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TWO WARS: AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF GEN. SAMUEL G. FRENCH,
TWO WARS: AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF GEN. SAMUEL G. FRENCH,
An Officer in the Armies of the United States and the Confederate States, A Graduate from the U. S. Military Academy, West Point, 1843. MEXICAN WAR; WAR BETWEEN THE STATES, A DIARY; RECONSTRUCTION PERIOD, HIS EXPERIENCE; INCIDENTS, REMINISCENCES, ETC. Nashville, Tenn.: Confederate Veteran. 1901. Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1901, By Samuel G. French , In the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. THIS VOLUME IS DEDICATED TO MY WIFE AND CHILDREN , AND TO THE CON
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PREFACE.
PREFACE.
Some years ago, when living on an orange grove at Winter Park, it occurred to me that my idle time might be usefully employed in transcribing from memoranda and my diary many incidents of my life for preservation in one manuscript for my children. This was continued at intervals until it became as here presented. It was mainly discontinued after my children became old enough to observe passing events for themselves. But inasmuch as a few books have been published containing errors in describing
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INTRODUCTION.
INTRODUCTION.
Of all forms of history, a good autobiography is the most pleasing and attractive. If the writer has been a prominent and responsible participant in great events, if high character warrants his faithfulness to truth, and if the events of which he writes are in themselves of great historic value, his autobiography will possess a peculiar charm and interest for every intelligent reader. The generation that recalls from memory the events of our history connected with the admission of the great Stat
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ERRATA.
ERRATA.
The name of Joseph H. French, a brother of the writer, was inadvertently omitted on page 3 . On page 323 , eleventh line, Edward Cooper should be Louis Cooper. On page 334 , last line, H. N. Hood should be W. N. Hood. TWO WARS....
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CHAPTER I.
CHAPTER I.
Ancestry—Thomas Ffrench—Military Aspiration—Important Document—Appointment to West Point—New Jersey Farm Life—Great Changes—A Real Yankee—Pennsylvania Hall—The Fashions—Capture of a Hessian Soldier—Rufus Choate and Bishop Wainwright—West Point—Cadet Life—Senator Wall—John F. Reynolds—The Boycott—Rufus Ingalls—Requisites of a Commander. Inasmuch as the government of this country cannot grant any title to nobility, nor can it be conferred by any foreign power, the people of the United States have,
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CHAPTER II.
CHAPTER II.
Graduation—Commissioned Brevet Second Lieutenant, U. S. A.—Ordered to Fort Macon, N. C.—Goldsboro—Journey to Beaufort—Officers at the Fort—Life in a Casemate—Stormy Atlantic—That Oyster Supper—The Wandering Cot—Adieu to Fort Macon—Journey to Washington—Lieuts. George H. Thomas and John Pope—Weldon, N. C.—Go to West Point—Prof. Morse—First Dispatch—Hope Club, Washington—Dinner Given by Surgeon General Lawson—Appointed Aid to Gen. Scott—British Gold—Col. S. Churchill—Integrity of Old Army Officers
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CHAPTER III.
CHAPTER III.
Death of Hon. A. P. Upshur, Secretary of State—Calhoun Appointed—Treaty of Annexation of Texas—Declaration of the State of Massachusetts—Texas Accepts the Resolution of Annexation—Formation of Army of Occupation—Transferred to Maj. S. Ringgold's Battery of Horse Artillery—Officers Sail for Aransas Pass—The Wicked Captain—Becalmed—Cross Bahama Banks—Key West—Out of Drinking Water—Fare on Board Ship—Storm—Aransas Pass—St. Joseph's Island—Maj. Ringgold's Cook—Embark for Corpus Christi—Game and Fish
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CHAPTER IV.
CHAPTER IV.
President of Mexico Resigns, and Paredes Is Elected—Mexican Troops Concentrating at Matamoras—Taylor Marches to the Rio Grande—Rattlesnakes—Mirage—Wild Horses—Taylor Concentrates His Troops at Arroyo, Colo.—Bull Fight—Mexicans Flee—Taylor Goes to Point Isabel—Join Gen. Worth—Field Works—Arrival of Gen. Ampudia—Orders Taylor to Leave—Taylor Declines—Col. Cross Murdered—Lieut. Porter Killed—Gen. Arista Arrives—Declares Hostilities Commenced—Capts. Thornton and Hardee Captured. During the winter th
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CHAPTER V.
