Page images
PDF
EPUB

282

by Halleck.

THE CAMPAIGN OF SHILOH.

[SECT. X.

soon as Halleck heard that Grant had gone up the Cumland instead of the Tennessee, he was very much displeas disapproved of ed, and telegraphed to him, "Why don't you obey my orders? Why don't you answer my letters? Turn over the command of the Tennessee expedition to General C. F. Smith, and remain yourself at Fort Henry."

He also complained to McClellan at Washington that he could get no reports from Grant, whose troops were demoralized by their victory. To Grant he wrote that his neglect of repeated orders to report his strength had created great dissatisfaction and seriously interfered with the military plans; that his going to Nashville when he should have been with his troops had been a matter of so much complaint at Washington that it had been considered advisable to arrest him on his return.

Grant's explanations.

At length came Grant's answer that he had not received Halleck's orders in time; that he had not gone to Nashville to gratify any desire of his own, but for the good of the service; that he had reported every day, and had written on an average more than once a day, and had done his best to obey orders; that, instead of being worthy of censure for permitting his troops to maraud, he had sent the marauders to St. Louis. He asked to be relieved, and turned over the command to General Smith, who at once commenced the embarkation of the troops to the

General Smith put in command.

Upper Tennessee.

Halleck was so far satisfied with these explanations that he requested the authorities at Washington to drop the matter. The order assigning Smith to the command was, however, not recalled.

Halleck, in this perpendicular movement upon the ConAdvantages of the federate line, derived at once singular advan

Tennessee River.

tages from the Tennessee River. It gave

CHAP. L.]

SHERMAN'S EXPEDITION.

283

him ready communication by his transports and gunboats; the latter, as we shall see, successfully intervened at the very moment of the crisis of the battle of Shiloh. Early in March, Sherman was ordered by Halleck to The expedition join the Tennessee expedition and report to passes up it. Smith. The whole army steamed up to Savannah, where the dépôt of supplies was established. There were nearly seventy transports, carrying more than thirty thousand troops. The bands were playing, flags flying; it was a splendid pageant of war. Lewis Wallace's division disembarked on the west bank of the river and took post on the road to Purdy. He was ordered to destroy the railroad bridge in the vicinity of that place. A train with Confederate troops narrowly escaped capture; it approached while the bridge was burning. Another division (C. F. Smith's) occupied the town and country beyond; and Sherman was ordered by Smith to take his own division, and the two gun-boats Tyler and Lexington, to proceed farther up the river, and break the Memphis and Charleston Railroad. It noissance. was now known that the Confederate army was concentrating at Corinth, and that it had a battery at Eastport, and another just above the mouth of Bear Creek. On passing "Pittsburg Landing," Sherman learned that there was a road thence to Corinth. A Confederate regiment lying there had fired on the gun-boats. Hereupon he wrote to Smith that he thought it impor tant to occupy "Pittsburg Landing." This was accordingly done, and the place became, in consequence, immortal in American history.

Sherman's recon

Meantime Sherman passed forward on his expedition for cutting the railroad, but was thwarted by a deluge of rain, which so flooded the country as to render it imprac ticable, many men and horses being drowned in the swol len streams. With great difficulty he got back to his

284

PITTSBURG LANDING AND SHILOH.

[SECT. X.

boats. The time had passed to make a lodgment on the railroad by a dash: whatever was to be done now must be done deliberately and systematically.

burg Landing.

On the receipt of Sherman's letter, Smith reconnoitred Occupation of Pitts- Pittsburg Landing in person, and found that it was well adapted as a base for a large army operating inland. He therefore ordered Hurlbut's division to occupy it; and then directed Sherman to move his division there, and take a position out from the river, so as to leave room for a large army behindroom enough, he said, "for a hundred thousand men.”

I am particular in relating these details of the manner in which Pittsburg Landing came to be occupied, because Grant has not only been criticised, but severely blamed for what he is supposed to have done in the matter. That great soldier has made no reply, justly expecting that history would eventually vindicate him.

