Memoirs of General William T. Sherman CHAPTER 10d - BATTLE OF SHILOH. MARCH AND APRIL, 1862.
HEADQUARTERS FIFTH
DIVISION, CAMP SHILOH, April 10, 1862.
Captain J. A. RAWLINS, Assistant
Adjutant-General to General GRANT. SIR : I had the honor to report
that, on Friday the 4th inst., the enemy's cavalry drove in our pickets, posted
about a mile and a half in advance of my centre, on the main Corinth road,
capturing one first-lieutenant and seven men; that I caused a pursuit by the
cavalry of my division, driving them back about five miles, and killing many.
On Saturday the enemy's cavalry was again very bold, coming well down to our
front; yet I did not believe they designed any thing but a strong
demonstration. On Sunday morning early, the 6th inst., the enemy drove our
advance-guard back on the main body, when I ordered under arms all my division,
and sent word to General McClernand, asking him to support my left; to General
Prentiss, giving him notice that the enemy was in our front in force, and to
General Hurlbut, asking him to support General Prentiss. At that time7 A.
M. my division was arranged as follows:
First Brigade, composed
of the Sixth Iowa, Colonel J. A. McDowell; Fortieth Illinois, Colonel Hicks;
Forty-sixth Ohio, Colonel Worthington; and the Morton battery, Captain Behr, on
the extreme right, guarding the bridge on the Purdy road over Owl Creek.
Second Brigade, composed of the Fifty-fifth Illinois, Colonel D.
Stuart; the Fifty-fourth Ohio, Colonel T. Kilby Smith; and the Seventy-first
Ohio, Colonel Mason, on the extreme left, guarding the ford over Lick Creek.
Third Brigade, composed of the Seventy-seventh Ohio, Colonel
Hildebrand; the Fifty-third Ohio, Colonel Appler; and the Fifty-seventh Ohio,
Colonel Mungen, on the left of the Corinth road, its right resting on Shiloh
meeting-house.
Fourth Brigade, composed of the Seventy-second Ohio,
Colonel Buckland; the Forty-eighth Ohio, Colonel Sullivan; and the Seventieth
Ohio, Colonel Cockerill, on the right of the Corinth road, its left resting on
Shiloh meeting-house.
Two batteries of artilleryTaylor's and
Waterhouse'swere posted, the former at Shiloh, and the latter on a ridge
to the left, with a front-fire over open ground between Mungen's and Appler's
regiments. The cavalry, eight companies of the Fourth Illinois, under Colonel
Dickey, were posted in a large open field to the left and rear of Shiloh
meeting-house, which I regarded as the centre of my position.
Shortly
after 7 A. M with my entire staff, I rode along a portion of our front,
and when in the open field before Appler's regiment, the enemy's pickets opened
a brisk fire upon my party, killing my orderly, Thomas D. Holliday, of Company
H, Second Illinois Cavalry. The fire came from the bushes which line a small
stream that rises in the field in front of Appler's camp, and flows to the
north along my whole front.
This valley afforded the enemy partial
cover; but our men wore so posted as to have a good fire at them as they
crossed the valley and ascended the rising ground on our side.
About 8
A.M. I saw the glistening bayonets of heavy masses of infantry to our left
front in the woods beyond the small stream alluded to, and became satisfied for
the first time that the enemy designed a determined attack on our whole camp.
All the regiments of my division were then in line of battle at their
proper posts. I rode to Colonel Appler, and ordered him to hold his ground at
all hazards, as he held the left flank of our first line of battle, and I
informed him that he had a good battery on his right, and strong support to his
rear. General McClernand had promptly and energetically responded to my
request, and had sent me three regiments which were posted to protect
Waterhouse's battery and the left flank of my line.
The battle opened
by the enemy's battery, in the woods to our front, throwing shells into our
camp. Taylor's and Waterhouse's batteries promptly responded, and I then
observed heavy battalions of infantry passing obliquely to the left, across the
open field in Appler's front; also, other columns advancing directly upon my
division. Our infantry and artillery opened along the whole line, and the
battle became general. Other heavy masses of the enemy's forces kept passing
across the field to our left, and directing their course on General Prentiss. I
saw at once that the enemy designed to pass my left flank, and fall upon
Generals McClernand and Prentiss, whose line of camps was almost parallel with
the Tennessee River, and about two miles back from it. Very soon the sound of
artillery and musketry announced that General Prentiss was engaged; and about 9
A.M. I judged that he was falling back. About this time Appler's regiment broke
in disorder, followed by Mungen's regiment, and the enemy pressed forward on
Waterhouse's battery thereby exposed.
