SHILOH--NIGHT, AND MONDAY.
The vice of the formation of Johnston's army into three long, thin,
parallel lines, together with the broken character of the ground and the
variable obstinacy of resistance encountered, produced a complete and
inextricable commingling of commands. General Beauregard left it to the
discretion of the different commanders to select the place for bivouac
for the night.
Colonel Pond, retiring from his disastrous repulse toward the close of
the afternoon, found himself wholly separated by an interval of more
than a quarter of a mile from the nearest support, the whole of the
Confederate left having drifted from him toward the southeast.
Assembling all his brigade, except the Crescent Regiment, which had
become detached, and recalling his battery--Ketchum's--he remembered
that the special duty had been assigned to him, by General Bragg, of
guarding the flank along Owl Creek. When night fell, he moved to his
rear and then to his left, and bivouacked in line facing to the east, on
the high land west of Brier Creek. Ketchum's battery was placed in a
field a little back from the ravine. He posted pickets to his rear as
well as to his front. The other two brigades of Ruggles' division spent
the night to the east of Shiloh Church.
Jackson's brigade, of Withers' division, when it recoiled from its
fatal attack on Hurlbut and the reserve artillery, went to pieces.
Jackson with the battery marched to Shiloh Church and reported to
General Beauregard. He saw nothing more of his brigade till he rejoined
it at Corinth. Chalmers, abandoning his vain assault, was astonished to
find that the army had fallen back, leaving him alone. He fell back to
the field where Prentiss surrendered, and there rested. Of the remaining
brigade, Gladden's, the merest fragment cohered; this little band, or
detachment, bivouacked near the Hamburg road. Trabue's brigade, except
one regiment which had become separated, spent the night in the tents of
McDowell's brigade camp; Breckenridge's other two brigades were between
Shiloh Church and the river.
Of General Polk's command, Clark's division, though partially scattered,
rested, the greater portion of it, between Breckenridge and Shiloh
Church. The other division, Cheatham's, which remained the freshest and
least disordered command in Beauregard's army, moved off the field; and,
accompanied by General Polk and one regiment of Clark's division,
marched back to its camp of Saturday night.
Of Hardee's corps, so much of Cleburne's brigade as remained with him,
slept in Prentiss' camp; Wood's brigade slept in McClernand's camp;
Shaver's brigade was disintegrated and dissipated.
In the National army, what men were left of Prentiss' division were
gathered about the landing and with Hurlbut. The regiments of W.H.L.
Wallace that had escaped capture returned to their division camp.
Hurlbut after dark moved his division out to the front of the reserve
artillery. Being relieved by General Nelson, he formed his line with its
left near the reserve artillery and the right near McClernand.
McClernand's command bivouacked along the eastern face of the
camp-ground of W.H.L. Wallace's division. Sherman's left joined
McClernand; his right, Buckland's brigade, lay along the field at the
south flank of McArthur's brigade camp, and along the east bank of the
ravine of Brier Creek. Stuart's brigade, the Fortieth Illinois of
McDowell's brigade, and the Forty-eighth Ohio of Buckland's brigade
spent the night near the reserve artillery.
Captain Baxter, of General Grant's staff, brought to Lewis Wallace at
eleven or half-past eleven, a verbal order to move his division. The
First Brigade had already moved out to Stony Lonesome, and the division
was ready to march. General Wallace believed the attack at Pittsburg was
a feint, and that the real attack was to be made at Crump's Landing, on
account of the great accumulation of stores at that point, and desired
the order requiring him to move away from Crump's Landing should be in
writing. Captain Baxter wrote and gave him an order to march to the
Purdy road, form there on Sherman's right, and then act as circumstances
should require. The two brigades at Stony Lonesome were at once put in
motion. When the head of the division had just reached Snake Creek, not
much more than a mile in an air-line from the right of Sherman's camp,
Captain Rowley came up and informed Wallace of the state of affairs, and
that the National line had fallen back. Wallace countermarched the two
brigades to keep his right in front, retraced his steps (being joined on
the way by Major Rawlins, Grant's adjutant, and by Colonel McPherson)
the greater part of the way to Stony Lonesome, and there took a rude
cross-road which came into the river road from Crump's to Pittsburg
Landing, about a mile from the bridge which had been guarded for his
approach. McPherson and Rawlins confirmed Captain Rowley's statement of
the disastrous falling back of the National lines toward the river. The
wagons were not allowed to accompany the column, but continued on
through Stony Lonesome to Crump's Landing, and the Fifty-sixth Ohio, and
one gun from Thurber's battery were detached to guard them. Whittlesey's
brigade, at Adamsville, received at two o'clock the order to march.
