From Fort Henry to Corinth Part 4

All the troops but c.u.mming's brigade returned to their camps on the Missouri sh.o.r.e on the 8th. Colonel c.u.mming, having charge of the prisoners, returned on the evening of the 9th. General Pope, in his final detailed report giving the result of all the operations, states: "Three generals, two hundred and seventy-three field and company officers, six thousand seven hundred privates, one hundred and twenty-three pieces of heavy artillery, thirty-five pieces of field artillery, all of the very best character and of the latest patterns, seven thousand stand of small arms, tents for twelve thousand men, several wharf-boat loads of provisions, an immense quant.i.ty of ammunition of all kinds, many hundred horses and mules, with wagons and harness, etc., are among the spoils." The capture embraced, besides, six steamboats--two of them sunk--the gunboat Grampus, carrying two guns, sunk; and the floating battery, carrying nine guns, which the crew had ineffectually attempted to scuttle before abandoning it. Two of the generals captured were brigadier-generals, Mackall and Gantt; the third was perhaps L.M. Walker. When Major-General McCown was relieved on March 31st by Mackall, McCown and Brigadier-General Trudeau left.

Brigadier-General A.P. Stewart had left previously and reported for duty at Corinth. Colonels Walker and Gantt were promoted brigadier-generals after the siege began. General Walker appears, from his report of April 9th, dated St. Francis County, Arkansas, to have left on account of ill-health some time before the surrender. The prisoners embraced, including those on the island surrendered to the navy, seven regiments and one battalion of infantry, one of the regiments having twelve companies--eleven companies of heavy and one of light artillery, two companies of cavalry, the officers and crews of the floating battery and the steamboats, and laborers and employees.

The Mississippi was now open to Fort Pillow. General Halleck telegraphed to General Pope: "I congratulate you and your command on your splendid achievement. It exceeds in boldness and brilliancy all other operations of the war. It will be memorable in military history, and will be admired by future generations." On April 12th, General Pope and his entire command embarked on transports and steamed down the river, in company with the gunboat fleet. The force arrived in front of Fort Pillow on the 14th. In a few days, before reconnoitring was completed, Pope was ordered to report with his whole command, except two regiments to be left with the gunboats, to General Halleck at Pittsburg Landing.

CHAPTER V.

THE GATHERING OF THE FORCES.

After the surrender of Fort Donelson, the force confronting Halleck was the command of General Beauregard, stationed at Columbus, Island Number Ten, at Forts Pillow and Randolph, at Memphis, and at convenient points on the railroads in Mississippi. The next objective point that presented itself was Memphis, and, as preliminary, the fortified points on the river above it. But Memphis had large railway connections. The direct road to Nashville was cut at its crossing over the Tennessee River, but at Humboldt it intersected the Mobile and Ohio, which joined Columbus with Mobile. The Memphis and Charleston, running nearly due east to Chattanooga, also intersected the Mobile and Ohio at Corinth. The Mississippi and Tennessee, in connection with the New Orleans, Jackson and Great Northern, gave a route nearly due south to New Orleans, and this intersected at Jackson, Mississippi, another road running east, and which needed only a connecting link between Selma and Montgomery, Alabama, to make it also a through route to the Atlantic States. To destroy the junction at Humboldt would cut off railway connection with Columbus. To destroy the junction at Corinth would cut off connection with the east. A little eastwardly of Corinth, near Eastport, was a considerable railroad bridge over Bear Creek. General Halleck's first step, therefore, was to break these railway connections, and as General A.S. Johnston was falling back southwardly, it became doubly important to sever these connections for the purpose of preventing a conjunction of the forces under Johnston and Beauregard. Lieutenant-Commander Phelps had gone up to Florence, at the foot of Muscle Shoals, immediately after the surrender of Fort Henry, without difficulty. An expedition up the Tennessee, to send out strong, light parties, suggested itself as the natural means of accomplis.h.i.+ng the first step. General Halleck proposed to accomplish this by his lieutenants before taking the field in person.

Halleck was sedate, deliberate, cautious. He had written a book on strategy and logistics, and his attention appeared sometimes to be distracted from the actual conditions under which the present military operations were to be conducted by his retrospective reference to the rules which he had announced. Grant, under his extremely quiet demeanor, was full of restless activity. His purpose seemed to be to strike and overcome the enemy without waiting; to use whatever seemed the best means at hand; ready at all times to change for better means if they could be found; but never to cease striking. Halleck was worried by being jogged to new enterprises, but heartily supported them when once begun. C.F. Smith had a brusque manner, but a warm heart. He was direct and honest as a child. He seemed impetuous, but his outburst was a rush of controlled power. He was a thorough soldier, an enthusiast in his profession, the soul of honor, the type of discipline. His commanding officer was to him embodied law; it would have been impossible for him to conceive that his duty and subordination could in any way be affected by the fact that his pupil in the Military Academy had become his commander.

