CHAPTER I. CHAPTER II. CHAPTER III. CHAPTER IV. CHAPTER V. CHAPTER VI. CHAPTER VII. CHAPTER VIII. CHAPTER I. CHAPTER II. CHAPTER III. CHAPTER IV. CHAPTER V. CHAPTER VI. CHAPTER VII. CHAPTER VIII. Fort Henry to Corinth, by Manning Ferguson Force Project Gutenberg's From Fort Henry to Corinth, by Manning Ferguson Force This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net Title: From Fort Henry to Corinth Author: Manning Ferguson Force Release Date: January 27, 2008 [EBook #24438] Fort Henry to Corinth, by Manning Ferguson Force 1 Language: English Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 *** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FROM FORT HENRY TO CORINTH *** Produced by Graeme Mackreth and The Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net FROM FORT HENRY TO CORINTH CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL WAR II. FROM FORT HENRY TO CORINTH BY M.F. FORCE LATE BRIGADIER-GENERAL AND BREVET MAJOR-GENERAL, U.S.V., COMMANDING FIRST DIVISION, SEVENTEENTH CORPS. NEW YORK CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS Facsimile Reprint Edition from the original edition of 1881-1883 by The Archive Society, 1992. Address all inquiries to: The Archive Society 130 Locust Street Harrisburg, PA 17101 PREFACE. I have endeavored to prepare the following narrative from authentic material, contemporaneous, or nearly contemporaneous, with the events described. The main source of information is the official reports of battles and operations. These reports, both National and Confederate, will appear in the series of volumes of Military Reports now in preparation under the supervision of Colonel Scott, Chief of the War Records Office in the War Department. Executive Document No. 66, printed by resolution of the Senate at the Second Session of the Thirty-seventh Congress, contains a number of separate reports of casualties, lists of killed, wounded, and missing, which do not appear in the volumes of Military Reports as now printed. Several battle reports are printed in volume IV., and in the "Companion," or Appendix volume of Moore's Rebellion Record, which are not contained in the volumes of Military Reports as now printed. The reports of the Twentieth Ohio and the Fifty-third Ohio, of the battle of Shiloh, have never been printed. Colonel Trabue's report of his brigade in the battle of Shiloh has never been officially printed; but it is given in the history of the Kentucky Brigade from Colonel Trabue's retained copy, found by his widow among his papers. The Reports of the Committee on the Conduct of the War contain original matter in addition to what appears in reports of battles and operations. Fort Henry to Corinth, by Manning Ferguson Force 2 The reports of the Adjutant-Generals of the different States, printed during the war, often supplement the official reports on file in Washington. Some regimental histories, printed soon after the close of the war, contain diaries and letters and narrate incidents which enable us in some cases to fix dates, the place of camps, and positions in battle, which could hardly otherwise be determined with precision. Newspaper correspondents, while narrating what they personally saw, give descriptions which impart animation to the sedate statements of official reports. Colonel William Preston Johnston's life of his father, General A.S. Johnston, can be used in some respects as authority. He served first in the Army of Northern Virginia, and was, most of the war, on the staff of Jefferson Davis. He thus, after his father's death, became possessed of a valuable collection of authentic official papers. When he was preparing the biography, all papers of value in private hands in the South were open to his use. Letters and memoranda preserved by Colonel Charles Whittlesey, and some of my own, have been of service. I am under obligation to Colonel Scott for permission to freely read and copy, in his office, the reports compiled under his direction. To Ex-President Hayes for the loan of a set of the series of Military Reports, both National and Confederate, so far as printed, though not yet issued. To the Historical and Philosophical Society of Ohio for the unrestricted use of its library. To Colonel Charles Whittlesey of Cleveland, and Major E.C. Dawes, of Cincinnati, for the use of original manuscripts as well as printed reports. M.F. FORCE. CONTENTS. Fort Henry to Corinth, by Manning Ferguson Force 3 CHAPTER I. PAGE PRELIMINARY, 1 CHAPTER I. 4 CHAPTER II. FORT HENRY, 24 CHAPTER II. 5 CHAPTER III. FORT DONELSON, 33 CHAPTER III. 6 CHAPTER IV. NEW MADRID AND ISLAND NUMBER TEN, 66 CHAPTER IV. 7 CHAPTER V. THE GATHERING OF THE FORCES, 91 CHAPTER V. 8 CHAPTER VI. SHILOH SUNDAY, 122 CHAPTER VI. 9 CHAPTER VII. SHILOH NIGHT, AND MONDAY, 160 CHAPTER VII. 10 [...]