OPENING OF THE BATTLE OF SHILOH.

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and images of infernal war. So it was. Hardee's advance first touched heavily and destructively Sherman's left,' and glancing off from that commander's skillful foil, fell with crushing force upon Prentiss's division. The pickets of each and five companies under Colonel Moore, sent out by Prentiss to reconnoiter, were driven in at daylight, and the advancing foe reached the camp of the Nationals almost as soon as did the assailed out-lying troops. It was a complete surprise. Many of the officers were yet slumbering; others were dressing; others were washing or cooking, and others were eating breakfast. Their guns were unloaded, and

scream and crash of shells, and the whistle of bullets as they flew on deadly errands through the tents and the forest. A few minutes afterward, Hardee's eager troops were pouring like a flood into the camps of the bewildered Nationals, fighting desperately here, driving half-dressed or half-armed fugitives there, and dealing death and terror on every hand. It was an unexpected assault, followed by the most fearful results.

Hildebrand's brigade of Sherman's corps, which was the first attacked, was lying near Shiloh Meeting-house, at which point Sherman's artillery, under Captain Ezra Taylor, was stationed. Ruggles's division of Bragg's corps, with Hodgson's battery, made the direct assault, and Hildebrand's brigade, composed largely of comparatively raw troops, was driven from its camp almost without a struggle, for a panic seized some of the companies at the first onslaught. Buckland's and McDowell's had just time to fly to arms and form in battle order, when they, too, were attacked by the brigades of Pond and Anderson, of Ruggles's division, with a heavy artillery fire. For a

1 The troops here attacked were those of the brigade of Colonel Hildebrand, composed of the Fifty-third. Fifty-ninth, and Seventy-seventh Ohio, and Fifty-third Illinois; Colonel Buckland's brigade, composed of the Forty-eighth, Seventieth, and Seventy-second Ohio; and Colonel McDowell's brigade, composed of the Sixth Iowa, Fortieth Illinois, and Forty-sixth Ohio.

This was composed of the Twelfth Michigan, Sixteenth and Eighteenth Wisconsin, Eighteenth, Twenty. third, and Twenty-fifth Missouri, and Sixty-first Illinois.

This is from a sketch by W. Homer, published in Harper's Weekly, showing the manner of watching for an enemy by out-lying pickets in the woods.

272

FIRST DAY OF THE BATTLE.

while the conflict raged fiercely along the whole of Sherman's line. That gallant officer was seen in the thickest of the fight, exposing his life to quick destruction every moment, in encouraging his men to resist the tremendous assault, and escaping with only the hurt of a bullet passing through his hand. He tried in vain to rally Hildebrand's brigade, but he kept those of Buckland and McDowell steady for some time, while Taylor's heavy guns did admirable execution. These, heavily pressed, were soon compelled to fall back to an eminence across a ravine, where they made a gallant stand for a while.

In the mean time, McClernand, who lay in the rear of Sherman,' and at first supposed the firing to be only picket skirmishing, had thrown forward his left to the support of the smitten Hildebrand, and these troops for a while bore the shock of battle. This was at about seven in the morning, and before nine o'clock a greater part of Sherman's division was virtually out of the fight. His flanks had been rolled up by fresh troops under Bragg; and Polk, with the third Confederate line, was soon moving toward Sherman's rear, endangering his communication with the rest of the army and with the river. He collected and reorganized his broken columns, keeping up a desultory fight until, in the afternoon, he formed a new battle-line on a ridge in advance of a bridge over Snake Creek, by which General Lewis Wallace's division, ordered up from Crump's Landing, had been expected.

Turned by the steadiness of a portion of Sherman's division, and the troops of McClernand, the Confederates threw nearly their whole weight

upon Prentiss. Only his first brigade, under Colonel Peabody,' was there to receive them, the second brigade being near the landing. These men, though surprised and bewildered, fought obstinately for a while, but in vain. The foe was in their midst, and a wall of living men, strong with ball and bayonet, was closing around them, ready to crush them out and make an open way for the Confederates to the river. Prentiss had asked Hurlbut for help. Veatch's brigade was sent, but it was not sufficient. Then the brigades of Williams and Lauman were ordered to his assistance, when back upon these Prentiss was pushed by Wither's division of Bragg's corps. At that perilous moment seeming relief came, but it was only a mockery. McArthur's brigade of W. H. L. Wallace's division had been sent to the aid of Stuart's brigade of Sherman's division, on the

B. M. PREXTISS.

1 McClernand's division was composed of three brigades. The first, commanded by Colonel Hare, was composed of the Eighth and Eighteenth Illinois, and Eleventh and Thirteenth Iowa. The second brigade, commanded by Colonel C. C. Marsh, consisted of the Eleventh, Twentieth. Forty-fifth, and Forty-eighth Illinois. The third brigade was led by Colonel Raith, and was composed of the Seventeenth, Twenty-ninth, Forty-third, and Forty-ninth Illinois. Attached to this division were the fine batteries of Schwartz, Dresser, McAllister, and Waterhouse.

