While Grant's army was sailing up the river and getting settled at Pittsburg, General Buell with five divisions of his army was marching from Nashville to Savannah. Immediately on receiving General Halleck's order to march, he sent out his cavalry to secure the bridges on his route, in which they succeeded, except in the cases of the important bridge over Duck Creek at Columbia, and an unimportant bridge a few miles north of that. On the 15th, the Fourth Division, commanded by Brigadier-General A. McD. McCook, moved out, and at intervals, up to March 20th, it was followed in order by the Fifth, Brigadier-General T.L. Crittenden, Sixth, Brigadier-General T.J. Wood, and First, Brigadier-General George H. Thomas—37,000 men in all. Having no pontoons, General Buell built a bridge over Duck Creek. This would have caused little delay later in the war; but to fresh troops, who yet had to learn the business of military service, it was a formidable task, and was not completed till the 29th. While waiting for the completion of the bridge, General Buell's command learned that General Grant's army was on the west bank of the Tennessee. General Nelson at once asked permission to ford the stream and push rapidly on to Savannah. Permission being obtained, the division, with Ammen's brigade—the Twenty-fourth Ohio, Sixth Ohio, and Thirty-sixth Indiana in front—began their march early on the morning of the 29th, the men stripped of their pantaloons, carrying their cartridge-boxes on their necks; the ammunition-boxes of the artillery taken from the limbers and carried over on scows, and tents packed in the bottom of the wagon-beds, to lift ammunition and stores above water.

The bridge was finished and the march resumed the same day. Nelson having secured the advance, his eagerness gave an impetus to the entire column. The divisions were ordered to camp at night six miles apart, making a column thirty miles long. But this prevented the clogging of the march on the wet and soft roads, the alternate crowding up and lengthening out of the column, the weary waiting of the crowded rear for the obstructed front to move, nights spent on the road, and late bivouacs reached toward morning. It made Buell's advance slow, but it prevented the new troops from being worn out, and brought them in good condition onto the field. General Buell intended to take at Waynesboro the road to Hamburg Landing, instead of the direct road to Savannah, and put his army there into a separate camp. General Nelson, however, moving faster than was expected, drew the divisions behind him through Waynesboro, on the road to Savannah, before General Buell issued the order, and so unconsciously defeated the intention. Nelson's brigade reached Savannah during April 5th, Crittenden's division camped that night a few miles distant, and General Buell himself reached Savannah or its outskirts some time in the evening.

General A.S. Johnston was encamped with his army at Edgefield, opposite Nashville, on February 15th. A despatch from General Pillow that evening announced a great victory won by the garrison of Fort Donelson. Just before daybreak of the 16th another despatch was received, that Buckner would capitulate at daylight. Immediately staff and orderlies were aroused, and the troops put in motion across the river to Nashville. The morning papers were filled with the "victory, glorious and complete," and the city was ringing with joy. In the forenoon the news spread of the surrender of Donelson. The people were struck with dismay, the city was in panic, the populace was delirious with excitement. A wild mob surrounded Johnston's headquarters and demanded to know whether their generals intended to fight or not.

Johnston immediately began the abandonment of Nashville. First were sent off the fifteen hundred sick brought on from Bowling Green, together with the tenants of the hospitals at Nashville. The railway was then taxed to its utmost to carry away the stores of most value. It was evident that all the stores could not be taken away, and pillage of commissary stores and quartermaster stores by citizens was permitted. A regiment of infantry and a battalion of cavalry were put on guard and patrolled the streets to reduce the riotous to order. Johnston moved out with his command on February 18th, leaving Floyd and Forrest with a force in Nashville to preserve order, remove the public stores, and to destroy what could not be removed.

Popular excitement always demands a victim, and the outcry was almost universal that Johnston should be relieved from command. But, to a deputation that went to Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederacy, with this request, he replied: "I know Johnston well. If he is not a general, we had better give up the war, for we have no general." Johnston found the Tennessee, running from Alabama and Mississippi up to the Ohio, in the possession of the National fleets and armies. The force under his immediate command was therefore separated from the force under Beauregard that was guarding the Mississippi. Unless they should join, they would be beaten in detail. To join involved the surrender either of Central Tennessee or of the Mississippi. Johnston resolved to give up Central Tennessee until he could regain it, and hold on to the Mississippi. But to hold the Mississippi required continued possession of the railroads, and such points especially as Corinth and Humboldt. Corinth, both from its essential importance and its exposure to attack by reason of its nearness to the river, was the point for concentration. Johnston moved from Nashville to Murfreesboro, not on the direct route to Corinth, to conceal his purpose. At Murfreesboro he added to the forces brought from Bowling Green between three and four thousand of the men who escaped from Donelson, and the command of General Crittenden from Kentucky, quickly raising his force at Murfreesboro to seventeen thousand men. Leaving Murfreesboro on February 28th, marching through Shelbyville to Decatur, he arrived at Corinth, on March 24th, with twenty thousand men. General Bragg, with ten thousand well-drilled troops from Pensacola, had preceded him. General Ruggles, with a brigade, came from New Orleans; Major-General Polk, with General Cheatham's division from Columbus, with the troops that escaped from Island No. Ten the night before escape was cut off, and various outlying garrisons under General Beauregard's command, swelled the concourse. Van Dorn, having failed to drive Curtis back into Missouri, was ordered to come with his command to Corinth. A regiment arrived before April 6th, the rest later. Detached commands guarding the line of the Memphis and Charleston Railroad were called in. The governors of States were called on and raised new levies. Beauregard made a personal appeal for volunteers, which brought in several regiments. Johnston had before called for reinforcements in vain. Now every nerve was strained to aid him. An inspection of his command satisfied him that if all the soldiers detailed as cooks and teamsters were relieved, he would have another brigade of effective men. He sent messengers through the surrounding country, urging citizens to hire their negroes as cooks and teamsters for ninety days, or even sixty days. But the messengers returned with the answer that the planters would freely give their last son, but they would not part with a negro or a mule.

General Bragg, on arriving at Corinth, wished to attack the troops as they were beginning to land at Pittsburg and Crump's landings. General Beauregard forbade this, writing to Bragg: "I would prefer the defensive-offensive—that is, to take up such a position as would compel the enemy to develop his intentions, and to attack us, before he could penetrate any distance from his base; then, when within striking distance of us, to take the offensive and crush him wherever we may happen to strike him, cutting him off, if possible, from his base of operations or the river."

On March 25th, Johnston completed the concentration of his troops. Van Dorn was in person in Corinth, and was ordered to bring forward his command. Johnston determined to wait as long as practicable for it. Meanwhile, to hasten the organization and preparation of his army, he appointed Gen. Bragg chief of staff for the time, but to resume command of his corps when the movement should begin. Of him, Colonel William Preston Johnston says, in his life of his father—a valuable book, prepared with great industry, and written with an evident desire to be fair: "In Bragg there was so much that was strong marred by most evident weakness, so many virtues blemished by excess or defect in temper and education, so near an approach to greatness and so manifest a failure to attain it, that his worst enemy ought to find something to admire in him, and his best friend something painful in the attempt to portray him truly." A thorough disciplinarian and a master of detail, his merits found full play, and his defects were less apparent in his position on the staff.

Johnston was organizing his army; Grant was assembling his twenty-three miles away. On the other side of the Tennessee, ninety miles from Savannah, Buell, halted by Duck Creek, was building a bridge for his troops—a bridge which it required twelve days to construct. Johnston having completed his concentration, it was his obvious policy to attack before Grant should be further reinforced. General Beauregard, in his letter of March 18th to Bragg, said: "While I have guarded you against an uncertain offensive, I am decidedly of the opinion that we should endeavor to entice the enemy into an engagement as soon as possible, and before he shall have further increased his numbers by the large numbers which he must still have in reserve and available—that is, beat him in detail." Lee wrote to Johnston, on March 26th: "I need not urge you, when your army is united, to deal a blow at the enemy in your front, if possible, before his rear gets up from Nashville. You have him divided, and keep him so, if you can." It was Johnston's purpose, and expressed, to attack Grant before Buell should arrive. But he determined to continue organizing and waiting for Van Dorn as long as that would be safe.

At eleven o'clock at night of April 2d, Johnston learned that Buell was moving "rapidly from Columbia, by Clifton, to Savannah." About one o'clock in the morning of Thursday, the 3d, preliminary orders were issued to hold the troops in readiness to move at a moment's notice, with five days' rations and one hundred rounds of ammunition. The movement began in the afternoon. The army was arranged in three corps, commanded respectively by Polk, Bragg, and Hardee, and a reserve under Breckenridge. Beauregard was second in command, without a specific command. Major-General Hardee's corps consisted of Brigadier-General Hindman's division and Brigadier-General Cleburne's brigade. The division consisted of Hindman's brigade, commanded by Colonel Shaver, and Brigadier-General Wood's brigade. Wood's brigade comprised five regiments, and two battalions of infantry and a battery; Cleburne's brigade was composed of six regiments and two batteries. Major-General Bragg's corps consisted of two divisions, commanded respectively by Brigadier-General Ruggles and Brigadier-General Withers. The brigades of Ruggles' division were commanded by Colonel Gibson, Brigadier-General Patton Anderson, and Colonel Pond. Withers' brigades were commanded by Brigadier-Generals Gladden, Chalmers, and Jackson. The brigades of Chalmers and Gladden contained each five regiments and a battery; the other brigades contained each four regiments and a battery, with, in Anderson's and Pond's each, an additional battalion of infantry. Major-General Polk's corps had two divisions, commanded by Brigadier-General Clark and Major-General Cheatham. Clark's brigades were commanded by Colonel Russell and Brigadier-General A.P. Stewart; Cheatham's brigades were commanded by Brigadier-General B.R. Johnson and Colonel Stephens. Each brigade was made up of four regiments of infantry and a battery. Brigadier-General John C. Breckenridge's reserve comprised three brigades, commanded by Colonel Trabue, Brigadier-General Bowen, and Colonel Statham. Trabue had five regiments and two battalions, Bowen four regiments, and Statham six regiments of infantry. Each brigade had a battery. By the returns, Cleburne's brigade was the largest, having 2,750 effectives. Besides, were three regiments, two battalions and one company of cavalry. This force comprised 40,000 of the 50,000 effectives gathered at Corinth. Different returns vary a few hundred more and a few hundred less. General Johnston telegraphed to Jefferson Davis, when the movement began, that the number was 40,000. In forming for battle, the army was to deploy into three parallel lines, the distance between the lines to be one thousand yards. Hardee's corps to be the first; Bragg's the second; and the third to be composed of Polk on the left and Breckenridge on the right.

