278

ARRIVAL OF BUELL'S FORCES.

regard, who succeeded the slain Johnston in supreme command, ignorant of the arrival of Buell, and feeling confident of victory in the morning, was writing a glowing dispatch to Adjutant-General Cooper from his quarters in Shiloh Meeting-house, announcing a complete victory.'

a April 6,

1862.

We have observed that the vanguard of Buell's army, composed of Nelson's division, made its appearance, opposite Pittsburg Landing, toward Sunday evening. It had reached the Tennessee River, at Savannah, on the previous day; and, on the same evening, the commanding General arrived there. On the following morning, hearing the sound of heavy guns up the river, Buell hastened to Grant's head-quarters, at Cherry's, for information. The latter had just started for Pittsburg Landing in a steamer, having left orders for Nelson's division to be sent up at once. It started early in the afternoon, leaving its cannon to be forwarded by water, on account of bad roads, and arrived opposite the Landing, as we have observed, toward sunset. Buell reached there at about the same time, and requested Grant to send vessels down to bring up Crittenden's division, which had just arrived at Savannah. These, and the remainder of Nelson's division, and Wallace's, from Crump's Landing, had taken positions before midnight, and were preparing, in the midst of a drenching rain, to renew the conflict in the morning. All night long Buell's troops were arriving by land and water; and, at intervals of ten or fifteen minutes, the gun-boats were hurling a heavy shell into the camps of the Confederates, wearying and worrying them with watching and unceasing alarm. By these they were compelled to fall back from their position, from which they intended to spring upon the Nationals during the night, and they lost more than half the ground they had gained by the retreat of the Unionists on Sunday after

noon.

The morning of the 7th dawned gloomily upon the battle-field, which was overshadowed by heavy clouds, distilling a drizzling rain. Before sunrise the conflict was opened by General Lewis Wallace, whose division had been disposed in battle order at a little past midnight, and formed the extreme right of the newly established line of the army. Captain Thompson's field

1 The following is a copy of the dispatch, dated "Battle-field of Shiloh, April 6, 1862: We have this morning attacked the enemy in a strong position in front of Pittsburg, and after a severe battle of ten hours, thanks to Almighty God, gained a complete victory, driving the enemy from every position. The loss on both sides is heavy, including our commander-in-chief, General Albert Sidney Johnston, who fell gallantly leading his troops into the thickest of the fight.".

2 Buell's forces, that reached the field of action in time to participate in its events, consisted of three divisions, commanded respectively by Generals William Nelson, Thomas T. Crittenden, and Alexander McDowell McCook. Nelson's division was composed of three brigades: the first, commanded by Colonel Ammon, consisted of the Sixth and Twenty-fourth Ohio, and Thirty-sixth Indiana; the second, Colonel Bruce, consisted of the First, Second, and Twentieth Kentucky; the third, Colonel Hazen, was composed of the Forty-first Ohio, Sixth Kentucky, and Ninth Indiana.

General Crittenden's division consisted of three brigades: the first, commanded by General Boyle, was composed of the Nineteenth and Fifty-ninth Ohio, and Ninth and Thirteenth Kentucky; the second, Colonel William L. Smith, consisted of the Thirteenth Ohio, and Eleventh and Twenty-sixth Kentucky, with Mendenhall's regular and Bartlett's Ohio batteries.

General McCook's division was composed of three brigades: the first, General Rousseau, consisted of the First Ohio, Sixth Indiana, Third Kentucky (Louisville Legion), and battalions of the Fifteenth, Sixteenth, and Nineteenth regulars; the second brigade, General Johnson, consisted of the Thirty-second and Thirty-ninth Indiana, and Forty-ninth Ohio; the third brigade, Colonel Kirk, was composed of the Thirty-fourth Illinois, Thirteenth and Twenty-ninth Indiana, and Seventy-first Pennsylvania,

The division of General T. J. Wood was too far in the rear to reach the scene of action in time to participate in the battle. That of General Thomas was still farther in the rear.

OPENING OF THE SECOND DAY'S BATTLE.

279

guns first awakened the echoes of the forest and brought both armies to their feet. These shelled the Confederates, who were strongly posted, with artillery, upon a bluff across a stream and a deep wooded ravine in front of Wallace. The response was vigorous, and Thurber came to Thompson's aid. The conflict was brief. One of the rifled guns of the Confederates was speedily silenced, and its supporters were falling back. At that moment General Grant arrived, and directed Wallace to press forward and attack the Confederate left, commanded by General Bragg in person, and consisting of the division of General Ruggles, and the brigade of Colonel Wobue, of Breckinridge's reserves. This was done with his brigades en échelon, his line at right angles with the river. The Confederates were soon driven from the hill, and their places were occupied by Wallace's victorious troops. There a halt was made for Sherman's division, which lay to the left, to come up in support.

