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CHAPTER XVII.

WINTER CAMPAIGN OF GENERAL ROSECRANS.

ON the 30th October, 1862, General Rosecrans assumed the command of what was afterwards designated the army of the Cumberland; General Buell having been previously relieved from the command of this army. On entering upon his duties, the new commander found that under his predecessor that army had been subject to depletion in the same form in which that of the Potomac had been diminished under General McClellan, 26,482 of the former army being found to be "absent by authority," and 6,484 "absent without authority." General Rosecrans, on assuming command, found his army, formerly 100,000 strong, now reduced to about 65,000 men, and located at Bowling Green; General Bragg's army, in the meantime, making, with its immense trains, a circuitous retreat round through East Tennessee. As our army was dependent for its supplies upon the Louisville and Nashville Railroad, our commander was not able to reach the latter place and assume the offensive until after General Bragg had concluded his long march and reappeared in our front at Murfreesboro'. In the meantime the Confederate cavalry, greatly superior to our own, and commanded by Generals Morgan and Wheeler, swarmed in all directions. around our forces, breaking up our communications, cutting off our supplies, gobbling up stragglers, and at Hartsville capturing about 2,000 prisoners.

When General Rosecrans was ready to take the field, he found himself at the head of 46,910 men, divided into three grand divisions commanded by Generals McCook, Thomas, and Crittenden. After three or four days marching, with some severe skirmishing and fighting, the two armies,

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on the evening of December 26th, confronted each other, their main forces lying between two streams, Stone river and Overall creek, which united with each other several miles north-east of our position; the battle-field being located from two to four miles north-west of Murfreesboro', the Nashville and Chattanooga Railroad running nearly through the centre of both armies. Our line, stretching from nearly north to south some three to four miles, was deployed in the following order: Crittenden, about 13,000 strong, on our left; Thomas, with an equal force, in the centre; and McCook, with about 15,000, on our right. Of the Confederate line, Hardee occupied their left, Polk the centre, and Breckinridge the right north and west of Stone river. The plan of General Rosecrans was to have McCook hold his own if possible, fight desperately, and retreat slowly, if too hard pressed; while our left and centre were to fall upon Breckinridge, crush him, and rolling up the Confederates upon their centre and right, to interpose between them and Murfreesboro', and thus cut off their retreat. The counter plan of General Bragg was to concentrate a crushing force upon McCook, roll up his divisions upon our centre and left, interpose between our army and Nashville, and thus insure its final capture. Each plan was well conceived, and, what was singular, each commander became, during the night, fully possessed of the other's intentions; General Bragg, unfortunately for us, making the earliest move. At four o'clock in the morning, December 31st, Hardee, greatly reinforced and sustained by the central division under Polk, suddenly emerged from the thickets in McCook's front, while another force assailed his right division in flank, soon hurled his divisions in mingled masses upon our centre, even his left divisions, under J. C. Davis and Sheridan, after the most desperate resistance, being driven back into the rear of our centre. By 11 a.m. more than one-third of our army was almost utterly routed and demoralised, and about half the ground held by us at daylight was occupied by the Confederates, while their cavalry was making sad havock among our stragglers and supply trains between our rear and Nashville.

Our centre, under the indomitable Thomas, now felt the

full force of the Confederate left and centre, even McCook's left division, under Sheridan, falling back, its ammunition being exhausted, behind Thomas. Such was the force of the attack here that Thomas was necessitated to withdraw his two right divisions, under Negley and Rousseau, to a more open and favourable position behind his centre; a movement very ably executed, but with heavy loss, a battalion of regulars losing 530 men. The new ground taken, however, like Thomas's last position at Chickamauga, was held against every effort of Bragg to take it. So matters stood at nightfall, when darkness put an end to the conflict.

At the close of the day our army, while it held its final position, had lost half the ground it occupied in the morning and, including its killed, wounded, and missing, full one-fourth its number, and quite an equal proportion of its guns; while the Confederate cavalry held full possession of our communications, and were plundering at will our baggage and supplies.

