GROUP OF UNION SOLDIERS AT CORINTH.
The Confederates, from behind a spur of the Purdy ridge, advanced splendidly to the attack. The unfavorable line occupied by Davies’s division made the resistance on that front inadequate. The troops gave way; the enemy pursued; but the cross-fire from the Union batteries on our right soon thinned their ranks. Their front line was broken, and the heads of their columns melted away. Some of the enemy’s scattered line got into the edge of the town ; a few into the reserve artillery, which led to the impression that they had captured forty pieces of artillery. But they were soon driven out by Stanley’s reserve, and fled, taking nothing away.
At this time, while going to order Hamilton’s
division into action on the enemy’s left, I saw the L-shaped porch of a large cottage packed full of Confederates. I ordered Lieutenant Lorenzo D. Immell, with two field-pieces, to give them grape and canister. After one round, only the dead and dying were left on the porch. Reaching Hamilton’s division I ordered him to send Sullivan’s brigade forward. It moved in line of battle in open
QUARTERS AT CORINTH OCCUPIED BY THE 52D ILLINOIS VOLUNTEERS DURING THE
WINTER OF 1862-3.
FILLMORE STREET, CORINTH.
of the town. About 4 o’clock I lay down. At half-past 4 the enemy opened with a six-gun battery. Our batteries, replying, soon silenced it, but I had no time for breakfast. The troops got very little. They had not been allowed to build fires during the night, and were too tired to intrench.
The morning opened clear, and soon grew to be hot. It must have been ninety-four degrees in the shade. The enemy began to extend his infantry line across the north of the town. I visited the lines and gave orders to our skirmishers to fall back the moment it was seen that the enemy was developing a line of battle. About 8 o’clock his left, having crossed the Mobile and Ohio Railroad, got into position behind a spur of table-land, to reach which they had moved by the flank for about half a mile. When they began to advance in line of battle they were not over three hundred yards distant.
I told McKean on the left to be very watchful of his front lest the enemy should turn his left, and directed General Stanley to hold the reserve of his command ready either to help north of the town or to aid McKean if required. I visited Battery Robinett and directed the chief of artillery, Colonel Lothrop, to see to the reserve artillery, some batteries of which were parked in the public square of the town; then the line of Davies’s division, which was in nearly open ground, with a few logs, here and there, for breastworks, and then on his extreme right Sweeny’s brigade, which had no cover save a slight ridge, on the southwest slope of which, near the crest, the men were lying down. Riding along this line, I observed the Confederate forces emerging from the woods west of the railroad and crossing the open ground toward the Purdy road. Our troops lying on the ground could see the flags of the enemy and the glint of the sunlight on their bayonets. It was about 9 o’clock in the morning. The air was still and fiercely hot. . . .
advance of their infantry. Our own infantry held their ground nobly against the overwhelming force moving against them, and we were enabled to add another regiment to the line of battle. At the first musketry fire of the enemy, most of the horses of our battery were killed, and the pieces could not be removed from the field. The fight became an infantry duel. I never saw a hotter or more destructive engagement. General Price says in his official report, “ The fight began, and was waged with a severity I have never seen surpassed.” . . .
September 21st our troops were back in their old encampments at Jacinto. Just two weeks later, the same divisions and brigades were measured against each other on the field of Corinth.
THE BATTLE OF CORINTH.
BY WILLIAM S. ROSECRANS, MAJOR-GENERAL, U. S. V., BREVET MAJOR-GENERAL, U. S. A.
Commander of the Union army at the battle of Corintli.
Note.—The battle of Corinth, Miss., was fought on the 3d and 1th of October 1862, between the combined forces of Generals Earl Van Dorn and Sterling Price of the Confederacy, and the Union divisions of Generals David S. Stanley, Charles S. Hamilton, Thomas A. Davies, and Thomas J. McKean, under General W. S. Rosecrans, commander of the Third Division of the District of West Tennessee.
The conflict on the 3d resulted in the Union forces retiring and the Confederates advancing. General Rosecrans describes the struggle of the second day over the intrenchments around the town, as follows:
... As the troops had been on the move since the night of October 2d, and had fought all day of the 3d (which was so excessively hot that we were obliged to send water around in wagons), it became my duty to visit their lines and see that the weary troops were surely in position. I returned to my tent at three o’clock in the morning of October 5th, after having seen everything accomplished and the new line in order. It was about a mile in extent and close to the edge of the north side
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