P. S—­4 p.m.—­Just back; have been half-way to Corinth and to Purdy.  All right.  Have just read this letter, and approve all but floating hospitals; regimental surgeons can take care of all sick, except chronic cases, which can always be sent down to Paducah.

Magnificent plain for camping and drilling, and a military point of great strength.  The enemy has felt us twice, at great loss and demoralization; will report at length this evening; am now much worn out.

W. T. Sherman, Brigadier-General.

Headquarters first division
Pittsburg Landing, March 19, 1862.

Captain Rawlins, Assistant Adjutant-General
to General grant, Savannah, Tennessee.

Sir:  I have just returned from an extensive reconnoissance toward Corinth and Purdy, and am strongly impressed with the importance of this position, both for its land advantages and its strategic position.  The ground itself admits of easy defense by a small command, and yet affords admirable camping-ground for a hundred thousand men.  I will as soon as possible make or cause to be made a topographical sketch of the position.  The only drawback is that, at this stage of water, the space for landing is contracted too much for the immense fleet now here discharging.

I will push the loading and unloading of boats, but suggest that you send at once (Captain Dodd, if possible) the best quartermaster you can, that he may control and organize this whole matter.  I have a good commissary, and will keep as few provisions afloat as possible.  Yours, etc.,

W. T. Sherman, Brigadier-General commanding.

HEADQUARTERS SHERMAN’S DIVISION Camp Shiloh, near Pittsburg Landing, Tennessee, April 2, 1862

Captain J. A. Rawlins, Assistant Adjutant-General to General grant.

Sir:  In obedience to General Grant’s instructions of March 31st, with one section of Captain Muench’s Minnesota Battery, two twelve-pound howitzers, a detachment of Fifth Ohio Cavalry of one hundred and fifty men, under Major Ricker, and two battalions of infantry from the Fifty-seventh and Seventy-seventh Ohio, under the command of Colonels Hildebrand and Mungen, I marched to the river, and embarked on the steamers Empress and Tecumseh.  The gunboat Cairo did not arrive at Pittsburg, until after midnight, and at 6 p.m.  Captain Bryant, commanding the gunboat, notified me that he was ready to proceed up the river.  I followed, keeping the transports within about three hundred yards of the gunboat.  About 1 p.m., the Cairo commenced shelling the battery above the mouth of Indian Creek, but elicited no reply.  She proceeded up the river steadily and cautiously, followed close by the Tyler and Lexington, all throwing shells at the points where, on former visits of the gunboats, enemy’s batteries were found.  In this order all followed, till it was demonstrated that all the enemy’s batteries, including that at Chickasaw, were abandoned.