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The ruse of the whistles: the guarded track, Corinth, Mississippi, 1862
The Tishomingo Hotel was an old hostelry forming practically the railway station at Corinth, Miss., and here was played a little comedy by way of prelude to the tragic spectacle that was to happen on this very scene.
After the battle of Shiloh, General Beauregard retreated to Corinth, where soon the Confederate army numbered about eighty thousand men. Halleck.
who had assumed command in person, after a little delay started in pursuit at the head of the largest army ever assembled west of the Alleghanies, numbering more than 135,000 effective men. But the great forces did not come to decisive blows; Halleck, as usual, did not act with energy.
For more than a month he went on gathering still more reenforcements, planning and organizing, all the time closing in slowly on Corinth.
It was expected that a conclusive battle would soon take place, but Beauregard did not risk the test of arms.
Keeping his intentions absolutely secret, he decided to evacuate.
This plan was carried out with great cleverness; his army with its stores and munitions boarded the assembled railway trains on the night of May 29, 1862, and the roads to the southward were filled with wagons and marching troops.
But along the Confederate front the watch-fires burned brightly; and Halleck's army, waiting within earshot, heard sounds of commotion — the tooting of locomotive whistles and, with every fresh clear blast, loud cheers.
It was rumored through the Federal Camp that strong Confederate reenforcements were arriving.
Into the gray of the morning this continued.
The troops awoke with the nervous expectancy of battle, but before them lay a deserted town.
The whistling and the cheering had covered Beauregard's retreat.
The “movement of artillery” that had been reported had been some old wagons driven round in a circle.
General Pope was sent in pursuit of the wily Confederate leader, but failed to force him to a stand.
The evacuation had opened the Tennessee River, and finally resulted in giving the Federals the control of the Mississippi from Cairo to Memphis. |
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Where tragedy followed comedy at Corinth
Across the road, at the extreme right, against Battery Robinett, frowning above the camp, the Confederates charged on October 4th with terrible results, some of which are shown in the picture following.
Only a short distance down the track from the old hotel and railway station shown in the preceding picture, the photographer had aimed his camera to take this view.
Months had passed since over this very ground had swept two charges memorable in the annals of the Civil War. On the left of the picture is Battery Williams.
Over this foreground the Confederates bravely advanced in the attempt to take two positions.
By firmly holding his ground, General Rosecrans leaped at once into national fame. |
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The day after the magnificent assault that failed
As the camera snapped, October 5, 1862, every object in this picture was a tragedy.
Directly in the foreground lies a Confederate soldier who had swept along in the grand and terrible charge against the ramparts of Battery Robinett, to fall within fifty yards of the goal.
Even nearer the battery lies the battle-charger of the colonel of the Texas Brigade.
And to the left has been reverently laid the body of Colonel Rogers himself — the brave leader who leaped from his dying horse, seized the colors, and on foot dashed up the parapet straight into the last charge of grape-shot.
“Then,” writes one of the Federal defenders (General John Crane, the adjutant of the Seventeenth Wisconsin), “we learned who it was--Colonel William P. Rogers, of the Second Texas. General Rosecrans asked us to uncover his face; he said, ‘He was one of the bravest men that ever led a charge.
Bury him with military honors and mark his grave so that his friends may claim him.’
” Colonel Rogers is said to have been the fifth standard-bearer to fall in that last desperate charge of the Texas Brigade. |
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This battle finally relieved Grant from his anxiety as to the possession of the territory he commanded.
After Corinth, he had 48,500 men, and the arrival of reenforcements soon placed him in position for attack. --Colonel W. C. Church, U. S. V., in Ulysses S. Grant.
The appalling carnage at
Pittsburg Landing, on the
Tennessee, awakened the
North and the
South to a fuller sense of the magnitude of the war. The South had suffered a double disaster — the loss of the battle and the loss of
General Albert Sidney Johnston.
But the
Federal victory was not decisive.
The Union forces had found their adversaries worthy of their steel and had paid dearly for what they had won.