Sending the wagons with the Sixty-eighth Ohio as guard to Crump's
Landing, the remaining three regiments pushed through the mud, the field
officers dismounting to let broken-down men ride, and overtook the other
brigades as they were beginning to cross Snake Creek. The Twenty-fourth
Indiana in advance, crossing the bridge just after sunset, deployed
skirmishers in front, marched along the road along the east bank of
Brier Creek, and halted in front of the camp of the Fourteenth Missouri,
which regiment was occupying its camp. The Twentieth Ohio, the rear
regiment of the division, halted on the bank of Brier Creek ravine, in
front of the camp of the Eighty-first Ohio, at eight o'clock. The
division facing to the right, making a front to the west, along the
ravine, brought the Twenty-fourth Indiana to the left and the Twentieth
Ohio to the right of the division. The batteries having been left at the
junction of the cross-road and the river road, till all the infantry had
crossed, followed in their rear, and were posted near the bank.
The remainder of Nelson's division followed Ammen's brigade late in the
evening. Crittenden's division arrived in the night. McCook receiving
orders to hasten forward in the morning, while twelve miles out from
Savannah, halted at the outskirts of the village at seven o'clock P.M.,
rested his men two hours, marched to the landing, seized such boats as
were there and such as arrived, and reached Pittsburg Landing at five
o'clock Monday morning with Rousseau's brigade and one regiment of
Kirk's brigade.
General Grant and General Buell met at Sherman's headquarters in the
evening; it was there agreed that Buell with his army should in the
morning attack on the left, and Grant's immediate command should attack
on the right. Buell formed Nelson's division about two hundred yards in
front of the reserve artillery, with his left near the river, facing
south. Crittenden, when he arrived, was placed in rear of Nelson, half a
mile from the landing, where his command stood at arms all night. At
eleven o'clock a heavy rain began to pour. All the National troops and
most of the Confederate lay on the ground without shelter. The gunboats
every fifteen minutes through the night fired a shell over the woods, to
explode far inland and banish sleep.
Early Monday morning, Nelson on the extreme left, on the Hamburg road,
and Lewis Wallace on the extreme right, by Snake Creek, moved to the
attack. Beauregard knew then that Buell had arrived and the junction of
the two National armies had been effected. The opening of the battle
proclaimed what the conclusion would be.
Nelson moved in line with Ammen's brigade on the left, Bruce's in the
centre, and Hazen's on the right, his left extending a little beyond the
Hamburg road towards the river. A remnant of Gladden's brigade, between
two and three hundred men, under Colonel Deas, some fragments of some of
the regiments of Jackson's brigade, with some regiments that had strayed
from their proper commands, the Fourth Kentucky from Trabue's brigade,
the First Tennessee from Stephens' brigade, the One Hundred and
Fifty-fourth Tennessee from General B.R. Johnson's brigade, and the
Crescent Regiment from Pond's brigade, scattered about, were roused by
Nelson's advance and retired before it. At six o'clock Nelson was halted
by Buell to allow Crittenden's division to complete its deployment and
form on Nelson's right. Nelson again advanced. General Withers
meanwhile had thrown the heterogeneous fragments into an organized
force, added Chalmers' brigade to it, and strengthened it by the
addition of three batteries. Nelson, when he again advanced, came upon
this consolidated line, which drove him back. Nelson was without
artillery. His batteries, unable to get through the soft mud which the
infantry traversed, remained behind at Savannah. General Buell sent to
his aid Mendenhall's battery from Crittenden's division. The rapid and
accurate fire of Mendenhall's guns silenced the central opposing
battery. Hazen's brigade charged upon it, captured the guns and drove in
retreat the cannoneers and their support. Bowen's brigade of
Breckenridge's reserve corps, commanded by Colonel Martin since General
Bowen was wounded Sunday afternoon, was coming up in support. Colonel
Martin made his brigade lie down in a ravine till the torrent of
fugitives passed over, then rising, charged the pursuers. Hazen's
brigade, torn by the fire of two batteries, one on each flank, and now
charged by a fresh brigade, suffered in a short time more than half the
whole loss suffered by the division in the entire day. The loss of the
division in killed and wounded, was 90 killed and 558 wounded. The
Forty-first Ohio, in Hazen's brigade, out of a total engaged of 371,
lost 140 killed and wounded. The shattered regiments streamed back in
confusion, leaving a gap in the division line.
