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greatest reluctance to a temporary stay of his advance. As it was, he urged forward two brigades of Wood's division and a part of Sherman's to watch the enemy and press the retreat.

The central thought of the Confederates was to destroy Grant's army before Buell could reinforce it. This accounts for their terrific concentration and desperation. They based their hopes, not on grand tactics, but in superior weight of numbers and persistency of impulse. They did their best, and admit in their reports that their progress was only stayed by the determined resistance of Grant's army, aided by the gunboats.

The Confederate retreat did not cease till the army reached Corinth. Their dead were left to be buried by the Federals. Grant's entire loss was 1700 killed, 7495 wounded, 3022 missing. Beauregard reported a loss of 1728 killed, 8012 wounded, 957 missing.

This battle justly ranks as one of the fiercest fights of the war in the West. Sherman said he did not see such fighting afterward, and Grant compared Shiloh with the intensity and stubbornness of the "Wilderness." The immediate results of the battle did not amount to much. Halleck arrived on the 9th, and took sole command. He restrained any advance except behind breastworks, which at this juncture was to lose the moral effect of victory entirely and diminish its material effect.

This battle of Shiloh convinced the Federal authorities, the Union people at home, and the armies and their officers, that the Confederates were in earnest in starting and carrying on the war. It was to be no sixty or ninety day tourney, but a contest prolonged and intense beyond everything yet seen. General Grant accepted this view of it, and was ever afterward actuated by the thought that to fight to hurt was the only way to end it. It became his policy to move directly and vigorously on opposing armies with the intention of defeating them, capturing them, or breaking them up. He would master great

strategic positions, but he preferred to make positions. The Confederates were unanimous and determined. They could not be met successfully with airy sentiments, over-nice manœuvres, highly refined deference, but only in the spirit and with the purpose they themselves made necessary. They meant war; war they should have. Donelson threw them back two hundred and fifty miles. Here they were at Shiloh stronger and more determined than ever. Their firmness and persistence must be excelled, if ever a victorious end were to come.

Deep anxiety had preceded this battle throughout the North, and the relief that followed was grateful. The President issued a proclamation to the people asking them to give thanks for the successes of the Union armies. Then the newspapers fell to wrangling about the merits of the victory. Grant was accused of having been surprised the first day. The subject got into Congress and was warmly debated. Here Hon. Elihu Washburne came to Grant's defence, and his speech made a lasting impression on the country. It ended that political malignity which had hitherto pursued those officers whose preferment was the reward of merit and not the result of favoritism.

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CHAPTER VI.

WHE

CORINTH AND IUKA.

WHEN Halleck appeared on the field and assumed command of the operations which were to succeed the battle of Shiloh, there was not good feeling among the army officers, and especially on his part toward General Grant. Generally the jealousies were bitter and rather of a political than military kind, but the feeling toward Grant seemed to be inexplicable except on the ground of sheer envy.

In his work of reorganization Halleck divided the army, now to be called the Army of the Mississippi, into three corps, commanded by Pope, Thomas and Buell, with a reserve under McClernand, while Grant's Army of the Tennessee was distributed between the right wing and the reserve, thus actually placing him under Thomas and McClernand, an act which was regarded as a direct snub, and a place which, by all the division officers, was seen to be one of demotion if not of disgrace. He had therefore the humiliation of witnessing the passage of prominent orders through his subordinates, and even of having his troops moved without his orders.

The camp was filled with unscrupulous newspaper correspondents, each with a favorite officer in his mind, whose deeds. must be extolled, all in search of the sensational, and few not given to exaggeration and misrepresentation. These distorted true situations and contributed to the bickerings, heart-burnings and jealousies. Grant had to bear rounds of abuse, for

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