2 The Twenty-fifth Missouri, Sixteenth Wisconsin, and Twelfth Michigan.

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extreme left, which was in danger of being cut off if Prentiss's hard-pressed troops should perish. McArthur took a wrong road, and came directly upon Withers. He engaged him gallantly, and for a time there seemed to be a prospect of salvation for the environed troops. But McArthur was soon compelled to fall back. Prentiss's second division was hurried up, but it was too late. In the struggle, Peabody had been killed, Prentiss had become separated from a greater portion of his division, and it fell into the wildest confusion. By ten o'clock in the morning, it had practically disappeared. Fragments of brigades and regiments continued to fight as opportunity offered, and a large number of the division drifted behind new-formed lines, particularly those of Hurlbut. Prentiss and three of his regiments, over two thousand in number, maintained an unassailed position until late in the afternoon, when they were captured, sent to the rear of the Confederate army, and then marched in triumph to Corinth, as prisoners of war.

We have seen how McClernand's left hastened to the support of Hildebrand. As Sherman's line fell back, McClernand was compelled to bring in the remainder of his brigades to the protection of his left; for against that the Confederates, elated by their success in demolishing Prentiss, now hurled themselves with great force. McClernand's whole division formed a front along the Corinth and Pittsburg Landing road, with his batteries in good position, and there, until ten o'clock, he foiled every attempt of his foe to gain that road. Very soon a new peril appeared. The falling back of Sherman gave the Confederates a chance to flank McClernand's right, and quickly they seized the advantage. They dashed through the abandoned camps and pressed onward until driven back by Dresser's rifled cannon, which had smitten them fearfully. But reserves and fresh regiments pressing up toward the same point, with great determination and overwhelming numbers, compelled McClernand to fall back. His batteries were broken up,' many of his officers were wounded, and a large number of his men lay dead or mutilated on the field. The division fell slowly back, fighting gallantly, and by eleven o'clock it was in a line with Hurlbut's, that covered Pittsburg Landing.

We have alluded to the perilous position of the brigade of Stuart, of Sherman's division, on the extreme left of the National line,' to whose assistance General W. H. L. Wallace sent McArthur. It was posted about two miles from Pittsburg Landing on the Hamburg road, near the crossing of Lick Creek. Its position was isolated, and could be easily reached by the foe by a good road from Corinth; but, as it was intended to land Buell's forces at Hamburg, it was thought the brigade might be safely left there until that event. But the Confederates did not wait for the arrival of Buell; and now, when they were thundering away at the front of Sherman, McClernand, and Prentiss, his advance was more than half a day's usual march away. The isolated brigade was, therefore, placed in great peril. So isolated was it, that the first intimation its commander had of disaster on

1 Dresser had lost several of his rifled cannon, three caissons, and eighteen horses. Schwartz had lost half of his guns and sixteen horses; and McAllister had lost half of his 24-pound howitzers.

2 David L. Stuart was a resident of Chicago, and was then, as colonel of a regiment from Illinois, acting brigadier-general, in command of a brigade composed of the Fifty-fifth Illinois, and Fifty-fourth (Zouaves) and Seventy-first Ohio regiments.

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274

GRANT ON THE BATTLE-FIELD.

the right was the cessation of firing in that direction, the scream of a shell in its passage among the branches above him, and in the apparition of a Confederate column of cavalry and infantry bearing down upon him by the forest road from Corinth to Hamburg. That column was mostly composed of Breckinridge's reserves. He had planted batteries on heights near the ford, and under cover of these his troops rushed to the attack. For ten minutes a desperate conflict ensued, when Stuart fell back and sent to Wallace for aid. It was furnished, as we have seen, but missed its aim. McArthur, however, so vigorously fought the Confederates that Stuart's force was saved from capture, and was enabled to retreat to a place of comparative safety, where its shattered members were brought into order.

April 6, 1862.

It was now twelve o'clock at noon." The Confederates had full possession of the ground on which lay the first line of the National army in the morning, and of the camps of Sherman, McClernand, Prentiss, and Stuart. Three of the five divisions of that army on the field had been thoroughly routed, and all were hemmed within a narrow strip of ground between the triumphant Confederate line and the broad and rapid Tennessee River. General Grant, who was at his head-quarters at

ULYSSES S. GRANT.

