His mission fulfilled, the Tennessee governor was back at the side of his friend within a few minutes. Be fore Harris could report, General Johnston reeled in his saddle. The governor grabbed him with his left hand, helping to support him in the saddle. Harris asked the general if he was hurt. Very softly Johnston replied, “Yes, and I fear seriously.”95 Governor Harris asked Wickham to go for a doctor. Supporting Johnston with one hand, the Tennessean led their horses to a sheltered spot a short distance away. Gently pulling the wounded general off his horse, Harris placed him on the ground and began searching his body for some other wound more serious than the seemingly minor one in his right leg.
William Preston and other staff officers collected around the bleeding general, who died perhaps twenty minutes after the wound was inflicted. There was little, if any, suffering. General Johnston simply lapsed into unconsciousness and died in this condition about 2:30 p.m.96
Couriers were immediately dispatched to notify General Beauregard that he was now the commanding general on the field. Governor Harris reached Beauregard with the news shortly after 3:00 p.m. From that point forward, the responsibility for the battle rested on the Creole’s shoulders.97
Chapter 12
Retreat
THE ARRIVAL OF THE news of Albert Sidney Johnston’s death caused no panic in General Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard, the hero of Fort Sumter and Manassas. Johnston’s death was tragic, but there would be time to mourn the Kentuckian later. Beauregard’s only concern for the moment was winning the battle. Soldier-like, the new commander ordered the news of Johnston’s death concealed from the army, lest it dishearten the men.1
Contrary to what many of Beauregard’s critics said during the war and after, the new army commander possessed a fairly good picture of how the battle was developing. To coordinate the attack against the Hornet’s Nest, he sent Massachusetts-born Daniel Ruggles to take charge. Any lull in the fighting following Beauregard’s assumption of command was because of the disorganized condition of the Confederate army and not Beauregard’s actions.2
It was becoming increasingly obvious to the new commanding general that the Confederate advance on the left had lost much of its momentum and that it was necessary to make the primary effort on the right and center of the Southern line to force the Federals from the Hornet’s Nest position.3
On the Confederate left, Patton Anderson’s Brigade moved over to join the attack at the Hornet’s Nest, leaving only what was left of Cleburne’s Brigade and Pond’s still comparatively unscathed regiments to carry on the advance against Generals McClernand and Sherman. All other Confederate units were either reorganizing or shifting over to support the assault at the Hornet’s Nest.
If the Confederate advance was waning, the Union defense was also weakened. When Grant visited Sherman about 3 p.m., the words exchanged by the two men could not have been very optimistic. Most of the remaining Federal regiments were mere skeletons of one hundred to two hundred men. Large numbers of Federal soldiers straggled to the rear or were serving with other units. One Union soldier wound up at the Hornet’s Nest with Prentiss.4 A number of the Federal regiments were so badly battered that it was necessary for McClernand and Sherman to order them out of the battle and back to the area around the Landing, where they could reform.5
In some of the Federal units ammunition began to run low. The men of the Forty-fifth Illinois stripped their dead and wounded for cartridges, but when this pitiful supply ran out Colonel Smith was forced to order his men to retire toward the rear to search for ammunition. The Illinoisans marched but a few hundred yards when they ran into a party of infantry heading for the front. Colonel Smith tried to borrow cartridges from these men, but unfortunately their ammunition would not fit the Forty-fifth’s Enfields. The regiment resumed its march, but within minutes the captain of the rear company ran up to Smith, breathlessly exclaiming that Confederate cavalry was pressing in on the left rear. Colonel Smith told the excited captain, “Keep cool and don’t say anything, the enemy don’t know we are out of ammunition.”6 Fortunately the Confederates, if they were really Southerners and not some of Grant’s own cavalry, did not attack, and Smith and his men soon located an ammunition wagon.
