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were the grand strategic features of that first movement, and
it succeeded perfectly.
General Halleck's went further – not to stop at his
first line, which ran through Columbus, Bowling Green, crossing
the river at Henry and Donelson, but to push on to the second
line, which ran through Memphis and Charleston; but troubles intervened
at Nashville, and delays followed; opposition to the last movement
was made, and I myself was brought an actor on the scene.
I remember our ascent of the Tennessee River; I have
seen to-night, captains of steamboats who first went with us there;
storms came, and we did not reach the point we desired. At that
time General C. F. Smith was in command; he was a man indeed;
all the old officers remember him as a gallant and excellent officer,
and had he lived, probably some of us younger fellows would not
have attained our present positions. But that is now past. We
followed him – the second time – and then came the landing of
forces at Pittsburg Landing. Whether it was a mistake in landing
them on the west instead of the east bank, it is not necessary
now to discuss. I think it was not a mistake; there was gathered
the first great army of the West – commencing with only twelve
thousand, then twenty, then thirty thousand, and we had about
thirty-eight thousand in that battle; and all I claim for that
is, that it was a contest for manhood; there was no strategy.
Grant was there, and others of us, all young at that time, and
unknown men, but our enemy was old, and Sidney Johnston, whom
all the officers remembered as a power among the old officers,
high above Grant, myself or anybody else, led the enemy on that
battle-field, and I almost wonder how we conquered. But, as I
remarked, it was a contest for manhood – man to man, soldier to
soldier. We fought, and we held our ground, and therefore accounted
ourselves victorious. [Cheers.]
THE MISSISSIPPI.
The possession of the Mississippi river is the possession
of America, [cheers,] and I say that had the Southern Confederacy,
(call it by what name you may,) had that power represented by
the Southern Confederacy, held with a grip sufficiently strong
the lower part of the Mississippi river, we would have been a
subjugated people, and they would have dictated to us if we had
given up possession of the lower Mississippi. It was vital to
us, and we fought for it and won. We determined to have it; but
we could not go down with our frail boats past the batteries of
Vicksburg. It was a physical impossibility; therefore, what was
to be done? After the Tallahatchie line was carried, Vicksburg
was the next point. I went with a small and hastily collected
force, and repeatedly endeavored to make a lodgement on the bluff
between Vicksburg and Haine's Bluffs, while General Grant moved
with his main army so as to place himself on the high plateau
behind Vicksburg; but "man proposes and God disposes,"
and we failed on that occasion. I then gathered my hastily collected
force and went down further, and then, for the first time, I took
General Blair and his brigade under my command.
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