The Confederate troops after the
battle of Shiloh under
General Beauregard, who had assumed command of the Army of the Mississippi on the death of
Johnston, had been led to the little railroad center in
Mississippi,
Corinth, where they were recovering their lost organization and strength.
Western Tennessee and the adjoining counties of
Mississippi, the territory in which the armies of the
Confederacy and the
Union were operating, were unfavorable to successful military movements in force.
Dense forests covered the region, and the soil was marshy and soft, stretching away in gently rolling hills.
The small creeks, abundant about
Corinth, are for the most part sluggish and their water unfit for drinking purposes.
Three great railroad systems penetrated the region, offering an excellent and expeditious method of transportation to whichever army was in control of the strategic point on the steel highways — and this important point at the junction of two of the roads was
Corinth, which
Beauregard now occupied,
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General Earl van Dorn, C. S. A.: the Confederate commander at Corinth
General Earl Van Dorn was born in Mississippi in 1821; he was graduated from West Point in 1842, and was killed in a personal quarrel in 1863.
Early in the war General Van Dorn had distinguished himself by capturing the steamer Star of the West at Indianola, Texas.
He was of a tempestuous nature and had natural fighting qualities.
During the month of August he commanded all the Confederate troops in Mississippi except those under General Price, and it was his idea to form a combined movement with the latter's forces and expel the invading Federals from the northern portion of his native State and from eastern Tennessee.
The concentration was made and the Confederate army, about 22,000 men, was brought into the disastrous battle of Corinth.
Brave were the charges made on the entrenched positions, but without avail. |
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General Sterling Price, C. S. A.: the Confederate second in command
General Sterling Price was a civilian who by-natural inclination turned to soldiering.
He had been made a brigadier-general during the Mexican War, but early allied himself with the cause of the Confederacy.
At Pea Ridge, only seven months before the battle of Corinth, he had been wounded.
Of the behavior of his men, though they were defeated and turned back on the 4th, he wrote that it was with pride that sisters and daughters of the South could say of the officers and men, “My brother, father, fought at Corinth.”
And nobly they fought indeed.
General Van Dorn, in referring to the end of that bloody battle, wrote these pathetic words: “Exhausted from loss of sleep, wearied from hard marching and fighting, companies and regiments without officers, our troops — let no one censure them — gave way. The day was lost.”
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and upon which the
Federal authorities cast longing glances as soon as the present campaign had begun.
However, it became clear to
Beauregard that although his opponent did not immediately pursue, it would be impossible to hold
Corinth.
Soon after
Shiloh the
Union army was reenforced to more than double the strength it had been before.
Four days after the battle,
General H. W. Halleck arrived at the
Landing and took command in person; ten days later
General John Pope, who had captured
Island No.10, on April 7th, joined his army to that at the
Landing, and this, with other reenforcements, raised the number to a hundred thousand.
Beauregard had been joined by
Van Dorn and
Sterling Price from beyond the
Mississippi, but, although the rolls showed now a force of over one hundred and twelve thousand he could not muster much more than fifty thousand men at any time and he prepared to give up
Corinth whenever the great Northern force should move against it. About the 1st of May the movement of the
Federal hosts, reorganized and now consisting of the Army of the Tennessee under
General Thomas, the Army of the Ohio under
Buell, and the Army of the Mississippi under
Pope, began.
Grant was second in command of the whole force, under
Halleck.
Slowly and cautiously, entrenching at every night halt,
Halleck moved upon
Corinth, guarding always against attack.
He arrived before the town on May 25th.
He met with but slight resistance.
But
Beauregard, although he had thrown up entrenchments and was maintaining a bold front, stealthily prepared to evacuate the town and save his army.
Troops, provided with three days cooked rations, manned the trenches confronting the
Federal line, waiting for the order to advance.
The Confederate soldiers had no inkling of the intentions of their leader.
As the days passed and the command to attack was not given, the men behind the breastworks became restless.