Hardee, moving out in advance, in the afternoon of Thursday, halted Friday forenoon at Mickey's house, about seventeen miles from Corinth. Bragg's corps bivouacked Friday night in rear of Hardee. Clark's division of Polk's corps followed in due order on its road. Cheatham's division, on outpost on the railroad at Purdy and Bethel, under orders to defend himself if attacked, otherwise to assemble at Purdy, march thence to Monterey, and thence to position near Mickey's, did not leave Purdy till Saturday morning, and reached his position Saturday afternoon. Breckenridge, who marched from his station at Burnesville through Farmington without entering Corinth, using a cross-road, could not pull his wagons through the mud, and failed to get as far as Monterey Friday night. While Hardee was lying near Mickey's house, his cavalry felt the National outposts, and a reconnoitring party from the National camp struck Cleburne's brigade.

The order issued at Corinth required the columns to be deployed by seven o'clock, Saturday morning, and the attack to begin at eight o'clock. Hardee began his movement at daybreak, Saturday, deployed about ten o'clock, and waited. His line being too short to extend from Owl Creek to Lick Creek, Gladden's brigade was moved forward from Bragg's corps, and added to Hardee's right. The rest of Withers' division moved into position behind Hardee's right; but Ruggles' division, constituting the right of Bragg's line, did not appear. Successive messengers bringing no satisfaction, General Johnston rode to the rear with his staff, till he found Ruggles' division standing still, with its head in an open field. It was set in motion, Polk followed; Cheatham arrived from Purdy; Breckenridge extricated his command from the deep mud, and, by four o'clock in the afternoon, the deployment and formation of the army was complete. It was too late to attack that day. Beauregard urged that it was too late to attack at all, that it would now be impossible to effect a surprise, that the expedition should be abandoned and the troops march back to Corinth. Johnston directed the troops to bivouac, and attack to be made next day at daylight.

Of the five divisions at Pittsburg Landing, the organization of four—the First, McClernand's; Second, C.F. Smith's, commanded by Brigadier-General W.H.L. Wallace, General Smith being ill at Savannah; the Fourth, Hurlbut's; and the Fifth, Sherman's—was completed. The Sixth, commanded by Prentiss, was still in process of formation. McClernand's First Brigade, composed of the Eighth and Eighteenth Illinois, Eleventh and Thirteenth Iowa, was commanded by Colonel Hare, of the Eleventh Iowa; the Second was composed of the Eleventh, Twentieth, Forty-fifth, and Forty-eighth Illinois, and commanded by Col. Marsh, of the Twentieth Illinois; the Third, of the Seventeenth, Twenty-ninth, Forty-third, and Forty-ninth Illinois. Colonel Ross, of the Seventeenth Illinois, the senior colonel, being ill and absent, the command of this brigade devolved on Colonel Reardon, of the Twenty-ninth. The Second Division comprised three brigades: the First, commanded by Colonel Tuttle, of the Second Iowa, contained the Second, Seventh, Twelfth, and Fourteenth Iowa; the Second, commanded by Brigadier-General McArthur, comprised the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Missouri, Ninth and Twelfth Illinois, and Eighty-first Ohio. The Fourteenth Missouri, at that time, went by the name of Birge's Sharpshooters; the Third, commanded by Colonel Sweeney, of the Fifty-second Illinois, comprised the Eighth Iowa, and the Seventh, Fiftieth, Fifty-second, Fifty-seventh, and Fifty-eighth Illinois. The Fourth Division contained three brigades: the First, commanded by Colonel Williams, of the Third Iowa, contained the Third Iowa, Twenty-eighth, Thirty-second, and Forty-first Illinois; the Second, commanded by Colonel Veatch, of the Twenty-fifth Indiana, contained the Twenty-fifth Indiana, Fourteenth, Fifteenth, and Forty-sixth Illinois; the Third, commanded by Brigadier-General Lauman, who reported for duty Saturday, April 5th, and was then assigned to this command, comprised the Thirty-first and Forty-fourth Indiana, and the Seventeenth and Twenty-fifth Kentucky. The Fifth Division contained four brigades: the First, commanded by Colonel McDowell, of the Sixth Iowa, was made of the Sixth Iowa, Forty-sixth Ohio, and the Fortieth Illinois; the Second, commanded by Colonel Stuart, of the Fifty-fifth Illinois, was made of the Fifty-fifth Illinois and the Fifty-fourth and Seventy-first Ohio; the Third, commanded by Colonel Hildebrand, of the Seventy-seventh Ohio, contained the Fifty-third, Fifty-seventh, and Seventy-seventh Ohio; the Fourth, commanded by Colonel Buckland, of the Seventy-second Ohio, contained the Forty-eighth, Seventieth, and Seventy-second Ohio. The Sixth Division was organized into two brigades: the First Brigade, commanded by Colonel Peabody, of the Twenty-fifth Missouri, contained the Twenty-first and Twenty-fifth Missouri, Twelfth Michigan, and Sixteenth Wisconsin. The Second, commanded by Colonel Miller, of the Eighteenth Missouri, comprised the Eighteenth Missouri and Sixty-first Illinois. The Sixteenth Iowa, assigned to this brigade, arriving fresh from the recruiting depot, without ammunition, on April 5th, reported to General Prentiss that day, but was sent by him to the landing early in the morning of the 6th, and was by General Grant assigned to duty that day in another part of the field. The Eighteenth Wisconsin arrived and reported on April 5th, and the Twenty-third Missouri arrived in the morning of the 6th, and reported on the field at nine o'clock.[2] But these two regiments were not formally assigned to either brigade. The Fifteenth Iowa, assigned to this division, arrived the morning of April 6th, and was assigned to duty in another part of the field. The Fourteenth Wisconsin, assigned to the division, arrived late in the night of April 6th, and served on the 7th with Crittenden's division of Buell's army.

[Footnote 2: The Fifteenth Michigan arriving without ammunition, immediately before the attack began, marched to the rear for ammunition and, returning to the field, fought through the day between the Eighteenth Missouri and the Eighteenth Wisconsin.]

The artillery was not attached to brigades, but was under the direct command of division commanders. The batteries of Schwartz and McAllister, and Burrow's Fourteenth Ohio Battery served with McClernand's division. Willard's Company A, First Illinois Artillery, commanded by Lieutenant Wood, and Major Cavender's battalion of Companies D, H, and I, First Missouri Artillery, were attached to W.H.L. Wallace's division. Mann's four-gun battery, Ross' Second Michigan, and Myer's Thirteenth Ohio batteries, were attached to Hurlbut's division. Behr's Sixth Indiana Battery, and Barrett's Company B, and Waterhouse's Company E, First Illinois Artillery, were attached to Sherman's division. Barrett's battery had formerly been commanded by Captain Ezra Taylor, promoted Major of the First Illinois Artillery, and was still commonly called Taylor's battery, and is so styled in some of the reports of the battle. Munch's Minnesota and Hickenlooper's Fifth Ohio Battery were attached to Prentiss' division. There was some change in the assignment of batteries on April 5th. The above gives their position as it was on April 6th. Bouton's Company I, First Illinois Artillery, and Dresser's battery, commanded by Captain Timony, though not assigned, were given positions on the field by Major Ezra Taylor, Sherman's chief of artillery, by direction of General Grant. Margraff's Eighth Ohio Battery served with Sherman, Powell's Company F, Second Illinois Artillery, served with Prentiss. Madison's Company B, Second Illinois Artillery, served at the landing. Captain Silversparre's four-gun battery of twenty-pound Parrotts, though assigned to McClernand, remained at the landing from lack of horses and equipage to pull them out to camp.

The Third Division, commanded by General Lewis Wallace, comprised three brigades: The First Brigade, commanded by Colonel Morgan L. Smith, of the Eighth Missouri, comprising the Eleventh and Twenty-fourth Indiana and the Eighth Missouri, was in camp at Crump's Landing; the Second Brigade, commanded by Colonel Thayer, of the First Nebraska, comprising the First Nebraska, Twenty-third Indiana, and Fifty-eighth and Sixty-eighth Ohio, was camped at Stony Lonesome, two miles out from Crump's Landing; the Third Brigade, commanded by Colonel Whittlesey, of the Twentieth Ohio, comprising the Twentieth, Fifty-sixth, Seventy-sixth, and Seventy-eighth Ohio, was in camp at Adamsville, three miles out beyond Stony Lonesome, or five miles from Crump's Landing. Buell's Battery I, First Missouri Artillery, commanded by Lieutenant Thurber, and Thompson's Ninth Indiana Battery, constituted the artillery of the division.

