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GEN. HALLECK'S APPROACHES TO CORINTH.

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and the killed and wounded in Pren- | increased by accessions from various tiss's, McClernand's, and Lew. Wal- quarters to a little over 100,000 men. lace's divisions-the latter known to All this time, and afterward, Gen. be very light-and our actual losses Beauregard industriously strengthenin these two days' desperate conflict ed his works, covering Corinth with can hardly have been less than 15,000 an irregular semicircle of intrenchmen; and it is probable that Beaure- ments, 15 miles long, and well-mountgard's, including the skulkers who ed with artillery; destroying the here saw enough of fighting and never roads and bridges beyond, and blockrejoined their regiments, was barely, ing the approaches with abatis. Gen. if any thing, less than this." Halleck saw fit not to flank these formidable defenses, but to overcome them by regular and necessarily slow approaches, involving constant and mutual artillery practice and picket fighting, with very little loss; three weeks of which brought our nearest batteries within three miles of Corinth." A reconnoissance under Gen. Paine to Farmington," five miles N. W. of Corinth, had brought on a skirmish, in which he took 200 prisoners, striking the Charleston and Memphis Railroad at Glendale, three miles farther, and partially destroying it; while the Ohio road was in like manner broken at Purdy.

The victory was clearly ours; for we had the field and the dead; but the losses were fairly equalized, while the Rebels had the spoil of our camps -though they could carry off but little of it—and the prisoners.

Maj. Gen. Halleck, commanding the Department of the Mississippi, left St. Louis directly after receiving news of the Shiloh battles," and reached Pittsburg Landing by steamboat two or three days thereafter. Meantime, and for weeks following, no attempt was made against the Rebel army at Corinth; and, though Gen. Pope arrived from Missouri on the 22d, with a rëenforcement of 25,000 men, even Monterey was not occupied by us till the 1st of May, when Gen. Halleck's army had been

"An Impressed New-Yorker," writing of the retreat from this Rebel victory, says:

Col. Elliott, with two regiments of cavalry, was dispatched on the night of the 27th to flank Corinth and cut the railroad south of it, so as to intercept the enemy's supplies. He fearful wounds, which were enough to destroy life. And, to add to the horrors of the scene, the elements of heaven marshaled their forces"I made a detour from the road on which the a fitting accompaniment of the tempest of human army was retreating, that I might travel faster and get ahead of the main body. In this ride of desolation and passion which was raging. A twelve miles alongside of the routed army, I cold, drizzling rain commenced about nightfall, and soon came harder and faster, then turned to saw more of human agony and woe than I trust I will ever again be called to witness. The re- pitiless, blinding hail. This storm raged with treating host wound along a narrow and almost unrelenting violence for three hours. I passed impassable road, extending some seven or eight long wagon-trains filed with wounded and dymiles in length. Here was a long line of wag-ing soldiers, without even a blanket to shield ons loaded with wounded, piled in like bags of grain, groaning and cursing; while the mules plunged on in mud and water belly-deep, the water sometimes coming into the wagons. Next came a straggling regiment of infantry, pressing on past the train of wagons; then a stretcher borne upon the shoulders of four men, carrying a wounded officer; then soldiers staggering along, with an arm broken and hanging down, or other

them from the driving sleet and hail, which fell in stones as large as partridge-eggs, until it lay on the ground two inches deep.

"Some 300 men died during that awful retreat, and their bodies were thrown out to make room for others who, although wounded, had struggled on through the storm, hoping to find shelter, rest, and medical care.”

* April 19, 1862. 70 May 21.

