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CHAPTER V.

CORINTH.

IMMEDIATELY after the battle of Shiloh, Major-General Halleck left Saint Louis, proceeded to Pittsburgh Landing, and there took personal command of the forces, which he caused to be reinforced from other parts of his department. MajorGeneral Pope was placed in command of the left wing, MajorGeneral Buell of the centre, Major-General Thomas of the right wing, and Major-General McClernand of the reserve, while Major-General Grant was assigned, by General Halleck, to nominal duty as second in command.

After his repulse at Shiloh, Beauregard concentrated his army at Corinth, and, strongly fortifying that position, and summoning to his aid all the available troops in the southwest, including the armies of Price and Van Dorn, from Missouri and Arkansas, as well as the militia of the States of Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, prepared for a determined defence. "Soldiers of Shiloh and Elkhorn!" he said to his troops, "we are about to meet once more in the shock of battle the invaders of our soil, the despoilers of our homes, the disturbers of our family ties, face to face, hand to hand. With your mingled banners, for the first time during this war, we shall meet the foe in strength that should give us victory. Soldiers, can the result be doubtful? Shall wo not drive back into Tennessee the presumptuous mercenaries collected for our subjugation? One more manly effort, and, trusting in God and the justness of our cause, we shall recover more than we have lately lost."

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Bragg, too, addressed his men in the same strain, telling them: "You will encounter him in your chosen position, strong

by nature and improved by art, away from his main support and reliance-gunboats and heavy batteries—and for the first time in this war, with nearly equal numbers."

Corinth, ninety-three miles west-southwest from Memphis, and twenty-nine miles from Pittsburgh, is the junction of the Mobile and Ohio and the Memphis and Charleston railroads. These two great lines intersecting each other at right angles, connect the Mississippi with the Atlantic and the Ohio with the Gulf.

On the 13th of May, having three thousand four hundred and ten absent, sick, and wounded, out of a total of five thousand four hundred and sixty men, Sherman found it necessary to consolidate his division into three brigades, as follows: First brigade, to be commanded by Brigadier-General Morgan L. Smith, Eighth Missouri, Fifty-fifth Illinois, Fifty-fourth Ohio, and Fifty-seventh Ohio; second brigade, Colonel J. A. McDowell, Sixth Iowa, Forty-sixth Ohio, Fortieth Illinois, and Seventy-seventh Ohio; third brigade, Colonel R. P. Buckland, Seventy-second Ohio, Seventieth Ohio, Forty-eighth Ohio, and Fifty-third Ohio. On the following day, however, BrigadierGeneral James W. Denver arrived, reported to General Sherman for duty, and was assigned to the command of the third brigade.

General Halleck advanced cautiously and by slow marches, intrenching at every step. On the afternoon of 17th of May, in conformity with instructions previously received by him from the commander-in-chief, General Sherman made dispositions to drive the enemy from his position at Russell's house, on a hill situated about a mile and a quarter from the outer intrenchments of Corinth, and about two miles in advance of the main camps of our army. Requesting General Hurlbut to put in motion two regiments and a battery of artillery, at three o'clock P. M., on the road which passes the front of his line and runs to Russell's house, Sherman ordered General Denver to take a right-hand road with two regiments of his brigade and one battery of light artillery, namely, the Seventieth and Seventy-second Ohio, and Barrett's battery, and

gave him a guide so to conduct his march as to arrive on the left of the enemy's position by the time he was engaged in front; and ordered General Morgan L. Smith's brigade, with Bouton's battery, to follow the main road, drive back a brigade of the enemy's forces that held the position at Russell's, with their skirmishers and pickets, down to the causeway and bridge across a small stream about eight hundred yards east of Russell's house.

All these forces were put in motion at three P. M., General Denver's forces taking the right-hand road, and General Smith's the direct main road. On reaching the causeway, General Smith deployed his skirmishers forward, and sent out his advance-guard. The column advanced, and the skirmishers became engaged at once. The firing was very brisk, but the enemy's pickets were driven steadily back till they reached the position of their brigade at Russell's house, where their resistance was obstinate.