The cavalry consisted of the Fifth Ohio, Fourth and Eleventh Illinois, Companies A and B, Second Illinois, under Captain Houghtaling, two companies of regular cavalry under Lieutenant Powell, Stewart's battalion, and Thielman's battalion. The Third Battalion of the Fifth Ohio and the Third Battalion of the Eleventh Illinois remained with Lewis Wallace. The rest of the cavalry was assigned to different divisions, but the assignment was changed on April 5th.

The Fifth Ohio Cavalry, attached to Sherman's division till April 5th, frequently made reconnoitring expeditions some miles to the front, and frequently encountered parties of hostile cavalry. Thursday, April 3d, General Sherman sent Buckland's brigade out on a reconnoissance on the Corinth road, but with strict injunctions, in accordance with General Halleck's repeated order, not to be drawn into a fight with any considerable force of the enemy, that would risk bringing on a general engagement. Buckland marched to the fork of the road about five miles out, which must have been at Mickey's. General Hardee states that Mickey's is about eight miles from the landing. Posting the brigade between the roads, he sent two companies out on each road. Both encountered hostile cavalry, understood to be pickets, within half a mile, began skirmishing with them, and saw a larger body of cavalry beyond. The companies were recalled, and the brigade reached camp a little before dark and reported. Next day, Friday, the 4th, a cavalry dash on Buckland's picket-line swooped off a lieutenant and seven men. General Buckland, who was near, sent information to Sherman, who sent out 150 cavalry. Major Crockett, who was drilling his regiment near by, sent a company to scout beyond the picket-line. Major Crockett was sent by General Buckland with another company, to bring the first one back. Before long firing was heard, Buckland started with a battalion to the rescue, found the second company had been attacked and Major Crockett captured, pushed on a distance estimated at two miles, attacked unseen a body of cavalry just about to charge upon the first company, was reinforced by the cavalry sent out by Sherman, pursued the hostile cavalry a distance estimated another mile, came in view of artillery and infantry, was fired on by the artillery, returned bringing in ten prisoners, and found General Sherman at the picket-posts with a brigade in line. The same evening, in obedience to an order from General Sherman, Buckland sent him a written report. This advance was the attack upon Cleburne's brigade reported by General Hardee.

Saturday the cavalry were moving camps, in obedience to the order of reassignment. Batteries were moving about under the same order. Buckland and Hildebrand anxiously visited their picket-lines and observed the parties of hostile cavalry hovering in the woods beyond. Some of the men on picket claimed they had seen infantry. Captain Mason of the Seventy-seventh Ohio, on picket, observed at daylight, Saturday morning, numbers of rabbits and squirrels scudding from the woods to and across his picket-line. General Sherman was advised, but he had no cavalry to send out; the Fifth had gone, and the Fourth not yet reported. He enjoined Buckland and Hildebrand to be vigilant, strengthen their pickets, and be prepared for attack. Additional companies were sent out to increase the pickets, Buckland established a connecting line of sentries from the picket reserve to camp, to communicate the first alarm on the picket-line, and instructed his officers to be prepared for a night attack.

Saturday afternoon, General Prentiss, in consequence of information received from his advance guard, sent Colonel Moore, of the Twenty-first Missouri, with three companies from his regiment, to reconnoitre the front. The line of his march being oblique to the line of the camp, led him out beyond the front of Sherman's line. He marched in that direction three miles, saw nothing, and returned to camp. The oblique direction of his march prevented his running into Hardee's lines. Prentiss, assured there was some activity—a cavalry reconnoissance in his front—pushed his pickets out a mile and a half and reinforced them. McClernand, the same day, went out with Colonel McPherson and a battalion of cavalry on a reconnoissance toward Hamburg and a short distance out on the road to Corinth, and saw a few hostile scouts back of Hamburg.

General Lewis Wallace's reconnoitring parties developed the presence of a considerable force at Purdy and Bethel, on the railroad. Getting information, Friday night, of signs of preparation for movement by this force, an order was sent to the brigade at Adamsville to form line at daybreak. The other brigades reached Adamsville at an early hour, and all remained prepared to repel attack till noon. The activity observed at Purdy and Bethel was, in fact, Cheatham's preparation for his march, Saturday, to his position in General Polk's line. General Grant being advised, Friday, by L. Wallace, of the assembling of the force in his front, directed W.H.L. Wallace to hold his division in readiness to move to the support of L. Wallace immediately in case he should be threatened; and advised Sherman to instruct his pickets to be on the alert, and to be ready to move in support with his whole division, and with Hurlbut's if necessary, if an attack on L. Wallace should be attempted. W.H.L. Wallace and Sherman commanded, by their respective positions, the bridges across Owl Creek, over which passed the two roads from the camps at Pittsburg Landing to L. Wallace.

Saturday, Sherman wrote to Grant: "All is quiet along my lines now. We are in the act of exchanging cavalry, according to your orders. The enemy has cavalry in our front, and I think there are two regiments of infantry and one battery of artillery about six miles out. I will send you in ten prisoners of war, and a report of last night's affair, in a few minutes.

"Your note is just received. I have no doubt that nothing will occur to-day, more than some picket-firing. The enemy is saucy, but got the worst of it yesterday, and will not press our pickets far. I will not be drawn out far, unless with certainty of advantage; and I do not apprehend anything like an attack upon our position." A little later in the day, General Sherman wrote to Grant: "I infer that the enemy is in some considerable force at Pea Ridge [another name for Monterey]; that yesterday they crossed a bridge with two regiments of infantry, one regiment of cavalry, and one battery of field-artillery, to the ridge on which the Corinth road lays. They halted the infantry and artillery at a point about five miles in my front, and sent a detachment to the house of General Meeks, on the north of Owl Creek, and the cavalry down toward our camp. This cavalry captured a part of our advance pickets, and afterward engaged two companies of Colonel Buckland's regiment, as described by him in his report herewith enclosed. Our cavalry drove them back upon their artillery and infantry, killing many and bringing ten prisoners (all of the First Alabama Cavalry), whom I send you." General Grant on the same day despatched to General Halleck: "Just as my letter of yesterday to Captain McLean, Assistant Adjutant-General, was finished, notes from Generals McClernand's and Sherman's assistant adjutant-generals were received, stating that our outposts had been attacked by the enemy, apparently in considerable force. I immediately went up, but found all quiet. The enemy took two officers and four or five of our men prisoners, and wounded four. We took eight prisoners and killed several. Number of the enemy's wounded not known. They had with them three pieces of artillery, and cavalry and infantry. How much cannot, of course, be estimated. I have scarcely the faintest idea of an attack (general one) being made upon us, but will be prepared should such a thing take place. General Nelson's division has arrived. The other two, of Buell's column, will arrive to-morrow or next day. It is my present intention to send them to Hamburg, some four miles above Pittsburg, when they all get here. From that point to Corinth the road is good, and a junction can be formed with the troops from Pittsburg at almost any point. Colonel McPherson has gone with an escort to-day to examine the defensibility of the ground about Hamburg, and to lay out the position of the camp, if advisable to occupy that place." Earlier on the same day General Grant also telegraphed to General Halleck: "The main force of the enemy is at Corinth, with troops at different points east. Small garrisons are also at Bethel, Jackson, and Humboldt. The number at these places seems constantly to change. The number of the enemy at Corinth, and within supporting distance of it, cannot be far from eighty thousand men." General Halleck was preparing to leave St. Louis and come to the front to take immediate command of the combined army for the march on to Corinth. He advised Buell he would leave in the beginning of the coming week.



CHAPTER VI.

SHILOH—SUNDAY.

Three companies of the Twenty-fifth Missouri, which regiment formed the right of Colonel Peabody's brigade, Prentiss' division, were sent out on reconnoissance about three o'clock in the morning of Sunday, April 6th. Following the road cautiously in a south-westerly direction, oblique to the line of the camp, they struck the enemy's pickets in front of General Sherman's division. General Johnston, at breakfast with his staff, hearing the fire of the encounter, turned to Colonel Preston and to Captain Munford, and directed them to note the hour in their blank books. It was just fourteen minutes after five o'clock.

Order was given to advance. To communicate the order along the line required time. General Beauregard says the advance began at half-past five. The three companies struck a battalion under Major Hardcastle, on Hardee's picket-line. Major Hardcastle was posted on picket with a battalion of the Third Mississippi, a quarter of a mile in front of Wood's brigade, Hardee's corps. Lieutenant McNulty was posted with a small party, one hundred yards, and Lieutenant Hammock with another small party, two hundred yards, in front of the centre of the battalion. Cavalry videttes were still farther to the front. The Major reports: "About dawn, the cavalry videttes fired three shots, wheeled and galloped back. Lieutenant Hammock suffered the enemy to approach within ninety yards. Their line seemed to be three hundred and fifty yards long, and to number about one thousand. He fired upon them and joined his battalion with his men. Lieutenant McNulty received the enemy with his fire at about one hundred yards, and then joined his battalion with his men, when the videttes rode back to my main position. At the first alarm my men were in line and all ready. I was on a rise of ground, men kneeling. The enemy opened a heavy fire on us at a distance of about two hundred yards, but most of the shots passed over us. We returned the fire immediately and kept it up. Captain Clare, aide to General Wood, came and encouraged us. We fought the enemy an hour or more, without giving an inch. Our loss in this engagement was: killed, four privates; severely wounded, one sergeant, one corporal, and eight privates; slightly wounded, the color-sergeant and nine privates. At about 6.30 A.M. I saw the brigade formed in my rear, and I fell back."

