Was General Thomas Slow at Nashville?

The enemy’s left being thus effectually turned, the infantry attack in front was delivered with success, and Hood fell back to a new line, and early the second day withdrew still further, establishing his right on the Overton Hills.

The second day was a repetition of the first. Wilson again swung his cavalry by a wide detour to the enemy’s left and rear, and from the rear assaulted and carried a portion of his main line, capturing both works and guns. Thereupon the infantry corps again advanced on the front; the enemy was everywhere forced back in confused retreat, and instantly the most vigorous pursuit began, and was kept up that night till midnight, the cavalry leading. It was resumed at daylight and continued night and day in winter weather, – rain, slush, snow, and ice, – over a soggy country and mud roads which were well-nigh impassable, leading through a region which both armies had gleaned bare with their foraging parties. But even under these conditions, by herculean efforts, the most vigorous pursuit was prosecuted to the Tennessee River. The determined character of this pursuit is well illustrated by the fact that 6000 cavalry horses were disabled, so rapid and exhaustive was the work they performed. At the close Hood’s army was practically destroyed. It opened the campaign 55,000 strong. It lost nearly all its guns and equipments, about 15,000 killed and wounded, and the same number of prisoners. About 13,000 men of all arms were finally assembled at Tupelo. Starting toward North Carolina it continued to disintegrate, and reached the southern line of that State not over 6000 strong. It had practically disappeared as an army. When it reached Bentonville in Sherman’s front it went into action with only 3953 officers and men of all arms. For the first time in the war one of the leading veteran armies of the enemy operating in the open field had been destroyed. This was the direct result of Thomas’s blow at Nashville, and the pursuit which followed.

Thomas was very deeply pained and indignant at the treatment he received while making the most vigorous preparations for battle which it was possible to carry forward. He called his officers together during the sleet storm to tell them of the peremptory order to attack without regard to weather, and of his reply that the conditions were unfavorable for attack, that it would be made at the first possible moment, and that if removed, as threatened, he would submit without a murmur. He found himself fully supported by all of them. After this meeting was over he called General Wilson aside and said: “Wilson, they treat me at Washington and at Grant’s headquarters as though I were a boy! They do not seem to think that I have sense enough to plan a campaign or fight a battle, but if they will only let me alone a few days I will show them that they are mistaken. I am sure we will whip Hood and destroy his army, if we go at them under favorable instead of unfavorable conditions.”

Later, and in spite of his brilliant and complete victory, and the further fact that such vigorous pursuit as had never before been made by a Union army was in progress, in midwinter and under more unfavorable circumstances, too, than a pursuing army had encountered during the war, this nagging from Washington and City Point continued.

Secretary Stanton alone was immediate, wholesouled, and continuing in his congratulations and praises. Grant tempered his message over the “splendid success” with the information that he had reached Washington on his way to relieve him, but now would not proceed, and continued: “Push the enemy now and give him no rest until he is entirely destroyed. Much is now expected.” Mr. Lincoln added to his thanks: “You made a magnificent beginning. A grand consummation is within your easy reach. Do not let it slip.”

In the midst of these proddings, Secretary Stanton suggested to Grant that Thomas be made a Major-General. Grant replied: “I think Thomas has won the Major-Generalcy, but I would wait a few days before giving it, to see the extent of damage done.”

Next came Halleck, in the midst of the almost superhuman efforts of the pursuit:

“Permit me, General, to urge the vast importance of a hot pursuit of Hood’s army. Every possible sacrifice should be made, and your men for a few days will submit to any hardship and privation to accomplish the great result. A most vigorous pursuit on your part is therefore of vital importance to Sherman’s plans. No sacrifice must be spared to attain so important an object.”