Ammen's brigade was sorely pressed. Constituting the left of the army,
it was in constant risk of being turned. Bruce's brigade, now put in
hazard by the recession of Hazen, could give only indirect assistance to
Ammen. Just then, Terrill's regular battery, of four twelve-pounders
(Napoleons) and two ten-pound Parrotts, having arrived from Savannah,
and missed its way to McCook's division, was ordered by General Buell to
Nelson's relief. Dashing out to the skirmish line in front of Colonel
Ammen, in order to get the range of the enemy's batteries, Terrill's
guns became the target of the concentrated fire of the opposing
batteries and the line of infantry. He was compelled to retire; but,
firing as he retired, he kept at a distance the long line that followed
and essayed to charge. Colonel Tuttle, who had been marching what was
left of W.H.L. Wallace's division in reserve, in rear of Nelson and
Crittenden, sent the Second Iowa forward in aid of Terrill. At the same
time the Fortieth Illinois, of McDowell's brigade, Sherman's division,
which had been marching in reserve to Nelson, filed to the front around
Ammen's left flank, and the Confederate line retired to their position
in the timber. Ammen's line, which fell back under the galling fire
called out by Terrill's artillery charge, now returned to the front and
occupied the timber where the enemy had been. It was now nearly two
o'clock. There was no more fighting in Nelson's front. Terrill's battery
suffered so severely that the Sixth Ohio was detailed as its special
support, and supplied artillerists from its ranks. From an advanced
position in Nelson's front, upon his skirmish line, this battery
succeeded in opening an enfilading fire upon the troops in front of
McCook, and one section advanced far enough to take in reverse the
batteries that were engaged with Crittenden and McCook.
General Crittenden's division moved a little after five o'clock to
Nelson's right. Colonel W.S. Smith's brigade connected with Nelson and
continued his line. General J. T. Boyle's brigade was formed in rear of
the left wing of Smith's brigade. A little after six o'clock McCook
marched to the front with Rousseau's brigade, and formed on Crittenden's
right, but facing to the west. The Fourteenth Wisconsin, assigned to
Prentiss' division, not arriving at Pittsburg till Monday morning,
reported to General Crittenden, and acted during the day as a part of
Colonel Smith's brigade. General Buell describes the line thus formed as
follows; "The force under my command occupied a line of about a mile and
a half. In front of Nelson's division was an open field, partially
screened toward his right by a skirt of woods, which extended beyond the
enemy's line, with a thick undergrowth in front of the left brigade of
Crittenden's division; then an open field in front of Crittenden's right
and McCook's left, and in front of McCook's right woods again, with a
dense undergrowth. The ground, nearly level in front of Nelson, formed a
hollow in front of Crittenden, and fell into a small creek or ravine,
which empties into Owl Creek, in front of McCook. What I afterward
learned was the Hamburg road (which crosses Lick Creek a mile from its
mouth) passed perpendicularly through the line of battle near Nelson's
left. A short distance in rear of the enemy's left, on high, open
ground, were the encampments of McClernand's and Sherman's divisions,
which the enemy held." This line is almost identical with the line held
by McArthur, Hurlbut, Prentiss, and Wallace, Sunday afternoon. Buell's
cavalry was not brought up, and, from want of transportation, only three
batteries--Bartlett's and Mendenhall's of Crittenden's division, and
Terrill's of McCook's division. But these were served with remarkable
efficiency.
When Crittenden took position, his skirmishers were advanced across the
open field to the edge of the timber in front. This dense growth, called
in the reports "chapparal" and "jungle," covered both slopes of a
hollow, which was threaded by a rivulet with muddy borders, and was the
scene of many a bloody repulse the day before, in the repeated assaults
upon Prentiss. The skirmishers soon became engaged, and a battery
concealed in woods on rising ground beyond, played upon the troops in
line. The skirmishers retired to the line, but were sent back to their
original position, while Bartlett's battery silenced the hostile
battery, and, by accurate fire, compelled it several times to shift its
position. A line of battle appearing in the timber preparing to charge,
the skirmishers were called back, Bartlett swept the bushes with
canister and shrapnell, Boyle's brigade charged into the brush,
encountered the fire of the Confederate line at close quarters, replied,
charged, and drove the enemy through the timber to an open field beyond.
