Page images
PDF
EPUB

in Maryland was about twenty thousand men. He also lost thirteen cannon, fifteen thousand small-arms, and thirty-nine flags.

Among the incidents of the battle of Antietam is a story told of General Sumner. Having occasion to send an aid to one of the most exposed parts of the field during the thickest of the fight, he selected his son, then a captain on his staff, for the duty. Knowing the danger he would pass through, and feeling that he might never see him again, the old general embraced him and said, "Good-by, Sammy. 'Good-by, Sammy." "Good-by, father,” was the answer, and Sammy, who was only twenty-one years old, rode away. He came back safe, and the fond father met him with a shake of the hand and, "How d'ye do, Sammy?" as if he had not seen him for weeks.

Another story is told of a Union soldier, a private of the First Maryland regiment. A gentleman visiting one of the hospitals at Alexandria, where the wounded were sent, found him sitting by a window with a bandage over his eyes and singing at the top of his voice, "I'm a bold sojer boy."

"What's your name, my good fellow?" said the gentleman. Joe Parsons, sir."

66

"What is the matter with you?"

"Blind, sir, blind as a bat; shot at Antietam; both eyes at one clip."

Poor Joe, who was only twenty years old, had been in the front, and had been shot by a ball directly through both eyes, destroying his sight forever; yet he seemed to be as happy as a lark.

"It might ha' been worse," he said. "I'm thankful I'm alive, sir.”

At the gentleman's request, he told his story.

"I was hit, yer see, and it knocked me down. I lay there all night, and in the morning the fight began again. I could stand the pain, but the balls were flyin' all round, and I wanted to get away. At last I heard a feller groanin' beyond me. 'Hello!' says I.

"Hello yourself,' says he.

"Who be yer?' says I, 'a Reb?'

"You're a Yank,' says he.

"So I am,' says I. What's the matter with you?'

1862.]

JEB STUART'S RIDE.

289

"My leg's smashed,' says he.

"Can yer see?'

"'Yes.'

"Well,' says I, 'you're a Reb, but will you do me a little favor?'

"I will,' says he, 'if I kin.'

"Well, old Butternut, I can't see nothin'. My eyes is shot out, but I kin walk. Come over yere and let's git out o' this. You pint the way and I'll tote yer off on my back.'

"Bully for you,' says he.

"So we managed to git together, and shook hands on it. I took a wink outer his canteen and he got on to my back. I did the walkin' for both, and he did the navigatin'. An' if he didn't pilot me straight to a Reb colonel's tent, a mile away, I'm a liar. But the colonel knew I couldn't do any more shootin', and didn't care to keep me; so, after three days, I came down here with the wounded boys, where I'm doing pretty well."

"But you will never see the light again, my poor fellow," said the gentleman.

"That's so; but can't help it, yer notice. That's my misfortin', not my fault, as the ole man said of his blind hoss-'I'm a bold sojer boy,'" and the gentleman left poor blind Joe singing away as merrily as if nothing had happened.

While McClellan still remained in Maryland, General Jeb Stuart, with fifteen hundred cavalry, recrossed the Potomac at Williamsport and rode entirely around the Army of the Potomac again, as he had done before in the Peninsula. He went as far as Chambersburg, in Pennsylvania, where he destroyed a large quantity of military stores, including five thousand muskets, burned the railroad buildings and machine-shops and several trains of loaded cars, and recrossed safely into Virginia.

McClellan took possession of Harper's Ferry after Lee had gone down the Shenandoah Valley. By the 2d of November the whole army had crossed into Virginia and begun its march southward, passing down east of the Blue Ridge, while the Confederates marched west of it. McClellan had then more than a hundred thousand men, while Lee's force amounted to about eighty thousand. On the 7th of November the Union army was near Warrenton. Late that night, during a heavy

snow-storm, General McClellan was sitting in his tent talking with General Burnside, when a messenger arrived from Washington with a despatch, which he handed to General McClellan. McClellan opened and read it, and, without any change of countenance or of voice, handed the paper to General Burnside, saying calmly: "Well, Burnside, you are to command the army. It was an order from the Secretary of War, by direction of the President of the United States, that General McClellan be relieved of the command of the Army of the Potomac and that General Burnside should take his place.

[ocr errors]

General Burnside was loth to take the command. Twice before the position had been offered him, but he had declined it because he did not feel that he was competent to manage so large

AMBROSE E. BURNSIDE.

an army. Besides, he had confidence in McClellan, who was his friend, and he expressed the opinion that "he could command the Army of the Potomac better than any other general in it." But the orders of the government obliged him to obey, and he reluctantly took the command (November 10). McClellan wrote a farewell address, which was read to the soldiers. In it he said:

[graphic]

"In parting from you, I cannot express the love and gratitude I bear you. As an army you have grown up under my care. In you I have never found doubt or coldness. The battles you have fought under my command will proudly live in our nation's history. *** We shall ever be comrades in supporting the constitution of our country and the nationality of its people."

