r
a negro found his body, lodged against some drift near our side of the
river, and he brought it in his old cart inside our lines. From papers
on the body, and other evidence, it was conclusively identified as that
of Gov. Harvey. The remains were shipped back to Wisconsin, where they
were given a largely attended and impressive funeral.

CHAPTER V.

THE SIEGE OF CORINTH. IN CAMP AT OWL CREEK. APRIL AND MAY, 1862.

A few days after the battle Gen. H. W. Halleck came down from St. Louis,
and assumed command of the Union forces in the field near Pittsburg
Landing. Then, or soon thereafter, began the so-called siege of Corinth.
We mighty near dug up all the country within eight or ten miles of that
place in the progress of this movement, in the construction of forts,
long lines of breast-works, and such like. Halleck was a "book soldier,"
and had a high reputation during the war as a profound "strategist," and
great military genius in general. In fact, in my opinion (and which, I
think, is sustained by history), he was a humbug and a fraud. His idea
seemed to be that our war should be conducted strictly in accordance
with the methods of the old Napoleonic wars of Europe, which, in the
main, were not at all adapted to our time and conditions. Moreover, he
seemed to be totally deficient in sound, practical common sense. Soon
after the Confederates evacuated Corinth he was transferred to
Washington to serve in a sort of advisory capacity, and spent the
balance of the war period in a swivel-chair in an office. He never was
in a battle, and never heard a gun fired, except distant cannonading
during the Corinth business,--and (maybe) at Washington in the summer of
1864.

During the operations against Corinth, the 61st made some short marches,
and was shifted around, from time to time, to different places. About
the middle of May we were sent to a point on Owl creek, in the right
rear of the main army. Our duty there was to guard against any possible
attack from that direction, and our main employment was throwing up
breast-works and standing picket. And all this time the sick list was
frightfully large. The chief trouble was our old enemy, camp diarrhea,
but there were also other types of diseases--malaria and the like. As
before stated, the boys had not learned how to cook, nor to take proper
care of themselves, and to this ignorance can be attributed much of the
sickness. And the weather was rainy, the camps were