graphs, he communicated easily with | masked by cavalry, he confidently Richmond, and with every portion of the Cotton States. The recent evacuation of Columbus by Polk was probably ordered by him, in obedience to his policy of concentrating around Corinth the greatest possible force, with intent to rush upon and overwhelm the Union army, so carelessly encamped just before him on the hither bank of the Tennessee. Having a spy in nearly every dwelling in southern Tennessee, he was doubtless aware that the command of that army had just been turned over by Gen. C. F. Smith, an experienced and capable soldier, to Gen. Grant, so recently from civil life; and he had no doubt of his ability to accomplish its destruction. Calling urgently upon the Governors of Tennessee, Mississippi, and Louisiana, for all the troops they could spare or raise, and being strongly rëenforced by Gen. Braxton Bragg, with a drilled corps from Mobile and Pensacola," he had, by the 1st of April, collected an army of about 50,000." Moving silently out from Corinth, in light marching order and without tents, at 3 A. M., on the 3d, the advance of his infantry preceded and 56 About this time abandoned by the Rebels. 67 Beauregard, in his field return of the 'Army of the Mississippi,' before and after the battle of Shiloh, makes his effective total, before battle, 40,355 men, of whom 4,382 were cavalry, which he says was useless and could not operate at all, the battle-field being so thickly wooded. But this return includes none of his troops left to guard his base at Corinth, or his trains in the rear of the battle-field, and conceals the fact that his cavalry were usefully employed in guarding, on their way to Corinth, his prisoners as well as his wounded. Beside, when he comes to sum up his losses, he states the loss of his cavalry at 301-rather inexplicable, if that cavalry was useless and unemployed. expected to attack in full force on the morning of the 5th; but a heavy rain on the 4th so deepened the mire of the narrow, wretched roads, that his army was by that time but fairly concentrated at Monterey, thence moving with the utmost caution until within three and a half miles of our pickets, where, unable to advance farther without braving discovery, he halted for the night." Here, with double guards along his front, instructed to shoot any man who, upon whatever pretext, should attempt to pass, a council of war was held at 8 P. M., and every preparation made for a stealthy and desperate assault at daybreak; while the soldiers, forbidden to make fires, sank on the cold, damp ground, under the open sky, and shivered through a part of the night. Each Colonel had orders to have his regiment under arms and ready to move by 3 A. M. At early dawn, the advance was resumed in line of battle: Maj.-Gen. Hardee, with the 3d corps, in front, with the 2d, and strongest, under Gen. Bragg, 500 yards behind him; the 1st, under Gen. Polk, half a mile in the rear of this, with the reserve, 58 "An Impressed New-Yorker," who was then serving on Beauregard's staff, in his "Thirteen Months in the Rebel Army," says: "While it is no part of my duty, in this narrative, to criticise military movements, and especially those of the Union forces, I may state that the total absence of cavalry pickets from Gen. Grant's army was a matter of perfect amazement to the Rebel officers. There were absolutely division was meeting him; so that we were able none on Grant's left, where Gen. Breckinridge's to come up within hearing of their drums entirely unperceived. The Southern Generals always kept cavalry pickets out for miles, even when no enemy was supposed to be within a day's march of them. The infantry pickets of Grant's forces were not above three-fourths of a mile from his advance camps, and they were too few to make any resistance." THE REBEL ATTACK AT PITTSBURG LANDING. 61 under Gen. John C. Breckinridge, | still alive, when we recovered those closely following. This order, how- tents next evening. ever, was soon sacrificed to the exigencies of the contest. Rumors of a Rebel advance, and the capture of some of our officers thereby, had reached our camps on Friday; and an Ohio brigade had been sent out to reconnoiter, which had a brush with a smaller Rebel force, and pushed it back to a battery which was found in position near our lines. Gen. Lew. Wallace's division was thereupon ordered out, and advanced to Adamsville, on the road to Purdy; but, meeting no opponent, after passing a night in drenching rain, it returned to its camp. On Saturday, there was firing along our front, which ought to have incited inquiry, if not alarm, but did not. Thus was Prentiss's division routed before it had time