The Western Army

Confederate Veteran
Volume 9, Number 1, Page 312
July, 1901

Gen. Bennett H. Young
Address by Gen. Bennett H. Young to the United Confederate Veterans at the Memphis Reunion.

As one of the chosen orators at the Memphis reunion, Col. Young, of Louisville, took as his theme the Western Army, and dealt with it in a way that must be satisfactory to all parties. After pleasant words about the Bluff City, which was the home of “that wonderful man, Nathan Bedford Forrest,” Col. Young said:

I yield to no man in admiration of what the Army of Northern Virginia accomplished, it was led by Lee, Jackson, J. E. Johnston, the Hills, Stuart, and by Gordon, and won a renown that is as deserved as it is imperishable. Its operations were confined within narrow limits, no navigable streams pierced its borders, and two hundred miles square witnessed its operations, its magnificent successes, and its unsurpassed gallantry.

He must be a traitor to the glorious memories of the Confederacy who utters a single word in depreciation of its splendid worth and its superb work. The achievements of the Army of Northern Virginia have rendered illustrious its officers and its men, and they met every requirement that purest patriotism, heroic self-denial, and undaunted courage could either demand or accomplish. Gathered in defense of the capital of the Confederacy, the preservation of which was held to be its very life, it suffered losses and evinced a valor which are among the most priceless treasures of the bravest and most chivalrous army which ever battled for human rights or defended the sacredness of native land. The very position it held, the very purpose it was marshaled to accomplish, gave it a prominence which had a tendency to overshadow the other armies of the South and to eclipse by its splendor the performances of other portions of the Confederate hosts.

The conflicts in the West were long delayed. Before lines could be formed, or plans prepared, the Army of Northern Virginia had already won resplendent fame. Although the war began in the summer of 1861, no really great battle was fought in the West until Shiloh came, in April, 1862, and in its terrible loss of life gave augury of the awful holocaust that was demanded of the South and her people in their efforts to be free. The Federal loss in killed, wounded, and missing of over 13,000, and the Confederate loss of nearly 11,000, were the most appalling military figures the American mind had ever contemplated; and on this field, where for the first time in real array the dashing soldier of the South met the hardy warrior of the West in stubborn conflict, both sides measurably apprehended the magnitude of the contest upon which they had entered. The 2,000 losses at Donelson, the record of 1,500 killed and wounded at Bull Run now appeared insignificant when there broke upon American minds the terrible casualties of 25,000 in a single combat. In amazement, this dreadful calamity forced itself into the hearts and homes of the men and women on both sides; and this, the greatest battle up to that time ever fought in America, with its mighty death list and its terrible destruction, painted in strongest colors the horrors of a civil war, where freemen met freemen in defense of what each esteemed a great principle, backed by convictions in support of which they were willing, if need be, to die.

Missouri so far had borne the brunt of the fiercest storms, Carthage and Wilson’s Creek and Springfield had demanded sacrifice, and the gallant men under Price had freely met all the requirements, and had willingly shed their blood to save their State from Federal rule. Alabama had to her record no engagements on land; Arkansas had felt battle’s touch only at Elkhorn; Florida had so far been practically immune; no heavy hand had yet been laid on Georgia; Kentucky had seen a few skirmishes and caught a glimpse of conflict at Wildcat; Louisiana’s soil was free, but cruisers had sailed along her coast, harbingers of the woes yet to come; Mississippi had within her borders no hostile forces ; the battle of Newburn, with its small list, was all North Carolina had experienced of the awful decimation yet to fall upon her sons; South Carolina had heard but a few guns in between pickets; Tennessee had then nothing but Donelson; while Virginia could only place to her score Big Bethel, Bull Run, Dranesville, Kernstown, and Winchester, none of which gave any omen of the immeasurable treasure of blood to be shed on her soil for Southern independence. The record of one Confederate redounds to the glory of all ; the silent grave on the hillside, the lone mound in the forest, the dash over the breastworks, the heroic stand before a heavy cannonade, the long trenches of slain on the battlefield, the lingering death in the hospital, the sudden end on the picket line, the isolated fall of the sharpshooter, the patient marcher in the storm or the weary ride of the grim trooper, all go to make up war; and each in its way is the act of a hero; and these all complete the superb record which stamps the Confederate soldier as the equal of any one who ever fought or died for truth.

