No Confederate who fought at Shiloh has ever said that he found any
point on that bloody field easy to assail.--_Colonel William Preston
Johnston (Son of the Confederate General, Albert Sidney Johnston,
killed at Shiloh)._
In the history of America many battles had been fought, but the greatest
of them were skirmishes compared with the gigantic conflicts of the Old
World under Marlborough and Napoleon. On the field of Shiloh, for the
first time, two great American armies were to engage in a mighty struggle
that would measure up to the most important in the annals of Europe. And
the pity of it was that the contestants were brethren of the same
household, not hereditary and unrelenting enemies.
At Fort Donelson the western South was not slain--it was only wounded. The
chief commander of that part of the country, Albert Sidney Johnston,
determined to concentrate the scattered forces and to make a desperate
effort to retrieve the disaster of Donelson. He had abandoned Bowling
Green, had given up Nashville, and now decided to collect his troops at
Corinth, Mississippi. Next in command to Johnston was General Beauregard
who fought at Bull Run, and who had come from Virginia to aid Johnston.
There also came Braxton Bragg, whose name had become famous through the
laconic expression, "A little more grape, Captain Bragg," uttered by
Zachary Taylor at Buena Vista; Leonidas Polk who, though a graduate of
West Point, had entered the church and for twenty years before the war had
been Episcopal bishop of Louisiana, and John C. Breckinridge, former Vice
President of the United States. The legions of the South were gathered at
Corinth until, by the 1st of April, 1862, they numbered forty thousand.
Meantime, the Union army had moved southward and was concentrating at
Pittsburg Landing, on the Tennessee River, an obscure stopping place for
boats in southern Tennessee, and some twenty miles northeast from Corinth.
The name means more now than merely a landing place for river craft. It
was clear that two mighty, hostile forces were drawing together and that
ere long there would be a battle of tremendous proportions, such as this
Western hemisphere had not then known.
General Grant had no idea that the Confederates would meet him at
Pittsburg Landing. He believed that they would wait for an attack on their
entrenchments at Corinth. The position his army occupied at the Landing
was a kind of quadrilateral, enclosed on three sides by the river and
several small streams that flow into it. As the early days of April passed
there were ominous rumors of the coming storm; but Grant was so sure that
Johnston would not attack that he spent the night of the 5th of April at
Savannah, some miles down the Tennessee River.
It was Saturday night. For two weeks the Union troops had occupied the
undulating tableland that stretched away from the river at the Landing.
There was the sound of the plashing streams overflowing from recent rains,
there were revelry and mirth around the thousand camp-fires; but there was
no sound to give warning of the coming of forty thousand men, who had for
two days been drawing nearer with a steady tread, and during this night
were deploying around the Union camp, only a mile away. There was nothing
to indicate that the inevitable clash of arms was but a few hours in the
future.
At the dawn of day on Sunday, April 6th, magnificent battle-lines, under
the Confederate battle-flag, emerged from the woods on the neighboring
hills within gunshot of the Federal camps. Whether the Union army was
really surprised has been the subject of long controversy, which we need
not enter. Certainly, the attack on it was most sudden, and in
consequence it fought on the defensive and at a disadvantage throughout
the day.
General Hardee's corps, forming the first line of battle, moved against
the outlying division of the Union army, which was commanded by General
Benjamin Prentiss, of West Virginia. Before Prentiss could form his lines
Hardee's shells began bursting around him, but he was soon ready and,
though pressed back for half a mile in the next two or three hours, his
men fought like heroes. Meanwhile the further Confederate advance under
Bragg, Polk, and Breckinridge was extending all along the line in front of
the Federal camps. The second Federal force to encounter the fury of the
oncoming foe was the division of General W. T. Sherman, which was cut to
pieces and disorganized, but only after it had inflicted frightful loss on
the Confederate army.
General Grant, as we have noted, spent the night at Savannah, a town nine
miles by way of the river from Pittsburg Landing. As he sat at breakfast,
he heard the distant boom of cannon and he quickly realized that
Johnston's army had attacked his own at the Landing. Instantly he took a
boat and started for the scene of the conflict. At Crump's Landing, about
half way between the two, General Lew Wallace was stationed with a
division of seven thousand men. As Grant passed Crump's Landing, he met
Wallace and ordered him to be ready for instant marching when he was
called for. When Grant arrived at Pittsburg Landing, about eight o'clock
in the morning, he found a tremendous battle raging, and he spent the day
riding from one division commander to another, giving directions and
cheering them on as best he could.
