Blood, Tears, and Glory

Wednesday, February 6, 2008

ON THIS DAY: Thursday, Feb. 6, 1862

Fort Henry Surrenders!

At about 11 a.m. this morning, Union Navy Flag Officer Andrew Hull Foote’s four ironclads and three wooden gunboats moved upstream on the Tennessee River. When the ironclads had reached a point about a mile from Fort Henry, Foote arrayed them side by side in a row, with the three timberclads about a half mile back. Then, on his own, Foote began rapid fire into the fort, the timberclads firing over the ironclads in front of them.

For slightly over an hour, the Confederate artillerists fought back, scoring several hits, the most serious of which pieced the Essex’s boiler, scalding 28 sailors. Meanwhile, Brig. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant’s 15,000 soldiers were still struggling through muddy, swampy, rain-soaked brush land to reach the fort. The plan had been for simultaneous water and land attacks, but Hull chose not to wait.

Fort Henry was a low, five-sided earthen structure, built on ten acres of swampy ground and exposed to flooding from the river. It mounted 17 heavy guns, but high water and lack of ammunition left only 9 guns to guard against a water approach—and even these guns were handicapped by their low elevation.

Having already decided he was badly outnumbered, shortly before the bombardment began the fort’s commander, Brig. Gen. Lloyd Tilghman, had evacuated most of his troops. He sent them cross country to Fort Donelson, a stronger fortification on the nearby Cumberland River, about 12 miles away. Tilghman himself chose to remain in Fort Henry, retaining only some artillerists to attempt delaying Union pursuit of the fleeing Confederate infantrymen.

Artillery fire from both the gunboats and the fort was accurate, with the Confederates scoring 59 hits on the Union vessels, although most did minor damage. However, one shot pierced the Essex’s boiler, scalding 32 men, and several of the fort’s artillery pieces were damaged. After an artillery duel lasting slightly more than an hour, with Union fire sweeping the fort, Tilghman and about a hundred men surrendered. Foote had to send a boat into the fort to arrange the surrender.

Grant’s infantrymen arrived about an hour later, no longer needed for an assault. Most of the fleeing Confederates reached Fort Donelson safely. Grant and his officers met and agreed they should attack Fort Donelson next, and do it quickly.

It was the first important Union victory of the war and it was won in the West under the leadership of Brig. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant. It pried open one of the Confederacy’s back doors, exposing critically important Tennessee to increasing Union pressure—but at the time few realized how important the Fort Henry and Fort Donelson campaign would prove to be.

Grant’s orders from Halleck had been to “take and hold” Fort Henry. No mention had been made of nearby Fort Donelson, but Grant has his dander up and wanted to keep on going. Not even bothering to ask permission, he wired Halleck, “Fort Henry is ours…I shall take and destroy Fort Donaldso[n] on the eighth and return to Ft Henry.”

Grant ended the day by writing to Julia: “Fort Henry is taken and I am not hurt. This is news enough for to-night. I have been writing until my fingers are tired and therefore you must excuse haste and a bad pen. I have written to you every day so far and you cant expect long letters. Kiss the children for me. Ulys.”

ELSEWHERE IN THE CIVIL WAR: In Kentucky, Col. William B. Hazen, acting commander of the 19^th Brigade in Don Carlos Buell’s Army of the Ohio, issues yet another of his many orders. Hazen, an absolute bear for perfection in all things military, declares, “Colonels of regiments will at once see that all officers in their commands, field and staff, sutlers and retainers around camp, are fully instructed in the division and brigade orders pertaining to ht police and discipline of the camp…..” In other words, tuck in your shirt, cut your hair, pick up trash, and jump when ordered.

From Benton Barracks in Missouri, Brig. Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman, writes his former commander in Kentucky, Brig. Gen. Robert Anderson (the “hero of Fort Sumter”), that he has been busy organizing and sending out regiments to join various armies, but now Maj. Gen. Henry W. Halleck “promises me a command soon. I never did want to play a part in this war but want to do all in my power.” Apparently, Cump is recovering from his emotional break in Kentucky.

IT’S COMING SOONER THAN YOU THINK: April 12, 2011—less than 3½ years from now!—will be the 150^th anniversary of the outbreak of the Civil War. In 1861, April 12 was the day Confederates opened fire on Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor.

