"It was but the rest of the fire, from which the air had been taken! -- With fresh numbers and renewed impetuosity, they bore down upon us and compelled McArthur to fall back. In this struggle the General was wounded. One of his aids, who was riding a favorite horse, a Kentucky thoroughbred, lost him by the explosion of a shell; when the intelligence was conveyed to the General, he was concerned to know if the aid had saved the saddle. "Tell him to save the saddle; " but he did not. The neighborhood of that horse was extremely uncomfortable by this time, and the aid helped to swell the crowd that was making a break for a better place in the rear. Coming upon an Indiana regiment, the Thirty-first, I believe, under Major Arne, together with some other troops of Hurlbut's command, we formed a new line, on the crest of what might be called a hogback. The line had scarcely been formed when the skirmishers were again engaged, and almost immediately the firing became continuous, and told fearfully upon our ranks. Major Arne was killed while urging his regiment to recover some lost ground; and General Wallace gave up his life in this the most determined and fearful struggle of the fight. Though McArthur missed his aim in reaching Stuart, yet so vigorously did he fight that Stuart's force was saved from capture. In this second line he formed the extreme left. Between us and Stuart was Hurlbut's body of fresh troops, and to the right of us were portions of Prentiss' command, and the confused but undaunted commands of Sherman and McClernand. This line was shorter and more compact, and presented a continuous front to the enemy. Although our troops were in some places badly mixed, commands being formed of companies from different regiments, that were utterly routed as a whole, yet in their stubborn and self-reliant courage, and possibly in their ignorance of war, oblivious of the fact that they had already been whipped, they persisted in fighting under any leader that would take them in. It was this pure grit of the Western soldier that made it possible for our commander to say, "I have not despaired of whipping them yet." Wallace's) the enemy To our position (W. H. L. seemed to devote all his energy. was hurled at us; but protected by the nature of the ground, and to some extent by logs and felled trees, with batteries advanced a little on either flank, we poured into their ranks such a terrible storm as no living thing could withstand. Four times our position was charged, but without avail. Meantime some impression had been made on Stuart, and his line had given way, but slowly and in good order, turning, as it were, upon a pivot, the extreme left falling back until almost at right angles with the river, and not far from the Landing, while Hurlbut's right stood firm as a rock, except as he moved from time to time to correct his alignment. Every attempt of the enemy to dislodge him was met by a storm of shot and shell and sheets of musketry-fire that covered the ground with the dead and dying. At length Sidney Johnston in person led the charge that broke this line, and compelled us once more to fall back to the last line we could have made to save Pittsburg Landing. Colonel Webster had brought the Illinois battery of thirty-two-pounders to bear upon the enemy, together with many light field-pieces. Some infantry had been got together from the fragments of regiments, and swelled the number that had fallen back from the second line, until we still presented a bold and determined front, if not a very coherent one. Nothing daunted, two brigades of the enemy, under Chalmers and Jackson, desperately charged up the hill, but were checked and held at bay. Tenaciously clinging to everything that furnished shelter, they held their own for a time, hoping for assistance; but none came. Already orders had been carried to the commands along the line. to withdraw from the fight, and they were left apparently to shift for themselves. At last, finding that they were being mercilessly slaughtered, they broke up, retiring in confusion. It was now nearly six o'clock, and the fighting had assumed a desultory character, the enemy contenting themselves with shelling our camps. All parties anxiously prayed for nightfall. But ere the sun went down, The head of Buell's army a glad sight cheered us. came trudging up the bluff, and filling the road, moved out and took their places in front. Lew Wallace came in on the Crump's Landing road, bringing eight thousand fresh troops, eager for the fray. Then we, tired, thirsty, and hungry, began looking about for something to eat. Our own camps, the Second Brigade, Second Division, were still intact; and the Ninth and Twelfth Illinois regiments went to their camps and began to prepare some coffee, and snatch a mouthful of food, the first since early morning. Yet we were still