About two and a half miles from the Landing stood a little log church
among the trees, in which for years the simple folk of the countryside had
been wont to gather for worship every Sunday morning. But on this fateful
Sunday, the demon of war reigned supreme. The little church was known as
Shiloh to all the country around, and it gave its name to the great battle
that raged near it on that memorable day.
General Prentiss had borne the first onset of the morning. He had been
pressed back half a mile. But about nine o'clock, after being reënforced,
he made a stand on a wooded spot with a dense undergrowth, and here he
held his ground for eight long hours, until five in the afternoon, when he
and a large portion of his division were surrounded and compelled to
surrender. Time after time the Confederates rushed upon his position, but
only to be repulsed with fearful slaughter. This spot came to be known as
the "Hornet's Nest." It was not far from here that the Confederates
suffered the irreparable loss of the day. Their noble commander, Albert
Sidney Johnston, received his death wound as he was urging his troops to
force back Hurlbut's men. He was riding in the center of the fight,
cheering his men, when a minie ball cut an artery of his thigh. The wound
was not necessarily fatal. A surgeon could easily have saved him. But he
thought only of victory and continued in the saddle, raising his voice in
encouragement above the din of battle. Presently his voice became faint, a
deadly pallor blanched his cheek. He was lifted from his horse, but it was
too late. In a few minutes the great commander was dead, from loss of
blood.
The death of Johnston, in the belief of many, changed the result at Shiloh
and prevented the utter rout or capture of Grant's army. One of Johnston's
subordinates wrote: "Johnston's death was a tremendous catastrophe.
Sometimes the hopes of millions of people depend upon one head and one
arm. The West perished with Albert Sidney Johnston and the Southern
country followed." Jefferson Davis afterward declared that "the fortunes
of a country hung by a single thread on the life that was yielded on the
field of Shiloh."
Beauregard succeeded to the command on the fall of Johnston and the
carnage continued all the day--till darkness was falling over the valleys
and the hills. The final charge of the evening was made by three
Confederate brigades close to the Landing, in the hope of gaining that
important point. But by means of a battery of many guns on the bluff of
Dill's Branch, aided by the gunboats in the river, the charge was
repulsed. Beauregard then gave orders to desist from further attack all
along his lines, to suspend operations till morning. When General Bragg
heard this he was furious with rage. He had counted on making an immediate
grand assault in the darkness, believing that he could capture a large
part of the Federal army.
When the messenger informed him of Beauregard's order, he inquired if he
had already delivered it to the other commanders. "Yes," was the reply.
"If you had not," rejoined the angry Bragg, "I would not obey it. The
battle is lost." But Bragg's fears were not shared by his compatriots.
Further mention is due the two little wooden gunboats, _Tyler_ and
_Lexington_, for their share in the great fight. The _Tyler_ had lain all
day opposite the mouth of Dill's Branch which flowed through a deep,
marshy ravine, into the Tennessee just above the Landing. Her commander,
Lieutenant Gwin, was eager for a part in the battle, and when he saw the
Confederate right pushing its way toward the Landing, he received
permission to open fire. For an hour his guns increased the difficulties
of Jackson's and Chalmers' brigades as they made their way to the
surrounding of Prentiss. Later on the _Lexington_ joined her sister, and
the two vessels gave valuable support to the Union cannon at the edge of
the ravine and to Hurlbut's troops until the contest ended. All that
night, in the downpour of rain, Lieutenant Gwin, at the request of General
Nelson, sent shot crashing through the trees in the direction where the
Confederates had bivouacked. This completely broke the rest of the
exhausted troops, and had a decided effect upon the next day's result.
Southern hopes were high at the close of this first bloody day at Shiloh.
Whatever of victory there was at the end of the day belonged to the
Confederates. They had pressed the Federals back more than a mile and now
occupied their ground and tents of the night before. They had captured
General Prentiss with some thousands of his men as a result of his brave
stand at the "Hornet's Nest."
But their hopes were mingled with grave fears. General Van Dorn with an
army of twenty thousand men was hastening from Arkansas to join the
Confederate forces at Shiloh; but the roads were bad and he was yet far
away. On the other hand, Buell was coming from Nashville to join Grant's
army. Should he arrive during the night, the contest of the next day would
be unequal and the Confederates would risk losing all that they had
gained. Moreover, Beauregard's army, with its long, muddy march from
Corinth and its more than twelve hours' continuous fighting, was worn and
weary almost to exhaustion.
