been absurd, and I kept my division at College Hill until I received General Thomas's orders to return and resume our camps of the night before; which we did, slowly and quietly, in the cool of the evening. The evacuation of Corinth at the time and in the manner in which it was done was a clear back down from the high and arrogant tone heretofore assumed by the rebels. The ground was of their own choice. The fortifications, though poor and indifferent, were all they supposed necessary to our defeat, as they had had two months to make them, with an immense force to work at their disposal. If, with two such railroads as they possessed, they could not supply their army with reinforcements and provisions, how can they attempt it in this poor, arid and exhausted part of the country?" General Halleck, announcing the retreat of the enemy to the war department the day of the flight, reported his position and works in front of Corinth exceedingly strong. He cannot occupy a stronger position in his flight. This morning he destroyed an immense amount of public and private property, stores, provisions, wagons, tents, etc. For miles out of the town the roads are filled with arms, haversacks, etc., thrown away by his fleeing troops; a large number of prisoners and deserters have been captured, estimated by General Pope at two thousand. General Beauregard evidently distrusts his army or he would have defended so strong a position. His troops are generally much discouraged and demoralized. In all the engagements for the last few days their resistance has been slight." The same day with the rebel evacuation of Corinth, an expedition of the 2d Iowa Cavalry, under Colonel Elliott, which had been sent out by General Pope, after forced marches, day and night, through a very difficult country, and obstructed by the enemy, finally succeeded in reaching the Mobile and Ohio Railroad at Boonesville at two o'clock A. M. on the 30th. He destroyed the track in many places, both south and north of the town, blew up one culvert, destroyed the switch and track, burned up the depot and locomotives, and a train of twenty-six cars, loaded with supplies of every kind, destroyed ten thousand stand of small arms, three pieces of artillery, and a great quantity of clothing and ammunition, and paroled two thousand prisoners, whom he could not keep with his cavalry. The enemy had heard of his movements, and had a train of box cars, and flat cars, with flying artillery and five thousand infantry, running up and down the road to prevent him from reaching it. The whole road was lined with pickets for several days. Colonel Elliott's command subsisted upon meat alone, such as they could find in the country."* On the 30th, General Sherman issued a congratulatory order to his troops, thanking them "for the courage, steadiness, and great industry they had displayed during the past month." Reviewing the recent events, he said: "But a few days ago a large and powerful rebel army lay at Corinth, with outposts extending to our very camp at Shiloh. They held two railroads extending north and south, east and west, across the whole extent of their country with a vast number of locomotives and cars to bring to them speedily and certainly their reinforcements and supplies. They called to their aid all their armies from every quarter, abandoning the sea-coast and the great river Mississippi, that they might overwhelm us with numbers in the place of their own choosing. They had their chosen leaders, men of high reputation and courage, and they dared us to leave the cover of our iron-clad gunboats to come to fight them in their trenches, and still more dangerous swamps and ambuscades of their Southern forests. Their whole country from Richmond to Mem 督 Corinth, Miss., June 1, 1862. *General Pope, to Secretary Stanton, Camp, near phis and Nashville to Mobile rung with over 20,000, and General Buell at betheir taunts and boastings, as to how ween 20,000 and 30,000. A person who they would immolate the Yankees if they was employed in the Confederate Comdared to leave the Tennessee river. They missary Department says they had boldly and defiantly challenged us to 120,000 men in Corinth, and that now meet them at Corinth. We accepted they cannot muster much over 80,000. the challenge and came slowly and with- Some of the fresh graves on the road out attempt at concealment to the very have been opened and found filled with ground of their selection; and they have arms. Many of the prisoners of war beg fled away. We yesterday marched un- not to be exchanged, saying they puropposed through the burning embers of posely allowed themselves to be taken. their destroyed camps and property, and Beauregard himself retreated from Baldpursued them to their swamps, until burn- win on Saturday afternoon to Okolona." ing bridges plainly confessed they had fled and not marched away for better ground. It is a victory as brilliant and important as any recorded in history, and every officer and soldier who lent his aid has just reason to be proud of his part." General Beauregard, not long after, on reading in the Mobile News, General Halleck's dispatch of June 5, just cited, addressed to that journal a communication denying the alleged achievements of General Pope, and protesting against the assumption of the "farmer" of his "frantic" conduct. "General Pope," says he, "must certainly have dreamed of having taken 10,000 prisoners and 15,000 stand of arms, for we positively never lost them; about one ΟΙ two hundred stragglers would probably cover all the prisoners he took, and about five hundred damaged muskets all the arms he got; these belonged to a convalescent camp, (four miles south of Corinth), evacuated during the night, and were overlooked on account of the darkness. The actual The enemy were pursued in their retreat southerly, along the Mobile and Ohio Railroad, as far and as rapidly as the nature of the country and the roads and bridges, broken