The next day both armies remained quiet in their respective positions, a few artillery duels excepted. The second battle, January 2nd, was in most respects a repetition of the first; the Confederates in this instance assailing in great force our left and left centre, and driving them back as they had before done with our right and right centre, until they encountered our batteries, which ploughed through and through them, and compelled them to fall back with the loss of four guns and a considerable number of prisoners. Night setting in prevented any pursuit on the part of our commander. Heavy rains prevented any special movements of either army until the evening of January 3rd, when General Bragg retreated so quietly that even our pickets did not suspect the movement until the next morning. On the day following, our army entered Murfreesborc', where it found about 1,500 of the enemy's sick and wounded left, with medical attendants, in hospitals there.

In these two days' battles Rosecrans admits a loss on our part of 3,778 killed and wounded. Bragg puts his loss at 10,000 in killed, wounded, and missing, and claims to have taken from us on the field and by his cavalry raids,

between Murfreesboro' and Nashville, 6,273 prisoners, 30 guns-he losing 3-6,000 small arms, and vast stores of valuable spoils, besides burning upwards of 800 army waggons, with all their contents. The loss on our part was undeniably far greater than on that of the Confederates. Their retreat, however, leaves the claim of victory to our brave army and its able commander. During the winter following, raids were the order of the day on both sides; the Confederates, on account of their superiority in cavalry, doing us far more injury than they received from us.

Aside from the honour of final mastery of the field, the battle of Murfreesboro' was wholly barren of results on either side. The armies, being nearly equal in number and discipline, slaughtered each other to more than onefourth their number, and then the Confederates went on their way, and the Unionists returned to Nashville. Yet, with no blame whatever to General Rosecrans, no other excuse can be offered for such a battle than the most stupid ignorance on the part of our Commander-in-Chief. We had, as we have seen, at the time when, with an army less than 50,000 strong, Rosecrans moved out from Nashville,—we had in the field quite 1,000,000 men, "fully armed and equipped;" and next to the sphere of the army of the Potomac, that of the Cumberland was the most important in the war. What excuse was there, then, in compelling, as he was really compelled to move, the commander of this army to fight a great national battle with an army less than 100,000 strong. Had this amount of force been furnished our General, the battle of Murfreesboro' would practically have ended the Rebellion, as far as the Confederate States between the Savannah and Mississippi rivers are concerned. But with the stupid unwisdom which controlled our war counsels, 60,000 men could not be at the time furnished for the army of the Cumberland, or for that of the Potomac.

CHAPTER XVIII.

THE SIEGE OF VICKSBURG AND PORT HUDSON.

ON the 16th October, 1862, the department of General Grant was enlarged, so as to include both West Tennessee and Mississippi. On receiving this command, he at once commenced preparations for the capture of Vicksburg. On the 4th July, eight and a half months from that time, our army entered the city, and took possession of its strongholds. The capture of this post has been regarded by perhaps a majority of the people of this country as a feat of masterly generalship, and did, in connexion with the short command of General Grant at Chattanooga, elevate him to the supreme command of our armies, and finally secured for him two elections to the Presidency of these United States. We have never agreed with the estimate placed upon the military character of this transaction. To us, it wears, for the most part, the same dull aspect which generally characterized the conduct of this war. Leaving, in his advance from Grand Junction. to Oxford, his depôt of arms, munitions, and provisions, containing property valued at $4,000,000, $4,000,000, at Holly Springs, guarded but by an effective force of about 1,000 men, when it was well known that the enemy was watching every opportunity to fall upon our communications and cut off our supplies, cannot but be justly regarded as a very gross blunder. Then, on account of such a disaster, which was at once repaired, to abandon the important line of advance by Jackson, and make that long detour round to Memphis and down the Mississippi, seems indicative of a palpable want of military wisdom. Then, Sherman's assault upon Vicksburg, an assault in which