General G. T. Beauregard, New Orleans, La.:
My Dear General—Resuming the series of my recollections of important facts connected with your service in West Tennessee in the spring of 1862, which you have asked me to communicate in this manner, I have now to state the circumstances under which the Confederate army was assembled at Corinth, and the movement undertaken against its adversary which resulted in the battle of Shiloh.
Having determined upon the evacuation of Columbus, you detached a brigade of that garrison to hold, with certain other troops, the position of Island 10 and New Madrid, which were already partly fortified.
The other part of Major-General Polk's forces, some nine or ten thousand men, were gradually transferred in the direction of Corinth, Mississippi, a point at which the Mobile and Ohio and the Memphis and Charleston railways intersect each other. In the same quarter, meanwhile, were assembled some regiments drawn from New Orleans, together with the forces which General Bragg had brought from Pensacola and Mobile, the latter having been added to your command in consequence of your urgent appeals to the Richmond authorities, supported probably by the direct application of Major-General Bragg himself.
This concentration was with the view to meet and baffle the evident offensive purposes for which the Federal army was transferred from Fort Donelson, on the Cumberland, to Pittsburg landing, on the west bank of the Tennessee river, and near which the States of Tennessee, Alabama and Mississippi touch each other.
Without having any personal knowledge at the moment of the immediate ground, your first idea, as I remember, was that your forces should assemble as early as possible at a point designated on the maps as Monterey, in advance of Corinth, toward the Federal position.
But, as your own health was infirm at the time, you entrusted General Bragg with the duty of a personal examination of the terrain, though stating your preference for Monterey as the true strategic point to be occupied. That officer, however, having reported adversely to Monterey, you settled upon Corinth as your base of operations.
Meanwhile, in several dispatches, you urged General Sidney
