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[119]
the latter, greatly disappointed at the delay, again issued peremptory orders to push on at once after the enemy.
Rosecrans started out on the morning of the 5th, but was misinformed or misled, and took the road towards Chewalla, instead of that further south, by which the enemy had moved.
After marching about eight miles out of the way, he discovered his blunder, and turned his column towards the Hatchie.
Meanwhile, the fight with Ord for the crossing had occurred, and the rebels had been driven six miles away, to a second bridge higher up the stream.
This bridge, at Crum's mills, was narrow and long, and stretched over a wide and swampy bottom, impassable for troops.
It, in fact, formed a defile, along which the entire rebel army was obliged to march.
Had Rosecrans moved promptly the day before, he would have come up in the rear of Van Dorn, either as he was fighting Ord, or while attempting to pass this defile.
In either event, the destruction of the rebels must have been complete; but the national forces arrived at the Hatchie, just as the rear-guard of the enemy had crossed.
Rosecrans, from here, sent word again to Grant of the condition of affairs, and Grant decided that the favorable opportunity had been lost; Rosecrans, however, now urged that he should be permitted to advance, but Grant declined to allow it. He considered that Van Dorn had got too much of a start to leave any well-founded hope of overtaking him, especially as heavy rains had set in, rendering the roads almost impassable.
The
New York Appleton 1885.
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