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Our thanks to Phyllis
Minner for pointing this and other
articles out to us.
In the middle of February, 1862, Major-General Halleck commanded
all the armies in the valley of the Mississippi, from his
headquarters in St. Louis. These were, the Army of the Ohio,
Major-General Buell, in Kentucky; the Army of the Tennessee,
Major-General Grant, at Forts Henry and Donelson; and General
S. R. Curtis, in Southern Missouri. He posted his chief of
staff, General Cullum, at Cairo, and me at Paducah, chiefly
to expedite and facilitate the important operations then in
progress up the Tennessee and Cumberland Rivers.
ST. Louis, March 4, 1862. To Major-General U. S. GRANT :
You will place Major-General C. F. Smith in command of expedition,
and remain yourself at Fort Henry. Why do you not obey my
orders to report strength and positions of your command ?
H. W. HALLECK, Major-General.
Halleck was evidently working himself into a passion, but
he was too far from the seat of warto make due allowance for
the actual state of facts. General Grant had done so much,
that General Halleck should have been patient. Meantime, at
Paducah I was busy sending boats in every direction-some under
the orders of General Halleck, others of General Cullum; others
for General Grant, and still others for General Buell at Nashville;
and at the same time I was organizing out of the new troops
that were arriving at Paducah a division for myself when allowed
to take the field, which I had been promised by General Halleck.
His purpose was evidently to operate up the Tennessee River,
to break up Bear Greek Bridge and the railroad communications
between the Mississippi and Tennessee Rivers, and no doubt
he was provoked that Generals Grant and Smith had turned aside
to Nashville. In the mean time several of the gunboats, under
Captain Phelps, United States Navy, had gone up the Tennessee
as far as Florence, and on their return had reported a strong
Union feeling among the people along the river. On the 10th
of March, having received the necessary orders from General
Halleck, I embarked my division at Paducah. It was composed
of four brigades. The First, commanded by Colonel S. G. Hicks,
was composed of the Fortieth Illinois, Forty-sixth Ohio, and
Morion's Indiana lottery, on the boats Sallie
List, Golden
Gate, J.B.
Adams, and Lancaster.
The Second Brigade, Colonel D. Stuart, was composed of the
Fifty-fifth Illinois, Seventy-first Ohio, and Fifty-fourth
Ohio; embarked on the Hannibal,
Universe,
Hazel
Dell, Cheeseman (?Possibly
CHESSMAN? - D.), and Prairie
Rose.
…We steamed up to Fort Henry, the river
being high and in splendid order. There I reported in person
to General C, F. Smith, and by him was ordered a few miles above,
to the remains of the burned railroad bridge, to await the rendezvous
of the rest of his army. I had my headquarters on the Continental.
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