Shirk commanding, now steamed up to the mouth of the little creek, near
which Stuart’s brigade had lain in the morning, and where the rebels
were attacking the Union left. When they reached the mouth of the stream
the boats rounded to, commanding a ravine cut through the bluff, as if
for the passage of their shells, which poured destruction into the ranks
of the enemy. This movement was made under the direction of General
Hurlbut, and it soon swept the enemy’s ranks, carrying terror with every
burst of deadly iron the guns belched forth.
Eager to avenge the death of their commanding General (now known to have
been killed a couple of hours before), and to complete the victory they
believed to be within their grasp, the rebels had incautiously ventured
within reach of their most dreaded antagonists, as broadside after
broadside of seven-inch shells and sixty-four-pound shot soon taught
them. This was a foe they had hardly counted on, and the unexpected fire
in flank and rear produced a startling effect. The boats fired
admirably, and with a rapidity that was astonishing. The twenty-two land
guns kept up their stormy thunder; and thus, amid the crash and roar,
the scream of shells and demon-like hiss of minie balls, that Sabbath
evening wore away.
Startled by the accumulated force, and disheartened by the fearful
combinations against them, the rebels fell slowly back, fighting as they
went, until they reached an advantageous position, somewhat in the rear,
yet occupying the main road to Corinth. The gunboats kept pouring a
storm of shell on their track, until they retired completely out of
reach, and the battle of the first day ended.
As the sounds of battle died away, and division generals drew off their
men, a council of war was held, and it was decided that as soon as
possible after daybreak the enemy should be attacked and driven from
their snug quarters in the Union camps. Lew. Wallace, who was coming in
on the new road from Crump’s Landing, and crossing Snake Creek just
above the Illinois Wallace’s (W. H. L.) camps, was to take the right and
sweep back toward the position from which Sherman had been driven on
Sunday morning. Nelson was to take the extreme left. Buell promised to
place Crittenden next to Nelson, and McCook next to him, by a seasonable
hour in the morning. The gap between McCook and Lew. Wallace was to be
filled with the reorganized divisions of Grant’s army; Hurlbut coming
next to McCook, then McClernand, and Sherman closing the gap between
McClernand and Lew. Wallace.
[Illustration:
BATTLE OF PITTSBURG LANDING, APRIL 6, 1862.
]
From the first fearful onslaught upon Buckland’s brigade, which,
gathering up its shattered regiments, and firing as they ran, to form in
the heavy woods, leaving winrows of slain on their track, to the last
outburst of shot and shell from the gunboats, the contest of that day
had been a fearful one. Most of the troops which received the first
shock of battle were raw recruits, just from the camp of instruction.
Hundred and hundreds of them had never seen a gun fired save in sport in
their lives. With officers equally inexperienced, admitting brilliant
exceptions, it is not wonderful that the ranks were broken and driven
back when the terrific roar of cannon burst in their midst, and
bombshells scattered fire and death among the tents, in which they were
quietly sleeping but an hour before. Springing to arms, half prepared
only to rush through the blinding smoke to meet the serried columns of
the rebels’ impetuous advance—truly it is not strange that they fell
into confusion, fighting blindly and at random. But it was a grand sight
when Sherman dashed along the lines, shouting encouragement to the men,
exposing his own life a hundred times, and rallying his forces with a
wonderful power of voice and action. The herculean exertions of this
brave man no doubt saved the division from utter destruction.
From the first tranquil opening of that beautiful day to its lurid and
bloody close more desperate bravery has seldom been exhibited. When
Americans meet Americans, all that is heroic and daring in the national
character springs to action, and deeds are done on both sides that
thrill the nation as it stands breathlessly listening, North and South,
to know how her sons have fought.
NIGHT BETWEEN THE TWO BATTLES.
In dead silence the troops took their new position, and lay down on
their arms in line of battle. All night long the remainder of Buell’s
men were marching up from Savannah to a point opposite Pittsburg
Landing, whence they were brought over in transports. An hour after dark
Wallace came in with his division. There had been delay in getting the
right road, which made him late on the field. But once there he fell to
work with energy. He ascertained the position of certain rebel batteries
which lay in front of him on the right, and threatened to bar his
advance in the morning, and selected positions for a couple of his
batteries from which they could silence the enemy. In placing his guns
and arranging his brigades for support, he was occupied till one o’clock
in the morning. His wearied men had lain down to snatch a few hours of
sleep, with the shadows of death all around them.