Western soldiers make no claim of being better than the men who fought in the East. All these men who marched or died along the Mississippi, the Arkansas, the Red river, the Ohio, the Cumberland, the Tennessee, the Black, and the Yazoo ask is to have it known that they exhibited the same heroism, the same gallantry, the same readiness to suffer and die, the same unselfish patriotism, as the men whose blood crimsoned the soil of Virginia or poured out life’s tide at Gettysburg or made red the Potomac at Antietam with their heart’s offering.

The Army of Tennessee, though often beaten, never despaired; though many times defeated, it never doubted; no misfortune could destroy its courage, and no adversity could quench its spirit. Far removed from the center of operations, its equipment was not the best the Confederate quartermaster had, but this aroused no murmur in the manly breasts of its soldiers. It was too loyal not to sympathize in the mighty effort of the government to beat back the Federal hordes that pushed down upon Richmond, the national capital, and the apparent neglect of its comfort and its actual needs aroused no complaint among the brave men who composed its legions. The enemy in front was its most reliable quartermaster, and Forrest, Wheeler, and Morgan were its most bountiful commissaries.

The commanders placed over them were not always the ones they loved best or trusted most, but neither on the march nor in conflict with their enemy did they allow these opinions to lessen their zeal or abate their courage; pleased or displeased, they fought with unsurpassed courage, declined no service, and hesitated at no sacrifice; one single, earnest thought dominated every soul, and one desire nerved every arm---the defense of the Confederacy and the defeat of their foes was the great absorbing principle which made them such magnificent soldiers and splendid heroes in battles like Shiloh, Chickamauga, Brice’s Crossroads Kennesaw Mountain, Resaca, Jonesboro, Perryville, Stone’s River, Baton Rouge, Corinth, luka, Harrisburg, and Franklin.

Briefly, comrades, allow me to call your attention, in a comparative way, to some battles in the West which are fearful in mortality, and all of which in a high degree show not only the genius but the courage of the men of the west.

History and song alike magnify Gettysburg as one of the greatest battles of modern times. Its effect on the Confederacy was marked and conspicuous, and from the hour when Pickett and others withdrew their shattered and broken but heroic columns from the heights at Cemetery Ridge, it was apparent that the fortunes of the Confederacy had reached flood tide, and they must ebb and ebb and ebb until they should leave the Army of Northern Virginia stranded amid the gloom, distress, and sorrow of Appomattox.

As the men under the eye of Lee, greatest soldier and man, comrades, the world ever produced, crossed the valley and wrote in their lifeblood on the pitiless rocks of Gettysburg heights the ineffaceable glory of Southern gallantry and, daring, the world’s heart quickened with admiration and wonder at the splendid display of human heroism and nobility, and mankind gave those illustrious men unstinted praise for their superb conduct in the awful and terrible scenes of that dreadful sacrifice. The coming and going of years will brighten, not dim, the grandeur and sublimity of that spectacle, and imagination has yet been found glowing enough to describe in fitting terms the courage and intrepidity of those who joined in that fateful but valiant work.

All the blood shed was not poured out on the Potomac. In 1863 two mighty armies met in fiercest conflict on a stream near the Georgia and Tennessee line, called Chickamauga, a name antedating history, and called by the red man “Stream of Death.” It may be that prophetic ken revealed to the red man, as he drank of its cooling waters or rested in its grateful shade that the white men who were to drive him from his home and possess his land would on its banks and amid its waters meet in fiercest array and stain its current with the flow of blood.

On the 19th day of September, 1863, 55,000 Federal troops and 40,000 Confederates were to engage in deadliest encounter. No fiercer fight had ever been witnessed on the American continent. On these two days a dreadful casualty list was to be audited. Reserves were out of the question, and every man was needed. All were to go to the front and face the foe. Some of the men who had achieved distinction on the battlefields of Virginia were to assault side by side with the men who had won renown at Shiloh and luka, Corinth and Stone River, and in friendly and generous rivalry seek glory and victory in this terrible battle. These magnificent veterans soon learned that the Western men were their equals in all that makes soldiers. Their chivalry and superb gallantry lost nothing in comparison with the men who at Antietam, Malvern Hill, Second Manassas, Kernstown, Port Republic, or Seven Pines had written in the book of fame the story of Southern courage.

