Fort Donelson and Shiloh 75

before Buell’s should have joined it. Could thishe done, it might repair the disaster of The eve ofFort Donelson and regain to the Con- battle -federacy the lost territory. At the very least, itwould save Corinth and restore the prestige of thesouthern arms. Johnston waited as long as hedared for the arrival of Van Dorn from Arkansas ,with 20,000 men, but swollen streams and miryroads made him wait in vain. On the other hand,Buell’s march from Nashville was delayed by un-looked-for obstacles. There was a freshet in Duckriver, and a bridge had to be rebuilt, which tookseveral days. In the early spring American roadsare at their worst, and marching was slow. StillBuell made progress, and on Saturday evening, the5th of April, the head of his foremost division,under Nelson, arrived at Savannah . At thatmoment the Confederate lines were already de-ployed and ready for battle in front of the Federalarmy, but hidden from view in the forest. The at-tack had been planned for Saturday morning, butsome misunderstanding of orders had bred delayuntil it was too late to attack before the morrow.Beauregard now argued that the plan of surprisingGrant’s army had evidently failed, and he held theelement of surprise to be so important that in itsabsence the attack had better not be made. Itwould be wiser, said Beauregard, to retire upon