The enemy rapidly crossed the field and took position in woods on its
farther side. A line of cavalry appearing at one end of the field, which
was also commanded by the enemy's battery, Boyle withdrew his regiments
to their original position. Bartlett's battery, aided by Mendenhall's,
was in constant activity. The infantry, with intervening pauses of
cessation, met and made charges into the chapparal. Mendenhall's
battery, in the course of the day, expended five hundred and twenty-six
rounds of ammunition, or about eighty-eight to the gun. Bartlett, by
noon, had fired his entire supply, six hundred rounds, and took his
battery to the landing to replenish. When he returned, the fighting had
ceased. After an hour of quiet, a furious attack was made on Smith's
brigade. The contest that ensued is described in Colonel Smith's report:
"The enemy soon yielded, when a running fight commenced, which extended
about a mile to our front, where we captured a battery and shot the
horses and many of the cannoneers. Owing to the obstructed nature of the
ground, the enthusiastic courage of the majority of our men, the laggard
discharge of their duty by many, and the disgraceful cowardice of some,
our line had been transformed into a column of attack, representing the
various grades of courage, from reckless daring to ignominious fear. At
the head of this column stood a few heroic men, not adequately
supported, when the enemy returned to the attack with three fresh
regiments in good order. We were driven back by these nearly to the
first position occupied by our line, when we again rallied and moved
forward toward the battery. Reaching a ravine to the right, and about
six hundred paces from the battery, we halted and awaited the assistance
of Mendenhall's battery, which was brought into action on a knoll within
half a mile of the enemy's battery, which it immediately silenced. We
then advanced and captured it the second time, and succeeded in holding
it despite the efforts of the enemy to repulse us." This charge entirely
shattered Cleburne's brigade, and it disappeared from the contest. This
ended the battle in Crittenden's front, and Mendenhall's battery
advanced and fired on the flank of the column, by that time retiring
before McCook's division. The force which General Crittenden engaged was
commanded by General Breckenridge, and consisted of one of
Breckenridge's brigades--Statham's--aided by the brigades of Russell and
A.P. Stewart, from Polk's corps. These two brigades constituted Clark's
division, but General Clark having been wounded the previous day, the
brigades were under Breckenridge's immediate command. To these was added
Cleburne's brigade, reduced to one-third of its numbers. One-third was
killed and wounded before Buckland's brigade, Sunday morning; one-third
had straggled to the rear; the remaining third rallied to enter into
Monday's battle.
In accordance with the direction of General Buell, McCook deployed
Rousseau's brigade into line facing toward Shiloh Church. The Fifteenth
Michigan, intended for Prentiss' division, being now without assignment,
reported to McCook, and was by him attached for the day to Rousseau's
brigade. General Beauregard still held his own position near the
church, and as the line of inevitable retreat was by the road passing by
the church, it was necessary that his force should hold this position to
the last. It was a centre to which stragglers and fragments of commands
had drifted during the night. Monday morning the greater part of
Beauregard's army reported there, and, though much was despatched thence
to other quarters, portions so despatched returned to take part in the
final conflict. Pond's brigade, after its rapid retreat from Lewis
Wallace's front, had a fatiguing march before finally settling into
position. He says in his report: "I was ordered by General Ruggles to
form on the extreme left and rest my left on Owl Creek. While proceeding
to execute this order, I was ordered to move by the rear of the main
line to support the extreme right of General Hardee's line. Having taken
my position to support General Hardee's right, I was again ordered by
General Beauregard to advance and occupy the crest of a ridge in the
edge of an old field. My line was just formed in this position when
General Polk ordered me forward to support his line. While moving to the
support of General Polk, an order reached me from General Beauregard to
report to him with my command at his headquarters." Ruggles' division
and Cheatham's division, with one regiment of Clark's, were put on the
Confederate left of Shiloh Church; Wood's brigade and Trabue's brigade
to the right. Russell and A.P. Stewart were first sent to oppose
Crittenden, but were afterward shifted toward the Confederate left, to
McCook's front. The report of Colonel Thompson, Beauregard's
aide-de-camp, to General Beauregard, states: "About 11.30 o'clock it was
apparent that the enemy's main attack was on our left, and our forces
began to yield to the vigor of his attack."
When Rousseau's brigade was formed, his right was in the air. McCook
held it in place till Kirk's brigade arrived from Savannah, and
occupied the time exploring the ground to his front and right. Kirk
having arrived, McCook moved Rousseau's brigade across a ravine to a
rising ground a few hundred yards in advance, and placed Kirk's brigade
in reserve of Rousseau's right, to protect the exposed flank. A company
of regulars (there were three battalions of regulars in Rousseau's
command) was sent into the woods as skirmishers. In less than an hour
the skirmishers were driven back and followed by the Fourth Kentucky
Regiment and Fourth Alabama Battalion belonging to Trabue's brigade.
After a fierce attack for twenty minutes, the assailants fell back
before the rapid and well-directed fire of Rousseau's men and retired
out of sight in the timber. Trabue's regiments rallied and quickly
returned to the assault with greater vigor than before. The steady fire
of Rousseau's men again drove them to retreat; Rousseau advanced into
the timber, passed through it to an open field, when Trabue, who, with
three regiments was engaged with McClernand, united the two portions of
his brigade and charged furiously upon Rousseau. After a desperate
struggle Trabue gave way; Rousseau captured two guns and repossessed
McClernand's headquarters.