The Forty-fifth Illinois soldiers quickly scrambled on the supply wagon, tearing open the cases. Men crowded around the wagon, crying, “Give me some, give me more!” Pockets and cartridge pouches were quickly filled,7 and soon the regiment moved to rejoin the brigade near the Landing, McClernand’s last position of the day.8
The comparatively even battle lines of the Shiloh Church and Purdy Road positions were now only a fond memory to the two harassed Union commanders. The Federal line, if such it could be called, straggled over Jones’ Field and the surrounding hills and ravines. Confederate and Union skirmishers were badly intermixed, and there was heavy musketry over all the area. One unidentified Ohio soldier, when wounded and ordered to the rear, wandered back within a few minutes and most aptly summed up the situation in a plea to his company commander, “Cap, give me a gun. This blamed fight aint got any rear.”9
Staff officers rode furiously over the area trying to create order out of chaos. Captain Hammond even went so far as to try to encourage the men by telling them, “Sidney Johnston is killed! Beauregard is captured! Buell is coming.”10 Un wittingly, Hammond was right on two out of his three points. This officer experienced a dangerous after noon. Twice his officer’s cap was torn by Con federate bullets; twice his boots were torn by slugs; and twice he wound up sprawled on the ground, his horse shot from under him.11
Confusion or not, at least part of the Union army was still fighting, and a good thing for Grant for Cleburne was attacking again. After spending some time in the rear area collecting stragglers, Cleburne threw up his hands in disgust and began rounding up his own regiments. By around 4:00 p.m., he was attacking McClernand and Sherman with his Fifth, Twenty-third, and Twenty-fourth Tennessee, and the Fifteenth Arkansas. Taking cover behind trees, fences, posts, and brush, the Arkansans and Tennesseans poured a heavy fire into the Federals for perhaps an hour.12
Once again the Federals retreated, this time to a position along the Hamburg and Savannah Road. Sherman and his survivors held the right, with McClernand’s battered fragments in the center. Veatch, with the remnants of the Fifteenth and Forty-sixth Illinois, was on the left while McAllister’s Battery and an unidentified battery deployed behind McClernand’s center. The battered Eighteenth Illinois, now commanded by Captain J. J. Anderson, was placed in reserve behind the batteries. The Seventh Illinois, of Sweeny’s brigade, unexpectedly showed up, having retired from the Hornet’s Nest line, and General McClernand ordered it to act as reserve for his command.13
Toward this new Federal position marched Pond’s Louisianans. Occasionally under fire during the day, the brigade had not become seriously engaged. The Thirty-eighth Tennessee and the Crescent Regiment (Twenty-fourth Louisiana), supported by Lieutenant Phil Bond’s section of Ketchum’s Battery, left the brigade early that morning to guard the Owl Creek-Purdy Road Bridge. After the remaining portion of the brigade was accidentally fired into by Confederate troops from another unit, Pond withdrew his unit a hundred yards to rest and reorganize.14
A little before 2:00 p.m., one of General Hardee’s staff officers reported to Lieutenant Colonel S. W. Ferguson that Pond’s Brigade was without a commander. Accompanied by the staff officer, Ferguson rode over and located General Hardee, who directed the lieutenant colonel to get the Louisiana units into the fight. The Sixteenth and Eighteenth Louisiana and the New Orleans Guard Battalion moved forward to within five or six hundred yards of McClernand’s new position.15
Ferguson was a member of the class of 1857 at West Point and participated in the Mormon expedition of 1857-1858. Twenty-seven years old at Shiloh, he later served in the Vicksburg campaign and was appointed brigadier general on July 23, 1863. He fought against General Sherman in Georgia and the Carolinas, and in August 1864 was suggested for promotion to major g
eneral. Major General Joe Wheeler, his immediate superior and former classmate, vigorously objected, maintaining that Ferguson was a troublemaker and poor disciplinarian.16
As Ferguson checked the Federal position, Colonel Alfred Mouton sent two of his soldiers forward on a scout, Private Cesar Porta and Captain J. A. Druilhet. The two men soon returned and reported to Mouton the presence of two Federal batteries and a strong concentration of infantry.17
