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WHEELER'S RAID IN MIDDLE TENNESSEE.

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terward, by Col. E. M. McCook, who, with three regiments of cavalry, had been ordered from Bridgeport to pursue him. McCook had the better of the fight; but darkness closed it; and the enemy moved off during the night, while McCook had no orders to pursue him.

Wheeler next struck McMinnville, in the heart of Tennessee, which, with 600 men, a train of wagons, and one of cars, was surrendered to him with

But

man, who represented him at Vicksburg, did not receive the dispatch till it was several days old. Hurlbut promptly put his West Tennessee corps in motion eastward; but this was not enough; and Halleck, on learning of the reverse on the Chickamauga-hearing nothing from Grant or Sherman-detached " the 11th and 12th corps from the Army of the Potomac, and ordered them, under Gen. Hooker, to Middle Tennessee, to hold, till further orders, Rose-out a struggle, and where he burned crans's line of communications from a large quantity of supplies. Nashville to Bridgeport. This trans- here he was overhauled by Gen. Geo. fer of 20,000 men, with all their ar- Crook, who, with another cavalry tillery, munitions, and baggage, was division, 2,000 strong, had started made with remarkable celerity, from Washington, Tenn., and had for through the extraordinary exertions some hours been pursuing and fightof Gen. D. C. McCallum, govern- ing Wharton, and by whose order ment superintendent of railroads, M. Col. Long, with the 2d Kentucky, C. Meigs, Quartermaster General, and charged the rear of the now flying foe W. Prescott Smith, master of trans- with spirit and effect. Wheeler's portation on the Baltimore and Ohio force being superior, he halted and road: the two corps marching from fought dismounted till dark, and then the Rapidan to Washington, taking struck out for Murfreesboro'; but that cars, and being transported by Cum- post was firmly held, and he could berland, Wheeling, Cincinnati, Lou- not wait to carry it; so he swept isville, and Nashville, to the Tennes- down to Warren and Shelbyville, see, and there debarked in fighting burning bridges, breaking the railarray, within eight days. road, and capturing trains and stores, taking thence a south-west course across Duck river to Farmington, where another fight" was had, and the Rebels worsted by the fire of Capt. Stokes's battery, followed by a charge of infantry, and lost 4 guns, captured by Crook, though he was in inferior force. Wheeler got away during the night to Pulaski, and thence into North Alabama; making his escape across the Tennessee river, near the mouth of Elk; losing 2 more guns and his rear-guard of 70 men in getting over. Gens. Thomas and

Meantime, Bragg had sent a large portion of his cavalry, under Wheeler and Wharton, across the Tennessee at Cottonport, between Chattanooga and Bridgeport, instructed to cut our communications and destroy our supplies so far as possible. Wheeler, doubtless thoroughly informed, made directly for a large portion of Gen. Thomas's train of 700 to 1,000 wagons, laden with supplies, then in Sequatchie valley, near Anderson's Cross-roads, which he captured" and burned; being attacked, directly af 77 Sept. 23. VOL. II.-28

7 Sept. 30.

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neer, to examine the river below Chattanooga with reference to crossing. It was decided that Hooker should cross at Bridgeport with all the force he could muster, advancing directly to Wauhatchie in Lookout valley, mena

Crook estimate his loss during this | Brig.-Gen. W. F. Smith, chief engiraid at 2,000 men, mostly prisoners or deserters. Ours, mainly in prisoners, must have exceeded that number; while the Government property destroyed must have been worth millions of dollars. Roddy, who crossed" the Tennessee at Guntersville, threat-cing Bragg with a flank attack. So ening Decherd, retreated on learning that Wheeler had done so, and escaped without loss.

much was to be observed and understood by the enemy. But, while his attention was fixed on this movement, and on the march of a division, under Gen. Palmer, down the north bank of the river from a point opposite Chattanooga to Whiteside, where he was to cross and support Hooker, a force was to be got ready, under the direction of Smith, and, at the right moment, thrown across the river at Brown's ferry, three or four miles below Chattanooga, and pushed forward at once to seize the range of hills skirting the river at the mouth of Lookout valley, covering the Brown's ferry road and a pontoon bridge to be quickly thrown across the ferry; thus opening a line of communication between our forces in Chattanooga and Hooker's in Wau

Gen. Grant, having assumed" at Louisville command of his new department, telegraphed, next day, to Gen. Thomas at Chattanooga to hold that place at all hazards, and was promptly answered, “I will hold on till we starve." Famine, not fire, was the foe most dreaded by the Army of the Cumberland, though it had a pretty rough experience of both. Proceeding forthwith to Chattanooga, the new commander found" Gen. Hooker's force concentrated at Bridgeport, preparing to argue with Bragg our claim to supply our forces at Chattanooga by means of the river and the highway along its bank, instead of sending every thing by wag-hatchie, shorter and better than that ons across the mountains on either side of the Sequatchie valley-a most laborious and difficult undertaking, which left our men on short rations and starved many of our horses. It is computed that no less than 10,000 horses were used up in this service, and that it would have been impossible, by reason of their exhaustion and the increasing badness of the roads caused by the Autumn rains, to have supplied our army a week longer.

