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CHAPTER XIX.

THE WESTERN THEATRE OF THE WAR.-VALLEY OF THE MISSISSIPPI.-EVACUATION OF CORINTH.-IMPORTANT OBJECTS OF THE MOVEMENT.-ITS SUCCESS.-THE HALLECK-POPE DISPATCH. AN ENORMOUS FALSEHOOD.-GEN. BEAUREGARD'S COMMENTS ON IT.-CAPTURE OF MEMPHIS.-AN UNEQUAL FIGHT ON THE RIVER.-BOMBARDMENT OF VICKSBURG.— GREAT IMPORTANCE OF THIS POINT.-PREPARATIONS FOR ITS DEFENCE BY VAN DORN.THE IRON-CLAD ARKANSAS.-SHE RUNS THE GAUNTLET OF THE ENEMY'S FLEET.-THRILLING SCENE OF THE ADVENTURE.-FAILURE OF THE FIRST ATTEMPT OF THE ENEMY UPON VICKSBURG.-ENGAGEMENT AT BATON ROUGE.-SUCCESS OF BRECKINRIDGE'S ATTACK.— HE WAITS FOR THE IRON-CLAD ARKANSAS.-SHE BECOMES UNMANAGEABLE AND IS FIRED BY HER CREW.-WITHDRAWAL OF BRECKINRIDGE FROM BATON ROUGE.-CONFEDERATE OCCUPATION OF PORT HUDSON.-THE KENTUCKY CAMPAIGN.-GEN. BRAGG IN COMMAND OF THE CONFEDERATE ARMY IN THE WEST.-HOW GEN. BEAUREGARD WAS RETIRED.BRAGG'S PLAN OF OPERATIONS AGAINST KENTUCKY.-MORGAN'S RAID.-DISPOSITION OF THE FEDERAL FORCES WEST OF THE ALLEGHANY MOUNTAINS.-CO-OPERATION OF KIRBY SMITH WITH BRAGG'S COLUMN.-BATTLE OF RICHMOND.-KIRBY SMITH IN A POSITION TO THREATEN BOTH CINCINNATI AND LOUISVILLE.—BRAGG'S MOVEMENT TO INTERCEPT BUELL. THE LATTER CONCENTRATING AT BOWLING GREEN.-GREAT SUCCESS OF BRAGG'S MOVEMENT SO FAR-HIS BOASTFUL DISPATCH TO RICHMOND.-HIS POLITICAL OBJECT IN INVADING KENTUCKY.-HIS PROCLAMATION AT GLASGOW.-SURRENDER OF THE FEDERAL GARRISON AT MUMFORDSVILLE.—BRAGG'S WHOLE ARMY BETWEEN NASHIVILLE AND LOUISVILLE.-HIS SPLENDID OPPORTUNITY.-HE DOES NOT USE IT.-HE PERMITS BUELL TO PASS TO LOUISVILLE WITHOUT A BATTLE.-HIS WEAK EXCUSE FOR A FATAL ERROUR.-THE FEDERALS NOW ABLE TO RESUME THE OFFENSIVE IN KENTUCKY. -BRAGG'S UNCERTAIN MOVEMENTS. HIS DISARRANGED PLAN OF BATTLE.-GEN. POLK'S DISOBEDIENCE OF ORDERS.-BATTLE OF PERRYVILLE.—BRAGG'S UNFORTUNATE DISTRIBUTION OF FORCES.-MISAPPREHENSION OF KIRBY SMITH.-WITHERS' DIVISION NOT IN THE FIGHT. THE ENEMY DRIVEN.-ARRIVAL OF ANOTHER OF HIS CORPS UPON THE FIELD. BRAGG RETIRES UPON BRYANTSVILLE.—HE DETERMINES TO EVACUATE KENTUCKY. -RETREAT THROUGH CUMBERLAND GAP.-DISAPPOINTMENT AT RICHMOND.-ERROURS OF THE KENTUCKY CAMPAIGN.-HOW FAR IT WAS A CONFEDERATE SUCCESS.-ITS LARGE CAPTURES.-NORTH ALABAMA AND MIDDLE TENNESSEE REDEEMED.-BRAGG IN FRONT OF NASHVILLE.-OPERATIONS IN THE SOUTHWEST.-BATTLE OF CORINTH.-MOVEMENTS OF VAN DORN AND PRICE. THE AFFAIR OF IUKA. VAN DORN'S REASONS FOR ATTACKING CORINTH.-GALLANT AND IMPETUOUS CHARGE OF PRICE'S TROOPS. THE SECOND DAY'S FIGHT.-MISMANAGEMENT OF THE ATTACK ON THE ENEMY'S WORKS.—TERRIBLE

