On the 22d of June General Bragg ordered to Vicksburg the first reinforcements, six thousand of Breckinridge's corps. On the 26th Van Dorn, who was left in command of Beauregard's army, removed his headquarters to Vicksburg, only to be immediately superseded by Bragg, who was in command of the department. On the 1st of June, Beauregard with all his army was in full retreat from Corinth. On the 17th, he abandoned his command and went to Bladen Springs, near Mobile, sick. Davis seems to have found some fault with Beauregard for retreating, but Beauregard says, “it was a brilliant and successful retreat,” which is about as good as a retreat can be. Halleck had an army before Corinth, on June 1, of ninety-five thousand men for duty. On the same day, Beauregard's command, covering the Army of the Mississippi, and the Army of the Department of the West, and some troops staying at Columbus, Mississippi, amounted in all to fifty-four thousand men for duty. These figures are from the official War Records, Volume X., Part I-II, p. 382. On the 19th of July some of Halleck's forces were en route to Chattanooga. How can these statements of Halleck be reconciled with each other, and with the facts? If he desired to serve the country, they show that he was utterly careless of his duty, for I take leave to repeat that there was nothing so important to be done at that time for the cause of the Union as to capture Vicksburg and open the river. A careful examination shows that there were not four thousand available armed men between Vicksburg and Halleck. Lovell says that his “troops were indifferently armed.” The truth is not to be disguised that Halleck did not want to capture Vicksburg, because then he would have had to share the honor with Farragut and his fleet. He never moved a man toward it,
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A. M. Thayer and Co. 1892.
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