General Sterling Price was a civilian who by natural inclination turned to
soldiering. He had been made a brigadier-general during the Mexican War,
but early allied himself with the cause of the Confederacy. At Pea Ridge,
only seven months before the battle of Corinth, he had been wounded. Of
the behavior of his men, though they were defeated and turned back on the
4th, he wrote that it was with pride that sisters and daughters of the
South could say of the officers and men, "My brother, father, fought at
Corinth." And nobly they fought indeed. General Van Dorn, in referring to
the end of that bloody battle, wrote these pathetic words: "Exhausted from
loss of sleep, wearied from hard marching and fighting, companies and
regiments without officers, our troops--let no one censure them--gave way.
The day was lost."
[Illustration: BEFORE THE SOD HID THEM