Cherry's, eight miles away when the battle commenced,' had hastened to the field at the summons of the cannon's roar. He reached it at about eight o'clock, and at ten was. with Sherman, when the battle was hottest. He comprehended the peril that threatened his whole army, and he took vigorous measures to avert it by re-forming the shattered brigades, re-establishing batteries and new lines, and ordering General Lewis Wallace, at Crump's Landing, to hasten to the field of strife with his fresh division. Buell's advance was at Savannah, but could not come in time, perhaps, to assist in

the struggle, and he believed that he must win or lose the battle without them.

The gap made by the demolition of Prentiss's brigade and Stuart's retreat, through which the Confederates expected to rush upon Hurlbut and push him into the Tennessee River, was speedily closed by General W. H. L. Wallace, who marched with his remaining brigades and joined McArthur, taking with him the Missouri batteries of Stone, Richardson, and Webber, which were all under the command of Major Cavender. Hurlbut had been stationed in open fields; now he fell back to the thick woods between his camp and

1 There was some disposition to censure General Grant for having his head-quarters so far away from the bulk of his army. It is proper to remember that Savannah was the point toward which his expected re-enforcements, under Buell, were to join him; and it was essential for him to be where he could, at the earliest moment, confer with that commander, after he should reach the Tennessee. Grant spent most of each day with his main army, returning to his quarters in a steamer at evening.

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the river, and there, from ten o'clock in the morning until between three and four o'clock in the afternoon, he and Wallace held the Confederates in check, fighting a greater part of the time, and hurling back tremendous charges by the massed foe. On both sides death had been reaping a bountiful harvest. The brave General Wallace had fallen, mortally wounded, and been carried on a litter from the field. General Gladden, of the Confederate army, had been killed, and their Commander-in

chief, General A. S. Johnston, who had almost recklessly exposed himself, had also been mortally hurt at about halfpast two o'clock.'

The superior force of the Confederates pressed Hurlbut further toward the river at four o'clock. At that time the gallant Wallace fell, and the command devolved on General McArthur. His division, animated by his words and deeds, had been fighting hopefully, but they too were now compelled to retreat, to avoid being flanked and surrounded, as Prentiss had been.

A HAND-LITTER.?

They took position in a line with Hurlbut's men, about half a mile from the river, having lost only a single heavy gun, which was afterward recovered.

The day was now fairly lost. The victorious Confederates occupied the camps of all the Union divisions on the field excepting Wallace's,' and just in the rear of that the broken and terribly smitten army had now gathered in a space of not more than four hundred acres on a rolling plateau, very near the high banks at Pittsburg Landing, below which four or five thousand fugitives from the battle-field, chiefly inexperienced troops, were ignobly sheltering themselves from the storm of war. The army could fall back no farther. Its next retrograde movement could only be into the flood of the Tennessee, for there were not transports enough there to carry over it a single division.*

1 Johnston was hit by a piece of a shell that burst near him. It struck his thigh, half way between his hip and knee, cutting a wide path, and severing the femoral artery. Governor Harris, of Tennessee (his brother-inlaw), who was his chief of staff, was at his side. Ten minutes after he was lifted from his horse he died. Johnston was one of the bravest and most accomplished officers in the Confederate army. His death was concealed from his troops at that time, and it was not publicly made known until the army had returned to Corinth. Johnston's body was left on the field when the Confederates fled the next day, and was buried there. In January; 1367, his remains were taken to Austin, in Texas, for re-interment. The disloyal mayor and other citizens of Galveston asked permission of General Sheridan, the military commander of that district, to honor the remains by a public demonstration of respect in that city, to which Sheridan replied, in a note to the mayor:"SIR:-I respectfully decline to grant your request. I have too much regard for the memory of the brave men who died to preserve our Government to authorize Confederate demonstrations over the remains of any one who attempted to destroy it. "P. H. SHERIDAN, "Major-Gen. U. S. A."

This shows the manner of carrying the wounded from the field when unable to walk. These litters are made as portable as proper strength will allow, and so constructed as to fold up. They are composed of two poles with a canvas stretched between, and strap yokes for the bearers.

3 The Nationals had lost a division commander (Prentiss), a large number of field officers, and about three thonsand men as prisoners, besides many killed and wounded, together with a great portion of their artillery, about twenty flags, colors, and standards, thousands of small arms, and a large supply of forage, subsistence, and munitions of war.

4 It is related that Buell. when talking with Grant about the peril of giving battle with a deep river so nearly at his back, inquired, "What would you have done had you been pressed once more on Sunday evening ?"-" Put