CHAPTER XXIX.

THE BATTLES OF IUKA AND CORINTH.

(October, 1862, to January, 1863.)

CHEERLESS PROSPECTS.-DISPOSITIONS OF THE TWO ARMIES.-FALLING BACK TO IURA.-BATTLE OF LUKA. RETREAT OF THE REBELS.-THEIR VANDALISM.-SAGACIOUS PLAN OF THE REBELS. -MORE SAGACIOUS PLAN OF GENERAL ROSECRANS-ASPECT OF THE COUNTRY.-THE TRAP. -BATTLE OF CORINTH.-INCIDENTS.-UTTER ROUT OF THE REBELS.

HAD Generals Grant and Rosecrans been no more successful than General Buell, the invasion of Kentucky might have proved far more disastrous than it did. General Grant-now commanded the Department of West Tennessee. General Pope had been summoned by General Halleck to Virginia. General Rosecrans, on the 30th of October, entered upon the command of the Army of the Ohio, or of the Cumberland, as it was soon called. The Department of the "Fourteenth Army Corps" consisted of all that portion of Tennessee which was east or the Tennessee River, and so much of the States of Alabama and Georgia as General Rosecrans might occupy.

Winter, with its chilling, drenching rains, and boundless mud, was approaching. The soldiers were exhausted by long marches and disheartened by an inglorious campaign. The hospitals, wretchedly provided, were filled with the suffering and the dying. The single thread of railroad, by which communications were opened to Nashville, had been almost demolished by the rebels, and was now, along the whole line, infested by guerrillas. Nearly ten thousand of the patriot troops, heartsick of unavailing toils and sufferings, had deserted. The cavalry corps had been so much neglected that the vast superiority of the rebel cavalry gave them the general control of the country. While the National army was languidly reposing at Bowling Green, Bragg's army, encumbered with its enormous train of plunder, was toiling through the defiles of the mountains of East Tennessee, endeavoring to reach Murfreesboro' by the circuitous route through Chattanooga.

It had been found necessary essentially to weaken the Union army which was in the vicinity of Corinth. Eight thousand men had been sent under the patriot General, Jefferson C. Davis,* to reënforce General

General Jefferson C. Davis was born in Clarke County, Indiana, March 2, 1838. At seventeen years of age he volunteered as a private in the Mexican war, where he distinguished him. self, and was appointed first lieutenant in the regular artillery. At the breaking out of the rebellion, he was second in command at Fort Sumter, during the assault upon that fortress. After the surrender, he was ordered to Indianapolis, where he acted as mustering officer for Indiana. Soon he was appointed colonel of the Twenty-second Indiana Regiment, and ordered to report to General Fremont. On Fremont's advance on Springfield he commanded the post at

Buell. A large force had also been sent by General Grant to protect the northern border. It became evident, early in September, that the National army would not be permitted to retain the fruit of its victory at Corinth without a struggle. Indeed, as carly as the last of August a force of some five or six thousand men was sent by the rebels to attack Bolivar and Jackson, Tennessee, and, by destroying the railroad, to cut off all communication between Memphis and Corinth. The head of the rebel column was met, about four miles south of Bolivar, on the 30th of August, where a brisk skirmish ensued. The next day there was quite a severe battle near Meadow Station, where the rebel forces were engaged and repulsed. The next day, September 1st, the fight was renewed at Britton's Lane, on the Denmark road. The battle continued until night, when the rebels retreated across the IIatchie, leaving one hundred and seventy-nine dead and wounded on the field. The National loss was five killed, seventy-eight wounded, ninety-two prisoners and missing.

The National line was now far too much extended for its safety. It was necessary to concentrate our forces. On the 10th of October, Tuscumbia was evacuated. Colonel Murphy, who occupied that place with the second brigade of General Stanley's Division, fell back under orders to Iuka, a point on the Memphis and Charleston Railroad, about midway between Tuscumbia and Corinth. Here, after a few days, he was surprised by a force of rebel cavalry, and, after a short skirmish, retreated. A considerable quantity of stores fell into the hands of the enemy, including six hundred and eighty barrels of flour. At the same time the rebel General Price occupied Iuka in force.

The way was now open for General Price to execute his part of the plan for the invasion of the North. This was to slip by the right wing of the National army, which was at Corinth, to cross the Tennessee River, and gaining the rear of Buell, to threaten Nashville. Thus General Buell would be compelled to abandon the place, or, for its defence, so to weaken other positions as to expose them to capture. Should, however, the National army venture to come out from Corinth to dispute the advance of General Price, then General Van Dorn, marching up from the south was immediately to attack that place. Its capture then could be easily effected. The plan was well conceived, but its execution was not accomplished.

