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THE POSITION OF ILLINOIS.

I

confident of the success of our cause, scientiousness. It is due from me to say within a limited time, and hoped that that he is not a President of my making. the coming Spring would find the rebel- I had no part nor lot in his election. lion suppressed. In a short time he confess that he has agreeably disappointHe is a man of great ability, hoped that another union of fraternity ed me. would be reëstablished so firmly as to fidelity and patriotism." endure for ever. The Union had commanded all his affections. The Union was his country, and he knew no other."

In this interview General Scott announced his intention of immediately visiting Europe for his health, in the hope of relief from the vertigo with which he was affected. When he had accomplished this he would return to the city, which had been more or less his home for forty years. The next day, November 9th, accompanied by a few friends, he privately took his departure from the hotel and embarked on the steamship Arago for Havre, cheered on the way by the first reports, then reaching the North, through rebel sources, of the success of the naval expedition in the capIture of Beaufort, an important event which will form the subject of another chapter

In another reply to the address of the Union Defence Committee, he complimented that body on its timely labors for the preservation of the Government at the outbreak of the rebellion, and added to his praises of Generals McClellan and Halleck, a warm tribute to the virtues of President Lincoln. "I have considerable confidence," said he, "in the Administration of the country. I do not speak of party confidence, for I have long ceased to be a party man. have great confidence in the President. He is a man of genius untiring zeal, and con

CHAPTER XLIII.

THE CAMP AT CAIRO AND BATTLE OF BELMONT, NOVEMBER 7, 1861.

THE soldiers of Illinois, who were to bear so conspicuous a part in the coming war, were early in the field. The State, both by its geographical and political position, was likely to exercise a most important influence on the war. Bounded on the west and south by the Mississippi and Ohio rivers, it was in its power to control the vast supplies furnished to the South by those mighty channels of trade. Cairo, at the junction of these two streams, was the key to the Northwest. A military force stationed there might arrest the entire water communication of New Orleans and the intermediate cities with St. Louis, on the one side, and Cincinnati on the other, and the regions beyond, of which these com

mercial cities are the depots. Whichever of the two parties in the national conflict should first get possession of Cairo would hold an inestimable advantage in carrying on the war. Nor was the command of the State less important in its moral influences. The sympathies of its Southern portion might naturally be, as it was frequently stated they were, with its neighbors in Kentucky and Missouri. Next to the border slave States, its voice on the principles and conduct of the war was of the utmost significance. Had Illinois wavered, Kentucky and Tennessee would have been doubly resolute, and Missouri doubly hesitating. Happily, she had in the executive chair a man who saw clearly

the nature of the issue, and had the will and spirit to lead the undoubted inclination and determination of her loyal population. No one stood forward, as the crisis approached, more firmly to arrest the downward course of rebellion than her Governor, Richard Yates. By his energetic patriotism, both the military and political power and authority of the State were promptly secured to the Government. In advance of the now imminent struggle, when there was but a spec of war in the horizon, he had, in his Inaugural in January, considerately and firmly declared his conviction. of the duty of the people of Illinois to the Union. Of the vexed question of slavery, it was an institution, he declared, which could not exist for ever. "Die it must," was his language," sooner or later; die, that the philosophy of history may be demonstrated; die, that man's most cherished hopes may not wither; die, that God's eternal justice may be vindicated.". But, he said at the same time, while the "outside territories of the Union were not to be surrendered to a policy that would retard their settlement," there was no reason why this inevitable work of emancipation should not be left to the discretion or necessities of the slave-holding States. He demanded only obedience to the Constitution and the laws, and less than this fidelity to the Union he would not accept. He could recognise but one theory of political action, that of "the perpetuity of the Constitution and the Government organized under it."