General Grant, being commander of the Military District of Western Tennessee, with limits undefined, sent General C.F. Smith from Fort Donelson, fifty miles up the river to Clarksville, to take possession of the place and the railway bridge over the river there. General Grant wrote to General Cullum, advising him of this movement and proposing the capture of Nashville, but adding he was ready for any move the General Commanding might direct. On the 24th he wrote to General Cullum, General Halleck's chief of staff, that he had sent four regiments to Clarksville, and would send no more till he heard from General Halleck.

Next day he wrote that the head of Buell's column had reached Nashville, and he would go there on the receipt of the next mail, unless it should contain some orders preventing him. He went to Nashville on the 27th, and returned to Fort Donelson next day. In his absence there was, among some of the troops about Fort Donelson, fresh from civil life and restive under the inactivity and restraint of a winter camp, some disorder and insubordination. There was, moreover, some marauding in which officers partic.i.p.ated. General Grant, on his return, published orders repressing such practices, arrested the guilty parties and sent the arrested officers to St. Louis to report to General Halleck.

On March 1st General Halleck sent to General Grant, from St. Louis, an order directing the course of immediate operations: "Transports will be sent to you as soon as possible to move your column up the Tennessee River. The main object of this expedition will be to destroy the railroad bridge over Bear Creek, near Eastport, Miss., and also the connections at Corinth, Jackson, and Humboldt. It is thought best that these objects should be attempted in the order named. Strong detachments of cavalry and light artillery, supported by infantry, may, by rapid movements, reach these points from the river without very serious opposition. Avoid any general engagement with strong forces. It will be better to retreat than to risk a general battle. This should be strongly impressed upon the officers sent with the expedition from the river.

General C.F. Smith, or some very discreet officer, should be selected for such commands. Having accomplished these objects, or such of them as may be practicable, you will return to Danville and move on Paris....

Competent officers should be left to command the garrisons of Forts Henry and Donelson in your absence...." General Grant received the order on March 2d, and repaired at once to Fort Henry. On the 4th the forces at Fort Donelson marched across to the Tennessee, where they were speedily joined by Sherman's division and other reinforcements coming by boat up the river.

On March 2d General Halleck, having received an anonymous letter reflecting on General Grant, telegraphed to General McClellan, the General-in-Chief, at Was.h.i.+ngton: "I have had no communication with General Grant for more than a week. He left his command without my authority, and went to Nashville. His army seems to be as much demoralized by the victory of Fort Donelson as was that of the Potomac by the defeat of Bull Run. It is hard to censure a successful general immediately after a victory, but I think he richly deserves it. I can get no reports, no returns, no information of any kind from him.

Satisfied with his victory, he sits down and enjoys it without any regard to the future. I am worn out and tired by this neglect and inefficiency. C.F. Smith is almost the only officer equal to the emergency." Next day McClellan answered by telegraph: "The future success of our cause demands that proceedings such as General Grant's should at once be checked. Generals must observe discipline as well as private soldiers. Do not hesitate to arrest him at once if the good of the service requires it, and place C.F. Smith in command. You are at liberty to regard this as a positive order, if it will smooth your way."

On the 4th General Halleck telegraphed to Grant: "You will place Major-General C.F. Smith in command of expedition, and remain yourself at Fort Henry. Why do you not obey my orders to report strength and position of your command?" Grant replied next day: "Troops will be sent under command of Major-General Smith, as directed. I had prepared a different plan, intending General Smith to command the forces which should go to Paris and Humboldt, while I would command the expedition upon Eastport, Corinth, and Jackson in person.... I am not aware of ever having disobeyed any order from your headquarters--certainly never intended such a thing. I have reported almost daily the condition of my command, and reported every position occupied...." An interchange of telegrams of substantially the same tenor, General Halleck's gradually losing their asperity, lasted a week longer. On March 10th, the day before the President, by War Order No. 3, relieved General McClellan from the supreme command of the armies, General L. Thomas, Adjutant-General of the Army, wrote to General Halleck: "It has been reported that, soon after the battle of Fort Donelson, Brigadier-General Grant left his command without leave. By direction of the President, the Secretary of War directs you to ascertain and report whether General Grant left his command at any time without proper authority, and if so, for how long; whether he has made to you proper reports and returns of his forces; whether he has committed any acts which were unauthorized or not in accordance with military subordination or propriety, and if so, what?" On the 13th Halleck telegraphed to Grant, who had asked to be relieved if his course was not satisfactory, or until he could be set right: "You cannot be relieved from your command. There is no good reason for it. I am certain that all which the authorities at Was.h.i.+ngton ask is, that you enforce discipline and punish the disorderly....

Instead of relieving you, I wish you, as soon as your new army is in the field, to a.s.sume the immediate command and lead it on to new victories."

To this Grant replied next day: "After your letter enclosing copy of an anonymous letter upon which severe censure was based, I felt as though it would be impossible for me to serve longer without a court of inquiry. Your telegram of yesterday, however, places such a different phase upon my position that I will again a.s.sume command, and give every effort to the success of our cause. Under the worst circ.u.mstances I would do the same." On the 15th General Halleck replied to the Adjutant-General of the Army, fully exonerating General Grant. General C.F. Smith felt keenly the injustice done to Grant, and gladly relinquished command of the expedition when Grant a.s.sumed it.