to form in line of battle; and Hildebrand's brigade, on Sherman's right, was demolished with equal expedition, in spite of Sherman's best exertions. His efforts and influence, backed by the most reckless self-exposure, held his remaining brigades, under Buckland and McDowell, steady for a time; but these were soon compelled to fall back behind the next ravine, leaving their camps, with all their tents and tent equipage, to the enemy. McClernand's division, comprising 10 regiments and 4 batteries, had been astonished with the rest, but not yet directly assailed. Moving up, at 7 A. M., to the support of Sherman, it found his division mostly gone or going; its best officers killed or wounded, its batteries either captured or badly cut up. Buckland's brigade, which had gone after Hildebrand's, forming our extreme right on the front, had fallen back to avoid certain destruction. To all practical intents, and in spite of its leader's desperate and untiring exertions, Sherman's division was out of the fight by 8 o'clock that ominous morning. It seemed a miracle that their commander, always in the hottest of the Rebel fire, escaped with a single As day broke," our pickets in Prentiss's front came rushing into camp, barely in advance of the pursuing Rebels, whose shells were tearing through our tents a moment afterward. Some of our men were dressing; others washing or cooking; a few eating their breakfasts; many, especially officers, had not yet risen. The next instant, magnificent lines of battle poured out of the woods in front of our camps, and at doublequick rushed in upon our bewildered, half-dressed, and not yet half-formed men, firing deadly volleys at close range, then springing upon the help-musket-ball through his hand. less, coatless, musketless mob with the bayonet. Some fell as they ran; others as they emerged from their tents, or as they strove to buckle on their accouterments; some tried to surrender; but the Rebels could not stop then to take prisoners. Some of these were found, though disabled, April 4. 50 Prentiss formed his division as quickly as possible, and not far in the rear of their camps, where his men faced to the front and fought stubbornly for a time; but they had been strangely drawn up in an open field, leaving to the enemy the cover of a dense scrub-oak thicket in our 60 On Sunday, April 6. A Positions of Maj.-Gen. Grant's forces on the morning of April 6th. B Positions of Grant, with the divisions of Nelson and Crittenden, on the evening of April 6th. front, whence they could pour volley after volley in comparative security. Soon, our men were flanked on either side, and fell back, perceiving that they were squandering their lives to no purpose. Thus the division lost all coherence and efficiency; its leader became separated from a large 61 This did not occur till about 4 P. M.; but he had long before ceased to form a part of our PRENTISS CAPTURED-MOCLERNAND WORSTED. 63 hurried to the Rebel rear as prisoners, | grape, and the next rushed across the and soon started on the road to Corinth. McClernand for a while stood firm; but the defection of Sherman's division on one side, and Prentiss's on the other, left the Rebels free to hurl themselves against him in tremendous force. Two green regiments, the 15th and 16th Iowa, which he now brought to the front under a heavy fire, gave way at once in disorder. Changing his front to meet the Rebel onset, he faced along the Corinth road and planted his batteries to command it; so that the Rebels were for a time foiled in their efforts to advance; and an effort to come in on his rear, over ground abandoned by Sherman's division, was handsomely repulsed, with heavy mutual loss, by Dresser's rifled battery. But one division could not sustain the weight of more than half the Rebel army, admirably handled, and constantly advancing fresh regiments to replace those already blown or too badly cut up. After repulsing several determined attacks, sometimes advancing a little, but generally giving ground, and losing three Colonels of the line and three officers of his staff, with at least half the effective force of his batteries, McClernand, by 11 A. M., found himself pushed back, with Hurlbut's fresh division on his left, and the débris of Sherman's on his right. Meantime, a brigade of Sherman's division, under Col. David Stuart, which had been oddly posted on our extreme left, holding what was known as the Hamburg road, had been suddenly shelled from the opposite bluffs of Lick creek, by a force which the next instant peppered them with creek and began pouring in sharp volleys of musketry, while the Rebel batteries, firing over the heads of their infantry, soon made our position