their having sent all their wagons to the rear, some of which did not get back until Wednesday. They had no ordnance whatever except what they had in the limbers and caissons of their pieces, so I was told; and I was ordered to report at the Tennessee river. I was taken prisoner on Saturday, October 4th, about four A. M., on the road that leads between Forts Williams and Robinet. I was ordered by General Stanley to report at some landing on the Tennessee river, I think it was Hemiling Landing--to General Rosecranz at sunset that evening.'

"Colonel Wm. E. Barry, Thirty-fifth Mississippi regiment, of Columbus, was detailed by me to report to General Van Dorn, as commander of the burial party, which was detailed and left by General Van Dorn to discharge this solemn duty. General Rosecranz declined to receive Colonel Barry's command within his lines, but with a rare courtesy explained to General Van Dorn that he was forced to do this by considerations of a proper character, and assured General Van Dorn that every becoming respect should be shown to his dead and wounded.' It is due to General Rosecranz to say that he made good his promise as to the dead and wounded, of whom we left many hundreds on the field. He had the grave of Colonel Rodgers, who led the Second Texas Sharpshooters, enclosed and marked with a slab, in respect to the gallantry of his charge. Rodgers fell long before Gates called on me to reinforce him, and was buried where he fell, on the edge of the ditch of Battery Robinet.

"Colonel Barry remained near Chewalla, and had an opportunity of counting the force with which Rosecranz pursued us, and he reported it to me at twenty-two thousand men, from which I concluded the force in Corinth must have been about thirty thousand men when we attacked the place on the 4th of October. The combined effective forces of Van Dorn and Price, including all arms, numbered on the morning of the 2d of October about eighteen thousand six hundred men. Jackson's cavalry was detached towards Bolivar; it numbered about one thousand effectives. Whitfield's (Texas) Legion was left to guard Davis' bridge, and numbered about five hundred effectives. Wirt Adams' brigade, one thousand effectives, was also detached, to guard the approaches from Bolivar. Bledsoe's battery was detached, with six guns and about one hundred and twenty men. The force which actually assaulted Corinth on Octo

ber 4th (Price's corps only) did not exceed nine thousand effectives.

"I think this battle illustrated the superior elan of Confederate troops.

"The outer defences of Corinth had, in the spring of 1872, held Halleck's great army before them for six weeks; and although the Confederate army holding those works was not half so strong as the Federal army under Halleck, he never dared to attack us.

"In October, 1862, we found these conditions all reversed. Those same works were then held by a Federal army, which we believed to equal or exceed ours in number; yet we did not hesitate to attack them, and with no more delay than was necessary to form our line of battle. We marched upon those entrenchments without check or hesitation, and carried them in just the time necessary for us to traverse, at quick step, the space which divided our opposing lines."

"I have been careful to state correctly the force with which we made this attack, because of the gross misrepresentations which have so often been made of the opposing Confederate and Federal armies during the late war. The school histories of the United States are replete with this sort of disparagement of the Confederate armies. In one of their histories I have recently seen a statement of Van Dorn's army at Corinth, at the exaggerated number of forty thousand effectives. As you know, it very rarely happened to any Confederate general to lead so many of our troops against the enemy; and had Van Dorn led half so many against the inner works of Corinth, and made them all fight as Price's corps did, we would have captured Rosecranz's army.

"No commander of the Federal armies evinced more tenacity and skill than did General Rosecranz during this battle. He was one of the ablest of the Union generals, and his moder.ion and humanity in the conduct of war kept pace with his courage and skill. Our dead received from him all the care due brave men who fell in manly warfare, and our wounded and prisoners who fell into his hands attest his soldierly courtesy."

CHAPTER XVI.

BATTLE OF CORINTH, CONTINUED-LOSSES, INCIDENTS AND

PERSONALS.

S a quasi-official report, General Maury's account of

the battle of Corinth is complete; but sometimes the bravest deeds and noblest actions are unknown to the commander, and go unrecorded by history. In such desperate encounters as occurred on the glacis north of Corinth every man was a hero. The charge of the first day, through the dense abattis, too well constructed by Beauregard, where all semblance of line was lost, the field officers riding around trees, jumping their horses over them or dismounting to lift aside heavy branches, and the men dodging under, climbing over, struggling through or running around the many obstructions, under a continual deadly and persistent fire from Minie rifle, Parrot gun, and grape and canister shot, was simply sublime!

