‘On the 18th Hurlbut disembarked his division and took post about a mile and a half out, near where the roads branched—one leading to Corinth, the other toward Hamburgh. On the 19th I disembarked my division and took post about three miles back; three of the brigades covering the roads to Purdy and Corinth, and the other brigade, Stuart's, temporarily at a place on the Hamburgh road. * * * Within a few days Prentiss' division arrived and camped on my left, and afterward McClernand's and W. H. L. Wallace's divisions were formed in a line to our rear. * * * General C. F. Smith remained back at Savannah in chief command, and I was only responsible for my own division. I kept pickets well out on the roads, and made myself familiar with all the ground inside and outside my lines.’
Of the events immediately preceding the battle, General Sherman writes as follows:
I always acted on the supposition that we were an invading army; that our purpose was to move forward in force, make a lodgment on the Memphis & Charleston Road, and thus repeat the grand tactics of Fort Donelson, by separating the rebels in the interior from those at Memphis and on the Mississippi River. We did not fortify our camps against an attack, because we had no orders to do so, and because such a course would have made our raw men timid. The position was naturally strong, with Snake Creek on our right, a deep, bold stream, with a confluent (Owl Creek) to our right front, and Lick Creek, with a similar confluent on our left, thus narrowing the space over which we could be attacked to about a mile and a half or two miles.
At a later period of the war we could have rendered this position impregnable in one night, but at this time we did not do it, and it may be it is well we did not. From about the 1st of April we were conscious that the rebel cavalry in our front were getting bolder and more saucy; and on Friday, the 4th of April, it dashed down and carried off one of our picket guards, composed of an officer and seven men, posted a couple of miles out on the Corinth road. Colonel Buckland sent a company to its relief, then followed himself with a regiment, and, fearing lest he might be worsted, I called out his whole brigade, and followed some four or five miles, when the cavalry in advance encountered artillery. I then, after dark, drew back to our lines and reported the fact by letter to General Grant at Savannah; but thus far (night of the 4th) we had not positively detected the presence of infantry, for cavalry
