to carry out your threat against the property of citizens, we will make you rue the day you issued your dastardly proclamation. You call us guerillas, which you know is false. We are recognized by our Government; and it was us who attacked your wagons at Morning Sun. We have twenty-three men of yours, and, as soon as you carry out your threat against the citizens of the vicinity of Morning Sun, your Hessians will pay for it. We are ready, and more than willing, to raise the "black flag." There are two thousand partisans who have sworn to retaliate. Henceforth our motto shall be, Blood for blood, and blood for property. We intend, by the help of God, to hang on the outskirts of your rabble, like lightning around the edge

of a cloud.

Respectfully,

GEO. R. MERRITT.

CHAPTER XI.

The Position of our Army-The Grand Programme-Armies in Motion→ Bragg tries to Deceive Grant-The Advance toward Iuka-The FightThe Victory-The Stampede-General Grant's Words of Cheer-Despatch from the President—A Curiosity.

OERE we may pause, and see how the combatants stand. The Mississippi is clear to Memphis, and at the mouth; for Butler, who knew so well how to deal with rebels, is at New Orleans.

The forces defeated by Halleck and Grant had gone to Vicksburg, Port Hudson, and Baton Rouge, and other points on the Mississippi, to blockade and hold that great thoroughfare of trade in the valley of the West.

Let us unroll the map again. Although, during the summer months, there was a lull in the wide arena of the Western conflict, neither army was idle. Major-General Buell's forces were east of Memphis, not far from Huntsville in Alabama, with Chattanooga for his coveted prize. For this, he left Corinth in June. Major-General Curtis was west of the Mississippi, at Helena, Arkansas. Brigadier-General Schofield was north of him, in Southwestern

Missouri; while Major-General Grant, with the central army, was on the line of West Tennessee and North Mississippi, between Memphis and Iuka, protecting the railroads south from Columbus, our only channels of supply.

The mighty sweep of these combined armies was around and across a territory six hundred miles in width, from Western Arkansas to the Cumberland Gap, and more than one hundred and fifty miles in the other direction. From this area the enemy had been recently driven. The foe, greatly reënforced by conscription, while we were weakened by losses, had formed magnificent plans of conquest. The grand programme was, to reoccupy the lost ground back to Kentucky, and then roll their tide of invasion, like the Goths and Huns of old, over the borders of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois. Raids into Maryland and Pennsylvania, with Indian troubles at the West, were to furnish a most auspicious time for the sublimely daring advance through the valley of the West.

General Braxton Bragg, of the rebel army, opened the gigantic enterprise finely. Hastening from Tripoli, Miss., through Alabama and Georgia, he reached Chattanooga, by nature a stronghold, ahead of Buell, who fell back to Nashville, Tenn. Another hostile column had got into Cumberland Gap, and looked menacingly toward Cincinnati. Meanwhile, the President had wisely, and just in season, issued another call for troops. Oh, how wildly the great Northwest echoed back the appeal! Her sons went streaming down like the rivers, in living tides, toward the

seat of war.

fied.

Cincinnati and Louisville were soon forti.

To get the advantage further, Bragg had published an order, bearing date at Sparta, away in Alabama, when he was safely at Chattanooga. But he was found, and General Buell sent after him with one hundred thousand men.

At Perryville a severe battle was fought, and the enemy routed. Bragg had hoped to swing, by a flank movement, around Grant, to the Ohio River; Corinth lying nearly in a directly westerly line from Chattanooga. It was ascertained that Generals Van Dorn and Price were advancing toward our camp at Jacinto, which was at once removed, to prepare for the greater conflict impending.

September 18th, soon after break of day, in a drenching rain, and through mud, the uncomplaining volunteers moved toward the enemy; Generals Grant and Ord approaching Iuka from the north, and General Rosecrans from the south. The position of the rebel army cut off communication between Generals Grant and Buell, and at any cost it must be routed. Price, finding that the Union lines were likely to close around him, left the town, and fell on Rosecrans with desperate fury, at four o'clock P. M. Till the sun went down, darkened with the "sulphurous canopy," bullets and steel, cannon and shell did their work well. From the long ridge, commanding a large extent of the country around, the rebels rained down destruction, till one third of our troops were killed or

wounded. But so deadly had been our fire, that, in the night, the enemy evacuated Iuka, and, when morning lit up the gory scene, General Rosecrans marched into it with flying banners. General Grant, who, with General Ord, had taken the northern route to cut off Price's retreat, but failed because he escaped toward the east, soon after fol lowed the victorious ranks into the deserted works.

A rebel letter, written after the victory, contains a glimpse of the fight from his side:

"We held peaceable possession of Iuka for one day, and, on the next, were alarmed by the booming of cannon, and were called out to spend the evening in battle array in the woods. On the evening of the 19th, when we supposed we were going back to camp to rest awhile, the sharp crack of musketry on the right of our former lines told us that the enemy was much nearer than we imagined. In fact, they had almost penetrated the town itself. How on earth, with the woods full of our cavalry, they could have approached so near our lines, is a mystery. They had planted a battery sufficiently near to shell General Price's headquarters, and were cracking away at the Third Brigade, when the Fourth came up at double quick, and then, for two hours and fifteen minutes, was kept up the most terrific fire of musketry that ever dinned my ears. There was one continuous roar of small arms, while grape and canister howled in fearful concert above our heads and through our ranks. General Little was shot dead early in the action. It was a terrible

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