[759]
An order to charge at Corinth.
by David S. Stanley, Major-General, U. S. V.
An assertion made by General Rosecrans in “The century” magazine for October, 1886, is misleading. The statement [see p. 751] is as follows :I ordered the 27th Ohio and the 11th Missouri to kneel in rear of the right of Robinett so as to get out of the range of the enemy's lire, and the moment he had exhausted himself to charge with the bayonet.The lapse of a quarter of a century has certainly made the memory of the worthy general treacherous, for at the time that his memory causes him to say that he gave this order, I saw him a quarter of a mile away trying to rally Davies's troops to resist the advancing forces of the Confederates, and I consider it impossible for the two regiments to have heard any order from him above the rifle's rattle and the cannon's roar at such a distance. I cannot say what General Rosecrans may have said to these regiments about using the bayonet when visiting my lines that morning before the occurrence mentioned, but I do know that I posted them myself, and that Colonel J. W. Fuller, 27th Ohio, commander of the brigade during the heat of the battle, gave the order for his own and the 1th Missouri regiments to charge with the bayonet. San Antonio, Texas, January 19th, 1888.