Meanwhile the army with its stores had been gathering on a fleet of boats between Fort Henry and the railroad bridge. To the three divisions of Fort Donelson, First, Second, and Third, commanded by C.F. Smith, McClernand, and Lewis Wallace, were added a fourth, commanded by Brigadier-General S.A. Hurlbut, and a fifth by Brigadier-General W. T.

Sherman. While C.F. Smith commanded the expedition, his division was commanded by W.H.L. Wallace, who had been promoted to brigadier-general.

The steamer Golden State, with one-half of the Fortieth Illinois, reached Savannah, on the right bank of the river, on March 5th. The Forty-sixth Ohio arrived the next day. Behind these was the fleet of more than eighty steamboats, carrying the five divisions and convoyed by three gunboats, a vast procession extending miles along the winding river, each boat with its pillar of smoke by day, and of fire by night.

The fleet began arriving at Savannah on the 11th, and lined both sh.o.r.es of the river. Lewis Wallace's division sent a party to the railroad west of the river, striking it at Purdy, tearing up a portion, but doing no permanent injury, and returned. On the 14th, General Smith sent Sherman's division up the river to strike the railroad near Eastport.

Rain fell in torrents, roads melted into mud, and small streams rose with dangerous rapidity. The expedition, arrested by an unfordable torrent, returned just in time to reach the landing by wading through water waist-deep. The boats left in the night of the 15th, and stopped at Pittsburg Landing, on the west bank of the river, about nine miles above Savannah. Hurlbut's division was already on boats at this landing, having been ordered thither by General C.F. Smith on the evening of the 14th.

The first step in the programme laid down in General Halleck's order of March 1st, the destruction of the railroad near Eastport, had failed, and events had now required a material change in the programme. General Buell on March 3d telegraphed to Halleck: "What can I do to aid your operations against Columbus?" Halleck, replying next day that Columbus was evacuated and destroyed, added: "Why not come to the Tennessee and operate with me to cut Johnston's line with Memphis, Randolph, and New Madrid.... Estimated strength of enemy at New Madrid, Randolph and Memphis is fifty thousand. It is of vital importance to separate them from Johnston's army. Come over to Savannah or Florence, and we can do it. We can then operate on Decatur or Memphis, or both, as may appear best." Buell rejoined on the 5th: "The thing I think of vital importance is that you seize and hold the bridge at Florence in force." On the 6th Halleck telegraphed: "News down the Tennessee that Beauregard has twenty thousand men at Corinth, and is rapidly fortifying it. Smith will probably not be strong enough to attack it. It is a great misfortune to lose that point. I shall reinforce Smith as rapidly as possible. If you can send a division by water around into the Tennessee, it would require only a small amount of transportation to do it." To this Buell telegraphed on the 9th, insisting on his suggestions made on the 5th.

Halleck dispatched on the 10th: "My forces are moving up the Tennessee River as rapidly as we can obtain transportation. Florence was the point originally designated, but, on account of the enemy's forces at Corinth and Humboldt, it is deemed best to land at Savannah and establish a depot. The transportation will serve as ferries. The selection is left to C.F. Smith, who commands the advance.... You do not say whether we are to expect any reinforcements from Nashville." On the same day Buell telegraphed: "... The establishment of your force on this side of the river, as high up as possible, is evidently judicious.... I can join you almost, if not quite as soon, by water, in better condition and with greater security to your operations and mine. I believe you cannot be too promptly nor too strongly established on the Tennessee. I shall advance in a very few days, as soon as our transportation is ready." On the 11th the President issued War Order No. 3. "Major-General McClellan, having personally taken the field at the head of the Army of the Potomac, until otherwise ordered, he is relieved from the command of the other military departments, he retaining command of the Department of the Potomac.

"Ordered further, that the two departments now under the respective commands of Generals Halleck and Hunter, together with so much of that, under General Buell, as lies west of a north and south line indefinitely drawn through Knoxville, Tennessee, be consolidated and designated the Department of the Mississippi; and that, until otherwise ordered, Major-General Halleck have command of said department." Immediately upon the receipt of this order, General Halleck ordered Buell to march his army to Savannah. The forces of the Confederacy were gathering at Corinth; the forces of Halleck and Buell were ma.s.sing at Savannah.

Instead of a hurried dash by a flying column, to tear up a section of railway as ancillary to a real movement elsewhere, the programme now contemplated a struggle by armies for the retention or for the destruction of a strategic point deemed almost vital to the Confederacy.

About the close of February, General Beauregard sent a field-battery, supported by two regiments of infantry, to occupy the river-bluff at Pittsburg Landing, twenty-three miles northwest from Corinth, and nine miles above Savannah. Lieutenant-Commander Gwin, who was stationed at Savannah with two gunboats, the Tyler and the Lexington, proceeded to Pittsburg Landing, on March 1st, and, after a brisk skirmish, silenced the battery and drove it and its supports away. General C.F. Smith, in pursuance of the authority given him by General Halleck, selected this as the point of a.s.sembly of the army.

