points are not yet ascertained. Some five or six officers and a number of privates were captured.

"The fighting will probably be renewed to-morrow at daybreak. The whole country is so thickly wooded that we are compelled to feel our way.

"Hon. E. M. STANTON:

"H. W. HALLECK, Major-General.”

"NEAR CORINTH, May 30, 1862.

"General Pope's heavy batteries opened upon the enemy's detachments yesterday about ten A. M., and soon drove the rebels from their advanced batteries.

"Major-General W. T. Sherman established another heavy battery yesterday afternoon within one thousand yards of their works, and skirmishing parties advanced at daybreak this morning. Three of our divisions are already in the enemy's advanced works, about three-quarters of a mile from Corinth, which is in flames. The enemy has fallen back of the Mobile and Ohio Railroad.

"H. W. HALLECK, Major-General.”

"NEAR CORINTH, May 30, 1862

"Hon. E. M. STANTON:

"Our advance-guard are at Corinth.

"Conflicting accounts as to the enemy's movements. He is believed to be in strong force on our left flank, some four or five miles south of Corinth, near the Mobile and Ohio Railroad.

“H. W. HALLECK, Major-General"

These dispatches are dated on the 30th, and it is remarkable that, although General Halleck had in person been forty-three days within sixteen miles of Corinth, and had, on the 28th, sent forward three reconnoitring_parties, he knew nothing whatever of the movements of the enemy. In his dispatch of the 31st, he says:

"The evacuation of Corinth commenced on Wednesday (the 28th), and was com pleted on Thursday night (the 29th), but in great haste, as an immense amount of property was destroyed and abandoned.

"No troops have gone from here to Richmond unless within the last two days."

Thus, while Pope and Sherman were "establishing their batteries," the evacuation had already taken place. At five o'clock on the morning of the 30th, some explosions were heard in Corinth, which excited attention in Pope's Corps; and his pickets, finding no skirmishers in front, rode up to the enemy's intrenchments and found them deserted. On report of this fact, the whole corps was ordered forward, and occupied the city at eleven A. M. At the same time, General Granger, of the cavalry, left Farmington, in direct pursuit of the enemy. On the evening of the 30th, he overtook their rear-guard at Tuscumbia Creek, eight miles south of Corinth. It was driven out on the 31st, and on the 1st of June the pursuit was recommenced. Granger overtook the enemy at Booneville. Meantime, Colonel Elliott, who had left camp on the 28th, had entered Booneville, and captured a number of strag glers, deserters, and invalids, and two thousand five hundred smallarms; also some cars which had not passed the Hatchee River before the bridge was burned. He was too late, however, to cut the enemy's communications, as the greater part of Beauregard's army had already passed Booneville in their retreat south.

Both Granger and Elliott then continued the pursuit some miles

farther without any material results. The enemy took position at Twenty-Mile Creek, twenty-five miles from Corinth, and remained there until June 8th. General Pope remained near Booneville, drawing his rations from Tennessee River; and the division of McClernand occupied the country between the Tennessee River and the Mississippi Central Railroad, and north of the Memphis and Charleston Railroad. General Halleck occupied Bolivar, and a force under Marsh seized Jackson, Tennessee.

When the enemy evacuated Fort Wright, and also Fort Randolph, which is a short distance above, they carried away or destroyed every thing of value. The troops under Colonel Fitch landed and took possession without any opposition. The gunboat fleet, consisting of the Benton, Louisville, Carondelet, Cairo, and St. Louis, under Flag-officer Davis, and the ram fleet, under Colonel Ellet, got away at noon of June 3d, for Memphis, and reached Island No. Forty-four, near Memphis, at night, having on the way captured the steam-transport Sovereign. The Confederate fleet-consisting of the following vessels: the General Van Dorn (flag-ship), General Bragg, General Lovell, Jeff. Thompson, Beauregard, Little Rebel, and Sumter-were discovered lying near Memphis. During the night the rebel fleet moved down the river, and at daylight were seen coming up in line of battle. Our gunboats had, in the mean time, weighed anchor, and, followed by several rams, moved towards the enemy's fleet. The action was commenced by the Little Rebel, and terminated, in an hour and a half, in the capture or destruction of five vessels. The Van Dorn escaped. The Union ram Queen of the West was disabled. After the return of our gunboats from the pursuit, Commodore Davis sent the following note to the mayor of the city of Memphis :

"I have respectfully.to request that you will surrender the city of Memphis to the authority of the United States, which I have the honor to represent. "I am, Mr. Mayor, with high respect, your obedient servant,

In reply, the mayor says:—

"C. N. DAVIS, Flag-Officer."

