CHAP. LI.] ROSECRANS'S REPORT OF THE BATTLE.

317

enth Ohio sprang up and forward at them, chasing their broken fragments back to the woods." The desperation of their attack was shown by the fact that the Ohio Sixty-third lost one half of its number, killed and wounded, in resisting them. The guns of Robinette, double shotted, poured forth a fire-storm on the fugitives, and by noon the battle was over.

The Texan Colonel Rogers, who was killed at the edge of the ditch, was carefully buried by his victorious and admiring enemies. They neatly rounded off the little mound that marked his grave.

The assault on Corinth was very sanguinary, and entailed on the Confederates a heavy loss.

Rosecrans's account of the battle.

In an order issued to his troops, October 25th, Rosecrans says: The enemy "numbered, according to their own authorities, nearly 40,000 men-almost double your own numbers. You fought them in the position we desired on the 3d, punishing them terribly, and on the 4th, in three hours after the infantry entered into action, they were beaten. You killed and buried one thousand four hundred and twenty-four officers and men. Their wounded, at the usual rate, must exceed five thousand. You took two thousand two hundred and sixty-eight prisoners, among whom are one hundred and thirty-seven field officers, captains, and subalterns, representing fifty-three regiments of infantry, sixteen regiments of cavalry, thirteen batteries of artillery, and seven battalions, making sixty-nine regiments, thir teen batteries, seven battalions, besides several companies. You captured three thousand three hundred and fifty stand of small-arms, fourteen stand of colors, two pieces of artillery, and a large quantity of equipments. You pursued his retreating columns forty miles in force with infantry, and sixty miles with cavalry."

The national loss in the battle and pursuit was 315 killed, 1812 wounded, and 232 taken prisoners.

318

THE FIRST VICKSBURG CAMPAIGN.

[SECT. X.

Grant was greatly dissatisfied that Rosecrans did not press the pursuit with energy, believing that if he had done so, Van Dorn might have been destroyed; but the opportunity was lost.

campaign.

Grant now prepared to carry out the original intention The first Vicksburg of the campaign inaugurated at Donelson, but which had been brought into abeyance by the abstraction of troops from him, and by the transfer of Halleck to his higher command at Washington. His plan was to move along the Mississippi Central and reduce Vicksburg, the chief obstacle to the reopening of the river. He had 72,000 men at his disposal, of whom 18,000 were at Memphis; but he commenced the march south his southward march with only 30,000. He summoned Sherman, who was at Memphis, to meet him at Columbus, Kentucky, and in the interview which there took place gave him the necessary orders.

Grant commences

ward.

In the mean time, General Pemberton, who had been sent from Richmond to command the Confederate forces, took post behind the Tallahatchie to prevent Grant from moving south along the Central Mississippi Railroad. But in November he did move down that road to Holly Springs, Sherman by his orders marching out of Memphis to Tchulahoma, and forming his right. Grant simultaneously ordered General Washburne, with a small force of infantry and cavalry, to move from Helena, Arkansas, eastward, so as to strike the Central Mississippi about Grenada, in the rear of Pemberton. As soon as Pemberton felt this force he hastily abandoned his before him. strong position behind the Tallahatchie, the national forces concentrating and forming a junction near Oxford, Mississippi.

Pemberton recedes

Vicksburg was now the next step. Grant's cavalry pushed as far as Coffeeville, and there ascertained that

CHAP. LI.]

Sherman ordered to

sissippi.

CAPTURE OF HOLLY SPRINGS.

319

Pemberton had halted at Grenada, and adopted the Yalabusha as his line for defense. At Oxford, on December 8th, Grant, in an interview with Sherman, gave him his final orders, which were to leave three pass down the Mis- out of his four brigades and march back to Memphis, distant about one hundred miles, and there organize, as quickly as he could, some new troops which had come from the North, and proceed to attack Vicksburg by way of the river. Sherman was authorized to take from the force at Helena as many men as could be spared. Accordingly, he obtained there about 6000, under General Steele. He had already organized three divisions at Memphis, under A. J. Smith, Morgan, and M. L. Smith. These four divisions, embarking about the middle of December, were convoyed by the gun-boat fleet under Admiral Porter, and proceeded straight for Vicksburg.

Grant's plan was, that while Sherman moved rapidly by the river against Vicksburg, he would himself attack Pemberton very vigorously and advance to the rear of the city by land-or, while he was holding the enemy, Sherman might seize the place. At that date no army had cast loose from a river or railroad as a base of supply, and Grant intended to make use of the Central Mississippi, which had been repaired up to Oxford. Holly Springs was therefore retained as a grand dépôt and hospital. While Sherman was moving down the river, Van Dorn, with the Confederate cavalry, executed a brilliant operation, which proved fatal to the expedition of Grant. He passed round Grant to the east, and suddenly captured Holly Springs (December 20th), then guarded only by a single regi ment commanded by Colonel Murphy. "The surprised camp surrendered 1800 men and 150 officers, who were immediately paroled. The extensive buildings of the

Grant's dépôt at Holly Springs destroyed.

320.

CAPTURE OF HOLLY SPRINGS.

[SECT. X.

Mississippi Central Dépôt, the station-house, the enginehouse, and immense store-houses filled with supplies of clothing and commissary stores, were burned. Up town, the court-house and public buildings, livery-stables, and all capacious establishments, were filled ceiling-high with medical and ordnance stores. These were all fired, and the explosion of one of the buildings, in which was stored one hundred barrels of powder, knocked down nearly all the houses on the south side of the square." The value of the property destroyed was more than two millions of dollars. Grant had warned Murphy by telegraph that he was about to be attacked, and had dispatched re-enforcements to him. In an order issued December 23d, Grant says, "It is with pain and mortification that the general commanding reflects upon the disgraceful surrender of this place, with all the valuable stores it contained, on the 20th instant, and that without any resistance, except by a few men who form an honorable exception; and this, too, after warning had been given of the advance of the enemy northward the evening previous. With all the cotton, public stores, and substantial buildings about the dépôt, it would have been perfectly practicable to have made, in a few hours, defenses sufficient to resist with a small garrison all the cavalry brought against them, until the re-enforcements which the commanding officer was notified were marching to his relief could have reached him.'

His march south

rested.

This serious loss compelled Grant to restore his communications and to send to Memphis for ward at once ar- new supplies. Concluding that, with the Confederates superior to him in cavalry, and the country full of hostile people, he could not rely safely on the railroad, he determined to give up that line of attack, and move his whole army to Vicksburg down the Mississippi River.

CHAP. LI.]

CHICKASAW BAYOU.

321

Sherman, in the mean time, ignorant of what had transSherman reaches pired at Holly Springs and Oxford, had the Yazoo River. pushed on and landed up the Yazoo River, and had made an attack at Chickasaw Bayou, on the bluffs between Vicksburg and Haines's Bluff.

The high range of land lying between the Big Black and the Yazoo is known as Walnut Hills. These are about two hundred feet above the average height of the river. The Mississippi impinges against them, making a steep bluff at Vicksburg, and for about

The topography near Vicksburg.

two miles above and several below on the east bank; but all the ground on the west is alluvium.

The present Yazoo leaves the hills at a point about twenty-three miles above its existing mouth, at a place known. as Haines's Bluff. That mouth is about ten miles above