Halleck, June 23, 1862. W. R. Part II., p. 26. Halleck to Stanton, 1862 WR. June 28, Vol. XVII., p. 43. We have seen, by the dispatch heretofore quoted, CHAP. XIX. that Halleck expected the combined naval and gunboat forces to reduce the Vicksburg defenses, but also that, in the event of their failure, he would send an army to help them. The lapse of two weeks served to modify this intention. The Secretary of War, who had probably received news of Farragut's first failure to pass the Vickburg batter- Stanton to ies, telegraphed him on June 23 to examine the project of a canal to cut off Vicksburg, suggested Vol. XVII., by General Butler and others. Halleck replied (on June 28), "It is impossible to send forces to Vicksburg at present, but I will give the matter very full attention as soon as circumstances will permit." That same day Farragut passed above the batteries, and of this result Halleck was informed by Grant, who was at Memphis. Grant's dispatch added an erroneous item of news concerning the number of troops with Farragut, but more trustworthy information soon reached Halleck in the form of a direct application from Farragut for help. To this appeal Halleck again felt himself obliged to reply in the negative, July 3, 1862: "The scattered and weakened condition of my forces renders it impossible for me, at the present, to detach any troops to cooperate with you on Vicksburg. Probably I shall be able to do so as soon as I can get my troops more concentrated. This may delay the clearing of the river, but its accomplishment will be certain in a few weeks." The hopeful promise with which the telegram closed dwindled away during the eleven days that followed. On the 14th of July Stanton asked him the direct question: "The Secretary of the Navy Halleck to July 3, 1862. Farragut, Report of the Secretary of the Navy. W. R. Part II., p. 97. 1862. CHAP. XIX. desires to know whether you have, or intend to have, any land force to coöperate in the operations at Vicksburg. Please inform me immediately, inasmuch as orders he intends to give will depend on your answer." The answer this time was short and Vol. XVII., conclusive. "I cannot at present give Commodore Farragut any aid against Vicksburg." A coöperative land force of from 12,000 to 15,000 men, Farragut estimated in his report of June 28, would have been sufficient to take the works. If we compare the great end to be attained with the smallness of the detachment thought necessary, there remains no reasonable explanation why Halleck should not have promptly sent it. But the chance had been lost. The waters of the Mississippi were falling so rapidly that Farragut dared not tarry in the river; and in accordance with orders received from the Department on July 20, he again ran past the Vicksburg batteries and returned to New Orleans. If Halleck's refusal to help Farragut take Vicksburg seems inexplicable, it is yet more difficult to understand the apparently sudden cessation of all his military activity, and his proposal, just at the time when his army had gathered its greatest strength and efficiency, to terminate his main campaign, and, in effect, go into summer quarters. He no longer talked of splitting secession in twain in one month, or of being at the enemy's throat. He no longer pointed out the waste of precious time, and uttered no further complaint about his inability to control Buell's army. His desires had been gratified. He commanded half of the military area within the Union; he had three armies under his own eye; the enemy was in flight before him; he Halleck to 1862, W. R. McClellan, Vol. VII., Stanton, June 25, 1862. W. R. Part II., p. 62. could throw double numbers of men at any given CHAP. XIX. point. At least two campaigns of overshadowing importance invited his resistless march. But in the midst of his success, in the plenitude of his power, with fortune thrusting opportunity upon him, he came to a sudden halt, folded his contented arms, and imitated the conduct that he wrongfully imputed to Grant after Donelson "Satisfied with his victory, he sits down and enjoys it without regard to the future." In a long letter to the Secretary of War, dated June 25, after reviewing the sanitary condition of the army and pronouncing it very good, he asked, apparently as Halleck to the main question, "Can we carry on any summer campaign without having a large portion of our Vol. XVI, men on the sick-list?" This idea seemed to dominate his thought and to decide his action. Buell had been ordered eastward on a leisurely march towards Chattanooga. Halleck proposed to plant the armies of Grant and of Pope on the healthy uplands of Northern Mississippi and Alabama as mere corps of observation. Having personally wrested Corinth from the enemy, he exaggerated its strategical value. As a terminal point in the southward campaign, along the line of the Tennessee River, its chief use was to aid in opening the Mississippi River by turning the Confederate fortifications from Columbus to Memphis. Those strongholds once in Federal possession, Corinth inevitably fell into a secondary rôle, especially since the summer droughts rendered the Tennessee River useless as a military highway. Carrying out this policy of Halleck, a large portion of the Western armies of the Union wasted CHAP. XIX. time and strength guarding a great area of rebel territory unimportant for military uses, and which could have been better protected by an active forward movement. The security and the supply of Corinth appears to have been the central purpose. Buell was delayed in his march thoroughly to repair the railroad from Corinth eastward towards Chattanooga. Other detachments of the army were employed to repair the railroads westward from Corinth to Memphis, and northward from Corinth to Columbus. For several months all the energies of the combined armies were diverted from their more useful duty of offensive war to tedious labor on these local railroads;1 much of the repairs being destroyed, almost as rapidly as performed, by daring guerrilla hostilities, engendered and screened amidst the surrounding sentiment of disloyalty. It is impossible to guess what Halleck's personal supervision in these tasks might have produced, for at this juncture came a culmination of events that transferred him to another field of duty; but the legacy of policy, plans, and orders that he left behind contributed to render the whole Western campaign sterile throughout the second half of 1862. The unfortunate policy of thus tying up the Western forces in mere defensive inaction comes out in still stronger light in the incident that follows; but it especially serves to show once more 1 "I inclose herewith a copy of a report of Brigadier-General MePherson, superintendent of railroads, from which it will be seen that we have opened 367 miles of road in less than one month, besides repairing a number of locomotives and cars which were captured from the enemy greatly injured. Indeed, the woodwork of most of the cars has been entirely rebuilt, and all this work has been done by details from the army."-Halleck to Stanton, July 7, 1862. W. R. Vol. XVII., Part II., p. 78. |