In Camp near Corinth, Miss. Monday, October 6, 1862 Dear Diary, I've finally made it back to my unit, good old Company C of the 40th Ohio, or should I say, what's left of it after the bitter fighting of last week. Seems that during my furlough back in Ohio, we managed to capture Corinth, and got the place pretty well fortified, using the rail lines to build up a supply and troop base of our own. Corinth is ideal for the purpose, both for us and the Johnnies - the Memphis and Charleston runs right through the place, plus it serves as the junction for a number of small rail lines in the area. Whoever owns Corinth, owns the area - and Van Dorn's Confederates tried to take it away last Friday and Saturday. The attack started early in the morning, with the Rebs coming in from positions NW of the city, forcing our troops back into some really strong redoubts in the outskirts of the city, particularly one with a full battery of artillery in it, called Battery Robinette after the artillery commander. They pushed us all Friday and into Saturday, but couldn't break our lines. In all, I reckon they must have lost near on to 4,000 men. We hear they've retreated about 10 miles NW of here, to a place called Chewalla - but from what I've seen of the shape of our army, I don't think we'll be going after them any time soon. They'll be some skirmishing, to be sure, but no real pursuit until we get some reinforcements in. Company C is down to about 25 men fit for duty, something less than half the strength we had when we mustered a year ago at Camp Dennison. We've lost about a dozen to disease, and the rest to the enemy at Henry, Donelson, Shiloh, and now Corinth. I just found out that my old friend, Tommy McKearnan, is dead - he took a Minie ball in the arm at Shiloh, and they had to amputate. He lingered in hospital for about five days, then died, I guess from the shock and infection. Those hospitals at Pittsburg Landing were holes - I was lucky in getting out when I did. Poor old Tommy was buried back at Shiloh - I'm going to send his folks a note as soon as the mail runs. I learned this from Sgt. Lunn - at least he's still in one piece, and is now the company First Sergeant. Not so much because of promotion, but simply because he's the highest ranking NCO still alive and unwounded. Of my other messmates, we've been really lucky. Joshua Wells, Sam Wilder, and Nathan Robertson are still around and reasonably healthy, although they all have a case of the "Tennessee Two-Step" as a result of the food and weather. The Battalion Surgeon has them all on castor oil and blue pills - not that they do any good. If only they could get home for a spell like me. At any rate, it was great to see them at least alive. In our squad that started out with ten, we've lost Tommy, Bradford Henderson, and Billy Love for sure killed. Carter Bryson has been missing since the fighting on the first day at Corinth. Hopefully, he'll turn up when they finish bringing in the rest of the wounded. Now, the question is what's next. We hear Bragg is moving north back up in Kentucky, but I doubt that we'll be going after him. General Buell's troops are already on his trail, somewhere up around Harrodsburg. Rumor has it that General Grant is about to take command of this whole army - if he does, I'm willing to bet we'll head in only one direction, South. Some of the boys are laying odds that his target will be Vicksburg, and I've got to admit there's a lot of logic in that. The railroads are important - seems that that is what we've been fighting over since Shiloh - but the real key is the ole Mississippi River. We took New Orleans awhile back, and of course already own the Mississippi up around Cairo. We took Forts Henry and Donelson, cutting off the two main tributaries to the Mississippi in western Tennessee and now we've taken Corinth. Our gunboats captured another Reb strongpoint, Island No. 10, several months ago - so that just leaves Vicksburg in Reb hands. If I know my man, Grant is going to head South! All for the Union!