in imminent danger. In Company K's quarters of the Twelfth Illinois, a number of the boys were gathered around a barrel of hard-tack, when a shell from the enemy's guns exploded in their midst, instantly killing three men. In the Ninth Illinois, Lieutenant-Colonel Phillips, who had been under heavy fire all day without receiving a scratch, had his hand and arm shattered in one of the company streets. The loss of the Ninth and Twelfth Illinois, which fought side by side all day, was 82 killed, 373 wounded, and 16 missing, in this first day's battle. Our gun-boats rendered great assistance during the latter part of the day, and all night they kept up at regular intervals the heavy boom of their big guns. The scream of the shell, and the crash as it went through the branches of the great forest, gave us its direction. Huge limbs were lopped at times, and fell with a crash that boded no good to those who slept beneath. The heavy missiles still sped on over our heads and into the camp beyond, carrying terror to our foes, but a glad, exultant feeling to our own tired and anxious hearts. To add to the discomforts of the night, it rained; and the wind, with a sough so solemn that it filled the heart with dire foreboding, shook from the leaves and branches great showers of rain. But the night passed away, and the morning of the 7th found us ready to take the aggressive. A new line had been formed, and a new army was ready to take the lead in an effort to recover the ground lost the day before. The main battle began about nine o'clock in the morning, and ended about four o'clock in the afternoon. On this field was to be seen the most splendid fighting ever seen on this continent. Our artillery was admirably worked, and the infantry ably supported the artillery. The manoeuvring was splendid. The enemy were driven inch by inch. They seldom regained anything they had lost; still, they fought desperately at times, until by four o'clock they were in full retreat and the victory was ours. It was my good-fortune to serve immediately on the left of the Eighteenth United States Regulars, and their perfect discipline and regular movements lifted a load from our breasts, and filled us with a confidence we had wellnigh lost the day before. Every advance was stubbornly resisted; every charge was met by a counter-charge; and though the lines shifted forward and back, yet every returning charge carried us farther along toward the camps we had lost, then through them and beyond, until McCook's division, that had marched twenty-two miles the day before, and stood in the streets of Savannah all night of the 6th, was at nightfall beyond our farthest camp of Saturday night. Aside from the geographical position of Shiloh, and its importance as a strategical point, two things conspired to make this battle one of the most desperate contests of this or any other war. General Grant's victory at Donel son had put his name on every lip in no mean stint of praise. A new and enlarged field of operations had been given him, and he had fixed his eyes on Corinth, and begun the movement in that direction, when an order from Halleck directed him to turn over his forces to General Charles F. Smith, his junior in rank. Grant's mortification caused him to ask that he be relieved entirely; but the clamor of the people and the press, and outspoken condemnation from the soldiers, caused Halleck to restore him to command. It was necessary, under these circumstances, that he should again win, or his star would suddenly go out forever. On the other hand, these very victories of General Grant were reverses to Sidney Johnston, and he was censured on all sides. Charged with the loss of Donelson, Nashville, Bowling Green, and Columbus, derided on the floor of the Confederate Congress, accused by the press of incompetency, distrusted by the soldiers of his command to such an extent that the volunteer made it a point that no service should be required of him under General Johnston, he knew, if any man did, that his vindication lay in either. victory or death on the first field of battle that should. command his presence. We can speculate on what might have been had he lived yet another day. Singularly, the losses in the two armies were very nearly equal. Our killed were 1,735; the Confederate killed, 1,728. Our wounded were 7,882; the Rebel wounded, 8,012. We lost about 3,000 more prisoners than they. The total casualties were 24,272. Our division commander was Charles F. Smith. Beloved by his whole command, a graduate of and instructor at West Point, he rivalled the commanding general himself in the confidence of his men. It was even said that Grant relied on him for advice and counsel; but he lay sick unto death at the Landing, and W. H. L. Wallace assumed command. Brave, determined, anxious to do honor to the trust confided him, |