on to see.

drowned all the rest of the battle to Sheridan's ears. He knew that the Confederate masses had broken in front of him, but he could not tell whether the shouts he heard were Confederate or Union. He pushed Soon the situation was under his eye. His stratagem had been successful. The "forlorn hope" had done its work and done it well, but in the confusion of the moment it was in a desperate scramble with the flying Confederates. It was still beyond the reach of aid from Sheridan, and in a running fight with the enemy. As the Confederates broke to the rear, they tried in their flight to punish the force in its way for its temerity. In the melee which then ensued each side sought to do all the damage it could to the other, while getting out of danger itself. Alger and his little command were rushing to the rear with as much speed as their enemy. They had emptied their revolvers into a confused mass of Confederates which they had driven off by the roadside. Their ammunition was gone and they plied the sabre unsparingly. The Confederates were now on an equality with them, and in point of numbers, vastly their superior. But they pushed off the field, fighting as they ran. The race was a singular one, but serious as it was, it had its ludicrous aspects. Each side was trying to get away from the other and man by man they separated whenever a by-road or a bit of woods opened a chance for escape. Many a hand-to-hand conflict took place. Alger rode for half a mile side by side with a Confederate soldier, each emptying his revolver at the other without doing any injury. Just as Alger had finished his last shot, he was carried, partly by the antics of his fractious, lank, gray horse, so familiar to the men of his command, and partly by the rush of those about him, beyond his own forces and into the timber, where the enemy were seeking shelter. His horse, now unmanageable, ran through the clustering branches, until a limb. tore the luckless rider from his saddle, breaking his ribs as he swung violently against the tree. He had barely strength to parry a vicious blow from a flying cavalryman, as he fell into the thick underbrush, unconscious. How long he lay there he never knew; but when he recovered consciousness, all was quiet about him. The Confederates had disappeared and so had his own command. He dragged himself from his shelter, crawled to the road, and had entered an open field when the clatter of horses' hoofs reached his ears. He thought it was the enemy's forces, and again concealed himself. But as they neared him. he recognized them. They were from the Second Iowa. Sheridan had sent them out to seek for his body, for it was thought that he had been killed. Indeed, a number of the men having seen his helpless plight in the wild stampede, had reported him dead or captured. They

put him on a horse and returned to camp. It was after dark when Sheridan greeted him with "Old fellow, you have done well."

Then the two sat down to talk over the incidents of the remarkable engagement. Captain Alger lost more than half of his command, and the Confederates were many more men short from the effects of Sheridan's first charge.

This day's work made Sheridan a brigadier-general before he had even been commissioned a colonel. Captain Alger was promoted to the rank of major for his gallant leadership of the "forlorn hope." It was a great day's work for both officers and men, and not only his own regiment, but the whole army was taught a wholesome respect for the soldierly qualities of Sheridan.

That the achievement is not unduly magnified in this narration the orders of the commanders will bear witness:

General Orders, No 81.

1862.}

HEADQUARTERs Army of the Mississippi, July 2, 1862. The General commanding announces to this army that on the 1st instant, Colonel P. H. Sheridan, Second Michigan Cavalry, with eleven companies of his own men and eleven of the Second Iowa Cavalry, was attacked at Booneville by eight regiments of rebel cavalry, under General Chalmers, and after an eight hours' fight, drove them back, leaving their dead and wounded on the field. The coolness, determination and fearless gallantry displayed by Colonel Sheridan and the officers and men of his command, deserve the thanks and admiration of the army. W. S. ROSECRANS, Major-General.

Secretary of War:

Telegram. CORINTH, July 6, 1862.

Official report is just received of a brilliant affair of our cavalry near Booneville, Miss., on the 1st instant. Colonel Sheridan with two regiments-728 men-was attacked by parts of eight regiments, numbering 4,700 men, which he defeated and drove back after eight hours' fighting. Our losses, forty-one killed and wounded and missing. That of the enemy must have been very great. He left sixty-five dead on the field. I respectfully recommend Colonel Sheridan for gallant conduct in battle.

H. W. Halleck, Major-General.

Trifling events often exercise a powerful influence upon each man's life. This little fight made known Sheridan's powers and had a more important bearing upon his future than many a greater engagement in which he handled an army corps. Then it was his first chance. Had he missed, who can say what his after record would have been? These cold facts but faintly portray the actual work of the day when Sheridan fought his first battle; but they state the beginning of a wonderful career in war, and insignificant as they may seem in the light of the mighty operations which followed in quick succession, make manifest the points of military genius upon which a great career has been founded.

