"What!" they all cried, everything else forgotten. "Are we to fight at last?"
"It looks like it," answered Green. "You know Bragg is sweeping everything before him in Kentucky—will be in Louisville before a week. The point is to keep Grant from rushing any of his troops to aid Buell. The Yankee troops here must be held. The orders are to make it lively for Rosecrans. We are to move on Iuka tomorrow."
Then from those officers went up a cheer. They were to meet the foes of their country; no thought of the danger before them; no thought that before many hours some of them might be lying in bloody graves.
"Here's for old Kentucky!" cried one. "We are going to reinforce Bragg."
"Better say we are going to thrash Rosecrans at Corinth," chimed in another.
That night Price with his army marched straight for Iuka, some fifteen or twenty miles east of Corinth. The place was only held by a small detachment, which beat a hasty retreat, leaving a large quantity of military stores to the jubilant Confederates.
From Iuka Price could cross over into Tennessee, and pursue his way northward to join Bragg, or turn on Rosecrans at Corinth.
It was decided for him: Rosecrans no sooner learned that Price had captured Iuka than he set forth from Corinth to attack him.
Portions of the two armies met two miles from Iuka, a bloody battle was fought, the Federals being driven back a short distance, and losing a battery.
During the night Price beat a hasty retreat, leaving the battery he had taken, all his dead unburied, and many of his sick and wounded.