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[170] he embarked with his brigade for Memphis just as Beauregard was bringing Johnston's army back from Shiloh. Leading the advance of Price's division, he proceeded east of the Mississippi, and joined Beauregard at Corinth. Subsequently when Price was assigned to command the army of the West, with headquarters at Tupelo, Miss., he was given Price's old division, the First of the army. At the grand review previous to the movement in August toward Corinth, as his division passed before General Bragg, the latter turned to Little and said, ‘You had the reputation of having one of the finest companies in the old army. General, this is certainly as fine a division as I have ever seen.’ He met the enemy under Rosecrans at Iuka, Miss., September 19, 1862, and the resulting battle was fought solely by his division. The Confederates were victorious, but while in the thickest of the fight Little was killed instantly by a minie ball which crashed through his forehead. He was buried that night by torchlight, and on the morrow the gloom among the troops caused by his death was one of the main causes for the abandonment of the field. Gen. Sterling Price, in reporting his death, paid him this touching and well-deserved tribute: ‘It will be seen that our success was obtained at the sacrifice of many a brave officer and soldier. Chief among them was Brig.-Gen. Henry Little, commanding the first division of the army. Than this brave Marylander no one could have fallen more dear to me, or whose memory should be more fondly cherished by his countrymen. No more skillful officer or more devout patriot has drawn his sword in this war of independence. He died in the day of his greatest usefulness, lamented by his friends, by the brigade of his love, by the division he so ably commanded, and by the army of the West, of which he had from the beginning been one of the chief ornaments.’
Atlanta, Ga. 1899.
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