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An English Combatant, Lieutenant of Artillery of the Field Staff., Battlefields of the South from Bull Run to Fredericksburgh; with sketches of Confederate commanders, and gossip of the camps., Chapter 3: (search)
unting to a dozen. We then gave up the fight, and retired towards Cole Camp, where, it was said, a force of the enemy were stationed to intercept us; these were attacked during the night by Colonel Kane with a small body of rebels, and defeated, with a loss of more than two hundred men killed, one hundred taken, and five hundred stand of arms. This capture assisted in arming hundreds who were flocking to us on our line of march towards Warsaw, on the Osage River. Though pursued by Colonel Totten and a thousand cavalry, Governor Jackson safely reached Warsaw, where we rested, and began to look about us. Our case was desperate; we were but a few ill-armed men of all ages and all sizes, unaccustomed to military service, and less used to privations and sufferings. We had no tents, no commissary or quartermaster's stores, few wagons, and those of an inferior kind — in truth, we were a small band of patriots vastly in need of every thing but pluck. As the enemy were making disposit
An English Combatant, Lieutenant of Artillery of the Field Staff., Battlefields of the South from Bull Run to Fredericksburgh; with sketches of Confederate commanders, and gossip of the camps., Chapter 7: (search)
we could not ascertain with precision, but they were said to number at least ten thousand men, well armed, well drilled, and counting thousands of regulars among them. They also had a strong force of cavalry, and some twenty pieces of artillery-Totten's battery being considered one of the best in the old Federal army. Our effective force amounted to about five thousand ill-armed, badly drilled men, and some six thousand horsemen, who were, for politeness' sake, called cavalry; but they had nong into confusion. When our men had recovered from their excitement and formed line, it was found that Sigel had already advanced some distance, while Lyon, hearing that Sigel was fairly engaged, pushed the centre and left with great energy. Totten's battery was admirably posted on an eminence, and ploughed up the ground in our front. Yet there old Price, our gallant commander, rode up and down the line, with white hair streaming in the wind, cheering, forming, and encouraging his ragged m
The Annals of the Civil War Written by Leading Participants North and South (ed. Alexander Kelly McClure), Torpedo service in Charleston harbor. (search)
d floating with the current at the rate of about four and a half miles an hour. I was struck with the difficulties of trailing or traversing the guns-forty-two pounders and eight-inch columbiads-and with the consequent inaccuracy of the firing. Reflecting upon the matter, I devised soon afterward a simple method of overcoming the difficulty by the application of a rack and lever to the wheels of the chassis of the guns; and I sent drawings of the improvement to the Chief of Engineers, General Totten, who referred them, with his approval, to the Chief of Ordnance. In the course of a few weeks the latter informed me that his department had not yet noticed any great obstacle in traversing guns on moving objects, and therefore declined to adopt my invention. When charged, in 1861, with the Confederate attack on Fort Sumter, I described this device to several of my engineer and artillery officers; but before I could have it applied I was ordered to Virginia to assume command of the Con
Fitzhugh Lee, General Lee, Chapter 2: birth.-career as officer of Engineers, United States army. (search)
The city of Vera Cruz was surrounded by a wall and strengthened by forts, the castle of San Juan de Ulloa, its fortress, was defended by four hundred guns and five thousand men under General Morales. The soldierly genius of Scott at once told him there were but two ways to capture the city-either by storming or by the scientific principles of regular siege approaches. In his Little Cabinet, as he called it (it appears he was even then thinking of a future presidency)-consisting of Colonel Totten, Chief Engineer; Lieutenant-Colonel Hitchcock, Acting Inspector General; Captain R. E. Lee, Engineer; First-Lieutenant Henry L. Scott, Acting Adjutant General-these questions were taken up. A deathbed discussion could hardly have been more solemn, the army commander tells us. To his Cabinet he said: We, of course, gentlemen, must take the city and castle before the return of the vomito, and then escape by pushing the contest into the healthy interior. He was strongly inclined to attempt
John G. Nicolay, A Short Life of Abraham Lincoln, condensed from Nicolay and Hayes' Abraham Lincoln: A History, Chapter 21. (search)
new face upon the proposed campaign against Richmond. During the forenoon of the next day, March 9, a despatch was received from Fortress Monroe, reporting the appearance of the rebel ironclad Merrimac, and the havoc she had wrought the previous afternoon — the Cumberland sunk, the Congress surrendered and burned, the Minnesota aground and about to be attacked. There was a quick gathering of officials at the Executive Mansion-Secretaries Stanton, Seward, Welles, Generals McClellan, Meigs, Totten, Commodore Smith, and Captain Dahlgren-and a scene of excitement ensued, unequaled by any other in the President's office during the war. Stanton walked up and down like a caged lion, and eager discussion animated cabinet and military officers. Two other despatches soon came, one from the captain of a vessel at Baltimore, who had left Fortress Monroe on the evening of the eighth, and a copy of a telegram to the New York Tribune, giving more details. President Lincoln was the coolest man
Philip Henry Sheridan, Personal Memoirs of P. H. Sheridan, General, United States Army ., Chapter XV (search)
