SHILOHCHAPTER IV.
We remained in Fort Donelson for a little over two weeks. The weather was miserably wet, cold and disagreeable all the time, and the boys wondered why we didn’t move on, and were getting impatient.
“Say, Will, how long do you think we are going to stay in this miserable old hole?”
“I don’t know, Jim; but I’ll bet you a hard tack that we will be marching within three days.”
“You seem to be so cocksure, I wonder if Gen. Grant has told you anything.”
“No, Jim,” said Will, “he hasn’t told me anything, nor do I believe he has told anybody what he is going to do, for I believe he is one of those silent men that talk very little.”
“Well, what makes you so certain we are going to move soon?”
“Oh, I just put two and two together andadd them up and it makes four. So, when I see them getting the horses and mules all shod and loading up our commissary and ammunition wagons to the top, I just say, that’s two and two and that makes four, and so we march.”
“Well, Will, you are a curious fellow, and if we do move soon, I’ll say you are one of the smartest fellows in camp.”
“Oh, shaw! that isn’t smartness, that’s just a little common horse sense put to work.”
Will’s prophecy came true, and in three days the victorious army under Grant started again for the Tennessee River. On March 24, 1862, we landed at Pittsburg Landing on the west side of the Tennessee River, and went into camp about two miles southwest of the landing.
At this place Gen. Grant was assembling an army to march on to Corinth and attack Gen. Johnson’s Confederate forces. Our troops had been located with a view to convenience, rather than in a compact line facing an enemy. Thegreat gaps between the different divisions indicated that the officers did not expect a general attack; still, I cannot see how they could have lulled themselves into this belief. To show that there had been signs of an enemy hovering near our camps, I will copy from an old diary kept by me at that time. I had forgotten this incident until reading it lately when it all came back to me as vividly as though of recent occurrence. “April 4th. Today I am on guard as Sergeant of the Second Relief.
“At night the troops were ordered out in line of battle, word having come that an attack had been made upon our outer line of pickets. Our regiment moved to the right and in front of our camp.
“My relief was on duty some little distance in the woods. Soon after the alarm was given, I received orders from the officer of the day to take off my sentinels and order each man to his respective company for duty. I proceeded toobey orders and had passed about half way ’round giving orders to my men, when, groping through the underbrush, I came to a sentinel whom I could not see very well because of the extreme darkness, and supposing he was one of my guard, I gave the order, and was just starting away when the sentinel called out sharply, ‘Halt.’ I had given the countersign before, so I turned and wanted to know what was up. He informed me that he was on picket duty and wanted to know who I was and what I wanted. I explained the situation to him, which seemed satisfactory, and I was permitted to go. Retracing my steps I found my own guard line. I had, in the darkness, stumbled into the picket line of another regiment and was ordering in soldiers with whom I had no business. The sentinel was all right and determined to do his duty, for as he criedhalthe raised his musket, pulled the hammer and was ready to shoot, but as an obedient soldier I obeyed his commandand halted, and in so doing escaped being shot by one of our own soldiers. The troops were kept in line of battle until 10 o’clock p. m., when the officers, believing it to be a ‘scare,’ ordered the soldiers to their respective camps.”
This incident tends to show that the enemy was hovering near our immediate front.
Calling a few years ago upon my old Colonel, Gen. John E. Smith, of the United States army (now deceased), and talking over some of our battles, I asked him about some feature of the battle of Shiloh, to which he replied: “Well, Wilbur, after reading all the histories and articles published on the battle of Shiloh, I am in doubt whether I was there at all.” But he was there, and by reason of his courage and skill merited the promotion he afterwards received.
The Generals and officers have had almost a monopoly since the war, in telling how such and such a battle was fought, and the magazines have been filled with the story of GeneralSo and So winning this battle and losing another. The Sergeants, Corporals and the privates who did the hard fighting in the ranks have not been heard from very much. It’s about time we had our say, so that the future historian may gather facts from the ranks as well as from the officers, and thus be able to make a complete history.
The ground at Shiloh is quite uneven and very woody, with here and there a field or “clearing.”
There was a little log church near Gen. Sherman’s camp, called “Shiloh,” where the battle commenced, and the great battle of April 6 and 7, 1862, has gone down in history as the battle of Shiloh.
The Confederate army had approached our lines very quietly within two miles; the beating of drums had been forbidden and every precaution taken to keep the Union army from knowing of their presence. The sound of“taps” in the Union army at 9 o’clock Saturday night was distinctly heard in the enemy’s camp, but we heard no “taps” from their army.
