A Youth's History of the Great Civil War
Van Evrie, Horton & Co., ©1866
Revised edition, ©2006 www.ronie-mooney-encs.us
The views expressed in the following document do not necessarily represent the views of www.ronie-mooney-encs.us. This document, originally published in 1866, has been provided to the public based solely on its potential value as a historical document.
CHAPTER XX, CLOSING EVENTS OF 1861,AND THE BEGINNING OF 1862
I HAVE now given you the principal military events of the war up to the close of the year 1861. Thus far the tide of victory seemed to be in favor of the Confederates. Some events, however, not yet named, gave great advantage to the abolitionists, as a basis of future operation.
A naval expedition, under the command of Commodore Stringham, started from Fortress Monroe on the 29th of August, to attack the Confederates at Hatteras Inlet, on the coast of North Carolina. This expedition was entirely successful, capturing fifteen cannon, 625 Prisoners, and the Confederate Commodore Barron. On the 7th of November, Port Royal, on the coast of South Carolina, was captured by Captain Dupont. These events were a great loss to the South, as they gave the North excellent depots for naval and military operations.
There were also some military operations in Florida. A regiment of thieves and bruisers raised in the city of New York by "Billy Wilson," was sent to Santa Rosa Island, in the harbor of Pennsacola, as a beginning of abolition warfare in that direction. This regiment was surprised one night by a small force of Confederates, who set the New York bruisers flying, with their colonel, Billy Wilson, at their head. The Confederates, however, being few in number, were obliged to retreat, after burning the camp and all the clothing of Wilson's regiment. This retreat was made so suddenly that the Confederates were obliged to leave several of their wounded behind, who fell into the hands of the Wilson Zouaves, and by whom they were every one inhumanly murdered. When their dead bodies were recovered, they were all found to be shot through the head in a similar manner, besides several wounds in different parts of their bodies.
Nor were the Confederates long permitted to enjoy the fruits of their victories in Kentucky. General Zollicoffer's army was short of provisions, and he preferred to have it remain so to following the example of the abolition commanders, who seemed to enjoy plundering the inhabitants on the line of their march. To such straits was General Zollicoffer reduced, that his soldiers were obliged to live on a ration of beef and half a ration of corn per day. And the corn had to be eaten parched, as they had no meal, and no means of making any. But the soldiers submitted to this destitution without a murmur.
In this starving condition they fought a desperate battle at Mill Spring on the 19th of January, 1862. The abolitionists were led by General Thomas. At first the Confederates were successful, and supposed they had won the day; but an accident turned their victory into an appalling and ruinous defeat. General Zollicoffer's brigade pushed forward to the very top of the hill, just over the brow of which it came upon an Indiana regiment under the command of the abolition Colonel Fry. At first General Zollicoffer mistook this regiment for a portion of his own command. Colonel Fry's Federal uniform was covered by an India rubber coat, and General Zollicoffer rode to within a few feet of him before the mistake was discovered by either party. In a minute Colonel Fry raised his pistol and shot General Zollicoffer dead.
The fall of this brave officer produced a gloom that seemed for the moment to completely paralyze his soldiers, who were all of his own State, Tennessee, and were devotedly attached to him personally. General Crittenden, who was General Zollicoffer's senior in command, tried in vain to regain what had been lost since the earlier part of the battle. Retreat was inevitable. The half-starved Confederates seemed to abandon hope, and flew in confusion before the now victorious enemy.
Just after the events above described, General Grant ascended the Tennessee River, with a fleet of gun-boats and a powerful force to act in conjunction with them. He took Fort Henry without much resistance, and at once turned his attention to Fort Donelson, where there was a considerable Confederate force under Generals Pillow, Buckner, and Floyd. This was a point which nature had strongly fortified, and General Pillow determined to hold it to the last moment possible. General Grant's combined infantry and naval forces were a formidable host indeed.
Grant commenced his attack early on the morning of the 13th of February. He told his staff that he would enter the fort before noon. But the resistance of the Confederates astonished him. When the curtain of night fell upon the bloody scene, he really seemed to have the worst of it, notwithstanding his immense superiority of force. Of twenty gun-boats which he brought into the engagement, five were sunk or crippled. So badly was he punished, that he made no further assault in force upon the fort until three o'clock in the afternoon of the next day. He pushed his boats up to within a few hundred yards of the fort, and opened a murderous fire, which was met with a determination which appeared to him miraculous. His repulse was complete, and at the end of the second day's battle he was forced to fall suddenly back out of range of the Confederate guns, with his fleet frightfully shattered and torn to pieces. He was badly beaten, both in his naval and land forces. But reinforcements were pouring into him every hour by the thousand.