At six o'clock, Colonel Moore, of the Twenty-first Missouri, also of Peabody's brigade, was directed by General Prentiss to move out with five companies to support the pickets. About half a mile from camp he met the three companies of the Twenty-fifth returning. Despatching the wounded on to camp, and sending for the rest of his regiment, he halted with the detachment of the Twenty-fifth till joined by his remaining five companies. So reinforced, he continued his advance three hundred yards, met the advance of Shaver's brigade, halted on the edge of a field, and repulsed it. Colonel Moore being wounded, Lieutenant-Colonel Van Horn took command, and was further reinforced; after an engagement of half an hour, was overpowered and fell back to the support of the brigade.

According to General Bragg's report, Johnston's line of battle, after marching less than a mile beyond the scene of the first attack made by the three companies of the Twenty-fifth Missouri, came upon the strengthened National pickets, which he calls advanced posts. These fell back fighting. The army advanced steadily another mile, pushing back the fighting pickets, and then encountered the National troops "in strong force almost along the entire line. His batteries were posted on eminences, with strong infantry supports. Finding the first line was now unequal to the work before it, being weakened by extension, and necessarily broken by the nature of the ground, I ordered my whole force to move up steadily and promptly to its support."

Thus opened the battle of Shiloh. A combat made up of numberless separate encounters of detached portions of broken lines, continually shifting position and changing direction in the forest and across ravines, filling an entire day, is almost incapable of a connected narrative. As the first shock of the meeting lines of battle was near the right of the National line, an intelligible account may be given by describing the action of the divisions of Grant's army separately, beginning with the right, or Sherman's.

The direction of General Johnston's advance was such as to bring him first in contact with Sherman's left and Prentiss's right. To preserve even an approximate alignment of a line of battle of two miles front, marching with artillery, through wet forest, over rough, yet soft ground, with regiments in column doubled on the centre, the advance was necessarily slow. The reports show that portions of the second line, instead of keeping the prescribed distance of eight hundred yards in rear of the first, overtook it, and had to halt to regain the distance. The National pickets, posted a mile in front of the camps, were struck about half-past six o'clock Colonel J. Thompson, aide-de-camp to General Beauregard, in his report to his chief, says: "The first cannon was discharged on our left at seven o'clock, which was followed by a rapid discharge of musketry. About 7.30 I rode forward with Colonel Jordan to the front, to ascertain how the battle was going. Then I learned from General Johnston that General Hardee's line was within half a mile of the enemy's camps, and bore from General Johnston a message that he advised sending forward strong reinforcements to our left. From eight o'clock to 8.30 the cannonading was very heavy along the whole line, but especially in the centre, which was in the line of their camps. About ten o'clock you moved forward with your staff and halted within about half a mile of the enemy's camps."



SHERMAN'S DIVISION.

The Seventy-seventh Ohio, of Hildebrand's brigade, was ordered the evening before to go out to See's, Sunday morning, and reinforce the picket reserve stationed there, and was up early Sunday morning. General Buckland, having slept little in the night, rose early. While at breakfast he received word that the pickets were heavily attacked, and were falling back toward camp. He at once had the long-roll sounded, and his brigade formed on the color-line. He rode over to General Sherman's headquarters, a few hundred yards off, and reported the facts. Meanwhile, the brigades of Hildebrand and McDowell formed on their respective color-lines. The division was formed—Taylor's battery on a rising ground in front of Shiloh Church; Hildebrand's brigade to its left, the Seventy-seventh Ohio being next to the battery, and four guns of Waterhouse's battery placed between the Fifty-seventh and Fifty-third Ohio—the Fifty-third detached and forming the extreme left. The other two guns of Waterhouse's battery were advanced to the front beyond Oak Creek. Buckland's brigade formed to the right of Taylor's battery, and McDowell's still farther to the right, on the bluffs of Oak Creek, near its junction with Owl Creek, and separated from Buckland by a lateral ravine which opened into Oak Creek. Behr's battery was with McDowell. One of its guns, with two companies of infantry, was stationed still farther to the right, commanding the bridges over Oak Creek and Owl Creek, immediately above their junction.

The advanced section of Waterhouse's battery fell back before an approaching skirmish line and took position with the battery. General Sherman rode to the front of the Fifty-third, to the edge of a ravine, the continuation or source of Oak Creek, and saw, through the forest beyond, Johnston's lines sweeping across his front toward his left. At the same time, General Johnston was, a few hundred yards off, on the other side of the ravine, putting General Hindman with one of his brigades into position for attack. Hindman's skirmishers opened fire and killed Sherman's orderly. Sherman's brigades advanced to the sloping of the ravine of Oak Creek; Sherman had already sent word to General McClernand asking for support to his left; to General Prentiss, giving him notice that the enemy was in force in front; and to General Hurlbut, asking him to support Prentiss.

The first line of Johnston's army, commanded by General Hardee, opened, widening the intervals between brigades as it advanced. The two brigades commanded by General Hindman, having less rough ground to traverse, outstripped General Cleburne. Hindman's own brigade, commanded by Colonel Shaver, inclining to the right, struck Prentiss' right. General Hindman in person, with Wood's brigade, came to the front of the Fifty-third Ohio. General Johnston, having put it in position, rode back to Cleburne and moved his brigade to Buckland's front. The battle opened. The Fifty-third Ohio, detached by the position of its camp from the rest of Hildebrand's brigade, being off to the left and farther to the front, was first engaged. According to the report of Lieutenant-Colonel Fulton, the advancing line of Wood's brigade having twice recoiled before the fire of the regiment, Colonel Appler cried out to his men to fall back and save themselves. The regiment retired in confusion behind McClernand's Third Brigade, which had come up in support; but, soon rallied by the Lieutenant-Colonel and Adjutant Dawes, it returned to the front to the bank of the stream. The colonel reappeared and again ordered a retreat. The regiment was now fatally broken. Adjutant Dawes, however, rallied two companies and attached them to the Seventeenth Illinois, of McClernand's Third Brigade, while a considerable detachment joined the Seventy-seventh Ohio, then commanded by Major Fearing. In the afternoon, Lieutenant-Colonel Fulton, with the greater part of the regiment reunited, acted as support to Bouton's battery.

General Patton Anderson, with his brigade, and Captain Hodgson's battery of the Washington Artillery, pressed forward from Johnston's second line, commanded by General Bragg, into the gap between Hindman and Cleburne. Posting his battery on high ground, he advanced his brigade down into the wet and bushy valley of Oak Creek, and charged up the slope. Taylor's battery and the Fifty-seventh and Seventy-seventh Ohio instantly drove him back. His regiments, not discouraged, charged singly, and when broken, charged by battalion, but could not withstand the fire, and as often fell back. General Johnston, who had passed on toward his right, dispatched two brigades, Russell's and Johnson's, from the third line, commanded by General Polk, to aid the assault. General Beauregard moved them to his right, beyond Hindman, to attack McClernand.

Meanwhile, Cleburne, forming the extreme left of Hardee's line, with his brigade of six regiments and two batteries engaged Buckland. The valley of Oak Creek is there wider, deeper, and boggy. The slope, crowned by Buckland's brigade, was steep and bushy. A bend in its course gave some companies of the Seventieth Ohio an enfilading fire. Cleburne's regiments, tangled in the morass, struggled with uneven front up the wooded ascent, only to be driven back by Buckland's steady fire. Reforming, they charged again, to meet another repulse. The regiments, broken, disordered, and commingled, persisted in the vain endeavor, only to encounter heavier losses. The Sixth Mississippi lost 300 killed and wounded out of a total of 425. More than one-third of the brigade were killed and wounded. Pond's brigade, of Bragg's corps, came up in support, but paused on the wooded bank, and did not attempt to cross this valley of death.

McClernand's other brigades, which were to the left of the Third, after some very sharp fighting, fell back. The long line of Wood's brigade then largely outreached Colonel Raith's left flank. Raith refused his left regiments. Wood's brigade wheeled to their left, confronting Raith's new line. Waterhouse's battery, being taken on the flank, was limbering up to withdraw, when Major Taylor ordered it into action again. Raith's regiments gave way. Wood's brigade charged on Waterhouse's battery, capturing three of its guns. Captain Waterhouse and two lieutenants being wounded, Lieutenant Fitch, by order of Major Taylor, retired to the river with the two pieces that were saved sound. The Fifty-seventh and Seventy-seventh Ohio being now assailed on the flank by Wood's advance, fell back in disorder. Anderson's brigade then gathered itself up, emerged from the wet borders of the creek, and gained the plateau in front of Hildebrand's camps. Buckland's rear was now commanded by a hostile battery and threatened by Wood's brigade. General Sherman at ten o'clock ordered his division to take position to the rear along the Purdy road. Barrett's battery, moving back by the Corinth road, came into position with McClernand's division in its second position. McDowell's brigade had not yet been engaged, and to get into the new position merely shifted his line to the left along the road. Buckland moved back through his camp in order, his wagons carrying off his dead and wounded and such baggage as they could hold. The greater part of the Seventy-seventh Ohio, commanded by Major Fearing, together with some companies of the Fifty-seventh, held by Lieutenant-Colonel Rice, and some companies of the Fifty-third, represented Hildebrand's brigade. Colonel Hildebrand finding his command so reduced, served part of the day on McClernand's staff, but returned to General Sherman in the evening. Colonel Crafts Wright, commanding the Thirteenth Missouri in W.H.L. Wallace's division, was ordered in the morning to take a designated position on the Purdy road. This brought him on the left of General Sherman's new line. The remnant of Hildebrand's brigade formed on Wright's left and operated with him.

