Status - John Baer - 40th Indiana Regiment - Wood's Division
Pittsburg Landing
Now that the army was reorganized, it was time to advance on Corinth, MS. The main concern for Halleck was to prevent any surprise attacks from the Confederates. Rumors were about that all of the Confederate forces in the West were combining, and that the Union forces would be facing a larger army than their own once they reached Corinth. What this led to was a very slow-motion advance.
Shelby Foote gives the following description in his narrative The Civil War:
"Scott attended a high-level conference and passed the word along: Halleck would continue the advance, and '"in a few days invest Corinth, then be governed by circumstances." He made no conjecture as to what those circumstances might be, but Stanton could see one thing clearly. Last week's "tomorrow" had stretched to "a few days".
It was more than a few. Every evening the troops dug in: four hours' digging, six hours' sleep, then up at dawn to repel attack. The attack didn't come, not in force at least, but Halleck had every reason to expect one. Rebel deserters were coming in with eye-witness accounts of the arrival of reinforcements for the 70,000 already behind the formidable entrenchments. He took thought of the host available to Beauregard by rail from Fort Pillow, Memphis, Mobile, and intermediary points. No less than 60,000 could be sped there overnight, he computed, which would give the defenders a larger army than his own.
More Information:
- Link: War Operations, see Volume X, Chapter XXII, Part II, Correspondence, pp. 157-166.
- The Civil War Day by Day, John S. Bowman, Ed. p. 68.
- Shelby Foote: The Civil War, A Narrative, Vol 1, Fort Sumter to Perryville, pp. 375-376.
- Battles and Leaders of the Civil War: The Struggle Intensifies, pp. 701-708.
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