by Bruce Catton
23.
O. R., Vol. III, p. 693.
CHAPTER THREE
Time of Preparation
1.
Frémont, in B. & L., Vol. I, p. 281; Marion Morrison, “History of the 9th Regiment Illinois Volunteer Infantry”; “Personal Memoirs of John H. Brinton” (cited hereafter as Brinton), p. 68; Thomas W. Knox, in the New York Herald for December 28, 1863.
2.
George W. Driggs, Opening of the Mississippi, or Two Years’ Campaigning in the Southwest, p. 63 ff.
3.
Grant to Jesse Grant, dated August 31, in Cramer, pp. 54–55; Grant to Washburne, September 3, 1861, in the Grant Papers at the Illinois State Historical Library.
4.
Grant’s Memoirs, Vol I, p. 264.
5.
A. T. Mahan, The Gulf and Inland Waters, pp. 12–13.
6.
Brinton, p. 37.
7.
Grant’s Memoirs, Vol. I, pp. 264–265. Note that Frémont had a really good intelligence system. He maintained a map-compilation room in the basement of his headquarters house, and he used a scout named Charles D’Arnaud to penetrate Kentucky and Tennessee and bring back plans of roads, military installations and so on. In his manuscript memoirs, previously cited (Note 16 Chapter Two) Frémont says that he had D’Arnaud make a second visit to the Tennessee Cumberland area, because he intended to move south along those rivers and the Mississippi. Presumably it was D’Arnaud whom Grant saw in Cairo, but it would be interesting to know more about the encounter.
8.
Grant’s Memoirs, Vol. I, p. 266; Charles H. Wills, “Army Life of an Illinois Soldier,” p. 29; Grant to E. A. Paine, O. R., Vol. IV, p. 198; Vol. III, p. 149.
9.
Grant to Speaker of Kentucky House of Representatives, September 5, O. R., Vol. III, p. 166.
10.
Grant to Frémont, September 6, O. R., Vol. IV, p. 197; Frémont to Grant, September 6, O. R., Vol. III, p. 471; Grant’s Memoirs, Vol. I, p. 267.
11.
Augustus L. Chetlain, “Recollections of U. S. Grant,” in Vol. I, Military Essays and Recollections, pp. 22–23; Lew Wallace, An Autobiography, p. 339; John H. Page, in Vol. V of Glimpses of the Nation’s Struggle, p. 8.
12.
Letter of George B. McClellan to “My Dear General,” not otherwise identified, dated January 24, 1885, in the C. F. Smith Papers; Special Orders No. 80 of the Adjutant General’s Office (dated March 15, 1861) and No. 222 (dated August 19, 1861), also in the Smith Papers; Grant to Captain Chauncey McKeever, October 9, in O. R., Vol. III, p. 528.
13.
Lieutenant Matthew H. Jamison, in Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life; Captain Ephraim A. Wilson, in Memoirs of the War; George H. Woodruff, in Fifteen Years Ago; or, the Patriotism of Will County.
14.
Brinton, p. 37.
15.
Brinton, pp. 40–44, 67; Manuscript “Reminiscences of Dr. John Cooper,” owned by Harley Bronson Cooper of Lynbrook, N. Y.
16.
Grant’s reports and orders covering these matters are in O. R., Vol. III, pp. 486, 489, 505, 519, 537, 556.
17.
O. R., Vol. III, pp. 490, 501, 511, 520, 529, 537.
18.
Colonel R. M. Kelly, “Holding Kentucky for the Union,” B. & L., Vol. I, p. 373 ff; O. R., Vol. IV, pp. 404–406, 413. For Grant’s prewar meeting with Buckner, see Lloyd Lewis, Captain Sam Grant, p. 338.
19.
The interchange between Polk and the committee is in O. R., Vol. IV, pp. 185–186. Anderson’s announcement of his resignation—made, he said, “with less reluctance for that purpose”—is p. 296. For a detailed examination of the problems confronting Johnston, see Stanley Horn, The Army of Tennessee, pp. 55–62.
20.
Grant to Frémont, September 9 and 10, O. R., Vol. III, pp. 168–169; Grant to Colonel G. Waagner and Colonel Oglesby, September 11, p. 487; Grant to Frémont, September 12, p. 489.
21.
Frémont to Grant, September 12, O. R., Vol. III, p. 489. His letter to Lincoln is in B. & L., Vol. I, p. 285.
22.
