Today in History:

723 Series I Volume X-I Serial 10 - Shiloh Part I

Page 723 Chapter XXII. SIEGE OF CORINTH,MISS.

to the general commanding the army. Suffice to say that the result was satisfactory to the Second Division. We had to deplore the loss of some gallant men, but in turn we buried over 50 of the enemy in a space of 3 acres, and the lesson they received permitted our pickets to remain in peace during the forty-eight hours we remained in that place. My division was the advanced salient point of the line investing Corinth, and the energy and industry of our troops made our position so strong by the morning of the 29th that it would have been a bold enemy that would have disturbed us.

On the 29th Brigadier-General Rosecrans was assigned the command of the right with of the army, including the Second Division. The day was spent in strengthening our position. During the night the continued running of cars from Corinth to our left and the beating of drums and moving of troops in the same direction induced me to report to the general that he must expect the whole weight of their attack to fall early upon our left, and preparations were made accordingly, under the personal direction of General Rosecrans. Just before sunrise the explosion of the enemy's magazines and the smoke of the burning houses apprised us that the enemy had fled. The same day we marched to Morrison's, on Tuscumbia Creek. Here we staid two days. On the 2nd of June we marched to Booneville; on the 11th the division marched from Booneville to this place.

I have thus endeavored to trace out the service of this division for fifty days. Of course it is a mere outline. The labor of

road-making, of camp labor, of marches through head and dust, of privations in short rations, in bad clothing, in bare feet, all I am happy to report borne with patience and cheerfulness, have shown that our young soldiers already begin to appreciate Napoleon's maxim, that "the first quality of a soldier is constancy in enduring fatigue; that poverty and privation are the soldier's school." Neither have they ever shown that their courage may be classed as secondary to these qualities.

Before closing this report I must pay thanks to the worthy officers who have so cheerfully supported me in all my labors: to Generals Plummer and Tyler, always prompt and cheerful; to Colonels Groesbeck, J. L. Kirby Smith, and Colonel Murphy, to Colonel Loomis, all commanding brigades and demi-brigades, and to the officers of my personal staff, Major William D. Coleman and Surg. J. L. Crane, upon whom much of the hard labor of the campaign has fallen; to Lieutenants How and Sinclair, my aides, and two hard-working men, Lieutenants Cherry and Edwards, quartermaster and commissary, I take this occasion to give thanks for their cheerful and constant assistance.

All of which is respectfully submitted.

D. S. STANLEY,

Brig. Gen., Comdg. Second Div., Army of the Mississippi.

First Lieutenant. C. GODDARD, A. A. A. G., Right Wing Army Miss.

No. 24 Report of Brig. Gen. Schuyler Hamilton, U. S. Army, commanding left wing Army of the Mississippi, of operations from April 22 to May 29.

HDQRS. LEFT WING ARMY OF THE MISSISSIPPI, June 17, 1862.

SIR: I have the report that the division under my command at New Madrid and in the operations resulting in the capture of Island No. 10


Page 723 Chapter XXII. SIEGE OF CORINTH,MISS.