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CHAPTER VI.

PITTSBURG LANDING, SHILOH, IUKA AND CORINTH.

The Confederate forces at Corinth were said to number forty-five thousand men on the 1st of April, 1862, under command of General Albert Sydney Johnston, with General P. G. T. Beauregard second in command, and General Bragg with his corps, which had been brought up from Mobile and Pensacola; General Polk, with forces from Columbus and points evacuated in Kentucky and Tennessee; Generals Hardee and Breckenridge were also in command of divisions. General Grant's forces consisted of five divisions, commanded respectively by Generals Sherman, Hurlburt, McClernand, Lew Wallace and W. H. L. Wallace, thirty-five thousand strong, spread over a space of several square miles from Pittsburg Landing to Savannah. The country is here rolling, cut up with ravines and intertwined with an inextricable maze of wood-paths. General Grant was resting at this point awaiting the arrival of General Buell, who was marching from Nashville to join him with forty thousand men. Owing to heavy rains and bad roads General Buell had been somewhat delayed, and had not been able to join the army of Grant as was expected.

On the morning of April 2, the Union videttes of General Wallace's division, who were stationed at Crump's Landing, had a sharp skirmish with the Confederates. On the 4th the Confederates made a reconnoissance in force,

but finding the Federals alert and ready to receive them, retired, General Johnston carefully avoiding a general engagement, as he was daily expecting large reinforcements from Generals Van Dorn

[graphic]

and Price. On the 5th
the Confederate forces ar-
rived in position in front
of the Union lines; the
more advanced were al-
lowed no fires, nor were
any noises such as are
usual to camps permitted.
On the 3d of April the
Confederate commander
had issued the following
proclamation
troops:

to

his

P. G. T. BEAUREGARD.

SOLDIERS OF THE ARMY OF THE MISSISSIPPI:-I have put you in motion to offer battle to the invaders of your country, with the resolution, and discipline and valor becoming men fighting as you are, for all worth living or dying for. You can but march to a decisive victory over agragian mercenaries, sent to subjugate and despoil you of your liberies, property and honor.

Remember the precious stake involved; remember the depend. ence of your mothers, your wives, your sisters, and your children, on the result. Remember the fair, broad, abounding lands, the happy homs that will be desolated by your defeat. The eyes and hopes of eight millions of people rest upon you. You are expected to show yourselves worthy of your valor and courage, worthy of the women of the South, whose noble devotion in this war has never been ex. ceeded in any time. With such incentives to brave deeds, and with trust that God is with us, your General will lead you confidently to the combat, assured of success.

By order of

GENERAL A. S. JOHNSTON, Commanding.

General Johnston had been able to get an accurate knowledge of the strength and position of General Grant's army, and expected to make his attack a surprise and crush the Union forces before General Buell should arrive. So confident were they of success, it is stated that Beauregard announced that his men should "water their horses the next day in the Tennessee River or in hell." Sunday, the 6th, was bright and clear. At 5 o'clock in the morning the Confederates advanced at double-quick, in three columns, striking the divisions of Generals Sherman and Prentiss, who were three or four miles in advance of Pittsburg Landing near Shiloh church. The odds against them were great. The Union troops, though partially surprised, fought desperately against overwhelming numbers, contesting the ground foot by foot until they reached the inner line of defense near the river. Generals Prentiss and Sherman did all that mortal men could do to stem the disaster to their forces. General Prentiss was soon overwhelmed, his forces dispersed, himself with a large number of his men taken prisoner. The following account from an eye witness, taken from the New York Herald of April 9, 1862, will be found of great interest. The description of this and the subsequent day's battle, written by General Grant, in a late issue of The Century, should also be read by all of the General's admirers.

THE FIRST DAY'S STRuggle.

PITTSBURG, via FORT HENRY,
April 9, 3.20 A. M.

One of the greatest and bloodiest battles of modern days has just closed, resulting in the complete rout of the enemy, who attacked us at daybreak Sunday morning.

