and artillery escaped. The enemy were followed to Duck River by General Sheridan, who succeeded in capturing some prisoners. On the 20th of March, a force of fourteen hundred men, under Colonel A. S. Hall, was attacked by the Confederates, under John Morgan, at Milton, twelve miles northeast of Murfreesboro', and after a sharp conflict the assailants were driven off. Many expeditions were sent out by both sides with more or less success. About the 10th of April, Van Dorn, with a force of about ten thousand men, renewed the attack at Franklin upon General Granger, whose force consisted of the divisions of Brigadier-Generals Baird and Gilbert, and sixteen guns, and Brigadier-General Smith's cavalry brigade of eleven hundred and twenty-eight men; also a cavalry force of sixteen hundred men and two guns, under Colonel Stanley. The command of Stanley was severely handled by the enemy, who finally withdrew with the loss of many killed and wounded and two cannon. On the 28th of April, General Reynolds's Division, with a mounted force, moved to attack the enemy at McMinnville, whence supplies were sent to Chattanooga. The operation was a success. In the first week of April a cavalry expedition, consisting of the First Indiana, Eightieth Illinois, and portions of two Ohio regiments, under the command of Colonel A. D. Streight, numbering altogether eighteen hundred men, was sent into Northern Georgia, mainly to cut the railroads which supplied the Confederate army by way of Chattanooga. At Eastport he formed a junction with General Dodge's force, then marching upon Tuscumbia, and defeated the Confederate troops stationed there, with considerable loss to them. Thence he moved through Northern Georgia, aiming to reach the important points of Rome and Atlanta. Meanwhile General Dodge, with his force, turned southward, to make a sweeping raid in Northern Alabama, and return to his head-quarters at Corinth. No sooner had Colonel Streight commenced his march than information of his movements was received by General Forrest and Colonel Roddy, who, with a cavalry force, happened to be within striking distance. By a rapid movement they came upon the rear of Colonel Streight, and commenced a running fight, which continued for four days, during which there were two severe battles and several spirited skirmishes. After the Federal troops had marched over a hundred miles towards the heart of Georgia, the rebel force increased to overwhelming numbers, and Colonel Streight, having expended his ammunition, and his men becoming exhausted, was compelled to surrender at a point fifteen miles from Rome. His men, numbering thirteen hundred, were paroled and sent to Virginia, and exchanged about Ewo months afterwards. But his officers were retained and imprisoned, on the demand of the Governor of Georgia, by whom they were laimed as having incurred the penalty fixed by a statute of the State or inciting slaves to rebellion. It was charged, at the time of the urrender, that negroes were found in Colonel Streight's command, niformed and bearing arms. This was denied by the privates, who sserted that only five or six negroes were with the command, and ey had started with it from Nashville. This imprisonment of Coloel Streight caused the Federal Government to suspend the exchange of Confederate officers, and subsequently to imprison General John Morgan and his officers in the penitentiary of Ohio. Colonel Streight was then released from imprisonment as a felon, and subsequently General Morgan escaped., Colonel Streight also effected his escape from the rebel prison in Richmond. As the spring wore on without any movement being commenced in Tennessee, the inactivity of Rosecrans produced much dissatisfaction. General Grant was at that time pressing the siege of Vicksburg, watched by Johnston in Mississippi, while Bragg was facing Rosecrans. It was supposed that in consequence of the pressing needs of Pember ton at Vicksburg, Bragg was sending troops to Johnston to enable him to operate upon Grant's rear. Hence, Rosecrans, re-enforced by Burnside, was ordered to attack Bragg while he was thus weakened. Rosecrans replied, that his cavalry was not yet mounted, that the enemy was not weakened materially, that the army could not advance with reasonable prospects of success, and that a decisive movement at that time was not advisable. This opinion was shared by nearly all the commanders in the army. If Bragg was about to aid Johnston, they argued, he could do so only by leaving Rosecrans's front, which would give the opportunity to advance. On the other hand, if Grant should be defeated, Johnston would join Bragg, and then Rosecrans should be near his base, to receive their attack. Notwithstanding these rea sons, Rosecrans commenced on June 25th a series of operations which, without bringing on a general engagement, resulted in the retreat of the enemy, on July 4th, upon Chattanooga. At the same time, General Stanley occupied Shelbyville, and pushed on to Huntsville, while Granger held the former place. This retreat of Bragg, by abandoning Middle Tennessee to the Federal troops, had a demoralizing effect upon his forces, and discouraged the friends of the Confederacy in Tennessee. The Federal losses in these operations were eighty-five killed, four hundred and sixty-two wounded, and thirteen missing. There were captured from the enemy one thousand six hundred and thirty-four prisoners, and six pieces of artillery, many small-arms, much camp equipage, and large quantities of commissary and quartermaster's stores. Bragg, having returned to Chattanooga on the south side of the Tennessee River, now fortified his position, and threw up defensive works at the crossing of the river and as far up as Blythe's Ferry. The plan of campaign adopted for the capture of the entire upper mountain region of East Tennessee was an advance in double exterior lines, concentric on the enemy. The main column, under Rosecrans, was to move from the front of operations at Tullahoma and Winchester, on Chattanooga; and a co-operative column, under Burnside, to move from Lexington, Kentucky, on Knoxville, and thence on Chattanooga. It will be observed that Rosecrans's line of advance was almost due east-about eighty miles-while Burnside's was almost due south, about two hundred miles. As both aimed at one common objective point, and moved on it from opposite points, with the enemy lying between them, the lines of advance were, as we have named them, exterior and concentric towards the enemy. The first object of General Rosecrans was to repair the railroad from Nashville to Stevenson in Alabama. At Stevenson the Nashville Railroad unites with the Memphis and Charleston road. Stevenson is thirty-seven miles west of Chattanooga, on the line of the latter road. Having completed his preparations, he commenced August 16th his movement on Chattanooga and its covering mountain ridges on the southeast. On that day, General Thomas moved from Decherd, with the division of Payne in advance, and occupied Stevenson. On the same day McCook's Corps occupied Salem, ten miles from Winchester, on the Huntsville road, and moved on to Bellepont, twelve miles east of Stevenson, while Crittenden moved north of Chattanooga. The front of the entire movement extended from the head of Sequatchie Valley in East Tennessee to Athens in Alabama, thus threatening the line of the Tennessee River from Whitesburg to Blythe's Ferry, a distance of one hundred and fifty miles. A glance at the map will show that the Tennessee River, after running due westward from Chattanooga for twenty miles, turns abruptly, and takes an almost due southerly direction, and the line of advance of Rosecrans's army eastward would meet it almost at right angles. The river was crossed on the last day of August at three points-Bridgeport, Stevenson, and Shell Mound-the passage being effected by the fords and one pontoon bridge. While, however, the main body of the army-comprising the right (McCook's Corps, the Twentieth) and the centre (Thomas's, the Fourth)-were thrown over the river at the points indicated, for a flank march on Chattanooga, by the south side of the river, the left wing of the army (Crittenden's Corps, the Twenty-first) was swung round the bend of the river, on the north side, for a direct attack from that side. The task before the two columns of the army, therefore, was, for the first, an advance over an interval of thirty miles, between the points of crossing the Tennessee and Chattanooga (a country exceedingly rugged and mountainous); and, for the second, a swinging movement by way of the Sequatchie Valley, on the front of Chattanooga. After effecting the passage of the river, on the 31st, Rosecrans halted his columns, for some days, for the purpose of allowng part of the programme of combined operations assigned to Genral Burnside to be further developed. Burnside had assumed the command of the Department of the Ohio |