Colonel Mulligan’s account of the Lexington disaster is in B. & L., Vol. I, pp. 307–313. Winfield Scott’s admonitory message to Frémont, dated September 3, is in O. R., Vol. III, p. 185. For the order detaching two of Grant’s regiments, see p. 494.
23.
Grant’s Memoirs, Vol. I, p. 269; O. R., Vol. III, pp. 199, 556.
24.
Frémont’s September 15 report to the War Department is in O. R., Vol. III, p. 493. It shows 3057 at Ironton, 650 at Cape Girardeau, 3510 at Bird’s Point and Norfolk, 4826 at Cairo, 3595 at Fort Holt and 900 at Mound City. In addition, C. F. Smith had 7021 at Paducah.
25.
Frémont to Grant, September 26, O. R., Vol. III, p. 507; same, Grant to Smith, September 20, pp. 501–502; Grant to Oglesby, October 1, p. 511.
26.
Grant’s Memoirs, Vol. I, p. 269.
27.
Brinton, pp. 53, 61–62; John Beatty, Memoirs of a Volunteer, p. 95; John K. Duke, History of the 53rd Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry, p. 5.
28.
Unidentified newspaper clipping in the Joseph Kirkland Papers, Newberry Library, Chicago, quoting a speech before the George H. Thomas Post, Grand Army of the Republic, in Chicago on April 23, 1880. See also John Beatty, cited Note 27.
29.
Photostatic copy of The Camp Register, published in the fall of 1861 by the 37th Illinois Infantry at Otterville, Mo.; in the Lloyd Lewis Papers.
30.
Letter of U. S. Grant to Benson J. Lossing, printed in William W. Belknap’s History of the 15th Regiment of Iowa Veteran Volunteer Infantry, p. 422; A. H. Markland, in the printed Proceedings of the Society of the Army of the Tennessee for 1885, p. 162.
31.
Robert W. McClaughry, “The Boys of 1861—and Their Boys,” in Vol. III, Military Essays and Recollections, p. 404; P. O. Avery, History of the 4th Illinois Cavalry.
32.
Major Hoyt Sherman, in a speech before the 1897 reunion of the Society of the Army of the Tennessee.
33.
Captain John H. Page, “Recollections of 1861 as Seen Through a Boy’s Eyes,” in Glimpses of the Nation’s Struggle, Vol. V, p. 10.
34.
Interview with J. N. Tyner, printed in the New York Tribune, August 23, 1885.
35.
Interview with W. S. Hillyer in the Cincinnati Commercial, January 27, 1869; Wilbur F. Crummer, With Grant at Fort Donelson, Shiloh and Vicksburg, p. 179; interview with J. A. J. Cresswell in the New York Herald, April 5, 1885; Samuel H. Beckwith in the Utica Herald, reprinted in the New York Times for July 25, 1885.
36.
A. C. Chetlain to Washburne, October 16, 1861, in the Washburne Papers.
37.
Benjamin to Bragg, December 27, 1861, in O. R., Vol. VI, p. 788.
CHAPTER FOUR
“You Looked Like Giants”
1.
Article on John Rawlins in the Chicago Times for September 7, 1869.
2.
James H. Wilson, The Life of John A. Rawlins, pp. 57–58; Lloyd Lewis, Captain Sam Grant, pp. 380–381, 399; John A. Rawlins interviewed in the Hartford Post, reprinted in the Army and Navy Journal for September 12, 1868.
3.
Captain John M. Shaw, “The Life and Services of General John A. Rawlins,” in Glimpses of the Nation’s Struggle, Vol. III, p. 387; Grant to Washburne, letter dated September 3, 1861, in the Grant Papers, Illinois State Historical Library.
4.
Wilson, as Note 2, p. 60.
5.
Cincinnati Commercial, March 9, 1869, reprinting a New York Tribune interview with Colonel Chetlain; Rawlins interview in the Hartford Post, cited in Note 2.
6.
O. R., Vol. III, p. 209.
7.
Report of Colonel G. Waagner, dated September 2, O. R., Vol. III, p. 151.
&
nbsp; 8.
O. R., Vol. III, pp. 267–268.
9.
Rawlins, in a speech before the Society of the Army of Tennessee; from the report of the Society’s Proceedings published in Cincinnati in 1866.
10.
O. R., Vol. III, p. 268.
11.
Same, pp. 269–270.
12.
O. R., Vol. IV, pp. 513, 517, 522; Vol. III, p. 732.
13.
