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

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. 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.

FLIGHT OF THE CONFEDERATES.

283

and flying through the National camps of Sunday morning, they burned their own, and with a powerful rear-guard under Breckinridge,' they hurried, in a cold, drizzly rain that soon changed to hail, with their sick and wounded in every conceivable conveyance, to the heights of Monterey that night, far on the road toward Cor

tured, and Beauregard's whole force might have been dispersed or made prisoners. Thus ended THE BATTLE OF SHILOH.

Although the Confederates had utterly failed in their intentions, and were thoroughly vanquished and driven from the field, with an acknowledged loss of nearly eleven thousand men,' Beauregard telegraphed to Richmond

1 Breckinridge's command was strengthened by the cavalry regiments of Forest, Adams, and the Texas Rangers, making the effective force of the rear-guard about 12,000 men.

? That retreat must have been a terrible experience for the sick and wounded. "Here," wrote an eye-witness," was a long line of wagons loaded with wounded, piled in like bags of grain, groaning and cursing, while the mules plunged on in mud and water, belly deep, the water sometimes coming into the wagons. Next came a straggling regiment of infantry, pressing on past the train of wagons; then a stretcher borne upon the shoulders of four men, carrying a wounded officer; then soldiers staggering along, with an arm broken and hanging down, or other fearful wounds which were enough to destroy life. ... I passed long wagon-trains, filled with

wounded and dying soldiers, without even a blanket to shield them from the driving sleet and hail, which fell in stones as large as partridge-eggs, until it lay on the ground two inches deep. Some three hundred men died during that awful retreat, and their bodies were thrown out to make room for others, who, although wounded, had struggled on through the storm, hoping to find shelter, rest, and medical care."

Beauregard expected a vigorous, and possibly disastrous pursuit, and said to Breckinridge, "This retreat must not be a rout! You must hold the enemy back, if it requires the loss of your last man."-" Your orders shall be executed to the letter," was the reported reply.-See Pollard's First Year of the War, page 302.

4 The picture shows the method of carrying sick and wounded on mules, which was in practice at the earlier periods of the war by both parties. The horse-litter, on which men who could not sit up were carried, is shown in the front figure; and the Cacolet, in which men wounded in the upper extremities were carried sitting, is seen in the figure behind. When good ambulances came into use, these methods were abandoned or became rare exceptions.

A rapid and persistent pursuit would have created a complete rout of the now weary, broken, and dispirited rebels. Two hours more of such fighting as Buell's fresh men could have made would have demoralized and destroyed Beauregard's army.-Thirteen Months in the Rebel Army, by an impressed New Yorker, page 169.

See reports of Generals Grant and Buell and their subordinate commanders; also of General Beauregard and his division commanders. A very spirited, and, it is said, correct account was given in the Cincinnati Gazette, written by its army correspondent "Agate " (Whitelaw Reid), who was an eye-witness of the battles. The author has been favored with the written and oral statements of participants in the battle on both sides.

7 Beauregard reported his loss at 1,728 killed, 8,012 wounded, and 957 missing; total, 10,697. General Grant reported his entire loss, including about 4,000 prisoners, 1,735 killed, 7,882 wounded, and 3,956 prisoners; total, 13,573. It was probably about 15,000, and there is reason to believe that Beauregard's was not less. Among the killed in the Confederate army, on Monday, was George W. Johnston, "Provisional Governor of Kentucky' (see page 189), who was with the Kentucky troops in the action. His horse was shot under him on Sunday, and on Monday he was in the ranks. General Hindman had a very narrow escape, just before the retreat, on Monday evening. While leading his men, in a fearful struggle, a small shell entered the breast of his horse and exploded in his body. The horse was blown into fragments, and his rider, with his saddle, was lifted about ten feet in the air. His staff-officers near supposed he was killed, and one of them exclaimed, "General Hind

284

a April 8,

1862.

THE BATTLE-FIELD OF SHILOH.

from Corinth, almost twenty miles from the battle-field, twenty-four hours after his flight," "We have gained a great and glorious victory. Eight to ten thousand prisoners, and thirty-six pieces of cannon." Conscious that his misrepresentations would be exposed by facts in a few days, he added: "Buell re-enforced Grant, and we retired to our intrenchments at Corinth, which we can hold." He had sent a flag of truce that morning from Monterey, where he had a hospital, asking Grant to allow him to send mounted men to the battle-field, to bury his dead. Grant refused. He informed him that, owing to the warmth of the weather, that office of humanity had already been attended to by his own army. "I shall always be glad," wrote Grant in his reply, "to extend any courtesy consistent with duty, especially so when dictated by humanity." There was also a sanitary consideration in this matter. It was important for the health of the National army,

which might remain some time in that vicinity, that the bodies of men and horses should be removed from the surface of the ground. The former were buried and the latter were burned.

