Military reminiscences of the civil war

Front matter

i

CORNELL

UNIVERSITY

Preface

MY aim in this book has been to reproduce my own experience in our Civil War in such a way as to help the reader understand just how the duties and the problems of that great conflict presented themselves successively to one man who had an active part in it from the beginning to the end. In my military service I was so conscious of the benefit it was to me to get the personal view of men who had served in our own or other wars, as distinguished from the general or formal history, that I formed the purpose, soon after peace was restored, to write such a narrative of my own army life. My relations to many prominent officers and civilians were such as to give opportunities for intimate knowledge of their personal qualities as well as their public conduct. It has seemed to me that it might be useful to share with others what I thus learned, and to throw what light I could upon the events and the men of that time.

As I have written historical accounts of some campaigns separately, it may be proper to say that I have in this book avoided repetition, and have tried to make the personal narrative supplement and lend new interest to the more formal story. Some of the earlier chapters appeared in an vi PREFACE abridged form in " Battles and Leaders of the Civil War," and the closing chapter was read before the Ohio Commandery of the Loyal Legion. By arrangements courteously made by the Century Company and the Commandery, these chapters, partly re-written, are here found in their proper connection.

Though my private memoranda are full enough to give me reasonable confidence in the accuracy of these reminiscences, I have made it a duty to test my memory by constant reference to the original contemporaneous material so ■ abundantly preserved in the government publication of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies. Where the series of these records is not given, my references are to the First Series, with the abbreviation O. R., and I have preferred to adhere to the official designation of the volumes in parts, as each volume ihen includes the documents of a single campaign.

J. D. C.

T^'OTE. — The manuscript of this work had been completed by General ■"Cox, and placed in the hands of the publishers several weeks before his untimely death at Magnolia, Mass., August 4, 1900. He himself had read and revised some four hundred pages of the press-work. The work of reading and revising the remaining proofs and of preparing a general 'index for the work was undertaken by the undersigned from a deep sense of obligation to and loving regard for the author, which could not find a more (fitting expression at this time. No material changes have been made in text or notes. Citations have been looked up and references verified with •■care, yet errors may have crept in, which his well-known accuracy would have 'excluded. For all such and for the imperfections of the index, the under- ■signed must accept responsibility, and beg the indulgence of the reader, who -.will find in the text itself enough of interest and profit to excuse many '.shortcomings.

WILLIAM C. COCHRAN.

.Cincinnati, October i, 1900.

CHAPTER I Page The Outbreak of the War i

Ohio Senate, April 12 — Sumter bombarded — " Glory to God I " — The surrender — Effect on public sentiment — Call for troops — Politicians changing front — David Tod — Stephen A. Douglas

— The insurrection must be crushed — Garfield on personal duty

— Troops organized by the States — The militia — Unpreparedness — McClellan at Columbus — Meets Governor Dennison — Put in command — Our stock of munitions — Making estimates — McClellan's plan — Camp Jackson — Camp Dennison — Gathering of the volunteers — Garibaldi uniforms — Officering the troops

— Off for Washington — Scenes in the State Capitol — Governor Dennison's labors — Young regulars — Scott's policy — Alex. McCook — Orlando Poe — Not allowed to take state commis-

CHAPTER II Laying out the camp — Rosecrans as engineer — A comfortless night

— Waking to new duties — Floors or no floors for the huts — Hardee's Tactics — The water-supply — Colonel Tom Worthington

— Joshua Sill — Brigades organized — Bates's brigade — Schleich's

— My own — McClellan's purpose — Division organization — Garfield disappointed — Camp routine — Instruction and drill — Camp cookery — Measles — Hospital bam — Sisters of Charity

— Ferment over re-enlistment — Musters by Gordon Granger — " Food for powder " — Brigade staff — De Villiers — "A Captain of Calvary" — The "Bloody Tinth " — Almost a row — Summoned to the field.

