Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1913-12-12

command marched slowly in pursuit
Of Longstreet. and the garrisoning OF
Knoxville was assigned to- General
Changers command.
A few days after the siege Of Knox
vile was broken anxiety as to the fate
of East Tennessee was revived in
Washington. Grant himself began to
prepare for another campaign to dis
pose of Longstreet. The attempt of
the latter to take Knoxville had grown
out of a project which he had advo-
Gated Immediately after the battle of
Chickamauga. The battle of Chicka-
manga, in September, had left the Fed
eral army under General W. S. Rose
Grams in possession of Chattanooga.
Bragg. with the victorious army at
Chickamauga, confronted Rosecrans,
but he hesitated about attacking the
position. Longstreet then urged Bragg
to march a strong column around Chat
tanooga into Tennessee. Such a move
would flank Rosecrans and force him
to abandon Chattanooga. Bragg ridi-
culed the idea, but President Davis ap-
proved of it. After a month of delay
Longstreet was dispatched with his
own corps to pass around the rear of
the Federals in Chattanooga and strike
at Knoxville. Though defeated there.
he was still to be reckoned with. .
Bragg Removed From Command.
On Dec. : General Bragg laid down
the command of the Confederate army
which had been driven from Chatta-
nooga to Dalton. He had been ordered
to report for other duties at the seat of
the Confederate government in Rich
mond. General w. j. Hardee. one of
the corps commanders, was appointed
to succeed him.
Bragg left to General Hardee an
army that needed reorganization from
the ranks upward. 1t was not In con-
dition for an immediate campaign and
had the good fortune to be outside the
sphere of new operations projected by
Grant. Nevertheless Grant took it into
account in his plans. for it had fighting
qualities and under bold leadership
might attempt to reverse his victories
at Vicksburg and Chattanooga. Long
street believed that it could regain
ground lost in Tennessee and so long
as he remained west of the Blue Ridge
he would be in position to cooperate.
Loss of the Monitor Weehawken.
On Dec. 6, 1863, occurred the great
est disaster sustained by the Federal
feet during its %protracted siege of
Charleston. This was the sudden sink
Ing at anchorage of the monitor Wee
hawken. This vessel was of the gen
eral type of the original monitor which
fought the Confederate ram Merrimac.
Greater depth of hull and more power
full engines placed her in the seagoing
class of vessels.
The Weehawken was one of several
Implications in form of the first crea-
ton made by Captain John Ericsson
after the model had accomplished won
ders In battle with the Merrimac in
Hampton Roads. "a floating turret"
was the term usually used to distin-
guish these ironclads from the conven-
tional type Of warship. The Wee
hawken had proved in many storms
that she could float and in many bat
ties that her turret equipment could
do execution. After her first storm the
commander. Captain John Rodgers. re-
ported that she rose and sank with
the waves.
The Weehawken went down in a
hurricane. carrying to the bottom thlr-
ty of her crew who were in different
parts of the vessel. Openings. for