untenable. Stuart fell back to the next ridge; and, finding the Rebels who had followed Prentiss beginning to come in on his right, sent to Gen. W. H. L.Wallace for assistance. Gen. McArthur's brigade was promptly dispatched to Stuart's support; but, bearing too much to the right, was soon sharply engaged with the pursuers of Prentiss. Falling back to a good position, he held it, though wounded, until Wallace came to his aid; but Stuart, receiving no direct support, was driven back from one ridge to another, until by noon, himself wounded, several of his officers fallen, and his command sadly shattered, he fell in behind McArthur to reorganize. And thus, of our six divisions, three had been thoroughly routed before mid-day. Gen. Grant had arrived on the battle-field about 8 A. M.; but, early as was the hour, his army was already beaten. As this, however, is a circumstance of which he is not easily convinced, it did not seem to make as vivid an impression on him as on others. Sending word to Lew. Wallace to hasten up with his division on our right, he devoted his personal attention to reforming his shattered brigades, rëestablishing his silenced batteries, and forming new lines of defense to replace those so suddenly demolished. Hurlbut's and W. H. L. Wallace's divisions were still intact; while of the others the better but not the larger part of those not already disabled fell into line on their flanks, or just behind them. pelled them to fall back also, or be flanked and surrounded as Prentiss had been. Just now, their leader fell, mortally wounded; closing in death a day's work which had won for him the admiration of all beholders and the lasting gratitude of his country. The division fell back into line with Hurlbut's new position; losing of its batteries but a single gun, whereof the carriage had been disabled. Lew. Wallace was at Crump's Landing, with his force extended on the road to Purdy, when he received, at 11 A. M., Grant's order to bring his division into the fight. He had been anxiously awaiting that order, listening to the sound of the mutual cannonade since morning; and his Hurlbut held the direct road to Corinth, with woods at his back and open fields commanded by his batteries in his front; and here he stood, fighting a more numerous, equally gallant, and victory-flushed enemy, for more than five hours. Here he was thrice charged in full force, and thrice he repulsed the foe with terrible slaughter. The close ranks which rushed upon him were first plowed through and through with grape, then, as they came nearer, with more deadly musketry; until the shouted orders, entreaties, menaces, of frantic officers no longer availed, and the long lines sank back defeated to the shelter in their rear. Here fell, at 2 o'clock, Albert Sidney Johnston, the Rebel commander-in-column was instantly put in motion. chief, struck in the thigh by a fragment of shell, but sitting silently on his horse for some minutes, and only taken off to die. Beauregard at once assumed command; but the death of Johnston was concealed, so far as possible, until his army had returned to Corinth. An hour later, Hurlbut's division, worn out by incessant fighting against fresh regiments, fell back nearly half a mile, to a position about that distance from the Landing. W. H. L. Wallace's division was in like manner exposed to and attacked by the exultant Rebels about 10 A. M.; and for six hours was hotly engaged, with scarcely an intermission. Four times was it charged along its whole line; and every charge was repulsed with heavy slaughter. Once or twice, our men pursued their retreating foes; but the disparity of numbers was too great, and they were soon pushed back to their lines. They were still fighting as eagerly and confidently as ever, when Hurlbut's retreat com Snake creek, with steep banks and swampy bottom, was in his way; but his men were eager for the fray, and were soon making good time in the direction indicated. But he was met, near the creek, by messengers from Grant with tidings that our advanced divisions had been overpowered and beaten back; so that the road on which he was hastening would now lead him directly into the midst of the enemy, who could easily envelop him with thrice his numbers. He thereupon turned abruptly to the left, moving down the west bank of Snake creek to the river road, which follows the windings of the Tennessee bottom, and crosses the creek at its mouth, close by Pittsburg Landing. This countermarch delayed his junction with our sorelypressed combatants until after nightfall; and thus 11 regiments of our infantry, 2 batteries, and 2 battalions of cavalry, remained useless throughout that day's bloody struggle. |