Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 09.djvu/67

58 troops as to routes in the labyrinth of roads in that vincintyvicinity [sic]." "See also General Jordan's account, page 567."

Captain Polk states that General Polk "therefore continued the march of his command in read of the Third corps, reaching Mickey's that evening (the 4th). General Bragg's column (two divisions) moved by a different road, the head of it reaching Mickey's the same evening. During the night the whole of his corps was closed up and massed at the same point. We thus see that all the night of the 4th both commands bivouaced near Mickey's, not one near Mickey's and the other in its rear—General Bragg's on the Savannah and Monterey road, south of the Bark road; General Polk's on the Bark road, west of the Savannah and Monterey roads, these roads crossing at nearly right angles. General Hardee's was beyond Mickey's, in the direction of Pittsburg Landing, on the Bark road, along which all the commands were to move the next day. The orders for the 5th were that the troops should be ready for the march by 3 A. M.A.M., [sic] General Hardee to advance to the enemy's outposts, about four miles from Mickey's, and then form line of battle; General Bragg to follow next, furnishing General Hardee with sufficient troops to fill out the first line, and with the remainder of his corps to form line a thousand yards in rear of Hardee; General Polk to halt at Mickey's cross-roads till General Bragg had passed to his front, then to move forward and to form on the left of the road a certain distance from and parallel to General Bragg's line." Breckenridge was to form to the right of the road in Bragg's rear."

The solution of the question of precedence among the troops, thus concentrated at Mickey;s, appears to be quite plain.

"Special orders No, 8, Corinth, April 3d, 1862," directed the concentration of the main bodies of the three corps—excepting only Ruggles's division—at Mickey's or vicinity, and finally that division marched there in conformity with orders from General Bragg, their corps commander.

On the march from Monterey, Ruggles's division fell in the rear and followed the Third and First corps on the Ridge road to Mickey's. During a brief halt, the address of the commander-in-chief was probably read to the troops, and I had an excellent opportunity to notice them at rest as well as in motion.

These troops bivouaced, just as night set in, in the midst of darkness, mud and rain, at Mickey's, not diverging, probably, materially from their order of march.

In his report, General Bragg says, "the command bivouaced for the night near the Mickey house, immediately in rear of Major-General