A Confederate officer recognized one of the prisoners as a Southern deserter named Roland (or Rowland). The deserter was taken away from the others and convicted by a court-martial several days later. A detail of Rebels dug a grave and erected a thick post beside it. Guards brought the prisoner to the place of execution, but the rain had filled the grave, and things were delayed while the water was dipped out. Defiant to the bitter end, Rowland asked, “Please hand me a drink of that water, as I want to drink out of my own grave so the boys will talk about it when I am dead, and remember Rowland.”4 A soldier gave the condemned man some of the water, which he quickly drank and then asked for more, on the grounds that he had heard that water was very scarce in Hell. He was granted his wish and escorted to the post. As the firing squad made ready, Rowland cursed President Jefferson Davis, Bragg, and the whole Confederacy, winding up his tirade by saying that he would show the Southerners how a Union man could die. He was not bound to the pole, but simply knelt there of his own accord. The officer in charge of the detail gave the order, “Ready, aim, fire!” A few seconds later the deserter, or patriot, lay in his wet grave, covered with Mississippi mud.5
After standing around out in the open for some time, most of the prisoners were loaded on board box and passenger cars for a short train ride to Memphis, where they were unloaded late in the afternoon of April 8 and were confined in a three story warehouse on the wharf. The soldiers were all fed pork and crackers, but there was a shortage of containers to hold water.6 After a short stay in the Mississippi River town, the Federal soldiers were again loaded on board trains and taken to Jackson, Mississippi, and finally shipped to Mobile, Alabama, where they were confined until exchanged.
General Prentiss was not sent along with the other prisoners, but was taken to meet with General Beauregard. The fighting was still in progress when the two men confronted one another. They quickly shook hands and exchanged pleasantries. “General Beauregard,” Prentiss remarked, “we have felt your power today and been compelled to yield to it.” Beauregard, somewhat forgetting his manners, launched into a dissertation on the merits of the South and the Confederacy, proclaiming that the North would never be able to conquer it. Prentiss politely declined to argue the point, but stood by his contention that the Union was indissoluble. Beauregard finally casually asked the Union general how big the Federal army was, and Prentiss hesitated for a second, and then deciding it would do no harm, remarked that it consisted of six divisions of about seven thousand men each.7 The conversation continued for some time. Prentiss be came somewhat more un guarded in his re marks and finally let it slip that General Buell was coming. He may have said it deliberately to try and frighten the Creole, but Beauregard was seized by the thought that the Federal officer was lying.
After a lengthy conversation, the Creole turned his prisoner over to Colonels Thomas Jordan and Jacob Thompson, the latter an old pre-war friend of Prentiss. The three men made up a makeshift bed of tents and captured blankets and chatted quite amiably of their day’s experiences. Just before going off to sleep, Prentiss laughingly remarked to his Southern hosts: “You gentlemen have had your way to day, but it will be very different to-morrow. You’ll see! Buell will effect a junction with Grant to-night, and we’ll turn the tables on you in the morning.”8 The Southerners paid little attention to their prisoner’s remarks, thinking he was only trying to frighten them.
General Beauregard did not believe the captured Union general because of the receipt of a dispatch from Brigadier General Ben Hardin Helm in Northern Alabama, which stated that Buell was marching toward Decatur and not toward Pittsburg Landing. Helm’s message caused a dangerous feeling of over confidence to develop in the Southern leaders,9 who felt they could lei surely take their time in destroying Grant’s army Monday morning. A sense of lassitude settled over Beauregard’s headquarters in Sherman’s tent along side Shiloh Church.
Generals Hardee and Breckinridge went in to see Beauregard to find out the plans for the next morning. Bragg also came in. Beauregard instructed the officers to assemble their commands for action at the earliest possible moment the next morning. There would be no effort to round up the scattered Confederate commands that night. The other officers soon drifted off, leaving Beauregard and Bragg, who climbed into Sherman’s bed for some much needed sleep.10
At least one Confederate officer was not so sanguine about Buell’s exact position. Colonel Nathan Bedford Forrest sometime before midnight sent his men to infiltrate Grant’s position; they worked their way down to the Landing, where they could see fresh Federal troops disembarking from steamboats. Forrest’s scouts then worked their way back to Confederate lines, carrying this vital information. The first senior officer Forrest came across was General Cleburne, whom he awakened about midnight. Forrest asked Cleburne where headquarters were, but unfortunately the general did not know.