Your suggestions, comments, and questions about this blog are always welcome. Address the author: Ohioan@bloodtearsandglory.com

For more information about the author and his newest book, please go to http://www.orangefrazer.com/btg

Monday, February 4, 2008

ON THIS DAY: Wednesday, Feb. 5, 1862

“Feel like shootin a rebel”

Pvt. Andrew Altman, a 19-year-old from northwest Ohio, loves army life. Coming from a lean, hard-working existence on a hardscrabble farm, he delights in army food, uniforms, and soldiering. He belongs to Company D of the 68^th Ohio.

“If I should come home now, I would feel lost,” he writes his father. “The day I left I felt bad, but now I are all well of that….If you was here and drild with us a while and heard the band and the drums sound, [it] would make you feel like shootin a rebel…

Young Altman is ready for action. “If I get sight of a rebel, he is my meat, for my gun is calculated to shoot 900 yards.” It will take some time, but Altman’s enthusiasm will dwindle.

AND NEAR FORT HENRY: Grant continues landing troops in preparation for an attack on Fort Henry. From inside the Confederate fort, Brig. Gen. Lloyd Tilghman repeatedly telegraphs pleas for reinforcements. The pleas are futile, leaving Tilghman with about 2,600 poorly equipped men. They are caught inside a fortification that a rising Tennessee River has partly flooded. Growing increasingly pessimistic as his estimate of the number of Union troops rises, Tilghman makes a decision late in the day: Tomorrow he will evacuate most of his troops, leaving only a token force of artillerists to delay any pursuit. Meanwhile, Grant is planning to attack tomorrow as well.

ON THIS DAY: Tuesday, Feb. 4, 1862

“Perfectly splendid”

Just as a clock finished striking 12 midnight, Lt. Col. Rutherford B. Hayes of the 23^rd Ohio arrives home for a long-awaited long furlough. He finds his wife, Lucy, his four boys (including five-week-old Joseph), and “Grandma” all well—or, as the perpetually upbeat Hayes tells his diary “: perfectly splendid.” For some days to come, his diary entries will be brief. He has other things to do.

ELSEWHERE IN THE CIVIL WAR: Grant’s steamboats keep disgorging troops on the shores of the Tennessee River, and they and gunboats are moving into position for an assault on Fort Henry. In the Confederacy, generals are struggling to persuade soldiers to re-enlist after their terms expire and the Virginia house of delegates is even discussing enrolling free blacks in the Confederate army (which will not happen).

ON THIS DAY: Monday, Feb. 3, 1862

Fort Henry Threatened

Aboard wooden steamboats and escorted by two recently commissioned and barely tested ironclad gunboats, the St. Louis and the Essex (pictured at right), the lead elements of Brig. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant’s attack force chugged south 60 miles south on the Tennessee River during the night. At 4:30 this morning, Fort Henry was glimpsed, two miles ahead. The little fleet backpedaled a short distance, anchored out of range of Fort Henry’s guns, and landed the soldiers, who began looking for a place to set up camp. The Confederates in Fort Henry never noticed their visitors.

Brig. Gen. John A. McClernand of Illinois, Grant’s second-in-command, heads this part of grant’s force, the first division of the attackers. Grant remained temporarily at his Paducah staging area, sorting out the rest of his army. A nervous Halleck had ordered Grant to stay in touch daily by telegraph, so now the quiet, unimpressive-looking commander from Ohio wires St. Louis, “Will be off up the Tennessee at six o’clock. Command twenty-three regiments in all.” A second division under Brig. Gen. Charles F. Smith constituted the rest of Grant’s army.

Later today, Grant joins McClernand near Fort Henry. He ascertains the range of the Confederate cannon by directing the gunboat Essex to approach the fort and draw fire. With Grant aboard the Essex, one Rebel shell passed dangerously close and another smashes through the vessel’s superstructure, dropping into the water on the other side. Having learned what he wanted to know and survived, Grant also backpedals and begins positioning his men for the assault he is planning.

Previously unaware of Grant’s force, the Confederates finally realize that something is up. Grant estimates that 6,000 or more enemy soldiers man Fort Henry, but the Confederate commander does not intend to put up much of a fight. Believing he is in weak position in the partly flooded fort, he will order his garrison to evacuate the fort, except for the crew of one battery. The Confederate soldiers are to join the larger garrison at Fort Donelson, only 12 miles away on the Cumberland river, which parallels the Tennessee in this region.

In an impressive display of energy and organization, Brig. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant has launched, in scarcely three days, a campaign to bring 15,000 Union soldiers and seven gunboats into position to attack the Confederacy’s gatekeeper of the Tennessee River, Fort Henry. Grant’s fast mobilization puts to shame General-in-Chief George B. McClellan’s foot-dragging in putting his well-trained and well-equipped Army of the Potomac into motion against the eastern Confederacy.

