Military Reminiscences of the Civil War V2 by Jacob Dolson Cox

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It was noon of the 4th before the trains overtook us, and I then
ordered an issue of rations to lighten them, and we started again,
with a citizen for a guide. We followed the Perryville road seven
miles to the headwaters of Grinder's Creek, a tributary of Buffalo
River, and down the creek three miles, the road being a mere track
in its bed. We now turned to the right over a ridge and came down
into Rockhouse Creek, the course of which we followed to the river.
I had learned that we must ford the Buffalo, and from the wet
weather it would be whole leg deep. It was getting late in the day,
and Rockhouse Creek had to be crossed many times; so I passed the
order along the line not to try to bridge, but to march straight
through the creek and make the more important crossing of the river
before going into camp. This seemed hard, in the month of January,
when, as it had cleared and was cold, ice was forming in the still
places of the stream; but I heard that open farm lands bordered the
river on the other side, and if our wading was done all at once, we
could make the men dry their clothes and shoes with less danger to
health than if we began another day with a soaking. [Footnote:
Official Records, vol. xlv. pt. i. p. 362.]

It grew dark several hours before we reached Buffalo River, the
column plodding along in the wooded ravine. I had turned out from
the road to wait for the brigades to pass, and have a word with the
commanders in turn, and was picking my way to the head of column
again, when I overheard one of those little colloquies between
soldiers which give real pleasure to an officer. A fresh recruit was
grumbling at marching in the darkness and in the water, and
wondering what generals could mean by putting such hardships upon
the soldiers, when a veteran by his side answered cheerily, "When
you've been in this division as long as I have, you'll know there's
some good reason for pushing us this way; so take it easy, and don't
growl. The General knows what he's about." I turned further out into
the darkness, with a feeling that it would cheapen the brave man's
words to let him learn who had heard him, but the evidence of the
trust which is the foundation of soldierly devotion gave a deep
satisfaction. When the column reached the river, which was about
seventy-five yards wide, fires were lit on both sides as guides to
the ford, and though it was near nine o'clock, the men were not
permitted to rest till they had thoroughly dried themselves around
the great fires of fence-rails. They did not need orders to boil
their coffee and cook a hot supper in their bivouac. The broad
fields between the hills and the river were illuminated far and
wide, and the stillness of the dark valley was transformed into the
noisy activity of the armed host. All in the camp were "merry as
grigs," and did not need to be told why the march had been prolonged
into the night. But the fun of the soldier was the grief and dismay
of the farmer.

The place belonged to an elderly man named Churchill. We had to make
use of his house for headquarters, and while our boys were cooking
our supper, a busy group of officers was seated about the crackling
fire in an open fireplace, writing dispatches and orders, receiving
reports, and sending messages, while in the shadows of the
background the farmer and his wife were moving uneasily about,
looking out of door or window, and wringing their hands at the
vision of destruction which had suddenly descended upon them. The
old man protested at the burning of his fences, naturally enough,
and all we could say was that, in the end, if he could prove his
loyalty, he would be indemnified for his loss; but this was small
consolation, and we pitied him whilst we applied the pitiless code
of military necessity to save the troops from worse mischiefs.

The ridge road we had followed had been so completely a wilderness
that we saw but one inhabited house for fifteen miles. The hillsides
were covered with a young forest, the original woods having been cut
off and made into charcoal for the iron furnaces of the region. In
good weather it would have been easy marching through the region,
for the top of the ridge was fairly level, winding along in a
general westerly direction; but as the road had never been "worked,"
and was a mere wagon track, it soon became muddy, and our wagons cut
it so deeply as to spoil it for the use of any who were to follow
us, and to make about fifteen miles a day the most we could
ourselves accomplish.

Starting again on the 5th, we marched through Ashland, [Footnote: In
the Atlas, pl. cxlix., Ashland is erroneously placed north of
Buffalo river.] up the valley of Forty-eight-mile Creek and thence
along a ridge to Waynesborough, encamping just beyond the town. Our
road ran into the turnpike two miles east of the village, and we met
Couch's division at the junction of the roads. We took the advance,
which we kept during the next day's march to the Tennessee, reaching
Clifton toward evening of the 6th, after a very hard day's work, the
weather beginning with rain in the morning and turning to sleet and
snow after noon. We pitched our tents in the snowstorm, locating the
camp more than a mile from the landing-place, as the eligible ground
nearer was occupied by Smith's corps, which was waiting for
transports to take them up the river.

