Distinguished in Mexico, on the bloody fields of Contreras and Cherubusco, he received honorable wounds. Having become a citizen of Louisiana, and selected to command a noble brigade, he has again accumulated honor upon this, his native State, illustrated its martial fame, served her no less than Louisiana with his life, and sealed the great cause with his best blood.
Energetic and thorough in what he undertook, he had the simplicity, frankness and manly bearing of a dashing and daring soldier – and, withal, the amiability, and kindness and courtesy of a true heart. Inspiring confidence, he led troops to victory. Let us all remember his name, in order to emulate his deeds.
The Charleston Mercury
April 21, 1862
Richmond News and Gossip
From Our Own Correspondents
RICHMOND, Wednesday, April 16 – As usual, we are indebted to the Yankees for the first account of the battle of Shiloh, or Shiloah, as it is now spelled. Our own official report may be confidently looked for about the 4th of next July. To thank the Lord for a loss of 20,000 killed, wounded and missing, and to reverse the facts in regard to the captured guns and generals, is a proceeding truly Yankeefied and very wonderful, if it had not occurred so uniformly. We may always gauge the enemyloss by his report of our own. Confessing to 20,000 at Shiloh, they put down the rebel loss at 35,000 to 40,000; we may rest satisfied, therefore, with this last statement as an accurate account of the damage they received. Verily, Johnston and Beauregard hit them a heavy blow. Another funny feature in the Yankee news of this morning is the assertion that the object of the Merrimac was to engage the Monitor while the Patrick Henry and the Jamestown ran the blockade; and yet the Merrimac affects the stock market unfavorably, although she is match for the Monitor.
Conjecture busies itself about the visit of the French Minister to this city. Wags say that he comes to look after his compatriot who was captured in the balloon the other day, or else to lay in a summer supply of the peculiar and high flavored frogs which grow only on the banks of the James River and Kanawha Canal – a luxury of which he has long been deprived. Reasonable folks say that he comes to look after the tobacco owned by the Emperor, which is stored in our warehouses, and is in danger of being burned in the face by McClellan as he advances to the capture of rebel Capital, rebel President, and rebel Congress. It is certain that our Secretary of State did not look as smiling this morning as the bright weather warranted; and the determination of Congress to tracks on Monday next reminds one of the Pennsylvania regiments who marched from the field of Manassas to the sound of the enemy cannon.
Floydaccount of the defences at Donelson will increase the admiration of the country for the devoted and heroic men who sacrificed themselves for the cause in that wretched man trap. He tells us that the fort mounted only thirteen guns, of which but three were of any use whatever against iron gunboats, and that the entrenchments and rifle pits were hastily thrown up, in the face of the enemy, after the fight had commenced. Yet the telegraph reported Donelson as, and I well recollect the phrase, ‘lines are entrenched all around; Donelson can be taken.’ The Whig is hardly too severe when it characterizes the concoctors of such dispatches as or knaves.
Infantry and cavalry in large numbers passed through this morning. The men were mostly Virginians, not at all showy or imposing in their dress and physique, but serviceable for all that. I believe the Virginians have fought well wherever they have been tried. A large body of artillery have also passed through.
HERMES
The Charleston Mercury
May 2, 1862
HOW THE REBELS WERE INSTRUCTED TO ACT IN THE BATTLE OF SHILOH – A New York paper says that the following order of Gen. BEAUREGARD was picked up on the battlefield of Shiloh:
(General Order No. 14.)
HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF THE MISSISSIPPI, JACKSON, Tenn., March 14, 1862.
1. Field and company officers are especially enjoined to instruct their men, under all circumstances, to fire with deliberation at the feet of the enemy. They will thus avoid over-shooting, and, besides, wounded men give more trouble to our adversary than dead, as they have to be taken from the field.
2. Officers in command must be cool and collected; hold their men in hand in action, and caution them against useless, aimless firing. The men must be instructed and required each one to single out his mark. It was the deliberate sharpshooting of our forefathers in the Revolution of 1776, and New Orleans, in 1815, which made them so formidable against the odds with which they were engaged.
3. In the beginning of a battle, except by troops deployed as skirmishers, the fire of file will be avoided. It excites the men and renders their subsequent control difficult. Fire by wing or company should be resorted to instead. During the battle, the officers and non-commissioned officers must keep their men in the ranks, enforce obedience, and encourage and stimulate them if necessary.
4. Soldiers must not be permitted to leave the ranks even to assist in removing our own dead, unless by special permission, which shall only be given when the action has been decided. The surest way to protect the wounded is to drive the enemy from the field. The most pressing, highest duty is to win the victory.
THE BATTLE OF SHILOH (EHRGOTT). LIBRARY OF CONGRESS.
