The brigade boldly pushed back some small parties of Southern skirmishers, but was gradually brought to a halt by accurate fire from the Washington Artillery and by a sharp attack from Breckinridge’s somewhat jaded infantry. Smith’s infantrymen, however, stood firm, raking the Confederates with a heavy and accurate artillery fire. Captain Joseph Bartlett supported the embattled brigade with his Battery G, First Ohio Light Artillery, which consisted of four 6-pound guns and two 12-pound Wiard rifles.
Union gunners fired the first of the six hundred rounds they would expend that day. Raked and torn by the heavy Federal fire, Statham ordered his Mississippians and Tennesseans to fall back. A second charge was ordered, and again Statham’s Brigade broke on the rock-like Fourteenth Brigade. The Confederates were finally persuaded of the futility of driving the Yanks from their position, and began to fall back to establish a new line.2
Now it was the Federals’ turn to go over to the offensive. In concert with Hazen, Smith led his regiments forward, the men walking slowly but steadily across the battlefield. The Louisiana gunners poured some fifty rounds into the advancing enemy line, the iron fragments tearing large gaps in it. Captain L. D. McClung brought up two of his four pieces to back up the Louisianans, and the crews of these weapons joined in the barrage.
The Kentuckians, Wisconsians, and Ohioans halted several times to deliver crushing volleys of rifle fire into the Confederate gun position. Part of the Crescent Louisiana Regiment was deployed around and in support of the Southern field pieces. The Louisianians emptied their muskets at Sooy Smith’s men, but with little effect. Disregarding heavy casualties, the Federals simply kept on coming. The gunners began dropping like flies, while more than a dozen of the precious horses also went down. A few of the gunners abandoned their pieces and fled, but most of them stayed and fought, discharging loads of canister at twenty yards’ range.3
The supporting infantry, badly torn up by the rifle fire, started falling back. Lieutenant John Dimitry and Captain William Graham, Company C, did not hear the order to retreat and kept on discharging their pistols at Smith’s men. A Union soldier shot Graham in the chest with a rifle slug, but Dimitry grabbed him and tried to carry him away. Another slug hit the captain, and Dimitry was forced to abandon the body. As the young lieutenant turned to follow his men, he was shot through his right leg, but managed to escape in the confusion.4
The Federals swarmed into the artillery position, seizing McClung’s guns and at least one Louisianan. Before the Northerners could overrun the other five, Colonel Marshall J. Smith counterattacked with the rest of the Crescent Regiment. Bartlett’s Ohio gunners chopped the Louisianans up as they rushed Sooy Smith’s men, but resolutely the Southerners continued, not faltering. They smashed pell-mell into the enemy brigade. The Federals abandoned their pieces and fell back about a hundred yards. Union officers quickly rallied their men and tried to charge the battery again. Just then the First Missouri Confederate Regiment came up in support of Marshall Smith’s hard pressed men. After a vicious ex change of musket fire, lasting for several minutes, the Unionists fell back, and the Washington Artillery, along with McClung’s guns, were saved.
The Mississippians pressed the retreating Federal soldiers, routing out stragglers from behind trees, bushes, and from small gullies. Gage’s and Girardy’s batteries moved up in support and opened fire on the retreating Yanks. Unfortunately, their first rounds were short and landed in the ranks of the First Missouri, killing and wounding many. The Missourians were upset by the unexpected hazard, but Corporal John O’Neil, Company D, relieved the tension and raised a great big laugh by yelling to the soldiers, “Yesterday mornin’ you were afeared you would niver git into this battle, and I’m dammed if I ain’t afeared we will niver git out of it! Faith, there’s no dress parade about this situation.”5
The Southern attack was soon contained, and General Crittenden unleashed his reserve Eleventh Brigade. The Confederates felt the pressure of Crittenden’s division keenly, for about 10:00 a.m., Statham’s and Bowen’s regiments were pulled from the right and sent over to bolster the Confederate left around Shiloh Church.6
The badly mixed Rebel forces aggressively fought the Federals, but were gradually forced to yield ground, won at such a price the day before. At one point, a Confederate captain commanded personnel from the Fourth, Twenty-second, and Thirteenth Tennessee. Stumbling over the muddy ground and tripping through briar patches, the Tennessee command manfully helped oppose Crittenden’s advance.