General Rosecrans, learning that Iuka was occupied by General Price and his army, sent Generals Grant and Ord, with a column of eighteen thousand men, to move along the railroad and attack Price in front, while General Rosecrans himself, advancing by the way of Jacinto, was to attack him in flank and rear. The two columns started out from Corinth the 17th Jefferson City. He fought under General Curtis, at the battle of Pea Ridge, and joined General Halleck, in May following, at Corinth. In August he visited home, on leave of absence, in consequence of ill health, and was thus at Indiana at the time of Bragg's invasion. The approach of the foe led him to repair immediately to Louisville and tender his services to the Government. Here he was outrageously insulted by General Nelson, and after demanding an apology and receiving only reiterated abuse, he shot him on the stairs of the Galt House. General Nelson died in a few hours. General Davis was arrested, but was soon after released, sustained by the almost universal sympathy of the public and of the army.

of September. On the morning of the 19th, General Rosecrans drove in the rebel pickets, and took position near to the rebel lines. General Grant was to have opened the battle upon the north, and General Rosecrans waited for the sound of his cannon. As, for some unexplained cause, General Grant's attack was delayed, General Rosecrans, having obtained a commanding position, opened with shot and shell directly upon the headquarters of General Price. General Little, who commanded a division of the rebel army, while consulting with General Price, was shot by a bullet through the head from the rifle of a sharpshooter.

The ground occupied by General Rosecrans was not favorable for the massing of heavy bodies of troops. General Rosecrans had with him but three thousand men. IIe attacked a foe variously estimated at from eleven to fifteen thousand. Ile counted on the coöperation of General Grant's army. Doubtless for good, though hitherto unexplained reasons, he had failed to come up in season to participate in the conflict. The battle was desperately fought on both sides: General Price commanding the rebels in person, and General Rosecrans commanding the National troops. One battery, the Eleventh Ohio, was made the centre of a most furious rebel fire. Every horse was shot; seventy-two men were either killed or wounded. Three times the battery was taken by the rebels at the point of the bayonet. Twice it was retaken in the same way by the Fifth Iowa Infantry. But they had no means of removing the guns, and the battery remained at last in the hands of the rebels. The battle, though bloody, was short. Darkness soon put an end to the contest. The result was apparently indecisive. A renewal of the conflict was expected by General Rosecrans on the morrow.

General Price, well assured that General Grant's forces would be on the ground by that time, esteemed discretion the better part of valor, and retreated during the night. Thus one important and well-conceived plan for the invasion of the North was defeated. If the attack upon Price's army had been made as was intended by the combined forces of Grant and Rosecrans, it would scarcely have escaped utter demolition. The National oss in this conflict was about eight hundred killed, wounded, and inissing. The rebel loss is estimated at about a third more, including three prominent generals-Little, Berry, and Whitfield. The avowed object of General Price was to liberate the fair fields of the South from the despotism of Northern despoilers., The character of these self-styled liberators may be inferred from the following statements. They are contained in an article written by a correspondent in the rebel army, and published in the "Mississippian" of Jackson:

"During the entire retreat we lost but four or five wagons, which broke down on the road, and were left. Acts of vandalism, disgraceful to the army, were, however, perpetrated along the road, which made me blush to own such men as my countrymen. Cornfields were laid waste, potato-patches robbed, barn-yards and smoke-houses despoiled, hogs killed, and all kinds of outrages perpetrated in broad daylight and in full view of officers. I doubted, on the march up and down the retreat, whether I was in an army of brave men, fighting for their country, or merely following a

band of armed marauders, who are as terrible to their friends as foes. I once thought General Bragg too severe in his discipline; but I am satisfied. that none but the severest discipline will restrain men upon a march.

"The settlements through which we passed were made to pay a heavy tribute to the rapacity of our soldiers; and I have no doubt that women and children will cry for the bread which has been taken from them, by those who should have protected and defended them. This plunder, too, was without excuse, for rations were regularly issued every night; and, though the men did not get their meals as punctually as when in camp, still there was no absolute suffering to justify such conduct, and it deserves the severest reprobation.'

This picture is not overdrawn. The scenes thus enacted have been repeated in well-nigh every section of the rebel Confederacy. The South has suffered far more from the devastations of its pretended defenders, than from any rapacity on the part of its supposed despoilers. Private property in the South has always been more sacredly regarded by the National than by the rebel army.

