CHAPTER XXVII.

APRIL, 1862.

SECOND DAY'S BATTLE OF PITTSBURG

LANDING-FORMATION OF BUELL'S

DIVISION-NELSON-CRITTENDEN-MC COOK-WALLACE-SMITH-SHERMAN

MC CLERNAND-HURLBUT THE ENEMY DRIVEN BACK-OUR CAMPS RECOVERED ASPECT OF THE BATTLE FIELD-SANITARY COMMISSION-HALLECK TAKES COMMAND-MITCHELL IN ALABAMA.

A

T length the eventful morning dawned, and at five o'clock the two divisions of Nelson and Crittenden moved forward upon the enemy. They soon came upon his pickets, which they drove steadily and cautiously before them, and at seven o'clock approached his line of battle. Crittenden's division formed on the right of Nelson, with Bartlett's battery in the center. Mendenhall's splendid battery, in Nelson's division, at once unlimbered and opened a rapid fire. The heavy cannonading shook the field, and told those nearer the landing that the battle had commenced. At this moment, strains of martial music were heard, and the soldiers looking back, saw the colors of McCook's division which had arrived, moving up to their support. It took position on Crittenden's right, making the whole line of battle of Buell's forces a mile and a half in extent. Wallace with three brigades formed the extreme right, and at seven o'clock he also opened with his artillery on a battery of the enemy, planted within easy range.

For a time it was an artillery duel on a grand scale. In front of Nelson, the ground was an open field nearly level -while a thick undergrowth covered a portion of that in front of Crittenden, which was a wide hollow. The same proportion of woods and field characterized McCook's front.

356

A DESPERATE RALLY.

Nelson's division came first into action; and the contest at once became close and bloody. The compact line, the steady movements and confident bearing of the regiments, soon showed that a better drilled, if not a braver, army was in the field than that of the day before. Colonel Hazen of the Nineteenth brigade made a gallant charge on a battery of the enemy, and took it; but finding his command exposed to a heavy cross fire of artillery, was compelled to abandon his prize. vance of Nelson.

Still, nothing could resist the steady adHis long lines swept on like an unbroken. wave over the ground lost the day before, on which lay thickly strewed the dead of both armies.

Crittenden, next to him, though every inch of ground was hotly contested, also pressed the enemy back in his front. The brigade under Smith made a desperate dash on one of the enemy's batteries and captured it, though it cost them dear. The stung and maddened foe charged again and again to recover their guns, and for half an hour that spot seemed to form the vortex of the battle.

Still farther on, McCook's magnificent division moved like veterans of a hundred battle fields into action, completing the general advance of the army. Thus, till ten o'clock, the line of battle slowly advanced, when the enemy, under cover of some heavy woods, made a sudden and desperate rally, and fell with such fury on Nelson's division that it halted, then wavered and finally fell back. At this critical moment, Terrell's regular battery arrived from the landing on a headlong gallop, and unlimbering with the speed of lightning, hurled the shells from his twenty-four-pound howitzers, into the astonished, compact ranks of the enemy. They staggered under the rapid, destructive fire; but bearing up bravely against it, again advanced straight on the murderous guns. Horse after horse went down, the gunners dropped in their places, till not a man was left at one of the pieces: when Ter

A GENERAL ADVANCE.

357

rell and a corporal stepped up and worked it alone till a regiment dashed forward and saved it. For two hours after, it was one incessant crash and thunder peal all along the front of that gallant division.

Nelson, in the mean time held his men to their grim work, and refused to retire further, determined to see which could stand such terrible pounding the longest. But the same fierce rally that forced him back at first, extended along the whole rebel line, and Crittenden caught the full force of the refluent wave and was forced to fall back to a new position. The shouting enemy followed up their success, when Mendenhall's and Bartlett's batteries, especially that of the former, sent their shells ploughing through his ranks, making huge gaps at every discharge. The rebels could not make headway against the awful fire; still they refused to yield the ground which they had made red with their own blood.