It was a desolate outlook. A few chimneys and two or three houses
marked the site of what had once been a flourishing village, but
which had been burned in the guerilla warfare of the last year. The
landscape was bare, the trees having disappeared in the demand for
camp-fires, as different bodies of troops had camped there from time
to time. The bluff above the river was level and monotonous, and the
great turbid stream rolling northward reflected only the heavy
stormy skies. The only consolation we could gather was that
Eastport, for which we supposed we were bound, was more desolate,
more muddy, and a worse camping-ground.

The other divisions of the corps halted at Waynesborough for two or
three days, till transports should take Smith's corps away and give
us our turn at the landing. General Schofield joined me on the
afternoon of the 7th, and on Sunday, the 8th, a fleet of transports
came down the river, convoyed by three gunboats under Rear-Admiral
Lee. They had taken part of Smith's troops to Eastport and had
returned for the rest. A pleasant recollection of the time is the
acquaintance then begun with the Admiral, which was afterwards
renewed at Washington when I met him in the attractive circle of the
Blair families, both the elder Francis P. Blair, and Montgomery,
with whom Admiral Lee was connected by marriage. When the fleet was
gone again, the rest of our corps gathered at Clifton, but we seemed
shut off from all communication with the outer world. We had broken
our connection with the country we had left, in the expectation of
having our base on the lower Tennessee, and our supplies were
getting short. An occasional steamboat would go by us, steaming up
the river without stopping. Feeling the necessity of getting news
from General Thomas below, General Schofield ordered me, on the 9th,
to send a piece of artillery to the river bank and force up-bound
boats to stop and report. [Footnote: Official Records, vol. xlv. pt.
ii. p. 557.] On the same day Schofield issued his order for the
movement by transports up the river, giving the method of shipping
the troops by divisions, each with its own artillery, baggage, and
ordnance trains. Open barges were provided for the artillery and
ordnance, and these were to be lashed alongside the steamboats on
which the troops and the regimental baggage would be loaded. The
method was arranged in consultation with Admiral Lee, to whom the
division commander was ordered to report during the transit.
[Footnote: _Ibid._] The intent was to keep each division together as
a military unit, with its baggage, guns, and trains, so that it
could take care of itself when landed. [Footnote: _Id._, p. 557.]

Nearly a week passed, the only variation in the monotony being the
changes of the weather, which went through the cycle of raining,
snowing, clearing, thawing, and freezing which had been regularly
marked during the season. The delays in reaching the up-river
rendezvous, the complete absence of all news, the wearying effect of
waiting, all told upon the troops in a depressing way. General
Schofield evidently had little faith that much would be done before
spring, and the fact that he had heard nothing from his letters to
Grant and Sherman left him without the means of relieving the
general tendency to apathy and discontent under which we were
suffering. In my own case I had the further discomfort of physical
ailing, for though the worst symptoms of my illness had been
mitigated, I was far from my usual vigor. The undeniable result of
this appeared in my home letters, and it would not be altogether
honest to suppress the hearty bit of private grumbling which I
indulged in.

Writing on the 13th, after noting the utter lack of stability in the
weather and its effect on our operations, I broke out on the
personal results of the winter campaigning. "I am getting ragged and
barefoot," I said. "My boots are worn out, my coat is worn out, my
waistcoats are worn out, my hat is worn out, and I am only whole and
respectable when I am in my shirt and drawers. If I ever get near
civilization again, I shall be obliged to lie abed somewhere till I
can get some clothes made. I don't wonder the Washington people want
to have the campaign go on, and if they would apply a little of the
'go ahead' to the army on the James, would appreciate it still
better. Here we know to an absolute certainty that the army is stuck
in the mud; but the administration would not believe General Thomas
when he told them so, and force him to pretend to move, with the
fear of being superseded hanging over him, whilst he knows that any
effective movement is impossible. We can ruin our horses and mules,
and put half our men in hospitals without getting twenty-five miles
from the Tennessee unless the weather changes, and this is all we
can do. Hood can laugh at us unless the Mobile and Ohio Railroad can
be repaired as we go and be made to furnish us supplies. If this
could be done, or if the season would permit us to chase the rebels
right into the gulf, I would be perfectly content to stay, and in
fact couldn't be coaxed to go home; but knowing what I know, I feel
perfectly sure that I might as well be making a biennial visit to my
family as not."