As these men of the East and of the West went across the valleys and over the ridges and swept before them the Federal foe, they found all alike ready to do all that men could or dared do in the oly cause of freedom. The 16,000 dead, wounded, and missing on the Federal side and 11,500 on the Confederate side presented war in its most frightful form, and was a new manifestation of the tremendous earnestness of both sides and an omen of the ceaseless onslaught against the South until she should be crushed by sheer destruction of men and resources.

Waiving all questions of Bragg’s capacity as a general, he never possessed the implicit confidence of his army. Inwardly the men he commanded mistrusted his ability; but, while without faith in his leadership, their conduct at Perryville, Stone’s River, Chickamauga, and many other engagements challenges human admiration, and gives them high rank amongst the world’s heroes, for they fought oftentimes without hope, and yet without fear.

Of the seventy regiments in the Confederate service holding the highest percentage of mortality in a single battle, the men of the West have to their credit seventeen of these immortal titles at Chickamauga alone.

Of the eighteen Confederate brigades suffering the greatest losses in single battles, Chickamauga had four and Gettysburg four; and if the records of Franklin could be written out, the West would be entitled to eleven out of the twenty-one thus reported.

On the 16th of September, 1862, one of the bloodiest battles of the war was fought near the Potomac, at Antietam, Md. Lee had 35,000 men, badly clad, illy fed, to face 87,000 well-fed and well-kept men under McClellan. Sixty thousand of these McClellan carried into conflict, while 27,000 more were held in reserve, ready to enter the contest when called. Antietam was as brave a fight as had ever been witnessed. The terrible loss on both sides told with indisputable proof how sanguinary was the struggle. Of the Southern men, 8,000 were left on the field; brigades and regiments were almost annihilated. Lee had seen, with keenest and deepest emotion, the noblest brigades of his great lieutenants, Longstreet, Hill, and Ewell, melt away under the withering fire. Along the ridges and down through the valleys the unequal struggle was long maintained. It was the fate of the South always to be outnumbered, but it was to its glory that it never succumbed to such numbers. There was never a æbattle fought during the war, under equal conditions, where the forces were at all evenly divided, that the Confederates were not victorious.

The casualties at Antietam played æhavoc with the best troops Robert E. Lee ever commanded; and now their pertinacity, courage, and intrepidity find their noblest commentary and their worthiest praise in the dead and wounded which cov~red the field over which this murderous conflict was carried on. It was long remembered by both Federals and Confederates as one of the most terrible battles of the war. McClellan was an able general, and in this battle was backed by some of the best subordinates that ever followed a Federal leader; while Lee, with Jackson, Hill, Longstreet, and Stuart, with as valiant soldiers as ever aligned, faced the awful war storm that broke in such violence and vehemence along those Maryland ridges. No braver men, no more furious conflict marked the history of any war, and in this the soldiers of the Army of Northern Virginia showed they were a worthy and fit match for any soldiers that ever made battle: and no soldier, be he from the Army of Northern Virginia, from the Army of Tennessee, or from the Trans-Mississippi Department, does not feel his heart quicken and his cheek glow with pride when he remembers the scenes of that combat.

The men of the West recognize the desperate valor and the inexhaustible courage which distinguished this great struggle. They have only to speak in praise and commendation of all that was done by their comrades of the East on that fearful occasion: but away in the West, on the bloody field of Franklin, there was a more than counterpart of the destruction and horrors of Antietam. In the battle of Franklin it was reserved for the Army of Tennessee to make its last great struggle, and in that struggle to suffer practical annihilation, but in its death to leave a monument of noble manhood and patriotic courage which will stand coterminons with time itself.

Sherman had gone upon his march to the sea; Hood had comimenced his campaign through Tennessee and Alabama, and had reached Franklin, Tenn., on the 3oth of November, 1864, where he formed his 20,000 men to assault the Federal soldiers under Gen. Schofield. This small remnant of those hosts who so earnestly and so gallantly had defended Tennessee, Kentucky, Alabama, Mississippi, and Georgia for three years past alone remained.

As the Confederate army on the ridge looked down and across the valley at the other side, some two miles away, where the Federals were intrenched, these 20,000 dismayed and gallant patriots presented one of the most imposing and thrilling scenes that had marked the conduct of the great war. One of the assaulting columns was led by the impetuous and chivalrous Cleburne. No troops ever passed through more tremendous discharges of artillery and small arms than these men from Tennessee, Mississippi, Missouri, Arkansas, Louisiana, Alabama, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Kentucky on that terrible day. By their valor they found a resting place in part behind the works of their enemies, but it was only the rest of death.

