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SITUATION OF THE TWO ARMIES.

CHAPTER XI.

OPERATIONS IN SOUTHERN TENNESSEE AND NORTHERN MISSISSIPPI AND ALABAMA.

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IEWING events in the light of fair analysis and comparison, it seems clear that a prompt and vigorous pursuit of the Confederates from Shiloh would have resulted in their capture or dispersion, and that the campaign in the Mississippi Valley might have ended within thirty days after the battle we have just considered. Within a few days afterward, the Lower Mississippi, with the great city of New Orleans on its banks, was in the absolute possession of the

National forces. Mitchel was holding a line of unbroken communication across Northern Alabama, from Florence to the confines of East Tennessee; and the National gun-boats on the Mississippi were preparing, though at points almost a thousand miles apart, to sweep victoriously over its waters, brush away obstructions to navigation, and meet, perhaps, at Vicksburg, the next "Gibraltar" of the Valley. Little was to be feared from troops coming from the East. They could not be spared, for at that time General McClellan was threatening Richmond with an immense force, and the National troops were assailing the

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strongholds of the Confederates all along the Atlantic coast and the waters of the Gulf of Mexico.

Beauregard's army was terribly smitten and demoralized, and he had sent an imploring cry to Richmond for immediate help.' The way seemed wide open for his immediate de

BEAUREGARD'S HEAD-QUARTERS AT CORINTH.2

struction; but the judgment of General Halleck, the commander of both

1 On the day after his arrival at Corinth, Beauregard forwarded a dispatch, written in cipher, to General Cooper, at Richmond, saying he could not then number over 35,000 effective men, but that Van Dorn might join him in a few days with about 15,000. He asked for re-enforcements, for, he said, "if defeated here, we lose the Mississippi Valley, and probably our cause." This dispatch was intercepted by General Mitchel, at Huntsville, and gave, doubtless, a correct view of Beauregard's extreme weakness thirty-six hours after he fled from Shiloh. This was the dwelling of Mr. Ford when the writer visited Corinth, late in April, 1866. It stood upon the brow of a gentle slope in the northwestern suburbs of the village.

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