Offering a candid appraisal of the situation, Colonel Forrest remarked to Cleburne, “If the enemy comes on us in the morning, we’ll be whipped like hell.”11 Forrest left to continue his search for General Beauregard, Bragg, or someone in authority.
Sometime around 1:00 a.m., the cavalryman located Generals Hardee and Breckinridge. He suggested to them that the army should either launch an immediate night attack or withdraw before the reinforced Federals could assault. The Third Corps commander told Forrest to go ahead and give his information to Beauregard, but somehow in the darkness Forrest missed the Shiloh Church headquarters. He dispatched scouts to go to the river to keep an eye on the Federals, and about 2:00 a.m. they reported that Federal troops were landing. Forrest located Hardee again and was directed to keep an eye on the Yanks and to maintain a strong picket line in case of a sudden Federal surprise attack.
The condition of the Confederate rank and file was grim. Probably one-fifth of the men who had marched from Corinth were dead or wounded, and thousands more were scattered all over several thousand acres of shell and bullet scarred terrain. Even many officers were lost.12
Major F. A. Shoup wandered over the battlefield about 10:00 p.m., looking for someone it authority. After vainly searching through several bodies of sleeping men, Shoup came upon his good friend Cleburne, who was sitting on a tree stump drinking coffee from a bucket. The major tried to get some picture of what was going on and where everybody was. The Irishman candidly told him he did not know where Hardee or anyone else was, and that he wasn’t too sure where the tree stump was. The general said he had only a few of his own men left, but that he had managed to gather a large number of stragglers from a variety of other commands.
The cold and privations of the march to Shiloh dangerously weakened many of the soldiers, but thousands of them were still able to wander around the battlefield searching for food or other forms of booty. Stragglers from the First Tennessee ate a late supper of crackers and coffee, while members of Byrnes’ Kentucky Battery feasted on champagne and cheese.13 Most of the soldiers who bothered to hunt food managed to find something even if it were not champagne. Some of the Confederates found things to delight more than their taste buds. Various types of loot were picked up, including large quantities of shoes, clothing, and blankets.14
Private Jessie W. Wyatt, Company B, Twelfth Tennessee, picked up a small pocket Bible belonging to Private Samuel Lytle, Company F, Eleventh Iowa. The Iowan greatly regretted the loss, for it was a keepsake from his father; but fortunately, many years after the war, it was returned to him by C. W. Keeley, lately a private in the Seventy-third Illinois. Keeley picked off a Confederate sharpshooter near Adairsville, Georgia, on May 17, 1864. The dead man was Wyatt, and he had the Bible in his haversack. Lytle’s address was still in the Bible; thus Keeley was able to return it after the war.15
Many of the Southerners were less interested in looting and eating than in getting a little sleep. Besides the physical exertions of the march to Shiloh and the day’s horrific combat, the soldiers suffered from a lassitude, or lethargy, induced by the day’s extreme tension. Thousands of the Sout
hern soldiers eagerly headed for captured Union tents for some rest.
