Halleck continued to probe toward Corinth, almost two months after Shiloh. Did he have unlimited time?
From the Official Record:
Honorable E. M. STANTON, Secretary of War.HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF MISSISSIPPI,
Camp on Corinth Road, May 28, 1862.Three strong reconnoitering columns advanced this morning on the right center and left, to feel the enemy and unmask his batteries. Enemy hotly contested his ground at each point, but was driven back with considerable loss. The column on the left encountered the strongest opposition. Our loss there 25 killed and wounded. The enemy left 30 dead on the field. Losses at other points not yet ascertained. Some 5 or 6 officers and a number of privates captured. The fighting will probably be renewed tomorrow morning at daybreak. The whole country is so thickly wooded that we are compelled to fell our way.
H. W. HALLECK,
Major-General.
One of the features of the Civil war, I find, is that so many Southerners made a bad cause look good; and so many Northerners made a good cause look bad. Fortunately for the world, both sides had correctives: the North had Abe Lincoln; and the South had Jeff Davis.