General Hurlbut’s division was on my immediate left, and General McClernand’s reserve on our right rear.  I asked of each the assistance of a brigade.  The former sent General Veatch’s, and the latter General John A. Logan’s brigade.  I asked the former to support our left flank, and the latter our right flank.  The next morning early, Morgan L. Smith’s brigade was deployed under cover on the left, and Denver’s on the right, ready to move forward rapidly at a signal.  I had a battery of four twenty-pound Parrott guns, commanded by Captain Silversparre.  Colonel Ezra Taylor, chief of artillery, had two of these guns moved up silently by hand behind a small knoll, from the crest of which the enemy’s block-house and position could be distinctly seen; when all were ready, these guns were moved to the crest, and several quick rounds were fired at the house, followed after an interval by a single gum.  This was the signal agreed on, and the troops responded beautifully, crossed the field in line of battle, preceded by their skirmishers who carried the position in good style, and pursued the enemy for half a mile beyond.

The main line halted on the crest of the ridge, from which we could look over the parapets of the rebel works at Corinth, and hear their drum and bugle calls.  The rebel brigade had evidently been taken by surprise in our attack; it soon rallied and came back on us with the usual yell, driving in our skirmishers, but was quickly checked when it came within range of our guns and line of battle.  Generals Grant and Thomas happened to be with me during this affair, and were well pleased at the handsome manner in which the troops behaved.  That night we began the usual entrenchments, and the next day brought forward the artillery and the rest of the division, which then extended from the Mobile & Ohio Railroad, at Bowie Hill Out, to the Corinth & Purdy road, there connecting with Hurlbut’s division.  That night, viz., May 29th, we heard unusual sounds in Corinth, the constant whistling of locomotives, and soon after daylight occurred a series of explosions followed by a dense smoke rising high over the town.  There was a telegraph line connecting my headquarters with those of General Halleck, about four miles off, on the Hamburg road.  I inquired if he knew the cause of the explosions and of the smoke, and he answered to “advance with my division and feel the enemy if still in my front” I immediately dispatched two regiments from each of my three brigades to feel the immediate front, and in a very short time advanced with the whole division.  Each brigade found the rebel parapets abandoned, and pushed straight for the town, which lies in the northeast angle of intersection of the Mobile & Ohio and Memphis & Charleston Railroads.  Many buildings had been burned by the enemy on evacuation, which had begun the night before at 6 p.m., and continued through the night, the rear-guard burning their magazine at the time of withdrawing, about daybreak.  Morgan L. Smith’s brigade followed the retreating rear-guard some four miles to the Tuacumbia Bridge, which was found burned.  I halted the other brigades at the college, about a mile to the southwest of the town, where I was overtaken by General Thomas in person.