Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1891-02-06


appears from Mr.. Pittenger's book
that the party assembled at Atlanta.
but failing to find the engineer on
whose cooperation the enterprise was
based gave it up, and all the mon made
their way safely back to our lines.
This terminated the effort to destroy
bridges west of Chattanooga by cap
turing locomotive. In relation to
the merits of this scheme it may be
said that at the time perhaps the OBJ
Ject was Of sufficient Importance to
cover the probabilities of failure and
the risk to the men engaged, but at
best the undertaking was hardly COM
mendable. Buell., basiug no plans on
the success of it, marched with the
main body of his army for the field of
Shiloh without knowing the result.
When Andrews returned early in
April, he found General Mitchell in
command near Nashville and reported
to him in Buells absence. General
Mitchell, with no enemy to oppose him,
was advancing through Middle Ten
nesseee. and occupied Huntsville, on
the Memphis and Charleston Railroad.
on Friday. April IL.
Mr.. Fittenger says Mitchell's pur-
pose was to capture Chattanooga. APP
propriating the idea of bridge burning,
Mitchell, on April 7th--the last day Of
the battle of Shiloh-started party Of
twenty-four men under Andrews to
capture locomotive and destroy
bridges south of Chattanooga, between
that place and Marietta. No excep-
ton can be taken to Mr.. Pittenger's
graphic account of the failure of that
effort, but he and the Judge Advocate,
General of the army and the South
ern newspapers appear to have at
tached undue importance to the object
of it.
The destruction of bridges between
Marietta and Chattanooga would not
have enabled General Mitchell to take
the latter place. II his instructions
or the military conditions had justified
him in an attempt to capture Chatta-
nooga-which they did not-the pres
ervution of the bridge over the Ten
nessee would have been important to
his success. The enemy had only to
burn the, structure, as they did when
MitchelPs troops approached it April
30, in order to check an advance CO..
Chattanooga. Furthermore, If Mitch
ellis party had succeeded in burning
bridges between Marietta and Chat
tanooga, that would not have pre-
vented the Reinforcement of the
latter place, as the regular
railroad route through East Tennessee
was open and in the enemy's posses
sion, and it was from the east and not
from the south, where there were but
| few ifany available troops until Cor
NTH was evacuated, that the place was
I, most likely to be re enforced.
Mitchell's bridge-burners, therefore,
took desperate chances to accomplish
objects of no substantial advantage
Judge Advocate General Holt probably
had not examined carefully into the
! military aspects of the subject when
he reported of this enterprise, in 1863,
"In the gigantic and overwhelming re-
suits it sought and was likely to ac-
compish, it was absolutely sublime"
Gen. Mitchell made no such claim.
In fact, seeing, as he no doubt finally
did, the insufficiency of the object, and
the completeness of the failure and its
deplorable consequences, he never
made any report whatever of the oper-
alton
1t is not strange that when the men
in this affair were captured they en-
deavored to have the enemy treat them
as prisoners of war, but it is rather
strange that Mr.. Pittenger in his book
should claim that their only offense
"was that of accepting dangerous
service proposed by their own officers"
| ALot ho no1>o1c &oI
them as spies. They were soldiers
who stripped off their uniforms and
went into the enemy's lines to war
against him in disguise.
Mr.. Pittenger maintains that as they
did not "lurk" about the enemys camp
for the purpose of gaining information
they were not spies. This plea is
technical and feeble; nor is the argu-
ment that the rebel partisans and
guerrillas came in citizens dress with
in our lines OF any material weight in
this connection. We are convicted on
these points out of our own mouths.
Our authorities say "a spy is punisha-
bic with death" "a person proved to
be a regular soldier of the enemy's army,
found in citizens dress within the lines
of the captor, is universally dealt with
as a spy" ARMED providers, by what
ever names they may be called, who
steal within the lines of the hostile
army for the purpose Of robbing, kill
ing or destroying bridges, roads or
canals, or of robbing or destroying the
mails. or cutting the telegraph wires,
are not entitled to the privileges of the
prisoner of war.
Mr.. Pittenger has given probably
the most thrilling story of the rebel
lion, but his heroes, noble and daring
as they were, still were, by the rules
of war, marauders and spies who
knowingly and voluntarily bet their
lives on a desperate game and lost.
Only eight of the twenty -four were ex-
ecuted. Instead of blaming the winner
for taking one-third of the stakes, Mr..
Pittenger should have recorded his
}, gratitude to him for not enforcing his
Fight to the other two-thirds.
Wouldn't Take Mean Advantage.
II Jones had got mixed up in a duel;
- r,,, hia 1,ncifinn and