THE ARMY AT PITTSBURG LANDING.
On the 6th and 7th of April, 1862, one of the greatest battles of the
war was fought near Pittsburg Landing in Tennessee, on the west bank of
the Tennessee River, about twelve miles from the northeast corner of the
State of Mississippi. The Rebels call it the battle of Shiloh, because
it was fought near Shiloh Church. I did not see the terrible contest,
but I reached the place soon after the fight, in season to see the guns,
cannon, wagons, knapsacks, cartridge-boxes, which were scattered over
the ground, and the newly-made graves where the dead had just been
buried. I was in camp upon the field several weeks, and saw the woods,
the plains, hills, ravines. Officers and men who were in the fight
pointed out the places where they stood, showed me where the Rebels
advanced, where their batteries were, how they advanced and retreated,
how the tide of victory ebbed and flowed. Having been so early on the
ground, and having listened to the stories of a great many persons, I
shall try to give you a correct account. It will be a difficult task,
however, for the stories are conflicting. No two persons see a battle
alike; each has his own stand-point. He sees what takes place around
him. No other one will tell a story like his. Men have different
temperaments. One is excited, and another is cool and collected. Men
live fast in battle. Every nerve is excited, every sense intensified,
and it is only by taking the accounts of different observers that an
accurate view can be obtained.
After the capture of Fort Donelson, you remember that General Johnston
retreated through Nashville towards the South. A few days later the
Rebels evacuated Columbus on the Mississippi. They were obliged to
concentrate their forces. They saw that Memphis would be the next point
of attack, and they must defend it. All of their energies were aroused.
The defeat of the Union army at Bull Run, you remember, caused a great
uprising of the North, and so the fall of Donelson stirred the people of
the South.
If you look at the map of Tennessee, you will notice, about twenty miles
from Pittsburg Landing, the town of Corinth. It is at the junction of
the Memphis and Charleston and the Mobile and Ohio Railroads, which made
it an important place to the Rebels.
"Corinth must be defended," said the Memphis newspapers.
[Illustration: PITTSBURG LANDING AND VICINITY.]
Governor Harris of Tennessee issued a proclamation calling upon the
people to enlist.
"As Governor of your State, and Commander-in-Chief of its
army, I call upon every able-bodied man of the State, without
regard to age, to enlist in its service. I command him who
can obtain a weapon to march with our armies. I ask him who
can repair or forge an arm to make it ready at once for the
soldier."
General Beauregard was sent in great haste to the West by Jeff Davis,
who hoped that the fame and glory which he had won by attacking Fort
Sumter and at Bull Run would rouse the people of the Southwest and save
the failing fortunes of the Confederacy.
To Corinth came the flower of the Southern army. All other points were
weakened to save Corinth. From Pensacola came General Bragg and ten
thousand Alabamians, who had watched for many months the little frowning
fortress on Santa Rosa Island. The troops which had been at Mobile to
resist the landing of General Butler from Ship Island were hastened
north upon the trains of the Mobile and Ohio road. General Beauregard
called upon the Governors of Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama, and
Louisiana for additional troops.
General Polk, who had been a bishop before the war, sent down two
divisions from Columbus on the Mississippi. General Johnston with his
retreating army hastened on, and thus all the Rebel troops in the
Southwestern States were mustered at Corinth.
The call to take up arms was responded to everywhere; old men and boys
came trooping into the place. They came from Texas, Arkansas, and
Missouri. Beauregard labored with unremitting energy to create an army
which would be powerful enough to drive back the Union troops, recover
Tennessee, and invade Kentucky.
General Grant, after the capture of Donelson, moved his army, on
steamboats, down the Cumberland and up the Tennessee, to Pittsburg
Landing. He made his head-quarters at Savannah, a small town ten miles
below Pittsburg Landing, on the east side of the river.
General Buell, who had followed General Johnston through Nashville with
the army of the Ohio, was slowly making his way across the country to
join General Grant. The Rebel generals had the railroads, by which they
could rapidly concentrate their troops, and they determined to attack
General Grant at Pittsburg, with their superior force, before General
Buell could join him. Beauregard had his pickets within four miles of
General Grant's force, and he could move his entire army within striking
distance before General Grant would know of his danger. He calculated
that he could annihilate General Grant, drive him into the river, or
force him to surrender, capture all of his cannon, wagons, ammunition,
provisions, steamboats,--everything,--by a sudden stroke. If he
succeeded, he could then move against General Buell, destroy his army,
and not only recover all that had been lost, but he would also redeem
Kentucky and invade Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois.
