I Had Not been in
Mexico many weeks when, reading a
St. Louis paper, I found the
President had asked the
Illinois delegation in Congress to recommend some citizens of the
State for the position of brigadier-general, and that they had unanimously recommended me
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as first on a list of seven.
I was very much surprised because, as I have said, my acquaintance with the Congressmen was very limited and I did not know of anything I had done to inspire such confidence.
The papers of the next day announced that my name, with three others, had been sent to the Senate, and a few days after our confirmation was announced.
When appointed brigadier-general I at once thought it proper that one of my aides should come from the regiment I had been commanding, and so selected
Lieutenant C. B. Lagow.
While living in
St. Louis, I had had a desk in the law office of
McClellan,
Moody and [William S.]
Hillyer.
Difference in views between the members of the firm on the questions of the day, and general hard times in the border cities, had broken up this firm.
Hillyer was quite a young man, then in his twenties, and very brilliant.
I asked him to accept a place on my staff.
I also wanted to take one man from my new home,
Galena.
The canvass in the Presidential campaign the fall before had brought out a young lawyer by the name of
John A. Rawlins, who proved himself one of the ablest speakers in the
State.
He was also a candidate for elector on the Douglas ticket.
When
Sumter was fired upon and the integrity of the
Union threatened, there was no man more ready to serve his country than he. I wrote at once asking him to accept the position of assistant adjutant-general with the rank of captain, on my staff.
He was about entering the service as major of a new regiment then organizing in the northwestern part of the
State; but he threw this up and accepted my offer.
Neither
Hillyer nor
Lagow proved to have any particular taste or special qualifications for the duties of the soldier, and the former resigned during the
Vicksburg campaign; the latter I relieved after the
battle of Chattanooga.
Rawlins remained with me as long as he lived, and rose to the rank of brigadier-general and chief-of-staff to the
General of the Army — an office created for him-before the war closed.
He was an able man, possessed of great firmness, and could say “no” so emphatically to a request which he thought should not be granted that the person he was addressing would understand at once that there was no use of pressing the matter.
General Rawlins was a very useful officer in other ways than this.
I became very much attached to him.
Shortly after my promotion I was ordered to
Ironton, Missouri,
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to command a district in that part of the
State, and took the 21st Illinois, my old regiment, with me. Several other regiments were ordered to the same destination about the same time.
Ironton is on the Iron Mountain railroad, about seventy miles south of
St. Louis, and situated among hills rising almost to the dignity of mountains.
When I reached there, about the 8th of August,
Colonel B. Gratz Brown-afterwards
Governor of
Missouri and in 1872 Vice-Presidential candidate — was in command.
Some of his troops were ninety days men and their time had expired some time before.
The men had no clothing but what they had volunteered in, and much of this was so worn that it would hardly stay on.
General Hardee-the author of the tactics I did not study — was at
Greenville, some twenty-five [forty] miles further south, it was said, with five thousand Confederate troops.
Under these circumstances
Colonel Brown's command was very much demoralized.
A squadron of cavalry could have ridden into the valley and captured the entire force.
Brown himself was gladder to see me on that occasion than he ever has been since.
I relieved him and sent all his men home, within a day or two, to be mustered out of service.
Within ten days after reaching
Ironton I was prepared to take the offensive against the enemy at
Greenville.
I sent a column east out of the valley we were in, with orders to swing around to the south and west and come into the
Greenville road ten miles south of
Ironton.
Another column marched on the direct road and went into camp at the point designated for the two columns to meet.
I was to ride out the next morning and take personal command of the movement.
My experience against
Harris, in northern Missouri, had inspired me with confidence.
But when the evening train came in, it brought
General B. M. Prentiss with orders to take command of the district.
His orders did not relieve me, but I knew that by law I was senior, and at that time even the
President did not have the authority to assign a junior to command a senior of the same grade.
I therefore gave
General Prentiss the situation of the troops and the general condition of affairs, and started for
St. Louis the same day [August 18]. The movement against the rebels at
Greenville went no further.