The Union army was stunned and bleeding, but not disabled, at the close of
the first day's battle. Caught unawares, the men had made a noble stand.
Though pressed back from their position and obliged to huddle for the
night around the Landing, while thousands of their comrades had fallen on
the gory field, they had hopes of heavy reënforcements during the night.
And, indeed, early in the evening the cry ran along the Union lines that
Buell's army had come. The advance guard had arrived late in the afternoon
and had assisted Hurlbut in the closing scene on the bluff of Dill's
ravine; others continued to pour in during the night. And, furthermore,
General Lew Wallace's division, though it had taken a wrong road from
Crump's Landing and had not reached the field in time for the fighting of
the 6th, now at last had arrived. Buell and Wallace had brought with them
twenty-five thousand fresh troops to be hurled on the Confederates on the
morning of the 7th. But Van Dorn had not come. The preponderance of
numbers now was with the Union army.
Everyone knew that the battle was not over, that the issue must be
decided on the coming day, and the weary thousands of both sides sank down
on the ground in a drenching rain to get a little rest and to gain a
little strength for the desperate struggle that was sure to come on the
morrow.
Beauregard rested hopes upon a fresh dispatch announcing that Buell was
delayed and the dreaded junction of two Federal armies therefore
impossible. Meanwhile Grant and Buell were together in Sherman's camp and
it was decided that Buell's troops should attack Beauregard next morning.
One division of Buell stood to arms all night.
At the break of day on Monday, April 7th, all was astir in both camps on
the field of Shiloh, and the dawn was greeted with the roar of cannon. The
troops that Grant now advanced into the contest were all, except about ten
thousand, the fresh recruits that Wallace and Buell had brought, while the
Confederates had not a single company that had not been on the ground the
day before. Some military historians believe that Beauregard would have
won a signal victory if neither army had been reënforced during the night.
But now under the changed conditions the Confederates were at a great
disadvantage, and yet they fought for eight long hours with heroic valor.
The deafening roar of the cannon that characterized the beginning of the
day's battle was followed by the rattle of musketry, so continuous that no
ear could distinguish one shot from another. Nelson's division of Buell's
army was the first to engage the Confederates. Nelson commanded the
Federal left wing, with Hardee and Breckinridge immediately opposed to
him. The Union center was under the command of Generals McCook and
Crittenden; the right wing was commanded by McClernand, with Hurlbut next,
while Sherman and Lew Wallace occupied the extreme right. The Confederate
left wing was commanded by the doughty Bragg and next to him was General
Polk.
Shiloh Church was again the storm center and in it General Beauregard
made his headquarters. Hour after hour the columns in blue and gray surged
to and fro, first one then the other gaining the advantage and presently
losing it. At times the smoke of burning powder enveloped the whole field
and hid both armies from view. The interesting incidents of this day of
blood would fill a volume. General Hindman of the Southern side had a
novel experience. His horse was struck by a bursting shell and torn to a
thousand fragments. The general, thrown ten feet high, fell to the ground,
but leaped to his feet unhurt and asked for another horse.
Early in the afternoon, Beauregard became convinced that he was fighting a
losing battle and that it would be the part of prudence to withdraw the
army before losing all. He thereupon sent the members of his staff to the
various corps commanders ordering them to prepare to retreat from the
field, at the same time making a show of resuming the offensive. The
retreat was so skilfully made, the front firing-line being kept intact,
that the Federals did not suspect it for some time. Some hours before
nightfall the fighting had ceased. The Federals remained in possession of
the field and the Confederates were wading through the mud on the road to
Corinth.
It was a dreary march for the bleeding and battered Confederate army. An
eye-witness described it in the following language:
"I made a detour from the road on which the army was retreating that I
might travel faster and get ahead of the main body. In this ride of twelve
miles alongside of the routed army, I saw more of human agony and woe than
I trust I will ever again be called upon to witness. The retreating host
wound along a narrow and almost impassable road, extending some seven or
eight miles in length. Here was a line of wagons loaded with wounded,
piled in like bags of grain, groaning and cursing; while the mules plunged
on in mud and water belly-deep, the water sometimes coming into the
wagons. Next came a straggling regiment of infantry, pressing on past the
wagons; then a stretcher borne on the shoulders of four men, carrying a
wounded officer; then soldiers staggering along, with an arm broken and
hanging down, or other fearful wounds, which were enough to destroy life.