This advance drew Rousseau away from Crittenden, while it connected him
with McClernand; exposed his left, while it covered his right. Colonel
Willich, who had arrived with the Thirty-second Indiana, passed around
to the left, and, with regiment in column doubled on the centre, charged
upon the enemy in that quarter, drove him into the timber, then
deploying in line opened fire. Willich became subject to so hot a
fire--mainly, he reports, from the National troops--that he was
compelled to retire. Dressing his lines he charged again. Observing
undue excitement in his men, he halted the regiment, and in the midst of
the battle exercised the men in the manual of arms. Having thus steadied
them, he resumed the charge and again drove the enemy into the timber.
Rousseau's command having exhausted their cartridges, Kirk's brigade
took place in the line, while Rousseau, behind them, replenished from
the supply which General McCook had already procured. Gibson's brigade
having now arrived, was deployed, about two o'clock, on the left. The
two armies were concentrating about Shiloh Church. Gibson's left flank
being twice threatened and partially turned, the Forty-ninth Ohio twice,
under fire, changed front to the rear on the right company with
precision. Veatch's brigade, of Hurlbut's division, which had been
acting in reserve, was moved forward by McCook and extended his left.
The division being now sorely pressed by the enemy's artillery, Major
Taylor, Sherman's chief of artillery, brought forward Bouton's battery
and assigned part to each brigade. The section assigned to Gibson
quickly silenced the batteries in his front. McCook was now connected
with the forces to his right.
McClernand's command consisted--Monday morning--of the Forty-sixth
Illinois, of Hurlbut's division, constituting his right; the Twentieth,
Seventeenth, Forty-third, Forty-fifth, Forty-eighth, and Forty-ninth
Illinois, of his own division, being his First and Second Brigades, and,
on his left, the Fifty-third Ohio, of Sherman's division, and the
Eighty-first Ohio, of W.H.L. Wallace's division. Except the two flanking
regiments, the Forty-sixth Illinois and the Eighty-first Ohio, the
regiments were extremely reduced. After firing had opened by Nelson and
by Lewis Wallace, McClernand moved across the ravine of Brier Creek to
the large open field, where his line was dressed; McAllister's battery
was brought up and engaged a battery posted beyond, or in the proper
front of, McClernand's First Brigade camp. Lewis Wallace's batteries
beyond the timber to the northwest, and a battery with Sherman in the
same direction, joined in the artillery combat. The Confederate battery
becoming silent, McClernand moved forward and entered the camp of his
First Brigade, being the northwestern extremity of his camp, without
having encountered opposing infantry. It was discovered that a body of
the enemy was advancing beyond the left of the line. McClernand moved by
the flank to the left till the left regiments came to a field in rear of
his camp, and charged across it against a battery and its supports on
the farther side. The Fifty-third and Eighty-first Ohio recoiled, were
ordered back, fell to the rear in some disorder, and the whole line
retired. The Twenty-eighth Illinois was moved forward from Hurlbut's
reserve and added to McClernand's left. The line again advanced, pushed
the enemy back through McClernand's camp, where he made a stand, and
McClernand was again compelled to yield. General McCook now extended his
right by throwing forward the Louisville Legion. The two divisions
connected, and the Twenty-eighth Illinois returned to the reserve.
Sherman, being ordered by General Grant early in the morning to advance
and recapture his camps, sent his staff out to gather in the members of
his command. Colonel Sullivan marched the Forty-eighth Ohio, at dawn,
out from the reserve artillery, and Buckland's brigade was complete.
Colonel Stuart was found near the landing with two regiments of his
brigade, and a small detachment of the Third, the Seventy-first Ohio.
The Thirteenth Missouri, temporarily attached to Sherman, which had
become entangled with McClernand's command the previous afternoon, and
bivouacked at night in his line, was regained. Portions of the
Fifty-seventh and Seventy-seventh Ohio still adhered. Major Taylor,
chief of artillery, brought Lieutenant Wood's battery. The column being
formed, he marched by the flank toward the west to the bluffs of Owl
Creek, and along them to an open field at the extreme right of
McClernand's camp, and awaited the approach of McCook on the Corinth
road. Hearing heavy firing in front of Rousseau, about ten o'clock, and
observing it gradually gaining ground toward Shiloh Church, he moved the
head of his column to General McClernand's right, formed line of battle,
facing south, with Buckland next to McClernand and Stuart on his right,
and advanced slowly and steadily under a heavy fire of musketry and
artillery.