Captain John Seaton, “The Battle of Belmont,” in “Sundry Papers” of the Kansas Commandery, Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States, Vol. I; Brinton, pp. 72–73; Grant’s Memoirs, Vol. I, pp. 272–273.
14.
Dr. William L. Polk, “General Polk and the Battle of Belmont,” B. & L., Vol. I, pp. 348–349.
15.
Both Brinton and Captain Seaton give interesting details about the disorganization in the Federal ranks following the initial triumph and during the subsequent retreat, and their accounts have been used extensively in the preparation of this chapter. In his Memoirs (Vol. I, pp. 273–274) Grant says of his men: “Veterans could not have behaved better than they did up to the moment of reaching the Rebel camp. At this point they became demoralized from their victory.”
16.
Grant’s Memoirs, Vol. I, pp. 274–276.
17.
In her old age Julia Dent Grant wrote the story of this strange incident. As it happened, on the day of the battle of Belmont she was going to leave Galena with the children and go to Cairo to visit General Grant; this vision came to her just before she left the Grant home. This enabled her to fix the time of its occurrence, when she told Grant about it after reaching Cairo. Grant mentions the dangerous ride away from the boats—without referring to Julia’s strange vision—in his Memoirs, Vol. I, pp. 277–279.
18.
Captain John Seaton, as Note 13.
19.
Grant’s Memoirs, Vol. I, p. 279; Captain John Seaton, as Note 13; Charles Wills, Army Life of an Illinois Soldier, p. 43
20.
Casualty figures are from B. & L., Vol. I, pp. 355–356.
21.
Smith’s report in O. R., Vol. III, pp. 299–300.
22.
O. R., Vol. III, p. 274.
23.
Grant’s Memoirs, Vol. I, pp. 280–281.
24.
Conger, pp. 99–101. See also Grant’s statement to Colonel Oglesby: “The confidence inspired in our troops in the engagement will be of incalculable benefit to us in the future”—in O. R., Vol. III, p. 272.
25.
James B. Eads, “Recollections of Foote and the Gunboats,” in B. & L., Vol. I, pp. 342, 346; Rear Admiral Henry Walke, “The Gunboats at Belmont and Fort Henry,” B. & L., Vol. I, pp. 359–360.
26.
Wilson, as Note 2, p. 68.
27.
Dr. William L. Polk, as Note 14, pp. 356–357; Grant’s Memoirs, Vol. I, p. 281; O. R., Vol. VIII, pp. 369–370.
28.
Dr. William L. Polk, as Note 14; letter of Charles M. Scott, pilot in 1861 of the steamer Belle of Memphis, to the St. Louis Republican, reprinted in the Chicago Tribune of February 4, 1887.
29.
O. R., Vol. III, pp. 304, 309; Captain John Seaton, as Note 13.
CHAPTER FIVE
General Halleck Takes Over
1.
For a good discussion of the circumstances attending Frémont’s removal, see K. P. Williams, Lincoln Finds a General, Vol. III, pp. 62–66.
2.
Original in the C. F. Smith Papers. See also letter of John P. Hawkins (who in the fall of 1861 was on Halleck’s staff) in the 1906 Reunion Book of the Society of the Army of the Tennessee, pp. 92–93; also “Recollections of the Fallen” in the Army and Navy Journal for July 8, 1865. For details on the messy situation in St. Louis, see O. R., Vol. VIII, pp. 389, 409.
3.
The documents exchanged between Smith and Halleck and between Smith and Wallace are in the C. F. Smith Papers.
4.
Letters of Sherman, dated November 28, 1861, and January 4, 1862, in the Sherman papers, Library of Congress. Sherman to Mrs. Sherman, January 1, 1862, in the possession of Miss E. Sherman Fitch.
5.
Halleck to Mrs. Halleck, printed in General James Grant Wilson’s “General Halleck: A Memoir,” in the Journal of the Military Service Institution of the United States, Vol. XXXVI, p. 554.
6.
Sherman to John Sherman, dated January 4, 1862, cited in Note 4; Smith’s letter of December 31, 1861, in the C. F. Smith papers.
7.
Letter to Colonel L. F. Ross of the 17th Illinois, dated January 5, 1862, in the Iowa Historical Record for October, 1888.
8.
Grant to Colonel John Cook, O. R., Series Two, Vol. I, p. 794.
9.
Grant to General E. A. Paine, O. R., Vol. VIII, pp. 494–495.
10.