At nine o’clock all was hushed near the landing. Men still panting from
the hot contest of the day, threw themselves on the earth to sleep or
die as they chanced to be unhurt or wounded unto death. The bright stars
looked down upon the ranks of sleeping, dying and dead men, with sweet
Sabbath-like calm, and never did the stars of heaven brood over a
spectacle more appalling. The sound of marching troops from the far
distance alone broke the solemn stillness, save when the moans of the
wounded, and the agonizing cries for water thrilled the night with
sounds of anguish. Now a flash shed a flood of sheet-lightning over the
river, turning its waters to lurid fire, and the roar of heavy naval
guns reverberated on the bluffs, breaking up the sublime silence of the
night. Again and again the guns boomed great volumes of sound. By the
flashes, the gunboats could be seen receding back into the fiery blue of
the waters with each graceful recoil produced by the discharge. A thin
veil of smoke settled around them, floating drowsily between their black
hulls and the beautiful stars. Far away in the distant woods came the
muffled explosion of shells thus let loose on the tranquil air.
Thus the night wore on. The soldiers, far too weary for the boom of
cannon to awake them, slept quietly almost as the dead were sleeping.
The wounded answered back the dismal sound with more dismal groans. At
midnight a thunder storm broke over the battle field, and the artillery
of heaven swept its fires through the sky, while the guns from the river
boomed a sullen answer. Torrents of rain fell, drenching the sleepers,
but falling cool as balm on the parched lips of the wounded, assuaging
their burning thirst and moistening their wounds.
The vigilant officers knew that half a mile off lay a victorious army,
commanded by splendid Generals, rendered ardent by a half-won conquest
which might be a victory on the morrow. For them there was little rest.
When the day broke it found these men watching. When the brain is active
men do not sleep, and the General who has divisions to command and
protect must earn success by vigilance.
THE BATTLE ON MONDAY.
The line of battle agreed upon for the Union forces on Monday was
this:—Right wing, Major-General Lew. Wallace; left wing,
Brigadier-General Nelson. Between these, beginning at the left,
Brigadier-Generals T. Crittenden, A. McD. McCook, Hurlbut, McClernand
and W. T. Sherman. In the divisions of the three latter were to be
included also the remains of Prentiss’ and W. H. L. Wallace’s
commands—shattered and left without commanders, through the capture of
one, and the mortal wound of the other.
Buell’s three divisions were not full when the battle opened on Monday
morning, but the lacking regiments were gradually brought into the rear.
The different divisions were composed of the following forces:
BRIGADIER-GENERAL NELSON’S DIVISION.—_First Brigade_—Col. Ammon, 24th
Ohio, commanding; 36th Indiana, Col. Gross; 6th Ohio, Lieut.-Col.
Anderson; 24th Ohio, Lieut.-Col. Fred. C. Jones. _Second
Brigade_—Saunders D. Bruce, 20th Kentucky, commanding; 1st Kentucky,
Col. Enyard; 2d Kentucky, Col. Sedgwick; 20th Kentucky, Lieut.-Col. ——,
commanding. _Third Brigade_—Col. Hazen, 41st Ohio, commanding; 41st
Ohio, 6th Kentucky and 9th Indiana.
BRIGADIER-GENERAL T. CRITTENDEN’S DIVISION.—_First Brigade_—Gen. Boyle;
19th Ohio, Col. Beatty; 59th Ohio, Col. Pfyffe; 13th Kentucky, Col.
Hobson; 9th Kentucky, Col. Grider. _Second Brigade_—Col. Wm. S. Smith,
13th Ohio, commanding; 13th Ohio, Lieut.-Col. Hawkins; 26th Kentucky,
Lieut.-Col. Maxwell; 11th Kentucky, Col. P. P. Hawkins; with
Mendenhall’s regular and Bartlett’s Ohio batteries.
BRIGADIER-GENERAL MCCOOK’S DIVISION.—_First Brigade_—Brig.-Gen. Lovell
H. Rousseau; 1st Ohio, Col. Ed. A. Parrott; 6th Indiana, Col.
Crittenden; 3d Kentucky (Louisville Legion); battalions 15th, 16th and
19th regulars. _Second Brigade_—Brig.-Gen. Johnston; 32d Indiana, Col.
