siasm.

his entire front before sunrise, gave | tured by a charge of Col. Buckley's him ample assurance of this; while 5th Kentucky; while McClernand's his soldiers, exhausted and stiffened headquarters were retaken by Rousby yesterday's protracted efforts, and seau, who, impetuously pursuing chilled, like ours, by the rain of the across a level field, opened too wide intervening night, stood to their arms a gap between his right and Gen. firmly, but without alacrity or enthu- Crittenden's division, which was filled by Col. Willich's regiment advancing, under a deadly fire of shell, shot, and musketry, to its support; rushing up for a bayonet-charge to within 200 yards of the enemy's line, when the latter gave way, and the regiment was deployed in line of battle to give them a hastening volley. Disordered by bad management, which brought its skirmishers under a fire of our own regiments on either side, Col. Willich's 32d Indiana hastily fell back; but was soon reformed and deployed, advancing with the entire division until the retreat of the enemy was decided.

Nelson had quietly aroused his men at 4 a. M.; and he advanced in parade order at 5; soon concentrating upon himself the fire of half the Rebel army. Not having received his artillery, his infantry, annoyed by two Rebel batteries, began, at 71, to give ground; when, on applying to Gen. Buell, the battery of Capt. Mendenhall, and at 9 that of Capt. Terrill-both regulars-were sent to his support, and the Rebel batteries in front thereby silenced. Meantime, the Rebel concentration upon this division was continued; but its behavior was splendid, especially that of Ammen's brigade, admirably handled by its chief; while that of IIagen, on the right, maintained its position with equal gallantry. The loss by this division of 739 out of 4,541more than half of it in Hagen's brigade-attests the tenacity of the Rebel resistance this day.

Crittenden's and McCook's divisions were engaged later, but not less earnestly. Advancing across a ravine, McCook's right and center were immediately attacked in force; but the steady valor of Rousseau's brigade prevailed, and their assailants, recoiling, were pursued nearly a mile; when they were röenforced and rallied among the tents whence McClernand's left had been so hurriedly driven the previous morning. Two of his guns, being now turned against us by the enemy, were finally cap

Lew. Wallace, on our extreme right, with Sherman and McClernand between him and Buell's divisions, had likewise opened fire at daylight, dismounting a gun of the Rebel battery before him. Throwing forward his right, by Gen. Grant's personal direction, until his line, which had been parallel, formed a right angle with the river, he advanced en échelon, preceded by skirmishers, across a ravine to the opposite bluff, where he waited for Sherman to come up; and meantime, finding his right secured by a swamp, attempted to turn the enemy's left, which was thereupon heavily rëenforced, being effectively cannonaded by the batteries of Thompson and Thurber. An attempt was made to capture Thurber's battery by a dash of cavalry, which was easily defeated by the skirmishers of the 8th Missouri;

BEAUREGARD RETREATS FROM PITTSBURG LANDING. 69

when the battery was charged by in- | thing before them. At 4 P. M., our fantry; who were easily repelled by Col. Morgan L. Smith's brigade.

soldiers held the original front line whence we had been so hurriedly driven 34 hours before; and the whole Rebel army was retreating, unpursued, on Corinth." Gen. Sherman, with two brigades and the cavalry, went out a few miles next morning on the Corinth road, and had a smart skirmish with a small Rebel force, mainly of cavalry, which he repulsed, destroying a camp, and capturing a hospital, wherein he found 280 Confederate and 50 Union wounded; returning with the former to his camp near Shiloh next morning.

Beauregard, in his official report, states that his effective force had now

Meantime, Gen. Sherman, who had waited for the sound of Buell's guns upon the main Corinth road, advanced at 8 A. M., steadily and slowly, under fire, until he reached the point where the Corinth road crosses the line of McClernand's abandoned camps, and saw Willich's regiment, on his right, fighting gallantly for the possession of a point of timber some 500 yards east of Shiloh church. Hence the Rebel army could be seen re-forming its lines to the southward, with a battery by the church, and another near the Hamburg road, pouring grape and canister into any column of our troops that advanced upon that green point of timber whence Willich's "Hour by hour opposed to an enemy regiment had just been repulsed, but constantly reenforced, our ranks were perinto which one of McCook's brigades ceptibly thinned under the increasing, withering fire of the enemy; and, by 12 M. (Rousseau's) was now advancing. [of the second day], 18 hours of hard fightDirecting the fire of two 24-pounding had sensibly exhausted a large number; howitzers of McAllister's battery my last reserves had necessarily been dis posed of; and the enemy was evidently reupon the Rebel guns, Sherman form-ceiving fresh reenforcements after each ed his two brigades (David Stuart's, now commanded by Col. T. Kilby Smith, and Col. Buckland's) to advance in line with Rousseau; which they did superbly, sweeping every

