A man to be a successful general must be able to make a retreat, if need be, as well as to win a battle. General Washington won the admiration of the British generals when he slipped away in the night from a superior force at Trenton, made an all-night march, fell upon the British at Princeton, and won a victory. General Price showed his good-sense and his ability to escape capture by giving instant orders for a retreat.

Morning dawned. The Union troops were ready for battle, but no Confederates confronted them. They were gone, escaping by the Fulton Road. Rosecrans entered Iuka, to find the houses full of Confederate wounded.

Hamilton's division had done nearly all the fighting. It contained less than three thousand when the battle begun; but one hundred and thirtyseven had been killed, five hundred and twenty-seven wounded, and twenty-six had been captured.

The wind had blown from the north, and no sound of the conflict had reached the ears of General Ord, who had been waiting to hear the cannonade. If he had heard it, it is quite probable that Price's army would have been ground to powder, as corn is crushed between the revolving mill

stones.

When the Confederate soldiers saw that they were to evacuate the town they broke open the houses, helping themselves to whatever pleased them most. The people had welcomed them a few days before with open arms, but now they saw their property ruthlessly taken by the men from Missouri and Arkansas. They had espoused secession as a sovereign right, and had voted to secede, little thinking how bitter would be the turn of events. Price made a rapid march, sending his wagons in advance, the drivers urging on the mules, so that by daylight they were beyond the reach of Rosecrans's cavalry.

General Grant had failed in his plan to crush Price simply because he had relied upon General Ord's hearing the cannon of Rosecrans. So we see how small a matter in war will sometimes defeat the best-laid plans.

General Van Dorn determined to attack Corinth, the key to all the surrounding country. If it could be captured, the Union troops would be compelled to abandon West Tennessee. He had thirty-eight thousand troops, while Rosecrans, in command at Corinth, had only about twenty thousand.

There was a Confederate spy in the town, Miss Burton, who sent a letter to Van Dorn which fell into the hands of Rosecrans's detectives, who carefully unsealed it, made a copy, then resealed it and allowed it to go to Van Dorn. Miss Burton in her letter told Van Dorn how many

Union regiments Rosecrans had, the number of cannon, and informed him that the town could be best attacked from the north-west, between the two railroads. Rosecrans did not have Miss Burton arrested; he was too shrewd for that. But the detectives had their eyes on her so sharply that she could not send a second letter to let Van Dorn know that the negroes and soldiers were building redoubts and breast works.

North and east of the town there are swamps, with knolls and thick woods-not a good place to deploy troops in line of battle. On the northwest, however, the ground is high and rolling, with no natural obstructions. Over this plateau Van Dorn intended to make his attack. The Memphis and Charleston Railroad comes into the town from the northwest, the Mobile and Ohio from the north.

Walking out over the Memphis Railroad, we see Fort Williams south of the road on a knoll, and the three twenty-pounder Parrott guns inside of it to sweep all the plateau. North of the railroad, on another knoll, is Fort Robinett, close by the county road leading to Bolivar. Walking north-east, and crossing the county road leading to Chewalla and the Mobile and Ohio Railroad, we come to the county road leading to Purdy, and beyond it we see Fort Powell, and farther on Fort Richardson. These are all the points we need keep in mind.

General Rosecrans had his cavalry out on all the roads-north, east, south, and west. The scouts brought word on the 2d of October that Van Dorn was making a rapid march. Rosecrans stationed Hamilton's division on the Purdy Road, its right extending to a swamp, its left reaching to Fort Powell. Davies's division was next in line, with General Stanley's division behind it in reserve, while General McKean's division held the left, south of the Memphis Railroad.

General Powell led the advance of the Confederates in the march to Corinth along a road south of the Memphis Railroad, and came into position, with the brigades of Rust, Villepique, and Bowen in front, his left touching the Memphis Railroad, and Jackson's cavalry reaching south beyond the seminary, south-west of the town. General Price had two divis

ions: Maury's and Hebert's. Hebert had succeeded General Little, killed at Iuka. Maury's line began at the Memphis Railroad, in front of Fort Robinett. Moore's and Phifer's brigades made up the front line, with Cabell's in reserve. Hebert's division extended north-east, with Green's, Gates's, and McLean's brigades in front, and Colbert's in reserve.

General Rosecrans thought it best to begin the battle some distance from the town, beyond the line of the forts. By so doing he would develop the plans of the Confederates. Davies's division, in the centre was

between the railroads, while McArthur's brigade went out on the southwest side of the Memphis Road. In front of Davies was an old breastwork built by Beauregard, held by Oliver's brigade.

It was half-past ten in the morning when Lovell's division (Confederate) advanced and began the battle by falling upon Oliver. General McKean, on the left, saw that Oliver was going to be flanked, and sent McArthur's brigade to his assistance. The Confederates greatly outnumbered the Union troops. After firing a while, the Confederates rushed, charged the breast work, capturing two cannon, and driving Oliver back towards Fort Robinett, which uncovered Davies's flank. Moore's Confederate brigade sprang into the gap between Davies and McArthur, which compelled Davies's whole division to fall back.