By order of General Hardee, the Washington Artillery moved into position on the right of the Sixteenth Louisiana to help cover the advance.18 Ketchum, with his four remaining guns, was moving up to support the Louisianans when one of Hardee’s aides arrived with orders to go to the left to help flush out a concentration of enemy infantry.19
When the order to attack was given, for some reason only Gober’s Sixteenth and Mouton’s Eighteenth Louisiana responded, starting the long quarter mile charge toward McClernand’s position. Federal artillery and rifle fire were extremely accurate and heavy, and losses were high even before the two regiments reached anywhere near the enemy’s position. Colonel Mouton’s horse was killed, but quickly scrambling to his feet, the thirty-three year old colonel, who had exactly two years and two days of life left, continued leading the advance on foot. Major Gober’s horse was also killed, but like Mouton, he came to his feet and continued to lead his men.20
The Eighteenth halted and delivered several volleys into the Northern position before resuming the charge. Mouton’s men reached to within sixty or seventy yards of the Federal position before the deadly Union fire broke the charge. Both Louisiana regiments promptly retreated to avoid being annihilated. The Eighteenth alone lost 207 men in this one effort.21 All during this at tack Captain Walter O. Crain, former naval officer, fought in the ranks as a simple volunteer private, rifle in hand.22
After Mouton and Gober were repulsed the Orleans Guard Battalion charged. McClernand’s riflemen and gunners promptly cut up the New Orleans soldiers, sending them reeling back after the two Louisiana regiments with a loss of about eighty men.23 The Louisianians retired a few hundred yards to regroup and were not engaged again that day.24
The hard pressed Federals received one small and much needed reinforcement in the form of the Eighty-first Ohio Infantry. In company with the Thirteenth Missouri, Colonel Thomas Morton led his Eighty-first out to guard the Snake Creek Bridge, over which Lew Wallace’s men would presumably arrive. From around 8:00 a.m. until 11:00 a.m., the Ohioans remained at the bridge until being ordered to move over and link up with the right wing of McDowell’s brigade. The Eighty-first was not seriously involved in McDowell’s engagement with Trabue, although the Ohioans did occasionally shoot at Confederate skirmishers who were endeavoring to turn McDowell’s right.25 About 3:00 p.m., General Grant rode up and ordered the Eighty-first to move farther to the left in support of McClernand and Sherman.26
Colonel B. S. Compton’s Fourteenth Missouri, also assigned to guard the Snake Creek Bridge, was moved over to McArthur’s brigade headquarters, presumably to avoid being separated from the rest of the army by the parties of Confederate cavalry beginning to threaten the road near the bridge. The Fourteenth and Eighty-first were next to each other in position along the road, the Fourteenth presumably on the right, making it the extreme right of the whole Union army.
Around 4:00 p.m., Lieutenant Colonel R. H. Brewer’s Mississippi Cavalry Battalion attempted to turn Grant’s right flank, on orders from General Hardee. The Missourians opened fire with their muskets, killing one of Brewer’s men and wounding three others. The Confederates returned the fire with their shotguns, killing two Missourians and wounding three others. A courier from Hardee arrived and ordered Brewer to abandon the effort, and he fell back. Compton quickly moved his regiments several hundred yards to the left so as to be in closer contact with Sherman’s outfit.27
Even with their extreme right protected by two virtually fresh regiments, McClernand and Sherman were still having their problems. Pond’s Louisianans were repulsed and out of the fight, but reorganized and supplied with fresh ammunition, Russell’s and Trabue’s brigades were now attacking again. Colonel Hare was badly wounded and Colonel Crocker assumed command of what was left of the First Brigade. Union casualties were heavy, and about 5:00 p.m., the Union position was abandoned, the Federals falling back several hundred yards toward the Landing to make another stand.28
While the Southerners pushed Grant’s right back, heavy fighting continued at the Hornet’s Nest. The big Confederate charges were about over. Most of the Confederate commanders on that part of the field realized that uncoordinated infantry attacks would avail but little against the strength and determination of Prentiss’ and Wallace’s divisions.
