From Fort Henry to Corinth

by M. F. Force

When Hurlbut fell back, leaving Prentiss and Wallace entirely isolated, these two commanders consulted and resolved to hold their position at all hazards, and keep the enemy from passing on to the landing. But when they became enveloped, almost encircled, the enemy having passed behind them toward the landing and were closing upon the Corinth road in their rear, Wallace ordered his command to retire and cut a way through. Tuttle gave the order to his brigade, which faced about to the rear and opened fire on the forces closing behind. The Second and Seventh Iowa, led by Colonel Tuttle, charged, cut their way through, and marched to the landing. The Twelfth and Fourteenth Iowa, lingering with the Eighth Iowa to cover the retreat of Hickenlooper's battery, were too late, and found themselves walled in. Colonel Baldwin, who had succeeded to the command of the other brigade when Colonel Sweeney was wounded, brought off part of his command; but two of his regiments, the Fifty-eighth Illinois as well as the Eighth Iowa, were securely enclosed. Wallace fell mortally wounded. Groups and squads of Prentiss' men succeeded in making their way out before the circle wholly closed. Prentiss, with the remaining fragments of the two divisions, facing the fire that surrounded them, made a desperate struggle. But further resistance was hopeless and was useless. Prentiss, having never swerved from the position he was ordered to hold, having lost everything but honor, surrendered the little band. According to his report, made after his return from captivity, the number from both divisions surrendered with him was 2,200. The statements vary as to the precise hour of the surrender, and as to what command surrendered last. Colonel Shaw, of the Fourteenth Iowa, who fought toward the rear before surrendering, says that at the time he yielded he compared watches with his captor, and both agreed it was about a quarter to six; he adds that the Eighth and Twelfth Iowa and Fifty-eighth Illinois surrendered at about the same time, and that the ground where they surrendered is about the spot marked by three black dots in the fork of the Purdy and the Lower Corinth roads, on Colonel George Thom's map of the field.

HURLBUT'S DIVISION.

It remains to describe the combat on the National left, where Hurlbut with two of his brigades, supporting Stuart's isolated brigade of Sherman's division and aided by two regiments of McArthur's brigade of W.H.L. Wallace's division, resisted a part of Bragg's corps and the reserves under General Breckenridge.

Colonel Stuart received word from Prentiss at half-past seven o'clock that the enemy was advancing in force. Shortly after, his pickets sent in word that the hostile column was in sight on the Bark road. He sent his adjutant, Loomis, to General Hurlbut for assistance, but Hurlbut was already in motion. Hurlbut, receiving notice from General Sherman, sent Veatch's brigade to his aid. Soon after, getting a request for support from Prentiss, he marched from his camp at twenty minutes after eight o'clock, with his first brigade commanded by Colonel Williams, of the Third Iowa, and his Third Brigade, commanded by Brigadier-General Lauman. Passing out by the Hamburg road, across the first small field and through a belt of timber beyond that, and into the large field that stretched to Stuart's camp, he formed the First Brigade in line near the southern side of the field, the Forty-first Illinois on the left, and the Third Iowa on the right. The Third Brigade, Lauman's, the Seventeenth and Twenty-fifth Kentucky forming the left, and the Thirty-first and Forty-fourth Indiana the right, connected with Prentiss' left, and was posted like it, protected in front with dense thickets. General McArthur's two regiments appear to have operated on Stuart's right. The Sixteenth Wisconsin and Sixty-first Illinois, from Prentiss' division, formed in reserve in rear of the centre of Hurlbut's line.

