CHAPTER XII.
Wherein Captain Galligasken rehearses the persistent Efforts of the illustrious Soldier to obtain Permission to attack Fort Henry, and follows him to the Capture of that important Position.
General Grant gained no immediate credit for his brilliant action at Belmont. The objects of the movement were not understood, and as the victorious army did not retain the position it had won, the general public regarded it as a defeat. The balance of injury was against the rebels, and in favor of the national arms. Grant gained all, and more than all, he intended. He had no occasion to be forgiven for Belmont. It was his first battle in the Rebellion, and the first of the unbroken line of victories he achieved which gladdened the heart of the nation from time to time.
Grant was always generous, even to magnanimity. His report of the battle bestows the warmest praise upon those who deserved it. There was none of that petty, sixpenny jealousy in his composition which belittled some other able generals, and which in a few instances seriously interfered with the progress of the Union arms. He had no occasion to decry others in order to magnify himself. He was willing to let his fame take care of itself. He did everything for the cause, nothing at all for himself. He was too magnanimous to mention the indiscretions of the officers who, through lack of experience, imperilled the day, for they were errors of the head, and not of the heart.
A few days after the battle of Belmont, Fremont was superseded by Halleck. The change did not injure the immediate prospects of Grant, though for two months the general was employed only in organizing and drilling troops, some of which were for service in his own district, and some were intended for other parts of the department, and he was permitted to make no forward movement. For the old name the new commander substituted the District of Cairo, and changed its limits so as to include the portion of Kentucky west of the Cumberland River.
During this period of comparative inaction, flags of truce frequently passed between Cairo and Columbus, and interviews between the generals in command of the posts took place. General Polk seems to have been a very hospitable gentleman, and at the close of each conference invariably brought out his wine to treat his guests. It was not unusual to propose a toast, and on one occasion the bishop general offered one which he declared all could drink. The glasses were filled,—Grant's with water, of course,—and Polk gave, "To General Washington—" He paused there, and the company raised their glasses to their lips, and were in the act of honoring the great name, when the proposer of the sentiment added—"the first rebel."
"That was scarcely fair, general," interposed Grant, who had nearly finished his glass; "but I will be even with you some other time."
It would have been called a Yankee trick if it had been perpetrated by any other than a chivalrous Southern soldier. Two weeks later, another flag was sent down the river, and Grant accompanied it. When the business of the interview was completed, Polk attended to the rites of hospitality as usual. Grant turned the conversation into the favorite channel of rebel politicians by introducing the subject of state rights. The Southern officers were suffered to express themselves fully on their pet theme, without any serious attempt to controvert their positions. As he rose to take his departure, Grant proposed, a sentiment in which he said all could agree—"Equal rights to all—" He duplicated the pause which Polk had made on the previous occasion, until the party had partially emptied their glasses, when he added—"white and black."
"Now, general, I think I am even with you," continued Grant, in his quiet, unimpressible manner; and the reverend general was obliged to own that he had been flanked in his own manœuvre.
Columbus was the western extreme of the rebel line of defence, which at that time included nearly the whole length of the Potomac River in the East. The enemy had built Fort Henry on the Tennessee River, and Fort Donelson on the Cumberland, and occupied Bowling Green, near the centre of the State of Kentucky. The line which included these points was the boundary which actually separated the territories in possession of the combatants. It was the strategic line of the rebels, on which they had placed their defences, concentrated their armies, and gathered their supplies, both for aggressive movements to the North, and to prevent a Union force from penetrating to the South. Bowling Green, on a branch of the Green River, was at the junction of the two lines of railroad from Memphis and from Nashville. Fort Henry and Fort Donelson were near the Memphis road, protecting it from Union raiders, and supplied by it with men and provisions, as well as by the two rivers.
The Gibraltar of the West, as Columbus was called by the rebels, mounted one hundred and forty guns, was abundantly supplied with men and material, and its railway connections afforded every facility for reënforcing it in case of necessity. It closed the Mississippi against the Union steamers and gunboats.
Fort Henry, the first connecting link in the rebel line of defence, was a strongly-built fortification on the right bank of the Tennessee, mounting seventeen guns, and provided with accommodations for fifteen thousand men.
Fort Donelson, on the left bank of the Cumberland, was a more elaborate work, mounting forty guns, and with quarters for twenty thousand troops. These two forts effectually closed the rivers on which they were located, and were only twelve miles apart, so that they could coöperate with each other in cases of emergency. A strong rebel army at Bowling Green completed the defence, and an advance by land was as impracticable as by water. The problem which the Western military commanders were called upon to solve was, how to break through this line.
The question seems to have worried Grant to no inconsiderable degree, and he studied the matter attentively during the winter. In January, by order of General Halleck, he sent out a heavy force under General Smith, in the direction of Columbus, to aid a movement on the part of General Thomas in another part of the state, and to examine the ground. No fighting was done, and the soldiers suffered severely from cold; but the object of the expedition was gained, for Thomas defeated the rebels at Mill Springs, where the result would have been different if reënforcements had been sent from this quarter to the enemy.
During the winter, the gunboat navy of the West was largely augmented and improved, under the admirable supervision of Commodore Foote. Ordinary river steamers were shorn of their top works, and their hulls converted into iron-clad batteries, which promised to render efficient service in operations on the navigable streams of the West. The brave old salt was ably seconded by Halleck and by Grant, both in building and in manning his fleet.
General Smith, on his return from the reconnoissance in force, reported to Grant that the capture of Fort Henry was feasible. The general of the district was ready at an early day to solve the problem of breaking the rebel line of defence. He had kept his eye and his thought on this operation; and while the movement was demanded by McClellan, then general-in-chief, Halleck appears hardly to have turned his attention in that direction; certainly he had taken no active measure to carry out the purpose.