On the day after this letter was written General Thomas came up the
river with a fleet of transports which we were ordered to take for a
movement down instead of up the river. The word spread that we were
going to join Sherman, and though this meant journeys by boat, by
rail, and by ocean ships, two thousand miles or more, our camps
leaped from apathy to enthusiasm, such creatures of circumstance we
are! Looking back at the situation, I have to admit that Grant's
plan of keeping everything moving was the right one, and that if
hopeful energy and enterprise could have combined Canby's movements
with ours, and we had all been told that this active co-operation
was afoot and would soon take us southward where we would meet the
coming spring while Tennessee was still shivering in the winter
storms, we should all have caught the spirit of the opportunity and
cheered our leaders on. But this impulse in an army must come from
the head downward. The trudging columns perfectly know the fatigue,
the cold, the mud. They very imperfectly catch the larger view which
stimulates to great effort by the hope of great results. In a
council of war the division commanders would probably advise delay
in sympathy with the hardships of the troops, when the same officers
would have sprung with ardor to the work under a brief and strong
appeal from a confident leader, presenting the broader reasons for
energetic persistent activity. It was this quality of leadership in
Sherman which made Grant say to Stanton in December, "It is
refreshing to see a commander, after a campaign of more than seven
months' duration, ready for still further operations without wanting
any outfit or rest." [Footnote: Official Records, vol. xlv. pt. ii.
p. 264.]

Thomas did not stop at Clifton except to send us his orders, and
went on to Eastport, arriving there on the morning of the 15th. From
that place he reported that Hood's infantry, much disorganized, was
at Tupelo, West Point, and Columbus, Miss. Forrest's cavalry, in
similar condition, was about Okolona. Roads were almost
impracticable, but the high water in the river made it easy to get
supplies to Eastport by the largest steamers. [Footnote: _Id_., pp.
586, 593. General Schofield does not remember seeing General Thomas
in Tennessee after December 25th ("Forty-six Years," p. 276), and
this accords with my impression that Thomas did not stop at Clifton
long enough for us to visit him.] As to our new movement, Mr.
Charles A. Dana, Assistant Secretary of War, had been intrusted with
the supervision of the transfer, and sent west Colonel L. B. Parsons
of the Quartermaster's Department to collect a fleet of steam-boats
at Louisville for the purpose. [Footnote: _Id_., pp. 560, 568, 586.]
But meanwhile, under Thomas's orders, the fleet of transports had
been collected and had come for us, and the troops were joined by
Colonel Parsons when they reached the Ohio. He then took charge of
the transportation by boat and by rail. [Footnote: Dana's
Recollections, pp. 253, 254.] As the transfer would take ten days or
more, Schofield arranged to go on in advance to close up business at
Louisville and for consultations with Grant and Halleck by
telegraph. I went with him to Cairo, where we took railway trains,
and I was authorized to go to my home in Ohio to recuperate until he
should telegraph me from Washington. The command of the corps _en
route_ was given to General Couch. [Footnote: Official Records, vol.
xlv. pt. ii. p. 588.] As we were leaving the Military Division of
the Mississippi, Colonel Doolittle was obliged to give up the
command of Reilly's brigade and return to his own regiment. Reilly
rejoined the corps after we reached North Carolina. The
convalescents of Sherman's army and his recruits were collected in a
provisional division under General Thomas Francis Meagher, took
steamboats at Nashville, and made part of the same general transfer
to the East. There was an amusing coincidence when the brilliant
Irish "patriot" telegraphed that his fleet had started, "the Saint
Patrick leading the way." [Footnote: _Id._, pp. 564, 600, 613.]
Colonel Wright, Sherman's efficient chief of railway construction,
had been ordered, a little earlier, to proceed eastward with one
division of the construction corps with the object of joining
Sherman at Savannah. [Footnote: _Id._, p. 393.] Changing
circumstances, however, brought him as well as Meagher's division
into our column a little later, as will soon appear. In a similar
way General S. P. Carter joined us by transfer from duties at
Knoxville, [Footnote: _Id._, p. 620.] and General George S. Greene,
of the Twentieth Corps, who had been serving on a court-martial at
Washington, was also temporarily attached to our command till he was
able to join his own organization, which was with Sherman.
[Footnote: _Id._, p. 623.]