to be allowed to accept the services of ten regiments in addition to the quota called for by the General Government. This was the beginning of the army of Illinois. Previous to the war the entire uniformed militia of the State did not muster eight hundred men; before the close of the year more than seventy thousand of its citizens were in the army. Illinois, in her population of about a million seven hundred thousand, had four hundred thousand capable of bearing arms, and more than double that number of children in her free schools.*

Simultaneously with the meeting of the Illinois Legislature, at the end of April, Governor Yates, in obedience to an order of the War Department, stationed a portion of the Volunteer forces which had been hastily mustered, as a garrison at Cairo. An important seizure of a cargo of seven hundred kegs of powder and other war materials, on a boat descending the Mississippi, was one of the first fruits of the occupation. As troops were organized, the command was reinforced, and the natural defences of the place strengthened by military art. The embankment of the levees afforded an advantageous position for heavy guns; and before the rebels were prepared for its assault, Cairo was beyond the reach of capture. At the end of May BrigadierGeneral Prentiss had under his command, at Camp Defiance, some five thousand State volunteers, with a respectable force of artillery. An entrenched camp on the opposite station in Missouri, at Bird's Point, was occupied by Colonel Schuttner's regiment of St. Louis Volunteers, composed of Germans, Poles, and Hungarians, rendering the control of the Mississippi at this point complete.

With these principles his course was thenceforward simple and direct. The call to arms found him ready and resolved. He promptly called the Legislature together in special session, and We have an interesting account of a clearly set before its members the de- visit to Cairo the following month, in a mands of the occasion. "Secession," said letter of the London Times' correspondhe, "has brought about its inevitable ent, Mr. Russell. Just arrived from an results, and we must crush it and trea-examination of General Pillow's rival son wherever they raise their unsightly heads, or perish ourselves." He asked Allen C. Fuller's, Adjutant-General, Report, Dec. 12 1861

*Inaugural Address of Governor Yates, Jan. 14, 1861,

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Among other military employments of the force at Cairo, in its service in this quarter, there was a spirited raid, on the 19th of August, of a party of about two hundred of the Illinois troops, led by Colonel Dougherty and Lieutenant-Colonel Ranson, against a band of Secessionists who were occupying Charleston, Missouri. On reaching the spot where the enemy were encamped in the courthouse, church and other buildings, a charge was ordered, which resulted in a loss of forty killed and fifty or sixty wounded on the side of the rebels, and one killed and several wounded of the attacking party. The rebels were fully routed and fifteen prisoners with eighteen horses and other trophies were brought in to Bird's Point.

works at Memphis, and its vicinity, he sees the military value of the position, and bears witness to the general excellence of the defences. His sketch of the departure of an expedition on a guerrilla enterprise against a party of rebels at Commerce, on the Mississippi, affords a vivid glimpse of the stalwart men, "well set up, stout, powerful, infantry-looking, cheerful and full of confidence," who a few months later were to secure the plaudits of the country in their brave campaign in Tennessee. Nor were the humors of the camp forgotten by this lively observer. Here is an evening scene, doubtless freely sketched, in which his countrymen bore a part: "An Irish gentleman, who had been evincing his satisfaction at the receipt of his wages, more Hibernico, just now attempted to Besides its embankments and their get past us. 'Who goes there?' 'A defenders Cairo and the region under friend-shure you know I'm a friend!' her guardianship had a more powerful Advance three paces and give the coun- means of protection and annoyance to tersign.' The gentleman approached, 'the foe, in the little flotilla of gunboats and was brought up by the bayonet. destined to such signal service on the 'Send for the captain, and he'll give you western waters. The construction of the word, bedad.' The intercession was these vessels was commenced at Cincinunnecessary, for two policemen came up nati in May, when Commander John in hot pursuit, and the general, who was Rodgers was sent by the Navy Departsitting by, ordered the guard to deliver ment to superintend the work. Under their prisoner to the civil power. For his direction three stern-wheel steamers, some extraordinary reason, this act the Tyler, Lexington and Conestoga, moved the prisoner to the greatest grat- were purchased and prepared for miliitude, and taking off his cap, he ex-tary service. They were heavily cased claimed, 'Thank you, general; long life with oak and severally armed with seven, Indeed, general, I'm greatly six, and four guns. They reached Cairo obliged to you, on this account!' Anoth- in August, and henceforth we find them er sentry who challenged an officer in constantly enployed in checking the adthe usual way, was asked by him, 'Do vances of the enemy and supporting the you know the countersign yourself?' movements of the National troops. Indeed, I don't, sir; it's not nine o'clock and they hav'n't given it out yet.' A very tolerable military band had played outside the hotel in the evening, and I was pleased to see the quiet manner in which the bystanders, of all ranks, sat down in the chairs as they were vacant, close to the general, without any intrusion, or any sense of impropriety arising from their difference in rank."