Willich; 39th Indiana, Col. Harrison; 49th Ohio, Col. Gibson. _Third
Brigade_—Colonel Kirk, 34th Illinois, commanding; 34th Illinois,
Lieut.-Col. Badsworth; 29th Indiana, Lieut.-Col. Drum; 30th Indiana,
Col. Bass; 77th Pennsylvania, Col. Stambaugh.
MAJOR-GENERAL LEW. WALLACE’S DIVISION—RIGHT OF ARMY.—_First
Brigade_—Col. Morgan L. Smith, commanding; 8th Missouri, Col. Morgan L.
Smith, Lieut.-Col. James Peckham, commanding; 11th Indiana, Col. George
F. McGinnis; 24th Indiana, Col. Alvin P. Hovey; Thurber’s Missouri
battery. _Second Brigade_—Col. Thayer (1st Nebraska) commanding; 1st
Nebraska, Lieut.-Col. McCord, commanding; 23d Indiana, Col. Sanderson;
58th Ohio, Col. Bausenwein; 68th Ohio, Col. Steadman; Thompson’s Indiana
battery. _Third Brigade_—Col. Chas. Whittlesey (20th Ohio) commanding;
20th Ohio, Lieut.-Col. —— commanding; 56th Ohio, Col. Peter Kinney; 76th
Ohio, Col. Chas. R. Woods; 78th Ohio, Col. Leggett.
At daylight it became evident that the gunboat bombardment through the
night had not been without a most important effect. It had changed the
position of the rebel army. The sun had gone down with the enemy’s lines
encircling the Union forces closely on the centre and left, pushing them
to the river, and leaving them little over half a mile of all the broad
space they had held in the morning. The gunboats had cut the coils and
loosened the anaconda-like constriction. Their shells had made the old
position on the extreme Union left, which the rebels had been occupying,
utterly untenable. Instead of stealing upon their foe in the night,
which was doubtless their intention, they were compelled to fall back
from point to point out of range of the shells which came dropping in;
go where they would within range, the troublesome visitors would find
them out, and they fell back beyond the inner Union camps, and thus lost
more than half the ground they had gained the afternoon before.
Less easily accounted for was a movement of theirs on the right. Here
they had held a steep bluff, covered with underbrush, as their advanced
line. Through the night they abandoned this, the best possible position
for opposing Lew. Wallace, and had fallen back across some open fields
to the scrub oak woods beyond.
To those who had looked despairingly at the prospects on Sunday evening,
it seemed unaccountable that the rebels did not open the contest by
daybreak. Their retreat before the bombshells of the gunboats, however,
explained the delay. The Union divisions were put in motion almost
simultaneously. By seven o’clock Lew. Wallace opened the day by shelling
the rebel battery, of which mention has been made, from the positions he
had selected the night before. A brisk artillery duel was followed by a
rapid movement of infantry across a shallow ravine, as if to storm; and
the rebels, enfiladed and menaced in front, limbered up and made the
opening of their Monday’s retreating.
NELSON’S ADVANCE.
Nelson, who was assigned the left wing, moved his division about the
same time Wallace opened on the rebel battery, forming in line of
battle, Ammon’s brigade on the extreme left, Bruce’s in the centre, and
Hazen’s to the right. Skirmishers were thrown out, and for nearly a mile
the division thus swept the country, pushing a few outlying rebels
before it, till it came upon them in force. Then a general engagement
broke out along the line, and again the rattle of musketry and thunder
of artillery echoed over the late silent fields. There was no straggling
this morning. These men were well drilled, and strict measures were
taken to prevent miscellaneous thronging back out of harm’s way. They
stood up to their work and did their duty manfully.
It soon became evident that, whether from change of commanders or some
other cause, the rebels were pursuing a new policy in massing their
forces. On Sunday the heaviest fighting had been done on the left. In
the morning they seemed to make a less determined resistance here, while
toward the centre and right the ground was more obstinately contested,
and the struggle fiercely prolonged.
Until half-past ten o’clock Nelson advanced slowly but steadily,
sweeping his long lines over the ground of defeat on Sunday morning,
moving over scores of dead rebels, and resistlessly pressing back the
jaded and wearied enemy. The rebels had received but few reinforcements
during the night. Their men were exhausted with the desperate contest of
the day before, and manifestly dispirited by the fact that they were
fighting Grant and Buell combined.
Gradually, as Nelson pushed forward his lines under heavy musketry, the
enemy fell back, till about half-past ten, when, under cover of the
heavy timber and a furious cannonading, they made a general rally. The
Union forces, flushed with their easy success, were scarcely prepared
for the sudden onset, when the rebel masses were hurled against them
with tremendous force. The men halted, wavered, and were driven back. At
this critical juncture Captain Terry’s regular battery came dashing up.
