of his divisions were between there and Iuka. I calculate that, as the crow flies, these two divisions were about 4.5 miles from the battle. Grant and Ord, in Burnsville, were about 8 miles away. It may seem odd that they did not hear the noise, but acoustic shadows are a wellknown phenomenon. While there is evidence that some Federals in some places heard sounds of battle, it is unlikely that Grant and Ord would have ignored the noise if they had heard it or received reports of it.
There are two other oddities that are more difficult understand. One, why Ord personally undertake the reconnaissance toward Corinth? Three divisions under command were about to engage in a complex pincer movement
GEORGIA’S CONFEDERATE MONUMENTS In Honor of a Fallen Nation Gould B. Hagler, Jr.
CHARLESTON IN THE WAR
This unique work contains a complete photographic record of Georgia’s memorials to the Confederacy, a full transcription of the words engraved upon them, and carefully-researched information about the monuments and the organizations which built them. These works of art and their eloquent nation’s profound grief, praise the soldiers’ bravery and patriotism, and pay homage to the cause for which they fought.
against their Confederate target. At the time he left he had orders to lead the attack. Only when he returned was he directed to wait, and open his attack after hearing Rosecrans’s guns, yet he was away for seven hours.
The other oddity is Ross’s lack of curiosity. He saw dense smoke. He concluded that the Confederates were firing their stores as they evacuated. Why? Did he not consider the other possibility? Did he not investigate? It is also odd that Ord readily accepted Ross’s conclusion. Moreover, even if the conclusion had been correct, and if the Confederates were retreating, wouldn’t that be a sound reason to move in?
A final aspect of the battle to explore is the visit two of Grant’s aides made to Rosecrans’s
position. Col. Lagow and Col. Theophilus Dickey left Burnsville at some time on the 19th to follow Rosecrans, arriving soon after noon. They were with Rosecrans before the fighting broke out and for a time afterwards.
In his report Grant wrote that the colonels “had gone around to where General Rosecrans was and were with him during the early part of the battle.” In The Edge of Glory, Rosecrans’s biographer William Lamers drew attention to Grant’s phraseology. Grant wrote that Lagow and Dickey went there, but not that he sent them. It seems they went of their own accord. They bore no message or orders from Grant; they were unaware of their commander’s intentions; and they had no clear purpose for their excursion. In his 1865 testimony to the Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War, Rosecrans spoke of the colonels’ visit. When his divisions were about seven miles from Iuka, at 1 p.m., he told the aides that they “ought to be hearing the guns from the other column” [emphasis in original]. Rosecrans stated that Lagow “suggested that perhaps General Grant expected me to attack first.” Lagow offered a suggestion; he did not say Grant had issued an order.
Rosecrans objected to this suggestion. He told Lagow “that such was not the understanding,” and explained further that “it would be very bad policy to allow the enemy’s attention to be first attracted towards his line of communication, to seize and secure which was the object of my movement.”
Events, however, had interceded. It no longer mattered whether the plan was altered or not, whether Lagow’s suggestion was right or not, whether Rosecrans was ready or not, whether Ord was moving in from the west or not; Rosecrans’s force had met the Confederates on the road. The battle was joined.
In his testimony Rosecrans said that the Confederates “opened on us in a few minutes with grape and canister. From that time till nightfall the battle raged furiously.”
Most significantly, Rosecrans stated that the enemy “could be seen moving across the fields from the railroad near the Iuka and Burnsville Road. Nothing in that quarter appeared to attract their attention.” In the absence of an immediate threat from Ord, Price was able to move troops south of town to stop Rosecrans. That night the Confederates withdrew to the southeast on their only avenue of retreat.
Why was there no movement from the west and why did Rosecrans’s divisions fight alone? The record reveals some answers but none that Rosecrans considered remotely satisfactory. He testified that on the 20th, after he had entered Iuka, he “was startled by the sound of music, and looking, beheld the head of General Grant’s column entering the place. No explanation was then or subsequently made of the cause which prevented that column from attacking the enemy in front the day before, save that they did not hear our guns.”
Even if Rosecrans’s delay on the march and his decision not to cover the road by which Price escaped were blameworthy, it does seem peculiar that mistakes by some other officers were overlooked. Grant was harshly—and unfairly—critical of Rosecrans in his October 22, 1862, report and even more so in his memoirs. Why did Rosecrans get all the blame, especially as he did all the fighting? Some reports that appeared in the Cincinnati newspapers soon after the battle may be a factor. These articles were highly critical of Grant, and the criticisms included charges that he was drunk at the time of the battle. Grant probably blamed Rosecrans for planting these stories. Whether that is the answer or not, there is no doubt that Iuka was the start of a neverending feud between the two men.
And Grant’s version of events affects history’s view of Rosecrans still.
Further reading: The reports and dispatches referenced are in the Official Records, Series I, Vol. XVII, Parts I and II. Rosecrans’s testimony on the battle is found on pages 18-20 of “Rosecrans’s Campaigns” in Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War at the Second Session Thirty-Eighth Congress.Personal Memoirs of U.S. Grant was first published in 1885. There are two biographies of Rosecrans: The Edge of Glory: A Biography of General William S. Rosecrans, U.S.A. by William M. Lamers (Louisiana University Press, 1999) and William S. Rosecrans and the Union Victory: A Civil War Biography by David G. Moore, (McFarland & Company, 2014). General Grant and the Rewriting of History by Frank P. Varney (Savas Beatie, 2013) was reviewed in the February 2019 issue of Civil War News.The Darkest Days of the War by Peter Cozzens (The University of North Carolina Press, 1997) covers the battles of Iuka and Corinth.
Gould Hagler is a retired lobbyist living in Dunwoody, Ga. He is a past president of the Atlanta Civil War Round Table and the author of Georgia’s Confederate Monuments: In Honor of a Fallen Nation, published by Mercer University Press in 2014. Hagler speaks frequently on this topic and others related to different aspects of the Civil War and has been a regular contributor to CWN since 2016. He can be reached at gould.hagler@gmail.com. Hagler is a distant cousin of General Grant’s (sixth cousin five generations removed).