Wallace was now on the edge of an open field, and a wood and low swampy grounds, along Snake Creek, formed an impassable flank defense. Perceiving this, and that the left flank of the Confederates was exposed by the falling back of the force on the bluff, he attempted to turn it. To do so, it was necessary to change his front. This was skillfully done by a left halfwheel of the whole division, leaving a gap between it and Sherman's right, which was expected to move forward at once.

While this movement was in progress, a heavy column of the foe was seen in the woods, across an open field, making rapidly toward their endangered left, evidently for the purpose of turning Wallace's right. Buell's veterans had made Grant's left too strong for Beauregard to hope to win his expected victory there, and he was now seeking it on the National right. But there he found as determined a foe. Wallace ordered up Thompson's battery, which played upon the moving column with terrible effect until its ammunition was exhausted, when Thurber's was sent forward and continued the work most effectually. The flank movement was checked, and then Confederate cavalry attempted to take the battery. They were driven back by the skirmishers of the Eighth Missouri. Then a heavy column of infantry, with Watson's Louisiana Battery of destructive steel rifled cannon moved against Wallace's advance, when his first brigade, Colonel M. L. Smith, easily repelled them. For an hour and a half the contest went on, the bulk of Wallace's division all the while enduring a furious cannonade, but well sheltered, as they lay in wooded hollows, waiting for Sherman to come up.

While Wallace was holding the Confederates in check, Sherman, who had been waiting to hear the thunders of Buell's cannon advancing along the main Corinth road, moved forward with a resolution to obey Grant's command to retake the camp, lost the day before. At the same time Wallace ordered his division to advance. The first brigade led the way from the woods into and across an open field, beyond which, on a thickly wooded ridge, not far from Shiloh Meeting-house, the foe was posted. The division moved steadily on under an ordinary fire down into a slight hollow, and up a gentle slope toward their foe, when suddenly the woods were all ablaze with musketry, and the destructive Louisiana Battery hurled its bolts with fearful effect. Sherman's advance recoiled, when Wallace, whose flank was thereby exposed, ordered a halt.

280

THE SECOND DAY'S BATTLE.

Let us see what has been doing on the left meanwhile. Buell's forces on the field lay near Pittsburg Landing, and composed the center and left wing of Grant's new line of battle, upon which it was expected the Confederates would fall in the morning. Only the divisions of Nelson and Crittenden were well in hand at dawn. The former had quietly called up his men at four o'clock, and soon afterward he notified his general of his readiness for motion. Crittenden was ready at the same time, and when the booming of Wallace's heavy guns on the right was heard, they both moved forward, Nelson's division leading, with Ammon's brigade on the extreme left, Bruce's in the center, and Hazen's on the right. Nelson's artillery, which was to be sent up by water, had not yet arrived, but the battery of Mendenhall, of the regular service, and Bartlett's Ohio Battery, were on the field. McCook, who had been moving all night, so as to be a participant in the impending battle, had just arrived at Pittsburg Landing with his division when Nelson and Crittenden began their march, at half-past five in the morning."

@ April 7, 1862.

Nelson moved forward through the open woods and some cleared fields over the rolling plateau for about a mile before encountering the Confede rates in force, when, at six o'clock, he was assailed by their artillery, and halted. Mendenhall's battery was brought into action, and Crittenden took a commanding position on the right of Nelson, with Bartlett's battery posted at his center. A contest was maintained for some time, when McCook's division arrived on the ground, accompanied by General Buell, who assumed the direction of affairs. McCook's forces were formed on Crittenden's right, and some straggling troops that were on the field the day before were placed on McCook's right, making Buell's entire line about a mile in length, extending from a point southeastward of the Hamburg road, and across the Corinth road, so as to touch Hurlbut on the left and at the rear of McClernand. The entire National line formed an irregular curve.

