Purdy to the track four miles beyond, to destroy the bridge across the Mobile and Ohio railroad; thus cutting off supplies and re-enforcements that might come from Jackson, Tennessee. This also was effectually done.

These precautions having been taken, the "Grand Army of the Tennessee"-for such was now its style and title-was ready to move, which it did with the greatest caution. On the 1st of May, Monterey, a town about half-way from the landing to Corinth, was occupied; and on the 2d, Beauregard, being now assured of our purpose, prepared to receive Halleck's attack. Whatever his hopes may have been, his words were defiant. In grandiloquent orders, to the invincible "soldiers of Shiloh and Elkhorn,"*—in both which battles the Confederates had been defeated, he assured them of victory, and invoked an echo from "the historic fields of Yorktown," which, it so happened, were hastily evacuated the very day on which his order was written. He is unfortunate with a pen, but in this respect does not differ from many other generals on both sides, who do violence to the adage, that "the pen is mightier than the sword."

Beauregard's army, concentrated at Corinth, was composed

HEADQUARTERS OF THE FORCES AT CORINTH, Miss., May 8, 1862.

SOLDIERS OF SHILOH AND ELKHORN!-We are about to meet once more, in the shock of battle, the invaders of our soil, the despoilers of our homes, the disturbers of our family ties, face to face, hand to hand. We are to decide whether we are to be freemen, or vile slaves of those who are only free in name, and who but yesterday were vanquished, although in largely superior numbers, in their own encampments, on the ever memorable field of Shiloh. Let the impending battle decide our fate, and add a more illustrious page to the history of our revolution-one to which our children will point with noble pride, saying "Our fathers were at the battle of Corinth." I congratulate you on your timely junction. With our mingled banners, for the first time during the war, we shall meet our foe in strength that should give us victory. Soldiers, can the result be doubtful? Shall we not drive back in Tennessee the presumptuous mercenaries collected for our subjugation? One more manly effort, and trusting in God and the justness of our cause, we shall recover more than we lately lost. Let the sound of our victorious guns be re-echoed by those of the Army of Virginia, on the historic battle-field of Yorktown.

P. G. T. BEAUREGARD, General commanding.

of several clements: the "soldiers of Shiloh," the army which had fought at Pittsburg Landing; those of "Elkhorn," the combined army of Van Dorn and Price, from Arkansas and Missouri; and the forces under General Lovell, which had evacuated New Orleans when, on the 28th of April, our gunboats appeared before it. In addition to these, a large militia force had been hastily sent forward from Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana. Bragg, as second in rank, had command of the "Army of the Mississippi." The old organization of the corps-under Hardee, Bragg, Breckinridge, and Polk - was retained. Breckinridge commanded the reserve, and Van Dorn the re-enforcements. The whole force was about sixty-five thousand men, most of them the best troops in the Confederacy; and they were expected to accomplish great things under Beauregard at Corinth.

To drive this well-appointed and large army from its stronghold, and even, perhaps, to capture it, General Halleck moved with about ninety thousand men, comprising three armies-the Army of the Tennessee, originally Grant's, now confided to General George H. Thomas, and containing the divisions of Hurlbut, Sherman, Smith, and Davies; the Army of the Ohio, commanded by Don Carlos Buell, and composed of the divisions of McCook, T. J. Wood, Nelson, and Crittenden; the Army of the Mississippi, General John Pope, originally containing three divisions, and re-enforced by one division from General Curtis. Thomas formed the right wing, Buell the centre, and Pope the left. Grant, being in orders second in command, retained the command of the district of West Tennessee, and had a general supervision of the right wing, under Thomas, and the reserves of McClernand and Wallace's divisions, commanded by McClernand. This general command of Grant also extended to the compiling of reports, ordering the discharge of soldiers on surgeon's certificate of disability, and similar duties.

On the 3d of May, our advance had reached a point eight miles from Corinth, and on the same day Pope sent Paine's division to reconnoitre, and, if possible, occupy

Farmington, an important outpost of Corinth, already mentioned.

