nd Number Ten in
the Mississippi and the Boston Mountains in Arkansas.

But the triumphant Union advance from the north did not take place
in '62. Grant was for pushing south as fast as possible to attack the
Confederates before they had time to defend their great railway junction
at Corinth. But Halleck was too cautious; and misunderstandings,
coupled with division of command, did the rest. Halleck was the
senior general in the West. But the three, and afterwards four,
departments into which the West was divided were never properly
brought under a single command. Then telegrams went wrong at the
wire-end advancing southwardly from Cairo, the end Grant had to
use. A wire from McClellan on the sixteenth of February was not
delivered till the third of March. Next day Grant was thunderstruck
at receiving this from Halleck: "Place C. F. Smith in command of
expedition and remain yourself at Fort Henry. Why do you not obey
my orders to report strength and positions of your command?" And
so it went on till McClellan authorized Halleck to place Grant
under arrest for insubordination. Then the operator at the wire-end
suddenly deserted, taking a sheaf of dispatches with him. He was
a clever Confederate.

Explanations followed; and on the seventeenth of March Grant rejoined
his army, which was assembling round Pittsburg Landing on the Tennessee,
near the future battlefield of Shiloh, and some twenty miles northeast
of Corinth.

Meanwhile Van Dorn and Sterling Price, thinking it was now or never
for Missouri, decided to attack Curtis. They had fifteen against
ten thousand men, and hoped to crush Curtis utterly by catching
him between two fires. But on the seventh of March the Federal left
beat off the flanking attack of McCulloch and McIntosh, both of
whom were killed. The right, furiously assailed by the Confederate
Missourians under Van Dorn and Price, fared badly and was pressed
back. Yet on the eighth Curtis emerged victorious on the hard-fought
field that bears the double name of Elkhorn Tavern and Pea Ridge.
This battle in the northwest corner of Arkansas settled the fate
of Missouri.

A month later the final attack was made on Island Number Ten. Foote's
flotilla had been at work there as early as the middle of March,
when the strong Confederate batteries on the island and east shore
bluffs were bombarded by ironclads and mortarboats. Then the Union
General John Pope took post at New Madrid, eight miles below the
isla