All but one division of General Grant's army was at Pittsburg. Two miles
above the Landing the river begins to make its great eastern bend. Lick
Creek comes in from the west, at the bend. Three miles below Pittsburg
is Snake Creek, which also comes in from the west. Five miles further
down is Crump's Landing. General Lewis Wallace's division was near
Crump's, but the other divisions were between the two creeks. The banks
of the river are seventy-five feet high, and the country is a succession
of wooded hills, with numerous ravines. There are a few clearings and
farm-houses, but it is nearly all forest,--tall oak-trees, with here and
there thickets of underbrush. The farmers cultivate a little corn,
cotton, and tobacco. The country has been settled many years, but is
almost as wild as when the Indians possessed the land.
Pittsburg is the nearest point to Corinth on the river. The road from
the Landing winds up the bank, passes along the edge of a deep ravine,
and leads southwest. As you go up the road, you come to a log-cabin
about a mile from the river. There is a peach-orchard near by. There the
roads fork. The left-hand road takes you to Hamburg, the middle one is
the Ridge road to Corinth, and the third is the road to Shiloh Church,
called also the Lower Corinth road. There are other openings in the
woods,--old cotton-fields. Three miles out from the river you come to
Shiloh Church. A clear brook, which is fed by springs, gurgles over a
sandy bed, close by the church. You fill your canteen, and find it
excellent water. On Sunday noons, the people who come to church sit down
beneath the grand old trees, eat their dinners, and drink from the
brook.
It is not such a church as you see in your own village. It has no tall
steeple or tapering spire, no deep-toned bell, no organ, no
singing-seats or gallery, no pews or carpeted aisles. It is built of
logs. It was chinked with clay years ago, but the rains have washed it
out. You can thrust your hand between the cracks. It is thirty or forty
feet square. It has places for windows, but there are no sashes, and of
course no glass. As you stand within, you can see up to the roof,
supported by hewn rafters, and covered with split shingles, which shake
and rattle when the wind blows. It is the best-ventilated church you
ever saw. It has no pews, but only rough seats for the congregation. A
great many of the churches of this section of the country are no better
than this. Slavery does not build neat churches and school-houses, as a
general thing. Around this church the battle raged fearfully.
Not far from the church, a road leads northeast towards Crump's Landing,
and another northwest towards the town of Purdy. By the church, along
the road leading down to the Landing, at the peach-orchard, and in the
ravines you find the battle-ground.
General Johnston was senior commander of the Rebel army. He had
Beauregard, Bragg, Polk, Hardee, Cheatham,--all Major-Generals, who had
been educated at West Point, at the expense of the United States. They
were considered to be the ablest generals in the Rebel service. General
Breckenridge was there. He was Vice-President under Buchanan, and was
but a few weeks out of his seat in the Senate of the United States. He
was, you remember, the slaveholders' candidate for President in 1860.
Quite likely he felt very sour against the Northern people, because he
was not elected President.
The Rebel army numbered between forty and fifty thousand men. General
Johnston worked with all his might to organize into brigades the troops
which were flocking in from all quarters. It was of the utmost
importance that the attack should be made before General Buell joined
General Grant. The united and concentrated forces of Beauregard, Bragg,
and Johnston outnumbered Grant's army by fifteen thousand. General Van
Dorn, with thirty thousand men, was expected from Arkansas. They were to
come by steamboat to Memphis, and were to be transported to Corinth by
the Memphis and Charleston Railroad; but Van Dorn was behind time, and,
unless the attack was made at once, it would be too late, for the
combined armies of Grant and Buell would outnumber the Rebels. At
midnight, on the 1st of April, Johnston learned that General Buell's
advance divisions were within two or three days' march of Savannah. He
immediately issued his orders to his corps commanders, directing the
routes which each was to take in advancing towards Pittsburg.
The troops began their march on Thursday morning. They were in excellent
spirits. They cheered, swung their hats, and marched with great
enthusiasm. The Rebel officers, who knew the situation, the ground where
General Grant was encamped, believed that his army would be annihilated.
They assured the troops it would be a great and glorious victory.
The distance was only eighteen miles, and General Johnston intended to
strike the blow at daylight on Saturday morning, but it rained hard
Friday night, and the roads in the morning were so muddy that the
artillery could not move. It was late Saturday afternoon before his army
was in position. It was too near night to make the attack. He examined
the ground, distributed ammunition, posted the artillery, gave the men
extra rations, and waited for Sunday morning.
The Union army rested in security. No intrenchments were thrown up on
the hills and along the ridges. No precautions were taken against
surprise. The officers and soldiers did not dream of being attacked.