Till CONTENTS

CHAPTER III Page

Political attitude of West Virginia — Rebels take the initiative — McClellan ordered to act — Ohio militia cross the river — The Philippi affair — Significant dates — The vote on secession — Virginia in the Confederacy — Lee in command — Topography — The mountain passes — Garnett's army — Rich Mountain position

— McClellan in the field — His forces — Advances against Garnett

— Rosecrans's proposal — His fight on the mountain — McClellan's inaction — Garnett's retreat — Affair at Carrick's Ford — Garnett killed — Hill's efforts to intercept — Pegram in the wilderness— He surrenders — Indirect results important — McClellan's military and personal traits.

CHAPTER IV The Kanawha Valley

Orders for the Kanawha expedition — The troops and their quality — Lack of artillery and cavalry — Assembling at Gallipolis — District of the Kanawha — Numbers of the opposing forces — Method of advance — Use of steamboats — Advance guards on river banks

— Camp at Thirteen-mile Creek — Night alarm — The river chutes

— Sunken obstructions — Pocotaligo — Affair at Barboursville — Affair at Scary Creek — Wise's position at Tyler Mountain — His precipitate retreat — Occupation of Charleston — Rosecrans succeeds McClellan — Advance toward Gauley Bridge — Insubordination — The Newspaper Correspondent — Occupation of Gauley Bridge.

Chapter V

The gate of the Kanawha valley — The wilderness beyond — West Virginia defences — A romantic-post — Chaplain Brown — An adventurous mission — Chaplain Dubois — "The river path" — Gauley Mount — Colonel Tompkins's home — Bowie-knives — Truculent resolutions — The Engineers — Whittlesey, Benham, Wagner — Fortifications — Distant reconnoissances — Comparison of forces — Dangers to steamboat communications — Allotment of duties — The Summersville post — Seventh Ohio at Cross Lanes — Scares and rumors — Robert E. Lee at Valley Mountain

— Floyd and Wise advance — Rosecrans's orders — The Cross Lanes affair — Major Casement's creditable retreat — Colonel Tyler's reports — Lieutenant-Colonel Creighton — Quarrels of Wise and Floyd — Ambushing rebel cavalry — Affair at Boone

CONTENTS IX

Page Court House — New attack at Gauley Bridge — An incipient mutiny — Sad result — A notable court-martial — Rosecrans marching toward us — Communications renewed — Advance toward Lewisburg — Camp Lookout — A private sorrow.

CHAPTER VI Carnifex Ferry — To Sewell Mountain and back . . 105

Rosecrans's march to join me — Reaches Cross Lanes — Advance against Floyd — Engagement at Carnifex Ferry — My advance to Sunday Road — Conference with Rosecrans — McCook's brigade joins me — Advance to Camp Lookout — Brigade commanders — Rosecrans's personal characteristics — Hartsuff — Floyd and Wise again — " Battle of Bontecou " — Sewell Mountain — The equinoctial — General Schenck arrives — Rough lodgings — Withdrawal from the mountain — Rear-guard duties

— Major Sleramer of Fort Pickens fame — New positions covering Gauley Bridge — Floyd at Cotton Mountain — Rosecrans's methods with private soldiers — Progress in discipline.

Chapter VII

Floyd cannonades Gauley Bridge — Effect on Rosecrans — Topography of Gauley Mount — De Villiers runs the gantlet — Movements of our forces — Explaining orders — A hard climb on the mountain — In the post at Gauley Bridge — Moving magazine and telegraph — A balky mule-team — Ammunition train under fire — Captain Fitch a model quartermaster — Plans to entrap Floyd — Moving supply trains at night — Method of working the ferry — Of making fiatboats — The Cotton Mountain affair

— Rosecrans dissatisfied with Benham — Vain plans to reach East Tennessee.