have taken up a lively pace for Fort Stevenson. After reciprocal explanations with the officer in charge of the train, the march was resumed, and at the close of that day we camped near a small lake about twenty miles from Fort Totten. From Totten we journeyed on to Fort Abercrombie. The country between the two posts is low and flat, and I verily believe was then the favorite abiding-place of the mosquito, no matter where he most loves to dwell now; for myriads of the pests rose up out of the tall rank grass — more than I ever saw before or since-and viciously attacked both men and animals. We ourselves were somewhat protected by gloves and head-nets, provided us before leaving Totten, but notwithstanding these our sufferings were wellnigh intolerable; the annoyance that the poor mules experienced must, therefore, have been extreme; indeed, they were so terribly stung that the blood fairly trickled down their sides. Unluckily, we had to camp for one night in this region; but w
Varina Davis, Jefferson Davis: Ex-President of the Confederate States of America, A Memoir by his Wife, Volume 1, Chapter 39: Cabinet life. (search)
ce, and Russia as well. We invited the general officers of the Army and the ambassadors from these countries to meet the Commission. Generals Scott, Jessup, and Totten were present. Colonel Delafield was an alert soldierly man with much of scientific acquirement, but a curt manner. Major Mordecai was a Hebrew, and one could re us a most favorable impression of him. The instinct of protection was strong in General Scott, and he assumed a protectorate over Captain McClellan at once. General Totten and he were talking about traprock in an undertone, while General Scott was explaining to the Comte de Sartige how to cook terrapin, mixing the wine with a juClellan just then uttered the word trap. General Scott set his fork rampant and called across the table, No, sir — I say no, they are never caught in traps. General Totten explained in his debonnaire way that they were speaking of traprock, but the General gave us a disquisition upon the proper manner of chasing buffalo upon the
Varina Davis, Jefferson Davis: Ex-President of the Confederate States of America, A Memoir by his Wife, Volume 1, Chapter 40: social relations and incidents of Cabinet life, 1853-57. (search)
that I never heard one derogatory word of him. He never was known to deny charity to those who asked it of him, and no man who had merited his good opinion would willingly forfeit it, or having taken his advice doubted his wisdom. His nephew, whom he brought up, Colonel George Gibson, of the United States Army, long afterward proved the heredity of nature by his own life of usefulness. He was honored in a less degree only than his uncle had been, and was equally worthy and beloved. General Totten was an exceedingly elegant man in his deportment, and most kind-hearted and observant of all the courtesies of life, besides being a soldier in the scientific sense of the term. The Surgeon-General was a spare, keen-eyed man of warm sympathies, hot resentments, and great dignity. He was a clever physician, and had a composure of manner most reassuring under trying circumstances; but he suffered under one idiosyncrasy of which I have never seen another example. The moment the name of a
Southern Historical Society Papers, Volume 5. (ed. Reverend J. William Jones), Torpedo service in the Harbor and water defences of Charleston. (search)
ng a hogshead floating with the current at the rate of about four and a half miles an hour. I was struck with the difficulties of trailing or traversing the guns-42-pounders and 8-inch columbiads-and with the consequent inaccuracy of the firing. Reflecting upon the matter, I devised soon afterward a simple method of overcoming the difficulty by the application of a rack and lever to the wheels of the chassis of the guns; and I sent drawings of the improvement to the Chief of Engineers, General Totten, who referred them, with his approval, to the Chief of Ordnance. In the course of a few weeks the latter informed me that his department had not yet noticed any great obstacle in traversing guns on moving objects, and therefore declined to adopt my invention. When charged in 1861 with the Confederate atack on Fort Sumter, I described this device to several of my engineer and artillery officers; but before I could have it applied I was ordered to Virginia to assume command of the Confed
Horace Greeley, The American Conflict: A History of the Great Rebellion in the United States of America, 1860-65: its Causes, Incidents, and Results: Intended to exhibit especially its moral and political phases with the drift and progress of American opinion respecting human slavery from 1776 to the close of the War for the Union. Volume II., II. Missouri--Arkansas. (search)
idly northward. Col. Clark Wright, 6th Missouri cavalry, was sent with 1,200 men in pursuit; Gen. Totten being directed by Schofield to strike the band which had just captured Independence, before iaj. Foster; who, with the 7th militia cavalry, 800 strong, had been pushed out from Lexington by Totten, in quest of Hughes. These combinations upon our side failed most signally. Coffey and Hugheattack at daylight next morning; Gen. Blunt approaching Newtonia from the north and west, and Gen. Totten from the east. He found, on coming up, that the enemy had sent their baggage to the rear, an000 or 4,000 Rebel cavalry who were encamped on White river, 8 miles from Fayetteville; while Gen. Totten, advancing via Fayetteville, was to assail them in front. Gen. Herron reached their camp at in superior numbers, fled rapidly into the mountains, with the loss of their camp equipage. Gen. Totten did not arrive till after they had vanished. Gen. Schofield found no further enemies within
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