Meanwhile General Grant, at breakfast at Savannah, nine miles below Pittsburg Landing by river, but six miles in an air-line, heard the firing. He at once sent an order to General Nelson to march his division up the river to opposite Pittsburg; and, not aware that General Buell had arrived the previous evening, sent a letter out to meet him, advising him of the order given to Nelson and explaining the reason for not waiting in person for his arrival. Steaming up the river, he stopped at Crump's Landing at eight o'clock and directed Lewis Wallace to hold his division in readiness to move. Arrived at Pittsburg Landing, Colonel Pride, of his staff, at once organized ammunition trains, which were busy all day supplying the troops at the front. The Twenty-third Missouri, just arrived by boat, he hurried out to reinforce Prentiss. The Fifteenth Iowa, just arrived, and the Sixteenth, sent by Prentiss to the landing for ammunition, he directed to form line, arrest the tide of stragglers from the front, and organize them to return. Riding to the front, he found General Sherman a little before ten o'clock in his hottest engagement, still holding the enemy at bay in front of his camp; told him that Wallace would come up from Crump's Landing; sent word to Wallace to move; to Nelson, to hasten his movements; returned to the landing, dispatched the two Iowa regiments to reinforce McClernand, and proceeded to visit the other divisions in the field.

The loaded wagons of McDowell's brigade, hurrying to the rear along the Purdy road, interfered with the formation of Sherman's new line. Behr's battery, galloping to the position assigned to it—the centre of the line—added to the difficulty. This battery was hardly in position and under fire before Captain Behr was killed, and the men abandoned their guns, fleeing from the field with the caissons. The line so disordered and broken was hard pressed by the enemy, and Sherman selected another line of defence, to his left and rear, connecting with McClernand's right. McDowell, nearly cut off by the enemy's pressing through the gap left by Behr's men, brought the remaining gun of this battery from its position near the bridge, and by a rapid fire pressed back the advance. His regiments became separated while struggling through dense thickets to the new position. The Fortieth Illinois found itself marching by the flank, with a deep ravine along its left, and a confederate regiment marching in parallel course not far to its right. Thus cut off, the Fortieth formed with its rear to the ravine, with a desperate effort drove its dangerous companion out of the way, and, pushing through the timber, came into a valley in rear of McClernand.

Not all the force engaged in the two hours' fight in front of Sherman's camp followed him to his new position. Cleburne had difficulty in reforming his shattered command. The remnant of the Sixth Mississippi marched to the rear under command of the senior surviving captain, disabled for further service. The fragment of the Twenty-Third Tennessee remaining near Cleburne was sent to the rear to hunt up the portions that had broken from it in the contest. Cleburne, proceeding for his other regiments, was stopped by General Hardee about noon, and directed to collect and bring into action the stragglers who were thronging in the captured camps. With the aid of cavalry he gathered up an unorganized multitude; but, finding he could do nothing with them, he resumed the search for his remaining regiments. About two o'clock he found the Fifth and Twenty-fourth Tennessee and Fifteenth Arkansas "halted under the brow of an abrupt hill." The Second Tennessee had moved to the rear, and did not rejoin the brigade during the battle. Cleburne was not again severely engaged during the day. Colonel Pond kept his brigade, in pursuance of General Bragg's order, watching the crossings of Owl Creek.

But the brigades of Anderson and Wood pressed on. Trabue's heavy brigade of five regiments, two battalions and two batteries, had been detached from the reserve at Beauregard's request for reinforcements, and sent by Johnston to his extreme left. Skirting Owl Creek, he came in full force upon Sherman's right flank, at half-past twelve o'clock. McDowell's two remaining regiments, the Sixth Iowa and Forty-sixth Ohio, were quickly moved to confront Trabue. The Forty-sixth Ohio was more alert in movement, and opened a hot fire before Trabue was completely deployed and in position. A steady combat through the timber and underbrush, and across the ravines, lasted an hour and a half. The Sixth Iowa lost 51 killed and 120 wounded; the Forty-sixth Ohio, losing fewer killed, but more wounded—34 killed, 150 wounded, and 52 taken prisoners—was quite shattered, and took no further part in the battle. Colonel Trabue's estimate of the character of the fighting at this point appears from his statement that his command in this encounter killed and wounded four or five hundred of the Forty-Sixth Ohio alone. It appears also from his report, which has never been officially published, but which is printed in the "History of the First Kentucky Brigade," that, of the 844 casualties in the brigade in the two days' battle, 534 were in the four regiments engaged in this encounter. Sherman readjusted his line, resting his right on a deep ravine running to Owl Creek, and keeping his left in connection with McClernand. Trabue was reinforced by General A.P. Stewart and part of his brigade, and a part of Anderson's brigade which had been resting in a ravine in the rear. The struggle lasted with varying intensity and alternate success.

There were charges and countercharges, ground was lost and regained; but the general result was a recession of the battered division to the left and rear. About four o'clock, during a lull, Sherman moved his reduced command still farther in the same direction, and took position so as to cover the road by which Lewis Wallace was to arrive. Here, with an open field in front, he was not further molested, and here he bivouacked for the night. At this point, Captain Hickenlooper, who had been engaged all day in the sturdy defence made by Prentiss, joined Sherman with his battery. Buckland, rejoined by the Seventieth Ohio, was ordered, late in the afternoon, to take his brigade to the bridge over Snake Creek, by which Lewis Wallace was expected. From this point the Forty-eighth Ohio marched to the landing for ammunition, and was there detained as a portion of the force supporting the reserve artillery till next morning. The bridge appearing free from risk, Buckland returned to the place of bivouac, constituting the right of Sherman's line. The Thirteenth Missouri became separated from the division in the last struggle, was incorporated for the night in Colonel Marsh's collection of regiments, constituting for the night McClernand's right. The position of the Thirteenth during the night was close by the headquarter tents of General McArthur, of W.H.L. Wallace's division. The Fifty-third Ohio bivouacked with the Eighty-first Ohio, in front of the camp of the Second Iowa, in Tuttle's brigade of W.H. Wallace's division. McDowell's brigade had disappeared from the division. Portions of the Fifty-seventh and Seventy-seventh Ohio, with Lieutenant-Colonel Rice and Major Fearing, were still with Sherman, and formed the left of his line in the bivouac.

McCLERNAND.

The Forty-third Illinois, of McClernand's brigade, being out by permission, Sunday morning, to discharge their pieces, which had been loaded since they marched to the picket-line, Friday evening, distant firing was heard. This being reported to General McClernand, he sent an order to Colonel Reardon to hold the brigade in readiness for action. Colonel Reardon, being confined to bed by illness, directed Colonel Raith to assume command. There was some delay in getting the brigade formed, owing to the sudden change of commanders and to the incredulity of the officers in some of the regiments as to the reality of an attack. The brigade being at length formed, advanced, and took position, with its right near Waterhouse's battery—its line making an angle with Sherman's line, so as to throw the left of the brigade upon and along Oak Creek. Colonel Marsh, of the Twentieth Illinois, heard considerable musketry on the left of the National camp. This continuing without material interruption for some time, he ordered regimental commanders to be in readiness to form, and soon after received an order from General McClernand to form the brigade. Soon after the brigade was formed an order was received to advance to the support of General Sherman, who was reported to be heavily attacked. The brigade moved to the left to a position assigned by General McClernand. The First Brigade was ordered to form three regiments on the left of the Second, and to post one regiment, the Eleventh Iowa, in reserve in rear of the right of Colonel Marsh's brigade. The alignment of the Third Brigade, by Colonel Raith throwing his left too far to the front, so as to be exposed to a flank attack and also to cover Colonel Marsh's right, Colonel Raith wheeled his left to the rear to connect with Marsh. The right of McClernand's division, as thus formed, connected with Sherman, but the left was uncovered.

General Johnston sent two brigades from Polk's corps, Colonel Russell's and General B.R. Johnson's, to reinforce his extreme left. General Beauregard, who had taken immediate command on the Confederate left, sent them farther to his right, and they went into position on the left of Wood's brigade. Two regiments of Russell's brigade formed on the left of Wood; the rest were marched by General Clark, the division commander, still farther to the right. Three of General Johnson's regiments formed on the right of Russell's two, while General Bragg moved Johnson's remaining two regiments off to his right, to another attack. The assault on Colonel Marsh was made with great fury. In five minutes most of the field officers in the brigade were killed or wounded. The enemy's fire seemed especially directed at Burrow's battery, posted in the centre of Marsh's brigade, all the horses of which were killed or disabled. The colonel and lieutenant-colonel of the Forty-eighth Illinois being wounded and taken off the field, the regiment finally became disorganized and retired in disorder. The other regiments fell back. The battery was lost. The first brigade, which had not been severely engaged, next retired in some disorder. The Third Brigade, being now enfiladed and turned on its left flank, Colonel Raith refused his left regiment, and was himself soon mortally wounded. Wood's brigade then wheeling to its left and advancing, the Third Brigade fell back, leaving Waterhouse's battery on the flank of Sherman's division exposed.