Unfortunately General Patton Anderson’s Brigade was now swinging over from the left to help in the assault on Wallace’s position. Lacking the exact knowledge of the strength of the Second Division, Anderson decided to attack across the Duncan Field. While moving into position to charge Wallace, Anderson met Colonel Marshall Smith of the Crescent Regiment. Separated from his own brigade, Smith suggested that the two commanders should link up, and Anderson quickly agreed. Smith’s men formed up in line on the left and Anderson’s on the right. Under heavy Union fire, the Rebels moved forward.29 The brush and foliage in front of Wallace’s position was so heavy that it was very difficult to see any thing, and some of the bushes and grass were on fire, adding more smoke to hover over the Union position. Many of Anderson’s men drove ahead blindly, un able to even see the enemy, grimly forced to hold their fire until they could see something to shoot. One enlisted man of the Twentieth Louisiana caught his rifle on some bushes, and the weapon accidentally went off. In an instant the Federal line erupted in a tremendous blast of musket and canister slugs. Blinded by the smoke and foliage and con fused by the shower of balls, the Southerners faltered. Colonel Reichard of the Twentieth Louisiana suddenly slipped off his horse. He was immediately asked by one of his officers, “Are you wounded?” The husky former Prussian officer re plied that it was only his horse that was hit.30
Harassed badly by Wallace’s heavy fire, Anderson withdrew his unit, the Twentieth Louisiana taking cover on the safe side of a little rise in the ground, where they found a little protection from the Federal gunfire. Anderson detached an aide to ask General Ruggles for some artillery support, and then he rode up and down the edge of Duncan Field trying to locate a weak point in Wallace’s position.31 The Crescent Regiment did somewhat better, attacking and driving back on the main body some of Wallace’s men posted in the Duncan Field as sharpshooters.32
Lieutenant Phil Bond’s section of Ketchum’s Battery had become separated from the regiment sometime earlier. Unable to follow the fleeter infantry across the rugged terrain, Bond tried to stick to solid, open, level, ground. Unfortunately he was given some wrong directions and his section, cannon, caissons, and all wound up entangled in a boggy thicket. It was nearly half an hour before the Alabamans dug and cut their way out, and Smith and the other men were long gone from sight. By sheer luck, Bond and his men arrived on the southwest edge of Duncan Field just as the Crescent Regiment was flushing Wallace’s sharpshooters.
As the Alabamans unlimbered their pieces, one of the Missouri batteries opened fire on them. The Missourians had the range perfectly and they dropped round after round onto Bond’s position. No one was killed or injured by the cannon fire, but the exploding shells frightened the horses and the inexperienced drivers were unable to control them. One driver was injured in this little panic before Bond wisely gave the order to move the two guns off the road and behind some cover. Once out of the enemy’s line of fire, Bond left his weapons and went to locate Smith. Finding the Crescent’s commander, Bond was directed to put his guns in position on that regiment’s right and bombard the Hornet’s Nest.33
While Bond’s two guns peppered Wallace’s position, Ruggles and his staff officers were moving back and forth across the battlefield, rounding up Confederate batteries in pr
eparation for a massive barrage on the Union position. Bond’s two pieces were on the extreme left of the line of guns set up at this time. To their right, Ruggles placed part or all of the Washington Artillery. One by one Confederate batteries showed up on the southern side of Duncan Field to be deployed. Swett’s Mississippi Battery was ordered by Hardee to join the Duncan Field line, and their four 6-pound smoothbores and two 12-pound howitzers were in position and pounding Prentiss’ position.34 Byrne’s Kentucky-Mississippi Battery went into position with its five 6-pound smoothbores and two 12-pound howitzers, and Robertson’s Florida Battery shifted over from pounding Hurlbut’s men to help shell Wallace, moving his four Napoleons into position on the edge of Duncan Field.35 First Lieu tenant James Thrall brought up two guns from Hub bard’s Arkansas Battery on their right, and Roberts’ Arkansas, Trigg’s Arkansas, and Swett’s Mississippi batteries on their left.36 Trigg’s Battery was equipped with two 6-pound smoothbores and two 12-pound howitzers. Roberts’ Arkansas Battery had two 6-pound smoothbore guns and two bronze 12-pounders. Captain Arthur Rutledge brought up four 6-pound smoothbores and two 12-pound howitzers to the new position. Captain Thomas Stanford’s Mississippi Battery took up its position with two 12-pound howitzers, one 3-inch rifle, and three brass 6-pound smoothbores. Captain Smith T. Bankhead’s Tennessee Battery brought into position four 6-pound smoothbores and two 12-pound howitzers.37
Shiloh and the Western Campaign of 1862 Page 25