I am not willing to say that Grant at this time had devised a plan for extended operations towards the South, but I am confident that he was studying his maps and measuring the comparative resources of the two armies long before his superiors had any definite ideas on the subject. I firmly believe that to him belongs the conception of that grand military movement which he so gloriously carried forward in person.
On the return of Smith from his expedition, Grant forwarded his report to General Halleck, and a day later, by permission, visited the headquarters of the commander of the department at St. Louis, in order to obtain permission to attack Fort Henry. Halleck was one of the high and mighty men, and his refusal was abrupt and sharp. Grant was no orator. He proffered his request in the fewest words that would express it; and he did not attempt to sustain his views by an argument. He was wounded in his feelings by the curtness of his superior, and returned to Cairo with the unpleasant impression that his commander regarded him as a tyro, capable of perpetrating the grossest military blunder.
But Grant had Fort Henry on the brain, and, in spite of his repulse, he could not be satisfied to leave with his superior the responsibility of neglecting to improve what he regarded as a golden opportunity. In the latter part of January he telegraphed to Halleck that, with his permission, he would take and hold Fort Henry, establish and hold a large camp there. A day later he followed up his application with a letter, demonstrating the practicability of the proposed enterprise, and showing the advantage to be gained by a prompt advance. His application was warmly seconded by Flag-officer Foote; and this time the desired permission was obtained. Grant was happy then; he had overcome the coldness of Halleck, and it only remained for him to justify his predictions.
Grant was on the most intimate terms of friendship with Foote, and these two gallant and devoted men worked harmoniously together to achieve a success. There was no bickering between them about precedence, for both of them sought only to serve the cause in which they had embarked. Halleck's detailed instructions arrived on the 1st of February, and, in view of the experience of others, it is almost a miracle that there was not a delay of a month, or at least of a week. Grant was a prompt man, and in spite of all the precedents made and provided for the occasion, he actually started from Cairo on the day after his orders reached him. His force, embarked in transports, consisted of seventeen thousand men, and Commodore Foote's squadron was composed of seven gunboats, only four of which, however, were iron-clads.
On the 4th of February the expedition arrived at the scene of operations. Grant had given McClernand the advance, and this officer landed his troops about eight miles below the fort. But the commanding general did not quite comprehend the situation, and he was not the man to work in the dark when light could be obtained. Going on board of one of the gunboats, he directed its captain to steam up the river, and under the guns of the fort, in order to draw its fire and test its weight of metal. The rebels fired upon the daring intruder, and a shot went through the steamer. The purpose of the general was gained, and he returned to his forces below, reembarked them, and again landed them just out of the reach of cannon shot, the range of which he had practically demonstrated.
The enemy were fully alive to the peril which menaced them, and made every preparation for a desperate resistance. Additional troops were ordered up by the railroads, and reserves from Fort Donelson stationed where they could be available. The Tennessee had overflowed its banks, and the country for miles around was inundated. Fort Henry was completely surrounded by water, and the movements of both armies were made with difficulty. But Grant, no more dismayed by flood than by fire, gave orders to post his troops so as to intercept any departures or arrivals of the enemy.
Before the investment of the fort, intelligence of the anticipated arrival of a large rebel force compelled Grant to hasten the attack, and at eleven o'clock, on the 6th of February, the army marched towards the rear of the fort, and the gunboats steamed up the river to engage the batteries. The intrepid old sea-dog opened fire upon the works, and in an hour and a half knocked them all to pieces, silencing every gun. General Tilghman surrendered to Commodore Foote without conditions; but only the commander, his staff, and sixty men were captured, the main body of the rebel army having been sent to Fort Donelson.
The floods of water and the miry condition of the roads prevented the army from reaching the rear of the fort in season to be of any service. The cavalry was sent in pursuit of the fleeing rebels, but they had gone too far to be overtaken. General Tilghman, it appeared, did not share the confidence of his superiors in the invulnerableness of his works, and early in the morning he had posted his entire garrison, with the exception of a force sufficient to work his guns, at some outworks two miles distant, and out of the reach of the shot and shell from the gunboats, where they could be hastened to a place of safety. Before the result of the battle with the gunboats was known, these forces were sent away, and no different action on the part of the Union general could have captured them.
The victory was a decided one, though the army was prevented from sharing in the glory of capturing the fort. The result filled the government of the Confederacy with dismay. One of its strong gates had been battered down, and the Tennessee was open to the navigation of those pestilent gunboats, which had already become the terror of Rebeldom. Prompt to assure the leaders of the Confederacy of the disaster which had overtaken them, Flag-officer Foote sent three of his "pets" up the river, which proceeded as far as Florence, Alabama, destroying the railroad bridge twenty-five miles above Fort Henry, capturing large quantities of stores, and burning many steamers and other boats.
The effect of this success was promptly realized in the sudden evacuation of Bowling Green; and thus two of the rebel strongholds were struck down by the same blow. But the full advantage of this capture was not to be realized until the Union army was ready to move in force towards the south. The victory was an easy one, very much to the astonishment of the naval and the military officers in command. Certainly the position was of importance enough for the Confederacy to have staked more upon it than it did.
Grant's idea was triumphant, and he received the reward of his persistent application to capture the fort, and ample compensation for his harsh rebuff, in the consciousness that he had initiated one of the grandest movements of the war—grand in its ultimate results, which his far-seeing eye had already discovered, rather than in the present glory of its accomplishment.