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About Medford mail tribune. (Medford, Or.) 1909-1989 | View Entire Issue (Nov. 11, 1963)
10 MONDAY, NOVEMBER 11. 1963 A1EOFORO MAIL TRIBUNE. MEDFORD, OREGON The Battle of Fort Sanders By MERTON T. AKERS United Press International For reasons not clear after 100 years and perhaps not even clear to himself then, Confed erate Gen. Braxton Bragg di vided his army before Chatlan. ooca, Tenn., in November 1863 and sent part of it on a wild goose chase to Knoxvillc, Tenn. Federal troops under Maj. Gen. Ambrose E. Burnside had occupied Knoxville on Sept. 2. Burnside was the general who had charged his army up the heights at Fredericksburg, Va., in December '62 to a crushing defeat. Now he was the "liber ator" 'of East Tennessee, the area of considerable union sen- , timent which President Lincoln had been trying to occupy since the start of the war. ' Bragg divided his forces at ! a time when Maj. Gen. U.S. Grant, commanding the Union forces there, had broken the Confederate hold on his supply 'line and was assembling rein forcements. Grant was a gen eral who could be depended up on to attack early and often. : Bragg knew that but split his army anyway, Robert E. Lee could do that in front of George B. McClellan and win. But Bragg was no Lee and Grant was no McClellan. The force sent by Bragg to dispose of Burnside was com manded by Lt. Gen. James Longstreet and consisted of two divisions totalling about 12,000 men. These were the troops Longstreet had brought from the Army of Northern Virginia ARMY DIVIDED In November, 1803, for reasons still not clear, Confederate Gen. Braxton Bragg divided his army before Chatta nooga and sent part of it on a wild goose chase to Knoxville. On Nov. 5-6, 1863, Bragg sent a force under Lt. Gen. James Longstreet to oust Federal troops under Mai. Gen. Ambrose E. Burnside from Knoxville. The attempt to take the city failed, with the main action coming in a battle at Fort Sanders, one of two Federal outposts nearby. After the defeat, Longstreet received wora lhat Bragg had been defeated by Grant at Chatta nooga. Both wings of the split army had been beaten. Here, in photos from the Department of Interior, are Bragg, left, and ngstreei, rignt. tun) at the time of the battle of Chickamauga. That was about half enough men, Longstreet thought, for the expedition against Burn side who had about 22,000 protected by fortifications. Longstreet Worried Longstreet left the Chattan ooga lines on Nov. 5 - 6 and marched slowly toward Knox ville. He was not cheerful about the move. "Twenty thousand men, well handled, could surely have cap- Your Money's Worth By SYLVIA PORTER CWr'l. Hill Syndicala, lot. NEITHER INFLATION NOR DEFLATION We in the United States are still in one of the most remarkably prolonged periods of comparative price stability in modern his tory. What is happening here is not inflation in the sense that in flation is a broad upsweep in prices due to the pressure of too much money seeking too few goods. What is happening here is not deflation in the sense that deflation is a broad downswecp in prices due to the pressure of too many goods chasing too few dollars. Your cost of living is still rising, yes primarily because of increases in the cost of such services as medical care, auto in surance, household maintenance but the climb in a full year has been less than 1 per cent. The buying power of your dollar is still slipping, yes, but at a rate far below the rate of rise in your total paycheck. We have been in a cycle of ncither-inflation-nor-deflation for years and we'll remain in it during the months directly ahead. Because of the recent "wavelet" of price hikes, there is con idei'able confusion about what's going on. Here's a simple question-answer report to clarify the picture. Q.t Exactly what Is happenlne to prices in Ilic V. S. now? A.: Some prices, which have been too weak in u'te past several years, are firming at last. Many prices which had been unoffi cially cut below list levels through discounts and "deals" are back to list. At the same time, there have been price markdowns to offset the markups. Many price hikes announced during the "wavelet" of September-October already have died a quiet death in infancy. What has occurred so far is welcomed by most objective