Brigadier-General William T. Sherman, the fifth; and Brigadier-General B. M. Prentiss, the sixth. The fifth division was composed almost entirely of the rawest troops, hastily gathered together and thrown into brigades, none of whom had ever been under fire, or, indeed, under discipline. Sherman took command of his division at Paducah early in March.

During all this time the public heard nothing of Sherman. The press said nothing against him; it had ostracised and then forgotten him. He was under a cloud still, but it was about to lift for a brief period.

CHAPTER IV.

SHILOH.

THE enemy's forces under General A. S. Johnston, consisting of the corps of Polk, Bragg, and Hardee, of two divisions each, and the reserve division of Brigadier-General Breckinridge, having successively evacuated Columbus and Nashville, and abandoned Tennessee and Kentucky, with the exception of Memphis and Cumberland Gap, had concentrated at Corinth, in Mississippi, and were there awaiting the development of our plans, ready to act according to circumstances, on the offensive or defensive, and to take advantage of any error we might make. The position was well chosen for observing our movements, for covering the line of the Mississippi, or for menacing the flank and rear of an army invading Mississippi and Alabama.

General Halleck decided to advance up the Tennessee River as far as practicable by water; then to debark on the west bank, attack the enemy at Corinth, and endeavor to cut him off from the East, and compel his surrender either at Corinth or on the banks of the Mississippi. Grant was ordered to move up the Tennessee, and Buell to march from Nashville and join him near Savannah, Tennessee.

On the 14th of March, Sherman, with the leading division of Grant's army, passed up the Tennessee on transports, and after making a feint of landing at Eastport, dropped down the stream and disembarked at Pittsburgh Landing. It was Sherman's intention to march from this point seven miles in the direction of Iuka, and then halting his infantry, to dispatch the cavalry to the nearest point on the Memphis and Charles

ton railway. The attempt was made, but the enemy was encountered in greater force than had been expected, and it did not succeed. In the mean while, Major-General Charles F. Smith, who had command of the advance, having landed his own second division at Savannah, had selected Pittsburgh Landing as the most favorable position for the encampment of the main body of the army, and under his instructions Sherman and Hurlbut, who, with the fourth division, had closely followed him, went into camp there. In the course of a few days they were joined by the first and sixth divisions of McClernand and Prentiss, and by Smith's own division from Savannah; and Major-General Grant himself arrived and took command in person. During the last week of March, the Army of the Tennessee only waited for the Army of the Ohio. General Buell had informed General Grant that he would join him before that time; but he had encountered great delays, and on the morning of the sixth of April the Army of the Ohio had not yet come. It was hourly expected. Instructions had been sent by General Grant to expedite its advance, and to push on to Pittsburgh. The importance of the crisis was apparent, for Johnston would naturally seek to strike Grant before Buell's arrival; but Buell marched his troops with the same deliberation as if no other army depended upon his promptness. By express orders he even caused intervals of six miles to be observed between his divisions on the march, thus lengthening out his column to a distance of over thirty miles.

Pittsburgh is not a village, but simply a steamboat landing, containing a log hut or two, and is situated in a deep ravine, down which the Corinth road leads to the Tennessee River. The distance to Corinth is twenty miles. The ground in front of Pittsburgh is an undulating table-land, about a hundred feet above the road bottom, lying between two small tributaries of the Tennessee, Lick Creek on the south, and Snake Creek on the north, and having a front of about three miles between the two streams. Owl Creek rises near the source of Lick Creek, and flowing northeasterly, empties into Snake

Creek. Towards the river the bank is broken into abrupt ravines, and rises gradually to a range of low hills, which form the steep north banks of Lick Creek. The country is covered with a heavy forest, easily passable for troops, except where the dense undergrowth now and then constitutes an obstruction, and is sparsely broken by a few small cleared farms of about eighty acres each. The soil is a tenacious clay. About two miles from the landing the road to Corinth forks into two branches, forming the Lower Corinth road and the Ridge Corinth road; and another road leads off, still further to the left, across Lick Creek to Hamburgh, a few miles up the Tennessee River. On the right, two roads lead almost due west to Purdy, and another in a northerly direction across Snake Creek, down the river to Crump's Landing, six miles below. Innumerable smaller roads intersect these.

On the front of this position, facing to the south and southwest, five divisions of the Army of the Tennessee were encamped on the morning of the 6th of April. On the extreme left lay Stuart's brigade of Sherman's division, on the Hamburgh road, behind the abrupt bank of Lick Creek. Prentiss's small division, facing to the south, carried the line across a branch of the main Corinth road, nearly to Sherman's left. Sherman facing to the south, with his right thrown back towards the landing, extended the front to the Purdy road, near Owl Creek. This advanced line was about two miles from the landing. Near the river, about a mile in rear of Prentiss and Stuart, Hurlbut's division was encamped; McClernand's was posted to the left and rear of Sherman, covering the interval between him and Prentiss; and C. F. Smith's division, commanded during his severe illness at Savannah by Brigadier-General W. H. L. Wallace, was on the right of Hurlbut. Lewis Wallace's division was six miles distant, at Crump's Landing. Our whole force in front of Pittsburgh was about thirty thousand men.

On Friday, the 4th of April, the enemy's cavalry had made a demonstration upon the picket line, drove it in on Sherman's centre, and captured a lieutenant and seven men. They were

driven back by the cavalry of Sherman's division, and pursued for a distance of about five miles, with considerable loss. The next day the enemy's cavalry had again showed itself in our front, but there was nothing to indicate a general attack until seven o'clock on Sunday morning, when the advance guard on Sherman's front was forced in upon his main line. Sherman at once got his men under arms, sent a request to General McClernand to support his left, and informed Generals Prentiss and Hurlbut that the enemy was before him in force. Sherman's division was posted as follows: The first brigade, under Colonel J. A. McDowell, consisting of his own regiment, the 6th Iowa; 40th Illinois, Colonel Hicks; 46th Ohio, Colonel Worthington, and Captain Behr's "Morton" Battery held the right, guarding the bridge over Owl Creek, on the Purdy road. The fourth brigade, commanded by Colonel Buckland of the 72d Ohio, and including that regiment; the 48th Ohio, Colonel Sullivan, and the 70th Ohio, Colonel Cockerill, continued the line, its left resting on Shiloh meeting-house. The third brigade, commanded by Colonel Hildebrand of the 77th Ohio, was composed of that regiment, the 53d Ohio, Colonel Appler, and the 57th Ohio, Colonel Mungen, and was posted to the left of the Corinth road, its right resting on Shiloh meeting-house. Taylor's battery of light artillery was in position at the meeting-house, and Waterhouse's on a ridge to the left commanding the open ground between Appler's and Mungen's regiments. Eight companies of the 4th Illinois cavalry, Colonel Dickey, were placed in a large open field in rear of the centre of the division. Stuart's second brigade was, as we have seen, detached, and on the extreme left of the army.

The enemy formed under cover of the brush that lines the Owl Creek bottom, and at eight o'clock opened fire from his artillery, and moved forward his infantry across the open ground and up the slope that separated him from our lines. It now became evident that a general and determined attack was intended. Under cover of the advance on Sherman's front, the enemy was seen moving heavy masses to the left to