Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 12.djvu/154

Harriet Lane, forcing the destruction of the Westfield to prevent her capture, raising the blockade of Galveston and keeping the port open, accomplishing all this with only a small force of artillery and Texan cavalry, was certainly a most brilliant exploit. Gen. Dick Taylor's defeat of Banks' Red river expedition, with such heavy loss to this political general who had won in the Shenandoah valley the sobriquet of "Stonewall Jackson's quartermaster," and was to be known henceforth as "Dick Taylor's commissary," was certainly a most creditable achievement for both the general and his troops. The fights made by Sterling Price and Earl Van Dorn at Iuka and Corinth, Miss., were among the most heroic of the war. The fight at Sabine Pass was one of the most remarkable in Confederate history, and the little handful of Confederates who resisted successfully the great odds that came against them deserve to have their names preserved among the heroes of the war. But perhaps one of the most brilliant victories of the Confederacy was that of Stephen D. Lee at Chickasaw Bayou, where with only 2,700 men he gave Sherman, in his advance on Vicksburg with 30,000 men, such a bloody repulse that he re-embarked on his transports and went back to Memphis; Grant, who was to have co-operated with him for a sudden capture of Vicksburg, being also compelled to retreat because Van Dorn destroyed his stores at Holly Springs. Gen. N. B. Forrest—"the Wizard of the Saddle," the "Stonewall Jackson of the West" had a most brilliant career, and some of his exploits and those of his heroic men have scarcely been equaled in the annals of war. His campaign against Gen. W. L. Smith, in which with about 3,500 men he drove Smith's 7,000 pellmell before him, capturing six pieces of artillery and many prisoners, horses and stores; his pursuit and capture of a much larger force than his own under General Streight, and many of his raids and retreats, were marvelous illustrations of what he said was the secret of his success—"I get