which they were engaged with yours, on that and the preceding day, and it being apparent that you had received and were still receiving, reinforcements, I felt it my duty to withdraw my troops from the immediate scene of the conflict. Under these circumstances, in accordance with the usages of war. I shall transmit this under a flag of truce, to ask permission to send a mounted party to the battle-field of Shiloh, for the purpose of giving decent interment to my dead. Certain gentlemen wishing to avail themselves of this opportunity to remove the remains of their sous and friends, I must request for them the privilege of accompanying the burial-party; and in this connection I deem it proper to say I am asking what I have extended to your own countrymen under similar circumstances.

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'Respectfully, General, your obedient servant,
'P. G. T. BEAUREGARD,
"General Commanding.

"TO MAJOR-GENERAL U. S. GRANT,

"Major-General Commanding U. S. Forces, Pittsburgh Landing."

"To General P. G. T. Beauregard. Commanding Confederate Army on Mississippi, Monterey, Tenn.:

"Your despatch of yesterday is just received. Owing to the warmth of the weather, I deemed it advisable to have all the dead of both parties buried immediately. Heavy details were made for this purpose, and it is now accomplished. There cannot, therefore, be any necessity of admitting within our lines the I shall alparties you desired to send on the grounds asked.

ways be glad to extend any courtesy consistent with duty, and especially so when dictated by humanity.

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I am, General, respectfully, your obedient servant,

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U. S. GRANT, "Major-General Commanding."

The intelligence of the great struggle, with its successful result, was transmitted with lightning speed to every section of the Northern States, and while the loss we had incurred caused a universal feeling of sorrow to pervade every loyal community, songs of praise and rejoicing at the victory resounded through the land. The War Department officially thanked the heroes who had been instrumental in repulsing the enemy; General Halleck, the commander of the Department, expressed his gratitude to

Generals Grant and Buell, and the officers and men of their respective commands, for the bravery and endurance which had led to the defeat of the enemy; salutes were fired by patriots in various cities and towns; and throughout the length and breadth of the loyal States there was the most enthusiastic rejoicing over this decisive repulse of the rebel army in the Southwest.

After the battle of Pittsburgh Landing, General Buell began criticising in a friendly way the impolicy of his having fought a battle with the Tennessee river behind his men. "Where, if beaten, could you have retreated, General?" asked Buell. "I didn't mean to be beaten," was Grant's sententious reply. But suppose you had been defeated, despite all your exertions?" Well, there were all the transports to carry the remains of the command across the river." "But, General," urged Buell, "your whole transports could not contain even ten thousand men, and it would be impossible for them to make more than one trip in the face of the enemy." Well, if I had been beaten," said General Grant, pausing to light another cigar as he spoke, "transportation for ten thousand men would have been abundant for all that would have been left of us."

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IMPORTANT RECONNOISSANCES.

On the eighth of April, 1862, the army being now under the command of General Halleck, General Sherman, with a large cavalry and infantry force, made a reconnoissance in the direction of Corinth, and after a slight skirmish, compelled the enemy to retire, and then destroyed his camp; and on the morning of the seventeenth of the same month, a mounted force, numbering about four thousand, under the command of General Smith, Chief of cavalry upon General Halleck's staff, left Pittsburgh Landing, and when near Monterey, the advance encountered the rebel pickets, and subsequently, a large body of infantry. The position

of the foe having been ascertained, the Union troops returned to camp. A week later, the same commander attacked the rebel pickets, and driving them back, advanced to Pea Ridge, where, finding the enemy drawn up in line of battle, he attacked and forced them to leave the field, their tents, equipage and private baggage falling into his hands. On the twenty-seventh, Purdy, on the line of the Jackson and Corinth railroad, and about ten miles from the latter place, was evacuated by the rebels, and two days later, Monterey was visited by the Union troops, and the enemy's camp, which was deserted at the approach of our forces, destroyed. On the thirtieth of April a reconnoissance in force was made from the right wing of the Union army, and a large body of rebel cavalry attacked and compelled to fall back beyond Purdy. That town was then occupied for a period sufficiently extended to enable our troops to burn two important bridges, and thus cut off all railroad communication between Corinth and the North. This last achievement may be regarded as the commencement of the celebrated siege of Corinth.

RE-ORGANIZATION OF THE ARMY-GENERAL GRANT SECOND IN COMMAND.

