CHAP. L.] PREPARATIONS FOR RENEWING THE BATTLE.

297

posite bank, and that only for a moment. The crisis was soon past; the onset of the Confederates was over. They gave up the struggle, and Grant was left master of the ground.

Grant arranges for a

tle.

The firing had hardly ceased when Grant went across to Sherman, and had an interview with him. renewal of the bat They agreed in opinion that the Confeder ate army was exhausted. Grant gave Sherman orders to be ready to attack it early in the morning, informing him that Lewis Wallace was near at hand, and would cross the bridge and take post on his right; that Buell's troops were arriving, and would get over the river during the night, and come up on the general left. Grant then visited every division commander, giving to each special directions. He slept on the ground, with his head against the stump of a tree, though it was raining heavily.

Buell, who, with his staff, soon afterward came on the Exhausted condi- field, and had also an interview with Shertion of the armies. man, had been unfavorably impressed by the sight of the broken troops near the Landing; but he found that, after all the losses, there must be nearly 20,000 still left for battle, and that the Confederates had probably not more than 25,000. They had, in fact, suffered quite as much as Grant's army. Bragg says that they were very much shattered: "In a dark, stormy night, the commanders found it impossible to find and assemble their troops, each body or fragment bivouacking where the night overtook them." Buell made himself acquainted with the battle-ground by the aid of a manuscript map lent him by Sherman.

Night came, and brought with it new horrors. The The gun-boats set gun-boats kept up an incessant cannonadthe woods on fire. ing; their shells set the woods on fire. Here the damp leaves were smouldering; there, dried by the

298

BEAUREGARD REPORTS HIS SUCCESS.

[SECT. X.

heat, they and the underbrush were bursting into flame. The fire crept up the bark of old trees. Wounded men, both those in blue and those in gray, were vainly trying to escape a common torment. Happily, however, the heavy rain that fell extinguished the flames.

Beauregard's report of his successes.

Beauregard thus reports his position on Sunday night: "At 6 o'clock P.M. we were in possession of all his encampments between Owl and Lick Creeks but one. Nearly all of his field artillery, about thirty flags, colors, and standards, over three thousand prisoners, including a division commander (General Prentiss) and several brigade commanders, thousands of smallarms, an immense supply of subsistence, forage, and munitions of war, and a large amount of means of transportation-all the substantial fruits of a complete victorysuch, indeed, as rarely have followed the most successful battles; for never was an army so well provided as that of our enemy.

"The remnant of his army had been driven in utter disorder to the immediate vicinity of Pittsburg, under the shelter of the heavy guns of his iron-clad gun-boats, and we remained undisputed masters of his well-selected, admirably provided cantonments, after over twelve hours of obstinate conflict with his forces, who had been beaten from them and the contiguous covert, but only by a sustained onset of all the means we could bring into ac tion."

arrived.

It has been sometimes said that the arrival of Buell Buell had not yet saved Grant's army. But it was not 'so. Grant, though severely pressed, was not beaten. General Nelson, with Buell's advance, did not reach the point on the Tennessee opposite the Landing until 5 P.M.; it was 63 P.M. before Ammen's brigade was over. The Thirty-sixth Indiana, Colonel Grose, support

CHAP. L.].

ARRIVAL OF BUELL.

299

ed by the Sixth Ohio, was the first to touch the enemy. The resistance it met with shows, however, that the action had really ended. Colonel Grose reported only one man killed in the firing, and one after he had got up two hundred yards in the rear of the battery; he had also one man wounded. Nelson completed the crossing of his division at 9 P.M. Crittenden's division came up Buell comes on the by boat from Savannah after that hour; McCook's at five the next morning, in the boats sent back by Crittenden. Lewis Wallace at last also arrived on the extreme right, where he had been expected for so many hours. These re-enforcements added to Grant's strength about 27,000 men.

field.

The morning of the 7th came in with a drizzling rain, and the Confederates showed no signs of advancing. Beauregard had ascertained that, from destruction, exhaustion, and fatigue, he could not bring 20,000 men into battle on his side. It was only now that he learned that Buell had come on the field. Lewis Wallace, who was on the national right, was in action soon after daylight. Grant ordered him to press his attack on the Confederate left, which was commanded by Bragg. Accordingly, Wallace and McClernand moved forward and recovered the ground lost the day before, up to McClernand's original camp on the right of the Corinth Road. There they waited with Sherman, who sat patiently on his horse, under fire, until after 10 A.M., by which time Buell's troops were abreast of them.

Renewal of the battle next morning.

into action.

Buell's forces constituted the centre and left of Grant's Buell's troops come new line. The divisions of Nelson and Crittenden only were ready at dawn. When they heard Wallace's guns on the extreme right they moved forward. Their artillery had not yet got up, but Buell sent them Mendenhall's and Terrill's, of the regu lar army. Nelson moved half a mile before touching

300

THE SECOND DAY'S BATTLE.

[SECT. X. the Confederates. He pushed them for a while before him, but at length he was checked. There was then an artillery conflict for two hours, the Confederates eventThe second day's ually wavering. Crittenden was on Nelson's right; and when McCook got up, he went on the right of Crittenden, and Buell took command. Sherman's captured camp was at this time in the Confederate rear, and to that as an objective the national line advanced, though resisted with the utmost resolution.

battle.

Meantime Lewis Wallace was so pressing the Confederate left that Beauregard was constrained to re-enforce it from his right, notwithstanding that he had found that Grant, with Buell, was too strong for him on that wing. Nelson, having now less pressure upon him, began again to move forward, though not without severe fighting and alternations of success. On the other wing, Wallace and Sherman were steadily advancing toward Shiloh meeting-house against a furious fire.

McCook's division had also forced back the Confedererate centre. In front of this division Beauregard made his last decided stand. He had given up all hope of forcing the national left. Sherman describes the musket ry fire arising in these movements as the severest he ever heard. Wallace says, "Step by step, from tree to tree, position to position, the rebel lines went back, never stopping again-infantry, horses, artillery, all went back. The firing was grand and terrific. 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. Far along the lines to the left the contest was raging with equal obstinacy. As indicated by the sounds, the enemy were retiring every where. Cheer after cheer rang through the woods, and every man felt that the day was ours."

Beauregard at last compelled to retreat.

CHAP. L.]

AID RENDERED BY BUELL.

301

Beauregard now found that nothing more could be done, and ordered a retreat. To Breckinridge, who had command of the rear-guard, he exclaimed, "Don't let this be converted into a rout."

losses.

Grant's captured tents were recovered, but no pursuit The Confederate could be made until the next day. The Confederate losses in this dreadful battle were 1728 killed, 8012 wounded, 959 missing — total, 10,699.

As there has been much controversy respecting the actual share of the armies of Grant and of Buell in the operations of the two days (April 6th and 7th), I give the subjoined tables, which may enable the reader to form an opinion.

In Grant's army there were six divisions. The national losses. Their losses, in killed and wounded, were:

Of Buell's army, four divisions had marched to Grant's

aid. Of these three were engaged:

How far Grant was

Aggregate loss

881

693

390

1964

In view of all the facts, it appears that Grant was not indebted to Buell for physical aid on the indebted to Buell. first day: he had himself repulsed the final Confederate attack, and believed that as soon as Lewis Wallace joined him he could renew and win the battle.