t the North, and the
relief which followed was grateful. It was made the occasion by
the President for a proclamation in which the people were asked
"to assemble in their places of public worship and especially
acknowledge and render thanks to our Heavenly Father for the successes
which have attended the Army of the Union." But after the first
flush of victory, the battle became the subject of controversy in
the newspapers. Criticism of officers was unsparing, the slaughter
of our soldiers was exaggerated, crimination and recrimination were
indulged in respecting the conduct of troops from certain States.
General Grant was accused of having been surprised and of having
thereby incurred a danger which narrowly escaped being a defeat.
The subject was brought into Congress and warmly debated. Senator
Sherman of Ohio introduced a resolution calling for all the reports
from the officers in command, and made a speech defending the
conduct of the Ohio troops, upon which some reflections had been
inconsiderately and most unjustly cast. Mr. Elihu Washburne made
an elaborate speech in the House on the 2d of May, in which he gave
a full account of the battle, and defended General Grant with much
warmth against all possible charges which, either through ignorance
or malice, had been preferred against him for his conduct of the
battle. This speech, which was of great value to General Grant,
both with the Administration and the country, laid the foundation
of that intimate friendship which so long subsisted between him
and Mr. Washburne. Mr. Richardson of Illinois followed his colleague,
and expressed his disgust with even the introduction of the subject
in Congress. He felt that our armies would gain more renown and
secure greater victories if the "Riot Act" could be read, and both
Houses of Congress dispersed to their homes at the very earliest
moment.

General Halleck, who had command of the Western Department, became
anxious for reputation on the field, and was thought by many to be
jealous of the daily increasing fame of General Grant. After the
battle of Shiloh, he took command in person of the army which Grant
had already rendered illustrious, leaving Grant to command its
right wing. Uniting the Western forces into one large army General
Halleck marched southward in pursuit of the Confederate column now
under the command of Beauregard, and strongly intrenched at Corinth.
As the army approached, Corinth was evacuate