The reduction of Thomas's forces could not have been altogether
agreeable to him, though he no doubt preferred it to the continuance
of a winter campaign under imperative orders from Washington. He had
not ceased to believe that it was better to rest and refit his army
till spring;[Footnote: _Id._, p. 621.] but Grant insisted that he
"must make a campaign or spare his surplus troops," and though
Thomas was a model of obedience to orders, his continued opposition
of opinion, frankly expressed, naturally led to the detachment of
our corps. The discussion of the subject between Grant and Halleck
clearly stated the reasons which were conclusive. [Footnote:
Official Records, vol. xlv. pt. ii. pp. 609, 610, 614; also vol.
xlvii. pt. ii. pp. 101, 859.] Thomas suffered mentally under the
pressure and the criticisms of the whole campaign, and we may
personally share his pain in sympathy with the noble man, whilst we
admit that Grant's views were such as the situation demanded. Those
who knew Thomas intimately knew that he was a man of quick feeling
if of slow action; and his nature was truthfully described by his
quartermaster, Colonel Donaldson (who was an old and intimate
friend), in a letter to General Meigs, after a parting interview on
the steamboat as Thomas left Nashville for Eastport. "He opened his
heart to me," says Donaldson. "He feels very sore at the rumored
intentions to relieve him, and the major-generalcy does not
cicatrize the wound. You know Thomas is morbidly sensitive, and it
cut him to the heart to think that it was contemplated to remove
him. He does not blame the Secretary, for he said Mr. Stanton was a
fair and just man." [Footnote: _Id_., vol. xlv. pt. ii. p. 561.]

CHAPTER XLVI

CAMPAIGN IN NORTH CAROLINA--CAPTURE OF WILMINGTON

Rendezvous at Washington--Capture of Fort Fisher--Schofield ordered
to North Carolina--Grant and Schofield visit Terry--Department of
North Carolina--Army of the Ohio in the field--Correspondence of
Grant and Sherman--Sherman conscious of his risks but hopeful of
great results--His plan of march from Savannah--Relation of
Wilmington to New Berne--Our arrival at Washington--The Potomac
frozen--Peace conference at Fort Monroe--Interview with Mr.
Stanton--The thirteenth amendment of the Constitution--Political
excitement at the capital--A little dinner-party--Garfield, H. W.
Davis, and Schenck--Davis on Lincoln--Destination of our
army--Embarkation--Steamship "Atlantic"--Visit to Fort Monroe--The
sea-voyage--Cape Fear Inlet--General Terry's lines--Bragg the
Confederate commander--Reconnoitring his lines--The colored
troops--"Monitor" engaged with Fort Anderson--Alternate
plans--Marching on Wilmington by the west bank of the river--My
column opposite the town--Orders not applicable to the
situation--Difficulty of communication--Use of
discretion--Wilmington evacuated--A happy result.

On Thursday the 26th of January, 1865, I received a telegram from
General Schofield directing me to join my command without delay, and
I started from my home in northern Ohio the same evening. [Footnote:
Official Records, vol. xlvii. pt. ii. p. 131.] I had spent a week in
a delightful visit with my family after two years of absence from
them, and had been rapidly improving in health. The growing faith
that the campaign of the winter and spring would end in complete
victory for the national arms created an ardent zeal to be about it
and to have an active hand in the final scenes. Our orders had
indicated Annapolis as our port of rendezvous, and our destination
the Army of the Potomac in front of Petersburg. [Footnote: _Id._,
vol. xlv. pt. ii. pp. 529, 586.] On reaching Annapolis Junction in
the night of the 28th, I learned that my division was in Washington,
and followed it, arriving there in the morning of the 29th.
[Footnote: To get an adequate idea of the task of transporting an
army corps so great a distance, one should look at Colonel Parsons's
report, including 250 dispatches. Official Records, vol. xlvii. pt.
ii. pp. 215-284.]