THOMAS TURNS ON HIS NAGGERS

There was one thing in which General Thomas was slow. He was not swift to give expression to indignation over wrong treatment. To this latter, as the culmination of the series, he at last responded with this crushing statement:

“General Hood’s army is being pursued as rapidly and as vigorously as it is possible for one army to pursue another. We cannot control the elements, and you must remember that to resist Hood’s advance into Tennessee I had to reorganize and almost thoroughly equip the force now under my command. I fought the battles of the 15th and 16th inst. with the troops but partially equipped, and notwithstanding the inclemency of the weather and the partial equipment, have been enabled to drive the enemy beyond Duck River, crossing the two streams with my troops, and driving the enemy from position to position, without the aid of pontoons, and with but little transportation to bring up supplies and ammunition.

“I am doing all in my power to crush Hood’s army, and, if it be possible, will destroy it, but pursuing an enemy through an exhausted country, over mud roads, completely sogged with heavy rains, is no child’s play, and cannot be accomplished as quickly as thought of. I hope, in urging me to push the enemy, the department remembers that General Sherman took with him the complete organizations of the Military Division of the Mississippi, well equipped in every respect as regards ammunition, supplies, and transportation, leaving me only two corps – partially stripped of their transportation to accommodate the force taken with him – to oppose the advance into Tennessee of that army which had resisted the advance of the army of the Military Division of the Mississippi on Atlanta from the commencement of the campaign until its close, and which is now, in addition, aided by Forrest’s cavalry. Although my progress may appear slow, I feel assured that Hood’s army can be driven from Tennessee, and eventually driven to the wall, by the force under my command, but too much must not be expected of troops which have to be reorganized, especially when they have the task of destroying a force in a winter campaign which was able to make an obstinate resistance to twice its numbers in spring and summer. In conclusion, I can safely state that this army is willing to submit to any sacrifice to oust Hood’s army, or to strike any other blow which would contribute to the destruction of the rebellion.”

The next day Stanton thus again extended his steady support:

“I have seen to-day General Halleck’s dispatch of yesterday and your reply. It is proper for me to assure you that this department has the most unbounded confidence in your skill, vigor, and determination to employ to the best advantage all the means in your power to pursue and destroy the enemy. No department could be inspired with more profound admiration and thankfulness for the great deeds you have already performed, or more confiding faith that human effort could accomplish no more than will be done by you and the gallant officers and soldiers of your command.”

To this Thomas responded in terms which show his deep appreciation of the only unqualifiedly friendly voice that had reached his ear from those in high authority:

“I am profoundly thankful for the hearty expression of your confidence in my determination and desire to do all in my power to destroy the enemy and put down the rebellion.”

As pertinent to this history it is well to recall two facts: First, Sherman reached Savannah, having avoided all fortified places, had encountered no enemy in force during his march, sat down before the city, and awoke one morning to find that Hardee with his 10,000 men had slipped out of the city over the river and escaped.

Second, the Army of the Potomac, which had 87,000 present for duty equipped, and which was not obliged to depend upon quartermasters’ employees, citizens, and convalescents for its reserves, remained quietly in its camps in front of City Point and in sight of the enemy from November to April, giving plenty of leisure for complaining that the Army of the Cumberland did not attack at the dropping of a handkerchief.

With the dispersion of Hood’s army General Thomas set about preparing for a spring campaign which should open at the earliest possible day. His plan contemplated the assembling and putting in thorough condition an army of cavalry to penetrate the South under his trusted commander, General James H. Wilson.

THE CAVALRY AFTER NASHVILLE

Six divisions of the cavalry corps were put in camp, extending for twelve miles along the north bank of the Tennessee from Gravelly Springs to Waterloo Landing. A winter campaign was laid out at army headquarters for Thomas’s army, to begin without rest or refitting – the resting to be done by proxy in the vicinity of City Point. But owing to rains and unusual floods this plan for Thomas could not be pursued, and the time was improved for a vigorous and rapid refitting of his forces.

