CHAPTER XVIII
Buell's Retreat to the Ohio.—1862
GENERAL McCOOK'S division was ordered to occupy
Corinth, and his headquarters were moved within the
town limits. For ten days after the evacuation, there was
great uncertainty as to the future operations of the army,
and, after describing the closing scenes of the “siege,” idleness
was again my lot. It then became known, however,
that General Halleck had determined, with the approval
of the Washington authorities, to break up the grand army
united under his command. The Army of the Ohio, under
Buell, was to enter upon a new campaign through northern
Alabama and southeastern Tennessee to East Tennessee,
to carry out the long-deferred plan of freeing the loyalists
in the latter region from rebel oppression and persecution.
The Armies of the Tennessee and Mississippi, under Grant
and Pope, were to be employed in holding western
Tennessee and northern Mississippi and the adjacent portion
of Alabama, and in offensive operations down and west of
the Mississippi. In moving eastwardly, Buell's men were
to put the Memphis & Charleston Railroad east of Corinth
in running order, while the work of repairing the line
west of that point was to be undertaken by Grant's troops.
The destruction wrought upon it by the rebels between
Corinth and Memphis was not very great, as they had to
use it up to the evacuation. I received word as early as
June 8, if I remember aright, that a construction train that
had worked its way from Memphis, which only two days
before had fallen into the hands of the Unionists, would
reach Corinth and start back the same day. I asked and
received permission to go on it. I longed for a change
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