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Ca. XII.]

BATTLE OF SHILOH, OR PITTSBURG LANDING.

145

and it was not till the next morning, Sunday, April 6th, that the rebel army began the assault. The five divisions of Grant's forces, numbering between 30 and 40,000 men, were posted on the left bank of the Tennessee, in a semicircular outline around Pittsburg Landing, waiting, with some anxiety, for Buell's arrival.

Northern Alabama, in columns, as he proposed, was ordered to join Grant and co-operate with him in attacking and driving Beauregard out of Corinth. Buell left Nashville on the 28th of March, and his army took the road overland from Columbia to Savannah, some eighty miles distant. By the junction of his forces with those of Grant there would be an army of about Before daylight, the pickets were 100,000 men, ready to crush any resist-driven in, and the rebel columns pressance the rebel leaders might be able to ed forward upon our men. Sherman, offer. with his widely extended brigade in the front, bore the brunt of the attack. Advised of the enemy's approach by their assault upon his advanced guard, he ordered under arms all his division, and sent word to McClernand, asking him to support the left; to Prentiss, giving him notice that the enemy was in force on the front, and to Hurlbut asking him to support Prentiss. The four brigades of Sherman's division were stationed to the right and left of Shiloh Church, which he regarded as the centre of his position. Two batteries of artillery were posted, one at Shiloh, the other on a bridge to the left, and some cavalry and infantry were placed in a large open field to the left and rear of the church.

Beauregard, as we have intimated, felt the necessity of striking a blow before Buell's arrival. He did every thing he could to rouse the spirit of his troops; as did also Johnston, who took command of the entire force at Corinth, numbering between 40,000 and 45,000 men. Some delays occurred; 1862. but, early in April, hearing, as he phrases it, "from a reliable quarter," that Buell was near at hand, it was resolved to hurry forward the movement against Grant. Johnston issued an animated address to the troops, filled with the usual incentives to action, and urging them to "march to a decisive victory over agrarian mercenaries, sent to sub jugate and despoil them of their liberties, property and honor." The troops were arranged in three corps, under Polk, Bragg and Hardee, Beauregard being second in command.

Hour after hour the raging contest went forward. The rebels pressed heavily upon the Union left, and pushed it back. Soon the same result hapPittsburg Landing is about eighteen pened to the front and right. In some miles from Corinth, and it was expect-cases, our troops became panic-stricken, ed by Johnston and Beauregard that and brought discredit upon their name they would be able to reach the Union and position; but, as a whole, they lines and make an attack early on April fought stubbornly, and resisted the 5th; but the badness of the roads enemy's assaults with all their might. hindered their advance considerably, Yet, they were not able to withstand

VOL IV-19

the force of the rebel attack. Prentiss, and 2,000 of his men, were made prisoners; the camps of every division except Smith's, commanded by Wallace, were occupied by the rebels; nearly half the field artillery was lost; and our whole force was pressed back upon the ravine near the Landing, where, by one final rush, the enemy hoped to push them into the river and compel them to surrender.*

This was in the latter part of the afternoon, and had it not been for the opportune aid afforded by the gun boats, which brought their fire to bear upon the rebel batteries, and also for the arrival of the advance of Buell's army, late in the day, it is almost certain that Grant would have been utter ly routed. As it was, however, night came on; the battle ceased; the rebels were worn down with fatigue; and Grant and Buell, with new and fresh forces, prepared for the morrow. Hav ing the ability now, they determined to reverse the order of the day previous, and become the attacking instead of the attacked army.

Very carly on the morning of the 7th of April, our forces were in motion. The men, reinspirited by new troops being brought into the field, resolved to redeem, on Monday, the losses of the day before. The rebels, though, as

* Beauregard, in his report, sharply censures a portion of his army for their unworthy conduct, when the Union camps fell into their hands: "some officers, noncommissioned officers, and men, abandoned their colors early in the first day, to pillage the captured encampments; others retired shamefully from the field, on both days, while the thunder of cannon, and the roar and rattle of musketry told them that their brothers

were being slaughtered by the fresh legions of the enemy."

1862.

Beauregard says, "not in condition to cope with an equal force of fresh troops, armed and equipped like our adversary, in the immediate possession of his depots, and sheltered by such an auxiliary as the enemy's gun boats," still made a determined resistance. They fought bravely and steadily throughout the earlier part of the day. The victory, however, could not long remain in doubt; most of the camps were recovered; the artillery again fell into our hands; and the insurgent leaders gave up the contest. Early in the afternoon, they began to retire, and by four o'clock, they were driven from the field. The pursuit was kept up until night came on, when our men returned to camp.

In this hotly contested battle of Shiloh, or Pittsburg Landing, he slaughter on both sides was fearful. The rebel General Johnston, with a number of other officers, were killed; Beauregard gave as their total loss, 1,728 killed, 8,012 wounded, 959 missing; total, 10,699. On our part, the losses were: Gen. Wallace mortally wounded, besides a number of other officers killed and wounded, 1,614 killed, 7,721 wounded, 3,963 missing; total, 13,508. The rebels left between 2,000 and 3,000 dead on the field when they retreated; the bodies were buried, by order of Grant, at the same time that our own dead were consigned to their graves.

The war department issued a bulletin, April 9th, highly praising "Generals Grant and Buell and their forces, for the glorious repulse of Beauregard at Pittsburg, in Tennessee;" and the pre

CH. XII.]