One young Tennessean, wandering to the rear to get a wounded left hand dressed, ended up in a Union aid station. A doctor cleaned and dressed the Rebel’s wound and gave him a shot of brandy. Private Henry Doak, who had studied violin for years, naively asked the doctor if he would be able to play again. The doctor, who had no desire to see such an amiable young man rot in a prison, replied, “Young man, you will never play the fiddle again. If you don’t leave and get to Corinth, the chances are you will never play your part in life; you will be very ill— your state of health low—and you’re going to suffer very much. Now, go.”7
Confederate organization continued to break down on the right, and the Southerners were forced to gradually give ground. At one point, Colonel Marshall Smith picked up the Crescent Regiment’s flag and led a reckless bayonet charge, halting for a little while the Federal advance. The Washington Artillery was so badly battered that it had to be withdrawn from the field, leaving behind six men and thirty horses dead. All twenty of the battery’s wounded were carried off successfully.8
By noon, Crittenden’s men had taken the Hornet’s Nest and Duncan Field, and were preparing to move toward Barnes’ Field. Without fresh reserves, the Confederates were simply unable to withstand their numerically superior enemy.
McCook’s Second Division went into action much later than Nelson’s and Crittenden’s units, due to its late arrival from Savannah. It was about 12:00 p.m., when General Alexander McCook led his three brigades under fire. McCook immediately launched his Fourth Brigade under General Lovell Rousseau at Colonel Trabue’s Confederate brigade. For more than an hour, these two units slashed and pounded at each other, while the rest of the Second Division moved up into position. Rousseau was supported by Captain George Stone’s Battery K, First Missouri, while Trabue was backed up by Byrne’s Kentucky Battery. There was little in the way of wild charging, the men on both sides preferring a less spectacular and less strenuous long-range fire fight.9
Solid shot and shells passed freely over the heads of the contending infantry as Stone’s and Byrne’s batteries fought it out. Finally after more than an hour, the Union guns were silenced, probably from a shortage of ammunition. The Southern gunners then depressed their sights and began harassing McCook’s infantry. Some of the fire was quite accurate, while Confederate sharpshooters also took a goodly number of casualties in Rousseau’s inexperienced brigade. Suddenly one company of regulars, belonging to the First Battalion, Sixteenth U. S. Infantry, Captain Edwin Townsend, broke and headed for the rear, seized by one of those curious panics that sometimes hit experienced troops. Federal officers quickly rallied the men, one officer striking at them with his sword blade and pistol barrel. With cries of “get back to your places, back or die,” and “back, back! Meet your fate like men, not cowards!” the regulars were finally driven back to their places in line.10
Several times the Southerners did advance, once trying to seize Stone’s Battery, but Rousseau’s brigade held. The Fourth Brigade ran short of ammunition, but did manage to advance to the Wolfe Field when part of Trabue’s Brigade was shunted off to another part of the battlefield. The Federals captured a couple of pieces of artillery, taken by the Southerners the day before, but they failed to score any kind of decisive kill, and the Confederates, including Byrne’s Battery, were easily able to regroup.11
His supply of cartridges finally exhausted, Rousseau pulled back, and McCook sent in his newly arrived Fifth Brigade under Colonel Edward N. Kirk. Its order of battle from l
eft to right was Colonel Frederick Stumbaugh, Seventy-seventh Pennsylvania, the only Eastern regiment serving with either Grant or Buell, the Thirty-fourth Illinois, Major Charles Levanway, Thirtieth Indiana, Colonel Sion Bass, and the Twenty-ninth Indiana, Lieutenant Colonel David Dunn.