About midnight, it began to rain heavily, while great thunderclaps pealed through the air. Private Sam Houston, Jr., Second Texas, pulled a complete blank for the night. Wrapping himself in his blanket, he dropped down on the muddy ground. The ice cold rain drenched him through and through, although he did not notice it until he awakened the next morning.16 Like Private Houston, Lieutenant Dent, Robertson’s Battery, was unable to find a captured Union tent so he simply wrapped up in his blanket, stretched out in the mud be side his guns, and dozed off, cold rain or not. Fifteen year old Private Thomas Duncan, For rest’s Cavalry, spent the night sitting up with his back against a tree to keep from drowning. Private Anderson Jetton, First Tennessee, wandered around in the rain until he finally found part of his regiment sleeping in some captured Union tents. Jetton very quietly and quickly slipped into an un occupied section of the tent, but was forced to spend the night awkwardly sprawled on his stomach, a Minie ball having passed through the back of his trousers at their tightest point. Troops from the Twenty-second Alabama slept in Union tents, but the canvas was so bullet-riddled it kept very little rain out; how ever, the men slept soundly in spite of it.17
The Lexington and Tyler fired shells in the general direction of the Confederates at the rate of one every fifteen minutes, but most of the Southern soldiers slept through the fitful bombardment.18
There was very little activity on the battle field except for an occasional nervous picket’s shot. Colonel Forrest’s fifteen-year old son Willie and two other daring young Confederates slipped quietly across no-man’s-land into Union lines, where they surprised a group of tired Federals. The three boys fired their shotguns at the Yanks and charged. A worried Colonel Forrest found out later that night that the three boys had brought in fifteen prisoners.19
Some enlisted men from the Eighteenth Louisiana were on picket duty so close to the Federals that they could hear the enemy talking. Tired of standing guard in the cold rain, two of the Louisianans slipped over past the Union picket post and rounded up a large quantity of pork, potatoes, and blankets, which helped make picket duty slightly less irksome.20
If the rain and cold and fear were not depressing enough, the night added its own little touches of macabre horror. Two Texans filled their canteens in the darkness from what they supposed was a little spring. The water tasted a little peculiar, but they drank it anyway.
The next morning one of them started drinking from the canteen again, only to find the water reddish in color. In disgust and repugnance, he poured the bloody water on the ground.21 Private Johnny Green went to Shiloh Branch to fill a bucket with water to make coffee early in the night. Green stepped over a log half way in the water, only upon taking a second look, he discovered it was a body of a soldier, his blood staining the water. After a few seconds of thought, Green filled his bucket anyway, and he walked on back to his regiment.22
As thousands of Southern soldiers went to sleep Sunday night, they had different weapons from the ones they had cradled in their arms Saturday night. All day long, as the Confederates drove the Federals back toward the Landing, these soldiers exchanged their shotguns and antiquated muskets for the Enfield, Springfield, Austrian, and Belgian rifles dropped by the dead, wounded, or fleeing Yanks.23
To one group of men in particular, the night offered no opportunity for rest. Confederate chaplains, Catholic and Protestant alike, went about their dreary duties of administering sacraments and offering comfort to the dying and wounded, who were scattered over the Shiloh battlefield.24
Across in the Union lines, conditions were probably even worse, since the Southerners had most of the Federal tents. Grant spent the first part of the night under a tree a few hundred yards from the river bank. His injured ankle was still aching badly, and the cold rain drenched his face and body. The general decided to limp back to the log cabin near the Landing. He reached the building in a few minutes, but found it was being used as an emergency hospital. Several doctors busily dressed wounds or sawed off arms and legs as the case called for. Wounded and delirious soldiers screamed and shrieked in their agony, while orderlies carried outside the amputated limbs. After a few minutes of this, Grant decided he preferred the rain, and he returned to the comparative sanity of his tree.25
Grant’s soldiers were in little better shape than their commanding general. Many of his soldiers could not resist wandering off, trying to find food or hunting for word of missing relatives or friends. Orders were for the men to stay on the alert, how ever, and to be prepared in case of a Rebel night attack. The rainfall only added to the miseries of the hungry, unhappy Union soldiers, while gun fire from the Lexington and Tyler interrupted the sleep of many of the fellows who tried to nap in the mud.26
Much of the ammunition supplies that lay around at the Landing became completely watersoaked, while the many individual soldiers were hard pressed to keep their muskets and cartridges dry. The only light was from bolts of lightning, and the men who tried to move around in the darkness tripped and stumbled over broken down wagons, holes, or bodies. Wounded horses and wounded men added cries of terror and pain to the loud thunderclaps and the sharp explosions of the naval guns.27
The only cheering note for the Union army at Pittsburg was the arrival of massed reinforcements. Just after dark Lew Wallace’s tardy division arrived along the Federal right. After the initial confusion caused by Grant’s order to Wallace Sunday morning, the Third Division finally left Crump’s Landing along the Shunpike Road. Wallace believed he was supposed to follow this route and move in to the battlefield at about this point, where he assumed Sherman was engaged near Shiloh Church. With all of his division, except a small detachment to guard Crump’s Landing, Wallace made a fairly quick march toward the battlefield. Grant apparently assumed the Third Division would come by the road nearest the river, the Hamburg and Savannah Road, instead of by the longer and more circuitous route they actually took.