CHAPTER VIII Winter-Quarters 146

An impracticable country — Movements suspended — Experienced troops ordered away — My orders from Washington — Rosecrans objects — A disappointment — Winter organization of the Department — Sifting our material — Courts-martial — Regimental schools — Drill and picket duty — A military execution — Effect upon the army — Political sentiments of the people — Rules of conduct toward them — Case of Mr. Parks — Mr. Summers — Mr. Patrick — Mr. Lewis Ruffner — Mr. Doddridge — Mr. B. F. Smith — A house divided against itself — Major Smith's journal

— The contrabands — A fugitive-slave case — Embarrassments as to military jurisdiction.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER IX Page

High quality of first volunteers — Discipline milder than that of the regulars — Reasons for the difference — Practical efficiency of the men — Necessity for sifting the officers — Analysis of their defects — What is military aptitude ? — Diminution of number in ascending scale — Effect of age — Of former life and occupation — Embarrassments of a new business — Quick progress of the right class of young men — Political appointments

— Professional men — Political leaders naturally prominent in a civil war — " Cutting and trying " — Dishonest methods — An excellent army at the end of a year — The regulars in 1861 — Entrance examinations for West Point — The curriculum there

— Drill and experience — Its limitations — Problems peculiar to the vast increase of the army — Ultra-conservatism — Attitude toward the Lincoln administration — " Point de z€le " — Lack of initiative — Civil work of army engineers — What is military art ? — Opinions of experts — Military history — European armies in the Crimean War — True generalship — Anomaly of a double army organization.

CHAPTER X The Mountain Department — Spring Campaign . . . 192

Rosecrans's plan of campaign — Approved by McClellan with modifications — Wagons or pack-mules — Final form of plan — Changes in commands — McClellan limited to Army of the Potomac — Halleck's Department of the Mississippi — Fremont's Mountain Department — Rosecrans superseded — Preparations in the Kanawha District — Batteaux to supplement steamboats

— Light wagons for mountain work — Fremont's plan — East Tennessee as an objective — The supply question — Banks in the Shenandoah valley — Milroy's advance — Combat at McDowell

— Banks defeated — Fremont's plans deranged — Operations in the Kanawha valley — Organization of brigades — Brigade commanders — Advance to Narrows of New River — The field telegraph — Concentration of the enemy — Affair at Princeton — Position at Flat-top Mountain.

CHAPTER XI Pope in Command — Transfer to Washington. . . . 217 A key position — Crook's engagement at Lewisburg — Watching and scouting — Mountain work — Pope in command — Consolidation of Departments — Suggestions of our transfer to the East

CONTENTS XI

Fagb — Pope's Order No. 1 1 and Address to the Army — Orders to march across the mountams — Discussion of them — Changed to route by water and rail — Ninety-mile march — Logistics — Arriving in Washington — Two regiments reach Pope — Two sent to Manassas — Jackson captures Manassas — Railway broken — McCIellan at Alexandria — Engagement at Bull Run Bridge — Ordered to Upton's Hill — Covering Washington — Listening to the Bull Run battle — 111 news travels fast.

CHAPTER XII Retreat within the Lines — Reorganization — Halleck

AND his Subordinates 240

McClellan's visits to my position — Riding the lines — Discussing the past campaign — The withdrawal from the James — Prophecy — McCIellan and the soldiers — He is in command of the defences — Intricacy of oflBcial relations — Reorganization begun

— Pope's army marches through our works — Meeting of McCIellan and Pope — Pope's characteristics — Undue depreciation of him — The situation when Halleck was made General-in-Chief — Pope's part in it — Reasons for dislike on the part of the Potomac Army — McClellan's secret service — Deceptive information of the enemy's force — Information from prisoners and citizens — Effects of McClellan's illusion as to Lee's strength

— Halleck's previous career — Did he intend to take command in the field ? — His abdication of the field command — The necessity for a union of forces in Virginia — McClellan's inaction was Lee's opportunity — Slow transfer of the Army of the Potomac — Halleck burdened with subordinate's work — Burnside twice declines the command — It is given to McCIellan — Pope relieved — Other changes in organization — Consolidation — New campaign begun.