From its second position of the day, Byrne’s Battery gave Kirk’s brigade its baptism of fire, sprinkling it with 6- and 12-pound rounds. Some of the shots were a little high and passed through the trees overhead of the brigade, but many struck home. As the Confederates zeroed in on the Thirty-fourth Illinois’ flag, an officer finally told the color bearer to “lower the flag. They can see it and have our range.” It was a little late, for just then a shell burst in the midst of the Illinois men. Corporal Charles Haines was tossed twenty or thirty feet and was considerably cut up, but the officer who had just spoken lay on the ground, both legs shattered. Several other members of the Thirty-fourth were also struck down by the same projectile.12
The Seventy-seventh Pennsylvania successfully tangled with the Twentieth Tennessee, capturing its colonel, Joel Battle. Amidst heavy firing, Kirk’s men kept up a somewhat jerky advance, driving in the direction of the Water Oaks Pond. Rousseau managed to obtain more cartridges for his men and soon rejoined the advance, helping push back the miscellaneous collection of Rebel units.13
About 1:30 or 2:00 p.m., McCook sent in his last brigade, Gibson’s Sixth. Confederate sharpshooters peppered the brigade as it moved up, killing or wounding many soldiers. Gibson deployed three of his regiments, the Forty-ninth Ohio, Lieutenant Colonel Albert Blackman, Fifteenth Ohio, Major William Wallace, and the Thirty-ninth Indiana, Colonel Thomas Harrison, on the left flank of McCook. Confederate artillery suddenly opened up on the Fifteenth Ohio as it deployed, bursting a shell in the regimental line and badly mauling Companies H and E. A Corporal Deniston, Company K, had a foot smashed by the explosion. He jumped around the battlefield on his undamaged foot, screaming in extreme agony, before stretcher bearers finally managed to carry him to the rear. A Corporal Campbell, Company E, was terribly mangled by the explosion. Knowing he could not live, he begged his friends to shoot him and end his agony, but no one was willing. The Fifteenth Ohio was soon forced to take cover on the ground.
The terrain was uneven and covered with trees and undergrowth. As the Ohioans fired their heavy .69 caliber muskets, the haze from the smoke added to the other un favorable conditions and made visibility impossible. Most of the Union soldiers simply fired blindly in the direction of the enemy or at muzzle flashes as the wind sometimes wafted the smoke away.
Gibson had one other regiment, the Thirty-second Indiana, under Colonel August Willich, an ardent communist and revolutionary and one of the most experienced soldiers in the entire United States Army. As the Thirty-second moved up, McCook detached Willich and his German-Americans to strengthen Rousseau’s left wing. The regiment advanced at the double-quick and executed a well disciplined bayonet charge against a party of Confederates threatening Rousseau. The German-Americans were hit by withering blasts of musketry and canister from their enemy’s guns, but they forced the Southerners to fall back.14
In this attack, thirty-one year old John Leonhard Huber, Company D, lost his life. He had been in America only eight months, having arrived from Germany in August 1861. Unable to find work in Lawrenceburg, Indiana, he decided to join some old friends from Germany who had already enlisted in the army with Willich. He “went cheerfully into battle, but unfortunately had to sacrifice his life.”15
In the face of repeated Confederate counterattacks, McCook still managed to gain ground, but neither he nor any other unit of Buell’s army was able to achieve a break through. The Federals were making the same mistake their enemy had committed the day before in not concentrating their forces on one sector of the battlefield and overwhelming the Southern line. Instead, Federal strength was spread along the three-mile front, and hence lost a good deal of its potency.
While Buell’s army hammered at the Rebel right and center, Grant attacked on the Confederate left. Elements of Lew Wallace’s, Sherman’s, McClernand’s, and Hurlbut’s divisions, plus a few bits and pieces of W. H. L. Wallace’s and Prentiss’ defunct organizations, assaulted the Confederate left, the commands of Generals Ruggles and Cheatham.16
It was 9:00 or 9:30 in the morning before Grant’s weary troops were able to seriously engage the even more weary enemy. If the Southerners were tired, they were still filled with fighting spirit, for Grant’s soldiers soon found themselves under heavy attack. The fighting rocked back and forth for perhaps an hour, with neither side able to score decisively.
About 10 a.m., General Ruggles ordered Randall Gibson’s Brigade to attack. Lacking the Nineteenth Louisiana, which had become separated the night before, Gibson nevertheless struck with a great deal of force. The attack was somewhat bogged down because of the muddy ground over which the brigade had to pass, but Beauregard seized a battle flag and galloped out in front of the men and urged them to advance again. The Louisianans’ and Arkansans’ martial spirits were raised by Beauregard’s example, and they swarmed into the Union position. A Federal battery was overrun and captured, and a number of prisoners ware taken. Some of the Northern infantry rallied in an oak grove and hit the Thirteenth Louisiana with rifle fire. Several Southerners went down, but the Louisianans quickly rushed the new Union position, causing the Federals to break. One Union soldier stepped out from behind a tree to surrender, but the Confederates’ battle blood was up. The Southern soldiers raked the Yank with musket balls, although several Rebel officers ordered their men to hold their fire.