Early in March a cavalry corps of 27,000 had been gathered. The men were veterans. The new equipment collected was excellent, but, with all that the Cavalry Bureau could do, only 17,000 horses could be provided. This force was raised, by drills and every form of perfecting an organization, to a high state of efficiency. While vigorous efforts were in progress to equip Hatch’s veteran division of 10,000, the orders from Washington and City Point for forward movement began to pour in on Thomas. While no other national army was moving, the nine weeks of midwinter which Thomas was using in most active measures for beginning a crushing campaign were begrudged him, and he was again prodded to move before he was ready. Next, the breaking up of the cavalry force which had been assembled and prepared with such great labor began. One division, 5000 strong, was ordered off to Canby at Mobile, where its operations proved of little consequence, and Thomas was ordered with 5000 more to make a demonstration on Tuscaloosa and Selma.

General Wilson then urged with great ability and power that the cavalry should go as a body, with the purpose of destroying the various factories of war material and breaking the interior lines of communication and supply. Grant, who had great confidence in Wilson from his long service on his staff, consented, and the plan, warmly approved by Thomas, was adopted, and Wilson was started with all the powers of an independent commander.

On the 22d of March Wilson had crossed the Tennessee and started toward Selma. He had three divisions, Upton’s, Long’s, and E. M. McCook’s. The aggregate strength was 12,500 mounted, and 1500 dismounted to follow till they could be furnished with captured horses. It was in every sense a command thoroughly equipped and fully supplied. The divisions marched on different roads, but the objective of each was Selma. The direct distance was 180 miles, and the average march of each division to reach it was 250 miles. The streams were still flooded in all directions, and the roads deep and difficult. The vigor and skill with which all these obstacles were overcome form a brilliant chapter, not exceeded in kind during the war.

At Montevallo, forty-five miles from Selma, a portion of Forrest’s command was encountered, and, after a dashing fight, forced to retreat. The Southern leader had not been able, as yet, to concentrate his command. The capture of a courier with dispatches to Forrest showed Wilson how several columns were moving to join Forrest, and forces were sent in various directions to check them, while Wilson’s main column rode direct for Selma. It was an exciting and successful play. Forrest, when reached, was found to have made the best disposition possible for an inferior force, and maintained a stubborn resistance. But the Union troopers charged at all points. Forrest himself fought hand to hand, and received several saber strokes. After the lines were carried Wilson’s column advanced in pursuit twenty-five miles, and bivouacked at night only twenty miles from Selma.

Selma contained a gun foundry, arsenal, and important manufactories of war material. The place had been sufficiently fortified, as was believed, against any possible cavalry attack. General Wilson had succeeded in obtaining accurate plans of these works and of the grounds in front of them. During the day’s advance, which was not retarded by Forrest, these sketches were shown to all general officers and a plan of attack explained. As a result, upon reaching the vicinity of the works, the various brigades went into position with precision and celerity, and the storming of the intrenchments began at once. Just as darkness was gathering they were carried at every point. The resistance was stubborn, but numbers, efficient organization, equipment, and dash won the day and the city.

The capture of Selma was one of the most remarkable feats in the cavalry annals of any land. The works contained 24 bastions and a number of strong redans with deep ditches, while the curtains of the four-mile line were generally stockaded rifle pits. There was besides an interior line of 4 detached forts. The artillery armament of these works was 30 field guns and two thirty-pounder Parrotts. Wilson’s attacking force was 8000. Forrest, for the defense, had half that force of veteran cavalry, and some 2000 militia, home-guards, and citizens. The captures were 2700 prisoners, nearly 2000 horses, 32 guns in service, 26 field guns mounted complete in arsenal, 46 siege guns in the foundry, 66,000 rounds of artillery ammunition, and 100,000 rounds for small arms. General Wilson destroyed the Selma arsenal, with 44 buildings covering 13 acres, filled with machinery and munitions; powder works comprising 7 buildings, with 14,000 pounds of powder; niter works, with 18 buildings equipped, 3 gun foundries, 3 rolling mills, and several machine shops, all equipped and turning out material of war, and vast accumulations of quartermaster and commissary stores. It was a crushing blow to the Confederacy – this capture of Selma with its enormous military plant on Sunday, April 2. The same day Grant, at the other end of the line a thousand miles away, had broken the lines at Petersburg, and the evacuation of Richmond began.