Of the Confederates engaged in this conflict, the loss reached the enormous figures of thirty-three per cent. Pickett, in his world-renowned charge, lost twenty-one per cent, while the infantry engaged at Franklin lost thirty-three per cent. Thirteen regimental commanders were killed, thirty-two wounded, and nine captured. Of the four brigadier generals in Brown’s Division, Carter, Gist, and Strahl were killed and Gordon captured, and the major general was so severely wounded that his division was commanded by a colonel the next day. Maj. Gen. Cleburne, Gen. Granbury, and Gen. John Adams lay dead; while Gen. Cockrell, Gen. Manigault, Gen. Quarles, and Gen. Scott were wounded. In proportion to the number of men engaged, the battle of Franklin was the bloodiest of modern times, and in proportion to the number of officers who entered this conflict no other battle presents more terrible losses. For daring and desperate courage and mortality the battle of Franklin stands out as one of the most memorable conflicts of any war.

Time fails for the details of this awful and wonderful battle. The men of the West answer back to the men of the East that, whatever may have occurred at Antietam, worse occurred at Franklin, and the conduct and the courage of these Southern and South-western men at Franklin entitle them to a full share in the enduring record of that immortality which Confederate soldiers purchased with their lifeblood.

The Army of Tennessee had been called upon during its entire existence to endure peculiar and unusual privations, and to meet extraordinary reverses. The topographical conditions, its wide separations from the Confederate capital, its liability to be flanked by forces transported along thousands of miles of navigable streams render its location uncertain, and after all its defeats it was a sad fate in a last noble response to the call of duty to meet practical annihilation.

Malvern Hill was a great test of the pluck and courage of the Army of Northern Virginia. It was at the end of the seven daysÆ fighting so prolific of casualties and exacting a degree of patriotism and bravery and suffering rarely witnessed in the annals of war, and when the great commander, at the end of weary marching and a weekÆs fearful mortality and mental and physical suffering, made another demand upon his gallant heroes for one last effort to drive McClellan into the James river, his call met with a ready response; and through the thickets, over the meadows, and up the cannon-crowned hill these noble legions moved with fearless hearts to complete the great work now about accomplished, of saving the Confederate capital from assault.

It saddens the heart to read the accounts of that fearful day and its apparently useless sacrifice. No words can aptly tell the story of the splendid heroism of those tired but fearless men as they cheerfully essayed the most hopeless task of forcing the army of McClellan from its last stronghold. Doomed to failure, it again wrote in letters of blood a brilliant chapter in its magnificent history, and illumined its glorious career with another page of brightest hue. Five thousand slain and wounded of the 28,000 who were engaged declare the valor of those who, in this conflict, but renewed the brilliant reputation the Army of Northern Virginia had already won in the great struggle for Southern independence.

A few weeks later, on the soil of Kentucky, the men of the West were to fight the battle of Perryville, which, for numbers engaged and length of time consumed in fighting, takes probably second rank amongst the conflicts of the war. On the 8th day of October, 1862, on the Chaplin Hills, which extend from the valley of Salt river, the Federal forces under Gen. Buell, and the Confederates under Gen. Bragg, met in battle. The conflict came sooner than either party had intended, but was none the less fierce and bitter for that. The long march from Tennessee into Kentucky, the avoidance of a decisive battle, the beauty of Kentucky and its abundant resources, made Gen. Bragg’s army anxious to remain in a country so full of all that made soldier life comfortable and tolerable.

The Confederates, hardened by marching and satisfied by full rations and always confident of victory, where at all equally matched, were eager for the fray and anxious to measure strength with those who were seeking to expel them from Kentucky.

