, it is corrupt and criminal. All officers and soldiers in this department are hereby commanded to engage in no business whatever, save their sworn duty to their Government.... In time of war and rebellion, districts occupied by our troops are subject to the laws of war. The inhabitants, be they friendly or unfriendly, must submit to the controlling power. If any person in an insurgent district corresponds or trades with an enemy, he or she becomes a spy; and all inhabitants, moreover, must not only abstain from hostile and unfriendly acts, but must aid and assist the power that protects them in trade and commerce."