The three Illinois regiments in
immediate support of this battery stood for some time; but the enemy's advance
was so vigorous, and the fire so severe, that when Colonel Raith, of the
Forty-third Illinois, received a severe wound and fell from his horse, his
regiment and the others manifested disorder, and the enemy got possession of
three guns of this (Waterhouse's) battery. Although our left was thus turned,
and the enemy was pressing our whole line, I deemed Shiloh so important, that I
remained by it and renewed my orders to Colonels McDowell and Buckland to hold
their ground; and we did hold these positions until about 10 A. M when
the enemy had got his artillery to the rear of our left flank and some change
became absolutely necessary. Two regiments of Hildebrand's brigade
Appler's and Mungen'shad already disappeared to the rear, and
Hildebrand's own regiment was in disorder. I therefore gave orders for Taylor's
batterystill at Shilohto fall back as far as the Purdy and Hamburg
road, and for McDowell and Buckland to adopt that road as their now line. I
rode across the angle and met Behr's battery at the cross-roads, and ordered it
immediately to come into battery, action right. Captain Behr gave the order,
but he was almost immediately shot from his horse, when drivers and gunners
fled in disorder, carrying off the caissons, and abandoning five out of six
guns, without firing a shot. The enemy pressed on, gaining this battery, and we
were again forced to choose a new line of defense. Hildebrand's brigade had
substantially disappeared from the field, though he himself bravely remained.
McDowell's and Buckland's brigades maintained their organizations, and were
conducted by my aides, so as to join on General McClernand's right, thus
abandoning my original camps and line. This was about 10 A. M., at which time
the enemy had made a furious attack on General McClernand's whole front. He
struggled most determinedly, but, finding him pressed, I moved McDowell's
brigade directly against the left flank of the enemy, forced him back some
distance, and then directed the men to avail themselves of every
covertrees, fallen timber, and a wooded valley to our right. We held this
position for four long hours, sometimes gaining and at others losing ground;
General McClernand and myself acting in perfect concert, and struggling to
maintain this line. While we were so hard pressed, two Iowa regiments
approached from the rear, but could not be brought up to the severe fire that
was raging in our front, and General Grant, who visited us on that ground, will
remember our situation about 3 P. M. ; but about 4 P.M. it was evident that
Hurlbut's line had been driven back to the river; and knowing that General Lew
Wallace was coming with reenforcements from Crump's Landing, General McClernand
and I, on consultation, selected a new line of defense, with its right covering
a bridge by which General Wallace had to approach. We fell back as well as we
could, gathering in addition to our own such scattered forces as we could find,
and formed the new line.
During this change the enemy's cavalry charged
us, but were handsomely repulsed by the Twenty-ninth Illinois Regiment. The
Fifth Ohio Battery, which had come up, rendered good service in holding the
enemy in check for some time, and Major Taylor also came up with another
battery and got into position, just in time to get a good flank-fire upon the
enemy's column, as he pressed on General McClernand's right, checking his
advance; when General McClernand's division made a fine charge on the enemy and
drove him back into the ravines to our front and right. I had a clear field,
about two hundred yards wide, in my immediate front, and contented myself with
keeping the enemy's infantry at that distance daring the rest of the day. In
this position we rested for the night. My command had become decidedly of a
mixed character. Buckland's brigade was the only one that retained its
organization. Colonel Hildebrand was personally there, but his brigade was not.
Colonel McDowell had been severely injured by a fall off his horse, and had
gone to the river, and the three regiments of his brigade were not in line. The
Thirteenth Missouri, Colonel Crafts J. Wright, had reported to me on the field,
and fought well, retaining its regimental organization; and it formed a part of
my line during Sunday night and all Monday. Other fragments of regiments and
companies had also fallen into my division, and acted with it during the
remainder of the battle. Generals Grant and Buell visited me in our bivouac
that evening, and from them I learned the situation of affairs on other parts
of the field. General Wallace arrived from Crump's Landing shortly after dark,
and formed his line to my right rear. It rained hard during the night, but our
men were in good spirits, lay on their arms, being satisfied with such bread
and meat as could be gathered at the neighboring camps, and determined to
redeem on Monday the losses of Sunday.