Meanwhile, the patients in the hospitals within the town were being hurried away, and with great trainloads of stores
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Before the sod hid them
The Gathered Confederate Dead Before Battery Robinett--taken the morning after their desperate attempt to carry the works by assault.
No man can look at this awful picture and wish to go to war. These men, a few hours before, were full of life and hope and courage.
Without the two last qualities they would not be lying as they are pictured here.
In the very foreground, on the left, lies their leader, Colonel Rogers, and almost resting on his shoulder is the body of the gallant Colonel Ross.
We are looking from the bottom of the parapet of Battery Robinett.
Let an eye-witness tell of what the men saw who looked toward the houses on that bright October day, and then glanced along their musket-barrels and pulled the triggers: “Suddenly we saw a magnificent brigade emerge in our front; they came forward in perfect order, a grand but terrible sight.
At their head rode the commander, a man of fine physique, in the prime of life — quiet and cool as though on a drill.
The artillery opened, the infantry followed; notwithstanding the slaughter they were closer and closer.
Their commander [Colonel Rogers] seemed to bear a charmed life.
He jumped his horse across the ditch in front of the guns, and then on foot came on. When he fell, the battle in our front was over.”
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were sent south over the Mobile and Ohio Railroad.
On the night of the 29th, the preparations for the evacuation of the town by the
Confederates were completed.
Most of the troops were withdrawn from the trenches to the railroad, and there instructed concerning the part they were to play in the strategy to deceive the
Federals.
Late that night a train rolled into the station, and the
Federal pickets heard a lusty cheer arise from the
Confederate ranks.
Other trains followed, and the sounds of exuberation increased.
Word quickly spread through the
Federal camps that heavy reenforcements had come to the
Confederates.
The Northerners spent the early morning hours preparing to resist the attack they expected would be made with the coming of dawn.
At break of day the
Federals, waiting in battle-line, could see no signs of life in the pits confronting them.
The pickets crept forward to investigate.
A thunderous explosion shook the town.
It was the destruction of the last of the
Confederate stores.
The Southerners had evacuated the village, and
Corinth, with all its strategic advantage, with its command of the great railroads connecting the
Mississippi valley with the
Atlantic coast and with the
Gulf of Mexico, fell into the hands of the
North.
Both of the great armies were quickly broken up.
Halleck, in possession of
Corinth, looked to
Chattanooga as the next objective, and
Buell led the Army of the Ohio back to
middle Tennessee as a preliminary move in that direction.
In the midsummer,
Halleck was made general-in-chief of all the
Northern armies and went to
Washington.
He left
Grant in control of the
West.
Meantime,
Beauregard was relieved of the command of the Confederate Army of the
Mississippi and it was handed over to
General Bragg.
Leaving a portion of his army in
Mississippi with
Van Dorn and
Price,
Bragg began, late in August, his famous expedition into
Kentucky, pursued by
Buell with the Army of the Ohio.
A part of the
Federal Army of the Mississippi remained at
Corinth,
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The battery that controlled the right of way
Battery Williams, that can just be seen at the left of the picture, controlled the cutting through which the Memphis & Charleston Road ran on its way between Corinth and the Mississippi.
It faced the right flank of Fort Robinett, distant about half a mile.
During the action of October 4th, when the gallant Texans bravely assailed Battery Robinett, Battery Williams with all its guns was playing steadily upon the Confederate left flank, and so closely did they follow that brave and brilliant charge that two shells from the battery landed inside the Federal earthworks and burst there.
Most of the houses seen in the mid-distance are barracks erected by the Fifty-seventh and Fifty-second Illinois Infantry.
It was directly from this ground, in front of the railway station, that the Confederate advance took place.
A short distance to the left of the freight-house stood a small cottage.
General Rosecrans as he rode along the Federal line, noticed that the porch and windows were filled with Confederates, who were firing at long range at the batteries.
Immediately he ordered two field-pieces to open upon the dwelling with grape and canister.
Hardly a man escaped alive.
The town suffered severely from the fire of both Confederate and Federal artillery, but most of the inhabitants had retreated to their cellars and no casualties were reported.