In the afternoon 15,000 Confederates assailed 28,000 Federals. The Confederates were the very best troops in the West. Brave and high-spirited, they had now the discipline, experience, and confidence required to make them veterans in every sense of the word, and when the command to assault Sheridan’s Corps was promulgated it met with the heartiest respbnse. For a brief while the Confederates drove the Federal left wing before them with resistless force. Men worthy of any steel resisted the advance, and every inch that was gained was purchased at tremendous cost and great sacrifice. The fighting was at close range, and at one time and in one part of the fray only a rail fence divided those who were thus contesting in deadliest combat. Across the valleys and over the hills the struggle was carrled on; and when night came the Confederates had won and held the battlefield, but at terrific cost. Of the 15,000 who at two o’clock had gone forth in panoplied array, 3,400 had felt war’s harsh touch, and in this brief space a Federal loss of 4,400 told how terribly earnest was the purpose and unfailing the spirit of the men who opposed the Confederate charges. Those who had fought at Shilòoh and afterwards at Chickamauga declared that in many parts Perryville was the most dreadful battlefield they had ever seen. Its list of gallant dead and glorious slain tells how fierce the conflict and how unfaltering the courage of the contestants. So, comrades, when Malvern Hill, with its magnificent memories of intrepid deeds and knightly daring, is held up, the men of the West answer back that on the bloody field of Perryville they exhibited the same heroic virtues and noble sacrifices, and that the roll of dead and wounded there is assurance that they are entitled to a share in the glorious record which fame has kept of the deeds of the armies oF the Confederacy.

The battle of Trevilian’s Station, in Virginia, on the 11th and 12th days of June, 1864, was fought exclusively by cavalry, and is generally conceded to be the most sanguinary conflict in that line of the Army of Northern Virginia. The Federal forces numbered over 9,000 and the Confederates 5,000. In command of the Federals was Sheridan, with such lieutenants as Gregg, Merritt, and Custer; while Wade Hampton, who is as unpurchasable in peace and poverty as he was patriotic and brave in war, led th. Confederates with lieutenants such as Butler, Rosser, Young, Fitzhugh Lee, and Lcmax. It was of the highest importance that a raid which had been inaugurated by Sheridan for the purpose of cutting the Confederate lines should be prevented or obstructed, and to this difficult work Hampton and his cavalry were assigned with absolute confidence by the great leader, Robert E. Lee. The conmmander in chief had often trusted and tried these cavalrymen, and they had never been found wanting. There was no danger which could appall them, and there was no force which could disturb their faith in their ability to cope with every foe. Outnumbered, poorly clad, and illy armed, in comparison with the equipment of their enemy, Hampton did not hesitate bravely and courageously to throw himself in advance of the raiding forces, resolved either to check or drive them back. So, near this little railroad station, he measured swords and forces with the Federal cavalry. Neither side seemed to know the exact location or position of the forces of the other, but they soon warmed up to the fiercest work. At the end of the first day the advantage, apparently, was with the Federals; but at the close of the second day, after seven separate, desperate assaults, Sheridan and his men were worsted, their contemplated raid was prevented, and with his flanks imperiled, he was compelled to seek the protection of his infantry to save him from the avenging hand of Hampton and his men. In view of all the circumstances, the result was a victory for the Confederate cavalry. While the losses on either side were not very large, yet, relatively, they were indicative not only of a high order of strategy but of unqualified bravery.

The day before the battle of Trevilian’s Station, on the 10th of June, 1864, Forrest, with his Western men behind him, had fought not only the greatest cavalry battle of the war, but the greatest cavalry battle of the world. Forrest and his men were the most formidable enemies with which the Federal armies contended. Gen. Sherman said of him, “Forrest is the very devil, and I think he has got some of our troops under cover;” and he declared that Forrest must be killed if it took ten thousand lives and broke the treasury, adding, “There never will be peace in Tennessee until Forrest is dead.” He offered $10,000 reward for his death or capture, and a major generalship to him who would destroy this foe. But the question most serious of all to the Federal commanders was who should undertake this task. A great many Federal sdldiers had gone against Forrest, only to find their plans anticipated and the objects for which they had set out defeated. At last the choice fell on Samuel D. Sturgis, brigadier general, who had achieved recent success in his battles in East Tennessee, and was regarded as a real fighter.