Lick Creek, above the landing, and Snake Creek, below it, empty into the river about three miles apart, the landing being nearer the mouth of Snake Creek. Lick Creek, rising in a swamp, flows eleven miles nearly northeast to the river. Snake Creek flows nearly east to the river. Owl Creek flows nearly parallel to Lick Creek, at a distance from it varying from three to five miles, and empties into Snake Creek something more than a mile from its mouth. The land enclosed between these creeks and the river is a rolling plateau from eighty to a hundred feet above the river-level. The riverfront of this plateau is cut by sundry sloughs and ravines, which were at that time overflowed by back-water. One of these deep ravines, running back at right angles to the river, is immediately above the bluff at the landing. About a mile back from the river, and about a mile above the landing, is a swell in the ground, not marked enough to be called a ridge. From this higher ground extend the head ravines of Oak Creek,[1] a rivulet or brook flowing to the west, pa.s.sing within a few hundred yards of s.h.i.+loh Church, and then turning to the northwest and flowing into Owl Creek. In the reports of Sherman's division this rivulet is treated as the main branch of Owl Creek, and called by that name. From the same rising ground, ravines, wet only after a rain, extend east and southeast to Lick Creek. From the same position extend the head ravines of Brier Creek,[1] a deep ravine with little water, which flows almost due north and empties into Snake Creek a little below the mouth of Owl Creek. The three princ.i.p.al creeks, Lick, Snake, and Owl, flow through swampy valleys, bordered by abrupt bluffs.

Oak Creek, from the neighborhood of s.h.i.+loh Church to its mouth, flows through a miry bottom bordered by banks of less height. The land was for the most part covered with timber, partly with dense undergrowth; in places were perhaps a dozen open fields containing about eighty acres each. A road, lying far enough back from the river to avoid the sloughs, led from the landing to Hamburg Landing, about six miles above. Another road from the landing crossed Brier Creek and Snake Creek just above their junction, and continued down the river to Crump's Landing. The road to Corinth forked near the landing, one branch of it pa.s.sing by s.h.i.+loh Church, the other keeping nearer to the river, but both reuniting five or six miles out. The position selected thus, gave ample room to camp an army, was absolutely protected on the sides of the river, Snake Creek, and Owl Creek, while from its south face a ridge gave open way to Corinth. The open way to Corinth was also an open way from Corinth to the landing. This accessible front could easily have been turned into a strong defence, by taking advantage of the rolling ground, felling timber, and throwing up slight earthworks. But the army had many things yet to learn, and the use of field fortification was one of them.

[Footnote 1: The names Oak Creek and Brier Creek are obtained from Colonel Charles Whittlesey, who made a study of the field every day for two weeks succeeding the battle.]

In pursuance of General C.F. Smith's instructions to occupy the landing strongly, General Sherman ordered General Hurlbut to disembark his division and encamp it at right angles to the road about a mile out. The Corinth road designated was the one lying nearer to the river. About half a mile beyond the position selected for the camp the road forks, one being the Corinth road running southwest, the other running nearly due west, pa.s.sed about four hundred yards north of s.h.i.+loh Church, crossed Oak Creek and Owl Creek immediately above their junction, and continued to Purdy. General Hurlbut the same day issued a field order in minute detail, and the First and Second Brigades being all of the division at hand, marched to the prescribed point, Burrows' battery being posted at the road; the First Brigade at right angles with the road, with its left at the battery; the Third Brigade at right angles with the road, its right at Burrows' battery, and Mann's battery at its left. The Second Brigade, commanded by Colonel Veatch, subsequently arriving, camped to the rear and partially to the right of the First Brigade, so as almost to interlock with the camp of General C.F. Smith's division.

On the 18th, Sherman's division of four brigades landed, and moved out a few days later to permanent camp. The Second Brigade, sent to watch some fords of Lick Creek, was posted in the fork of a cross-road running to Purdy from the Hamburg road. The Fourth Brigade, commanded by Colonel Buckland, camped with its left near s.h.i.+loh Church, and its color-line nearly at right angles with the Corinth road. The First Brigade, commanded by Colonel McDowell, went into camp to the right of Buckland, and was separated from him by a lateral ravine running into Oak Creek; the camp was pitched between the Purdy road and the bluff-banks of Oak Creek. The Third Brigade, commanded by Colonel Hildebrand, was posted to the left of s.h.i.+loh Church, its right being near the church. Precision in camping was not exacted, and the left regiment of Colonel Hildebrand's Brigade, the Fifty-third Ohio, in order to enclose a fine spring of water within the brigade, pitched its camp about two hundred yards to the left and front of its next regiment (the Fifty-seventh Ohio), and was separated from the rest of the brigade by this distance and by a stream with swampy borders which emptied into Oak Creek. General Sherman's headquarters were to the rear of s.h.i.+loh Church. His batteries, Taylor's and Waterhouse's, together with his cavalry, were camped in rear of the infantry.

General Grant arrived at Savannah on the 17th and a.s.sumed command, reported to General Halleck, and on the same day ordered General C.F.