While Buell's force was getting into position, Mendenhall and Bartlett fought three batteries of the Confederates in front of Nelson and Crittenden. The foe was evidently in strong force. A little to the rear of his left was the high, open wooded ridge on which Sherman and McClernand were encamped on the morning of the 6th, and this was an objective, according to Grant's order already alluded to. Forward Buell's column moved, and Nelson's division first felt the shock of battle, which soon became general along the whole line. Colonel Hazen, with his brigade, made a gallant charge and seized one of the Confederate batteries, but was driven back by superior numbers thrown into the woods on Crittenden's left, and a cross-fire of artillery, sustaining a heavy loss. Colonel Smith's brigade of Crittenden's division then advanced into the woods and repulsed the Confederates, and at the same time Terrell's Regular Battery of 24-pound howitzers was brought on the field and advanced to Nelson's left, near the Hamburg road, then heavily pressed by great numbers. Its effect was most salutary, for it soon silenced the right battery of the Confederates; but Terrell was speedily forced back, with Ammon's brigade, when a regiment from Boyle's brigade re-enforced Nelson's left, and it again moved forward and drove the foe. This exposed the Confederates at their second and third batteries, from which

they were soon driven by the concentrated fire of Mendenhall and Terrell, with a loss of several of their cannon.

3

Meanwhile McCook's division had been fighting the Confederate center, pushing it back step by step, until it was driven from its position. The action of that division was commenced by General Rousseau's, which was well supported by Generals Kirk and Gibson, Willich's regiment, and two regiments of Hurlbut's division.' After expending its ammunition, and marching to the rear for a supply, it was seen moving "in splendid order, and steadily to the front, sweeping every thing before it," smiting the foe so severely that he was driven from his position, and lost one of his batteries at the first onset. It was in front of this division that the Confederates, commanded by Beauregard in person, assisted by Bragg, Polk, and Breckinridge, made their last decided stand, in the woods beyond Sherman's old camp, near Shiloh Meeting-house, where we left that officer and Wallace confronting them. Two brigades of General T. J. Wood's division had just reached the field, but not in time to participate in the engagement. But they relieved the weary fighters, and sealed the doom of the Confederates, who now abandoned all hope of conquering the National left, and concentrated on their right, as we have observed.

It was now long past noon. Wallace had again changed his front for attack, with Sherman on his left as a support. Again his first brigade had moved forward, when a squadron of Confederate cavalry dashed out of the woods toward his temporarily exposed flank. These were repulsed by the Twenty-third Indiana, aided by an oblique fire by the First Nebraska. But a greater peril was menacing Wallace's whole division, at that moment. Sherman's forces, touching his left, had again given way, and were followed by a heavy mass of desperate Confederates, who were eagerly pushing forward to isolate Wallace from the rest of the National army. The situation of the gallant Indianian was extremely critical for a while. He immediately ordered up Colonel Charles R. Woods, of the reserves, with his Seventyeighth Ohio. These, with a regiment sent by General McClernand, and the Eleventh Indiana, Colonel McGinniss, whose front and flank had been attacked, stoutly held the ground, with the gallant Thurber ready to act with his artillery if required, until Colonel August Willich, with his splendid Thirtysecond Indiana, of McCook's division, dashed against the Confederates, and drove them back.1 Meanwhile Sherman had recovered his line, and the brigade of the wounded Colonel Stuart (now commanded by the skillful Colonel T. Kilby Smith) and that of Colonel Buckland, supported by two 24-pound howitzers of McAllister's battery, moved forward abreast of Rousseau's Kentucky brigade. Wallace's troops, who had entered the woods, also

1 Hurlbut's shattered division, which had fought on the previous day, was held in reserve much of the time at the rear and left of McClernand.

2 See General Sherman's report.

* General Rousseau had the honor of retaking General McClernand's head-quarters on Sunday morning. At the outer edge of that encampment the dead body of General A. S. Johnston was found.

4 Speaking of this movement in his report, General Sherman said: "Here I saw Willich's regiment advance upon a point of water-oaks and thicket, behind which I knew the enemy was in great strength, and enter it in beautiful style. Then arose the severest musketry-fire I ever heard, and lasted twenty minutes, when this splendid regiment had to fall back. This green point of timber is about five hundred yards east of Shiloh Meeting-house, and it was evident here was to be the struggle."

pressed steadily forward, while "step by step, from tree to tree, position to position," said that officer, "the rebel lines went back, never stopping againinfantry, horses, and artillery-all went back. The firing was grand and terrific. Before us was the Crescent regiment of New Orleans; shelling us on the right was the Washington artillery, of Manassas renown, whose last stand was in front of Colonel Whittlesey's command. To and fro, now in my front, then in Sherman's, rode General Beauregard, inciting his troops, and fighting for his fading prestige of invincibility. The desperation of the struggle may be

easily imagined. While this was in progress, far along the lines to the left the contest was raging with equal obstinacy. As indicated by the sounds, however, the enemy seemed retiring everywhere. Cheer after cheer rang through the woods, and each man felt the day was ours."

And so it was. Heavily pressed on all sides, the Confederates gave way,

1 The general position of the Confederates may be understood, by considering that on both days their lines were parallel to those of the Nationals.

2 Wallace's report.