From Fort Henry to Corinth

by M. F. Force

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 manœuvring 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.