Grant is also a commander who learns from mistakes. He nearly lost the so-called “Battle of Belmont” the previous November after his men broke discipline to loot abandoned Confederate camps—and then were surprised when the Rebels returned. This time, Grant’s “General Orders No. 7” has circulated among the troops. Grant forbids firing except when ordered, requires all men to remain within their camps, and—most of all—declares in no uncertain terms, “Plundering and disturbing private property is positively prohibited.” Officers are warned that “regimental commanders will be held strictly accountable for the acts of their regiments, and will in turn hold company commanders accountable for the acts of their companies.”

ELSEWHERE IN THE WAR: President Abraham Lincoln politely declines the king of Siam’s offer of war elephants to the Union cause. Less amusing is the President’s letter to General McClellan, summarizing their “distinct and different plans” for an advance into Virginia: McClellan proposes a roundabout plan to move his force by water to the Virginia Peninsula so as to attack Richmond from the south, while the President wants a more direct attack overland by way of nearby Manassas. If McClellan can give Lincoln satisfactory answers to several questions, says Lincoln, “I shall gladly yield my plan to yours.” Lincoln’s questions require McClellan to explain why his plan is less expensive, less time consuming, and more certain of victory than Lincoln’s. And, from Benton Barracks near St. Louis, where Brig. Gen. William T. Sherman is training troops, a letter goes from the general to his brother, Sen. John Sherman. Feeling defeated and lacking confidence in himself, Cump admits he is “still depressed by my past errors, but still I do not seek any leading post, on the contrary, prefer any amount of labor & drudgery to attempting to lead when I see no practicable result.”

Saturday, February 2, 2008

ON THIS DAY: Saturday, Feb. 1, 1862

Ups and Downs of Camp Life

Camp life in winter quarters, soldiers soon discovered, was “devoid of much incident,” as Capt. Emerson Opdycke of the 41^st Ohio wrote from Camp Wickliffe, Kentucky. But it had its moments, both high and low, which stirred the interest of the bored young men.

From Camp John McLean, near Cincinnati, Sgt. Oscar D. Ladley of the 75^th Ohio recently enjoyed some hilarity at the expense of his company’s first lieutenant. The inexperienced officer took the company out for dress parade, but “forgot what command to give to keep us from running over the Quartermasters tent, and about half the company ran plum into it, some of them tried to climb over it.

“There were several officers close by and out boys commenced laughing fit to kill. The same evening when we had halted he wanted to bring us to a ‘front face.’ The order is ‘company front’! When they undoubled their files and came to a front face, the order he gave was ‘front face without doubling front.’ He was so annoyed he has not shown himself for several days.”

But in the same letter, Ladley described a less amusing incident. A sergeant in another company of his regiment, “an old man about sixty years of age [who] had served all through the Mexican War [and] was a good soldier, well liked by all his comrades,” had taken it into his head to go to a tavern in a nearby town and get a drink.

Apparently the tavern was closed and the tavern keeper, armed with a sword and a revolver, grappled at the door with the sergeant and fired his pistol at him. The sergeant “droped dead in his tracks, and was kicked out into the street,” Ladley wrote, adding, “The soldiers all went over the next night and would have hanged [the tavern keeper] and he is now in jail in Lancaster and I hope he will hang.”

ELSEWHERE IN THE CIVIL WAR: There was a skirmish near Bowling Green, Kentucky, involving Company H of the 2^nd Indiana Cavalry, with no casualties reported. The most activity was taking place in Brig. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant’s District of Cairo, where Grant’s forces were hustling to prepare to attack on Fort Henry, the Confederate post guarding access to the Tennessee River. Nearly a dozen different orders fly off Grant’s desk, arranging transportation, supplies, and troop movements, as well as positioning of a substantial number of troops (eight regiments of infantry, six companies of cavalry, two companies of artillery, plus all the lame and sick of Grant’s command) left behind to guard Cairo and its outposts—something the ever-cautious Halleck had insisted upon. He wires Halleck that he will leave Cairo “tomorrow night” (Sunday, February 2). His force will eventually total 15,000 men.

