the defensive, and the eight discouraging months of Sisyphean
offensive which preceded his triumph at Vicksburg. No one who has
not been in the heart of things with fighting fleets or armies
can realize what it means to all ranks when there is, or even is
supposed to be, "something wrong" with the living pivot on which
the whole force turns. And only those who have been behind the
scenes of war's all-testing drama can understand what it means
for even an imagined "failure" to "come back."

Corinth was of immense importance to both sides, as it commanded
the rails not only east and west, from the Tennessee to Memphis,
but north and south, from the Ohio to New Orleans and Mobile.
Though New Orleans was taken by Farragut on the twenty-fifth of
April, the rails between Vicksburg and Port Hudson remained in
Confederate hands till next year; while Mobile remained so till
the year after that.

Beauregard collected all the troops he could at Corinth. Yet,
even with Van Dorn's and other reinforcements, he had only sixty
thousand effectives against Halleck's double numbers. Moreover,
the loss of three States and many battles had so shaken the
Confederate forces that they stood no chance whatever against
Halleck's double numbers in the open. All the same, Halleck
burrowed slowly forward like a mole, entrenching every night as
if the respective strengths and victories had been reversed.

After advancing nearly a mile a day Halleck closed in on Corinth.
He was so deeply entrenched that no one could tell from
appearances which side was besieging the other. Towards the end
of May many Federal railwaymen reported that empty trains could