Scarcely taking time to unlimber, he was loading and sighting his pieces
before the caissons had turned, and in an instant was tossing in shell
from twenty-four-pound howitzers in to the compact and advancing rebel
ranks.
Here was the turning point of the battle on the left. The rebels were
checked, not halted. On they came. Horse after horse from the batteries
was picked off. Every private at one of the howitzers was shot down, and
the gun was worked by Captain Terry himself and a corporal. A regiment
dashed up from the Union line, and saved the disabled piece. Then for
two hours artillery and musketry raged at close range. At last the enemy
began to waver. The Federals pressed on, pouring in deadly volleys. Just
then Buell, who assumed the general direction of his troops in the
field, came up. At a glance he saw the position of things, and gave a
prompt order. “Forward at double-quick by brigades.” The men leaped
forward with the eagerness of unleashed hounds. For a quarter of a mile
the rebels fell back. Faster and faster they ran; less and less
resistance was made to the advance. At last the front camps on the left
were reached, and by half-past two that point was cleared. The rebels
had been steadily swept back over the ground they had won, with heavy
loss, and fell into confusion. The Unionists had retaken all their own
guns lost here the day before, and one or two from the rebels were left
to attest how bravely that great victory in Tennessee was won.
ADVANCE OF CRITTENDEN’S DIVISION.
Next to Nelson came Crittenden. He, too, swept forward over his ground
to the front some distance before finding the foe. Between eight and
nine o’clock, however, while keeping Smith’s brigade on his left even
with Nelson’s flank, and joining Boyle’s brigade to McCook on the right,
in the grand advance, he came upon the enemy with a battery in position,
and, well supported, Smith dashed his brigade forward. There was sharp,
close work with musketry, and the rebels fled. He took three pieces—a
twelve-pound howitzer and two brass six-pounders. But they cost the
gallant Thirteenth Ohio dear. Major Ben. Piatt Runkle fell, mortally
wounded.
For half an hour, perhaps, the storm raged around these captured guns.
Then came the recoiling rebel wave that had hurled Nelson back.
Crittenden, too, caught its full force. The rebels swept up to the
batteries—around them, and down after the retreating Union column. But
the two brigades, like those of Nelson’s to their left, took a fresh
position, faced the foe, and held their ground. Mendenhall’s and
Bartlett’s batteries now began shelling the infantry that alone opposed
them. Before abandoning the guns so briefly held, they had spiked them
with mud, and this novel expedient was perfectly successful. From that
time till after one o’clock, while the fight raged back and forth over
the same ground, the rebels did not succeed in firing a shot from their
mud-spiked artillery.
At last the Union brigades began to gain the advantage. Crittenden drove
the enemy steadily forward. Captain Mendenhall, with First-Lieutenant
Parsons, a Western Reserve West Pointer, with Bartlett, poured in their
shell. A rush for the contested battery, and it was taken again. The
rebels retreated towards the left. Smith and Boyle holding the infantry
well in hand, Mendenhall again got their range and poured in shell on
the new position. The fortune of the day was against them, as against
their comrades in Nelson’s front, and they were soon in full retreat.
Just then Brigadier-General Thomas J. Woods’ advance brigade from his
approaching division came up. It was too late for the fight, but it
relieved Crittenden’s weary fellows, and pushed on after the rebels
until they were found to have left the most advanced Union camps.
M’COOK’S ADVANCE.
Thus the left was saved. Meanwhile McCook, with his magnificent
regiments, was doing equally well toward the centre. His division was
handled in a way to save great effusion of blood, while equally
important results were attained. The reserves were kept as much as
possible from under fire, while the troops in front were engaged. Thus
the lists of killed and wounded will show that while as heavy fighting
was done here as any where on the right or centre, the casualties were
remarkably few.
An Illinois battery, serving in the division, was in imminent danger.
The Sixth Indiana was ordered to its relief. A rapid rush, close
musketry firing—no need of bayonets here—the battery was safe. The enemy
were to the front and right. Advancing and firing the Sixth pushed on.
The rebel colors dropped. Another volley; yet once more the fated colors
fell. Was there fatality in this? The rebels seemed to think so, for
they wheeled and disappeared.