Smith's division to Pittsburg Landing. His division, the Second, encamped, not in a line, but in convenient localities on the plateau between Brier Creek and the river. McClernand with the First Division was sent a few days later, and selecting the most level ground, laid out the most regular camp. His front crossed the Corinth road about two-thirds of a mile in rear of s.h.i.+loh Church, the road intersecting his line near his left flank; the direction of his line was to the northwest, reaching toward the bluffs of the valley of Snake Creek.

General Prentiss reported to General Grant for a.s.signment to duty, and about March 25th, six new regiments, not yet a.s.signed, reported to him and were by him put into two brigades const.i.tuting the Sixth Division.

These brigades were subsequently increased by regiments a.s.signed to him as late as April 5th and 6th. The Fifth Ohio Battery, Captain Hickenlooper, arriving on April 5th, was a.s.signed to the Sixth Division, and went into camp. Prentiss' camp faced to the south. It is not easy now to identify precisely its position. It appears incidentally, from reports of the battle of April 6th, that a ravine ran along the rear of the right of the division camp, and another ravine in front of the left.

The left regiment (the Sixteenth Wisconsin) of the right brigade (Peabody's) lay on the lower or most southern branch of the Corinth road; the left flank of the division was in sight of Stuart's brigade; there was a considerable gap between its right flank and Sherman's division. The divisions were not camped with a view to defence against an apprehended attack; but they did fulfil General Halleck's instructions to General C.F. Smith, to select a depot with a view to the march on to Corinth. Sherman's division lay across one road to Corinth, with McClernand's in its rear; Prentiss' division lay across the other road to Corinth, with Hurlbut in his rear, and C.F. Smith was camped so as to follow either. The divisions did not march to the selected ground and pitch camp in a forenoon; but, partly from the rain and mud, partly want of practice, some of the divisions were several days unloading from the boats, hauling in the great trains then allowed to regiments (twenty-seven wagons and two ambulances to a regiment in some cases,) laying out the ground, and putting up tents. General Sherman, before settling down in his camp, made a reconnoissance out to Monterey, nearly half way to Corinth, and dislodged a detachment of hostile cavalry camped there. Every division and many of the brigades found a separate drill-ground in some neighboring field, and constant drilling was preparing the command for the march to Corinth.

Major-General C.F. Smith received an injury to his leg by jumping into a yawl early in March. This injury, seeming trivial at first, resulted in his death on April 25th. It became so aggravated by the end of March that he was obliged to move from Pittsburg Landing to Savannah, leaving Brigadier-General W.H.L. Wallace in command of his division, and Major-General McClernand, senior officer present, at Pittsburg. General Grant--who went up from Savannah every day to visit the camps, and was requested by General McClernand, by letter on March 27th, to move his headquarters to Pittsburg Landing--was about to transfer his headquarters thither on April 4th, when he received a letter from General Buell saying he would arrive next day at Savannah, and requesting an interview. The transfer of headquarters was accordingly postponed till after the interview.

General L. Wallace's division disembarked at Crump's Landing on the same side of the river with Pittsburg Landing, and a little above Savannah.

His First Brigade went into camp near the river; the Second at Stony Lonesome, about two miles out on the road to Purdy; the Third Brigade immediately beyond Adamsville, on the same road. The Third Brigade went into camp on the inner slope of a sharp ridge, and cut down the timber on the exterior slope, to aid the holding of the position in case of an attack in front.

While Grant's army was sailing up the river and getting settled at Pittsburg, General Buell with five divisions of his army was marching from Nashville to Savannah. Immediately on receiving General Halleck's order to march, he sent out his cavalry to secure the bridges on his route, in which they succeeded, except in the cases of the important bridge over Duck Creek at Columbia, and an unimportant bridge a few miles north of that. On the 15th, the Fourth Division, commanded by Brigadier-General A. McD. McCook, moved out, and at intervals, up to March 20th, it was followed in order by the Fifth, Brigadier-General T.L. Crittenden, Sixth, Brigadier-General T.J. Wood, and First, Brigadier-General George H. Thomas--37,000 men in all. Having no pontoons, General Buell built a bridge over Duck Creek. This would have caused little delay later in the war; but to fresh troops, who yet had to learn the business of military service, it was a formidable task, and was not completed till the 29th. While waiting for the completion of the bridge, General Buell's command learned that General Grant's army was on the west bank of the Tennessee. General Nelson at once asked permission to ford the stream and push rapidly on to Savannah. Permission being obtained, the division, with Ammen's brigade--the Twenty-fourth Ohio, Sixth Ohio, and Thirty-sixth Indiana in front--began their march early on the morning of the 29th, the men stripped of their pantaloons, carrying their cartridge-boxes on their necks; the ammunition-boxes of the artillery taken from the limbers and carried over on scows, and tents packed in the bottom of the wagon-beds, to lift ammunition and stores above water.