From
St. Louis I was ordered to
Jefferson City, the capital of the
State, to take command.
General Sterling Price, of the Confederate army, was thought to be threatening the capital,
Lexington,
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Chillicothe and other comparatively large towns in the central part of
Missouri.
I found a good many troops in
Jefferson City, but in the greatest confusion, and no one person knew where they all were.
Colonel [James A.]
Mulligan, a gallant man, was in command, but he had not been educated as yet to his new profession and did not know how to maintain discipline.
I found that volunteers had obtained permission from the department commander, or claimed they had, to raise, some of them, regiments; some battalions; some companies-the officers to be commissioned according to the number of men they brought into the service.
There were recruiting stations all over town, with notices, rudely lettered on boards over the doors, announcing the arm of service and length of time for which recruits at that station would be received.
The law required all volunteers to serve for three years or the war. But in
Jefferson City in August, 1861, they were recruited for different periods and on different conditions; some were enlisted for six months, some for a year, some without any condition as to where they were to serve, others were not to be sent out of the
State.
The recruits were principally men from regiments stationed there and already in the service, bound for three years if the war lasted that long.
The city was filled with Union fugitives who had been driven by guerilla bands to take refuge with the
National troops.
They were in a deplorable condition and must have starved but for the support the government gave them.
They had generally made their escape with a team or two, sometimes a yoke of oxen with a mule or a horse in the lead.
A little bedding besides their clothing and some food had been thrown into the wagon.
All else of their worldly goods were abandoned and appropriated by their former neighbors; for the
Union man in
Missouri who staid at home during the rebellion, if he was not immediately under the protection of the
National troops, was at perpetual war with his neighbors.
I stopped the recruiting service, and disposed the troops about the outskirts of the city so as to guard all approaches.
Order was soon restored.
I had been at
Jefferson City but a few days when I was directed from department headquarters to fit out an expedition to
Lexington,
Booneville and
Chillicothe, in order to take from the banks in those cities all the funds they had and send them to
St. Louis.
The western army had not yet been supplied with transportation.
It became necessary therefore to press into the service teams belonging to sympathizers with the rebellion or to hire those of Union men. This afforded an opportunity of giving employment to such of the refugees
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within our lines as had teams suitable for our purposes.
They accepted the service with alacrity.
As fast as troops could be got off they were moved west some twenty miles or more.
In seven or eight days from my assuming command at
Jefferson City, I had all the troops, except a small garrison, at an advanced position and expected to join them myself the next day.
But my campaigns had not yet begun, for while seated at my office door, with nothing further to do until it was time to start for the front, I saw an officer of rank approaching, who proved to be [Union]
Colonel Jefferson C. Davis [August 28]. I had never met him before, but he introduced himself by handing me an order for him to proceed to
Jefferson City and relieve me of the command.
The orders directed that I should report at department headquarters at
St. Louis without delay, to receive important.special instructions.
It was about an hour before the only regular train of the day would start.
I therefore turned over to
Colonel Davis my orders, and hurriedly stated to him the progress that had been made to carry out the department instructions already described.
I had at that time but one staff officer,
1 doing myself all the detail work usually performed by an adjutant-general.
In an hour after being relieved from the command I was on my way to
St. Louis, leaving my single staff officer to follow the next day with our horses and baggage.
The “important special instructions” which I received the next day, assigned me to the command of the district of
south-east Missouri, embracing all the territory south of
St. Louis, in Missouri, as well as all
southern Illinois.
At first I was to take personal command of a combined expedition that had been ordered for the capture of
Colonel Jeff. Thompson, a sort of independent or partisan commander who was disputing with us the possession of
south-east Missouri.
Troops had been ordered to move from
Ironton to
Cape Girardeau, sixty or seventy miles to the south-east, on the
Mississippi River; while the forces at
Cape Girardeau had been ordered to move to
Jacksonville, ten miles out towards
Ironton; and troops at
Cairo and
Bird's Point, at the junction of the
Ohio and
Mississippi rivers, were to hold themselves in readiness to go down the
Mississippi to
Belmont, eighteen miles below, to be moved west from there when an officer should come to command them.