to you.

Their first active employment was on the 9th of September, when, by order of General Grant, Lieutenant Phelps commanding the Conestoga and Lieutenant Stembel commanding the Lexington, were sent down the river to Norfolk, eight miles below Cairo on the Missouri shore. to cooperate with a land movement of Colonel Wagner upon the enemy at that place. The Conestoga led the way, and

Cairo previous to the great expeditions to the Tennessee and the Cumberland was the armed reconnoissance of General Ulysses S. Grant, then commanding the district of South Eastern Missouri, in the direction of Columbus, which resulted in the battle of Belmont. This officer, destined to distinguished service in the war, was a native of Ohio, and entered the Military Academy from that State in 1839. Graduating from that institution in due course, he was appointed brevet 2d Lieutenant to the 4th Infantry. He served with distinguished honor in the Mexican campaigns of both General Taylor and General Scott, and was brevetted Captain for gallant and meritorious conduct at the battle of Chapultepec. He attained the full rank of Captain in the 4th Infantry in 1853. The following year he resigned his rank in the service, and settled in St. Louis county, Missouri, whence he removed to Galena, Illinois, in 1860. At the breaking out of the war of the rebellion he offered his services to Governor Yates and entered at once on active employment as Colonel of the 21st regiment of volunteers, serving in that capacity until he was promoted among the earliest appointments of the kind at Washington, to the rank which he held at Belmont, of Brigadier-General of Volunteers.

came in contact with a rebel battery at The most considerable movement from Lucas's Bend on the Missouri side, when a skirmishing fire was kept up for some time, the enemy following the movement of the steamers as they ascended the stream by advancing their flying rifled artillery along the shore. The fire was promptly returned, when the foe retreating, they were pursued by the steamers till the latter came up with two rebel vessels out of Columbus. One of these was the gunboat Yankee, upon which Lieutenant Stembel, at the distance of about two miles and a half, tried the force of one of his 8-inch guns charged with a 15-second shell. Giving the gun its greatest possible elevation, he fired, and "had the satisfaction of seeing the shell explode in the star-board wheelhouse of the Yankee, careening her smoke-stack and otherwise crippling her, when both rebel steamers retreated towards Columbus, the batteries on the bluff alone preventing their capture." One man only was injured on the Union side. In September Captain Andrew H. Foote, an officer of the United States Navy, presently to acquire great distinction in the service on the Mississippi, was assigned to the command of the Western Flotilla, for which a number of iron-clad gunboats and mortar boats were in active preparation. On the 30th of October he reported to the Department the ascent of the Conestoga, Lieutenant Phelps, with three companies of Major Philips' Illinois regiment, to Eddyville, sixty-two miles above Paducah on the Tennessee river. "Conjointly they had a handsome and successful skirmish, in which the rebels broke and fled in every direction, leaving seven dead on the field." Two of the Union party were severely and several slightly wounded. The spoils were forty-four prisoners, seven negroes, thirty-one horses, eleven mules and a fair quantity of military equipments.

* Commander Stembel's Report to Commodore Foote, September 13, 1861.