The ground was unfavorable to artillery till the skirmishers had cleared the hill beyond the causeway, when Major Taylor, chief of artillery, of Sherman's division, advanced first one of Bouton's guns, and very soon after the remaining three guns of the battery. These, upon reaching the hill-top, commenced firing at Russell's house and outhouses, in which the enemy had taken shelter, when their whole force retreated, and full possession was obtained of Russell's house and the ground for three hundred yards in advance, where the roads meet. This being the limit to which the brigade was intended to go, it was halted. The head of General Denver's column reached its position as the enemy was beginning to retreat.

General Morgan L. Smith conducted the advance of his brigade handsomely, and the chief work and loss fell upon his two leading regiments, the Eighth Missouri and Fifth-fifth Illinois, He held the ground till about daylight next morning, when, by General Sherman's order, he left a strong picket there, and placed his brigade back a short distance in easy support, where it remained until relieved.

No loss was sustained by Hurlbut's or Denver's commands

in their flank movements on Russell's; the loss in General Morgan L. Smith's brigade was ten killed and thirty-one wounded.

The position thus gained proved to be one of great natural strength, and Sherman at once proceeded to fortify it. Lines were laid off by the engineers, and although the advance on Corinth had witnessed their first experiment with intrenching tools, the troops in Sherman's division succeeded in constructing a parapet that met the approval of the critical eye of the commander-in-chief. The dense woods and undergrowth were cleared away in front, to give range to the batteries. The work went on day and night without interruption. The division continued to occupy the intrenched camp at Russell's until the night of May 27th, when an order was received from General Halleck by telegraph-through which means regular communication had been established between general headquarters and the several division commanders-directing General Sherman to send a force the next day to drive the rebels from his front on the Corinth road, to drive in their pickets as far as possible, and to make a strong demonstration on Corinth itself. Under authority conferred upon him by the same order, Sherman called upon Major-General McClernand, commanding the Reserve Corps, and Major-General Hurlbut, who commanded one of the adjacent divisions, to furnish one brigade each, to co-operate in the proposed movement with the two brigades of Denver and Morgan L. Smith, detached from Sherman's own division for the same purpose. Colonel John A. Logan's brigade of Judah's division, of McClernand's reserve corps, and Brigadier-General J. C. Veatch's brigade of Hurlbut's division, accordingly reported to General Sherman for this duty.

The house referred to was a double log building, standing on a high ridge on the upper or southern end of a large field, and was used by the enemy as a block-house, from which to annoy our pickets. The large field was perfectly overlooked by this house, as well as by the ridge along its southern line of defence, which was covered by a dense grove of heavy oaks

and underbrush. The main Corinth road runs along the eastern fence, whilst the field itself, about three hundred yards wide by about five hundred yards long, extended far to the right into the low land of Phillip's Creek, so densely wooded as to be impassable. On the eastern side of the field the woods were more open. The enemy could be seen at all times in and about the house and the ridge beyond, and our pickets could not show themselves on our side of the field without attracting a shot.

Sherman ordered General J. W. Denver, with his third brigade, and the Morton battery of four guns, to march in perfect silence at eight A. M., keeping well under cover as he approached the field; General Morgan L. Smith's first brigade, with Barrett's and Waterhouse's batteries, to move along the main road, keeping his force well masked in the woods to the left; Brigadier-General Veatch's brigade to move from General Hurlbut's lines through the woods on the left of and connecting with General M. L. Smith's; and General John A. Logan's brigade to move down to Bowie's Hill Cut of the Mobile and Ohio railroad, and thence forward to the left, so as to connect with General Denver's brigade on the extreme right; all to march at eight A. M., with skirmishers well to the front, to keep well concealed, and, at a signal, to rush quickly on to the ridge, thus avoiding as much as possible the danger. of crossing the open field, exposed to the fire of a concealed

enemy.

The preliminary arrangements having thus been made, two twenty-pounder Parrot rifle-guns of Silfversparre's battery, under the immediate supervision of Major Taylor, chief of artillery of Sherman's division, were moved silently through the forest to a point behind a hill, from the top of which could be seen the house and ground to be contested. The guns were unlimbered, loaded with shell, and moved by hand to the crest. At the proper time he gave the order to commence firing and demolish the house. About a dozen shells well directed soon accomplished this; then designating a single shot of the twenty-pound Parrot-gun of Silfversparre as a signal for the

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