better be also, for we must not only be destroyed CHAP. VI. but disgraced." 64 Badeau, U.S. p. 539. He therefore advanced his line of sharp-shooters History of on the night of the 28th to within rifle range of the national defenses, and made ready a heavy column to assault Fort Sanders on the northwest side of Burnside's line, which was the strongest point of the National works, but, if taken, rendered the capture of the city an easy task. The defenders of the place became aware of his purpose by the capture of pickets, and made their preparations to resist. At dawn on the 29th Long- Nov., 1863. street began a furious artillery fire, to which no reply was made from the fort; and after about half an hour the Confederate column, which had been concentrated during the night, charged on the bastion. The space in front of the fort had been carefully prepared with abatis and entanglements of wire; many of the Confederates fell over these obstacles and produced a momentary confusion; but the heavy mass behind them pushed resolutely forward, and soon gained the ditch and the parapet. It was a repetition, with exchanged flags, of the slaughter of Fort Wagner. The National guns, which had remained inexplicably silent up to this moment, opened upon the rebels with triple charges of canister; the infantry suddenly appeared, shooting down the defenseless Confederates on the glacis and in the ditch, bayoneting or clubbing back with their muskets every head that appeared above the parapet. Only one of the assailants got over the parapet alive; the ditch was filled with the dead and wounded, and the glacis was thickly sprinkled with them. "Military of U. S. Grant." Vol. I., p. 542. CHAP. VI. Longstreet lost in this assault a thousand men; the casualties on the Union side were insignificant; Burnside reports only thirteen killed and wounded. There were only 220 men and 11 guns actually engaged in this brilliant defense, against four Badeau, brigades of Longstreet. Lieutenant Samuel N. History Benjamin, commanding a light battery of the Second United States Artillery, inspired and directed the defense of the fort. Immediately after the repulse, while his broken columns were coming shattered and bleeding back to his lines, Longstreet received a dispatch from Jefferson Davis announcing the disaster of Chattanooga, and directing him to put himself in immediate communication with Bragg; but learning soon after, by means of a dispatch which Grant had contrived should fall into his hands, that heavy reënforcements were on the way CHAP. VI. to Burnside, he saw that it was impossible to form a junction with Bragg. He therefore recalled his trains, which were already in motion for Loudon; and, resolving on the 2d of December to abandon the siege, he put his trains in motion on the 3d; and on the night of the 4th he passed around the north side of Knoxville and took up his line of march to the Holston. 1863. Sherman, When Sherman was turned back by Grant from the pursuit of Bragg he imagined that he was only required to protect the right flank of Granger during the first stage of his march to Knoxville; but on arriving at Charleston he was surprised to find a dispatch from Grant, directing him to take command of Granger's corps, and with whatever force he deemed necessary from his own command to push forward with the utmost haste to Burnside's relief. "Seven days before," he says, "we had left our camps on the other side of the Tennessee with two days' rations, without a change of clothing, stripped for the fight, with but a single blanket or coat per Record." man, from myself to the private included." He had no provisions except such as could be gathered by the road, and was, in all respects, ill-supplied for such a march; but without protest or complaint he pushed his column forward with such celerity as to cause the various detachments of the enemy who were guarding the road to fall back in haste without, in any case, effecting the complete destruction of their stores; so that Sherman's advancing army lived, in great part, on the provisions deserted by these Confederate detachments. At Loudon he divided his force into three armies, Vol. VIII., p. 203. Report. Committee CHAP. VI. Frank P. Blair, Jr., commanding the right wing, Howard, Granger the center, and Howard the left. The different commanders were to act independently and on the defensive, marching to the support of each other at the sound of the guns. on Conduct of the War, Ibid. The bridge at Loudon over the Holston River having been destroyed, the army was compelled to move east on the south side of the river, and the principal obstacle in their way was the Little Tennessee, which flows into the Holston between Loudon and Knoxville. Sherman had hoped to ford this river at Morgantown, but it was found too deep, and the water was freezing. With the assistance of General J. H. Wilson a bridge was hastily improvised of cut wood and square trestles made from the houses of Morgantown, and the Fifteenth Corps crossed at that point. Howard, who had captured a large number of wagons from the Confederates at Loudon, brought them along with him, and made a bridge of them at Davis's Ford, on which he passed his force. A new and welcome experience of this march was that the army everywhere received willing assistance from the population. General Howard says, Along the entire route... we were cheered by the most lively demonstrations of loyalty on the part of the inhabitants. . . A man who had been a major in the rebel service and resigned came to me, and without laying any claim to loyalty, stated that he had drifted with the current, but since our recent victory was satisfied that Tennessee would resume her place in the Union. He gave me information so accurate that I was able to sketch the works at Knoxville and the enemy's position." He records in another place a touching instance CHAP. VI. of the loyalty of the Tennesseeans. Many of his troops had worn out their shoes in their long march, and were tramping barefoot over the frozen ground. Tribune," He saw citizens, meeting them, sit down on the "National ground, take off their own shoes and give them to Oct. 9, 1884. the soldiers. Straining every nerve to reach and rescue their comrades at Knoxville, whom they considered in such extremity, firing their artillery with wasteful liberality whenever a Confederate uniform came in sight, for the purpose of advertising their advance to Burnside-all the heads of columns communicated at Marysville on the night of the 5th, where Dec., 1863. General Sherman met an officer of Burnside's staff, who announced that Longstreet had raised the siege and retreated in the direction of Virginia. Sherman at once wrote to Burnside announcing his arrival, and saying he could bring 25,000 men into Knoxville, but, "Longstreet having retreated," he adds, "I feel disposed to stop, for a stern chase is a long one." Leaving his own troops, and accompanied only by Granger's corps, he rode into Knoxville, and was greeted by Burnside with the warmest and most courteous welcome, but with a serenity which somewhat surprised Sherman, who had expected to find the garrison at the point of starvation. His astonishment was increased on viewing the pens of fat cattle by the river side and reached its height when he sat down at the hospitable table of Burnside a born Amphitryon, who, if he were cast ashore on a coral reef, would have asked his shipwrecked comrades to dine with him the next day Sherman, "Rebellion Vol. VIII, Record." p. 204. Badeau, "Military History of U. S. Grant." Vol. I.. pp. 543, 544. |