Doc. 34.-Beauregard's orders.
headquarters army of the Mississippi, Corinth, Miss., May 10, 1862.
The following communication from the Commander of the forces is published for the information and guidance of this army.
Let it respond to this emphatic command of “Forward, and always forward,” and the Northern horde now approaching us will fly as “chaff before the wind.”
headquarters Western Department, Corinth, Miss., May 10.
Immediately after any engagement with the enemy, you will require each regimental commander to forward to these headquarters, for publication in orders, the names of those officers and privates of his regiment who shall have most distinguished themselves; as well as those who have misbehaved or abandoned their colors on the field of battle.
Regiments whose gallantry and bravery shall have been most conspicuous, will be allowed to inscribe on their banners the name of the battle-field on which they were engaged, but regiments misbehaving in action will be deprived of their colors until they may have shown themselves worthy of defending them.
From the difficulty of communicating orders in the country in which we are operating, it is necessary that each division, brigade and regimental commander, should clearly understand that, when without orders or at a loss to know
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what to do in action, they must rapidly advance in the direction of the heaviest firing; for the art of war consists in concentration of masses.
Moreover, our motto should be, “Forward, and always forward!”
until victory may perch decisively upon our banners.
The more rapid the attack the weaker, habitually, the resistance.
Respectfully, General, your ob't serv't, G. T. Beauregard, Gen. Com'g. To Major-General Braxton Bragg, Com'g Army of the Miss. By command of General Bragg. George C. Garner, Assistant Adjutant General.