ACTION IN CONGRESS ON SLAVERY QUESTION.

sident, the next day, appointed a thanksgiving for the "signal victories of the land and naval forces engaged in suppressing an internal rebellion," and called upon the people to "invoke reverently the Divine guidance for our national counsels." Beauregard, on his part, endeavoring to make the best of matters, issued an address to his soldiers, in which he spoke in exalted terms of their bravery and their great

success.

Halleck, directly after the news reached him of this important victory, set out from St. Louis, and on his arrival at Pittsburg Landing, took command of the army. On the 22d of April, Gen. Pope with his division, numbering 25,000, arrived at the Landing, from New Madrid. The army was thus increased to 108,000 men, and Halleck, placing Grant on the right wing, Buell in the centre, and Pope on the left wing, made preparations for an immediate advance upon Beauregard at Corinth; the narrative of which, however, we shall defer to a subsequent chapter.

1862.

147

people, viz., the suppression of the re bellion, and the restoration of the supre macy of the Constitution and laws of the United States.

We shall not attempt to go into de tails; we have no room to quote from the speeches of the members of Congress on the all-engrossing topics of the day; we can but sum up the chief re sults, and refer the reader, who is curious as to what was said, to the volumes containing the debates in Congress dur. ing the present session. The republicans, being largely in the majority, never seem to have lost sight of the anti-slavery portion of their avowed political principles. The members from the border states, being slave-holders themselves, and convinced of the lawfulness of the institution and its necessity to the interests of the South, resisted strenuously every movement looking towards interference with, or extinction of slavery. Senator Trumbull's bill for the confiscation of rebel property, and giving freedom to their slaves, was a decided step forward; and before the session closed, it was followed by others still more significant.

Meanwhile, amid the din of war and the terrible lessons of the battle field, A bill for the abolition of slavery in Congress (see p. 105) had been pursuing the District of Columbia was introduced its work with an earnest purpose rightly into the House, early in the session, and to fulfil its high mission in the existing having been referred to the committee crisis. The war, of course, in its on the District, was reported favorably various aspects and relations, upon, March 12th. The Senate also formed the main subject of discussion; took up the same subject, which was and Congress, as expressing the voice referred to the committee on the Dis of the nation, gave clear evidence that, trict, who reported a bill with amendwhatever differences there might be on ments, in February. This was discussed minor, subsidary questions, whatever during the following month. The sacrifices there might be demanded, one usual arguments on both sides were result alone would be satisfactory to the gone over; the border state members

1862.

opposed it vigorously; efforts were render freedom national, and slavery made to fasten on to the bill a sectional; and was taken up for discuscompulsory colonizing of the sion, May 9th, in the midst of exciting, negroes, but to no purpose; the major- encouraging news from New Orleans. ity were resolved upon their course, and Pro-slavery sympathizers, like Cox of would not agree to any such restriction.* Ohio, groaned over "the whole negro The bill passed the Senate, April 3d, business. Heaven is sick," he exclaim. by a vote of 29 to 14; in the House ed, "and earth is weary, of this damndiscussion was not protracted, and on able and dangerous iteration." On the the 11th, it passed by a vote of 92 to 12th of May, the bill passed the House 38. As thus adopted by both Houses, by a vote of 85 to 50; the Senate the bill declared the immediate aboli- passed the bill, January 9th, by a vote tion of slavery in the District; provid- of 28 to 10. As finally adopted it was ed means for the colonization of the "An act to secure freedom to all perfree blacks, if desired by them; and ap- sons within the territories of the United propriated $1,000,000 to compensate States." the owners of slaves, at a rate not exceeding $300 for each.

On the 16th of April, President Lincoln sent a brief message to Congress, expressing his approval of the act or bill, and especially "that the two principles of compensation and colonization are both recognized and practically applied in this act."+

Following upon emancipation in the District of Columbia, was the passage of an act removing slavery from the territories of the United States. It was introduced into the House, March 24th, as a measure to

It

President Lincoln, feeling deeply the pressure of the slavery question, and as yet not being able to see his way out of the difficulty, was anxious to make trial of a system of compensated emancipation, especially in the border states, in the hope that through them a powerful influence might be brought to bear upon the states further south. was his hope also, that the war would sooner come to a conclusion by adopting such a course. On the 6th of March, he sent a message to Congress, asking the following resolution to be passed: "Resolved, That the United States ought to co-operate with any state which may the relations between the United States and the terri- adopt a gradual abolishment of slavery, tory once occupied by certain states, and now usurped giving to such state pecuniary aid, to be by pretended governments, without constitutional or used by such state in its discretion, to legal right," offered, February 11th, see Appleton's "American Annual Cyclopædia," 1862, p. 345. compensate for the inconveniences, public and private, produced by such change of system." The resolution was adopted in the House, March 11th, in the Senate, April 2d, by large majorities.

1862.

* For Senator Sumner's "Resoiations declaratory of

Action was speedily taken for the benefit of the

negroes thus made free in the District. Educational

measures, especially primary schools, were organized, as soon as possible, there being more than 3,000 child

ren to be provided for. Every thing which was proper

was done, on a liberal scale, to secure them the advan

tages which the blacks had long enjoyed in the free

states. See McPherson's "History of the Rebellion,"

pp. 211-212.

At the close of the month of January, the bill authorizing the president of the

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