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ANDREW JOHNSON, GOVERNOR OF TENNESSEE.

selves to be, freemen. Announcing that he would himself take the field at their head, as Governor of the State and commander-in-chief of its army, I call "said he, "upon every able-bodied man of the State, without regard to age, to enlist in its service. I command him who can obtain a weapon to march with our armies. I ask him who can repair or forge an arm, to make it ready at once for the soldier. I call upon every citizen to open his purse and his storehouses of provisions to the brave defenders of our soil. I bid the old and the young, wherever they may be, to stand as pickets to our struggling armies. *** You have done well and nobly, but the work is not yet accomplished. The enemy still flaunts his banner in your face; his foot is upon your native soil; the echo of his drum is heard in your mountains and valleys; hideous desolation will soon mark his felon track unless he is repelled. To you who are armed, and have looked death in the face, who have been tried and are the Old Guard,' the State appeals to uphold her standard. Encircle that standard with your valor and your heroism, and abide the fortunes of war so long as an enemy of your State shall dare confront you. The enemy relies upon your forfeiture to reënlist, and makes sure of an easy victory in your want of endurance. Disappoint

him!"

*

In a message to the legislature the following day, Governor Harris stated, that since the passage of the State act of May, 1861, he had organized and put into the field, for the confederate service, fifty-nine regiments of infantry, one regiment of cavalry, eleven cavalry battalions, and over twenty independent companies, mostly artillery. The Confederate government had armed about fifteen thousand of these troops; but to arm the remainder, Governor Harris had "to draw heavily upon the sporting guns of our citizens."

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The new duties and responsibilities of a mixed civil and military character thrown upon the government by the occupation of so considerable a portion of a State, in open hostility to the Union, were met by the appointment by President Lincoln, of Senator Andrew Johnson, as military Governor of Tennessee. The nomination was confirmed by the Senate on its presentation, on the 4th of March, and at the same time the rank of Brigadier-General was bestowed upon the new Governor. Fully armed with authority to establish a provisional government in the State, Governor Johnson immediately left Washington, for the seat of his new duties, in company with the Hon. Horace Maynard, member of Congress from the Knoxville district of Tennessee, and the Hon. Emerson Etheridge, a loyal member of the previous Congress from eastern Tennessee, at present clerk of the House of Representatives. The party, accompanied by other prominent Union exiles, reached Nashville on the 12th of March. Governor Johnson set himself at once to prepare the way for the restoration of the State to its legitimate position in the Union-a work which would probably have had a good prospect of success, had not the presence of the confederate armies on its soil, marked it out as the "dark and bloody ground" of desperate and continuous conflict. The capture of Nashville, had, in fact, only transferred the war from Kentucky to Tennessee, and the struggle was not likely to grow less desperate as it was brought nearer the strongholds of the rebel authority.

In a speech to the citizens who had assembled before his hotel, on the evening immediately after his arrival, Governor Johnson reminded his hearers of the nature and progress of the rebellion, and the moderate and reasonable course taken by the government for its suppression. He found, he said, the State without authority, its executive, legislature, and judiciary dissolved, or in abeyance; he

was there "to give the protection of law, actively enforced, to her citizens, and, as speedily as may be, to restore her government to the same condition as before the existing rebellion. ** Those who, through the dark and weary night of the rebellion, have maintained their allegiance to the Federal government, will be honored. The erring and misguided, will be welcomed on their return. While it may become necessary, in vindicating the violated majesty of the law, and in reasserting its imperial sway, to punish intelligent and conscious treason in high places, no merely retaliatory or vindic

tive policy will be adopted. To those, especially, who in a private unofficial capacity have assumed an attitude of hostility to the government, a full and complete amnesty for all past acts and declarations is offered, upon the one condition of their again yielding themselves peaceful citizens, to the just supremacy of the laws." In this spirit, blending a good share of sagacity with his patriotic impulses, Governor Johnson entered upon his task, and secured the peace and good order of this important city, under circumstances of no ordinary embarrassment.

CHAPTER LIV.

GENERAL BURNSIDE'S EXPEDITION TO NORTH CAROLINA, AND BATTLE OF ROANOKE ISLAND, FEB. 1862.