Chapter XIII

March through Washington — Reporting to Burnside — The Ninth Corps — Bumside's personal qualities — To Leesboro — Straggling — Lee's army at Frederick — Our deliberate advance — Reno at New Market — The march past — Reno and Hayes — Camp gossip — Occupation of Frederick — Affair with Hampton's cavalry — Crossing Catoctin Mountain — The valley and South Mountain — Lee's order found — Division of his army — Jackson at Harper's Ferry — Supporting Pleasonton's reconnoissance — Meeting Colonel Moor — An involuntary warning — Kanawha Division's advance — Opening of the battle — Carrying

XU CONTENTS

Page the mountain crest — The morning fight — Lull at noon — Arrival of supports — Battle renewed — Final success — Death o£ Reno — Hooker's battle on the right — His report — Burnside's comments — Franklin's engagement at Crampton's Gap.

CHAPTER XIV Antietam : Preliminary Movements 295

Lee's plan of invasion — Changed by McClellan's advance — The position at Sharpsburg — Our routes of march — At the Antietam — McClellan reconnoitring — Lee striving to concentrate

— Our delays — Tuesday's quiet — Hooker's evening march — The Ninth Corps command — Changing our positions — McClellan's plan of battle — Hooker's evening skirmish — Mansfield goes to support Hooker — Confederate positions — Jackson arrives — McLaws and Walker reach the field — Their places.

CHAPTER XV Antietam: The Fight on the Right 312

Hooker astir early — The field near the Dunker Church — Artillery combat — Positions of Hooker's divisions — Rocky ledges in the woods — Advance of Doubleday through Miller's orchard and garden — Enemy's fire from West Wood — They rush for Gibbon's battery — Repulse — Advance of Patrick's brigade — Fierce fighting along the turnpike — Ricketts's division in the East Wood — Fresh effort of Meade's division in the centre — A lull in the battle — Mansfield's corps reaches the field — Conflicting opinions as to the hour — Mansfield killed — Command devolves on Williams — Advance through East Wood — Hooker wounded — Meade in command of the corps — It withdraws — Greene's division reaches the Dunker Church — Crawford's in the East Wood — Terrible effects on the Confederates

— Sumner's corps coming up — Its formation — It moves on the Dunker Church from the east — Divergence of the divisions — Sedgwick's passes to right of Greene — Attacked in flank and broken — Rallying at the Poffenberger hill — Twelfth Corps hanging on near the church — Advance of French's division — Richardson follows later — Bloody Lane reached — The Piper house — Franklin's corps arrives — Charge of Irwin's brigade.

Chapter XVI

Ninth Corps positions near Antietam Creek — Rodman's division at lower ford — Sturgis's at the bridge — Burnside's headquarters on the field — View from his place of the battle on the right

CONTENTS Xiu

Page

— French's fight — An exploding caisson — Our orders to attack

— The hour — Crisis of the battle — Discussion of the sequence of events — The Burnside bridge — Exposed approach — Enfiladed by enemy's artillery — Disposition of enemy's troops — His position very strong — Importance of Rodman's movement by the ford — The fight at the bridge — Repulse — Fresh efforts — Tactics of the assault — Success — Formation on further bank

— Bringing up ammunition — Willcox relieves Sturgis — The latter now in support — Advance against Sharpsburg — Fierce combat — Edge of the town reached — Rodman's advance on the left — A. P. Hill's Confederate division arrives from Harper's Ferry — Attacks Rodman's flank — A raw regiment breaks — The line retires — Sturgis comes into the gap — Defensive position taken and held — Enemy's assaults repulsed — Troops sleeping on their arms — McClellan's reserve — Other troops not used — McClellan's idea of Lee's force and plans — Lee's retreat — The terrible casualty lists.

CHAPTER XVII McClellan and Politics — His Removal and its Cause 354

Meeting Colonel Key — His changes of opinion — His relations to McClellan — Governor Dennison's influence — McClellan's attitude toward Lincoln — Burnside's position — The Harrison Landing letter — Compared with Lincoln's views — Probable intent of the letter — Incident at McClellan's headquarters — John W. Garrett — Emancipation Proclamation — An after-dinner discussion of it — Contrary influences — Frank advice — Burnside and John Cochrane — General Order 163 — Lincoln's visit to camp — Riding the field — A review — Lincoln's desire for continuing the campaign — McClellan's hesitation — His tactics of discussion — His exaggeration of difficulties — Effect on his army — Disillusion a slow process — Lee's army not better than Johnston's — Work done by our Western army — Difference in morale — An army rarely bolder than its leader — Correspondence between Halleck and McClellan — Lincoln's remarkable letter on the campaign — The army moves on November 2 — Lee regains the line covering Richmond — McClellan relieved — Burnside in command.