Three thousand four hundred cavalry, formed into two brigades, commanded by two of the best Federal officers in the West, composed the Federal advance. while 4,800 infantry, divided into three brigades, commanded by Gen. Sturgis, made up what Gen. Washburn said was a force “consisting of some of our best troops.” After a march of some seventy-five miles from Memphis, on June 9, Gen. Sturgis concentrated his entire command near Brice’s Crossroads, in Mississippi, with 8,ioo men and twenty-two pieces of artillery. Forrest conceived the design of crushing the cavalry before the infantry, which was some eight miles away, could be brought into action. When he opened the fight he had less than 1,800 available men. At no time during the battle was Forrest able to carry into action more than 3,300 troops. With these he defeated an army composed of 3,400 cavalry and 4,800 infantry of unquestionably the best men of the West. His artillery was fourteen miles away from him when the conflict started. From ten o’clock until four, in the face of a fierce sun, these cavalrymen from Tennessee, Kentucky, Alabama, and Mississippi engaged in desperate hand-to-hand conflict with the soldiers of Indiana, Illinois, Minnesota, Iowa, and New Jersey. Sherman himself was compelled to admit that Forrest whipped Sturgis in a fair fight. He had not only whipped Sturgis, but had routed his forces; he wounded or killed or captured 2,612 men, amounting to about thirty per cent of his entire force; captured two hundred and fifty wagons and ambulances, all but four pieces of Sturgis’s artillery, and made the Federal army a fleeing, panic-stricken mob. Sheridan said, “Forrest has only his cavalry. I cannot understand how he could defeat Sturgis with 8,ooo men;” and yet he did. His men fought with a gallantry, a desperation, and a chivalry that may have been equaled, but never surpassed in any battle of the war. Sturgis claimed that Forrest had fought him with fifteen or twenty thousand men, and that he had two divisions of infantry behind the cavalry, and thus had been able to accomplish his defeat and inflict such unusual humiliation.

The battle of Brice’s Crossroads, thus won by Forrest, is entitled to go down through the ages as one of the most brilliant engagements ever fought. For military genius, for boldness of conception, for intrepidity of action, for reckless courage, and all that inspires men, it can have no superior while men shall live. And while the cavalry of Northern Virginia in a large part won their fame by Trevilian’s Station and Hawes's Shop, two of the fiercest battles in which their cavalry participated, no man in the West envies them a single laurel, or would take from them one ray in that luminous glory which gathers round their heads; but thd Western Confederate soldier holds up this conflict at Brice's Crossroads to the Army of Northern Virginia and to the world, and says: “We too bear the Confederate name, and we too have risked dangers and won triumphs that render us not unworthy an equal share in that splendid record which illumines the career of the Confederate armies.”

With 1,700 of his men, Forrest whipped Grierson’s 3,400 cavalry, and when re~nforced by as many more, with one-half his force already worn by fierce and protracted battle, led 3,300 cavalry against 4,800 infantry, backed by the defeated Federal cavalry, and in two hours drove them in frenzied fear and confusion from the scene of conflict. The historian will search in vain amongst military archives for a parallel to such magnificent fighting and such splendid results.

The war very soon produced a new type of military procedure. The pent-up army in the field could be fed only by railway transportation. One hundred thousand men camped in any locality quickly destroyed its food supply, and army forages became as destructive as Egypt’s locusts. Men and beasts alike demanded constant and enormous commissary stores, and, to secure these, the lines of communication in the rear must be kept well protected. To destroy these provision arteries became a special aim of opposing generals. The Southern forces, as they receded from the Ohio and Mississippi rivers, drew the Federals farther and farther from their base of supplies, and thus rendered a large force always necessary to defend the roads over \vhich food and munitions were carried to the front. Stuart, Ashby, Hampton, Morgan, Forrest, and Wheeler soon taught the Union generals lessons in this great department of military science, and thousands of men were kept along the lines of transportation to guard bridges, railways, and military depots.

The Confederates gave them no rest. Operating over a wide scope of territory, they came by night and day to torment or capture these men left to defend the rear. They rode like a pestilence in the darkness, and came like the destruction at noonday. They appeared to spring up as if by magic, and to haunt the waking and sleeping dreams of their opposers.

It cannot be justly denied that the Confederate cavalry in the West not only equaled but surpassed all similar operations in the history of war. The raids into Missouri and Kentucky and through Tennessee exhibited a degree of endurance in the men, and a quality of genius in their leaders, which stamped all who engaged in them as soldiers of greatest darmg, wonderful endurance, and incalculable resources. The Confederate cavalry early became masters in this new method of war, and it was months before the Federals fully comprehended the effectiveness of such work, or developed the resources and the talent which enabled them to retaliate in kind. As the man in the West, under Forrest, Morgan, and Wheeler, unfolded the enormous possibilities in this system of fighting, they became its most distinguished exponents, and made marches and fought battles, destroyed railroads, steamboats, military stores, captured garrisons, and terrorized their enemies to a degree that gave them splendid renown and world-wide fame. They quickly learned how to anticipate similar movements on the part of their enemies, and were enabled to mete out prompt and ample punishment to the Federals who undertook like enterprises.

