and Savannah. To the latter place General Halleck forwarded supplies for the National army. So little was an attack by the Confederates suspected, that no entrenchments had been cast up by the Nationals, and Buell's army was marching leisurely across Tennessee.

Almost the first intimation of the near presence of the Confederates was the wild cry of pickets flying into camp and a sharp attack upon Sherman's troops by Hardee's division, before the day had fairly dawned on Sunday morning, the 6th of April. Some of the officers were slumbering; some were dressing; a portion of the troops were washing and cooking, and others were eating breakfast. Screaming shells crashed through the forest, and bullets whistled among the tents. Hardee's troops poured into the camp of the bewildered Nationals, fighting desperately, driving half-dressed and half-armed troops before them, and dealing death and terror on every hand. Fearful results followed. Prentiss's division was next attacked. His column was shattered; himself and a large portion of his followers were made prisoners, and his camp was occupied by the Confederates. The struggle soon became general, and for ten hours the battle raged, with varying fortunes on both sides. General W. H. L. Wallace of the Nationals and General Johnston of the Confederates had been killed, and the slaughter on both sides had been severe. The National army was pushed back to the Tennessee River, then brimfull with a spring flood, and the day was fairly lost by the Union troops. The victorious Confederates occupied all the Union camps excepting that of the slain Wallace, where General McArthur was now in command. In the rear of this division the smitten army had now gathered in a space not more than four hundred acres in extent, on the verge of the river. They could be pushed back no further; and so certain was General Beauregard of his final triumph, that he telegraphed a shout of victory to headquarters at Richmond.

In the morning twilight of the 7th, Wallace opened the contest anew on the Confederate left, where Beauregard commanded in person. Others soon joined in the battle, and it became general all along the line. The Confederates fought gallantly, but were speedily pushed back by a superior force; and when they perceived that all was lost, they fled, under a storm of blinding sleet and cold rain, to the heights of Monterey in the direction of Corinth. They were covered, in their retreat, by a rear-guard of twelve thousand men, commanded by Ex-President Breckenridge. The Confederates had lost over ten thousand men in the engagement, of whom full three thousand died during the retreat of nine miles. Fifteen thousand Nationals were killed, wounded, or made prisoners. The slain on the battle-field were soon buried, the dead horses were burnt, and the hospital-vessels sent down the Tennessee by the Nationals were crowded with the sick and maimed. Beauregard's shattered army fell back to Corinth, and Grant was about to pursue and capture it, when General Halleck, his superior in rank, who had come up from St. Louis and took the supreme command, caused the impatient troops to loiter until the Confederates, recuperated, were prepared for another contest.

Twenty days after the battle, Halleck and his army had advanced nine miles toward Corinth; and a week later (May 3) they were near that place, making vigorous use of pickaxe and spade in piling up