576
THE CAMPAIGN OF SHILOH.
On the 5th of March I formally as-sumed command of the district, retain-ing my headquarters for the time atJackson as the most central pointof observation and the junction oftwo railroads, General Bragg’s forcesbegan to arrive at Corinth on the 6th,when they, with the other troops reach-ing there from other quarters, wereorganized as fast as possible into bri-gades and divisions.
As a material part of the history ofthe campaign, I might here dwell uponthe perplexing, inexplicable lack ofcordial cooperation, in many ways, inthe essential work of organizing theConfederate army being assembled atCorinth, as efficiently and speedily aspossible for the work ahead, that wasmanifested by the War Department atRichmond , but it must suffice to saythat a drawback was encountered fromthat quarter which served to delay us, while helping to make the operationwhich we finally took in hand fall greatly short of its momentous aim.
Five Federal divisions (reenforced a few days later) had reached Savannah ,twelve miles below Pittsburg Landing, on the east bank of the Tennessee ,by the 13th of March. This force, aggregating some 43,000 men of all arms,was under the direct command of Gleiieral C. F. Smith, and embraced thegreater part of the army that had triumphed at Donelson. One division,without landing at Savannah , was dispatched, under General W. T. Sherman,to endeavor to land, and to reach and cut some trestle-work near Burnsville,on the Memphis and Charleston railroad. Effecting a landing, short, however,of Eastport, the intervening country was found so inundated as to be seem-ingly impracticable. So, this expedition, hardly characterized by a reallyvigorous effort to reach the railroad, was abortive—a result aided somewhatby the opportune presence on the ground of Brigadier-General Chalmers witha Confederate force of 2500 infantry. On his way upon this expedition, Gen-eral Sherman had wisely sent back from Pittsburg Landing a request thata Federal division should be dispatched at once to that point, to prevent theConfederate forces from occupying it and obstructing his return; consequentlyHurlbut’s division was sent thither, and it was found on its transports at thatpoint by Sherman on his return that far down the river on the 16th of March.Sherman, landing there his own division, made an apparently objectless shortmarch into the interior and back on the 17th of March. Making his report thesame day to General Grant, who had just reached Savannah , General Shermanstated that he was “strongly impressed with the position” of Pittsburg Land-