THE CONFEDERATE ARMY. 199 calculation of the probable wants of the under Generals Lee and Floyd, thirty fiscal year ending in June, 1863, at about thousand. In Missouri, under Price and four hundred and seventy-five millions, McCulloch. sixty thousand. In Kento provide for which, with the supply of tucky and Tennessee, under General Althe deficiencies of the previous year, bert S. Johnston, with his headquarters at would necessitate an aggregate of $655,- Nashville, an aggregate of one hundred 000,000 in loans. On the first day of and twenty-five thousand. This includJuly, 1860, the public debt was less than ed General S. B. Buckner's command at sixty-five millions; on the first day of Bowling Green in Kentucky, of twenty July, 1863, supposing the war to con- thousand, and that of Generals Polk and tinue, it was estimated it would reach Pillow at Columbus and Hickman of nearly nine hundred millions. "It is fifteen thousand. The defences of the earnestly to be hoped, however," was lower Mississippi, including New Orthe language of the report," and in the judgment of the Secretary, not without sufficient grounds, that the present war may be brought to an auspicious termination before midsummer. In that event the provision of revenue by taxation, which he has recommended, will amply suffice for all financial exigencies, without resort to additional loans; and not only so, but will enable the government to begin at once the reduction of the existing debt." Such was the expectation of Secretary Chase in regard to the suppression of the Rebellion in the month of December, 1861. leans, were maintained by some sixty thousand. To Charleston, Savannah, Mobile, and Galveston, were assigned some forty thousand.* In the absence of official returns, not accessible at the North at the time, such an estimate, of course, could only be conjectural. Accepting it, however, as a rough calculation, subject to correction, there would probably remain a force sufficient, added to that reported by Secretary Cameron, to raise the aggregate of men enlisted or in arms in all parts of the country to the number of more than a million. What use could be made of We have seen the returns of the this immense host, the equipment of Union army, by the Secretary of War, which had largely drawn upon the workmade to exceed six hundred thousand shops of Europe, and supplied for the men, from which, however, a liberal de- last three months the chief manufacturduction was to be made to reduce the ing industry at home? Would it be number to the force ready for service in concentrated at various points, on the the field. An estimate made at this time Potomac, in Kentucky, on the Mississipby a Northern journal, with a show of pi, the Gulf of Mexico, and meet in particularity, set forth the Confederate deadly conflict on the soil of the Southforce in the field. at nearly five hundred ern States, or would it be held spellthousand. To the Department of the Po-bound in mutual defiance till the sober tomac, under the command of General Jo- second thought of the insurgents would seph E. Johnston, with his headquarters prevail, arrest the impending desolation, at Manassas Junction, Major-General and bring both portions of the nation Gustavus W. Smith commanding the together in fraternal unity under the old left-wing, and General Beauregard the flag? right, were assigned one hundred and Such a result would at any moment fifty thousand men. To the Department have been welcomed by the President, of the Chesapeake, with General Huger the Cabinet, the Northern States, and in command at Norfolk and Portsmouth, the whole civilized world; but the deand General Magruder at Yorktown, cision of the matter rested with the inforty thousand. In Western Virginia, New York Herald, December 7, 1861. and peace under the same government. surgents, and they had shown no disposition to bring about so acceptable an event. Their leaders had resolved upon Independence, and they would fight for it to the end. The voice of the Confederate Government was clear enough on this point, and there was no lack of zeal in the State authorities to second the resolution. Governor Letcher, of Virginia, a State which had most to lose by the continuance of the conflict, may speak for the rest. In his message to the legislature of his State at the time of which we write, the beginning of December, he Of a similar tone, stronger, if possible, reviewed the condition of affairs. With in its contempt of the North, was the a coolness and imperturbability belong-language held in South Carolina the preing to the practiced politician, he spoke as the representative of a cause which had only to be asserted to be successful. Taking for granted the proposition that it was the intention of the Government at Washington to subjugate the South, and coerce its people to remain in a Union, the great aims and objects of which," he asserted, "had failed," he maintained that the struggle which had been begun should not terminate "until our enemies shall recognize fully and unconditionally the independence of the Southern Confederacy." Whatever men or money should be wanted, he promised, should be cheerfully furnished. "There can be and there will be no compromise. We can never again live in harmony vious month to the legislature by Governor Pickens. "As far as the Northern States are concerned, their Government is hopelessly gone, and if we fail, with all our conservative elements to save us, then, indeed, there will be no hope for an independent and free republic on this continent, and the public mind will despondingly turn to the stronger and more fixed forms of the Old World. Clouds and darkness may rest upon our