SLAUGHTER AT COLLEGE HILL.-THE CONFEDERATES REPULSED.-AFFAIR ON THE HATCHIE RIVER.-VAN DORN'S RETREAT.-REVIEW OF THE SUMMER AND AUTUMN CAMPAIGNS OF 1862. GLORY OF THE CONFEDERATE ARMS.-REFLECTION OF THE LONDON TIMES ON THE 66 NEW NATIONALITY."

WHILE the events we have related in the two preceding chapters were taking place in Virginia and on its borders, an important campaign was occurring in the country west of the Alleghany Mountains, and in the valley of the Mississippi River; and while Lee entered Maryland, Bragg invaded Kentucky, threatening the line of the Ohio, thus in every direction bringing the front of the war to the enemy's own territory. But before reaching that period wherein the Confederate arms in the West were carried to the frontier, as by a parallel movement with the operations in Virginia, it is necessary to recount a number of preceding events in the Western theatres of the war, in which the lights of victory and shadows of defeat were strangely mingled.

EVACUATION OF CORINTH.

At the last point of our narrative of operations in the West, Gen. Beauregard was holding Corinth; an important strategic position, protecting his communications by the two railroads intersecting there. The trans-Mississippi campaign being considered closed for some time, Price and Van Dorn, with a division of Missourians and some Arkansas troops, had crossed the Mississippi and joined Beauregard, with a view of operating on the east bank of the river. It was soon ascertained that the immense forces of Grant and Buell, combined under command of Halleck, were slowly advancing. The movement of the enemy threatened Beauregard's left, along the Mobile and Ohio railroad, while he had already pushed along the Memphis and Charleston road, camping about three miles from Corinth. To foil the design of the enemy; to protect his most important line of Southern communication; to obtain a better position to fortify; and to secure the health of his troops, Gen. Beauregard decided to evacuate Corinth. The objects of the movement were all important. Our main railroad communication with Richmond via Chattanooga, was in the enemy's possession, and the only line of coinmunication we now had with the Confederate capital was the devious one, by way of Mobile, Alabama, and Georgia. Corinth was indefensible. It was a wretched site for a camp, utterly destitute of water, good or bad, and what little could be obtained, was scooped up from the sand, or from pools fed by occasional rains.

The evacuation was commenced on the 30th of May. Remaining in

EVACUATION OF CORINTH.

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rear of the Tuscumbia and its affluents, some six miles from Corinth, long enough to collect stragglers, Gen. Beauregard resumed his march, con centrating his main forces at Baldwin. On the 7th of June he left Baldwin, it offering no advantages of a defensive character, and assembled the main body of his forces at Tupelo. The position selected was an excellent one to protect the south branches of the Mobile and New Orleans railroads. The movement of Gen. Beauregard was a surprise to the enemy, and a decided success. His effective force did not exceed forty-seven thousand men of all arms, and he had skilfully avoided attack from an enemy superiour in numbers. By holding Corinth, he had gained time, and held the enemy in check without a battle; and by retreating when he did, he out-generaled Halleck, rendered him powerless to move, and saved Mississippi from the inroad of a large army, which would have followed him into the interiour at an earlier season of the year, but was now unable to do so, from weakened forces and the great heats.*