5. Before the battle, the Quartermaster of the division will make all necessary arrangements for the immediate transportation of the wounded from the field. After consultation with the medical officers, he will establish the ambulance depot in the rear, and give his assistants the necessary instructions for the efficient service of the wagons and other means of transportation.
6. The ambulance depot to which the wounded are to be carried for immediate treatment should be established at the most convenient building nearest the field of battle. A red flag marks the place to it.
The active ambulances follow the troops, to succor the wounded and remove them to the depot. Before the engagement, about five men – the least effective under arms to the company – will be detailed to assist the ambulance conductors in removing wounded, providing water, and otherwise assisting the wounded. These men will not loiter about the depots, but must always return to the field of battle as soon as practicable.
Before and immediately after the battle, the roll of each company will be called, and absentees must be strictly accounted for. To quit their standard on the battlefield under fire, under pretence of removing or aiding the wounded, will not be permitted. Any one persisting in it will be shot on the spot, and whoever shall be found to have quit the field, or his regiment, or his company, without authority, will be regarded and proclaimed as a coward, and dealt with accordingly. By command of Gen. BEARURGARD
THOS. JORDAN, Acting Adj. Gen.
From The New York Times
April 10, 1862
Pittsburg via Fort Henry
Wednesday, April 9 – 3:20 A. M.
The greatest battle of the war 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.
The fight was brought on by a body of three hundred of the Twenty-fifth Missouri Regiment, of Gen. 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 Gen. Prentiss’ division on the left wing, pouring volley after volley of musketry, and riddling our camps with grape, cannister and shell. Our forces soon formed into line and returned their fire vigorously, and by the time we were prepared to receive them, had turned their heaviest fire on the left centre of Sherman’s Division and drove our men back from their camps, and bringing up a fresh force, opened fire on our left wing, under Gen. McClernand. This fire was returned with terrible effect and determine
d spirit by both infantry and artillery, along the whole line for a distance of over four miles.
Gen. Hubleburt’s Division was thrown forward to support the centre, 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 9 o’clock, until night closed on the bloody scene, there was no determination of the result of the struggle. The enemy 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 centre. Even our heaviest and most destructive fire upon the enemy did not appear to discourage their solid column. The fire of Maj. 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, that their chances for success would be extremely doubtful, as a portion of Gen. Buell’s forces had by this time arrived on the opposite stide 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 Gen. Buell’s troops from the river bank, to which point they had forced their way.
At five o’clock the rebels had forced our left wing back so as to occupy 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, Gen. Lew. Wallace failing to come to our support until the day was over, having taken the wrong road from Crump’s Landing, and being without other transports than those used for Quartermaster’s and Commissary stores, which were too heavily laden to ferry any considerable number of Gen. Buell’s forces across the river, those that were here having been sent to bring up the troops from Savanna. We were, therefore, contesting against fearful odds, our forces not exceeding thirty-eight thousand men, while that of the enemy was upwards of sixty thousand.
Our condition at this moment was extremely critical. Large numbers of men had straggled toward the river and could not be rallied. Gen. 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 unil our reinforcements could cross the river.
Col. 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. 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.
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, when, night coming on, all the combatants rested from their awful work of blood.
Our men rested on their arms in the position they had at the close of the night, until the forces under Major General Wallace arrived and took position on the right, and General Buell’s forces from the opposite side and Savannah were now being conveyed to the battle-ground. The entire right of Gen. Nelson’s Division was ordered to form on the right, and the forces under Gen. Critenden were ordered to his support early in the morning.
The Second Day’s Battle
Gen. Buell arrived on Sunday evening. In the morning the battle was opened at daylight simultaneously by Gen. Nelson’s Division on the left and Major Gen. Wallace’s Division on the right. Gen. Nelson’s force opened up a most galling fire on the rebels, and advanced rapidly as they fell back. The fire soon became general along the whole line and began to tell with terrible effect on the enemy. Generals McClernand, Sherman and Hurlburt’s men, though terribly jaded from the previous day’s fighting, still maintained their honors won at Donelson; but the resistance of the rebels at all points of the attack was worthy a better cause.
But they were not enough for our undaunted bravery, and the dreadful desolation produced by our artillery, which was sweeping them away like chaff before the wind. But knowing that a defeat here would be the death blow to their hopes, and that their all depended upon this great struggle, their Generals still urged them on in the face of destruction, hoping by flanking us on the right to turn the tide of battle. Their success was again for a time cheering, as they began to gain ground on us, appearing to have been reinforced; but our left, under Gen. Nelson, was driving them, and by eleven o’clock Gen. Buell’s forces had succeeded in flanking them and capturing their batteries of artillery.