CHAPTER V.
Arista and His Cavalry—United States Excited—Two Hundred Thousand Men Offer Their Services—Congress Declares "War Existed by the Acts of the Mexican Republic"—Taylor Marches to Point Isabel—Bombardment of Fort Brown—Capts. May and Walker—Taylor Marches for Matamoras—Battle of Palo Alto—Victory—Arista Falls Back to Resaca—Battle of Resaca—Capture of Enemies' Batteries—Capts. May and Ridgely—Gen. La Vega Captured—His Sword Presented to Taylor—Duncan and Ridgely Pursue the Enemy—I Capture La Vega's
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CHAPTER VI.
CHAPTER VI.
"Where ignorance is bliss 'tis folly to be wise." We had present 4,691 officers and men, and our loss was: killed, 272; wounded, 388; missing, 6; total, 666. The relative number of wounded to the killed is very remarkable. Usually there are five or more wounded to one killed. The enemy numbered over 20,000 men. Although their reports place their loss at over 4,000, it falls short of the real number. At dawn on the following morning it was discovered that Santa Anna had retreated to Agua Nueva. G
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CHAPTER VII.
CHAPTER VII.
Drs. T. C. Madison, U. S. A., and G. M. Provost—Surgical Operation—Courtesy of a Mexican Woman—Leave Saltillo—Paltry Escort—Safe at Monterey—The Rio Grande—Maj. W. W. H. Davis—New Orleans—Gen. Pillow—Col. McIntosh—Bailey Peyton and Sargeant S. Prentiss—Drunk by Absorption—Steamer for Louisville—Racing on the River—Trip to Pittsburg, Pa.—By Canal Boat to Harrisburg—Home—Report to the Adjutant General—Go to Trenton, N. J.—Presentation of a Sword—Go to Washington—John W. Forney's Bargain with Secre
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CHAPTER VIII.
CHAPTER VIII.
Ordered to New Orleans—Baton Rouge—Col. W. W. S. Bliss—Maj. J. H. Eaton—Maj. R. S. Garnett—Taylor Nominated for President—Return to New Orleans—Ordered to Vicksburg—"Gen." McMacken, the Prince of Landlords—Bishop Polk—Sent to Mobile—Regular Army at East Pascagoula, Miss.—Gen. Twiggs and His Fiancée—Sail for Galveston—Galveston—Houston—Austin—Troops Sent to Establish Posts, now Cities—San Antonio—Death of Gen. Worth—El Paso—Return to San Antonio—New Orleans—Call on Gen. Twiggs—Twiggs and Tree—Swo
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CHAPTER IX.
CHAPTER IX.
January, 1851, Ordered to El Paso—Capt. Sitgreaves—Sail for Havana—Barnum and Jennie Lind—Sail for New Orleans—By Steamer to Galveston—On the Gulf for Indianola—San Antonio—Report of Expedition—Unprecedented March without Water—Indians—With Gen. Jesup—Hartford Convention—Battles on the Canadian Frontier—Gov. W. P. Duval (Ralph Ringwood)—United States Senators—Clay's Magnetism—His Duel with John Randolph—Lieut R. F. Stockton, United States Navy, Duel with English Officers at Gibraltar—John Howard
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CHAPTER X.
CHAPTER X.
Canada, Boston, Rye Beach—Antislavery Party Nominates Lincoln for President—His Election Evidence of Hostility to the South—Mississippi Secedes—Gov. Pettus—Appointed Colonel and Chief of Ordnance in the Army of the State of Mississippi—State Had No Arms—Governor Sends an Agent to Europe to Purchase Arms—Laboratory for Making Ammunition—Flannel and Paper to Make Cartridges—Cartridges and Horse Collars—Only Old Flint Muskets—Old Shotguns—Governor Objects to the State Troops Going out of the State—
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CHAPTER XI.
CHAPTER XI.