Gen. Halleck attempted to break the news of his discomfiture by a flaming official despatch to Washington, in which he was assisted by Gen. John Pope, then acting under him, to one of the most monstrous falsehoods of the war. This false despatch is so characteristic of the Federal method in dealing with the facts of the war, that it may be copied here for a general lesson to the reader:

* The correspondent of a Northern journal thus betrays the disappointment of the enemy, and the damage to his expectations and plans in Beauregard's evacuation of Corinth:

"I went all over the tented field of the enemy-all over the fortifications-all over the towntalked with the frank druggist and the sturdy Irishman that had worked upon the railroad. And so do I write what I saw in grief, mortification, chagrin, and shame. I said yesterday: 'I'll write no more; others may; I can't. Patriotism will not let me write what I have seen, and can swear to.' When I write such words as I am sometimes compelled to, if I write at all, I am afraid lest, in exposing military imbecility, I shall wound and damage our beautiful commonwealth, that struggles so tremendously for existence and perpetuity.

"But I do religiously believe that it is best now for the commonwealth to hear and heed what is bitter, undisputed fact—the Confederate strategy since the battle of Shiloh has been as successful as it has been superiour. Taking the enemy's stand-point, and writing when and where I do, I cannot possibly imagine how it could have been more eminent for perfection and success. Taking our stand-point-the stand-point of the Union's hopes and Halleck's fame-I cannot possibly imagine how it could have been more mortifyingly disastrous. If the attack at Shiloh was a surprise to Gen. Grant, the evacuation of Corinth was no less a surprise to Gen. Halleck. If the one ruined Grant, the other has laid out in pallid death the military name and fame of Major-Gen. Halleck.

"The druggist says he was two weeks getting away. But aside from such testimony, could the army of Beauregard be removed so cleanly, and completely, and noiselessly, during a night, or day and night, or two days and two nights? Did it require the tremendous concussion of the magazine explosion to get into our ears-what we could not get into our eyes-the evacuation? Why, that was the last act of the mortifying drama. On Friday morning we went in. The prisoners that we captured amounted to about four hundred. Four hundred! Even the beggarly picket regiments and light artillery that fought us so boldly, got away. Those that we caught declare that they were kept in ignorance of the movements at Corinth, and were as much surprised at the evacuation as ourselves. Corinth has been searched in vain for a spiked or disabled gun. Shame on us, what a clean piece of evacuation it was."

"HEADQUARTERS, June 4, 1862.

"Gen. Pope, with forty thousand men, is thirty miles south of Corinth, pushing the enemy hard. He already reports ten thousand prisoners and deserters from the enemy, and fifteen thousand stand of arms captured.

"Thousands of the enemy are throwing away their arms. A farmer said, that when Beauregard learned that Col. Elliot had cut the railroad on his line of retreat, he became frantic, and told his men to save themselves the best way they could.

"We have captured nine locomotives and a number of cars. One of the former is already prepared, and is running to-day. Several more will be in running order in two or three days. The result is all I could possibly desire.

"H. W. HALLECK, Major-General Commanding."

Gen. Beauregard's comments on the above, published in the Mobile Register, were to the following effect:

"HEADQUARTERS, WESTERN DEPARTMENT, June 17th.

"GENTLEMEN: My attention has just been called to the dispatch of Major-Gen. Halleck, commanding the enemy's forces, which, coming from such a source, is most remarkable in one respect that it contains as many misrepresentations as lines.

"Gen. Pope did not 'push hard' upon me with forty thousand men thirty miles from Corinth on the 4th inst., for my troops occupied a defensive line in the rear of Twenty Mile Creek,' less than twenty-five miles from Corinth, until the 8th inst., when the want of good water induced me to retire at my leisure to a better position. Moreover, if Gen. Pope had attempted, at any time during the retreat from Corinth, to push hard upon me, I would have given him such a lesson as would have checked his ardour; but he was careful to advance only after my troops had retired from each successive position.