The bridge was finished and the march resumed the same day. Nelson having secured the advance, his eagerness gave an impetus to the entire column. The divisions were ordered to camp at night six miles apart, making a column thirty miles long. But this prevented the clogging of the march on the wet and soft roads, the alternate crowding up and lengthening out of the column, the weary waiting of the crowded rear for the obstructed front to move, nights spent on the road, and late bivouacs reached toward morning. It made Buell's advance slow, but it prevented the new troops from being worn out, and brought them in good condition onto the field. General Buell intended to take at Waynesboro the road to Hamburg Landing, instead of the direct road to Savannah, and put his army there into a separate camp. General Nelson, however, moving faster than was expected, drew the divisions behind him through Waynesboro, on the road to Savannah, before General Buell issued the order, and so unconsciously defeated the intention. Nelson's brigade reached Savannah during April 5th, Crittenden's division camped that night a few miles distant, and General Buell himself reached Savannah or its outskirts some time in the evening.

General A.S. Johnston was encamped with his army at Edgefield, opposite Nashville, on February 15th. A despatch from General Pillow that evening announced a great victory won by the garrison of Fort Donelson. Just before daybreak of the 16th another despatch was received, that Buckner would capitulate at daylight. Immediately staff and orderlies were aroused, and the troops put in motion across the river to Nashville. The morning papers were filled with the "victory, glorious and complete,"

and the city was ringing with joy. In the forenoon the news spread of the surrender of Donelson. The people were struck with dismay, the city was in panic, the populace was delirious with excitement. A wild mob surrounded Johnston's headquarters and demanded to know whether their generals intended to fight or not.

Johnston immediately began the abandonment of Nashville. First were sent off the fifteen hundred sick brought on from Bowling Green, together with the tenants of the hospitals at Nashville. The railway was then taxed to its utmost to carry away the stores of most value. It was evident that all the stores could not be taken away, and pillage of commissary stores and quartermaster stores by citizens was permitted. A regiment of infantry and a battalion of cavalry were put on guard and patrolled the streets to reduce the riotous to order. Johnston moved out with his command on February 18th, leaving Floyd and Forrest with a force in Nashville to preserve order, remove the public stores, and to destroy what could not be removed.

Popular excitement always demands a victim, and the outcry was almost universal that Johnston should be relieved from command. But, to a deputation that went to Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederacy, with this request, he replied: "I know Johnston well. If he is not a general, we had better give up the war, for we have no general."

Johnston found the Tennessee, running from Alabama and Mississippi up to the Ohio, in the possession of the National fleets and armies. The force under his immediate command was therefore separated from the force under Beauregard that was guarding the Mississippi. Unless they should join, they would be beaten in detail. To join involved the surrender either of Central Tennessee or of the Mississippi. Johnston resolved to give up Central Tennessee until he could regain it, and hold on to the Mississippi. But to hold the Mississippi required continued possession of the railroads, and such points especially as Corinth and Humboldt.

Corinth, both from its essential importance and its exposure to attack by reason of its nearness to the river, was the point for concentration.

Johnston moved from Nashville to Murfreesboro, not on the direct route to Corinth, to conceal his purpose. At Murfreesboro he added to the forces brought from Bowling Green between three and four thousand of the men who escaped from Donelson, and the command of General Crittenden from Kentucky, quickly raising his force at Murfreesboro to seventeen thousand men. Leaving Murfreesboro on February 28th, marching through Shelbyville to Decatur, he arrived at Corinth, on March 24th, with twenty thousand men. General Bragg, with ten thousand well-drilled troops from Pensacola, had preceded him. General Ruggles, with a brigade, came from New Orleans; Major-General Polk, with General Cheatham's division from Columbus, with the troops that escaped from Island No. Ten the night before escape was cut off, and various outlying garrisons under General Beauregard's command, swelled the concourse. Van Dorn, having failed to drive Curtis back into Missouri, was ordered to come with his command to Corinth. A regiment arrived before April 6th, the rest later. Detached commands guarding the line of the Memphis and Charleston Railroad were called in. The governors of States were called on and raised new levies. Beauregard made a personal appeal for volunteers, which brought in several regiments. Johnston had before called for reinforcements in vain. Now every nerve was strained to aid him. An inspection of his command satisfied him that if all the soldiers detailed as cooks and teamsters were relieved, he would have another brigade of effective men. He sent messengers through the surrounding country, urging citizens to hire their negroes as cooks and teamsters for ninety days, or even sixty days. But the messengers returned with the answer that the planters would freely give their last son, but they would not part with a negro or a mule.

General Bragg, on arriving at Corinth, wished to attack the troops as they were beginning to land at Pittsburg and Crump's landings. General Beauregard forbade this, writing to Bragg: "I would prefer the defensive-offensive--that is, to take up such a position as would compel the enemy to develop his intentions, and to attack us, before he could penetrate any distance from his base; then, when within striking distance of us, to take the offensive and crush him wherever we may happen to strike him, cutting him off, if possible, from his base of operations or the river."

On March 25th, Johnston completed the concentration of his troops. Van Dorn was in person in Corinth, and was ordered to bring forward his command. Johnston determined to wait as long as practicable for it.

