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bridge and crossed next day;1 continuing the pursuit to Ripley, followed by Rosecrans with most of his army, gathering up deserters and stragglers by the way. Rosecrans was anxiously eager to continue the pursuit, and telegraphed to Grant for permission to do so,2 believing the Rebel army utterly demoralized and incapable of resistance; but he was directed to desist and return to Corinth.
Nine days after his return, he was relieved from his command at Corinth, and ordered to report at Cincinnati; where he found a dispatch directing him to supersede Gen. Buell in command of the Army of the Ohio and Department of the Cumberland, including all of Tennessee east of the Tennessee river.
Gen. Rosecrans reports his total loss at Corinth and in the pursuit at 2,359--315 killed, 1,812 wounded, and 232 missing; and says that the Rebel loss in killed alone was 1,423, with 2,248 prisoners.3 He estimated their loss in wounded at 5,692.
He says the prisoners represented 53 regiments of infantry, 16 of cavalry, 13 batteries, and 7 battalions; and that their numbers engaged were nearly double his own,4 which he makes less than 20,000 in all.5 Among his trophies were 14 flags, 2 guns, 3,300 small arms, &c.; while the Rebels, in their retreat, blew up many ammunition and other wagons, and left the ground strewn with tents, accouterments, &c. Among our killed were Gen. Pleasant A. Hackleman,6 Col. Thomas Kilby Smith, 43d Ohio, and Cols. Thrush, Baker, and Miles; while Gen. Richard J. Oglesby,7 Adjt.-Gen. Clark, of Rosecrans's staff, and Col. Mower, 11th Missouri, were among the severely wounded.
On the Rebel side, Acting Brigadiers Rogers, Johnston, and Martin were killed, and Cols. Pritchard, Daily, and McClain were wounded.
1 Oct. 6.
2 He gives these reasons for his eagerness, in his testimony before the Committee on the Conduct of the War:
Mississippi was in our hands. The enemy had concentrated all his available force for an offensive movement, had been thoroughly beaten at Corinth, and had then retreated, blowing up his ammunition wagons and caissons; their men throwing away their camp and garrison equipage in the flight. The weather was cool; the roads were dry, and likely to be so for a month to come. Corn was ripe, and, as yet, untouched. We had 3,000,000 of rations in Corinth, and ammunition for six months. There was but one bridge injured on the Mobile and Ohio road; and it could be put in running order by a regiment in half a day. The enemy were so alarmed that, when Hamilton sent a reconnoissance to Blackland, they vacated Tupelo, burning even the bacon which they could not take away on the first train. I had eighty wagon-loads of assorted rations which had reached me that night at Ripley, and had ordered the 30,000 from Chewalla to Hurlbut.
3 Pollard — who rarely or never finds the Rebel losses the greater — says:
Our loss in all the three days engagements was probably quite double that of the enemy. In killed and wounded, it exceeded 3,000; and it was estimated, beside, that we had left more than 1,500 prisoners in the hands of the enomy.
4 He says, in his official report:
We fought the combined Rebel force of Mississippi, commanded by Van Dorn, Price, Lovell, Villipigue, and Rust in person; numbering, according to their own authority, 38,000 men.
5 He says, in his testimony before the Committee on the Conduct of the War:
Our own force in the fight was about 15,700 infantry and artillery, and about 2,500 effective cavalry.
6 Repeatedly a Whig candidate for Congress in the Franklin district, Indiana.
Hartford. Published by O. D. Chase and Company. 1866.
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