Rousseau’s brigade was drawn off in splendid style. The rebel General
saw the brigade filing back, and pushed his forces onward again. Kirk’s
brigade advanced to meet him, coming out of the woods into an open
field. It was met by a tremendous fire, which threw a battalion of
regulars in its front into some confusion. They retired to reform, and
meanwhile down dropped the brigade on the ground. As the front was
cleared the men sprang up and charged across the open field, straight to
the woods, under cover, driving the enemy back with their impetuous
advance. He rallied promptly. Fierce musketry firing swept the woods.
They advanced thirty rods, perhaps, when the Twenty-ninth Indiana got
into a marsh and fell partially to the rear. Heavier came the leaden
hail. The Twenty-ninth and Thirtieth both fell back fifteen or twenty
rods; they rallied and advanced again. They were repulsed, started
impetuously forward, and this time came in on the vulnerable points.
Colonel Waggoner’s Fifteenth Indiana came up to the support and the
enemy disappeared. Fresh troops took their places, and for them the
fight ended.
Beginning at the left the waves of success swept forward from point to
point over the lost fields of Sunday. Pæans of victory, and the wild
cheers of successful soldiers sounded the requiem of the fallen rebels,
who had atoned for their treason by the brave man’s death. Nelson,
Crittenden, McCook, Hurlbut, McClernand, led their divisions bravely
through the fray. The contest lasted longer on the right, and was even
more fiercely contested.
LEW. WALLACE’S MOVEMENTS.
When Major-General Lew. Wallace opened the battle at seven o’clock by
shelling with enfilading fires a rebel battery, a few shots demonstrated
to the rebels that their position was untenable. The instant Sherman
came in to protect his left, Wallace advanced his infantry. The rebel
battery at once limbered up and got out of the way. The advance had
withdrawn the division from Sherman, making a left half wheel, to get
back into the neighborhood of the Federal line; they advanced some two
hundred yards, which brought them to a little elevation, with a broad
open stretch to the front. As the division halted on the crest of the
swell, through the edge of the timber, skirting the fields, the head of
a rebel column appeared, marching past in splendid style on the
double-quick. Banner after banner flashed out through the foliage; the
“Stars and Bars” forming a long line, stretching parallel with Wallace’s
line of battle. Regiment after regiment swept forward, the line
lengthened, and doubled and trebled; the head of the column was out of
sight and still they came. Twenty regiments were counted passing through
the woods. Their design was plain. The rebels had abandoned the idea of
forcing their way through the Union left, and the manifest attempt was
to turn the right.
Thompson’s and Thurber’s batteries were now ordered up, and the whole
column was shelled as it passed. The rebels threw their artillery into
position rapidly, and a brisk cannonading began. After a time, while the
fight still rested with the artillery, the rebels opened a new and
destructive battery to the right, which the Union men soon ascertained
was “Watson’s Louisiana battery,” from the marks on the ammunition boxes
the enemy were forced from time to time to leave behind.
Batteries, with a brigade of supporting infantry, were now moved forward
over open fields, under heavy fire, to contend against this new
assailant. The batteries opened, the sharpshooters were thrown out to
the front to pick off the rebel artillerists, and the brigade was
ordered down on its face to protect it from the flying shell and grape.
For an hour and a half the contest lasted, while the body of the
division was still delayed, waiting for Sherman.
SHERMAN’S DIVISION.
Sherman had received orders from Grant to advance and recapture his
camps. His division was composed of odds and ends, as it came out of the
conflict on Sunday evening.
His command was of a mixed character. Buckland’s brigade was the only
one that retained its organization. Colonel Hildebrand was personally
there, but his brigade was not. Colonel McDowell had been severely
injured by a fall of his horse, had gone to the river, and the regiments
of his brigade were not in line. The Thirteenth Missouri, Colonel Crafts
J. Wright, had reported itself on the field, and fought well, retaining
its regimental organization, and it formed a part of Sherman’s line
during Sunday night and all Monday. Other fragments of regiments and
companies had also fallen into his division, and acted with it during
the remainder of the battle.
This was not a very promising host with which to “advance and recapture
his camps.” Sherman, full of ardor, moved forward and reoccupied the
ground on the extreme right of General McClernand’s camp, where he
attracted the fire of a battery located near Colonel McDowell’s
headquarters. Here he remained, patiently awaiting the sound of General
Buell’s advance upon the main Corinth road. It was this independent
action of Sherman which caused Wallace to halt—he evidently not
understanding that General’s design.