The resistance made by the Confederate garrison of Farmington, four thousand five hundred strong, under General Marmaduke, was not by any means a vigorous one. Indeed he retired rapidly to Corinth, leaving his camps with all its supplies, and only thirty dead. At the time it seemed as though his orders had been to withdraw, but the subsequent efforts of the rebels to recover Farmington prove that this could not have been so. An artillery reconnoissance, well supported by cavalry, as far as Glendale, on the Memphis and Charleston Railroad, was successful in destroying the track and breaking up two important trestle-bridges. Halleck's scheme was working well; we were gradually approaching in front, and at the same time cutting and recutting the communications on both flanks. Meanwhile Beauregard, while apparently plying tooth and nail to render Corinth impregnable, was already meditating an evacuation and retreat.

In a

We have said the advance was made with great caution; the movements of the several armies were in a kind of echelon, and at every step strong intrenchments were the order of the day. If Beauregard was fortified at Corinth, Halleck was equally so in almost every encampment. It is easy now to say, and to say truly, that the caution was too great and the approaches too slow, but that was our day of experiments. The rebel defences at Corinth were very strong. general way, they may be described as a continued line of intrenchments, occupying the brow of the first ridge outside of the town of which we have spoken. On the east there was a ravine, and Philip's Creek in front; on the north was a heavy abatis, and a cleared space in front. The exterior lines were fifteen miles long—a miniature Torres Vedras-and at every road-crossing there were either strong redoubts, or batteries with massive epaulments. Here, as always in engineer work, Beauregard had acquitted himself well, not without pride that his work was now to test the skill of his fellow West Pointer and engineer, Halleck.

The experience of the last battle had taught our generals the value of intrenchments, by the dangers which their absence incurred, and now all our approaches were strengthened by the spade, or such other impromptu implement as often takes its place. A crib of fence-rails, hastily made, was the receptacle into which the earth was thrown: the batteries were made heavier than the lines, and the log-houses in the vicinity formed rude but strong platforms for the guns.

The right wing of Thomas and McClernand in reserve, all under Grant's general supervision, moved in three columns; the centre, under Buell, in two, while Pope occupied Farmington with one column from the north and one from the east.

THE BATTLE OF FARMINGTON.

On the 9th of May, the battle of Farmington was fought. The rebel general was not content to let General Pope retain the position so easily gained, and hold the front of that town with a single brigade, separated from it by a small stream. Launching with great rapidity and secrecy a force of twenty thousand men, the enemy fell upon this advanced brigade of Pope's army, which, though separated from the rest, had been advantageously posted, under the supervision of Generals Paine and Palmer. It resisted the attack for several hours, but at length fell back, because it was believed that General Halleck did not desire, by supporting it, to bring on a general engagement. The front attack of the enemy was conducted by Van Dorn, while Price had been ordered early in the day to make a detour around our extreme left, and get into the rear of these isolated troops. Either he was too late, or Van Dorn too early. The combination was a failure; they did not capture any portion of Pope's army, although they occupied Farmington, and found a small quantity of baggage there. By By a little foresight and valor, they need never have lost it; with a stronger advanced force, Pope might have held it against these last attacks.

We need not stop to detail the extremely slow approaches

to Corinth. The digging was continual. A slight advance of four miles brought a new parallel. In later days, when flanking movements were better understood-the days of Chattanooga, and of the Wilderness and Spottsylvania-the evacuation of Corinth would have been greatly expedited. Without designing to be critical, we can only now believe that, in the process of education which our generals were receiving, the no-intrenchments at Pittsburg led to the excess at Corinth: safe practice certainly, but rather expensive, and utterly unnecessary. The happy medium was fully developed in our later campaigns; but they had all this experience to act upon.

On the 17th, the army, eager for action, was enlivened by a gallant battle on a small scale-that projected by Sherman for the capture of Russel's house. This was an important eminence, commanding the junction of the roads three hundred yards beyond, and only a mile and a quarter from the enemy's outer intrenchments. General Hurlbut sent two regiments and a battery on the road leading from his front to Russel's house. The attacking force consisted of General Denver, with two regiments and a battery, moving by the right, and General M. L. Smith in front. The attack was successful: the position, found to be of great natural strength, was at once fortified and occupied by a large force.

At length, on the 21st of May, we were fairly in line, three miles from Corinth, with detached works in our front corresponding with the general direction of those of the enemy. A desperate struggle was at last to be expected, when the spade should give way to the bayonet. Would the enemy stand up for the fight? No one doubted that he would. Corinth would fall, but not before, at least, one desperate struggle had been made in its defence. Such was the general belief.

ELLIOT'S RAID.

The position of Beauregard was now becoming critical: his railroad communications were cut at Purdy and Glendale; the