Never did a morning open with brighter, happier prospects than did that Sunday morning of April 6, 1862. Never did the sun beam forth, shedding its golden rays on a devoted, unsuspecting army, with more loveliness. Never was a wilderness made more cheerful and inviting by the innocent chirpings and songs of myriads of warbling songsters, perched among the many trees of our camp, little dreaming of the approaching dangers which was destined so soon to be drenched with human blood.
Will, being an early riser from force of habit, having been raised on a farm, had been up long enough to have eaten his breakfast, while Jim, his bunk mate, was just coming out of his tent, when the rattle of musketry was heard out in front to the southwest.
“Will, what was that noise off there, rumblingof the wagons?” inquired Jim.
“No, Jim, I think its musketry firing.”
“Oh,” said John Shannon. “You are away off. There isn’t any enemy within miles of us.”
While the boys were debating, the long roll sounded at headquarters, “bur-r-r-r rat-tat-tat-bur-r-r.”
The boys were astonished and startled, but they knew then what the noise they had heard meant, and each man jumping for his musket and cartridge box, fell into line without the word of command. In less than five minutes the regiment was in line ready for orders. This was about 6 o’clock in the morning. After waiting impatiently for some fifteen or twenty minutes, we received orders from Gen. McClernand, commanding our division, to move to the left a little and out in front to support Gen. Sherman’s division, whose troops were the first to receive an attack from the enemy, which was so fierce, desperate and sudden that some of histroops were surprised and thrown into a panic. They rallied, however, and checked the foe. Soon heavy musketry and cannonading were opened on our immediate left. Again we were moved to the left to aid the troops now in mortal combat, and taking our position in the woods we awaited the enemy.
Now, out of the forest in front march the gray line of battle, four columns deep, with arms at a right shoulder shift. On the columns march, without a break in their ranks, carrying a flag which appears to be the stars and stripes.
When they got near enough for our soldiers to open fire on them, we begin to get uneasy and want to commence firing. The men in the ranks realize that the first volley is needed now to check the oncoming foe. Jim was one of the nervous fellows and said to Will: “What does it mean? Why don’t our officers give the command to fire?”
Will replied: “You know the orders are notto fire until the command is given.” But even Will believed we were making a mistake in not firing, now that the enemy was in range.
The strain for those few minutes becomes too intense. A few of the men commence to shoot without orders, when an officer rushes down the line shouting: “Cease firing, those are our troops.”
Two or three men of Will’s company, who had no fear of an officer, and who now at this supreme moment seemed to know more than their officers, had been firing, among them Jim, who answered the officer: “The hell they are! You will find out pretty d—d soon they are not.”
Will said: “Better obey the officer, Jim; but I can’t blame you for swearing a little just now.” The soldiers obeyed and ceased firing.
Five minutes of terrible suspense, with that gray line advancing nearer and nearer; then suddenly a most destructive volley of musketrywas poured into our ranks, and our men fell like autumn leaves. Did we wait for orders to “fire?” No! Every man opened fire, loading and discharging his gun as rapidly as possible, the roar of musketry from either side being terrific. The underbrush is mowed down by bullets. Men are shot in several places in the body in a moment. The dead lie where they fall, and the wounded drag themselves to the rear. Our rapid firing has now checked the onward march of the enemy in our immediate front, but the regiment and battery upon our right were not so fortunate, and with unearthly yells the enemy charge the battery. The gunners fight like heroes, manning their guns until bayoneted. The boys thought it was Schwartz’s battery. The horses all being killed or wounded the cannon could not be taken away and were captured. It is related of an officer of this battery that, later in the day, he rode up to Gen. Grant, and touching his cap, said: “Sheneral,I vants to make one report. Schwartz’s battery is took.”
“Ah,” said the General; “how did that happen?”
“Veil, you see, Sheneral, de secesh come up in front of us and dey flank us and so Schwartz’s battery was took.”
“Well, sir,” said the General; “you spiked the guns, of course?”
“Vat!” exclaimed the officer; “schpike dem new guns. It would spoil dem.”
The regiment that supported this battery failed to stand up to the rack, and when the charge was made beat a retreat too soon. Our right flank was now about to be turned by the enemy, and the order was given to fall back a short distance. We fell back about two hundred yards and the lines were again formed. At this first engagement of the day we left a large number of our boys to sleep their last sleep. Again the battle was on, and the terrible workof destruction went on all along the line. The screaming shells and whizzing bullets carried death and wounds wherever they went. The line of battle stretched for a distance of two miles and raged with fury the entire length, the enemy massing their forces at certain points and pushing the Union troops back, then attempting to flank the regiment to the right or left. Such were the tactics used by Generals Johnson and Beauregard, and they were well managed, indeed.