ops about him for a sudden attack upon the
invaders. Grant had nearly 45,000 men and he knew that General Buell was
only a few miles away with 37,000 more. Johnston had 40,000. The purpose
of the Confederate general was known to his men, and all were inspired
with the determination of striking a blow before the two armies of the
enemy could unite. Johnston's assistants in command were Beauregard and
Bragg, both able and experienced officers. On the morning of April 6,
the Confederates fell upon Grant's outposts and drove them headlong
against the main body. Desperate valor was shown in the ensuing attack,
and before the afternoon it seemed that nothing could save the Union
army and its commander from complete disaster. The river was in high
flood, two impassable creeks flanked the Federals, while the victorious
Confederates held the fourth side of the field. At two o'clock Johnston
fell mortally wounded; Beauregard succeeded to command, and about four
o'clock the attack slackened; at six it ceased altogether, though the
Union forces were demoralized and expecting to be captured. Grant was
saved. With the support of Buell at hand he attacked Beauregard on the
morrow and regained some of his lost prestige. The "promenade" up the
Tennessee had been halted; but the loss of Johnston was equal to the
loss of an army. This fighting of South and West was of the most
desperate character, for Grant lost more than 10,000 in killed and
wounded, while Johnston and Beauregard lost 9700.

The march of Grant and Buell across middle and western Tennessee and the
opening of the Mississippi to Memphis was accompanied by the loss to
the Confederates of Missouri and a part of Arkansas. Grant's objective
in the summer and autumn of 1862 was Vicksburg, but the Confederates
held him fast in the neighborhood of Corinth, Mississippi. Buell
withdrew from middle Tennessee in the late summer, when Bragg, commander
of a second Confederate army in the West, moved through eastern
Tennessee into Kentucky, threatening Lexington and Louisville. But Bragg
failed after some successes in September to carry the tide of war back
toward the Ohio, and he was followed in October by the army of the Ohio,
now under the command of General W. S. Rosecrans, toward Murfreesboro,
Tennessee, where another sanguinary battle was fought on the last day of
December, 1862. Rosecrans now had 43,000 men, Bragg 38,000. After a
desperate encounter in which the honors inclined to