Colonel Stuart, finding Mann's battery, supported by the Forty-first Illinois, coming to his aid and going into position by the headquarters of one of his regiments, the Seventy-first Ohio, formed his line, the Seventy-first Ohio and Fifty-fifth Illinois to the left of this battery and facing nearly west, the Fifty-fourth Ohio at their left and facing south. He sent four companies as skirmishers across the ravine to the south of his camp, which discharges eastwardly into Lick Creek. His skirmishers were unable to prevent the establishment of a hostile battery on the heights beyond the ravine. While he was on the bank of the ravine observing the enemy with his glass, Mann's battery, after firing a few rounds at the hostile battery at a range of eleven hundred yards, withdrew with the Forty-first Illinois back into the field, to connect with their brigade. The Seventy-first Ohio, without orders, at the same time retired. The Seventy-first Ohio was engaged in supporting distance of the brigade in its first combat, though without the knowledge of Colonel Stuart; but it was not with the brigade during the rest of the day. The adjutant, however, returned with a score of men after the regiment disappeared.

General Johnston, having personally seen the battle begun on his left and centre, proceeded to reconnoitre the National right and try the feasibility of turning it. Chalmers, called from his attack on Prentiss, retired a short distance and halted half an hour, waiting for a guide and further orders. He then marched directly south across the ravine which runs eastwardly and debouches into Lick Run near the site of Stuart's camp, and, advancing along the high land beyond, eastwardly toward the river, arrived opposite Stuart's camp. Here the fire of the skirmishers sent across the ravine by Stuart threw the Fifty-second Tennessee into disorder. Chalmers, finding it impossible to rally more than two companies of the regiment, ordered the remaining eight companies out of the line, and they took no further part in the battle.

Here Chalmers halted half an hour while Clanton's cavalry reconnoitered along the river. About ten o'clock, or a little later, Stuart having withdrawn his two remaining regiments, the Fifty-fourth Ohio and Fifth-fifth Illinois, back across the eastern extremity of the field to the summit of a short, abrupt ascent in timber, Chalmers deployed his brigade and advanced. The advantage of position partially compensated Stuart for his inferiority in numbers. A contest with musketry across the open field lasted some time without effect. Stuart reports it lasted two hours. Clanton moved his cavalry forward along the river bluffs toward Stuart's rear, around his left flank; Chalmers charged across the field, and Stuart retreated to another ridge in his rear, and again formed. Chalmers, being out of ammunition, and the wagons being far to the rear, halted till ammunition could be brought up.

Meanwhile, Jackson's brigade, the Third Brigade of Withers' division, marched to attack McArthur. The assault was gallantly made; but the troops, unable to stand the steady fire which they encountered, fell back. Being rallied after a rest, they renewed the attack. For a long time the fate of the obstinate struggle was undecided. At length McArthur's two regiments, pounded by well-posted batteries, yielded to Jackson's persistent attack, after the Ninth Illinois had lost 61 killed and 287 wounded, and withdrew, steadily and in order, to a new position.

Withers' First Brigade—Gladden's having been disordered in its first attack on Prentiss, when General Gladden was killed—remained an hour at halt in Prentiss' camp. After its sharp repulse in the later attack, the brigade drifted to its right, following the course of preceding brigades, came in front of Hurlbut's line, and moved to the attack. Lauman's brigade, of Hurlbut's division, had remained undisturbed for an hour after taking position. A skirmish line which he had posted in front reported an advance of the enemy. Artillery from a distance in front opened fire. At the first shot which fell in the Thirteenth Ohio Battery, posted in the field to Lauman's left, with the right of Williams' brigade, the entire battery deserted their guns and fled. Shortly after the battle the men were, by order, distributed among other batteries; the Thirteenth was blotted out, and on Ohio's roster its place remained a blank throughout the war.

Soon, a line of gleaming steel was seen above the dense undergrowth in Lauman's front. It advanced steadily till about one hundred yards from his line. A sheet of fire blazed from the front of the brigade. The men, restrained till then, fired rapidly but coolly. The fire could not be resisted or endured. Gladden's brigade, now commanded by Colonel Adams, was arrested in its march, broken, and fell back. Three times the brigade rallied and returned to the assault. Once, a portion advanced to within a few paces of the Thirty-first Indiana. But every charge was vain, and Colonel Adams, the commander, being wounded, the brigade, discomfited, withdrew.