CHAPTER XVIII Personal Relations of McClellan, Burnside, and Porter 376

Intimacy of McClellan and Burnside — Private letters in the official files — Burnside's mediation — His self-forgetful devotion — The movement to join Pope — Burnside forwards Porter's dis-

XIV CONTENTS

Page patches — His double refusal of the command — McClellan suspends the organization of wings — His relations to Porter — Lincoln's letter on the subject — Fault-finding with Burnside — Whose work ? — Burnside's appearance and bearing in the field.

CHAPTER XIX Return to West Virginia 391

Ordered to the Kanawha valley again — An unwelcome surprise — Reasons for the order — Reporting to Halleck at Washington

— Affairs in the Kanawha in September — Lightburn's positions

— Enemy under Loring advances — Affair at Fayette C. H. — Lightburn retreats — Gauley Bridge abandoned — Charleston evacuated — Disorderly flight to the Ohio — Enemy's cavalry raid under Jenkins — General retreat in Tennessee and Kentucky— West Virginia not in any Department — Now annexed to that of Ohio — Morgan's retreat from Cumberland Gap — Ordered to join the Kanawha forces — Milroy's brigade also — My interviews with Halleck and Stanton — Promotion — My task — My division sent with me — District of West Virginia — Colonel Crook promoted — Journey westward — Governor Peirpoint — Governor Tod — General Wright — Destitution of Morgan's column — Refitting at Portland, Ohio — Night drive to Gallipolis — An amusing accident — Inspection at Point Pleasant — Milroy ordered to Parkersburg — Milroy's qualities

— Interruptions to movement of troops — No wagons — Supplies delayed — Confederate retreat — Loring relieved — Echols in command — Our march up the valley — Echols retreats — We occupy Charleston and Gauley Bridge — Further advance stopped

— Our forces reduced — Distribution of remaining troops — Alarms and minor movements — Case of Mr. Summers — His treatment by the Confederates.

CHAPTER XX Winter Quarters, 1862-63 — Promotions and Politics 420

Central position of Marietta, Ohio — Connection with all parts of West Virginia — Drill and instruction of troops — Guerilla warfare — Partisan Rangers — Confederate laws — Disposal of plunder — Mosby's Rangers as a type — Opinions of Lee, Stuart, and Rosser — Effect on other troops — Rangers finally abolished

— Rival home-guards and militia — Horrors of neighborhood war — Staff and staff duties — Reduction of forces — General Cluseret — Later connection with the Paris Commune — His relations with Milroy — He resigns — Political situation — Congressmen distrust Lincoln — Cutler's diary — Resolutions regarding appointments of general officers — The number au-

CONTENTS XV

Page thorized by law — Stanton's report — Effect of Act of July, 1862

— An excess of nine major-generals — The legal questions involved — Congressional patronage and local distribution — Ready for a " deal " — Bill to increase the number of generals

— A " slate " made up to exhaust the number — Senate and House disagree — Conference — Agreement in last hours of the session — The new list — A few vacancies by resignation, etc. — List of those dropped — My own case — Faults of the method

— Lincoln's humorous comments — Curious case of General Turchin — Congestion in the highest grades — Effects — Confederate grades of general and lieutenant-general — Superiority of our system — Cotemporaneous reports and criticisms — New regiments instead of recruiting old ones — Sherman's trenchant opinion.

Chapter XXI

Farewell to West Virginia — Burnslde in the Department OF THE Ohio 442

Desire for field service — Changes in the Army of the Potomac — Judgment of McClellan at that time — Our defective knowledge

— Changes in West Virginia — Errors in new organization — Embarrassments resulting — Visit to General Schenck — New orders from Washington — Sent to Ohio to administer the draft

— Burnside at head of the department — District of Ohio — Headquarters at Cincinnati — Cordial relations of Governor Tod with the military authorities — System of enrolment and draft — Administration by Colonel Fry — Decay of the veteran regiments

— Bounty-jumping — Effects on political parties — Soldiers voting— Burnside's military plans — East Tennessee — Rosecrans aiming at Chattanooga — Burnside's business habits — His frankness — Stories about him — His personal characteristics — Cincinnati as a border city — Rebel sympathizers — Order No. 38

— Challenged by Vallandigham — The order not a new departure

— Lincoln's proclamation — General Wright's circular.

