On and between these roads, at distances of from two to five miles from Pittsburg Landing, lay several divisions of Major-General Grant’s army on Sunday morning. The advance line was formed by three divisions—Brigadier-General Sherman’s, Brigadier-General Prentiss’ and Major-General McClernand’s. Between these and the Landing lay the forces of Brigadier-General Hurlbut and Major-General Smith, who, being absent from severe illness, left his command to Brigadier-General W. H. L. Wallace.
The Union advance line, beginning at the extreme left, was thus formed:—On the Hamburg road, just north of the crossing of Lick creek, and under bluffs on the opposite bank that commanded the position, lay Colonel D. Stuart’s brigade of General Sherman’s division. Some three or four miles distant from this brigade, on the lower Corinth road, between that and the road to Purdy, lay the remaining brigades of Sherman’s division, McDowell’s forming the extreme right of the whole advance line. Hildebrand’s came next to it, and Buckland’s following. Next to Buckland’s brigade, though rather behind a portion of Sherman’s, lay Major-General McClernand’s division, and between it and Stuart’s brigade, already mentioned as forming the extreme left, Brigadier-General Prentiss’ division completed the line.
Back of this line, within a mile of the Landing, lay Hurlbut’s division, stretching across the Corinth road, with W. H. L. Wallace’s to his right. Such was the position of the Union troops at Pittsburg Landing at daybreak on Sunday morning. Major-General Lew. Wallace’s division arrived at about half-past seven o’clock that day.
Nearly four miles intervened between the different parts of Sherman’s division. McClernand’s lay partially behind Sherman, and there was a gap between him and Prentiss, which the rebels did not fail speedily to find. The extreme left was commanded by unguarded heights, easily approached from Corinth.
The secession army was commanded by General Johnston; Beauregard was second in command. The three army corps were led by Hardee, Polk, and Bragg. Breckinridge commanded the reserve.
On the evening of Friday, April 4, there had been a preliminary skirmish with the enemy’s advance. Rumors reached the Union camp that some officers had been taken prisoners by a considerable rebel force, near the lines, and that pickets had been firing. A brigade, the Seventieth, Seventy-second and Forty-eighth Ohio regiments, was sent out to ascertain the facts. They came upon a party of rebels, perhaps a thousand strong, and after a sharp action drove them off, losing Major Crocket, of the Seventy-second Ohio, and two lieutenants from the Seventieth were taken prisoners. In return the Union party took sixteen prisoners, and drove the rebels back to a battery which they had placed undiscovered at no great distance from the Federal lines. General Lew. Wallace’s troops, at Crump’s Landing, were ordered out under arms; they marched to Adamsville, half way between the river and Purdy, to hold position there and resist any attack in that direction. The long rainy night passed drearily and uncomfortably, but no further hostile demonstrations were made, and it was generally supposed that the affair had been an ordinary picket fight, presaging nothing more. On Saturday there was more skirmishing along the advanced lines.
The secession leaders at Corinth knew that they largely outnumbered Grant, and that no measures had been taken to strengthen the position at Pittsburg Landing; they knew equally well, that when Buell’s entire Kentucky army was added to Grant’s forces, they could not possibly expect to hold their important position at Corinth. Their only hope lay in attacking Grant before Buell arrived, and defeating his troops in detail.
During Friday and Saturday the enemy had marched out of Corinth, about seventy thousand strong, in three lines of battle; the first and second extending from Owl Creek on the left to Lick Creek on the right—a distance of about three miles, supported by the third and the reserve. The first line, under Major-General Hardee, was constituted of his corps, augmented on his right by Gladden’s brigade, of Major-General Bragg’s corps, deployed in line of battle, with their respective artillery, following immediately by the main road to Pittsburg, and the cavalry in rear of the wings. The second line, composed of the other troop of Bragg’s corps, followed Hardee at a distance of five hundred yards, in the same order as the first. The army corps under General Polk followed the second line, at the distance of about eight hundred yards, in lines of brigades, deployed with their batteries in rear of each brigade, moving by the Pittsburg road, the left wing supported by cavalry. The reserve, under Brigadier-General Breckinridge, followed closely the third line, in the same order, its right wing supported by cavalry.
THE BATTLE ON SUNDAY.
As if in beautiful contrast with the terrible scenes that were soon to follow, the holy Sabbath-day which dawned on the sixth of April was one of unusual loveliness. The soft spring sunshine lay upon the green slopes, breaking up their delicate green with a thousand fleeting shadows flung downward by the young leaves. A gentle, pleasant wind shook the budding branches, and happy birds were singing their love-tunes in the underbrush, a touching prelude to the stern battle music that soon put them to flight. A few fleecy clouds wreathed themselves along the serene blue of the sky, and floated idly over the battle field, casting transparent shadows now in some green hollow, then upon a hill slope, till the whole field smiled like an Eden—smiled even after the cannon belched their thunders over it. While the morning dew was yet on the grass, the enemy began pouring the fire and smoke of a most deadly strife over this lovely scene.