And, to add to the horrors of the scene, the elements of heaven marshaled
their forces--a fitting accompaniment of the tempest of human desolation
and passion which was raging. A cold, drizzling rain commenced about
nightfall, and soon came harder and faster, then turned to pitiless,
blinding hail. This storm raged with violence for three hours. I passed
long wagon trains filled with wounded and dying soldiers, without even a
blanket to shelter them from the driving sleet and hail, which fell in
stones as large as partridge eggs, until it lay on the ground two inches
deep.
"Some three hundred men died during that awful retreat, and their bodies
were thrown out to make room for others who, although wounded, had
struggled on through the storm, hoping to find shelter, rest, and medical
care."
Four days after the battle, however, Beauregard reported to his
government, "this army is more confident of ultimate success than before
its encounter with the enemy." Addressing the soldiers, he said: "You have
done your duty.... Your countrymen are proud of your deeds on the bloody
field of Shiloh; confident in the ultimate result of your valor."
The news of these two fearful days at Shiloh was astounding to the
American people. Never before on the continent had there been anything
approaching it. Bull Run was a skirmish in comparison with this gigantic
conflict. The losses on each side exceeded ten thousand men. General Grant
tells us that after the second day he saw an open field so covered with
dead that it would have been possible to walk across it in any direction
stepping on dead bodies, without a foot touching the ground. American
valor was tried to the full on both sides at Shiloh, and the record shows
that it was equal to the test.
[Illustration: GENERAL A. S. JOHNSTON, C. S. A.]
A brilliant Southern leader, whose early loss was a hard blow to the
Confederacy, Albert Sidney Johnston was a born fighter with a natural
genius for war. A West Pointer of the Class of '26, he had led a strenuous
and adventurous life. In the early Indian wars, in the border conflicts in
Texas, and in the advance into Mexico, he had always proved his worth, his
bravery and his knowledge as a soldier. At the outbreak of the Civil War
he had already been brevetted Brigadier-General, and had been commander of
the military district of Utah. An ardent Southerner, he made his choice,
dictated by heart and conscience, and the Federal authorities knew the
loss they would sustain and the gain that would be given to the cause of
the Confederacy. In '61 he was assigned to a district including Kentucky
and Tennessee with the rank of General. At once he displayed his gifts as
an organizer, but Shiloh cut short a career that would have led him to a
high place in fame and history. The early Confederate successes of the 6th
of April were due to his leadership. His manner of death and his way of
meeting it attested to his bravery. Struck by a minie ball, he kept in the
saddle, falling exhausted and dying from the loss of blood. His death put
the whole South into mourning.
[Illustration: CAMP OF THE NINTH MISSISSIPPI.
Southern soldiers in shirtsleeves a few months before they fought bravely
at Shiloh. General Chalmers, waving the flag of this regiment, led it in a
gallant charge on the second day.]
[Illustration: BRIG.-GEN. J. D. WEBSTER]
To no one who was close to him in the stirring scenes of the early
conflict in the West did Grant pay higher tribute than to this veteran of
the Mexican War who was his Chief of Staff. He was a man to be relied upon
in counsel and in emergency, a fact that the coming leader recognized from
the very outset. An artillery officer and engineer, his military training
and practical experience made him a most valuable executive. He had also
the gift of leading men and inspiring confidence. Always cool and
collected in the face of danger, and gifted with a personality that won
friends everywhere, the reports of all of his superiors show the trust and
confidence that were reposed in him. In April, 1861, he had taken charge
of the fortifications at Cairo, Illinois. He was with Grant at Paducah, at
Forts Henry and Donelson, and at Shiloh where he collected the artillery
near the Landing that repelled the final Confederate attack on April 6th.
He remained Chief of Staff until October, 1862. On October 14th, he was
made a Brigadier-General of Volunteers, and was appointed superintendent
of military railroads in the Department of Tennessee. Later he was Chief
of Staff to General Sherman, and again proved his worth when he was with
General Thomas at Hood's defeat before Nashville in December, 1864. On
March 13, 1865, he received the brevet of Major-General of Volunteers.
[Illustration: WAITING FOR THE SMELL OF POWDER--CONFEDERATES BEFORE SHILOH