"An Impressed New-Yorker" says:

"No heroism of officers or men could avail to stay the advance of the Federal troops. At 3 P.M. the Confederates decided on a retreat to Corint; and Gen. Breckinridge, strengthened by three regiments of cavalry-Forrest's, A lams's, and the Texas Rangers, raising his effective force to 12,000 men-received orders to protect the rear. By 4 P. M., the Confederates were in full retreat. The main body of the army passed silently and swiftly along the road toward Corinth; our division bringing up the rear, determined to make a desperate stand if pursued. At this time, the Union forces might have closed in upon our retreating columns and cut off Breckinridge's division, and perhaps captured it A Federal battery threw some shells, as a feeler, across the road on which we were

been reduced, "from exhaustion and other causes, from 40,000 to less than 20,000 men;" and adds:

repulse; accordingly, about 1 P. M., I determined to withdraw from so unequal a conflict; securing such of the results of the victory of the day before as were practicable."

This is pretty fair, but not strictly accordant with the dispatch which

retreating, between our division and the main body; but no reply was made to them, as this would have betrayed our position. We passed on with little opposition or loss, and by 5 o'clock had reached a point one and a half miles nearer Corinth than the point of attack Sabbath morning. Up to this time, the pursuit seemed feeble, and the Confederates were surprised that the victorious Federals made no more of their advantage. Nor is it yet understood why the pursuit was not pressed. A rapid and persistent pursuit would have created a complete rout of the now broken, weary, and dispirited Rebels. Two hours more of such fighting as Buell's fresh men could have made would have demoralized

and destroyed Beauregard's army. For some reason, this was not done; and night closed the battle."

he, after sending back from Monterey | his army." Gen. Grant, writing on a request to Gen. Grant for permis- the 9th, gives his losses approxision to send a mounted party to the mately at 1,500 killed and 3,500 battle-field under a flag of truce to wounded, and says nothing of a loss bury his dead, and being answered of prisoners, of whom about 2,200 that, owing to the warmth of the effectives were marched off the field weather, they had already been with Prentiss, with possibly 200 or buried, transmitted to Richmond, 300 more of our wounded of Sunday. namely: A later and more circumstantial statement summed up our losses as 1,735 killed, 7,882 wounded, 3,956 prisoners; total, 13,573. Recurring to the reports of subordinates—all we have-we find their losses stated as follows:

"CORINTH, Tuesday, April 8th, 1862. "To the Secretary of War, Richmond: "We have gained a great and glorious victory. Eight to ten thousand prisoners,

66

and 36 pieces of cannon.* Buell reenforced

Grant, and we retired to our intrenchments at Corinth, which we can hold. Loss heavy on both sides. BEAUREGARD."

Beauregard officially reports his loss in this battle at 1,728 killed, 8,012 wounded, 957 missing: total, 10,699, or a little more than onefourth of the admitted strength of

60 These cannon were unquestionably taken on Sunday; but how many of them were retained on Monday and carried off in the retreat, does not appear. It is not probable that Beauregard returned to Corinth with so many or so effective guns as he had taken thence when he advanced.

07 Beauregard's official report enumerates, among the casualties on his side, in addition to the loss of their commander-in-chief, Albert S. Johnston, that Hon. Geo. W. Johnson, "Provisional Governor of Kentucky," was killed on Monday, having had his horse shot under him on Sunday; Brig.-Gen. Gladding, of Withers's corps, was mortally wounded; that Gen. Bragg had two horses shot under him; Gen. Hardee was slightly wounded, his coat cut with balls, and his horse disabled; that Gen. Breckinridge was twice struck by spent balls; that Gen. Cheatham was slightly wounded and had three horses shot under him; that Brig.-Gens. Clark, Bowen, and B. R. Johnson were severely wounded; and that Gen. Hindman had his horse shot under him and was severely injured by his fall. [He was hoisted ten feet into the air by the explosion of a shell, which tore his horse to shreds, and was himself supposed to be killed; but he rose at once to his feet and called for

another horse.] Several Colonels were killed, and many more severely wounded; among them, Henry W. Allen, 4th Louisiana, who was chosen

Add to these our loss in prisoners,

next Rebel Governor of the State, and whose official report of the second day's fight contains the following:

