In Kentucky, Tennessee, Missouri, Virginia—in all the Border States, as they were called, the war was around the hearth-stones-in the homes. of the people. People distrusted their old-time friends; near neighbors were often bitter enemies, a sad state of affairs, paralyzing society, engendering feuds and animosities so bitter that many years must yet pass before they will wholly disappear.

We have seen General Bragg, by his movement northward from Chattanooga, compelling General Buell to hasten from northern Alabama to Louisville, and now we will go down to the vicinity of Corinth and look at a second part of Bragg's programme.

Corinth was an important military point, because there the railroad running from Columbus, Kentucky, to Mobile crossed the Memphis and Charleston Road. When General Albert Sidney Johnston was forced. back from Bowling Green by the taking of Fort Donelson, he selected it as the next position to be held, and it was from thence that he marched to attack General Grant at Pittsburg Landing, to fight a great battle, in which he was defeated, and in which he lost his life. We have already seen how General Halleck, in May, 1862, with Grant's and Buell's armies combined, advanced upon Corinth, building long lines of intrenchments; that when he was ready to open fire with his heavy siege-guns he found the Confederates had slipped away under Beauregard to Tupelo, in Mississippi.

We have also seen Buell holding the country east of Corinth, and Bragg conceiving the plan of putting his troops on the cars, sending them to Mobile, and thence north to Chattanooga, to gain Buell's flank and and then marching into Kentucky, compelling that general to march back to Louisville.

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General Grant was commander of the Department of West Tennessee. He had two small armies: the army of the Mississippi, under General Rosecrans the troops which Pope commanded before he was ordered to Virginia (Hamilton's, Stanley's, Davies's, and McKean's divisions)—twentytwo thousand men, and the Army of the Tennessee (Sherman's, McPherson's, Ord's, and Hurlburt's divisions), eighteen thousand men.

The Confederate Army of the South-west was commanded by Majorgeneral Earl Van Dorn, composed of the divisions of Breckinridge, Maury, and Little-thirty-eight thousand men. Van Dorn was left to hold Grant in check, while Bragg, by his march into Kentucky, transferred the theatre of war to the Ohio River.

Van Dorn sent General Armstrong with his twenty-five hundred cavalry north from Grand Junction to attack the Union troops at Bolivar.

The Confederate cavalry rode swiftly through the woods, expecting to surprise Grant's cavalry, but the movement was discovered.

Colonel Crocker, with nine hundred men, advanced from Bolivar to meet Armstrong. He formed his brigade of cavalry and mounted infantry in the woods. Skirmishing began, and continued till night. The cavalrymen dashed at each other. A few Confederate and a few Union men went down in the mêlée. Crocker slowly drew off his men and fell back, crossing the Hatchie River to Bolivar. Armstrong did not dare to attack, but turned off, crossed the river, and made a dash at the railroad at Medon Station. The Seventh Missouri and Forty-fifth Illinois were there.

"Pile up the cotton-bales and make a fort," shouted the officers when the alarm was given. The soldiers rushed to the station and piled the bales into a breastwork, with openings through which they could fire.

The Confederate cavalry dismounted and advanced, but were glad to leap into their saddles again and retreat towards the Hatchie River. Colonel Dennis, with seven hundred infantry and two cannon, followed, and came upon them. Armstrong turned about, saw how small a force it was, and deployed his men, sending them out on each flank. The Confederates charged and captured the two cannon, but the Union infantry rallied and poured in so hot a fire that the Confederates retreated, leaving the guns, which they could not take away, and losing one hundred and seventy-four men. Van Dorn gained nothing by the movement.

The Confederate commander thought that this movement to Bolivar would make Grant think that the whole Confederate army was intending to attack his right flank, and that he would hurry up the troops from Corinth; but that commander saw that it was only a feint to cover some larger movement. He discovered that the troops under Van Dorn and Price were leaving Grand Junction.

At Iuka, twenty-six miles east of Corinth, are mineral springs. Before the war the planters of northern Alabama and Mississippi used to gather there in summer to drink the refreshing waters, lounge on the broad piazza of the hotel, and talk about raising cotton and the secession of the Southern States.

Colonel Murphy, commanding a brigade of Stanley's division, was there, but abandoned the town, retreating to Corinth, and making no effort to save or destroy the beef, flour, pork, and other supplies intrusted to his care, which fell into the hands of General Price, and which he was very glad to get.

General Price had fourteen thousand men at Iuka. Grant planned a movement which he hoped would result in the defeat of that force. He

sent General Rosecrans with Stanley's and Hamilton's divisions- nine thousand men-south to the little town of Rienzi, on the railroad; from there the troops were to turn east, march along the country road to Jacinto, and come upon Iuka from the south. He sent General Ord to attack from the north-west, but who was to wait until he heard Roseerans's guns before attacking.