Meanwhile, to hasten the organization and preparation of his army, he appointed Gen. Bragg chief of staff for the time, but to resume command of his corps when the movement should begin. Of him, Colonel William Preston Johnston says, in his life of his father--a valuable book, prepared with great industry, and written with an evident desire to be fair: "In Bragg there was so much that was strong marred by most evident weakness, so many virtues blemished by excess or defect in temper and education, so near an approach to greatness and so manifest a failure to attain it, that his worst enemy ought to find something to admire in him, and his best friend something painful in the attempt to portray him truly." A thorough disciplinarian and a master of detail, his merits found full play, and his defects were less apparent in his position on the staff.

Johnston was organizing his army; Grant was a.s.sembling his twenty-three miles away. On the other side of the Tennessee, ninety miles from Savannah, Buell, halted by Duck Creek, was building a bridge for his troops--a bridge which it required twelve days to construct. Johnston having completed his concentration, it was his obvious policy to attack before Grant should be further reinforced. General Beauregard, in his letter of March 18th to Bragg, said: "While I have guarded you against an uncertain offensive, I am decidedly of the opinion that we should endeavor to entice the enemy into an engagement as soon as possible, and before he shall have further increased his numbers by the large numbers which he must still have in reserve and available--that is, beat him in detail." Lee wrote to Johnston, on March 26th: "I need not urge you, when your army is united, to deal a blow at the enemy in your front, if possible, before his rear gets up from Nashville. You have him divided, and keep him so, if you can." It was Johnston's purpose, and expressed, to attack Grant before Buell should arrive. But he determined to continue organizing and waiting for Van Dorn as long as that would be safe.

At eleven o'clock at night of April 2d, Johnston learned that Buell was moving "rapidly from Columbia, by Clifton, to Savannah." About one o'clock in the morning of Thursday, the 3d, preliminary orders were issued to hold the troops in readiness to move at a moment's notice, with five days' rations and one hundred rounds of ammunition. The movement began in the afternoon. The army was arranged in three corps, commanded respectively by Polk, Bragg, and Hardee, and a reserve under Breckenridge. Beauregard was second in command, without a specific command. Major-General Hardee's corps consisted of Brigadier-General Hindman's division and Brigadier-General Cleburne's brigade. The division consisted of Hindman's brigade, commanded by Colonel Shaver, and Brigadier-General Wood's brigade. Wood's brigade comprised five regiments, and two battalions of infantry and a battery; Cleburne's brigade was composed of six regiments and two batteries. Major-General Bragg's corps consisted of two divisions, commanded respectively by Brigadier-General Ruggles and Brigadier-General Withers. The brigades of Ruggles' division were commanded by Colonel Gibson, Brigadier-General Patton Anderson, and Colonel Pond. Withers' brigades were commanded by Brigadier-Generals Gladden, Chalmers, and Jackson. The brigades of Chalmers and Gladden contained each five regiments and a battery; the other brigades contained each four regiments and a battery, with, in Anderson's and Pond's each, an additional battalion of infantry.

Major-General Polk's corps had two divisions, commanded by Brigadier-General Clark and Major-General Cheatham. Clark's brigades were commanded by Colonel Russell and Brigadier-General A.P. Stewart; Cheatham's brigades were commanded by Brigadier-General B.R. Johnson and Colonel Stephens. Each brigade was made up of four regiments of infantry and a battery. Brigadier-General John C. Breckenridge's reserve comprised three brigades, commanded by Colonel Trabue, Brigadier-General Bowen, and Colonel Statham. Trabue had five regiments and two battalions, Bowen four regiments, and Statham six regiments of infantry.

Each brigade had a battery. By the returns, Cleburne's brigade was the largest, having 2,750 effectives. Besides, were three regiments, two battalions and one company of cavalry. This force comprised 40,000 of the 50,000 effectives gathered at Corinth. Different returns vary a few hundred more and a few hundred less. General Johnston telegraphed to Jefferson Davis, when the movement began, that the number was 40,000. In forming for battle, the army was to deploy into three parallel lines, the distance between the lines to be one thousand yards. Hardee's corps to be the first; Bragg's the second; and the third to be composed of Polk on the left and Breckenridge on the right.

Hardee, moving out in advance, in the afternoon of Thursday, halted Friday forenoon at Mickey's house, about seventeen miles from Corinth.

Bragg's corps bivouacked Friday night in rear of Hardee. Clark's division of Polk's corps followed in due order on its road. Cheatham's division, on outpost on the railroad at Purdy and Bethel, under orders to defend himself if attacked, otherwise to a.s.semble at Purdy, march thence to Monterey, and thence to position near Mickey's, did not leave Purdy till Sat.u.r.day morning, and reached his position Sat.u.r.day afternoon. Breckenridge, who marched from his station at Burnesville through Farmington without entering Corinth, using a cross-road, could not pull his wagons through the mud, and failed to get as far as Monterey Friday night. While Hardee was lying near Mickey's house, his cavalry felt the National outposts, and a reconnoitring party from the National camp struck Cleburne's brigade.

The order issued at Corinth required the columns to be deployed by seven o'clock, Sat.u.r.day morning, and the attack to begin at eight o'clock.