CHAPTER VI.

A NEW COMMAND.

TRANSFERRED TO THE INFANTRY A HIGHER COMMAND BUT LESS CONGENIAL SERVICE -THE BATTLES OF CORINTH AND IUKA-MAKING THE MOST OF SMALL OPPORTUNITY — TRANSFER TO GENERAL BUELL'S ARMY-COMMANDING A DIVISION AT PERRYVILLE -SAVING LOOMIS' BATTERY- BRINGING VICTORY OUT OF DEFEAT.

AFTER Booneville, what? It was a swift leap to a soldier's fame, but it was one well won and thoroughly deserved. Six weeks of marching and fighting made the captain and commissary an acting colonel of cavalry and a brigadier-general in prospective, recommended with unusual earnestness by the most critical and cold-blooded of commanding generals, Henry Wager Halleck. Sheridan's position was a unique one. His commission was that of captain in the Thirteenth Infantry, U. S. A. He was detailed to General Halleck's staff as chief commissary, and while so acting was appointed colonel of the Second Regiment of Cavalry, Michigan Volunteers, by Governor Austin Blair. He took command immediately, was never mustered in as colonel, and did not receive his state commission till after the war closed, Within twenty-four hours after the governor's appointment was received, the new commander was in the saddle, raiding and fighting along the line of the Mobile and Ohio railroad. From May 28th the service was continuous and severe. On the 29th, with the Second Iowa Cavalry, Sheridan attacked and captured Booneville. The next day Colonel Hatch reports him detached with the left battalion of the Second Michigan to raid on the railroad below Booneville, and "do as much damage as possible.” This was the first of the memorable raids against railroad communications, which of themselves make so famous a chapter in the history of the Civil War. It was limited in area, but was as damaging as to extent as any that followed. Its effect was so marked as to cause General Halleck to telegraph on the 4th of June that "Colonel Sheridan, Second Michigan Cavalry, conducted with great skill and coolness the operations of his command." On the 6th Sheridan

fought a sharp and successful engagement in the neighborhood of Baldwin, Miss., while on reconnaissance. The Confederate command outnumbered his own and consisted of a full regiment of cavalry and an independent Georgia company. Sheridan met them, dismounted five companies, and attacked at once, driving them in disorder for two miles, and capturing several prisoners, having but one man severely wounded. On the 9th of June, in command of the Second Brigade of cavalry, he entered Baldwin to find the enemy gone. He pushed southward to Guntown. From that date till July 1st, he was so constantly on the move that the Confederate commanders were compelled to take vigorous notice of his audacity and activity. As already narrated, General Chalmers was sent to dislodge him at Booneville. With a much superior force, he received an overwhelming repulse. General Halleck at once recommended the little trooper's promotion as brigadier-general. He was assigned to the command of a brigade, and remained in that enlarged sphere of duty without receiving his commission. Probably no other officer in the Union army could have shown a similar record― that of commanding as colonel and brigadier, a regiment, brigade, and division, while actually commissioned and legally ranking only as a captain of infantry in the regular army.

The dispatches to and from Booneville on the 1st and 2d of July, as well as those sent by his commanding officers, illustrate all the qualities which, on larger fields, afterwards compelled his recognition as the most masterly cavalry commander of the century. To General Asboth, the old Hungarian-American soldier who bore himself so well in our western campaigns, Sheridan telegraphed on the 1st of July for reinforcements, saying: "I am still holding them." He had a large number of prisoners, and held on to them. "This is my third dispatch. I am still holding my camp." At 5 P. M., however, he sends his fourth dispatch saying: "I will not want any infantry support. I have whipped the enemy. I have lost some fine officers

and men, but have hurt the enemy badly. It would be well to let me have a battery of artillery. I might then be able to follow up the enemy." Next morning at 9.30 A. M., he informs Asboth "that the enemy had skedaddled." Chalmer's force consisted of ten regiments; Sheridan's of two. Rosecrans, who commanded the wing of the Union army before Corinth, with which the Second Michigan Cavalry was brigaded, telegraphs Halleck, on the 2d of July, an account of the fight, and adds: "I have issued an order complimenting Sheridan and his command. More cavalry massed under such an officer