Note the bales of precious cotton gathered from some storehouse, worth almost their weight in gold before the war was over. |
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where there were immense military stores, under the command of
General William S. Rosecrans.
After inflicting a defeat on
Sterling Price, September 19th, in a severe combat at
Iuka, Mississippi,
Rosecrans was settled snugly at
Corinth with two divisions and cavalry of his army, and two divisions of the
Federal Army of West Tennessee, in all about twenty-three thousand men.
Van Dorn then joined his Army of West
Tennessee with
Price's Corps, or Army of the West, and decided to make a desperate attempt to capture
Corinth.
It was a daring venture, for
Corinth was well fortified and
Rosecrans' army was slightly larger than his own.
The
battle of Corinth, October 3-4, 1862, does not compare in magnitude with the greatest battles of the war; but for ferocity of fighting, it was not surpassed by any.
Rosecrans did not believe that
Van Dorn would attack him, and when the latter appeared in force in the neighborhood on October 3rd he supposed that it was only a feint and that the real object of the
Confederate attack was to be
Jackson, about sixty miles north, in
Tennessee, where
Grant's headquarters were, or
Bolivar, Tennessee, about forty miles northwest, where
Hurlbut's division of
Grant's Army of West
Tennessee was at that time located.
However,
Rosecrans was prepared for any emergency.
He sent
Colonel Oliver with three regiments to take an advanced position on a hill, near the
Chewalla road, to watch the movements of the
Confederates.
A desultory cannonade was begun and soon
Rosecrans sent
General McArthur to the front with his brigade.
In a short time a sharp battle was raging.
Then came a sudden determined Confederate charge by which the
Union forces were driven from the hill and two of their heavy guns captured.
The Union commander was now convinced that the attack was no feint, but that the purpose of the
Southern general was to make a grand assault on
Corinth with a view of defeating its defenders and capturing the great stores within its fortifications.
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Winter quarters at Corinth
A Photograph Taken During the Federal Occupation, Winter of 1862.
These little cottages — bungalows we should call them — resemble much the summer residences erected by the holiday-makers on the sea-coast at some wintering resort.
Many were built by soldier-carpenters who found time to turn their hands to carpentering, and even to architectural decoration.
All trades were represented in the army, and during a lull in the fighting the men plied their avocations.
Besides the artisans that were of use to the commanding generals--such as mechanics, locomotive engineers, machinists, and farriers — there were tailors and shoemakers, watchmakers and barbers, and all the little trades by which men with time on their hands could turn an honest penny.
Some regiments became renowned for the neatness of their quarters.
It was a matter of prideful boastings.
In this picture a soldier has fashioned a well-cut overcoat out of a gaudy blanket.
These are officers' quarters.
The man smoking the long cigar as he sits on the veranda railing is a captain.
A bearded lieutenant stands on the steps of the second house, and another young officer has apparently adopted for the time a tow-headed child of a Corinth family. |
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The hours of the afternoon were given to disposing the various divisions of the army to the best advantage for the defense of the town; but it was no easy task because of the annoying Confederate fire from the surrounding hills.
Before either side opened a general engagement it was night, and both armies slept on their arms, confident that a fierce battle was in store for the coming day.
The early hours of the night were spent by
Rosecrans in rearranging his battle-lines, and before he went to sleep about 3 A. M., his forces had drawn closer to the town.
The Federal left, under
McKean, rested near Corona College; next in line was
Stanley, in support of Battery Robinett, a small fortification mounting three guns; in the center of the battle-line, was
Davies, and
Hamilton was assigned to the right wing.
Thus stood the weary warriors in blue, who had struggled desperately in the terrific heat of the preceding day and were now exhausted.
The line was crescent shaped, and covered the northern and western approaches to
Corinth, extended a mile in length and rested on the edge of the town.
The Confederate divisions, commanded by
Lovell,
Maury, and
Hebert stood arrayed in another great crescent, conforming to the curve of
Rosecrans' battle-line.
About four o'clock on the morning of the 4th the sleeping village was awakened by the shells that shrieked over the housetops and fell bursting in the streets.