They were unprepared. The divisions were not in order for battle. They
were preparing to advance upon Corinth, and were to march when General
Halleck, who was at St. Louis, commanding the department, should take
the field.
On the evening of Friday the pickets on the Corinth road, two miles out
from Shiloh Church, were fired upon. A body of Rebels rushed through the
woods, and captured several officers and men. The Seventieth,
Seventy-second, and Forty-eighth Ohio, of General Sherman's division,
were sent out upon a reconnoissance. They came upon a couple of Rebel
regiments, and, after a sharp action, drove them back to a Rebel
battery, losing three or four prisoners and taking sixteen. General
Lewis Wallace ordered out his division, and moved up from Crump's
Landing a mile or two, and the troops stood under arms in the rain, that
poured in torrents through the night, to be ready for an attack from
that direction; but nothing came of it. There was more skirmishing on
Saturday,--a continual firing along the picket lines. All supposed that
the Rebels were making a reconnoissance. No one thought that one of the
greatest battles of the war was close at hand. General Grant went down
the river to Savannah on Saturday night. The troops dried their clothes
in the sun, cooked their suppers, told their evening stories, and put
out their lights at tattoo, as usual.
To get at the position of General Grant's army, let us start from
Pittsburg Landing. It is a very busy place at the Landing. Forty or
fifty steamboats are there, and hundreds of men are rolling out barrels
of sugar, bacon, pork, beef, boxes of bread, bundles of hay, and
thousands of sacks of corn. There are several hundred wagons waiting to
transport the supplies to the troops. A long train winds up the hill
towards the west.
Ascending the hill, you come to the forks of the roads. The right-hand
road leads to Crump's Landing. You see General Smith's old division,
which took the rifle-pits at Donelson, on the right-hand side of the
road in the woods. It is commanded now by W. H. L. Wallace, who has been
made a Brigadier-General for his heroism at Donelson. There have been
many changes of commanders since that battle. Colonels who commanded
regiments there are now brigade commanders.
Keeping along the Shiloh road a few rods, you come to the road which
leads to Hamburg. Instead of turning up that, you keep on a little
farther to the Ridge road, leading to Corinth. General Prentiss's
division is on that road, two miles out, towards the southwest. Instead
of taking that road, you still keep on the right-hand one, travelling
nearly west all the while, and you come to McClernand's division, which
is encamped in a long line on both sides of the road. Here you see
Dresser's, Taylor's, Schwartz's, and McAllister's batteries, and all
those regiments which fought so determinedly at Donelson. They face
northwest. Their line is a little east of the church.
Passing over to the church, you see that a number of roads centre
there,--one coming in from the northwest, which will take you to Purdy;
one from the northeast, which will carry you to Crump's Landing; the
road up which you have travelled from Pittsburg Landing; one from the
southeast, which will take you to Hamburg; and one from the southwest,
which is the lower road to Corinth.
You see, close by the church, on both sides of this lower road to
Corinth, General Sherman's division, not facing northwest, but nearly
south. McClernand's left and Sherman's left are close together. They
form the two sides of a triangle, the angle being at the left wings.
They are in a very bad position to be attacked.
Take the Hamburg road now, and go southeast two miles and you come to
the crossing of the Ridge road to Corinth, where you will find General
Prentiss's division, before mentioned. Keeping on, you come to Lick
Creek. It has high, steep banks. It is fordable at this point, and
Colonel Stuart's brigade of Sherman's division is there, guarding the
crossing. The brook which gurgles past the church empties into the
creek. You see that Prentiss's entire division, and the left wing of
McClernand's, is between Stuart's brigade and the rest of Sherman's
division. There are detached regiments encamped in the woods near the
Landing, which have just arrived, and have not been brigaded. There are
also two regiments of cavalry in rear of these lines. There are several
pieces of siege artillery on the top of the hill near the Landing, but
there are no artillerists or gunners to serve them.
You see that the army does not expect to be attacked. The cavalry ought
to be out six or eight miles on picket; but they are here, the horses
quietly eating their oats. The infantry pickets ought to be out three or
four miles, but they are not a mile and a half advanced from the camp.
The army is in a bad position to resist a sudden attack from a superior
force. McClernand ought not to be at right angles with Sherman, Stuart
ought not to be separated from his division by Prentiss, and General
Lewis Wallace is too far away to render prompt assistance. Besides,
General Grant is absent, and there is no commander-in-chief on the
field. You wonder that no preparations have been make to resist an
attack, no breastworks thrown up, no proper disposition of the forces,
no extended reconnoissances by the cavalry, and that, after the
skirmishing on Friday and Saturday, all hands should lie down so quietly
in their tents on Saturday night. They did not dream that fifty thousand
Rebels were ready to strike them at daybreak.