The soldiers of the Army of the Potomac loved "Little Mac" better than any commander they ever had, and rousing cheers were given for him when he took his departure. The old regiments who had served under him longest were especially attached to him, and even the new ones, who had lately come

1862.]

LITTLE MAC.

291

to the army, shared in the feeling. "Come back, Little Mac," was the almost universal cry, as he rode by for the last time. His picture was pinned up in barracks, songs in his honor were sung around every camp-fire, and the health of Little Mac was drunk at every feast. For a long time after his removal from command the soldiers kept up a firm faith that he would yet come back to lead them. But it was not to be. Though McClellan had done noble duty in building up the army and making it ready for the great work it had yet to do, and though he was very able in planning campaigns, he was wanting, his enemies said, in executive ability-that is, the power of carrying out his plans and making them a success. Mr. Lincoln, it is said, had long felt this, but was loth to remove him, and it was not until after the seemingly unnecessary delay in following up the enemy after Antietam that he finally concluded to do it. The President never gave any reason for doing it, but he was doubtless influenced by Mr. Chase and Mr. Stanton, both of whom were jealous of McClellan's popularity, and by the opinion of General Halleck, who had shown much opposition to McClellan, as he had also to Grant in the West. But the friends of McClellan say, on the contrary, that he was right in refusing to move after the battle of Antietam, and that Halleck was wrong in saying that all the supplies he asked for had been sent to him. This seems to be true, for even when the army finally moved, many of the men were obliged to march to Warrenton barefoot. The feeling in regard to Halleck's action in the matter is shown in the following squib, which went the rounds of the newspapers at the time:

"A QUESTION WHICH MAJOR-GENERAL HALLECK WON'T ANSWER. If before Corinth you lay thirty days, Pleasing the foe with masterly delays,

Failing, at last, to beat 'em;

How long should you have given 'Little Mac,'

To make all ready for a grand attack,

From the day he won Antietam?"

CHAPTER XXV.

FREDERICKSBURG.

BURNSIDE'S NEW PLAN.-THE MARCH TO FREDERICKSBURG.-LEE HOLDS THE HILLS.-PONTOON BRIDGE-BUILDING.-SHARPSHOOTERS. THE TOWN SHELLED.-A DANGEROUS CROSSING. THE GRAYBACKS HUNTED OUT OF THEIR HOLES.-A BRAVE DRUMMER-BOY.-THE ARMY CROSSES THE RIVER.-BATTLE OF FREDERICKSBURG.-HOOKER'S GALLANT ASSAULT. -BURNSIDE RETREATS.-CONFEDERATE HOPES.-BURNSIDE RESIGNS, AND HOOKER TAKES COMMAND OF THE ARMY.-WINTER QUARTERS.-Sad ConDITION OF THE CONFEDERATES.— THE LADIES AT WORK.-CONFEDERATE MANUFACTURES.-WOODEN SHOES.-SOUTHERN BOOKS.-A HOME-MADE CHRISTMAS.-PICKET TALKS.-MY MOTHER! MY MOTHER!-JACKSON'S RESIGNED!

L

EE had sent about half his army, under Longstreet, to Culpepper to head off McClellan's advance toward Richmond in that direction, but had kept Jackson in the Shenandoah Valley so as to still threaten Maryland. McClellan was just about moving between these two parts of the Confederate army when he was deprived of the command. If he had been permitted to do this, it probably would have proved fatal to Lee, for he would have been unable to combine his forces in time to oppose the Union army, which, says McClellan, was never "in such excellent condition to fight a great battle."

Burnside, who took command on the 10th of November, acted still more cautiously than McClellan. His army had then grown to one hundred and twenty-five thousand men, but instead of moving forward to bring on a battle with Lee, as McClellan had intended to do, he spent several days in reorganizing it, and then made an entirely new plan of operations. His plan was to march to Fredericksburg, and then to move from there toward Richmond. Lee saw through his design, and while the Union army marched toward Fredericksburg on the upper side of the Rappahannock, the Confederates moved in the same direction on the other side. Burnside had several days the start, and the advance of his army, under Sumner, reached Falmouth, nearly opposite Fredericksburg, on the 17th of November. The bridges had been destroyed, but there were several fords, and Sumner wanted to cross at once and take possession of the heights behind the town; but Burnside did.

« PreviousContinue »