Military Reminiscences of the Civil War, vol 1 (April 1861-November 1863) | Page 2

interest and profit to excuse many shortcomings.
WILLIAM C. COCHRAN. CINCINNATI, October 1, 1900.

CONTENTS
CHAPTER I
THE OUTBREAK OF THE WAR
Ohio Senate, April 12--Sumter bombarded--"Glory to God!"--The
surrender--Effect on public sentiment--Call for troops--Politicians
changing front--David Tod--Stephen A. Douglas--The insurrection
must be crushed--Garfield on personal duty--Troops organized by the
States--The militia--Unpreparedness--McClellan at Columbus--Meets
Governor Dennison--Put in command--Our stock of
munitions--Making estimates--McClellan's plan--Camp Jackson--Camp
Dennison--Gathering of the volunteers--Garibaldi uniforms--Officering
the troops--Off for Washington--Scenes in the State Capitol--Governor
Dennison's labors--Young regulars--Scott's policy--Alex.
McCook--Orlando Poe--Not allowed to take state commissions.
CHAPTER II

CAMP DENNISON
Laying out the camp--Rosecrans as engineer--A comfortless
night--Waking to new duties--Floors or no floors for the huts--Hardee's
Tactics--The watersupply--Colonel Tom Worthington--Joshua
Sill--Brigades organized--Bates's brigade--Schleich's--My
own--McClellan's purpose--Division organization--Garfield
disappointed--Camp routine--Instruction and drill--Camp
cookery--Measles--Hospital barn--Sisters of Charity--Ferment over
re-enlistment--Musters by Gordon Granger--"Food for
powder"--Brigade staff--De Villiers--"A Captain of Calvary"--The
"Bloody Tinth"--Almost a row--Summoned to the field.
CHAPTER III
McCLELLAN IN WEST VIRGINIA
Political attitude of West Virginia--Rebels take the
initiative--McClellan ordered to act--Ohio militia cross the river--The
Philippi affair--Significant dates--The vote on secession--Virginia in
the Confederacy--Lee in command--Topography--The mountain
passes--Garnett's army--Rich Mountain position--McClellan in the
field--His forces--Advances against Garnett--Rosecrans's proposal--His
fight on the mountain--McClellan's inaction--Garnett's retreat--Affair at
Carrick's Ford--Garnett killed--Hill's efforts to intercept--Pegram in the
wilderness--He surrenders--Indirect results important--McClellan's
military and personal traits.
CHAPTER IV
THE KANAWHA VALLEY
Orders for the Kanawha expedition--The troops and their quality--Lack
of artillery and cavalry--Assembling at Gallipolis--District of the
Kanawha--Numbers of the opposing forces--Method of advance--Use
of steamboats--Advance guards on river banks--Camp at Thirteen-mile
Creek--Night alarm--The river chutes--Sunken

obstructions--Pocotaligo--Affair at Barboursville--Affair at Scary
Creek--Wise's position at Tyler Mountain--His precipitate
retreat--Occupation of Charleston--Rosecrans succeeds
McClellan--Advance toward Gauley Bridge--Insubordination--The
Newspaper Correspondent--Occupation of Gauley Bridge.
CHAPTER V
GAULEY BRIDGE
The gate of the Kanawha valley--The wilderness beyond--West
Virginia defences--A romantic post--Chaplain Brown--An adventurous
mission--Chaplain Dubois--"The river path"--Gauley Mount--Colonel
Tompkins's home--Bowie-knives--Truculent resolutions--The
Engineers--Whittlesey, Benham, Wagner--Fortifications--Distant
reconnoissances--Comparison of forces--Dangers to steamboat
communications--Allotment of duties--The Summersville
post--Seventh Ohio at Cross Lanes--Scares and rumors--Robert E. Lee
at Valley Mountain--Floyd and Wise advance--Rosecrans's orders--The
Cross Lanes affair--Major Casement's creditable retreat--Colonel
Tyler's reports--Lieutenant-Colonel Creighton--Quarrels of Wise and
Floyd--Ambushing rebel cavalry--Affair at Boone Court House--New
attack at Gauley Bridge--An incipient mutiny--Sad result--A notable
court-martial--Rosecrans marching toward us--Communications
renewed--Advance toward Lewisburg--Camp Lookout--A private
sorrow.
CHAPTER VI
CARNIFEX FERRY--TO SEWELL MOUNTAIN AND BACK
Rosecrans's march to join me--Reaches Cross Lanes--Advance against
Floyd--Engagement at Carnifex Ferry--My advance to Sunday
Road--Conference with Rosecrans--McCook's brigade joins
me--Advance to Camp Lookout--Brigade commanders--Rosecrans's
personal characteristics--Hartsuff--Floyd and Wise again--"Battle of
Bontecou"--Sewell Mountain--The equinoctial--General Schenck

