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Chapter 4: campaign of the Army of the Cumberland from Murfreesboro'to Chattanooga.
- The opposing armies in Tennessee, 115.
-- cavalry operations near the Cumberland River, 116.
-- battle near Franklin.
117.
-- Van Dorn's attack on Franklin, 118.
-- Streight's raid below the Tennessee River, 119.
-- capture of Streight and his men
-- execution of two spies, 120.
-- Rosecrans ready to advance, 121.
-- he moves upon Bragg, 122.
-- the latter is driven and chased by Rosecrans, 123.
-- Bragg flies to Chattanooga
-- advance of the Nationals to the Tennessee River, 124. 125.
-- the Nationals pass the Tennessee
-- Bragg abandons Chattanooga, 126.
-- operations in the Department of the Ohio, 127.
-- Burnside moves into East Tennessee, 128.
-- Cumberland Gap recaptured from the Confederates, 129.
-- the National authorities puzzled
-- East Tennessee Unionists, 130.
-- impending struggle near Chattanooga
-- perfidy of the Conspirators, 131.
-- perilous position of the Union Army, 132.
-- preparations for battle
-- preliminary skirmishing, 133.
-- Thomas defeats Bragg's plans, 134.
-- battle of Chickamauga, 135, 136, 137, 138, 139, 140.
-- withdrawal of the Nationals to the front of Chattanooga
-- John Clem, 141.
-- Jefferson Davis a Dictator, 142.
We left
General Rosecrans and the Army of the Cumberland at Murfreesboroa, after the
Battle of Stone's River, at the beginning of 1863, where he established a fortified depot of supplies.
General Bragg, his opponent, had taken a strong position north of the
Duck River,
1 his infantry extending from
Shelbyville to
Wartrace, his cavalry on his right stretched out to
McMinnville, and on his left to
Columbia and
Spring Hill, on the railway between
Nashville and
Decatur.
General Polk's corps was at
Shelbyville.
Hardee's Headquarters were at
Wartrace, and his troops were holding
Hoover's, Liberty, and Bellbuckle Gaps.
Bragg's main base of supplies was at
Chattanooga, on the
Tennessee River, with a large depot at
Tullahoma.
In nearly these repective positions the two armies lay for almost six months, but not in idleness.
Although
Rosecrans had the most men,
Bragg was his superior in cavalry, and this gave the latter a vast advantage, because of the relation of that arm of the service to his adversary's supplies.
These were chiefly drawn from far-distant
Louisville, over a single line of railway, through a country whereof a majority of the inhabitants were hostile to the
Government.
For that reason,
Rosecrans was compelled to keep heavy guards at bridges, trestle-work, and culverts, to prevent their destruction by raiders and resident enemies.
The consequence was that at no time while the two armies confronted each other, from January to June,
could
Rosecrans have brought into the field to fight his foe a number of troops equal to that of his antagonist.
Rosecrans reorganized his army, and divided
it into three corps, known as the Fourteenth, Twentieth, and the Twenty-first, commanded respectively by
Generals Thomas,
McCook, and
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116]
Crittenden, and a reserve and cavalry corps.
2 The winter floods in the
Cumberland favored him, and as rapidly as possible he collected large stores at
Nashville by the river steamers, and made Murfreesboroa a depot for ample supplies.
Finally, he obtained a sufficient number of horses and mules to warrant him in, moving southward.
Before considering that important act, which took place late in June,
let us take a brief survey of the doings of the cavalry and mounted infantry of the two armies curing the suspension of operations in full force.
At the beginning of February,
General Wheeler,
Bragg's chief of cavalry, with four thousand five hundred mounted men, and having
General Wharton and
Colonel N. B. Forrest as brigadiers, concentrated his forces at
Franklin, a little below
Nashville, on the road between that city and
Decatur, for the purpose of attempting the recapture of
Fort Donelson, which, it was known, had not been repaired since it was taken by
Grant.
3 It had not even been occupied, for it was of little account, excepting as a defense against gun-boats coming up the river.
The little village of
Dover, near by, had been partially fortified; and when
Wheeler approached, the garrison, under
Colonel A. C. Harding, consisted of only about six hundred effective men, mostly of the Eighty-third Illinois, with a section of
Flood's battery (four guns) and a 32-pound siege-gun mounted upon a turn-table, and commanded by
N. Grant Abbey, then a private in the Eighty-third Illinois.
4
The chief object of the
Confederates at this time was to interrupt the navigation of the
Cumberland, and thus seriously interfere with the transportation of supplies for
Rosecrans's army to
Nashville, by way of the river.
Forrest had been at
Palmyra for the same purpose; and now, at a little past noon on the 3d of February,
he demanded the surrender of
Fort Donelson and the garrison.
Harding was weak in numbers, but strong in heart.
He defied his foe; and when the