econ omists as a sign of a healthy, solid economy. Q.i What do the Indexes show? A.: In contrast to the scare headlines, stability. The consumer price index is sticking around 107.1, less than 1 per cent above the fall of 1962. This means it costs $1.07 to buy the marketbasket of goods and services that $1 bought back in 1957-59 hardly major inflation. At the wholesale level, the steadiness of prices has been nothing short of sensational. The index has scarcely budged for five years, is now at 100.4 against a base of 100 in 1957-59. Q.: Why Is inflation under wraps? A.: Because industry has ample capacity to produce; manu facturers are operating today at 85 per cent of capacity, 7 points below the so-called comi'ortnbie rate. Because supplies of just about everything are readily available. Because competition is fierce and not only businessmen at home but also aggressive manufacturers abroad are fighting for our dollar. Because un employment continues high even though the jobless rate for married men is way clown and new workers are entering the labor force at the fastest rale in history. Because businessmen arc taking the toughest attitude in years toward union demands for steep wage hikes and arc putting a real lid on costs. Q.: Why docs the White House express "concern" then? A.: The reason s that the higher price trend might spread throughout the economy If businessmen decide their "tests" of our attitudes indicate we'll take the increases. The worry Is not about what is hut about what might be. Our stable prices have substantially improved our competitive position in the world's markets and we cannot afford a setback in our export drive Any price spiral also would revive the danger of a wage spiral put us back into a vicious Icaplrog of priccs-wagcs-priccs-WHB.es' Q.: What's the outlook? A.: The prospect Is that prices will continue to advance only moderately but assuming the lax cut accelerates the economy the pace of advance could quicken. Then concern would be dis tinctly justified. As of today, though, inflation in Ihe sense of too many dollars seeking too few goods and thus sending prices skyrocketing is just not on the horizon. turcd Burnside and his forces," ne wrote. "Under the present arrange ments, however, the lines are to be held as they now are (at Chattanooga) and the detach ment is to be 12,000. We thus expose both to failure, and real ly take no chance to ourselves of great results." Why Bragg divided his forces at a time when Grant was ga thering strength remains some thing of a mystery. President Jefferson Davis who earlier had visited the Con federate army, suggested to Bragg that "you might advan tageously assign General Long street with his two divisions to the task of expelling Burnside." Bragg wrote to Davis later that "the Virginia troops will move in the direction indicated as soon as practicable. This will be. a great relief to me." wnethor Brace's "exeat re lief" was to get rid of Long street, with whom he had quar relled, or whether he felt the Knoxville expedition would drain off a big portion of Grant's troops to Burnside's relief, re mains unanswered. Skirmishing Longstreet's trooos arrivprt at the permitcr of the Knoxvillc defenses on Nov. 17 but it was Nov. 29 before he attacked The 12 days were used to probe me ncienscs. Skirmishing was continuous. Longstreet was re inforced by two brigades of cavalry from southwest Vir ginia and about 3,5(li troops from Bragg's army. This addi tion brought his force to about 20,000 men. 1 The chief Union defenses of me city were two forts to the west Fort Sanders, named for Brig. Gen. William P. Sanders wno nad been killed a few days uwure in a rear guard action and Fort Byington. These forts were hastily built but strong. Longstreet decided to attack Fort Sanders. (The Confeder ates called it Fort Loudon he. cause they had started it under mat name before thev ahnn. doncd the city.) The Attack Brig. Gen. Orlando M. Poc, Union engineer who had built Fort Sanders, described the battle. "About fi a.m. on Sunday No vember 29th, the enemy opened a heavy artillery fire unon Fort Sanders, to which no reply was made, because our limited sup ply of ammunition made it ne cessary to reserve it for use at a more critical moment. The fire continued about twenty minutes and then slackened, whereupon