We then dropped back quietly to the mouth of Yellow River, a few miles below, whence led a road to Burnsville, a place on the Memphis & Charleston road, where were the company’s repair-shops.  We at once commenced disembarking the command:  first the cavalry, which started at once for Burnsville, with orders to tear up the railroad-track, and burn the depots, shops, etc; and I followed with the infantry and artillery as fast as they were disembarked.  It was raining very hard at the time.  Daylight found us about six miles out, where we met the cavalry returning.  They had made numerous attempts to cross the streams, which had become so swollen that mere brooks covered the whole bottom; and my aide-de-camp, Sanger, whom I had dispatched with the cavalry, reported the loss, by drowning, of several of the men.  The rain was pouring in torrents, and reports from the rear came that the river was rising very fast, and that, unless we got back to our boats soon, the bottom would be simply impassable.  There was no alternative but to regain our boats; and even this was so difficult, that we had to unharness the artillery-horses, and drag the guns under water through the bayous, to reach the bank of the river.  Once more embarked, I concluded to drop down to Pittsburg Landing, and to make the attempt from there.  During the night of the 14th, we dropped down to Pittsburg Landing, where I found Hurlbut’s division in boats.  Leaving my command there, I steamed down to Savannah, and reported to General Smith in person, who saw in the flooded Tennessee the full truth of my report; and he then instructed me to disembark my own division, and that of General Hurlbut, at Pittsburg Landing; to take positions well back, and to leave room for his whole army; telling me that he would soon come up in person, and move out in force to make the lodgment on the railroad, contemplated by General Halleck’s orders.

Lieutenant-Colonel McPherson, of General C. F. Smith’s, or rather General Halleck’s, staff, returned with me, and on the 16th of March we disembarked and marched out about ten miles toward Corinth, to a place called Monterey or Pea Ridge, where the rebels had a cavalry regiment, which of course decamped on our approach, but from the people we learned that trains were bringing large masses of men from every direction into Corinth.  McPherson and I reconnoitred the ground well, and then returned to our boats.  On the 18th, Hurlbut disembarked his division and took post about a mile and a half out, near where the roads branched, one leading to Corinth and the other toward Hamburg.  On the 19th I disembarked my division, and took post about three miles back, three of the brigades covering the roads to Purdy and Corinth, and the other brigade (Stuart’s) temporarily at a place on the Hamburg Road, near Lick Creek Ford, where the Bark Road came into the Hamburg Road.  Within a few days, Prentiss’s division arrived and camped on my left, and afterward McClernand’s and W. H. L. Wallace’s divisions, which formed a line to our rear.  Lew Wallace’s division remained on the north side of Snake Creek, on a road leading from Savannah or Cramp’s Landing to Purdy.