The bluff at Pittsburg Landing extended about half a mile along the river: the road to the top

The topography around Shiloh.

was in a ravine, at the foot of which lay four or five steam-boats of Hurlbut's division. As this road was not more than sufficient for their accommodation, Sherman caused two more to be cut up through the bluff, which was a high plateau inclining from the west, and intersected with ravines right and left. A country road led from the landing to Corinth. At a distance upon it of about two and a quarter miles stood a little log building embowered in trees, known as Shiloh Church. It had neither doors nor windows, and was only half floored. When first visited there was a pile of corn in the husk on the floor. It was simply a place where Methodist camp-meetings were occasionally held, and had of late been used as a Confederate picket station. The greater part of the pla teau, a space of four miles by two and a half or three, was covered with heavy oaks, and an underbrush of hick

CHAP. L.]

POSTING OF THE TROOPS.

285

ory and scrub; near to the landing, however, it was cleared. Sherman carefully reconnoitred the ground, and put two of his brigades on the Corinth Road, on the right and left of the meeting-house; another brigade he put more to the right and somewhat refused, to command the Purdy Road at the Owl Creek Crossing, and the other (Stewart's) to cover the Lick Creek Ford. Thus his division, 8000 strong, was an outlying force to cover all the main roads leading to the landing. There was a short gap between his centre and right, and a wide one, of nearly two and a half miles, between his centre and left brigade (Stewart's), partially covered by Hurlbut.

Posting of the troops.

As soon as these camps were selected, Sherman and McPherson examined all the country on the front and flanks, moving out ten miles toward Corinth as far as Monterey. McPherson had been sent, by order of Smith, to post the army as it arrived. Hurlbut's division was put in line to the left of the main Corinth Road, his right where the Hamburg Road branches to the left, and Smith's own division (then commanded by General W. H. L. Wallace) was on Hurlbut's right.

McPherson placed McClernand's division about a mile in front of W. H. L. Wallace, and Prentiss's to his left, Lewis Wallace's division still remaining on the road to Purdy. It communicated with the main army by an old bridge which was over Snake Creek. These dispositions were made between the 20th of March and the 6th of April.

Death of General
Smith.

In the mean time General Smith had fallen seriously ill. He had received what appeared to be an insignificant injury-a mere scratch on his leg, in stepping into a boat. Gangrene came on, and he died on the 25th of April. His health had been ruined by exposure and fatigue at Fort Donelson.

286

Restoration of Grant to command.

GRANT RESTORED TO COMMAND.

[SECT. X.

It is to be remarked that most of the arrangements thus far made were not by order of Grant, for it was not until the illness of Smith that Halleck restored him to command. At this moment the Tennessee River was separating the army. In an hour after taking command Grant had ordered his forces to be concentrated. He established his head-quar ters at Savannah (March 17th), where he could communicate with Buell, who was coming from Nashville, and with Lewis Wallace, who was at Crump's Landing. It is also to be borne in mind that these movements were under the supreme direction of Halleck, who was at St. Louis, and whose intention was to make a lodgment on the Memphis and Charleston Railroad. All the landings except the bluffs were at this time flooded. The first ob ject was to secure positions commanding the Tennessee and bases for future operations. The west bank of the river was preferred, because it rendered unnecessary pontoons and transports for crossing.

The first line of Confederate defense having been swept Beauregard's army away by the capture of Fort Donelson, Beauat Corinth. regard, who had been sent by the Richmond authorities to supervise the movements in the Mississippi Valley, established a second along the line of the Memphis and Charleston Railroad. The army immediately under his command was at Corinth, about 30 miles from Pittsburg Landing. His views of the measures to be resorted to for the defense of the valley were far more correct than those hitherto adopted by the Confederate gov ernment. His intention was not to divide, but to concen trate all the available Confederate forces; and this he would have done previously had he arrived in time to prevent the disaster at Donelson.

He therefore, as rapidly as he could, withdrew the

« PreviousContinue »