Hardee began his movement at daybreak, Sat.u.r.day, deployed about ten o'clock, and waited. His line being too short to extend from Owl Creek to Lick Creek, Gladden's brigade was moved forward from Bragg's corps, and added to Hardee's right. The rest of Withers' division moved into position behind Hardee's right; but Ruggles' division, const.i.tuting the right of Bragg's line, did not appear. Successive messengers bringing no satisfaction, General Johnston rode to the rear with his staff, till he found Ruggles' division standing still, with its head in an open field.

It was set in motion, Polk followed; Cheatham arrived from Purdy; Breckenridge extricated his command from the deep mud, and, by four o'clock in the afternoon, the deployment and formation of the army was complete. It was too late to attack that day. Beauregard urged that it was too late to attack at all, that it would now be impossible to effect a surprise, that the expedition should be abandoned and the troops march back to Corinth. Johnston directed the troops to bivouac, and attack to be made next day at daylight.

Of the five divisions at Pittsburg Landing, the organization of four--the First, McClernand's; Second, C.F. Smith's, commanded by Brigadier-General W.H.L. Wallace, General Smith being ill at Savannah; the Fourth, Hurlbut's; and the Fifth, Sherman's--was completed. The Sixth, commanded by Prentiss, was still in process of formation.

McClernand's First Brigade, composed of the Eighth and Eighteenth Illinois, Eleventh and Thirteenth Iowa, was commanded by Colonel Hare, of the Eleventh Iowa; the Second was composed of the Eleventh, Twentieth, Forty-fifth, and Forty-eighth Illinois, and commanded by Col.

Marsh, of the Twentieth Illinois; the Third, of the Seventeenth, Twenty-ninth, Forty-third, and Forty-ninth Illinois. Colonel Ross, of the Seventeenth Illinois, the senior colonel, being ill and absent, the command of this brigade devolved on Colonel Reardon, of the Twenty-ninth. The Second Division comprised three brigades: the First, commanded by Colonel Tuttle, of the Second Iowa, contained the Second, Seventh, Twelfth, and Fourteenth Iowa; the Second, commanded by Brigadier-General McArthur, comprised the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Missouri, Ninth and Twelfth Illinois, and Eighty-first Ohio. The Fourteenth Missouri, at that time, went by the name of Birge's Sharpshooters; the Third, commanded by Colonel Sweeney, of the Fifty-second Illinois, comprised the Eighth Iowa, and the Seventh, Fiftieth, Fifty-second, Fifty-seventh, and Fifty-eighth Illinois. The Fourth Division contained three brigades: the First, commanded by Colonel Williams, of the Third Iowa, contained the Third Iowa, Twenty-eighth, Thirty-second, and Forty-first Illinois; the Second, commanded by Colonel Veatch, of the Twenty-fifth Indiana, contained the Twenty-fifth Indiana, Fourteenth, Fifteenth, and Forty-sixth Illinois; the Third, commanded by Brigadier-General Lauman, who reported for duty Sat.u.r.day, April 5th, and was then a.s.signed to this command, comprised the Thirty-first and Forty-fourth Indiana, and the Seventeenth and Twenty-fifth Kentucky. The Fifth Division contained four brigades: the First, commanded by Colonel McDowell, of the Sixth Iowa, was made of the Sixth Iowa, Forty-sixth Ohio, and the Fortieth Illinois; the Second, commanded by Colonel Stuart, of the Fifty-fifth Illinois, was made of the Fifty-fifth Illinois and the Fifty-fourth and Seventy-first Ohio; the Third, commanded by Colonel Hildebrand, of the Seventy-seventh Ohio, contained the Fifty-third, Fifty-seventh, and Seventy-seventh Ohio; the Fourth, commanded by Colonel Buckland, of the Seventy-second Ohio, contained the Forty-eighth, Seventieth, and Seventy-second Ohio. The Sixth Division was organized into two brigades: the First Brigade, commanded by Colonel Peabody, of the Twenty-fifth Missouri, contained the Twenty-first and Twenty-fifth Missouri, Twelfth Michigan, and Sixteenth Wisconsin. The Second, commanded by Colonel Miller, of the Eighteenth Missouri, comprised the Eighteenth Missouri and Sixty-first Illinois. The Sixteenth Iowa, a.s.signed to this brigade, arriving fresh from the recruiting depot, without ammunition, on April 5th, reported to General Prentiss that day, but was sent by him to the landing early in the morning of the 6th, and was by General Grant a.s.signed to duty that day in another part of the field. The Eighteenth Wisconsin arrived and reported on April 5th, and the Twenty-third Missouri arrived in the morning of the 6th, and reported on the field at nine o'clock.[2] But these two regiments were not formally a.s.signed to either brigade. The Fifteenth Iowa, a.s.signed to this division, arrived the morning of April 6th, and was a.s.signed to duty in another part of the field. The Fourteenth Wisconsin, a.s.signed to the division, arrived late in the night of April 6th, and served on the 7th with Crittenden's division of Buell's army.