71 May 21.

struck it on the 30th, at Booneville, | had taken, with 159 prisoners, two

24 miles from Corinth, in the midst of an unexpected retreat of the Rebel army, which had commenced on the 26th. Beauregard had held Corinth so long as possible against Halleck's overwhelming force, and had commenced its evacuation by sending off a part of his sick and wounded. Elliott captured 20 cars, laden with small arms, ammunition, stores, baggage, &c., with some hundreds of Confederate sick, whom he paroled, burning the engine and trains. The evacuation was completed during the night of the 29th; the Rebel musketry-firing having ceased at 9 A. M. of the preceding day. Explosions and fires during the night gave plain intimations of the enemy's departure; so that some of our officers in the advance rode safely into town at 6 next morning, and reported no enemy present. Piles of provisions were found in flames, and one full warehouse undamaged; but never a gun. Beauregard retreated to Tupelo, pursued by Gen. Pope so far as Baldwin and Guntown, but without material results. Our army was disposed along the line of the Memphis and Charleston Railroad; which, by the falling of the Tennessee to a Summer stage, had become its line of supply.

hours before. Thus provided, he had uncontested possession of 100 miles of the Memphis and Charleston road before night, or from Stevenson on the east to Decatur on the west; seizing five more locomotives at Stevenson, and pushing on so far west as Tuscumbia, whence he sent an expedition so far south as Russelville, Ala., capturing and appropriating Confederate property on all hands, without the loss of a life. He took" Bridgeport, Ala., with a force of five regiments, by striking rapidly and attacking from a quarter whence he was not looked for, driving out a force nearly equal in number to his own, with a loss of 72 killed and wounded, 350 prisoners, and 2 guns; while his own loss was inconsiderable. He was soon compelled, by the gathering of Rebel forces around him, to abandon Tuscumbia and all south of the Tennessee, burning the railroad bridges at Decatur and Bridgeport, but holding firmly and peaceably all of Alabama north of that river. Had he been even moderately rëenforced, he would have struck and probably could have destroyed the great Rebel armories and founderies in Georgia, or have captured Chattanooga; which was assailed," under his orders, by Gen. Negley, who was driven off by Gen. O. M. Mitchel, with a division | a Rebel force under Gen. E. Kirby of Buell's army, had left Nashville simultaneously with his commander, but by a more easterly route, advancing through Murfreesboro', Shelbyville, Fayetteville, to Huntsville, Ala., which he surprised at daylight," capturing 17 locomotives and a large number of passenger and freight-cars, beside a train which he 73 April 29.

72

April 9

Smith. Mitchel's activity and energy poorly qualified him for a subordinate position under Buell; so he was transferred, in June, to the command at Port Royal, S. C., where he died." Gen. Halleck was likewise summoned" from the West to serve as General-in-Chief at Washington, leaving Gen. Grant in command at Corinth. 74 June 6. 75 Oct. 20. 76 July 23.

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GEN. BURNSIDE AT HATTERAS INLET.

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IV.

BURNSIDE IN NORTH CAROLINA.

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GEN. AMBROSE E. BURNSIDE and Com. L. M. Goldsborough led an expedition, which had in good part been fitted out in New York, and which left Fortress Monroe at the opening of the year; and, doubling Cape Henry, moved southward to Hatteras Inlet, whose defenses had been quietly held by our troops since their capture by Gen. Butler and Com. Stringham five months before. The naval part of this expedition consisted of 31 steam gunboats, mounting 94 guns; the military of about 11,500 men, mainly from New England, organized in three brigades, uhder Gens. Foster, Reno, and Parke, and embarked with their material on some 30 to 40 steam transports. The van of the expedition reached the entrance of the Inlet on the 13th; when it was found that, though care had been taken to select or obtain gunboats of such draft as could readily be worked over the bar at high water, yet a large proportion of the transports, through the incompetence or dishonesty of those employed to procure them, were of such draft as rendered them totally unfit for this service. Of these, the propeller City of New York, 600 tons, heavily laden with rifles, ammunition, tents, bedding, and forage, and drawing 16 feet water, when the greatest depth attainable on the bar was but 13, grounded, of course, in attempting to pass it; when the sea broke completely over her stern, every breaker lifting her, and causing her, as it subsided, to set

