Part 8 (1/2)

Heavy rain fell again Monday night. Next morning General Grant sent General Sherman with his two brigades, and General Wood with his division and the Fourth Illinois Cavalry, in pursuit. The miry road was lined with abandoned wagons, limber-boxes, and with hospitals filled with wounded. The advance was suddenly fallen upon by Forrest and his cavalry, and driven back in confusion. Forrest coming upon the main column retired, and was pursued in turn. General Sherman advanced about a mile farther, and returned to camp. Breckenridge remained at Mickey's three days, guarding the rear, and by the end of the week Beauregard's army was again in Corinth. The battle sobered both armies. The force at Pittsburg Landing saw rudely dashed aside the expectation of speedy entry into Corinth. The force at Corinth, that marched out to drive Grant into the river, to scatter Buell's force in detail, and return in triumph to Nashville, was back in the old quarters, foiled, disheartened.

CHAPTER VIII.

CORINTH.

When news of the two days' fighting was received at the North, the people of the Ohio Valley and St. Louis were stirred to active sympathy.

Steamboats bearing physicians, nurses, sisters of charity, and freighted with hospital supplies were at once despatched and soon crowded the sh.o.r.e of Pittsburg Landing. There was need for all the aid that was brought. Besides the thousands of wounded, were other thousands of sick.

The springs of surface water used in the camps, always unwholesome, were now poisonous. The well lost their strength; of the sick many died every day. Hospital camps spread over the hills about the landing, and the little town of Savannah was turned into a hospital. Fleets descended the river bearing invalids to purer air and water.

General Halleck arrived at the landing on April 11th, established his headquarters near the river bluff, and a.s.sumed personal command. General Pope, with the Army of the Mississippi, summoned from the operations just begun before Fort Pillow, arrived on the 21st, and went into camp at Hamburg. Seasoned troops from Missouri and fresh regiments from recruiting depots arrived. The camps were pushed out farther from the river, and Halleck found 100,000 effective men under his command. The army was organized into right wing, centre, left wing, and reserve. The right wing comprised all the army of the Tennessee except the divisions of McClernand and Lewis Wallace, together with the division of General Thomas from the army of the Ohio, and was commanded by General Thomas.

The remnants of the commands of Prentiss and W.H.L. Wallace were incorporated in two new divisions. The centre, composed of the Army of the Ohio, except Thomas' division, was commanded by General Buell. The left wing, the Army of the Mississippi, to which General Granger's cavalry division was still attached, was commanded by General Pope.

General Pope, General Rosecrans having been a.s.signed to him for duty, divided his command on May 29th into two wings, the right commanded by General Rosecrans, the left by General Hamilton. The reserve, under General McClernand, comprised his division and that of Lewis Wallace.

General Grant was appointed second in command, without command or duty attached to that position, though he still remained commander of the District of West Tennessee.

Beauregard was reinforced, almost immediately after his return, by Van Dorn with 17,000 troops seasoned by campaigns in Missouri and Arkansas, raising his effective strength to 50,000. The Confederate Government at Richmond and the State governments in the Southwest strained every resource to increase his force. Unimportant posts were denuded of their garrisons, new regiments were recruited, and Price, of Missouri, whom the Government at Richmond had refused to recognize, was appointed major-general. Beauregard found his force amount on the muster-rolls to an aggregate of more than 112,000. But sickness and absence were so prevalent that the return of effectives never quite reached 53,000. The position at Corinth was naturally strong. Standing on a long ridge in the fork of two streams, which run parallel to each other nearly to their junction, protected on the front and both flanks by swampy valleys traversed by the streams and obstructed by dense thickets, a line of earthworks running along the crest of the highland bordering the valleys, it could be approached with difficulty. The difficulty was enhanced by a belt of timber which screened the works from view.

Railroads coming into the town facilitated reinforcement and supply.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Approach to Corinth.]

Beauregard kept strong parties well advanced to his front, while the National force at the river, absorbed in the work of organization and supply, made little effort to ascertain his position. As late as April 27th, a reconnoitering party sent out by McClernand discovered that Monterey, twelve miles from the landing, was held in some force. Next day General Stanley, of Pope's command, sent out a detachment that drove this force beyond Monterey. General Halleck began his march about the close of April, moving slowly, keeping his army compact, intrenching at every halt, and ordering his subordinate commanders strictly to refuse to be drawn into a general engagement. The right wing halted and intrenched immediately beyond and to the west of Monterey on May 4th.

The enemy's outposts kept close in front of Halleck's army and opposed every advance.

General Pope, moving out on the left from Hamburg, stretched in advance of the adjoining part of the line. On May 3d, his command being encamped with Seven Mile Creek in his front, General Paine, with his division, pushed forward to Farmington, within four miles of Corinth, attacked a considerable force and drove them from their intrenchments, compelling them to leave their dead, as well as their tents and baggage, behind.