The change from Annapolis to Washington and Alexandria had been made
by Grant upon a suggestion of General Halleck that there was no
shelter at Annapolis for such a body of troops, whilst there was
enough at the capital. As the winter weather was then severe, this
thoughtfulness saved the command much suffering. [Footnote: _Id_.,
vol. xlv. pt. ii. p. 596.] The military situation had also changed
materially by the capture of Fort Fisher on the North Carolina
coast, on the very day we embarked on the transports at Clifton
(January 15th). This capture by the forces under General A. H. Terry
was one step in the preparation of a new base for Sherman in his
march northward through the Carolinas, and Grant was most anxious
that it should be followed by the occupation of Wilmington. His
desire to strengthen his own army was made secondary to his
determination to make Sherman's movement an assured success. He
wrote to Sherman on the 21st that he would send Schofield to
Wilmington, if, as was rumored, the fall of that place had followed
the capture of Fort Fisher. [Footnote: _Id_., vol. xlvii. pt. ii. p.
102.] On the 24th he had made up his mind to send Schofield there
anyhow, and was going himself to inspect the fort and the situation
at the mouth of Cape Fear River. He telegraphed for Schofield to
join him on this visit to Terry, and the outline of the new campaign
was then arranged. A new department of North Carolina was decided
upon, Schofield was to command it, his army in the field to consist
of two provisional corps besides the Twenty-third, of which Terry
was to command one, and the other for a time fell to me. This field
force was to retain our old title of the Army of the Ohio. On
Schofield's recommendation the brevet rank of major-general was
given to General Ruger, and that of brigadier to Colonel Henderson
of the One Hundred and Twelfth Illinois, for services at Franklin.
[Footnote: Official Records, vol. xlvii. pt. ii. pp. 121, 179, 190,
201.] Sherman had heard of the fall of Fort Fisher before he broke
his communications with Savannah, and was assured of a new base
there, even if the line from New Berne to Goldsborough should not be
opened.

The correspondence between Sherman and Grant at this time is very
characteristic of both men, and throws a bright light on their
unselfish friendship and their earnest purpose to bring the war to a
successful end without rest or delay. In his letter of the 21st of
January, after giving the latest details of his situation, Sherman
adds: "I am told that Congress meditates a bill to make another
lieutenant-general for me. I have written to John Sherman to stop it
if it is designed for me. [Footnote: See Sherman Letters, p. 245.]
It would be mischievous, for there are enough rascals who would try
to sow differences between us, whereas you and I now are in perfect
understanding. I would rather have you in command than anybody else,
for you are fair, honest, and have at heart the same purpose that
should animate all. I should emphatically decline any commission
calculated to bring us into rivalry, and I ask you to advise all
your friends in Congress to this effect, especially Mr. Washburne. I
doubt if men in Congress fully realize that you and I are honest in
our professions of want of ambition. I know that I feel none, and
to-day will gladly surrender my position and influence to any other
who is better able to wield the power. The flurry attending my
recent success will soon blow over and give place to new
developments." [Footnote: Official Records, vol. xlvii. pt. ii. p.
103. In the same letter Sherman referred to the farewell order
General Butler had addressed to his troops on being relieved of
command. "I am rejoiced that Terry took Fisher," Sherman said,
"because it silences Butler, who was to you a dangerous man. His
address to his troops on being relieved was a direct, mean, and
malicious attack on you, and I admired the patience and skill by
which you relieved yourself and the country of him." In the address
referred to, Butler had said: "I have been chary of the precious
charge confided to me. I have refused to order the useless sacrifice
of the lives of such soldiers, and I am relieved from your command.
The wasted blood of my men does not stain my garments." (O. R, vol.
xlvi. pt. ii. p. 71.) Such a publication made its author liable to
court-martial, but Grant took no public notice of it, except to
oppose his further assignment to duty. _Id_., vol. xlvii. pt. ii.
pp. 537, 562. See also Sherman to Admiral Porter, _Id_., p. 104, and
Grant to Sherman, _Id_., p. 859.]

Replying on the 1st of February, Grant said: "I have received your
very kind letter, in which you say you would decline, or are opposed
to, promotion. No one would be more pleased at your advancement than
I, and if you should be placed in my position and I put subordinate,
it would not change our relations in the least. I would make the
same exertions to support you that you have ever done to support me,
and I would do all in my power to make our cause win." [Footnote:
_Id_., p. 193.]

That Sherman knew his campaign in the Carolinas would involve great
risks, and had no blind confidence in his fortune, was shown by his
reply to the well-known letter of congratulation which President
Lincoln sent him upon the surrender of Savannah: [Footnote: _Id_.,
vol. xliv. p. 809, and Sherman's Memoirs, vol. ii. p. 166.] "The
motto 'Nothing venture, nothing win,' which you refer to, is most
appropriate, and should I venture too much and happen to lose, I
shall bespeak your charitable inference." [Footnote: Official
Records, vol. xlvii. pt. ii. p. 18.]