up by the fugitives, would allow. On the 4th of June General Halleck informed the Secretary of War: "General Pope, with 40,000 men, is thirty miles south of Corinth, pushing the enemy hard. He already reports 10,000 prisoners and deserters from the enemy, and 15,000 stand of arms captured. Thousands of the enemy are throw-number of prisoners taken during the reing away their arms. A farmer says that when Beauregard learned that Colonel Elliott had cut the railroad on his line of retreat, he became frantic, and told his men to save themselves the best way they could. We have captured nine locomotives and a number of cars. One of the former is already repaired, and is running to-day. Several more Several more will be in running order in two or three days. The result is all I could possibly desire." And again on the 9th: "The enemy has fallen back to Tusila, fifty miles from here by railroad, and near seventy miles by wagon road. General Pope estimates the rebel loss from casualties, prisoners, and desertion at treat was about equal on both sides, and they were but few." In this way frequently does some notable military exploit of war expand or dwindle as it is recorded with more or less of policy or integrity by one side or the other. Who shall reconcile the ordinary discrepancies of statement when commanders-in-chief men drilled in the calculations of warfare-thus widely differ? General Beauregard, in reference to the farmer's story, says that General Halleck ought to know that the burning of two or more cars on a railroad is not enough to make “ Beauregard frantic," while he charges Colonel Elliott with barbarously consuming four sick persons in the building which he set fire to at Booneville." These rough accusations were met by General Granger, who led the pursuit from Corinth with a body of cavalry. He denied utterly the charge brought against Colonel Elliott, while he represents the wretched state in which the rebels left their sick at Booneville. "Two thousand sick and convalescent, found by Colonel Elliott, were in the most shocking condition. The living and the putrid dead were lying side by side together, festering in the sun, on platforms, on the track, and on the ground, just where they had been driven off the cars by their inhuman and savage comrades. No surgeon, no nurses were attending them. They had had no water or food for one or two days, and a more horrible scene could scarcely be imagined. Colonel Elliott set his own men to removing them to places of safety, and they were all so removed before he set fire to the depot and cars, as can be proved by hundreds." The exact. number of cars destroyed by Colonel Elliott was twenty-six, laden with small arms, ammunition, officers' baggage, etc.* Such, then, was the evaucation of Corinth, though falling short of the expectations of the public in the easy escape of the rebel army, yet an important success in its influence upon the conduct of the war, being followed, as a necessary sequence, after an interval of a few weeks, by the fall of Memphis, by which Tennessee was interposed as an effectual barrier against the armies of the South, and essential military operations in this * Letter of General Granger, Army of the Mississippi, July 4, 1862. Rebellion Record v., p. 269. quarter were transferred to the States of the Gulf. Following these events at Corinth, the strong position of the Cumberland Gap, at the point of junction of Kentucky, Tennessee and Virginia, where a notch or depression of the Cumberland chain is protected on either side by high precipitous mountain walls, was on the approach of the Union General George W. Morgan, on the 18th of June, found evacuated by the Confederate garrison, which had held it for several months. General Morgan occupied the Gap, and remained in possession till the autumn, when the invasion of Kentucky, by cutting off his supplies, compelled him to retreat. General Mitchel, who, for his services in this campaign, was raised to the rank of a major general of volunteers, continued in command in Tennessee till July, when he was relieved and returned to the east. east. He was succeeded in his command by General Rousseau, of Kentucky. With a larger force he might have been successful in carrying out his plans for the permanent occupation of Chattanooga, and the restoration of East Tennessee to the Union. As it was, after several encounters with the enemy, running through May and June, the Federal troops were compelled to retire from the outposts which his little army had so resolutely taken possession of. General Halleck also left the charge of the department in July to General Buell, being called by the President to Washington, to the command of the army as general-in-chief. CHAPTER LXVII. NAVAL ACTIONS AT FORT WRIGHT AND MEMPHIS, APRIL-JUNE, 1862. eight in number, rounding the point, advanced about seven o'clock towards the vessels of the Union fleet which were lying at the time tied up to the bank, three on the eastern and. four on the western side of the stream. The rebel squadron was supposed to be commanded by Commodore Hollins. The leading vessels made directly for mortar boat No. 16, Acting Master Gregory, who fought "with great spirit," and was presently supported by the gunboats Cincinnati and the Mound City. The action lasted an hour at close quarters, and ended in the enemy "retiring precipitately under the guns of the fort."