The National tribune., 1899-07-13

the Cumberland to Nashville; thence by
land to Savannah, and on Sunday, April
6, were within hearing of the terrific conflict
then going on at Shiloh, but being in the
rear of the column, did not arrive upon the
field until Tuesday. The battle ended the
day before with the enemy in retreat.
We were sent to the front, skirmished
with the rebel rear-guard, but were soon
called back, and nothing was left for us to
do but view at leisure the carnage Of that
desperate, sanguinary conflict. l never
saw the dead so thick on any other field
The same thought came to me as to Gen.
Lee, after viewing the Union dead from the
Stone Wall at Fredericksburg, where he
said: 1T is a good thing war is so terrible,
or we would become too fond Of it."
The two armies, Grants and Buell's.
were reorganized under Halleck; Grant was
under a cloud, the only time his star was
not in the ascendant during his remarka-
BILE career. At this time the country came
near losing the services of the greatest
General Of modern times, with perhaps the
single exception Of Napoleon. No man
could, with any accuracy, estimate the
great loss to this country if Gen. Grant had
left the field of action at this time, taking
into consideration the peculiar difficulties
of the period. A few other great COM
manders we had at the end OF the conflict
but we must never lose sight Of the fact that
they were at some period of the war more or
less under his instructions, and had the
benefit Of the schooling and tutorage of his
guiding and master mind.
] will touch lightly upon the campaign
called in history Corinth which had moth
ing worthy of commendation, where an
army of 10000 held at bay two months an
army Of 100,00 as brave and well equipped
as the world ever saw. Viewed in the
light Of impartial history, there never were
three Generals commanding large armies
who had greater opportunities and fought
battles as utterly barren Of results as III. w.
Halleck, Don Carlos Buell., and Geo. b.
Mcclellan. Two of them we had with us
upon this campaign. Our division was
| commanded by w. T. Sherman. Thomas
had command Of the right wing, but upon
the evacuation Of Ccrinth he again became
our commander.
THE DEATH OF BOB M'COOK.
About the middle of June we started
east via luka, Tuscumbia. and. Athens,
and when near the latter place very sad
affair occurred. Bob McCook, our brigade
commander, was murdered. He had been
sick for a few days, but refused to leave
his command, and was driven in advance
in an ambulance. A party Of bushwhack-
CTS sprang ont OF the woods, fired volIey
at the unfortunate Colonel, killing him;
being fleetly mounted, they quickly dis
appeared.
We had no cavalry near and infantry
in pursuit would be Of no avail The only
revenge within our reach by way of re-
taliation was devastating the country,
which was done with vengeance. If a
crow had undertaken the journey of flying
/ over that territory within radius of 80
miles, in order to keep from starving it
would have been necessary TO have taken
rations with him.
| Sept found us in Nashville again, and
on the 18th we commenced a race with
Bragg for the possession Louisville. The
marching was forced from this on, rations
were scarce, the weather sultry and ex-
tremely hot, and the country stripped of
forage for both man and beast The most
of the time we followed in the track of the
enemy, who preceded US. This was the
severest test we saw by way OF marching
during our entire service
When within about 40 miles Of Louisville
our brigade left the main body of troops
and went off to the left for the nearest point
to the Ohio. We were on the verge of
starvation, and all the roads in front dense
ly crowded with troops.
i We came to the river about 80 miles below
Louisville, where We found a steamboat