DURING the last months of 1862, there | taken for the suppression of the rebelwas considerable activity at New York, lion he was summoned by Governor in the preparation of the material for a Sprague of Rhode Island, where his combined military and naval expedition, merits were well known, to take comwhich was understood to be placed di-mand of the 1st regiment of volunteers rectly under the charge of General Am- of that State. In the organization of the brose Everett Burnside. This gentleman, forces at Washington, previous to the bata native of Indiana, a graduate of West tle at Bull Run, he was assigned a BrigaPoint, in 1847, and subsequently an dier's command in the division of General artillery officer, actively engaged in the Hunter, and, as we have seen, was foreMexican war, and on the frontier, re- most in action in that engagement. His signed his commission in the army, in personal qualities were such as eminently 1853, and then became engaged in Rhode fitted him for command; active, energetic, Island in the manufacture of a breech- and self-reliant, of shrewd military sagaloading rifle invented by himself and city, united with practical experience, a bearing his name. He was thrown out keen disciplinarian, frank and pleasing in of this pursuit, with considerable pecuni- manner, he secured both the respect and ary embarrassment, by the failure of the the affection of his men. Secretary of War, the secessionist Floyd, The entire military force of the expeto provide as had been expected, for the dition, as it was gathered at Annapolis, employment of the weapon in the army. numbered about sixteen thousand men, He then was employed as President of comprising 15 regiments of infantry, a the Land Office Department, and after- battalion of infantry, a battery of artilwards as Treasurer of the Illinois Cen-lery, beside a large body of gunners for tral Railway, the company with which the armed vessels, capable of rendering General McClellan was also connected. service on land, and the sailors of the When the first military measures were fleet. There were three army brigades,

FORCE OF THE EXPEDITION.

243

SO

each including five regiments. To the 1st, for peculiar service on the shores of commanded by General John G. Foster, North Carolina, within the waters of whose services in his command at Fort Pamlico and Albemarle Sounds, and for Sumter during the siege will be remem- the most efficient coöperation of its naval bered, were assigned four Massachusetts and military departments. For this purregiments, the 23d, 24th, 25th, and 27th, pose the guns of the fleet were and the 10th Connecticut. To the 2d, equipped with ship and field carriages, commanded by General Jesse L. Reno, that they might be used either on the of Pennsylvania, a graduate of West water or the land. There was also a Point, of 1846, and afterwards employed thoroughly organized signal corpsin active service in the ordnance depart- formed of twenty-two lieutenants, and ment, were assigned the 21st Massachu- sixty-six picked men of the various regisetts, the 51st Pennsylvania, the 51st ments-who, by a preconcerted system of New York, the 9th New Jersey, and the waving of flags of different colors and 6th New Hampshire. To the 3d, com- sizes by day, and of torches by night, the manded by General John G. Parke, of movements indicating certain figures or Pennsylvania, a graduate of West Point cyphers readily translated, were enabled of 1849, and, previous to the war, en- to communicate intelligence as might be gaged in many responsible employments needed either of the fleet or the army. in the Engineer corps, were assigned the In addition there were two extensive 4th, and a battalion of the 5th Rhode pontoon trains; one, such as is employed Island, the 8th and 11th Connecticut, the by the French, of wooden boats, eight 53d and 89th New York, and Belgier's feet wide, and thirty-two feet long, to be Rhode Island battery of one hundred placed in two parallel lines connected by and six men, one hundred and twenty a flooring; the other, of the regular Indiahorses, four 10-pounder Parrott guns, rubber pattern, familiar to our service. and two 12-pounder field howitzers. The guns carried by the fleet, were For the transportation of this force from mostly of the newest construction of the the Chesapeake, with its various equip- steel rifled Wiard and Parrott patterns, ments, horses, arms, and supplies of coal, with an effective range of from one and lumber, water, provisions, etc., there was a half to two and a half miles. Thus employed a fleet of side-wheel steamers, armed and equipped, and laden with her armed propellers, and sailing vessels of precious freight of picked trained men, varying denominations, numbering in all and a numerous array of staff officers, more than a hundred craft. attached to the commander-in-chief and the several brigades, the Burnside Expedition, after months of anxious preparation, set sail from the first rendezvous at Annapolis, on the 9th of January, 1862. Owing to dense fogs in the Chesapeake Bay, incident to the season, the next station at Fortress Monroe was not reached till midnight of the 10th. The next day without detention, the order was given to sail, and Sunday, the 11th, saw the fleet at sea. It was now to be seen what fortune so numerous a band of vessels, many of small size, and some of them dependent on the others for their progress and safety, would have