The division formed again, its right connected with Sherman's left on the Purdy road. When Sherman fell back from the Purdy road, McClernand adjusted his right to connect again with Sherman's left. While his right connected still with Sherman, his left for a while almost joined W.H.L. Wallace in the position which he had assumed, and, when pushed back still farther, his left was yet to some extent protected by the character of the ground, rough, intersected by ravines, and dotted with impenetrable thickets that intervened between it and W.H.L. Wallace. McAllister's battery, and Schwartz's battery commanded by Lieutenant Nispel, were reinforced by Taylor's battery, commanded by Captain Barrett, brought over from Sherman, and by Dresser's battery, commanded by Captain Timony.

A determined and desperate struggle ensued, which lasted, with occasional intermissions, till late in the afternoon. Shaver's brigade, which, after a severe and protracted contest, had overcome Peabody's brigade of Prentiss' division, was ordered to the attack upon the left of McClernand's line. Advancing across a wide and open field, he encountered so hot a fire in front and on his right flank, that his brigade recoiled back to the shelter of timber and halted paralyzed, till later in the day he was ordered to attack in another quarter. General B.R. Johnson was wounded, and his brigade so severely handled that it retreated from the field, leaving its battery, Polk's, behind. McClernand's whole division advanced in line, pushing the enemy back half a mile through and beyond his camp. This success was only temporary. Changing front to meet fresh attacks, refusing first one flank, then the other, clinging desperately to his camp, but, on the whole, shifting slowly back from one position to another, he formed, in the afternoon, in the edge of timber on the border of an open field, and here, during a pause of half an hour, supplied his command with ammunition. The respite was followed by a more furious assault. Falling back from his camp toward the river, to the farther side of a deep ravine running north and south, being the continuation of the valley or ravine of Brier Creek, he formed his line, facing west with wings refused, the centre being the apex, and still connecting on the right with the remnant of Sherman's division. Several fitful onslaughts at intervals forced McClernand to refuse his left still farther.

The swinging around of McClernand's left, while he receded in a general direction toward the northeast, left a wide interval between his command and W.H.L. Wallace. The force which had been massed against him and Sherman had been diminished by detachments sent to aid in the attack against W.H.L. Wallace and Prentiss. The remainder drifted through the gap to Wallace's rear. Pond's brigade, to which had been assigned the special duty of guarding along Owl Creek against any advance around Johnston's left flank, constituted the extreme Confederate left. This brigade had been very little under fire during the day. The battery attached to it, Ketchum's, was now detached to aid in the assault upon Wallace's front. Pond, with three Louisiana regiments of his brigade, was directed to move to the left along the deep ravine which McClernand had crossed, and silence one of McClernand's batteries. Trabue's brigade, which had been struggling through the tangled forest covering rough ground, separated by a lateral ravine from the ground in rear of Wallace and Prentiss, through the dense thickets of which ravine no command had been able to penetrate, was just emerging from the forest, and crossing the Brier Creek ravine toward Hurlbut's camp. Trabue's men, catching sight of the blue uniform of Pond's Louisiana regiments, fired upon them. This being silenced, Pond's brigade continued down the ravine, and up a lateral ravine toward the river, Colonel Mouton's Eighteenth Louisiana in advance. As they neared the position the battery withdrew, unmasking a line of infantry. A murderous fire was opened by this line. Pond's brigade faltered, recoiled, withdrew; the Eighteenth Louisiana, according to Colonel Mouton's report, leaving 207 dead and wounded in the ravine.

This was the final attack on the National right. But scarcely was this over before Hurlbut's command came falling back through his camp, pushed on by Bragg and Breckenridge. W.H.L. Wallace's regiments, finding the force which had been contending with Sherman and McClernand closing on their rear, faced about and fought to their rear; some regiments succeeded in cutting their way through and streamed toward their camp. This sudden, tumultuous uproar, far in the rear of the day's conflict, infected McClernand's command, and a large part of it broke in disorder. The broken line was partially rallied and moved back to what McClernand designates as his eighth position taken in the course of the day, and here he bivouacked for the night, his right joining the left of Sherman's bivouac; the left swung back so as to make an acute angle with it. Colonel Marsh formed the right of the line. His "command having been reduced to a merely nominal one" in the afternoon, he had been sent back across the Brier Creek ravine before the rest of the division, to form a new line, arrest all stragglers, and detain all unattached fragments. Colonel Davis, with the Forty-sixth Illinois, was resting in front of their camp in Veatch's brigade, Hurlbut's division, but on Colonel Marsh's request took position on Marsh's right; McClernand, when he fell back, formed the rest of his command on Marsh's left. The line consisted of the Forty-sixth, Forty-eighth, Twentieth, Seventeenth, Forty-ninth, Forty-third, and Forty-fifth Illinois, the Thirteenth Missouri, and the Fifty-third and Eighty-first Ohio. The Forty-sixth Illinois lay in front of its camp, being the right of Veatch's brigade camp, Hurlbut's division. The Forty-eighth and Twentieth lay on its left. The Seventeenth, Forty-ninth, and Forty-third moved around to connect with Sherman's left. The position of the Forty-third was between the bivouac of the Forty-sixth Illinois and the Thirteenth Missouri, and midway between the camp of the Ninth Illinois of McArthur's brigade, W.H.L. Wallace's division, and the camp of the Forty-sixth Illinois. The Fifty-third and Eighty-first Ohio were in front of the camp of the Second Iowa, Tuttle's Brigade, W.H.L. Wallace's division. Colonel Crocker, Thirteenth Iowa, who had assumed command of the First Brigade on the wounding of Colonel Hare, bivouacked with his regiment in front of the camp of the Fourteenth Iowa, Tuttle's brigade. The Eighth and Eighteenth Illinois spent the night with the reserve artillery.

Colonel Veatch, commanding Hurlbut's Second Brigade, formed his command at half-past seven o'clock in the morning, and was shortly after ordered to march to the support of Sherman. He reached a point not well defined, between nine and ten o'clock, and was placed in reserve. He soon became hotly engaged on McClernand's left. His two right regiments, the Fifteenth and Forty-sixth Illinois, became separated from Colonel Veatch with the other two regiments, and then separated from each other. The Forty-sixth aided the Sixth Iowa and Forty-sixth Ohio in their desperate struggle with Trabue, and after continual engagements, being forced back to within half a mile of its camp, repaired thither about two o'clock and had a comfortable dinner. The Fifteenth suffered severely. The lieutenant-colonel and the major, the only field-officers with the regiment, were killed, two captains were killed and one wounded, one lieutenant was killed and six wounded. Colonel Veatch, with the Twenty-fifth Indiana and Fourteenth Illinois, continued fighting and manoeuvring with skill and determination till the retreating division of Hurlbut passed along his rear. Colonel Veatch then reported to Hurlbut, and formed part of his line of defence in support of the reserve artillery at the close of the day.

PRENTISS AND W.H.L. WALLACE.

Prentiss' division in the front line, and W.H.L. Wallace's on the plateau between the river and Brier Creek, were more widely separated in camp than any other two divisions; but in the contest of Sunday they operated together.

Colonel Moore, of the Twenty-first Missouri, being wounded early in the encounter with the Confederate advance, Lieutenant-Colonel Woodyard took command of the regiment, together with the accompanying detachment of the Twenty-fifth Missouri and four companies of the Sixteenth Wisconsin, sent out the night before to reinforce the pickets. Pushed by Shaver's brigade, he fell back after a struggle on the edge of a field to the farther side of a narrow ridge, about half a mile from camp, where he was joined by Colonel Peabody with the rest of the brigade. After a contest of half an hour, Shaver was repulsed and fell back. General A.S. Johnston observing men dropping out of the ranks of the retreating brigade, rallied it himself and ordered it to renew the attack. Peabody recoiled under the fresh onset, and, falling back, took his place, constituting the right of the line of battle of the division formed a quarter of a mile in advance of the camp.

Gladden's brigade, forming part of Bragg's corps, on the second line of Johnston's army, was moved forward to extend the right of Hardee on the first line, when, by the divergence of Lick Creek from Owl Creek, Hardee's line became inadequate to fill the distance between them. The line of Johnston's advance being oblique to the line of Prentiss' front, Gladden arrived in front of Prentiss' left after Shaver had become engaged with Peabody. Colonel Adams, who took command of the brigade upon the death of General Gladden, and who made the full report of the brigade, says they arrived in position at eight o'clock. Colonel Deas, who took command when Adams was wounded, says they arrived a little after seven. Colonel Loomis, who was in command on the return to Corinth, says in his report, made April 13th, that the engagement of this brigade began at half-past seven. Wheeling to the left and deploying into line, the brigade moved confidently forward. Gladden was mortally wounded and his command fell back in confusion. General Johnston ordered it to return to the attack, but, on inspecting its condition, countermanded the order.

Chalmers' brigade, coming up from the second line, made an impetuous charge. Jackson's brigade, which followed in rear of Chalmers, moved forward and joined in the attack. Prentiss fell back and made a stand immediately in front of his camp. After a gallant but short struggle, his division, about nine o'clock, gave way and fell back through his camp, leaving behind Powell's guns and caissons and two of Hickenlooper's guns, all the horses of Hickenlooper's two guns being killed. The line was broken and disordered by the tents. The Twenty-fifth Missouri, and portions of other regiments drifted to the rear. On the summit of a slope, covered by dense thicket, not far to the rear of his camp, Prentiss rallied the Eighteenth and Twenty-first Missouri, Twelfth Michigan, and Eighteenth Wisconsin. The Sixty-first Illinois and Sixteenth Wisconsin were also rallied, but detached to form in reserve to Hurlbut. The Twenty-third Missouri, arriving by boat at the landing after the battle had begun, moved out at once and took position in Prentiss' new line. In this position his left was near the extreme southern head of the ravine of Brier Creek; thence his line extended along an old, sunk, washed-out road running a little north of west, and reached nearly to the Corinth road. Prentiss in person put Hickenlooper's battery in position immediately to the right of the Corinth road, near the intersection of the roads. Prentiss' men used the road cut as a defence, lying down in it and firing from it. General Grant, visiting Prentiss, approved the position and directed him to hold it at all hazards. The order was obeyed. Continually assaulted by successive brigades, he repelled every attack and held the position till the close of the day.