In the mean time, Buell had arrived on the field, and seeing the stubbornness with which the enemy held his ground, although it was evident his whole line was badly shaken by our artillery, gave the order to advance by brigades at the double quick. That was all the brave fellows wanted, and with a cheer that rolled like the shout of victory along the mighty line, they sprang forward. The sudden, simultane ous onward movement of that vast host, was a sublime spectacle. The rebels, though they had fought bravely, recoiled before its terrible front, so dark below, yet bright with glit tering steel above, and step by step fell back, pushed as they receded by the determined divisions, till they lost all the ground they had won. At length the punishment became so severe that they fell into confusion, when our artillery and musketry mowed them down by platoons. Sweeping the ground of our defeat the day before, we captured all the guns lost on this part of the field, besides two of the enemy. Unwilling to lose all the fruit of their previous victory, the

358

SHERMAN'S ATTACK.

rebel officers made a last desperate stand in front of McCook's division. This commander had driven the enemy steadily before him, and though repeatedly exposed to flanking movements that threatened to crush him, refused to fall back. Rousseau's brigade maintained its high reputation, and the whole division fought with a valor that made defeat impossible. If a brigade recoiled a moment under the withering fire of the foe, the next, it sprung like a bent bow to its place again, while all along its dark and steady front, there rolled an incessant stream of fire, and their shouts shook the field.

Wallace firmly pressed the enemy on the extreme right. As his division advanced on the field in the morning it halted on a swell of ground that overlooked the whole space in front. Just then, out of the woods that bounded their vision, emerged a strong rebel column with colors flying. Regiment after regiment came on in the double-quick, till the rebel line seemed interminable. Their long array presented a magnificent sight as it formed in line of battle parallel to his division, and unlimbered its artillery under the rapid and destructive fire of his guns. In a few minutes the cannonading on both sides extended along the whole front. Wallace then threw out his sharp shooters to pick off the artillerists, while batteries with heavy supports of infantry were moved forward into the open fields, and for an hour and a half the flash and roar of guns were incessant.

At length, Sherman, for whom Wallace had been waiting, came up with the remnant of his heroic, battered division, and moved straight on the rebel line. Midway in the open field, it met such a horrible fire, that it halted. Even these heroes paused as they saw the red mouth of the volcano before them, and fell back, though in good order. But the wounded Sherman dashed along their lines, rousing the enthusiasm of the men to the highest pitch. His horse sunk under him, when he leaped to the saddle of another and

THE REBELS RETREAT.

359

again gave the order, "Forward." With sloping bayonets, and leaning forms, Marsh at their head-they leaped forward on the double-quick and gained the woods, completely flanking one of the enemy's batteries. This was the turning point of the battle, and the rebel guns began to limber up in hot haste. In an instant Wallace's division was upon them, completing the victory. "Forward," then ran along the whole line, and forward it was through the rough corn fields till they drove the enemy into the woods. Here the latter made a short, determined stand, and again forced Sherman's division back. But this indomitable chieftain, though bleeding from two wounds, while three horses had been shot from under him, again rallied his broken regiments, and regaining his lost ground, hurled them like a descending avalanche on the foe. Among the many heroes of that hard fought battle, he outshone them all, and from first to last moved with his shattered division like a citadel of fire over the tumultuous field.

Here too, on the right, later in the day, Hurlbut and McClernand came up with their jaded, broken battalions-the heroes of fort Donelson-and again and again charged with fury on the enemy, adding new laurels to those which already wreathed their brows.

Thus the action, which had begun on the left, with Nelson, and rolled steadily along the other divisions to the right, as if the enemy were feeling our whole line of battle to find a vulnerable point, was here, on the right, at last deci ded; and the whole rebel army, maddened and mortified, fell slowly back over the ground it had won at such a terrible sacrifice, until it was driven beyond our last camp. A body of three thousand cavalry, which had quietly stood spectators of this sanguinary struggle, were now ordered to charge. The bugles rang out, and down came the thundering squadrons, making the earth shake under their tread. But they