CHAPTER XXII The Vallandigham Case — The Holmes County War . 458

Clement L. Vallandigham — His opposition to the war — His theory of reconstruction — His Mount Vernon speech — His arrest — Sent before the military commission — General Potter its president — Counsel for the prisoner — The line of defence — The judgment — Habeas Corpus proceedings — Circuit Court of the United States — Judge Leavitt denies the release — Commutation by the President — Sent beyond the lines — Conduct of Confederate authorities — Vallandigham in Canada — Candi-

XVI CONTENTS

Page date for Governor — Political results — Martial law — Principles underlying it — Practical application — The intent to aid the public enemy — The intent to defeat the draft — Armed resistance to arrest of deserters. Noble County — To the enrolment in Holmes County — A real insurrection — Connection of these with Vallandigham's speeches — The Supreme Court refuses to interfere — Action in the Milligan case after the war — Judge Davis's personal views — Knights of the Golden Circle — The Holmes County outbreak — Its suppression — Letter to Judge Welker.

CHAPTER XXIII BURNSIDE AND ROSECRANS ThE SuMMER'S DeLAYS . . 473

Condition of Kentucky and Tennessee — Halleck's instructions to Burnside — Blockhouses at bridges — Relief of East Tennessee

— Conditions of the problem — Vast wagon-train required — Scheme of a railroad — Surveys begun — Burnside's efforts to arrange co-operation with Rosecrans — Bragg sending troops to Johnston — Halleck urges Rosecrans to activity — Continued inactivity — Burnside ordered to send troops to Grant — Rosecrans's correspondence with Halleck — Lincoln's dispatch — Eosecrans collects his subordinates' opinions — Councils of war

— The situation considered — Sheridan and Thomas — Computation of effectives — Garfield's summing up — Review of the situation when Rosecrans succeeded Buell — After Stone's River

— Relative forces — Disastrous detached expeditions — Appeal to ambition — The major-generalship in regular army — Views of the President justified — Burnside's forces — Confederate forces in East Tennessee — Reasons for the double organization of the Union armies.

CHAPTER XXIV The Morgan Raid 401

Departure of the staff for the field — An amusingly quick return — Changes in my own duties — Expeditions to occupy the enemy

— Sanders' raid into East Tennessee — His route — His success and return — The Confederate Morgan's raid — His instructions

— His reputation as a soldier — Compared with Forrest — Morgan's start delayed — His appearance at Green River, Ky.

— Foiled by Colonel Moore — Captures Lebanon — Reaches the Ohio at Brandenburg — General Hobson in pursuit — Morgan

crosses into Indiana — Was this his original purpose? — His route out of Indiana into Ohio — He approaches Cincinnati — Hot chase by Hobson — Gunboats co-operating on the river — Efforts to block his way — He avoids garrisoned posts and cities

— Our troops moved in transports by water — Condition of Morgan's jaded column — Approaching the Ohio at Buffington's

CONTENTS xvii

Page

— Gunboats near the ford — Hobson attacks — Part captured, the rest fly northward — Another capture — A long chase — Surrender of Morgan with the remnant — Summary of results

— A burlesque capitulation.

Chapter XXV

News of Grants victory, at Vicksburg — A thrilling scene at the opera — Burnside's Ninth Corps to return — Stanton urges Rosecrans to advance — The TuUahoma manoeuvres — Testy correspondence — Its real meaning — Urgency with Burnside — Ignorance concerning his situation — His disappointment as to Ninth Corps— Rapid concentration of other troops — Burnside's march into East Tennessee — Occupation of Knoxville — Invests Cumberland Gap — The garrison surrenders — Good news from Rosecrans — Distances between armies — Divergent lines — No railway communication — Burnside concentrates toward the Virginia line — Joy of the people — Their intense loyalty — Their faith in the future.

