t Savannah (east of the Tennessee),
leaving Sherman in charge of that portion of the army in front of
Pittsburg Landing.

Besides some troops of Buell's army who were left to hold Nashville,
Mitchel's division was detached to operate on a line through
Murfreesboro south into Alabama or to Chattanooga, as might seem
best.

McCook's division left Nashville March 16th, following the cavalry,
and other divisions of Buell's army followed at intervals. At
Columbia, Tennessee, McCook was detained, reconstructing a burned
bridge over Duck River, until the 30th. Nelson reached this river,
and by fording crossed his division on the 29th, and was then given
the advance. Buell did not hasten his march nor did Grant, it
would seem, regard his early arrival important. The purpose was
to concentrate the Army of the Ohio at Savannah, not earlier than
Sunday and Monday, the 6th and 7th of April.

Nelson's division reached there the evening of the 5th, of which
Grant had notice. Buell arrived about the same time, but did not
report his arrival, or attempt to do so until 8 A.M. the 6th, when
Grant had gone to Pittsburg Landing to take personal command in
the battle then raging with great fury.

It is well to remember that General Grant, on whom the responsibility
of the campaign and impending conflict rested, had been actually
present with his army but twenty days when the battle commenced;
that he did not select the position of the advance divisions of
his army, and could not, if he had chosen to do so, have changed
the place of the junction of Buell's army with his, as Halleck had
fixed upon Savannah as that place, and Buell was slowly marching
towards it before Grant's arrival there.

The unfriendly disposition of Halleck and the lack of cordiality
of Buell towards Grant made matters extremely embarrassing. Buell
was Grant's junior, but he had commanded a department for a
considerable time while Grant only commanded a district, and this
alone may account for a natural reluctance on Buell's part to serve
under him. Had Buell's army arrived promptly on the Tennessee,
the battle of Shiloh would not have been fought, as both Johnston
and Beauregard determined the attack was only practicable before
Grant's and Buell's armies united.

Grant was seriously injured, after dark on the 4th of April, while
returning to Pittsburg Landing in a rain storm from investigating
some unusual picket firing at the front. His horse had falle