I was the officer who had been selected for this purpose.
Cairo was to become my headquarters when the expedition terminated.
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In pursuance of my orders I established my temporary headquarters at
Cape Girardeau [August 30] and sent instructions to the
commanding officer at
Jackson, to inform me of the approach of
General Prentiss from
Ironton.
Hired wagons were kept moving night and day to take additional rations to
Jackson, to supply the troops when they started from there.
Neither
General Prentiss nor
Colonel [C. C.]
Marsh, who commanded at
Jackson, knew their destination.
I drew up all the instructions for the contemplated move, and kept them in my pocket until I should hear of the junction of our troops at
Jackson.
Two or three days after my arrival at
Cape Girardeau, word came that
General Prentiss was approaching that place (
Jackson). I started at once to meet him there and to give him his orders.
As I turned the first corner of a street after starting, I saw a column of cavalry passing the next street in front of me. I turned and rode around the block the other way, so as to meet the head of the column.
I found there
General Prentiss himself, with a large escort.
He had halted his troops at
Jackson for the night, and had come on himself to
Cape Girardeau, leaving orders for his command to follow him in the morning.
I gave the
General his orders — which stopped him at Jackson-but he was very much aggrieved at being placed under another brigadier-general, particularly as he believed himself to be the senior.
He had been a brigadier, in command at
Cairo, while I was mustering officer at
Springfield without any rank.
But we were nominated at the same time for the
United States service, and both our commissions bore date May 17th, 1861.
By virtue of my former army rank I was, by law, the senior.
General Prentiss failed to get orders to his troops to remain at
Jackson, and the next morning early they were reported as approaching
Cape Girardeau.
I then ordered the
General very peremptorily to countermarch his command and take it back to
Jackson.
He obeyed the order, but bade his command adieu when he got them to
Jackson, and went to
St. Louis and reported himself.
This broke up the expedition.
But little harm was done, as
Jeff. Thompson moved light and had no fixed place for even nominal headquarters.
He was as much at home in
Arkansas as he was in
Missouri and would keep out of the way of a superior force.
Prentiss was sent to another part of the
State.
General Prentiss made a great mistake on the above occasion, one that he would not have committed later in the war. When I came to know him better, I regretted it much.
In consequence of this occurrence he was off duty in the field when the principal campaign at the
West was going on, and his juniors received promotion while he was
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where none could be obtained.
He would have been next to myself in rank in the district of
south-east Missouri, by virtue of his services in the
Mexican war. He was a brave and very earnest soldier.
No man in the service was more sincere in his devotion to the cause for which we were battling; none more ready to make sacrifices or risk life in it.
On the 4th of September I removed my headquarters to
Cairo and found
Colonel Richard Oglesby in command of the post.
We had never met, at least not to my knowledge.
After my promotion I had ordered my brigadier-general's uniform from New York, but it had not yet arrived, so that I was in citizen's dress.
The
Colonel had his office full of people, mostly from the neighboring States of
Missouri and
Kentucky, making complaints or asking favors.
He evidently did not catch my name when I was presented, for on my taking a piece of paper from the table where he was seated and writing the order assuming command of the district of
south-east Missouri,
Colonel Richard J. Oglesby to command the post at
Bird's Point, and handing it to him, he put on an expression of surprise that looked a little as if he would like to have some one identify me. But he surrendered the office without question.
The day after I assumed command at
Cairo a man came to me who said he was a scout of
General Fremont.
He reported that he had just come from
Columbus, a point on the
Mississippi twenty miles below on the
Kentucky side, and that troops had started from there, or were about to start, to seize
Paducah, at the mouth of the
Tennessee.
There was no time for delay; I reported by telegraph to the department commander the information I had received, and added that I was taking steps to get off that night to be in advance of the enemy in securing that important point.
