"On the whole ridge, extending from my camp into Corinth and to the right and left, could be seen the remains of the abandoned camps of the enemy, flour and provisions scattered about, and everything indicating a speedy and confused retreat. In the town itself many houses were still burning, and the ruins of warehouses and buildings containing commissary and other Confederate stores were still smouldering; but there still remained piles of cannon balls, shells and shot, sugar, molasses, beans, rice, and other property, which the enemy had failed to carry off or destroy. Major Fisher, of the Fifty-fourth Ohio, was left in Corinth with a provost-guard, to prevent pillage and protect the public stores still left. "From the best information picked up from the citizens who remained in Corinth, it appeared that the enemy had for some days been removing their sick and valuable stores, and had sent away on railroad-cars a part of their effective force, on the night of the 28th. But, of course, even the vast amount of their rolling stock could not carry away an army of a hundred thousand men. "The enemy was, therefore, compelled to march away, and began the march by 10 o'clock on the night of the 29th--the columns filling all the roads reaching south and west all night--the rear guard firing the train which led to the explosions and conflagration, which gave us the first real notice that Corinth was to be evacuated. The enemy did not relieve his pickets that morning, and many of them have been captured, who did not have the slightest intimation of their purpose. "Finding Corinth abandoned by the enemy, I ordered General M. L. Smith to pursue on the Ripley road, by which it appeared they had taken the bulk of their artillery. "Captain Hammond, my chief of staff, had been and continued with General Smith's Brigade, and pushed the pursuit up to the bridges and narrow causeway by which the bottom of Tuscumbia Creek is passed. The enemy opened with canister on the small party of cavalry, and burned every bridge, leaving the woods full of straggling soldiers. Many of these were gathered up and sent to the rear, but the main army had escaped across Tuscumbia Creek, and further pursuit by a small party would have been absurd, and I kept my division at College Hill until I received General Thomas's orders to return and resume our camps of the night before, which we did, slowly and quietly, in the cool of the evening. "The evacuation of Corinth at the time and in the manner in which it was done, was a clear back-down from the high and arrogant tone heretofore assumed by the Rebels. The ground was of their own choice. The fortifications, though poor and indifferent, were all they supposed necessary to our defeat, as they had had two months to make them, with an immense force to work at their disposal.