Friday, February 1, 2008

ON THIS DAY: Friday, January 31, 1862

A Day in the Life of…

Capt. Emerson Opdycke of the 41^st Ohio, is one of Col. William B. Hazen’s most trusted officers. Hazen, who started out as colonel of the 41^st, is now commander pro tem of the 19^th Brigade in Brig. Gen. Don Carlos Buell’s Army of the Ohio. The 19^th Brigade includes the 41^st Ohio, 46^th and 47^th Indiana, and the 6^th Kentucky (loyalist). The brigade occupies Camp Wickliffe in west-central Kentucky’s LaRue County.

Opdycke sits down near midnight to reply to his wife’s latest letter and describe a typical day in his life in camp (which, Opdycke says, is “devoid of much incident.”)

The hard-driving Hazen is, as usual, demanding every man in the brigade train ceaselessly. Opdycke—a no-nonsense officer who emulates Hazen—is one of the colonel’s designated taskmasters. He writes Lucy:

At half past seven or eight A.M., your most obedt marches through mud half way up to his knees to the camp of the 47^th Ind. about a quarter mile distant; drills the officers…for one and a half hours, then superintends those officers drilling their companies, til half past eleven A.M., then wades back to dinner; but stop, before dinner, I recite [my own lessons] to Col. Hazen, or in his absence, I hear others recite, then dinner, and at one p.m. I wade back and drill the battalion…until four P.M., return and at six P.M., recite to Col. H. till seven, when I wade again, to hear the officers of the said 47^th Ind recite for two hours. In the intervals of time I get my lessons and attend to much Company business; and the balance of the day I have for letter writing and sleeping.

Opdycke then describes his bed and “I assure you after the exercises above spoken of, I sleep most soundly upon it. We spread our rubber blankets on the ground, upon them we have a little straw, over the straw that comfortable [?] you gave me, then a layer of soldiers (Self and Lieutenant Mc.) then my shawl, then Lt’s blanket then overcoats, and overall, my Louis Napoleon [a large overcoat with a cape].

“It is now just twenty minutes past twelve P.M. [he means A.M.] so with your permission I will write myself

Affectionately Yours.

AND AT CAIRO, ILLINOIS: All is hustle and bustle as Grant prepares for his attack on Fort Henry, the Confederate post guarding the Tennessee River. Yesterday morning, Maj. Gen. Henry W. Halleck, in St. Louis, telegraphed his formal approval to “take and hold” Fort Henry, reversing his opposition of only a few days earlier. Today, Grant wires Halleck, “I expect to start Sunday evening [Feb. 2], taking 15,000 men. He tells Gen. C. F. Smith to prepare a brigade from Paducah plus “all the command from Smithland, except the 52 ILL and one battalion.” Grant orders Brig. Gen. Lew Wallace to take command and hold the Union base at Smithland, Kentucky, near the confluence of the Ohio and Cumberland rivers. He arranges for ammunition, rations for horses, and transportation of soldiers by steamer.

ELSEWHERE: Putting the spurs to the immobile McClellan, President Abraham Lincoln supplements his “General War Order No. 1” with a special order to “seize and occupy” a point on the railroad near Manassas Junction. But will it make any difference to the stubborn McClellan?

Thursday, January 31, 2008

ON THIS DAY: Thursday, Jan. 30, 1862

White Flight

In winter quarters at Camp Union, Fayetteville, western Virginia, Lt. Col. Rutherford B. Hayes of the 23^rd Ohio watches white refugees from the Confederacy passing through, on their way west.

They “constantly come…on their way to Ohio, Indiana, or other western states,” Hayes tells his diary. “Many of them are young men who are foot-loose, tired of the war. No employment, poor pay, etc., etc., is driving the laboring white people from the slave states.”

Between the African-American escapees from slavery and the discouraged whites, it must seem to Hayes as if the Confederacy is being drained of its people.

Hayes is especially ebullient today because he has just received permission for a total of 31 days of leave to go home to “Dearest Lucy” in Cincinnati. Two days ago he wrote that, “I am getting impatient to be with you….I am bent of coming as soon as possible….I do want to see you “s’much,” and I love you “s’much.”

ELSEWHERE IN THE CIVIL WAR: From his headquarters in Cairo, Illinois, Brig. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant is gearing up for a major move against the Confederate enemy. He orders 150,000 rations loaded aboard a steamer which he will take with him for his assault on Fort Henry, which guards passage on the Tennessee River. Several hundred miles to the east, the U.S.S. Monitor, “the cheesebox on a raft” that represents the latest in naval warfare technology, is launched at Greenpoint, Long Island. At Southampton in England, Confederate envoys Slidell and Mason finally arrive, released after a month’s imprisonment in the United States in the Trent affair.