General Johnston's plan of attack was submitted to his corps commanders
and approved by them. It was to hurl the entire army upon Prentiss and
Sherman. He had four lines of troops, extending from Lick Creek on the
right to the southern branch of Snake Creek on the left, a distance of
about two miles and a half.
The front line was composed of Major-General Hardee's entire corps, with
General Gladden's brigade of Bragg's corps added on the right. The
artillery was placed in front, followed closely by the infantry.
Squadrons of cavalry were thrown out on both wings to sweep the woods
and drive in the Union pickets.
About five hundred yards in rear of Hardee was the second line, Bragg's
corps in the same order as Hardee's. Eight hundred yards in rear of
Bragg was General Polk, his left wing supported by cavalry, his
batteries in position to advance at a moment's notice. The reserve,
under General Breckenridge, followed close upon Polk. Breckenridge's and
Polk's corps were both reckoned as reserves. They had instructions to
act as they thought best. There were from ten to twelve thousand men in
each line.
The Rebel troops had received five days' rations on Friday,--meat and
bread in their haversacks. They were not permitted to kindle a fire
except in holes in the ground. No loud talking was allowed; no drums
beat the tattoo, no bugle-note rang through the forest. They rolled
themselves in their blankets, knowing at daybreak they were to strike
the terrible blow. They were confident of success. They were assured by
their officers it would be an easy victory, and that on Sunday night
they should sleep in the Yankee camp, eat Yankee bread, drink real
coffee, and have new suits of clothes.
In the evening General Johnston called his corps commanders around his
bivouac fire for a last talk before the battle. Although Johnston was
commander-in-chief, Beauregard planned the battle. Johnston was
Beauregard's senior, but the battle-ground was in Beauregard's
department. He gave directions to the officers.
Mr. William G. Stevenson, of Kentucky, who was in Arkansas when the war
broke out, was impressed into the Rebel service. He acted as special
_aide-de-camp_ to General Breckenridge in that battle. He escaped from
the Rebel service a few months later, and has published an interesting
narrative of what he saw.[8] He stood outside the circle of generals
waiting by his horse in the darkness to carry any despatch for his
commander. He gives this description of the scene:--
[Footnote 8: "Thirteen Months in the Rebel Service."]
"In an open space, with a dim fire in the midst, and a drum
on which to write, you could see grouped around their 'Little
Napoleon,' as Beauregard was sometimes fondly called, ten or
twelve generals, the flickering light playing over their
eager faces, while they listened to his plans, and made
suggestions as to the conduct of the fight.
"Beauregard soon warmed with his subject, and, throwing off
his cloak, to give free play to his arms, he walked about the
group, gesticulating rapidly, and jerking out his sentences
with a strong French accent. All listened attentively, and
the dim light, just revealing their countenances, showed
their different emotions of confidence or distrust of his
plans.
"General Sidney Johnston stood apart from the rest, with his
tall, straight form standing out like a spectre against the
dim sky, and the illusion was fully sustained by the
light-gray military cloak which he folded around him. His
face was pale, but wore a determined expression, and at times
he drew nearer the centre of the ring, and said a few words,
which were listened to with great attention. It may be he had
some foreboding of the fate he was to meet on the morrow, for
he did not seem to take much part in the discussion.
"General Breckenridge lay stretched out on a blanket near the
fire, and occasionally sat upright and added a few words of
counsel. General Bragg spoke frequently, and with
earnestness. General Polk sat on a camp-stool at the outside
of the circle, and held his head between his hands, buried in
thought. Others reclined or sat in various positions.
"For two hours the council lasted, and as it broke up, and
the generals were ready to return to their respective
commands, I heard General Beauregard say, raising his hand
and pointing in the direction of the Federal camp, whose
drums we could plainly hear, 'Gentlemen, we sleep in the
enemy's camp to-morrow night.'"
The Confederate General, the same writer says, had minute information of
General Grant's position and numbers. This knowledge was obtained
through spies and informers, some of whom lived in the vicinity, had
been in and out of Grant's camp again and again, and knew every foot of
ground.
Under these circumstances, with a superior force, with accurate
knowledge of the position of every brigade in General Grant's army, with
troops in the best spirits, enthusiastic, ardent, expecting a victory,
stealing upon a foe unsuspicious, unprepared, with brigades and
divisions widely separated, with General Grant, the commander-in-chief,
ten miles away, and General Buell's nearest troops twenty miles distant,
the Rebel generals waited impatiently for the coming of the morning.