The fight rocked back and forth in seesaw fashion as first the Southerners and then the Federals would rally and counterattack. Major Avegno was badly wounded, but his men kept on firing. Finally the Thirteenth Louisiana and First Arkansas were forced to fall back to near Shiloh Church.17 The Fourth Louisiana assaulted a second Union battery and was badly cut up and finally driven to take cover in a deep ravine about one-fourth of a mile from Shiloh Church.18
Even as Gibson’s men were finally repulsed, heavy fighting raged on the extreme Confederate left, or Union right, as Lew Wallace’s Third Division finally went into battle, a day late but certainly no less willing. Confederate forces in front of Wallace’s unit were comparatively weak, consisting of parts of Pond’s Brigade, fragments of a couple of Tennessee regiments, and a section of artillery belonging to Ketchum’s Battery. When Wallace’s men first advanced that morning the two guns were ordered forward to support the Confederate infantry. Wallace’s Ninth Indiana Battery, Captain Noah Thompson commanding, opened first fire on the Southern gunners. The two Confederate guns, brought into action despite the Union fire, were soon busy dropping rounds into the enemy’s ranks. The Indiana gunners averaged almost two hundred rounds per gun on Monday, a good portion of them fired at Ketchum’s guns; but most of them either overshot or fell short. A 6-pound ball did bowl over one of the Alabama gunners, but he was the only casualty for over an hour.19
The Eighteenth Louisiana advanced and engaged Wallace’s skirmishers, but was brought under a particularly accurate artillery barrage, probably from Battery I, First Missouri Light Artillery. Exploding shells killed or wounded a number of enlisted men, while solid shot ripped through trees, spattering the Louisianans with jagged wooden splinters. Mouton finally ordered his men to fall back a few hundred yards and take cover on the ground.20
Gradually the whole of Pond’s Brigade, including Colonel Robert F. Looney’s long lost Thirty-eighth Tennessee, was committed to the fight with Wallace. General Bragg began moving up additional batteries and infantry to oppose Wallace, and after a sharp artillery duel, the Southerners launched a vicious attack on Lieutenant Thurber’s Battery I, First Missouri. After a sharp exchange of fire, Wallace’s First Brigade repulsed the Confederates.21
About 10:30, Wallace ordered his three brigades to advance, the Federals driving back Confederate skirmishers until they ran into a strong force of Rebels under General
Bragg. Wallace sustained sharp losses from Ketchum’s guns and from the fire of the Tennesseans and Louisianans. Believing he was about to be assaulted, Wallace halted and began bringing up his reserves. After waiting some minutes, Wallace found he was not under attack, and he decided to again take the initiative. Before he could act, Confederate troops under Hardee counterattacked McCook and Crittenden, and Bragg suddenly threw part of Pond’s Brigade and several other regiments against Wallace’s left flank.22
For a few minutes it seemed as though the peppery Indianan might be isolated from the rest of the Union army and perhaps destroyed.23 The attack, how ever, began to flag, and Beauregard decided to personally intervene. Grabbing up a battle flag, he led the Eighteenth Louisiana and a Tennessee regiment forward against Wallace. It was to no avail, however, for the exhausted Rebels were un able to rout their numerically superior foe. The Indianan had won. By re fusing to panic and by carefully employing his reserves, Wallace stalled Bragg’s counter thrust.24
About 1:00 or 1:30 p.m., Wallace again shifted to the offensive, steadily pushing back the Confederate extreme left. The Southern army was not physically capable of containing its larger foe. By 2:00 p.m., Beauregard probably had no more than twenty thousand effectives capable of opposing the Union attack. Grant’s army counted at least ten or twelve thousand effectives from the troops that had started the battle Sunday, while Buell’s arrival added more than twenty-five thousand fresh troops to the Union total. The situation grew increasingly critical.
All during the morning the Creole hoped and prayed for the arrival of Van Dorn. If these twenty thousand fresh troops arrived, Beauregard planned a devastating flank and frontal assault on the Union right. When a courier arrived from Corinth with news that Van Dorn was still miles away, Beauregard knew the game was up. Without fresh troops, there was no possible hope of a Southern victory, and indeed the entire Confederate army might be destroyed.25
Shiloh and the Western Campaign of 1862 Page 31