Early in May, 1862, the "Grand Army of the Tennessee" was organized, and was composed of the Army of the Tennessee (right) under General Grant; the Army of the Mississippi (left) under General Pope; and the Army of the Ohio (centre) under General Buell. There were sixteen divisions in all, eight of which were in General Grant's command, four constituting the right or active wing under General Thomas, and four constituting the reserve corps under General McClernand. General Grant was at the same time ordered to retain command of his District, and was placed second in command under the major-general commanding the Department, General Halleck.

GENERAL GRANT VILLIFIED-AN ABLE CONGRESSIONAL DEFENCE.

This additional mark of appreciation bestowed by a superior officer who had ample opportunity to witness the great ability and gallantry of General Grant, was tendered at a moment when jealous military opponents and unscrupulous journalists were straining every nerve to have him removed from the field of his successful operations. His qualifications as a soldier were disparaged, and his private character most unjustifiably and villanously assailed, until at length the public outcry pervaded the halls of Congress. His friends, however, hastened to the rescue, and many addresses and arguments were made in his defence. In a speech made by the Hon. E. B. Washburne, of Illinois, in the United States House of Representatives, on the second of May, 1862, his assailants received a merited rebuke, as the following extract will show :

"Mr. Speaker," said Mr. Washburne, "I will only trouble the House for a few moments, but when justice claims to be heard, it is said that a nation should be silent.

"It may be inquired whether in this rebellion history is not repeating itself. I come before the House to do a great act of justice to a soldier in the field, and to vindicate him from the obloquy and misrepresentations so persistently and cruelly thrust before the country. I refer to a distinguished general who has recently fought the bloodiest and hardest battle ever fought on this continent, and won one of the most brilliant victories. I refer to the battle of Pittsburgh Landing, and to Major-General Ulysses S. Grant. A native of Ohio, he graduated at West Point, July 1st, 1843, with the brevet rank of second-lieutenant, and was appointed second-lieutenant, September 30th, 1845. Though but forty fears old, he has been oftener under fire and been in more battles than any other man living on this continent, excepting that great chieftain now reposing on his laurels and on the affections of his countrymen, Lieutenant-General Scott. He was in every battle in Mexico that was possible for any one man to be in. He followed the victorious standard of General Taylor on the Rio Grande, and was in the battles of Palo Alto, Resaca de la Palma, and Monterey. He was with General Scott at Vera Cruz, and participated in every battle

from the Gulf to the city of Mexico. He was breveted firstlieutenant September 8th, 1847, for gallant and meritorious conduct at the battle of Molino del Rey, and on the 13th of the same month he was breveted captain for gallant and meritorious conduct at the battle of Chapultepec. He has received the baptismal of fire. No young officer came out of the Mexican war with more distinction than Grant, and the records of the War Department bear official testimony to his gallant and noble deeds. He resigned in 1855, and afterwards settled in Galena, in the district I have the honor to represent on this floor.

“Grant was among the first to offer his services to the country at the commencement of hostilities, saying that as he had been educated by the Government, that Government was entitled to his services in its time of peril. Early made a colonel of one of the Illinois regiments, he went into actual service in Missouri. His commands there were important, and he discharged every duty with great fidelity and advantage to the public service. With a military head and a military hand, he everywhere evoked order from chaos. Military discipline, order, and economy, travelled in his path. In time he was a brigadiergeneral, and intrusted with the important command of the district of Cairo; and how diligently, how faithfully, how satisfactorily he discharged all his duties, is well known to the country. While in that command, learning of a movement about being made by the rebels at Columbus to send out a large force to cut off Colonel Oglesby, who had gone into Missouri after that roaming bandit, Jeff. Thompson, by a sudden and masterly stroke he fell upon Belmont, and after a brilliant and decisive action, in which he and all his troops displayed great bravery, he broke up the rebel camp with great loss, and then returned to Cairo. The expedition was broken up, Oglesby's command was saved, and every thing was accomplished that was expected. "In time came the operations up the Cumberland and Tennessee. By a singular coincidence, on the 29th day of January last, without any suggestion from any source, General Grant and Commodore Foote, always acting in entire harmony, applied for permission to move up the Cumberland and Tennessee, which was granted. The gunboats and land forces moved up to Fort Henry. After that fort was taken it was determined to attack Fort Donelson. The gunboats were to go round and up the Cumberland river, while the army was to move overland from Fort Henry to Fort Donelson.

"The roads were the worst ever known, and almost any other general or any other troops would have despaired of moving But they did move. If General Grant had been told that it was impossible to move his army there, he would have made a reply like to that of the royal Pompey, when he was told that his fleet could not sail: It is necessary to sail, not necessary to live.' It was necessary for this western army to march, but it