From Fort Henry to CorinthForce, M. F. (Manning Ferguson)
History
From Fort Henry to Corinth
Force, M. F. (Manning Ferguson)
United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Campaigns
Colonel Bailey's morning report of those present
with him on the way from Donelson to Cairo, which included none from
hospitals, was, officers and men, 490.
There is no report of trustworthy accuracy, giving either the aggregate
or the effective strength. Ten thousand five hundred prisoners were put
into the charge of Colonel Whittlesey, of the Twentieth Ohio; of which
number he sent north, guarded by his own regiment, about six thousand
three hundred; another, but much smaller body, was put into the hands of
Colonel Sweeney. Besides these, were the wounded and sick in hospital,
in camp, and some left on the field. Colonel Whittlesey, at the time,
estimated the entire number taken charge of, including sick and wounded,
at 13,000. General Floyd said that the boats which carried across and
up the river his four Virginia regiments, took at the same time about as
many other troops; and he says he took up the river with him 986,
officers and men, of the four Virginia regiments. Pillow reported, on
March 14th, that several thousand infantry had got out in one way or
other, many of whom were at that time with him at Decatur, Ala., and the
rest under orders to rendezvous there. They continued slipping out after
the surrender. General B.R. Johnson, on the Tuesday after the surrender,
not having reported or been enrolled as a prisoner, walked with a
fellow-officer out of the intrenchments at mid-day, and, not being
challenged, continued beyond the National camps and escaped. The
accounts of the escape by boat with Floyd, on horse with Forrest, and by
parties slipping out by day and by night through the forest and
undergrowth and the devious ravines, fairly show that 5,000 must have
escaped. There was scarcely a regiment or battery, if, indeed, there was
a single regiment or battery, from which some did not escape. Eleven
hundred and thirty-four wounded were sent up the river by boat the
evening before the surrender, and General Pillow estimated the killed at
over four hundred and fifty. This accounts for an aggregate of over
nineteen thousand five hundred, sufficiently near the estimate of
nineteen thousand six hundred--the number in the place during the siege,
and the additional four hundred, who arrived only in time to be
surrendered.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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