yet active operations began on the Tennessee. Here Fort Donelson on the Cumberland, Fort Henry on the Tennessee and Columbus on the Mississippi guarded the left of the Southern line, Sidney Johnston himself maintaining a precarious advanced position at Bowling Green, with his lieutenants, Zollicoffer and Crittenden, farther east at Mill Springs, and a small force under General Marshall in the mountains of eastern Kentucky. The last-named was soon defeated by General James A. Garfield at Prestonburg, and a few days later General G. H. Thomas won his first victory at Mill Springs (Logan’s Cross Roads). Zollicoffer was killed and his army forced to make a disastrous retreat (January 19–20, 1862). The centre of Johnston’s line (Forts Henry and Donelson) was next attacked by General Grant and Flag-Officer A. H. Foote. On the 6th of February Fort Henry fell to Foote’s gunboat flotilla, and Grant then moved overland to Donelson. His troops were raw and possessed no decisive superiority in numbers, and sharp fighting took place when the garrison of Donelson tried to cut its way out. The attempt failed when almost on the point of success, and the Federals, under the excellent leadership of Generals C. F. Smith, Lew Wallace and McClernand, effected a lodgment in the works. The Confederate commanders proved themselves quite unequal to the crisis, and 15,000 men surrendered with the fort on the 16th of February.
8. Island No. 10 and Pea Ridge.—This very considerable success thrust back Johnston’s whole line to New Madrid, Corinth and the Memphis & Charleston railway. The left flank, even after the evacuation of Columbus, was exposed, and the Missouri divisions under Pope quickly seized New Madrid. The adjoining river defences of Island No. 10 in the Mississippi proved more formidable. Foote’s gunboats could, and did, run the gauntlet, but a canal had to be cut right round the batteries for the transports, before the land forces could cross the river and attack the works in rear; when this was accomplished, by the skill and energy of all concerned, the place with its garrison of 7000 men surrendered at once (April 8, 1862). Meanwhile, in the Missouri theatre, the Federal general Curtis, outnumbered and outmanœuvred by the forces of Price and Van Dorn, fought, and by his magnificent tenacity won, the battle of Pea Ridge (March 7–8), which put an end to the war in this quarter. On the whole, the first part of the western campaign was uniformly a brilliant success for the Federal arms. General H. W. Halleck, who was here in control of all the operations of the Federals, had meanwhile ordered Grant’s force to ascend the Tennessee river and operate against Corinth; Buell’s well-disciplined forces were to march overland from Nashville to join him, and General O. M. Mitchel with a division was sent straight southwards from the same place to cut the Memphis & Charleston line. The latter mission, brilliantly as it was executed, failed, through want of support, to secure a foothold. Had Halleck reinforced Mitchel, that officer might perhaps have forestalled the later victories of Grant and Sherman. As it was, the enterprise became a mere diversion.
9. Shiloh.—Meanwhile Grant was encamped at Pittsburg Landing on the Tennessee with an army of 45,000 men, and Buell with 37,000 men about two marches away. Early on the 6th of April A. S. Johnston and Beauregard completely surprised the camps of Grant’s divisions. The battle of Shiloh (q.v.) was a savage scuffle between two half-disciplined hosts, contested with a fury rare even in this war. On the 6th the Unionists, scattered and unable to combine, were driven from point to point, and at nightfall barely held their ground on the banks of the river. The losses were enormous on both sides, Johnston himself being amongst the killed. The arrival of Buell enabled the Federals to take the offensive next morning along the whole line, and by sunset on the 7th, after another sanguinary battle, Beauregard was in full retreat. Some weeks afterwards, Halleck with the combined armies of Grant, Buell and Pope began the siege of Corinth, which Beauregard ultimately evacuated a month later. Thus the first campaign of the western armies, completed by the victory of the gunboat flotilla at Memphis (June 6), cleared the Mississippi as far down as Vicksburg, and compelled the Confederates to evacuate the Cumberland and a large portion of the Tennessee basins.
10. The Peninsula.—Many schemes were discussed between McClellan and President Lincoln before the Army of the Potomac finally took the offensive in Virginia. It was eventually decided that General Banks was to oppose “Stonewall” Jackson in the Shenandoah Valley, Frémont to hold western Virginia against the same general’s enterprise, and McDowell with a strong corps to advance overland to meet McClellan, who, with the main army, was to proceed by sea to Fortress Monroe and thence to advance on Richmond. The James river, afterwards so much used for the Federal operations, was not yet clear, and it was here, in Hampton Roads, that the famous fight took place between the ironclads “Merrimac” (or “Virginia”) and “Monitor” (March 8–9, 1862). McClellan’s advance was opposed by a small force of Confederates under General Magruder, which, gradually reinforced, held the historic position of Yorktown for a whole month, and only evacuated it on the 3rd of May. Two days later McClellan’s advanced troops fought a sharp combat at Williamsburg and the Army of the Potomac rendezvoused on the Chickahominy with its base at White House on the Pamunkey (May 7). J. E. Johnston had, long ere this, fallen back from Manassas towards Richmond, and the two armies were in touch when a serious check was given to McClellan by the brilliant successes of Jackson in the Shenandoah Valley.
11. Jackson’s Valley Campaign.—The “Valley of Virginia,” called also the “Granary of the Confederacy,” was cut into long parallel strips by ridges and rivers, across which passages were rare, and along which the Confederates could, with little fear of interruption from the east, debouch into Maryland and approach Washington itself. Here Stonewall Jackson lay with a small force, and in front of him at the outlet of the valley was Banks, while Frémont threatened him from West Virginia. Jackson had already fought a winter campaign which ended in his defeat at the hands of General Shields at Kernstown (March 23). Banks’s main army, early in May, lay far down the Valley at Strasburg and Front Royal, Frémont at the town of McDowell. Jackson’s first blow fell on part of Frémont’s corps, which was sharply attacked and driven into the mountains (McDowell, May 8). The victor quickly turned upon Banks, destroyed his garrison of Front Royal and nearly surrounded his main body; barely escaping, Banks was again defeated at Winchester and driven back to the Maryland border (May 23–25). These rapid successes paralysed the Federal offensive. McDowell, instead of marching to join McClellan, was ordered to the Valley to assist in “trapping Jackson,” an operation which, at one critical moment very near success, ended in the defeat of Frémont at Cross Keys and of McDowell’s advanced troops at Port Republic (June 8–9) and the escape of the daring Confederates with trifling loss. McClellan, deprived of McDowell’s corps, felt himself reduced to impotence, and three Federal armies were vainly marching up and down the Valley when Johnston fell with all his forces upon the Army of the Potomac. The Federals lay on both sides of the Chickahominy river, and at this moment Johnston heard that McDowell’s arrival need not be feared. The course of the battle of Seven Pines or Fair Oaks (q.v.) bore some resemblance to that of Shiloh; a sharp attack found the Unionists unprepared, and only after severe losses and many partial defeats could McClellan check the rebel advance. Here also fortune was against the Confederates. J. E. Johnston fell severely wounded, and in the end a properly connected and combined advance of the Army of the Potomac drove back his successor into the lines of Richmond (May 31–June 1).
12. The Seven Days.—Bad weather and skilful defence completely checked the assailants for another three weeks, and the situation was now materially altered. Jackson with the Valley troops had stealthily left Harrisonburg by rail on the 17th of June, and was now at Ashland in McClellan’s rear. General Lee, who had succeeded Johnston in the command of the Army of northern Virginia, proposed to attack the Federals in their line of communication with White House, and passed most of his forces round to the aid of Jackson. The Seven Days’ Battle (q.v.)