CHAPTER XXVI Burnside in East Tennessee 530

Organizing and arming the loyalists — Burnside concentrates near Greeneville — His general plan — Rumors of Confederate reinforcements — Lack of accurate information — The Ninth Corps in Kentucky — Its depletion by malarial disease — Death of General Welsh from this cause — Preparing for further work

Situation on l6th September — Dispatch from Halleck — Its

apparent purpose — Necessity to dispose of the enemy near Virginia border — Burnside personally at the front — His great activity — Ignorance of Rosecrans's peril — Impossibility of joining him by the 20th — Ruinous effects of abandoning East Tennessee — Efforts to aid Rosecrans without such abandonment — Enemy duped into burning Watauga bridge themselves Ninth Corps arriving — Willcox's division garrisons Cumberland Gap — Reinforcements sent Rosecrans from all quarters — Chattanooga made safe from attack — The supply question — Meigs's description of the roads — Burnside halted near Loudon

— Halleck's misconception of the geography — The people imploring the President not to remove the troops — How Longstreet got away from Virginia — Burnside's alternate plans — Minor operations in upper Holston valley — Wolford's affair on the lower Holston.

Appendix A 547

Appendix B 547

MILITARY REMINISCENCES

OF

THE CIVIL WAR

Chapter I The Outbreak Of The War

Ohio Senate April 12 — Sumter bombarded — "Glory to God I" — The surrender — Effect on public sentiment — Call for troops — Politicians changing front — David Tod — Stephen A. Douglas — The insurrection must be crushed — Garfield on personal duty — Troops organized by the States — The militia — Unpreparedness — McClellan at Columbus — Meets Governor Dennison— Put in command — Our stock of munitions — Making estimates — McClellan's plan — Camp Jackson — Camp Dennison — Gathering of the volunteers — Garibaldi uniforms — Officering the troops — Off for Washington — Scenes in the State Capitol — Governor Dennison's labors — Young regulars — Scott's policy — Alex. McCook — Orlando Poe — Not allowed to take state commissions.

ON Friday the twelfth day of April, 1861, the Senate of Ohio was in session, trying to go on in the ordinary routine of business, but with a sense of anxiety and strain which was caused by the troubled condition of national affairs. The passage of Ordinances of Secession by one after another of the Southern States, and even the assembling of a provisional Confederate government at Montgomery, had not wholly destroyed the hope that some peaceful way out of our troubles would be found ; yet the gathering of an army on the sands opposite Fort Sumter was really war, and if a hostile gun were fired, we knew it would mean the end of all effort at arrangement. Hoping almost against hope that blood would not be shed, and that the pageant of military array and of a rebel government would pass by and soon be reckoned among the

VOL. I. — I disused scenes and properties of a political drama that never pretended to be more than acting, we tried to give our thoughts to business; but there was no heart in it, and the morning hour lagged, for we could not work in earnest and we were unwilling to adjourn.

Suddenly a senator came in from the lobby in an excited way, and catching the chairman's eye, exclaimed, " Mr. President, the telegraph announces that the secessionists are bombarding Fort Sumter ! " There was a solemn and painful hush, but it was broken in a moment by a woman's shrill voice from the spectators' seats, crying, " Glory to God ! " It startled every one, almost as if the enemy were in the midst. But it was the voice of a radical friend of the slave, who after a lifetime of public agitation believed that only through blood could freedom be won. Abby Kelly Foster had been attending the session of the Assembly, urging the passage of some measures enlarging the legal rights of married women, and, sitting beyond the railing when the news came in, shouted a fierce cry of joy that oppression had submitted its cause to the decision of the sword. With most of us, the gloomy thought that civil war had begun in our own land overshadowed everything, and seemed too great a price to pay for any good ; a scourge to be borne only in preference to yielding the very groundwork of our republicanism, — the right to enforce a fair interpretation of the Constitution through the election of President and Congress.