"HEAD-QUARTERS MILITARY DIVISION OF THE MISSISSIPPI, "AND IN THE FIELD, ATLANTA, GA., September 10, 1864. ( "General J. B. HOOD, commanding Army of the Tennessee, Confederate Army: "GENERAL:-I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of this date at the hands of Messrs. Ball and Crew, consenting to the arrangements I had proposed to facilitate the removal south of the people of Atlanta who prefer to go in that direc tion. I enclose you a copy of my orders, which will, I am satisfied, accomplish my purpose perfectly. You style the measures proposed 'unprecedented,' and appeal to the dark history of war for a parallel as an act of 'studied and ingenious cruelty.' It is not unprecedented, for General Johnston himself very wisely and properly removed the families all the way from Dalton down, and I see no reason why Atlanta should be excepted. Nor is it necessary to appeal to the dark history of war when recent and modern examples are so handy. You yourself burned dwelling-houses along your parapet, and I have seen to-day fifty houses that you have rendered uninhabitable because they stood in the way of your forts and men. You defended Atlanta on a line so close to the town that every cannon-shot and many musket-shots from our line of investments that overshot their mark, went into the habitations of women and children. General Hardee did the same at Jonesboro', and General Johnston did the same last summer at Jackson, Miss. I have not accused you of heartless cruelty, but merely instance these cases of very recent occurrence, and could go on and enumerate hundreds of others, and challenge any fair man to judge which of us has the heart of pity for the families of a 'brave people.' I say it is a kindness to these families of Atlanta to remove them now at once from scenes that women and children should not be exposed to; and the brave people should scorn to commit their wives and children to the rude barbarians who thus, as you say, violate the laws of war, as illustrated in the pages of its dark history. In the name of common sense, I ask you not to appeal to a just God in such a sacrilegious manner-you, who, in the midst of peace and prosperity, have plunged a nation into çivil war, 'dark and cruel war;' who dared and badgered us to battle, insulted our flag, seized our arsenals and forts that were left in the honorable custody of a peaceful ordnance sergeant; seized and made prisoners of war the very garrisons sent to protect your people against negroes and Indians, long before any overt act was committed by the (to you) hateful Lincoln Government; tried to force Kentucky and Missouri into the rebellion in spite of themselves; falsified the vote of Louisiana, turned loose your privateers to plunder unarmed ships, expelled Union families by the thousand, burned their houses, and declared by act of your Congress the confiscation of all debts due Northern men for goods had and received. Talk thus to the marines, but not to me, who have seen these things, and who will this day make as much sacrifice for the peace and honor of the South as the best-born Southerner among you. If we must be enemies, let us be men, and fight it out as we propose to-day, and not deal in such hypocritical appeals to God and humanity. God will judge us in due time, and He will pronounce whether it be more humane to fight with a town full of women and the families of a 'brave people' at our back, or to remove them in time to places of safety among their own friends and people.

“I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

(Signed)

"W. T. SHERMAN, Major-General Commanding. "Official copy: Signed, L. M. DAYTON, A. D. C.”

The campaign of Sherman against Atlanta had a result different from that of Rosecrans against Chattanooga. But the relative conditions of the two armies were also entirely different. Bragg had been promptly re-enforced, and when Rosecrans threatened to flank his position at Chattanooga, he retired with his whole army concentrated. Subsequently, when joined by Longstreet, he was much stronger than Rosecrans, who had not been supplied with either men or material in proportion to his wants. He was therefore exposed to the blows of a superior enemy, and his defeat was only rendered nugatory through the inaction of Bragg. Sherman had the benefit of the recent conscription, made with much vigor by the Government, and under the

orders of the Lieutenant-General, of whose combination his movement was a part. Johnston's army fell back before the weight of numbers, until Hood, succeeding to the command, wasted his men in fruitless attacks, and then, from his weakened force, detached Wheeler to the North, where he was of no use whatever. Sherman was thus enabled to leave the Twentieth Corps before Atlanta, and move the remainder of his army, still superior to that of Hood, round to Jonesboro'. Here he did not meet, as did Rosecrans at Chickamauga, the entire force of a superior army, but a portion of a divided inferior army, to which he delivered the final blow.