They however again rallied on the left, and recrossed, and the right forced themselves forward in another desperate effort. But reinforcements from General Wood and Gen. Thomas were coming in, regiment after regiment, which were sent to Gen. Buell, who had again commenced to drive the enemy.
About three o’clock in the afternoon Gen. Grant rode to the left, where the fresh regiments had been ordered, and finding the rebels wavering, sent a portion of his body-guard to the head of each of five regiments, and then ordered a charge across the field, himself leading, as he brandished his sword and waved them on to the crowning victory, while cannon balls were falling like hail around him.
The men followed with a shout that sounded above the roar and din of the artillery, and the rebels fled in dismay, as from a destroying avalanche, and never made another stand.
Gen. Buell followed the retreating rebels, driving them in splendid style, and by 5′½ o’clock the whole rebel army was in full retreat to Corinth, with our cavalry in hot pursuit, with what further results not known, they not having returned up to this hour.
We have taken a large amount of their artillery and also a number of prisoners. We lost a number of our forces taken prisoner yesterday, among whom is Gen. Prentiss. The number of our force taken has not peen ascertained yet. It is reported at several hundred. Gen. Prentiss was also reported as being wounded. Among the killed on the rebel side was their General-in-Chief, A. Sydney Johnston, who was struck by a cannon ball on the afternoon of Sunday. It is further reported that Gen. Beauregard had his arm shot off.
This afternoon Gens. Bragg, Breckinridge, and Jackson were commanding the rebel forces.
What the Historians Say
The battle at Shiloh, known also as Pittsburg Landing, occurred on April 6-7, 1862, in Hardin County, Tennessee. It was the fourth battle of the Federal penetration up the Cumberland and Tennessee Rivers Campaign of 1862.
The principal commanders were Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant and Maj. Gen. Don Carlos Buell of the U.S. Forces and and Gen. Albert Sidney Johnston and Gen. P.G.T Beauregard of the Confederate Army. The forces engaged were the United States Army of the Tennessee and Army of the Ohio consisting of 65,085 men facing the Confederate Army of the Mississippi consisting of 44,968 troops. The estimated casualties were 13,047 and 10,699 respectively.
As a result of the fall of Forts Henry and Donelson, Confederate Gen. Albert Sidney Johnston, the commander in the area, was forced to fall back, giving up Kentucky and much of West and Middle Tennessee. He chose Corinth, Mississippi, a major transportation center, as the staging area for an offensive against Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant and his Army of the Tennessee before the Army of the Ohio, under Maj. Gen. Don Carlos Buell, could join it. The Confederate retrenchment was a surprise, although a pleasant one, to the Union forces, and it took Grant, with about 40,000 men, some time to mount a southern offensive along the Tennessee River toward Pittsburg Landing. Grant received orders to await Buell’s Army of the Ohio at Pittsburg Landing. Grant did not choose to fortify his position; rather, he set about drilling his men many of whic
h were raw recruits. Johnston originally planned to attack Grant on April 4, but delays postponed it until the 6th. Attacking the Union troops on the morning of the 6th, the Confederates surprised them, routing many. Some Federals made determined stands and, by afternoon, they had established a battle line at the sunken road, known as the ‘Hornets Nest.’ Repeated Rebel attacks failed to carry the Hornets Nest, but massed artillery helped to turn the tide as Confederates surrounded the Union troops and captured, killed, or wounded most. Johnston had been mortally wounded earlier and his second in command, Gen. PG.T Beauregard, took over.
The Union troops established another line covering Pittsburg Landing, anchored with artillery and augmented by Buell’s men who began to arrive and take up positions. Fighting continued until after dark, but the Federals held. By the next morning, the combined Federal forces numbered about 40,000, outnumbering Beauregard’s army of less than 30,000. Beauregard was unaware of the arrival of Buell’s army and launched a counterattack response to a two-mile advance by William Nelson’s division of Buell’s army at 6:00 a.m., which was, at first successful.
Union troops stiffened and began forcing the Confederates back. Beauregard ordered a counterattack, which stopped the Union advance but did not break its battle line. At this point, Beauregard realized that he could not win and, having suffered too many casualties, he retired from the field and headed back to Corinth.
On the 8th, Grant sent Brig. Gen. William T. Sherman, with two brigades and Brig. Gen. Thomas J. Wood with his division, in pursuit of Beauregard. They ran into the Rebel rearguard, commanded by Col. Nathan Bedford Forrest, at Fallen Timbers. Forrest’s aggressive tactics, although eventually contained, influenced the Union troops to return to Pittsburg Landing. Grant’s mastery of the Confederate forces continued; he had beaten them once again. The Confederates continued to fall back until launching their mid-August offensive.
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