The Tenth Ohio Battery, out on the Chewalla Road, had hurled shells upon the Confederates, but the time had come when it must go to the rear, for there were no regiments at hand to support it. The gunners limbered up the pieces and seized the sponges and rammers.

it up,

"Get bucket No. 2," shouts a corporal. The Confederates are not one hundred feet distant; but G. S. Wright, a boy of eighteen, runs and picks with the bullets whistling about him, and brings it safely away. Going up the Purdy Road, we see Hamilton's troops on the knolls north of the town, and the Confederate troops under Hebert in the woods west of him. Van Dorn has ordered Hebert to keep out of sight until the right moment comes, thinking that Hamilton will rush in to help Davies; but Hamilton makes no such movement. His troops in the morning faced north-east, but he sees that Van Dorn is not going to attack from that quarter; and while the battle is raging west of him he is changing his line, so that at noon it faces north-west. His skirmishers have discovered the seven thousand Confederate troops under Hebert in the woods.

There has been a lull in the battle. The Confederates, elated by the success of the morning, are getting ready for a grand attack. Van Dorn plans to hurl his troops upon Davies's division and drive them on, brigade after brigade, over the ground between the two railroads.

In battle a general must be quick to see what the enemy intends to do, and be ready to receive the blow and strike one in return. Rosecrans comprehends Van Dorn's plan, and orders McKean to fall back to another ridge to join his right to Davies. Stanley, who has been near the town, is advanced, to be close to Davies, while Hamilton is to be ready to swing to the west and strike the Confederates in flank.

It was nearly three o'clock before Van Dorn was ready. First the cannon opened; then the brigades, one after another, fell upon Davies.

General Hackleman, commanding a Union brigade, was mortally wounded. General Oglesby, commanding another brigade, was also wounded. The troops began to waver, when up came Stanley's batteries, the horses upon the run. The gunners leaped from the limbers, wheeled the cannon into position, and poured canister into the Confederate ranks. General Mower's brigade came on the double-quick, and went into the thick of the fight.

Through the afternoon the battle rages. Sullivan's brigade, of Hamilton's division, comes to take part. At six o'clock the contest ceases. Van Dorn has driven, as it were, a wedge almost through the Union lines. To-morrow he will

finish the work.

He sends this exultant telegram to Richmond: "Our troops have driven the enemy from their positions. We are within threefourths of a mile of Corinth. The enemy are huddled together about the town-some on the extreme left trying

to hold their posi

tion. So far all is

glorious."

About the time

the war began, an Indian named Chief Sky, in Wisconsin, captured a young eagle on the banks of the Flambeau River, a branch of the Chippewa. The company from Eau Claire brought the bird with them when they went into camp at Madison, and Captain Perkins named him "Old Abe," for Abraham Lincoln. The soldiers became fond of him, and he of the soldiers. He had a perch on the color-staff, and always sat there in battle, flapping his wings, as if in ecstasy, when the battle was wildest. The regiment is in Mower's brigade, and Old Abe on his perch, looking out over the scene. Cannon are thundering around him; there are long rolls of musketry; the air is thick with bullets. From the flank comes a fearful volley, enfilading

morrow.

the line, cutting down scores of men, and severing the cord which holds Old Abe to the staff. He flaps his wings, rises above the two armies, circles out over the Confederates, then back again to his friends, and lights once more on his perch. The regiment is in retreat, and Old Abe goes with it, to be in a score of battles, and to come out of them all unharmed. Night settles over the scene, and General Rosecrans prepares for the Several hundred negroes are set to work with axes, picks, and shovels, building breast works north of Fort Powell. Rosecrans reforms. his line, resting the left on Fort Robinett, the centre on the ridge between the two railroads, and the right on the high ground on the Purdy Road. McKean's division still holds the left; Stanley stands next in line; then Davies, then Hamilton on the right. Rosecrans calls all these officers to his headquarters-a white cottage with a portico, the home of Hampton Mark-explains his plans, and the officers post their troops accordingly.

Fort Robinett and Fort Williams were what military men call the keys to the position, so situated that their cannon could sweep all the field. If Van Dorn could get possession of the forts he could turn the guns upon other parts of the Union line. Being so important a position, we may expect Van Dorn to try his best to capture them.

The first brigade of the Second Division of Rosecrans's army (General Stanley) is called the Ohio Brigade, Colonel Fuller commander, composed of the Twenty-seventh, Thirty-ninth, Forty - third, and Sixty-third Ohioregiments. About ten o'clock at night the troops file into position. The pickets hear noises in front of them, and discover that the Confederates are planting a battery. Captain Brown, of the Sixty-third, goes out with two companies. Creeping along the Chewalla Road, he comes suddenly upon a Confederate officer, Captain Tobin, commanding a Tennessee battery, and takes him and his bugler prisoners.

At four o'clock in the morning the Union soldiers were astir. Rosecrans ordered that no fires should be kindled, but the soldiers wanted a cup of hot coffee, and disregarded the command. The Confederate artillerymen, aiming at the light, opened fire and sent their shells into Corinth.. Sutlers, teamsters, and negroes hastened to the rear, but the soldiers ate their breakfast, and were ready for work. Captain Williams waited till. in the dawning light he could see just where the Confederate batteries were, and then opened with his thirty-pounder Parrott guns. His aim was sure, the shells destructive, and the Confederate gunners made haste to get away, taking all but one gun, which was captured by the soldiers of the Sixty-third Ohio.

The skirmishers began as soon as it was daylight. The Confederate