The campaign of Sherman commenced in the first week of May, simultaneously with that of Grant. His force was, as we have seen, in round numbers, one hundred thousand men and two hundred and fifty-four guns. The system of Johnston was the same as that of Lee; with an inferior force he resisted the advance of his enemy at every point. Sherman reached the Chattahoochee on the 28th July. The country through which he marched was much more open than the scene of war in Virginia. Of this, and his great superiority in infantry and artillery, Sherman most skilfully availed himself. He did not make a flank march of his whole force, nor extend one end of his line round Johnston's wing, as ordinary precedent would have bade; but, holding his enemy in check with a part of his army, detached one or two of his corps by a distant line to seize and intrench themselves on some point which should threaten the Confederate communications. Not all Johnston's energy nor the exertions of Wheeler (whose cavalry outnumbered that of the invaders) could prevent this manœu vre being repeated again and again. The Federal generals carried out faithfully their commander's orders to keep to the use of field-works and guns wherever practicable; and Johnston continually found himself with separate armies established in front and flank, and was thus forced to a new retreat. As Sherman advanced the railroad was completely repaired, and its use for the future systematically secured. Intrenchments were thrown up at every station or bridge, and a small garrison left with provisions, ammunition, and the means of repairing any sudden damage to the adjacent parts of the line, while almost equal care was used to cover the trains which supplied the flanks. Such an elaborate system involved much delay; and Johnston was enabled to detain the Federals seventy days on their approach to Atlanta.

The advance was none the less unbroken; and when Sherman was preparing elaborately for his passage of the Chattahoochee, he was relieved of great part of his difficulties by the removal of the formidable opponent whose personal ability he fully appreciated. Jefferson Davis, who had since the days of Vicksburg been on but indifferent terms with Johnston, had yielded to the clamor raised against the latter for so repeatedly giving ground, and now superseded him in favor of Hood, known hitherto as a gallant soldier and bold general of division, but in noway marked for the higher qualities of command. This step, so fatal to the Confederate interests in that quarter, was the more inexcusable, in that Johnston's policy of retreating when liable to be

thoroughly outflanked was just what Lee had used in Virginia, without a word of blame from any quarter.

CHAPTER LXII

The Gulf Department.-Sabine Pass Expedition.-McPherson moves from Vicksburg. -Expedition to the Rio Grande, and Occupation of Brownsville.-Banks's Red River Expedition.-Capture of Fort DeRussey.-Occupation of Alexandria.-Battle of Mansfield.-Retreat of the Army.-Repulse of the Enemy at Pleasant Hill— Operations of the Fleet.-The Dam at Alexandria.-Arrival of the Army and Fleet in the Mississippi.-Co-operative Movement of Steele in Arkansas.-Causes of its Failure.

THE Department of the Gulf remained for some time quiet after the fall of Vicksburg and Port Hudson, in the summer of 1863, which events left the Mississippi River nominally in the hands of the Federal troops. General Banks returned to New Orleans, and the large army with which General Grant operated in the rear of Vicksburg was dispersed to various points. The Thirteenth and Eighteenth Corps, under Generals Herron and Ord, went to New Orleans; Ransom's command occupied Natchez; the force which Burnside sent out to aid Grant mainly returned to him, and other smaller bodies were located at various points engaged in keeping down guerrillas. The Mississippi being now in possession of the Union forces, it was divided into districts, each under command of a division officer, with orders to prevent the passage of the enemy's troops across the river.

Early in September, 1863, the troops that had concentrated at New Orleans were formed into an expedition of four thousand men, under Major-General Franklin, to effect a landing at Sabine Pass for military occupation, with the co-operation of the navy. Commodore Bell assigned the command of the naval force to Lieutenant Crocker, commanding the steamer Clifton, accompanied by the steamers Sachem, Arizona, and Granite City. The defences at the Pass, it was estimated, consisted of two thirty-two-pounders en barbette, and a battery of fieldpieces, and two bay boats converted into rams. It was concerted with General Franklin that the squadron of four gunboats should make the attack alone, assisted by about one hundred and eighty sharpshooters from the army, divided among his vessels; and after driving the enemy from his defences and destroying or driving off the rams, the transports were to advance and land their troops. The attack was made on the 8th of September, at six A. M., when the Clifton stood in the bay and opened fire on the fort, to which no reply was made. At nine A. M. the Sachem, Arizona, and Granite City, followed by the transports, stood over the bar, and with much difficulty (owing to the shallowness of the water) reached anchorage two miles from the fort at eleven A. M., the gunboats covering the transports.

At three-thirty P. M., the Sachem, followed by the Arizona, advanced up the eastern channel to draw the fire of the forts, while the Clifton advanced up the western channel; the Granite City to cover the land

ing of a division of troops under General Weitzel; no reply to the fire of the gunboats being made until they were abreast of the forts, when they opened with eight guns, three of which were rifled. Almost at the same moment the Clifton and Sachem were struck in their boilers, enveloping the vessels in steam. There not being room to pass the Sachem, the Arizona was backed down the channel. Soon after, the latter grounded by the stern; the ebb-tide caught her bows and swung her across the channel; she was, with much difficulty, extricated from this position-owing to the engine becoming heated by the collection of mud in the boilers. The flags of the Clifton and Sachem were now run down, and white flags were flying at the fore. As all the transports were now moving out of the bay, the Arizona remained covering their movements, until she grounded and remained until midnight, when she was kedged off, as no assistance could be had from any of the tugs of the expedition. The expedition therefore returned to Brashear City. General Franklin held his head-quarters at New Iberia, which was made the base of operations, being at the head of navigation for ordinary steamers and fifty-two miles from Brashear City. The Nineteenth Army Corps, under the immediate command of General Weitzel, had crossed and camped at Bewick. The Thirteenth Army Corps followed, leaving sufficient force to hold the base at Brashear.

