The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1907-02-03

down his order book to point Johnston
to his instructions to Holmes to do the
very thing, cross all his troops to Penn
berton. In a moment the secretary laid
before General Johnston the letter OF the
President peremptorily commanding that
the order to Holmes be revoked
General Johnston took up his head
quarters at Chattanooga and was soon
followed by the President. The Presi-
dent informed him that Pemberton was
In danger General Grant had collected
enormous stores at Holly Springs and
was preparing to occupy all Mississippi.
Bragg must re-enforce Pemberton. john
ston replied that the way to get Grant
out of Mississippi was to re-en1orce
Bragg, not deplete him. Bring Pember-
ton and Beauregard, at Charleston. and
other available troops to Murfreesporo'
drive Rosecrans out of Nashville, across
the Ohio, and follow him there Grant
could not remain in Mississippi.
The President in person ordered Major
General Stevenson to take his 5000 men at
once to Pemberton from Bragg. He then
set out for Mississippi himself, request
ing General Johnston to accompany him.
The two arrived at NicksburS, finding
Pemberton with some $1,000 men In
alarm. About this time General van
Dorm got in between General Grant and
MS millions OF uOlldTS Oh SloieS at itoiiy
Springs, and burned the whole. Grant
did not believe he could collect rations
for his army from the country, with Van
Dorm upon his TANKS, SO having lost his
stores for the campaign, he turned MS
face back to Memphis and Pemberton
rested In quiet.
Rosecrans at Nashville, twenty miles
from Bragg, at Murfreesboro, heard
through country people, for cash on re-
ceipt, all that was important for him to
know of the Confederate army on his
trent. He heard that the last brigade,
later commanded by General Shelley, OF
Stevenson's would move out of Chatta-
nooga on Christmas day. on the railroad
train for Mississippi. The next day, De-
cember 26 1862, Rosecrans moved out OF
Nashville with some $500 men to strike
Bragg on Stones river, seventeen miles
distant. The enemy advanced on three
pixies converging at Murfreesboro.
General Wheeler, with 1000 cavalry, met
Rosecrans' columns on each pike, by
turns, and he so attacked them on flank
and rear, burning their trains and cap
turing their foragers that he kept them
at a slow pace. Rosecrans did not sue
coed In getting into position in front OF
Bragg until late in the afternoon of
Tuesday, December 30.
That night Bragg moved Hardee from
MS extreme rlR1I TO MS ehlItllS cit, anu
the Confederates lay on their arms in the
woods within $50 yards of Rosecrans'
camp fires. The next morning at dawn,
McNair's Arkansanians and Ector's Tex
ans well In the lead, Hardee dashed into
the enemy's camp while they We're boil
ing coffee and frying pork to open the
battle at sunrise. The enemy were routed
and driven several miles, but they re-
formed in the afternoon on their left
flank and Bragg could drive them no
further. He held the field of battle and
all the enemy's dead and wounded and
thousands of arms captured. 1t was a
terrible fight. but of no ultimate advan-
tage to the Confederacy General john
ston under the Presidents orders, was In
Mississippi at the time.
Approaching from the south General
Grant finally laid siege to Pemberton in
Vicksburg, six months after his first at
tempt, by way of Holly Springs, on the
north Rosecrans was still at NURSERIES
boro and Bragg at Tullahoma, some
twenty miles east on the Chattanooga
railroad.
Johnston preferred to let Grant alone
in Mississippi. His knowledge of war
taught him that Vicksburg was utterly
indefensible from the land side. while
the enemy held the river with vessels of
war able to shell the town to destruc-
ton. He ordered Pemberton then with
his army some miles to the east, not to
be caught In the place, but to retire
northward. where he would join him
from Jackson. Johnston was then wasted
by a dysentery and could travel only in
a carriage, otherwise he would have
hurried to Pemberton, taken command
and saved the army. Pemberton re-
ceived orders from Richmond over John
stons head and lost the army.
1t has been written that Johnston failed
to attack Grant, besieging Vicksburg, in
the rear, with an army placed under him
at Jackson for this purpose. Suppose
the attack had been successfully made,
and Pemberton had escaped from Vicks-
burg, the situation would have confirmed
Johnston's original judgment. that Vtcks-
burg was indefensible.
The process of relief Of Pemberton,
ordered from Richmond, If successful,
would have cost the army not less than
200 men, sacrificed, where Johnston
would have saved them. Grant and
Sherman say there was never a day
i, when Johnston. with the force he had at
Jackson, could have made any serious
impression on their rear, which. under
special charge of Sherman. was fortified
against such an attack. However; John
ston was in motion, about to make the
attempt, when Pemberton capitulated.
That fragment of General Bragg's rout-
ed army on Missionary Ridge Novem-
Der 25, 1863, that did not go home, man
by man, stopped some twenty-five miles
from the field at Dalton. on the railroad.
Bragg asked for immediate relief from
command. but he did not get 1t for two
weeks. He was then promoted chief of
staff to the President. which was po-
sition virtually of control of all the
armies In the Confederacy, and ordered
to Richmond Hardee was asked to take
command, but declined. With the publ
cation of the following enthusiastically
crisp order, a sudden flood Of light broke
upon the gloom of the Confederacy. The
army and the people in their remote
homes felt the inspiration, touch of
that mystic tie which binds the instinct
of the aggregate population TO the gen.
ius of the single mind among them.
remember at this moment the leap of
fresh confidence in my heart when read
It:
Headquarters
dalton, December %. 1863.
sBy order Of his Excellency. the Pres