Leave for Richmond—Ordered to Evansport, Va., to Blockade the Potomac—Worthless Ammunition—Forces on the Maryland Shore—Constant Firing All Winter—Orders to Fall Back to Fredericksburg—"Come to Richmond Immediately"—Orders from Gen. Lee—New Berne Falls—Relieve Branch at Kinston—Ordered to Wilmington—Build Defenses—Fort Fisher Constructed—Col. William Lamb in Command—Running the Blockade—Whitworth Guns—July 17, 1862, Placed in Command of the Department of North Carolina and Southern Virginia—Defe
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CHAPTER XII.
CHAPTER XII.
Telegram from Secretary of War—Go to Richmond—Declined Going to Vicksburg—Gen. Longstreet—He Starts for Suffolk—Suffolk—Capture of a Fort and Garrison—No Report Made of the Capture—Statement of Lieut. George Reese—Longstreet Ordered to Join Lee—Dispatches—Battle of Chancellorsville—Withdraw from Suffolk—An Impertinent Note—Court of Inquiry Asked for and Refused—Possible Result Had Longstreet Obeyed Orders— Ten Dispatches to Longstreet—Orders to Report to Gen. Johnston. On March 1, 1863, I receiv
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CHAPTER XIII.
CHAPTER XIII.
Leave Petersburg for Jackson, Miss.—Visit Home—My Division Composed of the Brigades of Gens. Maxey, Evans, and McNair—Extraordinary Correspondence between Gen. Johnston and President Davis—Movements to Attack Grant at Vicksburg—Fall of Vicksburg—Retreat to Jackson—Siege of Jackson—Visit Home—Negro Troops Surround the House—Narrow Escape—Vandalism—Johnston Takes Command of the Army of Tennessee—Polk in Command of Army of Mississippi—A Court of Inquiry That Was Not Held—My Division at Meridian—Pre
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CHAPTER XIV.
CHAPTER XIV.
Cassville—The Line of Battle—Hood's Line Not Enfiladed—History of that Conference—Two Lieutenant Generals Invite Their Commander to a Council of War—Johnston Obliged to Fall Back—We Cross the Etowah River—Dallas—New Hope Church—Constant Fighting—Rain, Rain—Death of Lieut. Gen. Polk—Battle of the Latimer House—My Division Occupies Little and Big Kennesaw Mountains—The Battle—Incidents of the Battle—Confederates Save Wounded Union Soldiers from Burning—Kennesaw During Night Bombardment—Col. Martin
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CHAPTER XV.
CHAPTER XV.
Our Army Falls Back from Kennesaw—Confederate "Rebel Yell"—Occupy Works on the Chattahoochee River—A. P. Stewart Appointed Lieutenant General—Assumes Command of the Army of Mississippi—Texas Brigade Fight to Obtain Tools—We Cross the Chattahoochee—Arrival of Gen. B. Bragg—Gen. Johnston Relieved—President Davis's Remark about Relieving Johnston from Command—Johnston's Policy versus Hood's—Battle of Peachtree Creek—We Occupy Atlanta—Battle of Atlanta—S. D. Lee Assigned to Command of Hood's Corps—G
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Provisions.
Provisions.
There were about one million rations of bread at Allatoona, and two million seven hundred thousand in Atlanta, and not two million seven hundred thousand in Allatoona as stated by Col. Ludlow. (Sherman's letter to Corse, page 134, Vol. 39.) The rations in Allatoona in no way affected the "march to the sea." They were ordered to Rome on the 11th, for use above. (See page 207.) "I propose breaking up the railroad from Chattanooga and striking out with wagons.... Until we can depopulate Georgia it
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Sherman.
Sherman.
The dispatches numbered 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 9, 10, 11, 12, 15, 17, 18, 19, 20, 23, and 26, which I have given, will show Gen. Sherman's untiring efforts to save Allatoona, and to prevent my division from joining Hood. No. 26 shows that on the 4th his force went into camp at the foot of Little Kennesaw. Nos. 15 and 16 show that Stanley, with a part of the army of the Cumberland, was on Pine Mountain at 2:10 P.M. on the 5th. At that hour we were sitting under the shade of the trees at Allatoona, waitin
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HOOD.
