ember 19, General Price, who, with Van Dorn, had considered it a
good time to attack Grant, who had sent many troops north to prevent
Bragg's capture of North America, decided to retreat, and, General
Rosecrans failing to cut him off, escaped, and was thus enabled to fight
on other occasions.

The two Confederate generals now decided to attack the Union forces at
Corinth, which they did. They fought beautifully, especially the Texan
and Missouri troops, who did some heroic work, but they were defeated
and driven forty miles with heavy loss.

October 30, General Buell was succeeded by General Rosecrans.

The battle of Murfreesboro occurred December 31 and January 2. It was
one of the bloodiest battles of the whole conflict, and must have made
the men who brought on the war by act of Congress feel first-rate. About
one-fourth of those engaged were killed.

An attack on Vicksburg, in which Grant and Sherman were to co-operate,
the former moving along the Mississippi Central Railroad and Sherman
descending the river from Memphis, was disastrous, and the capture of
Arkansas Post, January 11, 1863, closed the campaign of 1862 on the
Father of Waters.

General Price was driven out of Missouri by General Curtis, and had to
stay in Arkansas quite a while, though he preferred a dryer climate.

General Van Dorn now took command of these forces, numbering twenty
thousand men, and at Pea Ridge, March 7 and 8, 1863, he was defeated to
a remarkable degree. During his retreat he could hardly restrain his
impatience.

Some four or five thousand Indians joined the Confederates in this
battle, but were so astonished at the cannon, and so shocked by the
large decayed balls, as they called the shells, which came hurtling
through the air, now and then hurting an Indian severely, that they went
home before the exercises were more than half through. They were down on
the programme for some fantastic and interesting tortures of Union
prisoners, but when they got home to the reservation and had picked the
briers out of themselves they said that war was about as barbarous a
thing as they were ever to, and they went to bed early, leaving a call
for 9.30 A.M. on the following day.

[Illustration: WENT HOME BEFORE THE EXERCISES WERE MORE THAN HALF
THROUGH.]

The red brother's style of warfare has an air about it that is unpopular
now. A common stone stab-knife is a feeble thing to use against people
who shoot a distance of eight miles wit