General McPherson, with the Seventeenth Corps, remained at Vicksburg, and nothing of general interest occurred until early in October, when a rebel force, consisting of about two thousand five hundred mounted men, appeared on the east side of the Black River, at times approaching quite near the Federal lines, and keeping up a continued series of feints and demonstrations along our front. McPherson came to the conclusion that they had been thrown forward as a curtain to hide movements and operations going on farther back in the country. He therefore organized a force composed of Logan's and Tuttle's Divisions, with other detached portions of the Seventeenth Corps, which, leaving Vicksburg early on the morning of the 14th October, marched sixteen miles and rendezvoused at Big Black River, where it encamped for the night. By daylight on the 15th, the cavalry advance crossed the river at Messenger's Ferry, closely followed by Logan, with Tuttle bringing up the rear, the crossing being effected on a double truss bridge built by Sherman during his Jackson campaign. At three P. M. they reached Brownsville, the place having been occupied by our advance cavalry at noon, and on the following day the advance of Logan's Division met a portion of Wirt Adams's rebel cavalry, supported by a battery of artillery, well posted in a piece of timber to the right of the road. McPherson immediately sent forward a portion of Logan's Division, consisting of Maltby's Brigade and two pieces of artillery, to dislodge them, our cavalry having dismounted and advanced through the woods, deployed as skirmishers. No sooner did our battery open than they were replied to by the rebel artillery with excellent effect.

While this was going on the remainder of Logan's Division advanced by the Canton road, where they met another portion of the enemy, consisting of Whitfield's Brigade of cavalry and artillery, composed

principally of Texans, occupying a strong position on the crest of a hill completely commanding the road. The artillery was sent forward, and amused them until Ford's Brigade came up, and formed in line of battle on either side of the road, with two regiments in advance deployed as skirmishers; darkness coming on, the men rested in their positions. Shortly after daylight the enemy again opened on us with artillery, having been re-enforced during the night. The force then returned to Vicksburg, where they arrived on the 20th.

There was little activity at New Orleans after the failure of the Sabine Pass expedition. The expiration of the term of the ninemonths men produced some changes, and until new troops arrived but little was done. There was, however, an immense contraband trade between the Southern States and Mexico. The sealing up of Charleston and the stricter watch at Wilmington-before the two chief inlets of trade-caused Matamoras to become the great entrepôt of contraband commerce. Not less than twenty-five or thirty blockaderunners were sometimes there at one time. General Banks devised an expedition to break up this trade. The enemy had then only a few troops under Magruder scattered between Galveston and Sabine Pass. The expedition was fitted out at New Orleans, under the command of Major-General Dana, General Banks and staff accompanying it. After a stormy passage, the troops were on the 4th of November safely transferred from the transports, and landed on the Texan shore of the Rio Grande. Upon seeing our troops landing, the enemy destroyed the Government works at Fort Brown, and the town of Brownsville was set on fire by their cavalry. The Union men in the town resisted them, and a bloody street fight ensued between the two factions, while the houses were burning around them. The Fifteenth Marine regiment was ordered up to Brownsville to support the Unionists, and the rebels were routed. The place was then occupied by the Federal troops. Subsequently Corpus Christi and the coast of Texas to within one hundred miles of Galveston were occupied

But little else was done in this department until the commencement of 1864, when a new expedition was organized by General Banks, hav ing for its object the possession of Western Louisiana and the capture of cotton. The enemy at this time had various forces in the field. General Dick Taylor commanded in Louisiana, with about twenty thousand men; Magruder in Texas; and Price resumed the command in Arkansas. It was proposed by Banks to ascend the Red River to Shreveport, aided by the fleet of Admiral Porter, while a force under General Steele should descend from Little Rock, Arkansas, to form a junc tion with the troops on the Red River. At the same time a demonstration was to be made by the Federal force from Brownsville, Rio Grande.

on the

The expedition embarked at Vicksburg on the 10th of March, and proceeded down the Mississippi to the mouth of the Red River, which it ascended as far as the Old River, at which point it turned into the Atchafalaya, which flows south ward into Lake Chetimaches. On the 13th a landing was effected at Simmsport, whence our forces marched to Bayou Glacé, where a rebel force, estimated at about two thousand,