1 Jan. 11-12, 1862.

tle still deeper in the sand, until she became a perfect wreck-her masts and smoke-stack cut away, her crew, with life-preservers tied about them, lashed to the rigging to save themselves from being washed overboard by each succeeding billow; and at last, after an endurance of 12 to 15 hours, the raging sea began to lift the deck from the hull with every surge. Ere this, her fires had been extinguished, her boats, all but one, filled or stove, and her men utterly exhausted by long fasting and exposure to the cold waves which broke over them continually; while no attention was paid from the fleet to their signal of distress, or even their hail to the S. R. Spaulding, which passed out to sea. At length, two mechanics, W. H. and Charles A. Beach, of Newark, N. J., launched the yawl, and, aided by engineer Wm. Miller, steward Geo. Mason, and Hugh McCabe, fireman, pulled successfully through the surf, over the bar, to the fleet, whence boats were at once dispatched to take off the remainder of the crew, who were speedily rescued. The vessel and cargo were totally lost; as were the steam gunboat Zouave, the transports Louisiana and Pocahontas, and two or three others. Col. J. W. Allen and Surgeon S. F. Weller, 9th New Jersey, were drowned by the upsetting of their small boat in the breakers, as they returned to the transport Ann E. Thompson from reporting the arrival of their regiment to Gen. Burn2 See Vol. I., p. 599.

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* Jan. 13.

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4 Jan. 15.

side. The National loss in precious | Bartow, when the Rebel gunboats halted and added their fire to that of the fort. A line of piles driven across the channel was evidently ex

time, as well as life and property, by the villainy which palmed off on the Government vessels totally unfit for this service, can hardly be overesti-pected to obstruct our advance, but mated. Two or three weeks of desperately hard work were expended on getting over such of the craft as were not wrecked; giving the alarmed Rebels the amplest time to concentrate and fortify.

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At length, every thing being in readiness, our fleet moved slowly up Pamlico and Croatan Sounds; the gunboats in advance and on the flanks of the transports, formed in three columns, each headed by its flagship, every large steamer having one or two schooners in tow, with the spaces between the columns kept carefully clear, and all moving at the regulated pace of four miles per hour. The fleet consisted in all of 65 vessels, covering a space about two miles square; some 50 transports, mainly schooners, having been left at the Inlet. The day was beautiful; the distance made about 28 miles, when they halted, near sunset, still 10 miles from the southern point of ROANOKE ISLAND, and lay undisturbed through the bright, moonlit night.

At 8 A. M., the signal to weigh anchor was given. At 11, progress was arrested, near the south point, by a storm; and the fleet again lay at anchor till next morning, when, at 10 A. M., the order was given to move forward, and the gunboats led the way through the narrow passage known as Roanoke Inlet, into Croatan Sound, driving 7 Rebel gunboats before them. At noon, our gunboats were under fire of the chief Rebel battery on the Island, known as Fort February 5.

proved inadequate. Soon, our soldiercrowded transports were seen swarming through the Inlet, and preparations were made for landing at Ashby's Harbor, two miles below the fort, which had now been set on fire by our shells. The flames were soon checked, however, and the cannonade on both sides continued; while the Rebel gunboats, which had retreated up the Sound, again appeared and engaged our fleet, till the Curlew, their flag-ship, was struck by a 100-pound shell from the Southfield, and soon enveloped in flames. The firing was continued on both sides till night, without serious loss in men on either. The Rebel barracks in the rear of the fort were destroyed by fire, and their remaining gunboats compelled to withdraw from the contest. All our transports had passed through the Inlet and anchored by 4 P. M., when debarkation commenced under the fire of our gunboats; and 7,500 men were ashore, and most of them in bivouac, before 11 P. M.

The Rebel forces in that region were commanded by Brig.-Gen. Henry A. Wise, whose headquarters were at Nag's Head, across Roanoke Sound, and whose forces numbered from 3,000 to 4,000; but hardly 1,000 of them were on the Island prior to the approach of our fleet, when rëenforcements were hurried over, raising the number of its defenders to about 3,000. Col. Shaw, 8th North Carolina, was in immediate command. Fort Bartow, other

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• Ex-Governor of Virginia.

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