General W.H.L. Wallace, commanding Smith's division, formed his regiments at eight o'clock. Some of the regiments loaded their wagons and received extra ammunition. At half-past eight o'clock the division moved; McArthur with two of his regiments, the Ninth and Twelfth Illinois, went to support Stuart's brigade at its isolated camp at the extreme left of the National line, having sent the Thirteenth Missouri to Sherman, and left the Fourteenth Missouri and Eighty-first Ohio to guard the bridge over Snake Creek, on the Crump's Landing road. Wallace led his other two brigades to the support of Prentiss, placing Tuttle on Prentiss' right, and Sweeney to the right of Tuttle. Tuttle's left was about one hundred yards to the right of the Corinth road, and the division line extending northwestwardly behind a clear field, Sweeney's right reached the head of a wide, deep ravine—called in some of the Confederate reports a gorge—which ravine, filled with impenetrable thickets, extended from his right far to his rear and ran into the ravine of Brier Creek. Wallace added to the defence of this ravine by posting sharpshooters along its border. General Wallace detached the Eighth Iowa from Sweeney's brigade and placed it across the Corinth road, filling the interval between the two divisions.

Wallace's line was barely formed when, at ten o'clock, Gladden's brigade, now commanded by Colonel Adams, moved again against Prentiss. Advancing slowly up the slight ascent through impeding thickets, against an unseen foe, it encountered a blaze of fire from the summit, faltered, wavered, hesitated, retreated, and withdrew out of range. A.P. Stewart led his brigade against Wallace's front, was driven back, returned to the assault, and was again hurled back; but still rallied, and moved once more in vain, to be again sent in retreat.

The Confederates gave this fatal slope the name "The Hornet's Nest." General Bragg ordered Gibson with his brigade to carry the position. The fresh column charged gallantly, but the deadly line of musketry in front, and an enfilading fire from the well-posted battery, mowed down his ranks; and Gibson's brigade fell back discomfited. Gibson asked for artillery. None was at hand. Bragg ordered him to charge again. The colonels of the four regiments thought it hopeless. The order was given. The brigade struggled up the tangled ascent; but once more met the inexorable fire that hurled them back. Four times Gibson charged, and was four times repulsed. Colonel Allen, of the Fourth Louisiana, one of Gibson's regiments, rode back to General Bragg to repeat the request for artillery. Stung by the answer, "Colonel Allen, I want no faltering now," he returned to his regiment, led it in a desperate dash up the slope, more persistent, and therefore more destructive, and returned with the fragment of his command that was not left strewn upon the hill-side. As the line of Sherman and McClernand continually contracted as they fell back, the successive reinforcements pushed in toward the left of the Confederate line gradually pressed Hindman's two brigades—first wholly against McClernand's front, then against his left, then beyond his line. These two brigades were then moved to the front of W.H.L. Wallace. Flushed with victory, they advanced with confidence. The same resistless fire wounded Hindman and drove back his command. Led by General A.P. Stewart, the brigades gallantly advanced again and rushed against the fatal fire, only to be shivered into fragments that recoiled, to remain out of the contest for the rest of the day.

The commander of the Confederate Army was killed farther to the right, at half-past two o'clock in the afternoon. As the news of this loss spread, there was a feeling of uncertainty and visible relaxation of effort in parts of his command. In front of Prentiss and Wallace attack was suspended about an hour.

Hickenlooper's four guns, standing at the salient where Prentiss and Wallace joined, sweeping both fronts, had all day long been reaping bloody harvests among the lines of assailants that strove to approach. So near, yet so far; in plain view, yet out of reach, the little battery exasperated the baffled brigades while it extorted their admiration. General Ruggles sent his staff officers in all directions to sweep in all the guns they could reach. He gives the names of eleven batteries and one section which he planted in a great crescent, pouring in a concentric fire. From this tornado of missiles Hickenlooper withdrew his battery complete, and, passing to the rear through Hurlbut's camp, reported to Sherman for further service.

The terrible fire of this artillery was supplemented by continued, but desultory infantry attacks. The Crescent regiment of Louisiana essayed to charge, but recoiled. Patton Anderson led his brigade up, but was driven back. About four o'clock, Hurlbut, whose right had joined Prentiss' left, finally gave way, and Bragg, following him, passed on to the rear of Prentiss. By half-past four the fighting in front of Sherman and McClernand had ceased, and Cheatham, Trabue, Johnson, and Russell, finding that Wallace could not be approached across the dense tangle filling the great ravine which protected his right, felt their way unopposed to the plateau in his rear, meeting the combined force under Bragg in front of Hurlbut's camp. General Polk collected in front of the steadfast men of Prentiss and Wallace all the other troops within reach, and at five o'clock, with one mighty effort, surged against their line, now pounded by Ruggles' batteries.

When Hurlbut fell back, leaving Prentiss and Wallace entirely isolated, these two commanders consulted and resolved to hold their position at all hazards, and keep the enemy from passing on to the landing. But when they became enveloped, almost encircled, the enemy having passed behind them toward the landing and were closing upon the Corinth road in their rear, Wallace ordered his command to retire and cut a way through. Tuttle gave the order to his brigade, which faced about to the rear and opened fire on the forces closing behind. The Second and Seventh Iowa, led by Colonel Tuttle, charged, cut their way through, and marched to the landing. The Twelfth and Fourteenth Iowa, lingering with the Eighth Iowa to cover the retreat of Hickenlooper's battery, were too late, and found themselves walled in. Colonel Baldwin, who had succeeded to the command of the other brigade when Colonel Sweeney was wounded, brought off part of his command; but two of his regiments, the Fifty-eighth Illinois as well as the Eighth Iowa, were securely enclosed. Wallace fell mortally wounded. Groups and squads of Prentiss' men succeeded in making their way out before the circle wholly closed. Prentiss, with the remaining fragments of the two divisions, facing the fire that surrounded them, made a desperate struggle. But further resistance was hopeless and was useless. Prentiss, having never swerved from the position he was ordered to hold, having lost everything but honor, surrendered the little band. According to his report, made after his return from captivity, the number from both divisions surrendered with him was 2,200. The statements vary as to the precise hour of the surrender, and as to what command surrendered last. Colonel Shaw, of the Fourteenth Iowa, who fought toward the rear before surrendering, says that at the time he yielded he compared watches with his captor, and both agreed it was about a quarter to six; he adds that the Eighth and Twelfth Iowa and Fifty-eighth Illinois surrendered at about the same time, and that the ground where they surrendered is about the spot marked by three black dots in the fork of the Purdy and the Lower Corinth roads, on Colonel George Thom's map of the field.

HURLBUT'S DIVISION.

It remains to describe the combat on the National left, where Hurlbut with two of his brigades, supporting Stuart's isolated brigade of Sherman's division and aided by two regiments of McArthur's brigade of W.H.L. Wallace's division, resisted a part of Bragg's corps and the reserves under General Breckenridge.

Colonel Stuart received word from Prentiss at half-past seven o'clock that the enemy was advancing in force. Shortly after, his pickets sent in word that the hostile column was in sight on the Bark road. He sent his adjutant, Loomis, to General Hurlbut for assistance, but Hurlbut was already in motion. Hurlbut, receiving notice from General Sherman, sent Veatch's brigade to his aid. Soon after, getting a request for support from Prentiss, he marched from his camp at twenty minutes after eight o'clock, with his first brigade commanded by Colonel Williams, of the Third Iowa, and his Third Brigade, commanded by Brigadier-General Lauman. Passing out by the Hamburg road, across the first small field and through a belt of timber beyond that, and into the large field that stretched to Stuart's camp, he formed the First Brigade in line near the southern side of the field, the Forty-first Illinois on the left, and the Third Iowa on the right. The Third Brigade, Lauman's, the Seventeenth and Twenty-fifth Kentucky forming the left, and the Thirty-first and Forty-fourth Indiana the right, connected with Prentiss' left, and was posted like it, protected in front with dense thickets. General McArthur's two regiments appear to have operated on Stuart's right. The Sixteenth Wisconsin and Sixty-first Illinois, from Prentiss' division, formed in reserve in rear of the centre of Hurlbut's line.

Colonel Stuart, finding Mann's battery, supported by the Forty-first Illinois, coming to his aid and going into position by the headquarters of one of his regiments, the Seventy-first Ohio, formed his line, the Seventy-first Ohio and Fifty-fifth Illinois to the left of this battery and facing nearly west, the Fifty-fourth Ohio at their left and facing south. He sent four companies as skirmishers across the ravine to the south of his camp, which discharges eastwardly into Lick Creek. His skirmishers were unable to prevent the establishment of a hostile battery on the heights beyond the ravine. While he was on the bank of the ravine observing the enemy with his glass, Mann's battery, after firing a few rounds at the hostile battery at a range of eleven hundred yards, withdrew with the Forty-first Illinois back into the field, to connect with their brigade. The Seventy-first Ohio, without orders, at the same time retired. The Seventy-first Ohio was engaged in supporting distance of the brigade in its first combat, though without the knowledge of Colonel Stuart; but it was not with the brigade during the rest of the day. The adjutant, however, returned with a score of men after the regiment disappeared.