beloved country, but if we are true to ourselves and just to others, looking with confiding faith up to that Providence who presides over the destinies of men and governments, we will surely triumph and come out of our trials a wiser and a better people." CHAPTER LI. MILITARY OPERATIONS IN KENTUCKY-BATTLE OF MILL SPRING, JANUARY 19, 1862. On the 9th of November, by a new arrangement at Washington of the military Districts of the West, Brigadier-General Don Carlos Buell was placed in charge of the Department of the Ohio, consisting of the States of Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, the portion of Kentucky east of the Cumberland River, and the State of | Tennessee, while the portion of Kentucky west of the Cumberland was included in the Department of the Missouri assigned to General Halleck. General Buell, a native of Ohio, about forty-two years of age, was a graduate of West Point of 1841, appointed to the 3d Infantry, and a few years after distinguish ZOLLICOFFER'S PROCLAMATION. ed himself in the war with Mexico, where he had risen from 1st Lieutenant to the brevet rank of Major. He was in the engagements at Monterey, Cerro Gordo, Contreras, and was wounded at Churubusco. He subsequently filled the office of Assistant Adjutant-General. He had been actively engaged in the organization of the army, and in command on the Potomac since the breaking out of the Rebellion. His appointment as the successor of General Sherman, was hailed as the promise of an energetic and decisive campaign. ninth year. 201 eral Hardee from Southeastern Missouri, when that officer superseded General Buckner in his command. General Polk also received some additions to his force, already large, while General Zollicoffer, having secured the pass at Cumberland Gap, was taking up an important position in the midst of the rich mineral and agricultural district on the upper waters of the Cumberland. On the 16th of December, from his camp at Birch Grove, he addressed a Proclamation to the People of Southeastern Kentucky, assuring them that he came not to war upon KenThe inevitable moment of action was tuckians, but to repel "those armed Northnow approaching. The appointment in ern hordes who were attempting the subOctober of the Confederate general, jugation of a sister Southern State." Albert S. Johnston, to the Department of Adroitly turning the evils he himself the Mississippi, had infused new vigor was creating to the charge of the supinto the operations of the rebels on the porters of the Government, whose whole Kentucky frontier. This officer was a object was the preservation of the peacenative of Kentucky, now in his fifty-ful relations he was seeking to destroy, He had been educated at this ruthless invader, whose path was West Point, and was engaged in the marked by devastation, proclaimed that Black Hawk war, acting as Adjutant- he had come to "open again the rivers, General when President Lincoln was a restore the ancient markets and the acCaptain of Volunteers. He resigned his customed value of lands and labor." commission at the close of the war, and With a consciousness of past misdeeds, resided first in Missouri, afterwards in he admitted that his force had been reTexas. On the war breaking out in presented as murderers and outlaws. that region he entered again into military service, and became Secretary of War. When the country was annexed, and war with Mexico followed, he raised a partisan troop and accompanied. General Taylor to Monterey. When peace came he received from the Government the office of Paymaster. Jefferson Davis when Secretary of War made him Colonel of the 2d Cavalry, and he was subsequently appointed to the command of the Southwestern Military District. President Buchanan placed him at the head of the grand military expedition to Utah, from which he returned to join the Rebellion. Calling together considerable bodies of troops from various quarters, General Johnston now strengthened the force at Bowling Green by the division of Gen We have come to convince you," he said, "that we truly respect the laws, revere justice and mean to give security to your personal and property rights." With a liberal employment of the maxim that all is fair in war, in other words, with a total disregard of truth, he asserted that the openly avowed object on the part of the North was to set the slaves at liberty, while "the ensuing step will be to put arms in their hands and give them political and social equality with yourselves. We saw these things," he added, "in the beginning, and are offering our heart's blood to avert those dreadful evils which we saw the Abolition leaders had deliberately planned for the South. must have the ballot or none; all men must have the bullet or none,' said Mr. 'All men Seward the present Federal Secretary August Willich, a soldier of European experience, entered the service as Major of Colonel McCook's 9th Ohio. The efficiency of both regiments was largely due to his zeal and ability as an instructor and disciplinarian. After this engagement the enemy, falling back towards Bowling Green, having destroyed the northern railway communication, strengthened their defences at that place, and concentrated there a large force under command of General Albert Sydney Johnston; while McCook's, Nelson's, and Mitchell's divisions of General Buell's army threatened the position in front. Whilst these twofold preparations of attack and defence were being made and similar proceedings were going on upon the line of Zollicoffer's advance, there was a sudden diversion of a portion of the national forces to arrest a movement of General Humphrey Marshall, who, notwithstanding his previous disclaimer, was again himself in arms. He was this time in command of a force of some three thousand rebels in the extreme eastern portion of the State, on the Big Sandy River. where he had entrenched himThe Union loss was Lieutenant Saxe self in the neighborhood of Paintsville. and eight men killed and ten wounded.