Grant proceeded, the day after his arrival, accompanied by Thomas and

"1 Oct. 11.

held by Bragg around the foot of Lookout mountain.

Hooker crossed, unimpeded, on the 26th; pushing straight on to WAUHATCHIE, which he reached on the 28th. Meantime, 4,000 men had been detailed to Smith; of whom 1,800, under Brig.-Gen. Hazen, were embarked on 60 pontoon-boats at Chattanooga, and, at the word, floated quietly down the river during the night of the 27th, past the Rebel pickets watching along the left bank, and, landing on the south side, at Brown's ferry, seized the hills over

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GEARY ATTACKED AT WAUHATCHIE.

looking it, without further loss than 4 or 5 wounded. The residue of Gen. Smith's men, with further materials for the bridges, had simultaneously moved across Moccasin point on our side, to the ferry, unperceived by the enemy; and, before dawn, they had been ferried across, and the difficult heights rising sharply from the Tennessee and from Lookout valley on the south-west were firmly secured. By 10 A. M., a capital pontoon-bridge had been completed at the ferry; and now, if Bragg chose to concentrate on Hooker or on Chattanooga, we had the shorter line of concentration, and were ready. Before night, Hooker's left rested on Smith's force and bridge; while Palmer had pushed across to Whiteside in his rear; and now the wagon route of supply for Chattanooga, no longer infested by Rebel sharpshooters, was reduced to the 28 miles of relatively tolerable road from Bridgeport, or, by using the river from Bridgeport to Kelly's ferry, to barely 8 miles. Grant's fighting had not yet begun; but Chattanooga was safe, and Bragg virtually beaten.

Hooker had found no enemy to repel, save pickets and perhaps a few sharp-shooters, until-having passed through a gorge of Raccoon mountain into Lookout valley, some two miles wide, which is commanded and observed throughout by the crests of Raccoon mountain on the one hand and of Lookout mountain on the other, while a low range of five or six hills, 200 to 300 feet high, divides it nearly in the center-he reached Wauhatchie, a petty station on the railroad, some 12 or 15 miles from

"Oct. 28.

435

Chattanooga, directly under the guns of the Rebel batteries on Lookout mountain. Of course, every movement on our side was watched by the enemy, who might almost count the men in our ranks as they marched. Through another gorge on Hooker's left, a road led down to Kelly's ferry, three miles distant. Howard's (11th) corps, in our advance, had passed Wauhatchie, and had lost a few men by shells thrown from Lookout mountain, and as many by an irregular musketry fire from the wooded hills in its front, whence the enemy was speedily dislodged by a flanking advance; burning the railroad bridge over Lookout creek as he fled. At 6 P. M.," our column was halted for the night, but little over a mile from Brown's ferry, toward which three companies were thrown out; while Geary's weak division of the 12th corps bivouacked at Wauhatchie, three miles back, holding the road from Kelly's ferry that leads up Lookout valley.

Law's division of Longstreet's corps held Lookout mountain, and were deeply interested but quiet spectators of Hooker's arrangements for the night. They were not strong enough to fight his entire force by daylight; but it was calculated that they would suffice" to strike Geary by surprise in that strange, wooded region; routing him before he should be fairly awake, stampeding his men, running off his animals, and burning his trains. Accordingly, about 1 A. M.," they attacked him with Rebel impetuosity and the unearthly yells wherein they stood confessedly unrisions: Pollard says they were but six regi6 Oct. 29.

Hooker says they were two strong divi- ments.

valed, driving in his pickets on a run, and following them into his lines; but they found him wide awake, and no wise inclined to panic or running. Charged at once on three sides, he met the enemy with a fire as deadly as theirs, and with ranks steadier and firmer than those of a charging column could be, and was fully holding his own against them, when Carl Schurz's division of Howard's corps came rushing from Hooker to his aid; Tyndale's brigade assaulting and carrying the hill whence they were enfiladed on their left, while a thin brigade of Steinwehr's division, which closely followed, was led by Col. Orlan Smith, 73d Ohio, on a charge up a very steep, difficult hill farther behind; carrying it without a shot, and taking some prisoners. It was now time for the Rebels to be off, and they left-all save 153 who lay dead in Geary's front, and over 100 prisoners. Their reports admit a loss of 361. Darkness prevented any effective pursuit. Hooker's total loss here was 416." including Gen. Green severely, and Col. Underwood, 33d Mass., desperately wounded. Capt. Geary, son of the General, was killed.