The writer visited the battle-field of Shiloh late in April, 1866. At seven o'clock in the evening of the 23d, he left Meridian in Missis

sippi, for a journey of about two hundred miles on the Mobile and Ohio railway to Corinth, near the northern borders of the State. It was a cool moonlit night, and the topography of the country through which that railway passed, and over which Grierson had raided and Confederate troops and National prisoners of war had been conveyed, might be easily discerned. At twenty miles from Meridian it was a rolling prairie, with patches of forest here and there, and broad cotton-fields, stretching in every direction as far as the eye could comprehend. That character it maintained all the

man is blown to pieces." At that instant Hindman sprang to his feet and shouted, "Shut up there! I'm worth two dead men yet. Get another horse." In a few moments he was again in the saddle, but he was so much shocked that he was unable to take the field the next day.

1 In this number Beauregard evidently ncluded all the cannon he had captured on Sunday, but did not mention the fact that on Monday he had lost nearly as many.

2 Most of the prisoners taken at Shiloh were sent to Camp Douglass at Chicago. They were generally in s most miserable condition when captured. A lady at Chicago, writing to a friend, said: "But I have not told you how awfully they were dressed. They had old carpets, new carpets, and rag carpets-old bed-quilts, new bedquilts, and ladies' quilts, for blankets. They had slouch hats, children's hats, little girls' hats, and not one soldier cap on their heads. One man had two old hats tied to his feet instead of shoes. They were the most ragged, torn and worn, and weary-looking set I ever saw. Every one felt sorry for them, and no one was disposed to speak unkindly to them. Some of them looked careless and happy enough, and some looked very sad, and others would be very good-looking if they were well dressed and in good company. Even the officers were the most forsaken looking set of men I ever dreamed of. We have sent them newspapers and books, but we find that very few of them can read."

FROM CORINTH TO PITTSBURG LANDING.

a

285

April 24,

1866.

way to a more hilly country within thirty or forty miles of Corinth. With an interesting traveling companion (John Yerger, of Jackson, Mississippi), the night passed pleasantly away. We arrived at the reviving village of Corinth, which had been nearly destroyed during the war, at about half-past eight o'clock in the morning," where we breakfasted. The writer spent the time until past noon in sketching the headquarters of officers, National and Confederate, around the village, and then started for Pittsburg Landing, about twenty miles distant, in a light wagon drawn by a powerful horse driven by an intelligent young man, a brother of the owner of the conveyance. He was a native of that region, and had been in the Confederate army. He was acquainted with all the roads in the direction of the Landing, and with most of the localities of interest connected with the great battle. With his knowledge, and the assistance of an official map of the battle, very little difficulty was found in identifying them.

We first visited the principal fortifications around Corinth. About two and a half miles northward of the village, we passed out through the inner line of Confederate works, and were soon beyond the desolated region that had been stripped of its trees by the army, and riding through magnificent red oak forests, whose leaves were yet

too tiny to give much shelter from the sun, then shining with great warmth. For nearly nine miles the country was gently rolling, and well watered with little streams, when, approaching Pea Ridge, it became hilly and very picturesque. On that ridge we came to the site of the once pretty little hamlet of Monterey, where the only building that remained was a store-house, which the Confederates had used for a hospital. Near it was a ruined house, around which were the remains of what had doubtless been a fine flower-garden.

From Monterey to some distance beyond Lick Creek the country was hilly, very little cleared, and less cultivated, dotted here and there with miserable log-houses, and mostly covered with woods. Half-way between Monterey and Shiloh Meeting-house we crossed the recently overflowed Lick Creek Bottom, partly upon a log causeway built by the National army when moving on Corinth, and partly in the deep mud. Driftwood had been floated into barricades on the causeway in many places, and a more difficult journey cannot well be conceived. A horse less powerful than ours could not have dragged us through the sloughs. It gave us a vivid impression of the difficulties experienced by the armies in taking their artillery and wagon-trains through that region. Happily, our journey over that wooded and tangled "bottom" did not exceed half a mile in distance, when we forded clear and pebbly Lick Creek, climbed the hills on its opposite side, and, just at sunset, crossed a little tributary of Owl Creek, and halted in perplexity at the forks of the road, near the ruins of a house in open fields. It was the site of poor