* Thither, by order of General Buell, he The Indiana troops were aided by a was pursued by Colonel Garfield, folbattery stationed on the north side of lowing up the course of the river from the river. The enemy retreated as the Ohio, at the head of a brigade reinforcements were coming up. Col- composed of his own, the 42d Ohio regionel Willich's command was handsomely ment, the 14th Kentucky, and three huncomplimented a few days after in an or- dred of the 2d Virginia cavalry. His der from General Buell, at Headquarters march was one of extraordinary difficulat Louisville. He thanked the offi- ties from the state of the roads, the men cers and soldiers of the regiment for being compelled to relieve the teams by their gallant and efficient conduct, com- adding a portion of the transportation mending it as a study and example to burdens to their own, as they made all other troops under his command, and their way through the deep mud of the enjoining them to emulate the discipline wet, inclement winter season. On hearand instruction which ensure such re- ing of their approach, Marshall broke sults." He ordered the name of Row-up his camp and began a retreat, his lett Station to be inscribed on the regi- whole army flying in confusion, closely mental colors of the regiment. Colonel pursued by Colonel Garfield's troops. In an encounter of the cavalry of the ed. *General Buell to General McClellan, December 18, 1861. General Buell's Military Order, December 27, 1861. rival forces three were slain on the rebel BATTLE OF PRESTONBURG. side and a considerable number wounded, while the Union loss was two killed and one wounded. This occurred on the 7th of January, 1862. On the 9th, at noon, Colonel Garfield having been in the meantime reinforced by an Ohio regiment and a squadron of cavalry from Paris, led out a part of his command, eleven hundred men, from Paintsville in further pursuit of the enemy in the direction of Prestonburg. The enemy's pickets were driven in two miles below that town, and night coming on, the men slept on their arms on the field. At four o'clock the next morning they moved toward the main body of General Marshall's army at the forks of Middle Creek, three miles beyond Prestonburg. Skirmishing with his outposts began at eight o'clock, and at one in the afternoon the action became general. Marshall had with him twentyfive hundred men, with three cannon planted on a hill. Colonel Garfield was joined during the action by seven hundred additional troops from Paintsville, making his force in the field eighteen hundred. The engagement lasted till dark when the enemy was driven from all his positions, carrying off with him, however, the greater number of his dead and all his wounded. His loss in killed was estimated by Colonel Garfield at sixty. Twenty-seven were found on the field in the morning. Twenty-five rebel prisoners were taken and a quantity of stores, though the most were burnt in the precipitate retreat. The property found, it was said, "was wretchedly poor, the coats being made almost entirely of cotton." The Union loss was two killed, of the 14th Kentucky, and twenty-five wounded.* The comparatively small number of casualties on that side was owing to the excellent disposition of Colonel Garfield and the protection afforded by a wood to the men. The enemy's cannon were planted to sweep the valley road and his infantry * Colonel J. A. Garfield to Captain J. B. Fry, A. A. G., January 8th, 1862. 203 on the sides of the adjacent hills. Colonel Garfield wholly avoided the guns, bringing his force along the brow of the hill, where the fight was carried on. His men, also, were skillful in availing themselves of the protection of the trees. Among the anecdotes of the engagement, characteristic of this peculiar warfare, the story is told of the commanding Colonel's address to a band of Kentuckians volunteering to clear the hill of the enemy-" Go in boys; give them Hail Columbia!" and of his own enthusiasm being so much excited that he followed on with the reserve, pulling off his coat and flinging it up into the air, where it lodged in a tree. The men then threw up their caps with a wild shout and rushed upon the enemy; Colonel Garfield in his shirt-sleeves leading the way. A member of Captain Bushnell's com- . pany of the commander's 42d Ohio, waз about to bite a cartridge when a musketball struck the cartridge from his fingers. Coolly facing the direction from which the shot came, he took out another cartridge and exclaimed, "You can't do that again, old fellow."* Colonel James A. Garfield, the leader of the Union troops in this encounter, was born in Cuyahoga County, Ohio, in 1831. He was educated at Williams College, Vermont, where it is said, he enjoyed a high reputation for ability, graduating with distinction in 1856. He afterward became Principal of an Academy in northern Ohio, and in 1859 was elected to the State Senate, of which he became a prominent member. He had just been admitted to the bar when the Rebellion broke out. He offered his services to the nation, and was soon at the head of his Ohio regiment. This decisive battle freed the people of Kentucky from the military operations of General Marshall, and left Generals Thomas and Schoepf free to pur * Anecdotes of the engagement narrated by Captain Willard of Colonel Garfield's 42d Ohio Regiment. Cleve land Herald, January 16, 1862. |