* COMMODORE Foote, with his squadron and coöperating land forces, having cleared the Mississippi of the formidable batteries at Island No. 10, proceeded down the river to the vicinity of Fort Wright or Pillow, where, and at the neighboring Fort Randolph, the enemy had erected at the Chickasaw Bluffs, at convenient bends of the stream, their next series of defences, about seventy miles above Memphis. The gallant.commodore, though suffering severely from the wound in his ankle which he had received at Donelson, and requiring the use of crutches, was ready as ever for action, and in conjunction with General Pope, was, a few days after his recent An eye witness describes in detail the victory, about to execute a combined action: "The Cincinnati, which lay off attack upon the fortifications at Fort the Arkansas shore, and nearest to the Wright, when the land force was called point, as a guard of the mortar boats, away by General Halleck to recruit the was approached by the largest rebel gunarmy on the Tennessee after the battle boat, provided with a sharp iron prow, of Pittsburg Landing. The fleet, how- and known as the McRae. She was forever, remained at its station watching merly a schooner, has her engines prothe enemy, who had mustered a consider-tected by railway iron, is mounted with able fleet of gunboats to the support of heavy guns at the bow and stern, and their works. A few weeks after, Flag probably has several others, but they Officer Foote, in consequence of his were not visible. She was defended by wound, was relieved of his command by bales of cotton piled some six feet above the department, being succeeded, on the her deck, and had a soiled and tattered 9th of May, by Captain Charles H. ensign, designed, no doubt, for the seDavis. The new commander had scarcely cession colors, flying from one of her two time to look about him when he was masts. The McRae did not fire any of called into action. On the 10th, the day her pieces, but ran with great force in after his arrival, the enemy made an at- the direction of the Cincinnati, evidently tack which had been expected by Com- designing to sink her. As she was within modore Foote, and for which every pre- twenty feet of the Cincinnati, the latter paration had been made. The morning discharged her bow gun at her, but withwas fair, with a promise of a fine day, out any seeming effect, and then swinging though, as was not unusual at the season, round, let off a broadside. At that moa thick blue haze was gathered over the river, through which the rebel gunboats, *Captain Commanding Davis to Secretary Welles. Flagship Benton, off Fort Wright, May 10 and 11, 1862. ment the McRae came into collision with her on the port quarter, knocking a large | hole in her, and causing her partially to fill. By this time, the Cincinnati had turned round, and the hostile craft struck her again on the starboard side, and was in time to receive a second broadside that seemed to lift the foe out of the water. One of the rams, the Van Dorn, was now within a few yards of the Cincinnati, and though fired at and struck, still came on swiftly, and came into collision with the Union boat exactly between the rudders. The Mound City, lying just above the Cincinnati, saw the danger of her companion, and steamed down to her aid. The enemy was preparing to fire the bow gun of the McRae, when the Mound City struck the cannon with a shell and dismounted it, rendering it useless. This attracted the attention of the Sumter, a second ram, and caused her to run toward the new-comer. The Mound City gave her two broadsides before she reached the gunboat, but still she pursued her rapid way, and struck the bow with great force, making a great hole, through which the water ran in streams. The Sumter took advantage of the vessel's condition, and was on the point of running into her again, when the Benton opened upon the foe with a broadside, knocking off a number of her cotton bales, and making the splinters fly in every direction. "The hostile gunboats were all this while lying near the Tennessee shore, and firing every few minutes, but without manifesting any intention of getting into close contact. At the same time the guns at Fort Pillow threw shells and shot over the point, and we saw them alight in the river or burst in the air, half a mile at least from where any of our vessels lay. The McRae, Van Dorn and Sumter were all protected by bales of cotton, and behind them were stationed companies of sharpshooters, part of them probably Jeff. Thompson's followers, who had been stationed there to pick off our officers, as they might easily have done at a very short range. Generally, not a man was visible on the decks, and the muskets and rifles of the rebels were discharged with entire security, as they supposed, from behind their unyielding breastwork. Whenever the McRae or the rams were within a few yards of the gunboats, volley after volley of muskets and rifles would be heard among the cotton, and the balls rattled like hail on the chimneys, against the sides and pilot-houses of the vessels. One of the seamen on the Cincinnati said there must have been four hundred infantry on the McRae's decks, and probably the rams had proportionate numbers. Still, the musketry was often very slight after the broadsides had opened upon them-showing that the infantry must either have been placed hors du combat or been too panic-stricken to fire. "After the McRae had struck the Cincinnati twice with her prow, Captain Roger N. Stembel ordered his crew to prepare themselves to receive boarders, supposing the enemy on their next approach would make such an attempt. The seamen immediately armed themselves with pikes, revolvers, cutlasses, and hand-grenades, and waited for the near approach of the enemy. The schooner-rigged craft again went rapidly toward the gunboat, and the captain, catching a glimpse of the pilot, called for a rifle, and when within twenty yards of the ram fired, and saw the pilot fall. this time the Cincinnati's pilot observed a rebel on the McRae leveling a gun at the captain, and gave him warning. Stembel perceived the fellow, and started toward the pilot-house; but before he could get behind it the enemy fired, and the ball, entering his right shoulder, passed through his body and went out at his throat. The captain fell, and was supposed to be dead; but being picked up and carried below, it was discovered he was conscious, and only badly wounded. In the hour of pain and peril the gallant At |