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himself, a brave Kentuckian, who had lately sat in Congress, fell dead at the first volley. Terrill's brigade, of this division, broke in a panic; its commander, who had succeeded Jackson, was soon after killed; and Rousseau's division was left to bear the brunt of the onset. Mitchell and Sheridan, of Gilbert's corps, were later assailed, but the attack was repulsed, and Sheridana man of note henceforward- charged at double-quick and drove his assailants through the town. During the night, Polk securely withdrew to Harrodsburg, where Kirby Smith joined the rest of the army, and all set out on their retreat to Danville and beyond. Buell reported a total loss of over four thousand. Bragg admitted a loss of not less than two thousand five hundred a moderate estimate, for he left twelve hundred men in hospital at Harrodsburg. * After a brief pause at Danville, he continued his retreat by way of London, Barboursville, and Cumberland Gap.- Polk in the van, and Wheeler's cavalry in the rear. Buell ordered pursuit; Wood getting as far as Stanford on the 15th, Crittenden halting at London, McCook and Gilbert at Crab Orchard. All were recalled from the nearly fruitless chase, to take the line of the Louisville and Nashville Railway. Much time was necessarily spent in restoring it to running order. At the close of October, the army of Buell was mainly concentrated at and near Bowling Green.

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Keeping time with Lee and Bragg, Van Dorn was

* Union-killed, 845; wounded, 2,851. Confederate-killed, 510; wounded, 2,635.-War Records.

to move against Grant, who had his headquarters at Jackson, Tennessee, with his left, under Rosecrans, at Tuscumbia. Van Dorn's objective point was Corinth. Iuka, a railway town twenty miles eastward from that place, having been tamely surrendered by the subordinate in command there, was occupied early in September by Price, but soon recovered by Rosecrans. A week afterward Grant directed him to occupy and defend Corinth, where he put in order the old defenses, and threw up a new line of earthworks nearer the town. Van Dorn appeared before Corinth early in the morning of October 3d. The ground was so well contested by Rosecrans that when night came, his adversary, despite his superiority in numbers, had not secured complete possession of the outer works. He had, however, gained such advantages that in a dispatch to Richmond he announced a great victory. He had yet to make acquaintance with the new defenses prepared for him by Rosecrans. Artillery firing began early the next morning. It was after 9 o'clock when Price's men moved to the attack by the Bolivar road a massive, wedge-shaped column, bristling with bayonets, division following division with impetuosity, directly in face of the Union batteries. The guns had been trained to meet just such an advance by direct, cross, and enfilading fire. This was opened at once, with terrible effect; but still the column pushed onward, getting near Rosecrans's headquarters, when a regiment, rising from its shelter in a ravine, poured a deadly fire into the ranks of the intruders, charged, and put them to flight. The attack ended in panic and utter rout.

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Van Dorn was to assault by the Chewalla road simultaneously with Price, but found unexpected obstacles, and was a little too late. Trusting in the valor of his Mississippi and Texas troops, he nevertheless persisted in a desperate attempt to capture Fort Robinett, but was finally defeated with great loss his dead alone numbering 1,423, as reported by Rosecrans, who lost 315 killed. The latter's force (18,000 men) was about half that of Van Dorn. In no other battle does the generalship of Rosecrans appear to better advantage.

Beyond the Mississippi there was comparative quiet after the victory of Curtis at Pea Ridge until after midsummer. Internal troubles, indeed, continued in Missouri, bitter feuds between Unionists and Secessionists, and occasional guerrilla outrages, which called for strong military measures. More regular warfare was resumed in August. A Confederate force under Hughes captured Independence on the 12th, and was soon joined by Coffey, from Arkansas, who aimed to retake Lexington and to invade Northern Missouri. They fled, however, before the approach of Blunt, the Union commander in Northern Arkansas. In September, Hindman, of that State, entering Missouri with a larger Confederate force, was equally unsuccessful, and retired to the Ozark Mountains. A month or two afterward he again made an appearance in his assumed character of deliverer of Arkansas. With as large an army as he could gather, he crossed the Arkansas River, and joined Marmaduke fifteen miles north of Van Buren, intending a blow at the single division retained by Blunt in

that neighborhood, while his two other divisions, under Herron, had retired into Missouri. The latter, however, being recalled, arrived in time to take part in the severe battle at Prairie Grove on the 6th of December, in which Hindman was beaten. This victory, as Blunt claimed in his report, "virtually ended the war north of the Arkansas River."

CHAPTER X.

1862.

Army of the Potomac Lingers - Lectures and Opportunities are Unimproved - Exit McClellan.

Ever since the preceding autumn many of the President's most earnest supporters had thought him too confidingly complacent toward the commander of the Army of the Potomac. Time had extended and intensified this discontent. But, though he had not been doing, or even attempting, all that was desired and hoped, might not General McClellan, after all, be preferable to an untried successor? People whose confidence in him had waned a confidence so universal at the first were divided in their conclusions about him. Some extravagantly fancied that he was less in sympathy with the President than with Jefferson Davis, and that he would have chosen the Confederate instead of the Federal service had the option been presented. This imputation, sustained only by a groundless rumor, was so manifestly unjust as to do him little harm. Others regarded him as well-meaning, but simply incapable of commanding a large army in the field. He was compared by some, not unkindly, with the great Roman delayer, Fabius.

According to the estimate of others, he was better paralleled by a more recent instance that of the Duke

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