"The retreat was conducted with great order and precision, doing much credit to the officers and men under my orders, and must be looked upon, in every respect, by the country, as equivalent to a brilliant victory.

“Gen. Pope must certainly have dreamed of taking ten thousand prisoners and fifteen thousand stand of arms; for we positively never lost them. About one or two hundred stragglers would probably cover all the prisoners he took, and about five hundred damaged muskets is all the arms he got. These belonged to a convalescent camp, four miles south of Corinth, evacuated during the night, and were overlooked on account of the darkness. The actual number of prisoners taken during the retreat was about equal on both sides, and they were but few.

"Major-Gen. Halleck must be a very credulous man, indeed, to believe the absurd story of that farmer.' He ought to know that the burning of two or more cars on a railroad is not sufficient to make 'Beauregard frantic' and ridiculous, especially when I expected to hear every moment of the capture of the marauding party, whose departure from Farmington had been communicated to me the day before, and I had given, in consequence, all necessary orders; but a part of my forces passed Booneville an hour before the arrival of Colonel Elliot's command, and the other part arrived just in time to drive it away and liberate the convalescents captured; unfortunately, however, not in time to save four of the sick, who were barbarously consumed in the station-house. Let Col. Elliot's name descend to infamy as the author of such a revolting deed. Gen. Halleck did not capture nine locomotives. It was only by the accidental destruction of a bridge, before some trains had passed, that he got seven engines in a damaged condition, the cars having been burned by my orders.

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"It is, in fact, easy to see how little the enemy respect truth and justice when speaking of their military operations, especially when, through inability or over-confidence, they meet with deserved failure.

"If the result be all he desired, it can be said that Major-Gen. Halleck is easily satisfied; it remains to be seen whether his Government and people will be of the like opinion.

"I attest that all we lost at Corinth and during the retreat would not amount to one day's expense of his army. G. T. BEAUREGARD."

CAPTURE OF MEMPHIS.

A few days after Gen. Beauregard's movement from Corinth, the city of Memphis having been abandoned by the Confederate garrison departing to another scene of action, was easily captured by the large Federal fleet in the Mississippi River. The capture was made on the 6th of June. The evacuation of Forts Pillow and Randolph had taken place two days before. In the river near Memphis was a small fleet of Confederate boats. It consisted of the General Van Dorn, (flag-ship,) General Price, General Bragg, Jeff. Thompson, General Lovell, General Beauregard, Sumter, and Little Rebel, all under the command of Com. Montgomery. Each of these boats carried an armament of two guns, with the exception of the Jeff. Thompson, which had four.

The Federal gunboats consisted of the following: the gunboat Benton, (flag-ship of Com. Davis,) mounting fourteen guns; gunboat St. Louis, thirteen guns; gunboat Mound City, thirteen guns; gunboat Louisville, thirteen guns; gunboat Cairo, thirteen guns; gunboat Carondelet, thirteen guns; three mortar-boats, and twenty rams and transports. This overwhelming force advanced, with several of their rams in front, their iron-clad gunboats in the centre, two and three abreast, and their mortarboats and transports bringing up their rear.

The unequal fight lasted but a few hours. The Jeff. Thompson, Beauregard, Sumter, and Bragg were respectively disabled, run ashore, or set on fire, their crews meanwhile escaping to the woods. The Jeff. Thompson was blown up, the Beauregard sunk near the shore, her upper-works remaining above the surface. The Sumter and Bragg were the only boats that could be brought off, and these were subsequently anchored in front of the city, with the odious flag of the invaders flying at their mast-heads. The Confederate loss did not exceed fifty in killed and wounded, and one hundred prisoners. On the boats captured and destroyed, there was but a small quantity of stores and munitions, and everything in the city of value to the government had been removed. Beyond the mere fact of obtaining possession of the position, the victory of the enemy was a barren one.

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