During the night a Confederate battery had been planted a few hundred yards from the
Union lines, opposite
Stanley's position, and now opened with several Parrott guns.
Little damage was done, except that the teamsters, sutlers, and other non-combatants were kept in a ferment of excitement.
No reply was made till near daylight, when a Union battery opened on the
Confederate guns, and the latter were silenced and disabled in a few minutes.
Indian summer had descended over the land, bringing its enervating heat from which the soldiers of both armies suffered.
The sun peeped over the eastern hills, and its rays were soon beating down upon the bivouacs.
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Photographers of the western armies
The Civil War was the first great war to be photographed.
The art had just arisen.
The daguerreotype had been superseded by the tintype, and the wet-plate method (still in vogue in the best portrait galleries) was then in the height of its excellence.
It is a fortunate thing in recording the history of the time that the camera was in existence.
In Corinth there was a firm of photographers occupying a little wooden shack in the outskirts of the town.
They did a thriving business during the occupancy by the Confederates and by the Federals.
George Armstead was a wonderful photographer — rivaling Brady at his best.
In the picture he is standing back to the left, near where some of his negatives are printing in the sun; in front of the shop a drummer-boy stands with folded arms near the civilians who loll against the post.
What would we not give for a nearer glimpse of the samples of Armstead's work on the right of the doorway!
The little frame of portrait tintypes on the other side would also give us to-day a thrill of interest.
They are the only relics, perhaps, of men who lie in far-off graves — duplicates of the only mementoes that their people, who are now old, possess.
In turning the pages of this volume many will exclaim, “Look, there he is!”
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During the day the temperature rose to ninety-four degrees in the shade.
Soon after daybreak the skirmishers of both sides began with scattering shots, which presently came thicker and faster; the batteries came into play, and shells were falling and bursting all around.
So it continued until half-past 9. Then came a sudden and amazing change in the whole aspect of the battle.
A vast column of gleaming bayonets was seen to flash from the woods east of the Memphis and Charleston Railroad; long lines of determined, gray-clad troops of
Price's divisions quickly formed and began to march swiftly and steadily along the
Purdy road, toward
Davies and
Hamilton, behind whom lay the town of
Corinth.
Presently the great column took the shape of a wedge as it moved impetuously forward.
General Rosecrans was prepared for the charge.
He had skilfully planned to entice the
Confederates to attack at a point where his carefully placed batteries and infantry could sweep the road with direct, cross, and enfilading fires.
There was an outburst from the
Federal guns.
Gaps were torn in the moving gray column, but they were instantly filled and the lines moved on with great steadiness.
A gently sloping hill led up to the
Federal position.
As
Price's troops began the ascent, volley after volley of grape, canister, and shell were poured into their ranks, but still they marched on with a valor not surpassed by
Leonidas and his Spartans at Thermopyle.
Colonel Sweeny, who commanded a brigade of
Davies' division on that memorable 4th of October, gives a vivid picture of this remarkable charge:
An ominous silence took place for a few moments, when a sharp rattling of musketry was heard, accompanied by heavy volleys, and the enemy's columns burst from the woods in front and to the right, driving the sharpshooters before them and following close upon their heels.
Colonel Burke's regiment fought like heroes and disputed every inch of ground as they fell back on my position.
I cautioned my men, who were lying on the ground, to reserve their fire until the enemy got within
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Ohio troops on the battle-field of Corinth
The Eighty-first Ohio, pictured here drawn up at “parade rest,” enlisted in August, 1861; when its term expired in 1864, it reenlisted and served to the end of the war. The youth of these men is very evident; yet when this picture was taken they were already tried and proved veterans.
Attached to Sweeney's division of the Sixteenth Army Corps, they fought through most of the actions in Tennessee and Mississippi, but were not present at the time of the Confederate attack on the fortifications we see behind them--Battery Williams to the left, and Battery Robinett to the right.
The Eightieth Ohio was present at this action and was attached to the second brigade of the second division of the Army of the Mississippi under Rosecrans.