At daylight of Monday I received
General Grant's orders to advance and recapture our original camps. I
dispatched several members of my staff to bring up all the men they could find,
especially the brigade of Colonel Stuart, which had been separated from the
division all the day before; and at the appointed time the division, or rather
what remained of it, with the Thirteenth Missouri and other fragments, moved
forward and reoccupied the ground on the extreme right of General McClernand's
camp, where we attracted the fire of a battery located near Colonel McDowell's
former headquarters. Here I remained, patiently waiting for the sound of
General Buell's advance upon the main Corinth road. About 10 A. M. the heavy
firing in that direction, and its steady approach, satisfied me; and General
Wallace being on our right flank with his well-conducted division, I led the
head of my column to General McClernand's right, formed line of battle facing
south, with Buckland's brigade directly across the ridge, and Stuart's brigade
on its right in the woods; and thus advanced, steadily and slowly, under a
heavy fire of musketry and artillery. Taylor had just got to me from the rear,
where he had gone for ammunition, and brought up three guns, which I ordered
into position, to advance by hand firing. These guns belonged to Company A,
Chicago Light Artillery, commanded by Lieutenant P. P. Wood, and did most
excellent service. Under cover of their fire, we advanced till we reached the
point where the Corinth road crosses the line of McClernand's camp, and here I
saw for the first time the well-ordered and compact columns of General Buell's
Kentucky forces, whose soldierly movements at once gave confidence to our newer
and less disciplined men. 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 some 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. The enemy could
also be seen forming his lines to the south. General McClernand sending to me
for artillery, I detached to him the three guns of Wood's battery, with which
he speedily drove them back, and, seeing some others to the rear, I sent one of
my staff to bring them forward, when, by almost providential decree, they
proved to be two twenty-four- pound howitzers belonging to McAlister's battery,
and served as well as guns ever could be.
This was about 2 p.m. The
enemy had one battery close by Shiloh, and another near the Hamburg road, both
pouring grape and canister upon any column of troops that advanced upon the
green point of water-oaks. Willich's regiment had been repulsed, but a whole
brigade of McCook's division advanced beautifully, deployed, and entered this
dreaded wood. I ordered my second brigade (then commanded by Colonel T. Kilby
Smith, Colonel Stuart being wounded) to form on its right, and my fourth
brigade, Colonel Buckland, on its right; all to advance abreast with this
Kentucky brigade before mentioned, which I afterward found to be Rousseau's
brigade of McCook's division. I gave personal direction to the twenty-four-
pounder guns, whose well-directed fire first silenced the enemy's guns to the
left, and afterward at the Shiloh meeting-house. Rousseau's brigade moved in
splendid order steadily to the front, sweeping every thing before it, and at 4
p.m. we stood upon the ground of our original front line; and the enemy was in
fall retreat. I directed my several brigades to resume at once their original
camps.
Several times during the battle, cartridges gave out; but
General Grant had thoughtfully kept a supply coming from the rear. When I
appealed to regiments to stand fast, although out of cartridges, I did so
because, to retire a regiment for any cause, has a bad effect on others. I
commend the Fortieth Illinois and Thirteenth Missouri for thus holding their
ground under heavy fire, although their cartridge-boxes were empty.
I
am ordered by General Grant to give personal credit where I think it is due,
and censure where I think it merited. I concede that General McCook's splendid
division from Kentucky drove back the enemy along the Corinth road, which was
the great centre of this field of battle, where Beauregard commanded in person,
supported by Bragg's, Folk's, and Breckenridge's divisions. I think Johnston
was killed by exposing himself in front of his troops, at the time of their
attack on Buckland's brigade on Sunday morning ; although in this I may be
mistaken.
My division was made up of regiments perfectly new, nearly
all having received their muskets for the first time at Paducah. None of them
had ever been under fire or beheld heavy columns of an enemy bearing down on
them as they did on last Sunday.