General Lewis Wallace discovered at dawn, on the bluff on the opposite
side of Brier Creek, and just facing Thompson's battery, a hostile
battery. The Twentieth Ohio discharging their rifles to clear them, were
answered by a volley that disclosed the presence of a hostile line of
battle. At the same time Pond's brigade and Ketchum's battery became
aware of the fact that only the valley of Brier Creek separated them
from troops that had arrived in the night. Colonel Pond was dismayed by
the further discovery that he was nearly a mile in advance of his
nearest support. After a short engagement he withdrew his infantry,
leaving Wharton's regiment of mounted Texas Rangers to support the
battery. After a sharp artillery duel, Ketchum drew off his battery,
covered by the mounted regiment. General Grant directing Wallace to push
his line of attack to the west, directly from the river, the division
advanced, the brigades in echelon, the First to the front and left, the
Third to the right and rear, sweeping the bluffs facing Snake Creek and
Owl Creek, and coming out in the fields in rear of Sherman's camps.
Wheeling the division to the left, he soon became hotly engaged, first
Thompson's battery with another battery, then infantry with opposing
infantry.
There was yet a gap between Sherman and Wallace, but the conflict now
raged about Shiloh Church with a fury surpassing any portion of the
battle of Sunday. McCook, with his well closed division, McClernand and
Sherman with their attenuated but persistent commands, Wallace with his
fresh and compact division, with the batteries of Bouton, McAllister,
Wood, Thompson, and Thurber, formed a curved line concentrating upon the
convex line comprised of part of Clark's division, Wood's brigade,
Trabue's brigade, Cheatham's division, and Ruggles' division, with the
batteries of Ketchum, Byrne, Bankhead, and others. McClernand, Sherman,
and Wallace all speak with admiration of the splendid fighting of
McCook's division. Ammunition was becoming exhausted. Buckland withdrew
his regiments to fill their boxes. Stuart's brigade, now commanded by
Colonel Kilby Smith, plunged forward to make up with renewed vigor for
diminished numbers. Wallace's left flank was exposed. The Eleventh
Indiana, changing front, faced the danger on its flank. The First
Nebraska having used its last cartridge, the Seventy-sixth Ohio leaped
to its place. Thompson's battery having expended its last round,
Thurber's guns took their place so quickly that there was no
intermission in the fire. The Twentieth Ohio, sent off to the right to
meet a force springing up in that quarter, met with a sudden discharge
at close range, dashed through a fringe of bushes, and drove a battery
from the field beyond.
Wood's brigade, charging on Rousseau, was knocked to pieces and retired
to the rear, where General Wood with the aid of cavalry gathered up
1,500 stragglers into an ineffective reserve. McCook pushed his line
forward to Sherman's camp. The lines were pressed closer and the fire
was hotter than ever. General Grant called two regiments, and in person
led them in a charge in McCook's front, and broke the enemy's line.
Endurance has its limits. The intense strain of two days was telling.
Beauregard saw his men were beginning to flag; exhausted regiments were
dropping out of line. It was now three o'clock. Two hours before,
General Beauregard had sent word to his extreme right in Nelson's front,
to retire slowly in alternate lines. Breckenridge, put in command of the
movement, had drawn Statham's brigade from Crittenden's front.
Beauregard was fighting to secure his retreat.
Colonel Thompson, aide-de-camp to Beauregard, says in his report: "While
I was engaged in rallying our disorganized troops to the left and rear
of the church, you seized the banners of two different regiments and led
them forward to the assault in face of the fire of the enemy; but from
the feebleness of the response I became convinced that our troops were
too much exhausted to make a vigorous resistance. I rode up to you and
advised that you should expose yourself no further, but should dispose
your troops so as to retire from Shiloh Church in good order." Colonel
Whittlesey, in his report, states: "There being signs of a retreat
farther to the south, Lieutenant Thurber was directed to sweep the
ground in front, which he did with his two howitzers and three
smooth-bores in fine style. Two prisoners captured near there, one of
them an officer of the Creole Guard, state that General Beauregard was
endeavoring to form a line for a final and desperate charge on our right
when Lieutenant Thurber opened upon him, and the result was a disorderly
retreat."
The battle was over. General Beauregard posted a battery and a brigade
on the rising ground south of Oak Creek, commanding the ground about
Shiloh Church, and withdrew his worn troops behind them. General
Beauregard says this was at two o'clock. Cheatham fixes the hour when he
retired at half-past two. The National commanders fix the close of the
contest at about three o'clock. At Woods', about two miles beyond, a
rear-guard took position again. At Mickey's, where Breckenridge had
already arrived, he was detailed with his command as rear-guard, and the
rest of the army passed on to Monterey.