the (Confederate) columns moved to the assault, and were nt once met by all the fire that could be concen- unica upon mem irom our lines. "Encountering the wire en tanglements (telegraph wire strung on tree stumps), their organization was somewhat dis turbed, but the movement was not seriously checked thereby, nor did the slight abatis (shar pened tree limbs) retard it. "Although suffering from the terribly destructive fire . . . they soon reached Ihe outer brink of the ditch. There could be no pause at that moment, leaping into the ditch in such numbers as nearly to fill it, they endeavored to scale the KM CASH YOU I 14 MONTHLY tlCIIVI PATMIHU $ 300 $17.71 500 3116 100 44.13 1,000 3.(9 1,200 63.53 1.S00 I 77.87 mom tot MQUNii wot mown' If You Can Repay $77.87 Monthly You Can Qualify for a $1,500 Installment Loan -W1.-JHV I..-n. , . pwv.m. t , ,,, .. -. ..Ti.iB.Jti,, -.,- ....... j. UJlt. -. ; s . . , , . ' " SOIVI THI PIQtLfM of tw -.M. expenKS onc lean from ui. ' ' ONI MONTHir PAYMENT i.k c.rt of ererything when you V conwlidue your b,ll, tnd buying lhi-miRh . ronvenient in- K lullmtnl loan from m. Phont or nop in today. NATIONAL THRIFT JS CORPORATION Succmori to Doug Gerow Fininco and Oregon Fintnto 45 South Control Avo. Modford, Or Jim Piereo, Mgr. Phono 779-2321 THIS WAS THE CIVIL walls. Having no scaling lad ders, a portion of the men, scrambling over the shoulders of their comrades, planted the battle flags of the 13th and 17th Mississippi and the 16th Geor gia upon the parapet, but every man who rallied to them was either killed or captured, and the flags were taken. "Meanwhile those who re mained in the ditch found them selves under a deadly flank fire of musketry and canister, with out the slightest possibility of returning a blow. Advance and retreat were about equally dif ficult, and it needed but a very short exposure to convince them that if any were to leave the ditch alive it' could only be by the promptest surrender. "Those ' who were able to walk were brought through the ditch . . . and entered our lines as prisoners. Such of the as saulting forces as had not en tered the ditch fell back, at first sullenly and slowly, but flesh and blood could not stand the storm of shot and shell that was poured on them, and they soon broke into confused retreat." WAR Losses A supporting brigade arrived about that time and attacked to the left but -was repulsed. The attacks lasted about 40 minutes. The assaulting" CjnfotioflaQ had lain all night without fires waning tor aawn. The temper ature was near freezing and a fine mist was falling. Union losses wprp- W lrilln1- 394 wounded; 207 captured or missing; total, 693. Confederate losses: 182 killed; 768 wounded; iad captured or missing; total i.tiz. (i-avalry losses not in Cal Tech Laboratory Records Earthquake PASADENA, Calif (UPI) 1 80 miles below the earth's sur An earthquake with a magni-1 face. The direction was unde: Advertisement tude of 6.8 on the Richter scale was recorded Saturday at the Seismological. laboratory of the California Institute of Technol ogy. Dr. Charles Richter said the quake occurred about 4,000 miles from here at a depth of termined. He said a tremor of such magnitude often was felt over a wide area ana couiu cause extensive damage in a populated area. Oxygen is about 16 times as heavy as hydrogen. eluded were estimated at ., , As Longstreet Hphatpri wno. ther to renew the attack he re ceived word that Bragg's army had been defeated at Chattan ooga by Grant and was retreat ins into Georgia. Hp was nr. dered to retreat to Bragg's ar my but before the order could be carried nut. Rraaa aHvicoH him that Union reinforcements were on their way to Knoxville. Longstreet remained around Knoxville until Dec. 4 and then withdrew ahead of Union rein forcements into Eastern Ten nessee and eventually into Vir ginia. What Longstreet had feared had happened. Both wings of the divided army had been defeated. Burial Insurance Sold by Mail . . . may be qualified for $1,000 life insurance ... so you will not burden your loved ones with funeral and other expenses. This NEW policy is especially helpful to those between 40 and 90. No medical examination necessary. OLD LINE LEGAL RESERVE LIFE INSURANCE. . . . No agent will call on you. 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