There can be no severer test of the quality of soldiers than such a night attack, in a country whereof they know nothing and their assailants know every thing; and when the presumption is strong that the latter must have carefully measured their strength, and know what they have to do. Geary's men were inferior in number to their foes; but the ordeal was nobly passed. No regiment

Since crossing the Tennessee, 437: 76 killed, 339 wounded, 22 missing. He estimates

quailed; and, though the 73d Ohio suffered most, losing over 100, the charge of the 33d Massachusetts and that of the 136th New York, Col. James Wood, Jr., were equally intrepid and effective. This beginning of its work in the West signally inspirited and prepared Hooker's command for the arduous labors before it.

The flight of the Rebels occurred at 4 A. M., before all Howard's corps had arrived; those in the rear were now halted and impelled in an opposite direction; soon clearing Raccoon mountain of the enemy, with all west of Lookout valley. And Bragg, who had weakened himself by sending Longstreet against Burnside, did not feel encouraged to make any more attacks, but remained quiet and watchful in his intrenchments before Chattanooga.

His position was one of remarkable strength, along the western and northern declivities of the difficult steeps known as Lookout mountain and Mission ridge, and across the valley at the mouth of Chattanooga creek, here very narrow, and so enfiladed by heavy batteries along its mountain sides as to be impregnable to direct assault. Grant was eager to attack, so as to be able to send aid to Burnside, who was urgently calling for it; but the utterly brokendown condition of most of his horses, rendering them unequal to the task of hauling his cannon, much less mounting his cavalry, constrained him to await the arrival of Sherman, who, with the 15th corps, then on the Big Black, had been telegraphed " by Grant, on his assuming command of this department, to embark a di

the Rebel loss much higher-some 1,500; but he is clearly in error. Sept. 22.

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SHERMAN REENFORCES GRANT AT CHATTANOOGA. 437

vision at once for Memphis, and had started it, under Osterhaus, at 4 P. M. of that day. Repairing next day by order to Vicksburg, he dispatched the rest of his corps up the river; following" himself to Memphis, whence he marched eastward, repairing and using the Charleston railroad for his trains, to Corinth. His forces having been sent forward from Memphis in divisions, he took the cars," and reaching, about noon, Colliersville station, found there the 66th Indiana, Col. D. C. Anthony, just undergoing an attack by Chalmers, with 3,000 Rebel cavalry and 8 guns. Having as escort a battalion of the 13th regulars, he helped beat off the assailants, and moved on; reaching Corinth that night.

But the Rebels did not seem reconciled to his movements, and were constantly infesting Osterhaus's division, who held the advance, supported by Morgan L. Smith's, both under the command of Frank Blair, as well as John E. Smith's, which covered the working parties engaged in repairing the railroad; so that the movement had to be made circumspectly and slowly. Stephen D. Lee, with Roddy's and Ferguson's brigades, made up a force of about 5,000 irregular cavalry, who were constantly watching for chances to do mischief; and, though not strong enough to be perilous, they were so lively as to be vexatious. At length, they got directly in the way at Cane creek," near Tuscumbia, compelling Blair to hurt some of them before they would move. By this time-Hooker having long since arrived on the Tennessee -Grant had become impatient for more decisive operations, and a mesSept. 27.

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99 Oct. 11.

91 Oct. 27.

senger reached Sherman with an order to drop all work on the railroad, and push on rapidly to Bridgeport. Moving energetically to Eastport, Sherman found there two gunboats and a decked coal-barge, which Admiral Porter, at his request, had sent up the Tennessee from Cairo, to facilitate his crossing; but two transports and a ferry-boat soon arrived," by whose aid Sherman was pushing on next day, leaving Blair to protect his rear.

Arrived at Rogersville, he

found the Elk unbridged and unfordable, and was compelled to move up its right bank to Fayetteville, crossing there on a stone bridge, and marching by Winchester and Decherd to Bridgeport; " whence he forthwith reported in person to Grant at Chattanooga," being at once made acquainted with the plans of the General commanding, and accompanying him to a survey of the positions of the enemy; returning forthwith to Bridgeport to expedite the movement of his troops.

Grant had resolved to put in Sherman's force mainly on his left-or up the Tennessee; so his first point was to make Bragg believe that he should use it on his extreme right. To this end, his divisions were crossed as they arrived at Bridgeport; the foremost (Ewing's) moving by Shell Mound to Trenton, threatening to assail and turn Bragg's extreme right. But the residue of this army, as it came up, moved quietly and screened from Rebel observation to Kelly's ford, rëcrossing on Smith's pontoons, and marching around Chattanooga to its assigned position on the left of Thomas, where materials had already been noiselessly prepared for throw

Oct. 31.

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3 Nov. 13.

"Nov. 15.

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