There was a large number of steamers lying at
Cairo and a good many boatmen were staying in the town.
It was the work of only a few hours to get the boats manned, with coal aboard and steam up. Troops were also designated to go aboard.
The distance from
Cairo to
Paducah is about forty-five miles. I did not wish to get there before daylight of the 6th, and directed therefore that the boats should lie at anchor out in the stream until the time to start.
Not having received an answer to my first dispatch, I again telegraphed to department headquarters that I should start for
Paducah that night unless I received further orders.
Hearing nothing, we started before midnight and arrived early the following morning, anticipating the enemy by probably not over six or eight hours. It proved very fortunate that the expedition against
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Jeff. Thompson had been broken up. Had it not been, the enemy would have seized
Paducah and fortified it, to our very great annoyance.
When the
National troops entered the town the citizens were taken by surprise.
I never after saw such consternation depicted on the faces of the people.
Men, women and children came out of their doors looking pale and frightened at the presence of the invader.
They were expecting rebel troops that day. In fact, nearly four thousand men from
Columbus were at that time within ten or fifteen miles of
Paducah on their way to occupy the place.
I had but two regiments and one battery with me; but the enemy did not know this and returned to
Columbus.
I stationed my troops at the best points to guard the roads leading into the city, left gunboats to guard the river fronts and by noon was ready to start on my return to
Cairo.
Before leaving, however, I addressed a short printed proclamation to the citizens of
Paducah assuring them of our peaceful intentions, that we had come among them to protect them against the enemies of our country, and that all who chose could continue their usual avocations with assurance of the protection of the government.
This was evidently a relief to them; but the majority would have much preferred the presence of the other army.
I reinforced
Paducah rapidly from the troops at
Cape Girardeau; and a day or two later
General C. F. Smith, a most accomplished soldier, reported at
Cairo and was assigned to the command of the post at the mouth of the
Tennessee.
In a short time it was well fortified and a detachment was sent to occupy
Smithland, at the mouth of the
Cumberland.
The State government of
Kentucky at that time was rebel in sentiment, but wanted to preserve an armed neutrality between the
North and the
South, and the governor really seemed to think the
State had a perfect right to maintain a neutral position.
The rebels already occupied two towns in the
State,
Columbus and
Hickman, on the
Mississippi; and at the very moment the
National troops were entering
Paducah from the
Ohio front,
General Lloyd Tilghman--a Confederate--with his staff and a small detachment of men, were getting out in the other direction, while, as I have already said, nearly four thousand Confederate troops were on
Kentucky soil on their way to take possession of the town.
But, in the estimation of the governor and of those who thought with him, this did not justify the
National authorities in invading the soil of
Kentucky.
I informed the legislature of the State of what I was doing, and my action was approved by the majority of that body.
On my return to
Cairo I found authority
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from department headquarters for me to take
Paducah “if I felt strong enough,” but very soon after I was reprimanded from the same quarters for my correspondence with the legislature and warned against a repetition of the offence.
Soon after I took command at
Cairo,
General Fremont entered into arrangements for the exchange of the prisoners captured at Camp Jackson in the month of May.
I received orders to pass them through my lines to
Columbus as they presented themselves with proper credentials.
Quite a number of these prisoners I had been personally acquainted with before the war. Such of them as I had so known were received at my headquarters as old acquaintances, and ordinary routine business was not disturbed by their presence.
On one occasion when several were present in my office my intention to visit
Cape Girardeau the next day, to inspect the troops at that point, was mentioned.
Something transpired which postponed my trip; but a steamer employed by the government was passing a point some twenty or more miles above
Cairo, the next day, when a section of rebel artillery with proper escort brought her to. A major, one of those who had been at my headquarters the day before, came at once aboard and after some search made a direct demand for my delivery.
It was hard to persuade him that I was not there.
This officer was
Major [
J. Richard]
Barrett, of
St. Louis.
I had been acquainted with his family before the war.
