From Fort Henry to Corinth. M. F. Force
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M. F. Force
From Fort Henry to Corinth
Published by Good Press, 2019
EAN 4064066146832
Table of Contents
PREFACE.
I have endeavored to prepare the following narrative from authentic material, contemporaneous, or nearly contemporaneous, with the events described.
The main source of information is the official reports of battles and operations. These reports, both National and Confederate, will appear in the series of volumes of Military Reports now in preparation under the supervision of Colonel Scott, Chief of the War Records Office in the War Department. Executive Document No. 66, printed by resolution of the Senate at the Second Session of the Thirty-seventh Congress, contains a number of separate reports of casualties, lists of killed, wounded, and missing, which do not appear in the volumes of Military Reports as now printed. Several battle reports are printed in volume IV., and in the "Companion," or Appendix volume of Moore's Rebellion Record, which are not contained in the volumes of Military Reports as now printed. The reports of the Twentieth Ohio and the Fifty-third Ohio, of the battle of Shiloh, have never been printed. Colonel Trabue's report of his brigade in the battle of Shiloh has never been officially printed; but it is given in the history of the Kentucky Brigade from Colonel Trabue's retained copy, found by his widow among his papers.
The Reports of the Committee on the Conduct of the War contain original matter in addition to what appears in reports of battles and operations.
The reports of the Adjutant-Generals of the different States, printed during the war, often supplement the official reports on file in Washington.
Some regimental histories, printed soon after the close of the war, contain diaries and letters and narrate incidents which enable us in some cases to fix dates, the place of camps, and positions in battle, which could hardly otherwise be determined with precision. Newspaper correspondents, while narrating what they personally saw, give descriptions which impart animation to the sedate statements of official reports.
Colonel William Preston Johnston's life of his father, General A.S. Johnston, can be used in some respects as authority. He served first in the Army of Northern Virginia, and was, most of the war, on the staff of Jefferson Davis. He thus, after his father's death, became possessed of a valuable collection of authentic official papers. When he was preparing the biography, all papers of value in private hands in the South were open to his use.
Letters and memoranda preserved by Colonel Charles Whittlesey, and some of my own, have been of service.
I am under obligation to Colonel Scott for permission to freely read and copy, in his office, the reports compiled under his direction. To Ex-President Hayes for the loan of a set of the series of Military Reports, both National and Confederate, so far as printed, though not yet issued. To the Historical and Philosophical Society of Ohio for the unrestricted use of its library. To Colonel Charles Whittlesey of Cleveland, and Major E.C. Dawes, of Cincinnati, for the use of original manuscripts as well as printed reports.
M.F. FORCE.
LIST OF MAPS.
Field of Operations in Missouri and Northern Arkansas,
The Line from Columbus to Bowling Green,
New Madrid and Island Number Ten,
The Field of Shiloh,
The Approach to Corinth,
Western Tennessee.
FROM FORT HENRY TO CORINTH.
CHAPTER I.
PRELIMINARY.
Missouri did not join the Southern States in their secession from the Union. A convention called to consider the question passed resolutions opposed to the movement. But the legislature convened by Governor Jackson gave him dictatorial power, authorized him especially to organize the military power of the State, and put into his hands three millions of dollars, diverted from the funds to which they had been appropriated, to complete the armament. The governor divided the State into nine military districts, appointed a brigadier-general to each, and appointed Sterling Price major-general.
The convention reassembled in July, 1861, and, by action subject to disapproval or affirmance of the popular vote, deposed the governor, lieutenant-governor, secretary of state, and legislature, and appointed a new executive. This action was approved by a vote of the people. Jackson, assuming to be an ambulatory