Its commander, Major Lanning, was killed.
Well can Ohio be proud of her record in the war; nearly twenty-one thousand men remained in the field and served after their three-years' enlistment had expired, and most of these reenlistments embraced a very large proportion of the original volunteers of 1861. |
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point-blank range, and then fire low and keep perfectly cool.
It was a terribly beautiful sight to see the columns advance, in despite of a perfect storm of grape and canister, shell, and rifle-ball; still on they marched and fired, though their ranks were perceptibly thinned at every step.
The brigade stood firm as a rock, and the men loaded and fired with the coolness and precision of veterans, when all of a sudden the troops on the right of the redan (a brigade of Hamilton's division) gave way and broke.
The First Missouri Artillery, in the redan, and the two pieces on the left of the Fifty-second Illinois limbered up and galloped off in wild confusion through our reserves, killing several of our men and scattering the rest.
My line remained still unbroken, pouring deadly volleys into the enemy's ranks, who, taking advantage of the panic on the right, moved their columns obliquely in that direction and charged up to the redan. . . .
I now ordered the line to charge on the enemy, who had by this time gained the crest of the hill in our front.
With a shout that was heard through our whole lines the men of the First Brigade rushed upon them.
Those who had given way a short time before, being evidently ashamed of the momentary panic that had seized them, seemed determined to wipe out the stain upon their courage by their reckless daring.
The foe, reluctant to abandon the advantage they had gained, fought stubbornly for a while, but was finally compelled to give way, retreating in great confusion through the swamps and abatis to the woods, hotly pursued by our men.
In spite of the desperate resistance, the center of the
Federal line was penetrated, and
Price's troops drove the regiments back into the town, scattering the
Union soldiers among the houses.
The storming Confederates advanced to the north side of the square and posted themselves around a house close to where
General Halleck had maintained his headquarters the summer before.
Two field-pieces opened upon them, and the daring Southerners were whirled back, leaving seven of their number dead in the dooryard, after one round of grape and canister.
Union troops stationed in the town hurried up and
General Sullivan immediately supported the shattered center.
His men retook Battery Powell while
General Hamilton
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A Camp meeting with a purpose
There was something of extreme interest taking place when this photograph was taken at Corinth.
With arms stacked, the soldiers are gathered about an improvised stand sheltered with canvas, listening to a speech upon a burning question of the hour — the employment of colored troops in the field.
A question upon which there were many different and most decided opinions prevailing in the North, and but one nearly universal opinion holding south of Mason and Dixon's line.
General Thomas, at the moment this photograph was taken, was addressing the assembled troops on this subject.
Some prominent Southeners, among them General Patrick Cleburne, favored the enrollment of Negroes in the Confederate army. |
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collected his scattered division and charged upon the
Confederate left, driving it across an open field over which the recaptured Union artillery hurled a pitiless fire.
It was now one o'clock in the afternoon and the battle on the
Federal right was over.
The Confederate commanders had planned a general assault,
Price and
Van Dorn acting in concert, but on different points of
Rosecrans' line.
Van Dorn delayed in reaching his position, and
Price's majestic and thrilling charge had been in progress half an hour or more when the standards of the Army of West
Tennessee emerged from the woods, in front of
Stanley's division and batteries Robinett and Williams.
The Federal troops were eagerly watching affairs on their right, when their attention was called to the gray wave plunging over fallen trees and through growths of underbrush in front of Battery Robinett.
A sheet of flame burst from the fort, and the advance line of Confederates was enveloped in smoke, many of its numbers falling dead and wounded.
A second storming column appeared, and again the
Federal guns smote the daring Confederates.
Again and again the courageous Southerners charged until they finally won the ditch surrounding the battery, and after a desperate hand-to-hand fight gained the interior of the fort, the defenders falling back to another position.
At the head of the attacking regiments stood
Colonel W. P. Rogers of the Second Texas regiment of
Maury's division.