The whole Confederate force was but 13,000 at the commencement of the fighting, and this number had been greatly reduced in the terrible conflict. Grant had been every day reinforced, until he had about eighty thousand men-enough to surround the little Confederate army several times. Further resistance was useless. During the night after the third day's battle, it was resolved to surrender the fort. But General Pillow and General Floyd declared that they would not become prisoners, turned over their command to General Buckner, who sent a flag of truce to Grant for an armistice to negotiate terms of surrender. A large number of General Floyd's command, and a few of General Pillow's, with all of Colonel Forrest's cavalry, succeeded in escaping through the enemy's lines during the night previous, and made their retreat towards Nashville, But the surrender of Fort Donelson tendered the surrender of Nashville, Tennessee, also necessary, as it left an uninterrupted passage for General Grant's gun-boats up the Cumberland River to that city.
Nashville was evacuated in the wildest confusion. Consternation and dismay seized the inhabitants. Governor Harris imprudently rode through the city, shouting to the inhabitants that the Federals were coming. He hastily convened the Legislature, for Nashville is the capital of Tennessee, and adjourned to Memphis, to which place the State books and records were conveyed.
Nashville was one of the most polite and cultivated cities of the South. It was the abode of wealth and refinement. Those who had known it before it fell into the hands of the abolitionists, and who visited it afterwards, remarked that the saddest changes had taken place. All its previous beauty and refinement had banished. The abolition soldiers seemed to delight in violating the wonted propriety and decency of the place. Nashville and vicinity was the scene of many of the exploits of that dashing Confederate officer, General John H. Morgan. At one time he dashed into the camp of a Federal regiment, and captured and carried off a train of wagons.
At another time, with about forty of his men, he entered the town of Gallatin, about twenty-six miles from Nashville, while it was in the possession of the Federals, and marched directly to the telegraph office. He carelessly presented himself to the operator, and asked, "What is the news?" The operator replied that, "it was said that the rebel scoundrel, John Morgan, was in the neighborhood," at the same time flourishing a pistol, saying, "I wish I could see the rascal." Morgan replied, "Well, sir, I am Captain Morgan and you are my prisoner."The valiant operator instantly wilted, and begged that his life might be spared. Captain Morgan told him that he should not be hurt, on condition that he would send such despatches over the wires as he should dictate. To this the operator was glad to agree.
Captain Morgan then sent various brief messages, and one among them to Prentice, the editor of the Louisville Journal, offering to be his escort on a visit he had said he would make to Nashville about that time. Captain Morgan amused himself in this way until the arrival of the cars from Bowling Green, when he, with his forty men;, captured the whole train, taking five abolition officers prisoners.
Captain Morgan often dressed himself in a Federal uniform, and performed some most amusing and daring feats. Once dressed in this fashion he was riding along in the vicinity of Murfreesborol,Tennessee, when he discovered six Federal pickets in a house, enjoying themselves, off of their duty. Having on the coat of a Federal colonel, he at once rode up to them, and roundly scolded the sergeant for being thus, with his men, away from their posts, and arrested the whole party. Supposing him to be a colonel in their army, they readily submitted, and delivered up their arms. He marched them into the road, and taking an opposite direction from the place where the Federal army lay, the sergeant said, "Colonel, we are going the wrong way." "No,"was the reply, "I am Captain Morgan, and you are my prisoners."
Return to History of the Great Civil War
RELATED ARTICLES
Death of Gen. Zollicoffer - 5:06pm
Zollicoffer was killed in the early part of the battle by Col. Fry in the ... Col. Fry, supposing that Zollicoffer was one of our own men, remarked,
Pillow's Fort Donelson's
At a meeting of general officers, called by General Floyd, ... The plan of attack agreed upon and directed by General Floyd to be executed was that,
Forrest's Fort Donelson ORGeneral Buckner
General Buckner said that he could not hold his position over half an hour in ... General Buckner or General Floyd said that they (the enemy) would bring ...
General Gideon Johnson Pillow
General Pillow along with a number of officers and entourage crossed to the opposite ... At Decatur, AL, General Pillow was immediately relived from duty. ...
Death of Gen. Zollicoffer
General Zollicoffer, evidently mistaking Colonel Fry for an officer of his own staff, ... General Zollicoffer was killed by Colonel Fry, of Kentucky,
Ulysses S. Grant - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
General Grant at Cold Harbor, photographed by Mathew Brady in 1864 · Enlarge ... General Grant National Memorial by the National Park Service.
Gen. John Hunt Morgan page
On that day General Morgan, with Major Steele and Captain Carrol, came to Liberty and chose fifty men, ... John Hunt Morgan Camp 1342, Louisville KY ...