HOOD.
On the afternoon of October 4, 1864, when I was at Big Shanty, on the railroad near Kennesaw, Gen. A. P. Stewart, my corps commander, handed to me two orders from Gen. Hood. The first one is dated October 4, 7:30 A.M. , and the second at 11:30 A.M. These two orders may be found in my official report of the battle of Allatoona on a preceding page. The purport of these two orders is: that I will take my division to Allatoona and fill up the deep cut there (a photograph of a part of this cut is her
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CHAPTER XVII.
CHAPTER XVII.
Return from Allatoona—Hood's Deportment—Cross the Coosa River—Devastation around Rome—Rome Burned—Garrison of Resaca Refuses to Surrender—Capture of the Seventeenth Iowa Regiment at Tilton—Dalton Taken—Dug Gap—Dinner of Roasting Ears—Supper—Captured Officers are Jolly Good Fellows—Gadsden—Encampment at Mrs. Sansom's—Her Daughter a Guide for Gen. Forrest when He Captured Gen. Streight—Cross the Black Warrior River and Sand Mountains—Decatur—Some Fighting at Decatur—Gen. Beauregard with Hood—Beaut
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CHAPTER XVIII.
CHAPTER XVIII.
March to Nashville—Cold Weather—Partial Investment of the City—Leave of Absence—Turn the Command Over to Brig. Gen. C. W. Sears—Battle of Nashville—Hood Not Physically Able for the Duties of a Commander in Want of All Supplies—Marshal Saxe—Mulai Malek—Going to Nashville a Failure; Could Not Be Otherwise—Leave for Columbus, Ga.—Marriage to Mary Fontaine Abercrombie—Go to Meriwether County to Avoid Wilson's Raid—Robbing in Columbus—Adventures of My Orderly—Yankees Raid the Houses—Gen. A. Had No Pi
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CHAPTER XIX.
CHAPTER XIX.
Aspect of the Country at Termination of the War—The Returned Confederate Soldier—Carpetbaggers—Lincoln's Vow—His Proclamation Concerning Confiscation of Slaves—How the Slaves Were Legally Liberated—Lincoln Murdered—Johnson President—His Thirst for Vengeance—"Treason" to Be Made Odious—Grant Declared That the Paroles Must Not Be Violated—Cost of a Bill of Dry Goods in Confederate Money in 1864—Leave Columbus for Greenville, Miss.—Desolate Home—The Good Israelite—Return to Columbus—I Go with Mrs.
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CHAPTER XX.
CHAPTER XX.
Freedmen's Bureau—Gen. O. O. Howard, Commissioner—Platform for Reconstruction—Ironclad Oath—Natural Rights of Man—Civil Rights—Negroes Made Citizens—Persecution—Agents of Freedmen's Bureau—Personal Experience—Negro Justices—Some Trials—Judge Shackelford—Secret Societies—William A. Sharkey—Gov. Adelbert Ames—Sheriff Webber—Taxes—Board of Levee Commissioners Dismissed—Religious Negroes—Bishop Wilmer—Prayers for the President—Shotgun Election—Hegira—Carpetbaggers—Indissoluble Union—Indestructible S
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Some Statistics of the War.
Some Statistics of the War.
FIRST. Number of Foreigners in the United States Army. Here you will discover a force 350,414 stronger than the whole Confederate army, without enlisting a native-born citizen of the North; also that the South furnished the North 455,414 men. SECOND. Here is an army larger than the Confederate States army. THIRD. Here we have a second army larger than the Confederate army. FOURTH. Here is a third army larger than the Confederate army, and the fourth army came from the excess of numbers in the th
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Slave Owners in the Confederate Army.
Slave Owners in the Confederate Army.
This question, as far as I am informed, has not been analyzed to separate it from the concrete mass of men that composed the Confederate army. This is desirable to establish what influence they had in deciding the Southern States to secede from the Union, and the solution of it should give the number of slave owners in the army. The white population of these States was, in 1860, about 8,300,000. There were 346,000 whites who owned slaves. These figures represent and include men of all ages, wido
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Prison Deaths and Prisoners.