General Rosecrans reached Jacinto on the 18th of September. The wearied troops kindled their bivouac fires, drank their coffee, and threw themselves on the ground, weary and worn, after a hard day's march. He had promised General Ord to be ready to fall upon Price early on the 19th, but he was

erate outposts at Barnett's Corner. They were on the road leading from Jacinto to Iuka, marching north-east. There was still another road farther east, leading south to Fulton. General Rosecrans intended to sweep his right wing round upon that highway and attack from the south and east, while Ord was to assail Price from the north-west. His column was strung out a long line of infantry, artillery, ammunition, and baggagewagons. The woods were thick on both sides of the highway. He was nearly up to a cross-road, along which he could march to gain the Fulton Road, and his skirmishers were ascending a hill, when there came a sharp rattle of musketry in their faces.

General Price had discovered the movement, and laid a plan to fall upon Rosecrans with nearly all his force. With fourteen thousand men he would make quick work of the nine thousand strung out in a long col

umn. He was acquainted with the ground; Rosecrans was not. Price had forty-four cannon, and chose his position on a hill two miles south of Iuka, deploying General Little's division, consisting of Gates's, Colbert's, Green's, and Morton's brigades, in front, holding Maury in reserve to confront General Ord.

At Barnett's house a battalion of the Fifth Iowa deployed as skirmishers and drove the Confederates. At Miss Moore's house, five miles from luka, the fight was sharp. The skirmishers, from the brow of a hill, discovered the enemy in line along a ravine. General Hamilton, commanding the division, was close behind the skirmishers, and saw that the time for quick action had come; for suddenly a strong force of Confederates rushed upon the Twenty-sixth Missouri, driving it back upon the head of the column. His troops were in the road. The woods on both sides were very thick. He knew nothing of the ground. Shells were bursting around him, and bullets cutting the twigs. The Eleventh Ohio Battery with great difficulty wheeled into position in the thick underbrush. The leading regiment, the Fifth Iowa, went out upon the right, and the Fortysixth Missouri beyond it. The Forty-eighth Indiana went up the road upon the run, and swung out to the left of the battery. It was after four o'clock, and the sun well down towards the horizon, when, with these three regiments and one battery in line, began the battle, which burst out in an instant with great fury. Up the hill came other regiments—the Fourth Minnesota and Sixteenth Iowa-which formed on the right in the rear, and the Tenth Iowa and the Twelfth Wisconsin Battery on the left. The Eightieth Ohio formed in reserve in rear of the Forty-eighth Indiana.

The ground was so rough and the woods so dense that Hamilton could' only have a front line of three regiments, while General Price had deployed one entire division. On the right of the Confederates was the Texas Legion, which with a yell rushed forward, pouring volley after volley into the left flank of the Fifth Iowa. Many Union soldiers went down, but the regiment held its ground and gave deadly volleys in return.

The Eleventh Ohio Battery was commanded by Lieutenant Sears, who worked his guns with great rapidity. The Confederates were within canister range, and he made great gaps in their lines. The Confederate cannon, on the other hand, were aimed too high, and the shot cut the twigs of the sassafras-trees over the heads of the Union troops.

The Confederates determined to capture the Union battery, and came on with a rush upon the Forty-eighth Iowa, which gave way, and then came the shooting of the gunners and the horses. The frightened animals dashed through the ranks of the Twenty-sixth Missouri, which rushed

into the gap in the line, pouring a deadly fire into the faces of the exultant Confederates. "Lie down and load; then rise and fire!" shouted Captain Brown to the men of Company C. The men obeyed, sheltering themselves while loading, and then rising for an instant and firing.

"Fire low!" shouted a Confederate officer to his men, who saw the Twenty-sixth Missouri sheltering themselves. The Confederates fired low, and then the Union men began to drop very fast.

This the scene at sunset: the Confederates charging upon the battery, horses and men going down in a heap, dead and wounded piled one upon the other, the air thick with bursting shells and leaden rain, the men firing in one another's faces.

The Confederates had captured the battery, but could not hold it. They retreated, rallied, rushed once more upon the guns, took them a second time, but to hold them only a moment, for the Union troops came on with a cheer and regained them. For two hours the tide of battle surged backward and forward over the same ground. General Little, on the Confederate side, fell mortally wounded. General Price narrowly escaped. He brought up brigade after brigade, but could drive the Union men only a few paces before his own lines were swept back in turn.

Night came at last, putting an end to one of the fiercest contests of the war, brief but bloody, fought with unsurpassed bravery and obstinacy on the Union side-seven regiments and two batteries (two thousand eight hundred men in all) defeating nearly the whole Confederate force. Darkness settled down upon the field, thickly strewn with killed and wounded; the Union soldiers lay down where they stood, sleeping on their arms all night long, with the rain pouring upon them.

General Price was uneasy. He had attacked and been defeated. His ablest officer, General Little, had been killed. There was a mournful scene in Iuka at his midnight burial. The Confederate officers stood around; torches threw their flickering light upon them as they heaped the earth above the brave commander. There was no drum-beat, no volley of musketry, a funeral very much like that of Sir John Moore on the battle-field of Corunna, in Spain

"Not a drum was heard, not a funeral note."

General Price was thinking what he should do, for the Union troops under Rosecrans were sleeping on their arms, ready to renew the battle in the morning. North-west of the town were the troops under General Ord, ready to advance. There was but one road open to him, that leading south to Fulton, and Rosecrans was ready to seize it in the morning.