When Wallace failed to arrive at the battlefield in what Grant assumed to be adequate time, he sent messengers to hurry Wallace. These aides, notably his aide de camp, thirty-eight year old Captain William Rowley, finally found Wallace on what they assumed was the wrong road. When Rowley demanded to know what the Indianan was doing, Wallace became slightly rattled and agreed to countermarch his division, using some short country roads, and link up with Grant across the Snake Creek Bridge on the Hamburg and Savannah Road. Ironically by following the Grant-Rowley urgings, Wallace did the Union army a major disservice. If Wallace had ignored Grant’s urgings and continued along his original line of march, he would have struck the Confederate army on its exposed left flank. At the very least, Johnston would have been forced to divert Breckinridge’s troops toward the Shiloh Church position to contain the Union Third Division. It is even possible that Wallace might have routed the Southern army.28
About 6:30 p.m., the advance elements of Wallace’s men crossed over Snake Creek Bridge and within a few minutes joined up with the main Union army.29 Nelson’s division was already being ferried across the Tennessee, the last units crossing the river around 8:30 or 9:00 p.m. This gave Grant two fresh divisions al ready in position, and still more troops arriving every few minutes.
During the long Sunday, Grant apparently forgot he had troops in Savannah other than Nelson’s. Around 9:00 p.m., one of Grant’s staff officers reached Savannah and ordered David Wood’s Fourteenth Wisconsin Infantry to disembark at once and proceed to Pittsburg Landing. The regiment, which had been under arms all day, waiting for orders to move, was immediately drawn up in line. Colonel Wood announced to his men that he had permission to move. He then asked them if they were ready. The men shouted, “Yes,” although Private Elisha Stockwell, Jr. kept his mouth shut, thinking that he would rather remain where he was. The regiment quickly boarded a steamer, reaching Pittsburg around 11:00 p.m., where the men were quickly disembarked.30
Where was the rest of Buell’s army? The Second, Fifth
, and Sixth divisions were badly strung out along the road to Savannah early Sunday morning. About eight or nine o’clock in the morning, the soldiers, privates and generals alike, were alarmed by the sounds of artillery fire in the distance. The troops were ordered to drop everything except their muskets and to increase their pace. The Fifth Division began straggling into Savannah around 8:30 p.m. or 9:00 p.m. Sunday night. By midnight or a little after, all of Brigadier General T. L. Crittenden’s Fifth Division was in Savannah, either already on steamers heading for Pittsburg or waiting at the landing for an empty steamer.31
About midnight, Brigadier General Alexander McCook’s unit started arriving in Savannah, the last troops reaching the town about 3:00 or 4:00 a.m. A sizeable traffic jam developed in downtown Savannah, as the soldiers arrived too fast for the steamers to transport them to Pittsburg. Even Grant’s headquarters vessel, the Tigress, was pressed into the service of hauling troops and equipment; but the snarl-up in the town continued.
Some of the steamboats’ captains had little enthusiasm for their jobs, probably fearing their boats would be damaged if caught under fire at the Landing. Many of the vessels brought loads of cowardly stragglers to Savannah, while others arrived filled with wounded. Between the stragglers and the wounded, it proved a slow and difficult process to empty them and then reload transports at the comparatively small Savannah landing.32
Around midnight it started raining, then hailing. Most of the town’s houses were filled with wounded, so many of the army had to lie down to sleep in the backyards, gardens, and streets. Sleeping in the mud would ordinarily have been counted as a hardship, but most of Buell’s men were so tired from the hot march that day they quickly dozed off. A few of the more finicky tried to find an unoccupied porch or shed to sleep under.33
Shiloh and the Western Campaign of 1862 Page 29