PHYSICIANS AND NURSES.

159

from the people; and as the rivers can not live without springs, so the armies were continually recruited and refreshed from the people. I have described how, when Sumpter was fired on, the American women asked, "What shall we do?" how the Sanitary Commission was formed; and how, when the Cumberland ran with the blood of Donelson, the Sanitary Commission of Cincinnati flew, with healing on its wings, to comfort the weary and the wounded soldiers. The guns of Shiloh had scarcely ceased their roar, when the Sanitary Commission entered the field. The Commission at Cincinnati chartered the Tycoon and the Monarch, two large vessels, furnished them with volunteer physicians and nurses, supplied them with all the necessaries, comforts, and delicacies which suffering men might need, and proceeded at once to the scene of action.' To this work General Halleck gave his full authority, and requested boats to be sent, and Camp Dennison to be fitted up for the wounded. The Tycoon, the first boat, left Cincinnati with fifteen surgeons, twenty-four medical students, thirty-eight citizen nurses, and two druggists. She was fitted with every thing the body of man could need, contributed in a few hours by the citizens of Cincinnati. As she passed down the river, the moral victory of Donelson and Shiloh was everywhere evident. A gentleman, who had been down the river the year before, remarked that there was a great change. Then, both sides of the Ohio seemed to show the signs of disloyalty. The flag of the

2

1 Mansfield's "History of the Cincinnati Sanitary Commission." 2 Halleck's Dispatch, 10th of April, 1862.

Union was seldom seen,' and the people were declaiming against the Government. Now the scene was changed. As the boat descended the river, on her mission of patriotic charity, she was constantly greeted with the waving of flags and handkerchiefs from either shore. On the 17th the "Tycoon" returned, loaded with wounded soldiers. On the Commission went in its noble work. The people spared no offerings. The Commission spared no labor or zeal. How many of the wounded and the suffering must have owed their lives to this noble work of the Christian patriot!

As the army still pursued its course to the South, the Sanitary Commission was more needed, and more zealously put forth its energies. In the summer of 1862 the Cincinnati Commission put forth an appeal to the women.

"Women of the North-West! Your husbands, brothers, sons, your and our dearest, are, or soon will be, in the field. If one of them, by any want of effort, suffers, it will be your and our irremediable fault. The business of the men of the country is now war. Let it be also the business of her women. The former are to march, toil, and fight; let the latter work with equal energy and patriotism in their own sphere, and labor for the common good. Then will the march be bereft of half its fatigue, the battle of more than half its danger, and the blessings of generations to come shall rest upon you."

1

Such was the ardent appeal of the Commission

1 A lady in Kentucky told me, that for three miles on one side of her home, and eight on the other, there was not a loyal man! This shows what Kentucky neutrality was worth.

RESPONSE TO SANITARY COMMISSION. 161

to the women of the West, and most nobly did they respond! Hundreds of villages, scattered over the North-West, heard and answered that appeal. Aid societies of every kind were formed. Church circles met and sewed garments for the soldiers, with all the zeal which they would have put forth in the holy cause of missions. Daily the contributions came in from every quarter of the land; daily the Commission met, and sent forth its charities; daily the wounded and sick returned from the far-distant battle-fields; daily they were put in hospitals and camps, and often did the delicate lady and the young girl volunteer to watch by the soldier's side, and nurse his sick form and beguile his weary hours. It seems to me, as I look back upon the scenes of that war, that nothing in it was more beautiful or glorious than this work of Christian charity. Shall we despair of the Republic, when patriotism nerves to such heroism, and Christianity impels to such noble benevolence? It was not merely Republicanism, it was Christianity, whose strength was illustrated by that

war.

The Republic stands not only on the strength of the people, but on the strength of Christianity. If it did not, we might well despair; but, with it, the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. The Christian at home thought of the soldier in the field:

"No base ambitions quickened these;
They saw but Freedom's need;
No dreams of flow'ry paths of ease,
No bribe but valor's meed;

And some shall win the hero's grave,
The battle-smoke their pall;

But honor dwells where fall the brave,
And God is over all!”

CHAPTER VII.

VICKSBURG.

LINCOLN'S ORDER TO MCCLERNAND-GRANT'S BOLD PROPOSITION TO ADMINISTRATIVE ABILITY-HIS

HALLECK-HIS

MARCH ON HOLLY SPRINGS AND OXFORD-HIS FAILURE— SHERMAN ASSAULTS VICKSBURG, AND FAILS-TROOPS WITHDRAWN, AND NEW PLAN OF ACTION-GRAND ARMY ASSEMBLES AT YOUNG'S POINT-DIGS CANALS-TRIES THE YAZOO-THE MISSISSIPPI CONQUERS THE CANAL, AND THE ARMY WAITS FOR NEW MOVEMENTS.

A

FTER the battles terminating with the 6th of October, Grant felt a strong desire to advance, and if possible seize Vicksburg, by a land route. But this seems to have been subsequent to the determination of Mr. Lincoln to proceed immediately with the Mississippi campaign. This appears from the following "confidential" Order, issued by Mr. Lincoln, and dated October 21, 1862:

"ORDERED, that Major-General McClernand be, and he is directed to proceed to the States of Indiana, Illinois, and Iowa, to organize the troops remaining in those States and to be raised by volunteering or draft, and forward them with all dispatch to Memphis, Cairo, or such other points as may hereafter be designated by the General-inChief, to the end that, when a sufficient force, not required by the operations of General Grant's command, shall be raised, an expedition may be organized under General McClernand's command, against

GRANT'S BOLD PROPOSITION.

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Vicksburg, and to clear the Mississippi River and open navigation to New Orleans."

Indorsement: "This order, though marked 'confidential,' may be shown by General McClernand to governors, and even others, when, in his discretion, he believes so doing to be indispensable to the progress of the expedition. I add, that I feel deep interest in the success of the expedition, and desire it to be pushed forward with all possible dispatch, consistently with the other parts of the military service. A. LINCOLN.”

This Order' evidently aims at an expedition down the river, and independent of Grant's command. The result proved, that, as an independent expedition, it was ill-advised, and, we shall see, by Grant's subsequent movements, that an independent land expedition was equally so.

On the 26th of October, Grant wrote to Halleck, making the bold proposition to abandon Corinth and the inferior posts about it-destroy all the railroads leading to and from Corinth-and (said he) "with small reënforcements at Memphis, I would be able to move down the Mississippi Central Road, and cause the evacuation of Vicksburg. I am ready, however, to do with my might whatever you may direct, without criticism." Grant was a little mistaken in this plan; but the close of this letter shows one of his greatest virtues-his perfect willingness to do what he was directed to do, without jealousy, and without criticism. Grant assumed nothing. He was not vain enough to believe he was the only man of sense in the world, and he had none of that impulsive, or rather thoughtless, spirit, which took fire at some small or imaginary slight. He was above all

I am indebted to Badeau's "Military History" for this Order, which I have not found elsewhere.