"Your note received, and in reply I have only to say, as the civil authorities have no means of defence, by the force of cricumstances the city is in your hands. "JOHN PARK, Mayor."

At eleven o'clock A. M., Colonel Fitch, with the Indiana Brigade, arrived and took military possession. He immediately notified the judges of the courts to dismiss all causes based on the Southern Confederacy. Judge Swayne refused to hold a court under military dictation. The stores were all closed and the city was quiet, but a quantity of cotton that had been fired was still burning.

Memphis remained under command of Colonel Fitch until June 17th, on which day General Lew. Wallace, who, on the evacuation of Corinth, had been dispatched towards Memphis, entered the city, and took command by virtue of his superior rank. Meanwhile, Colonel

Fitch had left Memphis on the 13th, to accompany an expedition composed of the gunboats St. Louis, Lexington, Conestoga, and Mound City, accompanied by transports carrying the Forty-third and Fortysixth Indiana Regiments, for the purpose of removing the obstructions in White River. When near White River, a Confederate steamer was captured.

On the 17th, the expedition reached St. Charles, eighty-five miles above the mouth of the river, where the enemy had erected a battery. An engagement ensued, lasting an hour and a half. While the gunboats engaged the battery, the troops, under Colonel Fitch, landed a short distance below, and proceeded to storm the place. He carried it at the point of the bayonet, and with small loss. The enemy lost one hundred and twenty-five killed and wounded. During the cannonading a ball entered the boiler of the Mound City, causing a fearful explosion and loss of life. The crew consisted of one hundred and seventy-five men, of whom nearly one hundred and twenty-five were killed or wounded. Colonel Fitch took possession of St. Charles, Arkansas, which he continued to hold.

On the 26th June, General U. S. Grant was appointed to the command of Western Tennessee, head-quarters at Memphis. The season of active operations was now passed, and three new divisions of the army which had operated against Corinth were created. The Army of West Tennessee, under General Grant, was assigned to a line running along to the Memphis and Charleston Railroad from Corinth to Memphis, and along the line of the Mobile and Ohio Railroad in the direction of Kentucky, where General Quimby was now in command of a division of Kansas troops. General Sherman's Division was be tween Grand Junction and Memphis; and that of General Lew. Wallace was on the line of the Mississippi Central, between Grand Junction and Jackson. The Army of the Ohio, under Buell, occupied the Memphis and Charleston Railroad, from the Alabama line towards Chattanooga. General Pope, after remaining for some weeks in the neighborhood of Corinth, was summoned eastward, and on June 26th appointed to command the Army of Virginia, comprising the corps of Fremont, Banks, and McDowell.

The enemy, meanwhile, showed no immediate disposition to move. One the 15th June, General Beauregard turned over his command, which was reported eighty thousand strong, at Okalona, to General Bragg. He reached Montgomery on the 17th, and repaired in person to Richmond. General Kirby Smith was reported twenty thousand strong at Chattanooga. General Price with fifteen thousand at Fulton, while Van Dorn held Granada, Mississippi, with a small cavalry force. The enemy had carried out his policy of destroying the cotton by fire. On the Mississippi, from Memphis to Vicksburg, a belt of country fifteen miles . on each side had been stripped of its cotton. The banks of the White and Arkansas Rivers were also devastated by the torch, and many thousand bales were burned. After the continued excitement of the ninety days that preceded the fall of Corinth and Memphis, a season of quiet, in a military sense, fell upon the Western Department. During the active season, the Army of the Mississippi certainly achieved great

things, and in nothing so well served the country as in furnishing victory after victory at a time when delay and disaster at the East would have plunged the people in gloom, and in permanently restoring Missouri, Kentucky, and Tennessee to the Union. The National arms, pushed into the Gulf States, had secured possession of all the great rivers and routes of internal communication through the heart of the Confederate territory, and the enemy's strength was so shaken as to prevent any immediate renewal of the war in that quarter.

