CHAP. VI. rebellion in the West is arrayed" on a line from Columbus to Bowling Green, and that two gunboat expeditions with a support of twenty thousand men should attack its center by way of the Cumberland and Tennessee rivers, and that "whatever pp. 528, 529. is done should be done speedily, within a few days." Buell to Halleck, Jan. 3, 1862. W. R. Vol. VII., Halleck to Buell, Jan. 6, 1862. W.R. Vol. VII., p. 533. Halleck, however, did not favorably entertain the proposition. His reply discussed an altogether different question. He said it would be madness for him with his forces to attempt any serious operation against Camp Beauregard or Columbus, and that if Buell's Bowling Green movement required his help, it ought to be delayed a few weeks, when he could probably furnish some troops. Leaving altogether unanswered Buell's suggestion for the movement up the Cumberland and Tennessee, Halleck stated his strong disapproval of the Bowling Green movement, and on the same day he repeated these views a little more fully in a letter to the President. Premising that he could not then withdraw any troops from Missouri, "without risking the loss of this State," he said, "I know nothing of General Buell's intended operations, never having received any information in regard to the general plan of campaign. If it be intended that his column shall move on Bowling Green, while another moves from Cairo or Paducah on Columbus or Camp Beauregard, it will be a repetition of the same strategic error which produced the disaster of Bull Run. To operate on exterior lines against an enemy occupying a central position will fail, as it always has failed, in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred. It is condemned by every military authority I have ever CHAP. VI. Halleck to Lincoln, Jan. 6, 1862. read. General Buell's army and the forces at Paducah occupy precisely the same position in relation to each other and to the enemy as did the armies of McDowell and Patterson before the battle pp. 532, 533. of Bull Run." Lincoln, finding in these replies but a continuation not only of the delay, but also of the want of plans, and especially of energetic joint action which had thus far in a majority of cases marked the operations of the various commanders, was not disposed further to allow matters to remain in such unfruitful conditions. Under his prompting McClellan, on this same 6th of January, wrote to Buell: "Halleck, from his own account, will not soon be in a condition to support properly a movement up the Cumberland. Why not make the movement independently of and without waiting for that?" And on the next day Lincoln followed this inquiry with a still more energetic monition: "Please name as early a day as you safely can on or before which you can be ready to move southward in concert with Major-General Halleck. Delay is ruining us, and it is indispensable for me to have something definite. I send a like dispatch to Major-General Halleck." This peremptory order seems to have brought nothing except a reply from Halleck: "I have asked General Buell to designate a day for a demonstration to assist him. is all I can do till I get arms." Three days later, Halleck's already quoted letter of the 6th reached Washington by mail, and after its perusal the President endorsed upon it, with a heart-sickness easily discernible in the words: "The within is a copy of a letter just received from General Halleck. It W. R. Vol. VII., McClellan to Buell, Jan. 6, 1862. W. R. Vol. VII., p. 531. Lincoln to Buell, Jan. 7, 1862. W. R. Vol. VII., p. 535. Halleck to Lincoln, Jan. 7, 1862 (midnight). W. R. Vol. VII., p. 535. Lincoln, en dorsement, Jan. 10, 1962. W. R. Vol. VII., p. 533. CHAP. VI. It is exceedingly discouraging. As everywhere else, nothing can be done." Halleck to Grant, Jan. 6, 1862. W. R. Vol. VII., PP. 533, 534. Nevertheless, something was being done; very little at the moment, it is true, but enough to form the beginning of momentous results. On the same day on which Halleck had written the discouraging letter commented upon by the President, he had also transmitted to Grant, at Cairo, the direction: "I wish you to make a demonstration in force on Mayfield and in the direction of Murray." The object was, as he further explained, to prevent reënforcements being sent to Buckner at Bowling Green. He was to threaten Camp Beauregard and Murray, to create the impression that not only was Dover (Fort Donelson) to be attacked, but that a great army to be gathered in the West was to sweep down towards Nashville, his own column being merely an advance-guard. Flag-officer Foote was to assist by a gunboat demonstration. "Be very careful, however," added Halleck, "to avoid a battle; we are not ready for that; but cut off detached parties, and give your men a little experience in skirmishing." If this order had gone to an unwilling or negligent officer, he could have found in his surrounding conditions abundant excuse for evasion and non-compliance. There was at Cairo, as at every other army post, large or small, lack of officers, of organization, of arms, of equipments, of transportation, of that multitude of things considered necessary to the efficiency of moving troops. But in the West the sudden increase of armies brought to command, and to direction and management, a large proportion of civilians, lacking methodical instruction and experience, which was without question a serious CHAP. VI. defect, but which left them free to invent and adopt whatever expedients circumstances might suggest, or which rendered them satisfied and willing to enter upon undertakings amid a want of preparation and means, which better information might have led them to think indispensable. 1862. The detailed reports and orders of the expedition we are describing clearly indicate these latter characteristics. We learn from them that the weather was bad, the roads heavy, quartermaster's department and transportation deficient, and gunboats without adequate crews. Yet nowhere does it appear that these things were treated as impediments. Halleck's instructions, dated January 6, were received by Grant on the morning of the 8th, and his answer was, that immediate preparations were being made for carrying them out, and that Flagofficer Andrew H. Foote would coöperate with three gunboats. "The continuous rains for the last week or more," says Grant, "have rendered the roads extremely bad, and will necessarily make our movement slow. This, however, will operate worse upon the enemy, if he should come out to meet us, than upon us." The movement began on the even- pp. 537, 538. ing of January 9, and its main delay occurred through Halleck's orders. It was fully resumed on the 12th. Brigadier-General John A. McClernand, with five thousand men, marched southward, generally parallel to the Mississippi River, to Mayfield, midway between Fort Henry and Columbus, and pushed a reconnaissance close up to the latter place. Brigadier-General C. F. Smith, starting from Paducah, marched a strong column southward, Grant Grant CHAP. VI. generally parallel to the Tennessee River, to Calloway near Fort Henry. Foote and Grant, with three gunboats, two of them new ironclads, ascended the Tennessee to Fort Henry, drew the fire of the fort, and threw several shells into the works. to Kelton, Jan. 14, 1862. W. R. Vol. VII., pp. 551, 552. We need not describe the routes, the precautions, the marching and countermarching to mystify the enemy. While the rebels were yet expecting a further advance, the several detachments were already well on their return. "The expedition," says Grant, "if it had no other effect, served as a fine reconnaissance." But it had more positive results. Fort Henry and Columbus were thoroughly alarmed, and drew in their outposts, while the Union forces learned from inspection that the route offered a feasible line of march to attack and invest Columbus, and demonstrated the inherent weakness and vulnerability of Fort Henry. This, be it remembered, was done with raw forces and without preparation, but with officers and men responding alike promptly to every order and executing their task more than cheerfully, even eagerly, with such means as were at hand when the order came. "The reconnaissance thus made," reports McClernand, "completed a march of one hundred and forty miles by the cavalry and seventy-five miles by the infantry over icy or miry roads, during a most inclement season." He further reports that the circumstances of the case "prevented me from taking, on leaving Cairo, the five days' supply of rations and forage directed by the commanding officer of this district; hence the necessity of an early 1862 W. R. resort to other sources of supply. None other presented but to quarter upon the enemy or to pur McClernand, Report, Jan. 24, Vol. VII., p. 71. |