CH. XVII. fensive attitude, and gained a complete victory, to which the vigilance and able strategy of the Union commander effectively contributed. The Confederate attack on the afternoon of the 6th appears to have been the mere pursuit of Curtis's retiring outpost. That night Van Dorn made a bold flank movement, gaining Curtis's right and rear. Curtis, however, became informed in time, and skillfully changed his whole line, and in a stronger position again confronted the enemy in perfect order. The rebel attack of the 7th was mainly on Curtis's center and right. Generals McCulloch, McIntosh, and other prominent rebel officers were killed early in the action, and the onset was thereby greatly disconcerted and confused. The Union troops fought with a gallant and stubborn courage throughout the whole of the 7th. During the night Curtis once more re-formed his lines and himself advanced to the attack on the morning of the 8th, quickly driving the Confederates into precipitate and scattered retreat. The Union loss was, 203 killed, 980 wounded, and 201 captured or missing; while the Confederate loss, not so accurately ascertained, was estimated to be between 1000 and 1300. In the official report of the Union commander pointed complaint is made that the Indian allies of the rebels, which Pike had brought from the Indian Territory, were in some instances guilty of the atrocities peculiar to savages; that the wounded were scalped, tomahawked, and otherwise mutilated; the distinct evidence of eyewitnesses is cited as to eight or ten cases. General March 14 Pike's official report states that he brought nearly a thousand Indians to the battle, mainly as cavalry, Noble to Curtis, April 12, 1862, and Bussey to Curtis, May 11, 1862. W. R. Vol. VIII, pp. 206-208. Pike, Report, 1862. W. R. Vol. VIII., p. 288. and their untamed instincts might easily have CH. XVII. lapsed into a wider barbarity. But the Union cause is not free to cast reproaches on the Confederates for the use of the Indians. It was not long before the War Department at Washington authorized the enlistment of five thousand friendly Indians for Union service. Thomas to 1862. W. R. Vol. VIII, Halleck, March 19, p. 624. The diminished and scattered forces of Van Dorn, retreating by different routes from the battle of Pea Ridge, were not again wholly united. Pike was ordered to conduct his Indian regiments back to the Indian Territory for local duty. The main remnant of the Confederate army followed Van Dorn to the eastward in the direction of Pocahontas, where he proposed to reorganize it, and to resume the offensive. Halleck, cautioning Curtis to hold his position and keep well on his guard, speaks of Van Dorn as a "vigilant and energetic officer"; and Van Dorn's language certainly indicates activity, whatever may be thought of the discretion it betrays. He had hardly shaken from his feet the dust of his rout at Pea Ridge when he again began writing that he contemplated relieving the stress of Confederate disaster in Tennessee by attempting to capture the city of St. Louis, a willo'-the-wisp project that had by turns dazzled the March 18, eyes of all the Confederate commanders in the Mississippi Valley; or, as another scheme, perhaps a mere prelude to this, he would march eastward against Pope and raise the siege of New Madrid, on the Mississippi River. This brings us to a narrative of events at that point. With the fall of Fort Donelson the rebel stronghold at Columbus had become useless. Its evacua Van Dorn to Johnston, 1862. W. R. Vol. VIII., p. 790. CH. XVII. tion soon followed (March 2, 1862), and the Confederates immediately turned their attention to holding the next barrier on the Mississippi River. This was at a point less than one hundred miles below Cairo, where the Father of Waters makes two large bends, which, joined together, lie like a reversed letter S placed horizontally. At the foot of this first bend lay Island No. 10; from there the river flows northwards to the town of New Madrid, Missouri, passing which it resumes its southward course. The country is not only flat, as the bend indicates, but it is encompassed in almost all directions by nearly impassable swamps and bayous. Island No. 10, therefore, and its immediate neighborhood, seemed to offer unusual advantages to bar the Mississippi with warlike obstructions. As soon as the evacuation of Columbus was determined upon, all available rebel resources and skill were concentrated here. The island, the Tennessee shore of the river, and the town of New Madrid were strongly fortified and occupied with considerable garrisons-about 3000 men at the former and some 5000 at the latter place. General Halleck, studying the strategical conditions of the whole Mississippi Valley with tenfold interest since the victories of Grant, also had his eye on this position, and was now as eager to capture it as the rebels were to defend it. One of the quickest movements of the whole war ensued. General John Pope was selected to lead the expedition, and the choice was not misplaced. On the 22d of February, six days after the surrender of Fort Donelson, Pope landed at the town of Commerce, Missouri, on the Mississippi River, with 140 men. On the 28th he was on the march at the head of 10,000, who had been sent him in the interim from St. Louis and Cairo. On the 3d of March, at one o'clock in the afternoon, he appeared before the town of New Madrid with his whole force, to which further reënforcements were soon added, raising his army to about 20,000. It would have required but a few hours to capture the place by assault, but the loss of life would have been great and the sacrifice virtually useless. It was the season of the early spring floods; the whole country was submerged, and the river was at a very high stage between its levees. In addition to its earthworks and its garrison, New Madrid was guarded by a fleet of eight rebel gunboats under command of Commodore George N. Hollins. The high water floated these vessels at such an elevation that their guns commanded every part of the town, and made its occupation by hostile troops impossible. Had Pope entered with his army, Hollins would have destroyed both town and troops at his leisure. Pope therefore surrounded the place with siegeworks in which he could protect his men; and sending a detachment to Point Pleasant on the river, nine miles below, secured a lodgment for batteries that closed the river to rebel transports and cut off the enemy's reënforcements and supplies. The movement proved effectual. Ten days later (March 13, 1862) the rebels evacuated New Madrid, leaving everything behind. The Confederates now held Island No. 10 and the Tennessee shore, but their retreat was cut off by the swamps beyond and Pope's batteries below. The rebel gun CH. XVII. 1862. CH. XVII. boat flotilla had retired down the river. Pope's forces held New Madrid and the Missouri shore, but they had neither transports nor gunboats, and without these could not cross to the attack. In this dilemma Pope once more called upon Flag-officer Foote to bring the Union fleet of gunboats down the river, attack and silence the batteries of Island No. 10, and assist in capturing the rebel army, which his strategy had shut in a trap. Pope to Bissell, March 19, Foote, although commanding a fleet of nine Union gunboats, objected that the difficulty and risk were too great. With all their formidable strength the gunboats had two serious defects. Only their bows were protected by the heavier iron plating so as to be shot-proof, and their engines were not strong enough to back easily against the powerful current of the Mississippi. In their attacks on Forts Henry and Donelson they had fought upstream; when disabled, the mere current carried them out of the enemy's reach. On the Mississippi this was reversed. Compelled to fight down-stream, they would, if disabled, be carried directly towards the enemy. A bombardment at long range from both gun and mortar boats had proved ineffectual to silence the rebel batteries. Pope's expedition seemed destined to prove fruitless, when a new expedient was the occasion of success. The project of a canal to turn Island No. 10 was revived.1 The floods of the Mississippi, pouring 1862. W. R. through breaks in the levees, inundated the surrounding country. Colonel J. W. Bissell, of the en Vol. VIII., p. 625. 1 General Schuyler Hamilton claims to have suggested this plan; and his claim is supported by General Pope's official report of May 2, 1862.-War Records, Volume VIII., page 86. |