Tn the East the only successful capture of those engaged in this work was that of Dahlgren, who had conceived the plan of capturing, sacking, and burning Richmond. With his life he paid forfeit for failure. He himself being killed, his force, numbering less than 500 men, was scattered and a large part captured.

Gen. Hampton, by his night attack, drove back Dahlgren’s colleague, Kilpatrick, and by his gallant conduct and skillful pursuit saved Richmond from the hands of its foes. He could find his enemies only by the light of their camp fires, but in the darkness and gloom of the night, animated by a noble and unfailing courage, fearlessly he and his brave troopers rode down upon the sleeping foe, and with flashing saber and demon like yell struck terror into the ranks, and drove them in confusion back upon their infantry support. Gen. Hampton's movements, brave in execution and brilliant in plan, won for him the gratitude of the Confederate capital, but his marches were brief and the hardships of the campaign limited to a few hours.

Gen. Streight, with a splendidly equipped force, was sent, in April, 1863, to cur the railway communications of Gen. Bragg’s army, and to destroy the arsenal at Rome, Ga. Hardly had the Federal cavalryman emerged from his supports when Cen. Forrest, prepared to destroy or capture him, was close at his heels. The moment Streight felt the first stroke of Forrest’s hand, he realized that a tireless, skilled foe was on his track, and for ninety-six hours, never by day or night, was the Federal column at rest. Like some insatiate monster, Forrest followed the Federal column, and whenever and wherever found there was a vigilant and aggressive attack. In one hundred and sixty-four miles he fought eight battles by day and three by night, and in two of the latter, where artillery was drawn by his men to within one hundred feet of the enemy’s line, the only guide or light was the flash of rifles and the blaze of cannon.

Streight was himself a man of nerve and resource. Skillfully arranged ambuscades, fierce charges, and stubborn resistance met Forrest, and in a fair proportion of the conflicts the Federals held their own; but they greatly outnumbered the men of the gray.

The fierce onslaughts of Forrest, his impetuous attacks, his unyielding tenacity and fiery assaults, combined with his rapid movements, were enough to paralyze the stoutest heart and make the bravest soul question the outcome. Like a tireless bloodhound following his prey, this “wizard of the saddle” pursued the swift-marching Federals, and never for a single instant in those days and nights was there other thought or plan but to destroy the invaders.

Streight found friendly guides and helping hands amongst the Union men and women of Northern Alabama; but these could not bide him from the eagle eyes or the smiting arms of those following the trail, or stay the avenging hand that was uplifted in his rear.

With horses dropping dead in the roads, with men falling in the unconsciousness of sleep from their steeds, and with their guns sliding from their paralyzed grasps Forrest still pressed the foe. One-half of his command on the third (lay was killed, wounded, or broken down; but still, with only five hundred soldiers, he pursued the Federal raiders, and on May 3, within twenty miles of Rome, the objective point of his expedition, Streight and his 1,500 men laid down their arms and surrendered to the Confederate general, who could then, after his terrible pursuit, muster less than five hundred followers.

Every mile of the one hundred and sixty-four was covered with war’s wrecks. Dead soldiers, mutilated animals, wounded men and stricken beasts, broken wagons, abandoned trains, and scattered supplies, told the story of the relentless and pitiless assault. Near the end, in forty-eight hours, four battles and ninety miles marching and four hours sleeping. Surely these deeds of the cavalry of the Army of Tennessee are not unworthy of Confederate valor. No war has a more wonderful example of genius, courage, endurance than this pursuit and capture of Streight. If Forrest had done nothing else, this one exploit would have won for him enduring fame.

