WITH PRICE EAST OF THE MISSISSIPPI.

7 1 9

THE 31ST OHIO VOLUNTEERS BUILDING BREASTWORKS BEFORE CORINTH IN MAY, 1862.

FROM A LITHOGRAPH.

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Halleck, before advancing, reorganized his army. Having little faith inGrant, he assigned him to the merely honorary position of second in commandof the forces—a position analogous to and as unimportant as that of Vice-President. George H. Thomas was transferred with his division fromBuell’s army to Grant’s—the Army of the Tennessee—and put in commandof that army, which formed the right wing of the forces. Buell with theArmy of the Ohio occupied the center, and Pope with the Army of theMississippi the left.

Moving cautiously, and intrenching every time that he halted, Halleck bythe middle of May approached within four miles of Corinth , some twentymiles from the Tennessee . He then seized and fortified a line extending fromthe Mobile and Ohio railroad on the north-west to and beyond Farmingtonon the south-east—some five miles or more in length—and began to mounthis heavy siege guns. By the 25th of May he was almost ready to open withthese upon the Confederates, some of whose intrenchments were hardly athousand yards in his front.

Halleck’s force now amounted to more than 110,000 fighting men. Beaure-gard’s army had long ago reached its maximum, and was fast wasting awaywith disease. Of the 80,000 officers and men who were at Corinth , 18,000were in the hospitals, and of the rest there were very few whose health wasnot affected by the pestilential air and unwholesome water of that swamp-surrounded village. Of those that were fit for duty, 5000 were on detachedservice and 4000 were on extra duty. There were “ present for duty ” 53,000officers and men. One-third of them belonged to the Army of the West, andtwo-thirds to the Army of the Mississippi. The latter was commanded by