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two days a ‘seat of war.’
Again did it hear in its streets the martial drumbeats; again see the two armies drawn up, facing each other as stoutly as they had done at
Shiloh, near by.
Price had hoped that an attack upon
Corinth would thrust
Grant back from the public eye, neutralizing his victory so recently gained.
Eager in his movements,
Van Dorn upon this hope had acted on the spot.
Rosecrans, with
Grant as his adviser, was at
Corinth with 23,000 men.
Van Dorn, for the attack, had about the same number.
Coming in on the northwest of the town he cut
Rosecrans from
Grant, who was not far off.
Van Dorn had a plan to feint upon
Rosecrans' left, thereby drawing troops from his right.
Upon the wing so depleted
Price was to fall and crush it. This was done on the 3d.
A gap was soon made in
Rosecrans' line, into which
Van Dorn hastened to pour and drive back his enemy's left and center; his right, however, still remaining intact to threaten
Van Dorn's flank.
Night fell, and with it the combat closed.
The next day, at dawn, Van Dorn advanced into the town and for an hour could not be put out. He soon found, however, that he could not move one step forward.
Here was a quandary.
With Rosecrans stoutly holding his position, Van Dorn, now in some doubt for himself, decided to retreat.
Under cover of a new attack, he fell back skillfully, the enemy not following.
The battle of Corinth was a strong attack and defense, a cut and thrust movement, leading to no results save the taking of Corinth as an active factor from the arena of war. Its year for ‘war's dread alarum's,’ with formidable muster of both armies, was emphatically 1862.1
The Confederates in two columns, meanwhile, had marched into the friendly State of Kentucky. E. Kirby Smith, commanding an army at Knoxville, took one line of the advance and defeated the enemy in a spirited