THE CAPTURE OF MONTGOMERY

General Wilson’s command remained at Selma about a week, making active preparations for its next stroke, which was to be against Montgomery, the former capital of the Confederacy. It was necessary to prepare a thousand feet of bridging to cross the Alabama River, then at flood tide and filled with floating débris. Equipments of every kind were looked after and the most careful refitting of the whole command took place, the Confederate stores taken offering abundant facilities for such important work. There had been horses enough captured to mount the whole command, together with a very considerable force of negroes for fatigue purposes. With Croxton’s brigade detached and moving by a circuitous route from central Alabama, through northern Georgia toward Macon, the final objective, the force of the main column was reduced to 11,000 men.

Upon reaching the outskirts of Montgomery they were met by the officials of the town and leading citizens, offering surrender without conditions. Then followed an astonishment for the people of this capital. The whole force, marching in close column, with its flags unfurled and music playing, made its way into and through the city without a marauder leaving its column or a soldier entering a private house in any quarter uninvited. And, so far as information came to the officers of the command, not an insulting word was spoken. The main portion of the command camped in the vicinity of the city, while its advance continued rapidly toward Columbus, skirmishing with the retreating enemy. There was a very considerable capture of steamboats loaded with military supplies at Montgomery. The halt there, however, was only for the night, and the next day the main column moved with the greatest celerity so as to secure a bridge for crossing the Chattahoochee either at Columbus on the direct road to Macon, or at West Point, further up the river.

By rapid movements, and bold and most brilliant fighting, both the bridge at Columbus and that at West Point were captured. Though both were prepared for burning and protected by heavy fortifications well manned by a defending force, the attacks against these were pushed so vigorously as to make it impossible for the enemy to fire them.

The bridge-head at West Point was protected by a strong redoubt with a deep ditch mounting two guns, one a thirty-two pounder, and the work manned by 265 men. This was twice attacked by direct assault, and carried the second time. The captures were 3 guns, 500 stands of small arms, 19 locomotive engines, and 240 cars loaded with army supplies, but the greatest importance of securing a crossing at West Point was that it opened a way direct to Macon, which could be used for the entire cavalry corps in case the attack at Columbus should fail.

The main column arrived at Girard, a small town opposite Columbus, early in the afternoon, finding a heavy line of fortifications protecting three bridges across the Chattahoochee. Under a vigorous attack upon the lower bridge the Confederates found it impossible to save it from capture unless it was destroyed, and set fire to the cotton and turpentine with which it had been prepared for burning.

It was then decided to make a night attack upon the central bridge, and the troops were arranged for this desperate work. The lines were very quietly formed, and moved up to within range of the intrenchments, and at a signal the assault began. The works were found to be strong and thoroughly protected with ditches and slashed timber. The enemy, while watchful, was not expecting a night assault from troops that had not reconnoitered the fortifications by daylight. They opened fire upon the charging columns, but in the darkness it was necessarily wild and uncertain.

The Union troops went over the works at many points, and all rushed in haste toward the bridge, which was the objective point of the attack. It was one of the most desperate and persistent night fights of the war, but so thoroughly organized was the attacking force that in spite of the darkness and confusion it was able to move with sufficient unity to preserve its columns and formations. Upon the penetration of the works both Union and Confederate soldiers swept over the bridge toward Columbus, and this was so crowded with the men of both forces that the enemy holding the works at the east end of the bridge, and commanding it with artillery, were restrained from firing till the Union forces made a rush upon them and gained possession, and Columbus was in full possession of General Wilson’s forces.

The next morning it was ascertained that the works had been manned and defended by 3000 Georgia militia under Generals Howell Cobb and Toombs. The capture of the city resulted in the destruction of a great quantity of war material, over 60 guns, the ram Jackson, mounting 6 guns, a large number of small arms, 125,000 bales of cotton, 15 locomotives, 250 cars, a navy yard and armory, 2 rolling mills, 1 arsenal and nitre works, 2 powder magazines, 2 iron works, 3 foundries, 10 mills and factories turning out war material, 100,000 rounds of artillery ammunition, and a great quantity of machinery used in the manufacture of war material.