Grant to Halleck, November 21, 1861, O. R., Vol. VII, p. 442.
11.
Halleck to McClellan, November 27, O. R., Vol. VIII, p. 382; Halleck to Mrs. Halleck, December 14, in the Oliver Barrett Collection.
12.
Grant discussed this situation in substantial detail in a long letter to Washburne dated November 7, 1862; original in the Grant Papers, Illinois State Historical Library. See also Major Julian Kune, Reminiscences of an Octogenarian Hungarian Exile, p. 107.
13.
Wilson’s Life of John A. Rawlins, p. 67; Lew Wallace, An Autobiography, Vol. I, pp. 352–353; letter of W. R. Rowley to Elihu Washburne, January 30, 1862, in the Washburne Papers.
14.
Rawlins’s long letter is printed in full in Wilson’s Life of John A. Rawlins. See also Albert Richardson, A Personal History of Ulysses S. Grant, pp. 195–196.
15.
Grant to Halleck, January 12, 1862, O. R., Vol. VII, p. 546. See also John Eaton, Grant, Lincoln and the Freedmen, pp. 101–102, and the Rawlins letter cited in Note 14.
16.
For the interchange between Grant and Halleck, see O. R., Series Two, Vol. I, pp. 120–122.
17.
Grant to Halleck, November 22, 1861, O. R., Vol. VIII, p. 373; Grant’s report of November 18, O. R., Vol. III, p. 367; Thompson to Polk, Same, p. 368; Grant to Halleck, November 25, O. R., Series Two, Vol. I, p. 117; Grant’s Memoirs, Vol. I, p. 268.
18.
For the correspondence mentioned here, see O. R., Vol. III, p. 571; Vol. VII, p. 465; Vol. VIII, p. 404.
19.
Grant’s Special Orders dated November 26, O. R., Vol. VII, p. 449.
20.
Grant to Oglesby, December 21, O. R., Vol. VIII, p. 453; to McClernand, December 22, p. 457.
21.
Grant to Halleck, November 21, O. R., Vol. VII, p. 442; dispatch of November 29, p. 460; dispatch to J. C. Kelton, December 1, p. 462.
22.
Grant to J. C. Kelton, November 28, O. R., Vol. VII, p. 455. See also B. & L., Vol. I, pp. 338–339.
23.
Henry Walke, “The Gunboats at Belmont and Fort Henry,” B. & L., Vol. I, pp. 358–359; Grant to Halleck, January 6, 1862, O. R., Vol. VII, p. 534; Charles W. Wills, “Army Life of an Illinois Soldier,” p. 62.
24.
O. R., Vol. VIII, pp. 430, 432, 433.
25.
Hoyt Sherman, “Personal Recollections of General Grant,” in the Midland Monthly for April, 1898; Fred Grant in B. & L., Vol. I, p. 352; Brinton, pp. 99–100.
26.
Cramer, pp. 58, 62–63, 68–69, 72.
27.
Memoir of Julia Dent Grant.
28.
Brinton, pp. 98–99, 193–194.
29.
Hoyt Sherman as Note 25.
30.
Leonard Swett, quoted in the Chicago Tribune for April 27, 1880; O. R., Vol. VII, p. 7.
CHAPTER SIX
Limited Objectives
1.
Basler, Collect
ed Works, Vol. IV, pp. 544–545.
2.
Late in November McClellan was telling Buell that his own operations in Virginia must be co-ordinated with the projected campaign in East Tennessee: O. R., Vol. VII, p. 458. In January he made the point more emphatically, writing Buell that “my own advance cannot, according to my present views, be made until your troops are soundly established in the eastern portion of Tennessee.” O. R., Vol. VII, p. 531.
3.
See Buell’s letter to McClellan dated December 29, O. R., Vol. VII, pp. 520–521; also Colonel R. M. Kelly, “Holding Kentucky for the Union,” B. & L., Vol. I, p. 385.
4.
Kelly, B. & L., Vol. I, pp. 377–378; O. R., Series Two, Vol. I: John M. Branner to Judah P. Benjamin, November 9, p. 838; to Jefferson Davis, November 11, p. 839; Colonel W. B. Wood to Samuel Cooper, p. 840; message of Governor Isham Harris, p. 841; A. G. Graham to Davis, p. 841; Branner to Benjamin, p, 843.
5.
Report of Colonel D. Leadbetter, O. R., Series Two, Vol. I, pp. 849, 853, 859.