... order to McClernand was to take position on the road from Fort Henry to Fort Donelson and Dover, prevent all reinforcements to Fort Henry or escape from it, and be in readiness to charge and take Fort Henry by storm promptly on the receipt of orders The road was everywhere miry, owing to the wet season, and crossed ridges and wet hollows McClernand reports that the distance by road, from the camp to the...CHAPTER VIII CHAPTER VIII CORINTH, 183 LIST OF MAPS PAGE WESTERN TENNESSEE, facing 1 FIELD OF OPERATIONS IN MISSOURI AND NORTHERN ARKANSAS, 3 THE LINE FROM COLUMBUS TO BOWLING GREEN, 25 FORT HENRY, 29 FORT DONELSON, 35 NEW MADRID AND ISLAND NUMBER TEN, 73 THE FIELD OF SHILOH, 125 THE APPROACH TO CORINTH, 185 [Illustration: Western Tennessee.] FROM FORT HENRY TO CORINTH 11 CHAPTER I 12 CHAPTER... arrived at Fort Henry on transports, down the river on the boats from which they had not landed, to follow the fleet up the Cumberland He also on the same day moved the greater part of his force out several miles from Fort Henry on to solid ground On the morning of the 12th, leaving General L Wallace and 2,500 men at Fort Henry, he moved by two roads, diverging at Fort Henry, but coming together again... General Grant at once sent an additional regiment to Oglesby, with directions to him to turn his course to the river in the direction of New Madrid; requested General C F Smith to make a demonstration from Paducah toward Columbus; and also sent parties from Bird's Point and Fort Holt to move down both sides of the river, so as to attract attention from Columbus On the evening of the 6th, General Grant... up General Halleck telegraphed Grant to use every effort to transform Fort Henry into a work strong on its landward side, and by all means to destroy the railroad bridge across the Cumberland at Clarksville, above Fort Donelson Grant was urging Commodore Foote to send boats up the Cumberland to co-operate in an attack on Donelson On February 11th, Foote sailed from Cairo with his fleet On the same... General Johnston began to set them all in motion by telegram from Bowling Green, before he received news of the surrender of Fort Henry General Floyd was so averse to going to Donelson that he continued to remonstrate General Buckner, whose division had arrived, proposed on the night of the 11th to take it back to General Floyd, his commanding officer at Clarksville; but Pillow, who was senior to Buckner,... or bottom overflowed by every high water Immediately below the town is Indian Creek One branch of it, rising close by the head of the upper one of the two brooks, flowing outwardly from the river toward the west, then bending to the north and northeast, makes almost the circuit of the town, about half a mile from it, before emptying into the creek Several small brooks, flowing from the north into Indian... 20,000 well intrenched A party was sent to destroy the railroad bridge over the Tennessee, above Fort Henry, the trestle approach to which had been partly destroyed by Lieutenant-Commander Phelps, to prevent effectually reinforcements reaching Donelson from Columbus Order was sent to General Lewis Wallace, who had been left with a brigade in command at Fort Henry, to join the besieging force The two divisions... places on the river, and to much greater extent a few miles back from the river, is a swamp From Columbus to Fort Pillow, the Tennessee shore is of the same character The river flowing almost due south for some miles to Madrid Bend, curves there to the west of north to New Madrid, and there making another bend, sweeps to the southeast and then nearly east, till, reaching Tiptonville, a point nearly... parallel to the river About half a mile below the mouth of Indian Creek, Hickman Creek, flowing eastwardly, empties into the river at right angles with it Small branches running into Hickman Creek almost interlock with those emptying into Indian Creek, whereby the series of ridges parallel to the river are made to extend continuously from the valley of one creek to the valley of the other Fort Donelson, . EBOOK FROM FORT HENRY TO CORINTH *** Produced by Graeme Mackreth and The Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net FROM FORT HENRY TO CORINTH CAMPAIGNS. at www.gutenberg.net Title: From Fort Henry to Corinth Author: Manning Ferguson Force Release Date: January 27, 2008 [EBook #24438] Fort Henry to Corinth, by Manning