GRAVE OF COLONEL WILLIAM P. ROGERS.
Looking toward Corinth from the embankment of Fort Robinett. (From a photograph taken in 1884).
our shot, but they steadily closed up and moved forward until they were forced back.
Just after this last assault I heard for the first time the word “ranch.” Passing over the field on our left, among the dead and dying, I saw leaning against the root of a tree a wounded lieutenant of an Arkansas regiment who had been shot through the foot. As I offered him some water, he said, “ Thank you, General; one of your men just gave me some.” I said, “ Whose troops are you ? ” Pie replied, “Cabell’s.” I said, “It was pretty hot fighting here.” He answered, “ Yes, General, you licked us good, but we gave you the best we had in the ranch.”
Before the enemy’s first assault on Robinett, I inspected the woods toward our left where I knew Lovell’s division to be. I said to Colonel Joseph A. Mower, afterward commander of the Sev-
THE DEFENSE OP BATTERY ROBINETT.
Prom a war-time sketch.
mounted, planted a flag-staff on the bank of the ditch, and fell there, shot by one of our drummer-boys, who, with a pistol, was helping to defend Robinett. I was told that Colonel Rogers was the fifth standard-bearer who had fallen in that last desperate charge. It was about as good fighting on the part of the Confederates as I ever saw. The columns were plowed through and through by
THE GROUND IN FRONT OF BATTERY ROBINETT. Prom a photograph taken after the battle.
ground a little to the left of Battery Powell. Before its splendid advance the scattered enemy, who were endeavoring to form a line of battle, about 1 p. M. gave way and went back into the woods, from which they never again advanced.
Meanwhile there had been terrific fighting at Battery Robinett. The roar of artillery and musketry for two or three hours was incessant. Clouds of smoke filled the air and obscured the sun. I witnessed the first charge of the enemy on this part of the line before I went over to Hamilton. The first repulse I did not see because the contestants were clouded in smoke. It was an assault in column. There were three or four assaulting columns of regiments, probably a hundred yards apart. The enemy’s left-hand column had tried to make its way down into the low ground to the right of Robinett, but did not make much progress. The other two assaulting columns fared better, because they were on the ridge, where the fallen timber was scarcer. I ordered the 27th Ohio and 11th Missouri to kneel in rear of the right of Robinett, so as to get out of range of the enemy’s fire, and the moment he had exhausted himself to charge with the bayonet. The third assault was made just as I was seeing Sullivan into the fight. I saw the enemy come upon the ridge while Battery Robinett was belching its fire at them. After the charge had failed I saw the 27th Ohio and the 11th Missouri chasing them with bayonets.
The head of the enemy’s main column reached within a few feet of Battery Robinett, and Colonel Rogers, who was leading it, colors in hand, dis-
enteenth Army Corps, and familiarly known as “Fighting Joe Mower,” “Colonel, take the men now on the skirmish line, and find out what Lovell is doing.” He replied, “ Very well, General.” As he was turning away I added, “Feel them, but don’t get into their fingers.” He answered significantly: “ I’ll feel them!” Before I left my position Mower had entered the woods, and soon I heard a tremendous crash of musketry in that direction. His skirmishers fell back into the fallen timber, and the adjutant reported to me: “General, I think the enemy have eaptured Colonel Mower; I think he is killed.” Five hours later when we captured the enemy’s field-hospitals, we found that Colonel Mower had been shot in the back of the neck and taken prisoner. Expressing my j°y at his safety, he showed that he knew he had been unjustly reported to me the day before as intoxicated, by saying: “Yes, General,but if they had reported me for being ‘ shot in the neck ’ to-day instead of yesterday, it would have been correct.”
About 2 o’clockwe found that the enemydidnot intend to make another attack. Faint from exhaustion I sought the shade of a tree, from which point I saw three bursts of smoke and said to my staff, “They have blown up some ammunition-wagons, and are going to retreat. We must push them.” I was all the more certain of this, because, having failed, a good commander like Van Dorn would use the utmost despatch in putting the forests between him and his pursuing foe. . . .
I rode along the lines of the commands, told them that, having been moving and fighting for three days and two nights, I knew they required rest, but that they could not rest longer than was absolutely necessary. I directed them to proceed to their new camps, provide five days’ rations, take some needed rest, and be ready early next morning for the pursuit.
General McPherson, sent from Jackson with five good regiments to help us, arrived and bivouacked in the public square a little before sunset. Our pursuit of the enemy was immediate and vigorous.
158