General Price moved rapidly in a southwesterly direction, making a complete circuit around Corinth, crossing the Mobile and Ohio Railroad at Baldwin; thence northwesterly through Ripley, forming a junction with Van Dorn and Lovell on the route, reaching Chewala, on the Memphis and Charleston Railroad, about ten miles west of Corinth, the last of September. Meantime, General Rosecrans had withdrawn from Iuka and reoccupied Corinth. General Grant had withdrawn to Jackson, Tennessee, the junction of the Mississippi Central and Mobile and Ohio Railroads. General Rosecrans's army consisted of four divisions, under Brigadier-Generals Hamilton, McKean, Davies, and Stanley-a force in all of abo. twenty thousand men. The rebels, commanded by Generals Van Dorn, Price, Lovell, Villepigue, and Rust, were nearly double that number.

The intentions of the rebels were unknown. They might feign an attack upon Corinth, rush forward for the North, attack General Grant at Jackson, and thus accomplish successfully that severance of General Rosecrans's connection with the North which, a month earlier, they had attempted; or they might be intending a direct attack upon his position. "The eyes of the army," as General Rosecrans styles his cavalry, were kept open. Every movement of the enemy was promptly communicated to him. General Davies, and a part of General McKean's Division, were sent out towards Chewala to feel the position and strength of the enemy. There was brisk skirmishing on the first and second days of October. On the third, the rebels advanced in sufficient force to indicate that they intended a serious attack. Their advance was stubbornly resisted, but it was no part of the plan of General Rosecrans to accept battle outside of his defensive works. Corinth had been strongly fortified by General Beauregard before it was captured by our troops.

But a line of defences constructed for an army of one hundred thousand men could not be maintained by twenty thousand. A new and interior line of redoubts had therefore been constructed, and additions to these were now made by a corps of "contraband" sappers and miners. Upon

the evening of the 3d of October the rebels had apparently gained great successes. They had driven the National troops back into their works, inflicting severe injuries upon them. General Oglesby was wounded. General Hackleman was killed. The loss in General Davies's Division was severe. This division had been retreating all day before the enemy, though heroically fighting against superior numbers. "Their magnificent fighting on the 3d," says General Rosecrans, "more than atones for what was lacking on the 4th." The discouraging experience of the first day's battle partly accounts for their disaster on the second. Inevitable defeat and capture seemed to stare the National army in the face. A general panic pervaded the community, in which the army manifestly shared. Many of the officers were unable to conceal their disquietude. It was, however, observed that General Rosecrans was in magnificent spirits. He seemed to feel that every thing was going exactly as he could wish. In truth, every thing had thus far moved in accordance with his plans. What were those plans? Let us endeavor to unfold them.

On the west of Corinth the country is rough, hilly, and intersected by numerous ravines. On the south it is swampy, and a. dense forest with thick underbrush covers the ground. The trees have been felled, making an abattis which added to the difficulty of the approach on both of these sides. Upon the north the ground is comparatively level and open. The railroad and two wagon-roads, one leading to Purdy and the other to Bolivar, enter the town from this direction. Here was apparently General Rosecrans's weak point. It was from this direction that the rebels were most likely to approach. To lure them to do this, General Davies's Division was sent out to provoke the rebels to an attack, with orders to fight stubbornly, and yet steadily to fall back before the foe. The rebels, followingclose after, rent the air with their exultant shouts. They thought that they were driving all before them, when in reality they were being drawn into a trap.

"Two hours more of daylight," wrote a correspondent of the "Grenada Appeal" (rebel), "would have decided the possession of Corinth itself. The Yankees would have been driven from the stronghold in which they long had revelled, and been scattered in utter rout."

General Rosecrans, delighted with the successful operations of his plans, now prepared to bait and set his trap. The movement will be quite intelligible by referring to the diagram. Fort Chapman and Fort Williams were two prominent fortifications, which, being supplied with heavy siege. guns, commanded the approach to the town. On a line a little advanced from these forts General Rosecrans placed his men. The left rested upon Battery Robinet, the right upon Battery Richardson. But neither of these batteries were noticeable from the rebel positions. Both were slight breastworks. Battery Richardson was thrown up on Friday night. In fact, the rebels discovered neither of them, until after the assault of Saturday was commenced. Both were supported by infantry under cover. All of the forts designated on the diagram are upon high ground. The centre of the town is low.

On Saturday morning the rebels saw before them the Union army

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