arrives--Rough lodgings--Withdrawal from the mountain--Rear-guard
duties--Major Slemmer of Fort Pickens fame--New positions covering
Gauley Bridge--Floyd at Cotton Mountain--Rosecrans's methods with
private soldiers--Progress in discipline.
CHAPTER VII
COTTON MOUNTAIN
Floyd cannonades Gauley Bridge--Effect on Rosecrans--Topography of
Gauley Mount--De Villiers runs the gantlet--Movements of our
forces--Explaining orders--A hard climb on the mountain--In the post at
Gauley Bridge--Moving magazine and telegraph--A balky
mule-team--Ammunition train under fire--Captain Fitch a model
quartermaster--Plans to entrap Floyd--Moving supply trains at
night--Method of working the ferry--Of making flatboats--The Cotton
Mountain affair--Rosecrans dissatisfied with Benham--Vain plans to
reach East Tennessee.
CHAPTER VIII
WINTER-QUARTERS
An impracticable country--Movements suspended--Experienced troops
ordered away--My orders from Washington--Rosecrans objects--A
disappointment--Winter organization of the Department--Sifting our
material--Courts-martial--Regimental schools--Drill and picket duty--A
military execution--Effect upon the army--Political sentiments of the
people--Rules of conduct toward them--Case of Mr. Parks--Mr.
Summers--Mr. Patrick--Mr. Lewis Ruffner--Mr. Doddridge--Mr. B. F.
Smith--A house divided against itself--Major Smith's journal--The
contrabands--A fugitive-slave case--Embarrassments as to military
jurisdiction.
CHAPTER IX
VOLUNTEERS AND REGULARS

High quality of first volunteers--Discipline milder than that of the
regulars--Reasons for the difference--Practical efficiency of the
men--Necessity for sifting the officers--Analysis of their defects--What
is military aptitude?--Diminution of number in ascending scale--Effect
of age--Of former life and occupation--Embarrassments of a new
business--Quick progress of the right class of young men--Political
appointments--Professional men--Political leaders naturally prominent
in a civil war--"Cutting and trying"--Dishonest methods--An excellent
army at the end of a year--The regulars in 1861--Entrance examinations
for West Point--The curriculum there--Drill and experience--Its
limitations--Problems peculiar to the vast increase of the
army--Ultra-conservatism--Attitude toward the Lincoln
administration--"Point de zêle"--Lack of initiative--Civil work of army
engineers--What is military art?--Opinions of experts--Military
history--European armies in the Crimean War--True
generalship--Anomaly of a double army organization.
CHAPTER X
THE MOUNTAIN DEPARTMENT--SPRING CAMPAIGN
Rosecrans's plan of campaign--Approved by McClellan with
modifications--Wagons or pack-mules--Final form of plan--Changes in
commands--McClellan limited to Army of the Potomac--Halleck's
Department of the Mississippi--Frémont's Mountain
Department--Rosecrans superseded--Preparations in the Kanawha
District--Batteaux to supplement steamboats--Light wagons for
mountain work--Frémont's plan--East Tennessee as an objective--The
supply question--Banks in the Shenandoah valley--Milroy's
advance--Combat at McDowell--Banks defeated--Frémont's plans
deranged--Operations in the Kanawha valley--Organization of
brigades--Brigade commanders--Advance to Narrows of New
River--The field telegraph--Concentration of the enemy--Affair at
Princeton--Position at Flat-top Mountain.
CHAPTER XI

POPE IN COMMAND--TRANSFER TO WASHINGTON
A key position--Crook's engagement at Lewisburg--Watching and
scouting--Mountain work--Pope in command--Consolidation of
Departments--Suggestions of our transfer to the East--Pope's Order No.
11 and