There was no pursuit of the retreating army. All advance by the National
troops ceased about four o'clock. McCook went into bivouac near the camp
of Peabody's brigade, Prentiss' division. Wood's division, arriving too
late to take part in the battle, pushed to the front and engaged his
skirmishers with the light troops covering the retreat. Mendenhall's
battery, far off toward Crittenden's left, catching some glimpses of the
retiring column through openings in the forest, sent some parting
rounds. Wood and Crittenden went into bivouac in front of Prentiss'
camp. General Buell pushed Nelson forward on the Hamburg road, near to
the crossing of Lick Creek, and the division bivouacked near Stuart's
camp. The divisions, or what was present of them, of McClernand,
Sherman, Hurlbut, and W.H.L. Wallace, returned to their camps. Lewis
Wallace advanced his division across Oak Creek to the large field.
Company A, of the Twentieth Ohio, obtaining permission to proceed
farther, advanced to the Confederate hospital and was deploying to drive
off a detachment of cavalry that was burning a commissary train, when it
was recalled to rejoin the division, then returning across Oak Creek, to
bivouac in front of the camp of McDowell's brigade.
McClernand and Sherman formed part of the line of battle. Prentiss'
division was gone. The other two divisions, what was left of them, acted
in reserve. Hurlbut formed his division in the morning complete, with
the exception of the Forty-sixth Illinois, which served for the day with
McClernand. It was a skeleton division. The Third Iowa was 140 men
under the command of a lieutenant. In the forenoon, General Grant sent
Hurlbut out to act as reserve to McClernand. The Twenty-eighth Illinois
took place for a while on McClernand's left, and Veatch with his three
regiments took place on McCook's left, when he diverged from Crittenden.
Colonel Tuttle, senior officer in the Second Division, by the death of
W.H.L. Wallace and the wounding of McArthur, gathered the remaining
regiments of his division, except the Fourteenth Missouri and the
Eighty-first Ohio, added to them Colonel Crocker and three regiments of
McClernand's First Brigade, and marched in reserve to Crittenden. He
sent the Second Iowa to Nelson, when Nelson's line was broken by the
gallant but disastrous charge of Hazen; the Eighth and Eighteenth
Illinois moved out to the left of Crittenden when he diverged from
Nelson, and the Seventh Iowa, moved into the front line later in the
day.
The number of Johnston's army has already been given as 40,000 men.
Badeau says the effective force present in the National camps Sunday
morning was 33,000 men. General Sherman makes the number 32,000. William
Preston Johnston, in the Life of his father, makes the number of the
National troops, the "grand total in Sunday's battle," 41,543. These
various statements arise from the different ways of making and reading
returns. Forty thousand does not represent the total force which A.S.
Johnston led to Shiloh. Forty thousand "present for duty" is exclusive
not only of the brigade of detailed teamsters and cooks that General
Johnston complained of, but of all regular and permanent details. It
appears from some reports which give numbers, that it was also exclusive
of temporary details made for the occasion of the battle--hospital men,
train guards, ammunition guards, sappers and miners, infantry detailed
to act with batteries, etc. It appears from some of the reports, which
state numbers, that the "enlisted men" "present for duty," in the "Field
Returns of the Confederate Forces that marched from Corinth to the
Tennessee River," comprised only non-commissioned officers and privates,
and was therefore exclusive of musicians, buglers, artificers, etc.,
though enlisted as such. The 40,000, therefore, is the number of the
combatants engaged in the battle. The field return is susceptible of
further explanations, the character of which does not appear. The field
return, for example, gives the "present for duty," in the artillery in
Polk's corps, as 20 officers and 331 enlisted men--351 in all; while the
official report of the chief of artillery of the corps, of casualties in
the battle, giving each battery separately, states the number actually
engaged in the battle as 21 officers, 56 non-commissioned officers, and
369 privates, making a total of 446. It is clear, therefore, that the
40,000 is intended as the number of officers, non-commissioned officers,
and privates actually engaged in the battle, and a comparison of the
reports of General Polk's chief of artillery with the returns suggests
that in some way it may not be the full number of combatants engaged.
The aggregation of returns making 41,153 present for duty in Grant's
army at Pittsburg Landing, Sunday morning, is not a consolidated return,
but a collection of footings of regimental returns, the nearest in date
attainable to April 6th, for the most part furnished by the War
Department to Colonel Johnson, the rest either taken from reports of
State adjutant-generals, or else estimated. The statement includes the
Fourteenth Wisconsin and the Fifteenth Michigan, neither of which
arrived till after the close of Sunday's battle.[3] Deducting the
"present for duty" given for these, 1,488, leaves, in round numbers, as
in General Johnston's army, 40,000. But "present for duty" in the
returns of the National forces, includes musicians, buglers, artificers,
etc.; all men present for the duty for which they were enlisted. The
army was clothed with music. There were 72 regiments present, including
those which arrived Sunday morning. The field music of 720 companies,
with the buglers of cavalry and artillery, made about three thousand
men. Besides these there were bands so numerous that an order was
shortly afterward made, restricting the number of bands to one to each
brigade. Where the battle reports give the number taken into action, the
difference in the number given and the number of "present for duty," as
given by the War Department to Colonel Johnston, suggests that many had
gone on to the sick list, or been detailed, between the date of the
return and April 6th; or that many men present for duty were left behind
in camp. Probably all were true, and thirty-three thousand or thirty-two
thousand is the number of officers, non-commissioned officers, and
privates actually engaged in Sunday's battle on the National side. The
reinforcements of Monday numbered, of Buell's army, about twenty
thousand; Lewis Wallace, sixty-five hundred; other regiments, about
fourteen hundred.
