Rarely for young and old is there a finer example of Professor Longfellow’s words in the Psalm of Life—
“Learn to labor and to wait,”
than this part of General Sherman’s career affords. He did his work well, and two years afterwards the military genius, unrecognized then by the country, filled the land with his praise.
CHAPTER X.
The Morning after the Battle—General Sherman’s column in Motion—What it did—Corinth the next Goal—The Siege—The Evacuation—General Sherman’s troops the first to enter the Works—The Hero is made Major-General—Advance on Holly Springs—Memphis—General Sherman’s successful Command in that City—The Guerrillas.
HE eighth of April dawned upon the silent, sanguinary field of recent conflict. Soon large companies of men were moving from the Union camps with spades and other implements of burial, to lay in trenches the heaps of the slain. The weather was warm in that southern latitude, and General Grant hastened the work of interment alike of slaughtered friends and foes.
General Beauregard wrote to our commander, requesting leave to take rebel bodies from our lines under flag of truce; but other hands were completing the sad labor for the disfigured, blood-stained, and pulseless warriors.
Look away from that scene, after the battle, along the Corinth road, and you see the serried files of living men, led by the unresisting Sherman, dashing along in hot pursuit of the enemy. The chief of the fifth division, with a force of cavalry and two brigades of infantry, is in the war-path again. Suddenly appear the white tents of the abandoned camps of the enemy, and hospital flags are flying over them in the early breeze. What does it mean? They are false signals, hung out to deceive the pursuing commander, and protect the deserted canvas cities. Onward the sagacious, daring leader hurries after the foe.
And now a shout rings from the lips of our “boys.” The rebel cavalry are in sight. A few moments later swords cross, pistols crack, and horses rush together in the strife. Then the “graybacks” turn and fly, leaving the field, camps, and all, to our victorious ranks. The work of destruction followed. Tents, arms, ammunition, were mingled in a common ruin. The road for miles was lined with wagons the foe were compelled to leave in their haste to get out of our way; ambulances stood unused, although thousands of the mangled were in need of them; limber-boxes, which belong to the guns, were also abandoned; indeed, every thing showed a hurried retreat, which but for the cavalry in the rear to cover the flight of the infantry, would have been a complete rout of the enemy.