The object of the expedition from Cairo, as we learn from General Grant's Report, was to prevent the enemy in that quarter sending out reinforcements to Price's army in South-western Missouri, and also from cutting off two small columns that had been sent from Cairo and Cape Girardeau in pursuit of Jeff. Thompson, who was in command of a body of insurgents on St. Francis river. As the rebel force was known to be large, General Charles F. Smith, an officer of the regular army, who was stationed at Paducah, was requested to coöperate by demonstrations on the

MILITARY EXPEDITION FROM CAIRO.

75

Kentucky side, which he did by advanc- forward the cavalry with a skirmishing ing small bodies of men toward Colum- party to clear the way, while carefully bus. These arrangements having been reconnoitering the position of the enemy, made General Grant having also sent a he brought up his regiments within striksmall force into Kentucky in the same ing distance of the enemy's camp. “A direction, embarked with nearly three sharp firing," says he in his vivid report thousand men on the evening of the to General Grant of the action which sixth of November, from Cairo. He had ensued, "having immediately commenced with him five incomplete regiments; between the skirmishing parties of the Colonel Dougherty's 22d, Colonel Bu- Thirtieth and Thirty-first and the eneford's 27th, Colonel Foukes' 30th, Col- my, I ordered forward another party to onel Logan's 31st Illinois, Colonel Lan- their support, rode forward, selected a man's 7th Iowa, with Captain Ezra new position, and ordered up the balance Taylor's Chicago Light Battery of four of my command-the Twenty-seventh6-pounder field guns, and two 12-poun- to pass around the head of a pond, the der howitzers and two companies of Thirtieth and Thirty-first, with the artilIllinois cavalry, commanded by Captains lery, crossing the dry bed of the same Dollins and Delano. This force was slough in their front. On their arrival, transported on five steamers and was I re-formed the line of battle in the same accompanied by the gunboats H. O. Ty-order as before. It was my expectation ler and Lexington, heavily armed, and that the Twenty-second Illinois and the commanded by Captains Walke and Seventh Iowa.would resume their former Stembel, of the United States Navy. positions on the left wing, which would The vessels stopped for the night about have perfected a line sufficient to enclose nine miles below Cairo, leaving the ene- the enemy's camp, on all sides accessible my to suppose from the operations on to us, thus enabling us to command the the Kentucky shore, that the immediate river above and below them, and preobject was Columbus. It was really the vent the crossing of reinforcements from camp opposite at Belmont, where several Columbus, insuring his capture as well regiments of the enemy had been sta- as defeat. The Thirtieth and Thirtytioned. At daylight the next day the first and the artillery, moving forward, voyage was resumed to a point of the promptly relieved the skirmishing parriver just out of the range of the rebel ties, and soon became engaged with a guns, about two and a half miles distant, heavy body of the enemy's infantry and and the disembarkation from the trans- cavalry. The struggle, which was conports there safely accomplished on the tinued for half an hour with great severMissouri shore, about half-past eight ity, threw our ranks into temporary o'clock. The heavy batteries of the ene-disorder; but the men promptly rallied my at Columbus, which had been directed at the gunboats, were turned against the advancing column, but without effect. Brigadier-General John A. McClernand, an eminent political leader in Illinois, a friend and supporter of the late Senator Douglass, who had passed, from his earnest advocacy of the cause of the Union in the recent Congress to serve the same great interest in the field, had immediate charge of the movement under the direction of General Grant. He now sent

under the gallant example of Colonels
Fouke and Logan, assisted by Major
Berryman, Acting Assistant Adjutant-
General of my brigade; also by Captain
Schwartz, Acting Chief of Artillery, Cap-
tain Dresser, of the artillery, Lieutenant
Babcock, of the Second Cavalry, and
Lieutenant Eddy, of the Twenty-ninth
Illinois regiment, who had, upon my. in-
vitation, kindly joined my staff.
men pressed vigorously upon the enemy
and drove him back, their cavalry leav-

Our

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