CHAPTER V.
MORGAN'S FIRST GREAT RAID.
The struggle for the possession of Corinth was ended. General Halleck,with his immense army of one hundred and twenty-five thousand men, hadthought to reduce the place by regular siege, and force General Beauregardto capitulate, surrendering himself with his whole army.
But Beauregard was too able a general to be caught in a trap. For a monthhe held the Federal army at bay, and then, when Halleck was about tospring his trap, Beauregard silently withdrew, leaving to him but a barrenvictory.
The Confederate army was saved, and to the Federal forces the occupationof Corinth proved as demoralizing as a defeat. The result showed that JohnMorgan was right when he said that the hope of the South rested, not onthe occupancy of any single place, but on the safety of its armies.
The fall of Corinth at once changed the theatre of war. The Federal armywas divided, the Army of the Tennessee, under Grant, remaining inMississippi and Western Tennessee, and the Army of the Ohio, under Buell,being ordered to march east and capture Chattanooga.
If Buell had acted promptly and swiftly, he might have been successful,and the death-blow would have been given to the Confederacy long before itwas. But he moved slowly and haltingly, and the golden opportunity waslost. It gave the Confederacy time to transfer to Chattanooga the largerpart of the army which had been at Corinth. The command of this army wasgiven to General Braxton Bragg, a brave man, and by many thought to be oneof the ablest generals of the South.
It at once became the dream of General Bragg to gather as large an army aspossible, then march northward clear to the Ohio River, sweepingeverything before him. This dream came near being realized. It was madepossible by the efforts and deeds of two men, General John H. Morgan andGeneral N. B. Forrest. These two great raiders and leaders of cavalrynearly turned the scale in favor of the Confederacy. They raided the rearof the Federal army, tore up railroads, destroyed millions of dollars'worth of property, and captured thousands of prisoners. They ran GeneralBuell nearly distracted, and caused him not to know which way to turn.They made it possible for General Bragg to reach Kentucky unopposed; andif, after reaching Kentucky, General Bragg had proved as able a leader ofinfantry as Morgan was of cavalry, Buell's army would have been destroyed.While Bragg was organizing his army at Chattanooga, another Confederatearmy was being organized at Knoxville under General E. Kirby Smith; thisarmy was to invade Kentucky by way of East Tennessee, while General Braggwas to invade by way of Middle Tennessee. Once in Kentucky, the two armieswere to unite.
This programme was successfully carried out, and yet the whole movementwas a failure, as far as the occupancy of Kentucky was concerned.
After the fall of Corinth, Colonel Morgan rendezvoused his little force atChattanooga. From Chattanooga he proceeded to Knoxville, where he at oncebegan the preparations for another raid. As Cumberland Gap was held by theFederals, Colonel Morgan decided to cross over into Middle Tennesseebefore invading Kentucky. His command consisted of about nine hundred men,made up of two regiments and two independent companies. His own regimentwas commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel Basil Duke. All through Morgan'scareer Colonel Duke was his chief adviser, so much so that many claim thatMorgan's success was mainly due to Colonel Duke.
"Why don't some one shoot Basil Duke through the head, and blow out JohnMorgan's brains?" exclaimed a disgusted Federal officer, after a fruitlesseffort to catch Morgan.
But the officer was mistaken; both had brains. Like Grant and Sherman theyworked hand in hand, and one needed the other. Together they wereinvincible.
Before leaving Knoxville Morgan picked out twenty-five men, mounted on thebest and fleetest horses, and placed them in the command of CalhounPennington. They were to be the scouts of the command, and well did theydo their duty. More than once did they save Morgan from heavy loss byascertaining the movements of the enemy.
Morgan left Knoxville July 4th. His route lay directly west over theCumberland Mountains to Sparta, a distance of one hundred and four miles.This, in spite of the rough roads, he made in three days. Many of themountaineers of East Tennessee clung to the Union, and much of the way hehad to ride through almost as hostile a country as if raiding through theNorth. The utmost vigilance had to be used, and Calhoun, with his scouts,was kept well in front to see that the road was clear.
On the second day's march there was the crack of a rifle from amountainside, and one of the scouts tumbled from his horse dead. A littlecloud of smoke up the mountain showed from where the shot was fired. Witha cry of rage the scouts sent a volley where the little cloud was seen,then springing from their horses, clambered up the mountain to hunt downthe murderer; but their search was fruitless.
About a mile beyond where the shooting took place they came to a rough logcabin, surrounded by a few acres of comparatively smooth ground. A smallpatch of corn and potatoes was growing near the cabin, and an old man withtangled gray hair and beard was hoeing in the field. An old woman sat inthe door calmly smoking a corn-cob pipe. Neither seemed to notice thesoldiers as they came riding up.
"You, man, come here!" sternly called Calhoun.