"Having suffered from loss of blood and intense pain, I placed the regiment under the command of Lt.-Col. S. E. Hunter, aud rode over to the hospital to get relief. After having my wound dressed, I was about lying down, in order to take a little rest, when a general stampede began of wagons, ambulances, and men. I mounted my horse immediately, and rode after the disgraceful refugees. I succeeded in putting a stop to the stampede, and placed cavalry in the rear, with orders to cut down all who attempted to pass. Here I met an aid of Gen. Bragg, who ordered me to rally all the stragglers and form them in line. This I did. After forming a battalion, Lieut.-Col. Barrow, commanding the 11th Louisiana, came to me with the remnant of his regiment, and placed under and regiment mand. This force, together with the remnants of two Alabama and one Tennessee regiment, made a large body of men, who stood firm in front of the hospitals, ready to receive the advancing column of the enemy.

himself

my com

"While rallying the stragglers, I came across two batteries that had lost all their commissioned officers. These I took possession of, sent for ammunition, supplied them with men from my command, and sent one of them to Gen. Beauregard. This battery fired the last shots against the enemy. The other battery, and the forces under my command, held their position in the very face of the enemy, until ordered to be retired by command of Gen. Bragg."

GEN. HALLECK'S APPROACHES TO CORINTH.

71

and the killed and wounded in Pren- | increased by accessions from various tiss's, McClernand's, and Lew. Wal- quarters to a little over 100,000 men. lace's divisions-the latter known to All this time, and afterward, Gen. be very light-and our actual losses Beauregard industriously strengthenin these two days' desperate conflict ed his works, covering Corinth with can hardly have been less than 15,000 an irregular semicircle of intrenchmen; and it is probable that Beaure- ments, 15 miles long, and well-mountgard's, including the skulkers who ed with artillery; destroying the here saw enough of fighting and never roads and bridges beyond, and blockrejoined their regiments, was barely, ing the approaches with abatis. Gen. if any thing, less than this." Halleck saw fit not to flank these formidable defenses, but to overcome them by regular and necessarily slow approaches, involving constant and mutual artillery practice and picket fighting, with very little loss; three weeks of which brought our nearest batteries within three miles of Corinth." A reconnoissance under Gen. Paine to Farmington," five miles N. W. of Corinth, had brought on a skirmish, in which he took 200 prisoners, striking the Charleston and Memphis Railroad at Glendale, three miles farther, and partially destroying it; while the Ohio road was in like manner broken at Purdy.

The victory was clearly ours; for we had the field and the dead; but the losses were fairly equalized, while the Rebels had the spoil of our camps -though they could carry off but little of it-and the prisoners.

Maj. Gen. Halleck, commanding the Department of the Mississippi, left St. Louis directly after receiving news of the Shiloh battles," and reached Pittsburg Landing by steamboat two or three days thereafter. Meantime, and for weeks following, no attempt was made against the Rebel army at Corinth; and, though Gen. Pope arrived from Missouri on the 22d, with a rëenforcement of 25,000 men, even Monterey was not occupied by us till the 1st of May, when Gen. Halleck's army had been

"An Impressed New-Yorker," writing of the retreat from this Rebel victory, says:

fearful wounds, which were enough to destroy life. And, to add to the horrors of the scene, the elements of heaven marshaled their forces

"I made a detour from the road on which the a fitting accompaniment of the tempest of human army was retreating, that I might travel faster and get ahead of the main body. In this ride of desolation and passion which was raging. A twelve miles alongside of the routed army, I cold, drizzling rain commenced about nightfall, saw more of human agony and woe than I trust and soon came harder and faster, then turned to I will ever again be called to witness. The re- pitiless, blinding hail. This storm raged with treating host wound along a narrow and almost unrelenting violence for three hours. I passed impassable road, extending some seven or eight long wagon-trains filled with wounded and dymiles in length. Here was a long line of waging soldiers, without even a blanket to shield ons loaded with wounded, piled in like bags of grain, groaning and cursing; while the mules plunged on in mud and water belly-deep, the water sometimes coming into the wagons. Next came a straggling regiment of infantry, pressing on past the train of wagons; then a stretcher borne upon the shoulders of four men, carrying a wounded officer; then soldiers staggering along, with an arm broken and hanging down, or other

them from the driving sleet and hail, which fell in stones as large as partridge-eggs, until it lay on the ground two inches deep.

"Some 300 men died during that awful retreat, and their bodies were thrown out to make room for others who, although wounded, had struggled on through the storm, hoping to find shelter, rest, and medical care.”

70

"April 19, 1862. 7° May 21.

" May 21.

struck it on the 30th, at Booneville, | had taken, with 159 prisoners, two

Gen. O. M. Mitchel, with a division of Buell's army, had left Nashville simultaneously with his commander, but by a more easterly route, advancing through Murfreesboro', Shelbyville, Fayetteville, to Huntsville, Ala., which he surprised at daylight," capturing 17 locomotives and a large number of passenger and freight-cars, beside a train which he Gen. Grant in command at Corinth.