Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 08.djvu/469

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To the Editor of the Southern Historical Society Papers:

—In the August and September, 1880, number of your journal, under the head of "Recollections of General Beauregard's Service in West Tennessee in the Spring of 1862," appears a letter from General Jordan, dated New York, Nov. 2, 1874, in which it is stated that the failure to win Shiloh was mainly due to the delay in getting the army out of Corinth on the 3d of April, 1862, and that that delay was specially due to the action of General Polk's corps. The writer says: "General Polk's corps, which was ordered to move with the others at midday, though under arms and ready, was kept at a halt until late in the afternoon, when, it having been reported by Generals Bragg and Hardee that they were unable to move their corps at the hour indicated for them, because General Polk's corps was in the way, you sent one of your staff [General Beauregard's] to General Polk to inquire why he had not put his corps in motion." He replied that he was awaiting the "written order" directing him to move. "You [General Beauregard] at once, through an aid-de-camp, directed him to clear the road and follow the movement as ordered."

According to the first portion of the paragraph it would seem that General Polk was to precede Generals Bragg and Hardee on the march to Shiloh, for we read that they could not move, Polk being in the way, and that upon learning this General Beauregard sent to know why he did not put his corps in motion. According to the second portion of the paragraph it would seem that Polk was merely blocking the road—preventing the passing of Bragg and Hardee, who were to precede him. This last can hardly be the meaning of the writer, because the nature of the country was such, and General Polk's troops were so placed, as to make it impossible for them to offer any serious obstacle to the advances of the remainder of the army.

General Polk's corps consisted of two divisions, of two brigades each. One division (Cheatham's) was some twenty-four miles to the north, at Bethel, watching Grant's right; the other (Clark's) was about a mile from Corinth, to the north, encamped in an open wood, which was intersected by numerous roads. There were but two