The mountaineer deliberately laid down his hoe, and slowly came to whereCalhoun was. He seemed to be in no hurry, nor did he appear to bedisturbed.
"What is your name?" demanded Calhoun.
"Nichols--Jim Nichols," drawled the man.
"Are you well acquainted around here?" demanded Calhoun.
"Hev lived heah goin' on twenty years," was the answer.
"We have just had a man shot, by one of you skulking mountaineers. Do youknow of any one likely to do such a deed? Tell the truth, or it will bethe worse for you."
The old man shook his head. "The men be all gone in one army or de other,"he answered.
"Are you Union or Confederate?" asked Calhoun.
"The wah is nuthin' to we-uns," he drawled; "we-uns own no niggers."
"That's no answer," fiercely replied Calhoun, "I have a mind to hang youup like a dog. A little stretching of the neck might loosen your tongue."
At the word "hang" a strange look came into the old man's eyes, a look asof mortal hatred, but it was gone in a moment, and the drawling answercame, "We-uns knows nuthin'; thar may be strange men hidin' in themountin. We-uns don't know."
"Have you a family?"
"A gal."
"Where is she?"
"Done gone over the mountin to see the Jimson gals."
"You have no son?"
At the word "son," again that deadly glint came in the old man's eye.Again it was gone in a moment, and the answer came, "No."
The cabin was searched--the mountaineer and his wife apparently perfectlyunconcerned as to what was going on--but nothing suspicious was found, andCalhoun had to confess himself baffled. But after Morgan's column hadpassed, a tall, lank girl with unkempt hair might have been seen comingdown the mountainside, carrying a long rifle in her hand. Swiftly andsurely as a deer she leaped from rock to rock, and soon neared the cabin.Carefully concealing her rifle beneath a huge rock, she came slowly up tothe door of the cabin, where the old man sat smoking. He looked up at her,inquiringly, but did not say a word.
"We-uns got one, dad," she said, as she passed in. Not another word wasspoken, but the old man sat and smoked and watched the sun as it slowlysunk to rest behind the mountain.
If Calhoun had known that Nichol's only son had been hanged the winterbefore by the Confederate authorities for bridge-burning, and that hissister had sworn revenge, he would not have been at a loss as to who hadfired the deadly shot, for every mountain girl can use a rifle.
From Sparta Morgan made a rapid march to Selina, where he forded theCumberland River. At Selina he learned that there was a Federal force atTompkinsville, which is just over the line in Kentucky. By a swift advancehe hoped to surprise and capture this force. As the command crossed theline from Tennessee into Kentucky, the enthusiasm of the men knew nobounds. They sang "My Old
Kentucky Home," and cheered again and again.
Tompkinsville was reached at five o'clock on the morning of the 9th ofJuly. The Federals, under the command of Major Thomas J. Jordan, of theNinth Pennsylvania Cavalry, though surprised, made a stand, and the battleat once opened. But a few shots from Morgan's mountain howitzers utterlydemoralized the Federals, and they fled in confusion.
Major Jordan, after retreating about a mile, succeeded in rallying aboutseventy-five of his men, and made a stand to cover the retreat of hisforce. Calhoun, with some fifteen of his scouts far in advance of the maincolumn, charged down on them without hesitating a moment. The Federals,although they outnumbered the scouts five to one, were ridden down, andthrowing down their arms they cried for mercy.
In this fight the gallant Colonel Hunt was mortally wounded. He was one ofMorgan's best officers, and his loss was deeply mourned.
From Tompkinsville Morgan moved to Glasgow, arriving there at one o'clockin the morning.
The Federal garrison had heard of his approach, and had fled, leavingeverything behind them. A large quantity of military stores fell intoMorgan's hands, and was destroyed.
Although it was in the middle of the night, the glad news spread throughthe town, and the citizens were hailing each other with the glad shout,"Morgan has come again! Morgan has come again!" Soon from every houselights were flashing, and every woman was engaged in cooking. When morningcame, not only a steaming hot breakfast of the best that the placeafforded was set before the men, but three days' cooked rations were giveneach man.
At Glasgow Morgan gave out that he was again to raid the Louisville andNashville Railroad. In order to carry out the deception, when he leftGlasgow he followed the road which would lead him to strike the railroadin between Woodsonville and Mumfordsville; but when he was within a fewmiles of the road, he halted his command, and taking only Calhoun and hisscouts, he struck the road at a lonely place a short distance from HorseCove. Here he had his telegraph operator, a sharp young fellow namedEllsworth, attach his private instrument to the telegraph wire, and fortwo hours Ellsworth, in the midst of a driving storm and standing in waterup to his knees, took every message that passed over the wire. It was rarefun to hear the Federal officers telling all their secrets, and revealingthe terror they were in over Morgan's raid. After listening to their plansof how they would try to capture him, Morgan had Ellsworth send thefollowing dispatch to the provost marshal at Louisville:
Raiding with Morgan Page 8