At the same time, reverses overtook the operations at the East; and, after the disastrous result of the Peninsular campaign, President Lincoln, in view of the great military reputation enjoyed by Halleck, determined to summon him to Washington, and give him the chief direction of the war. Accordingly, the following order was issued:

"EXECUTIVE MANSION, July 11, 1862.

"Ordered, That Major-General Henry W. Halleck be assigned to the command of the whole land forces of the United States as general-in-chief, and that he repair to this capital as soon as he can with safety to the position and operations within the department now under his special charge.

"ABRAHAM LINCOLN."

In accordance with this order, General Halleck, on the 16th July, took leave of the Western armies, and proceeded immediately to Washington.

CHAPTER XXVIII.

Operations of the Army of Virginia under General Pope.-New Policy of Conducting the War.-Cedar Mountain.-Line of the Rappahannock.-Flanking Movement of Stonewall Jackson.-Second Battle of Bull Run.-Chantilly.-Death of Kearny.Evacuation of the Peninsula.

UPON assuming command of the Army of Virginia, General Pope found that the three corps of which it was composed numbered less than forty thousand infantry and artillery, and about five thousand cavalry, the latter being for the most part badly armed and mounted, and in poor condition for service. General Fremont, commanding the First Corps, upon learning that he was to be under the orders of Pope, was relieved at his own request, and succeeded by Sigel. At the close of June, Sigel's and Banks's Corps were in the Valley of the Shenandoah, between Winchester and Middletown, and McDowell's occupied Fredericksburg and Manassas Junction, one division being at each place. The momentous engagements which ended in the retreat of McClellan to the James River were then in progress, and so largely had the rebels drawn upon their outlying forces to strengthen the army in Richmond, that no considerable body of the enemy was within a week's march of any one of the above corps. The object of placing them under the command of a single general was to increase their efficiency, and to prevent the embarrassments which were likely to arise from three separate armies, under as many commanders, at

tempting to act in concert. The experience of the recent brief but exciting Shenandoah campaign, had satisfied the President that in any similar future emergency it was indispensable that one head should control the military movements. As he had no disposition to do that himself, he called to his aid General Pope, then generally considered one of the most successful and capable of the Western generals.

Pope's first care was to dispose his troops in such a manner as to cover Washington, to secure the safety of the Lower Shenandoah Valley, and, in accordance with the wishes of the Government, "to operate upon the enemy's lines of communication in the direction of Gordonsville and Charlottesville, so as to draw off, if possible, a considerable force of the enemy from Richmond, and thus relieve the operations against that city of the Army of the Potomac." These several objects he thought could be best effected by concentrating the greater part of his forces between Sperryville and Warrenton, east of the Blue Ridge, and about thirty-five miles north of Gordonsville. From this position they could watch an army marching down the Valley, or approaching Washington by the line of the Rappahannock, and would be prepared to strike with full strength at either; and they could also demonstrate against Gordonsville. The corps of Sigel and Banks were accordingly ordered thither from the valley, together with Ricketts's Division of McDowell's Corps from Manassas Junction; while King's Division of the same corps was suffered to remain at Freder icksburg to protect the crossing of the Rappahannock at that point, and the railroad running thence to Aquia Creek.

Before these dispositions were completed, occurred the seven days' fighting before Richmond, the result of which was to interpose the rebel army directly between those of Pope and McClellan, and enable Lee, having interior lines, to strike at either of them in greatly superior numbers. The grave complications which this state of affairs seemed likely to produce, including possibly the capture of the Federal Capital, made it imperative, in the opinion of the President, that the Armies of Virginia and the Potomac, though continuing distinct organizations, under their present commanders, should be controlled by an officer of higher authority than either of them. Otherwise, there was no certainty of insuring harmonious co-operation between the two armies, and without such co-operation the Union cause would be greatly imperilled. For this reason, General Halleck was called to Washington, and placed in general command. Pending his arrival, and the military policy which should then be determined upon, General Pope occupied himself with reorganizing his forces, the cavalry of which was generally in poor condition, and with supplying them with the material necessary for active operations in the field. After two weeks spent in this manner, and in thoroughly acquainting himself with the country in which he was to operate, he issued the following address to his troops :

"To the Officers and Soldiers of the Army of Virginia:

"WASHINGTON, Monday, July 14.

"By special assignment of the President of the United States, I have assumed command of this army.