General Johnston, having personally seen the battle begun on his left and centre, proceeded to reconnoitre the National right and try the feasibility of turning it. Chalmers, called from his attack on Prentiss, retired a short distance and halted half an hour, waiting for a guide and further orders. He then marched directly south across the ravine which runs eastwardly and debouches into Lick Run near the site of Stuart's camp, and, advancing along the high land beyond, eastwardly toward the river, arrived opposite Stuart's camp. Here the fire of the skirmishers sent across the ravine by Stuart threw the Fifty-second Tennessee into disorder. Chalmers, finding it impossible to rally more than two companies of the regiment, ordered the remaining eight companies out of the line, and they took no further part in the battle.

Here Chalmers halted half an hour while Clanton's cavalry reconnoitered along the river. About ten o'clock, or a little later, Stuart having withdrawn his two remaining regiments, the Fifty-fourth Ohio and Fifth-fifth Illinois, back across the eastern extremity of the field to the summit of a short, abrupt ascent in timber, Chalmers deployed his brigade and advanced. The advantage of position partially compensated Stuart for his inferiority in numbers. A contest with musketry across the open field lasted some time without effect. Stuart reports it lasted two hours. Clanton moved his cavalry forward along the river bluffs toward Stuart's rear, around his left flank; Chalmers charged across the field, and Stuart retreated to another ridge in his rear, and again formed. Chalmers, being out of ammunition, and the wagons being far to the rear, halted till ammunition could be brought up.

Meanwhile, Jackson's brigade, the Third Brigade of Withers' division, marched to attack McArthur. The assault was gallantly made; but the troops, unable to stand the steady fire which they encountered, fell back. Being rallied after a rest, they renewed the attack. For a long time the fate of the obstinate struggle was undecided. At length McArthur's two regiments, pounded by well-posted batteries, yielded to Jackson's persistent attack, after the Ninth Illinois had lost 61 killed and 287 wounded, and withdrew, steadily and in order, to a new position.

Withers' First Brigade—Gladden's having been disordered in its first attack on Prentiss, when General Gladden was killed—remained an hour at halt in Prentiss' camp. After its sharp repulse in the later attack, the brigade drifted to its right, following the course of preceding brigades, came in front of Hurlbut's line, and moved to the attack. Lauman's brigade, of Hurlbut's division, had remained undisturbed for an hour after taking position. A skirmish line which he had posted in front reported an advance of the enemy. Artillery from a distance in front opened fire. At the first shot which fell in the Thirteenth Ohio Battery, posted in the field to Lauman's left, with the right of Williams' brigade, the entire battery deserted their guns and fled. Shortly after the battle the men were, by order, distributed among other batteries; the Thirteenth was blotted out, and on Ohio's roster its place remained a blank throughout the war.

Soon, a line of gleaming steel was seen above the dense undergrowth in Lauman's front. It advanced steadily till about one hundred yards from his line. A sheet of fire blazed from the front of the brigade. The men, restrained till then, fired rapidly but coolly. The fire could not be resisted or endured. Gladden's brigade, now commanded by Colonel Adams, was arrested in its march, broken, and fell back. Three times the brigade rallied and returned to the assault. Once, a portion advanced to within a few paces of the Thirty-first Indiana. But every charge was vain, and Colonel Adams, the commander, being wounded, the brigade, discomfited, withdrew.

After the termination of this engagement, several regiments—either the Gladden brigade, now commanded by Colonel Deas, or one of the brigades of Breckenridge's reserve—moved into the field to the left of Lauman. Colonel Williams, commanding Hurlbut's first brigade, had been killed in an artillery duel across the field, and the brigade, now commanded by Colonel Pugh, had been drawn back from the field, behind a fence along its northern boundary. The force that moved into the field was not only confronted by the brigade under Colonel Pugh, but its flank was commanded by the Seventeenth and Twenty-fifth Kentucky, which General Lauman promptly wheeled to the left, against the fence bounding the westerly face of the field. The assault made in this field was gallant and deliberate, but brief and sanguinary. Pugh's command remained still until the lines, advancing over the open field, were near. Then rising, they poured in a volley, and continued firing into the smoke until no bullets were heard whistling back from the front. The two Kentucky regiments poured in their fire upon the flank, and when the smoke cleared away, the field was so thickly strewn with bodies, that the Third Iowa, supposing it was the hostile force lying down, began to reopen fire upon them.

Before Withers' division became thus engaged with Hurlbut, McArthur, and Stuart, General Johnston had dispatched Trabue's brigade, of Breckenridge's reserve, off to his extreme left, to report to General Beauregard, who, stationed at Shiloh Church, was superintending operations in that quarter. The three brigades, Bowen, Statham, Trabue, composing the reserve, had marched in rear of General Johnston's right in echelon, at intervals of eight hundred yards. Johnston, observing with anxiety the stubborn resistance opposed to Withers' division, and eager to crush the National right, called up the remaining brigades of the reserve, Bowen and Statham, and pushed them forward. Bowen was first engaged, and the National left, in a series of encounters with the increased force in its front, gradually but slowly receded, always forming and rallying on the next ridge in rear of the one abandoned.

The Forty-first Illinois, constituting the left of Hurlbut's division, held its position, and the Thirty-second Illinois was moved from its place to support the Forty-first. The afternoon was come. Johnston directed Statham's brigade against this position. Statham deployed under cover of a ridge, facing and commanded by the higher ridge held by the Illinois regiments, and marched in line up the slope. On reaching the summit, coming into view and range, he was received by a fire that broke his command, and his regiments fell back behind the slope in confusion. Battle's Tennessee regiment on the right alone maintained its position and advanced. Lytle's Tennessee regiment three times rallied and advanced; but, unable to stand the fire, fell back. Every time it fell back, the Thirty-second Illinois threw an oblique fire into Battle's regiment, aiding the direct fire of the Forty-first, and preventing Battle's further advance. The Forty-fifth Tennessee could not be urged up the slope. Squads would leave the ranks, run up to a fence, fire, and fall back to place; but the regiment would not advance. General Breckenridge, foiled and irritated, rode to General Johnston and complained he had a Tennessee regiment that would not fight. Governor Harris, of Tennessee, who was with Johnston, remonstrated, and riding to the Forty-fifth, appealed to it, but in vain. General Johnston moved to the front of the brigade, now standing in line, rode slowly along the front, promised to lead them himself, and appealed to them to follow. The halting soldiers were roused to enthusiasm. Johnston, Breckenridge, and Governor Harris in front, followed by the brigade, charged up the slope and down the hollow beyond. Unchecked by the hot fire of the Illinois regiments, they pushed up the higher slope, and the position was gained.

The Illinois regiments fell back slowly, halting at intervals to turn and fire, and were not pursued. One of those Parthian shots struck General Johnston, cut an artery, and, no surgeon being at hand, he bled to death in a few minutes. His body was carried at once by his staff back to Corinth. General Beauregard, at his station at Shiloh Church, was notified of the death, and assumed command. Albert Sydney Johnston was a man of pure life, and, like McPherson, full of the traits that call out genuine and devoted friendships. He was esteemed by many the ablest general in the Confederate service. His death was deplored in the South as a fatal loss. It was half-past two when Johnston fell. The loss paralyzed operations in that part of the field, and for an hour there was here a lull. The two Illinois regiments, though not followed, failed to rally, and fell back to a bluff near the landing, where Colonel Webster was putting batteries into position.

General Bragg, hearing of the death of General Johnston while he was superintending operations in front of Prentiss and W.H.L. Wallace, rode to the Confederate right. He there found a strong force, consisting of three parts, without a common head: General Breckenridge, with two brigades of his reserve division, pressing forward; General Withers, with his division greatly exhausted and taking a temporary rest; and General Cheatham, with his division of Polk's corps, to their left and rear. Bragg at once assumed command, and began to assemble these divisions and form them for a general advance. Hurlbut, observing these preparations, moved Lauman's brigade, which had already twice replenished its boxes and expended one hundred rounds of cartridges—to his left to fill the gap made by the retreat of the Thirty-second and Forty-first Illinois. Willard's battery, that accompanied McArthur's brigade, was posted near the road from the landing to Hamburg. Hurlbut brought up two twenty-pound guns of Major Cavender's artillery, which were served by Surgeon Cornine and Lieutenant Edwards. A little after four, according to Bragg, about half-past three according to Hurlbut, Bragg moved forward. The artillery, aided by the rapid fire of Hurlbut's infantry, checked the first impulse and made the advancing line pause. Hurlbut, taking advantage of the lull, and first notifying Prentiss, withdrew Lauman's brigade and the artillery. Bragg's line advanced again. Hurlbut attempted to make another stand in front of his camp, but the attempt was ineffectual. He fell back to the height behind Webster's batteries.

The Third Iowa and Twenty-eighth Illinois, under Colonel Pugh, made a desperate effort to maintain their position, but were ordered by General Hurlbut to fall back when Lauman retired. These two regiments fell back fighting, forming wherever the ground gave vantage, and turning upon their pursuers. In the little field they halted and replenished their cartridge-boxes. Here the Twenty-second Alabama attacked them, but was so roughly handled that it took no further part in the contest that day. As these two regiments fell back thus slowly, from time to time turning at bay, portions of Bragg's command were pushing behind them and the troops of Hardee, coming from the front of Sherman and McClernand, were reaching toward their front. A narrow gap was left, and through a gauntlet of fire, still fighting, the little band pressed on and joined Hurlbut behind Webster's artillery.