When the Missourians at last reached the clear ground, no man waited for his comrade, or to dress himself to any alignment, but rushed at once at the foe. In twos and threes they clambered over the breastworks, followed by dozens and hundreds. The astonished Yankees declared they were "drunk," and, doubtless disgusted by such conduct, departed for the rear with a speed that would have done credit to Weston's fastest feats.

In the mean time the mounted officers, who had been necessarily more delayed in the passage, came galloping up the hill, waving hats and swords, essaying to ride over the steep and soft ascent of the parapets, a few succeeding, some failing and sliding back with their horses into the ditch, while others coolly dismounted, hitched their steeds, and then at the keen run of a foot-race, followed their shouting squadrons. One of the men, seated on a captured cannon, wiping the perspiration from his brow, greeted his

commander, when he came up panting and blowing, with: "Well, Colonel, you mounted fellows are tolerably useful in camp, and serve a good purpose on the drill ground but we don't need you much in a fight."

"No, I'll swear you don't," gasped the officer, "and you boys can out-run the devil when you are after a Fed." "You bet we can!"

In this assault the First Brigade captured five splendid twenty-four pound brass howitzers, belonging to the first Missouri Federal battery, but the horses having all been killed and the other pieces dismounted or disabled, but one could be utilized. There was also taken a thirty-two pound rifled Parrot gun, with "Lady Richardson" painted on the carriage, to which were attached six sleek, beautiful, coalblack horses, who were immediately enlisted into the rebel service.

As soon as the lines were re-arranged the advance continued through a dense underbrush, until a portion of General Hebert's division obliqued too far to the right, infringing upon the Second Missouri Brigade, and completely covering the First. In this condition the Second, under General Green, encountered the main force of the enemy, posted in a strong position, and a furious combat ensued, which was nobly sustained by Green's men with an unflinching and unparalleled obstinacy, until Col. Gates was informed of the situation, and rapidly moved the First Brigade around to the left of the Second. The two Brigades halted but a moment to rectify their fronts, when they once more advanced upon the enemy, driving him back, and when they halted were within four hundred yards of the centre of the town of Corinth, and of General Rosecranz's headquarters.

*

Finding they were some distance ahead of the other, forces and occupying an isolated position in front of the general lines of Van Dorn's army, they paused for further orders from General Hebert, who commanded the division. None came, and Colonel Gates sent Major Hubbell, of the Third Missouri infantry, who was unable, although *Covell's Diary, p. 143.

diligently searching, to find that officer. By some unaccountable mistake, Hebert's old brigade, commanded by Colonel Moore, of Mississippi, had been moved to the left, unflanking General Moore's Tennessee brigade and leaving in the line a long undefended gap.* Through this unfortunate interstice a brigade of reinforcements to the enemy, just arrived, passed, crossing the Mobile and Ohio railroad and getting completely in the rear of the First Missouri Brigade. Their object was to capture all Price's artillery which had been placed in battery on a little ridge directly behind the position so stubbornly defended by General Green, from which, as related, the Missourians had driven the enemy and were at that moment pursuing-leaving the artillery unprotected, or thrown upon their own resources for protection—and which turned out to be amply effective. Wade, Landis, Guibor, Bledsoe, and the other battery commanders perceived their danger but receded not an inch, opening with all their guns at once and spicing every shot with noisy Missouri yells, they drove the enemy back in confusion, and remained masters of the situation.

It was nearly sunset before any orders were received by Colonel Gates from General Hebert, and then it was to withdraw from his advanced position and form a line on the railroad. The Missourians, and indeed all his division, were exceedingly denunciatory of the conduct of this officer, the many truculent remarks made not needing repetition here. General Price, however, as soon as he was informed, ordered General Hebert to turn the command of the division over to General Green and retire to the rear. Colonel Cockrell was then placed in command of the Second Brigade. Not a doubt remains upon my mind but that if General Hebert had been in his place and the Missouri Brigades properly supported by a simultaneous advance, Corinth would have been captured before dark that evening. The enemy were sadly demoralized, ready to fly in every direction and hopeless of any success in staying our career except that which might be afforded by the strengthening of their breastworks and the arrival of the heavy Covell's Diary, page 144.