Rebels at the Gate: Lee and McClellan on the Front Line of a Nation Divided by W Hunter Lesser
Authors: W Hunter Lesser
Ads: Link
Confederate left flank by an obscure path. The path was rugged, David warned, and no artillery could follow. The excitable Rosecrans led Hart straight to McClellan's tent.
It was about ten o'clock in the evening when General McClellan began to question young Hart. David related in simple language all he knew of Rich Mountain and its defenders. McClellan listened raptly as he described the rude path to his father's farm on the summit. The mountain was very steep, David acknowledged, and laurel grew so thick along part of the route that a man could actually walk upon its matted crown.
McClellan interrupted, “Do you say men can walk on the tops of the laurel?
“Yes sir,” answered David.
“Do you think my army can go up the mountain, over the tops of the laurel?”
“No sir,” David replied, “but I have done so, and a man might , if he would walk slowly and had nothing to carry.”
“Tell the truth, my boy.”
“I am telling you the truth, General.”
“But,” McClellan shot back, “do you know, if you are not, you will be shot as a spy?”
“I am willing to be shot if all I say is not true.” 242
Rosecrans ushered Hart away and offered McClellan a plan. “Now General,” he intoned, “if you will allow me to take my brigade I will take this guide and, by a night's march, surprise the enemy at the gap, get possession of it, and thus hold his only line of retreat. You can then take him on the front. If he gives way we shall have him; if he fights obstinately I will leave a portion of the force at the gap and with the remainder fall upon his rear.”
McClellan listened in silence. Major Marcy piped up, “General, I think that is a good plan.” Nearly an hour passed before the details were arranged. Rosecrans would start before dawn on July 11, following young Hart on a three-hour march to the summit. He expected to reach the Hart farm by 10 A.M. Upon hearing Rosecrans's musketry in rear of the Rebel works, McClellan would launch the frontal assault. 243
Colonel Isaac Morrow of the Third Ohio Infantry roused his men for battle. It was midnight, recalled John Beatty, “the hour when graveyards are supposed to yawn, and the sheeted dead to walk abroad.” Colonel Morrow's speech reflected the funereal character of the hour:
Soldiers of the Third: The assault on the enemy's works will be made in the early morning. The Third will lead the column. The secessionists have ten thousand men and forty rifled cannon. They are strongly fortified…. They will cut us to pieces. Marching to attack such an enemy, so entrenched and so armed, is marching to a butcher-shop rather than to abattle…Many of you, boys, will go out who will never come back again.
A chill shot through Beatty as Morrow's words pierced the darkness. It was hard to die so young and far from home. The men kicked campfire embers into a blaze that revealed “scores of pallid faces.” Thoughts turned to mothers, wives, and sweethearts. “In short,” Beatty declared, “we all wanted to go home.” The Confederates also mulled their fate. A brilliant comet was visible in the night sky over Camp Garnett—thought to be an omen of disaster. 244
General Rosecrans's flank march began at 5 A.M. A drenching rain commenced. Young David Hart led the way, accompanied by Colonel Frederick Lander, now a fixture on any expedition in the mountains. The Eighth, Tenth, and Thirteenth Indiana Infantry regiments, the Nineteenth Ohio Infantry, and Burdsal's Ohio Cavalry made up Rosecrans's brigade—a total of 1,917 men. Each toted a firearm and cartridge box, a haversack with one day's rations, and a canteen of water. Entering the forest in silence, they kept low on the mountain spurs to avoid detection, slogging through laurel thickets on a circuit estimated to be five miles in length. A member of Burdsal's cavalry backtracked every hour with a report for General McClellan. 245
At Roaring
It was about ten o'clock in the evening when General McClellan began to question young Hart. David related in simple language all he knew of Rich Mountain and its defenders. McClellan listened raptly as he described the rude path to his father's farm on the summit. The mountain was very steep, David acknowledged, and laurel grew so thick along part of the route that a man could actually walk upon its matted crown.
McClellan interrupted, “Do you say men can walk on the tops of the laurel?
“Yes sir,” answered David.
“Do you think my army can go up the mountain, over the tops of the laurel?”
“No sir,” David replied, “but I have done so, and a man might , if he would walk slowly and had nothing to carry.”
“Tell the truth, my boy.”
“I am telling you the truth, General.”
“But,” McClellan shot back, “do you know, if you are not, you will be shot as a spy?”
“I am willing to be shot if all I say is not true.” 242
Rosecrans ushered Hart away and offered McClellan a plan. “Now General,” he intoned, “if you will allow me to take my brigade I will take this guide and, by a night's march, surprise the enemy at the gap, get possession of it, and thus hold his only line of retreat. You can then take him on the front. If he gives way we shall have him; if he fights obstinately I will leave a portion of the force at the gap and with the remainder fall upon his rear.”
McClellan listened in silence. Major Marcy piped up, “General, I think that is a good plan.” Nearly an hour passed before the details were arranged. Rosecrans would start before dawn on July 11, following young Hart on a three-hour march to the summit. He expected to reach the Hart farm by 10 A.M. Upon hearing Rosecrans's musketry in rear of the Rebel works, McClellan would launch the frontal assault. 243
Colonel Isaac Morrow of the Third Ohio Infantry roused his men for battle. It was midnight, recalled John Beatty, “the hour when graveyards are supposed to yawn, and the sheeted dead to walk abroad.” Colonel Morrow's speech reflected the funereal character of the hour:
Soldiers of the Third: The assault on the enemy's works will be made in the early morning. The Third will lead the column. The secessionists have ten thousand men and forty rifled cannon. They are strongly fortified…. They will cut us to pieces. Marching to attack such an enemy, so entrenched and so armed, is marching to a butcher-shop rather than to abattle…Many of you, boys, will go out who will never come back again.
A chill shot through Beatty as Morrow's words pierced the darkness. It was hard to die so young and far from home. The men kicked campfire embers into a blaze that revealed “scores of pallid faces.” Thoughts turned to mothers, wives, and sweethearts. “In short,” Beatty declared, “we all wanted to go home.” The Confederates also mulled their fate. A brilliant comet was visible in the night sky over Camp Garnett—thought to be an omen of disaster. 244
General Rosecrans's flank march began at 5 A.M. A drenching rain commenced. Young David Hart led the way, accompanied by Colonel Frederick Lander, now a fixture on any expedition in the mountains. The Eighth, Tenth, and Thirteenth Indiana Infantry regiments, the Nineteenth Ohio Infantry, and Burdsal's Ohio Cavalry made up Rosecrans's brigade—a total of 1,917 men. Each toted a firearm and cartridge box, a haversack with one day's rations, and a canteen of water. Entering the forest in silence, they kept low on the mountain spurs to avoid detection, slogging through laurel thickets on a circuit estimated to be five miles in length. A member of Burdsal's cavalry backtracked every hour with a report for General McClellan. 245
At Roaring
Similar Books
