efore the war, sent down two
divisions from Columbus on the Mississippi. General Johnston with his
retreating army hastened on, and thus all the Rebel troops in the
Southwestern States were mustered at Corinth.

The call to take up arms was responded to everywhere; old men and boys
came trooping into the place. They came from Texas, Arkansas, and
Missouri. Beauregard labored with unremitting energy to create an army
which would be powerful enough to drive back the Union troops, recover
Tennessee, and invade Kentucky.

General Grant, after the capture of Donelson, moved his army, on
steamboats, down the Cumberland and up the Tennessee, to Pittsburg
Landing. He made his head-quarters at Savannah, a small town ten miles
below Pittsburg Landing, on the east side of the river.

General Buell, who had followed General Johnston through Nashville with
the army of the Ohio, was slowly making his way across the country to
join General Grant. The Rebel generals had the railroads, by which they
could rapidly concentrate their troops, and they determined to attack
General Grant at Pittsburg, with their superior force, before General
Buell could join him. Beauregard had his pickets within four miles of
General Grant's force, and he could move his entire army within striking
distance before General Grant would know of his danger. He calculated
that he could annihilate General Grant, drive him into the river, or
force him to surrender, capture all of his cannon, wagons, ammunition,
provisions, steamboats,--everything,--by a sudden stroke. If he
succeeded, he could then move against General Buell, destroy his army,
and not only recover all that had been lost, but he would also redeem
Kentucky and invade Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois.

All but one division of General Grant's army was at Pittsburg. Two miles
above the Landing the river begins to make its great eastern bend. Lick
Creek comes in from the west, at the bend. Three miles below Pittsburg
is Snake Creek, which also comes in from the west. Five miles further
down is Crump's Landing. General Lewis Wallace's division was near
Crump's, but the other divisions were between the two creeks. The banks
of the river are seventy-five feet high, and the country is a succession
of wooded hills, with numerous ravines. There are a few clearings and
farm-houses, but it is nearly all forest,--tall oak-trees, with here and
there thickets of underbrush. The farmers cultivate a little corn,
cotto