[Footnote 3: This is a mistake as to the Fifteenth Michigan, which lost,
Sunday, 33 killed, 64 wounded, and 7 missing.]
There ought to be no uncertainty in the reports of casualties. Yet,
while the general result is clear, precision in detail is now hardly
attainable. General Beauregard's report gives his loss as 1,728 killed,
8,012 wounded, and 959 missing; making an aggregate of 10,699. Of the
reported missing, many were killed or wounded. These numbers are the
aggregate of losses reported by brigades. They cannot include casualties
at division, corps, or army headquarters, happening either to the
generals commanding, or to the officers on their staff, or to enlisted
men on duty there. And while batteries were attached to brigades, the
cavalry was a wholly independent command, not attached or reporting to
brigades or divisions; two regiments were not attached to any corps.
Their casualties cannot be included in brigade reports. Colonel
Johnston, after much examination, "finds a possible variation of 218
more casualties, principally in missing, that might be added to General
Beauregard's report."
The generally accepted official report of the National loss is: in
Grant's army, 1,437 killed, 5,679 wounded, and 2,934 missing, making a
total of 10,050; in Buell's army, 263 killed, 1,816 wounded, and 88
missing--making a total of 2,167. The two armies aggregated 1,700
killed, 7,495 wounded, and 3,022 captured--making total, 12,217. The War
Department, in the printed collection of battle reports, does not give
the casualties of the two armies separately, but gives the aggregate,
1,574 killed, 7,795 wounded, and 2,794 missing--making a total of
12,163. The "Medical and Surgical History of the War" makes the loss
1,735 killed, 7,882 wounded, 3,956 missing--making a total of 13,573.
The loss of the Army of the Ohio, as given above, is the report of
General Buell on April 15th. Six days later, the Medical Director of
that army made to General Buell a tabulated statement of killed and
wounded in each regiment, brigade, and division engaged, which makes the
number 236 killed and 1,728 wounded. All these estimates are based upon
the same material--upon the field reports. As the revisers of the
reports for publication have had the best opportunity for deliberate
examination and for comparison of the reports with muster-rolls, their
estimate of casualties is perhaps the most trustworthy.
The loss in artillery on each side was about equal. General Sherman lost
seven guns and captured seven. General McClernand lost six guns and
captured three. Prentiss lost eight guns. Hurlbut lost two batteries.
The Army of the Ohio captured about twenty guns, many of them being
recaptured guns, lost on Sunday. One of Breckenridge's brigades threw
away their arms, taking in place better arms picked up on the field.
There was a great destruction of camp equipage and stores. The
quartermaster of the Third Iowa, in Hurlbut's division, packed
everything in wagons, safely carried stores and baggage to the landing,
and let down the tents to save them from damage by shot. Before the
wagons of Prentiss' division went to the rear, while the division was
still engaged at the front, Colonel Miller's servant gathered everything
in the Colonel's tent, packed it in one of the wagons, carried it safely
off, and kept all in good order till Miller returned from captivity. But
such thoughtfulness was the exception, and the returning troops found
much missing and more destroyed.
Heavy rain fell again Monday night. Next morning General Grant sent
General Sherman with his two brigades, and General Wood with his
division and the Fourth Illinois Cavalry, in pursuit. The miry road was
lined with abandoned wagons, limber-boxes, and with hospitals filled
with wounded. The advance was suddenly fallen upon by Forrest and his
cavalry, and driven back in confusion. Forrest coming upon the main
column retired, and was pursued in turn. General Sherman advanced about
a mile farther, and returned to camp. Breckenridge remained at Mickey's
three days, guarding the rear, and by the end of the week Beauregard's
army was again in Corinth. The battle sobered both armies. The force at
Pittsburg Landing saw rudely dashed aside the expectation of speedy
entry into Corinth. The force at Corinth, that marched out to drive
Grant into the river, to scatter Buell's force in detail, and return in
triumph to Nashville, was back in the old quarters, foiled,
disheartened.