On the 7th of December, 1862, Gen. John H. Morgan was given permission to take four regiments of Kentucky cavalry and two regiments of infantry and attack Hartsville, Tenn. It was required for the infantry to march thirty-five miles through the snow and over sloppy roads, and at all times to be subjected to great cold. In seven miles of Hartsville there were encamped 6,000 Federal troops; in the town itself 2,500. It was necessary to cross the Cumberland river without a bridge, and for tile cavalry in one place to swim part of the way over. The cavalry and infantry walked and rode by turns. Day and night they kept a record-breaking gait. Cold nor storm had no terrors for these Kentucky Confederates. They were engaged in brilliant and hazardous work. They knew its perils, but glory and duty called, and that was enough for them. In twenty-two hours this extraordinary march was accomplished, and at break of day, on the 8th of December, the enemy’s camp was assailed. An hour's fierce fighting ended the contest; 2,000 Federals surrendered to the 1,200 Confederates, and 400 of the enemy were killed and wounded. The prisoners, with a large amount of stores, were brought off safely and forced to ford the Cumberland river, and when the Confederate guns were planted on the south shore the Federal batteries were shelling them from the opposite side, supported by several thousand Federal cavalry and infantry, three times as strong as that which Morgan commanded.

Gen. Bragg, by appropriate order, complimented the command for this valiant feat, and ordered the name “Hartsville” to be inscribed on the banners of all regiments participating. Gen. Morgan won his commission as a brigadier, and also won for himself and men the credit of one of the most brilliant exploits of the war.

History is valuable only as it is true. Opinions concerning acts are not history; acts themselves alone are historic.

The true story of the conflicts of the Army of Tennessee has never been written. This occasion does not call for a discussion of the reasons producing this omission. The West does appreciate the glorious and heroic work of the Army of Northern Virginia, but it is also true that the East has not been fully informed, and therefore does not mete out justice to the Confederates who maintained the mighty struggle in the vast West. æfime must rectify and adjust this condition.

As the East speaks with pride of the glory won by the Southern hosts at Gettysburg, the West answers back, “And here is Chickamauga.” As the East catches the echoes of heroism that rise in such splendid notes from the hills at Antietam, the West answers back with consciousness of duty well done and points to the blood-stained field of Shiloh as its contribution to the renown of Confederate armies. As the East lifts to view the gory form of Malvern Hill, the West responds, “We have Perryville;” and when Second Manassas is named, the mention of which touches the deepest emotions of every man who wore the gray, the West answers back with the requiem of its slain and the heroism of its dead who sleep at Franklin.

When the East so justly sings the praises of Stuart and Hampton and their valiant hosts, the West says: “We gave Forrest and Morgan and their knightly riders.”

And from the regions beyond the “Father of Waters” comes the refrain of the fearless deeds of our brothers at Wilson’s Creek, Elkhorn, Mansfield, Pleasant Hill, and Sabine Pass, and the world listens in rapturous wonder and admiration, as from all sections of our Southland comes the same story of illustrious courage and splendid patriotism and unselfish consecration to the cause of liberty. In ages to come there will be no page of human history with brighter or fairer record than was written by the people of the Confederate States in the four years of their struggle for freedom. The courage, patience, and gallantry of its men, the devotion, constancy and sublime sacrifices of its women, contributed to the world’s history priceless treasure.

As we call from the roll of the world’s record the immortal names of our martyrs---Jackson, Stuart, the Garnetts, A. P. Hill, Pegram, Ashby, and Armistead, from Virginia; Strahl, Zollicofer, Adams, Hatton, Carter, Rains, and Smith, from Tennessee; Cleburne, from Arkansas; Walker, Cobb, Semmes, Deshler, and Doles, from Georgia; Rhodes, Garrott, Tracey, Saunders, Kelly, Gracey, from Alabama; Little, Slack, and Green, from Missouri; Bee, Dunovant, Gist, Jenkins, and Gregg, from South Carolina; Pender, Gordon, Ramseur, Branch, and Pettigrew, from North Carolina; McCullough, Randall, Scurry, Granbury, and Gregg, from Texas; Polk, Morton, Stark, and Gladden, from Louisiana; Barksdale, Benton, Griffith, and Posey, from Mississippi; McIntosh, from Florida; Winder, from Maryland; Albert Sidney Johnston, Hanson. Morgan, Helm, and Tilghman, from Kentucky---and say, “These and two hundred thousand others are our offering on the battelfield for freedom; tell us, 0 Time, thou keeper of all human history, tell us if in the corridors where are kept the records of ages there has been nobler sacrifice or richer offering on liberty’s altar?” Time answers back: “Amongst those who have answered the call of duty and stood for all mankind among all nations, kingdoms, and people, I find none who brought more glorious contribution to freedom, or who made greater sacrifice for truth, than these men you have named, who went down to death at their country’s call,

‘Nor braver bled for brighter land,
Nor brighter land had cause so grand.’”

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