A Flag of Truce. 247 mont, in allowing them to visit those officers who were prisoners,' by asking permission to have passed through our lines 'the families of General Buckner and Colonels Hawson and Medeira,' captured at Fort Donelson, accompanied by certain gentlemen as escorts, we have to inform you that we will cheerfully comply with your request, subject to the approval of the President, but limited to the wives and children of those officers, and excluding their escorts; but to provide them with a protector, Colonel Thom, an aid-de-camp of Major-General Halleck, and one of the bearers of our flag of truce, has offered to take them in charge as far as St. Louis, where they will learn the destinations of the captured officers, which are unknown to us. "The flag of truce will wait, if necessary, long enough to obtain your action on this proposition. "Before concluding this note, we feel constrained to make some remarks upon your abuse yesterday of the sacred character of a flag of truce. "Upon approaching the batteries of Columbus with armed forces, and when within supposed range of your artillery, you fired three heavy guns; and, to add to this hostile demonstration, one of your gun-boats rounded Belmont Point apparently to give battle; but immediately, upon discovering our strength and position, retired. Soon after there appeared an armed steamer, with Captain Blake bearing your flag of truce, accompanied by many officers and citizens, upon the frivolous pretext above stated, evidently with the intention of discovering our force and intentions. Under these circumstances, by the usages of war, the dispatchbearer and those with him were subject to be made prisoners and the steamer captured; and we felt it our duty to inform you that a repetition of such an unwarrantable abuse of a flag of truce will not again be tolerated. "Your letter, though dated the 22d, evidently was not dispatched till after the firing of your first gun, near eleven o'clock, more than an hour before your flag of truce was seen about two miles from your batteries, and certainly dispatched after the gun was discharged. "Regretting that we have to animadvert on this flagrant departure from the established usages of flags of truce, "We are, very respectfully, your obedient servants, "ANDREW H. FOOTE, Flag-Officer, etc.; “GEORGE W. CULLUM, Chief of Staff, etc." In a letter to his wife, dated the 23d, Commodore Foote thus speaks of this "flag of truce" affair, which perhaps has already taken up too much space: "We had been to Columbus, and had got the two mortars in position to open upon Belmont, when a flag of truce came out with several ladies, as you will see by General Polk's letter, and we hoped it was to surrender; but, instead, it was a mere artifice to discover our strength. We shall write a letter to the Right Rev. General to-morrow, charging him with violating all military rules of propriety by his remarkable act. We were glad it was done, however, as we ran within sight of his heavy batteries, and attained the object of our reconnoissance-still, we shall give the bishop a rub." "I am still on crutches, but my foot is rapidly improving. I have no objection to the wound either in the foot or in the arm, as they are honorable wounds; but the last was a hard fight. I stood one side of a gun when five out of six men were knocked down, and I only escaped serious wounds. I was touching the pilot with my clothes when he was killed.” The following dispatches tell the story of the speedy breaking up of the enemy's strong position at Columbus, which, together with Nashville and Bowling Green, was really conquered at forts Henry and Donelson: "CAIRO, March 1, 1862. "SIR,-Lieutenant-Commanding Phelps, sent with a flag of truce today to Columbus, has this moment returned, and reports that Columbus is being evacuated. He saw the rebels burning their winter-quarters, and removing their heavy guns on the bluffs; but the guns in the water-batteries remain intact. He also saw a large force of cavalry drawn up ostentatiously on the bluffs, but no infantry were to be seen as heretofore; and the encampment seen in our armed reconnoissance a few days ago has been removed. Large fires were visible in the town of Columbus and upon the river banks below, indicating the destruction of the town, military stores, and equipments. "I shall consult General Cullum, and we shall probably proceed to Columbus with the force we have already soon after daylight. General Polk informs us that he will send a flag of truce at meridian to-morrow to the point where the flags of truce met to-day, in reference to which Evacuation of Columbus. 249 we shall be governed according to circumstances. But as General Cullum has not been fully consulted, I can give no particular information of our movements to-morrow. I have the honor to be, etc., "A. H. FOOTE, Flag-Officer. "The Hon. Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy." "U. S. FLAG-STEAMER CINCINNATI,' COLUMBUS, March 4, 1862. SIR,-I have the honor to forward a copy of the telegram sent to the Department to-day announcing the fall of Columbus. "The fleet not being in a condition to proceed down to Island No. Ten and to New Madrid, where the rebels are represented as fortifying, I leave for Cairo immediately to make the necessary preparation for going down the river with a suitable force of gun-boats and mortar-boats in a proper condition for effective service. I am fully impressed with the importance of proceeding to New Madrid as soon as possible, where General Pope has arrived with ten thousand men; but such is the condition of my command that I shall decline moving, as I informed Generals Sherman and Cullum, unless I am ordered to do so by the Secretary of the Navy, as I must be the judge of the condition of the fleet, and when it is prepared for the service required. "It is due to Commander Pennock, the fleet captain, and to Mr. Sanford, the ordnance officer of the flotilla, to say to the Department that these efficient officers earnestly entreated me to permit them to go on this expedition, as well as up the Tennessee and Cumberland rivers; but their services in preparing the gun and mortar boats at Cairo being absolutely necessary, I reluctantly denied their application from a sense of duty to the government; yet their services should be regarded as equally important to the object of the expedition as if they had participated in the different actions. A. H. FOOTE. "The Hon. Gideon Welles." In his report of the evacuation, March 4, he says: "My armed reconnoissance, on the 2d instant, caused a hasty evacuation, the rebels leaving quite a number of guns and carriages, ammunition, and a large quantity of shot and shell, a considerable number of anchors, and the remnant of a chain lately stretched across the river, with a large number of torpedoes. Most of the huts, tents, and quarters are destroyed. "The works are of very great strength, consisting of formidable tiers of batteries on the water side, and on the land side surrounded by a ditch and abatis. "General Sherman, with Lieutenant-Commanding Phelps, not knowing that the works were last evening occupied by four hundred of the Second Illinois Cavalry, on a scouting-party sent by General Sherman from Paducah, made a bold dash to the shore under the batteries, hoisting the American flag on the summit of the bluff, greeted by the hearty cheers of our brave tars and soldiers. "The force consisted of six gun boats, four mortar-boats, and three transports, having on board two regiments and two battalions of infantry, under command of Colonel Buford-General Cullum and General Sherman being in command of the troops. The former, leaving a sick-bed to go ashore, discovered what was evidently a magazine on fire, and immediately ordered the train to be cut, and thus saved the lives of the garrison. A. H. FOOTE. "The Hon. Gideon Welles." There was every evidence, in the great amount of ordnance and military property left behind, and the vindictive plan, happily foiled, of destroying the victorious forces, that the enemy suddenly and reluctantly left this strong fortification. The powerful show of grim iron-clads and mortar-boats no doubt hastened this decision. Foote probably felt some disappointment at not being able to try his mortar-boats upon the heavy fortifications of Columbus. The Assistant-Secretary of the Navy, in a private letter, seems to have felt the same disappointment: "NAVY DEPARTMENT, March 5, 1862. "MY DEAR COMMODORE,-Last night, at a party at Mr. Welles's, your dispatch was received giving an account of the occupation of Columbus after its evacuation by the rebels. I felt a pang that the mortar-boats were thus deprived of a participation in the work. As Fremont started these at my suggestion, I naturally feel a deep interest concerning them, and hoped their first use would have been made in the Western waters by yourself; but the vagabonds have not given you a chance at Columbus. Perhaps Porter will give us the first trial; but, in either case, God A Friendly Caution. 251 speed you. I have no fears of the result. I notice how publicly you praise Will you pardon a friend for observing that he is on the These en staff of the general who holds you back and ignores you. gineer officers are puffed up with a contempt for the Navy, and have all their lives been trying to prove impossible what you have demonstrated possible, viz., to attack forts successfully with vessels. If I did not feel for you sincere admiration and friendship, and have your reputation most dear to me, I should not beg of you to be careful and not lavish praise upon any person in your dispatches, unless for distinguished conduct that must also be apparent to those who are distant from the scene. I don't know how the mail now is between here and Cairo, but it has been bad; and Mr. Blair has sent out two agents to right matters. We all feel proud of your work, attained without the efficient co-operation of any one, which renders your labors the more faithful. If you do rain 13-inch shells upon them, be sure to give us full particulars early. "Very truly yours, G. V. Fox. "Flag-Officer A. H. Foote.” We have noticed, and shall notice frequently hereafter— what it would be folly to ignore the soreness that Foote felt at what he considered the great injustice done him, and the false position in which he was placed by those high in command, whose sympathies were wholly given to the other arm of the service-the Army. He had, indeed, come to the decision to obey no more orders issuing from Army officers. The Secretary, whose watchful eye was over the Navy, and who exercised a judicious rule of its affairs, notices with anxiety the development of this feeling, and cautions him against it. Mr. Welles says to him in a letter dated May 7th: 'Step by step I have watched your proceedings, and marked the persistency, patience, and determination, under many and great discouragements, with which yourself and those associated with you have met and surmounted every difficulty. Rest assured the country knows and justly appreciates your services. I am confident you will permit no jealous feeling, or any appearance of such feeling, against our branch of the wh ice to annoy you; and I trust that it will at no time be cause of er le magment. Under your orders and acts the Navy has vindicated itted, stud |