To expect of them the coolness and
steadiness of older troops would he wrong. They knew not the value of
combination and organization. When individual fears seized them, the first
impulse was to get away. My third brigade did break much too soon, and I am not
yet advised where they were during Sunday afternoon and Monday morning. Colonel
Hildebrand, its commander, was as cool as any man I ever saw, and no one could
have made stronger efforts to hold his men to their places than he did. He kept
his own regiment with individual exceptions in hand, an hour after Appler's and
Mungen's regiments had left their proper field of action. Colonel Buckland
managed his brigade well. I commend him to your notice as a cool, intelligent,
and judicious gentleman, needing only confidence and experience to make a good
commander. His subordinates, Colonels Sullivan and Cockerill, behaved with
great gallantry; the former receiving a severe wound on Sunday, and yet
commanding and holding his regiment well in hand all day, and on Monday, until
his right arm was broken by a shot. Colonel Cockerill held a larger proportion
of his men than any colonel in my division, and was with me from first to last.
Colonel J. A. McDowell, commanding the first brigade, held his ground
on Sunday, till I ordered him to fall back, which he did in line of battle; and
when ordered, he conducted the attack on the enemy's left in good style. In
falling back to the next position, he was thrown from his horse and injured,
and his brigade was not in position on Monday morning. His subordinates,
Colonels Hicks and Worthington, displayed great personal courage. Colonel Hicks
led his regiment in the attack on Sunday, and received a wound, which it is
feared may prove mortal. He is a brave and gallant gentleman, and deserves well
of his country. Lieutenant-Colonel Walcutt, of the Ohio Forty-sixth, was
severely wounded on Sunday, and has been disabled ever since. My second
brigade, Colonel Stuart, was detached nearly two miles from my headquarters. He
had to fight his own battle on Sunday, against superior numbers, as the enemy
interposed between him and General Prentiss early in the day. Colonel Stuart
was wounded severely, and yet reported for duty on Monday morning, but was
compelled to leave during the day, when the command devolved on Colonel T.
Kilby Smith, who was always in the thickest of the fight, and led the brigade
handsomely.
I have not yet received Colonel Stuart's report of the
operations of his brigade during the time he was detached, and must therefore
forbear to mention names. Lieutenant-Colonel Kyle, of the Seventy-first, was
mortally wounded on Sunday, but the regiment itself I did not see, as only a
small fragment of it was with the brigade when it joined the division on Monday
morning. Great credit is due the fragments of men of the disordered regiments
who kept in the advance. I observed and noticed them, but until the brigadiers
and colonels make their reports, I cannot venture to name individuals, but will
in due season notice all who kept in our front line, as well as those who
preferred to keep back near the steamboat-landing. I will also send a full list
of the killed, wounded, and missing, by name, rank, company, and regiment. At
present I submit the result in figures:
Regiments |
Killed |
Wounded |
Missing |
Officers. |
Men. |
Officers. |
Men. |
Officers. |
Men. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Sixth Iowa |
2 |
49 |
3 |
117 |
- |
39 |
Fortieth
Illinois |
1 |
42 |
7 |
148 |
- |
2 |
Forty-sixth
Ohio |
2 |
32 |
3 |
147 |
- |
52 |
Fifty-fifth
Ohio |
1 |
45 |
8 |
183 |
- |
41 |
Fifty-fourth
Ohio |
2 |
22 |
5 |
128 |
- |
32 |
Seventy-first
Ohio |
1 |
12 |
- |
52 |
1 |
45 |
Seventy-seventh
Ohio |
1 |
48 |
7 |
107 |
3 |
53 |
Fifty-seventh
Ohio |
2 |
7 |
- |
82 |
- |
33 |
Fifty-third
Ohio |
- |
7 |
- |
39 |
- |
5 |
Seventy-second
Ohio |
2 |
13 |
5 |
85 |
- |
49 |
Forty-eighth
Ohio |
1 |
13 |
3 |
70 |
1 |
45 |
Seventieth
Ohio |
- |
9 |
1 |
53 |
1 |
39 |
Taylor's battery, no
report |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
Behr's |
1 |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
Barrett's |
- |
1 |
- |
5 |
- |
- |
Waterhouse's |
- |
1 |
3 |
14 |
- |
- |
Orderly
Holliday |
- |
1 |
- |
- |
- |
- |
Total |
16 |
302 |
45 |
1,230 |
6 |
435 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Officers
killed |
16 |
Officers
wounded |
45 |
Officers
missing |
6 |
Soldiers
killed |
302 |
Soldiers
wounded |
1,230 |
Soldiers
missing |
435 |
Aggregate
loss in the division |
2,034 |
|