Rosecrans was to take part of his command by Jacinto to attack the flank of Price's army. The execution of this plan commenced on the 18th of September. Rosecrans, advancing by rapid marches, in a heavy rain, fell in with the Rebel pickets on the following day, seven miles from Iuka, and a skirmish ensued, the force encountered falling back toward that village. The forces of Rosecrans were now concentrated at Barnett's, and after waiting two hours for the expected sound of Ord's cannon, a dispatch from Gen. Grant, on the other side of Iuka, was received, saying that he was waiting for Rosecrans to open on the enemy. The force was then moved up from Barnett's to within two miles of Iuka, where the Rebels were found in strong position on a commanding ridge. Α hot engagement immediately commenced, which lasted more than two hours, closing at nightfall.

Gen. Hamilton's division bore the brunt of this conflict, aided by the Eleventh Ohio Battery, which, in half an hour of the thickest of the fight, lost 72 men in killed and wounded. The Fifth Iowa Regiment lost 116 men in killed and wounded, and the Eleventh Missouri, 76. The fiercest contest was over the Ohio battery, twice captured by the Rebels, twice retaken at the point of the bayonet. During the night, Price escaped, retiring to Bay Spring. Grant and Ord had not been able, it appears, to engage the enemy, or to prevent his flight. The road by which he withdrew was one unknown to the commanding General. The loss of Rosecrans was 148 killed, 570 wounded, and 94 missing-a total of 812. He took several hundred prisoners from Price, whose other losses were believed to be greater than those of Rosecrans, including two or three generals killed.

This battle had the effect of preventing Price from rendering any direct aid to Bragg, in his incursion through Kentucky, one apprehended purpose of this movement. The retreating column was pursued for some distance, and its loss in arms and other property was large.

On the 26th of September, Gen. Rosecrans took command at Corinth, Gen. Grant proceeding to Jackson, and Gen. Ord to Bolivar-both on the Mobile and Ohio railroad, north of

Grand Junction. Price, continuing his retreat to Baldwin, Mississippi, moved to Dumas, fifteen miles northwest, and effected a junction with Van Dorn. He was afterward joined by Mansfield Lovell at Pocahontas, Van Dorn having chief command of the concentrated force. Gen. Rosecrans anticipated an attack on Corinth, and prepared accordingly. The position was regarded as a strong one, Gen. Halleck having much improved the defensive works of the place, after its evacuation by Beauregard.

The forces under Van Dorn's command having concentrated at Ripley, crossed the Hatchie river and occupied the railroad north of Corinth, on which they advanced on the 2d of October, cutting off direct communication with Bolivar and Jackson. A force was sent by Gen. Grant, however, under command of McPherson, which seasonably arrived at Corinth by a circuitous route. Of the four divisions of Rosecrans at Corinth, three, under Gen. Hamilton, Davies and McKean, were drawn up in line of battle near the outer infrenchments, while the other division remained in the town as a reserve. Heavy skirmishing was kept up through the day on the 3d. On the morning of the 4th, two dense assaulting columns approached, about 9 o'clock-one on the right, under the lead of Price; the other on the left, under Van Dorn. The movement was intended to be simultaneous, but Price, having a less obstructed. route, first forced his way, under the destructive fire of numerous heavy guns, quite within the outer intrenchments. For a moment, the division of Davies fell back, and all seemed lost. Rosecrans in person rallied his men, however, and under the gallant conduct of the Fifty-sixth Illinois Regiment, which delivered an effective fire of musketry and advanced with a resolute charge of bayonets, the enemy was driven back, and scattered with terrible havoc. This brilliant affair was well over, when Van Dorn, approaching in a similar manner, found himself confronted by Hamilton's division-the Ohio brigade, under Col. Fuller, and the Eleventh Missouri Regiment, bearing the brunt of the fight, on the part of the infantry force. The batteries on this side of the town, also, did frightful execution, and Van Dorn's column failed to gain a foothold within

the intrenchments. He was driven back with great slaughter, the guns sweeping away the retreating masses with unsparing fury.

The Rebel force outnumbered that on the Government side, two to one, but from the character of the fight their losses were greatly disproportionate. Those of Van Dorn were 1,423 killed, and, by the usual estimate, 5,692 wounded. He also lost 2,265 prisoners-making a total of 9,380. In small arms, cannon, ammunition, and other property, his loss was also large. Further damage was inflicted by the forces sent out in pursuit. Rosecrans had 315 killed, 1,812 wounded, and 230 taken prisoners or missing-in all, 2,357. This was one of the most decisive victories of the war.

On the 24th of October, an attempt was made by Breckinridge to recover Baton Rouge, which was occupied by a Government force under Gen. Williams, (who lost his life in the engagement,) but the attempt was defeated, by a decisive victory over the assailants.

