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C H A P T E R 3 FIGHTING IN MISSISSIPPI HE MARCH SOUTH was resumed next morning [March , ]. The day following we remained in camp. Under orders to report with his command at Corinth, Miss., General Van Dorn continued the march south across Boston Mountain via Clarksville on the Arkansas River. Then east to Duvall Bluff on White River,a march of something over two hundred miles.1 At Duvall Bluff we took passage on river steamers going down White River to the Mississippi, then up the Mississippi to Memphis, where we took the [railway] cars to Corinth; arriving there a few days after the Battle of Shiloh or Pittsburg Landing.2 For several days we camped near Corinth and then occupied camps some miles south, near a little town called Rienzi. After a stay of about ten days at this place, we were ordered back to Corinth.3 During all of this time the roar of artillery was heard daily to the north of Corinth and only a few miles away. About this time my regiment was presented with a new flag, designed as a battle flag. Folding up my old flag, I placed it in my bosom for safekeeping , where I carried it for twelve months.4 About the last of April, my brother, Lieutenant [William Wilson] Bailey, resigned on account of ill health. He had been in command of the company since the battle of Elk Horn.5 Captain Williams was captured there and never rejoined the company .6 Lieutenant [Israel] Sigman also resigned about this time.7 On the th of May,,a re-organization of the command was ordered. Captain David Province of [the First Arkansas Artillery] Battery,was elected colonel,8 and Lieutenant and Acting Adjutant [Benjamin Thomas] Pixlee, 17 T Bailey Revised pages 3/20/07 1:05 PM Page 17 lieutenant colonel,9 [ James Mid] Pitman [was elected major],10 Major E[lbridge] G. Mitchell was elected captain of Company D,11 John [H.] Brittain, first lieutenant.12 The writer, second lieutenant,13 and E[lbert] M. Spain was re-elected third lieutenant.14 Mark Buchanan of Company G succeeded me as color bearer of the regiment.15 A few weeks later, owing to the failure of Lieutenant Brittain to pass the required examination for a first lieutenancy , I was promoted to that rank,16 and Sergeant Rush was elected second lieutenant.17 The regiment was engaged in the fight at Farmington in the early part of May and later took an active part in the defense of Corinth, doing picket duty and engaging in a number of skirmishes in which quite a number of men were killed and wounded.18 After the evacuation of Corinth [May , ], the Confederates went into camp at Okaloma about  miles south of Corinth. The only sickness I had during the war was while stationed at this place. A stay of two weeks in a hospital at Enterprise, Mississippi, and I was again able for duty.19 In the early part of September, there was evidence of a forward movement , which resulted a few days later in [Confederate forces making] an attack on, and capture of, Iuka, Mississippi, situated a few miles east of Corinth [on September –,].We remained at Iuka three or four days when on the evening of September th, the Federals, under General [Ulysses S.] Grant,20 made an attack on our left flank. The fight, though of short duration, was hotly contested, with results in favor of the Confederates , who held the battleground and captured a six-gun battery.21 At the beginning of the fight,the th Arkansas,and four Missouri regiments, forming what was called the First Missouri Brigade under General [Lewis Henry] Little,22 occupied a position about three miles west of Iuka, and towards Corinth, expecting an attack from that direction. We were double-quicked to the scene of action, going into line of battle about dusk, and just before the firing ceased, occupying the battleground where the Federal battery was captured. General Little was killed just as we went into line.23 The Federals had fallen back only a short distance, as we could hear them plainly and were fired on several times during the night. Most of the dead and wounded of the enemy lay where they fell, some of them between the opposing lines. Their moans and calls for help and water were pitiful in the extreme. The cry of one poor fellow, not far...

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