Prison Deaths and Prisoners.
The number of Confederate prisoners in Northern prisons was 220,000, and the number of Federal prisoners in prisons South was 270,000. See the report of Secretary Stanton, made July 9, 1866; also the report of Surgeon General Barnes, United States Army. Some of the Brigade Losses in Particular Engagements. There are thirteen more brigades with losses, varying in numbers, before the percentage is reduced to forty per cent. Percentage of Loss in Some Regiments in Single Battles. And so on. There a
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The Authority to Tax
The Authority to Tax
is the greatest power a people can give a government, yet it is a necessary measure, but often dangerous; it can be used to impoverish a people, or enrich a comparatively few individuals, or to rob one section of a vast country to build up another. It has caused more distress than droughts or floods; it has caused more insurrections, revolutions, and wars than all other acts of man intrusted with authority. There are many modes of taxation, but the most insidious one is the quiet robbery by a ta
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Naval Power of the United States.
Naval Power of the United States.
The following enumeration of the vessels in the United States service will convey some idea of the power of the North: Seven hundred vessels were employed in blockading our coast and guarding our rivers. During the year 1862-63 there were 533 steamers, barges, and coal boats belonging to the United States on the Mississippi river and its tributaries; and at the same time the United States Quartermaster's Department chartered 1,750 steamers and vessels to aid Gen. Grant in his operations against
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Government in Louisiana, 1875-76.
Government in Louisiana, 1875-76.
The forces that were developed during the last two years of the war found a wide field for operation as the Union troops marched through the South, and induced the troops to plunder, because there was money in it, and when the war ended this force entered the wide area of reconstruction, and produced those cursed scenes witnessed all over the South, because there was money in it, and yet when the States were admitted into the Union it was natural to suppose that its power for evil was spent. Not
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Violation of Paroles.
Violation of Paroles.
In connection with the violation of paroles I will incidentally mention that Gov. Joseph E. Brown, of Georgia—after the surrender of Gen. R. E. Lee, and when Gen. J. H. Wilson was in Macon on his raid—went to Macon, and surrendered to Gen. Wilson himself and the militia in his command, and obtained his parole; thence he returned to Milledgeville. That same evening Gen. Wilson sent an officer and some troops to the residence of his excellency, took from him by force the parole that he had just gi
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Cassville.
Cassville.
[From "Reminiscences of the War," in the New Orleans Picayune .] The recent appearance of Hughes's "Life of Gen. Joseph E. Johnston," and the announcement of the placing in the hands of the printers of a "Life of Gen. Leonidas Polk," by his son, Dr. William Polk, were the subject of a conversation recently among a few veterans of the Army of Tennessee, and some facts were mentioned that are deemed of sufficient interest to be placed on record through the columns of your valued paper. To those wh
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Slavery Proclamation and Confiscation Act.
Slavery Proclamation and Confiscation Act.
The act of confiscation, and the President's proclamation setting free the slaves in the Confederacy, could not abolish slavery, because it existed under the laws of the States . It altered no State law, but it did affect slavery in this way: it caused many slaves to leave their owners, and thus diminished their property and their wealth, but they could buy others under the law. The President has no legislative power; he cannot declare martial law, for it overthrows the constitution, and his wil
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Indenture.
Indenture.
This indenture is here presented for no other purpose than to evidence the mode of manumitting slaves by the Abolition Society in the City of Brotherly Love about four years after the constitution of the United States was framed. From this instrument of writing it appears that "Betty" was set free (so called) on the 14th of September, 1792, on condition that she should become a bond servant by contract for seven years. Her signature to the indenture (original) is made on the left-hand corner, an
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Our Unknown Dead.
Our Unknown Dead.
Extract from an Address of Gen. S. G. French Made to the U. C. V. Camp, No. 54, Orlando, Fla., June 8, 1893. Comrades : The solemn ceremony of Decoration Day has been performed. The few graves, alike of the Confederate and the Union soldiers that rest in our cemetery, have been decorated with floral offerings, and the cause that so few of the Confederate dead sleep where loving kindred can care for them inclines me to say a few words in regard to the unknown dead. From Dalton down to Atlanta, an
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