The Southerners had almost gained this important point in the
Federal line, when a burst of flame appeared in Battery Williams, and two shells hurtled across the intervening space and fell into the
Confederate ranks.
Simultaneously,
Fuller's Ohio brigade of
Stanley's division and the Eleventh Missouri appeared in the rear of the
Fort where they had been concealed, and delivered six successive volleys into the gray ranks at the front of the battery.
When the smoke cleared the front of the
Fort was clear of living Confederates.
They could not stand the terrific storm of lead and iron.
Many of them fell to rise
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Provost marshal's headquarters at Corinth
During the occupation of a town where soldiers were in predominance, there was one man who was responsible for the conduct of the troops, and also for the practical government and policing of the streets, and the control of the inhabitants' actions.
Such was the provost marshal.
He was head constable, police-court judge, health department, and general almoner.
Negroes from the outlying districts had flocked, as usual, into Corinth in nondescript wagons drawn by oxen and mules, and sometimes both, as we see here pictured. |
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Food for powder: Federal troops at Corinth
Give a glance at these seventeen men, who, for some reason that we cannot tell, have chosen to stand before the camera and be “taken.”
Note one thing first--there is not one smiling face nor one look of the holiday soldier about this little group.
Able, grim, stern-hearted veterans — their faces show it. Among them all there is not a single merry-maker.
These men have faced death often, they have seen their comrades die. They have looked across the sights of their muskets at the ragged men in gray, and peered through the enveloping smoke to see if their shots have told.
These are not the machine-made soldiers of the European armies.
They are the development of the time and hour.
The influence of emigration is plainly shown.
Here is a Scotchman--
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An old soldier of the Queen, perhaps, who knew the Mutiny and the Crimea.
Here are Swedes and Germans, Irish and French; but, predominating, is the American type — the Yankee, and the man of many blends from the mid-West and the North woods.
There are two or three regulars standing in the center — artillerymen with bell buttons.
On the extreme right are two men of the saber, with short jackets.
Beyond them is the battle-field of October.
It is now winter, but these men saw that field shrouded in battle smoke.
They saw Price and Van Dorn's brave troops come yelling and charging across the railway track and the road beyond up to the very guns of Battery Robinett, which we see rising like a mound or hillock beyond the line of the railway shed. |
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no more.
The others began to waver.
Then came a panic.
They broke and fled in great disorder.
Volley after volley was fired at the fleeing men. They were now pursued by the victors, across ravines, over hills, and among the fallen trees.
Many threw away their guns and surrendered, others escaped, and still others gave their lives for the cause in which they believed.
Fifty-six bodies of brave Confederates were found in a space of a few rods about Battery Robinett and were buried in one pit. Among them was
Colonel Rogers, who had fallen while planting his battle-flag on the parapet.
The wild shouts of the victorious Federals rang through the streets of
Corinth, above the moaning of the wounded and dying.
By two o'clock
Rosecrans was convinced that the
Confederate generals did not intend to make another attack and were retreating in force, but his troops were too weary to follow after on that day.
Later in the afternoon
McPherson arrived with four regiments sent by
Grant, and these were ordered to begin the pursuit at daylight the next morning.
Meanwhile,
Hurlbut with his division was hastening from
Bolivar to the
Confederate rear.
On the night of the 4th he bivouacked on the west bank of the
Hatchie River near Davis' Bridge, right in the path of
Van Dorn.
The following morning
General Ord arrived and took command of the
Federal forces.
Owing to a number of mishaps and delays
Rosecrans never overtook the Confederate army, but when
Van Dorn's advance guard attempted to seize the
Hatchie bridge on the morning of the 5th, it was most spiritedly attacked and driven off by
Ord, who was severely wounded.
Although the
Confederates greatly outnumbered their opponents,
Van Dorn, fearful of
Rosecrans in his rear, moved down the east bank of the
Hatchie, crossed six miles below, and made his way to
Holly Springs.
On these three October days the
Federals lost over twenty-five hundred and the
Confederates forty-eight hundred.
Of these over two thousand had been captured by
Rosecrans and
Ord.