The battle lasted, without intermission, during the entire day, and was again renewed on Monday morning, and continued undecided until 4 o'clock in the afternoon, when the enemy commenced their

retreat, and are still flying toward Corinth, pursued by a large force of our cavalry.

The slaughter on both sides is immense. We have lost in killed, wounded and missing, from eighteen to twenty thousand; that of the enemy is estimated at from thirty-five to forty thousand.

It is impossible, in the present confused state of aflairs, to ascertain any of the details; I therefore give you the best account possible from observation, having passed through the storm of action during the two days that it raged.

The fight was brought on by a body of three hundred of the Twenty-fifth Missouri Regiment, of General Prentiss' Division, attacking the advance guard of the rebels, which were supposed to be the pickets of the enemy in front of our camps.

The rebels immediately advanced on General Prentiss' Division on the left wing, pouring volley after volley of musketry, and riddling our camps with grape, canister and shell. Our forces soon formed into line and returned their fire vigorously. By the time we were prepared to receive them, the rebels had turned their heaviest fire on, the left center, Sherman's Division, and drove our men back from their camps; then, bringing up a fresh force, opened fire on our left wing, under General McClernand. This fire was returned with terrible effect and determined spirit by both infantry and artillery, along the whole line, for a distance of over four miles.

General Hurlburt's division was thrown forward to support the center, when a desperate conflict ensued. The rebels were driven back with terrible slaughter, but soon rallied and drove back our men in turn. From about nine o'clock, the time your correspondent arrived on the field, until night closed on the bloody scene, there was no determination of the result of the struggle. The rebels exhibited remarkably good generalship. At times engaging the left, with apparently their whole strength, they would suddenly open a terrible and destructive fire on the right or center. Even our heaviest and most destructive fire upon the enemy did not appear to discourage their solid columns. The fire of Major Taylor's Chicago Artillery raked them down in scores, but the smoke would no sooner be dispersed than the breach would again be filled.

The most desperate fighting took place late in the afternoon. The rebels knew that if they did not succeed in whipping us then, their chances for success would be extremely doubtful, as a portion of General Buell's forces had by this time arrived on the opposite side of the

river, and another portion was coming up the river from Savannah. They became aware that we were being reinforced, as they could see General Buell's troops from the river bank, a short distance above us on the left, to which point they had forced their way.

At 5 o'clock the rebels had forced our left wing back so as to occup fully two-thirds of our camp, and were fighting their way forward with a desperate degree of confidence in their efforts to drive us into the river, and at the same time heavily engaged our right..

Up to this time we had received no reinforcements, General Lewis Wallace failing to come to our support until the day was over. Being without other transports than those used for quartermaster's and com missary stores, which were too heavily laden to ferry any considerable number of General Buell's forces across the river, and the boats that were here having been sent to bring up the troops from Savannah, we could not even get those men to us who were so near, and anxiously waiting to take part in the struggle. We were, therefore, contesting against fearful odds, our forces not exceeding thirty-eight thousand men, while that of the enemy was upward of sixty thousand.

Our condition at this moment was extremely critical. Large numbers of men panic struck, others worn out by hard fighting, with the average percentage of skulkers, had straggled toward the river, and could not be rallied.

General Grant and staff, who had been recklessly riding along the lines during the entire day, amid the unceasing storm of bullets, grape and shell, now rode from right to left, inciting the men to stand firm until our reinforcements could cross the river.

Colonel Webster, Chief of Staff, immediately got into position the heaviest pieces of artillery, pointing on the enemy's right, while a large number of the batteries were planted along the entire line, from the river bank northwest to our extreme right, some two and a half miles distant. About an hour before dusk a general cannonading was opened upon the enemy, from along our whole line, with a perpetual crack of musketry. Such a roar of artillery was never heard on this continent. For a short time the rebels replied with vigor and effect, but their return shots grew less frequent and destructive, while ours grew more rapid and more terrible.

The gunboats Lexington and Tyler, which lay a short distance off, kept raining shell on the rebel hordes. This last effort was too much for the enemy, and ere dusk had set in the firing had nearly ceased,

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