THE CAVALRY AT COLUMBUS

Columbus was the great manufacturing center of the Confederacy, and this destruction inflicted irreparable damage. While little was known at the North of this sweep of Wilson’s columns through the industrial centers and military storehouses of the Confederacy, it is easy to understand that these fatal blows at vital points of interior military supply added to the demoralization and discouragement attending the evacuation of Richmond and the gathering storm about the armies of Lee and Johnson.

The column moved swiftly for Macon, and about eighteen miles out from it the officer in advance was met with a flag of truce carrying a note from General Beauregard notifying the commander of the forces of General Sherman’s truce with General Johnston, stating that an agreement had been entered upon that the contending forces were to occupy their present positions till forty-eight hours’ notice had been given of the resumption of hostilities. As General Wilson was eight or ten miles in the rear with his main command, the note was sent to him, and the officer in the advance pushed to and into Macon, taking possession of the city. When General Wilson arrived in the city he went at once to the city hall, where Generals Howell Cobb, Gustavus W. Smith, and others had been confined. General Cobb demanded that he and his command should be released, and that General Wilson should retire to where the flag of truce had met his advance. General Wilson declared that after receiving the note he had lost no time in pushing on to the head of his column, and found it in full possession of the city. He could not accept notification of a truce through the Confederate authorities, as they were not his channel of communication with General Sherman, and ended the conference by a positive refusal to acknowledge the armistice, to retire from the town, or to release his prisoners. When he announced this decision he said to General Cobb that he could conceive of but one adequate reason for the truce, and that was that Lee’s army had surrendered. Cobb, however, declined to give any information, but General Smith, to whom Wilson addressed the same remark, answered that Lee had surrendered, and that peace would soon follow. Thereupon General Wilson announced his decision to remain at Macon and conduct his future operations upon the principle that every man killed thereafter was a man murdered.

This interview was held on the 20th of April just before midnight, and was the first definite knowledge which Wilson’s column had obtained of the events which had occurred in Virginia.

The surrender at Macon included a large number of small guns and a great quantity of military stores and supplies. The next day the Confederate authorities opened communication over their own telegraph lines between Wilson and Sherman, and the former received orders from the latter to desist from hostilities pending an armistice. Soon after he received orders from the Secretary of War, through Thomas, to disregard this armistice and resume operations, but before this order reached him he learned that Johnston had surrendered all the Confederate forces east of the Mississippi, and that peace was assured.

The closing act of General Wilson’s campaign was the capture of Jefferson Davis by regiments from his command. Thus ended the most noted cavalry movement of the war.

The above is of necessity a very concise presentation of the salient points of General Wilson’s remarkable campaign, conducted alone by mounted troops. It is not claimed that the account is new. I have published it heretofore in extended form, though not in the press. This briefer story cannot but be a repetition of the facts and a synopsis of the fuller statement of them. It is a chapter in our war history than which no other is more replete with thrilling and brilliant incident, with skillful planning, and bold and successful execution. No purely cavalry campaign in our war approached it in these features. It is doubtful whether its parallel can be found in the cavalry annals of any modern nation. And to this general statement should be added that the officer who commanded it, who was its organizer and its controlling spirit, the one upon whom General George H. Thomas leaned as one of his most trusted lieutenants and advisers, was only twenty-seven years old.

It is not strange that Lee’s and Johnston’s surrender fixed the attention of the country and turned it away from General Wilson’s campaign. Had these two events been delayed a month the land would have rung with Wilson’s praises and with new honors for General Thomas. Indeed, had the withdrawal from Richmond and the events which so quickly followed it been only delayed in their beginning by a few days necessary to have informed the country of Wilson’s marvelous successes, it is certain that his breaking up of these interior storehouses of military material, and the destruction of these many plants for producing more, would have inseparably and largely connected themselves in the minds of the people with the eastern surrender as cause and effect.