In addition to this military array, an imposing naval squadron, numbering eighteen light-draught steam gunboats, with an armament of about fifty heavy rifle cannon accompanied the expedition. The command of this force and of the naval operations generally, was assigned to Flag-Officer L. M. Goldsborough, the Commander-in-Chief of the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron, and was divided into two columns for active service, to be led by commanders S. F. Hazard, and Stephen C. Rowan, of the United States Navy.

The entire expedition was arranged

happily all were not alike in safety. The Grapeshot, one of the floating batteries towed by the steamer New Brunswick, was compelled to be abandoned before reaching the inlet, the men on board being with difficulty saved by the crew of the steamer. The larger vessels and a num

upon the broad Atlantic. As it was generally supposed, while the vessels were collecting, that they would be employed inside of the capes of Virginiaevery spot having been mentioned, from the Rappahannock to Elizabeth Riverbut little anxiety had been felt respecting their sea-going qualities. Now, how-ber of schooners which had arrived, were ever, the case was different. The unusual inclemency of the season, and the proverbial dangers of Hatteras, whither it was now at once understood that the fleet was sailing, were highly suggestive of alarm for the safety of the frail barks; while the storms which had beset the expeditions to Charleston and Port Royal, were not forgotten. Indeed, when it was understood that the route was seaward, a number of light-draught tug steamers, notwithstanding their charter engagements, much to its detriment, were withdrawn from the expedition. The event proved that there was no little hazard from the elements in the adventure.

Sunday, the first day out, there was considerable embarrassment from the fog on the coast, which greatly impeded progress. Monday was clear, with a heavy wind and rough sea, which caused the vessels to labor very heavily and some were obliged to cut loose from the vessels they were towing. Noon, however, of that day, saw most of them inside of the bar at Hatteras Inlet, their first southern destination, in time to escape the severe gale of Monday night and Tuesday, which set in with extraordinary violence, even for this latitude of storms. The anchorage, however, was not of the best; the vessels were crowded together in a space quite too small for their accommodation, and were jostled with one another and suffered much in consequence. There were quiet waters, indeed, within Pamlico Sound, but they could be reached only by a narrow channel over an inner bar or bulkhead, which except at high tide, when it barely furnished seven and a half feet of water, permitted none but vessels of the lightest draft to pass. Un

compelled to remain at the anchorage outside, where they were exposed to the full fury of the tempest. The steamer City of New York, a propeller of nearly six hundred tons, commanded by Capt. J. W. Nye, reached Hatteras on the afternoon of Monday, only to perish within sight of the shore. As she was endeavoring to enter the inlet, she grounded on the bar, and was immediately exposed to the force of the breakers. Her officers and crew took to the rigging for safety. All that night and the next day, the vessel lay in this condition, at the mercy of the elements, beyond the reach of succor. It was not till Wednesday, that her crew were enabled to reach the shore. The last to leave the vessel, Mr. Shouerman, the second engineer, mounted the mast, cut down the flag and bore it wrapped round his body to the shore. "I meant," said he, "either to die in its folds, or bring it safely to land." The spirited act is enhanced, by comparison with the conduct of the first mate, who, with his companions, left the ship in the best boat as soon as she had struck. The loss of the vessel was very freely charged to the treachery of the pilot. Suspicion, in fact, was everywhere an inevitable attendant of this unhappy struggle. The steamer lay a week, fast breaking up upon the sand. She was laden with ammunition and military equipments. Four hundred barrels of gunpowder, fifteen hundred rifles, eight hundred shells, and other stores and supplies, went down with her.

Two days later, on the seventeenth, the steamer Pocahontas, quite unseaworthy and commanded by a drunken captain, laden with horses mostly belonging to the Rhode Island regiment, went ashore

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