The stronghold of Vicksburg had as yet proved an insuperable obstacle to the recovery of full possession of the Mississippi river. It had become manifest that a strong land force waз required to coöperate in the reduction of the place. An expedition for this purpose was accordingly organized at Cairo and Memphis, under Gen. W. T. Sherman, to proceed down the Mississippi in transports, and to approach the city in the rear from the Yazoo river. It was also intended that Gen. Grant, commanding the department within which these operations were to be, should advance southward by the Mississippi Central railroad, coming in with his forces by Jackson, Miss., to aid Sherman in this undertaking. Gen. Hovey's division of 7,000 men, was sent by Gen. Curtis from Helena, Ark., now occupied by a Government force, to cut the railroad beyond the Tallahatchie, intercepting the Rebels in their retreat. This having been accomplished, the detachment returned to Arkan. sas. Its appearance, however, had served to alarm the enemy, leading to an overestimate of the strength of Grant's column. Gen. Pemberton, commanding a Rebel force at Grenada, consequently fell back toward Canton. Grant's advance, under

Hamilton, occupied Holly Springs on the 29th of November. On the 4th of December, Grant established his headquarters at Oxford, and was preparing to advance on Grenada. The withdrawal of Hovey's force, however, becoming known to Van Dorn, he sent out an expedition, which made a rapid advance on Holly Springs, in Grant's rear, defeating the garrison there on the 20th, through the culpable neglect of Col. Murphy, in command of the post, and destroying the Government stores, collected in large quantity at that place. A similar attack at Davis' Mills, further north, was gallantly repulsed by the garrison under command of Col. W. H. Morgan. A body of Rebel cavalry under Forrest, at nearly the same time, made an attack on Jackson, in Tennessee, destroying the railroad for some distance; the town of Humboldt, on the same road, further north, was occupied Trenton was surrendered by Col. Fry, the officer in command, much property being destroyed; and other points on the road were captured. Though Forrest was soon after utterly routed, these combined disasters, but especially that at Holly Springs, led Gen. Grant to fall back, abandoning the intended movement further southward. As the event proved, this turn of affairs was fortunate, for the subsequent unusual rise in the rivers of that country would have cut off alike his communications and his line of retreat, seriously imperiling his whole force.

Gen. Sherman's expedition took its departure down the river, from Memphis, on the 20th of December, over one hundred transports conveying his troops. In the night of the 24th, having arrived at Milliken's Bend, a detachment under Gen. Morgan L. Smith landed on the west bank of the Mississippi, and destroyed a section of the Vicksburg and Texas railroad, ten miles from the river, returning to the main army. Christmas having been passed at Milliken's Bend, the expedition proceeded up the Yazoo river, and on the morning of the 27th, the troops disembarked, the right at the plantation of the late Gen. Albert Sidney Johnston, and the center and left extending along Lake's plantation, to within two or three miles of Haines' Bluff, where a Rebel battery and force prevented a further advance up the river. The line was extended about six miles along the Yazoo.

A gunboat fleet on the Mississippi meanwhile coöperated, assaulting the place from the opposite side, with no material success, and receiving not a little damage.

The face of the country, for the eight or ten miles intervening between this position and the high ground on which the city of Vicksburg stands, is first low and marshy, with lagoons, sandbars and bayous, and then peculiarly rough, deep ravines alternating with precipitous bluffs, mostly wooded, or covered with cane-brake and rank undergrowth. Among these natural defenses there nestled masked batteries and rifle pits, manned by an ample force gathered to meet this expected assault upon the rear of Vicksburg.

On attempting to advance, determined resistance was encountered from the enemy, who was gradually driven back, during eight hours of hard fighting, closing at night. On the 28th, the conflict was early renewed, continuing with varying success, but with little permanent change of position, through the day. On the following morning, a general assault on the Rebel works was every-where repulsed, with heavy loss. The 30th was mostly spent in burying the dead and transferring the wounded to the transports. The undertaking was now abandoned. The forces of Sherman, reëmbarking, returned to Milliken's Bend, and there went into camp, at the beginning of the new year.

Gen. Burnside, on assuming command of the Army of the Potomac, determined on an advance toward Richmond by way of Fredericksburg, instead of executing another plan of advance preferred (without being ordered) by the President and Gen. Halleck. A force occupied Acquia Creek, and commenced repairing the railroad which had been destroyed by the Rebels. Pontoons were ordered, to be in readiness for a rapid movement, Burnside being nearer than the enemy to Falmouth, where the crossing was to be made, and no considerable force then occupying Fredericksburg. Chiefly through a mortifying dilatoriness on the part of the proper officer at Washington, in forwarding the pontoons, Lee gained time to move his force and to take the position he desired for meeting the intended advance. The principal battle resulting from this